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WINTER 2003 FRESHMAN SEMINARS
The School of Biological Sciences also offers freshman seminars during spring quarter. For more information, please visit http://freshmanseminars.bio.uci.edu/. Please note that students may take a maximum of three freshman seminars for credit, so long as subjects vary, over their entire university career. SCHOOL OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES Brain Repair Ronald Meyer, Developmental and Cell Biology W 10-10:50, McGaugh 1246 Course Code 87558 We are born with all of the nerve cells that we will ever have and they stay with us until we die. When the brain or spinal cord is injured from trauma or stroke, some neurons are directly killed but many neurons die because they commit suicide. Those that die are not replaced with new neurons. Other neurons survive injury but have their axons severed. The axons are long thin extensions of the neurons that are used to communicate over long distances such as from the brain to the spinal cord. When severed, this communication is interrupted causing paralysis and other symptoms. Although axons in the rest of our body can regrow when severed, those in the brain or spinal cord normally do not so that dysfunction is permanent. Exciting recent developments in the search for a cure will be discussed. These include replacing neurons with cloned cells, administering survival molecules to prevent cell suicide and treating the nervous system to make axons regrow. Introductory readings aimed at non-biology majors will be provided for background. Non-specialist descriptions of contemporary research will be provided including relevant web sites. Students will be stimulated to discuss problems and research answers. Professor Meyer studied with the Nobel winner, Roger Sperry, who conducted research into "split-brain" humans. At UC Irvine, he began research into brain injury in goldfish that can regrow axons so as to understand why these animals can regenerate. More recently he has turned to the mouse which, like humans, can not recover from brain damage. He has been researching treatments aimed at stimulating axonal regeneration with the hope of curing spinal cord and brain injuries. The Water Crisis in the West Richard Symanski, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology M 2:00-2:50, SH 425 Course Code 87569 Water is one of the important issues in the West, and water scarcity is particularly important in Southern California where the human population is large and growing and a water crisis is at hand. In this seminar we focus on readings in Marc Reisner's classic book, Cadillac Desert: The American West and its Disappearing Water. In a series of open-ended discussions based on the readings, we will critically examine the history of water problems in the West and possible solutions in an uncertain future. Richard Symanski is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. He is the author of six books, including two on conservation issues in Australia and one on wild horses in the American West. He teaches courses in introductory biology, conservation in the American West, and writing for upper-division biology and engineering majors. SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES Consciousness and Reality (beyond The Matrix) David W. Smith, Philosophy T 2:00-2:50, HOB2 230 Course Code 87565 In the popular movie "The Matrix" the main character learns that his life as he has experienced it is all an illusion generated by a powerful system of artificial intelligence while he lies like a brain in a vat wired into The Matrix. This premise of total "hyperreality" is a cyberspace variant on Descartes' "evil genius" argument at the dawn of modern philosophy: how do I know that everything I see and hear and touch and believe is not an illusion produced in my mind by an evil demon (like a mad scientist with god-like power)? In this seminar we will look at some of "The Matrix" and read the famous opening of Descartes' "Meditations". Then we will spend most of the quarter discussing Edmund Husserl's Cartesian Meditations. Husserl founded the discipline of phenomenology early in the 20th century. Neuroscience has today begun to catch up with the problem of consciousness, which was carefully explored first by Descartes in 1641 and in great detail by Husserl. My own research involves a philosophical analysis of our first-person experience of consciousness. That will be the underlying theme of this seminar. David Woodruff Smith has taught in the Department of Philosophy at UC Irvine for many years. His research centers on structures of consciousness and the world, especially how we represent or interpret the world in our first-person experience (as well as language). He has lectured widely on these issues in Europe and America and published three books and numerous articles on these themes. Who killed God? Religion and Modern German Thought John H. Smith, German W 2:00-2:50, KH 400D Course Code 87566 This course will explore how the idea developed in our society that "God is dead." We will see how developments in modern German