History of Biology and Marine Sciences

Code:

MA327

Acronym:

HBCM

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Biology and Aquatic Environment

Instance: 2021/2022 - 1T (of 20-09-2021 to 05-11-2021)

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Population Studies
Course/CS Responsible:	Aquatic Sciences

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
LCMA	8	Official Study Plan	3	-	5	49	135

Teaching language

Portuguese

Objectives

It is intended that students acquire knowledge about the history of Biology and Marine Sciences, a cultural component that is a base for the perception of Biology, which allows the understanding of the current state of this scientific area and to prepare for its future. Students are expected to be in touch with the history of biology, to understand its key events and main persons involved, and to develop curiosity for the cultural component of this area.

Learning outcomes and competences

Students should be able to enumerate the main steps and players in the history of Biology and Marine Sciences, in order to understand the role they have played over time and how the past is reflected in the present and supports the future. It is also intended that they update themselves on the ways of studying history, and how it can be explained and demonstrated today, having in mind objectives such as the dissemination and teaching of environmental perspectives and the conservation and sustainability of living resources.

Working method

Presencial

Program

THEORETICAL PROGRAM (main topics):

History of Biology

• Perception of the ancient biology: from plants to animals (Asia and the Middle East).
• Biology in ancient Greece and Rome and the influence of the East.
• Biology in the Dark Ages - Middle Ages.
• The role of discoveries in creating the cultural, historical, social, and economic conditions for a new view of the natural sciences during the Renaissance: Garcia de Orta, Bacon, Galileo, Discard, Leibnitz, Newton.
• Primary classification of animals in the 16th century.
• Classification of plants by 17th century botanists.
• The role of the Leeuwenhoek microscope for the advances in biology.
• Studies of animal anatomy, physiology and embryology in the 16th to 18th centuries.
• Linnaeus and the new view of systematics.
• The first steps of plant physiology and reproduction.
• Fossils and their contribution to the systematic and future theory of evolution.
• The metaphysical view of the living world in the 17th century.
• 18th century French materialism and its reflection in Portugal.
• The beginning of the Industrial Revolution and its reflection on Biology: from social to the environment.
• The development of animal and plant systematics with the contribution of morphology, anatomy, physiology and embryology.
• The anti-science of creationism and transformism in the early nineteenth century.
• Lamarck, Mendel, and the first attempt to explain the formation of the organic world.
• The role of observation in designing and explaining the theory of Darwin of evolution based on the natural selection.
• The role of Koch and Pasteur to consolidate the theory of evolution.
• The contribution of evolutionary paleontology to the perception of evolution.
• The development of Biogeography, Ecology, and Biocenology in the second half of the 19th century. The role of Haeckel and Humboldt.
• Recognition of microbiology as an autonomous biological science.
• The twentieth century and the advancement of the biological sciences: new technologies and new knowledge.
• Concept of life and the common ancestor: the role of biochemistry.
• Discovery of antibiotics.
• Molecular biology: from nucleic acids to gene conservation in living organisms.
• Biology today and the contribution of genomics and proteomics.

History of Marine Sciences

• Prehistory - beginning of the relationship between man and the sea: catching and fishing; hook history; craft history and propulsion modes.
• Achievements by sea: Egypt, China, Phoenicia, Greece and Rome; first coastal maps and diving bells. The role of the Latin sail, the cartography, and mapping of the seas and oceans.
• The first scuba diving dives. The book The Physical Geography of the Sea (1853).
• The role of Albert I, Prince of Monaco (1848-1922) and the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco; King Carlos I (1863-1908), the yacht Amelia and the Vasco da Gama Aquarium. James Cook (1728-1779) and the Challenger Expedition (1768); William Beebe (1877-1962) and the batisphere; Auguste Piccard (1884-1962), the batiscaphe and the beginning of the exploration of the great depths. First expedition to the Mariana Trench (1960). Emile Gagnan (1900-1979); Jacques-Yves Cousteau (1910-1997); Hans Hass (1919-2013), documentary filmmaker, environmentalist, publicist, improved diving equipment; Jacques Piccard (1922-2008); Robert Ballard (1942-); Sylvia Earle (1935-); James Cameron (1954-).
• Marine sciences today and prospects for the future: the oceans in a changing world; the future of fisheries and fish as food.
• Aquaculture today and in the future.
• Emerging areas of marine science. Sustainability of resources and their use.

THEORETICAL-PRACTICAL PROGRAM:

Lectures and visits to institutions related to maritime history and activity.

Mandatory literature

Charles Singer; A History of Biology to about the Year 1900: A General Introduction to the Study of Living Things., 1959
Frances Dipper; The Marine World - A Natural History of Ocean Life., 2017

Teaching methods and learning activities

Lectures (with student participation), practical sessions with invited specialists and visits to entities involved. Assessment by final theoretical exam (75%) and practical group work (25%), with the aim of training the collection and selection of information (in an innovative area for students), the power of synthesis and communication of story concepts.

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation with final exam

Assessment Components

Designation	Weight (%)
Exame	75,00
Trabalho escrito	25,00
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

Designation	Time (hours)
Estudo autónomo	30,00
Frequência das aulas	49,00
Trabalho escrito	56,00
Total:	135,00

Eligibility for exams

Minimal class presence: 75% of presential theoretical-practical classes given;
Minimum classification of 9.5/20 on the written exam;
Minimum classification of 9.5/20 on the written work.

Calculation formula of final grade

75% written exam; 25% written work.

Examinations or Special Assignments

Written work.

Classification improvement

If students require a special examination to improve classification ("melhoria"=improvement), the classification obtained in the written exam is the only component (100%) used to calculate the final classification. The classification on the written work doesn't count to the final improvement classification.