Three Reasons Why Biology Majors Have the Most Fun

While business majors are making up strategies and working though financial aspects of business, and the psych majors are writing their endless papers, the biology majors are on field trips to the zoo for ecology, hiking through the woods for botany or gleefully swabbing the door handles of other department’s doors for microbiology.

Although there are many aspects of Biology that do involve lectures and rote memorization, a lot of biology, especially at the collegiate level, is very interactive and hands on. Other majors tend to spend their time making up scenarios to deal with and work through, but bio majors get to actually play with the real thing and then discover how to make it work or how to figure it out.

Microbiologists get to actually discover and decipher what bacteria they might have by going through all of the tests that one would do out in the field. Bio majors get the freedom to learn the world (or learn about the world) in much the same way as it was first discovered.

In Zoology one gets to slice and dice up the specimens from the least complex of round worms to the cephalopods (octopus, nautilus, etc.) and on up through the various other phyla.

While the English majors are pouring over their beloved books trying to discover the underlying implications of various authors, biology majors, in their well-used lab coats, are discovering what kinds of bacteria naturally live inside their nares (nose, or nostrils).

Simply put, bio majors, unlike most other majors, get to enjoy the fun and freedom of exploring the scientific boundaries hands on and venture into discovery themselves.

Ever wonder why your side yard bushes have to be hedged in order to fill out and grow instead of just straight up? Well ask any student of a botany class and they will cheerfully explain that it is because the plant has an apical meristem which would very much like to grow up to make that plant the tallest of all plants and hence fourth have the most sunlight at the best opportunity to continue growing in that spot. However, tall scraggly hedges are not attractive, so, by cutting off the apical meristem you, in essence, tell your bush to, “chill out” and it encourages the plant via lack of hormonal instruction to grow out instead of just up.

Being a bio major practically hands you the opportunity to be able to explain most of the world’s biological, ecological and even some physical workings.

For example, have you ever wondered how effective your hand sanitizer or favorite soap is at actually cleaning your hands? Well, in any basic level microbiology class you get the opportunity to test for yourself which is a more effective skin cleaner: hand sanitizer or various types of soaps, and to discover if some soap will actually give you more or worse bacteria than what you already had on your skin.

As a bio major myself, I became accustomed to my understanding of the world being shattered almost daily by my increased understanding of the workings of the world.

One memorable occasion occurred while I was ensconced in a botany lecture on fruit when the professor announced that all things with seeds inside of them are fruits. There was a quiet pause in the classroom and then he continued, ‘yes, that means that bell peppers are fruits, that olives, green beans, cantaloupe and cucumbers are all fruit.’

Around the classroom we all gave incredulous, and slightly astonished expressions, there was quiet murmuring around the room as our minds were quietly blown; our understanding of the universe and salad, shattered. The well-known phrase of our mothers to, “eat all your vegetables” were re-evaluated, as we realized that so many of those things which we had previously erroneously believed to be vegetables were in fact, fruits.

Equipped with this new found knowledge, each member of the class felt the personal responsibility to debunk all of their friends, family, distant relatives and even the subway sandwich maker’s understanding of fruits and veggies.

For example, the next time you witness someone making a Greek salad which includes tomatoes, olives, cucumbers, perhaps bell peppers or avocados and an artistic jalapeno, you might casually comment that you think their fruit salad looks quite good. Once the salad maker stops gawking at your words in awe, shock and amazement, you would then take that moment to educate them on what in fact a fruit is.

That is merely the beginning of the fun aspects and the kinds of joy a biology major gets to regularly experience due to the nature of their subject matter. Biologists simply are able to garner more fun and adventure from their classes than all other majors.