Schedule

Lecture Schedule

Week Date Topic Homework
1 Tuesday, April 4 How did amphibians get on the islands 200 miles off the coast of West Africa?  
1 Thursday, April 6 Finishing up biogeography of oceanic islands and beginning our discussion of the 2010 Haitian cholera outbreak. Homework 1 Released
2 Tuesday, April 11 We conclude our exploration of biogeography and the 2010 Haitian cholera outbreak.  
2 Thursday, April 13 We discuss the role of predators in ecosystems through trophic cascades. Homework 2 Released, Homework 1 Due
3 Tuesday, April 18 We begin our discussion of the evolution of whales and examine the perfections of the fossil record.  
3 Thursday, April 20 Deep time and the molecular evidence for evolution. Homework 3 Released, Homework 2 Due
4 Tuesday, April 25 The key facts of evolution and how we know how about them: variation, heritability, the forces of evolution.  
4 Thursday, April 27 The evolutionary driving forces of genetic drift and selection. Homework 4 Released, Homework 3 Due
5 Tuesday, May 2 Photosynthesis and eating the sun.  
5 Thursday, May 4 How do sugar molecules turn into cells? Homework 5 Released, Homework 4 Due
6 Tuesday, May 9 The mathematics of genetic regulation - Part 1.  
6 Thursday, May 11 The mathematics of genetic regulation - Part 2. Homework 6 Released, Homework 5 Due
7 Tuesday, May 16 How do you build a fly? A detailed dissection of the basics of Drosophila morphogenesis.  
7 Thursday, May 18 DNA Packaging - How do cells organize their meter long genome? Homework 7 Released, Homework 6 Due
8 Tuesday, May 23 How do cells sense? We discuss the physical limits of chemical detection.  
8 Thursday, May 25 Probability as the language of biology. Homework 8 Released Homework 7 Due
9 Tuesday, May 30 Physical limits to how cells and organisms detect stimuli from the world around them.  
9 Thursday, June 1 Special topics in modern biology. Homework 9 Released, Homework 8 Due
10 Tuesday, June 6 Probability as the language of biology. What distributions should you change your life for?  
10 Thursday, June 8 A summary of our adventure of biological exploration. The role of biology in science mathematics and engineering. Homework 9 Due
11 Tuesday, June 13 No Class  
11 Thursday, June 15 No Class  

Recitation Schedule

Week Topic
1 Introduction to Python and basic DNA sequence analysis.
2 This week section will consist of two parts. The first will be a series of estimates concerning the processes of the central dogma. For example, we will figure out how many ribosomes there are per cell and how fast they can crank out proteins. The second part will focus on how to formulate and solve the differential equations of population dynamics.
3 This week section will explore the subject of deep time. We begin by formulating ideas of how to date fossils using radioactive decay. With those ideas in hand, we then explore the molecular clock as revealed by sequence evolution.
4 This week is a computational section on stochastic simulation. The objective of these simulations is to explore the competing forces of evolution such as genetic drift, selection and mutation.
5 We will examine the processes of photosynthesis in further detail by performing some street-fighting estimates and looking at the influence of photosynthesis on life as we know it.
6 This week, we will go into detail about how to quantitatively analyze microscopy images.
7 To be determined.
8 To be determined.
9 To be determined.