The subject of study of general biology is the totality of processes that underlie the phenomenon of life. The subject of study, tasks and methods of biology What is the subject of the science of biology

As a result, at present, the following sections are engaged in the study of systematic groups: virology - the science of viruses; microbiology is the science concerned with the study of microorganisms; mycology is the science of fungi; botany or phytology the science of plants; zoology is the science of animals; anthropology is the science of man. The study of various aspects of the life of living organisms. In zoology, microbiology and botany, the sciences that study certain aspects of the life of these organisms stand out. Systematics is the study of systematics and...

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The subject of biology. Essence, properties and levels of organization of the living.

Plan:

2. Life as a special form of matter. properties of the living.

3. Levels of organization of living matter.

1. Subject, tasks, structure of biology.

Biology (from Greek bios - life, logos - science) - the science of life, the general patterns of existence and development of living beings. Or in other words, biology called a science that studies life in all its manifestations, as well as the properties of living things in general.

The subject of biology is living organisms, their structure, functions, development, relationships with the environment and origin. Like physics and chemistry, it belongs to the natural sciences, the subject of which is nature.

Biology is one of the oldest natural sciences, although the term "biology" for its designation was first proposed only in 1797 by the German professor of anatomy Theodor Ruz (1771-1803), after which this term was used in 1800 by a professor at Dorpat University (now Tartu) K. Burdakh (1776-1847), and in 1802 J.-B. Lamarck (1744-1829) and L. Treviranus (1779-1864).

Biology is a natural science. Like other sciences, it arose and has always developed in connection with the desire of a person to know the world around him, as well as in connection with the material conditions of society, the development of social production, medicine, and the practical needs of people.

Classification of biological sciences.The diversity of living nature is so great that it is more correct to speak of biology asabout a complex of knowledge or as a complex science.

Biology has become such in our time as a result of differentiation and integration various biological sciences. Within this system, the disciplines can be divided into different lines of research, namely:

1. The study of systematic groups (classification depending on the object of study). The oldest biological sciences are zoology and botany, which study animals and plants, respectively. However, in the process of differentiation, zoology, botany and microbiology were divided into a number of independent sciences. As a result, the following sections are currently studying systematic groups:

virology - the science of viruses;
microbiology is the science that studies microorganisms;
mycology - the science of fungi;
botany (or phytology) - the science of plants;
zoology is the science of animals;
anthropology is the science of man.

At the same time, each of the disciplines is divided into a number of narrower areas depending on the object of research (Fig. 1). For example, zoology combines such sciences as: protozoology - the science of protozoa (single-celled) animals, malacology - the science of mollusks, entomology - the science of insects, theriology - the science of mammals, etc. In botany, dendrology (the science of trees and shrubs), pteridology (the science of ferns), algology (the science of algae), bryology (the science of mosses), biogeobotany (the science of plant distribution) and other sciences. Microbiology was divided into bacteriology, virology and immunology.

Rice. 1. Scheme of biological sciences

2. The study of various aspects of the life of living organisms. In zoology, microbiology and botany, sciences that study certain aspects of the life of these organisms stand out.

taxonomy - studies the taxonomy and relatedness of different groups organisms,
morphology - examines the external structure of organs organisms and their modifications
anatomy - studies the internal structure organisms,
physiology - studies the processes occurring in organisms,
ecology - studies relationships organisms with the environment and other organisms, etc.
genetics - the science of the laws of heredity and variability of organisms and methods of managing them

3. The study of different levels of living matter.According to the level of study of living matter, there are:

molecular biology is a science,researching general properties and manifestations of life at the molecular level
cytology or the doctrine of the cell (from the Greek "cytos" - cell), studies the cellular level
histology or the study of tissues (from the Greek "gistos" - tissue), studies the tissue level
anatomy, morphology and physiology - the science of the structure of organs, studies the level of an organ and an organism
ecology - biology of groups of organisms (populations, species, etc.)

4. The sciences of the development of living matter can be singled out separately. This usually refers to the biology of individual development of organisms, including

embryology (the science of pre-embryonic development, fertilization, embryonic and larval development of organisms), as well as
the theory of evolution or evolutionary doctrine (a set of knowledge about the historical development of living nature).

5. The study of collective life and communities of living organisms is carried out by:

ethology is the science of animal behavior,
ecology (in the general sense) is the science of the relationship of various organisms and the communities they form with each other and with environment.

As independent sections of ecology, they consider: biocenology - the science of communities of living organisms, population biology - a branch of knowledge that studies the structure and properties of populations, etc. Biogeography studies general issues of the geographical distribution of living organisms.

Naturally, such a classification of the biological sciences is largely arbitrary and does not give an idea of the diversity of biological disciplines.

Separate biological sciences have comprehensive meaning. For example, integrated science Genetics has become the subject of study of which are heredity and variability of organisms. In our time, ecology has become a complex science, studying the relationship of organisms with each other and with the environment.

In biology, along withdifferentiationthere was a process of emergence and formation of new sciences, which were divided into narrower sciences. For example, genetics, having emerged as independent science, divided into general and molecular, into the genetics of plants, animals and microorganisms. At the same time, the genetics of sex, the genetics of behavior, population genetics, evolutionary genetics, etc. arose. Comparative and evolutionary physiology, endocrinology, and other physiological sciences arose in the depths of physiology.

AT last years there is a trendnarrow sciences, which are named according to the problem (object) of the study. Such sciences are enzymology, membranology, karyology, plasmidology and others.

As a result of integration Sciences emerged biochemistry, biophysics, radiobiology, cytogenetics, space biology and other sciences.

The leading position in the modern complex of biological sciences is occupied by physical and chemical biology, the latest data of which make a significant contribution to the concept of scientific picture world, in the further justification of the material unity of the world.

