(None yet)

GENET 562 Population Genetics
Credits: 4
Quarters: Sp
Instructor: Felsenstein
Course Desc.: Mathematical and experimental approaches to the genetics of natural populations, especially as they relate to evolution. Emphasis on theoretical population genetics. Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Offered: Sp.

Biology 454

The main evolution course at the University, taught yearly by Joel Kingsolver (Zoology Department) and Doug Schemske (Botany Department). Both are well-known researchers in evolutionary biology. Text in past has been Futuyma's "Evolutionary Biology" or Ridley's "Evolution". This year it was Freeman and Herron's "Evolutionary Analysis". Winter quarter.

Zoology 414

Molecular evolution course by Scott Edwards, who is an active researcher in that area. Texts are Li and Graur "Fundamentals of Molecular Evolution" and Avise "Molecular Markers". Winter quarter.

Genetics 570

This is my graduate-level course on Phylogenetic Inference. Methods for inferring phylogenies, and methods for doing things with them. Some background in statistics necessary. It will be given every other Spring (even numbered years).

Botany 530

Topics in Plant Population Ecology. Doug Schemske's discussion seminar covering "recent developments in plant population biology and ecology". Offered Spring 1999. Doug is one of the very best plant ecological geneticists.

Biostat 532/Medicine 532

Ellen Wijsman's course on "Statistical Methods in Medical Genetics" Human statistical genetics covered in depth by an active user and developer of statistical genetic methods. Emphasis on linkage analysis.

Statistics 592B

"Meioses, Pedigrees and Populations" course from Elizabeth Thompson, who is a major figure (one can say a major force) in development of statistical genetics methodology. Was offered Winter 1999.

Others

There are more courses and I'll gradually try to put descriptions of them here.

There are many:

Newsgroups

Some brief descriptions of some of the major ones covering evolution:

sci.bio.systematics

Discussion of systematics, including phylogeny and classification. Most postings are serious discussions by researchers. Some percentage of them are semantic issues or legalistic discussions of taxon names.

bionet.molbio.evolution

Discussion among researchers about molecular evolution. Low volume, high quality.

sci.bio.paleontology

Tends to be filled with postings by fossil enthusiasts and tends to be dinosaur-centered. Some creation/evolution debating too.

bionet.population-biology

Supposed to be the forum for discussion by population biologists. But they don't post much there. Occasionally someone sees the "population" in the group title and starts a discussion of human overpopulation issues, which are best discussed elsewhere. This helps ensure that real population biologists will continue to avoid the group.

sci.bio.evolution

Moderated by Josh Hayes, formerly of our own Center for Quantitative Sciences, who should get some sort of award for putting up with a lot of nonsense. I think it was intended as a forum for discussion among researchers, but has tended to be filled with postings by others about whether humans are still evolving (answer: yes, but it's extremely slow compared to cultural change) and whether laughter is selectively advantageous. Not intended for evolution/creation debates: Josh screens these out.

talk.origins

The arena for endless debate between creationists and others, with frequent digressions into theology. Extremely high noise to signal ratio. When a decisive point is made, the opponent changes the subject or just refuses to respond.

World Wide Web Pages

The program is freely distributable. It is available from my workstation by anonymous ftp. There you will find:

• a 386 DOS executable version
• a pre-386 DOS version for those who have PC/XT or PC/AT-compatible machines
• a Macintosh version by Mark Wells with somewhat different features
• Source code in C that can be compiled on a Unix workstation with X windows
• an executable for DEC Alpha (OSF1)
• an executable for Sun SPARCstations