Physics & Astronomy

W10 Biophysics. Biophysics is a growing discipline in which the tools and accomplishments of physics are used to examine and elucidate the behavior of biological systems. This particular course is a smorgasbord of different topics in biophysics. Scaling laws are used to help explain why ants can easily lift many times their own weight but human beings strain at loads that are a mere fraction of their own weight. Fluid flow is used in examining why the wing beat frequency of flying animals generally increases as the size of the animal decreases. Random walks and diffusion are examined and their impact on cell size is discussed. An additional feature of the course is that no calculators are used. Student evaluation is based on homework assignments and tests and work on simulations in class. The course is designed to be accessible to any student with at least a semester of algebra-based college physics or a year of algebra-based high school physics. P. Harper. 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

SCES 214 Communication and Learning in the Natural Sciences . J. Jadrich.