Biology

As the frontiers of science are pushed forward, conflicts naturally emerge between new hypotheses and established ideas. Biology is no exception to this rule. Since the time of the ancient Greeks, new proposals examining the biological nature of humans and the living world have initially met with resistance and even ridicule before becoming established as modern paradigms. What appears obvious now was once regarded as revolutionary, while it is conceivable that our current ideas will be regarded someday as bordering on the absurd. Oftentimes, these conflicts arise not only due to the convergence of scientific principles but also result from personality clashes of the individuals involved in the research area. Paradigm shifts have occurred in a variety of biological fields, ranging from early ideas on heredity, sex determination, and evolution to more recent advances in prions and vaccines, animal model usage, genetic engineering, cutting-edge cancer therapies, and the interplay between genes and environment. Using these and other examples, we will examine the progress of biological thought and the persistence of the scientific method in changing our understanding of life. In fall, students will meet weekly with the instructor for individual conferences. In spring, individual conferences with the instructor may be weekly or biweekly. 

Ecology is a scientific discipline that studies interactions between living organisms and their environments, as well as processes governing how species are distributed, how they interact, and how nutrients and energy cycle through ecosystems. Ecologists might ask questions about how plant growth responds to climate change, how squirrel population size or behavior changes in response to acorn availability, or how nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous cycle in rivers and streams. In this course, students will develop a strong foundational understanding of the science of ecology at the individual, population, community, and ecosystem scales. Throughout the course, emphasis will be placed on how carefully-designed experiments and data analysis can help us find predictable patterns despite the complexity of nature. Students will be expected to design and carry out a field experiment, either individually or in small groups. The course will include a weekly lab, with most labs held outdoors. 

Biology, the study of life on Earth, encompasses structures and forms ranging from the very minute to the very large. In order to grasp the complexities of life, we begin this study with the cellular and molecular forms and mechanisms that serve as the foundation for all living organisms. The initial part of the semester will introduce the fundamental molecules critical to the biochemistry of life processes. From there, we branch out to investigate the major ideas, structures, and concepts central to the biology of cells, genetics, and the chromosomal basis of inheritance. Finally, we conclude the semester by examining how those principles relate to the mechanisms of evolution. Throughout the semester, we will discuss the individuals responsible for major discoveries, as well as the experimental techniques and process by which such advances in biological understanding are made. Classes will be supplemented with weekly lab work.

Plants are all around us and are essential to life on Earth but are often overlooked or taken for granted. Especially as climate change and habitat loss threaten global biodiversity, understanding the biology of plants is fundamental to understanding the complex web of life on Earth. This course will be an introductory survey of botany. The first half of the course will cover topics such as plant anatomy, morphology, physiology, and reproduction; the second half will explore plant genetics, diversity, ecology, and evolution. Weekly discussions and textbook readings will be complemented by lab activities and a field trip to the New York Botanical Garden.

At the biological core of all life on Earth is the gene. The unique combination of genes in each individual ultimately forms the basis for that person’s physical appearance, metabolic capacity, thought processes, and behavior. Therefore, in order to understand how life develops and functions, it is critical to understand what genes are, how they work, and how they are passed on from parents to offspring. In this course, we will begin by investigating the theories of inheritance first put forth by Mendel, then progress to our current concepts of how genes are transmitted through individuals, families, and whole populations. We will also examine chromosome structure and the mechanisms and molecular functions of genes and DNA within cells, as well as how mutations in DNA can lead to physical abnormalities and diseases such as Trisomy 21, hemophilia, or others. Finally, we will discuss the role of genetics in influencing complex phenotypes such as behavior or traits such as intelligence. Classes will be supplemented with weekly lab work.

