Four Steps Forward in Biology
CHAIRMAN, DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
BIOLOGISTS today find themselves in the midst of a revolution. Revolutions are spawned from new basic interrelations rising in the minds of men, and lead to the casting out of old assumptions. The roots of the Biological revolution grow from a recognition that all organisms—plants or animals, microbes or men - have a common unity of processes which set apart the organic world of nature from the physical world. The essence of life is its organization - from the simplest virus to the most complex ecosystem. In the non-living, physical world all things tend toward the lowest energy state - disorganization. All life, at least as we know it on earth, is organized from the same building blocks according to the same laws and is typified by a high degree of order and organization. Biologists sometimes call this the principle of comparative biology. This unifying principle, the importance of which was first understood at the level of the molecule and the cell, now permeates biological thought. From it has sprung the recognition of the constancy of the genetic code on the molecular level, the basic similarities of all living forms, and a new understanding of man as a primate being at the behavioral level. New laws transcend and bind together all of Biology. No longer do we see the fragmentation of the science of Biology into Botany, Zoology, Microbiology and the hundred other subdivisions prevalent just a short while ago. Nor do we see Biology as set apart from the mainstream of cultural developments.
At Dartmouth this basic unity of living forms has led to vast changes in Biology over the past decade. We can identify four giant steps forward.
1959: The Life Science Course
In 1959 the then Departments of Botany and Zoology launched an integrated two-term introductory course called Life Science to replace the long-standing Introductory Botany (Botany 1) and Introductory Zoology (Zoology 1). Life Science stresses the unity of all living forms and is taught by a team of eight faculty members - each a specialist in his own area. The course contains sections on the overall architecture of organisms, the cellular building blocks of life, energy flow in living systems, the process of development, internal regulation in organisms, the hereditary code of life and the continuity of the bridge between generations, organisms and their environment, and the evolutionary process. Rather than stress the diversity of living forms we try to develop from this diversity the concepts which should form the basis of biological knowledge in the last third of the twentieth century for both the non-scientist and the budding biologist.
1961: The Biology Major
Gaining momentum from this cooperative educational venture the Departments of Botany and Zoology joined ranks in 1961 to become a Department of Biological Sciences. This merger produced a new vitality, a deeper sense of unity and common purpose, and a new undergraduate major in Biology. The major program of study was designed to provide a core of common knowledge which begins with the Life Science course, continues through courses in Genetics and Cell Physiology, and is followed by experience with both plants and animals. Yet we carefully preserved a flexibility within the major program to accommodate the range of student interest from molecular to environmental biology. Last year our core program (along with those from Stanford, Purdue and North Carolina State) was selected for study by the Commission on Undergraduate Education in the Biological Sciences. This national committee singled out "bellwether institutions which have recently given serious and intensive thought to the content and organization of their biology curriculum." The purpose of the study was to compare forward-looking undergraduate programs and determine the underlying similarities. The study corroborated our belief in the balance of our program in the several areas of Biology and showed that we cover in four terms of study ninety per cent as much as the Stanford program does in six terms and the Purdue program does in eight. This we consider a tribute to the quality of our students and faculty alike. (See January ALUMNI MAGAZINE.)
1964: The Gilman Life Sciences Laboratory; the Gilman Biomedical Center
The ensuing growth quickly resulted in strains on space, faculty and facilities alike. Clearly Silsby Hall built for the natural sciences in 1928 could not contain us for long. We found ourselves constantly hammering on administrative doors for more space and funds. During the first years after merger, while we were harvesting the fruits of our new union, other changes on campus attracted our attention. Dartmouth Medical School was being refounded with a strong emphasis on the basic medical sciences. New facilities for the Medical School were completed in 1962. The influx of many additional Biologists in the refounded medical school led to the possibility of new ties between biologists in our department and those in medicine. Logic dictated that the new facilities we so urgently needed be in proximity to the new Medical Sciences Building. The concept of a Biomedical Center was born. Such a center could permit unity on a higher level between the disciplines of Biology and Medicine. A gift of one million dollars from the Charles Gilman family served as the impetus for intensive planning of a new Biological Sciences Laboratory which would simultaneously provide for our growing needs and open the possibility for this new unification. An additional three-quarters of a million dollars was provided by the National Science Foundation toward the construction of a building. A gift from Thomas G. Murdough, Class of 1926, provided funds for a roof-top greenhouse. These monies together with Dartmouth College funds led to the completion in 1964 of the 60,000 square-foot Gilman Life Science Building as part of the emerging Gilman Biomedical Center at the north end of campus.
Today the Gilman Biomedical Center consists of a complex of five buildings- Gilman Life Sciences Laboratory housing the Department of Biological Sciences, Dana Biomedical Library (1963) housing the journals and books of Biology and Medicine, Kellogg Medical Auditorium (1963), the Medical Sciences Building (1961), and Strasenburgh Graduate-Medical Dormitory (1965). A sixth building, now on the drawing board, will provide needed facilities for expansion into a four-year program of medical studies. With the move to the north the Department of Biological Sciences doubled its space for teaching and research and brought its facilities up to date. In designing Gilman great em- phasis was placed on modern student laboratories and ancillary research space and equipment, with the conviction that the experimental approach should be at the center of scientific education. Faculty and student research have flourished. Our annual departmental research support from outside funding - the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Agriculture, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration - exceeds one third of a million dollars this year.
