Map of Biology

biology is the subject that studies life in all of its forms the most basic unit and the foundation of all life is the cell they're incredibly complicated molecular factories and cellular biology studies the structure and functions of the many different things inside a cell cells were evolving for over 3 billion years until multicellular animals appeared that's over two-thirds of the age of the earth so no wonder they're so complicated cells are the smallest things that we think can be counted as life unfortunately there isn't a good definition of life that everyone agrees on for example viruses evolve and replicate but they need other life to do so are they alive sort of but not really molecular biology looks into the insides of cells and studies how the different systems work with each other on a molecular basis it looks at DNA RNA amino acids and the creation of proteins how they interact with each other what effects these interactions this is related to structural biology which looks at the shape of biological molecules like amino acids nucleic acids and enzymes why they have these structures and how differences in their structure affects how they work biochemistry goes one step even deeper and looks at how these biological molecules interact with each other on a chemical level life is essentially a load of complex chemical reactions and biochemistry studies the underlying chemical signals and reactions of life the molecules of life are too small to see with optical microscopes and so many techniques in physics like x-ray crystallography or Kryon electron microscopy are used to see the structure of biomolecules as well as tools for studying life biophysics and quantum biology also look at the physics that underpins biological processes seeking to explain how things work on a physical level your DNA holds the blueprint of who you are and genetics is the study of how DNA is expressed to create all of the different forms of life through genes and how this information is passed on from one generation to the next population genetics looks at the genetic differences within a species and how species differ from one another the DNA code of an organism is huge and so we need computers to find patterns in the data bioinformatics is the subject that uses computer programming to analyze and interpret biological data in genetics and also many other fields wherever the amount of data is too large to analyze with previous statistical methods biomathematics uses the tool of mathematics to build models of biological processes and is used in many different areas from genetics to biotechnology to studying ecosystems you started off as a single cell however that cell divided and grew into you is studied by developmental biology an interesting area in developmental biology is the growth in differentiation of stem cells into the different cells in your body anatomy looks at the structure and organization at the scale of entire organisms it includes both plants and animals and seeks to label all the different components that make up an organism biomechanics looks at how parts of the body are designed for movement the most obvious is the articulation of our limbs but it also includes the flow of fluids or the mechanical properties of bones or tissues like the valves in our heart at the microscopic level it also looks at the strength or flexibility of cells or parts of cells well anatomy studies what organisms are made of physiology studies how these parts work and interact with each other it seeks to understand how all of the different components in an organism work together to keep it functioning normally immunology studies our immune system how it protects us from infection in a multitude of ways it also investigates the many different ways our immune system can go wrong allergies autoimmunity where your immune system attacks your own body to wider conditions like cancer many other illnesses the increased lifespan of humans has been helped significantly by biomedical research trying to find ways to tackle the causes of illnesses and death this spans many areas from basic research to developing new medical devices new ways of finding and diagnosing illnesses or developing new drugs through clinical trials in pharmaceutical industry bioengineering takes the principles of engineering and the knowledge of biological systems and mashes them together to solve real world this can be used to make devices to help in medicine like artificial organs which is called biomedical engineering and it can be used to create biotechnology like genetic engineering where the genetic code of organisms is modified to tackle diseases or for example to make crops that are resistant to challenging growing conditions synthetic biology is another branch of bioengineering where scientists can make organisms that don't occur in nature by making new sequences of DNA from scratch or redesigning existing systems like genetically engineering ecoli to perform useful tasks like making drugs or targeting delivery of drugs in the body it's worth pointing out that all of the subjects on this map are very interrelated most of them draw upon many of the other areas in their research a good example is neuroscience the study of the nervous system and especially the brain it involves the anatomy of the brain the physiology of neurons as well as molecular biology and biochemistry inside the brain so in biology as well as with most of science there's a lot of cross-pollination between fields pharmacology studies the effects drugs have in the body he looks at many aspects of drugs how to make them what to make them from and their effect in different biological systems pharmacology is related to pharmacy which is the science of preparing and dispensing drugs pathology is the study of causes and effects of diseases and the diagnosis of disease through taking samples from the body like blood or tissue it also looks at how cells adapt to injury the healing of wounds inflammation or abnormal growth of new cells like with cancer it's also used to investigate how people have died using post-mortem examinations epidemiology looks at health and disease in whole populations and looks at the patterns of disease how its transmitted and the effects on the overall health of a population diseases are monitored all the time and if there's an outbreak epidemiologists swoop in to work out how it's spreading and try to mitigate the damage taking a wider view biology includes the study of the entire natural world looking at the deep past we get paleontology the study of prehistoric life looking at fossils to work out what ancient creatures look like and how they evolved it's closely related to evolutionary biology which looks at how all of the life on Earth originated from a single common ancestor and studies how evolution led to the wide diversity of life on Earth the many plants and animals that live on the earth today fall under the study of zoology marine biology and botany these look at animals plants and fungi their development behavior physiology how to classify all of the different species ecology looks at how whole groups of animals and plants interact with each other in an environment our animals compete or cooperate with each other and how many different kinds of plants and animals inhabit the same environment this is closely related to environmental biology which looks at how ecosystems can be thrown off balance by humans through pollution agriculture or our fossil fuel emissions causing changes to environments and the climate so far the only life we've seen in the universe exists on earth but are we the only planet in the universe with life on it or are there other planets out there with their own strange forms of life astrobiology is our attempt to answer this question to work out how life may arise from chemical reactions and to probe distant planets and moons for signs of life if there's one word that describes biology its complexity there's a huge amount we still don't understand about how life works how it started and how it ended up with intelligent apes like us who are able to look back and try and work it all out I feel like we'll be making new biological discoveries for many many years to come and if you just discovered this video please consider subscribing it really helps my channel grow and get these fun explainers out to more people I've got many more videos like this and I've put together a playlist which you can watch here and if you'd like to get your hands on a poster of this video check out the links in the description below and finally if you need a present for a youngster in your life check out my professor Astro cap books which are awesome and available in all good book drops around the globe in many many different languages okay thank you bye

Channel: Domain of Science

Views: 569,539

Keywords: science, biology, explainer, animation, microbiology, genetics, medicine, bioengineering, neuroscience, biochemistry, ecology, zoology, crispr, anatomy, physiology

Id: wENhHnJI1ys

Length: 8min 41sec (521 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 09 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/Synergistic-smells]

They forgot Microbiology!

[u/havoc313]

Nice video really cool to see the various aspects of biology. I personally am interested in biochemistry hopefully I get to study it.

[u/starkitteh]

This is a really cool intro for my HS bio kids!! Thanks!