HI 2353 A01

History of the Life Sciences

2017 Term D
TF 9:00-10:50
Salisbury Labs 411
Instructor: Constance Clark
Office: 408 D Salisbury Labs
Phone: (508) 831-5712
Email: cclark@wpi.edu
Office Hours:
Monday 3:00-4:00, Tuesday 11:00-12:00, Friday 2:00-3:00, and by appointment

The history of the life sciences is a vast subject, and one that we cannot cover
comprehensively in seven weeks. The emphasis, therefore, will be on exploring some
important themes in that history. Rather than tracing a linear chronology of important
developments in the history of the life sciences, we will focus on the history of how
people have done science: what organisms they have studied; how the organisms
chosen have shaped the kinds of questions people have asked, as well as the kinds of
answers they have found; the kinds of laboratory and field techniques that have shaped
their understanding of biology and the natural world; the social, cultural and institutional
settings in which people have asked questions about the natural world; and a survey of
the history of medicine.

Themes (will include but will not be limited to):

The relationship of theory and practice in the biological sciences
The everyday context in which scientists have worked, the practical as well as
conceptual challenges they have confronted, and the ways in which that context
has influenced the research questions they have asked and the methods they have
chosen to try to answer those questions
The importance of the kinds of questions people have asked, and the occasional
usefulness of wrong answers to those questions
The importance of research communities in the history of the life sciences
Course Objectives:
1. To put ourselves imaginatively in the places of people in the past, who did
not know the things we know today, and to explore the questions that
preoccupied them from their perspectives, rather than from our own.
2. To examine the history of the life sciences with an eye to illuminating the
kinds of questions that naturalists and scientists have asked, and the methods
they have used in order to seek answers to their questions.
3. To enhance our understanding of the actual practices biologists and
naturalists have engaged in, and the relationship of theory to (sometimes
messy, complicated, and challenging) hands-on practice.
4. To illuminate some of the ways in which social, economic, ecological and
cultural factors have influenced the ways people have practiced science and
natural history.

Course Outcomes:
1. To learn to ask good and heuristic questions about history.
2. To learn to evaluate historical evidence critically
3. To improve critical reading skills
4. To improve research, writing and presentation skills

Course Readings: Available at bookstore:

Jim Endersby, A Guinea Pigs History of Biology
Roy Porter, Blood and Guts: A Short History of Medicine

Assignments:
Brief written answers to discussion questions based on readings in Endersby, A
Guinea Pigs History of Biology: You will choose two questions from a list of
questions for discussion for the first four reading assignments from Endersby to
answer in writing (and you should be able to discuss those you did not respond to
in writing). The questions will be posted on the myWPI course website. You will
bring your typed (but brief) answers to class. Your answers must be typed and
printed out, but need not be in essay form; they are intended to help focus your
reading and get your group discussions started. You will hand them in at the end
of class. Papers scribbled during class will not be accepted.
Dates due: March 28, March 31, April 4, April 7
Written questions on subsequent reading assignments: two good questions typed
and brought to class to use in your group discussions. You do not need to answer
the questions, but you should put real thought into generating good questions.
They should be historically interesting, not trivial, they should explore significant
historical patterns or problems, and they should be questions that will provoke
worthwhile discussion. You will bring your typed, printed questions to class. You
will hand them in at the end of class. Papers scribbled during class will not be
accepted.
Dates due: April 11, April 14, April 21, April 25, April 28, and May 2
 Short Paper (no more than 750 words) on Porter, Blood and Guts. A detailed
description of the paper assignment will be posted on the course website.
Due date: On course website by 3:00 Monday, March 27
Group presentations: Presentation of a relevant topic of your own choosing in the
history of the life scienceseither biology or medicine. You will hand in a
complete, formal bibliography at least two days before your presentation date,
submitted on the Canvas course website. You should also hand in a short
description of each persons contribution in order to make sure everyone receives
the appropriate amount of credit. No more than 15-20 minutes for the whole
presentation.
Due dates to be determined based on groups preferences and course schedule.
Short Paper on Endersby: Short (no more than two typed pages) paper reflecting
on one of the themes or issues raised in any one of the chapters of the book. You
may also draw on class discussions or presentations; but keep in mind that your
discussion should rely on very specific examples and details.
Due date: Posted on course website by 3:00 pm Monday, April 17
Occasional in-class short writing assignments

