The website can be accessed from any device
The website is accessible from any device. mination and size of the fish and the conditions of the river they’re both working to understand the Salmon’s life cycle and how it’s affected by the changes to its environment now let’s head to the heart of biotown where a different kind of biologist is hard at work in a lab this biologist is using DNA sequencing to identify the genetic material that makes wild salmon unique from farmed salmon this information will help them understand how the salmon’s genes are affected by the changes to their environment and what they can do to help the fish survive now let’s take a trip up to the top of a skyscraper where yet another biologist is hard at work the biologist is studying the behavior of peregrine falcons which have made their homes on the skyscraper and the surrounding buildings this biologist is using high-powered binoculars to track the falcons as they hunt for food and nest with their young this data will help the biologist understand the falcons’ relationship to the urban environment and how it affects their behavior and the chances for their survival
Life can be found in some of the most extreme places on Earth, from the bottom of the ocean to toxic hot springs and acidic environments. How do we know this? Because biologists have gone there to study it. Biology is the study of life from mushrooms to Manta Rays. Today we’re going to take a closer look at the biologists themselves.
Hi, I’m Dr. Sammy, your friendly neighborhood entomologist, and this is Crash Course Biology. Despite the complexities of how we categorize and understand life, the field of biology is open to everyone. People who like math, bugs, nature, and even design are welcome. As the field of biology has grown, it has required different types of thinkers to apply the findings to everyday life.
You don’t need to travel to Earth’s extremes to find a biologist. Biology touches everybody’s lives on a daily basis. Biological processes are in the lunch you eat, the medicine you take, and even the cat hair on your couch. Biologists can be found in classrooms, laboratories, and doctors’ offices. They can be found in state forests, on boats, in corn fields, and even on the edge of skyscrapers. Many biologists work at research institutes or universities, where they do a combination of research and teaching. They can also be found at museums, zoos, and aquariums. They work for the government, managing natural resources, monitoring diseases, and studying the effects of food additives. Biologists also work at pharmaceutical companies researching and testing medicines, and at medical device companies developing products to diagnose, treat, and prevent illness.
Biologists all share a curiosity about life’s processes, but their specializations drive what they do on a daily basis. Even if they are working on the same goal, say conservation of wild salmon, they approach it from distinct angles.
Let’s look at a city called Biotown. Wild salmon migrate up and down the river, but the construction of the city has disturbed the salmon’s ecosystem. Biologists are on the case. Some are out in the field, wrestling armfuls of salmon and recording data about the insemination and size of the fish and the conditions of the river. Others are in the lab using DNA sequencing to identify the genetic material that makes wild salmon unique from farmed salmon. And yet another biologist is studying the behavior of peregrine falcons, which have made their homes on the skyscrapers, using high-powered binoculars to track them as they hunt for food and nest with their young.
Biologists are everywhere, from remote caves and distant islands to classrooms and laboratories. They are in state forests, on boats, in corn fields, and even on the edge of skyscrapers. They are researching and teaching, managing natural resources, monitoring diseases, and studying the effects of food additives. They are at pharmaceutical companies researching and testing medicines, and at medical device companies developing products to diagnose, treat, and prevent illness. No matter where they are, biologists are asking questions about life’s processes and applying their findings to everyday life. and as large as a planet
He saw firsthand the challenges of poor farmers and was determined to help them, so Carver designed an experiment. He sought out the worst possible acre of land to match the conditions of nutrient-starved fields all over the U.S. South. Instead of pumping the soil with expensive fertilizers, he experimented by planting different crops at different times. He observed how some plants, such as peanuts, peas, and soybeans, restored nitrogen that had been stripped away from the soil by other plants. By rotating those crops, he noticed he could make the soil healthy again. Carver widely publicized his crop rotation strategies and invented hundreds of uses for these alternative crops, including the first soy-based non-dairy cheese. As crop rotation methods spread, they helped rebuild both the soil and the people who depend on it.
Carver chose to study certain plants, peanuts included, because of their unique soil building traits, but many biologists focus on a species not for the traits that make them exceptional, but because of the traits they share with other living things. In an effort to better understand things like disease or evolution, these are the supermodels of science, also known as model organisms. They are the most widely studied species on the planet, researched in order to understand the biological processes that apply to other organisms, and yes, they sometimes show up on magazine covers.
Mice and rats have been studied in laboratories for over 100 years, and they’re still in style, but other fresh faces have popped up among biology’s next top models. The zebrafish has become a recent favorite, an easy to maintain model with classic stripes that shares over 70 percent of its genes with humans. Nematodes, tiny transparent worms that you might find in your compost piles, make ideal models, easily raised in a Petri dish. Fruit flies, adaptable habits, stay fresh even though its food typically isn’t. Whether they’re buzzing around rotten bananas or reproducing by the thousands in a laboratory, there’s so much that they can teach us.
And in labs worldwide, Arabidopsis has become the model plant for all occasions with its small size and quick growing ways. Model organisms need to be easy to raise, easy to keep, and manageable in large numbers. So, while rhinoceroses sure are interesting, it’s unlikely that they’ll ever grace the scientific catwalk as supermodels.
As ideal laboratory subjects, model organisms help biologists understand other life forms, including humans. Science tells us that all living things share a common ancestor, so you share some genetic material with every sunflower, every elephant, and every mushroom that ever lived. And because even a nematode shares some genes with humans, we’re able to study them to better understand diseases in people.
Even though model organisms can help us understand more about ourselves and other life around us, they aren’t well suited to all questions. Like there’s not much a lab mouse can show us about the behavior and physiology of an alligator. And sometimes a biologist might choose to study an organism because it’s really well suited to a particular question. Like turtles aren’t as easy to keep in labs as zebrafish are, but some of their soft tissue naturally switches to bone as their shells grow. So, if you’re interested in how one type of cell transitions into another type of cell, well, it’s turtles all the way down.
So, biologists can be found studying life in all its forms, from nematodes to narwhals, wading in streams, deep in museum archives, and at the helm of research ships. While biologists may tackle topics from different angles, they share an abiding curiosity about life and its processes, a curiosity they put to work by collecting data, planning experiments, and using model organisms to better understand diseases, genetics, and the interconnectedness of all life.