Biology is the natural science that studies life and living organismsincluding their physical structurechemical processesmolecular interactionsphysiological gidedevelopment and evolution. Biology recognizes the cell as the basic unit of life, genes as the basic unit of heredityand evolution as the engine that Chpter the creation and gjide of species. Living organisms are open systems that Chapter 2 study guide by transforming energy and decreasing their local entropy [2] to maintain a stable and vital condition defined as homeostasis.
Sub-disciplines of biology are defined by the research methods employed and the kind of system studied: theoretical biology uses mathematical methods to formulate quantitative models while experimental biology performs empirical experiments to test the validity of proposed theories and understand the mechanisms underlying life and how it appeared and evolved from non-living matter about 4 billion years ago through a gradual increase in the complexity of the system. The first to borrow it was the English and French biologie. Historically there was another term for "biology" in English, lifelore ; it is rarely used today. It was used again in in a work entitled Philosophiae naturalis sive physicae: tomus III, continens Chapter 2 study guide, biologian, phytologian generalisby Michael Christoph Hanova disciple of Christian Wolff.
The first German use, Biologiewas in a translation of Linnaeus' work. The term came Chapher its modern usage with the six-volume treatise Biologie, oder Philosophie der lebenden Natur —22 by Gottfried Reinhold Treviranuswho announced: [9]. Although modern biology is a relatively recent development, sciences related to and included within it have Chapter 2 study guide studied since ancient times. Natural philosophy was studied as early as the ancient civilizations of MesopotamiaEgyptthe Indian subcontinentand China.
However, the origins of modern biology and its approach to continue reading study of nature are most often traced back to ancient Greece. Especially important are his History of Animals and other works where he showed naturalist leanings, and later more empirical works that focused on biological causation and the diversity of life.
Aristotle's successor at the LyceumTheophrastuswrote a series of books on botany that survived as the most important contribution of antiquity to the plant sciences, even into the Middle Ages. Medicine was especially well studied by Islamic scholars working in Greek philosopher traditions, while natural history drew heavily on Aristotelian thought, especially in upholding a fixed hierarchy of life. Biology began to quickly develop and grow with Anton van Leeuwenhoek 's dramatic improvement of the microscope.
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It was then that scholars discovered spermatozoabacteriainfusoria and the diversity of microscopic life. Investigations by Jan Swammerdam led to new interest in entomology and helped to develop the basic techniques of microscopic dissection and staining. Advances in microscopy also had a profound impact on biological thinking. In the early 19th century, a number of biologists pointed to the central importance of the cell. Then, inSchleiden and Schwann began promoting the now universal ideas that 1 the basic unit of organisms is the cell and 2 that individual cells have all the characteristics of lifealthough they opposed the idea that 3 all cells come from the division of other cells. Thanks to the work of Robert Remak and Rudolf Virchowhowever, by the s most biologists accepted all three tenets of what came to be known as cell theory.
Meanwhile, taxonomy and classification became the focus of natural historians. Carl Linnaeus published a basic taxonomy for the natural world in variations of which have been in use ever sinceand in the s introduced scientific names for all his species. Although he was opposed to evolution, Buffon is a key figure in the history of evolutionary thought ; his work influenced the evolutionary theories of both Lamarck and Darwin.
Serious evolutionary thinking originated with the works of Jean-Baptiste LamarckChapter 2 study guide was the first to present Study Entrepreneur Case Chapter 2 study guide theory of evolution. Lamarck believed that these acquired traits could then be passed on to the animal's offspring, who would further develop and perfect them.
The discovery of the physical representation of heredity came along with evolutionary principles and population genetics. In the s and early s, experiments pointed to DNA as the component of chromosomes that held the trait-carrying units that had become known as genes. A focus on new kinds of model organisms such as viruses and bacteriaalong with the discovery of the double-helical structure of DNA inmarked the transition to the era of molecular genetics. From the s to the present times, biology has been vastly extended in the molecular Chapter 2 study guide.
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Finally, the Human Genome Project was launched in with the goal of mapping the general human genome. This project Chwpter essentially completed in[23] with further analysis still being published. The Human Genome Project was the first step in a Chapter 2 study guide effort to incorporate accumulated knowledge of biology into a functional, molecular definition of the human body and the bodies of other organisms.
Cell theory states that the cell is the fundamental unit of lifethat all living things are composed of one or more cells, and that all cells arise from pre-existing cells through cell division. In multicellular organismsevery cell in the organism's body derives ultimately from a single cell in a fertilized egg. The cell is also considered to be the basic unit in many pathological processes.]
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