TTC – Biology: The Science of Life

A background (Scientific) view of our nature and it’s an excellent audio series!If you have read the book “The Selfish Gene” then you will love this series, the authors shares the same perspective. I would highly recommend this audio series to anyone who would like to understand the true nature of our selves… from the beginning when we were one tiny greedy cell.————————————————————————————————One of the greatest scientific feats of our era is the astonishing progress made in understanding the intricate machinery of life. We are living in the most productive phase so far in this quest, as researchers delve ever deeper into the workings of living systems, turning their discoveries into new medical treatments, improved methods of growing food, and innovative new products.”The 21st century will be the century of biological science, just as the 20th century was the century of physical science,” predicts Professor Stephen Nowicki, an award-winning teacher at Duke University who has specially adapted his acclaimed introductory biology course for The Teaching Company to bring you up to date on one of the most important fields of knowledge of our time.This intensive, 72-lecture course will give you the background and guidance to explore in depth the fundamental principles of how living things work—principles such as evolution by natural selection, the cellular structure of organisms, the DNA theory of inheritance, and other key ideas that will help you appreciate the marvelous diversity and complexity of life.Explore Living Systems at All LevelsMake no mistake: this is a challenging course. But the rewards are tremendous. You will explore living systems at all levels, from biological molecules to global ecosystems. Along the way, you will gain insight into some of the most pressing questions facing society:    * What does it mean to say that the human genome has been “sequenced,” and why should we sequence the genomes of other species?    * How is an organism “genetically modified” or “cloned,” and what are the benefits—or potential costs—of doing so?    * What are “stem cells,” and how might they contribute to human health and welfare?    * Why is HIV/AIDS so difficult to treat?    * What will happen if vast tracts of tropical rainforest are cut down, and why does it matter that the temperature of the Earth is rising? In addition, you will discover the mechanisms behind such intriguing phenomena as why children resemble their parents, what causes plants to bend toward light, how memories are stored, why some birds have very long tails, and how life itself began on Earth.Above all, you will learn how to think about biology, so that in your day-to-day life you will understand the significance and complexities of news stories, medical issues, and public debates, not to mention what is going on in your own garden and in nature all around you.The Unifying Themes of BiologyProfessor Nowicki presents the subject in a conceptual format, emphasizing the importance of broad principles. Facts and details are offered in abundance, but in the context of developing a framework that listeners can absorb.The course is organized around three major unifying themes:    * Starting with the theme of “Information and Evolution” (Lectures 1-24), you investigate how information about the structure and organization of living things is found in the DNA molecule, how this information is transmitted and modified, and the implications of these processes for understanding life. One important conclusion of this discussion is that species inevitably change over time; that is, that life evolves.    * In “Development and Homeostasis” (Lectures 25-48), you consider two related issues for understanding the workings of complex organisms: how single cells (fertilized eggs) proliferate and transform into complex, multicellular organisms, and how the various parts of complex organisms remain coordinated and maintain their integrity in the face of different challenges.    * In “Energy and Resources” (Lectures 49-72), you learn how living systems obtain the energy and other materials needed to maintain their highly ordered state and the implications of these processes for understanding the organization of biology at all levels of scale. Ultimately this investigation leads into the discipline of ecology and to considerations of energy and resource limitations for the entire planet.