Physiology
Field · 17th century onward; experimental from the 1840s · Biology, stage 2: Map the fields
Physiology studies how the parts of a living body work and how they are regulated. It began with mechanical questions about circulation and respiration and became an experimental science in the nineteenth century, when Claude Bernard and others insisted that claims about function be settled by controlled intervention on live animals rather than by dissection and inference. Its organising idea is that a body holds its internal conditions steady by feedback.
What it claims
- Function is established by experiment, not inferred from structure alone.
- A living body maintains its internal conditions within narrow limits despite external change.
- Regulation works by feedback: departures from a set point trigger responses that reverse them.
Key ideas
People
Sources
- Physiology Wikipedia
- Homeostatic Processes for Thermoregulation Nature Education Scitable
- American Physiological Society American Physiological Society