thought, roughly from Martin Luther, through the Enlightenment, to Friedrich Nietzsche, contributed to this defining idea of our time. We will see how thinkers started about 500 years ago down a "slippery slope" that led inevitably to the death of God. Readings will be taken from Luther and Erasmus on the freedom of the will, Lessing and Kant on moral proofs of the existence of God, Feuerbach on the critique of religion, and Nietzsche on the critique of Judeo-Christian morality and the death of God. John H. Smith is a professor in the Department of German who has been involved in interdisciplinary undergraduate education in many ways over the years: teaching upper-division German literature courses; teaching lower-division breadth courses (German 50 and Humanities 3); teaching for Women's Studies and Comparative Literature; and directing the Humanities Core Course (1994-1998). DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE Applications in Computer Science Debra Richardson, Information and Computer Science F 11:00-11:50, SSTR 103 Course Code 87562 Debra J. Richardson is Department Chair and Associate Professor of Information and Computer Science and holds the Ted and Janice Smith Family Foundation Endowed Chair. Her primary teaching responsibilities are in the area of software engineering, with particular interests in software quality, software requirements analysis, formal specification, and testing and validation. She recently introduced a new undergraduate course covering two of the most critical parts of software production: software specification and quality engineering. GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT The Role of Information Technology in Modern Enterprises and Societies Kevin X. Zhu, Graduate School of Management F 10-12, every other Friday, SST 777 Course Code 87570 Information technology plays an increasingly important role in modern corporations and the society in general. This seminar looks into the economic, social, and organizational impacts of computer-based information technologies, especially the recent Internet and e-commerce technologies. The seminar is appropriate for those who are interested in this topic from the fields of economics, computer science, management, social science, and public policy. The seminar will involve readings, case studies, class discussions, and joint sessions with MBA students. Professor Kevin Zhu received his Ph.D. from Stanford University. He received an Academic Achievement Award and a Teaching Recognition from Stanford. Professor Zhu's current research focuses on IT investments and economics of information systems, with projects on evaluating IT investments by option valuation models, empirical analysis of IT investments, electronic commerce and its impacts on organizations and markets, network externality and price competition in the emerging electronic markets. Professor Zhu currently teaches Electronic Commerce and Information Technology across various MBA programs (full-time and executive) in the UCI Graduate School of Management. SCHOOL OF PHYSICAL SCIENCES Deep Time Gregory Benford, Physics and Astronomy T 2:00-2:50, FRH 2111 Course Code 87552 What comes to us from antiquity? How can we make a warning marker to speak to people across 10,000 years? How can we convey meaning to humans/aliens, on a spacecraft marker, to last for one billion years? What truly lasts? Why do we keep trying? My experiences with all these problems will inform the answers. Readings will be taken from Deep Time by Gregory Benford. Gregory Benford is a working scientist, a professor of physics at the UC Irvine since 1971. He specializes in astrophysics and plasma physics theory and was presented with the Lord Prize in 1995 for achievements in the sciences. He is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow and Phi Beta Kappa. Over the years, he has been an advisor to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the United Sates Department of Energy, and the White House Council on Space Policy. Currently he holds research grants from NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His first book-length work of non-fiction, Deep Time (1999), examines his work in long duration messages from a broad humanistic and scientific perspective. The Universe in a Nutshell Andrew J. Lankford, Physics & Astronomy M 3:00-3:50, FRH 4135 Course Code 87557 This seminar will introduce some of the most exciting questions confronting contemporary physical science in a fashion suitable for both humanists and scientists. How are space and time related, and how does present understanding of space-time contribute to our understanding of the evolution of the universe? How are mass and gravity related to space and time? What are particles, antiparticles, superstrings, and black holes? Do we live in a three-dimensional world, or are there extra dimensions? The seminar will address such questions with conceptual explanations based upon current research, and it will highlight some of the research topics being investigated on our campus. It will be based upon the recent book The Universe in a Nutshell composed by the renowned