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BiologyBiology is the science of life. It is concerned with the characteristics and behaviors of organisms, how species and individuals come into existence, and the interactions they have with each other and with their environment.
Overview of biology
Biology encompasses a broad spectrum of academic fields that are often viewed as independent disciplines. Together, they study life over a wide range of scales:
- at the atomic and molecular scale, through molecular biology, biochemistry, and to some extent genetics
- at the cellular scale, through cell biology
- at the multicellular scales, through physiology, anatomy, and histology
- at the level of the development or ontogeny of an individual organism, through developmental biology
- at the level of heredity between parent and offspring through genetics
- at the level of group behavior through ethology
- at the level of an entire population, through population genetics
- on the multi-species scale of lineages, through systematics
- at the level of interdependent populations and their habitats through ecology and evolutionary biology
- and speculatively through xenobiology at the level of life beyond the Earth.
Fields of study in biology
Aerobiology -- Anatomy -- Arachnology-- Astrobiology -- Biochemistry -- Bionics -- Biogeography -- Bioinformatics -- Biomechanics -- Biophysics-- Biotechnology -- Botany -- Cell biology -- Chorology -- Cladistics -- Crustaceology -- Cryptozoology -- Cycles -- Cytology -- Developmental biology -- Disease (Genetic diseases, Infectious diseases) -- Ecology (Theoretical ecology, Symbiology, Autecology, Synecology) -- Ethology -- Entomology -- Evolutionary biology (Evolution) -- Evolutionary developmental biology -- Freshwater biology -- Genetics (Population genetics, Quantitative genetics, Genomics, Proteomics) -- Herpetology -- Histology -- Human biology (Anthropology) -- Ichthyology -- Immunology -- Infectious diseases -- Pathology -- Epidemiology -- Limnology -- Malacology -- Mammalogy -- Marine biology -- Microbiology (Bacteriology) -- Molecular biology -- Morphology -- Mycology / Lichenology --- Myrmecology --- Neuroscience (Neuroanatomy, Neurophysiology, Systems neuroscience, Biological psychology, Psychiatry, Psychopharmacology, Behavioral science, Neuroethology, Psychophysics, Computational neuroscience, Cognitive neuroscience, Cognitive science)-- Oncology (the study of cancer) -- Ontogeny -- Origin of life -- Ornithology -- Paleontology (Paleobotany, Paleozoology)-- Parasitology -- Phycology (Algology) -- Phylogeny (Phylogenetics, Phylogeography) -- Physiology -- Phytopathology -- Structural biology -- Taxonomy -- Toxicology (the study of poisons and pollution) -- Virology -- Xenobiology -- Zoology
Related disciplines
Medicine -- Physical anthropology
People and history
Famous biologists -- History of biology -- Nobel prize in physiology or medicine -- Timeline of biology and organic chemistry
List of topics
See: List of biology topics
What are our priorities for writing in this area? To help develop a list of the most basic topics in biology, please see Wikipedia:biology basic topics.
Evolution and biology
One of the central, organizing concepts in biology is that all life has descended from a common origin through a process of evolution. Charles Darwin established evolution as a viable theory by articulating its driving force: natural selection. Genetic drift was embraced as an additional mechanism in the so-called modern synthesis. The evolutionary history of a species—which tells the characteristics of the various species from which it descended—together with its genealogical relationship to every other species is called its phylogeny. Widely varied approaches to biology generate information about phylogeny. These include the comparisons of DNA sequences conducted within molecular biology or genomics, and comparisons of fossils or other records of ancient organisms in paleontology. Biologists organize and analyze evolutionary relationships through various methods, including phylogenetics, phenetics, and cladistics. Major events in the evolution of life, as biologists currently understand them, are summarized on this evolutionary timeline.
Classification of life
The classification of living things is called systematics, or taxonomy, and should reflect the evolutionary trees (phylogenetic trees) of the different organisms. Taxonomy piles up organisms in groups called taxa, while systematics seeks their relationships. The dominant system is called Linnaean taxonomy, which includes ranks and binomial nomenclature. How organisms are named is governed by international agreements such as the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN), the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), and the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria (ICNB). A fourth Draft BioCode was published in 1997 in an attempt to standardize naming in the three areas, but it does not appear to have yet been formally adopted. The International Code of Virus Classification and Nomenclature (ICVCN) remains outside the BioCode.
Traditionally, living things were divided into five kingdoms:
- Monera -- Protista -- Fungi -- Plantae -- Animalia
However, this five-kingdom system is now considered by many to be outdated. More modern alternatives generally begin with the three-domain system:
- Archaea (originally Archaebacteria) -- Bacteria (originally Eubacteria) -- Eukaryota
These domains reflect whether cells have nuclei or not as well as differences in cell exteriors.
There is also a series of intracellular "parasites" that are progressively less alive in terms of being metabolically active:
- Viruses -- Viroids -- Prions
History of the word "biology"
Formed by combining the Greek βίος (bios), meaning 'life', and λόγος (logos), meaning 'word', 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.
