Splash Biography

Jhumpa Lahiri and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie are two brilliant authors who showcase their work brilliantly in short-story format. In this course we will close-read short stories by these authors, discuss, and analyze them in the style of a college literature seminar.

Using simple calculus and algebra, someone who is truly terrible at math will explain biology in terms of some not-at-all scary numbers. A brief look at how disease modeling works and a concise explanation of why vaccinations work, even if some people decide not to vaccinate their children (but not if too many do).

When scientists need to study things, but don't want to kill a ton of humans, we use model organisms. Many organisms (mice, worms, fish etc.) but Drosophila (Fruit flies), are unambiguously the best. This course is a brief overview of how genetics research works through the wonderful world of fly genetics.

Looking at Drosophila as a model organism, how they are objectively better than stupid worms or zebrafish or whatever. Class will begin with a brief overview of how a fly lab operates, then dive in to a couple of signaling pathways (probably Antennapedia or Hippo).