Life science and medicine
The life sciences, also called the biological sciences or biology, involve the study of living organisms. There are two main fields of the life sciences. Botany deals with plants, and zoology with animals. Botany and zoology are further divided into various branches, each of which can be subdivided into areas of special study. Most major branches of the life sciences apply equally to plants and animals. Many of the branches, such as anatomy and physiology, overlap with, and contribute greatly to, the study of medicine.
Anatomy
Anatomy examines the structure of living things. Anatomists investigate the parts of organisms and how the parts are related. Histology deals with tissues, and cytology with the fine structures of individual cells. Comparative anatomy studies similarities and differences in the body structure of animals and provides clues to how certain animals might have evolved.
Biology is the scientific study of living things. There are more than 10 million species of living things on Earth. They range in size from microscopic bacteria to huge blue whales and towering redwood trees. Living things also differ greatly in where and how they live. However, all forms of life share certain characteristics that set them apart from nonliving things. These characteristics include the ability to reproduce, to grow, and to respond to changes in the environment.
Traditionally, biology has been divided into two major fields. Botany deals with plants, and zoology with animals. Botany and zoology are further divided into various branches and specialized areas of study. But most branches of biology—for example, anatomy (the study of the structure of living things) and genetics (the study of heredity)—apply to both plants and animals.
Biological research has greatly affected people's lives. For example, farm production has soared as biologists have helped develop better varieties of plants and new agricultural techniques. Discoveries in biology have enabled physicians to prevent, treat, or cure many diseases. Research on the relationships between living things and their environment has helped in the management of wildlife and other natural resources.
Joy Adamson
Joy Adamson (1910-1980) was a wildlife conservationist and author who won wide recognition for her observations on animal behavior in Africa. She is best known for her books Born Free (1960), Living Free (1961), and Forever Free (1962), in which she describes the life of the lioness Elsa.
Rachel Carson
Rachel Carson (1907-1964) was an American marine biologist and science writer. She wrote several books that reflect her lifelong interest in the life of the seas and the seashores.
Jewel Cobb
Jewel Isadora Plummer Cobb (1924-...) is an African American biologist known for her research and her work to promote science education. Cobb conducted important studies on skin cells that produce the brown pigment melanin. She was interested in learning how these cells work normally and how they become cancerous.
Gerty Cori
Gerty Theresa Cori (1896-1957) was the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. In 1947, she and her husband, Carl F. Cori, shared the prize with Argentine researcher Bernardo A. Houssay for their studies of carbohydrate metabolism, the process by which the body changes such foods as sugars and starches into energy.
Sylvia Earle
Sylvia Alice Earle (1935-...) is an American oceanographer and environmentalist. In 1979, she was the first person to dive solo to 1,250 feet (381 meters) beneath the surface without being connected to a support vessel. During that dive, she reached the floor of the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii.
Gertrude Elion
Gertrude Belle Elion (1918-1999), an American biochemist, helped create important drugs used to treat cancer, malaria, and other deadly diseases. In 1988, Elion and Hitchings shared the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with British scientist James W. Black for developing such logical new approaches to drug design.
Dian Fossey
Dian Fossey (1932-1985) was an American zoologist who studied the mountain gorillas of the Virunga Mountains in east-central Africa. She founded the Karisoke Research Center in Rwanda and lived there in near-isolation for almost 18 years. Fossey's research on wild mountain gorillas led to efforts to protect this rare and endangered species. She was mysteriously murdered at her camp in Rwanda in December 1985.
Jane Goodall
Jane Goodall (1934-...) is an English zoologist who studies the behavior of animals. She became known for her work with chimpanzees and her efforts to ensure their survival in the wild. Goodall began her research in 1960 at what is now Gombe Stream National Park in northwestern Tanzania. She won the trust of many chimpanzees through daily contact with them. She observed them at close range and wrote detailed reports.
Rita Levi-Montalcini
Rita Levi-Montalcini (1909-...) is an Italian and American biologist who did important research on cell growth. Her work won a share of the 1986 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, along with American biochemist Stanley Cohen.
