This course is geared towards starting undergraduate students. A solid background in biology will be helpful but not absolutely essential. The material will be of interest to those who are pursuing a career in any of the life sciences as well as anyone who has run up against their biological clock.
Circadian clocks: how rhythms structure life
Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.
4.8
(217 reviews)
13 hours to complete
3 weeks at 4 hours a week
Flexible schedule
Learn at your own pace
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Assessments
9 assignments
Taught in English
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There are 6 modules in this course
Introduction to 'chronobiology'. What sorts of rhythms are observed in nature? Most of the lecture will be spent on describing daily or circadian rhythms in organisms from bacteria to man.
What's included
9 videos1 reading2 assignments
Circadian rhythms synchronise to the 24-hour environment. Organisms use specialised photoreceptors to do this and they display characteristic properties in this process. We experience this active synchronisation process for example when we suffer from jet lag!
What's included
5 videos3 readings1 assignment
We will discuss the elaborate molecular mechanisms that allow circadian clocks to produce their daily rhythms and to synchronise them to its environment. We will compare these mechanisms in a wide range of organisms.
What's included
8 videos1 reading1 assignment
Circadian clocks serve to orchestrate physiology and metabolism in a coordinated way over the course of the day. Therefore, practically all processes in an organism are regulated outputs of the clock. We'll discuss examples of these processes and ideas about how this circadian regulation works.
What's included
8 videos1 reading1 assignment
With the appreciation of the clock’s global control, we proceed to discussing how much this temporal programme controls our lives from birth to death and how much we mistreat the circadian clock in modern life.
What's included
6 videos1 reading1 assignment
Finally, we will look at the clock’s relationship to pathology. What are the consequences of living against the clock, what happens if the clock ‘breaks’, and how can we use our knowledge about the circadian system in medical diagnosis and therapy.
What's included
11 videos3 assignments1 peer review
Instructors
Instructor ratings
4.9 (76 ratings)
Recommended if you're interested in Basic Science
University of Colorado Boulder
University of Colorado Boulder
Yale University
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