Linking Science and Social Issues

How Life Science in ContextLinks Interdisciplinary Science and Social Issues:

Scientific Content	Civic Connection
Biology of HIV	grasping why it is so difficult to produce a vaccine against HIV; learning how to protect oneself from HIV
Mathematical Probability	odds of contracting a communicable disease; HIV/AIDS statistics and political implications
Anti-Retroviral Drugs	equitable distribution of drugs to treat HIV/AIDS
Immunodiagnostic Testing; ELISA	availability of testing for HIV/AIDS and the stigma associated with being HIV+
Ethnobotanicals	distribution, efficacy, and knowledge of herbal drugs; pros and cons of herbal medicines
Zoonotic Diseases	understanding the origin of certain communicable diseases
Epidemiology of HIV/AIDS	removing suspicion, conjecture, and pseudoscience from communicable diseases
Cytology, Virology	national and international funding of basic research is vital for medical research
Hematology	the diagnosis of diseases of the blood requires training of competent health care providers
Nutrition	link between malnutrition and the progression of HIV/AIDS and parasitic diseases in Kenyan society; food insecurity
HIV/AIDS and Gender	the disproportionate level of infection in women, and how women cope with the disease
Global Warming	shifting agriculture belts in Kenya and the U.S.
Biofuels	increased pressure on food-crops for food in Kenya and the U.S.
Biodiversity	analysis of Kenyan policy permitting the use of public forests for farming
Biology of Parasitic Diseases	the economics and feasibility of testing and treating for seven of the great neglected tropical diseases
Resource Partitioning	competition with wildlife for food, land, and water
Wildlife Management	ecotourism, game fences