Oceanography (from Ocean + Greek γράφειν = write), also called oceanology or marine science is the study of the Earth's oceans and seas. Oceanographers study a wide range of topics such as plate tectonics to ocean currents to marine organisms. These diverse topics reflect multiple disciplines that oceanographers blend to help us understand Earth's interdependencies: biology, chemistry, geology, meteorology, and physics.
Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere that focuses on weather processes and forecasting. Meteorological phenomena are observable weather events which illuminate and are explained by the science of meteorology. Those events are bound by the variables that exist in Earth's atmosphere. They are temperature, pressure, water vapor, and the gradients and interactions of each variable, and how they change in time. The majority of Earth's observed weather is located in the troposphere.
Meteorology, climatology, atmospheric physics, and atmospheric chemistry are sub-disciplines of the atmospheric sciences. Meteorology and hydrology comprise the interdiscplinary field of hydrometeorology.
Meteorologic oceanography studies interactions between our atmosphere and the ocean's hydrosphere. Meteorologic oceanography is one of several sub-domains into which oceanography is divided; others include physical oceanography, biological, chemical, geological and meteorologic oceanography. Applications of meteorology include military meteorology which grew in importance during the 20th century.
Metaphysics (from Greek: μετά (meta) = "after", φύσις (phúsis) = "nature") is the branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the nature of the world. It is the study of being or reality.[1] It addresses questions such as: What is the nature of reality? Is there a God? What is man's place in the universe?
A central branch of metaphysics is ontology, the investigation into what categories of things are in the world and what relations these things bear to one another. The metaphysician also attempts to clarify the notions by which people understand the world, including existence, objecthood, property, space, time, causality, and possibility.
More recently, the term "metaphysics" has also been used to refer to "subjects which are beyond the physical world". A "metaphysical bookstore," for instance, is not one that sells books on ontology, but rather one that sells books on spirits, faith healing, crystal power, occultism, and other such topics.
Philosophy is a broad field of knowledge in which the definition of knowledge itself is one of the subjects investigated. It spans the nature of the universe, the mind, and the body; the relationships between all three, and between people. Philosophy is a field of inquiry – the pursuit of wisdom; the predecessor and complement of science, developing the issues which underlie science and pondering those questions which are beyond the scope of science.
Philosophy has a rich literary heritage, including the writings and teachings of profound thinkers from many cultures throughout history. Philosophers seek to understand the principles that underlie all knowledge and being. For this purpose, they develop methods of thinking, including logic, introspection, and meditation. Applying these methods, they investigate the most fundamental questions, such as "What is the nature of the universe?" (metaphysics), "What do we know, and how do we know it?" (epistemology), "What is the difference between good and evil?" (ethics), "What is beauty?" (aesthetics), and "What is the meaning of life?" (teleology).
Electrochemistry a branch of chemistry suffered several changes on its evolution from early principles related to magnets in the early 16th and 17th centuries to complex theories involving conductivity, electrical charge and mathematical methods to describe electrical phenomena in the late 19th century and 20th century. Nowadays this branch of chemistry is a valuable source of investigation, many scientists are developing further methods related to batteries and fuel cells, avoiding corrosion or improving refining techniques by electrolysis.
The 16th century marked the beginning of the electrical understanding that culminated with the industrial production of electrical power in the late 19th century.
On 1550s English scientist William Gilbert spent 17 years experimenting with magnetism and, to a lesser extent, electricity. For his work on magnets, Gilbert became known as the "Father of Magnetism." He discovered various methods for producing and strengthening magnets. Gilbert's De Magnete quickly became the standard work throughout Europe on electrical and magnetic phenomena. Gilbert made the first clear distinction between magnetic and the amber effect (static electricity, as is known today). On his book "De Magnete" William stated a comprehensive review of what was known about the nature of magnetism. But it wasn't until the advent of the following century when the electrical concept gained scientific importance.
Welcome to the Molecular and Cellular Biology portal. Molecular biology is the study of biology at the molecular level. The field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry. Cell biology studies the properties of cells including their physiological properties, their structure, the organelles they contain, interactions with their environment, their life cycle, division and death. Molecular and cellular biology are interrelated, since most of the properties and functions of a cell can be described at the molecular level.
Molecular and Cellular Biology encompass many biological fields including: Biotechnology, Developmental Biology, Genetics and Microbiology.
Medicine is the branch of health science and the sector of public life concerned with maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, treatment and possible prevention of disease and injury. It is both an area of knowledge – a science of body systems, their diseases and treatment – and the applied practice of that knowledge.
