Biology
Biology is the most layered of the disciplines — molecular machinery on chemistry, on thermodynamics, on statistical mechanics, on probability and dynamics. The point of the unified curriculum is that each layer's claims trace back to the layer below it.
Units
17.01.01— Biomolecules in cells — overview shipped17.02.01— Cell membranes: structure shipped17.02.02— Membrane transport — passive and active shipped17.03.01— Cellular organization: organelles draft17.03.02— Cytoskeleton and contractile proteins draft17.04.01— Cellular respiration: glycolysis and CAC shipped17.04.02— Oxidative phosphorylation and ATP synthesis draft17.04.03— Photosynthesis: light and dark reactions draft17.05.01— DNA replication draft17.05.02— Transcription draft17.05.03— Translation draft17.06.01— Mutation and repair draft17.07.01— Cell signaling: receptors and GPCRs draft17.07.02— Receptor tyrosine kinases and the MAPK signaling cascade shipped17.08.01— Cell cycle and mitosis shipped17.09.01— Resting membrane potential and ion channels shipped17.09.02— The action potential — ionic basis draft17.10.01— Innate immunity at the molecular level shipped18.02.01— Cardiovascular physiology — the heart shipped18.02.02— Cardiac action potentials, pacemaker physiology, and the ECG shipped18.03.01— Respiratory physiology — gas exchange and transport draft18.04.01— Skeletal muscle physiology shipped18.04.02— Muscle contraction — the actin-myosin cycle draft18.05.01— Nervous system — gross anatomy and systems draft18.07.01— Endocrine system — hormones and regulation shipped18.08.01— Renal physiology — homeostasis and the nephron draft18.11.01— Embryology and morphogenesis shipped19.01.01— Mendelian genetics — segregation and dominance draft19.02.01— Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium draft19.02.05— Wright-Fisher model and the diffusion approximation shipped19.03.01— Natural selection — directional, stabilizing, and disruptive draft19.03.02— Sexual selection shipped19.03.03— Kin selection and Hamilton's rule draft19.04.01— Genetic drift shipped19.05.01— Quantitative genetics — heritability and the breeder's equation draft19.06.01— Speciation — allopatric and sympatric draft19.07.01— Phylogenetics — tree reconstruction shipped19.09.01— Population ecology — Lotka-Volterra shipped19.10.01— Community ecology — interactions and food webs draft19.15.01— Origin of life — mechanistic scenarios draft
Synthesis essays
Pan-bio questions that span sections — what life is, agency from chemotaxis up, information in biology. Lighter than tiered units; not graded for mastery.
- Essay 1. What life is — biology between physics and intentionality — Why the question won't take a single answer — and what the partial answers tell us about the kind of thing life is.
Coverage roadmap
Three top-level sections matching biology's three weakly-connected entry trees: §17 molecular & cellular biology (Alberts MBoC spine); §18 organismal & physiological biology (Campbell + Boron-Boulpaep spine); §19 ecology, evolution & population biology (Futuyma + Begon + Hartl-Clark spine). See the biology plan for tree-by-tree detail.