The Characteristics of Life The common characteristics for life is that all lives are well organized, they need to use energy, they grow and they reproduce themselves, all lives can respond to environmental stimuli and maintain relatively stable internal environment (homeostasis). Branches of Biology There are many subdivisions in biology. For example, if classified by the subject of the study, there are anatomy, botany (or plant sciences), marine biology, anthropology, zoology and microbiology. If classified by the functional studies, there are molecular biology, biochemistry, biophysics, genetics, physiology, cell biology, developmental biology and ecology. To understand how life evolves and changes over the time, there is evolutionary biology. All these branches are aimed to understand life, and the purpose is to better serve our human health and living conditions. Medical science is overly based on biology studies. Tools To Study Biology The metric ...