3 credits
Fall 2025 Lecture Upper Division
This class examines historical intersections between engineering and biology in the Western world. The course begins by considering several possible meanings of "biotechnology." It examines how and why different biotechnologies from the life sciences, biology, and medicine have arisen in specific historical contexts, changed over time, and affected society from the late 19th century to the present. We will study vaccines and beer-making in the 19th century, cell culture, birth control pills, and DNA sequencing in the 20th century, and 21st-century genome editing and synthetic biology, for example. Overall, this course argues that biotechnologies have always forced human beings to consider whether living and non-living entities are made up of the same fundamental "stuff," the implications of manipulating living things, and the nature of life itself.
Learning Outcomes1Identify and describe examples of biotechnologies.
2Describe the role of biotechnology in history and its relevance for society today.
3Explain major themes in the history of biotechnology, such as how biotechnologies have changed through time and impacted society by way of their interactions with (for example) ethnicity, gender, language, race, religion, sexual orientation, age, culture, disability, and social class.
4Investigate the history and social impacts of a biotechnology of their choosing that has not been discussed in depth in this class.
5Explain how and why this biotechnology arose in a specific historical context, changed over time, and impacted (or impacts) society (using historical methods).
made by Purdue students.