HONORS 221:
DNA & Evolution
Taught by Jon Herron
Winter 2014
3 quarters of general chemistry, 5 quarters of organic chemistry + lab, 3 quarters of biochemistry, 4 quarters of general biology, 3 quarters of physics + lab, 2 quarters of calculus, 1 quarter of astronomy, and 3 years of lab work.
Despite taking all these science classes, I never learned how to properly read a scientific paper. Besides learning about antibiotic resistance, mutations, genetics, and evolution, the most important thing I have taken out from this class was how to read/analyze primary literature and design my own experiments. I finally felt like I was a scientist. I was not memorizing and regurgitating facts, but answering unsolved questions with my own experiments.
My final paper was about convergent evolution in the tumor supressor, p53, on mammals of various lifespan. This was my first time designing an experiment on my own and using the NCBI database to look for protein sequences and make an evolutionary tree. This two page research paper took me over 30 hours to complete. It gave me a glimpse of how much time and effort researchers spend on their papers!
Despite taking all these science classes, I never learned how to properly read a scientific paper. Besides learning about antibiotic resistance, mutations, genetics, and evolution, the most important thing I have taken out from this class was how to read/analyze primary literature and design my own experiments. I finally felt like I was a scientist. I was not memorizing and regurgitating facts, but answering unsolved questions with my own experiments.
My final paper was about convergent evolution in the tumor supressor, p53, on mammals of various lifespan. This was my first time designing an experiment on my own and using the NCBI database to look for protein sequences and make an evolutionary tree. This two page research paper took me over 30 hours to complete. It gave me a glimpse of how much time and effort researchers spend on their papers!