This is an archived course. A more recent version may be available at ocw.mit.edu.

Calendar

Course calendar.
WEEK #	TOPICS	KEY DATES
1	Life now
2	What is life?	Film excerpts Lebrun, David. Proteus: A Nineteenth-Century Vision, 2004.
3	Evolutionary narratives	Film excerpts Spielberg, Steven. Jurassic Park, 1993.
4	Biopolitics	Film excerpts Trombley, Stephen. The Lynchburg Story, 1993.
5	Biology for sale	Paper 1 due Film excerpts Frears, Stephen. Dirty Pretty Things, 2002. Alton, Mary-Anne, et al. The Gene Hunters, 2000.
6	Biodiversity, natural and artificial	Film excerpts Koons, Deborah. The Future of Food, 2004.
7	Race in the genomic age	Film excerpts African American Lives. Episode 4: Beyond the Middle Passage.
8	Remixing sex	Film excerpts Clearway, Ajae. One in 2000, 2006.
9	Animals, wild and domestic	Paper 2 due Film excerpts Painlevé, Jean, and Genevieve Hamon. The Love Life of the Octopus, 1965. Wiseman, Frederick. Primate, 1974. Lewis, Mark. Cane Toads, 1988. Herzog, Werner. Grizzly Man, 2004.
10	Biotechnology and biopolitical art	Film excerpts Freidman, Peter, and Jean-François Brunet. Death by Design, 1995. Guest: Caitlin Berrigan, Visual Arts Program, MIT.
11	Biology and computers	Film excerpts Meyer, Nicholas. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn, 1982. Cronenberg, David. eXistenZ, 1999. Spielberg, Steven. A.I: Artificial Intelligence, 2001.
12	Earthly aliens	Film excerpts Wise, Robert, Michael Crichton, and Nelson Gidding. The Andromeda Strain, 1971. Low, Stephen. Volcanoes of the Deep Sea, 2004. Cameron, James. Aliens of the Deep, 2005.
13	Class conference	Paper 3 due

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