Basic Biology

Biology is the study of living organisms: their structure, function, organization, origin, and evolution. The advent of CRISPR genome editing now opens up a wide range of new organisms to mechanistic investigation, increasing not only the taxonomic breadth of current research but also the scope of biological problems amenable to study. The neuroscience major incorporates psychology, biology and chemistry studies to examine how the brain and nervous system interact with human behavior. Many biology graduates pursue opportunities outside the science, education and health sectors in industries such as business, finance, the civil service, marketing and sales.

The next larger scale, cell biology , studies the structural and physiological properties of cells , including their internal behavior , interactions with other cells, and with their environment This is done on both the microscopic and molecular levels, for unicellular organisms such as bacteria , as well as the specialized cells of multicellular organisms such as humans Understanding the structure and function of cells is fundamental to all of the biological sciences.

Origin of life While there is very good evidence for the abiotic origin of biological compounds such as amino acids , nucleotides and lipids , it is largely unclear how these molecules came together to form the first cells Related is the question of extra-terrestrial life If we understand how life originated on earth, we can predict more reliably which conditions are required to generate life on other planets.

It began to dominate the study of evolution, posing a series of challenges to the synthetic theory of evolution, and culminating with the views of Japanese geneticist Motoo Kimura (1924-94) and others who argued that the vast majority of variation seen at the molecular level was due to random genetic drift and mutation and not to natural selection, which acted merely in a negative or eliminative role.

A course in biological sciences will combine practical and theory work with a mixture of lectures, seminars and lab work. Our Biology program is versatile, allowing you to complement your Genetics, Cell Biology, Physiology, Ecology, Plant Biology, and Human Anatomy courses with studies from the arts, humanities, languages, and mathematics areas. The Department, like the discipline, is diverse, offering both undergraduate and graduate students opportunities to study living systems at the level of genes and proteins to entire ecosystems.