Editorial notes: This Essay was found as a ‘draft’ entry in Everything2. It was last updated on 03/05/2011.
To me, molecular biology is that part of biology that is concerned with the molecules that make up biological systems. It is concerned with those molecules’ lives, and the way they interact with each other. It manipulates molecules to test hypotheses. Although it may look at larger effects, like cell growth or animal development, it tries to connect those things with molecular events.
Introducing molecular biology
This write-up is an index to some of my writings on molecular biology. The writeups listed below offer step by step introductions, going from atoms to cells, to cell function.
This short series was written with the following in mind: Knowledge is foundational and disciplines are jargons.
- It’s often difficult to grasp ideas when you have to take simpler ones for granted without understanding them. Hence I begin this series from the very bottom – atoms – not because you need to know what atoms are to understand more complicated biological systems, but rather because it removes one gap. You might understand an explanation of what a protein is but then not understand how that relates to atoms. Knowing how it relates to atoms may not be necessary, but in your mind it is helpful.
- Similarly, ideas in foreign fields can often overwhelm due to their language. Certain words often don’t seem to make sense or are never explained. While you know that you don’t need to understand them in order to understand the topic at hand, once again it removes a blind spot and makes the learning easier.
- You might understand something well enough to explain it sufficiently to an expert, but be unable to explain how it relates to other things. I can know that something is a protein, but then get confused by what that means in relation to other proteins, not to mention other stuff in the cells. There are words I’ve heard – from infomercials, high school biology, and the strange denizens of the internet – which I’m not sure how to relate to the new knowledge. For this reason, it’s important to get rough overviews or at least a surplus of brief examples in order to properly be comfortable with something taught.
It is hoped that the above three writeups will achieve the following: (1) an understanding of the building blocks of biology; (2) seeing how those building blocks come together to make biological stuff, and (3) getting a feel for how that stuff actually interact.
