However, both courses can certainly help in different ways. If you've had AP biology in high school, that can be counted as one of our introductory courses. A. Biology is an extremely quantitative pursuit. Medical researchers worry about doses, responses, and probabilities of disease occurrence. Physiologists measure heart rates, blood sugar levels, oxygen uptake, and ion concentrations.
Microbiologists count colonies per liter and bacterial growth rates.
Geneticists look at electrophoresis migration rates, allele frequencies, and indices of genetic diversity. Population ecologists analyze age structures, spatial patterns, and Lotka-Volterra mathematical models. Ecosystem ecologists construct budgets of nutrients based on input rates, storage quantities, and losses. Conservation biologists estimate minimum viable population sizes for endangered species and probabilities of extinction. Basic mathematical and statistical skills are thus essential for any biologist.