Biology 101

A History of Life (How We Figured It Out)

What is life? And how did we figure it out?

Biology 101: A History of Life is the story of how humans discovered life from the outside in. Poking, slicing, sketching, sequencing, and arguing our way toward understanding what it means to be alive.

From Aristotle’s animal lists to Darwin’s dangerous idea. From Mendel’s peas to the human genome. From hand-ground glass to CRISPR gene editing.

This is not a textbook. It’s a history of discovery. The brilliant, chaotic, often accidental process that turned biology from folklore into code.

©2025 James Johnson (P)2025 James Johnson