Published 9 September 2008
An overview of the courses being for the Life, Evolution, Universe theme: click on the magnifying glass to enlarge
This theme covers all of the natural sciences and it revolves around a central scientific concept that runs through all the natural sciences: evolution. This concept can be approached from various disciplines, emphasising their interconnections. We will mainly focus on evolution of the universe, evolution of life, and evolution of complex biological systems and networks. A common aspect in this is quantitative and mathematical modelling of complex systems. Four subjects have been selected for the introductory theme course:
- The first light, the first 300 000 years. Inflation, nucleosynthesis, decoupling and the cosmic microwave background radiation.
- Formation of structure; different energy-matter components and the evolution of the universe. Large scale structure: galaxies and clusters of galaxies. The first stars, formation of heave elements, planets and the solar system.
- The first tantalisingly elusive traces of life
- Emergence of prokaryotic/eukaryotic cells (and sex), emergence of multicellular life.
- The Cambrian explosion; (hard) body part formation,
- Evolution of flight, appearance of primates, early humans
- The living cell, the smallest unit of life, but extremely complex
- How do we study/understand complex and dynamic networks of molecules which interact in time and space?
- Generic properties of biological networks
- Quantitative and predicting mathematical models for biological systems
- The evolution of networks
- Neuronal networks
- Artificial neuronal networks
- Self learning systems
- Bayesian networks
Source: AUC
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