the Final...

1. 1 the Final... • Paper paths • The Big Ideas from the papers we’ve read • Big pictures • How hemoglobin works • How hemoglobin & opsin evolve to ‘do new things’ • How do we draw conclusions (experimentally, logically)

2. 2 Permission to conclude http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Protein_folding.png

3. 3 What’s a ‘scientific argument’ • NOT: two people shouting at each other • IS: an exchange of defensible positions, backed by evidence & logic • core claims/conclusions must be confronted using evidence and logic

4. 4 The myth of ‘two sides’ • Just because there exists one data-backed point of view doesn’t mean there is a valid, compelling alternate view • Just because you found someone with an underrepresented point of view doesn’t mean they have something meaningful to say

5. 5 Any problems with the logic? • All toasters are made of gold • All items made of gold are time-travel devices • Therefore all toasters are time travel devices http://people.umass.edu/klement/100/logic.html

6. 6 Duh—we’re at the center • IF the Earth were moving at 67,000 miles/hour* around the Sun, we’d feel it • We don’t • It must be the Sun that’s moving, not the Earth http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-fast-is-the-earth-mov

7. 7 Sometimes logical argument matters… or used to • Lincoln*: I state in syllogistic form the argument: • Nothing in the Constitution . . . can destroy a right distinctly and expressly affirmed in the Constitution. • The right of property in a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed in the Constitution. • Therefore, nothing in the Constitution can destroy the right of property in a slave. • Lincoln, in refutation: • “There is a fault [in the argument], but the fault is not in the reasoning; but the falsehood in fact is a fault of the premises. I believe that the right of property in a slave is not distinctly and expressly affirmed in the Constitution.” *5th Lincoln-Douglas debate http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/dl/free/0073386677/610543/Moore9e_ch02.pdf

8. 8 To argue fruitfully… • We must agree on the PREMISES • If you think the purpose of college is to make everyone smarter/more thoughtful • And I think its purpose is to identify the smart & capable • We cannot have a productive argument about who to let in, how to grade, how to spend classroom time

9. 9 If • If all observed instances of a phenotype arise from a single type/identify of mutation • THEN it is reasonable to conclude that there was a single origin of that mutation/phenotype • IF there are many other ways of achieving the phenotype

10. 10 http://www.popularmechanics.co.za/sci-tech-news/dna-building-blocks-can-be-made-in-space/

11. 11 Correlation v. Causation (unexamined linkages) http://i.imgur.com/J6jPzNv.jpg

12. Green: digesters 12 Molecular clock… Red: causes LP Circle: large group of people Human Blue: nte, position (chimpanzee sequence) # of mutations = amount of time???

13. 13 Ticking premises • Suppose we wanted to ‘count ticks’ to find the common ancestor of you & E. coli • How many ways can you think of in which the passing of genes from one generation to the other of your species vs. E. coli would throw off our measurement of ‘clock ticks’ [mutations that differ between 2 organisms]