ABSTRACT
Modern biology encompasses both the oldest and newest scientific disciplines, but the term biology was first introduced at the beginning of the nineteenth century to signify a departure from the ancient conventions of natural philosophy. Most simply defined as the science of living things, biology includes anatomy and physiology, embryology, cytology, genetics, molecular biology, evolution, and ecology. Like all the sciences, biology has roots reaching back into prehistory. Indeed, the most important lessons of all to human survival are aspects of biology-agriculture, animal husbandry, and the art of healing. Innovations in these areas among prehistoric peoples would involve the most ephemeral products of human endeavor. Stone tools, weapons, pottery, glass, and metals leave a more permanent record than a new understanding of the cycles of nature, or the relationship between the breath and the beat of the heart to life itself. Yet it is ultimately on such biological wisdom that human survival and cultural evolution depended.
