What is Biology?

By Mary Bagley, Live Science Contributor | August 9, 2017 09:08pm ET

The hierarchy of biological organization.

From ecology to molecular biology, the
science of biology studies them all.
Credit: Luka Skywalker | Shutterstock
Biology is the science of life. Its name is derived
from the Greek words "bios" (life) and "logos"
(study). Biologists study the structure, function,
growth, origin, evolution and distribution of living
organisms. There are generally considered to be at
least nine "umbrella" fields of biology, each of
which consists of multiple subfields.
 Biochemistry: the study of the material
substances that make up living things
 Botany: the study of plants, including agriculture
 Cellular biology: the study of the basic cellular units of living things
 Ecology: the study of how organisms interact with their environment
 Evolutionary biology: the study of the origins and changes in the diversity of life
over time
 Genetics: the study of heredity
 Molecular biology: the study of biological molecules
 Physiology: the study of the functions of organisms and their parts
 Zoology: the study of animals, including animal behavior
Adding to the complexity of this enormous idea is the fact that these fields overlap. It
is impossible to study zoology without knowing a great deal about evolution,
physiology and ecology. You can't study cellular biology without knowing
biochemistry and molecular biology as well.

Framework of understanding
All the branches of biology can be unified within a framework of five basic
understandings about living things. Studying the details of these five ideas provides
the endless fascination of biological research:
 Cell Theory: There are three parts to cell theory — the cell is the basic unit of life,
all living things are composed of cells, and all cells arise from pre-existing cells.
 Energy: All living things require energy, and energy flows between organisms and
between organisms and the environment.
 Heredity: All living things have DNA and genetic information codes the structure
and function of all cells.
 Equilibrium: All living things must maintain homeostasis, a state of balanced
equilibrium between the organism and its environment.
 Evolution: This is the overall unifying concept of biology. Evolution is the change
over time that is the engine of biological diversity.
 Biology and other sciences
Biology is often studied in conjunction with other sciences, such as mathematics and
engineering, and even social sciences. Here are a few examples:
 Biophysics involves matching patterns in life and analyzing them with physics and
mathematics, according to the Biophysical Society.
 Astrobiology is the study the evolution of life in the universe, including the search
for extraterrestrial life, according to NASA.
 Biogeography is the study of the distribution and evolution of life forms and the
causes of the distribution, according to Dartmouth College.
 Biomathematics involves creating mathematical models to better understand
patterns and phenomena within the biology world, according to North Carolina
State University.
 Bioengineering is the application of engineering principles to biology principles
and vice versa, according the University of California Berkeley.
 Sociologists often study how biology can shape social structures, cultures, and
interactions, according to the American Sociological Association.
Additional reporting by Rachel Ross, Live Science Contributor

Biology
WRITTEN BY:
 Kara Rogers
 Susan Heyner Joshi
 Edna R. Green
Biology, study of living things and their vital processes. The field deals with all the
physicochemical aspects of life. The modern tendency toward cross-disciplinary
research and the unification of scientific knowledge and investigation from different
fields has resulted in significant overlap of the field of biology with other
scientific disciplines. Modern principles of other fields—chemistry, medicine, and
physics, for example—are integrated with those of biology in areas such
as biochemistry, biomedicine, and biophysics.
Biology is subdivided into separate branches for convenience of study, though all the
subdivisions are interrelated by basic principles. Thus, while it is custom to separate
the study of plants (botany) from that of animals (zoology), and the study of the
structure of organisms (morphology) from that of function (physiology), all living
things share in common certain biological phenomena—for example, various means
of reproduction, cell division, and the transmission of genetic material.
Biology is often approached on the basis of levels that deal with fundamental units of
life. At the level of molecular biology, for example, life is regarded as
a manifestation of chemical and energytransformations that occur among the many
chemical constituents that compose an organism. As a result of the development of
increasingly powerful and precise laboratory instruments and techniques, it is
possible to understand and define with high precision and accuracy not only the
ultimate physiochemical organization (ultrastructure) of the molecules in living matter
but also the way living matter reproduces at the molecular level. Especially crucial to
those advances was the rise of genomics in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Cell biology is the study of cells—the fundamental units of structure and function in
living organisms. Cells were first observed in the 17th century, when
the compound microscope was invented. Before that time, the individual organism
was studied as a whole in a field known as organismic biology; that area of research
remains an important component of the biological sciences. Population biology deals
with groups or populations of organisms that inhabit a given area or region. Included
at that level are studies of the roles that specific kinds of plants and animals play in
the complex and self-perpetuating interrelationships that exist between the living and
the nonliving world, as well as studies of the built-in controls that maintain those
relationships naturally. Those broadly based levels—molecules, cells, whole
organisms, and populations—may be further subdivided for study, giving rise to
specializations such as morphology, taxonomy, biophysics,
biochemistry, genetics, epigenetics, and ecology. A field of biology may be especially
concerned with the investigation of one kind of living thing—for example, the study of
birds in ornithology, the study of fishes in ichthyology, or the study of microorganisms
in microbiology.