Research methods.The main methods used in the biological sciences are descriptive, comparative, historical and experimental.

Descriptive Methodis the oldest method and is based on the observation of organisms. It consists in collecting factual material and describing it. Originating at the very beginning of biological knowledge, this method for a long time remained the only one in the study of organisms. Therefore, the old (traditional) biology was, in essence, a descriptive science. The use of this method made it possible to lay the foundations of biological knowledge. Suffice it to recall how successful this method turned out to be in taxonomy and in the creation of a science of the systematics of organisms. The descriptive method is widely used in our time, especially in zoology, botany, cytology, ecology and other sciences.

Comparative methodconsists in comparing the studied organisms, their structures and functions with each other in order to identify similarities and differences. This method has established itself in biology in XVIII in. and proved to be very fruitful in solving many of the biggest problems. With the help of this method and in combination with the descriptive method, information was obtained that made it possible to 18th century lay the fundamentals of plant and animal taxonomy (K. Linnaeus), as well as to formulate the cell theory (M. Schleiden and T. Schwann) and the doctrine of the main types of development (K. Baer). The method has been widely used in XIX in. in the substantiation of the theory of evolution, as well as in the restructuring of a number of biological sciences on the basis of this theory. However, the use of this method was not accompanied by the emergence of biology beyond the limits of descriptive science.

The comparative method is widely used in various biological sciences in our time. Comparison acquires special value when it is impossible to give a definition of the concept. For example, using an electron microscope, images are often obtained, the true content of which is not known in advance. Only their comparison with light microscopic images allows one to obtain the desired data.

historical methodenters biology in the second half XIX in. thanks to C. Darwin, who made it possible to put on a scientific basis the study of the patterns of appearance and development of organisms, the formation of the structure and functions of organisms in time and space. With the introduction of this method in biology, significant qualitative changes immediately occurred. The historical method has transformed biology from a purely descriptive science into a science that explains how diverse living systems came into being and how they function. Thanks to this method, biology has risen several steps higher at once. At present, the historical method has essentially gone beyond the scope of the research method. It has become a general approach to the study of the phenomena of life in all biological sciences.

experimental method It consists in the active study of a particular phenomenon through experiment. The question of experimental study of nature, i.e. The question of the experiment was raised in XVII in. English philosopher F. Bacon (1561-1626). His introduction to biology is associated with the work of W. Harvey in XVII in. for the study of blood circulation. However, the experimental method was widely introduced into biology only at the beginning. XIX century, moreover, through physiology, in which they began to use a large number of instrumental techniques that made it possible to register and quantitatively characterize the confinement of functions to structure.

Another direction in which the experimental method entered biology was the study of the heredity and variability of organisms. Here the main merit belongs to G. Mendel, who, unlike his predecessors, used the experiment not only to obtain data on the phenomena under study, but also to test the hypothesis formulated on the basis of the data obtained. The work of G. Mendel was a classic example of the methodology of experimental science.

Starting around the 40s XX in. The experimental method in biology has undergone significant improvement by increasing the resolution of many biological techniques and the development of new experimental techniques. For example, the resolution of genetic analysis and a number of immunological methods has been greatly increased. Cultured somatic cells, isolation of biochemical mutants of microorganisms and somatic cells, etc. were introduced into the practice of research.

The experimental method began to be widely enriched by the methods of physics and chemistry. For example, the structure and genetic role of DNA were elucidated as a result of the combined use of chemical methods for isolating DNA, chemical and physical methods for determining its primary and secondary structure, and biological methods (transformation and genetic analysis of bacteria), proving its role as a genetic material.

At present, the experimental method is characterized by exceptional possibilities in the study of life phenomena. These possibilities are determined by the use of microscopy different types, including electronic with the technique of ultrathin sections, biochemical methods, high-resolution genetic analysis, immunological methods, various methods of cultivation and in vivo observation in cell cultures, tissues and organs, labeling of embryos, in vitro fertilization techniques, the method of labeled atoms, X-ray structural analysis, ultracentrifugation, spectrophotometry, chromatography, electrophoresis, sequencing, construction of biologically active recombinant DNA molecules, etc.

The study of any phenomena, processes or systems of objects bybuilding and studying models of their functioningalso widely used in biology. In essence, any method is based on the idea of modeling, but the inevitable consequence is the simplification of the phenomenon or object under consideration. The new quality inherent in the experimental method caused qualitative changes in modeling as well. Along with modeling at the level of organisms, modeling at the molecular and cellular levels is currently very developed, as well as math modeling various biological processes.

The meaning of biology.Why study biology? In the text of one of Thomas Huxley's lectures there are the following lines:“For a person who is not familiar with natural history, being in nature is like visiting an art gallery, where 90% of all amazing works of art are turned to face the wall. Introduce him to the fundamentals of natural history, and you will provide him with a guide to these masterpieces, worthy of being addressed to the human eye, thirsting for knowledge and beauty.In addition to this cognitive and aesthetic side, biological knowledge also has a purely practical application in many areas of human activity.

First of all, biological knowledge has cognitive value. However, their practical significance is also extremely great.

On the basis of biological knowledge, it has long been carried out in industrial conditionsmicrobiological synthesismany organic acids, which are widely used in the national economy and medicine. In the 1940s and 1950s, the industrial production of antibiotics was established, and in the early 1960s, the production of amino acids. An important place in the microbiological industry is now occupied by the production of enzymes. The microbiological industry produces now in large quantities vitamins and other substances. Both amino acids and antibiotics, and vitamins are essential in the national economy and medicine. On the basis of the transforming ability of microorganisms, the industrial production of substances with pharmacological properties from steroid raw materials of plant origin is based.

The greatest successes in the production of various substances, including drugs (insulin, somatostatin, interferon, etc.), are associated with genetic engineering, which is now the basis of biotechnology.

