Història de l'ensenyament de la biologia a la universitat

History of the teaching of biology at the university. This is a brief historic review of the academic studies of Biology at the University of
Barcelona since the Natural Sciences curricula, with special emphasis on the present degrees
in Biology and Biomedicine; a reference is also made of these academic degrees in
other Universities of the Catalan Countries. In particular, it is pointed out how the methodological
progress, resulting from the application of the new physical and fine chemistry
technologies, has expanded the available information in the different biological
fields, sometimes changing particularly well-established concepts. The emergence of new
specialties to satisfy social demands as the genetic characterization of some illnesses or
the study of the neurodegenerative processes appearing in an increasingly long-lived human
population has emphasized the importance of those subjects related to neurobiology
or to different pathologies, promoting in most cases their inclusion in the curricula.
The interdisciplinary nature acquired by the different subjects since a long time, has been
highly reinforced recently. In this review there is, thus, a grateful acknowledgment to
those public and private institutions, which, in a certain degree, were responsible for the
maintenance and improvement of the biological studies in a period when the University
had a much harder «struggle for the existence» than even today. Among others, the Institució
Catalana dHistòria Natural, the Societat Catalana de Biologia and the Laboratori
Biològic de Sarrià are mentioned.