University of Edinburgh

The course covers chromosome structure and organization, gene expression and RNA processing in prokaryotes and eukaryotes, genetic engineering, genetic stability and instability, transposable elements and DNA rearrangements, genetic analysis, mouse genetics, and transgenesis. The lectures are complemented by tutorials and by practical sessions that provide hands-on experience of genetical and molecular genetical manipulations.
 

The tissues that make up the human body display extraordinary characteristics; self-assembly, self-healing, adaptive, and sometimes actuatable. This course looks into the source of these characteristics and then considers what materials we, as engineers, can use to replace them. Students focus attention on the musculoskeletal and cardiovascular systems of the body and the biomaterials that have been developed for use as substitutes. They consider how the body reacts to the presence of man-made biomaterials and the impact of the need for biomaterial sterilization. Not all replacement materials are man-made; students think about tissue engineering as a way to grow new tissue. Finally, the course introduces the legal processes surrounding regulation of biomaterial use and considers the ethics of growing new body parts.

This course introduces central problems and concepts in philosophy of mind and philosophy of language. In the philosophy of mind, it tackles questions like: Is the mind ultimately the same thing as the brain, or is it some non-physical entity, unlike what current science tells us is real? Can a computer be conscious? To what extent are our thoughts really inside our heads? In the philosophy of language, the course tackles questions like: What is meaning? How can our language not merely describe the world, but also change it? How is speech oppressive?

This course focuses on the politics and government of the contemporary Russian Federation. The format of the course varies each year but follows the following general outline. It first analyses the nature of a Soviet "legacy." It then looks in detail at Russian state and institution-building. Foci generally include party systems, civil society, nationalism and social movements, comparative post-Soviet government, and the international relations of the post-Soviet space.

Renaissance art is often seen as the conceptual anchor for a conservative type of art history that focuses on great male artists and their revival of a classical past. This course uses recent research to challenge the idea, showing how old master painting can speak to current issues of sexual, gender, and political identity. Focusing on different roles for women, students investigate how visual culture promotes and challenges ideas of what it means to be female. Students look at women as archetypes of beauty, as wives, prostitutes, artists, patrons, poets, and witches. Students consider medical beliefs in women's inferiority; the notional link between male creativity and reproductive processes; and how the separation of 'art' from 'craft' denigrated traditional areas of women's expertise, notably textiles, to a lesser form of making.

The course encourages students to trace the development and dissemination of Greek culture in Athens and other Greek city states in the period from the Peloponnesian War to the formation of the Hellenistic Kingdoms. The course also explores the rise of Macedon, the reign of Alexander the Great and its aftermath, to the period of the rise of Rome. The course is structured around the essential integration of diverse materials, ranging from the study of archaeological sites, key aspects of the development of Greek art and architecture, important historical events, notions of historiography, and major literary works in drama, poetry, and rhetoric.