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
us
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
next