Grading: Grades for the course will be based on the following:

Group presentations: 10%
Short paper on Blood and Guts 20%
Quizzes: Four (best four out of five): 40%
Short paper on a topic from Endersby: 20%
Lively and engaged participation 10%
The participation grade includes:
short written assignments on readings
in-class exercises
attendance
active participation in discussions

Keep this in mind about grades:

C = you did EVERYTHING assigned passably
B = you did everything very well
A = Awesome job, showing hard work, meticulous presentation and exceptional insight

General Course Policies:

In order to be fair to everyone, please hand your papers in on time: late papers cannot be
accepted except under extraordinary circumstances. (If you anticipate extraordinary
circumstances occurring, please inform me ahead of time.) Please type written
assignments, double-spaced, in 12-point, easy-to-read font, and please proofread all
assignments before posting them: spell check is not sufficient (groan, grown). Even
the best proofreader occasionally misses a typographical error; however, egregious typos
will undermine your grade! Papers that appear not to have been proofread, or that suffer
from a surfeit of typographical or grammatical errors, or that are grammatically
incomprehensible will be returned without being graded, and no credit will be given for
them.
Submitting papers on Canvas course website: Please keep in mind that even though you
are posting papers under your name, I may sometimes need to print them out, so please
be sure to include your name on the papers themselves.

The reading may include things that are unfamiliar to you, especially if you have not
taken a lot of biology. If you find things in the reading that are unfamiliar, dont feel
intimidated: bring your questions to class for discussion. This is a highly participatory
class, with a lot of discussion. Since uninformed discussion would be a waste of
everyones time, it is essential that everyone keep up with the reading.

Because active student participation is essential to the success of this course, the grade
for participation in class includes an attendance component; but if you are suffering from
a contagious disease please do not come to class until you are well again. If this happens,
let me know by email, and we will figure out how to make a realistic and fair
accommodation.

Please do not play computer games, whisper, engage in private conversations, sleep,
update your Facebook status, Tweet, text, work on homework for other classes, or watch
cat videos during class! If you feel compelled to do these things at the hours when our
class meets, please do them somewhere else. In particular, when your classmates are
making presentations, you should give them your undivided attention, both because it is
impolite not to, and because things from student presentations will appear on quizzes.
Please make sure that cell phones are turned off before class. You should come to class
having done the assignments and prepared to contribute to discussions.

Consultations and office hours: Please do not feel that office hours are only for raising
problems: I will be happy to talk to you at any time during my office hours, and encourage
you to make appointments at other times if your schedule does not allow you to come
during my office hours. I will also be glad to talk with you at other times: If you stop by
and find my office door open, you are welcome to come in and talk: I will be pleased to
see you. (You should not, however, assume that I will be available to answer long emails
on Saturday and Sunday nights!)

The research librarians at Gordon Library can assist you with a variety of research
questions related to locating and citing sources. Their walk-in office hours are M-F 8-5 and
Saturday 1-5 in offices 202A-C. You may also schedule a research meeting with a librarian
by visiting tinyurl.com/wpilibrary or writing to library@wpi.edu. We have wonderful
librarians who are eager to help you: I recommend them very highly.

WPI offers an excellent writing center, and even the best writers can profit from consulting
the people there. Here is important and useful information from the WPI Writing Center
Director: Located on the first floor of Daniels Hall (room 116), the Writing Center is a
valuable resource for helping you improve as a writer. Writing Center tutors are your peers
(other undergraduate and graduate students at WPI) who are experienced writers
themselves and who enjoy helping others work through thinking and writing problems.
Although a single tutoring session should never be seen as a quick fix for any writing
 difficulty, these sessions can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses, and teach
you strategies for organizing, revising, and editing your course papers, projects, and
presentations. Writing Center services are free and open to all WPI students in all classes,
and tutors will happily work with you at any stage of the writing process (early
brainstorming, revising a draft, polishing sentences in a final draft). To make an
appointment: http://wpi.edu/+writing.

Accommodations: If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a

disability, or if you have medical information to share with me that may impact your
performance or participation in this course, please let me know as soon as possible.

