Biology is the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, evolution, and taxonomy. It recognizes cells as the basic unit of life, genes as the basic unit of inheritance, and evolution as the mechanism that drives new species. Modern biology consists of various branches that study organisms at different scales, such as biochemistry, molecular biology, botany, cellular biology, physiology, and ecology. While biology has ancient roots, it began developing rapidly in the 17th century after the invention of the microscope enabled the discovery of cells and microorganisms. Major developments include the acceptance of cell theory in the 1860s and Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection in the 19th century, as well as breakthroughs in

1. Biology or life science is the study of life, and living organisms, including their structure,
function, growth, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Modern biology is very broad, and
eclectic, and consists of various branches, and subdisciplines. However, despite its broad
scope, there are a number of general concepts that govern all research, bringing them together
in one field. Biology generally recognizes cells as the basic unit of life, genes as the basic
unit of inheritance, and evolution as the mechanism that drives the creation of new species. In
addition, the organism is believed to survive by consuming, and changing energy and by
regulating the state of it to remain stable, and vital.
Biological subdisciplines are defined based on the scale of the organism studied, the type of
organism being studied, and the methods used to study it include:
• Biochemistry studies the chemistry of life.
• Molecular biology is related to interactions between biological molecules.
• Botany study plant biology
• Cellular biology examines the basic unit of all life, namely cells
• Physiology studies the physical function, and chemistry of organ tissues, and organ systems
of an organism
• Evolutionary biology examines processes that produce biodiversity; and ecology studies the
interaction between organisms and their environment.
Someone who is an expert in the field of biology is called a biologist, biologist, or biologist

2. History
The term biology comes from the Greek word βίος, bios, which means "life", and the suffix -
λογία, -logia, which means "science." The Latin form of the word (biology) was first used by
Linnaeus (Carl von Linné) in his work titled Bibliotheca botanica in 1736. The word was
used again in 1766 by Michael Christoph Hanov in his writing entitled Philosophiae
naturalist sive physicae: tomus III, continens geologian, biologian, phytologian generalis. His
German translation, Biologie, first appeared in the translation of Linnaeus's work in 1771. In
1797, Theodor Georg August Roose used the term in his book's predecessor, Grundzüge der
Lehre van der Lebenskraft. Karl Friedrich Burdach in 1800 used this term in a more narrow
sense, namely human research from a morphological, physiological and psychological
perspective (Propädeutik zum Studien der gesammten Heilkunst). The term biology in the
modern sense only appears in the book Biologie, oder Philosophie der lebenden Natur (1802-
22) written by Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus. In the book it says:
"The object of our research is the various forms and manifestations of life, the conditions and
laws that govern these phenomena, as well as their causes. We call this object related science
biology [Biologie] or the doctrine of life [Lebenslehre].
Although modern biology is a relatively new development, related knowledge has been
learned from the past. Natural philosophy can be found in the civilizations of Mesopotamia,
Egypt, India, and China. However, the origins and approaches of modern biology date back
to Ancient Greece. Although medical research can be traced back to the time of Hippocrates
(ca. 460 BC - ca. 370 BC), Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC) was the most instrumental figure in
developing biology. One of his most important works is Historia Animalium, and several
other works that show the perspective of a natural researcher, as well as his empirical works
which try to study biological causation, and biodiversity. The successor of Aristotle at the

3. Lyceum, namely Theophrastus, wrote books on botany which influenced into the Middle
Ages. View More : http://schoology.co.id/
Medieval Islamic scientists who studied biology included al-Jahiz (781–869), Ad-Dinawari
(828–896), who wrote about botany, and ar-Razi (865–925), who wrote about anatomy, and
physiology. Medicine was studied based on the traditions of Greek philosophers, while
natural science was strongly influenced by Aristotle's thoughts, especially regarding the
hierarchy of life.
Biology began to develop rapidly after Antony van Leeuwenhoek repaired his microscope.
Thanks to it, spermatozoa, bacteria, infusoria, and various other microscopic lives have been
discovered. Investigations conducted by Jan Swammerdam aroused interest in the field of
entomology, and helped develop surgical techniques, and microscopic staining.
The progress of the microscope also greatly influenced thinking about biology. At the
beginning of the 19th century, a number of biologists began to realize the importance of the
cell concept. Then, in 1838, Schleiden and Schwann began to advocate the idea (which is
now widely accepted) that (1) the basic unit of organism is a cell, and (2) each cell has
characteristics of life, although they oppose the idea that (3) all cells come from other cell
division. However, thanks to the work of Robert Remak, and Rudolf Virchow, in the 1860s
most biologists accepted these three things which are now called cell theories.
Meanwhile, taxonomy and classification are the center of attention of natural historians. Carl
Linnaeus published a basic taxonomy in 1735 (various variations have been used since then),
and in the 1750s introduced a scientific name for the species. [10] Georges-Louis Leclerc,
Comte de Buffon, considers species as an artificial category, and states that life can change
— even suggesting the possibility of a common ancestor. Although opposed to the theory of

4. evolution, Buffon is an important figure in the history of evolutionary thought; his work
affects the theory of evolution of Lamarck, and Darwin.
Evolutionary thought can be traced back to the work of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. He states that
evolution is the result of environmental pressure on the nature of an animal, which means the
more often an organ is used, the more complex and efficient the organ is, thus making
animals adapt to the environment. Lamarck also believed that this acquired trait could be
passed on to the next generation, which would continue to develop, and perfect it. However,
this hypothesis is now rejected, and it was only at the end of the 19th century that Charles
Darwin succeeded in formulating the theory of evolution based on natural selection by
combining Humboldt's biogeographic approach, Lyell's geology, Malthus's writings on
population growth, and his own morphological and observational skills in nature; reasoning,
and similar evidence also made Alfred Russel Wallace reach the same conclusion. Although
much opposed by religious figures, Darwin's theory was accepted by the scientific
community, and soon became the basic axiom in biology.
In the 1940s, and early 1950s, research succeeded in proving that deoxyribonucleic acid
(ADN) was a component of chromosomes containing inheritance units now called genes.
Concentration on new models of organisms such as viruses and bacteria and the discovery of
the structure of ADN's double-stranded structure in 1953 marked the pathway to the era of
molecular genetics. The genetic code was broken by Har Gobind Khorana, Robert W. Holley,
and Marshall Warren Nirenberg after understanding that ADN contained codons. Finally, the
Human Genome Project was launched in 1990 with the aim of mapping all the human
genomes of DNA. This project was completed in 2003, and is the first step in combining
biological knowledge with the definition of the human body, and other organisms
functionally, and molecularly.