What Are the Available Programs For Molecular Biology PhD?

For those who want to pursue their doctorate on molecular biology but are too busy with their work or other occupation, there is now a convenient alternative. You can now employ the internet as a tool to accomplish your academic goals. Nowadays, a doctoral program in molecular biology is already available online. People in this field can now take the necessary courses through the web.

The online programs differ depending on the school. There are institutions that require a student at least three years to finish the program but there are also institutions that offer less duration. The lectures are available to all the university's students but the graduate tutorials on molecular biology are exclusive to the students of the said program. EPR Spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, crystallography and different types of metabolisms are some of the subjects that are available in the internet-based academic program. The initial part of the Molecular Biology PhD program includes lectures about these topics.

Convenience is the primary advantage in entering this online program. Even if you have a regular job, you can still continue your studies through this. The materials that are needed for this will be sent to the student through postal service. Because of this, a lot of self-studying is required.

But there are also times when the actual presence of the student is required because the syllabus also contains retreats and seminars that are needed in the graduate study of molecular biology. So you have to make time for the few instances that your presence is actually needed.

Before enrolling in a graduate program on molecular biology online, be sure that you have accomplished all the requirements. Check first if all the courses and subjects that you took in your bachelor's and master's degree are recognized by the academic institution that you want to enter. Different universities have different curricula so some of the courses that are credited in a certain school may not be credited in others.

Despite the fact that you're studying online, there may be situations that you'll need to utilize the university's facilities. So be sure to take a look first at the school's facilities and resources to ensure a comfortable learning environment.

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Biospheres: Reproducing Planet Earth

Dorion Sagan's 1990 paperback Biospheres: Reproducing Planet Earth (McGraw-Hill Publishing, ISBN 0-553-28883-0) does more than deliver a unique vision of the planet's life support system. It also challenges the traditional view of humanity as the dominant feature of life on Earth.

Perhaps that is no less than should be expected from the offspring of astronomer Carl Sagan and biologist Lynn Margulis, whose unorthodox view of evolutionary biology sees life forms merging to produce new ones. Sagan the younger is well known as an author of books on culture, evolution, and the philosophy of science.

Ecospheres to Biosphere 2

Among the more interesting features of the book are the mentions of still-existing institutions that are unexpectedly abiding features of the economic and technological landscape.

For example, Ecospheres Associates in Tucson, Arizona manufactures and sells sealed glass balls filled with water containing green algae, other microscopic biota, and tiny shrimp in a symbiotic community that illustrates the principle of closed life support. It is one illustration of what Sagan calls "permanently recycling systems." Called EcoSpheres, they come in a variety of sizes, from 4 inches in diameter to 9 inches, are priced like small kitchen appliances, and have "replacement periods" of up to a year. With care, they can last for many years. EcoSpheres are a NASA spin-off, the first product of US experiments to create closed ecosystems, ultimately for humans in space habitats.

"Bioshelters", earthbound biospheres for individuals, families, and small groups, were a product of the gone-but-not-forgotten New Alchemy Institute (1969-1991). Between Apollo 11 and Biosphere 2, New Alchemy built several bioshelters it called "arks" at Cape Cod Massachusetts, Prince Edward Island (eastern Quebec), and other places. The Green Center at Hatchville, MA preserves New Alchemy's information legacy.

Ocean Arcs International, founded by the same people who brought you bioshelters, created the self-sustaining oceangoing vessels mentioned in Biospheres. Their idea of sailing Earth's oceans as little sea colonies, without dependence on anything nonrenewable, including fossil fuels, has since mutated into a wastewater processing method that might qualify as a technology for space colonies.

Biosphere 2, 35 miles north of Tucson, was taking shape just as Biospheres the book was nearing completion. The site has become Southern Arizona's best-known technological wonder. Situated among the red rocks of the Santa Catalina Mountains, out of sight of Highway 77 and the ordinary built environment, it is said that on certain summer evenings under one of those ruby Arizona sunsets, all of the visual cues are Martian. From the library tower of the human habitat, across a miniature ocean, rain forest, desert, savannah, and marshland, Biosphere 2 is 3.14 acres of Earth under glass. It has operated since 2007 as a research station and educational outreach project of the University of Arizona under a ten-year, $30 million grant from the Philecology Foundation.

Of Mice and Men

But the book has a downside. Its core philosophy is environmentalism, which is worthy of suspicion because of its tendency to denigrate humanity. Sagan is at risk for this as well, displaying a fairly consistent antihuman drumbeat that is easily the most off-putting feature of his little book.