Basic Concepts Of Biology

Biological principles
Homeostasis
The concept of homeostasis—that
living things maintain a constant
internal environment—was first
suggested in the 19th century by
French physiologist Claude Bernard,
who stated that “all the vital mechanisms, varied as they are, have only one object:
that of preserving constant the conditions of life.”
As originally conceived by Bernard, homeostasis applied to the struggle of a single
organism to survive. The concept was later extended to include any biological
system from the cell to the entire biosphere, all the areas of Earth inhabited by living
things.

Unity
All living organisms, regardless of their uniqueness, have certain biological,
chemical, and physical characteristics in
common. All, for example, are composed of
basic units known as cells and of the same
chemical substances, which, when analyzed,
exhibit noteworthy similarities, even in
such disparate organisms as bacteria and
humans. Furthermore, since the action of any
organism is determined by the manner in which
its cells interact and since all cells interact in
much the same way, the basic functioning of all
organisms is also similar.

Animal cells and plant cells contain membrane-bound

organelles, including a distinct nucleus. In contrast, bacterial
cells do not contain organelles.Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
There is not only unity of basic living substance and functioning but also unity of
origin of all living things. According to a theory proposed in 1855 by German
pathologist Rudolf Virchow, “all living cells arise from pre-existing living cells.” That
theory appears to be true for all living things at the present time under existing
environmental conditions. If, however, life originated on Earth more than once in the
past, the fact that all organisms have a sameness of basic structure, composition,
and function would seem to indicate that only one original type succeeded.
A common origin of life would explain why in humans or bacteria—and in all forms of
life in between—the same chemical substance, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), in the
form of genes accounts for the ability of all living matter to replicate itself exactly and
to transmit genetic information from parent to offspring. Furthermore, the
mechanisms for that transmittal follow a pattern that is the same in all organisms.
Whenever a change in a gene (a mutation) occurs, there is a change of some kind in
the organism that contains the gene. It is this universal phenomenon that gives rise
to the differences (variations) in populationsof organisms from which nature selects
for survival those that are best able to cope with changing conditions in
the environment.

Evolution
In his theory of natural selection, which is discussed in greater detail later, Charles
Darwin suggested that “survival of the fittest” was the basis for organic evolution (the
change of living things with time). Evolution itself is a biological phenomenon
common to all living things, even though it has led to their differences. Evidence to
support the theory of evolution has come primarily from the fossil record, from
comparative studies of structure and function, from studies of embryological
development, and from studies of DNA and RNA (ribonucleic acid).

