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Big Idea 1: Biology Is Based On Observational and Experimental Science

This document provides an overview of the MIT Biology Department course 7.012: Introductory Biology for the Fall 2004 semester. The course will be taught by Professor Eric Lander, Professor Robert A. Weinberg, and Dr. Claudette Gardel. It outlines two big ideas that will be covered: 1) Biology is based on observational and experimental science, with a focus on experiments, controls, and predictive models, and 2) A gene is the functional unit of heredity, including inheritance, alleles, genotypes, phenotypes, dominance, and studying function through genetics and biochemistry.

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71 views1 page

Big Idea 1: Biology Is Based On Observational and Experimental Science

This document provides an overview of the MIT Biology Department course 7.012: Introductory Biology for the Fall 2004 semester. The course will be taught by Professor Eric Lander, Professor Robert A. Weinberg, and Dr. Claudette Gardel. It outlines two big ideas that will be covered: 1) Biology is based on observational and experimental science, with a focus on experiments, controls, and predictive models, and 2) A gene is the functional unit of heredity, including inheritance, alleles, genotypes, phenotypes, dominance, and studying function through genetics and biochemistry.

Uploaded by

attique
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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MIT Biology Department

7.012: Introductory Biology - Fall 2004


Instructors: Professor Eric Lander, Professor Robert A. Weinberg, Dr. Claudette Gardel

Big Idea 1: Biology is based on observational and experimental


science.

1. We think what we think because we can draw conclusions from the


results of controlled experiments.

2. An informative experiment is designed to distinguish between


hypotheses.

2-1. Many observations are susceptible to multiple alternative


interpretations.

2-2. A well-planned experiment is designed to make one


interpretation likely and to exclude as many alternative
interpretations as possible.

3. All experiments must have controls to be informative and


interpretable.

4. Models based on experimental data should have predictive powers.

Big Idea 2: A gene is the functional unit of heredity.

1. Factors determining traits (genes) are inherited as discrete entities.

2. An allele is a particular version of a gene.

3. A phenotype is a trait, a genotype is the set of alleles conferring


that trait.

3-1. Genetic analysis is done by observing phenotypes of


successive generations of crosses to elucidate genotype.

4. Dominant and recessive refer to phenotypes not genotypes.

4-1. A phenotype can be described as recessive, dominant, or


codominant only with respect to another phenotype.

5. Biological function can be studied through genes (Genetics) and


proteins, products of genes (Biochemistry).

5-1. Discipline of Molecular Biology explains the mechanisms by


which information contained in genes is relayed into proteins.

5-2. Recombinant DNA is a set of tools that allows scientists to


move between genetics, biochemistry and molecular biology –
allowing us to determine how the parts of a cell or organism
work.

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