Biology for Dumbos

The discovery of the cell and its cellular component can be attributed to the observations and contributions of 5 major scientist which are; Robert Hooke: In 1665, using a high-powered magnifying lens observed dried wine cork tissues and saw small compartment which he called cells. He published his diagrams in his scientific journal called Micrographia. A nton Van Leeuwenhoek: In 1674, a Dutch draper who built the first light microscope and used it to observe bacteria cells (pond scum) and blood cells, He observed the cells moving and called it “Animalcules”. Mathais Schleiden (Botanist): He was a German botanist. In 1838, he observed plant tissues and saw cells similar to Robert Hooke diagrams. Theodore Schwann (Zoologist): He observed animal tissues and saw similar cells as described by Leeuwenhoek. Rudolf Virchow (German Physician 1855): He observed cells during division and said that all cells comes from pre-existing cells. The conclusions of these scientist were...

WHAT IS BIOLOGY? Biology is a contraction of two Greek words, Bio and Logus. Bio means life, Logus means knowledge or study. Hence, we can say Biology is the study of living organism. It was popularized in the early 1880’s by a French scientist by Jean Baptiste Lamarck . He separated biology into two major branches which are Botany and Zoology. An English scientist Thomas Henry Huxley decided that studying living organism in isolation of the other wasn’t ideal and developed a system through which plants and animals could be studied under similar characteristics. These points are referred to as the Unifying Themes in Biology. UNIFYING THEMES IN BIOLOGY The unifying themes in biology are; Cell Homeostasis Genetics  Evolution CELL   This is the fundamental unit of all living organism which entails all function carried out by the living organism. The structure and function of a cell determines the overall function of the organism it comprises...