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Making Sense of Life
| Biology 103, Fall, 2007, Bryn Mawr College | |||
 COMPLEXITY |
BIOLOGY: BASIC CONCEPTS |
 DIVERSITY  HUMANITY |
Welcome to the home page for a one-semester introductory biology course at Bryn Mawr College, fall semester, 2007. Students (and visitors) should be aware that this is a "non-traditional" science course in several respects (see Science As Story Telling in Action for further background). The course is organized in relation to the following general presumptions (see syllabus for specifics):
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Course Announcements/Evolution:
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Welcome to Biology 103. And to thinking about science, and about life, and to trying to make sense of their relation to one another, and to ... Browse around, be sure to read the course presumptions, and let's see what we can together do that's interesting, productive, and fun (those being the same thing?). If you're registered for the course, be sure to follow instructions for getting a user name and password (you must use a bico email address). Start by introducing yourself in the on-line forum below (be sure to log in first if you're registered for the course), with some thoughts about what you'd like to better understand about life. Visitors are welcome to add their own thoughts here and in the other course forums without logging in. Such postings will be reviewed to avoid spam and so may be delayed in appearing. Comments on the general organization and conduct of the course are welcome at any time in the on-line forum associated with the more detailed course information. 7 September
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Remote Ready Biology Learning Activities
Remote Ready Biology Learning Activities has 50 remote-ready activities, which work for either your classroom or remote teaching.
A Random Walk
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Comments
Hi, My name is Rachel. I'm a
Hi,
My name is Rachel. I'm a super senior at Bryn Mawr, meaning this is my last semester. I'm from south florida. I'm an english major. I am taking Bio to fulfill the lab requirment but also because I took Neurobiology and behavior with Grobstein and really enjoyed it.
What puzzles me is how everything fits together: The place of humans in the world. Our advanced technology and increasing knowlege of "the way things work" seems to improve our lives...but isn't it also a detriment? Not many people stop to think about how we are creating a world completely different from the world we evolved to live in. I would be interested in looking at this.
"creating a world ... different ..."
Hi, my name is Kerlyne Jean
Hi, my name is Kerlyne Jean and I was born and raised in a small town called Hyde Park which is in Boston. I'm a Frosh at Bryn Mawr and may be a Pre-Health major or simply go into Public Health. I enjoy studying languages, dancing, and singing. So, hopefully that can play a role in deciding what I may want to do in the future.
Something I would like to learn from this class is about the whole nature vs. nurture idea. Are our traits/characteristics necessarily passed down from our parents or is because of the surroundings that we are in that makes us the way we are?
genes and environment
Biology, Kaitlin, Brains, Dreams....etc.etc.
Hey...
My name is Kaitlin, I'm a frosh at BMC. I'm from Maine and am interested in just about anything and everything, so I'm a little unsure of what I want to study. I'm thinking along the lines of a career in Public Health, so probably Anthro major with Pred Med concentration. My dream is to do a Paul Farmer, Partners In Health, Doctors Without Borders kind of deal. We'll see where it goes though.
As for Bio topics...I'm very interested in the brain-how it works, how much of it we use (and how much of it Einstein used, for example), dreams, sleep patterns, and the like. Also Epidemiology (I think Saskia you were wondering about TB mutations and MDR TB (Multi Drug Resistant TB) which I'm very interested in as well) and Infectious Diseases. Should be a fun class.
K
epidemiology and the brain
Hello
Hello, my name is Ashley Savannah. I am from Boston, MA. I am a sophomore at Bryn Mawr College where I intend to major in Anthropology. I am very excited about this class and will love to learn as much as I can. I am very interested in learning about diseases and why there are some diseases that are found in a huge population of a particualar race and not others.
disease and race
Hi My name is Saskia
Hi
My name is Saskia Guerrier and I am originally from Haiti. I moved to America when I was about 10 years old. My family now resides in Boston. I am currently a freshwoman at Bryn Mawr.
