07-Oct-21

Lecture for General Education Course

Subject: Biology

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Lecture 1

Scopes
of
Biology

Biology

Origin
of Life

Origin of Life

Big Bang
Theory: Origin Explosion from a pin sized to
of Earth a Huge Universe. Among all
Planets, Earth only contains
life.

Earth without
life High temperature, poisonous
gases, no free oxygen/ water.
Life evolved from chemical
reactions and gradual
changes.
Evolution of
life
Life begins when the cell
forms. Single to multi-cellular
organisms. Survival of the
fittest.

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What is Biology?

Biology = Bio + logy

derived from the Greek words

derived from the Greek words
“logos” meaning Thought/
“bios” meaning life
study

Thus it can be defined as-

studying the science of life and living organisms.

History: Cave Painting

Over 30 thousands years ago, in

France and Spain, caves were
decorated with animal
paintings.

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History:
Food Collection

 Hunted animals
 Cultivated crops Using sense!

 Also knew the behavior of predator animals

 No labs/ equipments/microscopes

History:
Agricultural way of life
• Started about 10 thousands years
ago

• Knowledge about plants and

animals
– Seed planting time
– Amount of moisture required
– What to feed their animals
– Life span of animals

• Studied living things-

hence, biologists

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What is Biology? (Cont.)

An organism is a living entity consisting of –
 Single cell e.g. bacteria, or several cells e.g. animals, plants & fungi

Bacteria

What is Biology? (Cont.)

Animal cell

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What is Biology? (Cont.)

Plant cell

Thinking like a scientist: how do you use

the scientific method?

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Step 1: Make observations

Claim:
Many people have claimed that consuming extracts
of the herb echinacea can reduce the intensity or
duration of symptoms of the common cold .

Does taking echinacea

reduce the intensity or
duration of the common
cold?

Step 2: Formulate a hypothesis

Based on observations, we can develop a hypothesis , a

proposed explanation for observed phenomena.
We could state each of our hypotheses in two
different ways:

Hypothesis: Echinacea reduces the duration and severity of the

symptoms of the common cold.

Null hypothesis: Echinacea has no effect on the duration or

severity of the symptoms of the common cold.

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Step 3: Devise a testable prediction

Hypothesis: Echinacea reduces the

duration and severity of the
symptoms of the common cold.

Prediction: If echinacea reduces

the duration and severity of the
symptoms of the common cold,
then individuals taking echinacea
should get sick less frequently than
those not taking it, and when they
do get sick, their illness should not
last as long

Step 4: Conduct a critical experiment

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Step 5: Draw conclusions, make

revisions

Modern Biology
• During 17th century

• Started when human had knowledge, skill & equipments

– Robert Hooke: Cell walls were first seen (~1665)

– Anton van Leeuwenhoek: Visualized living cells ‘very

little animalcules’ (~1674)

– William Harvey: First described the systemic

circulation and properties of blood (~1628)
• More complex question:

– What do the parts of living things do? 18

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Biology Today
• Vast Science

• Over 1,500,000 (1.5 million) different species/ kinds of

organisms

• Yet a lot to be discovered

• Vaccines, Therapeutics, Agricultural aspects, Human

genome, cloning etc

• Classified to many subdivisions for better understanding.

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Importance of Biology:
From 17th century
•When human had knowledge, skill & equipments
•Robert Hooke (1635-1703)
•Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723)

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Group of Organisms Being Studied :

Modern biology:
Examples of some of the main fields of biology formed using this
method of subdivision are

Botany The study of plants.

Zoology The study of animals.
Microbiology The study of microscopic organisms.
Bacteriology The study of bacteria.
Virology The study of viruses.
Mycology The study of fungi.
Entomology The study of insects.
Ornithology The study of birds.

Approaches taken to study Biology

Taxonomy The classification of organisms

Morphology The study of the external form and structure of organisms

Anatomy The study of the internal structure of organisms

Physiology The study of the function in living system

Cytology The study of cells

The study of the relationship of organisms to their

Ecology
environment

Genetics The study of inheritance

Pathology The study of diseases

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Unifying Themes of Biology

 Hierarchical organization of life

-- structural make up, from the smallest, simple to
largest complex
 Cell theory
-- all organisms are made of cells, central idea in all
studies of biology
 Heredity
-- Biological information is inherited from parents in one
generation by the offspring in the next.
 Evolution
-- the modification of populations over time

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Unifying Themes of Biology

 Regulation
-- To survive and reproduce, all forms of life must regulate
their internal, and sometimes external, environment.
 Structure and function
-- Correlations between the structure of a biological object,
and its function.
 Environmental interactions
-- Individuals interact with other organisms of their own
species and those of the greater community.
 Energy flow
-- Energy flows through a food chain, cycles through an
ecosystem, or is converted to different forms within the
cells of an organism. 24

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So…
Biology: Redefined
- Biology was first defined as the science that deals with the study of
life

- However, as we learn more, we see that biology involves many other

things. It is also a study of all those things that affect life.

- Thus the following is a more accurate definition of biology:

Biology is the study of living things and the things that were once
alive, together with the matter and energy that surround them.

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Importance of Biology:
 The fields within biology are further divided based on the scale at
which organisms are studied and the methods used to study them:

Basic building block

of all life, the cell
Fundamental
chemistry of
life

complex interactions
of systems of
Interrelation between biological molecules
various organisms and
their environment

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Scopes of Biology:

Scopes of Biology: (Cont…)

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Scopes of Biology: (Cont.)

