Frontiers of Science
Frontiers of Science (or more accurately, "Science Humanities") is a core curriculum requirement created by Professors Darcy Kelly and David Helfand. The course was introduced in 2004 and has been an official part of the core since 2005. Every semester student input is requested in making the course better. You'll probably still complain about it four years from now.
It is one of the most hated courses on campus.
The Emlyn Hughes Incident
In the Spring of 2013, the tedium of the course finally got to the head of Professor Emlyn Hughes. At the start of his lecture on Quantum Physics, he stripped to his boxers and changed into all black. Simultaneously, a video showing images from 9/11 and Nazi Germany played on the screen. A student videotaped the event and sent it to Bwog. The media then picked up the story and it became a minor scandal.
Syllabus
The syllabus is determined by which Columbia professors have nothing better to do in any given term than lecture a bunch of half-asleep freshmen. Past topics have included:
- Origins of the Universe/Earth
- The End of the Dinosaurs
- African Climate Change
- Human Evolution
- The Earth and Us: the Global Forecast
- Quantum Mechanics
- The Nanoworld
- Is it Alive Down There?
- Brownian Motion and Life
- Physics and biology
- Quantal neurotransmission
- How Brains Work
- How Brains Communicate
- The Evolution of Human Languages
- How the Brain Produces and Decodes Languages
