Biological Structures
Biological structures refer to the various anatomical components of living organisms, such as cells, tissues, organs, and organ systems. These structures are essential for the functioning and survival of organisms, providing support, protection, and the means for carrying out vital processes like respiration, digestion, and reproduction. Understanding biological structures is fundamental to comprehending the complexities of life and the mechanisms underlying biological functions.
5 Key excerpts on "Biological Structures"
eBook - ePubThis Is Biology
The Science of the Living World
- Ernst Mayr(Author)
- 1998(Publication Date)
- Belknap Press(Publisher)
...CHAPTER SIX How Are the Life Sciences Structured? B iology, as it exists today, is an extraordinarily diversified science. Part of the reason is that it deals with exceedingly varied organisms, ranging from viruses and bacteria to fungi, plants, and animals. It also deals with many hierarchical levels, from organic macromolecules and genes to cells, tissues, organs, and whole organisms, and the interactions and organization of whole organisms into families, communities, societies, populations, species, and biota. Each level of activity and organization is an area of specialization with its own name—cytology, anatomy, genetics, systematics, ethology, or ecology, to mention only a few. Furthermore, biology has a wide range of practical applications and has given rise to, or is at least involved in, numerous applied fields such as medicine, public health, agriculture, forestry, plant and animal breeding, pest control, fisheries, biological oceanography, and so on. Even though biology as a modern science originated as recently as the middle of the nineteenth century, its roots, as we have seen, go back to the ancient Greeks. Two distinct traditions that arose over 2,000 years ago are still recognizable today: the medical tradition, represented by Hippocrates and his predecessors and followers, and the natural history tradition. The medical tradition, reaching a climax in the ancient world in the work of Galen (c. 130–200), led to the development of anatomy and physiology, while the natural history tradition, culminating in Aristotle’s History of Animals and his other biological works, eventually gave rise to systematics, comparative biology, ecology, and evolutionary biology. The separation of medicine from natural history continued through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The two traditions were, however, linked by botany because this field, although a branch of natural history, focused on the plants believed to have medicinal properties...
eBook - ePub- Chris R. Brown(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Chapter 6 Teaching about the structure of living organisms Structure and function That structure and function are complementary is not only one of the fundamental tenets of biology but also one of the oldest, going back to Aristotle. There are two important and interrelated ideas here: what an organ (or other structure) does depends on its structure and, secondly, that its function can be identified from a consideration of the structure. William Harvey wrote in 1628: The motion and circulation of the blood are confirmed from the particulars apparent in the structure of the heart, and from those things which dissection unfolds. 1 Here we have not only a philosophical position but also a methodological one relating to the role of dissection! More recently, and at an entirely different level of biological organization, one of the most famous pieces of scientific writing of the twentieth century, states: It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material. 2 Different context, same point: given this structure, this is what it might do. These are instances of how great biologists have worked in the past, but have they anything to do with teaching pupils? I am certainly not suggesting that pupils’ learning should be based on an inductive approach by which the teaching begins with a tabula rasa and proceeds to build by making and collecting first-hand observations, from which subsequent theories are fashioned. 3 There are many different ways of illustrating the structure of living organisms, including models, film, video and computer simulations...
eBook - ePubTeaching Biology in Schools
Global Research, Issues, and Trends
- Kostas Kampourakis, Michael Reiss, Kostas Kampourakis, Michael J. Reiss(Authors)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...In the field of biology, complex systems are found within individual cells, in which complex molecular networks connect signals from the extra-cellular environment to intracellular responses (Chasman et al., 2016). They are also found in individual organisms at the level of physiology, maintaining homeostasis in a variety of different dimensions, like blood sugar and body weight (Rosenbaum & Leibel, 2016). On an even larger scale, interactions between organisms form additional complex systems at the level of biological societies, such as social insect colonies (ants, for example), which are formed by interactions between organisms, each of which is a complex system of its own (Greenwald et al., 2015). Such natural systems are typically dynamic and are often held in states of equilibrium with other interdependent systems, and the interactions within and between them can be unpredictable. Disturbing this web of interconnections can have major implications, as effects cascade across associated networks (Stewart, 2012). Understanding the complexity of natural systems is therefore crucial to a proper understanding of what they are and how they work. Complex systems are comprised of sub-systems, exhibiting outcomes that arise from the interactions between their structures. These outcomes are the results of causal elements participating in causal event chains that vary in temporal and spatial dimensions (Keynan et al., 2014). Thus, a complex system can be generally described as an entity consisting of a large number of structures, at different levels of organization, in which various processes occur. A complex system functions through the mutual interaction of its various components, which work together to bring about a singular function...
