The history of biology

Have you heard that ostriches tend to hide their heads in the sand? Or that bulls get furious when they see something red? Or that magpies are thieves and go for anything shiny? Do you believe that this is all true? It isn't true.

These are myths. No one ever saw an ostrich with its head in the sand. Bulls can't even distinguish red colour, and magpies actually seem to be scared of shiny objects. There are plenty of myths and inaccurate ideas about the world and nature. They come from ancient folklore, or from popular culture.

Sometimes from religion. Often we don't even know how these ideas came about. Humans have always tried to find explanations for what we see around us, and often we've been totally wrong. As late as the 16th Century, life was thought to rise from dead matter. Like when fungus started to grow on dead wood, and mould just seemed to appear on old chunks of bread.

But in the 17th century, scientists showed that this was wrong, thanks to a new invention. With the help of a microscope, it was possible to magnify the image of an object 50 times. They could see that living organisms are built up of cells. They learned more and more about cells, and came to the conclusion that life can only arise from other life. It became possible to formulate the cell theory, one of the cornerstones of Biology.

And the modern science of Biology was born. The history of Biology contains several such discoveries, which have fundamentally changed the way we look at life. In nature, there is a vast variety of animals and plants, and they are often perfectly adapted to their habitat. For a long time, the predominant idea was that all this was thought out and created by someone, or something. But in the 19th Century, another scientific discovery challenged that notion. -- This is Charles Darwin on one of his journeys.

When he visited the Galapagos Islands, he noticed something interesting. A certain kind of bird was slightly different from one island to the next. Darwin thought that the birds had adapted to their environments, and he developed a theory. In the year 1859, he published the book: "On the Origin of Species". He described how animal and plant species have evolved from other species, through small changes and slow adaptation to their environment.

The individual best adapted to the habitat has a larger chance of survival and having more offspring. The characteristics of the individual are passed on. This is the Theory of Evolution, one of the most important discoveries in the history of Biology. It brought a totally new view of the world and nature. Evolution is another of the cornerstones of Biology.

In the 20th Century, scientists learned how properties are passed on from generation to generation, thanks to the discovery of genes. In each cell, there are special molecules carrying information about inherited, innate characteristics. These are DNA molecules. They contain our genes. The study of DNA molecules and heredity is called genetics, and it's another cornerstone of the science of Biology.

Today, much biological research is carried out in laboratories, where the properties of DNA molecules are studied. For instance, this gives knowledge about how diseases function and how they can be cured. Biology has developed rapidly over the years, and knowledge is found in various ways. You can study cells or DNA-molecules under the microscope, or go out making field studies, and the basis for learning is always a scientific method. And every once in awhile, something happens that all scientists may dream of: A discovery that changes and deepens our view of life and biology.

Like cell theory, the theory of evolution, or genetics. And, of course, ancient myths might be rebutted.