Three types of natural selection,

showing the effects of each on the
distribution of phenotypes within a
population. The downward arrows
point to those phenotypes against
which selection acts. Stabilizing
selection (left column) acts
against phenotypes at both
extremes of the distribution,
favouring the multiplication of
intermediate phenotypes.
Directional selection (centre
column) acts against only one
extreme of phenotypes, causing a
shift in distribution toward the
other extreme. Diversifying selection (right column) acts against intermediate phenotypes, creating a
split in distribution toward each extreme. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Diversity
Despite the basic biological, chemical, and physical similarities found in all living
things, a diversity of life exists not only among and between species but also within
every natural population. The phenomenon of diversity has had a long history of
study because so many of the variations that exist in nature are visible to the eye.
The fact that organisms changed during prehistoric times and that new variations are
constantly evolving can be verified by paleontological records as well as by breeding
experiments in the laboratory. Long after Darwin assumed that variations existed,
biologists discovered that they are caused by a change in the genetic material
(DNA). That change can be a slight alteration in the sequence of the constituents of
DNA (nucleotides), a larger change such as a structural alteration of a chromosome,
or a complete change in the number of chromosomes. In any case, a change in the
genetic material in the reproductive cells manifests itself as some kind of structural or
chemical change in the offspring. The consequence of such a mutation depends
upon the interaction of the mutant offspring with its environment.
It has been suggested that sexual reproduction became the dominant type of
reproduction among organisms because of its inherentadvantage of variability, which
is the mechanism that enables a species to adjust to changing conditions. New
variations are potentially present in genetic differences, but how preponderant a
variation becomes in a gene pool depends upon the number of offspring the mutants
or variants produce (differential reproduction). It is possible for a genetic novelty
(new variation) to spread in time to all members of a population, especially if the
novelty enhances the population’s chances for survival in the environment in which it
exists. Thus, when a species is introduced into a new habitat, it either adapts to the
change by natural selection or by some other evolutionary mechanism or eventually
dies off. Because each new habitat means new adaptations, habitat changes have
been responsible for the millions of different kinds of species and for the
heterogeneity within each species.
The total number of extant animal and plant species is estimated at between roughly
5 million and 10 million; about 1.5 million of those species have been described by
scientists. The use of classification as a means of producing some kind of order out
of the staggering number of different types of organisms appeared as early as the
book of Genesis—with references to cattle, beasts, fowl, creeping things, trees, and
so on. The first scientific attempt at classification, however, is attributed to the Greek
philosopher Aristotle, who tried to establish a system that would indicate the
relationship of all things to each other. He arranged everything along a scale, or
“ladder of nature,” with nonliving things at the bottom; plants were placed below
animals, and humankind was at the top. Other schemes that have been used for
grouping species include large anatomical similarities, such as wings or fins, which
indicate a natural relationship, and also similarities in reproductive structures.
Taxonomy has been based on two major assumptions: one is that similar body
construction can be used as a criterion for a classification grouping; the other is that,
in addition to structural similarities, evolutionary and molecular relationships between
organisms can be used as a means for determining classification.

Behaviour and interrelationships

The study of the relationships of living things to each other and to their environment
is known as ecology. Because these interrelationships are so important to the
welfare of Earth and because they can be seriously disrupted by human activities,
ecology has become an important branch of biology.

Continuity
Whether an organism is a human or a bacterium, its ability to reproduce is one of the
most important characteristics of life. Because life comes only from preexisting life, it
is only through reproduction that successive generations can carry on the properties
of a species.
The study of structure
Living things are defined in terms of the activities or functions that are missing in
nonliving things. The life processes of every organism are carried out by specific
materials assembled in definite structures. Thus, a living thing can be defined as a
system, or structure, that reproduces, changes with its environment over a period of
time, and maintains its individuality by constant and continuous metabolism.

Cells and their constituents

Biologists once depended on the light microscope to study the morphology
of cells found in higher plants and animals. The functioning of cells in unicellular and
in multicellular organisms was then postulated from observation of the structure; the
discovery of the chloroplastids in the cell, for example, led to the investigation of the
process of photosynthesis. With the invention of the electron microscope, the fine
organization of the plastids could be used for further quantitative studies of the
different parts of that process.
Qualitative and quantitative analyses in biology make use of a variety of techniques
and approaches to identify and estimate levels of nucleic
acids, proteins, carbohydrates, and other chemical constituents of cells and tissues.
Many such techniques make use of antibodies or probes that bind to specific
molecules within cells and that
are tagged with a chemical,
commonly a fluorescent dye,
a radioactive isotope, or a
biological stain, thereby
enabling
or enhancing microscopic
visualization or detection of the
molecules of interest.

Yersinia enterocoliticaPhotomicrograph
of Gram stain of Yersinia enterocolitica,
the causative agent of yersiniosis.Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC)(Image Number: 2153)
Chemical labels are powerful means by which biologists can identify, locate, or trace
substances in living matter. Some examples of widely used assays that incorporate
labels include the Gram stain, which is used for the identification and
characterization of bacteria; fluorescence in situ hybridization, which is used for the
detection of specific genetic sequences in chromosomes; and luciferase assays,
which measure bioluminescence produced from luciferin-luciferase reactions,
allowing for the quantification of a wide array of molecules.

