Biology/Citable Version

(from Greek βίος λόγος)

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Biology is the science of life. Biologists study all aspects of living things, including all of the many life forms on earth and the processes in them that enable life. These basic processes include the making and harnessing of energy, the creation and duplication of the materials that make up the body, the healing of injuries, the reproduction of the organism and many other activities.

Life forms have been of interest to all peoples throughout history, and the roots of biology go back to earliest known mankind. Curiosity about the human body and about the bodies of plants and animals remains active in every human society. Much of the interest in living things stems from a wish to better exploit natural resources and to improve health, and has yielded detailed knowledge about plants and animals used to improve the standard of living. Not all plant and animal lore is biologic science, however. Biology differs from simple interest in plants, animals and the human body by the use of a systematic approach to study that incorporates an understanding of mathematics, physics, chemistry and the other sciences. Not all interest in gaining knowlege about living things comes about from a desire to apply it, either. Much is also sparked by the need to understand the human condition and the nature of the world.

Biology asks some of same questions found in religion and philosophy, questions such as "How did life begin?", and "What features seperate something that is alive from something that is not alive?". The biologist approaches these questions using the scientific method. Therefore, the biologists' answers to such questions differ from the answers found in philosophical and religious works. Whether scientific thinking about such great issues as the origin of life on earth is compatable with religious doctrine is itself a contentious issue. Some great thinkers, such as the physicist Albert Einstein, have found no real conflict on the varying teachings in science and religion, but consider Divinity and the Natural Universe to be one and the same (see Albert Einstein for detailed discussion with references).

There are many independent scientific fields that make up Biology, and all are related. Natural History, (the study of individual species like white-tailed deer, sugar maple trees, and timber wolves) was one of the first areas of biology to develop. In natural history, whole organisms are studied in an attempt to make sense of the order of Nature. When the natural histories of plants and animals are considered in a context of how each affects the other and their environment, then the biologist's focus is on ecology. Some fields of biology are focused on the natural history of living organisms and their interactions within a certain realm of the earth, as in marine biology, and other fields of biology focus on particular aspects of the bodies of living organisms, like their structure (Anatomy )and function (Physiology). Biologic studies of animals fall under the field ofzoology, where as the biologic study of plants is called botany. Medicine and the Health Sciences apply biology to understanding and inproving health, and to curing and assuaging the effects of disease. Many of the distinct academic disciplines that make up the field of biology are listed at the bottom of this article along with a brief description. Further information about each is provided through links to other articles within Citizendium.

History of the word "biology"

Formed by combining the Greek βίος (bios), meaning 'life', and λόγος (logos), meaning 'study of', the word "biology" in its modern sense seems to have been introduced independently by Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus (Biologie oder Philosophie der lebenden Natur, 1802) and by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (Hydrogéologie, 1802). The word is sometimes said to have been coined in 1800 by Karl Friedrich Burdach, but it appears in the title of Volume 3 of Michael Christoph Hanov's Philosophiae naturalis sive physicae dogmaticae: Geologia, biologia, phytologia generalis et dendrologia, published in 1766.

History of Biology

The natural history of plants and animals was the first area of biology to develop.

A workable classification of living things was made practical by Linneas using a form of systematic nomenclature he invented. This nomenclauture not only provides a unique name for each kind of plant and animal, but organizes all of them into a classification scheme that stresses similarities of physical features.

The features of plants and animals were understood on an entirely different level with technological advances that provided new means for examination. The microscope, invented by v L in the century revealed details of structure in the bodies of organisms that had never been suspected. New types of organisms were also revealed, micro-organism that could not be detected with the naked eye.

As with every major technological advance in biology, the use of the microsocope led to new idea about living things. The concept that tissues were composed of cells was clarified, the entire field of microbiology was born, and the ground was prepared for the germ theory of disease, an idea that helped bring the traditional practice of western medicine (sometimes called allopathy) into the field of health science.

Major discoveries in biology include:

• Cell theory
• Germ theory of disease
• Genetics
• Evolution
• DNA

Distinct Academic Disciplines within Biology (Partial List)

• Anatomy: The study of structure
• Biochemistry: The chemistry of living things is a field of both biology and chemistry
• Cell Biology: The study of the components of cells
• Genetics: The study of the inheritance of characteristics, genes and DNA
• Marine Biology: The study of life in the seas and oceans

External links

Plain & Technical Language

• [1] The American Institute of Biological Sciences (ABIBS) Virtual Library is free to all visitors
• [2] The Bio-Web reviews and access to information in Cell and Molecular Biology, includes "news" in plain language