The immune system is comprised of several components that together protect us from non-self, foreign pathogens, as well as from self-dangers like cancer. We are surrounded by billions of microbial pathogens that live inside and on our bodies, and the immune system is continuously at war with these tiny invaders. The first line of defense is the innate immune system, which gets activated at the first exposure to foreign substances and sounds an alert for the adaptive immune system to respond. Together, the innate and adaptive immune systems form a complex biological system that has evolved throughout evolution to protect us from infections and diseases. In this course, we will focus on the understanding of the fundamental concepts of immunology, which will also include how these concepts apply to diseases. Immunology is a complex subject with numerous concepts and terminology; therefore, to be successful in this course, the lectures will be complemented with quizzes/assignments, group discussions, and an oral presentation in order to enhance the learning process.

This course will be an introduction to our world of plants, people, and culture. Students will study the fundamentals of botany and taxonomy to discover how people have utilized plants for food, beverage, medicine, materials, and natural products. Lectures will present core botanical science and nomenclature to survey plants utilized from across the world and understand the significance of biodiversity, foodways, and the preservation of cultural and traditional knowledge. Throughout the semester, students will read and discuss several ethnobotanical papers and develop a familiarity with important plant families. Field walks on campus will utilize taxonomic keys for botanical identification of useful native plants. A semester-long research project will explore aspects of a plant product or process, incorporating learned botanical fundamentals from the course to present a novel synthesis of ethnobotanical data and theory in a written paper and oral presentation.

Cancer is one of the most feared and notorious of human diseases, being devastating in both its scope and its prognosis. It has been described as an alien invader inside one’s own body, characterized by its insidious spread and devious ability to resist countermeasures. Cancer’s legendary status is rightfully earned, accounting for 13% of all human deaths worldwide and killing an estimated 10 million people annually. In 1971, President Richard Nixon declared a “war on cancer”—and since then, more than $250 billion has been spent on cancer research. While clinical success has been modest, tremendous insights have been generated in understanding the cellular, molecular, and genetic mechanisms of this disease. In this course, we will explore the field of cancer biology, covering topics such as tumor viruses, cellular oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, cell immortalization, multistep tumorigenesis, cancer development and metastasis, and the treatment of cancer. In addition, we will discuss new advances in cancer research and draw from recent articles in the published literature. Readings will also include Siddhartha Mukherjee’s The Emperor of All Maladies.

Humans are bathing in a sea of microbes. Microbes coat our environments, live within our bodies, and perform functions both beneficial and detrimental to human well-being. This course will explore the biology of microorganisms, broadly defined as bacteria, archaea, viruses, single-celled eukaryotes, and fungi. We will study microbes at multiple scales, including the individual cell, the growing population, and populations interacting with one another or their environments. Microbial physiology, genetics, diversity, and ecology will be covered in depth. Particular emphasis will be given to the role of microbes that cause infectious disease in humans and microbes that play critical roles in ecological processes. Seminars will be supplemented by a weekly lab section to learn key microbiological techniques and methods, most notably culturing and identifying bacteria. 

With more than 350,000 known species, plants form the foundations of ecosystems and are crucial to life on Earth. This course will examine the diversity, ecology, and evolutionary history of major land plant groups—bryophytes, ferns, lycophytes, gymnosperms, and angiosperms. Through lectures, discussion of scientific literature, and hands-on investigation of live and preserved material, students will learn how to decipher botanical terminology; identify major plant families using diagnostic characters and dichotomous keys; analyze evolutionary relationships and adaptations across plant lineages; and investigate plant interactions with fungi, bacteria, animals, and their environment.

Poisons have been used throughout history as murder weapons. This course will explore some of the world’s most dreaded poisons. In each case, course work will look at the poison’s origin, its discovery, and its use in notorious murders or attempted murders. Students will explore each poison’s chemical structure and its effect on the human body. By understanding the chemical properties of a particular poison, students will learn how detectives or forensic scientists can discover its use and bring perpetrators to justice. We will also see that many of these deadly substances can be used as lifesaving drugs or have led to the development of new treatments for diseases. Students are encouraged to take this course to learn chemistry in a macabre manner—but be sure not to eat or drink anything during class!

