Biochemistry Of The Senses

Wagner adult education series. This free course will explore the molecules and mechanisms that enable us to see, hear, feel, smell, and taste the world. Professor Joseph B. Rucker. Held over 7 Wednesdays, January 21 - March 4, 2015, 6:15 - 7:30 PM. Independence Branch of the Free Library (between Market and Chestnut and 18th). ################ DISCLAIMER ############# If you registered by attending the first course, you can attend the next. If you did not, try your luck. Maybe it will be OK to attend without registering. ######################################## UP NEXT>>2. Wednesday, January 28, 2015 – Sight The curious case of John Dalton’s eyes; the structure of the eye; rhodopsin, a protein that detects photons; how we tell colors apart; visual disorders. >>FUTURE 3. Wednesday, February 4, 2015 – Hearing From three little bones to many large molecules; hair cells; how we tell pitches apart; the molecular origins of hearing loss; cochlear implants. 4. Wednesday, February 11, 2015 – Touch What do we mean by touch; mechanosensors and the mechanism of tactile sense; how we tell warm from cool. 5. Wednesday, February 18, 2015 – Smell Molecules that smell; knowing the nose; olfactory receptors; how smells are sent to the brain; pheromones and the vomeronasal system. 6. Wednesday, February 25, 2015 – Taste A brief exercise in bad taste; taste modalities; the myth of the map of the tongue; taste buds; the menagerie of taste receptors; the genetics of taste; how taste gets to the brain. 7. Wednesday, March 4, 2015 – Pain and itch Signaling danger; nerve cells that sense pain and itch; irritating molecules; hot peppers and receptors that hurt. >>PAST 1. Wednesday, January 21, 2015 – An Introduction to the Senses Course introduction; stimuli, detectors, and signals; overview of the senses; thinking about small molecules and big proteins; what do we mean by mechanism? SNOW DATE - Wednesday, March 11, 2015.