Each human being, says Sagan, is both a multi-species assemblage and a unit of a larger organism. The typical Homo sapiens' surface is inhabited by a microbiological community of bacteria, fungi, round worms, pin worms, etc. Our guts are densely-packed tubes of bacteria, yeasts, and other microorganisms. To add further insult, the Lovelockian view of Gaia, Mother Earth, which Sagan describes sympathetically, features humans as mere components. It's almost enough to make one decide to leave all the dirt and non-human DNA behind, and build strictly artificial worlds, just to prove that we can. Except that we can't, as anyone who disturbs the equilibrium of their digestive jungle soon discovers.

Truly, though, there is something disturbing about the idea, also found here, that the Gaia hypothesis could become the basis of some new green theocracy. What power would priests of the green religion have, and to what ends? We find some indication by the value assigned to individuals in the Lovelockian philosophy as Sagan portrays it: Individuals are of no consequence. They are numbers, large amounts of inessential biomass, and those numbers need to be contained. All of us who do not pass from the scene by means best left undescribed are to be midwives in the reproduction of the original biosphere, creating isolated cocoons of life in space, or maybe not. Right there, Sagan loses his clarity of vision. He thinks maybe we should just build protective pods to shield the offspring of Mother Earth from her dying body. OK. That's a little weird. Also, that's enough bashing of Men for their reproductive proclivities. I happen to like people, at least in principle.

Sagan says we ALL like people, and not just in principle. We like them so much that we are on the way to becoming a superorganism made up of individual humans the way our bodies are made of cells. To prevent these "cells" from reproducing wildly into superorganism "tumors", Sagan feels we shall adopt new cultural norms like infanticide and abortion, maybe also a little criminality and sexual perversion. Before too long, by way of demonstrating the effects of crowding, he works his way around to the rodent experiments of Dr. John B. Calhoun. If one takes the results at face value and allows them to be projected upon the human future, then, as Sagan points out, only grim conclusions are possible.

Sagan would have done well to point out that the standard interpretation of Calhoun's results is not necessarily the best one. The mouse "universes" of John Calhoun's creation did become crowded over time (though never reaching more than about 80% of capacity). They were also closed from the start, making emigration impossible. Population biologists regard emigration and death in the same light. That is because they are unable to follow individuals once they leave a controlled area. But, as any human explorer knows, emigration and death are not the same thing. A more complete interpretation of Calhoun's outcomes reflects the impossibility of a breakout, concluding that the mouse populations failed, not because they were dense, but because they were trapped in an enclosure.

Such side trips down depressing rabbit holes explain why the book in some ways stumbles rather than soars. Not until near the end do we again take up the ennobling view of Man the Builder of Worlds as opposed to Man trapped inside some kind of planet-sized monster in space. We pick up the thread at the Soviet Bios program of the early 1980s, which maintained two human beings in a complete life support system independent of Earth for a five-month simulated space journey.

Biospherians

Ten years later than Bios, much bigger, and more Capitalist, Biosphere 2 is a significant extension of the theme Sagan tries to express. A project of Edward P. Bass's Decisions Investments (as Space Biospheres Ventures), it is the largest and most complete simulation of the earth ever undertaken. The apparatus is as much a technological object as a biological one. Its basement "technosphere" includes systems for controlling temperature, filtering water, balancing internal pressure, fighting fires, and supporting the scientific activities of eight "biospherians." It is also art, a self-portrait of Man in the late twentieth century. Like the book, Biosphere 2 is more of a quest than a destination. Both are pearls, not so much because of what they say, or fail to say, or how they say it, but because of the questions they raise, most notably, "Who are we?"

Laurence B. Winn is an engineer, pilot, adventurer, and author. Get a free download of Chapter 1 of his new book Survivors from Earth at http://www.alienlandscapes.biz/.

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Top 10 Popular Science Books

1. Annals of a Former World, by John McPhee

In patient, lyrical prose, McPhee takes the reader on a geologic journey through the United States. This volume was originally published as 4 books; each is centered on a road trip the author took with a geologist, observing the earth next to Eisenhower's great US highways for clues into its geologic past. Annals has this--no borders, idealistic, On the Road for geologists kind of feel (though a bit more grown-up.) I pick up Annals every once in a while when im in a relaxed mood, when im looking for a good example of literary science writing. Highly recommended as a companion for camping trips, if you can fit it into your pack.

2. Surely You're Joking, Mr, Feynman, by Richard Feynman

A string of excerpts from Feynman's life/career, Surely You're Joking is probably the popular science book I have read through the most times, not because it is short, but because it is at once compelling, understated, and full of indispensible scientific concepts. Richard Feynman has an uncanny ability to make physics easily digestible, his lectures are a testament to that and Surely You're Joking is no exception. Feynman's easy prose makes the reader feel like physics is understandable, as if he has laid out a diagram of the universe on his living room floor--no one is an outsider. It's delightful. Feynman's in my 'top 5 people I would give my right pinky finger to meet' category.

