Understanding of life science and technology

The science of studying the phenomena of life. It studies the phenomena and nature of various life activities, as well as the interrelationships between organisms and between organisms and the environment, and the application of life science principles and technologies in human economic and social activities. The first question that life science has to answer is "What is life?" This ancient proposition. Generally speaking, life is characterized by metabolism, growth, heredity, and stimulus response. These characteristics are specific reactions to the movement of life. Life science is the study of the movement of life and its laws.

Life science is a discipline with a long history. In the early stage of human civilization, people have noticed the difference between life and non-life, and observed and described living things, and collected and collated a large amount of materials. before the 17th century, due to the limitations of the level of science and technology and the shackles of theology, the ancient biology has always stayed at the stage of observation and description. In the 18th century, along with the industrial revolution and the development of natural science, the study of organisms into different categories became the main topic, and Linnaeus summarized the results of his predecessors and established systematic taxonomy.In the 19th century, the further development of physics and chemistry, and the continuous application of new technologies to biological research. In the 19th century, physics and chemistry further developed, and new technologies were constantly applied to biological research, making biology a descriptive discipline and an experimental one. 1838 and 1839, German scientists Schleiden and Schwann put forward the doctrine of cell through the study of plant and animal cells respectively: the basic unit of construction of all living things is the cell. Darwin, a British scientist, put forward the theory of evolution that organisms evolve from lower to higher levels in his monumental work On the Origin of Species published in 1859, and believed that biological variation and natural selection were the fundamental causes of biological evolution. 1865, Mendel discovered the two basic laws of inheritance of biological traits, i.e., the law of segregation and the law of free association, and began the study of genetics. in the early 20th century, Morgan further put forward the concept of genes, which is the most important principle in the study of genetics. At the beginning of the 20th century, Morgan further proposed the localization of genes on chromosomes and the doctrine of genes. Thus, biology jumped into the ranks of modern science. On the other hand, life science is a very young discipline. Some of its basic concepts and theories were established with the rapid development of physics, chemistry and other related disciplines since the 20th century. 1945, Schr?dinger, one of the founders of Riemannian mechanics, predicted in his book What is Life? a book that foretold that a new era of biological research was about to begin. He said, "Physics and chemistry at the present time clearly lack the ability to account for the various events that take place in living organisms, yet there is not the slightest reason to doubt that they cannot be accounted for by these two sciences." Major breakthroughs in biological research have been made with the application of advanced techniques in biology such as electron microscopy, X-ray crystal diffraction, and isotopes. The American scientist Bowling studied the molecular structure of proteins by X-ray diffraction and found that peptide chains composed of amino acids could form a helical structure under certain conditions.In 1953, Watson and Crick proposed a model for the double-helix structure of DNA by analyzing and calculating X-ray diffraction photographs of deoxyribonucleic acid (DN-A), and proposed that the that genetic information is stored in the DNA molecule in the order in which the nucleotides are arranged. With this as a breakthrough. Molecular biology was born. Scientists then deciphered the entire genetic code, pointing out that the order of amino acid arrangement in the protein molecule is translated with the nucleotide arrangement in the DNA molecule as a template, and every three nucleotides is an amino acid code. Soon Crick proposed the central law of heredity: the expression of genetic information is transcribed into MRNA using DNA as a template, and then translated into proteins using MRNA as a template according to the genetic code. In this way, the two most basic types of biological macromolecules constituting life - proteins and nucleic acids in the life process to achieve unity in the role of life phenomena can be essentially explained. Modern life science not only has many characteristics different from traditional biology, but also profoundly affects all fields of modern science. Specifically (1) from the quantum level, atomic and molecular level, subcellular and cellular level, tissue and organ level, individual level, populations and communities, ecosystems, biosphere and other different levels of study of the phenomena of life and their interrelationships, and accordingly, the emergence of quantum biology, molecular biology, cell biology, histology and physiology, microbiology, zoology, group biology, ecology and other disciplines. Accordingly, quantum biology, molecular biology, cell biology, histology and physiology, microbiology, zoology, group biology, ecology and other disciplines have emerged, and these disciplines have carried out fine research on the inner laws of life sciences at different levels from micro to macro. (2) Multidisciplinary interpenetration has led to the emergence of a series of sub-disciplines and fringe disciplines in biology. For example, the study of genes and their gene expression of molecular genetics, the study of the structure and function of biological macromolecules, chemical changes in the organism of biochemistry, as well as biophysics, biomathematics, biomechanics, bio-optics, biomedicine, agro-biology, environmental biology and so on. (3) The formation of applied biology. at the end of the 20th century, modern biotechnology (bioengineering) has directly affected people's economic and social life, such as the rise of genetic engineering in recent years, which utilizes the recombination technology of DNA to combine the genes or gene fragments that people need to create the biomacromolecule substances that people want, or even new species. Another example is the use of fermentation engineering, which allows for the large-scale production of interferon (an active protein that fights viruses). Research in medical genetics and molecular biology has made it possible to identify the causes of certain diseases in terms of changes in DNA, the material basis of heredity. More than a dozen oncogenes have been discovered, as well as the mechanisms by which these oncogenes are expressed. It is not long before mankind finally conquers the "incurable disease" of cancer. The implantation of artificial organs has given a new lease of life to some dying people. In addition, modern biotechnology is playing an important role in agriculture, forestry, medicine, food, energy and environmental protection. Research in life sciences also provides many new insights into the study of electronic computers, artificial intelligence, engineering cybernetics, and so on. In addition, life, the study of certain areas of science, but also affects the social sciences and people's social life, such as epidemics and the relationship between ancient cultures, environmental pollution and environmental protection, psychological disorders, population, family planning and social development, behavioral sciences and political science, memory, thinking and other mechanisms of higher life activities, and so on. The high degree of coordination of living organisms and their precise use of matter and energy also provide good objects for research and simulation in modern management science, energy science, transportation, and communication.