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As the name might suggest, life science studies life in all its forms, past and present. This can include plants, animals, viruses and bacteria, single-celled organisms, and even cells. Life sciences study the biology of how these organisms live, which is why you may hear this group of specialties referred to as biology.
As you might expect, with an estimated 8.7 million species of animals, about 400,000 species of plants, and countless species of bacteria and viruses, there are a lot of different forms of life you can study. Many life science researchers specialize in one class or organism, and some specialties such as zoology have even more subspecialties.
Life science is an enormous scientific field that aims to answer some of the most fundamental questions about us. It examines everything from the blue whale breaching the ocean’s surface for air to the sugar ant crawling along a kitchen counter to the bacteria that run your digestive process. It looks at how we live, where we live, and how we might live better.