S1: i think the intent is just to see if, people use big words or little in the classroom and what kind of words they use, and to once they know that that should help them, uh train T-As, train G-S-Is help people speak English as a second language. so we'll see what comes out of it maybe i'll speak good today. um, okay... so let me get to my notes, so i've already introduced myself i've been at the university three years i came here from the University of Washington, um, and before that i went undergrad to uh University of Minnesota so, i've always seen this as enemy territory and, three years of cashing paychecks is, only gradually wearing me down. um, i will be the professor for the whole uh, the whole term in this course that's different uh than we normally do it and, uh it'll be the first time in a while that one person has done the whole course. my own background is in microbiology and molecular biology which means the first half of the course is sort of my natural half of the course that's what i've taught before. when we get to the second half of the course, i'll be uh sort of winging it even more than i usually am. so, we'll see how that goes in theory if you can learn, evolution and ecology i should be able to learn it just as well and teach it to you. um, luckily i've got four very good G-S-Is that are gonna help me out this term all of them are experienced veterans and, it is one of the pleasures of teaching in spring term, besides just having a smaller class in general, that you get good veteran G-S-Is. so those four G-S-Is and we may add one more, are Tom Mills, Sara Patel, uh where is Mark and, uh Katy. Mark Lighter and Katy Kolowski, who is probably running late. in any event one of them will be your G-S-Is but all of them will have, office hours and hours in the Science Learning Center, where they can help you uh understand what i am saying. okay, um, my office hours in fact i didn't put down there, um, but they will basically be <WRITING ON BOARD> Mondays twelve to two or by appointment... so, that puts it into the same timeblock as this class and if that's a problem just call me up or, email me and set up a separate appointment. okay what will you need for this class, you will need, the textbook the textbook either comes as three softcover uh editions like this or it comes as one hardcover uh version, i don't care which you buy just make sure you buy the one with the elephant on the cover. um, this will be the same textbook that you use in Biology one fifty-four if you go on to take that course. um lab manual, is this one, that's the same one we've used uh throughout the year so far, so it_ there should be copies of that uh in bookstores, uh you will need that starting tomorrow when labs start. coursepack is this thing that's available at Grade A Notes which is upstairs uh, in_ above Ulrich's on East U and South U they may have it downstairs on the bookshelves too i'm not sure about that. um what i have tried to do in the coursepack is, put in uh those figures that i'm going to use uh, during my lectures that i think would be helpful to you to have. for example, when i show this figure in a couple of days i'm not interested in having you guys spend three minutes taking a time-out scratching all these little bonds in okay? so i've put that overhead in there, so you can just turn to that page in the coursepack and make your notes, uh on that. some of you will wanna use it like that some of you will just note the figure number and go back to it later. i wouldn't say that this is a hundred percent necessary, it does have all of the course policies in there... but, mostly it's just figures that are already in your textbook. um and i will try and point out when a figure that i'm using up here has an equivalent in the coursepack although i tend to forget those things. um and then, lastly, there may be listed in the uh, in the bookstores an optional thing for either a C-D or a video called Sciren. what these are are sort of, a cartoon animations of, several of the im- many of the important processes that we'll be covering uh in particularly in the first half of this term. so meiosis mitosis transcription translation D-N-A replication, all those kinda things. for me personally i always found it was easier, rather than a series of pictures if i actually had, sort of a moving video that showed these processes, uh, in process or you know as they move along. i may or may not show clips from this video in class, uh it just depends on how ambitious i get. this would be an optional thing for you guys to buy if you think it's helpful i forget the price i think it's, somewhere between ten and twenty bucks, probably on the upper end of that. again, um, uh, your choice whether to buy it let me know if this is not in video s- uh in the in the bookstores. okay and 
S2: will it be on reserve?
S1: say that again.
S2: will it be on reserve?
