Basic Biology
clock | December 7, 2006It's Thursday, so it is time for the next portion of my BIO101 lecture notes (May 15, 2006). As alway, I'd appreciate corrections of errors, and suggestions for improvement.
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Cell Differentiation and Embryonic Development
BIO101 - Bora Zivkovic - Lecture 2 - Part 2
There are about 210 types of human cells, e.g., nerve cells, muscle cells, skin cells, blood cells, etc. Wikipedia has a nice comprehensive listing of all the types of human cells.
What makes one cell type different from the other cell types? After all,…
clock | November 30, 2006Conitnuing with the Thursday BIO101 lecture notes, here is the fifth part. As always, I ask you to correct my errors and make suggestions to make the lecture better. Keep in mind that this is a VERY basic speed-course and that each of the lecture-notes covers roughly 45 minutes (often having 3-4 of these within the same day). This part was first posted on May 14, 2006.
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Cell Division and DNA Replication
BIO101 - Bora Zivkovic - Lecture 2 - Part 1
In the first lecture, we covered the way science works and especially how the scientific method…
clock | November 28, 2006I wish that, many many years ago when I was becoming a biologist, that I could have read this wonderful little book - On Becoming a Biologist by John Janovy! What a little gem!
On the surface, or by looking at the Table of Contents, this slim volume appears to be just yet another in a long line of books giving advice to people who are interested about joining the profession. And sure, it does contain important information about getting accepted into a program, choosing one's project, teaching, research, publishing, getting funded, giving talks etc. But it is also much more than that. The…
clock | November 23, 2006Continuing with my BIO101 lecture notes (May 08, 2006). As always, please correct my errors and make suggestions in the comments.
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BIO101 - Bora Zivkovic - Lecture 1 - Part 4
Cell-cell interactions
Cells do not exist in complete isolation. For a coordinated function of cells in a tissue, tissues in an organ, organs in a system and systems in the body, cells need to be able to communicate with each other. Each cell should be capable of sending chemical signals to other cells and of receiving chemical signals from oter cells, as well as signals…
clock | November 16, 2006Here is the third BIO101 lecture (from May 08, 2006). Again, I'd appreciate comments on the correctness as well as suggestions for improvement.
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BIO101 - Bora Zivkovic - Lecture 1 - Part 3
The DNA code
DNA is a long double-stranded molecule residing inside the nucleus of every cell. It is usually tightly coiled forming chromosomes in which it is protected by proteins.
Each of the two strands of the DNA molecule is a chain of smaller molecules. Each link in the chain is composed of one sugar molecule, one phosphate molecule and one…
clock | November 9, 2006Second lecture notes from my BIO101 class (originally from May 08, 2006). As always, in this post and the others in the series, I need comments - is everything kosher? Any suggestions for improvement?
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BIO 101 - Bora Zivkovic - Lecture 1 - Part 2
The Cell
All living organisms are composed of one or more cells - the cell is the unit of organization of Life.
Most cells are very small. Exceptions? Ostrich egg is the largest cell. Nerve cell in a leg of a giraffe may be as long as 3m, but is very thin.
Basic Structure of the Cell
A cell is a…
clock | November 2, 2006This week's question in the Ask a ScienceBlogger series is:
What's the most underfunded scientific field that shouldn't be underfunded?
The first and obvious answer is, of course, "my field", whatever it is.
But then....
But then I thought about my own field of chronobiology and I think that its funding goes as overal funding goes. When there is a lot of money to go around, clock researchers get their fair share. When everyone is suffering, so does my field. After all, circadian field is deemed pretty "sexy" - it was a runner-up in the year-end popularity lists of the Science magazine at…
clock | November 2, 2006
I am currently teaching only the lab portion of BIO101 and will not teach the lecture again until January, but this is as good time as ever to start reposting my lecture notes here, starting with the very first one (originally posted on May 07, 2006) and continuing every Thursday over the next several weeks.
Although this is old, I'd love to get more comments on each of those lecture notes. Did I get any facts wrong? Is the material inappropriate for the level I am teaching? Is there a bette rway to do it? Are there online resources I can tap into…
clock | October 19, 2006Animals with cool names (binomial, but cool).
