Version: 3 September 2019

GenEd 1107: Energy Bodyworks

General Education: Science and Technology in Society
Fall 2019, Scot Martin (scot_martin@harvard.edu)
MonWed, 12:00 to 1:15 PM, Location: Pierce 209
https://gened.fas.harvard.edu/classes/energy-bodyworks
Juanita Becerra (Teaching Fellow)
Brendan Deveney (Head Teaching Fellow)
Rebecca Frank (Teaching Fellow)
Debojyoti Panda (Teaching Fellow)

A. Description
How we conceptualize the universe influences what we can discover and know – and vice
versa. The history of the understanding of the human body puts forth an instructive
embodiment of this principle. This course explores historical and contemporary thinking about
the human body, the most recent paradigm of which is as a machine of interconnected
components that function together according to force (N) and energy (J) laws. Course topics
include historical thinking, the scientific method, and the human body as a force machine. This
machine acts through the forces of muscles, leading to movement such as walking and gait, and
it is driven by the interconnected system of lungs, heart, blood, and metabolism. The machine
constantly interchanges gravitational, mechanical, and chemical energies to do useful actions.
How the machine can and does break down, represented by illness and disease, is considered
within this context. The student who graduates from Energy Bodyworks should (i) expect and
welcome the evolution in scientific understanding in all matters health and otherwise during
the span of a lifetime, (ii) be critically cognizant of the body as a mechanical and chemical
machine, and thereby (iii) be positioned as a lifetime steward of the body, both personally for
one’s own well-being as well as civically for health issues that transect country and globe.

B. Schedule of Lectures

Introduction

1. September 4. Introduction. Demo 1 (“Stair Stepping”).

Module 1: To become knowledgeable of the history of scientific ideas relevant to your energy
bodyworks is to expect and welcome the evolution in scientific understanding in all matters,
health and otherwise, during the span of your lifetime.

Synopsis of this module: (a) What we know (scientifically, technically, engineering)

influences our views on our place in the universe. (b) Our views on our place in the universe
influence our ability to know. History of strong conflicts in ideas when a changes b or when
b limits a. The history of ‘strange’ and ‘wrong’ ideas begs us in a liberal tradition to always

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challenge which of our ‘modern’ and ‘scientific’ ideas might be taken as strange or wrong
by us or our descendants in the future.

Reference: Preface and Pages 1 to 65 of H. King, Greek and Roman Medicine, Bristol
Classic Press, 2001, ISBN: 978-1853995453.

2. September 9. Greeks: A different way of thinking about energy and the body: the four fluids
(“humors”), particularly as compared to today’s status quo formulation.

3. September 11. “Challenging a status quo understanding and dialectic advance of ideas and
new understanding?” From the plague of Athens, to persistence of Greek ideas through the
centuries (why?), to miasma vs contagion and new paradigms of energy and body. “How
can we know?” Today’s status quo answer: the scientific method (i.e., “today’s approach to
supporting or upending a status quo.

September 13, section (start your work on September 10): Module concludes with a
homework assignment on other (i.e., non-Greek) conceptualizations in antiquity of energy
bodyworks (e.g., choose one of Chinese, Egyptian, or so on). Students do peer-to-peer
PowerPoint presentations in groups of three (10 min each) of their assignments to one
another in section this week. In addition, on September 16, each group should submit a
three-page critical summary (12 point font, TimesNewRoman, 1.5 line spacing, 1” margins).

4. September 16. Primer on force (Newtons) and energy (Joules) and related conservation
relationships for the human body.

Module 2: To be critically cognizant of yourself as a mechanical machine is to be positioned

as a lifetime steward for optimized decision-making in exercise, healthcare, injury, and well-
being.

Synopsis of this module: The human body is presented as a mechanical machine of pumps,
pipes, and signaling responsible for autonomous and controlled motions, including
perspectives on how this machine can and does break down.

Reference: Pages 1 to 125 of H.D. Goldick, Mechanics, Heat, and The Human Body: An
Introduction to Physics, Upper Sadle River: Prentice Hall, 2001, ISBN: 978-0139228162.

Reference: Pages XX-YY, denoted in list below as “XX-YY, Parker,” of S. Parker, The
Human Body Book: An Illustrated Guide to Its Structure, Function, and Disorders (2nd
Edition), London: Dorling Kindersley, 2013, ISBN: 978-1465402134.

5. September 18. Blueprints of the human body as a mechanical machine. Demo 2 (“Muscle
co-activation: biceps and triceps”). Reading: Page 25 and Pages 70-81, Parker.

6. September 23. Liquid pump (commonly called a ‘heart’). Demo 3 (“Heart

electrocardiogram”). Reading: Pages 130-141, Parker.

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7. September 25. Piping (commonly called ‘veins’ and ‘arteries’). Reading: Pages 130-135,
Parker.

8. September 30. Gas pump (commonly known as ‘lungs’). Reading: Pages 146-153 and pages
156-159, Parker.

9. October 2. Application: Seeing inside the machine: Ultrasound imaging. Demo 4 (“Carotid
artery”). Reading: Pages 10-21, Parker.

