Syllabus for Seminar Course
Ethics for Scientists, PHY280
(2 Credit Hours, S/U Only)

[PHY280 001, CRN 58705]

Spring 2007

Class Coordinator: Warren Pickett (Physics). Office: Physics-Geology 427. Telephone:2-0927. wepickett@ucdavis.edu

Room/time: 416 Physics-Geology Bldg, 9:00-10:50 Fridays.

Web page: http://yclept.ucdavis.edu/course/280/Class.html

Course description from catalog: Studies of topical and historical issues in the ethics of science, possibly including issues such as proper authorship, peer review, fraud, plagiarism, responsible collaboration, and conflict of interest.

Outline:

Various definitionis: ETHICS:

Guest presenters list:

Text: The Many Faces of Science: An Introduction to Scientists, Values, and Society,
Leslie Stevenson and Henry Byerly, Westview Press, Boulder CO, 2000. 2nd edition.

Grading: S/U, based on class participation and presentations.
Potential Course Overlap:We know of no relevant course at the graduate level.

Additional Information:The rationale for cross listing is manifold:
1) This course was developed as an introduction to interdisciplinary ethics in science through the NSF IGERT grant program on "Nanoparticles in the Environment, Agriculture, and Technology." Such a science/engineering ethics class is important and has been missing from the curricula of all departments.
2) The cross listing assures that the class will always be interdisciplinary in character (usually team-taught).
3). The cross listing assures that the course can 'adapt' to the class to reflect current issues of intense interest in terms of their ethic implications.
4.) A serious problem with the current approach to such new classes is that they are almost always taught as overloads. Successful cross listing may help to mitigate that overload problem for participating faculty by normalizing it within existing departmental teaching assignments.