I am thinking of majoring in Anthropology and eventually attend a school of public health and study infectious diseases as well as the effect that culture has on the treatment of diseases. My question is how does some diseases like Tb mutate so that there are stronger strains of them.
evolution of virulence
intro.
Hello.
I'm Eurie Kim, a sophomore at Bryn Mawr, intending to major in Art History.
I'm from a lot of places, like New Jersey (U.S.A.), Seoul (Korea), and Surabaya (Indonesia).
Now, what I'd like to know is why do some people inherit all the good genes while the rest inherit the "reject" genes? Inheritance is a tricky little thing and unfair, at that. Can someone's way of thinking be genetically traced or is it all "nurture" playing the role of shaping someone's personality? And if the saying goes "survival of the fittest", then why does it not seem like everybody really fits? There are always some deviants, no?
To sum that up, genetics and evolution are what I'm curious about.
thinking and genes
Hello
(Sorry, I wasn't able to get to a computer in time to make an account yet.)
Hello, my name is Crystal, I'm from San Diego, California. I'm a junior at BMC and a Classics major.
There are many things in life that I don't yet understand, but one of my main interests is the impact of various types of diseases on cultures and societies.
disease and society
Hi Everyone!
Hi, my name is Vivian Cruz. I am Salvadorian and live in Massachusetts with my family. I am a possible Anthropology major and Political Science minor (they might switch) and I am interested on the different approach that this class has on biology. I'm excited about all the things that we'll learn, particularly I would like to learn the reasons for some diseases to exist more in certain ethnicities, and I would like to understand why is it that science has already been able to do amazing things for the cure of certain diseases but not yet of cancer? I'm also intrigued by the things that keep humans of this era from living extensive lives like our ancestors did?
ethnicity and disease
Hello!
Hi! My name is Eri Koike and I am currently a sophomore (undecided major) at Bryn Mawr who is originally from Princeton, NJ!
I haven't completely decided on a major as of yet, but I am leaning towards possible a Sociology or Economics major with an Art History minor. I was originally interested in taking this class because of the unique approach to Biology that I wasn't able to experience during my four years at high school.
My question is about the genetic/molecular aspects of obesity and whether the Body Mass Index (BMI) really has a bearing on determining the fitness of an individual. I recently read a book in Sociology concerning these problems from a sociological point of view, so I would appreciate being able to understand the scientific aspects of this issue.
I look forward to being able to work together with other students in order to find the solution to these and other problems.
obesity
LaKesha Roberts
Hello Everyone!
My name is LaKesha Roberts and I am a Sophomore at Bryn Mawr College. I am from California and I know a lot of people wonder why I would leave such a state, but I was really interested in experiencing the different seasons. I plan to major in mathematics and really would like to find something that I can minor in. Even though I have never been the student you would catch in a science class, I found this one to be very interesting. I enjoy the fact that this class is not focused around a textbook, but instead more discussion based. I hope to learn a lot about the human race and how it relates to the world. One of the things I really would like to know is how did the environment affect the evolution of mankind? I also want to learn more about diseases, abnormalities and defects that are present in the world today? And how they came about?
environment and evolution
Introduction
Hi, my name is Paige and I'm a junior psychology major at Bryn Mawr. I'm originally from Boston but now I live in New York. I have always wondered about the biological processes involved in creating emotions and mood. How much do the events in our lives influence the chemicals in our brain?
emotions and the brain
Hi
Hi, my name is Andy..
I am from Seoul, Korea and I am a sophomore at Haverford. I would probably major in political science and economics.
I am haverford photo editor for the Bi-college newspaper and also work at the CDO.
I was never really a science person but signed up for this class because the discussion based course structure sounded interesting.
I always wondered at what stage of the pregnancy should the embryo be considered as a life and would like to learn more from this class.
I hope to learn much from all of you and hope we have a great semester :)
Andy
pregnancy and life
Intro to Kate
Hi there.