Biology is of utmost importance foragricultural production. For example, the theoretical basis of plant and animal breeding is genetics. In recent years, genetic engineering has also entered agricultural production. It opened up new vistas in increasing food production.

genetic engineeringhas a significant impact on the search for new sources of energy, new ways to preserve the environment, clean it from various pollution.

Development of biotechnology , theoretical basis which is biology, and methodological - genetic engineering, is a new stage in the development of material production. The appearance of this technology is one of the moments of the latest revolution in the productive forces.

Biological knowledge is directly related to medicine , moreover, these connections go back into the distant past and date back to the same time as the emergence of biology itself. Moreover, many outstanding physicians of the distant past were at the same time outstanding biologists (Hippocrates, Herophilus, Erasistratus, Galen, Avicenna, Malpighi and others). Creation in XIX in. cell theory laid the truly scientific foundations for the connection between biology and medicine. In strengthening the ties between biology and production and medicine, a significant contribution belongs to genetics, the data of which are of paramount importance in developing the foundations for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of hereditary diseases.

In the end, the person himself is a living organism, therefore biology is the theoretical basis of such sciences as medicine, psychology, sociology and others.

As never before, the problems of man's relationship with his environment, rational use of resources and nature protection are acute today. Practice has shown that elementary ignorance of the laws ecology leads to severe, sometimes irreversible consequences, both for nature itself and for humans. In the future, as the population grows, the importance of biology will increase even more. Even now, the problems of food supply are acute.

2. Life as a special form of matter. properties of the living

Definition of life.So, living organisms are the subject of biology.And in order to continue the conversation about living organisms, it is necessary to formulate a definition of the concept " life ". Great attention to the problem of defining the concept of life and the question of the criteria, properties of the living was paid by such scientists as E. Schrödinger, A .N. Kolmogorov, N.S. Shklovsky, K. Sagan, I. Prigozhy.However, a clear, clear, accepted definition by all (or at least by the majority of specialists) does not exist.

So, for example, K. Grobsteinproposes the following formulation: "Life is a macromolecular system, which is characterized by a certain hierarchical organization, as well as the ability to reproduce, metabolism, a carefully regulated flow of energy, is a spreading center of order in a less ordered universe."

Russian mathematician A.A. Lyapunov characterizes life as "A highly stable state of matter that uses information encoded by the states of individual molecules to develop conservation reactions."

The materialistic definition of life was given by F. Engels, one of the founders of scientific communism: “Life is a mode of existence of protein bodies, and this mode of existence consists essentially in the constant self-renewal of the chemical constituents of these bodies.” This definition was given by Engels more than 100 years ago, but has not lost its relevance. It included two important provisions:

1) life is closely connected with protein bodies, proteins.

2) an indispensable condition of life is a constant metabolism, with the termination of which life ceases.

Universal methodological approach to understanding the essence of life at present is the understanding of life as a process, the end result of which is self-renewal, manifested in self-reproduction. All living things come only from living things, and any organization inherent in living things arises only from another similar organization. Consequently,one more definition can be given: "Life is a specific structure capable of self-reproduction (reproduction) and self-maintenance with the expenditure of energy." Two other important points are emphasized here:

living systems are capable of self-reproduction (reproduction)
Living organisms need energy to exist and have the ability to self-sustain.

The essence of life lies in its self-reproduction, which is based on the coordination of physical and chemical phenomena and which is provided by the transmission genetic information from generations to generations. It is this information that ensures self-reproduction and self-regulation of living beings. Therefore, life is a qualitatively special form of the existence of matter, associated with reproduction. life representa special form of motion of matter, higher than the physical and chemical form of existence, a living organisms differ sharply from non-living systems (objects of physics and chemistry) in theirexceptional complexity and high specificity, structural and functional orderliness. These differences give life qualitatively new properties, as a result of which the living is a special stage in the development of matter.

properties of the living.There is no strict and clear definition of the concept of "life". For this reason, we cannot speak with a sufficient degree of certainty about its nature or origin. However, it is possible to list and describe those features of living matter that distinguish it from objects of inanimate nature. Different authors identify from 10 to 12 different properties of the living.

Consider the most complete list of common properties characteristic of all living things and their differences from similar processes occurring in inanimate nature:

1. The unity of the chemical composition.The composition of living organisms includes the same chemical elements, as in inanimate objects, but their ratio is different.The elemental composition of inanimate nature, along with oxygen, is represented mainly bysilicon, iron, magnesium, aluminumetc. And in living organisms, 98% of the chemical composition falls on four elements -carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen, which are about main biogenic elements. In addition to them, important Na, Mg, Cl, P, S, K, Re, Ca, etc. All of these chemical elements are involved in the construction of the body in the form of ions, or in the composition of certain compounds - molecules of inorganic or organic matter.

2. Metabolism (metabolism).All living organisms are capable of exchanging substances with the environment, absorbing from it the elements necessary for nutrition and releasing waste products. Note that in inanimate nature there is also an exchange of substances. However, in inanimate nature, they are simply transferred from one place to another or their state of aggregation changes: for example, soil is washed away, water turns into steam or ice. In contrast, in living organisms, in the circulation of organic substances, the processes of synthesis and decay are carried out.

How does this happen? Living organisms absorb from the environment various substances. Due to a number of chemical transformations, substances from the environment are likened to substances of a living organism, its body is built from them. These processes are called assimilation (assimilation - "similarity", the root here is the same as in the word "simulant" the simulator "is likened" to the patient). This is a set of synthesis processes. For example, the protein of a chicken egg in the human body undergoes a series of complex transformations before being converted into proteins characteristic of the body. Synthesis requires energy, for which organisms consume most of the food they consume. It occurs during the decomposition of substances. This decomposition process is called dissimilation (dissimilarity). (more about this in ch. Metabolism).

