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Preference to freshmen. The course will explore evolutionary and revolutionary scientific advances; their consequences to society, biotechnology, and the economy; and mechanisms for communicating science to the public. The course will engage academic and industrial thought leaders and provide an opportunity for students to participate in communicating science to the public.

Preference to freshmen. Chemistry and engineering are subjects that are ubiquitous around us. But what happens when the two meet? Students will explore this question by diving into experimental problems that scientists and engineers have to face on a daily basis. Many processes that are taken for granted have been developed by understanding science at a very fundamental level and then applying it to large and important industrial processes. In this seminar, students will explore some of the basic concepts that are important to address chemical engineering problems through experimental work. Students will build materials for energy and environmental applications, understand how to separate mixtures into pure compounds, produce fuels, and will learn to look at the chemical properties of molecules that are part of daily life with a different eye.

Preference to sophomores. How does government, politics and science affect environmental policy? We examine environmental policy including the precautionary principal, acceptable risks, mathematical models, and cost-effectiveness of regulation. You will learn how data is changing environmental regulation and how different administrations mold environmental policy in real-time. We examine the use of science and engineering, its media presentation and misrepresentation, and the effect of public scientific and technical literacy. You will learn how to participate in the process and effect change.

Preference to sophomores. For students interested in science, engineering, politics, and the law. Learn from past disasters to avoid future ones. How disasters can be tracked to failures in the design process. The roles of engineers, artisans, politicians, lawyers, and scientists in the design of products. Failure as rooted in oversight in adhering to the design process. Student teams analyze real disasters and design new products presumably free from the potential for disastrous outcomes.

Preference to sophomores. Chemistry of natural and synthetic pigments in five historical palettes: earth (paleolithic), classical (Egyptian, Greco-Roman), medieval European (Middle Ages), Renaissance (old masters), and synthetic (contemporary). Composite nature of paints using scanning electron microscopy images; analytical techniques used in art conservation, restoration, and determination of provenance; and inherent health hazards. Paintings as mechanical structures. Hands-on laboratory includes stretching canvas, applying gesso grounds, grinding pigments, preparing egg tempera paint, bamboo and quill pens, gilding and illumination, and papermaking.

Imagine yourself with your abundant creativity, intellect, and passion, but your ability to move or speak is diminished. How would you face the world, how would you thrive at Stanford, how would you relay to people your ideas and creations? How would you share yourself and your ideas with the world? nThere are more than 50 million individuals in America with at least one disability, and in the current world of design, these differences are often overlooked. How do we as designers empower people of diverse physical abilities and provide them with means of self-expression?nnIn Compassionate Design, students from any prospective major are invited to explore the engineering design process by examining the needs of persons with disabilities. Through invited guests, students will have the opportunity to directly engage people with different types of disabilities as a foundation to design products that address problems of motion and mobility, vision, speech and hearing. For example, in class, students will interview people who are deaf, blind, have cerebral palsy, or other disabling conditions. Students will then be asked, using the design tools they have been exposed to as part of the seminar, to create a particular component or device that enhances the quality of life for that user or users with similar limitations.nnPresentation skills are taught and emphasized as students will convey their designs to the class and instructors. Students will complete this seminar with a compassionate view toward design for the disabled, they will acquire a set of design tools that they can use to empower themselves and others in whatever direction they choose to go, and they will have increased confidence and abilities in presenting in front of an audience.

Preference to freshmen.This course considers a variety of animal characters in Chinese and Western literatures as potent symbols of cultural values and dynamic sites of ethical reasoning. What does pervasive animal imagery tell us about how we relate to the world and our neighbors? How do animals define the frontiers of humanity and mediate notions of civilization and culture? How do culture, institutions, and political economy shape concepts of human rights and animal welfare? And, above all, what does it mean to be human in the pluralistic and planetary 21st century?

(Formerly CLASSGEN 24N.) Preference to freshmen. Sappho's surviving fragments in English; traditions referring to or fantasizing about her disputed life. How her poetry and legend inspired women authors and male poets such as Swinburne, Baudelaire, and Pound. Paintings inspired by Sappho in ancient and modern times, and composers who put her poetry to music.

Given the importance of art to all aspects of their lives, the Greeks had reason to respect their artists. Yet potters, painters and even sculptors possessed little social standing. n nWhy did the Greeks value the work of craftsmen but not the men themselves? Why did Herodotus dismiss those who worked with their hands as "mechanics?" What prompted Homer to claim that "there is no greater glory for a man¿ than what he achieves with his own hands," provided that he was throwing a discus and not a vase on a wheel?n nPainted pottery was essential to the religious and secular lives of the Greeks. Libations to the gods and to the dead required vases from which to pour them. Economic prosperity depended on the export of wine and oil in durable clay containers. At home, depictions of gods and heroes on vases reinforced Greek values and helped parents to educate their children. Ceramic sets with scenes of Dionysian excess were reserved for elite symposia from which those who potted and painted them were excluded.n nSculptors were less lowly but even those who carved the Parthenon were still regarded as "mechanics," with soft bodies and soft minds (Xenophon) "indifferent to higher things" (Plutarch).n nThe seminar addresses these issues. Students will read and discuss texts, write response papers and present slide lectures and gallery talks on aspects of the artist's profession.