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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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Bio Netbook
Excellent, searchable database of links for biology, classified according to: resource type; species or organism; and discipline. From the Pasteur Institute.
http://www.pasteur.fr/recherche/BNB/bnb-en.html
Bioexplorer: Biology Links
Links in biosciences, organized into multiple categories.
http://www.bioexplorer.net/
BIOME
A collection of gateways which provide access to evaluated, quality Internet resources in the health and life sciences, aimed at students, researchers, academics and practitioners, co-ordinated by the University of Nottingham Greenfield Medical Library.
http://biome.ac.uk/
Agriculture Network Information Center
A reference service providing links to plant science websites.
http://www.unl.edu/agnicpls/agnic.html
BioScience Links
A current listing of important Internet resources in the biological sciences. It contains 20 basic categories divided into subcategories.
http://www.biolinks.net.ru
4Biology
A guide to biology that looks at professional organizations, schools, jobs and branches of the science.
http://www.4biology.com/
BioScience Research Tool
Comprehensive resource directory for Bioscience and Education arranged them by discipline.
http://biochemie.net/links/
Academic Info: Biological Sciences
An annotated directory of Internet resources on the Biological Sciences.
http://www.academicinfo.net/biology.html
CSU-BIOWEB
Find electronic resources on biological sciences from agricultural science to zoology.
http://arnica.csustan.edu/samples/search/query.htm
Biology, The Study of Life
Information on the various fields of biology with links to resources and tools for each field.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/8424/bio.html
TheLabRat.com
A site designed for the life scientist (aka The Lab Rat). Sections dedicated to career, news, message boards, chat room, and protocols and reagents.
http://www.thelabrat.com/
Cell & Molecular Biology Online
An all-around reference site for the field with resources, and reference. A very complete list of biology on the net.
http://www.cellbio.com
Biolinks
A search engine for biotechnical and biomedical scientists.
http://www.biolinks.com/
BioCrawler
Excellent index covering virtually all fields of biology.
http://www.biocrawler.com/
ScienceWise
Workplace on the Web for scientists and engineers, providing details on research funding opportunities, collaboration tools, science headline news, and scientific articles and abstracts.
http://www.sciencewise.com
Science refdesk.com
Science Information Resources from "the single best source for facts on the net".
http://www.refdesk.com/factsci.html
Natural Selection
A searchable catalogue of Internet sites and resources covering health and medicine, zoology, bioresearch, natural selection and agriculture, food and forestry, co-ordinated by the Natural History Museum, London.
http://nature.ac.uk/
Bioinfoseek
Information center of the biotechnology community, containing more than five thousand links; biotech events and regulatory information.
http://www.bioinfoseek.com/
Top20Biology.com
Online directory for biology education including algae, fungi, botany, zoology, insects and spiders, reptiles, birds, and amphibians.
http://www.top20biology.com/
LabBoss
Laboratory marketplace providing auctions, listings and sourcing services for new, used, refurbished, and surplus equipment to buyers and suppliers in the Scientific Products industry, plus online services such as Speaker Connection, Consultants Resources, and Industry News and Links.
http://www.labboss.com
MedSite Medical Search Engine
WWW portal for the medical community geared for laymen & professionals.
http://www.medsite.com/
Mining Co. Biology Home Page
Links to biological net resources indexed by discipline and educational level.
http://biology.miningco.com/
Biosciences Virtual Library Index
Comprehensive catalog of bioscience links from Harvard Univ.
http://golgi.harvard.edu/htbin/biopages
BioTech Science Resources
Excellent directory of WWW Lab Protocols/Methodology, Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Medicine, Ecology, & Evolution resources from Indiana Univ.
http://biotech.icmb.utexas.edu/pages/scitools.html
Catalog of BioDatabases
Compendium of molecular genetic database links - a collaboration of Infobiogen (the French EMBnet node) & the European Bioinformatics Institute.
http://www.infobiogen.fr/services/dbcat/
Molecular Biology Shortcuts (MBS)
Useful entry door to the web for all biologists.
http://www.mbshortcuts.com
Genamics
Comprehensive resources for biology, including searchable software, journal, and genome databases.
http://genamics.com
BioSites
Catalog of internet resources in the Biomedical Sciences indexed by discipline from UCSF.
http://www.library.ucsf.edu/biosites/
Infomine: Biological, Agricultural, and Medical Sciences
Searchable, educational internet resource collections from the University of California-Riverside.
http://infomine.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/search?bioag
Bio Links
Biozone's Bio Links contains over five hundred links covering such topics as biology, biotechnology, diseases, evolution, and microbiology.
http://www.biozone.co.nz/links.html
BioLinks
Web directory of biology sites, college departments, medicine, careers, and vendors.
http://www.biolinks.org
Faculty of 1000
Highlights and reviews some of the most interesting papers published in biology, based on the recommendations of 1400 researchers. Offers a free trial.
http://www.facultyof1000.com
Biologist's Assistant
A list of recommended websites related to the different areas of the life sciences from Molecular Biology to Genetics.
http://www.biocfarm.unibo.it/~bassist/
LabVelocity
Locate scientific products, protocols, literature, and news.
http://researchlink.labvelocity.com
WEBioScience Portal
Links to image collections, conference diary, journals, free tools, publications, CVs, and current projects. In Hungarian (Magyar) and English.
http://www.webio.hu/
Ecocrawler
Directory of ecological resources on the internet.
http://ecocrawler.org/
BioResearch
Gateway to evaluated, quality Internet resources in the basic biological and biomedical sciences, aimed at students, researchers, academics and practitioners in biological or biomedical science.
http://bioresearch.ac.uk/
Harvard Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology
A collection of biology links.
http://mcb.harvard.edu/BioLinks.html
Biology Guide: High School Hub
Resources, links, and activities for high school students, including general biology, human biology, botany, and zoology.
http://highschoolhub.org/hub/biology.cfm
Directory for DNA based Computers
Covers DNA-based computing.
http://dna2z.com/
WebExhibits-Biology and Health
Eclectic collection of web sites of interest to general users.
http://webexhibits.org/dir/e/b/
Biochemie
Searchable database for life science topics, such as biochemistry, cell biology, related companies, databases, journals, methods and associations.
http://www.biochemie.net/
Bioexplorer Toolbar
Internet Explorer toolbar designed for biologists. It allows direct access to NCBI databases (PubMed, Protein, Nucleotide, and Taxonomy) and from other biological Web resources, including search engines.
http://www.bioexplorer.net/toolbar/
Biomedical Portal
A collection of links to biological and medical Internet resources - anatomy, physiology, pathology, and histology.
http://www.compsoc.man.ac.uk/
National Biological Information Infrastructure
Electronic gateway to biological data & information maintained by federal, state, & local government agencies; private sector organizations; and other partners around the nation and the world.
http://www.nbii.gov/index.html
Natural History Museums & Collections
Links to museums, collections, botanical gardens, arboretums, herbaria, zoos, & aquariums - from the Univ. of Washington.
http://www.lib.washington.edu/sla/natmus.html
The WWW Virtual Library: Biosciences
http://vlib.org/Biosciences.html
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