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I should have loved biology

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Re: I should have loved biology

#201

Post by watwut »

valesco wrote: post #194
watwut wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that this is wrong. It is easier to remember sequence of events in logical order then arbitrary dates. You really dont need to remember exact date of when Caesar crossed the Rubicon in order to understand his motivations. You need context in enough details in order to understand motivations. > It sucks, but you really do need to know a lot of whens to help you contextualize the why. I always managed to memori…

When you know the date of an event, you can locate others events that are not in a direct relationship with it. You can then situate the evolution of distant lines of events without needing to memorize too many dependency graphs.

> When you know the date of an event, you can locate others events that are not in a direct relationship with it.

No you cant. Because at that point, you know nothing about the other events you are supposed to locate and have no reason to care.

> You can then situate the evolution of distant lines of events without needing to memorize too many dependency graphs.

I am not even sure what that is supposed to mean in the context of high school history. You drew events you know about into lines or graph and still know nothing about how they relate to each other.

Re: I should have loved biology

#202

Post by throwaway316943 »

kls wrote: post #181
Sophistifunk wrote: post #98

This isn't just biology, it's school . The only time you're taught processes and methods, it's when they're busywork, and you're wasting a year memorising how to do something nobody does any more because we have computers and calculators. What you're being taught is to squash your individuality, demand and follow orders, and to seek your worth only in the approval of your betters. But most of all, you're being kept o…

Agreed 100%, I have a troubled kid in school right now, who is off the charts smart but the only thing he will apply himself to is Advanced Math, Auto Shop and his Culinary program. If it's not hands on or mechanical he just has no interest in rote memorization. School needs to fundamentally change especially for adolescent males, it just stacks the decks against the high functioning learn by doing types. I often won…

It boggles my mind how broken the model of rote memorization to pass written tests is. School should teach you the fundamentals of how to acquire knowledge and then get out of your way. Reading, writing, speaking, logic, geometry, mathematics, and programming along with a whirlwind tour of all the good and bad ideas throughout history then pack it up. Instead we have a public babysitting service that pretends to add value when it’s probably no better than dropping your kid off at a library for the day (whether they choose to stay and read or not).

Re: I should have loved biology

#203

Post by leto_ii »

> In the textbooks, astonishing facts were presented without astonishment. Someone probably told me that every cell in my body has the same DNA. But no one shook me by the shoulders, saying how crazy that was.

The key thought of the article comes right at the top. The distance between the astonishing nature of reality and the dry tedious way it's taught to people is present in all subjects, but seems greatest in biology. What seems to always be missing is what Chomsky calls a 'willingness to be puzzled'.

In fact I think this ability to be puzzled or amazed is there to begin with, but is beaten out of us by the educational system.

Re: I should have loved biology

#204

Post by bartread »

> I should have loved biology but I found it to be a lifeless recitation of names: the Golgi apparatus and the Krebs cycle; mitosis, meiosis; DNA, RNA, mRNA, tRNA.

This opening sentence resonated hard with me.

For reasons now too obscure to go into I decided to study biochemistry at university and whilst, at the time, it sounded like it should be exciting, what I found instead was that it was substantially an uninspiring exercise in memorization from beginning to end. No interesting general principles or profound insights.

I hated it. Not exactly from the beginning, but certainly after the first year novelty wore off, and I despised it ever more as time went on. In the end - surprise, surprise - I didn't do that brilliantly. A total waste of time but sometimes you only learn by making quite expensive mistakes.

I probably would have been a lot happier had I studied physics, or even maths, or - as I ended up converting into with a post-grad masters, and thankfully I at least managed to do well enough to qualify for that course - computer science.

Re: I should have loved biology

#205

Post by PennRobotics »

kashyapc wrote: post #191

Speaking of biology ... I'm about 60% through the 720-page tome, 'Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst' by Robert Sapolsky. "Electrifying" indeed, as a blurb at the back of the book puts it. The narrative structure is quite compelling, where Sapolsky starts by examining a behavior in the present and gradually zooms out, all the way back to evolutionary factors from millennia ago. The book also provides…

His lectures on Youtube are incredible. It was one of my favorite courses to watch---on par with Donald Sadoway, Anant Agarwal, David Malan and Walter Lewin.

I'd also note, when he gave his lectures, he was clear that the neurons in our brain are like those of most other creatures, and there were simply more with better specialization through complex arrangements. With the recent discovery of the rosehip neuron, this idea might not be entirely true.

A handful of his other thoughts are also on the border of truth (such as bringing up the study with some outrageous percentage of misattributed paternity in Europe). Still, almost everything he describes is insightful and captivating, and he seems to convey that science is full of nuance and there's so much undiscovered in the world.

