CHMY 175 - The Origin of Life

4 Credit(s)

This course will explore the key events in the origin of life through an interdisciplinary lens. Students will acquire a basic understanding of topics such as thermodynamics, information theory, complex systems and evolution and apply them to understand how order can emerge from chaos. The course will then explore how these concepts manifest in the chemistry of space and the primordial earth. Students will become familiar with the chemical differences between RNA, DNA and proteins and how they relate to the concepts of catalysis and symbolic communication. The course will use this knowledge to develop a definition of life and to understand what factors contributed to the appearance of the first cells.

$60 Course Fee

Natural Science
Every other spring (even years)