Chemistry versus biology: 90 second lecture (3/11)

Free learning from The Open University http://www.open.ac.uk/openlearn/science-maths-technology/science

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Jonathan Silvertown, a Professor of Ecology, explains the difference between chemistry and biology in terms of creating life.

(Part 3 of 11)

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Articles by Professor Jonathan Silvertown on OpenLearnhttp://www.open.ac.uk/openlearn/profiles/professor-jonathan-silvertown

Study 'Exploring science' with the OU http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/course/s104.htm

Explore qualifications in Science with the OU http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/science/index.htm

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Category:

Education

Tags:

• Professor Jonathan Silvertown
• chemistry
• biology
• creating life
• open university
• ou_s104

[tempemonkey2323]

Clear as mud chief..... Nice analogy WTF?.... FYI the boiled egg being fed to the chicken is not being turned into another egg, rather it is being turned into shit!!!

[mipmipmipmipmip]

I didn't know that chickens that eat eggs do not need fertilization to produce chicks!

This video shows that, while chemistry is able to explain processes at the atomic level, biology is based on mostly unknown processes and specific combinations thereof, which require sound hypotheses to ever come to usable models.

13 years ago I bought my Biochemistry book a lot of the mechanisms there have probably already been proven wrong. My book on Organic Chemistry, same year, is still valid.

[jhamien920]

For me Biology is more interesting. It is very diverse.

[vmelkon]

His point is that biology is separate course from chemistry because it is complex even though biology is all about chemical interactions.

[tovalondner]

Well, I'm studying to be a biologist and have to take a lot of chemistry that I neither like nor am good at. He, like myself, is probably bitter.

[dcrazby]

yea yea yea... biology is chemistry is physics is math is logic is philosophy is unemployed. Funny how the salary scale gets larger as you move away from philosophy toward biology :-)

[aikinen]

Does anyone else think he's a little bit insecure about Biology's basis in Chemistry?

[farhmoha]

I can't stand seeing a chicken eating an egg...its like a human eating a fetus or something

[RaelSpice]

¿uʍop ǝpısdn oǝpıʌ sıɥʇ sı ʎɥʍ

[prfctday]

My thoughts exactly... this explains that what happens after the chicken eats the egg IS a perfect description of complicated chemistry. Maybe this guy has been watching too much Richard Dawkins (I know, one can never watch too much) and thinks that there's some conflict between biology and chemistry. Or is there? I never went to university, I don't know what goes on between subjects.