Point:
Chapter Important 1a:
Exploring Life
(sections 1.1, 1.2, 1.6)
You will be responsible for these on the first
midterm exam (1.1, 1.2, 1.5, 1.6, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
Section 1.5 of chapter 1 we will cover during
the first first lab
To view lecture notes go to:
www.phage.org/lectures
What is Biology?
These are an intro to biology and a review of
general and water chemistryplease read
these chapters
Let me know how I may be able to improve
that web page so that it may be more usable
No matter what brings you to biology, you will find
the study of life to be endlessly challenging and
uplifting. But this ever-expanding subject can also be
a bit intimidating, even to professional biologists.
How, then, can beginning students develop a coherent
view of life instead of hopelessly trying to memorize
details of a subject that is now far too big to
memorize?
One approach is to fit the many things you learn
from a set of themes that pervade all of biology
ways of thinking about life that will still apply
decades from now when much of the specific
information fossilized in any textbook will be
obsolete.
In some ways, biology is the most
demanding of all sciences, partly
because living systems are so
complex and partly because biology
is an interdisciplinary science that
requires knowledge of chemistry,
physics, and mathematics.
Modern biology is the decathlon of
natural science. And of all the
sciences, biology is the most
connected to the humanities and
social sciences.
Themes that Unify Biology
What is Biology?
First Things First
Today we will cover chapters 1, 2, & maybe 3
1
Themes that Unify Biology
So What is Biology?
Biochemistry
Energy Transduction
Biology is the science studies that Life
Life is the manifestation of how organisms
live (and why they live)
Organisms are complex organic machines
that take in energy (and various
chemicals).
Energy (and chemicals) are utilized by
organisms as the raw material for:
Growing
Protecting themselves
Repairing themselves
Competing with other organisms
Producing offspring
Cell Biology
Cell Division
2
Reduction vs. Systems
As one goes to higher levels in this hierarchy,
new properties emerge that are difficult to
predict from properties at lower levels
That is, there exist properties of groups of
things that are difficult to predict if one
studies individual things in more-or-less
isolation
We will be considering emergent properties all
through this course (though not always explicitly)
In the next chapter, for example, we consider
chemistry so that we may subsequently consider
the biological properties (e.g., biochemical
properties) that emerge from the underlying
chemistry of organisms
Reductionismreducing complex systems to
simpler components that are more manageable
to studyis a powerful strategy in biology.
Hierarchy of Biological Order
Emergent Properties
Metabolic Control
Sex & Genetics
Complexity
(example of systems biology shown)
However, reductionism is more powerful as a tool
than it is as a philosophy (a.k.a., missing the forest
for the trees)
The ultimate goal of systems biology is to
model the dynamic behavior of whole biological
systems.
This is a building up of understanding of the
whole from an understanding of the parts
This is discovering the forest by first studying the
trees, and the fungi, and the animals, and how each
interacts with the other
3
The End
4