S1: um no i'm not putting it on reserve. um, okay and, if you haven't already gotten familiar with the Science Learning Center that's seventeen twenty chemistry, uh the G-S-Is will hold some of their office hours there, and i will put, uh copies of my, lecture outlines on reserve there, i will also have them available on the web, um i'll get to that in a second, uh, so you can get it in either place. okay, um, more administrative stuff lectures, six times fifty minutes a week um i know it's three two hour blocks, i will treat them as if they were six different lectures, i will, try and give a five to ten minute break in between, um i'm not always good about timing things so that the break comes exactly halfway through the period, um sometimes it will come, you know at fifty-five past the hour, more often i will run long in the first lecture, and it'll come at five after but i will give you a break at at some point or another. uh it gives you guys a chance to come up and ask questions stretch your legs get a smoke whatever. um you all get fidgety after an hour of listening to me. um, as far as, the web goes i will put, um outlines of my stuff on the web, um i'm not a big fan of giving you complete notes either on reserve or on the web, so this is as detailed as it will get in terms of what i'm going to give you. that web address you can get to through the Department of Biology homepage, but here is the direct, long link for it, <WRITING ON OVERHEAD> <P :24> i think this is also in_ if i was smart i put this in your, uh course policies in the coursepack. but i may not um actually that period isn't there. <ERASES PERIOD ON OVERHEAD> <P :11> okay looks like i was not smart so, you better copy this down, or browse to it, through the department's homepage. um, i already have the first two weeks worth of outlines there basically everything up until the first exam, and i have the three exams that were given in the spring term version of this course last spring up there. so if you want old exams, um, those are available there too. and i think, after we give the first exam i'll put up all the stuff leading up until the second exam, um, that's all easy because that's the part of the course i've done before, i probably will get farther behind in the last part of the course. so for now there's a bonanza of stuff there. um, okay labs start tomorrow the schedule's in the coursepack, um, lab is worth, <WRITING ON OVERHEAD> one hundred points in the class, there will be three exams, that are each, one hundred points, so the net sum of that is that there's four hundred points in the class, and lab counts one quarter, of that. your G-S-Is will tell you how they're gonna break up lab points and it will be slightly different from one G-S-I to the next. the exams are, <WRITING ON OVERHEAD> Monday, May, eighteen seven to nine P-M, this definitely is in the coursepack and up on the web, Monday, June, eight, seven to nine P-M, and, the final or the last exam is Monday, June, twenty-two, from eight to ten A-M. i don't make these decisions they just tell me when it is and that's when our final is scheduled. um none of the exams will be comprehensive so, once i tell you that, this material is on this exam it won't appear on any other exams of course, uh some of the topics are... um... by their nature build on earlier stuff. okay um, one other thing about the exams the exams will be, uh <WRITING ON OVERHEAD> seventy-five, points, worth of multiple choice, and i think that that's likely to be twenty-five three point questions, and there're gonna be twenty-five points of short answer, and that's likely to be five five point questions. <P :04> one thing about my exams people don't like them, they're hard, um, what i try and do is make the multiple choice, easy and medium, and i make the short answers medium and hard, um my feeling is that, uh in order to get an A or what i think of as an A student i think of that as somebody who can take one fact i've said and another fact i've said and put them together and reach a conclusion that i haven't said. so i will definitely put things particularly in the short answer questions that you haven't seen before, that i haven't talked about, that probably are not in the book, and hopefully i will have given you all the ingredients to come up with the answers to those questions and i'll see, who are the A students who can come up, with those answers. so, um as i said my exams definitely are hard, i've given up trying to make them... fall to the level of the students in the class, um what i will do afterwards is drop the cutoffs if necessary, uh downward uh to reflect the grades on the exams usually my exam averages are between sixty-five and seventy percents they're not cri- uh killer, but they do fall into the hard category... as far as grading goes, what uh, <WRITING ON OVERHEAD> what i will guarantee you for now, is that ninety percent be an A minus, eighty percent, B minus, seventy percent, C minus, sixty percent, D minus and below that you don't wanna