Contact Information:

Dr. Kim Coble
Office: SCI 234
Phone: 773-995-2085
Office hours: M 4:00-5:00pm, T 3:30-4:30pm, W 2:00-4:00pm, or by appointment
Email: coble@oddjob.uchicago.edu
Dr. Coble's web page

Dr. Kevin Swier
Office: SCI 293
Phone: 773-995-2422
Office hours: T 4:00-5:00pm, W 4:00-6:00pm, F 5:00-6:00pm, or by appointment
Email: kswier@csu.edu

Course Description:

"An inquiry into the contributions of the Earth sciences, cosmology, biology, chemistry and physics to an understanding of the origin of life on Earth and the possibility of life on other worlds."

Hon 280 is a junior-level capstone Honors course and is taken to be a general education course.

Pre-requisites: Third year honors or consent of the honors college.

Lecture Notes and Assignments:

We will be posting lecture notes here at least 24 hours before each lecture. You should print the lecture notes and bring them with you to class. Some of the files are rather large (due to pictures) and may take a while to download.

Assignments are due by email to both instructors by noon on Mondays. Solutions will be posted by 3pm Mondays for discussion in class on Tuesdays.

Reading assignments will be posted 1 week in advance. You are expected to do the reading on the topic before it is discssed in class.

Class	Notes	Topic	In-Class Activity	Assignments Due	Readings
Lecture 1: T Aug 22, 2006	Lecture 1 Notes	Introduction, Creation stories: how science approaches the origin of life	Initial survey, Creation Stories, Scientific Method	none	Bennett, Ch 2.3, 4.1, 5.1
Lecture 2: R Aug 24, 2006	Lecture 2 Notes I Lecture 2 Notes II	Time: dating the origin of life	Fossils and Geologic Time	none	Schopf, Ch 6
Lecture 3: T Aug 29, 2006	See HW 2 study guide	Matter: what is life? What is life made of?	Molecules	HW 1 HW 1 Solutions	Bennett, Ch 3.1,2
Lecture 4: R Aug 31, 2006	See HW 2 study guide	Matter: molecules and cells	Molecules	none 1	Schopf, Ch 3-4
Lecture 5: T Sept 5, 2006	Lecture 5 Notes	Energy: cells obey the laws of chemistry and physics	Metabolic Pathways	HW 2 HW 2 Solutions	Bennett, Ch 3.3
Lecture 6: R Sept 7, 2006	Lecture 6 Notes	Energy: metabolic strategies and pathways	Metabolic Pathways	none	Handout, PLoS
Lecture 7: T Sept 12, 2006	Lecture 7 Notes	Information storage: DNA, replication and reproduction	Decoding Genes & Genomes	HW 3 HW 3 Solutions	Bennett, Ch 3.4
Lecture 8: R Sept 14, 2006	Lecture 8 Notes	Information retrieval: RNA and the central dogma	Decoding Genes & Genomes	none	Schopf, Ch 5
Lecture 9: T Sept 19, 2006	Class discussion	Review	none	HW 4 HW 4 Solutions	Bennett, 3.2
Lecture 10: R Sept 21, 2006	Class Discussion	Review	none	none	Handout
Lecture 11: T Sept 26, 2006	Exam I Review Notes	Exam I: Biological Evolution	none	Study Guide 5: see p.2 only	All readings on biology
Lecture 12: R Sept 28, 2006	Lecture 12 Notes	Time revisited: size and scale of the universe	Cosmic Survey, Looking at Distant Objects	none	Bennett, Ch. 1
Lecture 13: T Oct 3, 2006	Lecture 13 Notes	Matter and energy revisited	-	Project Topic
Lecture 14: R Oct 5, 2006	Lecture 14 Notes	Looking at the sky, Measuring distances	Parallax, Standard Ruler	none	Special Site: light, parallax, Ch. 13.3
Lecture 15: T Oct 10, 2006	Lecture 15 Notes	Our Galaxy, Other galaxies, Galaxy clusters, Dark matter	Hubble Law	HW 6 HW 6 Solutions	Special Site Ch. 13.1 - 13.5
Lecture 16: R Oct 12, 2006	Lecture 16 Notes	General Relativity, Hubble Law, Expansion of the Universe	Hubble Law	none	Special Site Ch. 14
Lecture 17: T Oct 17, 2006	Lecture 17 Notes	The Big Bang model, Abundances of the elements	Expansion of the Universe	HW 7 HW 7 Solutions	Special Site Ch. 15
Lecture 18: R Oct 19, 2006	Lecture 18 Notes	Cosmic Microwave Background, Structure formation, Fate of the Universe	Cosmic Timeline	none	Special Site Ch. 16
Lecture 19: T Oct 24, 2006	Lecture 19 Notes	Properties of stars, Stellar lifetimes	Star Lifetimes	HW 8 HW 8 Solutions	Cosmic Perspective 10.1, 10.2, 11.1, 11.2
Lecture 20: R Oct 26, 2006	Lecture 20 Notes	Birth and death of stars	Star Formation, Stellar Evolution	none	Cosmic Perspective Ch. 12, 13
Lecture 21: T Oct. 31, 2006	Lecture 21 Notes	Formation of the Solar System, Planets around other stars	Temperature and Formation of Our Solar System	HW 9 HW 9 Solutions	Cosmic Perspective Ch. 6, Schopf Ch. 2
Lecture 22: R Nov. 2, 2006	Lecture 22 Notes	Terrestrial planets and the early Earth, Possibility of life elsewhere	Temperature and Formation of Our Solar System	none	Bennett (Life in the Universe) Ch. 10, 12
Lecture 23: T Nov. 7, 2006	Exam II Review Sheet	Exam II: Cosmic Evolution	none	HW 10 HW 10 Solutions	All readings on cosmic evolution
Lecture 24: R Nov. 9, 2006	Lecture 24 Notes	Spontaneous generation: theories and plausible scenarios	TBA	none	Schopf, Ch 1
Lecture 25: T Nov. 14, 2006	Lecture 25 Notes	Molecular self-assembly	B-Z Reaction	HW 11	See study guide
Lecture 26: R Nov. 16, 2006	Lecture 26 Notes	Energetics of life's origins	TBA	none
Lecture 27: T Nov. 21, 2006	Lecture 27 Notes	Bioinformational molecules: the RNA world hypothesis	TBA	HW 12
Lecture 28: T Nov. 28, 2006	Hines Evans Williams Jurado	Student Project Presentations		Project paper
Lecture 29: R Nov. 30, 2006	Anderson Jackson Quinn	Student Project Presentations		extra credit
T Dec. 5, 2006	Final Exam Review Notes	Final Exam	none	none	ALL: Final will be comprehensive

Miscellaneous Handouts:

Syllabus
Homework Strategies
Project Guidelines
Extra Credit Guidelines
Far Out Friday Information

Links:

Below are some general astronomy sites you might find interesting and helpful. See Dr. Coble's astronomy and cosmology links page for specific topics and other links.

Hubble Site
Astronomy Picture of the Day
The Nine Planets
NASA Origins
WMAP Cosmology 101
Imagine the Universe
NASA Space Science
Cosmic Evolution
Adler Planetarium's List of Astronomy Websites

Back to Kim Coble's home page.

Last modified Nov. 30, 2006