BIO SCI 100 Study Guide - Winter 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Natural Selection, Evolution, Spinal Cord Injury
12 Oct 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
BIO SCI 100
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
BIO SCI 1A LIFE SCIENCES SYMANSKI, R.
WEEK 1 LECTURE 1
January 10, 2017
What should I learn from this course:
a. Appreciation of importance of evolution and ecology, and more generally biology
b. Good understanding of evolution by natural selection.
Reproductive success: Measures success biologically within a population
a. To survive: reproduce- kin selection
The Law of Large Numbers: Stuff happens, and it is much more likely to happen the larger the number
Why study biology: understand the marvelous diversity and complexity of life, biology is part of our
everyday vocabulary
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WEEK 1 LECTURE 2
January 12, 2017
A. Female deaths from cancer: Lung, Breast, Colon
Males death from cancer: Lung, Prostate, Colon
Colon Cancer Risk Factors
1. Age: 90% occur after the age of 50
a. Family history
b. History of colon polyps
c. History of urine cancer
d. Diet & Sedentary lifestyle (lack of exercise)
CONCLUSIONS: get the colonoscopies
a. WHY: by doing so, you very substantially reduce the risk of dying from colon cancer and also,
your colon gets “cleaned out” effectively countering age, genetic makeup and other factors.
The Point: with colonoscopies we are witnessing the fruits of the Golden Age of Biology, marriage of
science and technology.
Put differently: Enjoying immense payoffs of the scientific method and materialistic (vs. theistic) view
of the world.
B. Course Questions
a. What is one of the greatest ideas of all time?
b. Einstein’s theory of space and time?
c. Marx’s ideas on labor and capital?
d. Freud’s ideas on the mind?
e. Ideas found in the Old and New testament, the Quran? Jesus, St. Paul, Muhammed
f. Newton’s contributions to math and mechanics?
Darwin’s idea of Natural Selection: an editing process with three components
1. Works on variation in traits
2. Works on heritable traits
3. Works on traits that influence reproductive success (RS; or Fitness)
a. Result: those individuals with highest reproductive success (a relative measure, measured
in populations) are “best adapted”
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
b. “Best engineered” to a particular local environment
c. The most “Fit”
What is evolution: inherited change in organisms over time
a. “Descent with modification”
b. Different species are related, not independent creations
-Phylogenetic/ Evolutionary trees: Species change through time
Is Evolution a fact or a theory? What do Americans believe?
a. 45% of adults believe God created human beings in present form within the last 10,000 years.
b. Similar % believe that evolution played no role in shaping who we are
c. 37% believe there is room for both God and Evolution in a narrative about life
d. Only 12% believe humans evolved from other living forms without any involvement of a god.
-88% of Americans reject the idea of DESCENT WITH MODIFICATION, UNLESS a supreme deity is
in the picture.
Divine initiative got things started
What is significant about these beliefs?
-Have not substantially changed in 30 years
-That God alone created humans has never been believed by fewer than 44% of the adult population
How Life Got Started
Biologists do not know if there is a god, and they do not address this question.
A staunch or hardcore evolutionist can believed in God, or a higher supreme being.
Where the theory of evolution creates a problem for some christians:
-According to the bible, the earth is very young
-Created in 6 days and God rested on the 7th
-Alternatively the Earth is 6000 to 10,000 years old
The earth is approximately 4.6 billion years old; this is an imperical fact
Some Ideas about the origin of Life
Very difficult to answer—-can’t go back to beginnings
Three possibilities:
-Special creation: Divine forces
-Extraterrestrial origin: on another planet
-Spontaneous origin: evolved from inanimate matter
Special creation
-Idea of divine God at core of most major religions
-Oldest idea and most widely accepted
-Most prevalent view held by Americans
-Extreme view accepts literal account of the bible
Basis of “Scientific Creationism” or “Intelligent Design”
Both are considered unscientific by biologists
Extraterrestrial Origin
Panspermia Hypothesis: Meteor cosmic dust carried life to earth
spores originating on other planet or distant star
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
What should i learn from this course: appreciation of importance of evolution and ecology, and more generally biology, good understanding of evolution by natural selection. Reproductive success: measures success biologically within a population: to survive: reproduce- kin selection. The law of large numbers: stuff happens, and it is much more likely to happen the larger the number. Why study biology: understand the marvelous diversity and complexity of life, biology is part of our everyday vocabulary. January 12, 2017: female deaths from cancer: lung, breast, colon. Colon cancer risk factors: age: 90% occur after the age of 50, family history, history of colon polyps, history of urine cancer, diet & sedentary lifestyle (lack of exercise) Conclusions: get the colonoscopies: why: by doing so, you very substantially reduce the risk of dying from colon cancer and also, your colon gets cleaned out effectively countering age, genetic makeup and other factors.