Re: I should have loved biology

#206

Post by detritus »

saiya-jin wrote: post #146
tofurocks wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People have wildly different reactions, some of my friends can take 14g+ and be fine, others are barely able to talk after 2g. Plus potency varies wildly between crops and strains.

Also, there are different types of shrooms, saw at least 7 types last in Amsterdam, potency varied significantly. Also, how empty your stomach is makes world of difference. Also, method of consumption - dried vs fresh, raw/cooked, or like me mixing it with raw lemon juice (makes trip shorter but way more intense - 3g trips were full beyond reality with good setting). Plus individual variation in digestion/enzymes/rec…

Mm, there's a world of difference between, say, 7g of Cyanescens and the same dry weight of a Cubensis.

Re: I should have loved biology

#207

Post by hnmm23 »

koeng wrote: post #67
xrd wrote: post #63

I love this article. Does anyone have suggestions on starting down this path as someone that understands programming but has forgotten all the high school biology I learned? I love the way I can now learn new programming frameworks. Read small bit by bit projects that build up slowly and teach the important components. Svelte for example. Solving problems and practicing the techniques are the best way for me to memor…

What are you interested in? Synthetic biology? Bioinformatics? Something else? Biology is really broad - As an analogy, not sure if you’re interested in how to build a gaming computer or want to learn how make web apps.

Idk biochemistry? Cell, molecular, structural bio? Genetic engineering?

These are all so abstract to me but I wanna head down a path to better understand autoimmune diseases, research being done, viable options...

Idk but how can I leverage modern day understanding and tech to have an end goal of creating a biologic that makes it so people don’t have to live with their body fighting themselves everyday or give a mother at risk of miscarriages another chance?

It’s all such a big messy abstract sound storm in my mind and I wish I could focus it more to ask the right question but unfortunately I can not

Re: I should have loved biology

#208

Post by jeromenerf »

john_minsk wrote: post #184
jeromenerf wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love biology yet I could not have described more opposite interests. I have zero interests in producing gmo in my kitchen, but I am definitely hooked on plants interaction and selection in open fields. Biology is pretty broad a field. Science of the living.

Not to start a holy war, but what is the difference at the end of the day? Isn't one just faster?

When it comes to biology applied to agriculture, I prefer eco systemic research to genetics, as a personal taste but I don’t even think those are mutually exclusive.

Maybe an example is appropriate. Monocrop cultures are efficient short term, easy to control ... but also simplistic and brutal. In this system, gmo can help reduce the nefarious intrants (fertilizers, pesticides ...). This sounds like optimization.

Alternative cultural models, multicrops for instance, are saner but implies many technical and economical issues that still have to be dealt with. This is more like an architectural change.

Re: I should have loved biology

#209

Post by hnmm23 »

joshuamcginnis wrote: post #124
hnmm23 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i mean i want to learn about everything before that too, like history, links, diagnoses - to be sure, as well as testing/tracking metrics and the likes, also reading is the easy part, but what about understanding? when im running into medical terms/and other things im not familiar with or equipped to understand, where do you go? bc i find myself ending down different rabbit holes and my productivty diminishes and my…

It can take me weeks if not months to fully comprehend a new paper. One paper will require that I look up a lot of new terms, watch a lot of videos explaining the terms and repeating the process for the cited references. It sounds like you need more structure so I would suggest you take notes, set goals, organize your materials and schedule time for focusing on particular topics, tasks or techniques.

It’s hard to do that when I’m entirely new. Idk where to start or what raw knowledge I possess that combined with biology would achieve the results I want.

I know the end goal though, I want there to be an option, a fix or a painless way to manage autoimmune diseases, things like hormone and metabolic response imbalances -thyroid, androgen, progesterone, insulin - etc they all share a link to deadly lifelong debilitating diseases That make living hell for so many people and I want to take that away for them or at least generations down the line.

I know I’m a rambling scattered mess right now I thank you for being patient

Re: I should have loved biology

#210

Post by FranzFerdiNaN »

watwut wrote: post #169
FranzFerdiNaN wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You cant understand why things happen if you don't know when they happen (the other way around works just fine, which is why quizzes on tv love to ask random dates). You need to know when Caesar crossed the Rubicon in relation to when other events happened to help you understand why he did what he did. If you think he conquered Gaul after becoming dictator your entire narrative changes. It sucks, but you really do ne…

I think that this is wrong. It is easier to remember sequence of events in logical order then arbitrary dates. You really dont need to remember exact date of when Caesar crossed the Rubicon in order to understand his motivations. You need context in enough details in order to understand motivations. > It sucks, but you really do need to know a lot of whens to help you contextualize the why. I always managed to memori…

If you only learn dates, of course it makes no sense. Its like memorizing mathematical formulas. They also make absolutely no sense if you never see why you would use them.
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