Read Sections 1.4 and 1.12 in the textbook before reviewing the slides.
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Transcript of Course Website: Download Syllabus from above site (Contract) Exams, ground rules, discussion...
Course Website:
http://www.zo.utexas.edu/courses/bio301/
Download Syllabus from above site (Contract)
Exams, ground rules, discussion sections, textbook, etc.
Watch ‘Dance Monkeys Dance’ and ‘Domino Effects’ videos
Our one and only but much abused Spaceship
Ecology, environment, organismic units
Anthropocentrism, wilderness, what good are rattlesnakes?
Hierarchical structure of biological science, snobbery
(Varanid)Varanus eremius
First Exam: 19 Feb.Second Exam: 2 Apr.Third Exam: 7 May
Best 2 of above 3 = 40% Discussion Sections 20%
Final Exam 18 May, 9-12 AM: 40%
No “Extra points,No “Make Up” Exams!Final Grades are FINAL, non negotiable
Anoliscarolinensis (Iguanid)
Agamidae440 species
Gekkota7 Families1536 species
Iguania12 Families1086 species
Scincidae1600 species
Varanidae75 species
Five Lizard Clades:
Varanus
Phelsuma
Ctenotus
Anolis
Ctenophorus
Ctenotus
Moloch
Sceloporus
Hierarchical Organization of the Biological Sciences
Molecular Biology
Hierarchical Organization of the Biological Sciences
<—————— Integrative Biology——————————>
Molecular Biology
Daniel T. Haydon
Time and Space Scaling in Ecology
Time and Space Scaling in Ecology
Daily movements (home range, territory)
Dispersal events (immigration, emigration)
Colonization of new areas and habitats
Geographic range expansion or contraction
Geographical patterns of diversity
Daniel R. Brooks
Models may be verbal, graphical, or mathematical
Model: mere “caricatures of nature” (all models are imperfect)
Trade offs in construction of models
precisiongeneralityrealism
Manipulation
UnderstandingManipulation
KnowledgeUnderstandingManipulation
WisdomKnowledgeUnderstandingManipulation
WisdomKnowledgeUnderstandingManipulation
Profess: “to claim to have knowledge of”
Watch these videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YQ9_2K2_z3A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM6txLtoaoc
http://www.upworthy.com/a-smartypants-scientist-makes-an-easy-analogy-about-our-planet-and-now-im-scared
WisdomKnowledgeUnderstandingManipulation
Profess: “to claim to have knowledge of”
Study: “application of the mental faculties to the acquisition of knowledge”
Proper motivation to do science is curiosity. How do things work?
Assume an organized reality exists and that objective principles can be formulated to reflect this natural order (not faith based). Common misconception that “truth” and “proof” and even “facts” exist.
Nietzsche said “there are no facts, only interpretation.”
Nietzsche
Proper motivation to do science is curiosity. How do things work?
Assume an organized reality exists and that objective principles can be formulated to reflect this natural order (not faith based). Common misconception that “truth” and “proof” and even “facts” exist.
Nietzsche said “there are no facts, only interpretation.”
Nietzsche ‘Just Another Monkey’
Geocentric world view
Sunrise Sunset
Geocentric world view
Sunrise SunsetX X
Solar system world view
“Spinup” “Spindown”
Heliocentric world view
Most people consider a “fact” as “what really happened.”
However, Many “facts” are not so clean and simple -- most
involve varying levels of interpretation. Consider, for example,
the apparently simple fact that the Sun rises each morning.
Daily we receive new evidence confirming this fact. We can
be quite confident that the Sun will rise again tomorrow.
References to sunrise and sunset are based on now defunct
concept of a “flat Earth and moving Sun”. But our understanding
of cosmic events is greatly enhanced when instead of thinking
of the Sun as moving, it is viewed as fixed in space at the
center of a solar system, and the Earth is interpreted as a
rotating globe orbiting around a small star. Our vocabulary
hasn't caught up -- clearly, we should refer to “sunrise” as
“spindawn” and “sunset” as “spindusk.”
Our one and only Spaceship (there is no planet B)
Observation and Experiment are vital. Scientists formulate hypotheses to explain repeatable events. A hypothesis is tested by confronting it with reality — if it fails, it is discarded and replaced with another, hopefully better, hypothesis.
In time, a well supported hypothesis becomes a theory. The scientific method is self regulating: poor hypotheses are continually replaced with better ones as human knowledge expands and is improved. We benefit immensely from past genius.
A sprinkling of past geniuses:
Newton Darwin
ArchimedesAristotle Euclid
DaVinci Einsteinn
Socrates
Archimedes (287-212 BC) “The Method”
Archimedes (287-212 BC) “The Method”
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/32808/Archimedes - ref389152