Biotechnology is technology based on biology, especially when used in agriculture, food science, and medicine. The UN Convention on Biological Diversity has come up with one of many definitions of biotechnology:
This definition is at odds with common usage in the United States, where "biotechnology" generally refers to recombinant DNA based and/or tissue culture based processes that have only been commercialized since the 1970s. Thus, in common usage, modifying plants or animals by breeding, which has been practiced for thousands of years, would not be considered biotechnology. This distinction emphasizes that modern, recombinant DNA based biotechnology is not just a more powerful version of existing technology, but represents something new and different; for instance, recombinant DNA biotechnology allows us to take virtually any gene and express it in any organism; we can take the genes that make crimson color in plants and put them into guinea pigs to make pink pets, or, we can take the genes that make anthrax spores lethal and put them into wheat or rice. This sort of gene transfer was virtually impossible with historical processes.
There has been a great deal of talk - and money - poured into biotechnology with the hope that miracle drugs will appear. While there do seem to be a small number of efficacious drugs, in general the Biotech revolution has not happened in the pharmaceutical sector. However, recent progress with monoclonal antibody based drugs, such as Genentech's Avastin (tm) suggest that biotech may finally have found a role in pharmaceutical sales.
Biotechnology can also be defined as the manipulation of organisms to do practical things and to provide useful products.
One aspect of biotechnology is the directed use of organisms for the manufacture of organic products (examples include beer and milk products). For another example, naturally present bacteria are utilized by the mining industry in bioleaching. Biotechnology is also used to recycle, treat waste, clean up sites contaminated by industrial activities (bioremediation), and produce biological weapons.
There are also applications of biotechnology that do not use living organisms. Examples are DNA microarrays used in genetics and radioactive tracers used in medicine.
Red biotechnology is applied to medical processes. Some examples are the designing of organisms to produce antibiotics, and the engineering of genetic cures through genomic manipulation.
White biotechnology, also known as grey biotechnology, is biotechnology applied to industrial processes. An example is the designing of an organism to produce a useful chemical. White biotechnology tends to consume less in resources than traditional processes used to produce industrial goods.
Green biotechnology is biotechnology applied to agricultural processes. An example is the designing of transgenic plants to grow under specific environmental conditions or in the presence (or absence) of certain agricultural chemicals. One hope is that green biotechnology might produce more environmentally friendly solutions than traditional industrial agriculture. An example of this is the engineering of a plant to express a pesticide, thereby eliminating the need for external application of pesticides. An example of this would be Bt corn. Whether or not green biotechnology products such as this are ultimately more environmentally friendly is a topic of considerable debate.
Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary field which addresses biological problems using computational techniques. The field is also often referred to as computational biology. It plays a key role in various areas, such as functional genomics, structural genomics, and proteomics, and forms a key component in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sector.
Astronomy (Greek: αστρονομία = άστρον + νόμος, astronomia = astron + nomos, literally "law of the stars") is the study of the evolution and physical and chemical properties of celestial objects. Astronomical observations are not only relevant for astronomy as such, but provide essential information for the verification of fundamental theories in physics, such as general relativity theory. Complementary to observational astronomy, theoretical astrophysics seeks to explain astronomical phenomena.
Blue has been chosen as the colour for this portal to emphasise that life on Earth relies on the unique chemistry of water. Pitcher plants were chosen as the portal icon for their dependency on a humid habitat, as well as illustrating both autotrophy (in this case, photosynthesis) and carnivory. Finally, they superficially resemble young shoots, with their tips curved in, symbolising growth, a feature of all life.
Physics is the science of the natural world. It deals with the fundamental constituents of the universe, the forces they exert on one another, and the consequences of these forces. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena spanning all size scales: from the subatomic particles of which all matter is made (particle physics) to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole (cosmology).
Chemistry (from Greek χημεία khemeia[1] meaning "alchemy") is the science of matter at the atomic to molecular scale, dealing primarily with collections of atoms, such as molecules, crystals, and metals. Chemistry deals with the composition and statistical properties of such structures, as well as their transformations and interactions to become materials encountered in everyday life. Chemistry also deals with understanding the properties and interactions of individual atoms with the purpose of integration of this knowledge with known facts about larger scale matter in order to obtain a valuable outcome or make an accurate prediction for a given scientific work in which chemical facts are used. According to modern chemistry, the physical properties of materials are generally determined by their structure at the atomic scale which is determined by the properties and energies of the interactions.
Geography (from the Greek words Ge (γη) or Gaea (γαια), both meaning "Earth", and graphein (γραφειν) meaning "to describe" or "to write"or "to map") is the study of the Earth's features and of the distribution of life on the earth, including human life and the effects of human activity.[1] So, literally, the translation would be "To describe Earth".There are at least four traditional views on geography among geographers where emphasis is on the spatial analysis of natural and human phenomena (geography as a study of distribution), on area studies (places and regions), on man-land relationships, and earth science (study of the earth, its waters, and the atmosphere.)[2]
![Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised December 17, 1770[1] – March 26, 1827)](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger2/7528/1040376934036171/240/gse_multipart40754.jpg)
