BIOL 112 - Cells & Molecules

Paper I: Biochemistry and Cells

Below is a list of possible readings for the first paper. If you have questions about the process, ask me or refer to your syllabus.  All relevant due dates are listed in the course schedule.  You may always revise and re-submit a paper for re-grading if you are unhappy with your score.  Journals containing these papers are on reserve in the Library and posted in the Course Guide for this class.

Please note: These are not easy papers to read!  You will almost certainly encounter unfamiliar language, concepts, and terminology. Keep your textbook handy to sort things out.  If you still can’t figure out what’s going on, ask me for help.  As a last resort, it is always possible to change topics.

Published Papers Online

Published Papers

• Life, New and Improved. Natural proteins do everything for us. Now scientists have learned to create artificial ones – a feat that has yielded a new COVID vaccine and could revolutionize biology. Rowan Jacobsen. Scientific American. July 2021.
• How Evolution Helps Us Understand Cancer and Control It: Cells need to cooperate to coexist in people, and when some break the rules, cancer results.  Athena Aktipis. Scientific American. January 2021.
• The vault guy. Leonard Rome’s lab discovered an odd, abundant component of cells in the 1980s—and he’s still trying to figure out what it does. John Travis. Science. 06 Jun 2024: 1058-1062.
• Viruses Can Help Us as Well as Harm Us: Experts are figuring out how to exploit the 380 trillion viruses that make up the human virome. David Pride. Scientific American. December 2020.
• Why Your Brain Needs Exercise: The evolutionary history of humans explains why physical activity is important for brain health. David A. Raichlen and Gene E. Alexander. Scientific American. January 2020.
• Taste for Danger: A mystery for almost a century, tuft cells turn out to use chemical sensors to detect pathogens and sound the alarm. By Mitch Leslie. Science. 29 March 2019. 


• A Shot at Re-generation: A once abandoned drug compound shows an ability to rebuild organs damaged by illness and injury. By Kevin Strange and Viravuth Yin. Scientific American. April 2019. 


• Processed foods and food reward: Processed foods compromise the fidelity of gut-brain signaling of food reinforcement. By Dana M. Small and Alexandra G. DiFeliceantonio. Science. 25 January 2019. 


• Visualizing and discovering cellular structures with super-resolution microscopy. Y. M. Sigal et al. (Special section on Technologies Transforming Biology). Science 31 August 2018. P. 880 


• Chromatin plasticity: A versatile landscape that underlies cell fate and identity. T. Yadav et al. (Shaping the body: Special Section on Genes in Development) Science. 28 September 2018. P. 1332. 


• Dietary fat: From foe to friend? S. S. Ludwig et al. (Special Issue on Diet and Health: Optimizing human metabolism.) Science. 16 November 2018. P. 764. 


• A time to fast. A Di Francesco et al. (Special Issue on Diet and Health: Optimizing human metabolism.) Science. 16 November 2018. P. 770. 


• The gut microbiota at the intersection of diet and human health. C L. Gentile and T. L. Weir. (Special Issue on Diet and Health: Optimizing human metabolism.) Science. 16 November 2018. P. 776. 


• Swifter, higher, stronger: What’s on the menu? L. M. Burke and J. A. Hawley. (Special Issue on Diet and Health: Optimizing human metabolism.) Science. 16 November 2018. P. 781.