I'm Kathryn (Kate) Gould, I'm from Massachusetts, and I'm a freshwoman at Bryn Mawr. At this point in time I haven't quite decided on my major, although I am leaning toward Biology.
What I do know is that I'm interested in scientific journalism and just about any science-related subject. My main interests probably fall in neurobiology and epidemiology, but they change every time I start a new book or read a new article online.
I have so many questions --I hardly know where to begin-- but I guess my first one concerns the human mind. Phantom limbs, cartoon character hallucinations, pseudocyesis-- these are symptoms caused by damage to the brain... but why? How? And how are these bizarre abnormalities related to human nature and how the mind works?
brains, minds, and human nature
Hello!
My name is Elizabeth and I am a freshwoman at BMC from Brooklyn, NY. Currently I am not sure of what I want to major in: I am still deciding if I want to major in Biology or Art History. I took two years of biology in high school (one regular biology course, and one AP biology course). I was interested in what I learned in those classes, though I wasn't sure if I had the desire to major in the course. My Biology classes in the past have been textbook and lab oriented with very little discussion. I decided to take this course so that I could learn Biology from a different perspective-by studying what I was interested in and talking with other people about my ideas and questions.
There are many different questions and topics that I am interested in and a lot of questions I would like to try to answer in this class. One of the topics that really sparked my interest was the "Fat is Fit" article in the New York Times. I am interested in learning about how people's bodies differ and how humans can not all be compared to a certain standard. I want to learn how different parts of our genetic make up can help us learn more about ourselves.
biology, art, and bodies?
Fat or fit?
Paul, "For purposes of the present argument, though, what is significant is that there is no sign in the picture in the head of either the ambiguity itself or of the act of repainting the picture as it goes from one stable state to the other."
Indeed it is amazing what the brain can do, interpreting the same shape ('fat or fit') in different ways. Being concerned about one's figure, where does the medical observation turn into the 'modical' one? Is there an intrinsic non-physical logical force shaping our polar variables and parallellisms that makes them fit the outside world, or would that rather be from the involuntary (or unconscious) sensor functions? I am tempted to say that this is the 'normal way' of seeing things that is fed (on topic!) forward or backward through communication, which would make it a story, but even more that this is 'normal science' or 'normal religion' with a solid empirical or teleologic base. So sports sciences would sanction the 'fat view' as being unhealthy but buddhism would sanctify it as imperative to the nirwanic state.
Fat or fit? Medicine versus ?
Glad to have the issue raised of whether "health" has a "solid empirical or teleologic base", ie a form of definition independent of the observer and associated cultural and individual idiosyncracies, or is instead context-dependent. Yes, we normally don't notice the likelihood of "ambiguity" along these lines when we call something "healthy" or "unhealthy" (the "For purposes of the present argument ..." quote is from here). For more exploring this ambiguity see Culture as Disability, A Critical Analysis of the Scientific Model of Health, Models of Mental Health, and The More I Learn, the More I Realize How I Think and Learn is Different. What makes the fat vs fit issue particularly interesting in this regard is the increasing evidence that substantial variation in body size is probably "normal" rather than being pathological (as per the Angier articles mentioned above).
The end of correctness
Cultural adaptability can be explored ad infinitum in (cultural) relativism, however not in one particular way. Cognition easily accommodates behavior in pure perception, one cognition easily responds to another 'through the cables' as Grandin puts it, and behavior easily adapts to cognition if there is will behind it. One respect though, the contagion of one behavior by the other, is a subject of interest if not of great concern. Although once a Leftist, I now strongly feel that contagion is propagated by the (activist) Left. Democracy and the common view are 'constructable' as the Dutch Left has had it for far too long (that is over now, luckily), when behavior spreads like wildfire, one person mimicking the other, 'as they should'. This can be true for (Leftist) political views as well as for the judgment on someone's (own!) health. I reject this as you correctly suspected. That is not to rule out the contextualist view, though it is to dismiss the nihilist cultural relativistic one. The spreading of the view is still to be desired, however it all depends on the way in which that is to be obtained. It should NOT be by behavioral contagion (memes or memetics, René Girard), 'proving' the Other ('politically') correct by doing, saying and thinking as he/she does, but by independent confirmation as science and religion authentically have meant it to be. Not in the way democrats rape democracy, even when the collective view is steered away from the medically correct to the modically correct, the dictate of correctness is to be eliminated altogether. For two people sharing one thought do not necessarily confirm each other's independent views, if they just pursue personal happiness and a sense of belonging through repeating whatéver the Other says and does, let alone think alike.
