From Cells to Society: Understanding Complexity

Catalog description

Equips students with concepts and empirical examples they need to understand the role of complexity in the world around them. Complexity science is based on the fundamental principle that entities and phenomena in the world around us are systems composed of many parts that interact to produce their global characteristics. For example, cells interact to produce organs and tissues, which in turn interact to produce physiological processes (i.e., the capacity to metabolize food to produce new compounds and energy) and physical infrastructure (skeletal and muscular structure) which produce organisms. Organisms, (e.g., humans) interact to form groups, villages, cities, nations.