Tagged: evolution

CC106: The Sound of Music

February 5, 2013 at 3:22 pm

Today, February 5th, Biology Professor Jelle Atema (Doctorandus, University of Utrecht (Netherlands); PhD, University of Michigan), held a lecture titled “The sound of music: frog calls and the design of music halls“, for the Core class CC106. CC106 is designed to round out students’ exploration of the natural sciences by focusing on the science of life. The professors [...]

By mdimov | Posted in Academics, Community, Core Lecturers, Curriculum | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Analects of the Core #171: Life Ascending

December 5, 2012 at 1:00 pm

Expanding further on the works studied in CC106, here is the next analect from Nick Lane’s Life Ascending: The Great Inventions of Evolution: We may not enjoy the fact much, but we’ve recognized since the early 1920′s that going moderately hungry prolongs life. It’s called calorie restriction. Rats fed a balanced diet, but with about [...]

By mdimov | Posted in Analects, Curriculum, Quotes, Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Robert Dorit on re-reading Darwin

January 18, 2012 at 12:36 pm

For almost two centuries, Charles Darwin and his theories have been studied, criticized, and validated by the scientific community and yet, to this day controversy continues to surround his work. To try and address the continued controversies of Darwin’s work, scholar Robert Dorit re-analyzes the Origin of Species in terms of time and its importance [...]

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

EnCore Book Club: Tonight!

April 6, 2011 at 10:25 am

Tonight is the perfect chance for Core alumni to come together at the EnCore book club and recapture the excitement of being a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Core student again with intellectually provocative discourse. Join the discussion at the BU Alumni Lounge, 595 Commonwealth Avenue, at 6:30 PM, whether you are a returning participant or are [...]

By CAS Core Curriculum | Posted in 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 #75

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 #73

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)