Author: kaltrinasokoli

Biology is inherently fascinating. From a very young age I have always loved reading and learning about science. Biology is unique because of the complexity of living things and how they interact with each other and the environment. It’s intriguing to think that many rocks and minerals on Earth originated from living things. It is well known that chalk and limestone are the remains of small aquatic creatures – especially shellfish, which died and fell onto the seabed and were buried and pressurised to turn them into rock. Also, marble is metamorphosed limestone or chalk which has been subjected to high temperatures and pressures. Less well known is that flints began as sponges. If it wasn’t for living things, the mineralogy and geology of Earth would be completely different.

When you look at a single cell under a microscope or in a micrograph, remember that this cell is awesomely complex. Nessa Carey’s book ‘The Epigenetics Revolution‘ describes how genes are activated and deactivated to cause cells to become specialised. Biologists have found that some of these epigenetic changes may be passed even to the fourth and fifth generations. This means that some behaviour or living conditions experienced by your great great grandparents may be affecting the way you are today.

I’ve now started on her second book, ‘Junk DNA‘, and biologists are finding that more and more of the non-protein coding bits of DNA have important functions, and a mutation in ‘junk’ DNA may cause a devastating inherited disease. Fascinating, and I’ll put a review on the forums when I’ve finished it.

A student once asked me if we knew everything about cells and I replied no, we know almost nothing. I think there is a lot more to discover about biology and I like to keep an eye on the scientific news to learn about the latest findings.

1. The process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water. Photosynthesis in plants generally involves the green pigment chlorophyll and generates oxygen as a byproduct.

The history of biology traces the study of the living world from ancient to modern times. Although the concept of biology as a single coherent field arose in the 19th century, the biological sciences emerged from traditions of medicine and natural history reaching back to ayurveda, ancient Egyptian medicine and the works of Aristotle and Galen in the ancient Greco-Roman world. This ancient work was further developed in the Middle Ages by Muslim physicians and scholars such as Avicenna. During the European Renaissance and early modern period, biological thought was revolutionized in Europe by a renewed interest in empiricism and the discovery of many novel organisms. Prominent in this movement were Vesalius and Harvey, who used experimentation and careful observation in physiology, and naturalists such as Linnaeus and Buffon who began to classify the diversity of life and the fossil record, as well as the development and behavior of organisms. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek revealed by means of microscopy the previously unknown world of microorganisms, laying the groundwork for cell theory. The growing importance of natural theology, partly a response to the rise of mechanical philosophy, encouraged the growth of natural history (although it entrenched the argument from design).

For more click here.