ask. um, uh we will decide on whether ninety-one or ninety-two or ninety-three percent ends up being an A just depending on where students fall and what your G-S-Is tell me, about um, about how you guys performed in the class. so the G-S-Is will have a voice in that but then ultimately it'll be, um, my say i guess my final decision i do listen to them, um, quite a bit. uh if my exams turn out to be harder than i think, then we'll just drop these cutoffs down, um, as much as we need to again uh taking into account the G-S-I advice... okay, um if for some reason you need to make a make up, call me or talk to me, there is uh my office is, the introductory Biology office and there is a secretary there so if i'm not there you can talk to her, and she's very good she's done millions of these, so, what she decides is, basically as good as what i would decide in those kind of cases. okay. um, we've covered who am i, who are you? um, you guys are a pretty good group a pretty competitive lot, uh one of the perks of teaching at a good school like this is that i get gratification out of talking to high-level students uh like you. somewhere between fifty_ half and two thirds of you, uh wanna be pre-med pre-dent pre-vet whatever, uh another one fifth or one quarter of you, are some sort of biology uh molecular organismal ecology School of Natural Resource, uh, ten or fifteen percent of you are engineers and about five percent of you are lost. um, you don't fall into any one of the above categories. the lost people are are often the most interesting people art majors, um, uh or just uh education majors or people just interested in biology so um if you have taken a different path or a a odd path to get here, uh recognize that and and recognize that you're in a competitive class, but um you're also appreciated and, i like hearing from all of you especially the people that have, uh weird reasons for being here. uh what have we gotten ourselves into? um, i hope and this is one of the advantages of of a relatively smaller group like this is i hope that lecture can be at least a modest amount of back and forth. if you have questions please, raise your hands, um right away. don't just, uh listen to me and scribble down everything i say it's it's likely to be wrong or many times it could be wrong, or sometimes i'll just say things to be provocative, um, or if i have an opinion, it's just my opinion and in that case can be challenged, just as much as anybody else's opinion. uh one of the favorite cartoons i i ever, saw is this one which i think, definitely applies to this class and i i hope you will behave appropriately. <PUTS UP DOONESBURY CARTOON> <P :19> the point of that is and i've seen it in many great lecture hall- big lecture halls, is that, the heads just bob up and down in tune with what the professor is scribbling and nobody ever asks a question so, um, don't let me get away with something you disagree with challenge me uh challenge all your professors but definitely make it interactive. and if you don't i'm gonna start calling on people, and when when i figure out some of your names then you're definitely fair game. there's only one person i know right now and she's squirming in her seat so... um, i_ i'm gonna try and make this class go back and forth a little bit. okay, um... da-tada-tada-tada. oh one other thing i forgot to mention and and, um, this goes back to the exams, i recognize that my exams are hard i will give you guys an opportunity to get bonus points on the exams, but and i'll explain that more later, um, it's it's going to be sort of a semi-experiment that we'll do, in how we award these bonus points, and i will talk about in a later lecture between the second and third exams. so you guys'll probably, end up thinking... that i'm a twisted bastard for for uh for giving the bonus points in the way i'm going to do it, but we'll just see how it comes out and, uh so don't worry, too much about your grades, just yet, um, uh, you know, the exams may be hard and i may do some unusual things in the class but in the end, um i do realize that we have to give reasonable sets of grades. okay. um... <SHUFFLING PAPERS> as this always happens my pages get scrambled and i get stuck. alrighty <P :07> <SHUFFLING PAPERS> okay... alright a few last sort of nags and reminders attendance in lecture is critical, um mostly because i don't follow your textbook all that closely i will talk about some of the same topics but i talk about them in a different order and i definitely bring in examples that aren't mentioned in your textbook. um, what i would say in terms of this class is, that it's a damn shame that it happens during the nicest weather of the year, uh don't let that be a distraction to you, taking this class in spring is like taking two classes, um, in the fall term or the spring ter- or in the winter term. so, not that it's not doable, but if you have a job and you're out playing frisbee and you've got organic chem and you've got this, then it's hard. the class moves, uh very