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Table of Contents
Biology is a fascinating and essential science that studies living things and their classification, evolution, biotic and abiotic factors, and other organisms. Biology involves learning about our bodies, surroundings, and environment. Its branches include anatomy, botany, ecology, ornithology, zoology, and others.
See the fact file below for more information on Biology, or you can download our 27-page Biology worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.
Key Facts & Information
Introduction to Biology
- Biology explains life. There are numerous creatures and plants in the living world, ranging in size from microscopic organisms to enormous mammoths. Our bodies are academic treasure troves.
- Although our understanding of the world continually evolves, a few basic biology principles should hopefully remain for many years.
- Five universal truths underpin most biological research. These are: Cells are life, genes transmit traits, natural selection has created Earth‘s enormous biodiversity, cells and bodies sustain their surroundings, and living creatures acquire and transform energy.
History of Biology
- All sciences have periods of rapid progress. Such advances in knowledge are mostly the product of two factors: the first is the presence of a creative mind—one that is sharp enough to reject previously held beliefs and generate novel hypotheses; the second is the availability of technology to conduct the necessary tests to test the hypotheses.
- The most creative and inquisitive mind is severely constrained without the necessary means to investigate, but the most sophisticated technological equipment cannot provide insights into any scientific process.
- Cell discovery illustrates the link between the two aspects. Plant and animal structures had been debated for centuries.
- However, until optical equipment could reveal cells, the cell theory could not explain how plants and animals are organized.
- Until technical breakthroughs allowed the discovery of chromosomes and their role in cell division and heredity, Gregor Mendel’s studies on the garden pea’s process of inheritance were overlooked.
- Due to the relatively recent development of highly sophisticated instruments like the electron microscope, ultracentrifuge, and automated DNA sequencing machines, biology has evolved from a descriptive science focused on whole cells and organisms to one that emphasizes subcellular and molecular aspects of organisms and attempts to equate structure with function at all levels of biological organization.
- Early people must have known about the creatures and plants around them.
- Human life depended on identifying non-poisonous food plants and understanding harmful predators.
- Archaeological records show that before civilization, humans had domesticated almost all suitable animals and built an agricultural system robust and efficient enough to meet the demands of vast communities. Thus, biology precedes writing and record-keeping.
Basic Concepts of Biology
- Homeostasis: French biologist Claude Bernard proposed homeostasis in the 19th century, saying that “all the vital systems, diversified as they are, have just one object: that of retaining constant the conditions of life.”
- Unity: All organisms share biological, chemical, and physical traits. All have cells and the same chemical compounds, which, when studied, show striking similarities even in bacteria and humans.
- Since all cells interact similarly, all organisms’ basic functions are likewise identical.
- All living things share a beginning as well as a basic substance and purpose. In 1855, German pathologist Rudolf Virchow argued that “all live cells come from pre-existing living cells.”
- Current environmental conditions support that notion for all living beings. If life arose on Earth more than once, the fact that all species have the same structure, composition, and purpose would suggest that only one type succeeded.
- Mutations in genes cause organismal changes. This ubiquitous occurrence causes population variations from which nature picks those most equipped to adapt to changing environmental conditions.
- Natural selection types: Charles Darwin proposed “survival of the fittest” as the foundation for organic evolution in his theory of natural selection, which is described later (the change of living things with time).
- Despite their distinctions, all living things share evolution. The fossil record, comparative studies of structure and function, embryological development, and DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) and RNA (ribonucleic acid) investigations have provided the most evidence for evolution.
- Diversity: Life is diverse within and between species, despite their underlying biological, chemical, and physical similarities.
- Because numerous natural variations are evident, diversity has been studied for a long time. Paleontological records and experimental breeding show that creatures changed prehistorically and are still developing.
- Biologists discovered that genetic changes create variations long after Darwin claimed they existed (DNA). That change can be a modest modification in the sequence of DNA nucleotides, a structural change of a chromosome, or a total shift in chromosome number.
- In each case, reproductive cell genetic material changes cause offspring structural or chemical changes. The mutant offspring’s environment determines its effects.
- Sexual reproduction may have dominated because of its intrinsic variety, which allows a species to adapt to changing conditions.
- Genetic differences can introduce new variations but how prevalent they are in a gene pool depends on how many offspring mutants or variants have (differential reproduction).