More animals with cool names: Tort and Retort
Even more animals with cool names: That Cyprus mouse is not as unique a find as it was touted in press releases. I was not aware that Balkans were such a hot spot for new species discovery. I thought Josif Pancic got them all!
clock | October 19, 2006I just got the teaching schedule for Spring, so I decided to follow up on last week's post by putting, under the fold, a series of short posts I wrote when I taught the last time, musing about teaching in general and teaching biology to adults in particular. These are really a running commentary on the course. The actual lecture notes are here:
Biology and the Scientific Method
Lab 1
Cell Structure
Protein Synthesis: Transcription and Translation
Cell-Cell Interactions
Cell Division and DNA Replication
Lab 2
From Two Cells To Many: Cell Differentiation and Embryonic Development
From Genes…
clock | October 11, 2006Meandering Musings on evolutionary psychology and many other things (from February 15, 2005)...
I remember when PZ Myers posted this exercise on his blog. The point was to show how much all of modern biology is based on and dependent on evolutionary theory because of oft-repeated bizzare claim by Creationists that this is not so.
Now Josh Rosenau has embarked on expanding this project and has started a pair of blogs just for this purpose. One blog, The Evolution Project will track recently published scientific papers that more or less explicitely are based on evolutionary theory, while its…
clock | October 7, 2006I just discovered (on my Sitemeter referrals list!) a cool new blog - Biology In Science Fiction. Several good posts so far. Go check it out!
clock | October 5, 2006I missed answering AskTheScienceBlogger question for a few weeks now, so let me take a quick stab at the latest one:
What's an antioxidant, and why are they healthful? I thought oxygen was supposed to be good for you!
Not that I know too much about this but I should, as the molecule central to my area of research is melatonin which is one of the most powerful antioxidants normally produced in our bodies. I do mention antioxidants when I teach the Intro Bio lab, so I know the very basic, textbook stuff, as I wrote here:
Then I explained in quite a lot of detail what happens in the…
clock | October 4, 2006In the light of this years' Nobel Prizes in Physiology and Chemistry (all RNA all the time), it would be interesting to think how would transcription, translation, gene regulation and replication work if DNA has evolved to be like this!?
clock | October 4, 2006In these days of global warming it is important to realize how important temperature is in regulation of a variety of biological processes. Here is today's sampler of examples:
Why Do Cold Animals Make Bigger Babies?:
Reproduction involves a critical decision: Should an organism invest energy in a few large offspring or many small ones? In a new study from the American Naturalist, biologists used a new statistical approach that can test multiple theories at the same time, an approach they hope will shed light on many evolutionary problems. They used data from many populations of Eastern…
clock | October 3, 2006As you have probably heard already, Andrew Fire and Craig Mello have won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery of RNA interference.
Jake Young explains what RNAi are and what they do and why is this so revolutionary. Then he explains why those two people got the Nobel for this work instead of some others.
Alex Palazzo (also here), Abel PharmBoy, Carl Zimmer, Nick Anthis and PZ Myers have more and explain it much better than I could ever do. The last time the Nobel was given for work I really understand and like was in 1973 - ah, the good old days when the Nobel did not require…
clock | October 2, 2006You know there is a special place in my heart for Pilobolus.
Now, Jenna took some great pictures of it in her mycology class yesterday. She promises to post the micrographs soon.
clock | September 27, 2006An interesting paper came out about nine months ago about a proposed new universal law of biology, so I blogged about it on January 17, 2006 and updated on February 20, 2006.
Now this is some cool science!
Biology does not have laws. Natural Selection is a Principle. Evolution is a Theory. But the closest biology comes to having a law is scaling, yet there are so many exceptions to the rule, how lawful really is it?
Now, a paper came out claiming a new law: Unified Physics Theory Explains Animals' Running, Flying And Swimming, and it is mighty interesting:
The researchers show that so-…
clock | September 22, 2006From October 09, 2004. I'd write it differently today, but the main point still stands.
Life begins, takes its course, and ends.
The course of Life determines the directionality of Time. Without Life, it would be impossible to determine which way the Time goes, what is Past and what is Future.
Every living organism dies, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, Life becomes Non-Life.
But, when does Non-Life become Life? This seems to be the key question in the discussions about abortion, stem-cell research, and other touchy political/religious topics.
Usual answers: at the time of fertilization, or 40…
clock | September 20, 2006Paramecia Adapt Their Swimming To Changing Gravitational Force:
The researchers placed a vial with pond water and live paramecia inside a high-powered electromagnet at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Fla. The organisms are less susceptible to a magnetic field than plain water is, so the magnetic field generated inside the vial "pulls" harder on the water than on the cells. If the field is pulling down, the cells float. If it's pulling up, they sink.
Using water alone, Valles and Guevorkian were able to increase the effect of gravity by about 50 percent. To increase…