Tissues and organs

Early biologists viewed their work as a study of the organism. The organism, then
considered the fundamental unit of life, is still the prime concern of some modern
biologists, and understanding how organisms maintain their internal environment
remains an important part of biological research. To better understand the
physiology of organisms, researchers study the tissues and organs of which
organisms are composed. Key to that work is the ability to maintain and grow cells in
vitro (“in glass”), otherwise known as tissue culture.
Some of the first attempts at tissue culture were made in the late 19th century. In
1885, German zoologist Wilhelm Roux maintained tissue from a chick embryo in a
salt solution. The first major breakthrough in tissue culture, however, came in 1907
with the growth of frog nerve cellprocesses by American zoologist Ross G. Harrison.
Several years later, French researchers Alexis Carrel and Montrose Burrows had
refined Harrison’s methods and introduced the term tissue culture. Using stringent
laboratory techniques, workers have been able to keep cells and tissues alive under
culture conditions for long periods of time. Techniques for keeping organs alive in
preparation for transplants stem from such experiments.
Advances in tissue culture have enabled countless discoveries in biology. For
example, many experiments have been directed toward achieving a deeper
understanding of biological differentiation, particularly of the factors that control
differentiation. Crucial to those studies was the development in the late 20th century
of tissue culture methods that allowed for the growth of mammalian embryonic stem
cells—and ultimately human embryonic stem cells—on culture plates.
Kara RogersEdna R. Green

The Study of Biology

Describe biology as a science and identify the key components of scientific inquiry

The scope of biology is

vast. Biologists may
study anything from the
microscopic (Figure
1a) or submicroscopic
view of a cell to
ecosystems (Figure 1b)
and the whole living
planet.

Figure 1. (a) Formerly called blue-green algae, these cyanobacteria, shown here at 300× magnification under a
light microscope, are some of Earth’s oldest life forms. (b) These stromatolites along the shores of Lake Thetis in
Western Australia are ancient structures formed by the layering of cyanobacteria in shallow waters.

Listening to the daily news, you will quickly realize how many aspects of biology are
discussed every day. You may hear about E. coli (Escherichia coli) outbreaks in
spinach or listeria contamination in ice cream. Or you may hear about efforts toward
finding a cure for Ebola, Alzheimer’s disease, and cancer. On a global scale, many
researchers are committed to finding ways to protect the planet, solve environmental
issues, and reduce the effects of climate change. All of these diverse endeavors are
related to different facets of the discipline of biology.
Regardless of their particular focus of study, all biologists use the same methodology
as they seek new discoveries: scientific inquiry.

The Branches of Biology

The scope of biology is broad and therefore contains many branches and sub-
disciplines. Biologists may pursue one of those sub-disciplines and work in a more
focused field. For instance, molecular biology and biochemistry study biological
processes at the molecular and chemical level, including interactions among
molecules such as DNA, RNA, and proteins, as well as the way they are regulated.
Microbiology, the study of microorganisms, is the study of the structure and function
of single-celled organisms. It is quite a broad branch itself, and depending on the
subject of study, there are also microbial physiologists, ecologists, and geneticists,
among others.
FORENSIC SCIENCE
Figure 2. This forensic scientist works in a DNA
extraction room at the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation
Laboratory at Fort Gillem, GA. (credit: United States
Army CID Command Public Affairs)
Forensic science is the application of
science to answer questions related to the
law. Biologists as well as chemists and
biochemists can be forensic scientists.
Forensic scientists provide scientific
evidence for use in courts, and their job
involves examining trace materials
associated with crimes. Interest in forensic
science has increased in the last few years, possibly because of popular television shows
that feature forensic scientists on the job. Also, the development of molecular techniques
and the establishment of DNA databases have expanded the types of work that forensic
scientists can do.
Their job activities are primarily related to crimes against people such as murder, rape, and
assault. Their work involves analyzing samples such as hair, blood, and other body fluids
and also processing DNA (Figure 2) found in many different environments and materials.
Forensic scientists also analyze other biological evidence left at crime scenes, such as
insect larvae or pollen grains. Students who want to pursue careers in forensic science will
most likely be required to take chemistry and biology courses as well as some intensive
math courses.
Another field of biological study, neurobiology, studies the biology of the nervous
system, and although it is considered a branch of biology, it is also recognized as an
interdisciplinary field of study known as neuroscience. Because of its interdisciplinary
nature, this sub-discipline studies different functions of the nervous system using
molecular, cellular, developmental, medical, and computational approaches.

