Theories of Biology

4. CheckPoint: Theories of Biology

• Resource: Ch. 1 in Bioinquiry.
• Choose one theory and provide an example of how this theory relates to the news today.
• Post a 200- to 300-word response summarizing each of the major theories of biology.
• Use at least one outside reference in addition to your text.

I will choose Ecosystems for my example. These days, you cannot look on the news and see something about a natural disaster, such as a volcano eruption, or floods, or storms, or even man-made disasters like oil spills, illegal dumping, deforestation. These events all have negative impacts on the environment, and many times, man is at the root of the problems. It is through our interference that many ecosystems have been disrupted, and even destroyed, all in the name of expansion or greed.   Take for instance, the Artic, where there has been once a thick layer of ice several years –even centuries- old, now have been found to largely consist of “thin 1-year-old floes” (Jacob, 2011). Much of this can be attributed to global warming, and thinning of the ozone, letting the Earth’s natural temperatures rise and contribute to the melting of the ice. This theory also has elements of homeostasis, in which the Earth’s narrow margin of optimal conditions is being altered.

Evolution by Natural Selection
By far, this is one of the more famous and controversial theories in biology; it was presented in 1859 by Charles Darwin and published in his book The Origin of Species. It is devised of two parts: one being species that change over generations, and two being that this change is the result of natural selection.

Inheritance
A theory developed by Gregor Mendel from his experiments with pea plants, Inheritance is the concept that traits are passed down from parent to child by what is known as “genes”.   Mendel’s theory was pretty much ignored for 35 years before it was discovered and accepted in the scientific community.

Cells
Matthias Schleiden and Theodor... [continues]

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