This course is the first part of a two-semester sequence that provides a broad foundation for the scientific discipline of chemistry, introducing its fundamental principles and techniques alongside demonstrating the central role of chemistry in biology and medicine. Students first look at basic descriptions of elemental properties, the periodic table, solid and molecular structures, and chemical bonding. The course then relates these topics to the electronic structure of atoms. The mole as a unit is introduced so that a quantitative treatment of stoichiometry can be considered. After this introduction, the course considers physical chemistry, which provides the basis for a quantitative understanding of: 1) the kinetic theory of gases (which is developed to consider the nature of liquids and solids); 2) equilibria and the concepts of the equilibrium constant and of pH; 3) energy changes in chemical reactions and the fundamental principles of thermodynamics; 4) the rates of chemical reactions and the concepts of the rate determining step and activation energy. Practical work in the lab portion of this course introduces students to the use and handling of basic chemical equipment and illustrates the behavior of simple chemical substances. In addition to the two regular class meetings and lab session each week, there will be an hour-long weekly group conference. This course will be of interest to students considering the study of chemistry or biology and to those planning on a career in medicine and related health.

Organic chemistry is the study of chemical compounds whose molecules are based on a framework of carbon atoms, typically in combination with hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. Despite this rather limited set of elements, there are more organic compounds known than there are compounds that do not contain carbon. Adding to the importance of organic chemistry is the fact that many of the chemical compounds that make modern life possible—such as pharmaceuticals, pesticides, herbicides, plastics, pigments, and dyes—can be classed as organic. Organic chemistry, therefore, impacts many other scientific subjects; thus, knowledge of organic chemistry is essential for a detailed understanding of materials science, environmental science, molecular biology, and medicine. This course gives an overview of the structures, physical properties, and reactivity of organic compounds. Students will see that organic compounds can be classified into families of similar compounds, based upon certain groups of atoms that always behave in a similar manner no matter what molecule they are in. These functional groups will enable the class to rationalize the vast number of reactions that organic reagents undergo. Topics covered include: the types of bonding within organic molecules; fundamental concepts of organic reaction mechanisms (nucleophilic substitution, elimination, and electrophilic addition); the conformations and configurations of organic molecules; and the physical and chemical properties of alkanes, halogenoalkanes, alkenes, alkynes and alcohols. In the laboratory section of the course, students will develop the techniques and skills required to synthesize, separate, purify, and identify organic compounds. Organic chemistry is a key requirement for pre-med students and is strongly encouraged for all others who are interested in the biological and physical sciences.

Nutrition is the sum of all interactions between us and the food that we consume. The study of nutrition includes the nature and general role of nutrients in forming structural material, providing energy, and helping to regulate metabolism. How do food chemists synthesize the fat that cannot be digested? Can this kind of fat satisfy our innate appetite for fats? Are there unwanted side effects, and why? What constitutes a healthy diet? What are the consequences of severely restricted food intake seen in prevalent emotional disorders such as anorexia and bulimia? These and other questions will be discussed. The course will also discuss the effect of development, pregnancy, emotional state, and disease on nutritional requirements. And students will also consider effects of food production and processing on nutrition value and food safety.

This course is a continuation of General Chemistry I (CHEM 2010). The course will begin with a detailed study of both the physical and chemical properties of solutions, which will enable students to consider the factors that affect both the rates and direction of chemical reactions. Students will then investigate the properties of acids and bases and the role that electricity plays in chemistry. The course will conclude with introductions to nuclear chemistry and organic chemistry. Weekly lab sessions will allow us to demonstrate and test the theories described in the lecture segment of the course.

In this course, students will explore the physical and chemical properties of additional families of organic molecules. The reactivity of aromatic compounds, aldehydes and ketones, carboxylic acids and their derivatives (acid chlorides, acid anhydrides, esters, and amides), enols and enolates, and amines will be discussed. The course will also investigate the methods by which large, complicated molecules can be synthesized from simple starting materials. Modern methods of organic structural determination—such as mass spectrometry, 1H and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and infrared spectroscopy—will also be introduced. In the lab section of this course, students will continue to develop the techniques and skills required to synthesize, separate, purify, and identify organic compounds. This course is a key requirement for pre-med students and is strongly encouraged for others interested in the biological and physical sciences.