- If genetic uniqueness improves a population’s chances of survival, it can spread to all members. Thus, a species brought into a new habitat either adapts through natural selection or dies. Habitat changes have caused millions of species and species variety since each new habitat requires new adaptations.
- Scientists have described 1.5 million of the 5–10 million living animal and plant species.
- Classification of the amazing number of organisms began in Genesis with allusions to animals, beasts, fowl, creeping things, trees, etc.
- Aristotle, a Greek philosopher, attempted the first scientific classification system to show the relationship between all things.
- He placed nonliving things at the bottom of his “ladder of nature,” followed by plants, animals, and humans. Wings, fins, and reproductive features are also used to group species.
- Taxonomy is founded on two main assumptions: that comparable body construction can be used to classify creatures, and that evolutionary and molecular links can also be used to classify organisms.
- Continuity: Reproduction is one of life’s most crucial traits. Life can only be passed on via reproduction.
- Structure study: Non-living objects lack the functions that define living things.
- Every organism uses certain ingredients in specific structures to live.
- Thus, a living entity is a system that reproduces, adapts to its environment, and preserves its individuality through constant metabolism.
- Interactions: The study of living organisms and their environment in ecology. Ecology is essential in biology because these interrelationships are vital to Earth’s health and can be severely damaged by human activity.
- Cell components: Biologists used the light microscope to examine higher plant and animal cell morphology. Cells in unicellular and multicellular creatures were believed to communicate through function-specific cells.
- The finding of chloroplasts in cells led to photosynthesis research. The electron microscope allowed quantitative investigations of that process using the plastids’ fine organization.
- Structures: Early biologists studied organisms. Modern biologists still study how organisms maintain their internal environment, the fundamental unit of life. Researchers investigate tissues and organs to understand organism physiology. Tissue culture—growing cells in glass—is essential to that job.
Importance of Biology
- Biology, the study of life and its processes, covers life’s physicochemical aspects. It helps us comprehend the living world and how its numerous species—including humans—function, evolve and interact. Medicine, agriculture, biotechnology, and other biological fields have improved living quality.
- Genetics, evolution, ecology, and conservation study help us protect the Earth’s priceless biodiversity.
- Modern cross-disciplinary study and the unification of scientific knowledge and investigation have caused biology to overlap with other scientific subjects.
- Modern principles of other fields—chemistry, medicine, and physics, for example—are combined with those of biology in areas such as biochemistry, biomedicine, and biophysics.
- Though interrelated by basic principles, biology is split into fields for research.
- While it is customary to study plants (botany) apart from animals (zoology) and morphology from physiology, all living things share biological activities like reproduction, cell division, and genetic material transmission.
- Biology generally starts with basic living units. Molecular biology views life as a result of chemical and energetic transitions among an organism’s various chemical constituents.
- Due to the development of increasingly powerful and precise laboratory instruments and techniques, it is possible to understand and accurately define not only the ultimate physicochemical organization (ultrastructure) of molecules in living matter but also how living matter reproduces at the molecular level.
- Genomic developments in the late 20th and early 21st centuries were especially important.
Advances up to the 20th century
- The microscope and scientific societies were developed in the 17th century, revealing a previously invisible world that changed biology. The comparative study of living organisms, including humans, was realized during the 17th and 18th centuries when systematizing and classifying dominated biology.
- The belief that living beings may start from a nonliving substance (spontaneous genesis) began to crumble in the 18th century but was not discredited until the mid-19th century by the French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur, who showed that bacteria could replicate.
- Biological missions contributed to the 19th-century evolutionary theory. The cell theory, embryology, and heredity laws were discovered in the 19th century, along with the theory of evolution by natural selection.
Biology Worksheets
This is a fantastic bundle that includes everything you need to know about Biology across 27 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use worksheets that are perfect for teaching kids about Biology, which is a science that studies living things and their classification, evolution, biotic and abiotic factors, and other organisms.
Complete List of Included Worksheets
Below is a list of all the worksheets included in this document.
- Biology Facts
- 4 Pics One Word
- File It
- Define the Words
- True or False?
- My Understanding
- Dig Deeper
- Bio Bingo
- Watch and Learn
- Bio Wall
- Cell In 3D
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Link will appear as Biology Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com - KidsKonnect, November 30, 2022
Use With Any Curriculum
These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.