BIOLOGY BASICS

Biology is the study of life. As humans are living things, we have a natural sense of curiosity and affection towards life and how has come to be.

The study of biology incorporates everything imaginable related to the life on Earth. It can be very broad and focus on details regarding the entire planet or it may be very specific and study microscopic structures such as bacteria or DNA.

Studying living things, called organisms, takes us all around the world, from the most productive tropical rain forests to the hostile lands of Antarctica or the deepest oceanic basins.

Although our knowledge of the world around us is constantly changing, there are a few basic principles of biology that should hopefully remain useful for many years to come. Most biological study is built on the foundations of five universally recognized truths. These are:

1.   Cells are the basic unit of life.

2.   Genes are the basic units for passing traits from parent to offspring.

3.   Evolution by natural selection is the process that has led to the great diversity of species on Earth.

4.   Living things maintain the environment within their cells and bodies.

5.   Living things have the ability to acquire and transform energy.

As you can imagine and may very well know, biology is a massive field of study. It is constantly developing as biologists around the world are completing research and taking our understanding of life to new levels.

Everyday new information is published in different fields of biology and it is near on impossible for one person to keep up-to-date with every topic related to biology. However, everyone has to start somewhere and studying biology can enlighten your understanding of the world around you.

• Not all scientists agree on the definition of just what makes up life. Various characteristics describe most living things. However, with most of the characteristics listed below we can think of one or more examples that would seem to break the rule, with something nonliving being classified as living or something living classified as nonliving. Therefore we are careful not to be too dogmatic in our attempt to explain which things are living or nonliving.

·         Living things are composed of matter structured in an orderly way where simple molecules are ordered together into much larger macromolecules.

An easy way to remember this is GRIMNERD C All organisms; - Grow, Respire, Interact, Move, Need Nutrients, Excrete (Waste), Reproduce,Death, Cells (Made of)

·         Living things are sensitive, meaning they are able to respond to stimuli.

·         Living things are able to grow, develop, and reproduce.

·         Living things are able to adapt over time by the process of natural selection.

·         All known living things use the hereditary molecule, DNA.

·         Internal functions are coordinated and regulated so that the internal environment of a living thing is relatively constant, referred to as homeostasis.