A watershed is an area of land (and the ground that underlies it) that drains to a common outlet. This simple concept provides a critically important framework for understanding our most important water-management issues, along with many processes in environmental science and ecology. Watersheds can be defined across a range of spatial scales—from a suburban parking lot to the drainage basin of the Amazon River—and their diverse forms and characteristics represent a variety of climates, land-use practices, and topographies. In this course, we will learn how watersheds are delineated. The course will explore the flow of surface water through watersheds, covering topics such as precipitation, evapotranspiration, infiltration, and stream and river networks. In spring, students will build on this foundation to study groundwater flow and estuaries, along with topics in watershed management such as water infrastructure, urbanization, interbasin transfers, flooding, water quality, and the impacts of global climate change on hydrologic processes. Along with indoor seminars and data analysis activities, the course will include field visits to local waterways and water infrastructure sites. As the course will include problem sets, prior experience in algebra and geometry is required.

The pollution of our air, water, and soils is responsible for millions of deaths across the world each year, along with immeasurable harm to natural ecosystems. In this seminar, we will study the chemistry of environmental pollutants that are most salient today—including lead, soot, pesticides, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), sewage, nutrients, and greenhouse gases—and how their chemistry influences their fate and transport through the environment and, in turn, their impacts on human health and natural ecosystems. We will also learn about basic techniques of pollutant monitoring and strategies to remediate different types of pollution and restore healthy ecosystems and communities. Beyond this, we will explore the broader concept of pollution, considering how compounds that can be vital to our survival can also harm our environment and how thresholds for when a compound becomes a “pollutant” are determined. Course work will include both chemistry problem sets and diverse readings about historic and current pollution issues. Conference work will allow students to develop a case study of a pollution incident or ongoing issue.

Our existence lies in a perpetual state of change. An apple falls from a tree, clouds move across expansive farmland, blocking out the sun for days; meanwhile, satellites zip around the Earth, transmitting and receiving signals to our cell phones. Calculus was invented to develop a language to accurately describe the motion and change happening all around us. The ancient Greeks began a detailed study of change, but they were scared to wrestle with the infinite; so it was not until the 17th century that Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz, among others, tamed the infinite and gave birth to this extremely successful branch of mathematics. Though just a few hundred years old, calculus has become an indispensable research tool in both the natural and social sciences. Our study begins with the central concept of the limit and proceeds to explore the dual processes of differentiation and integration. Numerous applications of the theory will be examined. Weekly group conferences will be run in hands-on workshop mode. This course is intended for students interested in advanced study in mathematics or sciences, students preparing for careers in the health sciences or engineering, and any student wishing to broaden and enrich the life of the mind. 

Variance, correlation coefficient, regression analysis, statistical significance, and margin of error—these terms and other statistical phrases have been bantered about before and seen interspersed in news reports and research articles. But what do they mean? How are they used? And why are they so important? Serving as an introduction to the concepts, techniques, and reasoning central to the understanding of data, this course will focus on the fundamental methods of statistical analysis used to gain insight into diverse areas of human interest. The use, misuse, and abuse of statistics will be the central focus of the course; and specific topics of exploration will be drawn from experimental design theory, sampling theory, data analysis. and statistical inference. Applications will be considered in current events, business, psychology, politics, medicine, and many other areas of the natural and social sciences. Statistical software will be introduced and used extensively in this course, but no prior experience with spreadsheet technology is assumed. Group conferences, conducted in workshop mode, will serve to reinforce student understanding of the course material. This course is recommended for any student wishing to be a better-informed consumer of data, and strongly recommended for those planning to pursue advanced undergraduate or graduate research in the natural sciences or social sciences. 

