What is "amoeba"

Amoeba \A*moe"ba\, Amoeba \A*m[oe]"ba\, n.; pl. L. Am[oe]b[ae]; E. Am[oe]bas. [NL., fr. Gr. ? change.] (Zo["o]l.) A rhizopod common in fresh water, capable of undergoing many changes of form at will. Same as ameba. See Rhizopoda. [1913 Webster] ||

1855, from Modern Latin Amoeba, genus name (1841), from Greek amoibe "change," related to ameibein "to change, exchange," from PIE *e-meigw-, extended form of root *mei- (1) "to change, go, move" (see mutable). So called for its constantly changing shape. Related: Amoebaean; amoebic.

n. 1 (context biology English) A member of the genus ''Amoeba'' of unicellular protozoa that moves by means of temporary projections called pseudopodia. 2 (context mathematics English) The graph of the real part of the logarithms of a polynomial equation in complex numbers.

1. n. naked freshwater or marine or parasitic protozoa that form temporary pseudopods for feeding and locomotion [syn: ameba]

2. [also: amoebae (pl)]

Amoeba is a distributed operating system developed by Andrew S. Tanenbaum and others at the Vrije Universiteit. The aim of the Amoeba project was to build a timesharing system that makes an entire network of computers appear to the user as a single machine. Development at the Vrije Universiteit was stopped: the source code of the latest version (5.3) were last modified on 30 July 1996.

The Python programming language was originally developed for this platform.

Amoeba is an experimental music group that fuses the pop and ambient music genres. They formed in California, United States, in 1992. The core members of the group are ambient musician Robert Rich and guitarist/bassist Rick Davies.

Rich and Davies have worked together since 1979. Davies had just returned to the United States after working with several experimental rock groups in the United Kingdom and Spain. During the next five years, Rich and Davies worked on several collaborative projects. The style of these projects was an aggressive blend of art rock and pure avant-garde composition.

In 1983 Rich and Davies formed a trio with bassist Andrew McGowan called Urdu. Urdu performed several concerts in the San Francisco Bay Area. One of their last performances was a live radio broadcast in 1984. Some of their recorded material was released as a self-titled album on cassette in 1985.

In 1992 the first version of Amoeba formed. It was a quartet featuring Robert Rich, Andrew McGowan, guitarist David Hahn and drummer Matt Isaacson. They released a five song EP-CD in 1993 titled Eye Catching. This lineup dissolved soon after the release of Eye Catching.

In 1994 Rick Davies came to Rich with some of his new musical ideas. They were slow folk inspired pop compositions with strong ambient sensibilities. They decided to incorporate these ideas into a new version of Amoeba. This lineup featured Rich on vocals, synthesizers, percussion, lap steel guitar and flutes and Davies on guitars and bass. They developed a style consisting of slow, hypnotic and largely acoustic pop compositions and Rich’s classic ambient textures and acoustic recordings. Their lyrics range from abstract to darkly emotional. This form of Amoeba has released two albums, Watchful (1997) and Pivot (2000). Each of these albums features a number of guest performers including cellist and multi-instrumentalist Hans Christian.

After the release of Pivot Davies went on to pursue his solo career in Tucson, Arizona. Rich continues to release ambient solo albums and tour at a prolific rate. Both musicians continue to hold a future Amoeba project as a possibility, though there are difficulties due to the geographic distance between them.

[[Image:Amoeba4 400.svg|right|thumb|The amoeba of
P(z, w)=50 z +83 zw+24 z w +w+392 z

+414 z w+50 w
-28 z +59 w-100.

]]

In complex analysis, a branch of mathematics, an amoeba is a set associated with a polynomial in one or more complex variables. Amoebas have applications in algebraic geometry, especially tropical geometry.

Amoeba is a studio album by Critters Buggin of Seattle, Washington recorded and released in 1999.

Amoeba is a genus of single-celled amoeboid protists in the family Amoebidae. The type species of the genus is Amoeba proteus, a common freshwater organism, widely studied in classrooms and laboratories.

Amoeba is the second directorial of Manoj Kana after his critically acclaimed Chayilyam.The film starred Aneesh G menon, Athmeeya, Anumol, Indrans and Anoop Chandran in the lead.

Amoeba (sometimes amœba or ameba, plural amoebae, amoebas or amebas) is a type of cell or organism which has the ability to alter its shape, primarily by extending and retracting pseudopods.

Amoeba or variants may also refer to:

• Amoeba (genus), a genus of single-celled protists in the family Amoebidae
• Amoebozoa, a large group of protists that includes the genus Amoeba
• Amoeba defense, a basketball strategy
• Amoeba (operating system)
• Amoeba Music, an independent music chain
• Amoeba (band), an experimental music group with Robert Rich and Rick Davies
• "Amoeba", a song by the Adolescents off their 1981 self-titled debut album
• Amoeba (mathematics), a certain type of set
• Amoeba order, a mathematical construction in set theory
• Nelder-Mead method, also known as the amoeba method, a type of downhill search algorithm for finding minima (optima)
• Amoeba (film)
• Ameba (website), a Japanese social networking website

An amoeba (; rarely spelled amœba, US English commonly ameba; plural am(o)ebas or am(o)ebae ), often called amoeboid, is a type of cell or organism which has the ability to alter its shape, primarily by extending and retracting pseudopods. Amoebas do not form a single taxonomic group; instead, they are found in every major lineage of eukaryotic organisms. Amoeboid cells occur not only among the protozoa, but also in fungi, algae, and animals.

Microbiologists often use the terms "amoeboid" and "amoeba" interchangeably for any organism that exhibits amoeboid movement.

In older classification systems, most amoebas were placed in the class or subphylum Sarcodina, a grouping of single-celled organisms that possess pseudopods or move by protoplasmic flow. However, molecular phylogenetic studies have shown that Sarcodina is not a monophyletic group whose members share common descent. Consequently, amoeboid organisms are no longer classified together in one group.

The best known amoeboid protists are the "Giant Amoebae" Chaos carolinense and Amoeba proteus, both of which are widely cultivated and studied in classrooms and laboratories. Other well known species include the so-called "brain-eating amoeba" Naegleria fowleri, the intestinal parasite Entamoeba histolytica, which causes amoebic dysentery, and the multicellular "social amoeba" or slime mould Dictyostelium discoideum.