Re: [Phys-l] mushrooms ... and other terminology issues

[Marty Weiss <martweiss@comcast.net>]

On Aug 9, 2011, at 10:58 AM, John Denker wrote:

> On 08/09/2011 07:11 AM, carmelo@pacific.net.sg wrote:
> > Actually, physicists have defined heat as a process, but many explain  
> > with "flow of heat", thus suggesting heat as a noun.
> > Many textbooks are also using heat as a noun.
> >
> > Maybe biologists are laughing at physicists...
>
> The whole discussion of mushrooms has been been good for a
> laugh and not much else.
>
> Biologists figured this one out many decades ago.  They have
> perfectly good terms for the following functional distinction:
>  -- green plant --> autotroph
>  -- mushroom    --> heterotroph
John,  there's a lot more to it than that... there are many different categories of heterotrophs which students have to distinguish and memorize.

> These terms have been in use for 50 years that I know of, maybe
> more.
>
> As for the other terms that have been mentioned, a Venus fly 
> trap is both a carnivore and a predator.  The questions about 
> this could have been answered by looking in a dictionary:
>  -- carnivore  --> eats meat
>  -- predator   --> catches prey

Again,  much more details than that.
> The roots of these words go back thousands of years.
>
> The Venus fly trap is an ambush predator as surely as an ant
> lion is.