3. A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson

The second heavy volume on the list, A Short History is packed with nearly everything. It takes a look at the science behind a lot of things--beauty, cells, evolution, the universe. Bryson rejects the traditional notion of a 'textbook' with this book, making science seem relevant in our daily lives AND putting this knowledge in the context of the universe--in space and time. Capturing the detailed nooks where science is often concentrated AND eliciting the wonder of the wider perspective is an accomplishment--savor it wherever you can find it. Great in audio book format.

4. The Richness of Life, collection of essays by Stephen Jay Gould

The idiosyncratic Gould has written articles in Natural History and many other science magazines for decades and is one of the most widely read modern science writers. In this collection of articles, Gould's highly intellectual, witty, and pin-accurate prose explains evolutionary theory, racism or baseball with a scientist's eye, but in a way that engages the layman. Gould's dedication to science shows in every piece. Delightful.

5. The Canon, by Natalie Angier

Someone at the New York Times science desk once told me--"Natalie Angier is the queen of metaphor." I have to agree. The Canon is the best example of her witty prose winding the reader through simple scientific questions with difficult answers. In this book, Angier tackles what she has deemed the basic scientific concepts everyone should know: thinking scientifically, probabilities, calibration, physics, evolutionary biology, chemistry, molecular biology, astronomy and geology. Phew. I have to say--this could have been very text-book, but because of her writing style, is masterful. I actually have had many non-scientist friend recommend this to me, which is always a good sign.

6. Universe in a Teacup, by K.C. Cole

Where can you find a book that successfully intertwines the discipline of mathematics, with the concepts of truth and beauty? Universe is just such a book; K.C.'s most popular and in some ways seminal volume. Metaphors she uses pack a punch. Her prose style is somewhat poetic, and in Universe, she proves adept at explain things like chaos or phase transitions are illuminating--not just because you finally understand some science concept that always seem so obscure, but because Cole has also given the you a new way to think about mathematics and the world alongside your new understanding. (Full disclosure--Cole was my academic mentor)

7. The Code Book, by Simon Singh

Packed with information about the history of codes, how to break them, and who figured it all out, this book has a kind-of James Bond appeal. Various scientists and politicians have acted as code-makers and code-breakers from antiquity until modern day, and codes are increasingly important in computer technology and national security. The stories behind the codes are so fascinating i hardly even realized that i was learning about the mathematics of code theory in the process.

8. Enduring Love, by Ian McEwan

Ok, so not everyone would categorize this as a popular science book, but Ill include it anyway. Enduring Love is a fiction book, partially written from the perspective of a former scientist, but more importantly, it is a suspenseful story that lets the author's attitudes towards life bleed through each and every page. Ian McEwan is a well-know rationalist who believes that science is just as much a part of culture as anything else--a position with which I very much empathize. This is a literary tale, sure, but McEwan manages to mention scientific ideas all over the place, integrating science and its ways of thinking into the lives of his complex characters and slowly revealing situations. It's a page-turner.

9. The Double Helix, by James Watson

Though scientist James Watson doesn't have a Stephen Jay Gould command of language and metaphor, The Double Helix still stands as an absolutely riveting account of the series of events that lead up to the discovery of DNA's structure. In the book, scientists Watson, Crick, Maurice Wilkens, and Rosalind Franklin become fascinating characters in a race to figure out what DNA looks like at a molecular level. Each has their own motivations. Each has their own complications. All but Franklin eventually received a Nobel Prize for this work (she died before the award could include her.) A quick, easy read.

10. In the Shadow of Man, by Jane Goodall

A classic book--easy read, no jargon. Goodall's observations of chimpanzee's in the wild first brought to light one of man's most recent ancestors--the chimpanzee. This book chronicles some of Goodall's groundbreaking research through her own observations about chimp behavior. Once immersed in the book, I couldn't help but think--we are all just apes, evolved from or related to one another. Puts things in perspective.

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The Ascent of Man

What separates man from other primates, or indeed other animals? Jacob Bronowski, a mathematician trained in physics, examines the scientific and intellectual history of humankind in his book The Ascent of Man. Though the book is based on the television series aired on BBC in the 1970s, it is far from outdated. Over 30 years after it was first published; The Ascent of Man still invokes pride in our past and instills hope for our future in the reader.

