introduction for anatomy and physiology
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Anatomy is the sub-discipline of biology that studies the structure of the body. ... It describes (but does not explain) the structure of the body. Physiology further describes how the body functions, while evolutionary biology provides the explanation of the structure and the function.
Anatomy is the sub-discipline of biology that studies the structure of the body. It describes (and labels in Latin) the morphology of the body: shape, size, color and position of various body parts, with particular attention to the internal organs, as visible by the naked eye. Histology is a subset of anatomy that describes what can be seen only under the microscope: how cells are organized into tissues and tissues into organs. (Classical) embryology describes the way tissues and organs change their shape, size, color and position during development.
Anatomy provides the map and the tools for the study of the function of organs in the body. It describes (but does not explain) the structure of the body. Physiology further describes how the body functions, while evolutionary biology provides the explanation of the structure and the function.
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In this lecture, as well as in the previous one and the next one, I tackle areas of Biology where I am really weak: origin of life, diversity of life, and taxonomy/systematics. These are also areas where there has been a lot of change recently (often not yet incorporated into textbooks), and I am unlikely to be up-to-date, so please help me bring these lectures up to standards.... This post was originally written in 2006 and re-posted a few times, including in 2010.
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Another new development is that the administration has realized that most of the faculty have been with the school for many years. We are experienced, and apparently we know what we are doing. Thus they recently gave us much more freedom to design our own syllabus instead of following a pre-defined one, as long as the ultimate goals of the class remain the same. I am not exactly sure when am I teaching the BIO101 lectures again (late Fall, Spring?) but I want to start rethinking my class early. I am also worried that, since I am not actively doing research in the lab and thus not following the literature as closely, that some of the things I teach are now out-dated. Not that anyone can possibly keep up with all the advances in all the areas of Biology which is so huge, but at least big updates that affect teaching of introductory courses are stuff I need to know.
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Anatomy is the sub-discipline of biology that studies the structure of the body. It describes (and labels in Latin) the morphology of the body: shape, size, color and position of various body parts, with particular attention to the internal organs, as visible by the naked eye. Histology is a subset of anatomy that describes what can be seen only under the microscope: how cells are organized into tissues and tissues into organs. (Classical) embryology describes the way tissues and organs change their shape, size, color and position during developement.
The textbook is unusually good (for an Introductory Biology textbook) in trying to bridge and combine both approaches. Unfortunately, we do not have enough time to cover all of the systems and all of the problems in detail, so we will stick to the first, medical approach and cover just a few of the systems of the human body, but I urge you to read the relevant textbook chapters in order to understand the ecological and evolutionary aspects of physiology as well (not to mention some really cool examples of problem-solving by animal bodies). Hint: use the "Self Test" questions at the end of each chapter and if you answer them correctly, you are ready for the exam.