“CSI” and “Law & Order” will come to Vanderbilt with two spring courses.

Forensic Analytical Chemistry will allow students to study analytical chemistry from a crime scene perspective, and Politics and Genetics will focus on the study of whether genes affect the choices people make.

Political science professor John Geer will co-teach Politics and Genetics with medicine and cell biology professor David Bader and said the idea of genetic makeup influencing behavior is a relatively novel and controversial one.

“Only recently have scholars begun to look at this connection,” Geer said. “The course, as a result, offers the chance to expose students to some very new and exciting ideas.”

Bader agreed.

“We will study the impact of genetic research on society and question whether a person's genetic makeup can affect their political behavior,” he said. “Political science is a relatively new area of study. We want to determine (whether) people vote in a particular way because of genetic data.”

Although it will be offered within the political science and medicine, health and society departments, Bader recommended the class to all students and described it as entry-level.

“Anyone can take it. I think the emerging idea of whether our genes or our experiences govern our actions is an interesting one,” he said.

He also said the science will be “relatively simple.”

“We will teach students what a gene is and how genes work,” Bader said.

Grace Zoorob’s forensics class, although more advanced, also deals with novel ideas and technologies.

Students will examine lipsticks and face powders, explosives and bullets, and modified versions of cocaine and amphetamines to analyze laboratory crime scenes.

As a prerequisite, students must have taken the regular analytical chemistry lab.

“I wanted to teach a class that would attract more students to chemistry,” Zoorob said. “I got the idea from ‘CSI.’ Hopefully, solving mysteries will make students more interested in science.”