Biocatalysis

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The technique that enhances reaction rates in biochemical processes by using natural catalysts, especially enzymes, is a specialized method of catalysis
2. This method employs biological catalysts to accelerate biochemical reactions, primarily through the action of enzymes, to promote various chemical transformations
3. The process of speeding up chemical reactions using biological agents like enzymes to facilitate transformation of molecules

Etymology: "Biocatalysis" is a compound of two parts, each with its own history. The first, "bio-", comes from the Ancient Greek "bios", meaning "life," which gave English a whole family of combining forms for things relating to living organisms. The second, "catalysis," is a term from chemistry: it describes a substance that speeds up a reaction without being used up in it. Catalysis was coined in the early 1800s, so the Greek root "katalysis," meaning "dissolution" or "loosening," was pressed into a new scientific sense that the ancient Greeks never intended. Putting the two together produces a word for reactions that living things drive. Enzymes are biological catalysts, so biocatalysis describes the use of those natural molecules, or of whole cells, to carry out chemical transformations. The word is a straightforward modern formation, built from familiar parts rather than from a single ancient term.