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Bulletin Archive

This archived information is dated to the 2008-09 academic year only and may no longer be current.

For currently applicable policies and information, see the current Stanford Bulletin.

Undergraduate courses in Applied Physics

APPPHYS 68N. Lasers and Photons

(F,Sem) Stanford Introductory Seminar. Preference to freshmen. The physics of lasers and their light. Computer applets and hands-on investigations. Historical development of ideas about light: electromagnetic waves; particles; special relativity; quantum theory; and the laser. Properties of laser light: wavelength and frequency; coherence; polarization; interference; diffraction; and linear and nonlinear optics. Lasers and applications from Schawlow and Townes to Linac Coherent Light Source. Prerequisites: high school physics and calculus. GER:DB-EngrAppSci

3 units, Aut (Bucksbaum, P)

APPPHYS 79N. Energy Choices for the 21st Century

(F,Sem) Stanford Introductory Seminar. Preference to freshmen. Choices for meeting the future energy needs of the U.S. and the world. Basic physics of energy sources, technologies that might be employed, and related public policy issues. Trade-offs and societal impacts of different energy sources. Policy options for making rational choices for a sustainable world energy economy. GER:DB-EngrAppSci

3 units, Aut (Fox, J; Geballe, T)

APPPHYS 136. Biology by the Numbers

(Same as BIOC 236.) Skillbuilding in biological quantitative reasoning. Topics include: biological size scales from proteins to ecosystems; biological time scales from enzymatic catalysis and DNA replication to evolution; biological energy, motion, and force from molecular to organismic scales; mechanisms of environmental sensing from bacterial chemotaxis to vision. Prerequisite: Physics 21, 41, or consent of instructor.

3 units, Win (Theriot, J; Fisher, D)

APPPHYS 192. Introductory Biophysics

(Same as APPPHYS 292.) For advanced undergraduates or beginning graduate students. Quantitative models used in molecular biophysics. The relation of structure to function. Chemical equilibria, cooperativity, and control: elementary statistical mechanics, affinity plots, allostery, models of hemoglobin-oxygen binding, bacterial chemotaxis. Macromolecular conformations: polymer chain models, protein folding, taxonomy of globular proteins, general principles of sequence selection. Chemical kinetics. Multiple barriers: CO-myoglobin kinetics, ion diffusion through channels and ion selectivity, spectroscopy of ion channels-acetylcholine receptor. Supramolecular kinetics: conversion of chemical energy to mechanical force, myosin and kinesin, actin polymers. Nerve impulse propagation: membrane potentials, voltage sensitive ion gates, Hodgkin-Huxley equations, propagation of the nerve impulse.

3 units, alternate years, not given this year

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