• Bathrooms down hall
• Hand out UC Davis Magazine article
• If you could get the diploma without the education, would you?
• 1) Diploma => your first job, but education => promotions over career.
• 2) Income is only one benefit of education. Noneconomic effects of college education: "happiness equivalent" of doubling income. ("Getting married" is equivalent to quadrupling income.) Graph diminishing returns on income.
• Great educational opportunities here, but some require individual initiative.
• Being a lab assistant can be a great experience, but take one lab class first.
• Look for interesting lectures ("seminars") -- links on course web site:
• Jared Diamond, Oct. 7, 4:10 in Med Sci 180 (Guns Germs and Steel)
• "Collapses of Ancient Societies, and their Modern Implications"
• If you have a TV in your room, get rid of it.

• Hand out course outline
• Drop deadline Oct. 22; last class Nov. 19 (don't skip even one class).

1. We will discuss some technical aspects of defense against bioterrorism and computer viruses, but technical expertise is not a primary course goal.
2. Some key concepts may help you make sense of your other courses, but mainly…
3. Improve your ability to think about complex issues that have both technical and nontechnical aspects (when are analogies useful?)
4. Improve your ability to argue constructively (make persuasive arguments and open your mind to persuasive arguments made by others)

• Weekly reading assignments: on reserve at Shields Library. Handout 1.
• Quiz on reading; for now, due at beginning of class. About 1 hour?
• Think (at least a little) about the questions we will be discussing in class.
• If you want to discuss additional topics related to the reading, try to let me know by Monday so I can email the class. Does everyone have email set up ?
• 40% of your grade will be based on class discussion. Positive points for expressing disagreements with other students in a courteous and constructive way and for accepting criticism politely. Positive points for analyses that tie together information from different readings. Negative points for name-calling or complete lack of familiarity with the assigned reading. (Disagreeing with the reading is fine!) No exams.
• A research assignment (finding materials) and 3-5 page paper.

Increased global trade and travel and advances in technology (Internet, biotechnology) may soon make it possible for a small country, a small group, or maybe even an individual -- almost anywhere in the world -- to release a deadly pathogen, computer virus, or anonymous rumor that will spread worldwide, causing enormous damage. Natural outbreaks like SARS and AIDS may also spread more easily than in the past.

• I will introduce various aspects of the problem and then we will work together to come up with possible solutions for discussion. Self-introductions.
• Usually, I will emphasize general principles -- which I have found useful in a wide range of situations -- more than disease-specific details. y=a e^bx
• Extreme example: paper on scientific method. 12-object problem.

• Dark information = any information that causes harm (CIA identity?)
• I will emphasize harmful information that reproduces, so may evolve.
• Examples: viruses, computer viruses, vicious rumors. Esp. biology.
• reproduction => (almost?) exact copies
• evolution = changing relative abundance of different versions over time
• Recent NAS report puts "tremendous evolutionary potential of microbes" at top of their list of factors contributing to increasing infectious disease.
• Symbiosis: mutualism(+/+) - commensalism(+/0) -parasitism(+/-) continuum
• Photos of Sinorhizobium nodules and Agrobacterium gall
• N₂ => NH₃ => protein
• "Closely related" = recent common ancestor (draw tree).
• My lab and field research in on short-term evolution of rhizobia, but same "evolution rules" may apply across continuum (Microbes & Infection)
• Response to selection: D Z/Z = V H S ---- email petition
• Information = anything you can translate to/from string of 1's and 0's
• virus => GACTAT… => 0110100… => GACTAT…=> virus
• "it is possible to synthesize an infectious agent by in vitro chemical/ biochemical means solely following instructions from a written sequence"
• What could be on this CD?
• Steganography (message hidden in photos or music)
• 24-bits per pixel? Reveal information with S-tools, key DarkInfo

• Recognition-based defenses (antivirus software, vaccines)
• Improved technology for detection & diagnosis
• Invent new antimicrobials before microbes evolve resistance to old ones
• Improved global cooperation to control local outbreaks before they spread
• Unknown threats may be a bigger problem. There are a variety of possible defenses, but in some cases the cure might be worse than the disease.
• Examples: global police surveillance or worldwide suppression of biotech.