Definition for Difference between revisions of "Biology"

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Biology is the natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. The term biology in its modern sense appears to have been introduced independently by Karl Friedrich Burdach (1800), Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus (1802), and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1802).
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Biology is the study of life and the processes thereof. The term biology was coined in the late 1700s by the French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de Lamarck (who also coined the word '[[invertebrate]]').
  
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Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, related subjects, and principia thereof. Five unifying principles form the fundamental axioms of modern biology: cell theory, evolution, gene theory, energy, and homeostasis.
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Biologists study general principles of how living things work in [[biochemistry]], [[genetics]], and [[physiology]]. They investigate organisms' morphology, [[anatomy]], behavior, and [[ontogeny]] to learn about function and identity. To find out how organisms interact among each other and with the environment, biologists investigate their ecology. At the microscopic level, biologists study their cell biology.
  
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These fields are further divided based on the scale at which organisms are studied and the methods used to study them: biochemistry examines the rudimentary chemistry of life; molecular biology studies the complex interactions of systems of biological molecules; [[cellular biology]] examines the basic building block of all life, the cell; [[physiology]] examines the physical and chemical functions of the [[tissue]]s, [[organ]]s, and [[organ system]]s of an organism; and [[ecology]] examines how various organisms interrelate with their [[environment]].
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One of the central concepts in biology is the principle of [[evolution]]. The evolutionary history of an organism, i.e. the sequence of ancestral species, is called its [[phylogeny]]; it is studied using methods of molecular biology by comparing sequences of genes and proteins, and by investigating ancient forms of life in paleontology. Various methodologies have developed, including phylogenetics, phenetics, and cladistics.

Revision as of 16:28, 14 February 2018

Biology is the study of life and the processes thereof. The term biology was coined in the late 1700s by the French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de Lamarck (who also coined the word 'invertebrate').

Biologists study general principles of how living things work in biochemistry, genetics, and physiology. They investigate organisms' morphology, anatomy, behavior, and ontogeny to learn about function and identity. To find out how organisms interact among each other and with the environment, biologists investigate their ecology. At the microscopic level, biologists study their cell biology.

One of the central concepts in biology is the principle of evolution. The evolutionary history of an organism, i.e. the sequence of ancestral species, is called its phylogeny; it is studied using methods of molecular biology by comparing sequences of genes and proteins, and by investigating ancient forms of life in paleontology. Various methodologies have developed, including phylogenetics, phenetics, and cladistics.

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