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Biology in the Context of BIS2A

  • Page ID
    21261
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    Biology

    Biology is the scientific study of life. Studying biology is an opportunity to ask exciting questions about the world that surrounds us. It is an opportunity to probe humanity's deepest questions about our origins, our planet's history, and our connections to other living beings (big and small/extant or extinct). It is also an opportunity to dive into a world of problem solving and to think hard about solutions for improving health care, maintaining sustainable food supplies, and producing renewable energy technologies.

    Studying biology also helps us to understand and solve everyday problems. For instance, understanding the biochemical reactions that transform your food into something useful for your body, how energy is stored within food items, and how this energy transfers from your food to your body, teaches you about how your diet and exercise influence your health. Understanding what the microbes which live in, on, and around us, do may help you decide whether to buy products labeled "antimicrobial" or "probiotic". Understanding the biochemical principles that explain what happens to eggs as they cook can help us understand how similar physical processes may be central to the cellular stress response and associated diseases. Understanding of the genetic and biochemical mechanisms that link genetic information to physical traits can help explain your eye color. 

    Studying biology even helps us understand things that are “out of this world”. For instance, understanding the requirements for life can help us look for life on Mars or deep in Earth’s crust. When we understand how to “rewire” cellular decision-making networks, we may gain the ability to regenerate functional limbs or organs from someone’s own tissue, or reprogram diseased tissues back to health. All of these examples represent a small fraction of  the multitude that exist in the natural world.  There are many exciting opportunities to explore. Mastering a few basic principles helps you understand and think more deeply about an array of topics. Keep this notion in mind throughout the course.

    Biology: an interdisciplinary science

    Questions in biology span size scales over ten orders of magnitude, from the atomic makeup and chemical behavior of individual molecules to planetary-scale systems of interacting ecologies. Whatever the scale of interest, to develop a deep and functional understanding of biology, we must first appreciate biological concepts. This involves integrating important ideas and tools from across the spectrum of science, including chemistry, physics, and mathematics. Biology is truly an interdisciplinary science.

    The potential impacts that can come from studying biology are broad

    Some people may think studying biology is only about medicine—however, it can lead to or influence many careers. Biology has applications that are both vast and wide-ranging. Applications include treating (human or other animal) patients, improving agricultural practices, developing new building materials, writing new energy policies, remedying global climate change, creating new works of art—the list goes on and on. For the curious, biology has plenty of unexplored mysteries.

    As you study biology, appreciate its exciting questions and topics and be open-minded. Even though course topics may not always seem related at first, they likely are, in the end. Being open-minded helps you discover and appreciate the connections between the course’s topics and your interests. Discovering how seemingly different topics interrelate can give you a deeper appreciation for the things you enjoy and maybe even spark a new passion.

    BIS2A—from molecules to cells

    BIS2A focuses on the cell, one of the most fundamental units of life. Cells can be as simple as the disease-causing bacterium Mycoplasma genitalium, whose genome encodes just 525 genes (only 382 of which are essential for life), or as complex as a cell belonging to the multicellular plant Oryza sativa (rice), whose genome likely encodes ~51,000 genes. However, despite this diversity, all cells share fundamental properties. In BIS2A, we explore basic problems that all cells must deal with. We study the building blocks of cells, some of their key biochemical properties, the encoding and expression of biological information in genetic material, and how all this combines to make a living system. We will also discuss ways in which living systems exchange matter, energy, and information with their environment (including other living things). We focus primarily on core principles common to all life on Earth, and because of biology's massive breadth, we put these ideas into a variety of contexts throughout the quarter.


    This page titled Biology in the Context of BIS2A is shared under a not declared license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Marc Facciotti.

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