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Biology is the science of life.[1] Biologists study all aspects of Earth's living things, including the dynamic processes within them that enable them to survive. Those vital processes include the harnessing of energy and matter, the synthesis of the materials that make up the body, the healing of injuries, and the reproduction of the entire organism, among many other activities. The mysteries of life have fascinated all peoples throughout history, and curiosity about the physical beings of people, plants, and animals exists in every known society. Some of that curiosity arises from a desire to control life processes and to exploit natural resources. Pursuit of the answers has led to an understanding of organisms that has steadily improved our standard of living. Other questions come from a desire to understand nature, rather than to control it; and, in answering these, biological investigation has changed our view of the world.


  1. Etymology The word 'Biology' is formed by combining two Greek words βίος (bios), meaning 'life', and λόγος (logos), meaning 'study of'. 'Biology' in its modern use was probably introduced independently by both Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus (Biologie oder Philosophie der lebenden Natur, 1802) and by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (Hydrogéologie, 1802). Although the word 'biology' is sometimes said to have been coined in 1800 by Karl Friedrich Burdach, it appears in the title of Volume 3 of Michael Christoph Hanov's Philosophiae naturalis sive physicae dogmaticae: Geologia, biologia, phytologia generalis et dendrologia, published in 1766.