Calculus is the mathematical gift that keeps on giving—thank you, Newton and company! In this course, students will expand their knowledge of limits, derivatives, and integrals with concepts and techniques that will enable them to solve many important problems in mathematics and the sciences. By the end of the course, students will be able to judge whether answers provided by engine services such as WolframAlpha or ChatGPT are correct. Topics will include differentiation review, integration review, integration with non-polynomial functions, applications of integration (finding area, volume, length, center of mass, moment of inertia, probability), advanced techniques for integration (substitution, integration-by-parts, partial fractions), infinite sequences, infinite series, convergent and divergent sums, power series, differential equations and modeling dynamical systems, and, time permitting, parametric equations of a curve and polar coordinates. Students will work on a conference project related to the mathematical topics covered in class and are free to choose technical, historical, crafty, computational, or creative projects.

Rarely is a quantity of interest—tomorrow’s temperature, unemployment rates across Europe, the cost of a spring break flight to Fort Lauderdale—a simple function of just one primary variable. Reality, for better or worse, is mathematically multivariable. This course will introduce an array of topics and tools used in the mathematical analysis of multivariable functions. The intertwined theories of vectors, matrices, and differential equations and their applications will be the central themes of exploration. Specific topics to be covered will include the algebra and geometry of vectors in two, three, and higher dimensions; dot and cross products and their applications; equations of lines and planes in higher dimensions; solutions to systems of linear equations, using Gaussian elimination; theory and applications of determinants, inverses, and eigenvectors; volumes of three-dimensional solids via integration; spherical and cylindrical coordinate systems; and methods of visualizing and constructing solutions to differential equations of various types. Conference work will involve an investigation of some mathematically-themed subject of the student’s choosing.

Western philosophy originated in Ancient Greece more than 2,500 years ago, addressing fundamental questions about being and time, about the human condition, and about ethics and politics, science and religion. Despite the universal nature of these questions, for most of these 2,500 years philosophy was practiced (at least publicly) mostly by men. It was not until the 20th century that this convention began to be significantly challenged, both practically (by the fact that more and more women entered the forefront of philosophical work) and theoretically (by questioning the historical contents of this male-dominant tradition). This yearlong course will be a survey of continental philosophy in the 20th and 21st centuries that, countering the aforementioned tradition, focuses exclusively on the work of women in philosophy. Among the authors we may read are Sarah Ahmed, Hannah Arendt, Simone de Beauvoir, Karen Barad, Talia Bettcher, Judith Butler, Donna Haraway, bell hooks, Luce Irigaray, Melany Klein, Julia Kristeva, Audre Lorde, Maria Lugones, Simone Weil, Sylvia Wynter, and Virginia Woolf. Some of these philosophers are feminist or consider sexual difference as philosophically pertinent, and some are not. One way or another, surveying their thought will be our means for acquiring a comprehensive view of key developments in continental philosophy in the last and present centuries, including phenomenology, existentialism, psychoanalysis, critical theory, structuralism and poststructuralism, feminism, Black feminism, decolonial, and queer theories. This is a reading- and writing-intensive course (readings will not normally exceed 30 pages per week, but philosophical texts can be extraordinarily demanding). Students will be evaluated based on weekly reading assignments, participation in group work and group discussions during class, and timely submission of three short papers each semester, as well as demonstrable investment in conference work throughout the year. Biweekly in fall, students will alternate between individual conferences with the instructor and group conferences that may include academic skill development such as time management and effective communication, as well as research, reading, writing, and editing. Biweekly in spring, students will meet with the instructor for individual conferences.

