The U.S. is alone among the wealthy capitalist nations in not providing health insurance to all its citizens. In this course we will examine the reasons for this dubious distinction, focusing on Americans' historic distrust of government, the power of important stakeholders in medicine and insurance, the dominance of individualism in American political life and thought, and the bias toward incremental change that is built into our political institutions.

This course is intended for Div III and advanced Div II students who are committed to proposing, developing, or carrying-through research projects involving techniques commonly used in a molecular biology lab. Students will learn intermediate to advanced approaches, protocols, and strategies for molecular biology.

Did you ever wonder why Jewish grandmothers who make gefilte fish from Norwegian sturgeon so frequently are parasitized by tapeworms? Maybe not, but who gets parasitized, when, and by what is highly significant to understanding the history of humankind. In this seminar we will read and think about the failure of modern (Western) medicine to eliminate most of the tropical diseases of Homo sapiens. We will also introduce the workings of Hampshire College. We will read R.S. Desowitz's Federal Bodysnatchers and the New Guinea Virus (2002) and P.J.

The cutting edge of biology and technology is headed in the direction of microscopes. Microscopes provide beautiful data about complex systems in a variety of mechanisms. However, the results can often be difficult to interpret. In this course, we will study microscopy examples that have contributed greatly to our understanding of biology. We will use a few different types of microscopes and study the physics behind the image. Additionally, we will process and analyze new microscopy data from real research laboratories to contribute to the cutting edge of research.

Floods, droughts, and hurricanes have all been predicted to increase in response to climate change. How will these and other effects impact our access to freshwater? How will we adapt to these changing conditions? This class will cover a brief introduction to the science behind climate change predictions and look specifically at the impacts to the water cycle. We will also discuss how the ways in which we have changed the landscape affect our ability to respond to changes in water availability.

Combining ideas, principles, and practices from horticulture, ecology and landscape design, we will develop and implement a sustainable landscape plan for part of the Hampshire College campus. We will first visit and come to understand several different natural plant communities in the Pioneer Valley and learn about native plants in the landscape from experts at Nasami Farm. We will learn how to identify herbs, vines, perennials, shrubs and trees, and how to place them with regard to soil, water, nutrients and canopy structure.

Number theory is the branch of mathematics that deals with the properties of whole numbers. This is an area in which simplicity and complexity meet in an astonishing way. Therefore, in this course you will be presented with problems that, in most cases, are very easy to state, but whose degrees of difficulty range from very easy to incredibly difficult. We will focus on learning the tools and techniques that are used to attack problems in the field and beyond.

Last semester we began our exploration of organic structure, reactivity, and spectroscopy. This semester will continue that journey, examining aromatic molecules, carbonyl compounds, nitrogen-containing compounds, pericyclic reactions, and organometallic chemistry. The emphasis will be on mechanism and synthesis, along with relevance of the chemistry to biology, medicine, society, and environment. By the end of the semester you will have a solid intuitive sense of how organic molecules react and how to manipulate them in the lab.

This fermentation science course is designed to familiarize students with the current topics and procedures in brewing science. This upper-level course requires previous course and laboratory work in chemistry and microbiology. The course will focus on the study of the fundamental and applied sciences related to the use of microorganisms as production and processing agents. Specifically, we will examine the technological and biochemical aspects of the brewing process, including raw materials, malting, mashing, fermentation and maturation.

Chemistry and physics of solar energy and energy storage technology Harvesting energy from the sun has become an important element in implementing a sustainable energy future. The basic components of a solar electricity system, photovoltaic cells and batteries, are undergoing dramatic innovative development, and the 60-100% annual growth rate of solar electricity generation indicates that photovoltaic technology has become an affordable and practical sustainable energy source.