Wed. August 24: Philosophy of Science Assignment: Read this web page. Fri. August 26: Assignment: Read the book "The Double Helix" by James Watson Mon. August 29: Continue discussing the lessons of Watson's autobiography. Pre-Crick-Watson Knowledge About Genes What Watson Knew Questions for discussion of Watson and Crick   Wed. August 31: Bone Formation and Osteoporosis Osteoporosis; Electric Fields in tissues; Transmembrane voltage functions --- Notes for Discussion   posted August 25th More on Bone Formation   posted August 30th   Wed. September 7: Links to videos of osteoclasts and bone formation   Mon. September 12: Begin autoimmune diseases: Notes on autoimmune diseases Multiple sclerosis There is a somewhat longer version of the notes on autoimmune diseases on my web site for Biology 441 last spring, including some illustrations that you may find useful: http://www.albertkharris.com/2016_immunity.html Wed. September 14: continuing with multiple sclerosis: What goes wrong in MS MS treatments. A quote about the "prohibitively expensive" cost of a cancer cure that works. This is also relevant to treatments for MS and other autoimmune diseases. Questions to think about, for class discussion posted 7:45 pm Tuesday   Fri. September 16: Finish discussion of MS and other autoimmune diseases   Mon. September 19: Helicobacter pylori as the cause of gastric ulcers   Wed. September 21: Water flow in sponges   Fri. September 23 more on sponges and theories of cell sorting some time-lapse videos of sponges aggregates fusing fluorescently labeled reorganization by cell movement some pictures of sponges   Mon. September 26 Written assignment on MS treatment due   Mon. October 3 notes on atherosclerosis (from last spring's embryology course) handout on atherosclerosis [Word document]   Wed. October 5 another handout on atherosclerosis [Word document]   Fri. October 7 another handout on multiple sclerosis [Word document]   Tues. October 11 your professor at work today   Mon. October 17 handout on the Warburg effect in cancer cells [Word document]   Wed. October 19 handout on cancer chemotherapy [Word document]   Wed. October 26 inventing new theories same text as Word document (handed out in class)   Fri. October 28 forces in surface transport same text as Word document (handed out in class)   Mon. October 31 video of particle transport by cells in culture video of a cell undergoing mitosis   Wed. Nov. 2 regeneration and grafting experiments by Nardi and Stocum same text as Word document (handed out in class)   Fri. Nov. 4 handout on formation of skeletal muscles [Word document; a couple of typos have been corrected from the version handed out in class]   Wed. Nov. 9 handout on regulation of cell size [Word document]   Fri. Nov. 11 handout on cell volume and osmosis [Word document] video of cells blebbing   Wed. Nov. 16 more on cartilage [Word document] Wikipedia article on cancer vaccine; please read for Friday   Fri. Nov. 18 another handout on cancer [Word document]   Mon. Nov. 28 handout on Coley's toxins [Word document] Please read the following web page for Wednesday: http://www.albertkharris.com/math_2015.html   Wed. Nov. 30 handout for class discussion of the erroneous paper assignment [Word document]   -------------------------------- Format of the final exam. review questions for the final exam   No more questions will be added.   -------------------------------- James Watson mentions that he was stimulated to go into science by reading the book "Microbe Hunters" when he was a boy. This same book is credited by every scientific biography I have read, and it also stimulated me when I read it at about age 10. Please watch the youtube lecture. "Paul De Kruif: The Microbe Hunter and Author" presented by John Lehman, who is a Professor and administrator at ECU medical school. And please read the article at this URL: http://www.im.microbios.org/01march98/09%20Summers.pdf Another book worth reading is the novel "Arrowsmith" by Sinclair Lewis. Inexpensive copies can often be found in local used bookstores, or you can get the entire text on line here. Quotes from the Wikipedia article about the novel "Arrowsmith": "Arrowsmith is arguably the earliest major novel to deal with the culture of science." "This novel has been inspirational for several generations of pre-medical and medical students." "Professional jealousy, institutional pressures, greed, stupidity, and negligence... also tireless dedication, and respect for the scientific method and intellectual honesty." and about "Microbe Hunters": "...Paul de Kruif... 1926 book, Microbe Hunters.. a bestseller for a lengthy period... has remained high on lists of recommended reading for science and ...an inspiration for many aspiring physicians and scientists." This entire book is posted on the web, but is NOT assigned reading for this course: https://laurieximenez.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/1a_microbehunters_pauldekruif.pdf   ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The syllabus will continue to be developed as the semester goes on. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE NOTICE THE FOLLOWING: This course requires the equivalent of a term paper, which is due to be turned in no later than the week before Thanksgiving. How to write this paper is described in the link below. You have to find a published research paper, the conclusions of which have turned out to be seriously wrong. That doesn't mean "fraudulent" and it also doesn't just mean that progress has shown the truth to be more complicated. Specific examples of appropriate papers will be discussed in class. The Dreaded Erroneous Research Paper Assignment