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Undergraduate biology: Life's secrets at your fingertips

Posted on: Thursday, 12 June 2003, 06:00 CDT

Biology degrees just aren't what they used to be, you know. They're even more diverse than just a few years back and increasingly relevant to the cutting edge issues of the 21st century. These are issues of scientific, political, ethical and philosophical significance.

At the last count, there were more than 4,600 courses at British universities with a bioscientific slant - courses that take you down many more paths than two decades ago. If you come out of university in three or four years with a degree that has a strong biological element, then a vital part of the world of work will be your oyster - and you might just learn a few things about oysters along the way.

Scan the newspapers these days and it is impossible not to detect a strong biological theme - SARS, genetically modified crops, cloning and gene therapy to tackle diseases to name a few. If you want to understand these matters in any depth - and maybe even influence the debate - you'll need to start with an undergraduate grounding in a relevant academic discipline.

That's what the best-selling science writer Matt Ridley did when he went to Oxford as a zoology undergraduate a couple of decades ago. Referring to the newly advanced understanding of the human species that came with the unravelling of the human genome, he says there could never be a better time to study a biology-related subject. "For the first time in four billion years, a creature on this planet is reading its own recipe. Who would not like to have a ringside seat?"

Britain's universities have been rejigging their departments to reflect the expanding role of "bioscience" - the latest buzzword - in the real and academic worlds. Leeds University, for example, created a new Faculty of Biological Sciences in 1998, pulling together three schools: the School of Biology, the School of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and the School of Biomedical Sciences. Most other institutions have undertaken similar exercises.

If you glance down the lists of degree courses on university websites, you'll see how study programmes are changing to match the new reality. A random sample would include zoology, genetics, microbiology, tropical disease biology and evolutionary psychology.

It's worth remembering what is at the heart of a single honours biology degree. All biology degrees will cover key aspects of the structure, function, evolution, behaviour and ecology of animals and plants. "It's not just looking down microscopes," says Georgina Day, education officer at the Institute of Biology. "Just as important is the IT component, being able to use software to model biological systems and to analyse data. Communicating findings is also important, so making presentations will be part of any biology course."

A biology teacher friend of mine described the attraction of biology thus: "It's real life. Guts and gore. It's wanting to know how we work."

So, given the plethora of biology-related degrees to choose from, how do you decide what to do? To start this process, think about what you have enjoyed most so far in your school studies. Has it been looking down a microscope, working out the function of a structure, or just being outdoors among plants or animals? All university websites will provide course titles and details of the course itself. Talk to the admissions departments. Find out exactly how you'll be spending your time in the first year. Then decide which courses will suit you.

But if you're still uncertain, then a very sensible and safe option is to do single honours biology or something similar. These courses will typically cover the full range of core subjects in the first year and open up avenues for specialisation in later years. Armed with the fundamentals of the subject, by the time your finals approach you may have already specialised in genetics, immunology, animal behaviour, plant biology or biochemistry.

This is a safe approach because it is much easier to specialise from a base of core knowledge and skills than to move from one specialisation - zoology, for example - to another - genetics, say - midway through a degree course.

Recognising this , Leeds University is in the process of piloting a new degree, called bioscience, which will initially spread itself across the three different schools in the faculty, so that first- year undergraduates, unsure of exactly where they want to concentrate, will be exposed to as wide a range of subjects as possible.

"We have 160 academics across the three schools in the faculty," explains Dr Celia Knight, director of teaching in the School of Biology. "This new degree is part of our intention to allow more pick-and-mixing of topics by students.

"Leeds positively encourages students to change courses within the lifetime of their degree - so much that we prompt people at the end of the first year to ask themselves if they are on the right course, and if not we help them to change."

Dr Knight enthuses about the merits of doing a biology-related degree in the first place. "We are in a period of explosive development which has real potential for massive advances in medicine, agriculture and technology," she says.

"But at the same time there are fears and dangers in people's minds about scientific advances. Only by understanding through education can we address these fears," Dr Knight says.

One obvious example is the debate over genetically modified food. The science exists, according to Dr Knight, to counter vitamin A deficiency and provide an instant alternative to medicine in the Third World. But this can't happen until the ethical concerns widely prevalent in developed countries are addressed.

This is just one area where a biology degree can lead to scientifically and intellectually stimulating study. Not all study will, of course, be in controversial areas, but the very imperfect nature of life on earth means that biological study is a fast- moving field where new areas of research and new techniques are opening up all the time.

And even if you don't find yourself earning your living dealing with these issues, you'll have had an interesting time at university, and you will leave armed with several skills sought after by employers.

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