3. Self-regulation (autoregulation).This is the ability of living organisms living in continuously changing environmental conditions to maintain the constancy of their chemical composition and the intensity of the course of physiological processes, i.e. homeostasis. The lack of intake of any nutrients mobilizes the internal resources of the body, and the excess causes the cessation of the synthesis of these substances.Self-regulation is carried out in different ways due to the activity of regulatory systems - nervous, endocrine, immune, etc. In biological systems of the supraorganismal level, self-regulation is carried out on the basis of interorganismal and interpopulation relations.

4. Self-reproduction (reproduction).This property of organisms to reproduce their own kind. This property is the most important among all others. The proposition “everything living comes only from living things” means that life arose only once and that since then only living things give rise to living things.Thanks to reproduction, not only whole organisms, but also cells and molecules after division are similar to their predecessors.The most important significance of self-reproduction lies in the fact that it supports the existence of species, determines the specifics of the biological form of the movement of matter.This process is carried out at almost all levels of the organization of living matter:

At the molecular level, self-reproduction of the DNA molecule takes place.From one molecule of deoxyribonucleic acid, when it is doubled, two daughter molecules are formed, completely repeating the original one. Reproduction at the molecular level is the basis for all subsequent ones.

At the subcellular level, doubling of plastids, centrioles, mitochondria occurs

At the cellular level - cell division

On the tissue - maintaining the constancy of the cellular composition due to the reproduction of individual cells

On the organism, reproduction manifests itself in the form of asexual or sexual reproduction.

5. Heredity.Heredityis the ability of organisms to transmit their characteristics, properties and developmental features from generation to generation. It is due to stability, i.e., the constancy of the structure of DNA molecules. Due to heredity, common features are preserved for related organisms, organisms of the same species, etc.

6. Variability. Variability - this is the genetically determined ability of organisms to acquire new features and properties. She isdetermined by changes in genetic structures. This property is, as it were, the opposite of heredity, but at the same time it is closely related to it, since in this case the genes that determine the development of certain traits change. If the division of DNA molecules always occurred with absolute precision, then during reproduction, organisms would have the same characteristics and could not adapt to changing environmental conditions.

7. Growth and development.The ability to develop is a universal property of matter. Under development understand the irreversible directed natural change of objects of wildlife, which is accompanied by the acquisition of adaptations (devices), the emergence of new species. As a result of development, a new qualitative state of the object arises, as a result of which its composition or structure changes. The development of a living form of the existence of matter is representedindividual development, or ontogenesis, and historical development, or phylogeny. Development is accompanied height, this is a directional pattern quantitative change an increase in body size.

8. Specificity of the organization. It is characteristic of any organisms, as a result of which they have a certain shape and size. The unit of organization (structure and function) is the cell. In turn, cells are specifically organized into tissues,the latter into organs, and the organs into organ systems. Organisms are not "scattered" randomly in space. They are specifically organized in populations, and populations are specifically organized in biocenoses. The latter together with abiotic factors form biogeocenoses ( ecological systems), which are elementary units of the biosphere.

9. Orderliness of the structure. Living things are characterized not only by complexity chemical compounds, from which it is built, but also their ordering at the molecular level, leading to the formation of molecular and supramolecular structures. Creating order from the random movement of molecules is the most important property of the living, which manifests itself at the molecular level. Order in space is accompanied by order in time. Unlike non-living objects, the ordering of the structure of the living occurs due to the external environment. At the same time, the level of order in the environment decreases.

10. Energy dependence (energy consumption).Many inanimate objects have a complex structure, besides, they are capable of self-sustaining, multiplying, and growing.

For example, crystals. Crystals precipitate in a saturated solution of sodium chloride (common salt). NaCl . As the solution evaporates, they grow, increase in number and size. Moreover, breaking off a corner of the crystal and putting it back into the solution, we can observe that the crystal “heals” the defect, the broken corner is completed by NaCl, which precipitates from the solution. In addition, the structure of crystals is specific, depending on the substance from which they arise. NaCl crystallizes in the form of cubes, diamond - in the form of two tetrahedral pyramids with a common base - octahedrons.

Why don't crystals belong to living systems? The difference between living systems is the peculiarities in energy consumption. Crystals are structures with a minimum of free energy. To destroy a crystal, transferring it, for example, to a liquid state, energy must be expended. For example, by absorbing energy, the structure of ice crystals is destroyed, while each gram of ice should receive about 333 kJ. Living structures, on the contrary, absorb energy during growth and development (plants in the form of light, animals in the form of food). So in the energy balance, crystals and living beings are opposites. Especially when you consider that during the destruction of living systems, energy is released in the form of heat, for example, during the combustion of firewood.

Living bodies are "open" systems for the inflow of energy, i.e. dynamic systems, stable only under the condition of continuous access to them by energy and matter from the outside. Consequently, living organisms exist as long as they receive energy and matter in the form of food from the environment.

And in the bodyfree energy increases, and entropy (chaos), respectively, decreases, and in the environment, free energy, on the contrary, decreases, and entropy increases. According to the figurative expression of the famous physicist XX in. E. Schrödinger, "the body feeds on negative entropy."

11. Rhythm. In biology, rhythm is understood as periodic changes in the intensity of physiological processes with different periods of fluctuations (from a few seconds to a year, etc.). Rhythm is aimed at adapting to periodically changing environmental conditions.

12. Movement . All living beings have the ability to move. Many unicellular organisms move with the help of special organelles. Cells of multicellular organisms (leukocytes, wandering connective tissue cells, etc.), as well as some cell organelles, are also capable of movement. The perfection of the motor reaction is achieved in the muscular movement of multicellular animal organisms, which consists in muscle contraction.

