scopeofzoology

avoids to a large extent the complexity of detailed processes within each box. Because it is
an approximation, a compartment model with flow paths between boxes is a crude picture of
reality, which means that when it is used for prediction, errors may be amplified and
augmented because of a lack of precision with regard to mechanism. Nevertheless it is the
only way to handle physiological and ecological data that require integration for a full
understanding. The technique is becoming widely used in these branches of zoology.
Subdivisions of biology
The ultimate goal of science is to devise and explain conceptual schemes about the nature of
the universe in which we live. Science used to be divided into Natural Philosophy and Natural
History, thereby suggesting a single subject - Nature - and a dichotomy of method. In today's
usage, we have a division into the Biological and Physical Sciences, implying a revised
attitude - a unity of method - Science and a diversity of subject. However, differences
between the biological and physical sciences are clearly a feature of the specialist viewpoint
and the diversity of subject matter disappears when we take a broad view of science and
detect a basic unity.
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