Microbes inhabit the world's oceans, deserts, lakes, soils, and atmosphere, and play a vital role in the Earth's biogeochemical cycles.  As humans, we harbor a diverse microbial flora estimated to outnumber our own human cells.  During this course, we will explore this microbial world by investigating the structure, physiology, genetics, and evolution of microorganisms with a focus on bacteria, but including discussions of archaea, viruses, and microbial eukaryotes.

Microbes inhabit the world's oceans, deserts, lakes, soils, and atmosphere, and play a vital role in the Earth's biogeochemical cycles.  As humans, we harbor a diverse microbial flora estimated to outnumber our own human cells.  During this course, we will explore this microbial world by investigating the structure, physiology, genetics, and evolution of microorganisms with a focus on bacteria, but including discussions of archaea, viruses, and microbial eukaryotes.

We’ve all seen the headlines claiming that scientists have proven everything from coffee consumption increasing your lifespan, sugar being as addictive as cocaine, and Alzheimer’s being caused by lack of sleep. In this course we will review media coverage of scientific findings and contrast that coverage with the primary literature upon which the articles or documentaries were based. Students will have the opportunity to lead discussion and present independent literature research in both oral and written format.

In this course we will explore genetic analysis as a means of probing the mysteries of the molecular world. Scientists often turn to the study of genes and mutations when trying to decipher the molecular mechanisms that underlie such diverse processes as the making of an embryo, the response of cells to their environment, or the defect in a heritable disease. All of the reading in the course will be from the primary literature, where students will engage with data from genetic experiments that shed light on the workings of a signal transduction pathway.