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MSU LBS 148 - Overview of Lecture:
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BS148H: Overview of Lecture: An introduction to the course, expectations, how things work, etc. An overview of Themes in the Study of Life (Text ch 1). Some important things to keep in mind when thinking about Science, Research & Understanding Nature Bullet Points: • overview of the course – Welcome & Schedule web pages • the big questions in science are mostly biological • properties of living things – a definition is problematic • hierarchical organization of life • the human-microbiome “superorganism” • interactions & emergent properties • holism - reductionism: experiments vs descriptive studies • what is science: understanding: describe - predict • correlation vs. causation: music & math; pets & allergies ... • experiments & generality: Mozart effect • the blind men and the elephantScience 1 July 2005: 309, p. 75 1. What Is the Universe Made Of? 2. What Is the Biological Basis of Consciousness? 3. Why Do Humans Have So Few Genes? 4. To What Extent Are Genetic Variation and Personal Health Linked? 5. Can the Laws of Physics Be Unified? 6. How Much Can Human Life Span Be Extended? 7. What Controls Organ Regeneration? 8. How Can a Skin Cell Become a Nerve Cell? 9. How Does a Single Somatic Cell Become a Whole Plant? 10. How Does Earth's Interior Work? 11. Are We Alone in the Universe? 12. How and Where Did Life on Earth Arise? 13. What Determines Species Diversity? 14. What Genetic Changes Made Us Uniquely Human? 15. How Are Memories Stored and Retrieved? 16. How Did Cooperative Behavior Evolve? 17. How Will Big Pictures Emerge From a Sea of Biological Data? 18. How Far Can We Push Chemical Self-Assembly? 19. What Are the Limits of Conventional Computing? 20. Can We Selectively Shut Off Immune Responses? 21. Do Deeper Principles Underlie Quantum Uncertainty and Nonlocality? 22. Is an Effective HIV Vaccine Feasible? 23. How Hot Will the Greenhouse World Be? 24. What Can Replace Cheap Oil--and When? 25. Will Malthus Continue to Be Wrong?http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.02/bigquestions.htmla) order {low entropy} b) evolutionary adaptation c) sensitivity - responsiveness d) regulation - homeostasis {maintaining low entropy} e) energy utilization f) growth & development {decreasing entropy} g) reproduction Next lecture – What is Life? Criteria vs some characteristics. Zygotes, viruses, computer codes?10 Molecules Replicating DNA & RNA molecules are special; Dawkins: Selfish Genes (‘replicators’) are the real ‘units of selection;’ organisms are just ‘vehicles.’ ~8% of human DNA is HERV: Human Endogenous Retrovirus 9 Organelles (chloroplast) Chloroplasts & mitochondria are degenerate symbionts with some DNA and quasi-indep replication. - if evolved from “live” ancestors not now alive? 8 Cells “life’s basic units” – is that right? 7 Tissues 6 Organs & organ systems (in multicellular eukaryotic organisms) 5 Organisms - genetic conflicts within organisms? Populations of organisms are members of a species living together - are “living together” & “species” well defined? 4 Communities of populations living together & exchanging resources form Ecosystems 3 2 1 the Biosphere - is whole earth Biosphere a homeostatic organism - Gaia? - note “living together” again! “superorganisms?”Advances in microbiologic analysis and systems biology are now beginning to implicate the gut microbiome in the etiology of localized intestinal diseases such as the irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease {IBD}, and colon cancer. From the following article: A human gut microbial gene catalogue established by metagenomic sequencing. J Qin, et al. 2010. Nature 464, 59-65. Fig 4. Bacterial species abundance differentiates IBD patients and healthy individuals. Principal component analysis* with health status as instrumental variables, based on the abundance of 155 species {microbes} … carried out with 14 healthy individuals and 25 IBD patients (21 ulcerative colitis and 4 Crohn’s disease) *PC analysis collapses many correlated variables into one PC axis; like combining length and width into PC axis 1 = “size”Suppose someone ‘reduces’ a quadralateral to it’s 4 sides and you get to study the parts:Abstract: In a prospective-longitudinal study of a representative birth cohort, we tested why stressful experiences lead to depression in some people but not in others. A functional polymorphism in the promoter region of the serotonin transporter (5-HTT) gene was found to moderate the influence of stressful life events on depression. s/s s/ l l/ l Individuals with one or two copies of the short allele of the 5-HTT promoter polymorphism exhibited more depressive symptoms, diagnosable depression, and suicidality in relation to stressful life events than individuals homozygous for the long allele. {but only in some environments} no effect of env on I/I genotype no eff of genotype in No-mal. env {depression “emerges” from an interaction}we cannot fully explain a higher level of order by breaking it down into its parts. something as complex as an organism or cell cannot be analyzed without taking it apart Which is The Universal Path to Enlightenment? Andersen, H. 2001. The history of reductionism versus holistic approaches to scientific research. Endeavour 25 (4): 153-156.Scientific descriptions: tedious names, numbers & statistics. Artistic descriptions: prettier & work OK. Science is like a blabbermouth who ruins a movie by telling you how it ends! Well I say there are some things we don't want to know! Important things! Ned Flanders In "Lisa the Skeptic" The SimpsonsThing 1 (music) Thing 2 (math) + So, we have a ‘link’ (correlation) between two things: music and math. If this is a causal relationship, then it is a good predictive model: If we can get people to study music then we will increase math skills Study Looks at Music-Math Link By Deborah Hastings LOS ANGELES (AP) March 15, 1999 … 136 second-graders were divided into several groups, some receiving piano ... others receiving a mixture of computer and English-language math instruction. ... The [piano] students scored 27 percent higher than their …


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MSU LBS 148 - Overview of Lecture:

Course: Lbs 148-
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