Covering a wide canvas from the dawn of man until the modern times, Bronowski examines how man has been the shaper of his surroundings rather than being shaped by it. Every other species has been adapted to fit into a certain ecological niche; they have evolved for a particular environment. Man, despite his comparatively weak physical attributes has been able to shape the world with his unique set of gifts. Bronowski believes that it was not so much biological evolution, but cultural evolution that has made man what he is today.

Tracing the evolution of human from their hunter gather phase to the present one, he says that the change in diet from plant to animal based materials gave humans more time free to spend on building capabilities to get food from sources that could not be tackled by brute force. The most marked effect of this was to foster group action and communication. The next single largest step in the ascent of man was the change from a nomadic way of life to village agriculture, made possible by a set of natural and human events. Settled agriculture creates a technology from which all sciences take off.

Taking the reader on a journey through time, Bronowski delights in the inventions and scientific discoveries made over the last ten thousand years- from the domestication of wheat in 8000 BC to the double helix structure of the DNA in the 1950s. He describes the tools that extend the human hand as an instrument of vision- they reveal new structures and make it possible to put them together in imaginative combinations.

By delving deep into the lives and thoughts of an extraordinary range of people, Bronowski discusses a wider range of complex subjects from Anthropology to Astronomy and from Mathematics to the Life Sciences. He reveals the linkages that bring together cultures by introducing us to Pythagoras, who found a basic relation between musical harmony and mathematics, Euclid, Ptolemy and Arab scholars who delighted in calculation and geometry. The author demonstrates how the spread of ideas along the trade routes - the spread of the numeral system for notation of numbers from the Arab world and the decimal system from India - changed mathematics forever.

From mathematics to astronomy is a logical step. The Mayan civilization housed their astronomers in pyramid like structures and developed calendars to trace the journey of the stars, Copernicus placed the sun at the centre of the planetary system and Galileo gave his life to prove that this was so. The lives of these people have a profound impact on the modern way of life. While no account of the ascent of man can leave out Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein, Bronowski describes more than their work. He shows us how they thought and how their characters defined their work.

The Industrial Revolution was the greatest discoverer of power- a time when new sources of energy were discovered and used. With this came many of the characteristics of the modern world that we abhor- the factory system with inhuman work hours, tyrannical bosses, pollution and the domination of men by machines. While bringing these to our notice, Bronowski does not leave out the other side of this age - the delight of discovery and the sense of fun in finding new ways of doing things. He believes that this revolution is as important as the Renaissance in the ascent of man- while one established the dignity of man; the other established the unity of nature.

Describing the theory of evolution by natural selection put forward by Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace, Bronowski says that it was the most important single scientific innovation of the nineteenth century. It shows that the world is in movement and that creation is not static; it changes with time unlike the physical world. Another discovery that has shaped biology is one by contemporary scientists, which express the cycle of life in a chemical form that links them to nature as a whole.

Turing to the physical sciences, Bronowski says that the aim of the physical sciences has been to give an exact picture of the material world. One achievement of physics in the twentieth century has been to prove that aim is unattainable! Physicists have shown that there is no absolute knowledge; all information is imperfect and we have to treat it with humility.

In the last chapter in book, titled The Long Childhood, Bronowski goes back to what makes man human and what has made the ascent of man possible. He says, "We are all afraid - for our confidence, for the future, for the world. That is the nature of the human imagination. Yet every man, every civilization has gone forward because of its engagement with what it has set itself to do. The personal commitment of man to his skill, the intellectual commitment and the emotional commitment working together as one, has made the Ascent of Man."

Ilmas Futehally is the Vice President of Strategic Foresight Group, a think tank based in Mumbai, India.

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The Cobra Event (want to lose some sleep tonight?); Book Review

The Cobra Event by Richard Preston is a worthwhile book to read indeed, but it will scare the be-Jesus out of you also. This is quite a heavy book to read and if you are an intellectual type of person, then it should frighten you.

Having also read the book; Germs and many other similar books and having kept up to date on recent scientific findings, I realize how serious and realistic this book is. Biological human distributed pathogens are real and we must indeed make sure we keep these biological scientists who consider using these things on mass population bases at bay and prevent them from ruining life on Earth as we know it. The United States of America may indeed have a missile defense system, but unless we have a way to detect and protect the American people from such dastardly deeds such as is described in Cobra Event we will be sorry. It is time for all of America to wake up and realize, how important it is to pay attention to where all these scientists who practice this line of work are and exactly what they are doing now, for whom and why.

Additionally we need to consider all the nations, which are experimenting and trying to perfect such bio weapons. Indeed, this book is intense, it is realistic and it scared the . . . out of me. Perhaps some reading it may not be scared, but if you have half a brain you will have to really stop and think about how serious these issues are. Read the book and see for your self and consider all this in 2006.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is an online writer in retirement.

