SCIENCE_BIOLOGY
SHOULD SOCIETY SUPPORT BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH?
Introduction
The meaning of research for a layman is to investigate. The Oxford dictionary defines research as the “systematic investigation into and study of material and sources in order to establish fact and reach new conclusions.” Sometimes research and experiments seem to be like same in meaning but there are vast differences. Research is best in order to study about the qualitative data while experiments are used to derive relations between the several variables involved in the phenomenon. Research is easy to do in social sciences due to manipulating variables and collecting data and to draw the conclusion. Experiments are based on the numerical variables and their relations that determine cause and effect relations. Research provides the answer related to the question what is….? While experiments solve the answer related to questions like what if...?The main objective of research is to enhance society by advancing knowledge through the development of scientific theories, concepts and ideas. Explorative, descriptive and causal are the three types of research widely used at present.
Science a subject itself studies about mystery all the branches of science of deals about the study of natural phenomenon. Based on the biology a student of biology may may curiosity about the following questions:
Why do chameleons change their skin color?
Fishes do not have eyelids. why?
Why are the leaves of mountainous areas needle shaped?
Why do the polar bears have thick fur in their bodies?
When a student of biology starts getting answers to above questions and draws a conclusion then it becomes a research but to be a complete research the conclusion must be scientifically accepted and full of logic. The last stage of a research is to generate a theory.
Importance of Biological Research for a society.
As we know that earth was born about 4.5 billions of years ago, life was not possible even after the origin of earth. When the environment was favorable the first the primitive plants and then animals evolved. Humans are not only the wisest creatures on the Earth, they are the youngest creatures too. Earnest Haeckel who is the father of ecology studied the relation between different ecological factors of earth and classified them as biotic and abiotic. Biotic factors deal with the living component of the ecology while the abiotic component deals with the non living component of the earth. These both the factors are equally important to sustain life on the earth. So here the student of biology will study the importance of soil, water, oxygen, carbon dioxide, light and temperature to human beings and several animals and generate the conclusion. Similarly he or she also develops the relation between plants and animals during photosynthesis and respiration to clear the curiosities of the society and mankind.
Evolution process is never simple and gets completed. New things and new life keeps on evolving on the earth. There is variation between plants and animals of the same phylum or class. Like frogs and toads are similar in physical appearance but there are several differences. Peas and gram are dicotyledon plants but there are vast differences between them. Though birds are regarded as glorified reptiles but character of birds is different from the reptiles, so a research becomes complete when it studies curiosities like what, when, how, what if and where and develops the theory to be accepted by the society.
Chlorophyceae, a green algae, have chlorophyll to absorb the solar energy but still it is not capable of making food because it does not have proper rhizoids ( primitive roots) to absorb water and minerals. Similarly fungi have rhizoids to absorb water and minerals but no chlorophyll but still we find these organisms surviving in nature because they are interacted with each other in the sense that algae shares chlorophyll with fungi and fungi shares rhizoids with the algae because of which they are capable of carrying out photosynthesis and make food require for them. These seem to be simple studies but the biologist has invested a series of years to meet the logical accepted conclusion.
The state of a country or a region in terms of the production and consumption of goods and services and the supply of money is called economy. The economy of the country depends upon the wealth of a society. Agricultural science, a part of biology, has numerous branches. Agronomy, horticulture, plant breeding , plant pathology, fishery, animal husbandry, Poultry, Apiculture and sericulture are regarded as the important ones. These parts of biology are involved in the economic growth of the community. the proper knowledge of these subjects economic growth is potential
The part of plant science that studies soil management and crop production is called agronomy. Several kinds of crops are grown to feed animals and humans for survival. The cash crops are grown in order to sell in the market and earn some money. Money is the means of financial transaction in a society or a country. Sunflowers, rose, marigold are regarded as the ornamental flower. These plants or flowers are reared for decoration purposes. The part of science which deals with the growth and cultivation of such flowers, fruits and vegetables is called horticulture. Horticulture also deals with the vegetative propagation of the plants which are crucial for a farmer to earn their living by selling it to the market. So horticulture is also regarded as the backbone for a botanist to promote economic growth of a community.
When we talk about diseases, it directly makes us to imagine about human disease. So we are one of the selfish creatures in this world. Sometimes to a layman disease is prevalent in humans which is completely wrong. Plants are also victims of several kinds of diseases. In the 1800's, a disease called potato blight destroyed much of the potato crop in Ireland. Since many Irish people depended on potatoes as their staple food, mass starvation and emigration resulted. This caused Ireland's population to dramatically decrease. Lack of food is one factor that can limit population growth. Plant pathology is the science that studies the causes of plant diseases, the mechanism by which diseases develop, and in the plant population and the ways and means by which plant diseases can be managed or controlled.
The part of agricultural science which is concerned with rearing fish for commercial purposes is called fishery. Fish is one of the crucial nutritious diets of human beings so the rearing of fish is increasing day by day. The world produces more than 155 million tons of seafood each year. As the consumption of fish and seafood is increasing day by day so a separate branch of science has been developed called aquaculture
The controlled cultivation, management and production of domestic animals including improvement of the qualities considered desirable by humans by means of breeding is called animal husbandry. Animals are bred or raised for food, fur, clothes and for research. Bee provides us honey; their hives are used for producing wax. Honey is good for our health. So honey bees are reared for human benefits. The maintenance of bee colonies especially in man made hives is called apiculture. Sometimes apiculture is also termed as beekeeping.
Silk clothes are very soft in texture and attractive. It is one of the strongest natural fibers. Silk clothes are very expensive in the market. Silk thread is derived from the larva of silkworm(Bombyx mori)so Farmers are interested in rearing silkworms. The practice which deals with the rearing of silkworm is called sericulture
Looking at these several examples of economic importance of plants and animals it gives a lot of hints that biology plays a crucial importance in the economic status of the society or a country and there is no objection or a society to resists biological research.