13. Irritability. Any organism is inextricably linked with the environment: in the process of evolution, living organisms have developed and consolidated the ability to selectively respond to external influences. This property is called irritability. Any change in the environmental conditions surrounding the organism is an irritation in relation to it, and its reaction to external stimuli serves as an indicator of its sensitivity and a manifestation of irritability.

14. Irritability. The ability of living organisms to selectively respond to external influences is called irritability. The reaction of multicellular animals to irritation is carried out through nervous system and called reflex.

Organisms that do not have a nervous system are also deprived of reflexes. In such organisms, the reaction to irritation is carried out in different forms:

a) taxis are directed movements of the body towards the stimulus (positive taxis) or away from it (negative). For example, phototaxis is movement towards the light. There are also chemotaxis, thermotaxis, etc.;

b) tropisms - the directed growth of parts of the plant organism in relation to the stimulus (geotropism - the growth of the root system of the plant towards the center of the planet; heliotropism - the growth of the shoot system towards the Sun, against gravity);

c) nastia - the movement of plant parts in relation to the stimulus (the movement of leaves during daylight hours depending on the position of the Sun in the sky or, for example, the opening and closing of the corolla of a flower).

15. Discreteness. Discreteness is a general property of matter from the Latin "discretus", which means discontinuous, divided. So, it is known that each atom consists of elementary particles, atoms form a molecule, simple molecules are part of complex compounds or crystals, etc. Life on Earth also manifests itself in discrete forms. This means that a separate organism or other biological system (species, biocenosis, etc.) consists of separate isolated, i.e. separate or delimited in space, but closely connected and interacting parts, forming a structural and functional unity. For example, any kind of organisms includes individual individuals. The body of a highly organized individual forms separate organs, which, in turn, consist of individual cells. Fantasy novels sometimes describe unearthly life as a whole, such as the living ocean on the planet Solaris. But on Earth, life exists in the form of separate species, represented by many individuals, individuals. (Individual in Latin is the same as "atom" in Greek: "indivisible")

3. Levels of organization of living matter

Discrete principleformed the basis of ideas about the levels of organization of living matter. The level of organization is the functional place of the biological structure of a certain degree of complexity in the general "system of systems" of the living. Usually the following levels are distinguished:

1. Molecular - the lowest level of organization of the living. It is at this level that such vital processes as metabolism and energy conversion, the transfer of hereditary information are mainly manifested.

2. Cellular. The cell is the elementary structural and functional unit of the living. Viruses, being a non-cellular form of organization of living things, show their properties as living organisms only when they invade cells.

3. Fabric. Tissue is a collection of structurally similar cells and intercellular substances associated with them, united by the performance of certain functions.

4. Organ. An organ is a part of a multicellular organism that performs a specific function or functions.

5. Organismic. The organism (this term can be applied to all living beings - both unicellular and multicellular) - is the real carrier of life, characterized by all its properties. It comes from one germ (zygotes, spores, parts of another organism) and is individually subject to the action of evolutionary and environmental factors. The process of formation of an organism consists of the differentiation of its structures (organelles - if it is a single-celled organism; cells, tissues, organs) in accordance with the functions they perform. It is very convenient to use this level when considering the interaction of a living being with its environment.

6. Population-species.The population is a system of supraorganismal order. This is understood as the totality of all individuals of the same species, forming a separate genetic system and inhabiting a space with relatively homogeneous living conditions. A population usually has a complex structure and is an elementary unit of evolution. A species is a genetically stable system, a set of populations whose individuals are capable of natural conditions to cross with the formation of fertile offspring and occupy a certain area geographic space(range).

7. Biocenotic.Biocenosis - a set of organisms of different species of varying complexity of organization, living in a certain territory. If such a territorial system also takes into account environmental factors, i.e., a non-living component, then they speak of a biogeocenosis.

8. Biospheric - this is the most high level organizations. AT this case usually consider all living organisms and areas of their existence on a planetary scale. The biosphere is the shell of the Earth that is inhabited or has ever been inhabited by living organisms (it includes parts of the atmosphere, lithosphere and hydrosphere, in any way connected with the activities of living beings).

The body is built on the principle of a hierarchy of structures, just like the whole Live nature, therefore, using its example, we can consider all levels of the organization (Fig. 2).

Rice. 2. Levels of organization of living matter (on the example of a separate organism).

BIOLOGY

zoology

microbiology

botany

protozoology malacology entomology

theriology

bacteriology virology immunology

dendrology pteridology algology bryology biogeobotany

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	These principles are written as a rule in the first articles of the constitution or in those sections that fix the system of state organs or the system of fundamental rights and freedoms. It is easy to name the institutions of constitutional law if we turn to any of the constitutions, because in most cases the structure of the constitution is the enumeration of the most important institutions of constitutional law. If we present such an article of the constitution in which, for example, it is written that all power belongs to the people, then with all our desire we will not single out here ...
13018.		world of living	136.42KB
	It is tempting to take the date of the greatest biological discovery and say that modern biology is all that came after. In 1665, the Englishman Robert Hooke, using the microscope he created, was able to see for the first time that plant tissues are made up of cells. The solution to this problem actually implied the answer to the question - what do such different creatures as humans and yeast have in common? .
9160.		The specifics of living	16.12KB
	Subject of study Problems and methods of biology Biology is a set or system of sciences about living systems. The subject of biology is all manifestations of life, namely: the structure and functions of living beings and their natural communities; spreading the origin and development of new creatures and their communities; connections of living beings and their communities with each other and with inanimate nature. The tasks of biology are to study all biological laws and reveal the essence of life.
19370.		The emergence of crises in the organization, their essence	203.32KB
	In the context of an internal crisis, the management of an enterprise acquires a number of features compared to the normal state and stable operation of the company. Features and types of crises in the enterprise The crisis of the enterprise is a turning point in the sequence of processes of events and actions. Typical for a crisis situation there are two options for getting out of it: either it is the liquidation of the enterprise as an extreme form or the successful overcoming of the crisis. A crisis can manifest itself absolutely unexpectedly during a harmonious development...
10770.		The essence and goals of the organization of production	10.19KB
	The organization of production must constantly adapt to changing economic conditions, be focused on reducing production costs and improving the quality of products. The achievement of this goal is ensured through the implementation of the goals of the lower level, which include: increasing the level of organization of production; improvement of the production and technical base of the enterprise; reduction of the duration of the production cycle; improving the use of fixed assets and production capacities; promotion...

