How rethinking biology can positively change your life

[Applause]

walking into a classroom at the start of

a new semester

my first priority is to always foster

community and a sense of connection with

my students

to that end i often ask what they’re

excited or nervous about for that

semester

when i was teaching non-majors general

introductory biology

my students often said things like this

to me at the start of the semester

science makes me nervous

i’m not any good at biology science

it’s just not interesting it wasn’t just

my students either

research suggests that non-science

majors struggle to engage with biology

see the relevance to their own lives and

have little motivation to engage with

science outside of the classroom

and it isn’t just university students

either

the general public mistrusts scientists

scientific information

and struggles to see how we go from

scientific questions

to science knowledge maybe you’re

looking at some of these quotes

and you feel the same way science makes

you nervous

you don’t feel like you’re any good at

it or it’s just not interesting to you

but what if i told you that you engage

with biology everywhere

every day that biology is all around us

and more interesting

exciting and accessible than you may

think

acknowledging biology all around us is

important not only because it enriches

our lives

but because confidently engaging with

biology is important for the health

and welfare of society biology is

everywhere

there’s a certain danger associated with

thinking that it’s not

we saw this come to the forefront with

the covid19 pandemic

everyone was forced to engage with

biology and make biologically minded

decisions

some of which were major decisions like

deciding to

homeschool children delaying starting

school by a year

or changing business models we all had

to make decisions about mask wearing

what kinds of masks we would wear what

kind of activities we would pursue how

far we would venture outside of the

house

if at all it isn’t just the covid19

pandemic either

it’s issues ranging from genetic

technologies to vaccines

to climate change biology is in every

aspect of our lives

so let’s take a look at some of the

places where you might see biology

as part of your life because when we

begin to make these connections

it’s easier to engage with the bigger

issues

i have a three-year-old son he is the

light of my life

and the nice thing about spending time

with a three-year-old is that they’re

not afraid to ask biology questions

one day we’re at the playground and he

handed this to me

it’s smooth it’s leathery if i shake it

makes a rattling noise these were laying

all over the ground

at the playground

i thought this was a great biology

everywhere a moment so we broke it apart

and we found these inside and i took

this picture and i put it on social

media

and i asked my followers what they

thought these were

their hypotheses ranged from fecal

matter

either from a moose or a rabbit

to burn nuts from the colorado wildfires

to some kind of mummified fruit

the answer is that these are seeds and

they are found in a seed pod

of a honey locust tree and if you drive

through colorado in the winter you can

often see these seed pods hanging in the

trees

so biology is everywhere including

laying on the ground

at the playground we also see biology in

our kitchens too

do you like bacon

do you like your bacon crispy which is

my preference we’re soft and chewy which

is the way my husband likes it

why does bacon change colors and become

crispy when it’s cooked to perfection

it’s because bacon is made of protein

and protein folds in our bodies to do

particular jobs

think of it like making an origami boat

if you have a flat piece of paper and

you put in the water

it doesn’t do anything but fold it into

a boat

and it does it floats when we heat

proteins up

they unfold and when they unfold that’s

when we see these color and texture

changes

incidentally unfolded protein is also

easier to eat

now if there’s bacteria in our bacon

before we cook it

its proteins also unfold when we cook it

and unfolded proteins don’t work

which kills the bacterium so that’s why

cooking our food

prevents us from getting food poisoning

so if i asked you do you like protein

biochemistry instead of

do you like bacon how would your

response have been different

when we think about protein biochemistry

in the context of our kitchens

it’s much more accessible and easier to

understand

okay so there’s biology at the

playground and biology in our kitchens

how about biology in our own backyards i

have a bird feeder in my backyard

and it’s the genesis of several

interesting ecological relationships

ecology is a sub-discipline of biology

concerned with the

interrelatedness among organisms

now there’s a lot of bird species in my

backyard and they all visit my feeder

this is a reflection of high bird

biodiversity in colorado

as well as the presence of migration

routes along the front range of the

rocky mountains

some birds come to my feeder and they

dig around they make a big mess on the

ground

other birds like nut hatches come in and

very carefully pick up a single seed

and fly away with it now the squirrels

they’re also very interested in my bird

feeder as well

but they can’t reach it but they can get

to those seeds on the ground

and so the squirrels and the birds eat

the seeds and they leave the hulls for

me to clean up

or just sweep out into my backyard and

so those hulls in the backyard decompose

and release nutrients into the soil

which helps my grass to grow and if my

grass is growing better there’s more

habitat for insects and if there’s more

habitat for insects there’s more birds

coming into my backyard to eat the

insects

and so on and so on

life is all interconnected and all it

takes to see that

is to look out the window now biology we

can see by looking out the window is all

well and good

but what about the biology that we can’t

see very easily

or when a working knowledge of biology

can help us get through life’s

tough moments one night after dinner

i was watching my son play in the

backyard and i turned to my husband and

said

it’s amazing what you can do with a

single cell

my husband gave a sperm cell and i gave

an egg cell and together we made

a new person and from those original

cells

he grew into the happy and energetic

tiny human we see today

having a child is a fascinating

