USC Schedule of Classes

An examination of the physical and biological laws that influence agriculture, pollution, population dynamics (including humans), climate, biodiversity and ecosystem structure and function. Not available for major credit.

The human organism; the nature of inherited and acquired diseases;the biological and societal basis for the AIDS epidemic; therapy,drug design and the future. Not available for major credit.

Changes in the physical and biological universe over time; origins of life, dinosaurs, human evolution. Implications of evolutionary mechanisms and mass extinctions for human survival. Not available for major credit.

The structure and function of the mammalian brain including the role of the brain in regulating behavior, both in normal and diseased states; in relation to mind; and in comparison with machine forms of intelligence. Not available for major credit.

Scientific principles underlying forensic approaches to the investigation of crimes and its societal impact on law, culture and media. Not available for major credit.

Basic principles of physics, chemistry, biology, and mathematics used in evaluating clues written in the rock record, and the processes that have shaped our planet. Lecture, 3 hours; laboratory, 2 hours. At least one field trip required.

Climate systems from the beginning of earth history to the present; tools and techniques used to reconstruct prehistoric climate records; effects of climate variations on development of life forms on earth.

Causes of earthquakes and nature of large faults; earthquake hazard and risk; world's great earthquakes; understanding the Richter scale. Lecture, 3 hours; laboratory, 2 hours; one fieldtrip required.

Foundations of the human species. Examination of scientific evidence from Darwinian theory, primate behavior, fossils, and the behavior of modern people. Laboratory. Duplicates credit in former ANTH 200Lg.

The physiological and nutritional basis of human performance. Factors that facilitate and limit athletic achievement. Lecture, 3 hours; laboratory, 2 hours. Not available for major credit. Duplicates credit in former EXSC 205Lxg.

Words as a gateway to the human mind. How words are stored, comprehended and retrieved. How words are constructed. Words and concepts. Words and social constructs. The processing and the acquisition of words in normal and atypical children and adults.

Language within cognitive science: speech physiology and acoustics, language acquisition, reading, language disorders, perception and mental representation of words, linguistic diversity and computer analysis of speech.

Study of human linguistic competence and technologies that simulate it. Grammar, parsing, text generation; semantics, pragmatics, sense disambiguation; phonetics, speech synthesis, speech recognition.

Study of language as a complex natural system that requires elaborate mental computation.

Investigation of energy technologies, including development and implementation issues. Topics include the Industrial Revolution, electromagnetic induction, power transmission, combustion engines, fission and fusion. Not available for major credit.

An integrative systems perspective of drugs; including their historical, economic, and cultural importance, psychopharmacology, addiction, relationship to crime, and therapeutic use in treating psychological disorders.

Evaluates scientific research on human happiness. Integrates research from psychology, economics, and neuroscience in the evaluation of personal and public policy choices.

An exploration of earth's water, ranging from water properties, chemistry, and pollution, to groundwater dynamics, watershed processes, and oceanic-atmospheric circulation. Implications for past and future societies. Lecture and laboratory.