Title: The Development of Modern Biology
Author: James Tabery
Last saved by: ZB
Company: University of Pittsburgh

Course:
The Development of Modern Biology (HPS 0626)
History and Philosophy of Science
Spring 2003
Lecture: Thursday, 2:00—4:30, Cathedral of Learning 321  

Instructor Information:
Instructor: Jim Tabery
Office: Cathedral of Learning 901M
Office Phone #: (412) 624-3181
E-mail: jgt1@pitt.edu
Office Hours: Wednesday 3:30—5:00, and Thursday 12:30—2:00
Student Information:

(Name)										(e-mail)

(Name)										(e-mail)

Course Description and Objectives:
	Modern biology has evolved at an incredibly rapid rate in the last 150 years. In contrast to fields such as physics, philosophy, chemistry, or architecture, much of current biology can trace its origins to a relatively recent past. This course will trace this journey from the publication of Darwin’s On the Origins of Species to our modern understanding of where biology is and where it is going. We will examine, to name just a few, such topics as pre-Darwinian theories of evolution, the rise of eugenics in America, and the discovery of DNA as the basis of heredity.
	The course is specifically organized around one important concept…perhaps the most important and misunderstood concept in modern biology: the gene. We will seek to evaluate how this concept has evolved over time, which theories have contributed most to its development, who shaped our modern understanding of it, and when it was used for social and political ends. We will be covering a variety of different issues and events, but the concept of the gene will be the thread tying together the larger picture. The course will culminate by assessing our current understanding of this concept: how has it gotten here, what does it now look like, where is it going?  

Required Texts:
1.) Kevles, Daniel J. In the Name of Eugenics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1997. [“Kevles” below]
2.) Morange, Michel. A History of Molecular Biology. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 2000. [“Morange” below]
3.) The Development of Modern Biology Course Packet. Prepared by Jim Tabery. Pittsburgh: Copy Cat. 2002. [“CP” below] 

The Learning Environment:
Material is best learned in a variety of ways. Therefore, the learning environment in the classroom will utilize many different formats. Some of the class will be lecture, where you will receive a general understanding of the most important issues for a particular topic. In addition, there will also be an extensive amount of class discussion (both between the professor and the students and among the students themselves). The goal of these class discussions will be to identify the many important questions that we will come across as we read the primary and secondary sources. Finally, there will also be group work. Groups will be assigned in the classroom and given different problems to solve, or issues to organize, etc. You will not receive a direct grade for group work, but it will count towards your class participation grade (see below). There will also be occasions where the class will watch movies that have been made discussing the various topics we will cover.    

Grading:
Your grade will be based on the following 5 criteria:
1.	Attendance and Class Participation (10 points)
2.	Quizzes, best 5 out of 6 (15 points)
3.	Essay (25 points)
4.	Mid-term (25 points)
5.	Final (25 points)
A+ = 100-97			C+ = 79-77
A = 96-93			C = 76-73
A- = 92-90			C- = 72-70
B+ = 89-87			D+ = 69-67
B = 86-83			D = 66-63
B- = 82-80			D- = 62-60
F = 59-0

Class Participation can come in a variety of ways. While some of the class will be lecture, much of it will be based on eliciting a dialogue between the students and the professor and between the students themselves. Your participation in the class discussions, your role in small group works, and any time you spend discussing the course during my office hours will all be taken into consideration when determining Class Participation. 

Quizzes will be given at the beginning of some classes (roughly every other class). The quizzes will cover the material covered since the last Quiz. These quizzes are not designed to be difficult; rather, they are designed to motivate you to read the material before we discuss it in class. So if you’ve read the material, then you will have no problem on the quizzes. The quizzes will be almost entirely objective (True/False, Matching, Multiple Choice), but I may throw in a short answer question here and there to keep you on your toes. There will be 6 Quizzes given throughout the semester, and your Quiz grade will be based on the best 5 of these 6. 

The Essay is designed to allow you to perform some historical research of your own. You will be given the option of two different essays to pick from, and you must write on one of them (unless you design and discuss with me an essay topic of your own). The topics will take one of the issues or figures we discuss in class and explore it in more detail. 

The Mid-term and the Final are both structured exactly alike and will be worth the same amount of points (25). There will be 5 objective questions (1 point each), 5 Key Word questions (3 points each), and 1 essay question (5 points). You will receive, at the beginning of each class, several Key Words on the blackboard unique to the topic of the day. Most of the Key Words are in the readings, but they will be explained in greater detail during the course of the class lecture. You will then be responsible for providing one paragraph of your own account of 5 of these Key Words on the Mid-term and Final. You will have the option of choosing 5 out of 9 Key Words and 1 out of 2 essays on both exams. 

