I thought the same when I went into a computational biology role and crammed virology for a few weeks before applying. I thought biology was about types of plants and animals. You know the stuff: label the parts of a flower, how many legs does an insect have etc. When you learn about viruses you have to learn the super low level stuff like DNA replication. I saw a video of DNA replication happening, it's like a little sewing machine going through and cutting up the molecule and joining it back together! And it's a code! What's not to like?

But after a couple of years in the role I realised I was at a major disadvantage. The good people in biology actually do like and know the rest of it too. I was working on projects to do with plant biology. I did my bit. But the others came in to the greenhouses to tend their plants during the night on a weekend. They'd talk about high-level concepts that I just had no idea about. I was never going to be as passionate about it as they were, so I was never going to succeed.

So yeah, do learn this stuff because it's amazing and unbelievably fascinating. This is a great article to whet your appetite. But there might be a reason you didn't love biology in school!