Introduction to Biology [A Beginners Guide]

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.

N.B: Structure of an organism determines the function.

HOMEOSTASIS

This is the ability of an organism to maintain a constant Internal environment with relation to environmental changes. The structure which are used to maintain homeostasis can either be morphological (Physical) or physiological.

GENETICS

All living organism contain genetic materials in form of DNA or RNA which is present in the nucleus of a cell or cytoplasm.

The study of inheritance and transfer of these genes or genetic material is referred to as GENETICS.

EVOLUTION

This is the gradual, structural, functional and behavioral changes which occurs in a population of organism over successive generation or a long period of time. The changes which occur as a result of evolution can either be development of new structures or loss of function of old structure.

CLASSIFICATION.

This is the system of taxonomic grouping of living organisms based on similarities and differences between species of organisms.
The father of taxonomy is Carl Linnaeus who first classified all living organisms into plants and animals. Further down an English scientists Whittaker divided living organism into 5 kingdom which are

• Kingdom Animalia
• Kingdom Plantae
• Kingdom Fungi
• Kingdom Protista
• Kingdom Monera

N.B: The Kingdom Monera can be sub divided into the Eubacteria and the Archaeabacteria

These 5 Kingdoms were grouped into 3 domains by Carl Woese, which are;

• Domain Eukarya
• Domain Bacteria
• Domain Archaea