Class Policies:
The dates of the Mid-Term, Final Exam, and Essay are strict. If either of the exams cannot be attended, a typed explanation with appropriate documentation must be given to me before or within one week after the exam dates. Regarding the Essay, a letter grade will be lowered from the final grade for each day the paper is late. If you cannot take the Quiz on the assigned date, then you must schedule a date/time to take the Quiz before the next class. 

Cheating/Plagiarism are widely frowned upon throughout the university and so are not taken kindly to in this class. Anyone caught cheating during a quiz or exam, or anyone caught plagiarizing an essay, will have the quiz/exam/paper confiscated, a zero will be given to the work, and the student’s action will be reported to the dean. 

Everybody has disabilities of some sort. If you have a disability that requires special testing accommodations or other classroom modifications, then please notify both the instructor and Disability Resources and Services (DRS) by the second week of class. DRS can be contacted at 648-7890 or at http://www.pitt.edu/~osaweb/drs/drs.html. This office is located in the William Pitt Union, Room 216.

There are no prerequisites for this course.  
  
Schedule:
Thursday, January 9^th 
-Topic: Introduction to the Development of Modern Biology
-Readings: None, but review the syllabus before the next class.
-Questions/Issues to Consider: What are some of the most important biological concepts in use today? What do different biologists mean by “gene”? How does the general public understand the term “gene”? What have been the most important biological discoveries in the last 150 years? How has our understanding of those discoveries evolved over time? How have different biological discoveries been utilized for social/political causes? 
-Movie: the Human Genome Project promotional CD  

Thursday, January 16^th 
-Topic: Pre-Darwinian Theories of Evolution 
-Readings: Lamarck, Zoological Philosophy, Chapter 7 [CP: selection #1]
-Questions/Issues to Consider: What is the received view of how species originated in the 18^th c.? How does Lamarck problematize this understanding? What are the sources of evolution, according to Lamarck? How does Lamarck’s characterization of evolution differ from your modern understanding of the process? What is the inheritance of acquired characteristics, and how are acquired characteristics heritable under Lamarck’s theory? What elements of Lamarck do you think we will find in Darwin’s theory of evolution? 

Thursday, January 23^rd 
-Topic: The Development of Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection
-Readings: Lyell, Principles of Geology v.2, chapters 2 and 3 [CP: selection #2]
-Questions/Issues to Consider: How does Lyell explain geological change? What is the principle of uniformity, and how does Lyell apply it to science? What does Lyell find problematic about previous theories of evolution? How does he differentiate between geological change and organic change? What is Lyell’s explanation for the origins of species?
-Important Event: Quiz #1    

Thursday, January 30^th 
-Topic: The Theory of Natural Selection
-Readings: Darwin, “Natural Selection; or the Survival of the Fittest” [CP: selection #3]
-Questions/Issues to Consider: How does natural selection compare to variation under domestication? What does Darwin identify as the causes of natural selection? What is the difference between natural selection and sexual selection? How is extinction caused, according to Darwin? How does Darwin’s theory of natural selection compare to Wallace’s account? What is the origin of Wallace’s theory? Why do you think Darwin has become known as the father of evolution by natural selection and not Wallace? How does Darwin explain the physical process of inheritance in “Of Pangenesis”? Does Darwin have anything that looks like a gene? Would acquired characteristics be inherited on Darwin’s model of inheritance?    

Thursday, February 6^th 
-Topic: The Biometric-Mendelian Debate
-Readings: -Pearson, Grammar of Science, introduction [CP: selection #5]
	     -Bateson, Problems of Genetics, introduction [CP: selection #6]
-Questions/Issues to Consider: How does Pearson claim that biologists should study inheritance? What tools/procedures does Pearson argue should be employed when studying inheritance? How does Bateson claim that biologists should study inheritance? Why does Bateson embrace Mendel and his “rediscovered” experiments so vehemently? Why do you think Pearson would be critical of Bateson’s biology for both theoretical and methodological reasons? Why do you think Bateson would be critical of Pearson’s biology for both theoretical and methodological reasons? Why would Pearson and Bateson have very different conceptions of what the gene actually is? How are these disagreements expressed publicly in the pages of Nature? 
-Important Event: Quiz #2   

