Biology: Themes/Ideas

Mind Map

Since there was a new section on bio, I thought I might make a discussion on the ideas of biology. :P Discuss and ask questions!

Biology is a subject with an enormous scope, new biological discoveries and researches are made every day. Hence, just simply memorising the concepts/factual details of this huge subject won't be a good way of developing a coherent view of life!

How about, taking a perhaps, a more active role by connecting all these ideas into a set of themes that pervade all of biology.

Let me start off with an idea. Let us define a level of biological hierarchy.

The study of life, I suppose tends to start from a microscopic scale of like molecules and cells that make up organisms to the large (perhaps universal, maybe not yet) scale of entire living planets.

Thus, we can divide them into different levels of biological organisations.

For our purposes, I'll just look into Earth. :P No aliens yet. x'D

So first, we have the Earth.

Here, I have a picture of our home.

Earth :'-)

We can make out the continents and oceans on earth, we can see signs of life (greenery and forest, that sort of thing). This is, what we biologists call the biosphere (the zone of life on earth). This planet consists of all the life on Earth and the places where life exists! Bodies of water and regions of land, sediments below the ocean floor and rocks below the Earth's surface. Not to mention the atmosphere to an altitude of a few kilometres.

Let's look at it in more detail!

As we get closer to the Earth's surface, we can see forests (assuming we're looking at a forest area and not a city or something) with an abundance of trees that lose their leaves in one season and grows one in another! We call these deciduous trees.

Ecosystem

This, is an example of an ecosystem. Deserts, tundra, grasslands, and coral reefs in the ocean are other types of ecosystems. An ecosystem: consists of all the living things in a particular area (biotic elements), along with all the non living things (abiotic) of the environment in which life interacts, e.g. soil, water, atmospheric gases, light.

All of the Earth's ecosystems combined make up what we call the biosphere.

If we go further in, we will find a/many biological communities!

Biological Community

A biological community: is an array of organisms that inhabits a particular ecosystem. It includes from a variety of trees and plants, a diversity of animals and all sorts of mushrooms and other fungi etc. Of course, we also have an enormous number of diverse micro-organisms; which are living forms such as bacteria that we cannot see without the aid of a microscope. Each of these forms of life is what we call as species.

Dolphin Dolphin

We looked into communities, now if we go into a particular species. We will most likely find a population!! For example, the set of all dolphins that live in this particular area... If we use this notion of having populations, then we can now redefine community as a set of populations that inhabit a particular area!

Now, let us go into more detail of organisms.

Organisms

These are individual living things, like that nearly broken tree or that particular animal, the greenery and the soil may contain some micro-organisms like bacteria!

And of course, this doesn't end here! There are still organs, tissues and cells etc. as well! They are the most intriguing parts. ^0^

I don't want to make this too long, so I will continue that tomorrow! :P It's pretty late here as well. x'D Any questions, queries, comments... Don't be shy and feel free to post some comments.

Hopefully, this gives us some headway into a whole world of problems that we can share and solve!

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Remember to wrap math in `$` ... `$` or `\[` ... `\]` to ensure proper formatting.
`2 \times 3`	$2 \times 3$
`2^{34}`	$2^{34}$
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`\frac{2}{3}`	$\frac{2}{3}$
`\sqrt{2}`	$\sqrt{2}$
`\sum_{i=1}^3`	$\sum_{i=1}^3$
`\sin \theta`	$\sin \theta$
`\boxed{123}`	$\boxed{123}$

Comments

Great note. What aspect of biology interests you the most?

When I studied Bio in high school, it was almost completely memorization of facts, with little understanding / application. That made me disinterested rather quickly.

Calvin Lin Staff - 7 years, 1 month ago

I am really intrigued by the complex processes and functions that occur within organisms. It's astounding! All those bonds within DNA and the things that happen within cells. In high school, there was most likely a stress for learning all the definitions and words etc. However, it gets more interesting once we do things practically. That's something I really enjoy doing. :D

Vishnuram Leonardodavinci - 7 years, 1 month ago

As a student in AP Bio right now (and approaching ap exams D:), I agree that there is a lot of memorization involved in the course. But for me, doing labs makes everything seem more applicable and interesting. Being able to manipulate living things to produce cool or surprising results is satisfying, not to mention that it helps me to understand the material better. To pass tests, I rely on rote memorization techniques; to stay interested, I think of the extent and thoroughness that biology explains about our dynamic, living earth.