Figure 3. Researchers work on excavating dinosaur

fossils at a site in Castellón, Spain. (credit: Mario
Modesto)
Paleontology, another branch of biology,
uses fossils to study life’s history (Figure
3). Zoology and botany are the study of
animals and plants, respectively.
Biologists can also specialize as
biotechnologists, ecologists, or
physiologists, to name just a few areas.
This is just a small sample of the many
fields that biologists can pursue.
Biology is the culmination of the
achievements of the natural sciences from their inception to today. Excitingly, it is the
cradle of emerging sciences, such as the biology of brain activity, genetic
engineering of custom organisms, and the biology of evolution that uses the
laboratory tools of molecular biology to retrace the earliest stages of life on earth. A
scan of news headlines—whether reporting on immunizations, a newly discovered
species, sports doping, or a genetically modified food—demonstrates the way
biology is active in and important to our everyday world.

Scientific Inquiry
Science deals with testable knowledge about physical phenomena in the universe.
The goal of science is to understand how the universe works. Biology focuses on
understanding living things. To gain knowledge about nature and physical
phenomena, scientists use a particular approach called “scientific inquiry.”
Scientific inquiry is the best approach we have to understanding the natural world
and predicting natural phenomena. Evidence for this claim can be found in the
successes of science-based technologies. Take medicine, for example. Prior to the
1700s, most medical practices were based on folk traditions or on ideas promoted by
religious leaders. Some of these prescientific remedies worked, but the process for
discovering new treatments was a slow and haphazard system of trial and error.
Ineffective treatments were often accepted simply because there was no clear
procedure for evaluating them. Today, with science-based medicine and public
health practices, we have gained unprecedented control over threats to our health.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the average life expectancy in the
United States has increased by more than 30 years since 1900.
Scientific inquiry has not displaced faith, intuition, and dreams. These traditions and
ways of knowing have emotional value and provide moral guidance to many people.
But hunches, feelings, deep convictions, old traditions, or dreams cannot be
accepted directly as scientifically valid. Instead, science limits itself to ideas that can
be tested through verifiable observations. Supernatural claims that events are
caused by ghosts, devils, God, or other spiritual entities cannot be tested in this way.

Experiments and Hypotheses

Now we’ll focus on the methods of scientific inquiry. Science often involves
making observations and developing hypotheses. Experiments and further
observations are often used to test the hypotheses.
A scientific experiment is a carefully organized procedure in which the scientist
intervenes in a system to change something, then observes the result of the change.
Scientific inquiry often involves doing experiments, though not always. For example,
a scientist studying the mating behaviors of ladybugs might begin with detailed
observations of ladybugs mating in their natural habitats. While this research may
not be experimental, it is scientific: it involves careful and verifiable observation of
the natural world. The same scientist might then treat some of the ladybugs with a
hormone hypothesized to trigger mating and observe whether these ladybugs mated
sooner or more often than untreated ones. This would qualify as an experiment
because the scientist is now making a change in the system and observing the
effects.

Forming a Hypothesis
When conducting scientific experiments, researchers develop hypotheses to guide
experimental design. A hypothesis is a suggested explanation that is both testable
and falsifiable. You must be able to test your hypothesis, and it must be possible to
prove your hypothesis true or false.
For example, Michael observes that maple trees lose their leaves in the fall. He
might then propose a possible explanation for this observation: “cold weather causes
maple trees to lose their leaves in the fall.” This statement is testable. He could grow
maple trees in a warm enclosed environment such as a greenhouse and see if their
leaves still dropped in the fall. The hypothesis is also falsifiable. If the leaves still
dropped in the warm environment, then clearly temperature was not the main factor
in causing maple leaves to drop in autumn.
In the Try It below, you can practice recognizing scientific hypotheses. As you
consider each statement, try to think as a scientist would: can I test this hypothesis
with observations or experiments? Is the statement falsifiable? If the answer to either
of these questions is “no,” the statement is not a valid scientific hypothesis.

Testing a Vaccine
Let’s examine the scientific process by discussing an actual scientific experiment
conducted by researchers at the University of Washington. These researchers
investigated whether a vaccine may reduce the incidence of the human
papillomavirus (HPV). The experimental process and results were published in an
article titled, “A controlled trial of a human papillomavirus type 16 vaccine.”
Preliminary observations made by the researchers who conducted the HPV
experiment are listed below:
 Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted virus in
the United States.
 There are about 40 different types of HPV. A significant number of people that
have HPV are unaware of it because many of these viruses cause no
symptoms.
 Some types of HPV can cause cervical cancer.
 About 4,000 women a year die of cervical cancer in the United States.

