Branches of Biology Branches of Biology Biology, the study of life, has many aspects to it and many specializations within

this broad field. Below is an alphabetical list of many of the branches of biology.

Agriculture - study of producing crops from the land, with an emphasis on practical applications Anatomy - the study of the animal form, with an emphasis on human bodies Biochemistry - the study of the chemical reactions required for life to exist and function, usually a focus on the cellular level Bioengineering - the study of biology through the means of engineering with an emphasis on applied knowledge and especially related to biotechnology. Bioinformatics - also classified as a branch of information technology (IT) it is the study, collection, and storage of genomic data Biomathematics or Mathematical Biology - the study of biological processes through mathematics, with an emphasis on modeling. Biomechanics - often considered a branch of medicine, the study of the mechanics of living beings, with an emphasis on applied use through artificial limbs, etc. Biophysics - the study of biological processes through physics, by applying the theories and methods traditionally used in the physical sciences Biotechnology - a new and sometimes controversial branch of biology that studies the manipulation of living matter, including genetic modification Botany - the study of plants Cell Biology - the study of the cell as a complete unit, and the molecular and chemical interactions that occur within a living cell. Conservation Biology - the study of the preservation, protection, or restoration of the natural environment, natural ecosystems, vegetation, and wildlife Cryobiology - the study of the effects of lower than normally preferred temperatures on living beings. Developmental Biology - the study of the processes through which an organism develops, from zygote to full structure. Ecology - the study of the ecosystem as a complete unit, with an emphasis on how species and groups of species interact with other living beings and non-living elements. Entomology - the study of insects Environmental Biology - the study of the natural world, as a whole or in a particular area, especially as affected by human activity Epidemiology - a major component of public health research, it is the study of factors affecting the health and illness of populations Ethology - the study of animal behavior. Evolution or Evolutionary Biology - the study of the origin and decent of species over time Genetics - the study of genes and heredity. Herpetology - the study of reptiles (and amphibians?) Histology - The study of cells and tissue, a microscopic branch of anatomy. Ichthyology - the study of fish Macrobiology - the study of biology on the level of the macroscopic individual (plant, animal,

or other living being) as a complete unit. Mammology - the study of mammals Marine Biology - the study of ocean ecosystems, plants, animals, and other living beings. Medicine - the study of the human body in health and disease, with allopathic medicine focusing on alleviating or curing the body from states of disease Microbiology - the study of microscopic organisms (microorganisms) and their interactions with other living things Molecular Biology - the study of biology and biological functions at the molecular level, some cross over with biochemistry Mycology - the study of fungi Neurobiology - the study of the nervous system, including anatomy, physiology, even pathology Oceanography - the study of the ocean, including ocean life, environment, geography, weather, and other aspects influencing the ocean. See Marine Biology Ornithology - the study of birds Paleontology - the study of fossils and sometimes geographic evidence of prehistoric life Pathobiology or pathology - the study of diseases, and the causes, processes, nature, and development of disease Parisitology - the study of parasites and parasitism Pharmacology - the study and practical application of preparation, use, and effects of drugs and synthetic medicines. Physiology - the study of the functioning of living organisms and the organs and parts of living organisms Phytopathology - the study of plant diseases Pre-medicine - a college major that covers the general aspects of biology as well as specific classes relevant to the study of medicine Virology - the study of viruses and some other virus-like agents, usually considered part of microbiology or pathology Zoology - the study of animals and animal life, including classification, physiology, development, and behavior (See also Entomology, Ethology, Herpetology, Ichthyology, Mammology, Ornithology

Ancient Greek traditions

The pre-Socratic philosophers asked many questions about life but produced little systematic knowledge of specifically biological interestthough the attempts of the atomists to explain life in purely physical terms would recur periodically through the history of biology. However, the medical theories of Hippocrates and his followers, especially humorism, had a lasting impact.[12] The philosopher Aristotle was the most influential scholar of the living world from classical antiquity. Though his early work in natural philosophy was speculative, Aristotle's later biological writings were more empirical, focusing on biological causation and the diversity of life. He made countless observations of nature, especially the habits and attributes of plants and animals in the world around him, which he devoted considerable attention to categorizing. In all, Aristotle classified 540 animal species, and dissected at least 50. He believed that intellectual purposes, formal causes, guided all natural processes.[13] Aristotle, and nearly all Western scholars after him until the 18th century, believed that creatures were arranged in a graded scale of perfection rising from plants on up to humans: the scala naturae or Great Chain of Being.[14] Aristotle's successor at the Lyceum, Theophrastus, wrote a series of books on botanythe History of Plantswhich survived as the most important contribution of antiquity to botany, even into the Middle Ages. Many of Theophrastus' names survive into modern times, such as carpos for fruit, and pericarpion for seed vessel. Pliny the Elder was also known for his knowledge of plants and nature, and was the most prolific compiler of zoological descriptions.[15] A few scholars in the Hellenistic period under the Ptolemiesparticularly Herophilus of Chalcedon and Erasistratus of Chiosamended Aristotle's physiological work, even performing experimental dissections and vivisections.[16] Claudius Galen became the most important authority on medicine and anatomy. Though a few ancient atomists such as Lucretius challenged the teleological Aristotelian viewpoint that all aspects of life are the result of design or purpose, teleology (and after the rise of Christianity, natural theology) would remain central to biological thought essentially until the 18th and 19th centuries. Ernst W. Mayr argued that "Nothing of any real consequence happened in biology after Lucretius and Galen until the Renaissance."[17] The ideas of the Greek traditions of natural history and medicine survived, but they were generally taken unquestioningly in medieval Europe.[18]

