I. Introduction

A. the philosophical setting of modern biology

1. a 21st century science trapped in 19th century thinking
2. definitions

a. the scientific method
b. forms of reductionism

3. the problem

a. limits of the method
b. questions that can and cannot be answered

II. The organization of the discipline of modern biology

A. range of the discipline
B. areas of concentration and their origins ("bottom to top")

1. biochemistry

a. a mixed science
b. chemists interested in the components of living systems

2. molecular biology

a. another mixed science
b. relatively new as a discipline
c. focus on the structure and function of the molecules of information transfer

1) ties to cryptology and cybernetics

d. powerful techniques now dominate much of biology

3. cell biology

a. began with the availability of the microscope.
b. overlaps significantly with molecular biology

4. developmental biology

a. single cell to multicellularity
b. complex problem attacked with tools of genetics and molecular biology

5. systematics

a. classification-what biology was before Darwin
b. physiology and organ system structure

6. ecology

a. systems of organisms
b. least affected by reductionist thinking

C. two areas pervade the entire spectrum

1. genetics

a. molecular genetics
b. classical genetics
c. non-Mendelian genetics
d. population genetics

2. evolutionary biology

a. the evolution paradigm at all levels

A. DNA as the genetic material

1. the nature of the data

a. experimental evidence that DNA is the genetic material
b. does this qualify as a demonstration in the Aristotelian sense?

2. some questions that can be answered at the level of the informational molecules themselves

a. how DNA works
b. the nature of mutation
c. the organization of the genetic material

3. some questions that cannot be answered at the level of the molecules themselves

a. cellular organization
b. living vs. non-living

B. the cell as the basic structural unit of (almost all) living systems

1. the nature of the data

a. the cell theory
b. violators of the cell theory

2. some questions that can be answered by examining individual cells

a. how cells function as individual cells
b. cellular components

3. some questions that cannot be answered by considering only a single cell

a. developmental issues
b. communication between cells in a system

C. how a single cell becomes a multicellular creature: developmental biology

1. the nature of the data

a. early work - ontogeny (not to be confused with ontology!)
b. developmental genetics

2. some questions that can be answered by exploring development

a. control points in development
b. relationships between cells in the developing organism

3. some questions that cannot be answered by exploring development

a. the nature of the individual
b. mind/body questions