GENERAL BIOLOGY 1
TEACHER: JOHN RAZEL P. BAROÑA
WHAT IS BIOLOGY?
BIOLOGY
The word biology is derived from the
Greek words /bios/ meaning /life/ and
/logos/ meaning /study/ and is defined
as the science of life and living
organisms.
BIOLOGY
Biology is a branch of science that deals with living
organisms and their vital processes. Biology
encompasses diverse fields, including botany,
conservation, ecology, evolution, genetics, marine
biology, medicine, microbiology, molecular biology,
physiology, and zoology.
THE CELL
Cells are the basic building blocks of all living things. The
human body is composed of trillions of cells. They provide
structure for the body, take in nutrients from food,
convert those nutrients into energy, and carry out
specialized functions. Cells also contain the body’s
hereditary material and can make copies of themselves.
Cells have many parts, each with a different
function. Some of these parts, called organelles,
are specialized structures that perform certain
tasks within the cell.
THE CELL THEORY
Cell theory is one of the unifying theories in biology. Cells are as important to
biology as atoms are to chemistry and as gravity is to physics. What we call
“cell theory” is a historical theory that is universally accepted today. It has
three principles, or postulates, which are as follows:
1. All living things are made of at least one cell.
2. Cells are the basic unit of life.
3. All cells come from preexisting cells.
Those are statements that you may perceive as facts, but
before the development of the microscope in the 1600s,
scientists had no way of knowing what living things were
made of. Let’s take a look at some of the scientists who
contributed to cell theory and their work.
ROBERT HOOKE
The beginning of the historical development of
cell theory begins with Robert Hooke, who
coined the term “cell” in 1665. Hooke was an
English scientist and architect. He built his own
primitive compound microscope (a microscope
with three sequential lenses) and, through it,
made several observations that he published in
a book entitled “Micrographia.”
In the book, Hooke presented a drawing of what he observed
through the microscope when examining a very thin slice from
a cork used to close the top of a bottle. The material was
filled with regular, open spaces that he named “cells” after
the Latin word cellula, which means small room.
Hooke came up with the term “cell,” but he did not know that cells were
alive. What Hooke observed, resembling what is shown in the Figure,
were the cell walls that remained in the piece of dried cork after the
plant cells within them had died. As a matter of fact, Hooke was a
proponent of the theory of “spontaneous generation” in which life simply
arises when certain conditions are met. Spontaneous generation was a
popular belief at the time. He observed some mold under his rudimentary
microscope, and when he could not identify a reproductive apparatus, he
concluded that the mold was born of warmth and moisture.
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
The next step in the development of cell theory was
to discover the fundamental living nature of cells.
This was achieved by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, who
is often called the “father of microbiology.” Antonie
van Leeuwenhoek was a Dutch businessman,
politician, and microscope enthusiast. He learned to
make his own glass lenses and built a simple
microscope, basically single powerful magnifying glass
lens, that was able to magnify objects to over 200
times their original size.
He used this microscope to make many important
observations, including of freshwater protozoans
which he called “animalcules.” He also produced
the first written description of bacteria by
observing plaque scraped from his own teeth. We
can imagine the surprise of a man from that time
discovering that his own mouth was full of tiny
organisms
Matthias Schleiden
The next major advancement in cell theory is
attributed to Matthias Schleiden, whose work is
often referenced to in conjunction with
Theodore Schwann. In fact, Schleiden and his
close friend Schwann are often called the
“founders of cell theory.” Matthias Schleiden
was a German botanist who was famous for
studying plant structures under a microscope.
In a book published in 1838, he stated that “all plants are
composed of cells and the products of cells.” He also
noted the importance of the nucleus, which seemed
essential in the production of new cells, and observed that
new cells seemed to arise from the nucleus of old cells.
Theodor Schwann
Schleiden shared his observations about plants with
his friend, Theodor Schwann. You may recognize his
name from the Schwann cells in the nervous system,
which are named after him. Schwann was a German
physiologist particularly interested in the
microscopic study of animal tissues. This field of
research is called “histology,” and we can say that
the theory and observations of Theodor Schwann
created a foundation for modern histology.
Schwann reproduced Schleiden’s observations about plants
in the tissues of animals. He found that “all animal tissues
were made of cells that possessed a nucleus”. Schwann,
backed by Schleiden, was then able to declare that “all
living things are composed of cells and cell products,”
Rudolf Virchow
The last discovery in our timeline of cell theory, which is all
cells arise from preexisting cells, is credited to a German
pathologist and politician named Rudolf Virchow. The
statement “Omnis cellula e cellula,” meaning “all cells come
from cells,” while popularized by Virchow, was actually first
coined by a French scientist named François-Vincent Raspail.
This idea is a rejection of the concept of spontaneous
generation that was commonly held at the time.
Interestingly, Virchow, a scientist who specialized in the study of diseases,
disagreed with the increasingly popular germ theory, which states that specific
diseases are caused by certain microorganisms invading the body, and the
accompanying practice of hand washing. He believed that diseases were caused
by some imbalances and abnormal activities inside the cells, not by outside
pathogens. He also believed that microorganisms were merely attracted to
diseased tissue as their natural habitat where they subsequently take up
residence.