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The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

Many heroes, villains and wars have been created because of monotheism (the belief in the existence of one god), but science and the technologies science produces are used in these wars.

The author Richard Dawkins has a very extreme style of writing in this particular book, he doesn't mess about and storms in with very direct poignancy, so if you are deeply spiritual and religious, perhaps this is not the best choice of book for you......

The God Delusion is a remarkable argument against God, controversy arises as Dawkins blames god for a number of misdeeds against humanity and also blames him of being "psychotic".

Dawkins frustrations are caused with the theory of intelligent design and a host of other related issues, he throws an avalanche of hard evidence to bolster his case, Dawkins is a fascinating literary character that's out to slay old stories and non scientifically backed views.

"The God Delusion" is full of strong arguments of cosmic proportions and it affects our current world view.

Lets me put it like this, if you are religious and attempted to have an argument with Dawkins you better have your facts straight.

In Dawkins book the God delusion he puts powerful arguments forward that debase and unravel any and most religious doctrines and fallacies.

Why the extreme tone? Well i think this is because the man is determined not to see young children indoctrinated with a view that is not based on facts.

Dawkings is 100% atheist and the god delusion is his testimony.

Creationists and believers in God will no doubt see him as the devil incarnate and non religious scientists will see him as being very astute and intellectual.

He has been called a fundamentalist, but his argument is as follows "given proof that i am wrong i would at once change my opinions, whereas a true fundamentalist clings to his faith whatever the challenge"

Whatever you think about this book, i think it is very important to ask questions of everything in life. The God Delusion manages to ask lots of questions so this can only be a good thing.

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Review of on Natural Selection by Charles Darwin

I have been researching great thinkers and how they have shaped the world. I have also been trying to prove that the act of reading helps to generate or even stimulate great ideas. Great thinkers do not operate within a vacuum, they rely on the works of others, and often expand the original thought and take the world further. Charles Darwin and British biologist Alfred Russel Wallace independently arrived at similar theories of Natural Selection in the mid-1800s after reading Essay on the Principle of Population by British pastor Thomas Malthus.

Darwin defines natural selection as the "preservation of favourable variations and the rejection of injurious variation." So what does this all mean? Darwin further adds, "Variations neither useful nor injurious would not be affected by natural selection, and would be left a fluctuating element, as perhaps we see in the species called polymorphic... Natural selection can act only by taking advantage of slight variations; she can never take a leap, but must advance by the shortest steps."

This book wasn't the easiest to read, and I found it quite "dry". But, in my quest to find out where really good ideas come from, I made the sacrifice and slogged through it. I have selected fives ideas from On Natural Selection. For the five ideas below, how can you use them in different contexts to resolve/understand modern day problems?

Five Good Ideas

When a plant or animal is placed in a new country amongst new competitors, though the climate may be exactly the same as its former home, yet the conditions of its life will generally be changed in an essential manner. If we wished to increase its average numbers in its new home, we should have to modify it in a different way to what we should have done in its native country; for we should have to give it some advantage over a different set of competitors or enemies.Individuals having any advantage, however slight, over others, would have the best chance of surviving and of procreating their kindWhen a species, owing to highly favourable circumstances, increases inordinately in numbers in a small tract, epidemics often ensueThe more diversified the descendants from any one species become in structure, constitution, and habits, by so much will they be better enabled to seize on many and widely diversified places in the polity of nature, and so be enabled to increase in numbersNatural selection is working behind the scenes all the time throughout the world whenever the opportunity arises. It works to improve each organic being in relation to its organic and inorganic conditions of life. You cannot see these slow changes taking place, until after a long period of time has elapsed, we see that the forms of life are now different from what they formerly were

We could take idea number two and look at it in the context of education. It's a reasonable assumption to make that people who are more educated have a better chance of succeeding than those who have less education. Or, for that same idea, we could say, someone who has an idea and knows how to take action, will be more successful than someone who has ideas but do nothing about them. Success in this context is not restricted to financial success. Why don't you take one of the above five ideas and see what new ideas you can generate?

I recommend On Natural Selection because I am sure that you will come up with your own five ideas. This is not a book that you would read for entertainment, but it will certainly stretch you.

Avil Beckford, Chief Invisible Mentor, writer and researcher with over 15 years of experience is the published author of Tales of People Who Get It and its companion workbook Journey to Getting It. Subscribe to the Invisible Mentor Blog http://theinvisiblementor.com/ for great information to ignite your hidden genius, and explore the Resources page for free white papers and an e-book.

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