Spring 2014

The foundations of the human species. Examination of scientific evidence from Darwinian theory, primate behavior, fossils, and the behavior of modern people.

An examination of the physical and biological laws that influence agriculture, pollution, population dynamics (including humans), climate, biodiversity and ecosystem structure and function. Not available for major credit.

The human organism; the nature of inherited and acquired diseases; the biological and societal basis for the AIDS epidemic; therapy, drug design and the future. Not available for major credit.

Scientific principles underlying forensic approaches to the investigation of crimes and its societal impact on law, culture and media. Not available for major credit.

The physiological and nutritional basis of human performance. Factors that facilitate and limit athletic achievement. Lecture, 3 hours; laboratory, 2 hours. Not available for major credit.

Impact of civilization on planet earth, and impact of earth's natural evolution on society: earthquakes, volcanism, landslides, floods, global warming, acid rain, groundwater depletion and pollution; mineral and fossil fuel depletion, formation of the ozone hole. Lecture, 3 hours; laboratory, 2 hours. One all-day or overnight field trip.

Basic principles of physics, chemistry, biology, and mathematics used in evaluating clues written in the rock record, and the processes that have shaped our planet. Lecture, 3 hours; laboratory, 2 hours. At least one field trip required.

Climate systems from the beginning of earth history to the present; tools and techniques used to reconstruct prehistoric climate records; effects of climate variations on development of life forms on earth.

Causes of earthquakes and nature of large faults; earthquake hazard and risk; world's great earthquakes; understanding the Richter scale. Lecture, 3 hours; laboratory, 2 hours; one fieldtrip required.

Words as a gateway to the human mind. How words are stored, comprehended and retrieved. How words are constructed. Words and concepts. Words and social constructs. The processing and the acquisition of words in normal and atypical children and adults.

Language within cognitive science: speech physiology and acoustics, language acquisition, reading, language disorders, perception and mental representation of words, linguistic diversity and computer analysis of speech.

Study of human linguistic competence and technologies that simulate it. Grammar, parsing, text generation; semantics, pragmatics, sense disambiguation; phonetics, speech synthesis, speech recognition.

Examining the nature of space and time, how they relate, and how material objects relate to them. Some included topics: substantivalism, temporal directionality, persistence, hyperspace.

Investigation of energy technologies, including development and implementation issues. Topics include the Industrial Revolution, electromagnetic induction, power transmission, combustion engines, fission and fusion. Not available for major credit.

An integrative systems perspective of drugs; including their historical, economic, and cultural importance, psychopharmacology, addiction, relationship to crime, and therapeutic use in treating psychological disorders.

An exploration of earth's water, ranging from water properties, chemistry, and pollution, to groundwater dynamics, watershed processes, and oceanic-atmospheric circulation. Implications for past and future societies. Lecture and laboratory.