Welcome to Understanding Life

Understanding Life is the educational website of The Physiological Society, it provides support for the teaching and learning of physiology - primarily at ages 11-19.

The Physiological Society is a learned society founded in 1876. Originally established for those with an interest in experimental physiology, The Society has continued to grow and now has a membership of over 3,000. The majority of our members are still active in experimental physiology but we now have a growing membership of educationalists and students, teaching and learning about this broad science.

The rich source of physiology expertise from our members has enabled us to design this website, which provides inspirational resources for teaching and learning in physiology for ages 11-19. There are also opportunities for teachers and students to ask the experts questions, and enter competitions to win some exciting prizes.

With the 2012 Olympics around the corner, and exercise physiology being a major part of the discipline, many of the resources available on the website now have been designed to support teaching in sports physiology (including our competition The Science of Sport: How to Win Gold). We will continue to build on these resources and add new themes in due course.