2007 Handbooks

BIOL115 deals with the nuts and bolts of life on earth. Throughout the unit there is a single unifying theme - that all of the processes that give rise to life are derived from DNA. We will show you that DNA controls life by acting as a blueprint for the construction of proteins, and that those proteins build cells which act as the basic structural and functional units of all life. To demonstrate these processes to you, we start by talking about the structure and function of DNA to show how it can act as a simple code for the construction of proteins. You will then be shown how proteins are constructed from the DNA code, and how those proteins can be used to build and maintain cells. Having established these basic principles, BIOL115 then goes on to explain how cells construct multicellular organisms during development, and how the proper functioning of those organisms is maintained by regulating cellular activity. We also demonstrate that the DNA code is essentially immortal because it can be copied from generation to generation, and from cell to cell.