I propose the prefix “cylo-” to describe all matters pertaining to “cylon biology,” in other words that “cylo-” be used analogously to “bio-” to describe any subject pertaining to cylon biology rather than normal human biology. The show, after all, has established that cylon biology (“cylology,” under my new system), although generally indistinguishable from human biology at the macro-level, is chemically distinct. Which explains how Dr. Baltar can build a cylon detector and how cylons, though histologically identical to humans, can exhibit all the unique characteristics that they do, i.e. running for days without tiring, spinal bioluminescence, group consciousness, unusual RF susceptibility, etc. Thus “cylo-” can be assumed to denote that aspect of cylon physiology which is analogous to, but not identical with, human physiology.

Which gives us all kinds of great new words like “cylogenetic,” “cylochemistry,” “cylological,” “cylonic,” “cylosphere,” “cylome,” “cylophysics,” and my personal favorite, “cylohazard.”

In honor of this last term, I’ve made up a “cylohazard symbol,” which is derived from the analogous human biohazard symbol, differing in that it is based on a five-fold axis of radial symmetry, instead of a three-fold axis. This decision is in keeping with the established significance of the pentagon and the nested pentagon as a symbol of cylon hegemony in both the old and the new Battlestar Galactica series. Material which is infectious of cylons, such as samples of the “cylon plague” from Season 3, would rightly bear the cylohazard symbol, regardless of whether or not it was also infectious of humans. Material which is infectious of both species should properly bear both symbols.

Someday I might write a pseudoepistolary “ANSI standard” from the BSG universe describing the layout and appropriate use of the cylohazard symbol by itself or in conjunction with the biohazard, chemohazard, and or radiological hazard signs.