Experimental Design
You’ve successfully identified a hypothesis for the University of Washington’s study
on HPV: People who get the HPV vaccine will not get HPV.
The next step is to design an experiment that will test this hypothesis. There are
several important factors to consider when designing a scientific experiment. First,
scientific experiments must have an experimental group. This is the group that
receives the experimental treatment necessary to address the hypothesis.
The experimental group receives the vaccine, but how can we know if the vaccine
made a difference? Many things may change HPV infection rates in a group of
people over time. To clearly show that the vaccine was effective in helping the
experimental group, we need to include in our study an otherwise similar control
group that does not get the treatment. We can then compare the two groups and
determine if the vaccine made a difference. The control group shows us what
happens in the absence of the factor under study.
However, the control group cannot get “nothing.” Instead, the control group often
receives a placebo. A placebo is a procedure that has no expected therapeutic
effect—such as giving a person a sugar pill or a shot containing only plain saline
solution with no drug. Scientific studies have shown that the “placebo effect” can
alter experimental results because when individuals are told that they are or are not
being treated, this knowledge can alter their actions or their emotions, which can
then alter the results of the experiment.
Moreover, if the doctor knows which group a patient is in, this can also influence the
results of the experiment. Without saying so directly, the doctor may show—through
body language or other subtle cues—his or her views about whether the patient is
likely to get well. These errors can then alter the patient’s experience and change the
results of the experiment. Therefore, many clinical studies are “double blind.” In
these studies, neither the doctor nor the patient knows which group the patient is in
until all experimental results have been collected.
Both placebo treatments and double-blind procedures are designed to prevent bias.
Bias is any systematic error that makes a particular experimental outcome more or
less likely. Errors can happen in any experiment: people make mistakes in
measurement, instruments fail, computer glitches can alter data. But most such
errors are random and don’t favor one outcome over another. Patients’ belief in a
treatment can make it more likely to appear to “work.” Placebos and double-blind
procedures are used to level the playing field so that both groups of study subjects
are treated equally and share similar beliefs about their treatment.

Experimental Variables
A variable is a characteristic of a subject (in this case, of a person in the study) that
can vary over time or among individuals. Sometimes a variable takes the form of a
category, such as male or female; often a variable can be measured precisely, such
as body height. Ideally, only one variable is different between the control group and
the experimental group in a scientific experiment. Otherwise, the researchers will not
be able to determine which variable caused any differences seen in the results. For
example, imagine that the people in the control group were, on average, much more
sexually active than the people in the experimental group. If, at the end of the
experiment, the control group had a higher rate of HPV infection, could you
confidently determine why? Maybe the experimental subjects were protected by the
vaccine, but maybe they were protected by their low level of sexual contact.
To avoid this situation, experimenters make sure that their subject groups are as
similar as possible in all variables except for the variable that is being tested in the
experiment. This variable, or factor, will be deliberately changed in the experimental
group. The one variable that is different between the two groups is called the
independent variable. An independent variable is known or hypothesized to cause
some outcome. Imagine an educational researcher investigating the effectiveness of
a new teaching strategy in a classroom. The experimental group receives the new
teaching strategy, while the control group receives the traditional strategy. It is the
teaching strategy that is the independent variable in this scenario. In an experiment,
the independent variable is the variable that the scientist deliberately changes or
imposes on the subjects.
Dependent variables are known or hypothesized consequences; they are the effects
that result from changes or differences in an independent variable. In an experiment,
the dependent variables are those that the scientist measures before, during, and
particularly at the end of the experiment to see if they have changed as expected.
The dependent variable must be stated so that it is clear how it will be observed or
measured. Rather than comparing “learning” among students (which is a vague and
difficult to measure concept), an educational researcher might choose to compare
test scores, which are very specific and easy to measure.
In any real-world example, many, many variables MIGHT affect the outcome of an
experiment, yet only one or a few independent variables can be tested. Other
variables must be kept as similar as possible between the study groups and are
called control variables. For our educational research example, if the control group
consisted only of people between the ages of 18 and 20 and the experimental group
contained people between the ages of 30 and 35, we would not know if it was the
teaching strategy or the students’ ages that played a larger role in the results. To
avoid this problem, a good study will be set up so that each group contains students
with a similar age profile. In a well-designed educational research study, student age
will be a controlled variable, along with other possibly important factors like gender,
past educational achievement, and pre-existing knowledge of the subject area.