eBook - ePubCancer
Basic Science and Clinical Aspects
- Craig A. Almeida, Sheila A. Barry(Authors)
- 2011(Publication Date)
- Wiley-Blackwell(Publisher)
...Cells: the fundamental unit of life The uniformity of Earth’s life, more astonishing than its diversity, is accountable by the high probability that we derived, originally, from some single cell, fertilized in a bolt of lightning as the Earth cooled. Lewis Thomas, physician, researcher, educator, and essayist CHAPTER CONTENTS Seven hierarchal levels of organization Four types of macromolecular polymers Cell structure and function Relationship between structure and function is important Expand your knowledge Additional readings When our bodies work properly we have the tendency to take their complex structure and functions for granted. It is important to realize that the more we know about healthy body function, the better the position we will be in to fix what is wrong when we are ill. This and the following two chapters will provide a basic understanding of the way cells function normally and how an attack on the body by rogue cells that divide uncontrollably and function abnormally can result in cancer. This chapter will take a stepwise approach to gradually build a working knowledge of subcellular components in order to understand how they work together as a single entity – the cell. The whole is more than the sum of its parts, and all components of the cell must work together seamlessly to carry out the processes that give rise to what we know as life. SEVEN HIERARCHAL LEVELS OF ORGANIZATION Using the stepwise approach to understand how a living organism as complex as a human is put together first requires some knowledge of the seven levels of biological organization (Figure 2.1), and there is no better place to start than at the beginning, at the level of the atom. Atoms are the building blocks of all molecules Everything around us is composed of atoms – the building blocks of matter (Figure 2.1a)...
eBook - ePubEssentials of Chemical Biology
Structure and Dynamics of Biological Macromolecules
- Andrew D. Miller, Julian A. Tanner(Authors)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
...1 The Structures of Biological Macromolecules and Lipid Assemblies 1.1 General introduction All living organisms are comprised of cells that may vary considerably in terms of size, shape and appearance; in complex multicellular organisms, many cells are organised into diverse, functional organs to perform a collective function (Figure 1.1). In spite of their wide morphological diversity, all cells of all living organisms, wherever they are located, are comprised of proteins, carbohydrates, nucleic acids and lipid assemblies. These together give a cell form and function. To know and understand the chemistry of these biological macromolecules is to comprehend the basic infrastructure not only of a cell but also of living organisms. In functional terms, macromolecular lipid assemblies provide for compartmentalisation in the form of membrane barriers, which not only define the ‘outer limits’ of each cell but also divide up the intracellular environment into different organelles or functional zones (Figure 1.2). Membrane barriers are fluidic and lack rigidity, so proteins provide a supporting and scaffolding function not only in the main fluid bulk of the cell, known as the cytosol, but also within organelles. Within the nucleus, proteins also provide a nucleic acid packaging function in order to restrain and constrain spectacular quantities of nucleic acids within the nuclear volume. Everywhere in any cell, proteins also perform other individualised functions in outer membranes (as pores or receptors for example), in organelle membranes (as selective transporters, redox acceptors or energy transducers), in the cytosol or organelle volumes (as enzyme catalysts, molecular chaperones or ‘communication and control’ centres) and in the nucleus (as regulators and transcribers of the genetic code)...