Lynn Margulis
Lynn Alexander Margulis (1938-...), an American biologist, helped advance the study of the origins of cells. She developed the symbiotic theory, which states that bacteria played a vital role in the development of eukaryotic cells, or cells with a nucleus. Animals, plants, and many other living things are made up of eukaryotic cells.
Barbara McClintock
Barbara McClintock (1902-1992), an American geneticist, won the 1983 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine. She received the award for her discovery that certain genes can change their position on the chromosomes of cells. These genes, called mobile genetic elements, occur in all organisms.
Christiane Nusslein-Volhard
Christiane Nusslein-Volhard, (1942-...) is a German biologist who made important discoveries about how genes control the early development of embryos. For her work, she shared the 1995 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with two American researchers, Edward B. Lewis and Eric F. Wieschaus. She was the first German woman to win a Nobel Prize in science.
Physiology
Physiology deals with the normal functions of living things and their parts. For example, physiologists study how nerve fibers transmit impulses and how organisms take in and use food. Biochemistry examines the chemical processes that are involved in the actions of the different parts of plants and animals. Biophysics investigates the physical processes involved in the functioning of the various parts of living things.
Physicians diagnose, treat, and prevent diseases and conditions. Primary care physicians treat general medical problems, but many physicians specialize in one area of medicine. For example, dermatologists diagnose and treat diseases and disorders of the skin, hair, and nails; and surgeons perform operations.
Other types of doctors include chiropractors, dentists, optometrists, podiatrists, and veterinarians. Chiropractors treat diseases and conditions by manipulating or adjusting the spine and other parts of the body. Dentists diagnose, treat, and prevent diseases and other problems of the teeth, jaws, and gums. Optometrists diagnose vision problems and diseases. They may prescribe and fit eyeglasses and contact lenses. Podiatrists diagnose, treat, and prevent diseases and conditions of the foot and lower leg. Veterinarians treat animals.
Virginia Apgar
Virginia Apgar (1909-1974) was an American physician who developed a system for evaluating the physical condition of a baby immediately after birth. The system, known as the Apgar score, assigns a numerical score to five vital functions measured one and five minutes after birth.
Elizabeth Blackwell
Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910) was the first woman in the United States to receive a medical degree. She helped break down prejudice against women in medicine. Blackwell graduated from medical school in 1849. In 1857, she and her younger sister Emily Blackwell, a surgeon, opened their own hospital in New York City. The hospital, called the New York Infirmary for Women and Children, was staffed entirely by women and primarily served the poor.
Roberta Bondar
Roberta Bondar (1945-...), a doctor of medicine, became the first Canadian woman to travel in space. In January 1992, she and six other astronauts made an eight-day flight aboard the space shuttle Discovery. During the mission, Bondar studied how space flight affects human beings and how gravity affects and helps shape materials and living things.
Mary Calderone
Mary Steichen Calderone (1904-1998), an American physician, won fame for her efforts to promote sex education in schools. She helped establish the Sex Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) in 1964 and was its executive director until 1982. SIECUS provides information about sex education to counselors, physicians, religious groups, and schools. It also publishes books and study guides.
Alice Hamilton
Alice Hamilton (1869-1970) was an American physician who pioneered in industrial medicine. Her efforts led to greatly improved health conditions in industrial workplaces and to the introduction of workers' compensation laws in the United States. From 1911 to 1920, Hamilton was a special investigator for the United States Department of Labor.
Mae Jemison
Mae Carol Jemison (1956-...), an American astronaut and physician, became the first African-American woman to travel in space. In September 1992, she made an eight-day flight on the spacecraft Endeavour. Aboard the spacecraft, Jemison conducted the first experiment that fertilized frog eggs in space.
Susan Picotte
Susan La Flesche Picotte (1865-1915) was the first American Indian woman to become a physician. She earned an M.D. degree in 1889 from the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She graduated at the top of her class.
Florence Sabin
Florence Rena Sabin, (1871-1953), an American scientist, did important research in human embryology. Sabin showed that blood cells and the lymphatic system develop from buds on the veins of an embryo.
Helen Taussig
Helen Brooke Taussig, (1898-1986) was an American physician who specialized in children's heart diseases. She discovered the major defects that cause the bluish tinge in the skin of blue babies.
