Second year essays

• Sources for understanding heritability
• Basic genetics / Daniel L. Hartl.
• A primer of population genetics / Daniel L. Hartl.
• Principles of population genetics / Daniel L.Hartl and Andrew G.Clark
• Sources regarding the human genome projects
• See Nature of Feb 15 2001.  Available electronically here

2.    What has the study of human mtDNA taught us about the relative merits of the "Out of Africa" and "Multiregional" hypotheses of human evolution
 
 

3.   Find an article in a national newspaper that describes some published biological research (from the last two months, say). Find the original
     scientific work and related papers. Write an essay entitled "An evaluation of the scientific reporting on X by Y" where Y is the journalist
     and X is the subject. First present what the newspaper article said. Then, from your reading of the scientific literature, evaluate if the press
     article was accurate, if it should have dealt with other issues and if it could have been improved in any other way.

Final year essays

• Include photocopies of the abstracts with your essay.
• Predict how the fields described in those papers will develop in the next ten years.
• Write your essay in the form of article as if you were a New Scientist journalist writing in 2011.  Your article should show how the two fields of research which were different ten years previously (in 2001) have now come together to produce an exciting new development.
• Make sure you look at an issue of New Scientist so you can see the general style that you should be using.
•  The subjects of your two papers should ideally be quite different so that you can demonstrate your ability to synthesise ideas.
• Do not chose the human genome or cancer research!!

3. Look at this article. Use your literature-searching skills to find other examples where there may appear to be a conflict between the financial incentives and the imparitiality of scientists.  In your essay, present these examples, and also realistic suggestions for how the problem could be overcome.
 

Not this semester

• Where does the funding for the school of biological sciences come from.
• Post-graduate students grants and their consumables costs
• Post-doctoral researchers salaries and their consumables costs
• Lecturers wages and the cost of their research.
• The cost of technical and support staff
• The cost of maintaining the building and central administration.

• Read the article that I gave you from the Evening Standard about the "Baby Created to Save Sister".
• Write an essay to answer the question "What laws and regulatory authorities exist in the UK to regulate such events, and what challenges to the current system do you anticipate from recent developments in genetics"
• You may find interesting leads in Thompson et al 1998 Science 282:1145-1147. You could start here: online text
• Read about the Warnock report and current UK law. Try starting here: current UK law

• Review the possible risks arising out of the development of GMOs (genetically modified organisms). Include both political (eg Monsanto's monopoly position), ecological and genetic.
• Use your literature research skills to find and evaluate the evidence for the seriousness of these risks.
• Write an essay entitled "GMOs the risks and the evidence", finishing with your own opinions.
• Useful starting points
• Deaths from tryptophan contamination Available here
• The Friends of the Earth web site is HERE but remember they are a campaigning organisation not a peer reviewed scientific journal. You need to go back to other sources to cross-check what they say.

• Look at the following book, which is in the Short Loan Collection:

Evolution / edited by Mark Ridley. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1997.
• Chose one of the papers in it.
• Use the literature searching methods you have just been taught in the Library exercise to find out how this area has changed since the paper was written.
• Write an essay using the style set out here: Click here for instructions
• The title should be "Developments in X since the work by Y in date" where "X" is the subject matter in question and "Y" is the author(s) and "date" is the date of the paper reproduced in Ridley's book

 
1. Read the article that I supplied you with by Prof. Lichtenstein from the Guardian newspaper. Use your literature searching skills to find the scientific evidence that the article is based on. Hint try finding reviews by Crow J* and Barton NH on this subject. Write a critique on the piece. I.e.

• Are his facts right?
• What is his argument, do you agree that it is a logical use of the data? Have others come to different conclusions?
• What is the sociological context of the article. Why is he writing it ? What does he hope to acheive?
• What would your interpretation of the data be. Why is it better, (or the same).
• Make sure your essay could be understood by one of your colleagues, and that you cite all of your sources, including internet sites. (To see how to do that look at the essay advice on the previous page)

1. Find an article in a national newspaper that describes some published biological research (from the last two months, say). Find the original scientific work and related papers. Write an essay entitled "An evaluation of the scientific reporting on X by Y" where Y is the journalist and X is the subject. First present what the newspaper article said. Then, from your reading of the scientific literature, evaluate if the press article was accurate, if it should have dealt with other issues and if it could have been improved in any other way.