Biology MOOC Newsletter January 9, 2012

Daily Newsletter                                       January 9, 2012

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Today's topic is the nature of biology as a scientific discipline.

Biology is a natural science, which means that the focus of the study is to gain an understanding of the workings and rules of the natural world.  This is opposed to social sciences, which seek to uncover the rules of human interaction.  Natural science can be broken down into two main categories:  Life Sciences and Physical Sciences.  The life sciences study living systems (Biology), while the physical sciences study non-living systems (Physics and Chemistry).

The word biology comes from Greek origins:  Bios (βίος), meaning life, and Logia (λόγια), meaning words.  The translitterated meaning of biology is "The Study of Life."  Now comes the big question:  What is Life?  One of the central assumptions of any scientific discipline is that the practitioners must come up with a consensus as to what is to be studied, and the nature of life is something that has been debated since Classical times.  While one task is to become aquainted with the history of biology, today we are just going to focus on what we now consider the defining characteristics of life.  You have to remember that this is current definition.  In this definition, viruses are left out of consideration as living structures, yet we study them in biology.  There is a movement in the biology community to expand the definitions and characteristics of life to include viruses.

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Today's Reflection

Take a moment and think about what interests you in biology.  Why do you want to study biology?  What interests you in biology?  Make a note of these in your notebook or journal.  In the social network, or your eportfolio, make a note of these interests.  We will keep coming back to these interests throughout the semester.

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Today's Challenge:  What is the nature of life?

Using the suggested readings of the week, write about the characteristics currently used to determine if something is to be considered a living organism.  Look for examples in your own experience, or around your home, that helps to explain these characteristics.  Does any characteristic stand out in your mind as really important, or really interesting?  Why?  While all may be interesting, there are usually one or two that really inspire our thinking or imagination.  At this time, do not focus on evolution.  That will be an individual topic later in the week.

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NOTE:  When writing your blog, you will notice at the bottom of the page a line where you can add a tag.  If you are responding to a daily challenge, add the challenge date as a tag.  Use the format (date, three fist letters of month, year).  So:  January 9, 2012 would be tagged 9Jan2012.