Advanced Certificate in

CONTEMPORARY SCIENCE AND SOCIETY


A one-year evening course

at Birkbeck College, University of London

Crystallography Department

Course organiser:

Dr J Z Turner

Course tutors:

Professor Julia M Goodfellow
Dr J Z Turner

Aims of the Course

The course is designed for people with backgrounds in humanities, sciences or social sciences who want to develop their knowledge about the increasingly complex interaction between contemporary science and society. It will provide detailed scientific background on important areas of current science and relate these to their social, political and cultural context. The course is particularly relevant to those involved in education, science-based industry, scientific administration and health care.

Three areas of science will be studied in detail:
The scientific material will be presented in enough detail to enable informed discussion but we do not assume that students already have an educational or professional background in science.


The course will relate the science topics to questions about resources, industry and the environment and to the ways in which political and social concerns (governmental, commercial, military and popular) influence the direction and funding of science. We will also look at how scientists work and at how the scientific and non-scientific cultures interact. We will examine these issues through case studies of particular topics such as the human genome project, global warming and the information technology revolution.

Course organisation


The course is divided into 3 Units:


The course takes place on 2 evenings a week (currently scheduled as Tuesday and Wednesday) for one academic year of 3 terms (October to July). Each term is 11 weeks long. Unit 1 and Unit 2 run concurrently on one evening a week each for Terms 1 and 2, comprising 44 evenings in total. Term 3 is occupied by individual work on dissertation topics and occasional related lectures.

The course teaching is done by Crystallography Department members and other members of Birkbeck College and also by invited guests who have particular areas of expertise. It includes laboratory and computer demonstrations and hands-on sessions and optional visits to laboratories in other institutions. An induction course on the use of the Departmental computing, word-processing and literature-search facilities is held in the second week of Term 1, using the World Wide Web.

Term 1 and 2:


Evening 1: Unit 1. Topics in Contemporary Science (22 evenings)
Evening 2: Unit 2. Scientific Thought and Social Context (22 evenings)

Term 3:


Evenings 1 and 2: Unit 3. Dissertation work and occasional related lectures and seminars.

Course structure


Unit 1. Topics in Contemporary Science
This Unit covers 3 areas:

The Unit is organised as a combination of lectures, student-led seminars and discussions. Demonstrations and hands-on sessions in experimental or computer laboratories are included to complement and illustrate the lectures.

Unit 2. Scientific Thought and Social Context
This Unit is organised mainly in seminars and discussions for which participants are expected to read widely. Some invited lectures are given by guests from other institutions.

Unit 3. Dissertation: topics on Science, Politics and Industry
This Unit consists of work on a dissertation of around 10,000 words or alternatively of two shorter essays of around 4000 words each, to be researched and written by each student in consultation with course tutors and other academic staff as appropriate. Topics will normally, but not necessarily, be taken from the areas listed under Unit 3 of the course curriculum given below. Dissertation work will be discussed in tutorials and may be presented in seminars during the third term. There will also be occasional invited lectures on subjects related to Unit 3.

Details of Course Units

The topics to be covered in Units 1 and 2 for each week are given below. The final timetable for the course is likely to differ slightly from this, in order to accommodate the requirements of the different lecturers.

Unit 1. Topics in Contemporary Science


Unit 2. Scientific Thought and Social Context

  1. Scientific knowledge and scientific method
  2. (Departmental computer induction course)
  3. Science and the idea of progess
  4. The social organisation of science
  5. Consensus and dispute in science
  6. Darwinism and social thought
  7. Modern genetics and social explanation
  8. The uses of genetics
  9. The human genome project
  10. Women and science
  11. Scientists and responsibility
  12. Public understanding of science
  13. Science and the media
  14. Scientific orthodoxy and heresy
  15. Global Warming
  16. The Big Bang
  17. Science fiction
  18. Science and cinema
  19. Scientists in literature
  20. Chaos, complexity and consciousness
  21. Information technology and social and cultural change
  22. Science and anti-science

A course reader containing copies of selected articles and other material will be available for students to refer to.

