All facets of musical performance, the production of sound, its transmission and alteration by the performance space, and its perception by members of the audience are candidates for study in acoustics. In this course, we will develop the physics of vibrating systems and wave propagation and study the measurement of sound. There will be weekly problem sets and a class presentation by each student on a topic of interest. A weekly lab will allow students to investigate various acoustical systems and measuring devices. Students will perform simple experiments, learn to operate the lab equipment, and read papers from the original literature. Students will develop an independent project in musical acoustics.

This course focuses on the science of human variation. We will explore how and why people differ biologically. For example, how do we explain distributions of skin color, sickle cell anemia or sports performance? Which variations have evolutionary (adaptive) significance and which are "just differences"? In this semester we will focus on the idea of race as both genetic construct and social reality. How did the idea of "natural" races arise? What are its uses and limitations, for example, in biomedical research? What alternatives to race exist for framing and studying human diversity? Finally, we will examine health inequalities, including the potential mechanisms by which racism may lead to poor health.

The Human Skeleton in a Biomedical Perspective: Bone (hard connective tissue) is unique in that no one has ever been able to make synthetic material that approaches it in tensile, torsional or compressive strength. Research in this area is rapidly growing, particularly within the biomedical and forensic sciences, and skeletal biology is ripe for new technologies and innovations. This hands-on laboratory course will focus intensively on the human skeleton, from the gross anatomical level to the histological and biochemical levels. After spending the first several weeks exploring the nature of bone tissue teams of students will design and carry out research projects that cross-disciplinary boundaries from medicine, anthropology, nutrition, and forensics.

Humans are recent tenants on an ancient Earth. Understanding Earth's remarkable history is enlightening yet humbling. Earth's history provides a critical lens for evaluating modern environmental science issues of our modern world. In this course, we will travel through time to study the evolution of Earth from its fiery beginning over 4.5 billion years ago to the present day. We will explore the physical and biological evolution of Earth and gain an appreciation for Earth as a series of complex systems that interact dynamically and holistically. We will also learn how geologists reconstruct Earth history and as well as predict the future. This course will be valuable for anyone who is curious about the past and/or concerned about the future of Earth and its tenants. This course satisfies Division I distribution requirements.

Many events, like developing cancer or winning the lottery, are apparently random when considered individually, but often possess a great deal of predictability when studied collectively. The elaboration of this insight is one of the most far-reaching developments of the last century, an understanding of which is arguably essential for anyone trying to make sense of the data and choices thrown at us daily. A variety of random processes has also been increasingly used to analyze and create music, art, and poetry. In this course we will develop the idea of stochastic (i.e., random) models for thinking about a wide range of phenomena in the sciences, arts, and everyday life. Topics will include elementary probability theory, risk analysis, mortality tables and their uses, stochastic music, computer-generated art, elementary statistics, and Markov processes. It is designed for all students, regardless of field of interest or prior love of mathematics. Computers will be used throughout the course, but no prior experience is assumed.

This is a continuation of Chemistry I: the principles and concepts examined during the previous term will be expanded and applied to more sophisticated systems. Topics will include chemical thermodynamics, nuclear chemistry, chemical equilibrium, acid-base equilibria and their applications, complex ion equilibria, and solubility, oxidation-reduction reactions, electrochemistry, and reaction rates. We will also emphasize application of those chemical principles to environmental, biological, industrial and day-to-day real-life situations. Problem sets will be assigned throughout the semester. The laboratory will consist of two project-based labs and some laboratory exercises. Basic laboratory skills, chemical instrumentation techniques, and the use of computers in the chemistry laboratory will be emphasized. Prerequisite: Successful completion of Chemistry I and its laboratory.

This course examines the historical, medical, and ethnographic shaping of women's bodies and identity. We start with understanding the differences between sex and gender and the construction of identity for women in antiquity, then move to contemporary times, charting major trends in the construction of identity and body image that have influenced (and continue to influence) the position and health of women historically and cross-culturally. The synergistic interface of biology and culture provides a framework for examining the social construction and subsequent deconstruction of such things as childbearing and rearing, fashion (corsets, foot binding), media representations, and body rituals in an interdisciplinary manner. We will examine the ways in which gender is both physiologically and socially constructed globally, and the important role that social institutions, ideology, and cultural practices play in creating and perpetuating problematic perceptions of the female body. These perceptions, in turn, often promote marginalized identities for women in today's society. Students will finish the term with a clearer understanding of the interrelationship of culture and biology in the structuring of identity, how health inequalities are generated and perpetuated, and how to think critically about the role of both the media and medicine in their perceptions of feminity and female identity.

NS 248 is an introduction to the principles and practice of epidemiology and the use of data in program planning and policy development. The course covers the major concepts usually found in a graduate-level introductory course in epidemiology: outbreak investigations, study design, measures of effect, internal and external validity, reliability, and causal inference. Assigned readings are drawn from a standard textbook and the primary literature. In addition, students read case studies and work step-by-step through major epidemiologic investigations of the past century; they also form small groups to design and conduct a small epidemiologic study on campus. The major assignments are four studies, regular response papers/worksheets on the readings, a critique of a primary paper, a poster presentation of the on-campus study, and a proposal for an epidemiologic study of their own design.

