# HISTSCI 1350: Modern Life Science: From Pasteur to CRISPR Semester: Spring | Year offered: 2026 | Link: [Course Website](https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/160272) What do we mean when we speak of the “the modern life sciences”? In this course, we examine this question following Darwin’s revolutionary theories of evolution. We cover a range of topics spanning the late 19th to the early 21st centuries, including the emergence of the scientific laboratory; the development of disciplines such as bacteriology, virology, genetics, and molecular biology; and the promissory horizons of emergent bio(medico)technologies. In a time where scientific actions are both a source of rapid innovation and social suspicion, this course emphasizes how the life sciences and society profoundly shape one another. Wednesdays at 3:00-5:45 PM with Professor Rijul Kochhar --- [### Rijul Kochhar ](/people/rijul-kochhar) Assistant Professor of the History of Science Areas of Research: Transnational Histories of the Life Sciences and Infectious Diseases; Comparative Therapeutics; Environmental Anthropology; Critical Theories of Disability and Rationality. Rijul Kochhar is a historian of science and an anthropologist... ![Rijul Kochhar life science image](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2026-05/Picture1RK_0.jpg?itok=WMPVBkGg)