Life Sciences
What are Life Sciences?
Life Sciences are the areas of science that study life, including microorganisms, plants, and animals. Although life sciences cover a broad array of disciplines, it’s one of two main branches of natural science, with the other being physical science, which looks at non-living matter. Of the life sciences, biology is the largest sub-discipline.
Because the populations of humans, plants, and animals are so large, there is much interest and study in the life sciences and many innovations follow. As long as the focus on studying life is there, life sciences can be cross-studied with other fields to embody nearly countless disciplines, such as immunology (the study of the immune system), biotechnology (the study of technology and living organisms), pathology (the study of diseases), theoretical biology (the use of math to study living phenomena), and more.
Due to life sciences being present in so many areas, there is great innovation in this field, with organizations constantly researching and developing products and services to meet existing and future needs.
Other Names for Life Sciences:
- Bioscience
- Biomedical science
- Natural science
- Biology
- Biological science
- Science of life
- Study of living things
- Life science artificial intelligence
Why are Life Sciences Important?
Life sciences are important because they touch on nearly every aspect that impacts the human population, whether they involve people directly or the plants and microorganisms that might have direct or indirect effects on people. Even something as seemingly unrelated as the Pixar movie “Toy Story” used life sciences: some of the patents involved, such as the Slinky Dog or Lots-o’-Huggin’ Bear, used human and animal mannerisms to create the characters.
More commonly, though, life sciences have more direct applications to everyday life. With a global population aging past the mean in previous generations, medicine and healthcare are two huge fields where life sciences undergo accelerated developments as compared to other sub-disciplines. With such rapid research and development in the innovation process for life sciences, finding that extra edge in such a huge field can make the difference between a boon in revenue or having to start completely from scratch.
