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