experience in biology in so many ways

everything from the changes my body went

through while pregnant

to fingers that looked surprisingly like

my own but that are on my son’s hands

we had an interesting adventure in

immunology blood typing and genetics

when my son was born

human blood cells has sugars on the

surface so when you hear about somebody

having type a blood

that means they have a type sugars

someone with b

type blood has b type sugars and

somebody with a b

blood has both they have a and b sugars

now for people who have type o blood

like me we don’t have sugars in our

blood cells

you can think of oh like no no sugars on

our blood cells

now what happens if you get someone

else’s blood in your system that doesn’t

match your blood type

your immune system recognizes those

cells as foreign attacks

and destroys them now i have type o

blood

but my son he has type a blood and when

i was in labor

our blood mixed together and my immune

system attacked

his type a blood ultimate result

he was jaundiced when he was born

jaundiced occurs because of excessive

bilirubin in our systems

and bilirubin is caused by blood cell

breakdown

so he spent much of the first few days

of his life sleeping on a billy bed

to break down the excessive bilirubin

now this was terrifying to my husband

and i as first time parents

but knowledge is power and my biology

everywhere oriented mind started

worrying away

trying to figure out what happened how

it happened

and if it could happen again

if i have type o blood how can i have a

son

who’s type a

blood typing is an example of a genetic

phenomenon called codominance

codominance means that if you have a

gene variant you

express it so somebody who has a b blood

has a gene variant for a and a gene

variant for b

and that’s how they can be a b now for

somebody with type o blood like me

i have two gene variants for o so my

genotype

is oo and so i could only pass an o type

variant on to my son

so this means the fact that my son had a

very adventuresome few days of his life

complete with

lots of blood draws was entirely

my husband’s fault

the only way my son could have type a

blood

is because he must have gotten an a-type

gene variant from

my husband so if we draw up the rest of

this planet square and make some

predictions

we’ll see the chances of my husband and

i having another child

that’s jaundice at birth from

incompatibility is at the minimum

50 percent so having a biology over our

minds that helped us get through a tough

first few days with our we also find

biology in the places we least expect it

like in the band room as schools

consider cutting their arts program in

favor of the sciences it’s important to

remember two things

first that biology tells us

about the powerful experience we have

with the arts

and second that intentional combination

of an artistic

and biological viewpoint has led to many

great

discoveries why do we like music

why do we listen to music while we work

why do we feel extensive connection with

those we make music

with it comes down to biological

processes in

our bodies when you get chills listening

to a beautiful piece

of music it’s because a chemical called

dopamine was released in your brain

that sends a connection we feel with

those we make music with

it isn’t just an emotional connection

it’s a physiological connection as well

and it’s thought to have been essential

for human evolution

and it’s not about science or the

arts either art has been foundational to

biology from the very beginning

the first biologist the naturalist they

didn’t have cameras

they had to be able to quickly and

accurately draw what they were seeing

both to document their findings and

communicate it to other

scientists in fact the intentional

combination of an artistic and a

scientific point of view

was foundational to one of the greatest

discoveries in neuroscience

santiago raymond hall was a spanish

scientist

and the father of neuroscience he came

up with a neuron doctrine or the idea

that the functional unit of our brains

is an individual cell called a neuron

he came up with a neuron doctrine by

repeatedly drawing neural tissue

this is one of his drawings

what is so amazing to me about his work

is that you can still find it included

in modern neuroscience textbooks as

reference material

and also touring the world in art

exhibitions for their beauty

whether it’s music or our families the

critters in our backyard

or bacon we experience biology

everywhere

every day when we see biology all around

it’s more exciting accessible and

engaging

why does it matter if people see biology

everywhere

or forever leave memories of biology

class locked in the backs of their

brains

never to be thought of again

there are consequences to not engaging

with biology

to thinking that it is something that

exists outside of our lives

rather than as an integral part of who

we are

biology is everywhere from the simple

things we engage in every day

to the complex issues in society we

begin to gain

confidence by looking at how biology

intersects with our daily lives

so that we can then turn an eye to the

bigger issues

the covid19 pandemic forced us to engage

with biology

how the illegal trade of wild animal

meat or bush meat from africa is a major

public health threat

and a conservation crisis to the

reintroduction of endangered species

back to their native lands

particularly species that are apex

predators like the grey wolves

back into lands that are now inhabited

by humans

questions about genetic technology such

as the patentability of genes

a question that raised eyes of imposed

the united states supreme court

in 2012 to what biological research can

tell us about the realities of climate

change

and why seemingly simple consumer

decisions like deciding to reuse

everything from diapers

to straws to grocery bags matter is part

of an ecological

system engaging with biology isn’t just

about knowing these things

it’s about the health and welfare of

society

when we see biology everywhere we engage

and when we engage we realize that we

are

smart enough to understand

that it is interesting

that engaging with biology is about

knowing every little thing

but being okay with engaging with it as

it intersects with our own

lives biology is everywhere

and yes you too can engage with it

you did just now by listening to my talk

so where will you experience biology