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The Lives of a Cell

Submitted by ED on Sat, 12/19/2009 - 12:31am

 If Biology 103 has taught me anything this semester, it is that nothing and everything matters. Everything matters in the sense that there is no such thing as a real closed system and everything is related; the progression of everything affects everything else, in some complex way. Nothing matters in the amazing sense that, to our current knowledge, only humans consciously care about life on Earth and in the Universe on a long time scale… things do not “matter” objectively outside of human perception. The course has taught me quite a bit about the faultiness of human perception in that we believe our perceptions hold truth. We so easily forget other animals do not see, smell, hear, taste, touch, or sense the world the same way humans do.

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Art, Artificial, Artifice... Hubris?

Submitted by ED on Fri, 12/18/2009 - 1:56pm
Is there any room for magic in biology?
Yes, in the sense that biology is never a static thing, but a constant reevaluation of things, and often the reevaluation can blow people away. No, in the sense that magic requires suspense of belief, a lack of knowing, and biology is the ongoing attempt to know.
This question has followed me for a long time.
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Submitted by ED on Mon, 11/30/2009 - 8:19pm
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Music and Order of Feeling

Submitted by ED on Fri, 10/02/2009 - 1:46pm

            Considering myself to be a fairly cognizant, observant person, I always notice when my heart goes aflutter, or sinks, or starts beating faster. There are several events that make my heart react this way: when I hope for eye contact with someone and then they meet my stare, when someone I like looks me in the eye, when I think of something scary that could happen or something very important that is impending or a deadline that is approaching, when I witness something so nice or so cute that my heart melts in approval. I understand that these reactions are due to the hormonal responses my body has to what my senses perceive in the environment around me.

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This I Believe

Submitted by ED on Mon, 09/28/2009 - 10:55am

I believe in recycling.
 
Yes, I have always loved the great outdoors, yes, I have always had a penchant for dirt and bugs and for clipping the plastic from six packs so animals wouldn’t get strangled. But, I never thought I would come to live and breathe the world as consciously as I do today. It wasn’t a choice I made, but rather an unexpected event that showed me my starkest flaw—attachment—and gave me my greatest gift: a most necessary lesson in science.
 
When I was five, we sold the family’s gray caravan and I cried for days at the loss. When I was twelve I cut my hair for the first time—three inches off—and wept at that loss as well.

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Remote Ready Biology Learning Activities

Scanning electron microscope image of SARS-CoV-2

Remote Ready Biology Learning Activities has 50 remote-ready activities, which work for either your classroom or remote teaching.

Narrative is determined not by a desire to narrate but by a desire to exchange. (Roland Barthes, S/Z)

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