Biology, which is one of the natural sciences, consists of the study of all life and all living organisms. This includes their structure, growth, function, origin and evolution, as well as distribution and taxonomy, or classification. It is a vast, most comprehensive subject consisting of many subdivisions, disciplines and topics. Sub-disciplines of biology can be identified based on the methods employed to study different organisms and scale at which they are studied.
Life's rudimentary chemistry, for instance, is examined by biochemistry, while complex interactions of biological molecules in a system are being studied by molecular biology. Cells, life's basic building blocks, are investigated by cellular biology and physiology researches the chemical and physical functions of tissue and organs, as well as organ systems with organisms. How organisms interact and relate to their environment is examined by ecology. Within these sub-disciplines, biology then splits up into at least 74 main branches, with many more subdivisions and topics.
Among the most relevant and important of these topics, it is possible to find the five unifying principles, which can safely be referred to as the fundamental maxims, or axioms, or, to put it in other words, the most important principles of all modern biology. These principles are:
Life's rudimentary chemistry, for instance, is examined by biochemistry, while complex interactions of biological molecules in a system are being studied by molecular biology. Cells, life's basic building blocks, are investigated by cellular biology and physiology researches the chemical and physical functions of tissue and organs, as well as organ systems with organisms. How organisms interact and relate to their environment is examined by ecology. Within these sub-disciplines, biology then splits up into at least 74 main branches, with many more subdivisions and topics.
Among the most relevant and important of these topics, it is possible to find the five unifying principles, which can safely be referred to as the fundamental maxims, or axioms, or, to put it in other words, the most important principles of all modern biology. These principles are:
- Cell Theory
Cells are the fundamental units of life itself
- Evolution
New species, as well as inherited traits, are products of evolution
- Genetics
Heredity has genes as its basic unit
- Homeostasis
Organisms regulate their internal environment in order to maintain stable, constant conditions
- Energy
Living organisms consume, as well as transform, energy.
