A minute of radio or TV news, a few paragraphs in your newspaper or
newsweekly, a friend's casual comment ... this is how most of us learn about
controversial new scientific research results.  Zero alcohol consumption
during pregnancy, to avoid fetal damage?  Megadoses of vitamin C to avoid
cancer and colds?  What about passive cigarette smoke?  Condoms and the AIDS
virus?  Reliability of the female condom?  Is the French Abortion Pill safe
and effective?  Are animal rights activists blocking research needed for a
cure for AIDS and cancer? ... and on and on.  How can we evaluate and make
decisions about these controversies?  And how can we reconcile our personal
values with challenges created by new claims from scientists?  The time will
come when your job, your health, the health and safety of your loved ones,
or your peace of mind will demand that you go beyond the sound bite and
examine the science, then decide whether and how to act.  That's what this
course teaches you how to do.
The purpose of this course is to give instruction and experience in critical
thinking about controversial new claims in human biology.  You will choose
three recently published research reports and one research seminar that
interest you.  You will then write a 5-6 page paper on each.  Lectures will
teach you how to do this in a critical way, as well as how to consider
ethical implications and conflicting values.  Exams will test your knowledge
of subject matter presented in lecture, and will test your ability to apply
principles of critical thinking to new scientific material.  The course is
not curved:  You will not be competing with students who already know more
science than you do.  Your course grade will be based 50% on your four
papers and 50% on your two exams.
Lecture topics include:  How to think scientifically; critical thinking, and
how to recognize and label fallacious arguments; how to use computers to
find scientific research publications and rebuttals; how to read and
evaluate a research report; how to write papers for this course; ethics in
biology, using animal rights as a model; differences in values;
controversies in human reproductive biology; additional specific
controversies in human biology.