MITx offers a wide range of free, on-line, self-paced semester-long courses to anyone in the world. Coming up next week is Introduction to Biology – The Secret of Life. I’ve taken this course (actually twice). It’s taught by Professor Eric Lander – the founding director of the BROAD Institute and a principle leader of the Human Genome Project – and a fantastic instructor (his course is fun). This course is targeted at non-biology students. This is not about genealogy, it’s about DNA. Anecdote: I was about halfway through the course, and one night my wife called out: “Jim, what are you doing – it’s 3 AM.” My reply: “I’m in a lab, folding proteins to capture a virus”. If you are into DNA and Segment-ology, this is a great opportunity to get a firm grounding. As a side note, I think MITx is a great undertaking and am a regular donor to that program. Free, world-wide MIT classes…
Here is a link: https://www.edx.org/learn/biology/massachusetts-institute-of-technology-introduction-to-biology-the-secret-of-life
Click on the short YouTube video… Enjoy.
[99D] Segment-ology: MITx Class on DNA is Free by Jim Bartlett 20250128
segment-ology 
As an MIT undergraduate, I never took any classes in biology. I partly made up for this omission several years ago by taking this MITx online class “Introduction to Biology – the Secret of Life.” The class is all about DNA, the secret of life, presented in an entertaining and educational manner. Parts of the class can be challenging, but the effort is definitely worth it. Professor Eric Lander, who is a mathematical geneticist and former science advisor to the president, is the lead instructor.
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Do you remember the video of Professor Lander dancing on a lab bench? I agree about his entertaining style of teaching – it’s fun. I also like that the classes are broken into about 10 minute videos (which can be viewed over and over) and then a quick quiz to insure I got the key point. Jim
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