If you have not already done so, students who need to utilize accommodations in this class
are encouraged to contact the Office of Disability Services (ODS) as soon as possible to
ensure that such accommodations are implemented in a timely fashion. This office can be
contacted via email: DisabilityServices@wpi.edu or via phone: (508) 831-4908, or in
person: Daniels Hall First Floor (124 or 137).

Plagiarism will not be tolerated, of course. The WPI policy on Academic Honesty is
available online at http://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/Policies/Honesty/policy.html. When in
doubtand there are sometimes good reasons to be in doubtabout whether an act violates
those policies, it is always best to ask.

Tentative Schedule: Any changes will be announced on the course Website

Dates Topics Assignments

Tuesday, March Introduction to the topic and the

14 course; organization of groups, and
introductions

Friday, March 17 Introduction to the history of For discussion Friday, read Porter Blood and
medicine and ideas about the body Guts from beginning through page 52. Write
out two questions (typed) for discussion and
bring them to class

Tuesday, March History of Medicine For discussion Tuesday read Porter, pages 53-
21 74. Write out two questions (typed) for
discussion and bring them to class

Friday, March 24 For Friday, read Porter 75-134. Write out two
questions (typed) for discussion and bring
them to class
Tuesday, March The Quagga: History of ideas about
28 generation and inheritance
Friday, March 31 Quiz 1
Passionflowers, Darwin, and
Darwinism
Tuesday, April 4 Library Research Presentation in
SL 411 at 9:00
Human heredity, Francis Galton,
Eugenics, and Statistics
Fri., April 7 Quiz 2
Pea Plants and Hawkweed:
Mendelism, and the mechanisms of
evolution: Introduction
Tues., April 11 Oenotheria lamarckiana: Problems
of inheritance, regression, mutation,
and mechanisms of evolution
Discussion and Presentations
Fri., April 14 Drosophila: the Fly Room and
Chromosomes
Quiz 3
For Tuesday: read Porter, 135-169 and
Endersby, A Guinea Pigs History of Biology,
1-28. Read the discussion questions on Porter
and on Endersby: You should be able to
discuss all of the discussion questions, but
you only need to write answers to two of
them, one on each book.
Paper on Porter Due on course website by
3:00 Thursday, March 30
For Friday read Endersby, A Guinea Pigs
History of Biology, 29-60. Write out brief (a
sentence or two for each question) answers to
two of the discussion questions (typed) and
bring them to class.
For Tuesday read Endersby, A Guinea Pigs
History of Biology, 61-94 Write out brief (a
sentence or two for each question) answers to
two of the discussion questions (typed) and
bring them to class.
For Friday read Endersby, 95-127. Write out
brief (a sentence or two for each question)
answers to two of the discussion questions
(typed) and bring them to class.
For discussion Tuesday, read Endersby, pp.
128-169. Write out (typed, printed)
twodiscussion questions of your own about
this chapter, and bring them to class
For discussion Friday, Read Endersby, pp.
170-208. Write out (typed, printed) two
discussion questions of your own about this
chapter, and bring them to class

Tues., April 18 No Class
Fri., April 21 Guinea Pigs: Genetics,
experimental animals, and the
mathematics of selection; lab
animals and the Modern Synthesis
Bacteriophage, molecular biology,
the Phage Group and DNA
Tues., April 25 Late Twentieth-Century biology
and its context
Discussion and Presentations
Fri., April 28 Quiz 4
Discussion and Presentations
Tues., May2 Quiz 5
Discussion and Presentations
Due Date: Short paper on Endersby
posted on course website by 3:00 Monday,
April 17
For discussion Friday, read Endersby, A
Guinea Pigs History of Biology, 209-291
Write out two discussion questions of your
own about each of these chapters and bring
them to class
For discussion Tuesday, read Endersby, pp.
292-233. Write out (typed, printed) two
discussion questions of your own about this
chapter, and bring them to class
For discussion Friday, read Endersby, pp.
334-372. Write out (typed, printed) two
discussion questions of your own about this
chapter, and bring them to class
For discussion Tuesday, read Endersby, pp.
373-430. Write out two discussion questions
of your own about each of these chapters and
bring them to class
.