History of Biology

By Stanford Mc Krause

Humanity has a long historical period that accumulates knowledge about the diversity of organisms. At the same time, some general patterns became evident. Thus, the idea of the unity of all life on Earth appeared in biological history.
The history of biology explores the development of a science that studies the properties and fundamental laws (most common) of the evolutionary development of living beings. The theme of the history of biology is to identify and summarize the analysis of the main events and trends in the advancement of biological knowledge.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stanford Mc Krause
• Release date: Jan 26, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463031209

Stanford Mc Krause

Stanford Mc Krause was born on May 17, 1932 in Montgomery, Alabama. He was aeronautical systems engineer and test pilot of the United States Army. He studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), was in the Navy and flew in 64 combat missions in North Korea.He worked as a test pilot for the National Aeronautical Advisory Committee (NACA). His work as a pilot was developed in the High Speed Flight Station.In addition to history, he also writes fiction novels, is the creator of the subgenre "Changing Times", materialized in the trilogy "Trapped Minds".Spanish:Stanford Mc Krause nació el 17 de mayo 1932 en Montgomery, Alabama. Fue ingeniero de sistemas aeronáuticos y piloto de pruebas del ejército de los Estados Unidos. Estudió en el Instituto Tecnológico de Massachusetts (MIT), estuvo en la Armada y voló en 64 misiones de combate en Corea del Norte.Trabajó como piloto de pruebas para el Comité Asesor Nacional de Aeronáutica (NACA) su trabajo como piloto fue desarrollado en la Estación de Vuelo de Alta Velocidad.Además de historia, escribe también novelas de ficción, y es creador del subgénero “Changing Times”, materializado en la trilogía "Mentes Atrapadas".

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Introduction

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 from such ancient scholars as Aristotle and Galen through the Arab physicians al-Jahiz, ibn-Sina, ibn-Zuhra and ibn-al-Nafiz. In the Renaissance, biological thought in Europe was revolutionized thanks to the invention of typography and the spread of printed works, interest in experimental research and the discovery of many new species of animals and plants in the era of great geographical discoveries. At that time, outstanding minds Andrei Vesalius and William Garvey 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 has opened up a previously unknown world of microorganisms for observation, laying the foundation for the development of cell theory. The development of natural science, partly due to the emergence of a mechanistic philosophy, contributed to the development of natural history.

By the beginning of the XIX century, some modern biological disciplines, such as botany and zoology, had reached the professional level. Lavoisier and other chemists and physicists began a rapprochement of the concepts of animate and inanimate nature. Naturalists, such as Alexander Humboldt, investigated the interaction of organisms with the environment and its dependence on geography, laying the foundation for biogeography, ecology, and ethology. In the 19th century, the development of the theory of evolution gradually led to an understanding of the role of extinction and species variability, and cell theory showed in a new light the basis of the structure of living matter. In combination with the data of embryology and paleontology, these achievements have allowed Charles Darwin to create a holistic theory of evolution by natural selection. By the end of the XIX century, the ideas of spontaneous generation finally gave way to the theory of the infectious agent as the causative agent of diseases. But the mechanism of inheritance of parental signs still remained 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, a combination of population genetics and the theory of natural selection gave rise to modern evolutionary theory or neo-Darwinism. Due to the development of biochemistry, enzymes were discovered and a grandiose work began on the description of all metabolic processes. The disclosure of DNA structure 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 - and the complete deciphering of the human genetic code and several other organisms most important for medicine and agriculture. Due to this new disciplines of genomics and proteomics appeared. Although the increase in the number of disciplines and the extreme complexity of the subject of biology have given rise to and continue to give rise to an increasingly narrow specialization among biologists, biology continues to be a single science, and the data from each of the biological disciplines, especially genomics, are applicable to all others.

Stages of formation of biology

Based on the special direction of the interests of biological science, it is usually defined as the science of the living, its structure, forms of activity,