Making Sense In The Life Sciences

What do biologists want? How will we know when we have 'made sense' of life? Explanations in the biological sciences are provisional and partial, judged by criteria as heterogenous as their subject matter. This text accounts for this diversity.

Since the discovery of the structure of DNA and the birth of the genetic age, a powerful vocabulary has emerged to express science’s growing command over the matter of life. Armed with knowledge of the code that governs all living things, biology and biotechnology are poised to edit, even rewrite, the texts of life to correct nature’s mistakes. Yet, how far should the capacity to manipulate what life is at the molecular level authorize science to define what life is for? This book looks at flash points in law, politics, ethics, and culture to argue that science’s promises of perfectibility have gone too far. Science may have editorial control over the material elements of life, but it does not supersede the languages of sense-making that have helped define human values across millennia: the meanings of autonomy, integrity, and privacy; the bonds of kinship, family, and society; and the place of humans in nature.

Being able to understand and use primary research is essential tool in any scientific career. This book teaches these valuable skills simply and clearly, saving you hours in the long run.

An indispensable guide for students in any area of the life sciences-including biology, biochemistry, health sciences, pharmacology, and zoology-Making Sense in the Life Sciences offers up-to-date, detailed information on writing essays and lab reports conducting research evaluating Internet sources using electronic journal databases illustrating work with, figures, tables, and graphs documenting sources with the latest CSE and CMS guidelines avoiding plagiarism eliminating problems with grammar, punctuation, and usage delivering oral presentations using graphic presentation software collaborating on group projects studying for tests and exams preparing resumes and letters of application Book jacket.

The Making Sense series offers clear, concise guides to research and writing for students at all levels of undergraduate study. The volumes in the Making Sense series - covering the humanities, social sciences, life sciences, engineering, psychology, religious studies, and education - areintended for students in any undergraduate course with a research and writing component, but are especially appropriate for those at the first-year level.Intended for life science students, Making Sense in the Life Sciences provides detailed information on writing essays and lab reports; conducting research and using academic sources; grammar, punctuation, and usage; conducting presentations; using graphics; and more. This revised edition includes acomplete CMS update; new discussions on writing for an audience, the importance of DOIs, and graphics in oral presentations; and more examples of key concepts.

Making Sense of the Senses provides an easily understandable and engaging overview of the senses. The book allows readers insights into how humans and other animals perceive the world, reflecting a level of knowledge similar to that acquired by studying neuroscience at an undergraduate level. In order to offer an accessible introduction to the science, it uses relatable examples to uncover the history, evolution, and biological principles of the way we see, smell, hear, taste, touch and more.Rather than only focusing on the five primary senses you can see on the cover, Making Sense of the Senses dives deep into the various methods through which life across the planet surveys the world, and guides the reader through the lesser-known methods through which we humans interpret our surroundings. In this way, we come across some amazing abilities that we often forget we possess.Humans are nevertheless rather average creatures compared to many sensory specialists. So when we compare our relatively modest capabilities to those of other species across the animal kingdom, we are forced to yield our anthropocentric sense of supremacy. This book will introduce how biological life developed the capacity to detect magnetic fields, radioactivity, and many more phenomena that until recently were inaccessible to humans.By contextualising and comparing how the senses operate, this book covers the sensory systems in a way no popular science book has previously done. If you are starting your career in neuroscience, or simply want to learn more about the ways our biology guides us through life, Making Sense of the Senses will change the way you think about our perception of the world.

This volume demystifies science studies and bridges the divide between social theory and the sociology of science.

When children begin secondary school they already have knowledge and ideas about many aspects of the natural world from their experiences both in primary classes and outside school. These ideas, right or wrong, form the basis of all they subsequently learn. Research has shown that teaching is unlikely to be effective unless it takes into account the position from which the learner starts. Making Sense of Secondary Science provides a concise and accessible summary of the research that has been done internationally in this area. The research findings are arranged in three main sections: * life and living processes * materials and their properties * physical processes. Full bibliographies in each section allow interested readers to pursue the themes further. Much of this material has hitherto been available only in limited circulation specialist journals or in unpublished research. Its publication in this convenient form will be welcomed by all researchers in science education and by practicing science teachers continuing their professional development, who want to deepen their understanding of how their children think and learn.