Introduction
Hello, everyone!
My name is Catrina Mueller. I am a freshman this year and am thinking of double majoring in Japanese and Spanish.
What I really want to know about life is what makes us different. Not what types of characteristics make us different, but what makes us like things and dislike things . Even identical twins can like and dislike different things.
I also would like to know more about how speech is formed in the brain.
language, brain, differences
Introduction
Hi my name is Samar Aryani and I am a sophomore at BMC. I am planning on majoring in political science with a minor in sociology. My background in Biology is not much so there are a few aspects of it that I am interested in learning more about. I want to learn the fundamentals of biology such as the building blocks of life. I am also curious in exploring the similar characterstic(s) that is(are) present within every life filled object, if such a characteristic exists. A broader question that I have would be, how is everything in the world related by its origin? Does this mean that biologists more or less believe that every object in the world has the same origin? Also, what are the similiarities between human and animal interactions within the same natural environment? A final question that has been constantly put to debate is the theory of evolution. What do a majority of biologists believe about evolution? What is their stance on the issue?
I really hope to get a better understanding of at least a few of the topics listed above because most of them are interesting topics that can be discussed among different fields of study and each field presents interesting views and points.
beliefs of majority of biologists?
Hey everyone
My name's Ruth, and I'm an English major with an education minor. I'm from Baltimore, MD, and I'm hoping to teach English in an urban environment one day. My interest in biology is kind of half-formed at this point. I find literature looks a "LIFE" one way, and I'm starting to understand that literary view point of understanding the world and the way things work. When I think biology, the first thing that comes to mind is the poem "Bone," by Mary Oliver, which is this amazing poem about finding a whale's ear bone on a beach. She can make conclusions about herself and other people based on this ear bone, and I wonder if the same kinds of connections can be made more factually.
What I hope to learn from this course is how people are similar and how they are different from the rest of nature. We've given ourselves this caretaking, top-of-the-food-chain role, but do we deserve it? And how can I look at these things from a more practical, perhaps less theoretical view point?
biology and literature
My name is Caitlin McGowan
Fat v. Fit
Hi, I am Luisana Taveras and my username is pending approval
Hello again, my name is Luisana Taveras and I am a frosh at Bryn Mawr. I have a great interest in Biology and most recently cultural anthropology. I am glad to know that there are courses aside from the "traditional" science ones meant for premeds. I could never aspire to be a doctor because I can not have the life of someone on my hands. I could however, dwell on the ways in which science has, is, and will continue to leave it's footprint on this planet. Its always amazing to see how the progression of science technologically or otherwise has impacted the inhabitants of this world that use and abuse it. With that said and with the different topics and ideas brought up from our first class, I'm really looking forward to this course.
Thank you.
biology and cultural anthropology
Hello!
My name's Marie and I'm a senior History Major here at Bryn Mawr. I play tennis for the college, which I really like.
I think that my questions about life focus on my wonderings of why I feel the way I do. For instance, I often wonder about why I feel sad, mad, happy. I've always thought that something must be happening outside of me to make me feel an emotion, like some outside element must be the cause (which is not to say that it is not my fault). But there is also the possibility that it is actually something inside of me, like a trigger in my brain, that makes me feel a particular emotion, which I think would make it more biological.I don't know if these things are really answerable but that's what came to mind!
