Personal Intro - continued Hobbies Skiing Lava photo Lava video Ecology from Mt. Kearsarge Primary succession from Hawaii Tropic fern forest from Hawaii Hot Stuff from Last Summer - current events in Biology and Medicine I Details of the Course A) Policies, Grading, etc... II Biology Defined A) Biology = study of life 1) living organisms 2) biological processes B) Hierarchy in Biology Ecosystem Community Population Organisms Systems Organs Tissues Cells Chemicals Subatomic particles C) Criteria for distinguishing living organisms 1) growth and development 2) metabolism 3) homeostasis 4) movement 5) detect and react to stimuli 6) reproduction 7) composed of cells 8) contain DNA 9) capable of adaptation and evolution III History of Biology (link to timeline of history of science) A) Humans have an innate fascination with plants and animals 1) Examples - Embedded in Culture (Religion, Politics, etc...) Period 1 - Pre-history - 1650 B) Primitive Civilizations 1) Practical knowledge of plants and animals (food, dangersous predators, poisonous organisms making tools, medicines, implements - see Ethnobotany tables for examples of Hawaiian plants) 2) Dangerous predators 3) Incorporated into religion and mysticism Hawaiian Examples Story of Kalo and origins of humans - son of Deities Wakea and Ho'ohokukalani, dies and from his grave grows the taro plant or KALO for the making of poi, his younger brother, Haloa, is the descendant of the human race, plant is used for food and medicine Ohi'a lehua (red, yellow, plant) - colonizing species on lava flows, has sacred meanings, this is a story about two lovers, Ohia (m) and Lehua (f) and Pele (goddess of the volcano), Pele tries to steal Ohia from Lehua but he refuses so Pele turns him into an ugly tree, Lehua tries to convince the other gods to turn Ohia back into a man but they can't, instead, they turn Lehua into a beautiful flower and put her on the Ohia tree, according to this legend, when someone picks these flowers off the tree it begins to rain which symbolize tears, used for medicine and to build bowls, spears, mallets, canoes, houses, flowers for the ornamental leis 4) Cave art - unknown function but related to above 5) Petroglyphs from Puna District, Pu'uloa at Volcanoes National Park Hawaiian Petroglyphs at Pu'uloa (hill of long life) - circles - depository for piko or umbilical cord umbilical cord was deposited in the craving in the pahoehoe lava and covered with a stone, gives the child a chance for a long life 6) Southwest Indians (Arizona) Honanki Indians - cave art: site location deer deer and human emergence and lizard hunting kokopelli 7) Domestication - plants and animals 10,000 bc - wolves 9,000 bc - sheep in the Middle east 7,000 bc - wheat in Mesopotamia 4,000 bc - horses in the Eurasian steppes C) Greek Civilization (450-200 BC) 1) Contributions: split biology from the physical sciences, documentation of natural history and classification 2) Hippocrates (400-300 BC) Biomedical applications and interests Hippocratic Oath: A Contemporary Version The Hippocratic Oath - 5th Century B.C. 3) Aristotle (300's BC) Scala Naturae, Classification of Animals 4) Theophrastos (300's BC) desciption of plant parts, primitive classification of Plants D) Romans and Arabs 1) Very little, some investigations into Anatomy and medicinal applications of plants 2) Galen - Greek doctor born in Turkey, served Romans - first doctor to take a human pulse E) Middle Ages (450 - 1500's) 1) Natural Theology - development from Thomas Aquinas order and apparent purpose in nature imply creation 3) Zeitgeist: Absolute truths - to question accepted doctrine was heresy (Galileo example - earth revolves around the sun, earth is not center of universe) 4) The use of soap for cleansing liquid/soft soaps by the Gauls (9th century) - boiling animal fats with natural soda hard soap came from Arabs (12th century) 5) The use of hops in brewing beer (10th century) F) Renaissance (14th-16th centuries) 1) Zeitgeist - age of exploration, academics began to question absolute truths, search for new explanations, pursuit of intellectual freedom 2) Back to nature Movement (similar to today's movement) Period 2 - 1651 - 1865 3) 1665 - Cell Biology and the Invention of the microscope, Hooke worked on a compound microscope and observed plant cells in cork followed by Van Leeuwenhoek (described animalcules which were first descriptions of bacteria 4) 1668 - Redi performs experiment which shows there is no spontaneous generation 5) Development of formal programs in Anatomy in Italian Universities, formal research in Anatomy 6) mid - 1700's - Karl Linne and formal system of classification of plants animals, first binomial system for species names G) French Contribution 1) Buffon (1700's) - studied comparative anatomy, behavior, distribution of mammals, age of the earth is greater than 60,000 years 2) Cuvier (1800's) - formalized field of comparative anatomy (Founding father of Comparative Anatomy), also a great paleontologist (studied fossils and timetables for organisms, succession of fossils occurs in chronological order) H) German Contribution 1) Helmholtz and Ludwig (1800's) - developed the field of physiology, first chemical experimentation in physiology, Helmholtz - measures velocity of a nerve impulse in a frog's leg, invents the opthalamoscope for looking into the eye, studied sound transmission in the ear Ludwig studied filtration of chemicals by the kidney I) English Contribution 1) William Paley - beginning of the end of Natural Theology (documentation of life history information for many organisms) A goal of Natural Theology - document adaptations of organisms provided by the Supreme creator 2) Darwin and Wallace theory of Evolution - end of the marriage between science and theology a) Darwin - famous 5 year trip on the HMS Beagle Galapagos Tortoise Galapagos Mockingbirds - subspecies and closely related species Galapagos Finches b) Wallace - studied Malaysian fauna - Wallacea and Wallace's Line 3) Discovery and elaboration of theory of evolution ties all fields of biology together Period 3 - 1866 - 1925 J) Lost contribution: Mendel 1) Founding father of the field of Genetics, original work rediscovered in the early 1900's, nearly 50 years after the original research Period 4 - 1926 - 1960 and Period 5 - 1961 - 2003 K) Modern Biology in the 20th Century 1) Driven by technology 2) Biology formally composed of many different subdisciplines a) Organismal Biology (Evolution, Diversity, Ecology, Conservation, Animal Behavior, Comparative Vertebrate and Invertebrate Anatomy, Museology) b) Cellular Biology (Biochemistry, Genetics, Cellular, Development, Anatomy and Physiology of the different systems of the body) III Science and Research A) Scientists use the scientific method 1) obtain background information (literature search and review) 2) ask biological questions 3) develop testable hypotheses a) make predictions/deductions for each hypothesis 4) design experiment to test hypotheses 5) collect data 6) analyze data 7) interpret results 8) answer biological question 9) present results a) oral presentation at scientific meeting b) written presentation in scientific journal B) Scientists are skeptical - try the Carl Sagan BALONEY DETECTION KIT
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Copyright © 2001 Jay Pitocchelli. All rights reserved. The contents of this page are the intellectual property of Dr. Jay Pitocchelli for distribution to students enrolled in General Biology BI 01 at Saint Anselm College. These pages may not be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated, or published in any electronic or machine-readable form in whole or in part without prior written approval of Jay Pitocchelli. Students enrolled in General Biology BI 01 at Saint Anselm College have permission to print this material for their lecture notes. The images linked to this web page are the sole property of Addison Wesley/ Benjamin Cummings Publishers™.
