Biofundamentals – MCDB 1111
Fall 2008: course concept Maps & learning goals
Tuesday and Thursdays 9:30-10:45 PM in MCDB A120

Professor Mike Klymkowsky:
Office: 425 Porter Bioscience   492-8508 : email
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities - Voltaire

The faster science and technology advance—the more important it is to teach and to learn the basics of math and science and the less important it is to teach and to learn the latest developments. - Harari’s Law of Science Education
Date   topic
optional
weblinks

Tuesday
26 Aug.

  

Introduction to the course
read: What are biofundamentals and Science and its Methods

Murray Gell-Mann:
Beauty & truth
The end of science, revisted
Giordano Bruno
Thursday
28 Aug.
tutorial		  

Before class complete tutorial
 Read  Life's Origins (on the biofundamentals web site)  
Watch John Maynard Smith: Origin of life
over the weekend, fill out the Biology Concept Inventory
 Sackler symposium
Hubble deep field
exploring life's origins
   

Tuesday
2 Sept.
tutorial

   Evolution's
Inevitability
symposium:
RNA to humans
Thursday
4 Sept.
tutorial		   Speciation
& Extinction
The genius of
Charles Darwin
     
Tuesday
9 Sept.
tutorial  		  Adaptation
& Selection
evolution of
citrate metabolism
Thursday
11 Sept.
tutorial		  

Sexual selection and non-adaptive processes:
listen to Maydianne Andrade
on sexual selection & mating strategies 
read: survival of the wittiest
Genetic
drift
lab
The science of love
& the future of women
Unconscious responses
Free will versus
the mechanical brain
 
 
Tuesday
16 Sept.
tutorial		  

Homology       read: Flightless birds
& Analogy       watch: Building a family free for all humanity

  
Thursday
18 Sept. 		  Catch up    
 
back to the top
  
Tuesday
23 Sept
  

First Midterm - Science, Origins & Evolution

 
     
Thursday
25 Sept.
tutorial (two parts!) 		  Bonds, water, and life  
     
Tuesday
30 Sept.
tutorial		 Lipids & Membranes & Getting through membranes  
Introduction to the water lab | write-up template word | pdf		  
Thursday
2 Oct.
tutorial		  
Carriers, Pores
& Pumps  
 
 
 
Tuesday
7 Oct.
tutorial		  

A (very) little thermodynamic
Capturing energy  

  
Thursday
9 Oct.
tutorial		  

Storing energy & Eukaryotic Symbiosis
- last year's exam - answered

 
 
 
Tuesday
14 Oct. 		  Catch up - water lab due  
Thursday
16 Oct. 		 
Second Midterm - Water, Membranes & Energy
 
 
 
Tuesday
21 Oct.
tutorial		   Chemical Basis of Heredity  :  watch John Maynard Smith video 2  
Thursday
23 Oct.
tutorial		  
Nucleic Acid Structure
E. coli lab write-up template word | pdf  
 
     
Tuesday
28 Oct.
tutorial		  

Peptide Bonds & Polypeptide          register and instal Fold-it

watch
fold-it
intro
Thursday
30 Oct.
tutorial		   Making Polypeptides | Assembling Proteins
looking for a more readable genetic code - look here! 		 
 
 
Tuesday
4 Nov.
tutorial		  
Regulating Protein Activities   |  cool |  ATP synthase video
On Growth lab | write-up template word | pdf


 
Thursday
6 Nov.
tutorial		 Regulating Gene Expression 
& Regulatory Networks   animation		  
     
Tuesday
11 Nov. 		  Catch up -  Labs due    
Thursday
13 Nov.		  

Third Midterm - Proteins, Nucleic Acids & Genes

  
     
Tuesday
18 Nov.
tutorial		  

Cell Growth & Division

 
Thursday
20 Nov.
tutorial		  
Life Cycles & Sex  
On Mutation lab | write-up template
 
     
 
–Thanksgiving break–
     
Tuesday
2 Dec.
tutorial		  

Sex and stem cells 
cellular & molecular dynamics cell movie |  ATPase

  
Thursday
4 Dec.
tutorial		  

Differentiation completed   | FCQ day

  
     

Tuesday
9 Dec.
tutorial

   Cellular communities - tutorial 

Penn & Teller
and GMOs:
caution-bad language
Thursday
11 Dec.		  

review all labs due !

 
     
FINAL
 

To be announced - exam in MCDB A120

  
   
do the BCI here
  
latest update:
06-Sep-2008
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