METHODS OF SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY IN BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES (BMB 560/PHSO 560)

Tu/Th 4:00 - 5:30 p.m.
1001 Stellar-Chance Laboratories
There will one lecture and one discussion session each week

Course Directors: David Wilson (Biochemistry and Biophysics) and Zoltan Domotor (Philosophy)

Aims of the course: (1 credit) This course introduces advanced undergraduate, graduate and medical students to methodological and ethical aspects of scientific research by: a) examining the basic methodologies of experimental research, concept and hypothesis formation; and b) following the conceptual development of selected fields of biomedical sciences from their phenomenological to molecular stages with special regards to strategies in experimental design and hypothesis formation.

Course format: Lectures introducing each topic are followed by discussions of relevant materials by the students.

Textbooks: (will be on reserve at the Biomedical Library)

Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine by Claude Bernard
Advice to Young Scientists by Peter Medawar
Discovery and Explanation in Biology and Medicine by Kenneth Schaffner

All lectures will include supplementary handouts. Students will be asked to prepare a shorter midterm paper and a fifteen-page final paper with a topic chosen by the student, analyzing and/or critically evaluating the conceptual or experimental development of a specific biomedical research result. Grading will be based on course participation, contribution to class discussions, and quality of submitted term papers.

 

Sample Schedule:

Topic

Lecturer

1

The Making of a Scientist (1 week)

Wilson, Domotor

2

Methodological Basis of Scientific Inquiry (3 weeks) hypothesis in science; experiment and theory; levels of organization and reductionism

Domotor

3

Conceptual Developments in Immunology (2 weeks) methodology of scientific programs; receptor specificity; self-nonself discrimination

Cancro (Dept. of Pathology)

4

Discovery of Mitochondrial Respiration and phosphorylation (2 weeks)

Wilson

5

Research Methodology in Infectious Diseases (2 weeks)

Rubin (Prof. of Infectious Diseases

6

Hypothesis Testing in Population Dynamics (1 week)

Ewens (Department of Biology)

7

Research Strategies in Population Genetics (2 weeks)

Sniegovski (Department of Biology)

8

Ethical Dimensions in Scientific Research (1 week)

Domotor, Wilson

9

Overview

Domotor, Wilson

The Course Description (in greater detail):

This course is designed to introduce advanced undergraduate, graduate, and medical students to the foundational, social and methodological aspects of scientific reasoning in biomedical disciplines. Special attention is paid to: (i) Theories, Laws, Causal/Functional Explanation and Experimental Methodology in biology and medicine, (ii) Case studies in selected fields of biomedical sciences with special regards to strategies in concept and hypothesis formation, discovery, gathering evidence and testing, and (iii) Pertinent social and moral factors in biomedical research.

We start with stereotype discovery episodes in the biomedical sciences, as seen by various exponents of the field, including Claude Bernard and Peter Medawar. Here we emphasize the underlying types and phases of scientific inference, such as induction, reasoning by analogy, and canons of causal diagnosis. Then we go deeper into the methodology of scientific inquiry, by discussing the nature and role of hypotheses, theories, levels of organization and reductionism, and the distinguished subject matter and object of explanation in biology and medicine. In this context, we also review some of the broader issues of Lakatosian research programs, Kuhnian paradigm shifts, serendipity, and statistical methodology in data processing.

After the overview of methodological issues, our focus shifts to analytic evaluation of the development of specific concepts and research programs provided by the rich history of biomedical research. These include but are not limited to: receptor specificity and self/nonself discrimination in immunology, membrane structures and membrane transport systems, electron transport and oxidative phosphorylation in cellular respiration. The conceptual development in these research topics is examined within the preceding foundational and methodological frameworks. We also offer insights into the varied roles of individual scientists, their background, and research environment of the time in shaping the ongoing creative process. In this historical approach, the topic specific knowledge required is minimized, and the focus is always on the underlying processes by which research programs actually advance and are made uncommonly successful. The seminar will conclude with a discussion of ethical dimensions of scientific research, including the moral aspects of research goals, methods, staffing, standards of proof and evidence, dissemination of research findings and control of misinformation, and allocation of credit.

This course offers an ideal methodological perspective from which students can analyze the assumptions and practices of science surrounding their own special interests, as well as learn to think and write analytically about the ways in which biomedical research is done, and acquire pertinent skills needed to teach others.

Course format: Lectures introducing each topic are followed by discussions by the students of relevant materials. All lectures will include supplementary handouts. Students will be asked to prepare a shorter midterm paper and a fifteen-page final paper with a topic chosen by the student, analyzing and/or critically evaluating the conceptual/experimental development of a specific biomedical research result. Grading will be based on course participation, contribution to class discussions, and quality of submitted term papers.