An Introduction to Biology

Chapter 1: Introduction to Biology

In its broadest sense, biology is the study of living things. It can be also called as the
science of life from its objective standpoint. All living things or living organisms are
studied under this division of science. It pays attention and study on the things related to
living organisms such as organization of life, their functions, patterns and order of
organisms, growth and development of living organisms and so on. Living things have
variety of shapes, forms and functions, and biologists study life in many different ways
from the cell at the smallest and ecosystems at large. Due to that, biology has variety of
branches and divisions such as evolutionary biology, cellular biology, genetics, growth and
developmental biology and so on.

Biology offers an organized and scientific framework for posing and answering such questions
about the natural world. Biologists study questions about how living things work, how they
interact with the environment, and how they change over time. Biologists study many different
kinds of living things ranging from tiny organisms, such as bacteria, to very large organisms,
such as elephants. Each day, biologists investigate subjects that affect you and the way you live.
For example, biologists determine which foods are healthy. As shown in Figure 1-1, everyone is
affected by this important topic. Biologists also study how much a person should exercise and
how one can avoid getting sick. Biologists also study what your air, land, and food supply will be
like in the near future.

Biology and Society

By studying biology you can make informed decisions on issues that impact you and our society.
Every day newspapers, television, and the Internet contain issues that relate to biology. For
example, you may read that your local water or air supply is polluted. How will that pollution
affect your health and the health of other living things? You may hear about new technologies or
tools that biologists have invented. How will we control how those technologies and tools are
used? Biologists actively work to solve these and other real-world issues and problems, including
improving our food supply, curing diseases and preserving our environment.

Properties of Life

1. Organization and Cells. Organization is the high degree of order within an organism’s
internal and external parts and in its interactions with the living world. For example, compare an
owl to a rock. The rock has a specific shape, but that shape is usually irregular. Furthermore,
different rocks, even rocks of the same type, are likely to have different shapes and sizes. In
contrast, the owl is an amazingly organized individual. Owls of the same species have the same
body parts arranged in nearly the same way and interact with the environment in the same way.
All living organisms, whether made up of one cell or many cells, have some degree of
organization. A cell is the smallest unit that can perform all life’s processes. Some organisms,
such as bacteria, are made up of one cell and are called unicellular organisms. Other organisms,
such as humans or trees, are made up of multiple cells and are called multicellular organisms.
2. Sensitivity. Any organisms are capable of responding to signals and stimuli (stimulus-a
physical or chemical change in the internal or external environment) from its surroundings.
Plants grow toward a source of light, and your pupils dilate when you walk into a dark room.
Organisms must be able to respond and react to changes in their environment to stay alive.

3. Growth and development. All living things grow and increase in size. Some nonliving things,
such as crystals or icicles, grow by accumulating more of the same material of which they are
made. In contrast, the growth of living things results from the division and enlargement of cells.
Cell division is the formation of two new cells from an existing cell. Development is the process
by which an organism becomes a mature adult. Development involves cell division and cell
differentiation, or specialization. As a result of development, an adult organism is composed of
many cells specialized for different functions, such as carrying oxygen in the blood or hearing. In
fact, the human body is composed of trillions of specialized cells, all of which originated from a
single cell, the fertilized egg.

4. Reproduction. All organisms produce new organisms like themselves in a process called
reproduction. Reproduction, unlike other characteristics, is not essential to the survival of an
individual organism. However, because no organism lives forever, reproduction is essential for
the continuation of a species.

5. Metabolism. Living organisms use energy to power all the life processes, such as repair,
movement, and growth. This energy use depends on metabolism. Metabolism is the sum of all
the chemical reactions that take in and transform energy and materials from the environment. For
example, plants, algae, and some bacteria use the sun’s energy to generate sugar molecules
during a process called photosynthesis. Some organisms depend on obtaining food energy from
other organisms. For instance, an owl’s metabolism allows the owl to extract and modify the
chemicals trapped in its nightly prey and use them as energy to fuel activities and growth.

