Retired geneticist Barbara Brownstein, in collaboration with Skagit Valley College, is presenting an eight-week course entitled “From Genesis to Genetic Engineering.”
It will cover cloning, designer drugs, genetic manipulation of food crops, stem cells and disease, genes and intelligence, changing genes in sperm, eggs, and embryos, determinism in human and animal behavior, and social organization.
The class runs April 1 through May 20 and will be held on Tuesdays, 5-7:30 p.m. at Lopez High School. Tuition is $75 and $54.60 for students over 60.
“We picked this subject because there seems to be a great deal of interest about this on the island. With issues likes genetically modified food, cloning, and gene manipulation, there are both those who are opposed and those who are excited about it. My goal is to present to an audience who is not necessarily up to date on the science of these issues and the exciting events that have taken place in the last 50 years,” said Brownstein.
The course includes the history of human interest in ancestors and the origins of the world and scientific explorations of the 19th and 20th centuries. She will also talk about today’s scientific understanding of heredity and the technology that has allowed us to go beyond breeding of domestic animals, selection of mutant food crops, and geneology and the revolutionary, often controversial, theories and practices of genetics today.
Brownstein is a retired biology professor and research geneticist. She participated in research on antibiotic resistance and differentiation in mammalian embryos, to name a few. “I’ve taught all kinds of biology and genetics,” Brownstein said. After a 30-year career as a professor, she retired in 1998 but has continued research in her field, conducting independent work at the University of Washington and the National Science Foundation.
Although this is a non-credit course, any current or future Skagit Valley College students who would like to earn credit for the class can do so through an independent study arrangement.
To register, call Skagit Valley College — San Juan Center at 378-3220 or email sgardiner@skagit.edu. For additional information about the course, call Barbara Brownstein at 468-4885 or email bbrownst@msn.com.