The word biology is formed by combining the Greek (bios), meaning "life", and the suffix '-logy', meaning "science of", "knowledge of", "study of", based on the Greek verb , 'legein' "to select", "to gather" (cf. the noun , 'logos' "word").

The history of biology traces the study of the living world from ancient to modern times. Although the concept of biology as a single coherent field arose in the 19th century, the biological sciences emerged from traditions of medicine and natural history reaching back to ayurveda, ancient Egyptian medicine and the works of Aristotle and Galen in the ancient GrecoRoman world. This ancient work was further developed in the Middle Ages by Muslim physicians and scholars such as Avicenna. During the European Renaissance and early modern period, biological thought was revolutionized in Europe by a renewed interest in empiricism and the discovery of many novel organisms. Prominent in this movement were Vesalius and Harvey, who used experimentation and careful observation in physiology, and naturalists such as Linnaeus and Buffon who began to classify the diversity of life and the fossil record, as well as the development and behavior of organisms. Microscopy revealed the previously unknown world of microorganisms, laying the groundwork for cell theory. The growing importance of natural theology, partly a response to the rise of mechanical philosophy, encouraged the growth of natural history (although it entrenched the argument from design). Over the 18th and 19th centuries, biological sciences such as botany and zoology became increasingly professional scientific disciplines. Lavoisier and other physical scientists began to connect the animate and inanimate worlds through physics and chemistry. Explorer-naturalists such as Alexander von Humboldt investigated the interaction between organisms and their environment, and the ways this relationship depends on geographylaying the foundations for biogeography, ecology and ethology. Naturalists began to reject essentialism and consider the importance of extinction and the mutability of species. Cell theory provided a new perspective on the fundamental basis of life. These developments, as well as the results from embryology and paleontology, were synthesized in Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. The end of the 19th century saw the fall of spontaneous generation and the rise of the germ theory of disease, though the mechanism of inheritance remained a mystery. In the early 20th century, the rediscovery of Mendel's work led to the rapid development of genetics by Thomas Hunt Morgan and his students, and by the 1930s the combination of population genetics and natural selection in the "neo-Darwinian synthesis". New disciplines developed rapidly, especially after Watson and Crick proposed the structure of DNA. Following the establishment of the Central Dogma and the cracking of the genetic code, biology was largely split between organismal biologythe fields that deal with whole organisms and groups of organismsand the fields related to cellular and molecular biology. By the late 20th century, new fields like genomics and proteomics were reversing this trend, with organismal biologists using molecular techniques, and molecular and cell biologists investigating the interplay between genes and the environment, as well as the genetics of natural populations of organisms.

Medieval and Islamic knowledge

A biomedical work by Ibn al-Nafis, an early adherent of experimental dissection who discovered the pulmonary circulation and coronary circulation. The decline of the Roman Empire led to the disappearance or destruction of much knowledge, though physicians still incorporated many aspects of the Greek tradition into training and practice. In Byzantium and the Islamic world, many of the Greek works were translated into Arabic and many of the works of Aristotle were preserved.[19] Medieval Muslim physicians, scientists and philosophers made significant contributions to biological knowledge between the 8th and 13th centuries during what is known as the "Islamic Golden Age" or "Muslim Agricultural Revolution". In zoology, for example, the Afro-Arab scholar al-Jahiz (781869) described early evolutionary ideas[20][21] such as the struggle for existence.[22] He also introduced the idea of a food chain,[23] and was an early adherent of environmental determinism.[24] The Kurdish biologist Al-Dinawari (828896) is considered the founder of Arabic botany for his Book of Plants, in which he described at least 637 species and discussed plant development from germination to death, describing the phases of plant growth and the production of flowers and fruit.[25] Abu Rayhan Biruni described the idea of artificial selection and argued that nature works in much the same way, an idea that has been compared to natural selection.[26] In anatomy and physiology, the Persian physician Rhazes (865925) carried out an early experiment to discredit the Galenic theory of humorism.[citation needed] In experimental medicine, the Persian physician Avicenna (9801037) introduced clinical trials and clinical pharmacology in The Canon of Medicine,[27] which remained an authoritative text in European medical education up until the 17th century.[28][29] The Andalusian-Arabian physician Avenzoar (10911161) was an early adherent of experimental dissection and autopsy, which he carried out to prove that the skin disease scabies was caused by a parasite, a discovery which upset the theory of humorism.[30] He also introduced experimental surgery,[31] where animal testing is used to experiment with surgical techniques prior to using them on humans.[32] During a famine in Egypt in 1200, Abd-el-latif observed and examined a large number of skeletons, and he discovered that Galen was incorrect regarding the formation of the bones of the lower jaw and sacrum.[33] In the early 13th century, the Andalusian-Arabian biologist Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati developed an early scientific method for botany, introducing empirical and experimental techniques in the testing, description and identification of numerous materia medica, and separating unverified reports from those supported by actual tests and observations.[34] His student Ibn al-Baitar (d. 1248) wrote a pharmaceutical encyclopedia describing 1,400 plants, foods, and drugs, 300 of which were his own original discoveries. A Latin translation of his work was useful to European biologists and pharmacists in the 18th and 19th centuries.[35] The Arabian physician Ibn al-Nafis (12131288) was another early adherent of experimental dissection and autopsy,[36][37] who in 1242 discovered pulmonary circulation[38] and coronary circulation,[39][40] which form the basis of the circulatory system.[41] He also described the

