Isn't nature beautiful? Evolution, the brilliant guiding force of biology, has favored random mutations that have created such wonderful living things, from dolphins to daisies, and from bunnies to the bony-eared assfish (yup, you read that correctly). This course will be a somewhat humorous approach to describing how living things got to be the way they are, guided by the always pleasant forces of death and sex. Not only good for making a crappy movie look more mature than it really is, death and sex are the reasons why we are bipeds with opposable thumbs and (usually) stunning intellects, and not muck-dwelling bacteria that make puddles smell like the dumpster behind your school cafeteria. It should also help explain why evolution has favored some organisms and traits that really don't make sense at first glance-- such as preying mantises sometimes eating their own mates, koala bears having teeny little brains, and male cardinals being bright red despite the fact that it makes them more likely to be seen by predators.

Imagine for a moment that you walk into a laboratory and someone hands you a tube of an unknown clear liquid. Your immediate reaction would probably be concern about what, exactly, you were just handed. So, how could you answer that question? It turns out that there's a very large number of potential techniques out there to do so. In the real world, this sort of scenario doesn't exactly happen a lot, but identifying unknown substances is still very important. Biochemistry often involves studying individual proteins and small molecules that are far too small to see with any reasonable microscope. And yet, every day, biochemists and other similar scientists and engineers around the world manage to do meaningful work studying and manufacturing everything from medicine to microbes and pond scum to compostable soda cups. This class will explore a variety of analytical techniques such as mass spectrometry and gel electrophoresis, and the basic principles by which they work. The class will also start with an introduction to biochemistry.

Isn't nature beautiful? Evolution, the brilliant guiding force of biology, has favored random mutations that have created such wonderful living things, from dolphins to daisies, and from bunnies to the bony-eared assfish (yup, you read that correctly). This course will be a somewhat humorous approach to describing how living things got to be the way they are, guided by the always pleasant forces of death and sex. Not only good for making a crappy movie look more mature than it really is, death and sex are the reasons why we are bipeds with opposable thumbs and (usually) stunning intellects, and not muck-dwelling bacteria that make puddles smell like the dumpster behind your school cafeteria. It should also help explain why evolution has favored some organisms and traits that really don't make sense at first glance-- such as preying mantises sometimes eating their own mates, koala bears having teeny little brains, and male cardinals being bright red despite the fact that it makes them more likely to be seen by predators.

Imagine for a moment that you walk into a laboratory and someone hands you a tube of an unknown clear liquid. Your immediate reaction would probably be concern about what, exactly, you were just handed. So, how could you answer that question? It turns out that there's a very large number of potential techniques out there to do so. In the real world, this sort of scenario doesn't exactly happen a lot, but identifying unknown substances is still very important. Biochemistry often involves studying individual proteins and small molecules that are far too small to see with any reasonable microscope. And yet, every day, biochemists and other similar scientists and engineers around the world manage to do meaningful work studying and manufacturing everything from medicine to microbes and pond scum to compostable soda cups. This class will explore a variety of analytical techniques such as mass spectrometry and gel electrophoresis, and the basic principles by which they work. The class will also start with an introduction to biochemistry.