The Biology Thread

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I think I love this guy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6dzUOYTQtQ

[minuspace]

That really makes me want to go get a pint of Pliny the Elder

Ed.[deleted wrong post - what used to be between brackets here was not supposed to exist...  The horror  ]

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Took my lab practicum today. Most of the slides, models etc were pretty straightforward but there were three or four parts of the pig dissection that were really difficult to identify so I just started making shit up. The Vesicles of Despair and the Tubules of I Don't Know. The Trumpets of Venus, the Capillaries of Fuck This, and the Islets of Pig. I eventually entered the Zones of Indifference, traversed the Arteries of Putting Down Any Answer, and scaled the Gland of Making Stuff Up, at which point I realized that I had reached the Vestibule of I'm Done.

I think I did pretty well.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Has anyone here taken 300-level organic chemistry? I posted a fairly simple question on Facebook asking about the homework load, and everybody has a fucking opinion but nobody wants to answer my actual question, which is what I get for posting it on Facebook.

One guy messaged me to tell me that he's taking it right now for the third time and he's not taking any other classes with it, and I'm like, OK... do what's the homework load like? No answer.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

With the exception of scanning and passing in my now late last homework assignment for Biotech, semester's done. Definitely did some guesswork on some of the questions as relates to animal based Biotech/human biology (I missed that lecture, and we didn't cover animals in Gen Bio II due to accumulated snow days). The professor urged me to be more timely in my future classes and to take my studies more seriously. I was tempted, briefly, to let her know I got a solid A in Micro, that I'm in honors society (my inability to catch up and pass math won't affect that, GPA wise) and that I do in fact take my studies seriously, but she's right. I didn't bring my A game to this class after a certain point. And I think that frustrated her, because she knows that I get the material. I could tell that she genuinely likes me regardless, and vice versa. I've also decided I'm never taking a Saturday morning class again if I can help it, because the last thing I want to do on a Friday after work is go, "oh right. I have to do work for that OTHER class." And I think that was part of my problem. I saw it as that other class.

Next up. Genetics, with Professor Kasili (my Gen Bio I professor from last semester)

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Has anyone here taken 300-level organic chemistry? I posted a fairly simple question on Facebook asking about the homework load, and everybody has a fucking opinion but nobody wants to answer my actual question, which is what I get for posting it on Facebook.

One guy messaged me to tell me that he's taking it right now for the third time and he's not taking any other classes with it, and I'm like, OK... do what's the homework load like? No answer.

If he's taking it for the third time, he's probably not going to put the extra work into actually answering your question anyway.   

I'm not sure if I know anyone who has (we wouldn't offer it at BHCC anyway), but I'll ask around if I can think of anyone who would have.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Has anyone here taken 300-level organic chemistry? I posted a fairly simple question on Facebook asking about the homework load, and everybody has a fucking opinion but nobody wants to answer my actual question, which is what I get for posting it on Facebook.

One guy messaged me to tell me that he's taking it right now for the third time and he's not taking any other classes with it, and I'm like, OK... do what's the homework load like? No answer.

If he's taking it for the third time, he's probably not going to put the extra work into actually answering your question anyway.   

I'm not sure if I know anyone who has (we wouldn't offer it at BHCC anyway), but I'll ask around if I can think of anyone who would have.

I have gotten replies from two other people who have taken it, although neither of them actually answered my question. I think that most likely I'll take it this winter with A&P II.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I anticipate that at least a dozen people will urge me not to take it with any of the A&P series, or molecular, or cell bio, or micro, or genetics... in fact, to take only one class at a time for the next six years, because none of the "hard" classes should ever be taken with any other classes, ever, or YOU WILL FAIL and be a FAILURE.

And of course, it's better to wait years after taking gen chem to take it, so that you can be a rusty crapheap instead of remembering anything you learned in nine months of chemistry classes.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

I anticipate that at least a dozen people will urge me not to take it with any of the A&P series, or molecular, or cell bio, or micro, or genetics... in fact, to take only one class at a time for the next six years, because none of the "hard" classes should ever be taken with any other classes, ever, or YOU WILL FAIL and be a FAILURE.

And of course, it's better to wait years after taking gen chem to take it, so that you can be a rusty crapheap instead of remembering anything you learned in nine months of chemistry classes.

