Bioscience is the study of living organisms, including their behavior, evolution, and potential uses. It encompasses various subsets, such as biochemistry and botany, and intersects with other sciences. Bioscience has been practiced for centuries and is crucial to fields such as medicine and agronomy. Researchers in this field have a broad education and may study fossilized remains to construct a timeline of evolution.
Bioscience is the branch of science that deals with living organisms, from microorganisms to towering trees and gigantic whales. Within this incredibly broad branch of the sciences, there are a number of smaller branches focused on specific questions affecting living organisms. Biochemistry, for example, deals with the chemistry of life, while botanists study plants exclusively.
This branch of the sciences developed into a serious line of scientific inquiry in the 19th century as people began to explore the natural world from a scientific perspective. However, people have been studying and practicing biosciences for centuries. When early humans selectively bred plants to produce larger and more consistent crops, for example, they were engaging in food science, a subset of bioscience. Similarly, as humans began domesticating animals and learning how to breed for desirable traits, they became involved in an early form of zoology.
Bioscientists study things like the nature of living organisms, their behavior, their evolutionary history, and their potential uses. Depending on the subset of the biosciences a researcher is involved in, they may spend a lot of time at the laboratory bench probing things like the chemical composition of living organisms or time in the field studying wild animals in situ.
A bioscientist can be described by the type of organisms studied, as in the case of zoologists, botanists and microbiologists. Bioscience also intersects with a number of other scientific branches, such as chemistry and physics, in which case the researchers are known as biochemists and biophysicists, respectively. Bioscientists also study things like history, the cultural impact of living organisms, ecology, and sustainability.
This branch of scientific inquiry is extremely important. Bioscience is the foundation of many other schools of scientific inquiry, from medicine to agronomy, and new discoveries are made in this field every day. Thanks to the abundant diversity of life on Earth, there is always much to learn in the world of biosciences.
You may hear bioscience described as “biology” or “life science,” referring to the fact that the target is living organisms, both large and small. People working in this field typically have a broad education in the sciences, with further study in the field of their choice. A paleobotanist, for example, studies fossilized plant remains and other evidence that can be used to construct a timeline of plant evolution, so he may have studied archeology, chemistry, and geology in addition to botany.
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