Our faculty of seventeen has contributed in may ways to Biology at the international, national and regional levels. To mention a few of these diverse activities on the national level, seven serve on editorial staffs of professional journals, several serve as members of National Science Foundation, National Research Council and National Institutes of Health review panels for fellowships, facilities and research grants. Recently Professor Forster completed one year of service as a program director for the National Science Foundation and has been elected President of Mt. Desert Island Biological Laboratory. Professor Croasdale is President of the American Phycological Society. Three of our faculty are authors of important textbooks. Research Professor Lyon is a research scientist with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and active in the Biosatellite Project. Professor Roos is chairman of the Panel on Pre-professional Training in Medical Sciences and member of the panel on Undergraduates Major Curriculum of the Commission on Undergraduate Education in the Biological Sciences.
Contributions on the international level include hosting the 5th International Photobiology Congress at Dartmouth next summer. Professor Dennison is a member of the organizing committee. Professor Likens is a member of two groups of the five-year International Biological Program (IBP)—the Task Force for International Scientific Areas, and the International Biological Program subcommittee for the Conservation of Ecosystems.
On the regional level the department, supported by National Science Foundation funds, has offered continuously over the past eight years an In-Service Institute for Secondary School Biology Teachers in New Hampshire and Vermont. This institute which meets on Saturday mornings serves to provide education in modern biology to over forty secondary school teachers each year. Other faculty members have been active at the local level serving on the Hanover Conservation Council, the New Hampshire Natural Preserve. Forum and the Governor's Radiation Advisory Panel. All these faculty activities contribute, each in its own way, to education and research in the expanding field of Biology.
1967: The Doctorate Program inBiology
This spiraling unity - unity of the science of Biology, unity of two departments to offer a single course, merger of two departments into one, unity of Biologists in the college with those in the Medical School - has opened yet new possibilities. First and foremost of these is in the area of graduate education. The expanded and improved physical facilities, library, and faculty permitted us to give serious attention to graduate education. After three years of planning we initiated a program of studies leading to the Ph.D. degree in Biology. This past fall we accepted our first 9 students. We project an expansion to 25 graduate students over the next few years. Our ability to call on specialists in the Medical School is making it possible for Dartmouth to offer a truly broadly based and unified graduate program in Biology. New ties are being made and old ties strengthened with medical school departments. Four of our faculty now hold joint appointments in the Medical School, and their faculty members regularly lecture in our courses - Genetics, Microbiology and Biochemistry. A new jointly offered course in The Biology of Viruses for undergraduates, graduate students and medical students will be initiated next year.
As these changes occur, our undergraduate program increases both in quantity and quality. Quantitatively we now have nearly 100 junior and senior majors. Qualitatively our senior majors have averaged in the 99th percentile nationally in their graduate record examinations. All but one or two of our Biology majors continue study in Biology and related fields upon completion of their undergraduate programs at Dartmouth. About three-fourths continue study in professional schools of medicine or dentistry, and one-fourth pursue graduate education in one of the many sub-disciplines of Biology - Biochemistry, Genetics, Developmental- Biology, Microbiology, Ecology, etc.
The departmental undergraduate Honors Program, now in its third year, has interested over one-third of our current senior majors. As part of the honors work each student carries out a program of independent research, writes a research paper and defends his work before a faculty committee of three.
The Next Step
What does the future hold for Biology at Dartmouth? The faculty of the Department of Biological Sciences has just approved a further revision in our undergraduate curriculum which will be implemented next year; one that will reflect the "biological explosion" of the past decade and will bring an even greater unity into our major. The core courses of Physiology and Genetics will be merged into a two-term sequence in Cell Biology stressing the interrelations of structure, function, regulation and control of the cellular level of organization. Elements of the new field of developmental biology will be included in this two-term major course sequence. A new core course in Environmental Biology will be added to integrate knowledge considered previously in courses in Plant Communities and Animal Ecology. The course will center around population dynamics and the ecosystem concept.
Recognizing the relation of the population explosion and the urban sprawl to the deterioration, destruction, and pollution of the environment, we are, in collaboration with other college departments, planning a new interdisciplinary program in Environmental Sciences. This program will probably have both undergraduate and graduate dimensions and seek to prepare students, both as citizens and professionals, to deal intelligently with the multitude of new problems the next generation will face. Initially the program will involve primarily departments in the division of Sciences and Social Sciences. A search has already begun for a director of this exciting educational venture. Additional space and facilities will undoubtedly be required over the next few years in order to adequately implement the program.
As we look south toward the main campus for new interrelations with College departments, we look north and see that the Medical School is undergoing a major transition in its curriculum. It is erasing traditional lines of study and adding new ones meaningful for the last third of this century. These changes will inevitably lead to new opportunities for unity within the Biomedical Center, perhaps even to the awarding of new degrees.
Throughout all these changes we as Biologists have remained fully aware of our obligation toward the education of the non-scientist in the College. Last year we participated in the Freshman Seminar Program and offered two seminars - one entitled "Man and His Environment" and the other "Animal Communication." These affirmed the contribution Biologists can and should make to "general education." This year we are again offering two Freshman Seminars - "Biological Approaches to the Mind-Body Problem" and "Man's Effect on His Environment" and next year hope to be able to offer three. Our educational responsibility will inevitably lead us to a continued and greater role in this type of educational venture at Dartmouth. The challenge is clear - we are faced with a world too large to be understood, yet too small and interrelated for even one aspect to be safely ignored. We have only begun to formulate even the most tentative solutions to this educational dilemma, yet we dare not fail. Unity is there and we must perceive it clearly ourselves before we can attempt to transmit it to others. Dartmouth is uniquely qualified to assume a leading role in response to this challenge. Much remains to be done.
A large lecture course in the Gilman Life Sciences Laboratory.
Prof. Roy P. Forster, a senior member ofthe department, lecturing to students andfaculty at weekly luncheon get-together.
Mimeographed manual at hand, an undergraduate carries out a lab experiment.
Excellent facilities at Gilman have spurred Dartmouth's advances in biology