Mary Walker
Mary Edwards Walker (1832-1919) was the only woman to receive the Medal of Honor, the highest military award given by the United States government. She was a pioneer woman physician and a supporter of the women's rights movement of the late 1800's.
Other branches
The field of genetics is concerned with how plants and animals pass on characteristics to their offspring. Molecular biology examines the structure and function of proteins and other large molecules essential to life. Paleontology investigates the forms of life that existed in prehistoric times. Taxonomy involves the classification of living things. Sociobiology deals with the biological basis for the social behavior of people and other animals. Ecology focuses on the relationships living things have to one another and to their environment.
Some life sciences concentrate on certain kinds of organisms. For example, bacteriology is the study of bacteria, and ornithology is the study of birds. Some other life sciences investigate the organisms that live in a specific environment. Marine biology, for instance, studies the plants and animals of the sea.
Most nurses work in hospitals taking care of sick people and helping them get well. But nurses also work in other places. Visiting nurses go to the homes of the sick. Some nurses assist in the offices of doctors and dentists. Others work in medical clinics, in schools, in stores and factories, in the armed forces, and on ships, trains, and airplanes. Nurses may be found wherever their skills are needed—in big cities, small towns, and farm areas in all parts of the world.
In addition to caring for the sick, nurses help healthy people stay well. They teach children and adults to protect themselves from disease. Nurses who have had advanced education may also teach in schools and colleges of nursing. Some nurses with advanced clinical skills have started their own clinics, providing patients with such services as physical examinations and nutrition and mental health counseling.
The two main groups of nurses are professional nurses and technical nurses. Professional nurses are usually graduates of four- or five-year college programs. Technical nurses are graduates of two-year community college or three-year hospital programs. Another group of nurses, called practical nurses, complete a training program that generally lasts 12 months. Practical nurses perform many duties that relieve professional and technical nurses for other tasks that require more preparation.
Most nurses are women. More women serve in the field of nursing than in any other profession except teaching. However, more and more men have been entering the nursing profession. Until the 1960's, men made up only 1 percent of the total number of professional nurses. By the early 2000's, men made up over 10 percent of students enrolled in undergraduate professional programs and about 5 percent of all practicing professional nurses.
Clara Barton
Clara Barton (1821-1912) was the founder of the American Red Cross. She was born in North Oxford, Massachusetts, on Dec. 25, 1821, and began her career as a teacher. She served as the first female clerk in the United States Patent Office (now the Patent and Trademark Office). Soon her humanitarian interests led her into the field of health.
Edith Cavell
Edith Louisa Cavell, (1865-1915) was an English nurse and one of the martyrs of World War I (1914-1918). Cavell was in charge of a hospital in Brussels, Belgium, when German troops occupied the city in 1915. For several months she helped Allied soldiers, about 200 in all, to escape to the Dutch border.
Elizabeth Kenny
Elizabeth Kenny (1880-1952), an Australian nurse, developed a method of treating poliomyelitis. Kenny was born on Sept. 20, 1880, in Warialda, New South Wales. She became a nurse in Australia's bush (remote countryside). One day, an epidemic of poliomyelitis struck, and Kenny could not get medical help. This led her to work out her own method of treating the victims. She found that prompt application of hot woolen packs relieved muscle spasms and usually prevented the patient from becoming crippled.
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) was the founder of the nursing profession as we know it today. British soldiers who were wounded in the Crimean War called her "The Lady with the Lamp" when she walked the halls of their hospital at night. The light that Nightingale carried has come to mean care for the sick, concern for the welfare of the ordinary soldier, and freedom for women to choose their own work.
Mary Nutting
Mary Adelaide Nutting (1858-1948) was a leader in the development of professional nursing in the United States. She helped establish professional standards in nursing education and the practice of nursing. She developed a model training program that supplemented practical experience in a hospital with practical instruction in nursing principles.
Lillian Wald
Lillian D. Wald (1867-1940) founded the first visiting nurse program in the United States that was not affiliated with a religious group. Her contacts with the poor in New York City in the depression of 1892-1893 inspired her to found the Nurses' Settlement, later known as the Henry Street Settlement. It became a model for public-school nursing programs in the United States.
