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Enrollment by application/interview.
Course cards must be initialed by Professor Carey, 105 Hoyt.
Description/Objectives: Food and nutrition are central to all life, and many physical, chemical, and biochemical principles are inherent in food production, preparation, and consumption. This course will explore concepts and experimental methods of chemistry that underlie these principles and which have wide applicability in everyday life, and use them to promote quantitative and analytical reasoning.
Each student will have a term project related to foods and health, public health policy, regulatory public policy, or other social or political issues related to chemistry. Students will learn how to conduct an internet search of the scientific and medical research literature to identify a body of knowledge relevant to the topic of their term project. We will critically evaluate this literature, with the goal of determining the current state of scientific knowledge relevant to the topic. Term papers detailing the results of these analyses will be posted on a class web site.
Sample Reading List: Harold McGee: On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen
Limitations: See Professor Carey for enrollment requirements.
Maximum enrollment: 16.
Other Information: The course fulfills the Science and Technology distribution requirement.
Description/Objectives: Comprehensive introduction to major contemporary techniques used to study the structures, functions, and interactions of biological macromolecules, with emphasis on applications rather than theory. Particular stress will be laid on the strengths and limitations of individual methods and the complementarities among them. Methods covered will include spectroscopies (UV, CD, Raman, EPR, mass spec, and NMR); imaging methods (x-ray diffraction and microscopies); hydrodynamic and transport methods (sedimentation, diffusion, electrophoresis, and column chromatography); and analytical methods.
Description/Objectives: This course provides a comprehensive introduction to basic principles of macromolecular structure, stability, and interactions. Major topics include protein structure; thermodynamics and kinetics of protein folding; nucleic acid structure and stability; principles of intermolecular recognition; and principles and practice of ligand binding analysis. Special emphasis is placed on understanding the relationships between structure and stability; the molecular origins of cooperative effects; and the relationships between covalent and non-covalent properties, in macromolecular systems.
The course is intended for beginning graduate students or advanced undergraduates in chemistry, molecular biology, physics, and engineering. Some basic background in undergraduate chemistry is assumed, but there are no specific prerequisites. CHM 509, Biophysical Chemistry II, is an independent continuation that covers the major contemporary techniques used to study the structures, functions, and interactions of biological macromolecules.