BIOLOGY AND SOCIETY
         
          Biology, which is the study of life, is essential to human society because it gives 
          an understanding of how life is formed and how it works, changes and responds to 
          environmental influences. It influences human health, reproduction, quality of life, 
          nutrition and almost every aspect of human’s everyday life. 
         
          Biology explains the very existence of any form of life, from the unicellular to the 
          most developed organisms of all – the human being. The different sub-disciplines 
          of biology refer to human health, as they provide knowledge of human anatomy, 
          study the physical and chemical processes involved and explore how it functions. 
          Biology also studies the origin of diseases, such as the causes of cancer, infections, 
          functional problems, and it contrives treatments. Biology affects the discovery and 
          production of medicines. It is important for human reproduction because it 
          explains the process and finds methods of resolving reproduction problems. 
         
          Biology is essential for the development and enhancement of useful traits in the 
          human species. It also selects new agricultural breeds and plants that improve the 
          nutritional value of food. Biology also investigates the environmental factors that 
          threaten human existence.
         
          Biology can aid in the prevention or cure of diseases, and adds tools for managing 
          the environment. It leads to knowledge that helps prolong life and improve its 
          quality.
         Cont….
       Following is a rundown of ten important ways that biology affects life. 
       
        Keeping you fed:
       
        First off, if plants didn’t produce their own food, you wouldn’t have anything to 
        eat — period. So you can thank the process of photosynthesis the next time you 
        sit down to eat.
       
        Just consider a slice of cheese pizza: You use grains from wheat plants to make 
        flour for the crust, fruits from tomato plants for the sauce, and milk from a cow to 
        make the cheese. The cow is not a plant, but how does it make milk? With the 
        food molecules it gets from eating plants, of course. Everything you eat, no 
        matter how complicated, can be traced back to the food makers such as plants. 
        Without the raw material they provide, nothing else could live on planet Earth.
       
        Putting microbial enzymes to work:
       
        Microbes aren’t just for making foods; they have a wide variety of industrial 
        applications too. Manufacturers put bacterial enzymes in laundry detergent to 
        help break down greasy stains and in meat tenderizers to help break down 
        proteins in meats. If you take vitamin C, chances are that vitamin was produced 
        by a fungus. If you drink a protein shake regularly, the amino acids in that shake 
        probably also came from bacteria. So you see, not all microbes are to be feared. 
        Some of them actually improve your life by simplifying tasks and keeping you 
        healthy.
         Cont….
       
        Powering the planet
       
        Although people are starting to turn to renewable sources of energy, most of the 
        world still runs on fossil fuels such as oil and coal. The word fossil may give you a 
        clue that these fuels are the remnants of living things from long ago. Way back in 
        the Carboniferous period, about 350 million years ago, green algae, plants, and 
        bacteria used photosynthesis to harvest energy from the sun and transform it into 
        the chemical energy stored in their cells. When these living things died, they were 
        deposited in such a way that their energy-rich remains converted into coal, natural 
        gas, and oil.
       
        These ancient energy reserves powered the Industrial Revolution, allowing people 
        to grow their cities and develop new technologies for transportation, 
        manufacturing, and communication. Unfortunately, these advances came with a 
        cost that wasn’t fully recognized until recently.
       
        When people burn carbon-containing molecules from fossil fuels, they produce 
        carbon dioxide as waste. And carbon dioxide is an important greenhouse gas, a gas 
        that traps heat in our atmosphere. In part due to our use of fossil fuels, the Earth is 
        warming, which is already affecting the survival and distribution of life on Earth. 
        Plus, people are now facing the fact that our reserves of fossil fuels won’t last 
        forever.
       
        Maybe one solution to both of these problems lies in mimicking the green 
        organisms that stockpiled this energy in the first place — people could act like 
        plants and go solar!
         Cont….
      
       Designing genes
      
       The food you eat could very likely contain genetically modified 
       organisms (GMOs) — living things whose genes have been altered by 
       scientists in order to give them useful traits. For example, crop plants may be 
       engineered to better resist pests, and animals may be treated with hormones 
       to increase their growth or milk production.
      
       Some people object to the idea of GMOs in their diets, but genetic 
       modification of organisms has enabled some amazing health breakthroughs. 
       If you know someone who takes insulin to treat diabetes, that insulin is made 
       by bacteria that scientists engineered to contain the human gene for insulin.
      
       Causing and treating infectious disease
      
       Whenever you get sick from an infectious disease, such as a cold or strep 
       throat, you’re dealing with the reproduction of an alien invader. Your 
       immune system springs into action, activating the cells necessary to fight the 
       invasion and keep the infectious virus or bacteria from replicating itself any 
       further. Also, whenever you take an antibiotic, you’re taking a medicine 
       made by an organism such as a fungus or a bacterium. And when you get a 
       vaccine, you’re getting an injection of dead or weakened pathogens so that 
       you can train your immune system to fight them should the real thing ever 
       infect you.
         Cont….
      
       Designing genes
      
       The food you eat could very likely contain genetically modified 
       organisms (GMOs) — living things whose genes have been altered by 
       scientists in order to give them useful traits. For example, crop plants may be 
       engineered to better resist pests, and animals may be treated with hormones 
       to increase their growth or milk production.
      
       Some people object to the idea of GMOs in their diets, but genetic 
       modification of organisms has enabled some amazing health breakthroughs. 
       If you know someone who takes insulin to treat diabetes, that insulin is made 
       by bacteria that scientists engineered to contain the human gene for insulin.
      
       Causing and treating infectious disease
      
       Whenever you get sick from an infectious disease, such as a cold or strep 
       throat, you’re dealing with the reproduction of an alien invader. Your 
       immune system springs into action, activating the cells necessary to fight the 
       invasion and keep the infectious virus or bacteria from replicating itself any 
       further. Also, whenever you take an antibiotic, you’re taking a medicine 
       made by an organism such as a fungus or a bacterium. And when you get a 
       vaccine, you’re getting an injection of dead or weakened pathogens so that 
       you can train your immune system to fight them should the real thing ever 
       infect you.