Chapter 1.

Introduction
Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter you will be able to:

 Define the term biology

 Understand the scope or branches of biology

 Identify and describe nature and characteristics of life

 Discuss different theories of origin of life

 Understand scientific methods

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 Chapter 1. Introduction

1.1. The meaning and scope of biology

What is Biology?
The word biology is formed from two Greek words “bio‟ and “logos‟

So bio means life and logy means study

Biology can be defined as the study of life and living organisms

Life is defined as a condition that distinguishes living organisms from dead

ones
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Nature and characteristics of life

Conditions that help to distinguish living from non living are:

Irritability: the ability to detect stimulus and to respond it. For example,

 plants can bend toward a source of light (phototropism)

or respond to touch

 bacteria can move toward or away from chemicals (process called chemotaxis)

 when we become warm our body release sweat onto the skin's surface

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Growth and Reproduction:

 Growth is about increasing in size or in number

 Reproduction is the production of offspring

 reproduction can takes place at cellular and organismal level.

Adaptability: is maintaining of internal body conditions (homeostasis)

Metabolism: is breaking down of large molecules into smaller ones

(catabolism) eg. respiration and the synthesis of larger molecules from

smaller ones ( anabolism) eg photosynthesis.
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 Excretion: is the removal of waste products of metabolism from cells.

 It helps to maintain the internal condition in steady state.

 Plants excretory products are O2 from photosynthesis and CO2 from

respiration

The most sophisticated form of life is man b/se he demonstrates three lives
or aspects of life such as Life of the body (physical), life of the mind and life
of the spirit.

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 Some branches of biology includes:
 Anatomy: studies about body structure of living things

 Bacteriology: studies about bacteria

 Biochemistry: deals about chemical processes in living organisms

 Botany study of plants

 Cytology: studies about structure, function and chemistry of cell

 Dermatology: concerns about skin

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  Ecology: studies about interrelationship b/n organisms and their

environment
 Epidemiology: deals about the widespread of diseases

 Entomology: studies about insects

 Ethology: studies about animal behavior

 Genetics: studies about the process by which genetic information is

passed from parents to offspring

 Microbiology: deals about microorganisms

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  Pathology: deals about diseases caused by microorganisms

 Physiology: deals about how organisms function and carry out

physical/chemical processes
 Taxonomy: studies about the groupings of living things

 Virology: Viruses and virus-like agents (prions)

 zoology study of animals, etc.

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1.2. The origin and nature of life

Where do you think life was originated?

The secret of life's origin is still a big debating issue in science.

According to science, the evolution of life on earth has involved the following sequence of

events.
 The first living things to appear were the simplest & single-celled organisms

 From these more complex & multi-cellular organisms evolved.

 In multicellular organism, cells have become more in number, more complex, specialized and

carried out specific tasks

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 Scientists generally agree that the time from the formation of our solar

system until now has been about 4.5 billion years.

 They utilize scientific method, which allows:

 to test hypotheses

 to state theories

 to develop concepts and ideas.

 Creationists, however, believe that the world was created with in 6 days by

referring spiritual scriptures.

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 Several theories have been made to explain mechanisms of the origin of life on
earth. These include:

1. Spontaneous Generation Theory: this theory assumed that living

organisms could arise suddenly and spontaneously from any kind of non-living
matter.
 For example flies arise from rotten meat.

 Frogs were raised from mud

 But this theory was disproved completely.

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 2. Special Creation Theory: this theory states that all forms of life that occur
today on planet earth have been created by God, the almighty.

3. Catastrophism Theory: It states that there have been several creations of

life by God, each preceded by a catastrophe resulting from some kind of
geological disturbance.
 According to this theory, since each catastrophe completely destroyed the

existing life, each new creation consisted of life form different from that of
previous ones.
 It isBysimply
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 4. Cosmozoic Theory (Theory of Panspermia): according to this theory,
life has reached this planet Earth from other heavenly bodies such as
meteorites, in the form of highly resistance spores of some organisms.
This idea was proposed by Richter in 1865 and supported by Arrhenius

(1908) and other contemporary scientists

This theory did not gain any support and it lacks evidence, hence it was

discarded

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 5. Chemical Evolution Theory: it is also known as Materialistic Theory or

Physico-chemical Theory.
 According to this theory, Origin of life on earth is the result of a slow and

gradual process of chemical evolution (changes) that probably occurred

about 3.8 billion years ago.
 It was proposed by two scientists - A.I.Oparin, a Russian scientist in 1923

and J.B.S Haldane, an English scientist, in 1928.

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 1.3. Scientific methods

Scientific method:
 It is a process for experimentation that is used to explore observations and

answer for questions.

It is an experimental method of acquiring knowledge

It is a technique used in the construction and testing of a scientific

hypothesis.

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 Steps in scientific methods

Step 1 make an observation

Step 2 ask question

Step 3 form hypothesis

Step 4 do an experiment

Step 5 analyze the result

Step 6 accept or reject the hypothesis

Step 7 draw conclusion and recommendation

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