Unit 1

Introduction
Salient features of life, importance of biology on the frontiers of science and technology. Brief history of biology. How plants, animals and microorganisms shaped human history.

Unit 2

The logical structure of biology
Concepts of complexity, emergent properties, adaptation, optimality, diversity, chance and necessity, structure function relationship, theme and variations, individual variability and plasticity. Nature of experimentation in biology and statistical inference.

Unit 3

Broad overview of life on earth
Origin and progression of life on earth, evolution, concept of adaptive versus neutral evolution. Classification/taxonomy and phylogeny. Molecular relationships between life forms.

Unit 4

Biological information
Nature of biological information, mechanisms of transmission of information – genetic, epigenetic, cultural and other mechanisms of inheritance. Central dogma of molecular biology.

Unit 5

Mechanism of perpetuation of life
Mechanism of perpetuation of life at molecular, cellular, organismal and population levels.

1. Principles of Biology: Interactive textbook from Nature Education
2. Biology: N. Campbell and J. Reece (2005) 7th edition, Pearson, Benjamin, Cummings