Spring 2021

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.

Changes in the physical and biological universe over time; origins of life, dinosaurs, human evolution. Implications of evolutionary mechanisms and mass extinctions for human survival.

Exploration of the unique properties of brain cells that allow complex perceptions and behaviors; examination of structure and activity of brain cells that underlie function.

Scientific principles underlying forensic approaches to the investigation of crimes and its societal impact on law, culture and media. 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.

Exploration of factors that influence climate and the scientific basis for concern about rising greenhouse gases, the threat to human society know as global warming.

Energy resources from a global perspective, including fossil fuels, nuclear, and renewable energy.

Foundations of the human species. Examination of scientific evidence from Darwinian theory, primate behavior, fossils, and the behavior of modern people. Laboratory. Duplicates credit in former ANTH 200Lg.

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. Duplicates credit in former EXSC 205Lxg.

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. Phonetics, vibration and signal processing, speech recognition, neural networks.

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.

Exploration of ancient philosophical questions concerning the origins of human knowledge through empirical studies of infants, animals, and adults from diverse cultures.

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.