States of Matter - intermolecular forces and solutions. In addition we would be dealing extensively with electrochemistry, the Nernst equation, concentration cells and concentration gradients. Assessment of what students have learned will involve both group and individual exams. The exams will emphasize concept explication and problem-solving. Class Plan One of the most important functions of the nervous system is to take in information about the surrounding environment.
Most people agree that our most precious sensory ability is vision.
Much is known about how light first triggers a response in photoreceptors, how this information is passed on to other cells at chemical synapses, how this information is processed and how features of the visual world are extracted in the retina and in the brain. New technological advances are helping to elucidate the chemical processes that underlie phototransduction, generation of electrical signals, and synaptic transmission between neurons in the visual system. New technology is also revealing the activity of the brain in living awake animals during visual perception. The goals of this module are to provide an overview of the neurobiology of vision, and to explore in more detail specific chemical principles that are crucial to vision. The receptor for light is a molecule named rhodopsin.