See also
External links and resources
Links
Further reading
- Lynn Margulis, Five Kingdoms: An Illustrated Guide to the Phyla of Life on Earth, 3rd ed., St. Martin's Press, 1997, paperback, ISBN 0805072527 (many other editions)
- Neil Campbell, Biology: Concepts & Connections (4th edition), Benjamin-Cummings Publishing Company, 2002, hardcover, ISBN 080536627X (college-level text)
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Discuss Listings
Science and Medicine Humor
A long list of links to biology songs and jokes, with some other science humor as well.
http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/6174/h--scien.html
The Official Ig Nobel Prizes 1999
Live telecast of the 1999 Ig Nobel prizes. Requires Realplayer.
http://ignobel.org/
Brain Songs
Brain and neuroscience songs set to familiar tunes.
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/songs.html
Hot Date Tel Tufo
A sizzling biochemical romance.
http://www.magpage.com/~deltufjp/deltufo/X0020_hot_date.html
The Dangers of Bread
The various dangers of eating bread.
http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/6174/jokes/dangers-of-bread-panic.htm
WWWF Grudge Match: Jacques Cousteau vs. Marlin Perkins
The two wildlife adventurists race against each other to be the first to discover Life on Mars.
http://www.grudge-match.com/History/perkins-cousteau.shtml
Official Doohicky Website
A site set up to inform more people about doohickys.
http://www.angelfire.com/home/doohickys/
Garlic Surprise
Effect of ale, garlic, and soured cream on the appetite of leeches.
http://www.uib.no/isf/surprise.htm
The Icelandic Phallological Museum
Probably the only museum in the world to contain a collection of phallic specimens belonging to all the various types of mammal found in a single country. Multilingual.
http://www.phallus.is/
Cicadaville
A humorous look at the invasion of periodical cicadas in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.
http://www.cicadaville.com/
A New Application of Darwin's Theory
A Darwinian analysis of the 81st Indy 500 auto race. Darwin's theory can explain anything. See how it is used to analyze Arie Luyendyk's stunning victory in the 1997 Indy race.
http://www.tdtone.org/darwin/INDY.html
The Bird God
Hear an audio file of a parrot having a conversation about believing in God and the afterlife.
http://www.victorsarchives.homestead.com/birdgod.html
Curiosities of Biological Nomenclature
Etymologies, puns and funny sounds, wordplay, and more in taxonomy.
http://home.earthlink.net/~misaak/taxonomy.html
Cell Bio Personals
From the Psi Beta chapter of Beta Beta Beta at James Madison University, a collection of personal ads.
http://csmres.jmu.edu/bioweb/bbb/cellpersonals.htm
Dolly's Cloning Emporium
A humorous look at the endeavor of cloning.
http://users.rcn.com/tdiann/dolly.htm
Final Proof That Planes Indeed Evolved From Cars
A parody about evolution and the facts it claims, this short story may open your eyes a bit wider to evolution. This story claims that planes evolved from cars.
http://informationcentre.tripod.com/carevolution.html
Fenton the Death Sheep From Hell
Membership (minionship), celebrities, news, sports, sheepcentric website links, sheepocracy project, and a "sheepish" language version of the page.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7191/index.html
The Retarded Sheep's Great Sheep Conspiracy
A story about the relationship between Patrick Henry's historic speech and the fate of the sheep.
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Lot/6593/conspiracy.html
Penn Academy for Necroambulate Studies
Academy for the scientific study of zombies (necroambulates). Includes papers, faculty, thesis, and questions answered.
http://zombiealert.tripod.com
Biology Karaoke
Biology-related tunes set to pop music.
http://users.rcn.com/fvirzi/kar.shtml
Profession Jokes - Biologists
Jokes about biologists and biology (part of the Profession Jokes site).
http://www.workjoke.com/projoke37.htm
Stinky Stuff
Watch various things like fruit and food deteriorate and decompose.
http://www.geocities.com/stnkystuff2
The Stupid Gene
A theory as to why Earth is populated by so many idiots.
http://www.angelfire.com/weird2/thestupidgene
Ova Prima Foundation
Devoted to discourse and research on the egg and chicken controversy, that most basic of conundrums.
http://www.ovaprima.org/
Biology poetry
Contains rhymes with the focus on biology. Is open to submissions of poetry and rhymes about biology and other sciences.
http://www.livingpictures.org/biology.htm
Cooking with a Scientist
Matthew DeGennaro's humorous weblog on biology and cooking.
http://cookingscientist.blogspot.com/
Wildlife Biology Jokes
Wildlife, biology, science, and environmental jokes and humor.
http://home.comcast.net/~wildlifebio/Jokes.htm
Developmental Biology Online: Humor
Includes the mRNA, genome, and histone song, a two-act parody of My Fair Lady, and the denial of Thomas Jefferson's grant request.
http://www.devbio.com/keyword.php?kw=humor
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