Ancient DNA makes breathtaking headlines regularly. For decades DNA has added nuance to our world but now we can literally peer back into the genetic past, even to extinct species. In humans, we have way to understand our own genetic history – where did we come from? Which groups mixed? Who is pure bred? (answer: no-one). How did war/changing climate/disease affect people? Humans have been through multiple cultural/technological changes – can we see? (answer: yes). Let’s look!

The burden of proof? Presumed innocent? Guilty beyond a reasonable doubt? Is it your desire to be a crime scene investigator (CSI), medical examiner, or an expert in any other forensic science-related field? Are you naturally curious? Can you piece together clues to solve a problem? This course will help hone your investigative skills and review a wide range of science concepts simultaneously.

Regenerative Biology is a field of study that deals with the "process of replacing, engineering or regenerating human cells, tissues or organs to restore or establish normal function." Stem cells are vital to regenerative biology by providing a basis for tissue-specific precursors and unlocking the door for personalized medicine. You will uncover the molecular mechanisms behind stem cells and how they are being used to drive new discoveries and treatments.

America. The wealthiest country the world has ever known ranks last among peer countries in the overall healthcare system. Yet we spend a fifth of our gross domestic profit (GDP) on this same healthcare system. How can that be? In this course, we hope to help mold the future healthcare leaders of our country, providing them the requisite knowledge and tools they will use during their careers.

The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (aka the worm) is an outstanding model to study the genetics of human disease as many of the genes in the C. elegans genome have functional counterparts in humans. In this project-based lab course, you will identify wild-caught nematodes from the soil using PCR and DNA sequencing analysis. Moreover, you will be introduced to primary literature, developmental biology, genetics, microscopy, and worm maintenance.

The answers to problems can be found in life all around us! Nature is imaginative, adaptable, and efficient – qualities that inspire today’s engineers and scientists. Biomimicry is the innovation of learning from nature’s sustainable solutions. It is a growing, exciting field of science and engineering that studies nature as a model and then imitates or takes inspiration from these designs and processes to solve human problems. Recognizing that species have specific adaptations and strategies to survive, we are discovering they have already found elegant answers for many human design issues.

How do antacids relieve heartburn? Why do your legs hurt after sprinting on the track? How do your cake ingredients react to make it fluffy? This course will provide you with the toolbox to identify acid-base chemistry everywhere.

Are you curious as to what it is like to be in a laboratory, working to solve problems in the medical field? Have you wondered how scientists work to provide breakthrough products and technologies to improve our environment? This course will immerse you in the laboratory as you learn the basics of molecular biology research and gain experience conducting advanced laboratory techniques.

Environmental pollution is a rapidly growing public health concern. Combating its threats requires understanding the contaminant sources, ‘at-risk’ populations, and physiological effects of exposure. In this course, we will introduce concepts of environmental health and toxicology using primary real-world examples. We will present the delicate yet reciprocal balance of human and environmental health, while providing scientific strategies researchers use to study pollution in the lab.

What happens in your brain when you decide to buy a lottery ticket or go on a date with someone? What about when you spend hundreds of dollars on an expensive gadget that you stop using after a few months, or when you decide to say something that you should have known would be embarrassing? Are economic decisions and decisions in general the result of a messy fight between a 'rational' part of your brain and an 'irrational' one, or is decision-making all the result of one underlying and possibly unconscious mechanism?

What makes a lemon sour, and our coffee bitter? How do giant sinkholes appear? And how did they get that red stain out of your white shirt? Throughout the day, acid/base chemistry drives many events, affecting everything from our food to the environment. However, acids and bases can be trickier to understand than they first appear. In this course, we use tutorials, lectures, and practice problems to understand how acids and bases influence our daily lives.

How our body actually works has to be magic, right? In this course, we will unveil the chemical “magic” that dictates when and how the human body behaves, in its everyday grind to keep us alive. Every biological process in our body, from the most basic function of glucose utilization to complicated pathways of drug metabolism, depends on basic concepts of chemistry in order to function. Without understanding the chemical basis of these interactions, it is almost impossible to fathom the incredibly diverse processes that are constantly occurring in the body.

Pollution can begin from a spill, flow down a river, accumulate in fish, and then be part of a fisherman’s dinner. Solving real environmental problems requires understanding each connected piece including the chemistry, biology, and human communities that are involved. By studying environmental toxicology and chemistry as a complex multidisciplinary science, you’ll learn how to understand, study, and explain what is going on in contaminated events and environments.

