Module Code and
Title
Level 3
FND02 Foundation
year Study Skills for
the Biosciences
Module
Convener
Mr. Kevin
Clark
LIFE SCIENCES RESIT ESSAY TITLES 2016
Resit Essay Title/Task
Candidates should write a 1000 word scientific essay in 3rd person
based on the following title.
Essay Title:
Discuss a significant breakthrough in the biosciences and how it has
shaped what we know and investigate today.
Guidance:
• Make sure you stick to the title and don’t include irrelevant
information or go off on a tangent.
• Use appropriate terminology – enhance your scientific vocabulary
(but ensure you know what the terms you are using mean!)
• Take a scientific approach to writing – avoid slang and informal
language. This needs to be written in a formal style.
• Reference using Harvard style.
1
Word Length
1,000
Additional
Notes
Module Code and
Title
C7145 Lives of
Carnivores
Module
Convener
Professor
William
Hughes
Resit Essay Title/Task
Word Length
The topic for your essay is the carnivore Hydrurga leptonyx. Your essay
should focus on the population ecology and foraging ecology of the
species, but you can include other aspects of its biology as well. You
should use Web of Science to find relevant scientific papers on this
species, and use these papers as the primary basis for your essay. You
can use the IUCN Red List species page as well if you wish. You may
wish to use nformation and papers from other taxa, related or
otherwise, to support or complement your essay. You do not need to
try and cover everything that is known about the biology of the
species. You will not lose marks if there is some aspect of the species’
biology that you do not discuss, but you may lose marks if there are
key, recent literature on the population and foraging ecology of the
species that you fail to utilize (post-1997 literature, findable through a
simple Web of Science search for the species name, and available
online as a full pdf through the University Library catalogue). Your
essay must include an introduction and a conclusion, a properly
formatted reference list, and proper citation of your sources. It is up to
you what title you use for your essay, whether you use figures or
not, and how many scientific papers you draw upon for your essay.
The module handbook includes further information on assessment
criteria.
2,500 (including in-text
citations, but not
including
reference list, title or any
figures). Marks will be
deducted for essays
longer than this word
limit.
2
Additional
Notes
Module Code and
Title
Level 5
Module
Convener
Resit Essay Title/Task
Word Length
C1019 Evolutionary
Biology
Prof. Adam
EyreWalker
Write a 2000 word essay on the following topic:
2,000
Prof.
Jeremy
Field
Essay 1. What is meant by ‘the cost of reproduction’ in life-history
theory? Discuss, with examples, how you would measure it.
C1020 Animal
Behavioural Ecology
Are most of the differences between species at the DNA level a
consequence of neutral mutation and random genetic drift, or
adaptive evolution?
Each essay should be
1,500 words.
Essay 2. What is the Hawk-Dove game? How does it illuminate animal
contests and what are its limitations?
C7144 Comparative
Animal Physiology
Dr. Jeremy
Niven
What are the advantages and disadvantages for insects of possessing
an exoskeleton?
2,000
Dr. Mika
Peck
Critically discuss the importance of Andean Tropical montane
cloudforests in terms of local endemism of species, patterns in species
richness with altitude and the conservation challenges faced by these
environments.
2,000
Level 6
C1141 Tropical
Rainforest Science
Additional
Notes
3
Resit
candidates
must
complete
both essay
titles.
Module Code and
Title
Module
Convener
Resit Essay Title/Task
Word Length
C7117 Innovation in
Bioscience and
Medicine
Dr.
Michael
Hopkins
Candidates must answer ONE question that they did not answer for
3,000
the coursework during term.
1.
1. In an interview with the Financial Times in March 2015, Sir John Bell,
Professor of Medicine at Oxford, said 'Given that we are on the
doorstep of one of the world's great financial centres, there has been
a paucity of risk capital for life sciences. . . .We've never had a Gilead
or a Celgene and this is becoming a pressing issue.' What would you
argue are the plausible causes and consequences of this lack of risk
capital for UK biotech firms?
2.Describe how the UK government has drawn on scientific evidence,
socio-economic considerations, ethics and public attitudes in its
regulation of mitochondrial replacement techniques. Critically assess
the advantages and disadvantages of such an approach.
3.The US Supreme Court recently overturned long established legal
precedent in order to make naturally occurring genes patent ineligible
subject matter. Such genes remain patentable in the UK. Critically
assess the empirical evidence for and against maintaining the UK
position.
C7120 Genomics
and Bioinformatics
Dr. Frances
Pearl
4.Discuss the qualitative and quantitative evidence linking levels of
trust in institutions and information sources to the ways in which
publics perceive the applications of modern biotechnology. Drawing
on specific examples, critically analyse the media's role in influencing
publics' support or opposition.
Describe and compare the main methods used to align protein
sequences and why they are important tools in bioinformatics.
4
2,500
Additional
Notes
Module Code and
Title
Level 7
Module
Convener
Resit Essay Title/Task
Word Length
F1145 Advanced
Inorganic Chemistry
Dr. George
Kostakis
Answer ONE of these essays
4,000
1. Fundamentals and recent advances in the organometallic chemistry
of low-coordinate phosphorus
2. Transition metal complexes bearing Lewis acidic ligands.
3. Discuss, with recent examples from outside the lecture material, the
applications of organometallic complexes containing 5-, 6- and 8membered rings to the stabilisation of unusual oxidation states
4. Discuss, with recent examples from outside the lecture material, the
applications of organometallic complexes containing π-bound 5-, 6and 8-membered rings to the activation of small molecules
5. Recent developments in the Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling of alkyl
halides
6. Highlights on asymmetric Mizoroki-Heck reactions
7. Recent advances in the chemistry of Single Molecule Magnets
(SMMs).
5
Additional
Notes