The School of Biology announces a new lab science offering for non-science majors: The Biology of Sex and Death (BIOL 1220). BIOL 1220 has been approved by the BoR as a Core Area D Lab Science option (course description below), with a planned initial offering in the 2017 calendar year.  Please contact Chrissy Spencer (chrissy.spencer@biology.gatech.edu or 404-385-0539) with any questions regarding this fun new take on science.

Biology of Sex and Death (BIOL 1220)
Catalog Description: Students learn biology through the lens of the formation and collapse of biological systems, organized around questions pertaining to life, sex, and death.

Course Purpose and Objectives:  This course is designed to teach biology through the lens of the formation and collapse of biological systems, organized around questions pertaining to life, sex, and death. Sex and death are two constants of living organisms, and how organisms interact with each other and the environment. We’ll explore questions such as why sex exists, how sexual reproduction differs between organisms, and what are the costs and benefits of sex. We will also consider modes of cancer and infectious disease, how forensic DNA fingerprinting can solve crimes, and how climate change and land use decisions by humans cause extinction, the death of entire species.

Pre-requisites and the General Education Core: This course is a 4-credit hour lecture and lab course. It has no pre-requisites and fulfills a lab science elective for non-Biology majors. This course is not a recommended substitute for BIOL 1510 or BIOL 1511 for Pre-Health students seeking to prepare for medical training and the MCAT.