Undergraduate Course: Evolution and Ecology of Ageing (ZLGY10029)
Course Outline
| School | School of Biological Sciences |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | Ageing is one of the most complex and variable of biological processes. Understanding its causes and consequences is one of the central challenges currently facing by biologists and biomedics. Evolutionary theory provides a unifying framework with which to study and understand ageing. This course will offer students a brief overview of the challenge that ageing poses to modern human society, and recent developments in our understanding of the causes and consequences of ageing from mechanism-oriented laboratory studies and demography. We will then discuss in detail evolutionary theories of ageing, which can explain both near universality of the phenomenon of ageing and the great diversity of ageing rates across plant and animal species. From there we will move onto more specific lectures relating to important topics in the evolutionary study of ageing, including comparative studies of ageing, studies of ageing in wild animals, how and why the sexes differ in ageing rates, and the effects of social interactions on the ageing process. We aim to provide students with an up-to-date understanding of how evolutionary thinking is shaping our understanding of the ageing process. |
| Course description |
The course is based around 10-12 lectures, but will also involve group discussion sessions centred on salient topics covered in these lectures and in-course assessment based on critical reading of papers from the primary literature which each student will be assigned.
|
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | No |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2017/18, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
|
Quota: 30 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
| Course Start Date |
18/09/2017 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
100
(
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
98 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
60 %,
Coursework
40 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
2hr exam written exam and essay, weighting 60% exam, 40% essay |
| Feedback |
Not entered |
| Exam Information |
| Exam Diet |
Paper Name |
Hours & Minutes |
|
| Main Exam Diet S1 (December) | Evolution and Ecoogy of Ageing | 2:00 | |
Learning Outcomes
| Detailed learning outcomes will be provided later
|
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Jacob Moorad
Tel: (0131 6)50 5442
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Rachel Law
Tel: (0131 6)51 3689
Email: |
|
© Copyright 2017 The University of Edinburgh - 6 February 2017 9:43 pm
|
University Homepage