What is it like to be a Life Sciences BSc student?
Posted: May 29 2019
On the Life Sciences BSc degree you put together an interdisciplinary degree with study from various degrees.
Our academics will give you a unique combination of knowledge which includes biochemistry, cellular and molecular biology, sports physiology and biomechanics, biological psychology and environmental change.
What is the difference between Life Sciences and Biomedical Sciences?
The Life Sciences BSc is more wide-ranging, covering many aspects of the biology of human health with the Biomedical Sciences students but also encompassing the fundamentals of physiology and biomechanics with the Sports Science students, aspects of psychology focussing on the brain and human behaviour with the Psychology students and also the biological environment and how it's effected by human activity with the Environmental Sciences students.
It’s lab time!
Here Dr Houlden is showing us how to add DNA to a gel which we’ll use to separate the DNA to see differences between different samples. We’re doing this in the Biomedical Sciences teaching laboratory.
The next stop: the Athletic Centre - Anatomy, Physiology and Biomechanics module
This is a combination of lectures and seminars supported by practical sessions to illustrate key concepts, together with the Sports Sciences students!
First assignment: Calculating the location of a person’s centre of mass
We’re using these measurements to learn to do calculate the change in the moment of inertia when the configuration of the body changes. That’s some maths about running!
We’re using these measurements to learn to do calculate the change in the moment of inertia when the configuration of the body changes. That’s some maths about running!
Next: moment of inertia
This is very serious science!
Who thought these short experiments come with much paperwork??? We definintely deserved some coffee.
Next class: Foundation of psychology lecture
Today’s topic: brain and cognition: thinking about the science of thinking!
Next stop: poster presentations with the Environmental Sciences student
We’ve been taught how to read academic papers in another module, here we’ve read and presented the findings of 4-5 academic papers.
Alex will now be known as Alex Capuchin!
Off-campus....
We’ve been learning about genomics so a bunch of us attended the “Festival of Genomics” in Central London to hear about the latest discoveries! From the second year Life Sciences also allows students to study aspects of Computer Sciences as they relate to Life Sciences since so much modern biological research (such as genomics) involves computer programming.
Planning for the next year....
Even if it is spring, time to start to think about the next year - we’re in the computer centre researching the optional modules and building our next years' timetable.
We choose two specialisms from these options to design our own interdisciplinary degree: Biochemistry, Cell Biology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Computational Data Analytics, Environmental Health, Evolution & Behaviour, Genetics, Infection and Immunity, Sport and Exercise Sciences.