The Biology Blog—Post 1 by Kirk Bartholomew
What to say, what to say—let’s start with what we plan on writing about in this and future posts, the Biology Blog (BB for short) will be primarily used by myself and other faculty in the department primarily to communicate with current, former, and future students. Topics for posts could be: how to succeed in particular courses that we teach, commenting on current events of a biological nature that catch our interest, research projects involving undergraduates, how to prepare for life after SHU, or anything else that take our fancy and relates to the Biology Major Program at SHU or Biological Science.
Today my topic is participation in research—this is arguably the most important thing you can do while pursuing a B.S. in Biology (or most other degrees for that matter). By participating in research, I do not mean doing a 1 semester “science project” with a defined beginning and end. You should try to become involved with a professor who has developed an ongoing project to describe and explain patterns in the natural world. For example, in our department we have faculty directing projects investigating patterns of animal development using a zebra fish model, patterns of nervous system development using cultured chick neuron cells, patterns of communication and mating behavior in rodents (voles), patterns of population and organismal ecology in horseshoe crabs, patterns of lipid use and metabolism in migrating birds, patterns of DNA damage and repair in bacteria, patterns of the evolution of limb development in amphibians and lastly (me) patterns of genome organization and sexual development in fungi. As you can see—we are diverse in our interests and research. Most of the research we do is “basic” in nature—it is not directed at solving a specific problem identified as important by humans—instead it is directed at understanding how life works. If you do not know this already let me clearly state—MOST SCIENTIFIC ADVANCES IN MEDICINE AND OTHER FIELDS OF SCIENCE COME ABOUT DUE TO THE DISCOVERIES OF BASIC RESEARCH.
More important than the specific topic is the fact that all of our faculty welcome and encourage undergraduate participation in their projects. A unique feature of undergraduate research at SHU is that we are focused on providing a quality research experience for our undergraduate students, including attendance and presentation of their results at regional scientific conferences. This year we attended the Northeast Undergraduate Research and Development Symposium at the University of New England in Biddeford ME. These trips are the highlight of our year—usually all of our faculty and 20 to 30 students attend to present posters and talks. Recognition of your efforts by faculty and students from other institution is the ultimate payoff for a year of hard work. This is far different from the situation at larger research universities where doctoral and masters students receive the bulk of the attention.
By doing research you really learn how science works—it is an ongoing process where each new experiment provides information that leads to more questions and further research to refine your ideas. Understanding the process of science is the important part of an undergraduate experience. No matter what the topic—participating in research as an undergraduate prepares you for life after SHU by teaching you problem solving and task analysis skills—these skills are sought after in all fields of post-graduate study and all jobs that you might apply for.
A word about the image associated with this page and the name of the BB--Tree of Life Biology. The image is part of larger picture created by Katie Hjort (2008)--the original depicts all of the organisms, molecules and cells that our faculty focus on in their research (Birds, Fish, Horseshoe Crab, Vole, and Neurons are visible in the partial image) arranged along a tree--the Tree of Life. The concept of a "Tree of Life", is central to biological science, where true understanding requires understanding the evolutionary connections between all life forms.
Until the next time
Kirk Bartholomew