fast, uh one of the, th- the few bad things i like or don't like about teaching in spring, is that, there's almost no time for you to sort of, sit quietly and digest what i am saying, i'll talk about transcription one hour, it's translation the next hour, and twenty-two hours later we're talking about mutation and regulation of genes. that would take a week and a half in the regular term, and i think that would give you guys some time to to wrestle with it in your mind, and and, understand it maybe at a little bit deeper level, than you're going to um, during this class. there are forty-two lectures, just as many or more as in a regular term i cover just as much, uh, of the topics, as we do in a regular term. it's kinda like drinking from a firehose is the only way i can describe it so, um, enjoy your summer... but focus on this class as well, or have a job, but focus on this class. don't try and do, a a million things, uh this won't be, um, a a complete blowoff. um, okay. two last things, um number one my sense of humor tends to be a little bit dry um, half the time people don't, get that i'm making a joke, um i can live with that mostly i'm up here amusing myself and and and i like me so, um <SS LAUGH> that doesn't bother me. um, uh so if you think i'm, pulling your leg it's possibly true and if you really still are having a question in your head just raise your hand and (we) say was that supposed to be a joke? or something like that. um second thing is i try and keep my personal opinions out of this class. i've already mentioned, um, that i i think, there's, one role for me to present information to you, um i do have opinions they may creep into the class, um but i try and keep them out, um, i- i- if i_ if they do come into the class then realize that they're just my personal opinions uh they don't count more than anybody else's, uh in the course. okay. anything there? anything you want ask me about how the course is gonna work?
S3: overrides? overrides? 
S1: overrides yeah let me ask this, how many of you, are, not CRISPed into this class and still trying to get in? one two three four five six seven eight, nine, uh i probably missed one or two so it's about, ten or so. um if we have a full house then i am going to, ask them to open up one more lab section, in which case you should be able to CRISP in. um, other than that there'll be a waiting list and Colleen in th- the bio office will do the overrides. so i just_ before i go today i'm gonna count how many people are in the room and then, uh by tomorrow i'll know whether they're gonna open up that section. so, any of you who are not CRISPed in, just pretend like you are in the class for now, um, go to, whichever lab you want to go to the, s- the uh Wednesday afternoon or the Thursday morning lab, and i will let you know then, um, uh whether we're gonna open a section or not i should be able to make that announcement uh in lecture tomorrow so, for today we're not gonna issue ov- any overrides but we'll either open a section or we'll try and squeeze in, uh as many of you people as we can... okay anything else? thanks for mentioning oh yeah one other thing, the the temperature control in this room is really bizarre. so whoever ends up sitting there if it's gonna be Melanie or if it's gonna be you that sits there on a regular basis, i'm gonna make you thermostat man, okay? so, unless you wear flannel shirts every day (xx) you are not gonna make it, but, i don't know for me i don't feel the same temperature that you guys do obviously it's a little bit warmer in this room for me, um than it is for you guys, so, if it seems chilly, or if it seems warm, let me know or let thermostat man know, and, he'll go up and, and he'll just fiddle with it. the the trouble with this uh thermostat is, that a little adjustment here makes a huge adjustment in the room, so what'll probably happen is that it'll be like a sauna and then an icebox and then a sauna and then an icebox but eventually, we'll all get used to it... okay. um, okay let me get into sort of the more serious stuff, and, um, what i'm hoping to do with the remainder of of this first hour, is just give you some uh bit of perspective, show where biology fits into, sort of the rest of your education, and hopefully i can, um begin that framework that we're gonna fill in in the rest of the term. so i i have entitled this lecture, philosophy of science... or at least that's the point i'm talking about now, i forgot to do it now but um usually i will put a rough outline of what i'm gonna cover up there so you know where i am in the lecture... and, the reading for for this is chapter one, pages one through sixteen and... um, yeah i- if you look at the web notes it will tell you the specific pages that i'm covering, uh for each lecture, th- the syllabus in your coursepack has the broad chapter, uh reading for the broad chapter that we're involved in, the specific notes on the webs have the page numbers and i will always put the page numbers, uh up when we talk about it. my