We found this sign on the door of a hotel shed in the Lake District. Biomass is a word that seems to have changed its meaning.
Biomass has a strict meaning in Biology. It is the mass of the living tissue in an organism. Water isn't alive so it can't be counted. When you stand on the scales you are weighing both your biomass and the mass of water. To find your true biomass we'd have to dry you out in an oven before weighing you. In Biology the movement of biomass in a food chain is important. The higher up the food chain the lower the total biomass because some is lost by living.
But biomass is now often used for fuel that has come from living things as opposed to fossil fuels. It seems to me that this shed is really just a wood store with a fancy name!
