Human Evolutionary Biology 1421: Teeth

As mentioned previously, at the 2011 Boston Pre-Dental Conference hosted by Harvard's very own Pre-Dental Society (which was a tremendous success by the way, see my previous post!), there were a number of fantastic speakers and presenters. One of whom, Dr. Tanya Smith, Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, gave a truly fascinating presentation not only on her research on dental development and 3D fossil tooth structure, but also on her course to be offered next Fall semester!

Her course is aptly named Human Evolutionary Biology 1421: Teeth. Although the course name may sound ridiculously boring and sleep-inducing to some of you (my friend Judith says this sounds potentially worse than Plant Biology), to the few of us enlightened folk out there - isn't this really exciting? Seriously though ...

Anyways, the last time the course was offered, which was in Fall of 2009, the class received near perfect ratings (4.8 out of 5 on the Harvard Q Guide). Plus, the research seminar-type class is capped at 6 students, and you spearhead your own independent research project. That's right, SIX students! I guess there is life after those humongous general chemistry and organic chemistry lectures.

Here's the course description from the website:

"Teeth are one of the best preserved and most commonly-recovered elements in fossil assemblages. This seminar will focus on ways in which dental remains may inform studies of primate growth and development, ecology, and social structure. Students will read and discuss current scientific literature, engage in histological studies in the Dental Hard Tissue Laboratory, and conduct pilot research projects."

So that probably sent the rest of you packing. BUT to me and a couple of my friends this is amazing!

Another friend says that there might as well be a course titled Human Evolutionary Biology 4321: Eyeballs for people interested in optometry school. What's next, an English department? Ahhh let's pretend she didn't say that ...

See you at shopping week!

This hygiene is acceptable ... if you've been dead for a few centuries.

Eric