Biology

The word Biology had been coined in

1800 by Karl Friedrich Burdach.
(German anatomist and physiologist )
2 Greek words
(bios)- meaning "life",
Logy', meaning "science of", "knowledge
of", "study of",
History of the word "biology"
1802 - The term biology in its broaded
sense was propounded by:
Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus
(Philosophy of living nature, )


Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (Hydrogeology).
used and defined for the first time


A way of understanding the nature of
living things
a science that is linked to other sciences
and transcends such sciences as
chemistry, physics, mathematics and
geology .


What is Biology?
Definition:
Definition
field where all the sciences meet the social
domains and the humanities such as:
economics, politics and environmental ethics
due to mans interaction with his
environment

Bio-Economics - The study of living organisms from economic
point of view It includes the study of cost effectiveness and
viability of biological projects from commercial point of view.

Biophysics - The study of various biological
phenomena according to principles of physics is
called biophysics.
For example,
movement of muscles and bones based on
principles of physics.
(Force)
(Load)
LEVER
Biochemistry
Biogeography -The study of plants and animals and the
basis of geographical distribution is called Biogeography.
Why Study Biology?
1. Biology is relevant to our everyday experience
Medical advances
Addressing needs of growing human population
Challenges of decreasing rate of biodiversity
Biotechnology advances



Why Study Biology?
2. Biology can be
controversial
Examples:
Dealing with
endangered species?
Use of human fetal
tissue in biomedical
research
Safety of irradiated
foods

Significance of studying Biology
Good Citizenship

Group activity
Discuss with your group how Biology is
significant to you as:
living things
as decision maker and
in dealing with critical/controversial issues
such as abortion, environmental
degradation etc.
A study of biology enables you
to understand and value your place in the earths
environment as well as your relationship with other
life forms.
As a conscious being, you are confronted with making
choices on how to sustain your own life and health.
helps you understand the basic mechanisms of bodily
processes; hence, it enables you to make choices and
decisions for yourself as a food and medical consumer,
as well as energy user.
You live in an era of escalating dimensions of science and
technology.
Knowledge of significant developments in biology and
biotechnology will eliminate confusing and
threatening views bothering your mind and help you
develop positive view
BIOLOGY: How It Came
About
How Biology Came About?
How do pre historic men contribute
to the development and progress of
BIOLOGY?
All prehistoric paintings are all dealt with biological
specimen like animals plants and human beings
Paintings From the Hall of the Bulls at Lascaux(SW
FRANCE) revealed that primitive man were close to nature
Paintings From the Hall of the Bulls at Lascaux(SW
FRANCE)
They hunted wild animals like deer, wild pigs, and large birds.
They gathered wild fruits, berries, and nuts.
They fished and collected shellfish and crabs.
They gathered wild tubers (root vegetables, like potatoes and
carrots), vegetables, and grains.

For thousands of years humans lived like this.
But then, around 10,000 years ago humans started to adopt a
farming way of life.
They learned to domisticate and cultivate
plants for their own use.
Types of plants that were domesticated
Barley and Wheat
Muskmelon
(now developed into
cantaloupe, honeydew,
etc)
lentils
The domestication of plants and animals dramatically
changed the way humans interacted with their
environment.
One aspect of natural history was the use of herbal
and medicinal plants. Early herbalist provided the
foundation of our present knowledge
Of drugs and medicine
A. Ancient Study of
Biology
They began their Biological
investigations before 500
B.C
They believed to find answer to their questions about nature one
must investigate.
One must use her/his ability to reason and understand life and
nature.
This is basically the same doctrine which guides scientist today.
The greatest natural philosophers who lived
in the Golden Age of Greece.
The father of Biology

Aristotle
He studied the heart and
brains of animals.
From this study, he correlated
the warming- cooling
function of the heart and
brain to human feelings and
emotions.
became the greatest authority on human anatomy.
He obtained his knowledge from the dissection of animals.
The best model for most his description of human anatomy was the
Barbary ape.
Galen, a Roman physician
Following Galen was rebellious Belgian student named Andreas Vesalius.
His method and teaching and his anatomy book set new and lasting
standards for the science of anatomy.
He believed that anatomy should be based
on the direct observations and that the
results must not be accepted without
questions.
Andreas Vesalius
He was a physiologist.
He used his knowledge of anatomy to study and
understand the circulation of blood.
Determined the true function of the heart and blood
vessels.
William Harvey, an English physician
Marcelo Malpighi- an Italian scientist who also dealt with blood by
observing capillaries in the lungs of frog.
Original drawing by Marcello Malpighi (1681): preparation of two
slightly inflated frog lungs, where a reticulum of microvessels is apparent
in place of "capillaries". (Adapted from Fishman and Richards, 1964).
B. 18
th
to 20
th
century Biologist
Eucharias Jansen- a Dutch spectacle maker, who likes
Galileo, is credited with inventing the early microscope.
Antoine Van Leeuwenhoek- a Dutch
microscopist, who introduced us to the
world of microorganism with the use of
microscopes. He is the father of
Microbiology with his inventions and
discoveries.
Carolus Linnaeus - who develop the binomial
system for identifying and naming organisms
developed concepts and theory of evolutions
1933 1933-1964
1964-1986 1986-present
Modern Day Biologists (1970- 2001)
A very popular in these times is to sequence the human genome from
Watson and Crick double helical structure of DNA in order to draft the
sequence genome of yeast and mouse.

developed theories related to Genetics
1. Do you find the contributions of ancient
Biologists significant to modern Biology?
Why?


2. Have you seen the importance of the
effect of the study of one Biologist in
encouraging other Biologist to pursue the
same study? Cite an example.
SCIENCE
Since the study of biology is so vast and complex specialized branches evolved in
1543.This sparked the start of the so Called scientific revolution
Taxonomy- systematized the grouping and naming
of living things
Morphology -formalized the study of forms and
structures of organism into lower forms to higher
forms
Anatomy- made possible the study of the structure of the
internal parts of living organism
Cytology- study of cell
Histology study of tissue
Related Disciplines and Approaches
Embryology -deals with the study of how the
organism develop from a microscopic egg to an
adult individual
Physiology- focused on the function and
chemical activities
Biogeography- simplified the study of the
distribution of the organisms on the earth surface
Zoology- study of animals
Botany -study of plants
Anatomy - study of internal structures of living
things
Phytopathology - study of plant diseases
Taxonomy - study of systematic classification
Ecology - study of mans interaction with his
environment
Genetics - study of heredity
Microbiology - study of microorganisms
Together, they study life over a wide range
of scales:

at the atomic and molecular scale,
through molecular biology, biochemistry
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
speculatively through Xenobiology at the level
of life beyond the Earth.