British physicist and author Stephen Hawking for a general audience. No previous physics courses are required. Andrew Lankford joined UC Irvine as a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in 1990. He does research in elementary particle physics. His current experiments use high-energy particle accelerators at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) and the European Center for Particle Physics Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. His research strives to understand such fundamental questions as what is the difference between matter and anti-matter? Why do we live in a universe composed of matter and not of anti-matter? What is the origin of mass? Do we truly live in a three-dimensional world, or are there other "extra dimensions"? These questions are important not only in the realm of particle physics, but also to cosmology, bearing upon the study of the origin and evolution of the early universe. Climate Change-What Do You Want to Do about It? Michael Prather, Earth System Science F 2:00-2:50, RH 222 Course Code 87561 The climate system includes not only the weather but our air quality and fresh water supply as well. It also impacts our transportation systems, health care, and ability to feed ourselves. Climate has changed over the history of the Earth and will continue to do so, but the growth of industrial society since 1800 has raised homo sapiens to a global force in climate. Modern society has developed during a period of stable climate over the last millennium, but it is now entering a new century in which climate change is being driven rapidly by our use of fossil fuels. This seminar looks at the science of climate change, the societal impacts, and the governmental and public responses. We will read the 2001 international and national climate change assessments, follow the ongoing national and international debate on this topic, discuss the science and equity issues, and find out what you want to do about it. Michael J. Prather, professor and past chair of the Earth System Science Department, began his research career in astrophysics and then migrated to the Earth's atmosphere, developing numerical models of the processes that control the composition and chemistry of the atmosphere. He worked at NASA as a researcher and manager, overseeing environmental research programs that reported on stratospheric ozone depletion and climate change. His research on atmospheric chemistry has contributed substantially to the scientific understandings of ozone depletion and climate change, and he has contributed to the political process as an expert at intergovernmental meetings (Montreal Protocol, IPCC). He has authored articles in scientific journals, Congressional reports, and international assessments. Prather continues research on modeling the composition of the atmosphere to understand its response to climate change and its vulnerability to human activities. He recently has been named to the Fred Kavli Endowed Chair in Earth System Science. The Quest for Life in the Universe Virginia Trimble, Physics & Astronomy W 8:00-8:50, FRH 2111 Course Code 87567 "Are we alone?" is one of the oldest human questions about the universe at large. No one currently knows the answer, but modern astronomy and other sciences provide a good deal of information bearing on the problem. This information includes the numbers of stars like the sun (very large), the numbers of planets orbiting other stars (also large, but with data limited to ones more like Jupiter than like Earth), and the level of complexity of chemical compounds in meteorites, comets, and the general interstellar gas (at least as complex as amino acids and other biologically important molecules). The seminar will approach the search for extraterrestrial life historically, including some of the false alarms, like the "canals" on Mars (a sort of optical illusion) and cell-like structures in some meteorites. Each participant will be asked to become a "proto-expert" on some one aspect of the extraterrestrial life debate, for instance interstellar chemistry, evidence for planets orbiting other stars, potential signatures of life in data pertaining to these planets, or one of the false alarms. Virginia Trimble holds degrees in physics and astronomy from UCLA, California Institute of Technology, and University of Cambridge (England). She has been part of the UC Irvine Physics Department half of each year since 1972, spending the other half at the University of Maryland. She has served terms as editors of several scientific journals (currently as astrophysics editor of Reviews of Modern Physics) and as an officer of several scientific societies (currently as President of the Division of Galaxies and the Universe of the International Astronomical Union). Trimble is the author of about 450 articles, papers, book chapters and reviews (beginning with one on the astronomical significance of Cheops' pyramid and, more recently, on supernovae, pulsars, black holes, and life in the universe). Her on-going scientific interests include the structure and evolution of stars, galaxies, and the universe, and of the