BNFO 300 
Molecular Biology Through Discovery
Modes of thought
Fall 2019 

I. A puzzle

You've probably seen puzzles like the one shown below, where you're asked to put a set of pictures in a logical order. At least you may have many years ago. The skill learned by such exercises is very important, a mode of thought that helps you function in society by learning the stories held in common by society. It will help you do well on standardized exams and help you blend in with your peers when discussing controversial subjects. However, it's the wrong mode of thought for doing good science.

To get a feel for this mode of thought and its antithesis, do the following:

  1. Decide what is the expected temporal order of the four panels.
     
  2. Choose a different temporal order, according to your group (see below), presume it to be true, and find a plausible narrative consistent with that order.
An important skill in science is to look beyond the comfortable explanation and imagine as many alternatives as you can.
 
Group 1: C-D-B-A Group 4: A-B-C-D Group 7: D-A-C-B Group 10: B-C-D-A
Group 2: A-C-B-D Group 5: C-D-A-B Group 8: B-A-D-C Group 11: D-C-B-A
Group 3: B-A-C-D Group 6: A-B-D-C Group 9: D-A-B-C Group 12: C-B-D-A

II. The news

Consider the following news article:

Can stress in the womb lead to mental resilience later in life?
Frontiers Science News, 13 May 2019
In brief, the article reports that when a mother is subjected to violence during pregnancy, her child is found later to be more resilient to a violent environment. Stress induces alterations in DNA that are passed down to the child, and this was observed to be true with affected mother/child pairs in the study. The connection may be that such DNA changes protect the child against stress.

Make up various alternate scenarios that explain the observations in entirely different ways.