Unit 3. Dissertation topics: Science, Politics and Industry

Further details of these areas of study and suggested bibliographies will be provided for students when choosing dissertation topics.
  1. Development of government science policies
  2. Government scientific experts and advisory bodies
  3. National laboratories and agencies
  4. Science and industrial innovation
  5. Science and innovation case study: the computer
  6. Biomedical research and health care
  7. Biotechnology and industry
  8. Funding mechanisms and scientific autonomy
  9. Big Science
  10. The role of military research
  11. The defence industry
  12. Science and the Cold War
  13. Science and the Soviet Union
  14. Science, technology and less-developed countries
  15. Science and environmentalism
  16. Controversies
  17. Risk and regulation
  18. The Space Race and international cooperation in space programs
  19. Nuclear issues
  20. Academic-commercial links

Computational and laboratory facilities


We have in the department a full range of computer facilities, from PCs to graphics workstations, multimedia facilties and access to the Internet. Our laboratories include X-ray and electron diffraction equipment and biochemistry and biotechnology facilities. Demonstration of procedures such as X-ray diffraction, electron microscopy, protein characterization and crystallization are included in the course. Optional visits to laboratories in other institutions are available for participants if their daytime commitments permit.

The Crystallography Department and Birkbeck College

This is a multidisciplinary department including biochemists, biologists, chemists, crystallographers and physicists all with an interest in microscopic structure of biological or industrial materials. Computational methods link the wide range of departmental research topics and the department is also involved in distance learning using the World Wide Web. Birkbeck College was founded in 1823 as the London Mechanics' Institute and since 1926 is one of the multifaculty schools of London University, specialising in evening courses for part-time students. Lectures take place on weekday evenings between 18.00 and 21.00. College facilities, including the library, cafeteria, snack-bar, bar and nursery are open every weekday evening in term. The library remains open until 22.00 on weekdays and is also open at the weekend. Birkbeck College is situated in Bloomsbury near to the British Museum, Oxford Street and Soho and is within easy reach of the libraries at London University Senate House and University College and the British Science Library.

Course tutors

Professor Julia M Goodfellow has a BSc in Physics from Bristol University and a PhD in Biophysics from the Open University and worked at Stanford University, California, before joining Birkbeck College. Her research focuses on the interaction of macromolecules, such as proteins and DNA, with their environment and she uses a number of computer modelling techniques to study protein stability and unfolding and nucleic acid conformation and flexibility. She is involved in policy issues on national high-performance computing and other aspects of computational science and is chairman of the Wellcome Trust Molecular and Cell panel. In addition to her research seminars, she has given a number of science lectures at the Royal Institution and the Wellcome Trust for school students and has an interest in the issues of women in science.

Dr J Z Turner has a BA in History from Oxford University, a BSc in Physics and a PhD both from London University. In her research work she uses neutron scattering and computer modelling to look at molecular structure in liquids and at how molecules interact with water in solution.

Guest lecturers

Guest lecturers from outside Birkbeck College who will be invited to contribute to the course include the following:

Dr J Abraham, Sociology Subject Group, University of Sussex: author of Science, Politics and the Pharmaceutical Industry (1995).

Dr J P Attfield, Associate Director Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Superconductivity, University of Cambridge.

Shirley Dalby, The Genetics Interest Group.

Dr G Farmelo, The Science Museum, London.

Juliet Gardiner, Principal Lecturer, School of English and Cultural Studies, Middlesex University.

Professor P N Goodfellow, FRS, Professor of Genetics, University of Cambridge.

Phil Janes, author of 'The Galaxy Game' series.

Dr Alan Mills, Venus Internet Ltd.

Dr M A S Saqi, Bioinformatics Group, Glaxo Medicines Research Centre.

Dr Jon Turney, Lecturer in Communication of Science, Department of History, Philosophy and Communication of Science, University College London.

Dr Simon Watson, Energy Research Unit, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

Examination for the Advanced Certificate

The course leads to a Birkbeck College (University of London) Advanced Certificate qualification. There is one 3-hour examination covering Units 1 and 2 which is normally held in June and which contributes 50% to the assessment for the course. The dissertation is to be submitted normally by the end of July and contributes 30% to the assessment for the course.

Entry requirements and fees

The normal minimum academic qualification required for entry to the Advanced Certificate course is a BSc or BA or equivalent in any relevant subject in the field of the humanities, sciences or social sciences. The Birkbeck College Prospectus gives further details on acceptable equivalent qualifications. Information on current fees can also be found in the Prospectus.


Note: The information contained in this booklet about the organization and content of the course is correct at the time of writing. However, Birkbeck College reserves the right to make such changes as may be necessary and students and other participants in the course should refer to the College administration and the course organiser for further details.