10. October 7. Application: In the Pulmonary Function Testing (PFT) Lab. Reading: Page 156-
161, Parker.

11. October 9. Control (commonly called the ‘nervous system’). Reading: Page 26, Parker.

[October 14. University Holiday]

12. October 16. Integrative review: Putting all the pieces together as a mechanical machine
(aka “the human body”). Reading: Pages 22-23, Pages 82-101, and Pages 112-113, Parker.

13. October 21. Application: Putting all pieces together in a system: Gait. Demo 5 (“Gait
tracking and electromyogram”; Page 61, Parker).

14. October 23. Application: A ‘302-Neuron-Brain’ Manifested in a Worm.

15. October 28. Module Exam.

Module 3: To understand yourself as a chemical engine is to decipher nutrition, diet,

metabolism, and disease as a consuming citizen, a voting citizen, and a healthy citizen.

Synopsis of this module: The human body is presented as a chemical engine of input
feedstock (i.e., food) that undergoes a series of chemical reactions that provides materials
for construction (e.g., maintenance of the mechanical machine), for energy (i.e., to drive the
mechanical machine), and for environmental conditioning (e.g., optimum temperature
regulation of the machine).

Reference: Pages 127 to 193 of H.D. Goldick, Mechanics, Heat, and The Human Body: An
Introduction to Physics, Upper Sadle River: Prentice Hall, 2001, ISBN: 978-0139228162.

Reference: Pages 1-8, 14-16, and 49-90 of J. Kang, Bioenergetics Primer for Exercise
Science, Champaign: Human Kinetics, 2008, ISBN: 978-0736062411.

Reference: Pages XX-YY, denoted in list below as “XX-YY, Parker,” of S. Parker, The
Human Body Book: An Illustrated Guide to Its Structure, Function, and Disorders (2nd
Edition), London: Dorling Kindersley, 2013, ISBN: 978-1465402134.

16. October 30. Foodstuffs to human activity (aka, “what is an engine?) Demo 6 (“Yeast”).

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17. November 4. Food (aka “energy IN” for the human engine). ”). Reading: Pages 202-203,
Parker.

18. November 6. Passive human activities (aka “energy OUT of type 1 like heartbeat” for the
human engine).

19. November 11. Active human activities (aka “energy OUT of type 2 like exercise” for the
human engine).

20. November 13. How to go from food to human activities (aka “metabolism = lots of
chemistry”).

21. November 18. Keeping it cool and keeping it hot (aka “temperature regulation of human
engine) Demo 7 (“Body thermal regulation on a treadmill”). Reading: Page 30 and Pages
162-167, Parker.

22. November 20. Application: Putting all of the pieces together: Exercise and Integration of
course concepts. Reading: Pages 49-90, Kang.

23. November 25. Module Exam.

[November 27. University Holiday.]

24. December 2. Integrative review of course.

C. Additional Course Information

The course has weekly sections and weekly homework assignments. In some weeks, there is no
homework assignment, such as leading up to an exam.

Schedule

Homework assignments are usually due on Mondays. Module mid-term exams usually take
place on Mondays.

Anticipated section times are as follows:

 Friday, 10:30 AM to 11:45 AM, Location: MD221 (not 9/13?)
 Friday, 12:00 PM to 13:15 PM, Location: MD123
 Friday, 3:00 PM to 4:15 PM, Location: Cruft 309

Anticipated office hours are as follows:

 Thursday, 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM, Location: Northwest B166
 Friday, 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM, Location: Pierce 213
 Monday, 9:15 AM to 10:15 AM, Location: Pierce MD123
 Tuesday, 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM (course instructor), Location: Pierce 122

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Enrollment

Enrollment is limited to 60 students. The lottery system is used.

Extension, planned absence, illness, and related requests

All communication should be made by email to the head TF. By common policy, the first
extension request for a homework assignment by one day is routinely approved.

Attendance

Full attendance at all lectures and sections is expected. Please communicate with the head TF
prior to any absence. Excused absences for standard reasons in the student handbook will be
approved in advance. In case of unforeseen absence, please provide justification to head TF
afterwards. One unexcused absence in the semester is forgiven.

Grade

5% lecture attendance
5% section attendance and participation
45% homework
45% exams

Late homework without an extension approval is penalized one letter grade per day. After three
days, late homework is no longer accepted.

Textbooks

H. King, Greek and Roman Medicine, Bristol Classic Press, 2001, ISBN: 978-1853995453.

S. Parker, The Human Body Book: An Illustrated Guide to Its Structure, Function, and
Disorders (2nd Edition), London: Dorling Kindersley, 2013, ISBN: 978-1465402134.

J. Kang, Bioenergetics Primer for Exercise Science, Champaign: Human Kinetics, 2008,
ISBN: 978-0736062411.

H.D. Goldick, Mechanics, Heat, and The Human Body: An Introduction to Physics, Upper
Sadle River: Prentice Hall, 2001, ISBN: 978-0139228162.

Honor Code

Collaboration and discussion are encouraged for homework assignments. However, each
assignment should be recognizably independent and be the obvious intellectual work of an
individual student. In practice, that means that you can discuss the homework assignments and

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solution approaches as much as you want with others, but in the end you should sit at your own
desk alone and write up your answers and responses without the aid of others.

As a disclosure statement, please include: “Collaborators: _________________” or “Discussed

with:__________” in the case of any collaboration or discussion on homework. Discussion
with course TFs or course instructor does not need to be disclosed.