exobiology

exobiology

English

Etymology

From exo- +‎ biology, coined by American molecular biologist Joshua Lederberg.[1]

Noun

exobiology (usually uncountable, plural exobiologies)

1. (biology, science fiction) The branch of biology dealing with lifeforms originating a different planet.

   Synonym: xenobiology

   Hypernym: astrobiology

Translations

biology dealing with extraterrestrial lifeforms

Catalan: exobiologia f Chinese: Mandarin: 天體生物學／天体生物学, 外空生物学, 太空生物学 Dutch: exobiologie (nl) f Finnish: eksobiologia French: exobiologie (fr) f German: Exobiologie (de) f Irish: eisibhitheolaíocht f Khmer: ពហិជីវវិទ្យា (pea’he’ chiivoa vityie) Lithuanian: egzobiologija f Polish: astrobiologia (pl) f, egzobiologia f Portuguese: exobiologia f Romanian: exobiologie (ro) Russian: экзобиоло́гия (ru) f (ekzobiológija)

References

1. “Launching a New Science: Exobiology and the Exploration of Space”, in U.S. National Library of Medicine‎, accessed 2019-04-13: “Lederberg's urgent warnings about interstellar contamination, and his call for the scientific study of life beyond earth's atmosphere—for which he coined the term exobiology—tapped into popular fascination with the dawning of the space age, and brought him international media attention.”

Further reading

• astrobiology on Wikipedia.Wikipedia