communities of scientists who study them. SCHOOL OF SOCIAL ECOLOGY Crime and Justice in the United States Michael R. Gottfredson, Executive Vice Chancellor and Professor of Criminology, Law, and Society W 3:00-3:50, ADM 536 Course Code 87555 This course will introduce students to the scientific study of crime and delinquency and to the field of criminology. The readings are designed to introduce students to several principles in the field, with the goal of discovering the relations between academic work in these fields and contemporary issues. Students will prepare a position paper (about five pages in length), based on course materials and library research. Class sessions will be devoted to discussions of the assigned readings and some lecture material. The course is P/NP only. Michael R. Gottfredson is a Professor of Criminology, Law, and Society and Executive Vice Chancellor at the University of California, Irvine. Prior to assuming these positions in July 2000, Michael Gottfredson was Vice President for Undergraduate Education at the University of Arizona and Professor of Management and Policy, Law, Sociology, and Psychology. Professor Gottfredson's research and teaching specialties are the causes of crime and delinquency and the criminal justice process. He is the author of several books, including Personal Liberty and Community Safety (1995); The Generality of Deviance (1994); A General Theory of Crime (1990); and Decisionmaking in Criminal Justice (1988). He has published numerous articles in professional literature about the causes of crime and crime policy. He also has served on the Board of Directors for the Parent Connection in Tucson, the Crime and Justice Research Center in Philadelphia, and the Justice Policy Research Center in Sacramento, California. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Criminology and Public Administration. Last year he was given the Paul Tappan Award by the Western Society of Criminology for outstanding contributions to the field of criminology. SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Infinity and Paradox Aldo Antonelli, Logic and Philosophy of Science W 2:00-2:50, SST 777 Course Code 87551 A survey of the bewildering facts connected to the notion of infinity, from the mystifying to the paradoxical. Topics to be covered include Zeno's paradoxes, the uncountability of the reals, Cantor's higher infinite, Russell's paradox, truth and the Liar paradox, the limits of logic. Light readings will be taken from such texts as R. Rucker's Infinity and the Mind, M. Sainsbury's Paradoxes, and B. Russell's Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy. Aldo Antonelli teaches in the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, and his field of expertise is symbolic logic. He has worked in applications of logic to artificial intelligence and game theory, non-standard set theories, modal logic, and the philosophy of language and mathematics, Sociology of Food Philip N. Cohen, Sociology M 10:00-10:50, SSPB 4206 Course Code 87553 Food is central to many aspects of social life. In the poor countries, some people starve; but in the rich countries, the poor are more likely to be obese. Migrant workers enter the U.S. from Mexico to work in American agricultural fields and slaughterhouses. Changing food customs are the harbinger of cultural diversity, but modern food production also poses risks to our health, and raises questions regarding environmental degradation and animal rights. In this course we will explore where food comes from and how it's made, why some people have so much more of it than others, and what it means in modern society. We will read selections from recent scholarship and journalism, including "Fast Food Nation" and "Twelve Myths of World Hunger." Students, working alone or in groups, will find settings in which to observe or study food-related social interaction, and report back to the class for discussion. Philip Cohen is entering his fourth year as an assistant professor in Sociology. He teaches Social Stratification, Sociological Theory, and Population courses. In each of these, food related issues continue to arise. Further, sociology of consumption is emerging, and an emphasis on food is a way in to that. Information Technology and Politics James N. Danziger, Political Science T 1:00-1:50, SSPB 5250 Course Code 87554 The seminar will explore the connection between modern information and communications technologies (ICTs) and the processes of contemporary politics. Examples of the issues upon which we might focus are: the potential of ICTs to increase citizens' political information, mobilization and participation ("digital democracy," "e-voting," virtual interest groups); the threats to privacy caused by the new technologies; freedom of expression on the Internet; the use of ICTs to make government more efficient ("e-government"); taxing and copyright policy for Internet use; and the role of ICTs in the processes of globalization. James Danziger is a Professor of Political Science in the School of Social Sciences. He has written extensively on the impacts of ICTs on politics and society and