Modern Science and Culture.

This course may be taken as HIST 361 as HUM 361 or as PHYS 361. Depending then on which course students enroll in they may receive credit for Group1 (arts&letters), Group2 (social sciences) or Group3 (natural science). Please note: the three courses meet at the same time and in the same room and have the same instructors (Bothun, Physics, and Nicols, history and humanities).

Open enrollment is available for PHYS 361. Students wishing to enroll in HIST or in HUM versions will need to contract Professor Nicols to get permission to enroll.

This course traces the complex relationship between science and culture from the ancient Greeks to quantum mechanics. In particular we are concerned with the question of how new scientific ideas find a place in 'mainstream' culture and alter the perception of what humans can know and understand about nature and about themselves.

We are equally concerned with the manner in which culture supports and/or rejects scientific investigation and ideas, and in particular, in the way in which new 'counter-intuitive' ideas enter the generally accepted paradigm.