Biology is the science of life. It studies life as a special form of motion of matter, the laws of its existence and development.

The term " biology' proposed in 1802. J.B. Lamarck, comes from two Greek words: bios - life and logos - science. Together with astronomy, physics, chemistry, geology and other sciences that study nature, biology is one of the natural sciences. In the general system of knowledge about the surrounding world, another group of sciences is social or humanitarian (Lat. humanitas- human nature), sciences that study the patterns of development of human society. modern biology is a system of life sciences. General patterns the development of living nature, revealing the essence of life, its forms and development, is considered by general biology. According to the objects of study - animals, plants, viruses - there are special sciences that study each of these groups of organisms.

Subject studying biology are living organisms; their structure, functions; their natural communities.

Methods The biological sciences are the theoretical basis of medicine, agronomy, animal husbandry, and all those industries that are associated with living organisms. The main private methods in biology are:

Descriptive In order to clarify the essence of phenomena, it is necessary first of all to collect factual material and describe it. The collection and description of facts was the main method of research in the early period of the development of biology, which, however, has not lost its significance at the present time. Comparative. Back in the 18th century the comparative method has become widespread, which makes it possible, by means of comparison, to study the similarities and differences of organisms and their parts. Systematics was based on the principles of this method and one of the largest generalizations was made - the cellular theory was created. The comparative method has developed into a historical one, but has not lost its significance even now. Historical The historical method clarifies the patterns of the appearance and development of organisms, the formation of their structure and functions. Science owes the establishment of the historical method in biology to Charles Darwin.

experimental method The study of natural phenomena is associated with an active influence on them by setting up experiments (experiments) under precisely taken into account conditions and by changing the course of processes in the direction necessary for the researcher. This method makes it possible to study phenomena in isolation and achieve their repeatability under the same conditions. The experiment provides not only a deeper insight into the essence of phenomena than other methods, but also a direct mastery of them. The highest form of experiment is the simulation of the processes under study. Brilliant experimenter I.P. Pavlov said: "Observation collects what nature offers it, while experience takes from nature what it wants." The complex use of various methods allows you to fully understand the phenomena and objects of nature. biosocial nature of man. Man is a living organism in this regard, he is the object of biological research. But he, remaining a biological object and senior management evolution of the organic world, at the same time being a social being. Therefore, if in any species of plants and animals evolution is carried out according to biological laws, then the progress of mankind is subject to social laws. The biological individuality of people is transmitted from generation to generation according to genetic patterns common to the entire organic world. But the entire social and labor essence of a person is transmitted through training, brought up in a human team, and this has an impact on the implementation of the genetically determined characteristics of each individual, is reflected in the formation of his personality.

Definition of life. Fundamental properties of living things. Evolutionary-conditioned levels of organization of the living. Modern theories and the main stages of the origin and development of life on Earth.

Based on modern achievements in biological science, the Russian scientist M. V. Volkenstein gave a new definition to the concept of life: "Living bodies that exist on Earth are open, self-regulating and self-reproducing systems built from biopolymers - proteins and nucleic acids."

Among the fundamental properties, the totality of which characterizes life, are: 1. self-renewal associated with the flow of matter and energy. 2. self-reproduction , which ensures continuity between successive generations of biological systems associated with the flow of information.

3.self-regulation based on the flow of substances, energy and information.

The listed fundamental properties determine the main attributes of life:

metabolism in living organisms. All living organisms have an inherent exchange of matter and energy with the environment. reproduction– reproducing one's own kind the most important condition for the continuation of life.

Heredity- the ability of organisms to transmit from generation to generation the entire set of characteristics that ensure the adaptability of organisms to their environment.

And variability,which is understood as their ability to acquire new features and lose the old ones. The result is a variety of individuals belonging to the same species. Variability can occur both in individual individuals during their individual development, and in a group of organisms in a series of generations during reproduction.

Individual (ontogeny) and historical (phylogenesis) development of organisms. Any organism during its life (from the moment of its inception to natural death) undergoes regular changes, which are called individual development. There is an increase in the size and weight of the body - growth, the formation of new structures (sometimes accompanied by the destruction of previously existing ones - for example, the loss of a tail by a tadpole and the formation of paired limbs), reproduction, and, finally, the end of existence.

The evolution of organisms is an irreversible process of the historical development of living things, during which a successive change of species is observed as a result of the disappearance of previously existing ones and the emergence of new ones.

An essential property of living beings irritability(the ability to perceive external or internal stimuli (impact) and adequately respond to them). It manifests itself in changes in metabolism (for example, with a reduction in daylight hours and a decrease in ambient temperature in autumn in plants and animals), in the form of motor reactions (see below), and highly organized animals (including humans) are characterized by changes in behavior. The phenomenon of irritability underlies the reactions of organisms, due to which they are supported homeostasis - constancy of the internal environment

Traffic,i.e. spatial displacement the whole organism or individual parts of their body. This is characteristic of both unicellular (bacteria, amoeba, ciliates, algae) and multicellular (almost all animals) organisms. Some multicellular cells (for example, blood phagocytes of animals and humans) also have mobility. Multicellular plants, compared with animals, are characterized by low mobility, however, they also have special forms of manifestation of motor reactions.