This course extends the concepts, techniques and applications of an introductory calculus course. We'll detect periodicity in noisy data, and study functions of several variables, integration, differential equations, and the approximation of functions by polynomials. We'll continue the analysis of dynamical systems taking models from ecology, economics, epidemiology, and physics. We will finish with an introduction to the theory and applications of Fourier series and harmonic analysis. Computers and numerical methods will be used throughout. Regular substantial problem sets will be assigned and will constitute the heart of each student's course work. Prerequisite: Calculus in Context or a Calculus I course.

The text we will be using is available for free at:

http://www.math.smith.edu/Local/cicintro/cicintro.html

Biochemistry is the study of the molecules and chemical reactions of life. Considering the vast diversity of living organisms, one might also expect them to be composed of significantly different biomolecules, and to use unique mechanisms for obtaining energy and communicating different biological information. To the contrary, the principles and language of biochemistry are common to all life: in general, the same chemical compounds and the same metabolic processes found in bacteria exist in organisms as distantly related as whales. To fully appreciate life, people should consider their biochemistry. Classroom topics will include the structure and function of proteins and carbohydrates, metabolism and bioenergetics, but will not include nucleic acids. Prerequisite: none, but Organic Chemistry is desirable.

This course develops skills for designing experiments and analyzing data using standard statistical methods. Work will include the use of some common computer packages, especially Open Office with OOoStat and R, plus Excel and Minitab. We will use a book that introduces the methods and other readings, mainly on line. We discuss examples in published research and relevant aspects of the philosophy of science.  We will also design and carry out data collection in class, with some data collected and analyzed by students on their own. The emphasis in this course will be on problems, interpretation, and being able to choose and use common statistical methods and tests for data analysis -- actually using statistics in research.

Earth's surface is always changing. Geomorphology is the study of Earth's surface, its landforms, and the processes that shape landforms. The goal of this course is for you to recognize common landforms and gain a quantitative understanding of Earth surface processes. Once you understand how surface processes work, you will have a better idea of how a landscape evolved to its present state and how the landscape could change in the future. This course will include field trips and projects that examine different landforms and processes in New England, including glaciation, river processes, coastal erosion, mass movement, and wind activity.

This course is a broad introduction to the practices of sustainable agriculture and organic farming. It includes experience in the field, combined with study of the underlying science and technology of several key agricultural topics, as well as some more economic/political aspects. We will focus on sustainable and/or organic methods that minimize the use of nonrenewable resources and the associated pros and cons. Coursework will include activities and assignments at the Hampshire College farm and nearby farms/groups, as well as short papers, problems, and options for independent work in particular areas. In-class topics also include readings, discussions, and assignments aimed at understanding sustainable practices in general. For example, we will study problems with pest control and how to manage pests given their life cycles and ecology, basic aspects of soil and fertilizers, how animals fit into sustainable schemes of production, winter greenhouses, maple sugaring, crop and farm diversification, the concerns about buying local vs. imported and/or organic food, labor and energy issues, and more.

The rise and fall of biology's Central Dogma (a.k.a. regulation of gene expression): The Central Dogma of biology states that DNA is transcribed into mRNA, which is then translated into proteins. That is, DNA holds the information, mRNA is the messenger, and proteins perform the work. There is an implied rigidity in the roles and directionality of this 60-year-old paradigm on how genes are expressed. In the last several years, however, we have uncovered a more complex reality. There are exceptions to the Dogma and myriad dynamic levels regulating gene expression. We will explore all levels of gene expression, from transcription factors and enhancers to translational and posttranslational regulation. We also will investigate the increasingly complex RNA world, including microRNAs, piwi-interacting RNAs and long noncoding RNAs. The course will consist predominantly of reading and presenting current primary literature. In all, we will work toward disassembly of the Dogma.

This course will explore several current environmental topics with strong components in chemistry. We will put special emphasis on environmental concerns in the hydrosphere, soils, and atmosphere. Topics will include chemistry of natural waters, water pollution and wastewater treatment, toxic heavy metals and their complexation properties in soils, and inorganic and organic pollutants in the atmosphere. We will also examine energy use and its environmental consequences. Considerable time will be spent on learning environmental chemical analysis methods and instrumentation in environmental monitoring. These include inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) in trace metal analysis, infrared techniques in characterization of pollutants, chromatographic methods for separation and identification of contaminants. We will also look at sampling and sample preparation methods, the principles behind the operation of analytical instruments, and elemental speciation techniques used in environmental sample analysis. This class is particularly recommended for advanced Division II and III students with interests in environmental issues. We will conduct a discovery project of local environmental interest. Class will run in seminar format. Participation in class, satisfactory work on problem sets, oral presentations of topics of environmental interest, successful completion of laboratory/field work, and project reports are required for evaluation. Prerequisites: Chemistry I and II.

To register for an Independent Study with Hampshire College faculty you need to pick up an Independent Study form in the Central Records office and get the form signed by the faculty supervisor as well as your advisor.

In this study I will examine epidemiological models through a cross-cultural lens.  I will read primary literature that contains epidemiological models and explore how the models would be modified for different cultures.  Would parameter values just need to be adjusted or would new equations or terms need to be added?  To integrate this course with others that I am taking concurrently, I will primarily study ordinary, delay, and partial differential equation models and focus on using appropriate numerical techniques.  All of this work will be presented in a paper that will contain a literature review of the epidemiological models and how the models can be modified for different cultures.