Thursday, February 13^th 
-Topic: The Rise of Eugenics 
-Readings: Kevles, selected readings (TBA) 
-Questions/Issues to Consider: What does the term “eugenics” mean? Where was this concept born and cultivated? What is the difference between positive and negative eugenics? How were eugenic theories put into practice? How were the theories of natural selection and the gene used to create, popularize, and justify eugenics? What is the difference between eugenic breeding and eugenic living? Who were the leading biologists and politicians responsible for popularizing eugenics? How were eugenic practices tied with religion and morality? 
-Movie: TBA  

Thursday, February 20^th 
-Topic: The Fall (?) of Eugenics
-Readings: Kevles, selections (TBA) 
-Questions/Issues to Consider: What events led to the scientific and social condemnation of eugenics? What did eugenics societies turn into after the practice of eugenics was deemed wrong? How did these societies alter their programs in order to avoid the stigmatization associated with earlier eugenic practices?  
-Important Event: Quiz #3, Essay Topics Assigned

Thursday, February 27^th 
-Mid-term   

Thursday, March 6^th 
-Spring Break (No class)

Thursday, March 13^th 
-Topic: The Evolutionary Synthesis
-Readings: Schwartz, “Genetics Goes Statistical” [CP: selection #7]
-Questions/Issues to Consider: How do the architects of the evolutionary synthesis approach the problem of evolution differently than the Biometricians and Mendelians? Which elements from the Biometricians and the Mendelians have been incorporated in the evolutionary synthesis? How do Fisher, Haldane, and Wright explain the relationship between Darwinian evolution and Menelian inheritance similarly and differently? What are the different conceptions of the gene, which we get from Fisher, Haldane, and Wright? What biological fields are included in the evolutionary synthesis, and what biological fields are left out?      

Thursday, March 20^th 
-Topic: The Molecularization of Biology 
-Readings: Morange, “The Phage Group” and “The Role of the Physicists”
-Questions/Issues to Consider: How was biology generally perceived by physicists in the early 20^th c.? Why did some physicists begin to migrate into biology? What did they expect to find in biology? What biological problems were they hoping to address? How did the experimental and theoretical approach of the physicists differ from the traditional biologists? How do you think the more traditional biologists perceived this migration? How did the physicists alter the field of biology?
-Important Event: Quiz #4   

Thursday, March 27^th 
-Topic: The Search for the Molecular Basis of Heredity
-Readings: Morange, “The Discovery of the Double Helix” and “Deciphering the Genetic Code”
 -Questions/Issues to Consider: What experimental results were derived before Watson and Crick’s famous discovery, which contributed to their conceptualization of DNA? Where do we see the impact of the intellectual migration from physics in Watson and Crick’s discovery? Why were Watson and Crick fearful of Linus Pauling’s research? What was Rosalyn Franklin’s contribution to the Watson-Crick model of DNA? How was the Watson-Crick model of DNA received by the scientific community after the publication of their two articles? What do Watson and Crick take the gene to be?
-Movie: The Race for the Double Helix     
-First Drafts of Essays Due

Thursday, April 3^rd 
-Topic: The Gene Gets Complicated
-Readings: Keller, The Century of the Gene, chapter 2 [library reserve]
-Questions/Issues to Consider: What was the standard understanding of the gene immediately following Watson and Crick’s discovery? What discoveries problematized this understanding? How did the existence of introns and exons change the conception of the gene? How did the presence of gene regulation alter the conception of the gene? How did biologists adapt the concept of the gene in order to incorporate these new discoveries? How did the new discoveries in gene structure affect the understanding of gene function? 
-Important Event: Quiz #5, First Drafts of Essays Returned 

Thursday, April 10^th 
-Topic: To be decided by class
-Some possibilities:
	-The “Lost and Found” History of Developmental Biology
	-The Molecularization of Neurobiology
	-Creationism and Intelligent Design vs. Evolution and Natural Selection
	-Any other suggestions?

Thursday, April 17^th 
-Topic: The Gene in Modern Biology and Society
-Readings: Kevles, selections (TBA) 
-Questions/Issues to Consider: How has our understanding of the gene evolved over time? How do modern biologists conceptualize the gene? Is there more than one concept of the gene in modern biology? Which theories and experiments that we have studied this semester have contributed most to our modern understanding of the gene? How is the gene used in modern culture to explain phenomena? Do any theories or practices exist in modern biology governed by the same goals or theories which governed eugenic ideologies? 
-Important Event: Quiz #6, Final Drafts of Essays Due