advice to you would be to, uh try and read the stuff before lecture so that you have some idea, of how it all fits together before i get here, or before i start talking, hopefully my lecture should make all the pieces fall into place. um, i- i- if you're like most people and don't read the_ until the night before the exam, then at least these'll tell you the pages to focus on... so, i'm gonna start with some definitions and and i don't really, care to make you memorize these, definitions, but, at least if i put them down like this, uh we'll start from a common place. my definition of philosophy, is any thought... directed, toward evaluation... of, sensory experience, or mental... constructs. what do i mean by that? basically, any thinking you do that's trying to figure out what's going on and what you're seeing and hearing and feeling or, what you can think about and conceive, any of that activity, i would call, broadly in the realm of philosophy... science... i would define as a branch of philosophy... seeking, to, organize, and explain... material phenomena. <P :07> okay? so the point of science is basically to understand the world to understand, physical things that you can see and feel and measure and touch and hear. okay? so science doesn't really, address questions of, why are we here it might address how did we get here or, why are we like this and not like that. so it focuses on material phenomena. science is... couple of properties that you can use to explain, science, it is empirical. which is to say, based on, observation... of the senses. so it has to be something that we can, like i said see feel hear, somehow measure, um, and it could be our senses, as extended, by instruments. so just because we can't see bacteria, doesn't mean we can't study them scientifically, because we have microscopes and other machines that can help us see bacteria, or in other ways detect bacteria. okay so, empirical means it's based on, some sort of concrete, um, facts or observable facts... science is also, inductive... which means that, general principles... are, derived, from, specific observations. so if we notice every morning that the sun rises in the east, then, we may say, ahah, i think the sun rises in the east because of, whatever whatever theory you come up with. the inductive part is trying to figure out the general principle, from, the repeated observation. so, these principles, we call hypotheses, theories, laws, etcetera. and i'm not gonna get_ go to the trouble of defining those, generally, a law is a principle which we believe more strongly in, than a hypothesis is, or a law is a principle that has more, observations, underpinning it, than, a hypothesis does, but basically, we get ideas of how things work from the observations, we call those things hypo- thes- hypotheses, theories observations, laws whatever. okay. science is also deductive, and that's sort of the opposite of inductive. that is to say, general once we have the general principles... um, they allow us to make, specific, predictions. so once you decide that the reason that the sun rises in the east is because of the way the world is spinning or the way the, earth rotates around the sun, i hope there's not any, astronomy majors here, but, wh- whatever, you decide it is, then you would predict i think the sun is gonna rise in the east again tomorrow, okay? um, that seems like a fairly obvious one, but that's just, as i said, working down from the general principle, and, sort of a corollary to what i just said therefore, science is, <WRITING ON OVERHEAD> testable. um, predictions, can, be, or are, maybe let me put it that way are, verified, by experimentation... okay? so if the sun rose in the west tomorrow that would upset a lot of people and upset a lot of theories. okay? um... generally we say that um, hypotheses and predictions, are, falsifiable... um meaning that, if the sun rose in the east tomorrow and every day next week, that would be consistent with my theory of, whatever's causing it, but it wouldn't necessarily prove my theory. there could be some other reason which i don't know that's making the sun rise in the east. however, um it would just take one day of the sun rising in the west to prove all my theories wrong, so, theories, are generally more easily falsifiable, than they are absolutely, uh proven true. what usually happens is, you know if if every day for the last three thousand years, uh the sun has risen in the east, then, you begin to think, your law or your theory or your hypothesis might be right, because there's such an overwhelming amount of evidence to support it, okay? that certainly will be true in biology, there will be cases where we believe things, more strongly or less strongly, based on how much evidence we have, though in no case, theory of evolution what have you, can we absolutely a hundred percent say this is exactly how it happened, beyond a shadow of a doubt. okay? so why are you here why is biology in the school of uh literature sciences and the arts? because