Interpreting Results
Gathering Data
After the experiment is completed, the data gathered are carefully interpreted. This
involves the measurement of the dependent variable. In the case of our HPV
experiment, remember, the dependent variable is the rate of HPV infection.

Significance
Although the HPV study suggests that the vaccine protects against infection by HPV,
is the finding significant? In science, as in life, things can happen for many different
reasons. A convincing study will rule out “luck” (random chance) as an explanation
for the results. Strong results are said to be significant: very unlikely to occur by
chance or random events.
Whether the outcome is significant often depends on the size of study; the larger the
number of individuals enrolled, the more convincing the results are likely to be. For
example, imagine only 10 women were enrolled in the study. In the control group, 2
in 5 of the women became infected. In the experimental group, 0 in 5 were infected.
At first you might think this proves the vaccine’s effectiveness, but it is NOT a
convincing or significant result. Why not? Random events could easily explain the
difference between the groups. For example, perhaps none of the five women in the
experimental group were sexually active over the study period. They therefore stood
no chance of acquiring HPV. The vaccine might appear to work, but a skeptical
reader could account for the results by proposing many other scenarios.
However, imagine if the same study were done with 10,000 women, and the infection
rates were 2,000 of 5,000 in the control group and zero of 5,000 in the experimental
group. Random events would be spread out among a very large group of people in
this study; on average, the two big groups should have similar sexual behavior and
other factors influencing infection rates. If there is a big difference at the end of the
study, it is very unlikely that this result occurred by random chance.
Statistical analyses did support the significance of the HPV vaccine result.

Biology
Biology, also referred to as the biological sciences, is the study of living
organisms utilizing the scientific method.
Biology examines the structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, and distribution of
living things.
It classifies and describes organisms, their functions, how species come into
existence, and the interactions they have with each other and with the natural
environment.
Four unifying principles form the foundation of modern biology: cell theory, evolution,
genetics and homeostasis.
Biology as a separate science was developed in the nineteenth century, as scientists
discovered that organisms shared fundamental characteristics.
Biology is now a standard subject of instruction at schools and universities around the
world, and over a million papers are published annually in a wide array of biology and
medicine journals.
Most biological sciences are specialized disciplines.
Traditionally, they are grouped by the type of organism being studied: botany, the
study of plants; zoology, the study of animals; and microbiology, the study of
microorganisms.
The fields within biology are further divided based on the scale at which organisms are
studied and the methods used to study them: biochemistry examines the fundamental
chemistry of life; molecular biology studies the complex interactions of systems of
biological molecules; cellular biology examines the basic building block of all life, the
cell; physiology examines the physical and chemical functions of the tissues and organ
systems of an organism; and ecology examines how various organisms interrelate.
Applied fields of biology such as medicine and genetic research involve many
specialized sub-disciplines.
A central organizing concept in biology is that life changes and develops through
evolution and that all lifeforms known have a common origin.
Charles Darwin established evolution as a viable theory by articulating its driving force,
natural selection (Alfred Russel Wallace is recognized as the co-discoverer of this
concept).
Darwin theorized that species and breeds developed through the processes of natural
selection as well as by artificial selection or selective breeding.
Genetic drift was embraced as an additional mechanism of evolutionary development
in the modern synthesis of the theory.
Biological form and function is created from and is passed on to the next generation
by genes, which are the primary units of inheritance.
Physiological adaption to an organism's environment cannot be coded into its genes
and cannot be inherited by its offspring.
Remarkably, widely different organisms, including bacteria, plants, animals, and fungi,
all share the same basic machinery that copies and transcribes DNA into proteins.
For example, bacteria with inserted human DNA will correctly yield the corresponding
human protein.

INTRODUCTION TO BIOLOGY
Biology is the study of life. As humans are living things, we have an 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 in every topic related to biology.
However, everyone has to start somewhere and studying biology can enlighten your
understanding of the world around you.

I’ve decided that this article is too long hence I decided to erase most of the parts or it’ll be
like hundreds of pages long just for all the articles
-Felixia Fitri Loh

Source(s): https://www.livescience.com/44549-what-is-biology.html
https://www.britannica.com/science/biology,
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wmopen-biology1/chapter/the-study-of-
biology/
https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/biology.htm
https://basicbiology.net/biology-101/introduction-to-biology