Biology

Biology is the science of life. It is concerned with the physical characteristics and behaviors of organisms alive today and long ago, how they come into being, and what interactions they have with each other and their environments.
The word biology in its modern sense seems to have been introduced independently by Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus (Biologie oder Philosophie der lebenden Natur, 1802) and by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (Hydrogéologie, 1802). The word itself is sometimes said to have been coined in 1800 by Karl Friedrich Burdach, but it appears in the title of Volume 3 of Michael Christoph Hanov's Philosophiae naturalis sive physicae dogmaticae: Geologia, biologia, phytologia generalis et dendrologia, published in 1766. Today the term encompasses a broad spectrum of academic fields that are often viewed as independent disciplines.

Overview of biology
Biologists study life over a wide range of scales:

at the atomic and molecular scale, through molecular biology, biochemistry
at the cellular scale, through cell biology
at the multicellular scales, through physiology
at the level of the development or ontogeny of an individual organism, through developmental biology
at the level of heredity between parent and offspring through genetics
at the level of group behavior through ethology
at the level of an entire population, through population genetics
on the multi-species scale of lineages, through systematics
at the level of interdependent populations and their habitats through ecology and evolutionary biology
and speculatively through Xenobiology at the level of life beyond the Earth.

Fields of study in biology
Aerobiology -- Anatomy -- Astrobiology -- Biochemistry -- Bionics -- Biogeography -- Bioinformatics -- Biophysics-- Biotechnology -- Botany -- Cell biology -- Cladistics -- Cryptozoology -- Developmental biology -- Disease (Genetic diseases) -- Ecology (Theoretical ecology, Autecology, Synecology) -- Ethology -- Genetics (Population genetics, Quantitative genetics, Genomics, Proteomics) -- Ichthyology -- Immunology -- Pathology -- Epidemiology -- Limnology -- Malacology -- Marine biology -- Microbiology (Bacteriology) -- Molecular Biology -- Mycology / Lichenology --- Neuroscience (Neuroanatomy, Biological psychology, Psychiatry, Psychopharmacology, Behavioral science, Computational neuroscience, Cognitive science)-- Oncology (the study of cancer) -- Ontogeny -- Paleontology -- Phycology (Algology) -- Phylogeny, Phylogeography) -- Physiology -- Structural biology -- Taxonomy -- Toxicology (the study of poisons and pollution) -- Xenobiology -- Zoology

Related disciplines
Physical anthropology

People and history
History of biology -- Nobel prize in physiology or medicine -- Timeline of biology and organic chemistry

Evolution and biology
One of the central, organizing concepts in biology is that all life has descended from a common origin through a process of evolution. Charles Darwin articulated the concept of evolution that remains central to this day, which he did by proposing natural selection as a mechanism. Genetic drift was embraced as an additional mechanism in the so-called modern synthesis. The evolutionary history of a species--which tells the characteristics of the species from which it descended--and its relationship to other species is called its phylogeny. Widely varied approaches to biology generate information about phylogeny. These include the comparisons of DNA sequences conducted within molecular biology or genomics, and comparisons of fossils or other records of ancient organisms in paleontology. Biologists organize and analyze evolutionary relationships through various methods, including phylogenetics, phenetics, and cladistics

Classification of life
The classification of living things is called systematics, or taxonomy, and should reflect the evolutionary trees (phylogenetic trees) of the different organisms. Taxonomy piles up organisms in groups called taxa, while systematics seeks their relationships. The dominant system is called Linnaean taxonomy, which includes ranks and binomial nomenclature. How organisms are named is governed by international agreements such as the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN), the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), and the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria (ICNB). A fourth Draft BioCode was published in 1997 in an attempt to standardize naming in the three areas, but it does not appear to have yet been formally adopted. The International Code of Virus Classification and Nomenclature (ICVCN) remains outside the BioCode.
Traditionally, living things were divided into five kingdoms:

Monera -- Protista -- Fungi -- Plantae -- Animalia
However, this five-kingdom system is now considered by many to be outdated. More modern alternatives generally begin with the three-domain system:

Archaea -- Eubacteria -- Eukaryota
These domains reflect whether cells have nuclei or not as well as differences in cell exteriors.
There is also a series of intracellular "parasites" that are progressively less alive in terms of being metabolically active:

Author: Ahmed El Sayed

Biology Essay

Biology essay writing includes all essays that are written about living things. Biology encompasses a wide range of topics within one vast area of study. Different writers tend to specialize in different areas of this field. While some may be able to write extensively on botany, others may specialize in zoology. Biology essay writing is usually research based writing. When writers construct biology essays, they will draw on other scholarly sources to validate their arguments. Even if these essays are simple descriptions on any life form, for example, writers will use scholarly sources to back their statements.

Writing a Biology essay requires step-by-step preparation. You need to accumulate all your required matter first. You also need to organize the matter according to the requirement of your topic. Additionally, you will need to have an organized approach to writing your Biology essay. Working with an outline is important. It will help you remain within the boundaries of your essay. While your topic helps you to search and obtain pertinent information for your essay, your essay outline prevents you from drifting away from the topic.

When you begin writing your Biology essay, you must develop an introduction to the topic. This introduction begins with a general understanding of biology. It then transitions towards your specific topic. By the time you reach the end of your introduction, you should be prepared to present your thesis statement for your Biology essay. You must consider your thesis statement to be tentative because you are likely to modify and perfect it as you write your essay. This is because you might come across points in your research that can help to fine tune your thesis statement.

Once you are done with the introduction of your Biology essay, you can start building up your arguments. You can do this with coherent paragraphs that highlight each important point. In each of these paragraphs, you will need to back up your claims with scholarly sources that support your arguments. In a Biology essay, it is a good idea to use as many sources as you can. These sources should also be up-to-date or they should be accepted today as well. These validate your claims in each paragraph as your essay progresses.

After presenting your arguments in your Biology essay, you might want to analyze the claims you have made. This is a good idea and demonstrates your keenness to question what you have written. You should try questioning what you state in your Biology essay from as many angles as possible. While doing so, you could reinforce your arguments with scholarly sources that justify what you have written.

Your Biology essay will end with a conclusion. You can end your essay with words that restate your thesis statement. At this point, you may also realize that your thesis statement needs fine-tuning. You could modify your Biology essay thesis statement along with concluding your arguments. This last step is commonly done, and helps to tie up anything you may have not thought about earlier.

Author: Sharon White

Biological Dentistry

The various therapies encompassed by biological dentistry all share a single basic premise: They are founded on the idea that the teeth can affect the general health of the body, and vice versa.

For example, the theory for which biological dentistry is best known asserts that the mercury in amalgam fillings can make you sick, leading to recurrent health problems, such as neurologic disorders, chronic fatigue, and arthritis. To remedy these ailments, proponents say, you need only have all your amalgam fillings removed and replaced with less toxic alternatives, such as non-metallic quarts based fillings or porcelain inlays.

Many dentists and oral surgeons can and often do remove amalgam fillings at their patients request. However, before you embark on what could become a very expensive and uncomfortable series of dental procedures, you should consider the fact that both the American Dental Association and the National Institutes of Health have specifically rejected the amalgam theory. There is no scientific evidence, they say, of any detrimental effects from amalgam.

Of course, the so-called amalgam problem is not the only reason that people seek out biological dentists. The various unconventional treatments seek to cure a broad spectrum of ailments ranging from headache to heart disease through operations on the teeth and mouth. Some people adopt these therapies as "natural" or "non-toxic" alternatives to mainstream treatment. However, none of them have been proven effective in scientific tests.

Author: Douglas Adams