Biomedical Engineering: It is the blending of engineering
principles and design concepts with medicine and biology for
healthcare purposes.

Veterinary medicine: A branch of medicine that deals with the

prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease of animals.

Forensic Science: The field of Forensic science involves

investigating of a crime with the help of applying scientific
principles.

Bioinformatics: an interdisciplinary field that develops methods

and software tools for understanding biological data. As an
interdisciplinary field of science, bioinformatics
combines computer science, statistics,
mathematics and engineering to study and process biological data.

What is Life?

Human, animals, plants vs. stones, laptops, cell

phones !

What are the special characteristics of living thing?

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Characteristics of living things

There are NINE characteristics of living things.
- The need for energy
- Movement
- Cellular structure and organization
- Growth and development
- Maintenance and repair
- Reproduction
- Response to stimuli
- Variation and adaptation
- Metabolism

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1. Need for Energy

SUN
Every living organism need energy to run many
activities.

Sun is the universal energy source.

1. Primary Producers: Plants and Green

organisms -->produce food from sun

2. Primary consumers: Animals and non-

green organisms--> get food from Primary
producers.

3. Secondary consumers: Get food from both

Producers and Primary consumers.

4. Tertiary consumers: Lives on primary and Figure: Energy Pyramid

secondary consumers.

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1. Need for Energy

Why ?

- Movement
- Growth & development
- Repair and maintenance
- Response to stimuli
- Variations and Adaptation
- Reproduction
- Metabolism
------etc.
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Figure: The Energy Cycle

2. Movement

Animal: Most
obvious/visual

Plant:
-Opening of buds Figure: ‘sundew’ of northern bogs.

-Turning of leaves toward

sun
-Mimosa pudica (the
sensitive plant)
-‘Sundew’ of northern
bogs: Carnivorous
Figure: Mimosa pudica

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2. Movement: Locomotion

• self-propulsion by the organism.

• can be swimming, running, flying,

walking etc.

• microorganisms also can propel by

their own locomotion mechanism.

• But any change of location is not

locomotion. e.g. wind moves the
branches of trees!
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3. Cellular Structure & Organization

All Living thing

are made up
of
Plant Cell Animal Cell CELLS

Bacterial Cell

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3. Cellular Structure & Organization

Protoplasm
• Complex mixture of substances
• All living cells have Protoplasm
• Made up of-- carbohydrates, fats, proteins, water etc.
• Ensures the living condition.
• Composition is different in different organisms.
• Even in same organism, protoplasm differs from one part to another.-->
always changing.
• Living things can organize material into protoplasm and organize protoplasm
to make cell and ..... can organize cells to make a total living thing.--> So, for
this organizing capacity, they are called “Organisms”
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4. Growth & Development

Growth:
 Getting larger is not only
the Growth.
 Collection of things are not the Growth.
 By organizing materials, living things make special kind of
protoplasm, reproduce cells/increase the cell number, goes from one
state to another.

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4. Growth & Development

Development:
A series of changes that take place in as an organism
grows toward final form, is called development.

By development an organism becomes a unique living thing

with specialized parts and different from other.
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5. Maintenance & Repair

• Part of growth and development

• Appears to have stopped growth
– But actually system runs as ‘maintenance and repair’

• Example:
• Replacing dead skin cells
• Healing of cut fingers
• Tail recovery of house lizard.

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6. Reproduction

• Only living things can produce offspring's similar to themselves.

• Process can be different—
– Laying eggs
– Giving birth
– Plant seeds develop to
plants etc.

• Law of nature is;

“life produces life” & “like produces like”

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6. Reproduction

Life span:

•Varies in organism to organism

•Examples:
Human :~70 years Figure: Redwood in California

Horse :~30 years

Plants: 10/12/100/1000 years
Limited life span continued offspring
Reproduction.

Energy Requiring process

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7. Response to Stimuli

Irritability : Response to certain stimuli

Animal:
•Have nervous system
• Use Eyes, nose, ear to response

Plants:
•Do not have nervous system
•Slow response to light, oxygen, nutrient etc

Microorganisms:
•Response to nutrients, environments
•Even single celled organism can response
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7. Response to Stimuli

Coordination :
Doing the right thing in a right time

Behaviour:
Change to a stimuli, in a certain pattern

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8. Variation and Adaptation

Variation:
Changes occur as a result of characteristic.
Most variations do not affect an organism’s chances of survival
Give an organism a better chance of surviving in a changing environment

Adaptation:
The process by which a certain type of organisms becomes better suited to survive in its
environment is called adaptation.
e.g.: Hibernation, Mimicry (The viceroy butterfly mimics the monarch butterfly by
coloration. The monarch butterfly has a bitter taste to predators and predators avoid
them.
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9. Metabolism

• The exchange of matter and energy between the

organisms and within an organism.

• Metabolism is the sum of all the processes occurring

in an organism.

 Ingestion
 Digestion
 Assimilation
 Respiration
 Excretion

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9. Metabolism

Metabolism has two

distinct phases--

1. Anabolism: Building
up

2. Catabolism: Breaking
down

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Characteristics of living things

There are nine characteristics of living things.
- The need for energy
- Movement
- Cellular structure and organization
- Growth and development
- Maintenance and repair
- Reproduction
- Response to stimuli
- Variation and adaptation
- Metabolism
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Take home points

• Biology: A brief history
• Modern biology
• What is life
• Characteristics of living things

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End of Lecture 1, 2

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