Also- the saying "You are what you eat?" I find that puzzling.
autonomy and matter that matters
hihi, my name is Kendra
hihi, my name is Kendra Sykes and I am from New York City. I am an intended Political Science major/ Spanish minor and I am a sophomore at BMC. I have never considered myself much of a science kind of girl but the course description as well as the first day of class really sparked my interest in more of the 'why?' of biology than what is taught in conventional science classes. I, like a number of others have mentioned, am interested in the genetic pathway of certain diseases, but even more than that certain conditions like alcoholism. I feel that in this class I would get my questions answered. Can't wait!
no answers but ... more observations?
Me, Me, Me
a few things we never knew before
Introduction
Genetics and heart disease
Interesting intersection of biology, urban development, race. Some possible starting places. Remember to distinguish observations from "stories", and that you may want to try and create "less wrong" stories than those you read.
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4610 (American Heart Association)
http://www.cdc.gov/genomics/public/famhix/faq.htm (Family History initiative, from the National Office of Public Health Genomics)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6615237.stm (BBC news report)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/11/health/11heart.html (NY Times report)
My name is Kyree Harmon, and
Infectious diseases and emergence
Nice relevant book:
Guns, Germs, and Steel, by Jared Diamond
And some intriguing broader questions. Like science fiction? Robert Sawyer has a interesting trilogy beginning with Hominids, that offers some not unreasonable speculations following from considerations like Diamond's.
Introduction
I am from Ellicott City, Maryland and am an intended Political Science major. I am a freshman at BMC.
I have questions about life similar to Rachel's. How did life form? Where did life originate? Was life planned? How did complex organs (such as the eye) of the body evolve? How does the brain work? Is the brain merely a highly complex computer or is there something else involved?
Evolution of The Eye
Elliot, I too had - and still have - many questions similar to this. In regards to the evolution of the eye, here's a neat little video by David Attenborough that I hope will clarify your question: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TEKDWAe_b8
Regards, Jon.
Jon2_1@hotmail.com
planning and brains
Introduction.
There was a girl named Rachel T
Who decided to take biology
She liked reading a lot
And read much, so she thought
For there's nothing in Delaware, you see.
I wrote a limerick to introduce myself because I thought it would express what it is that I would like to understand better about life. A poem makes sense, just as, say, it makes sense that the human body's arms are shorter than its legs. But many poems also rhyme, which fascinates me: I am always surprised after reading a poem with a rhyme scheme that the English language contains words that both rhyme and are related in some way.
Likewise, I am fascinated that something - biology, life - is able to create shorter arms than legs. What scientifically is creating these characteristics is something basic I'd like to know more about. But furthermore, is this "something" deciding to create things? Or is it just coincidence, like the fact that the first letter of my last name (T) rhymes with biology? For example, if a gene does indeed determine one's sexuality, then what does that bring to the discussion besides, "A person does not choose to be gay." True, we may not be able to figure out some code to the unpredictability of life and biology, but how others (and I) think about the ramifications of what we do and could know is of great interest to me.
Influences, including unpredictability
Older, probably still relevant book that impressed me a lot when I was in college:
Chance and Necessity, by Jacques Monod
Maybe also relevant:
/bb/EncyHumBehav.html
http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev.psych.55.090902.141429 (Annual Reviews of Psychology)
epigenetic triggers
Rachel, "But furthermore, is this "something" deciding to create things?"
Most literally, "something" is turning on, or off, inheritance. This something is the immediate environment. From memory, a gene can be turned on in the next generation, when the previous generation has experienced e.g. famin. Pembry found that famin experienced by the parents can turn on a stress hormone in the children. Or the eating habits of the grandparent can determine the life-expectancy of the grandchildren. This is called the 'transgenerative response' in epigenetics. (That is, genetics immediately influenced by the environment.)
http://medlibrary.org/medwiki/Talk:Epigenetics
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