UNIT EIGHT 



What Are the Uses of Biology? 



1 In what ways are biologists any better off than other people? 



2 In what kinds of business or profession is biology necessary? 



3 How important are the kinds of work that rest on biology? 



4 What occupations make use of biological knowledge incidentally oj 



indirectly? 



5 What is the use of biology outside of any occupation? 



6 How can the ordinary citizen make use of biology? 



7 How did people get along before there was any biology? 



8 In what ways has biology improved conditions of human life? 



9 In what ways has biology made us healthier? 

 10 In what ways has biology made us happier? 



Man shares with other organisms the basic needs — food and air. Air is 

 free, usually, but food one has to get. The helpless human infant survives 

 day by day only because others nourish him and shield him. Gradually, 

 however, the child learns to handle food, eventually to select. And in prim- 

 itive societies the child also helps gather and prepare food as soon as he can 

 toddle about and discriminate among different leaves, berries, seeds, and so on. 



Biology is "learned" in this simple way from the earliest years without 

 lessons, without having a name even. It consists of knowing many plants 

 apart and many animals too: these things you may eat; these you may not 

 eat. Knowing where to find good berries or roots, how to catch fish. Know- 

 ing that these things you may eat as you gather them, but these you may eat 

 only after they have been treated — cooked, mashed, ground, cured, mixed 

 with other things. 



When thirsty, one drinks water. If the appearance or the taste of the 

 water does not please you, you need not drink it. If you are very thirsty, how- 

 ever, you may swallow even unpleasant water. Some peoples cook their 

 water or make teas or some other brews. That was in many cases a good rule, 

 for those who boiled their drinking-water were better off than the others. 

 It was good "biology" even when people did not know the right reason for it. 



Compared with those of other mammals, man's activities are most dis- 

 tinctive in his use of tools and in the making of things. Handling things more 

 skillfully and intelligently than other species, he is able to wander over a 

 wider range. He can create shelters out of whatever materials may be at 

 hand — skins of animals, grass, bark, leaves, sticks, stones, snow. 



Traditionally men have thought of their material needs as food and shelter 

 — housing and clothing. But even the most primitive peoples need more. 



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