The course has been taught 6 or 7 times previously, but it follows a design for which there is not an appropriate textbook. Instead, it will be based on material from a number of references from among general and special physics books, and some physiology books, as well as Scientific American. You will be given a reference list, and a syllabus. The syllabus should be treated as somewhat flexible, given that there will be considerable student participation, of an amount to be determined by the enrollment.

The course is not intended to be highly mathematical. Nevertheless, many of the topics exhibit their most interesting aspects in quantitative ways. Prerequisites for the course are at least Physics 201 and Mathematics 122. Physics 202 or some other course in electromagnetism and modern physics is a corequisite.

There will be a few optional homework problem sets (not graded). These are aimed at assisting students in developing a focus on the methods and material, and they will complement the approaches of the lectures, talks and discussions. The homework will provide material from which the (take home) midterm examination and 50% of the final examination are based.

In the past in this course I have found that student talks are quite popular, and generate a lot of response from the class. Each student will present either a 30 minute talk or a 5-page paper. Each such presentation is to be on a subject of his or her choosing, within the framework of the course subject matter. The talk or paper is expected to be the distillation of a significant amount of external library research effort, and each title is to be approved in advance, from a one-paragraph synopsis. The talks will start about 3 weeks into the course, after the class has had a chance to get a flavor of our approach. Since there will be time for only about 15 or so talks, students will be given a choice. If there are too many or too few candidates, I will choose from them as judged by an assessment of potential quality and fit into the course, determined by the one-paragraph written statement. In the past I have found that excellent talks and papers can be created at all quantitative levels.

The course grading will be as follows:

Take home midterm examination 20%
Talk or paper 40%
Final examination 40%

The final examination will be 20 multiple choice problems based 50% on the student presentations in class, in addition to the 50% on material related to the homework problems. It will be a closed book test and an equation page will be provided.