Tagged: CC106

Contribute to the Core Eco-quotes Project!

February 25, 2011 at 3:22 pm

The second-ever Ecolympics, April 1-15, is going to be bigger and better than last year’s, and you can help: by contributing to the Core Eco-quotes Project. As you know, Core is about tackling the big questions in life and certainly one of the biggest these days is how can humans best live with and within […]

By CAS Core Curriculum | Posted in Activities, Events | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Ecolympics 2011

February 15, 2011 at 2:14 pm

Following the tradition started last year, the Core Curriculum is proud to continue in the effort to raise awareness of the value of biodiversity, and how we can positively and negatively affect it.  Professor Daniel Hudon provides context for this year’s events on the Ecolympics blog: This year is the International Year of Forests and […]

By CAS Core Curriculum | Posted in Announcements, Events | Also tagged , , | Comments (0)

CC106: The monkeys are at it again

February 10, 2011 at 5:31 pm

Do you see them? Those monkeys are banging away at their typewriters, trying to type out the complete works of Shakespeare. Every time there’s a problem involving randomness, the monkeys get called into action. But these are not your average monkeys. No, these are gedanken monkeys. They can madly type 24 hours a day, seven […]

By CAS Core Curriculum | Posted in Great Ideas, Quotes | Also tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Analects of the Core: Lane on evolution of cellular complexity

February 4, 2011 at 12:04 pm

Mitochondria are a silly place to store genes.  They are often glibly called the powerhouses of  the cell, but the parallel is quite exact.  Mitochondrial membranes generate an electric charge, operating across a few millionths of a millimetre, with the same voltage as a bolt of lightning, a thousand times more powerful than domestic writing.  […]

By CAS Core Curriculum | Posted in Analects | Also tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Analects of the Core: Lane on evolution of photosynthesis

February 3, 2011 at 11:52 am

The word ‘fact’ is always likely to make biologists tremble in their boots, as there are so many exceptions to every rule; but one such ‘fact’ is virtually certain about oxygenic photosynthesis – it only evolved once. — Nick Lane, in his discussion of the evolution of photosynthesis, page 73, in Life Ascending: The Ten […]

By CAS Core Curriculum | Posted in Analects | Also tagged , | Comments (0)

Analects of the Core: Lane on eukaryotes and mitochondrial jumping genes

February 2, 2011 at 12:01 pm

The chimeric ancestor of the eukaryotes apparently succumbed to an invasion of jumping genes from its mitochondria. — Nick Lane, in his discussion of the evolution of cellular complexity, page 115, in Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution, a book now studied in CC106: Biodiversity

By CAS Core Curriculum | Posted in Analects | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Getting to know: Prof. Nathan Phillips

October 5, 2010 at 4:42 pm

The Core takes pride in the people who help keep the program running. One of those people is Professor Nathan Phillips, a course coordinator for CC106: Biodiversity.  As part of an ongoing series on going green, BU Today offers a look into his almost completely off-the-grid lifestyle: Nathan Phillips, a College of Arts & Sciences […]

By CAS Core Curriculum | Posted in Great Personalities | Also tagged , | Comments (0)