Ever hear of nanotechnology? In the field of nanotechnology, we work with materials a billion times smaller than the diameter of one strand of hair! We study the use of these materials as we build an elevator to the moon, fight cancer, make stronger bikes, clean pollution, and improve solar panel energy efficiency. That is the power of nanotechnology! In this course, you will develop your own nanomaterials to solve a problem in society of your own choosing. This is a Course-based Research Experience (CRE).

So you want to enter the medical, dental, or veterinary fields. These disciplines require an understanding of life processes. To develop this understanding requires a knowledge of organic and biochemistry. This lecture and laboratory course will take you through the basics of organic chemistry where you will learn chemical structures and structural conversions. This will extend into biochemistry where basic biochemical components are considered from the organic perspective.

Computational mathematics and the numerical simulations built on it are now widely used in all aspects of our lives, such as simulating atmospheric flow to forecast the weather conditions in the next few days. Combined with computational mathematics, big data visualization is an increasingly important analysis method. For example, visualization of a Hurricane's trajectory and influence range predicted in numerical simulation can tell us measures to reduce casualties and economic losses. This course is designed to introduce you, as a future STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) student to computational mathematics, parallel computing techniques commonly used in scientific computing along with large-scale 3D data analysis methods, and software for numerical simulation.

If you've ever sent an encrypted message (iMessage, Whatsapp, Signal), purchased anything online or visited a website whose url started with "https", you've used cryptography! This course will introduce you to the fascinating world of cryptography. From simple ciphers to modern encryption schemes, you will learn the underpinnings of how cryptography works and how to reason about security. We will also explore modern day privacy issues and how cryptography might be used to address them.

This course will give you a deeper appreciation for the wide-ranging applications and impacts of AI and Data Science, and will encourage you to think like a data scientist. A major focus of this class will be the data analysis process. You will learn fundamental AI concepts, brainstorm possible solutions, and formulate and present your own detailed algorithm design.

This course explores the fields of Game Design, Systems Thinking, and Human Cognition. You will engage in a series of three collaborative design projects through which you create, play and analyze games that function as models of real world phenomena. You will exit this course being able to 1) design playable tabletop games, 2) apply scholarly principles of Game Design and Systems Thinking across domains, and 3) identify, understand, and model complex, real world problems.

A big challenge in science is effectively communicating data to an audience. It is very easy to misinterpret information when it is presented unclearly - something as mundane as the daily weather can be confusing! This course will help you develop graphical literacy and will teach you data science, design, and programming skills. Your goal will be to leave knowing how to make polished and descriptive figures.

Game theory is the field of economics that studies strategic interaction. More concretely, it focuses on understanding how agents make decisions based on what they expect others to do. As such, game theory applies to a wide range of fields, from biology to political science. This course will teach you the fundamentals of game theory from a simple yet formal perspective and how to dissect real-world problems in light of strategic interactions.

Even though we may not realize it, we are exposed to economic data and statistical analysis wherever we go—in the supermarket through product prices, on the news when politicians present us with labor statistics, and in the mobile phone store when comparing phone plans. Econometrics uses math and statistics to measure economic data. Understanding how to use the models and tools of econometrics will empower you to accurately interpret the economic data that surrounds you daily and in all aspects of your life.

This fundamental course will introduce you to microeconomic theory. Microeconomics is a field within economics and studies how individuals and firms make consumption and production decisions, respectively, and how these decisions determine the allocation of scarce resources in a market. As such, it provides a formal framework to study policy-relevant questions like, Does a subsidy unambiguously increase the profit of a struggling firm? Or even questions like: Should a pizza restaurant start a price war with its competitor down the block? How does a price change in coffee alter the demand for breakfast muffins?

Have you ever wondered how bridges are designed and built? Have you wondered how engineers decide which materials to use? The importance of design practice and developing hands-on approaches to solving engineering projects is an important skill in both industry and academia. This course introduces the engineering design process and the iterative prototyping method, culminating in a final design project where you have the opportunity to use and demonstrate your new knowledge.

More than 70% of the Earth's surface is covered by water. But how much do you actually know about water or fluids? This course will introduce you to the world of fluid mechanics, with applications ranging from aerospace engineering to bacteria locomotion. We will focus on the physics and engineering of fluids and visualize core concepts in class. Student groups will design hovercrafts, optimized for speed and maneuverability, using knowledge discussed in the course.

Drones are everywhere, but don't you wish you could program the drone to fly itself indoors? This course will combine both hardware and software skills, teaching you not just how to build an UAV, but also how to control that UAV with the robot operating system (ROS). This knowledge will lay the foundation for controlling other robots - from vacuum cleaners to humanoid robotic arms.

