生物学的英文单词biology由希腊语的βίος (bios)(意为“生命”)加上后缀'-logy'(意为“科学”、“……的知识”或“……的学问”,源自希腊动词λεγειν, 'legein' = “选择”或“收集”)合成。现代意义上的术语biology分别由卡尔·弗雷德里希·布达赫(Karl Friedrich Burdach,1800年)、戈特弗里德·莱茵霍尔德·特里维兰纳斯(Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus,《Biologie oder Philosophie der lebenden Natur》,1802年)以及让-巴普蒂斯特·拉马克(《Hydrogéologie》, 1802年)独自使用[1][2]。而单词本身在米夏埃尔·克里斯托弗·汉诺夫(Michael Christoph Hanov)于1766年出版的Philosophiae naturalis sive physicae dogmaticae: Geologia, biologia, phytologia generalis et dendrologia的第三卷中作为标题出现。
一些艺术家,如阿尔布雷希特·丢勒和列奥纳多·达芬奇,经常和博物学家一起工作。他们对动物和人体感兴趣,研究了生理学的细节并对解剖学知识作出了贡献[41]。炼金术和自然魔法的传统,特别是在帕拉塞尔苏斯的作品中,也坚持了对生命世界的认识。炼金术将有机物质进行化学分析,并随意使用生物学和矿物药理学[42]进行试验。这是在17世纪对世界观的持续转换的一部分(机械论的兴起),而传统的隐喻“自然是有机的”(nature as organism)也被“自然是机械的”(nature as machine)所替代[43]。
地质学的出现拉近了博物学和自然哲学的距离;地层的确立将生物的空间分布转化为时间的分布。进化的重要先驱乔治·居维叶和其它一些学者在1790年代后代和1800年代早期建立了比较解剖学和古生物学。居维叶在一系列演讲和论文中对活体的哺乳动物与化石遗迹进行了详细的对比,他认为化石是灭绝生物的遗迹,而不是仍有存活生物的遗迹,他的看法得到了广泛认同[52]。吉迪恩·曼特尔、威廉·巴克兰、玛丽·安宁和理查·欧文等人发现并描述的化石也帮助建立了史前的哺乳动物之前还存在一个“爬行动物时代”(age of reptiles)的理论。这些发现带来了公众对地球生命史的关注[53]。多数地质学家坚持灾变论,但是查理斯·莱尔的名著《地质学原理》(1830)使詹姆斯·哈顿的均变论变得更加通俗,这个理论认为地球在过去和现在发生的地质作用都是相同的[54]。
1859年,达尔文发表了巨著《物竞天择,适者生存之物种起源论》(即《物种起源》),这一事件被认为是现代生物史的重要事件之一。达尔文使用博物学家的可信度、清醒的语调并利用了大量的完整数据,使《物种起源》继续了之前的进化论工作,如已经失败的匿名作品《自然创造史的遗迹(英语:Vestiges of Creation)》(Vestiges of Creation)。19世纪末的多数科学家都认同演化论和共同起源。但是直到20世纪,自然选择都没有被作为主流演化机制来看待,正如同多数现代遗传理论似乎与自然变异遗传并不相容一样[57]。
继德堪多、洪堡及达尔文之后,华莱士为动物地理学作出了巨大贡献。由于他对蜕变假说的兴趣,他对几乎同类的物种分布特别关注。他起初在南美进行了这一领域的研究,而后又到了马来群岛。他在马来群岛发现了著名的华莱士线, 这条线穿越摩鹿加群岛将整个群岛的动物区系分成了亚洲区和新几内亚/澳大利亚区。他提出了一个重要的问题,为什么相似气候的群岛上的动物会有如此大的区别,这只能从它们的起源来回答。1876年,他发表了《动物的地理分布》(The geographical distribution of animals),这一作品在半个世纪中被作为参考作品使用。1880年的继作《岛屿生命》(Island Life)对岛屿的生物地理学进行了研究。他将菲力浦·斯科雷特用于描述鸟类地理分布的六区区系推广到所有物种。他将地理区域内的动物群体逐一列出并强调不连续性,他对演化论的理解使他作出了合理解释,而这一工作之前并没有人完成过[58][59]。
奥斯瓦尔德·埃弗里于1943年提出可能DNA是染色体的遗传材料,而不是蛋白质。这一说法在1952年的赫希-蔡斯实验得到确认,这也是以物理学家转为生物学家的马克斯·德尔布吕克为中心的“噬菌体团队(英语:phage group)”所作出的贡献之一。1953年,詹姆斯·杜威·沃森和弗朗西斯·克里克在莫里斯·威尔金斯和罗莎琳·富兰克林的工作基础上,提出DNA的结构为双螺旋结构。在著名的论文《核酸分子结构》中,沃森和克里克只是简单地提到,“我们假定的配对直接给出了遗传材料可能的复制机制,这并没有逃离我们的注意。“(It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material.)[85]。1958年的米西尔逊-斯塔尔实验验证了DNA的半保留复制,大多数生物学家都清楚核酸的序列在一定程度上决定了蛋白质中的氨基酸序列。物理学家乔治·伽莫夫提出,固定的遗传密码用于联系蛋白质和DNA。在1953年至1961年,只有少量书籍的生物学序列—DNA或蛋白质的—但提出了大量的密码体系。为了实际破解遗传密码,在1961至1966年期间进行了大量生物化学和细菌遗传学的试验,其中尼伦伯格和科拉纳的工作尤为重要[86]。
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