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 detailed knowledge about plants and animals has generally improved people's standard of living, but not all plant and animal lore is biologic science. Biology differs from simple interest in plants, animals and our own bodies by using a systematic approach to study that incorporates an understanding of mathematics, physics, chemistry and the other sciences.

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 Albert Einstein, have not found different vewpoints on such basic questions to conflict, but have interpreted varying teachings XXX.

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 history 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 characteristics of the bodies of living organisms, like the structure (Anatomy )and function (Physiology) of body parts. Biologic studies of animals fall under the field ofzoology, where as the biologic study of plants is [called [botany]]. 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 CZ.

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 itself 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.

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

External links

• [1] The American Institute of Biological Sciences (ABIBS) Virtual Library is free to all visitors