We must make automatic and habitual, as early as possible, as many useful actions as we can and guard against the growing into ways that are likely to be disadvantageous to us, as we should guard against the plague. —William James, 1887, Habit

We all want happy lives filled with meaning and satisfaction. Yet, for many of us, happiness can be difficult to obtain with regularity or to sustain over a long period of time. Happiness is more than a feeling; rather, it is a state of well-being that should last a lifetime. Like exercising to improve physical health, it takes sustained cognitive effort to improve our mental health and engage in practices to promote well-being. We can look to evidence from the fields of psychology and neuroscience that tells us that we are mentally unprepared to: 1) predict what will make us happy, and 2) engage in behaviors that are known to make us happier. This course will cover the psychological and brain-based factors for why happiness feels so fleeting and what we can do to build better and more effective habits that have been shown to lead to longer-term maintenance of a positive mood and well-being. Students will read foundational work in the field of positive psychology by Martin Seligman, Sonja Lyubomirsky, Edward Diener, Daniel Kahneman, and others. We will also discuss studies in neuroscience that show how behavioral interventions in positive psychology can impact the brain’s structure and function—just like building stronger muscles during exercise. Through small-group conferences, students will apply evidence-based practices, such as bringing order and organization to their daily lives, expressing gratitude, and building social bonds (i.e., “cross training” for the mind) in activities called “Rewirements.” For the final project, called “Unlearning Yourself,” students will learn to undo or replace a detrimental habit (e.g., overspending, social-media use, poor sleep hygiene, complaining, or procrastinating) by establishing a plan to cultivate evidence-based practices for sustained well-being. By the end of this course, students will have gained the ability to sift through the ever-booming literature on positive psychology and neuroscience to identify the practices that work best for them, along with an appreciation for the notion that finding and keeping happiness and well-being requires intentional practice and maintenance. Students should come prepared to engage in meaningful self-work. 

Your heart beats faster, your palms sweat, and your pupils dilate—all at once. Is this because you are exercising? Or did someone on whom you have a crush just walk into the room? Psychophysiology is the experimental study of these bodily, or peripheral, signals, which are theorized to be important “readouts” of a person’s mood (e.g., fear, happiness, anger). In this course, students will gain a foundational understanding of the psychological concepts of emotions, the biological processes that give rise to peripheral autonomic arousal (automatic bodily activation), and how these responses are naturally regulated by the brain and body in an attempt to reach homeostasis (internal stability). In fall, we will explore major theories of emotion and conceptual aspects of the “mind-body” connection, including the James-Lange theory, Feldman Barrett's theory of constructed emotion, Damasio's somatic marker hypothesis, and Thayer and Lane's neurovisceral integration model, among others. In spring, we will read scientific articles in the field of human psychophysiology, which deals with measuring bodily functions in various contexts, as well as case studies of individuals with brain damage—specifically in brain areas such as the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (from work by Antonio Damasio and others) and the insula (from work by Sahib Khalsa and others). Students will also engage in hands-on labs to collect psychophysiological data (e.g., heart rate, respiration, electrodermal activity to measure sweating, pupillary responses). For fall conference projects, students will write an in-depth literature review on a topic of their choice, relating emotions to the measurements of various bodily responses. In spring, students will propose a research study that addresses a gap in the literature that they explored in fall and present their proposed research study at the Sarah Lawrence College Science and Math Poster Symposium at the end of the semester. This course may appeal to students interested in scientific studies of emotions, clinical psychology, neuroscience, neuropsychology, physiology, and conducting hands-on lab-based work.

Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak. — John Berger

Psychologists and neuroscientists have long been interested in measuring and explaining the phenomena of visual perception. In this course, we will study how the visual brain encodes basic aspects of perception—such as color, form, depth, motion, shape, and space—and how they are organized into coherent percepts, or gestalts. The main goal will be to explore how the study of visual neuroscience and art can inform each other. One of our guides in these explorations will be the groundbreaking gestalt psychologist Rudolf Arnheim, who was a pioneer in the psychology of art. The more recent and equally innovative text by the neuroscientist Eric Kandel, Reductionism in Art and Brain Science, will provide our entry into the subject of neuroaesthetics. Throughout our visual journey, we will seek connections between perceptual phenomena and what is known about brain processing of visual information. This is a course for people who enjoy reflecting on why we see things as we do. It should hold particular interest for students of the visual arts who are curious about scientific explanations of the phenomena that they explore in their art, as well as students of the brain who want to study an application of visual neuroscience.