Faculty First Year Seminars 197BIOCH - Light Fantstic: Wonders of Bio

The title of the course is adopted from an article in Scientific America, Dec. 2008 issue. We will start from the theme explored in this article of amazing images of living organisms and biomolecules seen through the light microscope. Students will be asked to research on selected images. For instance, an image of DNA in water in this article will start the discussion of the structure of DNA and its function. Another example is a "Rainbow Zebrafish" that shows how different fluorescent proteins are used to follow complex neural pathways. A third example is an image of pollen on the stigma of a plant, the first step that leads to fertilization, which is also the subject of research in our laboratory. We will expand from these images to discuss basic molecular and cell biology behind them.

Freshmen Only