6. Evolutionary adaptation. Although individual organisms experience many changes during

their lifetime, their basic genetic characteristics do not change. However, populations of living
organisms evolve or change through time. The ability of populations of organisms to change over
time is important for survival in a changing world. This factor is also important in explaining the
diversity of life-forms we see on Earth today.

7. Homeostasis. All living things, from single cells to entire organisms, have mechanisms that
allow them to maintain stable internal conditions. Homeostasis is the maintenance of a stable
level of internal conditions even though environmental conditions are constantly changing.
Organisms have regulatory systems that maintain internal conditions, such as temperature, water
content, and uptake of nutrients by the cell. In fact, multicellular organisms usually have more
than one way of maintaining important aspects of their internal environment. For example, an
owl’s temperature is maintained at about 40°C (104°F). To keep a constant temperature, an owl’s
cells burn fuel to produce body heat. In addition, an owl’s feathers can fluff up in cold weather.
In this way, they trap an insulating layer of air next to the bird’s body to maintain its body
temperature.
These properties are characteristics of all living organisms, and on that basis, we shall
save to examine whether things are living or not. More details are given below.

Hierarchical Organization.

Is the world of living things in disorder without being organized? As it isn’t, any living
things do seem to have hierarchical organization. Any living thing falls under a
hierarchical level. The representation of level in order to have easier picture of the sense
of hierarchy is called hierarchy of life. Hierarchy of life can have variety of level. In
general, there is atom at the lowest level to ecology at the highest level, and so, in a
nutshell, there are ten levels. If we were to consider in one go from lowest to highest,
atom at the lowest, above is the cell, on it is tissue, then organ, then organ system, then
organism or person, on it is, population, then community, and ecology at the highest. The
earlier ones are the parts or the composition of later ones and later ones are formed out of
the composition of earlier ones. For example, two or more atoms are joined together to
form a molecule, and certain molecules are assembled into cell, certain cells are
assembled to form tissue and likewise to the later ones. This organization is called
hierarchical organization of life. Each level is considered an organization.

The Cellular Level. At the cellular level, atoms, the fundamental elements of matter,
are joined together into clusters called molecules. Complex biological molecules are
assembled into tiny structures called organelles, part of cells, which are assembled
together to form cells. Nucleus and mitochondria are the basis of organelles. As
mentioned above, the cell is the basic unit of life and many organisms are composed of
single cells in the world. Bacteria are single cells, for example. All animals and plants,
as well as most fungi and algae, are multicellular - composed of more than one cell.

The Organismal Level. Cells are organized into three levels of organization. The most
basic level is that of the tissues, which are groups of similar cells that act as a functional
unit such as muscle tissues and blood tissues. Tissues, in turn, are grouped into organs,
which are body structures composed of several different tissues grouped together in a
structural and functional unit such as heart and brain. Your brain is an important organ
composed of zillions of nerve cells and a variety of connective tissues. At the third
level of organization, organs are grouped into organ systems. The nervous system, for
example, consists of sensory organs, the brain and spinal cord.

The Populational Level. Individual organisms are organized into several hierarchical levels
within the living world. The most basic of these is the population, which is a group of
organisms of the same species living in the same place such as human population and fish
population. All the populations of a particular kind of organism together form a species, its
members similar in appearance and able to interbreed. At a higher level of biological
organization, a biological community consists of all the populations of the different
species living together in one place. At the highest tier of biological organization, a
biological community and the physical habitat within which it lives together constitute
an ecological system, or ecosystem.
Emergent Properties

Many new properties emerge at the higher level of living hierarchy as we climb up the
level from lower to higher level. These are called emergent properties. For example, we
can see the properties and energy in a cell that has been formed from the aggregates of so
many molecules, which are not present in single molecule. For example, there are
properties in molecule such as protein that are not present in atoms that comprised it.
That is, if we take a simple example of diamond and coal that are composed of same
carbon molecule and even though they are formed differently and yet they have so much
difference in terms of their properties and characteristics. We can know from the
hierarchy nature of life from the emergent property of life. Note: Hierarchical
Organisation and emergent property are the two most important theories in biology. So,
you are asked to heed upon these.

