| "Everything should be as simple as possible, but no simpler." - Albert Einstein |
Pied kingfisher: high energy hovering and diving
Hippo maintaining water balance: dung shower
Sandhill cranes: half-million population in Platte River valley, Nebraska.
Protist diversity: giant kelp and sea urchins (Planet Earth - BBC Wildlife)
Protist diversity: cellular slime mold "slugs" formed by aggregating single cells
Dragonflies that cross oceans: simple observations lead to breathtaking discoveries
Extra credit readings
| "Man is descended from a hairy, tailed quadruped, probably arboreal in its habits." - Charles Darwin |
Charles Darwin biography
Darwin and the Galapagos Islands
Galapagos finches
Finch speciation: research by Martha and Peter Grant on Daphne
Darwin's pigeons: artificial selection
Dogs decoded (0:00 - 3:00 artificial selection of foxes)
Extra credit readings
| "Biology is applied chemistry." - Anon. |
Hydrogen is very reactive: Hindenburg explosion
Hydrogen is very reactive: balloon explosion
Swamp cooler using evaporative cooling
Water pulled up a tree due to cohesion
Birds dance on water due to surface tension
Extra credit readings
| "I am not fat, I am lipid." - the walrus |
Hemoglobin breakdown: why is your feces brown (and your urine yellow)?
How prions arise: abnormal conformation of an infectious protein
Glycemic index - carbohydrates in your diet
17-year cicadas molt their exoskeletons
Extra credit readings
| "If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the precipitate." - Anon. |
Supplementary videos
Fluid mosaic model of plasma membrane
How a flu virus invades your body: by binding to membrane proteins
How Prozac works: by inhibiting transport proteins involved in serotonin reuptake
Mitochondrial DNA: tracing human ancestry
Cilia-Nature's Exquisite Nanomachines: microtubules protecting your lungs
Dengue virus 7:00-12:30 enters cell by endocytosis
Proton pump inhibitors (active transport)
Extra credit readings
| "If you think things are a mess now, just wait." - Optimist view of second law of thermodynamics |
Pied kingfisher high-energy predator
Activation energy (oxygen and methane gas example)
Lysozyme: hydrolysis of polysaccharides
Feedback inhibition: an example of allosteric repression
Muscle contraction using ATP
Cell crawling 1: amoeba moves via pseudopodia
Cell crawling 2: neutrophil on the chase
Cell crawling 3: fibroblasts on the loose
Japanese honey bees use heat production as defense
Extra credit readings
Supplementary videos
Spinach-powered battery: photosynthetic alternative energy
A photosynthetic sea slug
Proton pump: harvesting energy from electrons
Photosynthetic electron transport and ATP synthesis
Extra credit readings
| "When you breathe, you respire. When you do not breathe, you expire." - Anon. |
Proton pump inhibitors reduce stomach acid
Dengue virus: Proton pump lowers pH, causing protein conformation change
Biofuel from tofu waste by fermentation
Energy sources for prolonged exercise
Extra credit readings
| "Biology is the only science where division means the same thing as multiplication." - Anon. |
Evolution of human chromosome #2 (Ken Miller): why do humans have 46 chromosomes?
DNA packaging: histones and nucleosomes
Cancer formation: abnormal cell division
Extra credit readings
| "Polyploidy is everywhere." - Scott Jackson |
Supplementary videos
Extra credit readings
Supplementary videos
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| "Biology has at least 50 more interesting years." - James Watson |
Supplementary videos
Extra credit readings
| "The gene is dead; long live the gene." - Jerry A. Coyne |
Extra credit readings
| "Madam, I'm Adam." - Adam (to Eve) |
Supplementary videos
Genetic engineering animation
PCR animation
RNA Interference: why does purple gene produce white flowers?
RNA Interference: microRNA can regulate gene expression
DNA fingerprinting using Southern Blotting and radioactive probes
Your milk on drugs: is BST good for you?
The Future of Food 25:30-30:00 engineering Roundup Ready corn
Golden rice: enriched with beta carotene to treat vitamin A deficiency (PRI)
Extra credit readings
Supplementary videos
Extra credit readings
Additional thoughts/exercises
Supplementary videos
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Supplementary videos
Extra credit readings
Additional thoughts/exercises
Supplementary videos
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Supplementary videos
Extra credit readings
Supplementary videos
Hermaphrodite flatworms mating (penis fencing)
Hermaphrodite leopard slugs mating in midair
Meiosis, crossing over, and the SRY gene: XX males and XY females
Sponges spawn without mating rituals
Surinam toad exhibits parental care
Extra credit readings
Supplementary videos
Ant farmers feed on aphid honeydew, drive off ladybug
Leaf cutter ants and mutualistic fungi
Hippos cleaned by mutualistic barbels
Cowbird brood parasitism: as seen from nestcam
Cowbirds are gangster birds: they make an offer you can't refuse
Zombie snail controlled by endoparasite
Sea star preying on mussel
Sea otters: keystone species of the kelp forest
Extra credit readings
Supplementary videos
Coriolis effect: rotating earth causes prevailing winds
Coriolis effect (carousel analogy)
Greenhouse effect: demo in a bottle
Hydrothermal vents: deep sea volcanoes
Bioluminescent bacteria in a flask: autoinducers
Bioluminescent bacteria and squid: regulated by autoinducer
Extra credit readings
Supplementary videos
White-crowned Sparrow learning and unlearning to sing
Lyrebird: the master mimic
Classical conditioning: eliciting conditioned response from the male consumer (Burger Shots)
Classical conditioning: how to ignore side effects (Abilify)
Operant conditioning: shaping behaviors of pigeons and humans (B. F. Skinner)
Operant conditioning: teaching pinnipeds logic (NOVA ScienceNow) 3:00-6:30
Mandarin ducklings jump from tree: imprint on mom
New Caledonian Crow uses meta-tool 14:20-17:45
Intersexual selection: Vogelkop Bowerbird courtship
Kings of Camouflage: cross-dressing cuttlefish males sneak in 24:30-27:40
Honeybee waggle dance
Oxytocin: the "cuddle chemical"
Extra credit readings
Additional thoughts/exercises
Supplementary videos
Nuisance Fish: jumping Asian carp
Baobab Trees of Madagascar: other trees have been cleared for agriculture
DDT: the miracle insecticide
DDT: case studies
Ozone hole peaks over Antarctica (2008)
Greenhouse effect: demo in a bottle
NRC Questions Westinghouse Reactor Design (AP1000)
Extra credit readings
| Bio1100 supplementary material | Updated: Feb 21, 2012. | Peter Chen |