The system of biological sciences, assuming the study of various forms of living things, their structure, development, functioning, is a fairly extensive structure. Each of its branches pursues certain goals, explores specific issues. At the same time, biological sciences are closely related to each other.
The diversity of the structure is due not only to the diversity of species and life forms, but also to the variety of methods for studying them.
Even in antiquity, the basic biological sciences took shape: zoology, botany, anatomy and human physiology. Subsequently, such large sections were formed as hydrobiology (studying the inhabitants of water) and microbiology (studying microorganisms), allocated in accordance with the objects of research.
Highly specialized biological sciences depart from large branches. So, for example, zoology (studying animals) includes theriology studying mammals, protozoology - protozoa, malacology - mollusks, acarology - ticks, entomology - insects, ichthyology - fish-shaped. The structure of botany contains such biological sciences as dendrology (about trees, shrubs), bryology (about mosses), lichenology (about lichens), mycology (about mushrooms) and others.
There is a deeper division of disciplines. Thus, the distribution of organisms into categories and their diversity is studied by systematic biological sciences. The discipline exploring the organic world of modernity is called neontology. The science of pre-existing life forms is called paleontology.
Another direction of the classification of disciplines involves the separation of the manifestations and properties of living things. So, physiology studies various functions of organisms, questions of heredity - genetics, patterns in animal behavior - ethology. Embryology investigates the features of individual development, in a broader sense - developmental biology. At the same time, each discipline is divided into more private. For example, morphology studying forms is classified into comparative, functional, and other branches. At the same time, there is mutual penetration, and the fusion of narrow various disciplines of biology, with the formation of complex combinations. So, for example, there are industries such as histophysiology, cytogenetics, and others.
The structure of systems and organs is studied macroscopically by anatomy, the microscopic structure of tissues - histology, the structure of the cell nucleus - karyology, the cells as a whole - cytology. At the same time, in addition to studying the structure of certain structures, karyology, cytology and histology are involved in the study of their biochemical properties and functions.
In biology, disciplines are identified related to the use of certain methods of study. So, for example, there is biochemistry that studies the processes of life by chemical means, Biophysics, which establishes physical laws. It should be noted that these two disciplines are often intertwined with each other, used in combination to study a particular phenomenon.
A separate place is occupied by such a discipline as biometrics. It is based on the mathematical method of processing biological data. Using this industry, it becomes possible to describe individual processes and phenomena, plan experiments, establish more general biological laws.
It should be noted that in biology, both theoretical and practical research are equally important. The former allow revolutionizing many areas of practical activity, for example, technical biology or industrial microbiology. At the same time, the branches of practical biology enrich the theory with new knowledge.