Course Schedule 2021
Instructor: Harold Varmus MD (varmus@med.cornell.edu)
Wednesdays, 5 to 7:40 pm, at Zoom URL to be provided.
(If the pandemic subsides and CUNY officials agree, we may eventually meet in person in Room 1301, Belfer Research Building at Weill Cornell Medicine, East 69th Street between First and York Avenue.)
Note: this syllabus will be supplemented with more details—reading lists and specific instructions for each class—a week or more before each session during the course.
Information, as well as student and instructor blog entries, will be posted on the course website: https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/varmusspring2017/
| Date | Session | Topic/Activity | Purpose and Content |
| Feb. 3 | 1 | Course Intro | Preview of MHC360; science as a career; getting to know each other
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| Feb. 10 | 2 | Becoming a scientist | Stories and ideas that have motivated people to pursue science |
| Feb. 17 | 3 | Purpose of science | Why science is important and why governments and others support it
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| Feb. 24 | 4 | Science Journalism
Guests: Jon Weiner, Columbia School of Journalism, NYU School of Journalism |
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| Mar. 3 | 5 | Credibility of science | What are the failures and uncertainties of science and their consequences? |
| Mar. 10 | 6 | Equity in science | Issues of gender and ethnicity in the practice and application of science |
| Mar. 17 | 7 | Disseminating and appraising science | How scientists communicate and publish and how their work is evaluated |
| Mar. 24 | 8 | Ownership of science | Intellectual property and credit for discoveries in public and private sectors |
| Mar. 31 | HOLIDAY WEEK | ||
| April 7 | 9 | Science and governance | What accounts for outcomes of the Covid-19 pandemic? |
| April 14 | 10 | Scientific communities | How science is funded; changes in the demography science |
| April 21 | 11 | Science for the public | How science is represented in the arts |
| April 28 | 12 | Controversies in science | Embryo and stem cell research; vaccines; gene editing; genomics; etc |
| May 5 | 13 | Student Presentations | |
| May 12 | 14 | Student Presentations | |
| May 19 | Term papers due | ||
| May 24 | Term papers returned with comments and grades (or P/F) |
Course assistant:
Dawn Thomas, Weill-Cornell Medicine dat2023@med.cornell.edu for scheduling classes, appointments with Dr. Varmus, and management of the website.
General information for MHC classes:
- January 29 Classes Begin
- February 12 No classes, college closed (Lincoln’s Birthday/Darwin’s Birthday)
- February 15 No classes, college closed (Presidents Day)
- March 27-April 4 No classes, Spring Recess
- May 17 Last day of classes
- May 19-25 Final exams (optional—or can be used for class presentations at regular scheduled class time)
- May 28 Final grade submission deadline
