Everything about Physiology totally explained
Physiology (from Greek: φυσις,
physis, “nature, origin”; and λόγος,
logos, "speech" lit. "to talk about the nature (of things)") is the study of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of
living organisms.
Physiology has traditionally been divided between
plant physiology and
animal physiology but the principles of physiology are universal, no matter what particular
organism is being studied. For example, what is learned about the physiology of
yeast cells may also apply to
human cells.
The field of animal physiology extends the tools and methods of
human physiology to non-human animal
species. Plant physiology also borrows techniques from both fields.
Its scope of subjects is at least as diverse as the
tree of life itself. Due to this diversity of subjects, research in animal physiology tends to concentrate on understanding how physiological traits changed throughout the
evolutionary history of animals.
Other major branches of scientific study that have grown out of physiology research include
biochemistry,
biophysics,
paleobiology,
biomechanics, and
pharmacology.
History
Physiology can trace its roots back more than two millennia to
classical antiquity, to the Greek and Indian medical traditions. The critical thinking of
Aristotle and his emphasis on the relationship between structure and function marked the beginning of physiology in Greece, while Claudius Galenus (c. 126-199), known as
Galen, was the first to use experiments to probe the function of the body. The ancient Indian books of
Ayurveda, the
Sushruta Samhita and
Charaka Samhita, also had descriptions on human anatomy and physiology.
During the
Middle Ages, the ancient Greek and Indian medical traditions were further developed by
Muslim physicians, most notably
Avicenna (980-1037), who introduced
experimentation and
quantification into the study of physiology in
The Canon of Medicine. Many of the ancient physiological doctrines were eventually discredited by
Ibn al-Nafis (1213-1288), who was the first physician to correctly describe the
anatomy of the
heart, the
coronary circulation, the structure of the
lungs, and the
pulmonary circulation, for which he's considered the father of
circulatory physiology. He was also the first to describe the relationship between the lungs and the
aeration of the
blood, the cause of
pulsation, and an early concept of
capillary circulation.
Following from the Middle Ages, the
Renaissance brought an increase of physiological research in the
Western world that triggered the modern study of anatomy and physiology.
Anatomist William Harvey described the
circulatory system in the 17th century, demonstrating the fruitful combination of close observations and careful experiments to learn about the functions of the body, which was fundamental to the development of experimental physiology.
Herman Boerhaave is sometimes referred to as a father of physiology due to his exemplary teaching in Leiden and textbook 'Institutiones medicae' (1708).
In the 19th century, physiological knowledge began to accumulate at a rapid rate, most notably with
Matthias Schleidan and
Theodor Schwann's "Cell theory" which radically stated in 1838 that organisms are made up of units called cells, along with
Claude Bernard's (1813-1878) many discoveries that ultimately led to his concept of,
interieur (internal environment) which would later be taken up and championed as
Homeostasis by American physiologist
Walter Cannon (1871-1945).
In the 20th century, biologists also became interested in how organisms other than human beings function, eventually spawning the fields of
comparative physiology and
ecophysiology Major figures in these fields include
Knut Schmidt-Nielsen and
George Bartholomew. Most recently,
evolutionary physiology has become a distinct subdiscipline.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Physiology'.
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