Instructions: Answer the following questions as completely as possible. Be sure to incorporate course principles into your answers (75 points).
1. Captain America’s powers come from the Super Soldier Serum. This serum gave regular old Steve Rogers abilities like super strength, stamina, and reduced aging. If you were tasked with designing a super soldier serum, what would three ingredients be that would give Cap his powers. For each explain how it works and any trade offs / side effects that might arise (be sure to explain each – 12 points).
Ingredient 1:
Ingredient 2:
Ingredient 3:
2. In all iterations of Spider Man, Peter Parker gets his powers from being bitten by radioactive spider which, among other things, gives him the proportional strength of a spider. That is to say that he has the ability to lift many times his own body weight. Due to several physiological principles/phenomena, it is very unlikely that spider strength would translate into a super strong 140lb Peter parker. Explain two reasons why strength to body size ratios (i.e., proportional strength) are unlikely to scale up from a small spider to a teenage human (10 Points).
3. In the essay,
nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution, the author argues that the theory of biological volution is the only explanation that makes sense out of the natural world. He argues that both the unity of life and the diversity of life are explained by this theory.
a. What is the theory of biological evolution (3pts)?
b. How does the theory of evolution explain the observed unity of life –
use examples from the course and be thorough
(8pts).
c. Does the unity of life and the idea that all life descended from a single common ancestor limit the biological possibility of any superpowers discussed in this course (highlight two examples and explain – 6 points).
d. How does the theory of evolution explain the diversity of life – particularly the animal oddballs that we discussed in this course (highlight at least two specific examples (6pts).
4. (A) On the first day of class, you were asked to design the “perfect” organism for life on planet earth. You were given no real constraints and you came up win some……. interesting creatures. Think back to that “perfect” organism, provide a brief description (it’s OK if you don’t recall perfectly), and explain two physical or biological principles that it violated (8 points)
(B) Now that we’ve finished the course and discussed some of the rules that shape life on earth, take another shot at designing the perfect organism. Your new organism cannot violate any of the physiological or biological/evolutionary principals discussed in the course. Describe your organism with respect to the following and
be sure to provide a rationale
/ explanation for each (10 Points).
(1) Name: ___________________
(2) Size:
(3) Shape:
(4) Life span:
(5) Special or unique powers:
5. (a) What was the most interesting thing that you learned about in this course (1pt).
(b) Did the course change the way that you think about the natural world or alter your perspective in any way (2pts)?