The word biology is made up of two Greek words: bios (“life”) and logos (“study”). It is a natural science that is dedicated to analyzing the properties and characteristics of living organisms, focusing on their origin and development.
For example: “I have to take a biology test next week, ” “A biology expert at the University of San Diego announced the discovery of a new species of shrimp, ” “You can’t expect a dog to act contrary to their biology.
According to DigoPaul, biology investigates those attributes that characterize specimens as individuals and species as a group, studying their behaviors, their interrelationships, their links with the environment and their reproductive habits.
This science seeks to discover, from the analysis of structures and processes, those laws of a general nature that regulate organic functioning.
Many are the biologists who throughout history have left their indelible mark on this science through or thanks to the set of investigations and discoveries made that, in one way or another, have managed to mark our past, our present or our future.
This would be the case, for example, of the Scotsman Alexander Fleming who made two important discoveries for humanity. On the one hand, there would be the lysozyme that is responsible for functioning as a barrier against infections. And on the other hand, we would have to talk about penicillin, which is a biochemical substance that is used in the scientific field to combat all diseases that originate as a result of the action of various microorganisms.
But we cannot ignore the figure of another biologist of great importance in world history. We are referring to the French Louis Pasteur who stands out especially because we owe him the well-known thermal process of pasteurization, which is the one to which certain liquids, such as milk, are subjected to eliminate bacteria or molds that they may have.
In the same way, this scientist has also gone down in the annals of history for having been one of the initiators of what are vaccines against infectious diseases or for having created the vaccine against rabies. Discoveries and advances all those that he achieved that have earned him to be qualified as the pioneer of modern microbiology.
It is important to bear in mind that biology encompasses various fields of study that are often considered independent disciplines. It may be mentioned the molecular biology, the molecular genetics, the biochemistry and cell biology, among others.
Beyond the differences, all branches of biology have certain common postulates and principles that make science a unit. One of the basic ideas of biology holds that all forms of life share the same ancestor. The current differences are explained from the theory of evolution. This theory shows why very different looking organisms share a large number of processes and characteristics.