is currently Principal Investigator on a $2.8 million grant exploring the impacts of ICTs on society. Representative Democracy: Fragile Foundations and Enduring Expectations Mark Petracca, Political Science T 2:00-2:550, SSPB 5250 Course Code 87560 "Democracy never lasts long," wrote John Adams, "it soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide." Adams was a revolutionary patriot from Massachusetts, co-author (along with Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin) of The Declaration of Independence, and the nation's second president. He had more reason than many Americans did in the early 19th century to be optimistic about the prospects for American democracy, if not democracy generally. Yet, his depressing prediction for the future of democratic governance was based at least in part upon a careful appraisal of history. As we prepare to enter a new millennium, the fragile foundations of democratic governance must be understood, addressed, and respected anew. The promises associated with democratic self-government will be difficult to achieve-in America and elsewhere-if due attention is not paid to the foundations which make democracy possible in the first place, no matter how fragile and uncertain its future. The seminar will explore, albeit briefly, the principal ideas associated with democracy, the primary institutions characteristic of America's democratic republic, and the political, social, and economic foundations of a sustainable democratic regime. The course will focus on the discussion of assigned readings and the contemporary challenges of democratization. Mark Petracca is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science. Professor Petracca's research centers on the question of how political power is enabled, constrained, and distributed in advanced industrial societies. Professor Petracca teaches on a range of American political institutions, such as the presidency, Congress, and political organizations, as well as courses about law and society, constitutional politics, agenda-building, and political power. Has the Kyoto Protocol for Global Warming Collapsed? Kenneth A. Small, Economics T 4:00-4:50, SSPB 3266 Course Code 87564 In 1997 the US joined dozens of nations in signing an agreement in Kyoto, Japan, to reduce emissions of gases causing the global climate to become warmer. The agreement, known as the "Kyoto Protocol," was never ratified by the US Senate, and will not be because current US policy no longer supports it. David Victor, a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, has written a critique claiming that the Kyoto Protocol has "collapsed" and explaining why such an end was inevitable. In this seminar we will work through Victor's book, The Collapse of the Kyoto Protocol and the Struggle to Slow Global Warming, and a few supplemental short articles. We will try to assess his argument and in the process absorb the political and economic analyses on which it is based. Kenneth A. Small, Professor of Economics, specializes in urban and transportation economics with frequent emphasis on environmental problems. Author of the book Urban Transportation Economics and former co-editor of the journal Urban Studies, he received in 1999 the Distinguished Member Award of the Transportation and Public Utilities Group of the American Economic Association. He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in urban economics, transportation, environmental economics, and econometrics, as well as the one-quarter introductory economics course. He has held a variety of administrative positions at UC Irvine including Chair of Economics. COLLEGE OF MEDICINE Curing Cancer: Science, Medicine and Politics John Krolewski, Pathology W 11:00-11:50, SS II 1010AB Course Code 87556 In the 70's, before there was a war on terrorism, then-president Nixon declared a "war on cancer." Since then billions have been spent to find a cure for cancer. In this seminar, we will discuss the "war on cancer" including the underlying biological basis, the medical challenges and the political realities that have shaped the spending of these billions. We will discuss the issues that surround all wars. Are we winning? How can we tell? Is this a war that can be won? This seminar is meant for both science majors and non-majors, as it addresses important issues about the role of "big science" in our culture, and how it is important for all citizens to understand the scientific basis behind essentially political decisions aimed at the treatment of human disease. John Krolewski is an Associate Professor of Pathology and Biological Chemistry in the College of Medicine at UC Irvine. He received a MD-PhD degree from NYU in 1984 and has previously been on the faculty at Columbia University. He has an active research group, is a director of a clinical genetics lab at UCIMC and teaches in the medical school and the MBGB PhD program. |
| Freshman Seminar Program 256 Aldrich Hall Irvine, CA 92697-5675 Phone (949) 824-6987 Fax (949) 824-3469 A Division of Undergraduate Education Program © 2006-2008 The Regents of the University of California All Rights Reserved |
