University of Edinburgh

This course explores the fundamental nature of the main groups of materials which constitute planets such as the Earth, and develops an understanding of how atomic structure of materials ultimately defines planetary processes. In Part A: From atoms to minerals, students briefly review atomic theory, consider how atoms are arranged in crystalline materials and how this, ultimately, controls material properties. Interaction of crystalline materials with light, X-rays, and electrons are used to introduce the theoretical and practical basis behind analytical techniques used to study Earth and planetary materials. In Part B: Planetary building blocks, students review the main groups of solid materials which constitute planets such as the Earth, considering how structure, chemistry, physical properties, and occurrence are interrelated. In Part C: Modelling chemical processes, students consider how the stability and occurrence of materials can be predicted and determined numerically, and consider factors governing the rates at which natural processes occur.

In order to create a learning environment that promotes the wellbeing of all within it, there is a need for capacity building so that everyone has the skills, knowledge, and disposition to be able to make a positive contribution to the health promoting environment. This course seeks to serve that function, having the potential to enhance student wellbeing and student ability to thrive in university and achieve success in their studies, through increasing students' capacity to be well and so contribute positively to a healthy environment and ethos in which to study. 

This course introduces the fundamental concepts from mechanical engineering that facilitates understanding and quantitative analysis of renewable energy systems. This includes concepts from the fields of structural mechanics, dynamics of mechanical systems, and fluid statics/dynamics. The course provides a grounding in key physical concepts and analytical methods to enable understanding of and quantitative analysis of renewable energy systems. Lecture material will cover: structural mechanics; Newtonian Dynamics; and fluid statics and dynamics. These are presented within the context of and applied to renewable energy systems

This course examines some of the key theoretical and practical problems and opportunities which arise when the ethical-political position of care is applied to issues around environment and sustainability. The first half of the course focuses on theoretical topics, such as: 1) Gillard's "different voice" contribution to moral psychology and feminism; 2) the challenge which relationality and interdependence presents to ethics and politics; and 3) how ethics of care offers an additional perspective on justice linking people-animals, and present-future generations. The second half of the course explores a number of empirical cases in areas like renewable energy (nuclear power, wind farms, community renewables etc.); landscape management (eco-system services, rewilding, species reintroduction etc.); and sustainable food production (allotments, regenerative agriculture, GM crops etc.). It also explores home and community, and cultures and communities around the world which link people and planet in different ways.

Over the course of the 19th century, North Americans in the United States and its territories experienced overwhelming social, political, technological, and economic change. At the same time, they faced significant health challenges from epidemic disease to unfamiliar environmental ills, to feuding physicians. This course addresses such changes in context and introduces students to the debates surrounding the American public's health.

This course introduces students to the key ideas of sociology by examining the relationship between individuals and societies. The course explores how social processes shape individual lives, and how changes that occur around us influence our sense of self. It draws on C. Wright Mills' idea of the sociological imagination. Mills makes three claims: that individuals live within society, that they live a biography or a personal history, and that this takes place within a distinct historical sequence. It is the sociological imagination that provides a means of mapping and understanding the relationships among these three elements, and allows us as individuals to relate our personal lives to the often impersonal social world around us. 

This course examines the anonymous song-poetry which stands in contrast to the 'court' tradition of panegyric and learned poetry of the 17th century. Neglected by most of the early collectors, it has been regarded by some critics as containing some of the most powerful Gaelic poetry extant. The course considers (1) questions of definition, range and subject matter, authorship and transmission; (2) the evidence of the orain luaidh, which raise all these questions in acute form; (3) the relationship between these 'sub-literary' compositions and the rest of the Gaelic tradition; and (4) the assessment of these songs from a literary point of view. The lecture in the first hour will be delivered in English. The tutorial in the second hour is available in either Gaelic or English, dependent on individual degree programs.

The notion of risk is central to areas such as economics, finance, medicine, and law as well as branches of philosophy such as ethics and epistemology. It is also a prominent part of ordinary everyday decision making. Risk is standardly understood in a probabilistic way, on which the risk of a given outcome is connected with the probability that the outcome will occur. In some recent philosophical literature, however, the dominance of this probabilistic approach has been challenged, and certain non-probabilistic conceptions of risk have been proposed. This literature serves the starting point for this course, but students go on to consider a much broader range of literature, drawing upon sources in psychology, risk management and legal theory. Specific topics to be covered vary from year to year but may include the ethics of risk imposition, risk-taking in extreme sport, the legal distinction between attacks and endangerments, and whether there is such a thing as a "de minimis risk" - a risk that is so small that it can be rationally ignored.