About Biology – Branches of Biology and Topics Covered in Biology
Biology is a natural science that involves in study of life and living organisms which includes their evolution, functions, development and physical & chemical structure. In biology, cell is considered as the basic unit of life, whereas genes is considered as the basic unit of heredity and evolution as the engine which is induced in the creation of new species.
It helps us to understand about the organisms and their survival by consuming and transforming energy by regulating their internal environment. Despite of the scope and complexity of science, there are certain unifying concepts that they can be consolidated into a single coherent field.
Actually, the word “Biology” is derived from two Greek words ‘Bios’ and ‘Logos’ in which bios means life and logos means study and the word “Biology” is defined as the science of life and living organisms. An organism is living entity that consists of one cell that can be either bacteria or fungi or plants & animals or some other cells.
Biology comprises of some other sub-disciplines like biochemistry and toxicology, molecular biology, cellular biology, physiology, medicine, bio-physics, astronomy, ecology and astro-biology. Biochemistry studies the rudimentary chemistry of life whereas molecular biology studies the complex interactions among biological molecules, cellular biology about building block of cell life, physiology with physical & chemical functions of tissues, organs and organ systems and so on.
There are various branches dealing with different aspects of biology. Let’s look for some of the branches of biology and can be furnished below:
Environmental Biology:
Environmental Biology is a science related to environment i.e. population, whole organism, environmental science and evolutionary biology and is concerned with all elements of environment that interact with each other by the way they are influenced and are grouped in a field. Environmental Biology is classified into Aero-biology, Bio-climatology, Bio-chemistry, Ecology and Geo-biology.
Evolutionary Biology:
Evolutionary Biology, being sub-field of biology is defined as a study of evolutionary processes that produce the diversity of life on Earth starting from a single common ancestor and these processes include natural selection, common descent and speciation. Evolutionary Biology also deals with five different fields like Developmental Biology, Ichnology, Paleontology, Epigenetics and Morphology.
Molecular Biology:
Molecular Biology is concerned with the understanding of various cellular systems that interact in terms of DNA, RNA and protein synthesis function. Molecular biology focuses on chemistry, bio-chemistry and genetics.
Medical Biology:
Medical Biology is a field of science concerned with the practical applications in medicine, health care and laboratory diagnostics. It is concerned with a wide range of scientific and technological approaches in different fields of medicine which include Bio-chemistry, Micro-biology, Genetics, Endocrinology, Anatomy, Zoology and Embryology etc.
Cellular Biology:
Cellular Biology, being a branch of biology mainly deals with the structure and functions of cells and is fairly wide field which has been invented using of optical microscope. It is responsible for understanding of other matters, their properties and functions as well as their interaction with the environment. Cellular Biology is comprised of Cytology, Histology, Palynology, Micro-biology and Protistology.
Zoology:
Zoology is a discipline of biology and is responsible for study of animal life as a whole, focusing on their development and physiology. Entomology, Ichthyology, Ornithology, Herpetology, Nothology, Primatology, Mammalogy and Veterinary Science comes under the field of Zoology.
Botany:
Botany, being the discipline of biology deals with the study of plants. It is a large branch that studies everything about plants and their environment. We can identify, classify, learn and describe about reproduction, morphology or physiology of the natural beings of plant world.
Now, let’s look down for the topics that are covered under Biology.
Biology Topics
Topics that cover under various levels of Biology are as follows:
