MODULE #1: Biology: The Study of Life

Introduction


In this course, you're going to take your first detailed look at the science of biology. Biology, the study of life itself, is a vast subject, with many subdisciplines that concentrate on specific aspects of biology. Microbiology, for example, concentrates on those biological processes and structures that are too small for us to see with our eyes. Biochemistry studies the chemical processes that make life possible, and population biology deals with the dynamics of many life forms interacting in a community. Since biology is such a vast field of inquiry, most biologists end up specializing in one of these subdisciplines. Nevertheless, before you can begin to specialize, you need a broad overview of the science itself. That's what this course is designed to give you.