A Summary of Life by Greeshma Sasi

           Biology, or the study of (from Greek suffix –logia) life (from the Greek word,

bios), spans a range of independent sub-disciplines that vary mostly in scale of

examination, from elemental biochemistry to ecology. It encompasses such divergent

phenomena as “biological taxonomies of species; the nature, interrelationships, and

evolution of living organisms; health; nutrition; disease; fertility” (Repko 85). The date of

origin of the field varies depending on how closely the originating form should resemble

modern biology.

            In its oldest recognizable form, biology was part of natural philosophy, or the

study of the physical world, in the ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, India and China. Then,

Hippocrates founded the study of medicine and Aristotle followed with the specialization

most fitting of the modern study of biology. He wrote the first literature that was

explicitly biological, with his History of Animals. While he focused on zoology, a

contemporary, Theophrastus wrote the first literature of consequence on botany.

Thereafter biology and specifically the subfields of botany, zoology, and anatomy and

physiology were bolstered by Arab and Persian scholars who borrowed heavily from

Aristotleian schemata (Magner). The invention of the microscope and the resultant

attention given to the cell caused the proliferation of theories, especially the three-part

cell theory proposed by the microbiologists Schleiden and Schwann: the basic unit of life

is the cell, all individual cells express the characteristics of life, and (the later updated

idea that) cells arise only from the division of preexisting cells (Coleman). Currently,

four more theories are added to the idea of the cell being the structural unit of life (and so

exemplifying the discipline): that “new species and inherited traits are the product of

evolution”, “genes are the basic unit of heredity”, “an organism regulates its internal

environment to maintain a stable and constant condition”, and “living organisms consume

and transform energy” (Avila).

Despite being a science and thus claiming objectivity, biology is steeped in its

own research culture. For example, deductive inferences, or using general theories to

arrive at predictions or hypotheses is favored over making inductive leaps from

phenomena to laws (Repko 90). Although experimentation, including the use of controls

to isolate causative agents, is considered the superior instrument to knowledge (Repko

94), there is still dissonance as to the favorability of fieldwork versus laboratory work.

The latter fits the ideal of objective experimentation the best and allows the use of

invasive and discerning imaging techniques such as electron microscopy, but proponents

of the former argue that organisms should be studied ‘in vivo’, or as they naturally exist

(Repko 105).

            Biology is oft studied in its own respect even though it is quickly ‘blebbing’

formidable sub-disciplines as more information is uncovered. Nevertheless, there is much

cross-talk with other foundational disciplines, as anthropology (biological anthropology),

philosophy (bioethics), and sociology (ethnobotany). Just as this versatile discipline

fragments into self-sufficient fields, the density of its connections with the other

disciplines also increases.

           

Works Cited

     Avila, Vernon L. (1995). Biology: Investigating life on earth. Boston: Jones and artlett.

     Coleman, William. Biology in the Nineteenth Century: Problems of Form, Function, nd Transformation. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1977.

     Magner, Lois N. A History of the Life Sciences. New York: M. Dekker, 1979.

     Repko, Allen. Interdisciplinary Research (Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, nc,2008), 12.