Engineering has changed tremendously in the past few decades. Some of the most notable changes can be found in how computers are used by engineers to quickly develop and communicate ideas. Recent advances in the technology of computers and software have made using Computer Aided Design (CAD) central to the art of Engineering. In this course, CAD software will be used to help you create solutions for unique engineering design challenges.

Are you considering a career in engineering? Are you fascinated by what engineers do? In this course, you will be given the opportunity to experience engineering and design first hand. You will gain an understanding of the fundamentals of the engineering design process, a grasp of the various fields of engineering, and an appreciation of the far-reaching impacts of engineering.

From video game development to engineering design, computers are used to simulate complex physical systems and to gain insights into their underlying phenomena. In this course, you will be introduced to the field of numerical methods and computational science and engineering.

Matlab is a widely used computer programming system. This course will provide you with the opportunity to learn Matlab programming as applied to a 2-dimensional game that incorporates principles of Artificial Intelligence. You will study default code that simulates a robot game called Last Rover Roving (LRR). You will then try optimizing certain parameters to improve your scores in the contest and to improve the game itself. Through participation in this class, you will come to understand some of the intricacies of Artificial Intelligence.

A revolution is taking place in the laboratories of the world--new materials with fascinating properties are being discovered every day. In addition, old materials have been found to have amazing new strengths--including metals that do not rust, foam that can repair itself, and powdered bananas. Scientists at NASA are using special nitride ceramics that can be touched with our bare hands even though they could be at a searing 3000 Celsius! New titanium nanocomposite alloys are lighter than steel, but ten times as strong. In the near future, we might even be able to to build an elevator to space! In this course, you will learn the fundamentals of Materials Engineering as you uncover the properties of these materials and many others.

Materials science and engineering is all around us - it influences our everyday lives in ways that we probably never consider. It also allows scientists to observe, touch, design, and fabricate matter as small as atoms and molecules. Can you imagine working with a material that is only 1/100,000 the width of a human hair? This course will explore materials science and engineering by looking at a specific challenge: how to design a cost-effective, and structurally sound bridge component.

The demand for energy is expected to grow 30% by 2040. Today, most of the energy harvested originates from non-renewable sources. What role can engineers play in developing renewable energy technology to meet the anticipated demand? What does it take to become an engineer in this field? In this course, you will explore in detail, the increasingly innovative potential of wind and solar energy.

Solar energy is becoming more relevant and visible in our daily lives. There are increasing installations of solar farms off of highways and solar panels on our rooftops. This course will introduce solar energy from both a technical and social viewpoint through hands-on experimentation and group discussion. You will learn about ongoing scientific advancements to solar energy and how to design your own research projects.

Ever think of vacationing in space? From seeing the Earth from the upper atmosphere to feeling weightless for even just 30 seconds, space tourism has arrived! This course will cover the fundamental science and engineering concepts behind what is needed for space tourism, from Newton's law to the material properties needed in aircraft design to impacts on the human body.

Young leaders are rising up all over the world to express something of great importance - our planet is in turmoil and we must take immediate action to save it. The impacts of global climate change are increasing every minute and, sadly, are unequally impacting the world’s most vulnerable populations.

Brown Environmental Leadership Labs (BELL) combines concepts in environmental studies, ecology, and leadership, with a mission of developing socially responsible leaders. You will develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to create positive change on environmental issues facing your local communities and the planet as a whole.

Brown Environmental Leadership Labs (BELL) combines concepts in environmental studies, ecology, and leadership, with a mission of developing socially responsible leaders. You will develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to create positive change on environmental issues facing your local communities and the planet as a whole.

Estuaries, where the rivers meet the sea, are the foundation of life in marine systems and are considered to be one of the most productive and biodiverse ecosystems on the planet. Throughout this two-week course taking place, each day, at the non-profit organization, Save the Bay, Narragansett Bay will serve as a living laboratory and case study where we will learn about the Bay's important functions and how it and other estuaries are impacted by real threats.

Adaptive, resilient, interdependent, fractal are all traits that describe elements and patterns found within nature, but what do these words and patterns have to teach us about shaping change within the environmental movement? Using wisdom from the book “Emergent Strategy” by scholar adrienne maree brown and the work of other visionaries, this course explores phenomena and patterns within our ecosystems to find inspiration and imagine a way forward in the face of intersectional global crises.

