Biosphere Contents

2. Diversity

Biologists categorise themselves according to the level of organisation they study

A laboratory

Traditionally, biologists (students of living things) divided themselves into those that studied animals and protozoans (zoologists) and those that studied plants, fungi, bacteria and algae (botanists). Along with the realisation that these divisions do not correspond to more recent classifications of living organisms, there has also been a tendency for biologists to categorise themselves according to the level of organisation they are studying: biochemists and molecular biologists study proteins and nucleic acids; cell biologists study cellular scale processes; physiologists study tissues, organs and whole organisms, and ecologists study populations, communities and ecosystems.

What are the different branches of biology?