STS 060J - The Anthropology of Biology

Institution:

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Subject:

Description:

Applies the tools of anthropology to examine biology in the age of genomics, biotechnological enterprise, biodiversity conservation, pharmaceutical bioprospecting, and synthetic biology. Examine such social concerns such as bioterrorism, genetic modification, and cloning. Offers an anthropological inquiry into how the substances and explanations of biology - ecological, organismic, cellular, molecular, genetic, informatic - are changing. Examines such artifacts as cell lines, biodiversity databases, and artificial life models, and using primary sources in biology, social studies of the life sciences, and literary and cinematic materials, asks how we might answer Erwin Schrodinger's 1944 question, "What Is Life?", today.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Prereq: None

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

web.mit.edu/student/

Phone Number:

(617) 253-1000

Regional Accreditation:

New England Association of Schools and Colleges

Calendar System:

Four-one-four plan

The Course Profile information is provided and updated by third parties including the respective institutions. While the institutions are able to update their information at any time, the information is not independently validated, and no party associated with this website can accept responsibility for its accuracy.