Science is defined as a systematic process of enquiring about the living and non-living things in our environment. The term “biology” is coined from two Greek words: “bios,” meaning life, and “logos,” meaning study. Therefore, Biology is simply defined as the study of life, i.e. study of living things, or Biology is defined as the science of life, ranging from the unicellular organisms to the study of global interaction among millions of organisms that form life. It involves the study of the life history of an individual organism as well as the collective history of all
Organisms. Biology is broadly divided into two:
(a) Zoology is the study of animals, their behavior, feeding, and life history.
(b) Botany is the study of different types of plants.
Some other specific aspects of Biology are:
Morphology, Anatomy, Physiology, Genetics, Ecology, Virology, Bacteriology, Microbiology, Taxonomy, Histology, Mycology, Embryology, Evolution, e.t.c
SCIENTIFIC PROCESS OR APPROACH
Biology and Inquiry: The knowledge of the nature and the role of inquiry in science. Inquiry in Biology enables us to acquaint ourselves with living things around us in a careful, systematic manner. To understand these processes of enquiry, facts must be known through science. The orderly and systematic arrangement of facts is achieved through the process of science or a scientific approach.
The scientific approach is a process of science that involves the process of making a sequence of enquiries about an object or thing under study.
The scientific process begins with observation, followed by classification, inference, measurement, identification, hypothesis, experiment, control or conclusion, theory, law or principle.
(i) OBSERVATION: This involves the use of human senses to describe an observation by using the characteristics and properties of material. The observation may lead to classification, then to inference, and later to measurement and identification of existing problems.
(ii) HYPOTHESIS: is defined as a sensible proposal or reasonable assumption, or a scientific guess that can be subjected to verification or testing.
(iii) EXPERIMENT: is defined as the process used for testing of hypothesis through experimentation during which data are collected. The data collected may lead to the development of new ideas. The process involved in the experiment is as follows:
(iv) AIM: This is the purpose for which the experiment is carried out.
(v) APPARATUS//MATERIALS: These include the materials that will be used for the experiment.
(vi) METHOD or PROCEDURE: This is used to describe the details that are required step by step.
(vii) RESULT: This is the record of what is seen during and after the experiment.
(viii) CONCLUSION: This is used to finalize the outcome of the whole experiment
The end of the experiment can be used to show whether the hypothesis is true or false. If the subsequent experiments show that the hypothesis is false, the whole idea or concept of the matter under investigation is then repeated or rejected. But when the hypothesis is true after several repeated experiments, it is accepted and becomes a THEORY.