Justin Wong - 7 years, 1 month ago

Certainly agree with that! :P

I agree it is just memorization

Mardokay Mosazghi - 7 years, 1 month ago

I'm somewhat strict with using the words correctly, so it is essential I suppose. Not a fan of memorising though...

Your Note Is Much Good ! I Like and Share !

Gabriel Merces - 7 years, 1 month ago

Glad you liked it! :D

and by the way, when will ratings and levels come in the biology and chemistry sections?

Krishna Ramesh - 7 years, 1 month ago

I am not sure about that... I suppose they'll come when the topics get more popular.

ok, thanks!!

@Krishna Ramesh – No worries. ^^

nice note your note was amazing.

Robin Khan - 7 years, 1 month ago

Thanks!! :D

Hi vish I think this is very helpful for understanding the general concepts of biology.Can you give me a clarification about biochemistry, are the concepts discussed in biology and chemistry heavily discussed or the name biochem is a misconception of people thinking that biochem is the study of biology and chemistry. @Vishnuram Leonardodavinci

I suppose in a sense, biochemistry is about things involving the chemistry in biology. So, what do I mean by that... Take for example, the processes and functions that occurs within organisms. So in 'normal' human bio, we study about chemical processes that occur in somewhat little detail, so biochemistry is where you study them with greater detail. Especially with the aid of organic chemistry, so we look at things like genetics, meiosis and so on... but we actually examine what happens. Some other examples include looking at the properties of enzymes, metabolisms, and biomolecules such as; carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids in a chemistry sense. That's pretty much most of biochem in a nutshell. A combination of organic chemistry and biology. Hahah... x'D

Thanks great explanations.

@Mardokay Mosazghi – My pleasure. ^^

great note ......:)

Abhidev Kumar - 7 years, 1 month ago

Thanks! :D

Real awesome note :)

Thank you! ^^

I wonder your interest in biology!!!

Ashley Shamidha - 7 years, 1 month ago

^^ Hope this was useful.

really good idea , i have posted notes and questions before but your idea is also great. thank u for the support :)

Hardipinder Singh - 7 years, 1 month ago

Oh no worries! We can all help make biology popular...soon. x'D Hahaha.

true but it is already popular to have attracted so many people ....;p

@Hardipinder Singh – Hahaha! True. :P

beautiful note. all aspects of bio systems in brief.

Brahmam Meka - 7 years, 1 month ago

Thanks!! :-)

great&nice note

Glad you liked it. (y)

Awesome.. Thanks for the time you've spent to write this. Me was a biology group student(Indian Edu system) in my higher grade. I worried myself for taking Biology as major subject but wonders my luck(or Whatever..) drove me to this.

Still,The basics are far as depth as to the core of earth from the realms of todays improvement (Thanks Mr.Science) hope you'll touch those in the upcoming notes series(I hope,indeed).. Sure we'll discuss something..

Thiliban Varadharajan - 7 years, 1 month ago

Haha, ^^ Thank you, and you can call me Vish. :D

I want to ask your opinion on whether archaeptaryx was warm blooded or cold blooded?

Dhairya Bhardwaj - 7 years, 1 month ago

nyc note...

Thushar Mn - 6 years, 3 months ago

What is function of 'cnidocils' in"cnidoblast " cells of hydra

Kartikeya Singh - 6 years, 1 month ago

Math	Appears as
Remember to wrap math in `\(` ... `\)` or `\[` ... `\]` to ensure proper formatting.
`2 \times 3`	$2 \times 3$
`2^{34}`	$2^{34}$
`a_{i-1}`	$a_{i-1}$
`\frac{2}{3}`	$\frac{2}{3}$
`\sqrt{2}`	$\sqrt{2}$
`\sum_{i=1}^3`	$\sum_{i=1}^3$
`\sin \theta`	$\sin \theta$
`\boxed{123}`	$\boxed{123}$