Health Dictionary
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Human biology
Introduction
Overview
Overview
Human biology is an interdisciplinary academic field of biology, biological anthropology, and medicine which focuses on humans; it is closely related to primate biology, and a number of other fields. The human biology major was founded in 1970 at Stanford University.
Human biology research encompasses:
- Genetic variation across human populations, present and past
- Biological variation related to climate and other elements of the natural environment
- Determinants, across populations, of risk for degenerative disease and infectious disease
- Human growth and development
- Biodemography
While undissputed boundaries do not exist, human biology is typically distinguished from conventional medical research by an enhanced focus on international, population-level perspectives on health, and on human evolution, adaptation, and population genetics rather than individual diagnosis.