Global ocean health is crucial to a livable planet. During this course, you will become familiar with the many habitats of Narragansett Bay, the multiple branches of marine science, current research and methods employed in the field, and scientific peer-reviewed journal articles. You will be introduced to real-world research methods utilized by marine scientists and local researchers to study biotic and abiotic aspects of marine habitats, using our bay as a model for the global ocean.

How can art not just look good, but do good? How can science not just help us know, but help us act and feel? This course combines concepts in environmental studies, ecologically-based art, and leadership, with a mission to develop socially responsible and creative leaders.

Since the beginning, our home planet has undergone truly spectacular changes. Travel through time and explore the frozen tundras and sweltering jungles of Earth’s past, and discover the many wild and even alien-like creatures that once ruled it. Together, we will explore the rise and fall of multiple worlds on our home planet. The formation of the Earth, the origin of life, mass extinctions, plate tectonics, and how scientists have unraveled this 4.5-billion-year history will all be part of our journey through the ages.

Does life exist anywhere else in the universe, or even in our own Solar System? If you have ever looked at the sky and wondered if habitable worlds like (or unlike) ours exist elsewhere, then this is the class for you. This course explores possible habitats for life on Mars, asteroids, the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and exoplanets (planets around other stars). Along the way, you will learn about the latest NASA missions and explore unanswered questions about our universe.

Do you want to learn about how financial decisions are made in the market? This course provides a clear mathematical lens to understand investment principals and risk management. Investment banks and hedge funds design and implement mathematical models that help them price financial assets and create portfolios of assets that balance between an investment’s risk and return characteristics. This course will provide you with an introduction to these mathematical methods.

Geometry is the branch of mathematics dealing with shape and measurement. Modern challenges in data analysis, the physical sciences, and many areas of social science require geometric tools entirely distinct from the classical geometry taught in high school. More importantly, they require a sophisticated mathematical point of view, since questions like "how similar are these two brain scans?" or "is this congressional district weirdly shaped?" do not immediately seem to be under the purview of mathematics.

Logic is a system of rules upon which human reasoning is based. It is a tool that we deploy routinely in our everyday lives. It pervades every academic discipline, from mathematics to the sciences to the humanities. To philosophers, however, logic is a deep and complex subject of study in its own right. A paradox is a chain of reasoning that starts from seemingly obvious premises and arrives at a conclusion we find unacceptable. This course is devoted in part to exploring this system of rules, which we will build formally from the ground up. We will eventually use our formal system both to better understand the structure of language and to model and assess real-world arguments.

Quantitative Analysts (Quants for short) are considered the rocket scientists of Wall Street. They are employed by investment banks, hedge funds, and insurance companies to create mathematical models that allow firms to price and trade securities and manage risk. This course will provide you with the basic mathematical concepts and techniques used in Finance, with an emphasis on problem-solving skills.

Number Theory is considered “The Queen of Mathematics”. It is devoted to the study of integers. This course helps you to discover the harmonious relationships that exist between integers and in particular among prime numbers, with emphasis on the distribution of primes among integers as well as discovery of large prime numbers. You will learn how to exploit these relationships to create cryptography methods that are used in securing transmission of digital messages.

How does Google Maps find routes to your destination? How likely is it that a new disease will become an epidemic, and what can be done to prevent this? How do memes spread? What about the spread of disinformation campaigns on social media? All these questions, at their core, involve networks. A network is a group of interconnected people or things. For example, a map can be understood as a collection of locations connected by roads. People spread diseases through interactions with each other. Memes travel from account to account as people share them with their friends and followers.

The premise of set theory is deceptively simple: it is the study of boxes (sets) and the things they hold inside them (elements). Axiomatic set theory is to other areas of mathematics as an operating system is to other computer programs. While it often exists in the background, only obliquely referred to, set theory supplies a solid foundation for our castles in the sky. But set theory is more than just a foundation for other fields; it opens many dazzling frontiers of thought all on its own.

We live in the age of data and thanks to the ubiquity of fast and low-cost computing, data on almost any topic are at your fingertips. This course aims to teach you the skills needed to turn data into intelligence. This course will explain how, where, and why statistics is used to solve real world issues in many fields of research. We'll examine methods of collecting, summarizing, and analyzing data, focusing on issues critical to public health, economics, human behavior, and other fields.

Our modern world is founded on mathematics. The impacts of math are all around us - we can find interesting math in daily weather forecasts, smartphone innovations, even something as simple as telling time. Are you up for the challenge of creating new math that will spur the next wave of scientific discovery? This course will introduce you to the process and challenges of mathematical research, and help you acquire the skills you need to ask and answer innovative questions in math.