it is a branch of philosophy, because it is an attempt to understand the world, just as, math, or ph- um, uh psychology, or religion, are, different ways to try and make sense of the world. not all of these ways are, compatible with each other. science has all of these properties, that basically these other things don't for example, um, math, starts with a few assumptions, and, is, completely, um, deductive beyond that. okay? you don't go out and observe things in math you don't sort of observe two plus two is two, er, four, two plus two is whatever it is, and you, deduce, um, um, how the rest of it must go because, two plus two is four. okay? religion, for example, um, d- depending on what you believe is either revelatory, meaning it was handed down, uh or somebody interpreted it, based on, uh, a revelation, or it's intuitive something that you study inside yourself and come up with, but, it certainly is not, um, predictive or testable. so, m- m- my feeling is is like i said, that these are all different ways of looking at the world understanding the world making sense of the world, but that you can't really talk about the two, simultaneously. um, in this course we're gonna, look at biology, as a branch of science, and we're gonna follow that approach. okay. um... the one assumption that i would say, that sort of underlies, science, is, science, assumes... that, there is, some, objective truth... that there is a, fundamental, uh, set... of, physical, and chemical, laws, which governs the universe... okay? what science is about is trying to figure out how the universe works, if, those rules are different on Tuesday than they are on Wednesday, then, science is a hopeless game. okay? if, God is out there changing the laws of physics, willy-nilly, then, God is mean, but scientists are doomed. okay? um, if, you know if if science is looking, for an objective truth and there is no objective truth if our if we can't trust our senses then science, um, will fail. um, again the strength of science is really based on, its ability to make successful predictions if you study how cells work in the body, if you study how cancer, uh, comes into being, you, should be able to understand that and predict i can do this and this and this to disrupt cancer cells. the value of science is that those predictions are right and lets you understand the world in ways, that help people. okay. um, there is a statement in your textbook, somewhere in the first p- uh chapter, which may not be the most romantic statement in the world, but sort of puts this, um i think, in its proper light. organisms, appear, to be a triumph, of organic chemistry... the one thing, that explains why you have to take chem two ten and two fifteen. um, and as i said, it may not be fun to think of yourself as nothing more than a giant test tube with, you know ten thousand or or a hundred million, reactions going on simultaneously, but to me it's all the more remarkable, to think of, i mean, you do one reaction in chemistry and how often does it go bad? uh your body is, like i said, literally, hundreds of millions of reactions going on simultaneously, all properly controlled, that allow you to see, think, and even, begin to, uh, grasp at the whole idea of how you can comprehend such subjects in the first place. so, these chemical reactions let you think about, the chemical reactions that are going on to let you think about them. if you understand what i'm saying, so, to me that's as remarkable and awe inspiring, a- as any other, um sort of view of the universe... okay. so, that's my soap box for right now, and, um, i'll move on. alright...? um, biology, simple definition here, is just the study of life. <P :07> so, that, begs the question... what is alive...? okay who's gonna give me a definition of what's alive? somebody better rescue poor Sylvia... i've got a finger and i'm not afraid to use it... 
S3: things that, react and reproduce
S1: react, and reproduce. do you have a grandmother? 
S3: yeah 
S1: is she reproducing? 
S3: not lately 
S1: is she alive? 
S3: yeah 
S1: so your definition doesn't work. 
S3: so she's dead 
S1: she's_ you_ you're happy to redefine her as dead? <SS LAUGH> 
S3: uh... maybe i should've said the possibility of reproducing 
S1: capable of reproducing? at some point in her life cycle? [S3: right ] i mean the same goes true for priests and nuns and, and capable of reproducing... at some point, what do you mean by react, or somebody else what does he mean by react? poke her with a stick and she yells at you...? has to be able to respond, to, environment. okay. what are other properties i mean what it's coming down to is we're gonna, not really have one easy definition of alive and not alive. what we're gonna end up doing is just, coming up with a bunch of properties of living organisms. so what are other properties of living organisms? i know you were all made to memorize this in seventh grade. 
S4: consume energy 
S1: consume energy. okay... who else?
S5: made of cells. made of cells? 
