BIOLOGY AND SOME MAJOR FIELDS OF SPECIALIZATION

Biology is the study of living things. It is a branch of science and like other sciences it is a way of understanding nature. Biologist deal with the living part of nature and with the non-living things which effect the living things in any way. They strive to understand, explain, integrate and describe the natural world of
living things. The literal meaning of biology is the study of life.

       It is very difficult to define life. There are certain aspects of life that lie beyond the scope of the science of biology like the answers to the questions ; what is the meaning of life? Why should there be life? These are the questions not usually taken up by Biologists and are left to philosophers and theologians. Biologists mainly deal with the matters relating to how life works.

      Life, for biologists, is a set of characteristics that distinguish living organisms from non-living objects (including dead organisms). Living organisms are highly organized, complex entities; are composed of one or

more cells; contain genetic program of their characteristics; can acquire and use energy; can carry out and control numerous chemical reaction; can grow in size; maintain a fairly constant internal environment; produce offspring similar to themselves; respond to changes in their environment.

       Any object possessing all these characteristics simultaneously can be declared as a living thing and is an object for biological studies.

       The science of biology is a very wide based study. It includes every aspects of a living thing. Therefore, volume and volume of information are available under this major head. It is but natural to divide this science into quite a number of branches for our convenience of comprehending and studying biology.

        You are surely familiar, at this stage, with Ecology, Embryology, physiology, Morphology     (external Morphology and internal Morphology or Anatomy), Paleontology, histology, Evolution, Genetics, Zoogeography etc. These are branches of biology which deals with environmental relations, development, functions, structure, from and internal gross structure, fossil tissues, ancestral history, heredity and distribution of animals in nature, respectively. In addition to these branches are a number of other branches of biology such as; Molecular biology, Microbiology, Marine biology, Environmental biology, Freshwater biology, Parasitology, Human biology, Social biology, Biotechnology, etc;