The Grainger College of Engineering
Physics

U of I's Coursera offering brings Carl Woese's pioneering work in genomics to the public

6/27/2014 Siv Schwink

Woese’s work, despite being central to cutting-edge genome-enabled research across many fields, is not generally taught in classrooms or lecture halls. Now the NASA Astrobiology Institute for Universal Biology at the Institute for Genomic Biology on the University of Illinois campus, in partnership with Coursera, is offering a rare opportunity for anyone to explore and evaluate the entire history of life on Earth, based on Woese’s seminal research. A massive open online course (MOOC) entitled Emergence of Life will run July 14 through September 7, 2014, and will be taught by Bruce Fouke, Illinois professor of biology, director of the Carver Biotech Center, and member of the Institute for Genomic Biology. It will feature previously unreleased interviews with Woese, as well as interviews with some of the most important figures in evolutionary biology today—Bruce Fouke, Swanlund Professor of Physics at Illinois Nigel Goldenfeld, University of Regensburg microbiologist and astrobiologist Karl Stetter, University of Colorado biochemist Norman Pace, and York University historian of biology Jan Sapp. It will also feature beautiful animated visualizations by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications’s eDream team.

To view the course trailer and to register for the course, please http://go.illinois.edu/emergenceoflife

Written by Siv Schwink

The revolutionary work of the late University of Illinois microbiologist and biological physicist Carl Woese (July 15, 1928—December 30, 2012) shifted the foundations of genomic biology. His theory developed in the 1970s on the communal evolution of the genetic code forever changed our understanding of the earliest structure of life on Earth. And in 1977, Woese defined an entirely new kingdom of life, Archaea, through phylogenetic taxonomy of 16S ribosomal RNA, a technique he invented.

Woese’s work, despite being central to cutting-edge genome-enabled research across many fields, is not generally taught in classrooms or lecture halls. Now the NASA Astrobiology Institute for Universal Biology at the Institute for Genomic Biology on the University of Illinois campus, in partnership with Coursera, is offering a rare opportunity for anyone to explore and evaluate the entire history of life on Earth, based on Woese’s seminal research.

A massive open online course (MOOC) entitled Emergence of Life will run July 14 through September 7, 2014, and will be taught by Bruce Fouke, Illinois professor of biology, director of the Carver Biotech Center, and member of the Institute for Genomic Biology. It will feature previously unreleased interviews with Woese, as well as interviews with some of the most important figures in evolutionary biology today—Bruce Fouke, Swanlund Professor of Physics at Illinois Nigel Goldenfeld, University of Regensburg microbiologist and astrobiologist Karl Stetter, University of Colorado biochemist Norman Pace, and York University historian of biology Jan Sapp. It will also feature beautiful animated visualizations by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications’s eDream team.

To view the course trailer and to register for the course, please visit this link: http://go.illinois.edu/emergenceoflife.

Madeline Stover is a physics doctoral student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign studying atmospheric dynamics applied to forest conservation. She interns as a science writer for Illinois Physics, where she also co-hosts the podcast Emergence along with fellow physics graduate student Mari Cieszynski. When Stover is not doing research or communications, she enjoys hosting her local radio show, singing with her band, and cooking with friends.

Daniel Inafuku graduated from Illinois Physics with a PhD and now works as a science writer. At Illinois, he conducted scientific research in mathematical biology and mathematical physics. In addition to his research interests, Daniel is a science video media creator.

Karmela Padavic-Callaghan, Ph. D. is a science writer and an educator. She teaches college and high school physics and mathematics courses, and her writing has been published in popular science outlets such as WIRED, Scientific American, Physics World, and New Scientist. She earned a Ph. D. in Physics from UIUC in 2019 and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Jamie Hendrickson is a writer and content creator in higher education communications. They earned their M.A. in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2021. In addition to their communications work, they are a published area studies scholar and Russian-to-English translator.

Garrett R. Williams is an Illinois Physics Ph.D. Candidate and science writer. He has been recognized as the winner of the 2020 APS History of Physics Essay Competition and as a finalist in the 2021 AAAS Science and Human Rights Essay Competition. He was also an invited author in the 2021 #BlackinPhysics Week series published by Physics Today and Physics World. 

 

Karmela Padavic-Callaghan, Ph. D. is a science writer and an educator. She teaches college and high school physics and mathematics courses, and her writing has been published in popular science outlets such as WIRED, Scientific American, Physics World, and New Scientist. She earned a Ph. D. in Physics from UIUC in 2019 and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.

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This story was published June 27, 2014.