5 Core Themes in all of biology

1. Organization of Life. The Cell Theory

As it was stated earlier, all organisms are composed of cells, life’s basic units.
Despite having huge d
ifferences in sizes and shapes of all the living organisms from the tiniest living organisms
of a single-celled organisms to the largest 10 kilometers-squard size fungi, Armillaria
Ostoyae, are consist of cells. This conclusion forms the basis of what has come to be
known as the cell theory. The cell theory, one of the basic ideas in biology, is the
foundation for understanding the reproduction and growth of all organisms. The cell
theory gives two important conclusions. Firstly, it concluded that all living organisms
consist of cells and secondly, all cells come from earlier cells. Description of the
discovery of cell follows later.

2. Continuity of life: The Molecular Basis of Inheritance

Even the simplest cell that cannot be seen by naked eye is incredibly complex-more
intricate than a computer. Cells have many different types of shapes, basis and functions
and so what specifies a particular cell is encoded inside a nucleus of cell called gene.
Gene specifies work, shapes, functions and energy of cells. Genes are formed aside DNA.
DNA is a long, cable-like molecule, two long chains of building blocks, called
nucleotides, wound around each other. Winding around each other like the rails of spiral
staircase, the two strands of DNA make a double helix.
The continuity of life from one generation to the next-heredity - depends upon the faithful
copying of a cell’s DNA into daughter cells. So, DNA is a basic unit of molecule of
heredity characteristics.

3. The Correlation of structure and function.

Structure and function are correlated at all levels of biological organization. This theme is a
guide to the anatomy of life at its many structural levels, from molecules to organisms.
Analyzing a biological structure gives us clues about what it does and how it works.
Conversely, knowing the function of a structure provides insight about its construction.

We can see the correlation of structure and shape of bird’s wings and their functions
clearly. The aerodynamically efficient shape of a bird’s wing, chest muscle for
flight efficacy, the width of chest bones to build up the muscles, air bags in the
skeleton to lighten up the weight of body helps in the flight of a bird.

4. Diversity of Life: Evolutionary Change

The nature of diversity is a hallmark of life. Biologists have identified and named about
1.5 million species, including over 260,000 plants, almost 50,000 vertebrates (animals
with backbones), and more than 750,000 insects. Thousands of newly identified species
are added to the list each year. Estimates of the total diversity of life range from about 5
million to over 100 million species.

Biologists divide life’s great diversity into three great groups, called domains: Bacteria,
Archaea, and Eukarya. The domains Bacteria and Archaea are composed of prokaryotes
(single-celled organisms with little internal structure), while domain Eukarya is made up
of eukaryotes, organisms composed of a complexly organized cell or multiple complex
cells. However, Archaea seem more closely related to Eukarya than to Bacteria. Within
the Eukarya are four main groups called kingdoms. Kingdom Animalia includes human
being; all plants are included in Kingdom Plantae. Kingdoms are also categorized into
phylum, phylum to class, class to order, order to family, family to genus, genus to species.
These are 8 great classification of life. If we ask about how do such diverse life forms of
living organism form? All biologists unanimously claim it to happen through the
evolution.

5. Unity of Life: Evolutionary Conservation

Biologists believe that all living things have descended from some simple cellular
creature that arose about 2.5 billion years ago. Some of the characteristics of that earliest
organism have been preserved in all things alive today. The storage of hereditary
information in DNA, for example, is common to all living things. Also, all eukaryotes
possess a nucleus that contains chromosomes. The retention of these conserved
characteristics in a long line of descent usually reflects a fundamental role in the biology
of the organism, one not easily changed once adopted.

These five properties are the core themes in biology that are visible and we have
to analyse any biological theories with respect to these themes.

References:

Postlethwait,John H., et. al. (2006),Modern Biology, Holt, Rinehart and Winston
https://tibet.emory.edu/documents/Introduction%20to%20Biology.pdf