EGMT 1520: Life On the Move

Instructor: 
We cannot work or play, fight or express love without an accompanying movement, however subtle, somewhere in the body.  But does movement accomplish more than just getting from one place to another?  Will running nurture resilience?  Can we dance our way around chronic diseases?  Do big biceps lead to bigger brains?  Did humans evolve to run?  What are the consequences of a sedentary lifestyle?  Should couch potatoes take “exercise” pills?  We will address questions like these by applying empirical approaches to explore the scope and scale of nature’s movements -- from the tiny trajectories of molecules and cells to the global migrations of animals and people.  By observing and measuring your own patterns of movement, you will also learn to think like a scientist and to consider the limitations of empirical approaches.  By hypothesizing how novel types of movement might occur and how you might test your ideas, you will come to appreciate that discovery about the unknown is a creative process limited only by an infinite imagination.