S1: made of cells, okay... that's at least true, for everything we know on this planet, that there_ living creatures are uh, made of cells... alright. see what i've got on my list... i've got... well i_ i'll just give you my list and and we'll see, how much that overlaps metabolism... uh... i've got growth, and reproduction... so, growth in size and growth in number... and then i've got evolution... and, adaptation. okay? so, adaptation is basically, responding to your environment metabolism is, all the reactions that you do to, gather energy from the environment and convert it, into, uh, useful, compounds. um... made of cells like i said is how life is on this, planet it's sort of a consequence of what's happened in evolution, here. and reproduction we've also got covered. okay? my sort of, semisolid definition of life, would be... anything, that can convert, materials... from its environment... into, more copies of itself.... okay? so you have to be able to take those things, those sugars those chemicals those, buildi- those ions those building blocks that are out there, and convert them that's the metabolism part, into more copies of itself so, it it makes more of itself and increases in number, um, the fact, well, l- living organisms have to be able to respond to their environment to either move away from bad things or move towards, uh, t- t- to be able to find more and collect more materials from its environment, and it's also an inevitable consequence that in making copies of themselves, they don't make perfect copies, therefore the subsequent generations change and there's evolution. 
S6: would you say that has to be, a natural, occurrence? i mean wh- when you say convert it makes me think of cloning. we've you know we've talked about science as [S1: um ] taking materials and making copies of its [S1: okay, um ] ourselves, or
S1: cloning would be reproducing, i- in a sense it's asexual reproduction, but, even cloning would not work if the cell could not carry out metabolism, to make the proteins that that second cell or that second organism needs, the the membranes the ribosomes the D-N-A the R-N-A so, cloning does require, um metabolism and growth in size before you can split into two cells or two organisms, which would be that asexual reproduction. so, cloning does fit under sort of, creation of new life. y- you can think of lots of things like the classic example is is a virus alive. and my opinion is no it's not, because it cannot metabolize unless it infects a cell and convinces the cell to do the metabolizing for it. but things like apple seeds which, remain dormant and essentially, are doing very little if any metabolism. are they alive? well, i guess we would say yes because they're capable of metabolism and capable of growth and reproduction under the right conditions. 
S7: what about like a person in a coma? 
S1: person in a coma is, still metabolizing, and, um 
S7: they can't do anything with the environment 
S1: um, that's, correct and now we're getting into sort of sticky philosophical and legal definitions. um, they, i i mean sad_ i mean i'm sure you heard of cases where they can still reproduce um, (the,) hospital worker goes in there and takes advantage of somebody, so, <SS LAUGH> they, i i uh i'm, sorry to say it but these things do happen. um, so they are c- they have some of the properties, but they no longer have all of the properties. um, it gets back to where we say is his grandmother still alive well nobody's gonna argue that case, but people do actually argue the case of is a coma person alive... comatose... <LOOKS AT MICASE RESEARCHER> uh, <SS LAUGH> i gotta be proper a little bit. um, okay. uh, any other questions? let let me s- close out this hour anyway with, um, one last exhortation to you. and that is that this is the age of biology. okay? i personally think biology is the most exciting science and that this is the most exciting time to be a biologist. physics had its heyday they blew up the atomic bomb, now it's all boring. okay? <SS LAUGH> chemistry if you were like in Germany a hundred years ago fun fun fun, but now it's just, boring boring boring too. it's just, more of the same. biology we are still figuring out how life works, um, we are still figuring out basic, fundamental questions. how cancer works, um whether there's life on other planets um, all the interesting questions i think are in biology. uh... i'll give you, the atom bomb, uh it's it's amazing to me that it took as long, for people to figure out these things in biology as they did. the atomic bomb was blown up in nineteen forty-five, we didn't figure out that D-N-A was the molecule of inheritance until nineteen fifty-three. okay? so, the most central essential element of what makes me different from from you or any of you different from each other, we didn't know that until after we'd blown up an atomic bomb. there are, at least a half a million new research articles per year coming out in biology. um, th- that's just a tremendous explosion in our knowledge. because of that, i w- y- nobody can keep up with all the specifics in the in the course, i am gonna try and focus on some unifying themes in this course, um, some, some concepts that are true for whatever level of b- w- biology or whatever area of biology, uh, you guys are specifically interested in. okay i'm gonna start off my next lecture then the next hour with those themes, and then move on from there. so, be back by like ten after. 
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