Discretion and integrity. Any biological system consists of separate parts, i.e. discrete. But the interaction of these individual parts forms an integral system. For example, each cell consists of separate organelles, but functions as a whole.

Biology (from the Greek bios - life, logos - science) is the science of life, the general patterns of existence and development of living beings. The subject of its study is living organisms, their structure, functions, development, relationships with the environment and origin. Like physics and chemistry, it belongs to the natural sciences, the subject of which is nature.

Although the concept of biology as a special natural science originated in the 19th century, biological disciplines originated earlier in medicine and natural history. Usually their tradition is traced back to such ancient scientists as Aristotle and Galen through the Arab physicians al-Jahiz ibn-Sina, ibn-Zuhr and ibn-al-Nafiz.
During the Renaissance, biological thought in Europe was revolutionized by the invention of printing and the spread of printed works, interest in experimental research and the discovery of many new species of animals and plants during the Age of Discovery. At this time, outstanding minds Andrei Vesalius and William Harvey worked, who laid the foundations of modern anatomy and physiology. Somewhat later, Linnaeus and Buffon did a great job of classifying the forms of living and fossil creatures. Microscopy opened the previously unknown world of microorganisms to observation, laying the foundation for the development of cell theory. The development of natural science, partly due to the emergence of mechanistic philosophy, contributed to the development of natural history.

To early XIX century, some modern biological disciplines, such as botany and zoology, have reached a professional level. Lavoisier and other chemists and physicists began to converge ideas about animate and inanimate nature. Naturalists such as Alexander Humboldt explored the interaction of organisms with their environment and its dependence on geography, laying the foundations for biogeography, ecology, and ethology. In the 19th century, the development of the doctrine of evolution gradually led to an understanding of the role of extinction and the variability of species, and the cellular theory showed in a new light the fundamentals of the structure of living matter. Combined with the data of embryology and paleontology, these achievements allowed Charles Darwin to create a holistic theory of evolution through natural selection. To late XIX centuries, the ideas of spontaneous generation finally gave way to the theory of an infectious agent as a causative agent of diseases. But the mechanism of inheritance of parental traits was still a mystery.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Thomas Morgan and his students rediscovered the laws studied in the middle of the 19th century by Gregor Mendel, after which genetics began to develop rapidly. By the 1930s, the combination of population genetics and the theory of natural selection gave rise to modern evolutionary theory or neo-Darwinism. Thanks to the development of biochemistry, enzymes were discovered and a grandiose work began on describing all metabolic processes. The discovery of the structure of DNA by Watson and Crick gave a powerful impetus to the development of molecular biology. It was followed by the postulation of the central dogma, the deciphering of the genetic code, and by the end of the 20th century, the complete deciphering of the human genetic code and several other organisms most important for medicine and agriculture. Thanks to this, new disciplines of genomics and proteomics have emerged. Although the increase in the number of disciplines and the extreme complexity of the subject of biology have created and continue to create an increasingly narrow specialization among biologists, biology continues to be a single science, and the data of each of the biological disciplines, especially genomics, are applicable in all others.

Traditional or naturalistic biology

Its object of study is living nature in its natural state and undivided integrity - the "Temple of Nature", as Erasmus Darwin called it. The origins of traditional biology date back to the Middle Ages, although it is quite natural to recall here the works of Aristotle, who considered the issues of biology, biological progress, tried to systematize living organisms (“the ladder of Nature”). Making biology into an independent science - naturalistic biology falls on the 18th-19th centuries. The first stage of naturalistic biology was marked by the creation of classifications of animals and plants. These include the well-known classification of C. Linnaeus (1707 - 1778), which is a traditional systematization of the plant world, as well as the classification of J.-B. Lamarck, who applied an evolutionary approach to the classification of plants and animals. Traditional biology has not lost its significance at the present time. As evidence, the position of ecology among the biological sciences, as well as in all natural sciences, is cited. Its positions and authority are currently extremely high, and it is primarily based on the principles of traditional biology, as it explores the relationship of organisms with each other (biotic factors) and with the environment (abiotic factors).

Properties of living organisms

Each organism is a set of ordering interacting structures that form a single whole, that is, it is a system. Living organisms have features that are absent in most non-living systems. However, among these signs there is not a single one that would be inherent only to the living. A possible way to describe life is to list the basic properties of living organisms. These properties are also one of the subjects of biology study:

1. One of the most remarkable features of living organisms is their complexity and high degree organizations. They are characterized by a complicated internal structure and contain many different complex molecules.

2. Any component of the body has a special
appointment and fulfill certain functions. This applies not only to organs (kidneys, lungs, heart, etc.), but also to microscopic structures and molecules.

3. Living organisms have the ability to extract, transform and use the energy of the environment either in the form of organic nutrients or in the form of solar radiation energy. Thanks to this energy and substances coming from the environment, organisms maintain their integrity (orderliness) and carry out various functions, while returning decay products and converted energy in the form of heat to nature, i.e. organisms are capable of exchanging substances and energy.

4. Organisms are able to specifically respond to changes in the environment. The ability to respond to external irritation is a universal property of the living.

6. The most striking feature of living organisms is the ability to reproduce itself, that is, to reproduce. The offspring are always similar to the parents. Thus, there are mechanisms for transmitting information about the characteristics, properties and functions of organisms from generation to generation, based on the ability of DNA molecules (deoxyribo-nucleic acid) to self-doubling (replication). This shows heredity. As established, the mechanisms for the transmission of hereditary properties are the same for all species. However, the similarity of parents and offspring is never complete: the offspring, being similar to their parents, always differ from them in some way. This is the phenomenon of variability, the basic laws of which are also common to all species. Thus, living organisms are characterized by reproduction, heredity and variability.