Hands-on Medicine is a one-week course that will integrate you into the life of a medical student. Through classroom activities, anatomy lab, and clinical skills sessions, you will learn how medical students take a holistic view of the human body and discover everything there is to know about its anatomy, physiology, and disease processes.

Modern science seems to have implications for many of the perennial questions of philosophy. Are sensory qualities in external objects or only in the observer? Is the world bound by deterministic laws, and if so, is there any room for freedom of the will? Could space have unseen higher dimensions? Is time travel possible? Is reality to any extent dependent on observers? In this course, we will read accessible works by both philosophers and physicists that bear on these questions.

Quantum computing is an exciting and fast-developing field which has the potential to change the nature of computation. This topic is also an approachable entry point to quantum mechanics, which allows you to learn its fundamentals. This course will teach the basics of quantum computation, while introducing the required mathematical knowledge and utilizing a hands-on approach to learning that will include using IBM's real quantum computer.

This course is being transitioned from on-campus to online. It may involve attending virtual class meetings via Zoom or some other meeting tool at various points throughout the session. Your instructor will arrange those meeting times once the course has begun; otherwise, the course will be conducted wholly online. The duration, course credit, and fees associated with the course are the same as they would have been for on-campus Summer Session courses, which are the equivalent of full-semester Brown University courses, though offered in a condensed, seven-week format.

This course is expected to run. Full details will be posted once confirmed.

Carl Sagan once said that, "The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself." The study of our solar system and origins is a journey of exploration and discovery. But how have we come to know our corner of the universe? In this course we'll voyage through our solar system, visiting planets, moons, and asteroids and examine the processes that have shaped their evolution. You will get hands-on experience with real data from various NASA missions.

You've heard of Einstein, Marie Curie, and Newton, but who really were the men and women behind physics' most famous discoveries? What's their story? Why is their work so famous, anyway? How do we use the concepts they explored today? Together we will learn and discuss the work of some great physicists and many other famous scientists. Understanding the lives of these figures allows us to discover along with them how they were able to make the groundbreaking discoveries that led us to the current day.

Nanotechnology provides a broad array of applications to solve urgent problems in wide ranging scientific fields. Introduction to Nanotechnology provides an overview of nanotechnology, discussing the fundamental science of nanotechnology and its applications to engineering, biomedical, and environmental fields. We will also discuss the interdisciplinary nature of nanotechnology and how the different basic sciences merge to create the field while leading to novel solutions of pressing issues.

Astronomy is the oldest science, with the first observations of the heavens conducted by our early human ancestors. Records of astronomical measurements date back as far as Mesopotamia nearly 5000 years ago, with later observations made by the ancient Chinese, Babylonians, and Greeks. This course is designed to give you a brief glimpse into what we've learned since then. From basic measurement skills to black holes and general relativity, all aspects of this magnificent art will be covered.

Physics is arguably the most fundamental of sciences. Understanding the Newtonian concept of Forces provides a foundational overview of Physics. In this Force-centric conceptual framework, we use modeling, progressing systematic from zero force, constant force, linear force and inverse square force to find patterns in kinematics, gravitation, springs, sound, electrostatics and atomic vibrations. The course focus is on conceptual understanding and modeling rather than mathematical calculations.

Quantum mechanical formalism suggests that the underlying mechanics of our universe is far divorced from our perception of reality. In this course, we will examine the conceptual fundamentals of quantum mechanics and explore their metaphysical implications.

Smartphones and tablets in use today have sensors that are able to measure lengths, positions, velocities, accelerations, light, and sound as well as many other physical phenomena such as vibrations and magnetic fields. We will be using smartphones or tablets as i/o devices to take measurements that will help us understand Newton's laws of physics.

Our world is composed of seemingly invisible particles. We can examine ourselves and ask, “What are we made of?” We might answer that we’re made of “molecular cells” built out of things like carbon or nitrogen. If we dig deeper, we find those elements are made of protons, neutrons and electrons, which have even more fundamental constituent particles. In this course, we will explore the historical experiments that led to the discovery of these fundamental particles.

Research writing and critical approaches towards data are essential tools for any college student, researcher, or scientist. This course provides you with the chance to propose, design, and conduct your own research projects. At each stage of the research and writing process, new tools will be learned and applied and you will take a thorough and critical look at the evidence. Ultimately, you will produce a paper near or at publication-quality that will showcase your research skills. This is a Course-based Research Experience (CRE).