When computers replace brain | Helder, M. 2006.
CS Dialogue 33(2):4-5. CELD ID 19989Abstract I really hate to admit it, but in certain situations I am old fashioned! In the good old days, biology students were taught about living organisms. We learned the appearance, life cycles and ecological preferences of various groups of plants, animals, fungi and microbes. Then the interest changed to themes. In graduate school, I took a course on fungi in which we learned about dispersal methods, environmental influences on reproduction, mechanisms of inheritance etc. We were given long lists of organisms exhibiting one characteristic or another, but if we were not familiar with any of these fungi, all we were left with was memorized names, and no understanding. Things are ever so much worse today when the trend is to study genomes (the chemical composition of the genetic material).
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