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École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Nature, in Code: Biology in JavaScript

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne via edX

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Overview

If you are interested in learning programming, but find pure programming courses not very exciting, this course is for you.

Instead of just learning programming principles outside of any context, you will learn JavaScript programming by implementing key biological concepts in code so they can run in your browser.

If you know a little (or a lot of) programming already, but want to learn more about the rules that govern life without having to pick up a traditional academic textbook, this course will also be of interest to you. You will learn some key ideas that form the basis of modern biology, from population genetics to evolutionary biology to infectious disease spread.

No prior programming knowledge needed.

Syllabus

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2. The Genes, They Are a-Changin’
The Hardy Weinberg Principle
What Does Boring Look Like?

Chapter 3. Genetic Drift: The Power of Chance
Randomness
The Randomness of Finite Populations
Visualizing Drift
A Mathematical Formulation of Genetic Drift
Effective Population Size

Chapter 4. Mutation: The Power of Mistakes
The Fixation of Mutations

Chapter 5. Migration: Spatial Models
Quantifying Inbreeding

Chapter 6. Natural Selection: The Best Idea Anyone’s Ever Had
Directional Selection
Balancing Selection
Disruptive Selection
Coevolution

Chapter 7. Epidemics: The Spread of Infectious Diseases
The SIR Model
It’s a Small World

Taught by

Marcel Salathé

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Reviews

3.0 rating, based on 1 Class Central review

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  • Anonymous
    I liked this course but it has some deficiencies. If you come into this course with little or no programming experience, you will quickly learn JavaScript and how it applies to some interesting biological principles like genetic drift and natural se…
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