Exactly. I mean, science isn't going to get easier, and it's not going to stay still for your benefit. School's hard. That's the nature of the beast. But you don't conquer a beast by taking it easy. What are you supposed to fill your junior and senior year with, 100 level humanities courses? Did Stephen Hawking go eh, I have to take calculus this year, I'll fill the rest of it with intro to modern art and Brit Lit I?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I anticipate that at least a dozen people will urge me not to take it with any of the A&P series, or molecular, or cell bio, or micro, or genetics... in fact, to take only one class at a time for the next six years, because none of the "hard" classes should ever be taken with any other classes, ever, or YOU WILL FAIL and be a FAILURE.

And of course, it's better to wait years after taking gen chem to take it, so that you can be a rusty crapheap instead of remembering anything you learned in nine months of chemistry classes.

Exactly. I mean, science isn't going to get easier, and it's not going to stay still for your benefit. School's hard. That's the nature of the beast. But you don't conquer a beast by taking it easy. What are you supposed to fill your junior and senior year with, 100 level humanities courses? Did Stephen Hawking go eh, I have to take calculus this year, I'll fill the rest of it with intro to modern art and Brit Lit I?

I was also told not to take a math with a science, or more than one science at a time. Because that's totally reasonable advice for a science major. Uhhhhh...

[Nephew Twiddleton]

When I was hanging out with Roger I was telling him about how I'd have to take chem, physics and calculus at the same time and he was like that's a good thing, especially since physics and calculus are complementary. His only think that he warned me about was to do my homework immediately after class, because otherwise it would fall right out of my head. And you know, it worked well for me for the most part taking the biology courses at once. And algebra would have been fine if I didn't go a couple of weeks without access to mymathlab.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Yeah, calculus & chemistry, definitely. I didn't take calculus but I can see how useful it would have been this term, and PCC recommends taking algebra with first term chemistry, trig with second term, and calculus with third.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I think that my solution is going to be to wait a year to take A&P, and take molecular bio and ochem together this fall, along with an online geology class. I can't take cell bio until I take molecular, so that will open up some more options. That way I can take two bio and two psych classes winter and spring terms, spend my summer doing research, and start A&P next Fall along with whatever I have left.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I'm finally delving into epigenetics a little, and it's wondrous to me just what worlds of information in our DNA is yet to be uncovered. I also LOL at the apparent historical tendency of biologists to dismiss anything they don't understand. "Oh, that bit over there? It doesn't do anything, it's just junk" is a recurring refrain.

Even accounting for relative ignorance, though, how ANY biologist could look at nature, look at DNA, and conclude "Oh, that other 98%? It's junk, it doesn't do anything" is completely beyond me. A structure in nature that's 98% useless? It just doesn't happen. 

Anyway, it's nice to finally know a little bit about what little is known about what "junk" DNA does. And I love that the function and mechanics of almost 98% of the genome is still a complete mystery. It's kind of like when researchers realized that every single neuron makes 1000-100,000 connections, or  that glial cells have a more complex and significant role in brain function than just acting as fillers and insulators... and we don't know WHAT.

We are so nowhere close to having this shit figured out, and that makes me SO HAPPY.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

I'm finally delving into epigenetics a little, and it's wondrous to me just what worlds of information in our DNA is yet to be uncovered. I also LOL at the apparent historical tendency of biologists to dismiss anything they don't understand. "Oh, that bit over there? It doesn't do anything, it's just junk" is a recurring refrain.

Even accounting for relative ignorance, though, how ANY biologist could look at nature, look at DNA, and conclude "Oh, that other 98%? It's junk, it doesn't do anything" is completely beyond me. A structure in nature that's 98% useless? It just doesn't happen. 

Anyway, it's nice to finally know a little bit about what little is known about what "junk" DNA does. And I love that the function and mechanics of almost 98% of the genome is still a complete mystery. It's kind of like when researchers realized that every single neuron makes 1000-100,000 connections, or  that glial cells have a more complex and significant role in brain function than just acting as fillers and insulators... and we don't know WHAT.

We are so nowhere close to having this shit figured out, and that makes me SO HAPPY.

I know I poo poo'd it a little bit before, but it really is an interesting field. And I agree. Biology works on a rule of good enough. It's like what Kai said once, it's not survival of the fittest, it's survival of the fit. Replicating gene sequences takes energy that could be put to other uses. So those bits of "junk" DNA are probably beneficial. They might not code for proteins, but they're probably doing something, and I think one of the most intriguing things I've heard, and I might be getting it wrong, is that those bits give instructions for when to code for the coded bits, and in conjunction with other sequences.