Life

Biology comes from the Greek words bios meaning "life" and logos meaning "study".

Biology is the study of life or the study of living things.

There are two major divisions of biology. These are:

• Botany - the study of plants
• Zoology - the study of animals

There are also several specialized fields in biology, these are:

• Anatomy - the study of the structures of organisms
• Cytology - the study of the structures and functions of cells
• Ecology - the studyof how organisms interact with their environment
• Morphology - the study of the gross structures and forms of organisms
• Genetics - study of how traits are inherited
• Histology - the study of tissues
• Molecular Biology - study of subcellular structures of the cells(DNA and RNA)
• Parasitology - study of organisms that live in or on other organism
• Physiology - study of how the body works
• Taxonomy - study of the classification and evolutionary interrelationship among organisms
• Evolutionary Biology - study of the origin and differentiation of organisms
• Embryology - study of the development and growth of an organism
• Paleontology - study of fossils, preserved remains and traces of organisms from the distant past
• Microbiology - study of microorganisms

HISTORY OF BIOLOGY

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

• famous Greek philosopher
• was the first to classify living things

Galen (A.D. 131-200)

• Greek physician
• described anatomy of the human body based on dissections of apes and pigs

Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564)

• made the first serious studies on human anatomy by dissecting corpses

William Harvey (1578-1657)

• English physician
• showed conclusively that the heart pumps the blood and the blood circulates

Marcello Malpighi (6128-1694)

• Italian physician and anatomist
• founder of microscopic anatomy
• in 1661, he discovered the capillaries

Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723)

• a cloth merchant
• first to use themicroscope with great observational and descriptive skills
• discovered microorganisms

Charles Darwin (1807-1882)

• an English naturalist
• his theory of natural selection suggested that we originated from apes
• his work provided a unifying, organizing framework for the field of biology