Biology is a science that studies ... What does biology study as a science

From the very beginning of our existence, we constantly see life around us. Little children learn to walk and talk, calling various animals, insects, watching them in nature. Becoming older, each child begins to understand that around him is a huge and very rich in living beings world. After all, and plants, and animals, and insects, and mushrooms - all this is alive. Knowing this amazing world, we become wiser, more mature and learn to be responsible.

Even later, when children go to school, they learn that biology is a science that studies all these organisms, their life, their interaction with each other and with the environment. And also this science studies the influence that man and wildlife have on each other.

The etymology of the word "biology"

Interestingly, the roots of the term "biology" goes to the ancient Indo-Jewish peoples, in which the word "leg" meant "to collect", "pick". Later, after undergoing many transformations, the term acquired a closer to the present sound. The ancient Greeks used the word "bios", which meant "life", and the word "logos", translated as "teaching." Uncomplicated, combining the two concepts, get a practical definition of the term "biology." This is a science that studies life, if we talk in general and superficially. In fact, the concept is very large, and the science itself is extremely fascinating.

What is biology and what does it study?

Our whole planet consists of several shells. One of them is the biosphere. In turn, the biosphere consists of biomass, and biomass is represented by the whole set of living beings on the planet, regardless of size and habitat. So, biomass is the object of studying biology. But since it is extremely diverse in the number of individuals, in the way they interact with each other and with other attributes, a need has arisen to divide biology into departments. And over time they developed into whole independent sciences.

What sciences are biology studying? Let's try to understand. The main few, and they all have a great value in people's lives. Biology covers all aspects of life of living beings, both external and internal. Therefore, the sciences, budding from it, so much.

Molecular biology

It is a science that studies the most important processes of protein synthesis, mechanisms for storing and transferring hereditary information, genetic code and its structure. The objects of molecular biology study are all living systems in which protein, nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) are stored. Such systems include prokaryotes, eukaryotes and viruses.

The current state of molecular biology is at the level of intensive development. A lot of information has already been received on the structure of protein molecules, their properties and functions performed in biomass. The processes of transcription and translation, the replication of the DNA molecule are deciphered, the genetic code is deciphered. But modern molecular biology does not even dwell on this. After all, as it turned out, protein diversity is so great that it is enough for careful analysis and laboratory study for many years to come.

Microbiology

Engaged in the study of the smallest living systems that are not visible to the naked eye (bacteria, viruses, microfungi, microalgae, archaea). Thanks to the achievements and works of many great scientists, this science has managed to take a step forward.

Today, cultures of the bacterial environment on special solid nutrient media are not unique. Get a clean culture of bacteria - means to gain access to management of them. Naturally, this is of great importance for medicine and pharmaceuticals. This is a chance to find a way to get rid of harmful microorganisms.

That is why the products of microbiological research are so popular in:

• Medicine;
• Agriculture;
• Food Industry;
• Oil and gas processing;
• Metallurgical industry.

Biotechnology

Young science, which gave rise to an even younger and progressive - gene and cell engineering. He studies and develops methods of cultivation of pure cultures, as well as the creation of technologies in viva and in vitro, which make it possible to use bacteria as human sources of energy, food, assistants in agriculture and other industrial branches.

This science is closely interrelated with microbiology, they are practically related. Therefore, the results of the work of biotechnologists are important aspects taken into account in the production of medicines, various agricultural preparations. In addition, biotechnology provides answers to questions relating to plant resistance to parasites, environmental conditions.

Gene and cell engineering, in turn, also make it clear that studying biology as a science. They are also based on living systems, but their task is specifically a practical focus on results, which is obviously useful to a person.

The methods of embedding extraneous genes into the cell carrying pre-engineered information allow to obtain the necessary products of a higher quality and in much larger quantities (for example, if we are talking about plants, the development of genetic engineering allows us to get two or three crops per season).

Genetics

An extensive and extremely important branch of biological science that studies the mechanisms of inheritance of characters is the variability, heredity, patterns of distribution and transfer of genes from parents to offspring, as well as the identification of chromosomal mutations and the consequences of their influence on the organisms of living beings.

Genetics covers the whole variety of living systems, from insects to plants and animals. It does not concern only viruses and bacteria, as these are objects of study already of another section of biology.

Space Biology

She started her career from the 1930s. A lot of scientists from the USA, France, the USSR, and in the present and in Russia have invested their many years of work in the development of this interesting, mysterious, yet very young, but very promising science.

The main task of space biology is the establishment of differences in the functioning of living biological systems on Earth and under conditions of completely opposite - the cosmos. Thus, space biology is a science that studies behavior, internal changes, physiology and morphology of living beings in the changed conditions of the external environment - in outer space.

The main factors that differentiate the conditions of space from terrestrial ones are the following:

• Other gas environment;
• Weightlessness of space;
• acceleration;
• Limited mobility;
• vibration;
• vacuum;
• radiation;
• Altered magnetic field.

Cosmic biology examines how all these factors affect living beings that have grown up in earthly conditions, and whether the life of earthlings is possible on other planets.

Cosmic biology is a complex science, therefore it consists of several parts:

1. Space physiology.
2. Ecobiology.
3. Exophysiology.
4. Space medicine.

General biology, embryology

Science, which studies the levels of organization of all living things and the staged origin and formation of each living being is a general biology. This science includes the following subsections:

• Evolutionary teaching;
• anthropology;
• paleontology.

General biology is the science of the life of all living things, of their formation and development over millions of years, of the origin of man, of his emergence in society and development as a biological unit.

The basic course of general biology is studied in the framework of the high school curriculum.

As a branch of general biology embryology is distinguished. She is studying the step-by-step intrauterine formation of every living being. It was also the research of embryologists that proved the similarity and unity of all living beings on the planet.

Cytology, histology, organology

Cytology (another name - cell biology) is a science that studies animal, plant, bacterial cells, viruses and cells of fungi, the structure, vital functions and functions of any living cells, processes of vital activity in them.

Any cells in multicellular eukaryotic systems are folded into tissues. And this is already an object of studying another section of an extensive biological science - histology. Vegetable and animal tissues, their formation, interchangeability, functions, and so on - are the object of study of histologists.

What is in plants, what in animals tissues form organs. The way this process takes place, on what is based and by what physiological, morphological and biochemical processes is accompanied, the science of organology studies.

Together they are integral parts of a common whole. They are united by biology. It is a science that literally studies everything. The scale and scope of the studied objects is simply amazing.

Zoology, botany, anatomy

The school course of biology implies the study of the foundations of such sciences as zoology, botany and anatomy. And this is natural. After all, all biology is based precisely on these main sections.

Zoology studies the diversity, structure and behavior of animals, all representatives of the animal kingdom, from unicellular animals to mammals.

Botany studies the diversity of plant organisms, their communities, physiology and external characteristics, as well as their distribution and origin.

Anatomy is a science based on the study of the internal structure of all living things, regardless of belonging to this or that kingdom of nature.

The totality of these sections is biology. It is a science that studies all aspects of the biomass of the planet. It is interesting, is not it?

Thus, it is easy to draw a conclusion about the extraordinary diversity of knowledge that biology gives us as a science. The role of biology in the life of modern man is infinitely great and significant, which is proved by the vastness and complexity of the sciences entering into it.