Biology-Chemistry/Physics debate!!?

Question

My friend is very against Biology and keeps saying the Biologist doesn't understand the principles behind the machines that prove any of the things they teach.A Physicist would not ask a Biologist about mutations, he'd ask a Chemist who would know more about it.

Transcription and translation is actually Chemistry, and the most important discovery in Biological sciences (structure of DNA) was made by Chemists who were using equipment made and designed by Physicists.What's the next big revelation going to be; bears actually **** in woods

Please help me how to counter-argue these points

thanx

Answer 1

Personally I think the fact that biologists don't always fully grasp the physics theory behind all the equipment they use merely proves they're not quite as geeky as the physics dudes;) It is certainly not a requirement as the application of them is what interests me, and most biologists, if we'd bother with all the boring mathematics/physics behind all the equipment, we'd lose too much time to actually get around to do any experiments. I think the natural philosophers had the right idea, by not limiting themselves to a single field of science, but merging them and using whichever was most appropriate to solve the puzzle at hand.  I think modern biology makes the most of the tools at hand from any other field of science. I would beg to differ that the average chemistry student would know the first thing about transcription and translation as it occurs within the cell, even though at its basis is chemistry. But I think the further you get into organic chemistry, biology and applied physics the more the distinctions between them get blurred and merge, and you end up, as said before, with scientists...who just happen to have a phd in a particular field...

On another note...I would like to point out, that though a great number of breakthroughs in biological sciences were made by chemists/physicists, this does pose the question of whether biology isn't just more interesting than their own field of science:D

Answer 2

I have a degree in chemistry and a degree in genetics. I really see myself more as a scientist than a biologist or chemist. Initially yes, Watson and Crick discovered the structure of DNA by robbing the ideas of Rosalind Franks ( a physicist x ray crystallographer) and developing them and the mode of replication of DNA became self evident from the chemistry...however:

Most of biology essentially has progressed by applying the underlying chemistry in terms of biological concepts such as genes and promoters for genes and transcription factors and the chemistry has been dumbed down a good bit. Even in protein science the actual folding of proteins is worked on by physicists but the formulation of overall theory is by biologists, in particular computer biologists or Bionformaticians. The physicist will tell them a certain sequence of amino acids allows alpha helix and they then search for examples in the databases and see can they predict the structure. Actual confirmation of structure by NMR or x-ray crystallography is often difficult and the basic hope is to use computerised methods capitalising on the discoveries of physics to predict protein structure and function by computer modelling.

But I see all as scientists really- the famous example is John Sulston who got a 2.1 degree in organic chemistry and did his Phd in the study of tiny worms. He noticed a set of cells always died off in the developing worm and he realised this was apoptosis , the process of controlled cell death in the body. This is probably the major discovery in medicine of the 20th century as it has implications for cancer and immune diseases. It really was his ability as a scientist that got him the nobel prize ( twice)

Answer 3

Ask him which field of science he'd retain if he had to give up the other. If he doesn't say Biology, he's too stupid to keep as a friend. It is Biology that feeds him, provides his good beverages (I will allow that distillation is within the realm of the physicist but the fermentation is all biology) and, when your friend is alone with his/her significant other, it had better be Biology on his/her mind.

Answer 4

I'll tell you one thing, the people who found out DNA are professors in a college in Leicester (England) and that's where I live! Go me!

I think all avenues of science are good, so who cares who did what? :)