Safety instructions at a construction site in China

Protection is any measure taken to guard something against

damage Damage is any change in a thing, often a physical object, that degrades it away from its initial state. It can broadly be defined as "changes introduced into a system that adversely affect its current or future performance".Farrar, C.R., Sohn, H., ...

caused by outside forces. Protection can be provided to physical objects, including

organism An organism is any life, living thing that functions as an individual. Such a definition raises more problems than it solves, not least because the concept of an individual is also difficult. Many criteria, few of them widely accepted, have be ...

s, to systems, and to intangible things like

civil and political rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...

. Although the mechanisms for providing protection vary widely, the basic meaning of the term remains the same. This is illustrated by an explanation found in a manual on electrical wiring: Some kind of protection is a characteristic of all life, as living things have evolved at least some protective mechanisms to counter damaging environmental phenomena, such as

ultraviolet light Ultraviolet radiation, also known as simply UV, is electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths of 10–400 nanometers, shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation is present in sunlight and constitutes about 10% of th ...

. Biological membranes such as

bark Bark may refer to: Common meanings * Bark (botany), an outer layer of a woody plant such as a tree or stick * Bark (sound), a vocalization of some animals (which is commonly the dog) Arts and entertainment * ''Bark'' (Jefferson Airplane album), ...

on trees and

skin Skin is the layer of usually soft, flexible outer tissue covering the body of a vertebrate animal, with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation. Other animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton, have different ...

on animals offer protection from various threats, with skin playing a key role in protecting organisms against

pathogen In biology, a pathogen (, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of"), in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a Germ theory of d ...

s and excessive water loss. Additional structures like

scales Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number ...

and

hair Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and ...

offer further protection from the elements and from

predators Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill ...

, with some animals having features such as spines or

camouflage Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the b ...

serving exclusively as

anti-predator adaptation Anti-predator adaptations are mechanisms developed through evolution that assist Predation, prey organisms in their constant struggle against predators. Throughout the animal kingdom, adaptations have evolved for every stage of this struggle, na ...

s. Many animals supplement the protection afforded by their physiology by

burrowing An eastern chipmunk at the entrance of its burrow A burrow is a hole or tunnel excavated into the ground by an animal to construct a space suitable for habitation or temporary refuge, or as a byproduct of locomotion. Burrows provide a form of s ...

or otherwise adopting habitats or behaviors that insulate them from potential sources of harm. Humans originally began wearing clothing and building shelters in prehistoric times for protection from the elements. Both humans and animals are also often concerned with the protection of others, with adult animals being particularly inclined to seek to protect their young from elements of nature and from predators. In the human sphere of activity, the concept of protection has been extended to nonliving objects, including technological systems such as computers, and to intangible things such as

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

, beliefs, and economic systems. Humans seek to protect locations of historical and cultural significance through historic preservation efforts, and are also concerned with protecting the environment from damage caused by human activity, and with protecting the Earth as a whole from potentially harmful objects from space.

Physical protection

Protection of objects

* Fire protection, including passive fire protection measures such as physical Firewall (construction), firewalls and fireproofing, and active fire protection measures, such as fire sprinkler systems. * Waterproofing, though application of surface layers that repel water. * Rot-proofing and rustproofing * Thermal conductivity#Resistance, Thermal conductivity resistance * Toughness, Impact resistance * Radiation protection, protection of people and the environment from radiation * Dust#Control, Dust resistance * Conservation and restoration of immovable cultural property, including a large number of techniques to preserve sites of historical or archaeological value

Protection of persons

* Close protection, physical protection and security from danger of very important persons * Climbing protection, safety measures in climbing * Diplomatic protection * Humanitarian protection, the protection of civilians, in conflict zones and other humanitarian crises * Journalism source protection * Personal protective equipment * Safe sex practices to afford sexual protection against pregnancy and disease, particularly the use of condoms * Executive protection, security measures taken to ensure the safety of important persons * Protection racket, a criminal scheme involving exchanging money from "protection" against violence * Right of asylum, protection for those seeking asylum from persecution by political groups and to ensure safe passage * Organizational retaliatory behavior#Workplace retaliation, Workplace or employment retaliation, protecting individuals in the workplace such as from being fired for opposing, aiding and complaining about workplace practices

Protection of systems

Protection of technological systems

Protection of technological systems is often symbolized by the use of a padlock Icon (computing), icon, such as "🔒", or a padlock image. * Protection mechanism, in computer science. In computer sciences the separation of protection and security is a computer design, design choice. William Wulf has identified protection as a Mechanism (technology), mechanism and security as a policy. * Power-system protection, in power engineering * A way of Object-oriented programming#Encapsulation, encapsulation in object-oriented programming * Copy protection, measures to enforce copyright by preventing the reproduction of software, films, music, and other media. * Write protection, a mechanism that prevents writing, modifying, or erasing data on a device

Protection of ecological systems

* Environmental protection, the practice of protecting the natural environment

Protection of social systems

* Consumer protection, laws governing sales and credit practices involving the public. * Protectionism, an economic policy of protecting a country's market from competitors. * Protection of rights, with respect to civil and political rights. * Data protection through information privacy measures. * Intellectual property protection.

References

{{wikiquote, protection Safety