Biology is the study of the diverse forms, processes, and systems of life including microbes, fungi, plants, and animals. Biologists work in all natural environments, and agricultural and clinical venues as well. Biologists understand that life is connected across recent and geologic time, and across the molecular-to-biome spectrum. Biologists employ natural selection and evolution as mechanisms that explain both the diversity and connectedness of life.
To understand this great biological complexity, biologists utilize integrative and comparative approaches for the resolution of the general processes, principles, and unifying themes that govern living systems. The field of biology is therefore very interdisciplinary, and biologists rely on knowledge from the physical sciences and mathematics to advance knowledge and create breakthroughs in applied and basic research problems.