concept of metabolism,[42] and discredited the incorrect Galenic and Avicennian theories on the four humours, pulsation,[43] bones, muscles, intestines, sensory organs, bilious canals, esophagus and stomach.[36]

Renaissance and early modern developments

See also: History of anatomy and Scientific Revolution

The European Renaissance brought expanded interest in both empirical natural history and physiology. In 1543, Andreas Vesalius inaugurated the modern era of Western medicine with his seminal human anatomy treatise De humani corporis fabrica, which was based on dissection of corpses. Vesalius was the first in a series of anatomists who gradually replaced scholasticism with empiricism in physiology and medicine, relying on first-hand experience rather than authority and abstract reasoning. Via herbalism, medicine was also indirectly the source of renewed empiricism in the study of plants. Otto Brunfels, Hieronymus Bock and Leonhart Fuchs wrote extensively on wild plants, the beginning of a nature-based approach to the full range of plant life.[45] Bestiariesa genre that combines both the natural and figurative knowledge of animalsalso became more sophisticated, especially with the work of William Turner, Pierre Belon, Guillaume Rondelet, Conrad Gessner, and Ulisse Aldrovandi.[46] Artists such as Albrecht Drer and Leonardo da Vinci, often working with naturalists, were also interested in the bodies of animals and humans, studying physiology in detail and contributing to the growth of anatomical knowledge.[47] The traditions of alchemy and natural magic, especially in the work of Paracelsus, also laid claim to knowledge of the living world. Alchemists subjected organic matter to chemical analysis and experimented liberally with both biological and mineral pharmacology.[48] This was part of a larger transition in world views (the rise of the mechanical philosophy) that continued into the 17th century, as the traditional metaphor of nature as organism was replaced by the nature as machine metaphor.[49]

Living things have a variety of common characteristics. y y Organization. Living things exhibit a high level of organization, with multicellular organisms being subdivided into cells, and cells into organelles, and organelles into molecules, etc. Homeostasis. Homeostasis is the maintenance of a constant (yet also dynamic) internal environment in terms of temperature, pH, water concentrations, etc. Much of our own metabolic energy goes toward keeping within our own homeostatic limits. If you run a high fever for long enough, the increased temperature will damage certain organs and impair your proper functioning. Swallowing of common household chemicals, many of which are outside the pH (acid/base) levels we can tolerate, will likewise negatively impact the human body's homeostatic regime. Muscular activity generates heat as a waste product. This heat is removed from our bodies by sweating. Some of this heat is used by warm-blooded animals, mammals and birds, to maintain their internal temperatures. Adaptation. Living things are suited to their mode of existence. Charles Darwin began the recognition of the marvellous adaptations all life has that allow those organisms to exist in their environment. Reproduction and heredity. Since all cells come from existing cells, they must have some way of reproducing, whether that involves asexual (no recombination of genetic material) or sexual (recombination of genetic material). Most living things use the chemical DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) as the physical carrier of inheritance and the genetic information. Some organisms, such as retroviruses (of which HIV is a member), use RNA (ribonucleic acid) as the carrier. The variation that Darwin and Wallace recognized as the wellspring of evolution and adaptation, is greatly increased by sexual reproduction. Growth and development. Even single-celled organisms grow. When first formed by cell division, they are small, and must grow and develop into mature cells. Multicellular organisms pass through a more complicated process of differentiation and organogenesis (because they have so many more cells to develop). Energy acquisition and release. One view of life is that it is a struggle to acquire energy (from sunlight, inorganic chemicals, or another organism), and release it in the process of forming ATP (adenosine triphosphate). Detection and response to stimuli (both internal and external). Interactions. Living things interact with their environment as well as each other. Organisms obtain raw materials and energy from the environment or another organism. The various types of symbioses (organismal interactions with each other) are examples of this.

y y

De arte venandi, by Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, was an influential medieval natural history text that explored bird morphology. During the High Middle Ages, a few European scholars such as Hildegard of Bingen, Albertus Magnus and Frederick II expanded the natural history canon. The rise of European universities, though important for the development of physics and philosophy, had little impact on biological scholarship.[44]