Creating a system of accurate proven knowledge based on facts that can be confirmed or, conversely, refuted, is the main task of every science. In biology also: the data obtained are constantly questioned and allowed only when there is substantial evidence to them.
To date, this science considers all living systems. In order to study in detail their organization and activity, origin, distribution, as well as development and connection with each other, in order to cognize and highlight certain patterns, the following research methods in biology are used:
1. Comparative - allows you to study by comparing the similarities and differences of living organisms, as well as their parts. The data obtained make it possible to combine plants and animals into groups. This method was used to create cellular theory, systematics, and to confirm the theory of evolution. Currently, it is used in almost all areas of this science.
2. Descriptive research methods in biology (observation, statistics) - allow you to analyze and describe the phenomena occurring in living nature, compare them, finding certain patterns, and also generalize, discover new species, classes, etc. These methods began to be used in antiquity, but today they have not lost their relevance and are widely used in botany, ethology, zoology, etc.
3. Historical - makes it possible to identify the patterns of formation and development of living systems, their structures and functions, to compare them with previously known facts. This method was used by C. Darwin to build his theory, and contributed to the transformation of biology from descriptive to explanatory science.
4. Experimental research methods in biology:
a) modeling - allows you to study any process or phenomenon, as well as the direction of evolution by reconstructing them in the form of a model using modern technologies and equipment;
b) experiment (experience) - the artificial creation in a controlled environment of a situation that helps to reveal the deeply hidden properties of living objects. This method contributes to the study of phenomena in isolation, due to which it is possible to achieve a repeat of the results when reproducing these same phenomena in the same conditions.
Experimental methods in biology serve not only to conduct experiments and obtain answers to questions of interest, but also to determine the correctness of the hypothesis formulated at the beginning of the study, as well as to correct it in the process.
In the twentieth century, these research methods become leading in this science due to the advent of modern equipment for conducting experiments, such as, for example, a tomograph, an electron microscope, and so on.
Currently, experimental biology is widely used biochemical techniques, x-ray diffraction analysis, chromatography, as well as the technique of ultra-thin sections, various cultivation methods and many others.
Experimental methods, combined with a systematic approach, have expanded the cognitive capabilities of biological science and opened up new paths for the application of knowledge in almost all spheres of human activity.
The listed research methods in biology do not exhaust the entire arsenal of methods for obtaining knowledge in science, therefore, a strict boundary cannot be drawn between them. Used in combination with each other, they make it possible to discover new phenomena and properties in living systems for a short period of time, as well as to establish the laws of their occurrence, development and functioning.