Butterflies are characterized by biological polymorphism.
Polymorphism is a notion that refers to that which counts or that can take multiple forms . The term also refers to a property capable of traversing numerous states .
The etymological origin of this term is found in Greek. And it is made up of three components of said language, such as the following:
- The prefix poli- , which can be translated as "many" .
- The noun morpho , which is equivalent to "forms" .
- The suffix -ism , which means "activity" .
Polymorphism in different areas
It is possible to find this concept in different areas. In the chemistry sector, polymorphism names compounds and elements capable of adopting different forms without modifying their natural structure.
For biochemistry , polymorphism is a phenomenon that arises when proteins and nucleic acids can appear with different molecular forms. We speak of genetic polymorphism to refer to the existence of different alleles of the same gene , which implies changes in the genetic sequence between members of a certain population.
The term in biology
There are species that are characterized by polymorphism because their members exhibit different shapes for some reason. A typical example of this biological polymorphism occurs with butterflies that, before reaching adulthood, develop into caterpillars .
Polymorphism, therefore, within the field of biology we can say that it can occur for different reasons. In some cases, it is because castes exist within the same species, as would be the case of bees , where we find the queen bee and the drones, for example.
In other cases, this phenomenon is simply a cause of the different stages that the species in general and the animal in particular go through. The aforementioned is a perfect example of this, that of the caterpillar that, as it evolves, finally becomes a butterfly.
A computer virus can resort to polymorphism by mutating part of its code so as not to be discovered.
Polymorphism in computing
In computing , polymorphism is one of the properties of viruses that, to avoid being detected by security software, can mutate certain fragments of their code. Thanks to an algorithm, the virus can modify parts of the code, which makes its presence very difficult to detect by an antivirus program.
Within the computing field, we would have to say that there are two main types of polymorphisms:
- Parametric . It is also called dynamic and is characterized because the code does not have any type of detail or characteristic about the data with which it is working.
- Static . This other type is also called ad hoc and is defined by being the one in which the data with which it is going to operate has to be explicit and also in a specific and concrete, individualized way we can say.
Computer programmers can also appeal to polymorphism in so-called object-oriented programming. In this case, polymorphism allows the same message to be sent to objects of a very diverse nature, but all of them capable of providing a response.