BS in Biology

When I was in college studying Biology, it was still considered a "soft science", vs. the "hard sciences" of Chemistry and Physics.

As a result, instead of learning about Biology and things Biological, we were all assaulted and tortured with math, which the instructors felt would somehow legitimize their studies. Yeah, dude, it's real precise--"A deer requires 2.1 acres of land to roam". Don't you think that could be a little subjective? I would rate it a 5 on a scale of 1-10 for fitness...

Ecology seems to be full of formulas such as carrying capacity of a habitat, etc. I've been hunting with hack, self-appointed biologists who start yapping about the carrying capacity of the land and I feel like saying "Shut up, Bubba, and have another chaw of terbacca or something..."

Not that I don't believe in mathematical models as they apply to real life, but I think that nothing occurs in a vaccuum and you can't possibly plug in all of the factors that affect your calculated value.

One thing that sticks out in my head as the biggest case of bullshit this side of "I didn't inhale" and "we're going to find weapons of mass destruction" pertains to herd animals and whether or not they raise an alarm. Since this is a blog entry, and has low likelihood of gracing the pages of Science or Nature, I will avoid brain-numbing terms such as "indirect fitness" and "genetic altruism" (aka "BS theory #1" and "BS theory #2"). But, if you are interested, there's a link below...

Here's the theory: If there is a group of herd animals, like antelope, it is disadvantageous to be the one who raises the alarm when a predator comes around. It calls attention to the animal raising the alarm and makes it a prime target.

(duh! Anyone who has ever worked in a hostile office environment knows this)

In order to determine whether or not to risk raising an alarm instinctively, the animal does this immediate, crazy genetic calculation. If the sum total of the individual's genetic material is greater in the animals around it, it raises an alarm, thus protecting a greater number of genes which are identical to it's own.

Apply it to humans--If a mom is taking her kid to the store, and her kid rushes out in front of a car, she throws her hands up and thinks "Well, if it was 2 kids, I would do save him, but since it's just one, it's only half my genetic material therefore it is reproductively advantageous for me to just buy a tiny casket."

I don't freakin' think so.

I call "BS" on that!

Had to get it off my chest--it's been bugging me for 10 years, now...