Devaki Bhaya

Ever marveled at the imposing trees around campus? This  course will explore trees on campus using Bracewell's  marvelous “Trees of Stanford” as a rough guide. We will develop  tools and explore ideas that will allow the wider community to  cherish and appreciate the oft-neglected trees on campus. The  course will include guest lectures that focus on the theme of  trees: from literature to the physics and biology of trees, to the  environmental impact of global forest loss.

We will explore three crucial aspects of microbial life. First, examine how the unseen microbial majority is responsible for critical but under-appreciated aspects of the biology of the planet. Second, investigate the array of current genomic and imaging tools available to probe microscopic organisms in the environment.  Last, we will research the importance of microbial communities and social dynamics in ecological and human health settings.

(ART: courtesy Ilina BG)

Microbes, the unseen majority in the world, but only in the last decades have methods been developed to investigate their diversity. How are these new technologies shaping appreciation of microbial diversity? Discoveries in genomics and metagenomics, and the interfaces among bioinformatics, evolutionary biology, and synthetic biology. Emphasis is on microbes in the environment and current ability to dissect the interactions of complex microbial communities.

(Image: Class of 2008)