Relevance of botany?

[medicMD]

As I come to the close of my all-night study session for my botany practical and final, I am truly questioning the relevance of this course to my ultimate goals. My paramedic instructor, Dr. Craig Jacobus told me that his botany class he took as an undergrad, he felt was useless. Please, somebody tell me that this class is not all for not!

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[CoverMe]

it is not all for naught... it's either probably a science req. for your degree... which you will use to get into medical school.

otherwise, yes, it is a waste of time.

 

[ad_sharp]

Oh yeah......Botony = total waste of time. I had to take it. I thought that it was the most boring subject ever designed. It's just hard to get excited about plants having sex. The class only exists for the sake of getting the degree. It is just another hoop for you to jump through.

 

[DemonDeacon]

😱 😱 😱 🙁

I'm a botany major and absolutely love it! I'm specializing in ethnobotany, the use of plants in different civilizations. I've been doing research for a year now on the prevalece and the use of herbal medicine in Raleigh.

I swear I remembered seeing a question on the MCAT about spores. But the main importance of botany is to get your familiar with some of the MOST IMPORTANT ORGANISMS on this planet. If you think your intro to botany is hard, be glad you don't have to take plant anatomy and physiology, systemics, taxonomy, mycology, and worst of all... life cycles.

 

[Tiki]

Oh god, I just finished Botany, and the life cycles nearly killed me. The first part of Botany was a piece of cake, it was all anatomy and physiology of the plants. I actually liked that part. It went from questions like compare and contrast C4, C3 and CAM, to compare the life cycles of Bryophytes, Seedless vascular plants, Gymnosperms and angiosperms. Talk about wanting to bash your head against a wall.

 

[beriberi]

Useless for medical school. Not going to ever be expected to know anything about plants (other than what you learn in basic bio!).

Moral: If you don't love biology, don't major in it. (Same goes for biochem, chem, etc). This is especially true if you go to a school where bio majors must take a bunch of core bio classes like botany.

 

[Newquagmire]

botany = very relevant. a lot of mammalian research today originates in questions from plant biology. and think about curing disease; pills alone aren't going to do that. improving agricultural techniques and variety will definitely help.

 

[NDESTRUKT]

botany = very relevant. a lot of mammalian research today originates in questions from plant biology. and think about curing disease; pills alone aren't going to do that. improving agricultural techniques and variety will definitely help.

i could say the same thing as fluid mechanics.

fluid mechanics = very relevant. most heart pacemakers are based on this science. also the blood flow can be dependent on the turbulent or laminar reynolds numbers. in fact, any type of fluid flow in the body can be better understood by fluid mechanics and the bernoulli equation.

the truth is, any science can give some additional insight or help hone your mind to understand what medical school has for you but the answer to the OP's question is...

no, botany is not THAT relevant. it's as relevant as circuit analysis.

 

[lessismoe]

botany = very relevant. a lot of mammalian research today originates in questions from plant biology. and think about curing disease; pills alone aren't going to do that. improving agricultural techniques and variety will definitely help.

I can't honestly say that I loved botony, but I think it is somewhat relevant, especially for research. There is a biotech company in Northern California that is trying to get plants to make medicines via agrobacterium, which I think is pretty interesting. Also, one of the newest genomics tools (TILLING) is entirely dependent on an endonuclease from celery plants.

On the other hand, knowing specific plant details is pretty useless. I guess, if you look at it from a broad perspective, it gives you a good picture of plant evolution.

 

[hamhamfan]

A lot of courses won't have much or any relevance later on. Come on, how often do people outside of science know the enzymes of various biochemical processes off the top of their heads?

As a gardener, I found information relating to plants very very interesting. It was like, OMG, I know how my plants work now. All of the sudden, so many things in life made sense.