Handbook

Physiology is all about what makes human bodies work - how the organs - including the brain - function, how humans grow and develop, how humans sustain bodily functions and what happens to these processes during disease and ageing. More specifically, it considers how molecules in cells interact to provide specific functions (molecular and cellular physiology) and how organs, which are collections of cell types, have local and distal actions via neural and humoral (e.g. hormones) communication to sustain the life of an organism. The latter represents systems or integrative physiology. Physiology contributes to all major aspects of biology, including comparative biology, neuroscience, and the allied disciplines of pharmacology, anatomy and pathology.