In IntroBio, we talk a lot about prokaryotes and eukaryotes… but what is it that is important for us to say ? Having a nucleus is diagnostic, but it’s a symptom, not a description what’s special about being a eukaryote–it’s a lifestyle. I think there are several Big Ideas that allow students to categorize these huge groups successfully and to approach questions and thinking about them fruitfully. Eukaryotes have mastery of compartments–they ‘figured out’ how to separate watery chambers using non-watery components (membranes). Prokaryotes, on the other hand, have “specialization and mastery” at the environment or biochemical level (not covered yet). The topic of this post is a third: eukaryotes are damned complicated. It seems like everything has more parts and pieces. One view is that they’re simply designed to make undergraduate life a jungle of memorization. Is there another?
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