7. Living things are characterized by the ability to historical development and change from simple to complex. This process is called evolution. As a result of evolution, a whole variety of organisms has arisen, adapted to certain conditions of existence.
So, life is a form of organization of open self-regulating and self-reproducing discrete hierarchical systems built on the basis of proteins and nucleic acids. The openness of systems is a thermodynamic characteristic (property) of living objects, since they continuously exchange matter and energy with the environment (unlike isolated systems that do not exchange matter or energy with the environment, as well as closed systems that exchange only energy) . Due to the continuous exchange of matter and energy in living systems, self-regulation is carried out, which is expressed, firstly, by the ability to actively respond to external influences, and secondly, by the ability to maintain the constancy of its state (homeostasis) within certain limits when environmental conditions change. Both types of regulatory processes are based on the features of energy conversion in living systems and are associated with the biological properties of proteins that are catalysts for chemical reactions of metabolism.
When defining a living thing, one should be aware that even the products of the chemical interaction of proteins and nucleic acids (viral particles) can reveal only some of the properties characteristic of living objects. For the existence of a full-fledged life, at least the cellular level is necessary, and the cell is an object clearly limited in space (surface structures) and time (from birth to death).

Biological disciplines

What does the science of biology study? A variety of living beings inhabit our planet: plants, animals, bacteria, fungi. The number of species of living beings exceeds two million. Some we meet in everyday life, while others are so small that it is impossible to see them with the naked eye.

Organisms have mastered various living territories: they can be found both in the depths of the sea and in small puddles, in the thickness of the soil, on the surface and inside other living organisms.

All their diversity is studied by the science of biology.

Biology is a science that studies life in all its manifestations. The subject of her research is the diversity of organisms, their structure and life processes, elemental composition and relationships with the environment, as well as many other diverse manifestations of life.

Depending on the studied objects in biology, there are a number of areas:

virology;
microbiology;
botany;
zoology;
anthropology, etc.

These sciences study the features of the structure, development, life, origin, properties, diversity and distribution throughout the globe each individual species.

Depending on the structure, properties and manifestations of the individual life of the studied organisms in biology, there are:

Anatomy and morphology- study the structure and forms of organisms;
physiology– analyzes the functions of living organisms, their relationship and dependence on conditions (both external and internal);
genetics- regularities of heredity and variability of organisms are studied;
developmental biology- regularities of the development of the organic world in the process of evolution are studied;
Ecology- studies the way of life of plants and animals and their relationship with the natural environment.
Biochemistry and biophysics study chemical composition biological systems, their physical structure, physico-chemical processes and chemical reactions.

It is possible to establish regularities that are imperceptible in the descriptions of individual processes and phenomena. biometrics, the methods of which consist in a set of methods for planning and processing the results of biological research using the methods of mathematical statistics.

Molecular biology studies life phenomena at the molecular level; structure and function of cells, tissues and organs cytology, histology and anatomy; populations and biological characteristics of all organisms included in their composition - population genetics and ecology, the study of the patterns of formation, functioning, interconnection and development of higher structural levels of life organization up to the biosphere as a whole - biogeocenology.

Remark 1

General biology is engaged in the development of patterns of structure (structure) and functioning, common for all organisms, regardless of the systematic position.

Basic methods of scientific research in biology

Biology, like any other science, has its own scientific methods research. That is, these methods represent a set of techniques and operations for building a system of scientific knowledge.

Biology uses such basic research methods:

Descriptive Method- was used in the early stages of the development of biology. It consists in observing biological objects and phenomena, their detailed description. This is the primary collection of general information about the object of study.
Monitoring is a system of constant monitoring of the state and course of processes of a certain living organism, ecosystem or the entire biosphere.
Comparative method- reveals differences and similarities between biological objects and phenomena.
historical method- allows, on the basis of data on the modern organism and its past, to track the process of its development.
experimental method- creation of artificial situations to identify certain properties of living organisms. An experiment can be a field experiment, when the experimental organisms or phenomena are in their natural conditions, and a laboratory experiment. Nowadays, laboratory research and experiments have reached new heights in all scientific fields.

"The subject of knowledge" - Objective truth. Experience plays a decisive role. The role of practice in cognition. Formation of images of reality through distraction and replenishment. Feeling. Methods of scientific knowledge. Prove that practice is the basis of knowledge. Sensationalism (J. Representation. Inference. Give an example of abstraction.

"A sign of the object" - Color: a large ball - in blue, a medium one - in green, a small one - in red. What are the basic safety rules that should be observed while in the computer science office. Follow the steps, keeping the common feature of each group. Practical work. Repetition of previously studied material:

"The subject of ecology" - The structure of the ecosystem. 1st trophic level. Scheme. Megacities. Soil degradation. Natural resources and fundamentals of rational nature management. Maximum allowable level. Ecosystem productivity. Ways to solve the problem of mineral resources. Causes of depopulation. Chemical characteristics. The hunting-gathering stage.

"Description of the subject" - Plan. Types of speech. "Preparation for the essay" Description of the subject ". The description is divided into 3 parts: Training of skiers. Speech styles. Skiers. Description. Write an essay - a description of "My favorite subject." Dictionary. Questions: Theme of the lesson: Ski competitions. Goals:

"Basic subjects" - Geometry. Chemistry. Geography of the world Geography of Russia Geography of Europe Geography of Asia. Physics. Geography. Core subjects: Algebra. Economy. Russian language English language Geography Literature History. Story. Literature of peoples Western Literature Foreign Literature. History of the World History of Russia History of Europe.

"Signs of objects grade 1" - Find the extra geometric figure. Add a shape. Pick a couple. Distinctive features of objects. Compiled by: Khapsirokova Zhanna Vladimirovna. Choose a shape that you can continue each row. What is superfluous?