COD offers new 'Physics of Politics' class in spring 2015

College of DuPage is offering a new honors seminar titled "The Physics of Politics" for the first time in spring 2015.

"This class is geared toward students pursuing a broad range of majors, including everything from philosophy to mechanical engineering," said physics professor Tom Carter. "This combination of significant writing, group projects and basic quantitative analysis will provide opportunities and challenges for everyone."

This six-credit interdisciplinary seminar combines the study of physics applications with an analysis of U.S. politics by examining a variety of topics based on physical phenomena that have caused considerable political debate.

Students will gain insight into physical processes and apply that knowledge to "hot-button topics" such as climate change, electrical power generation and power grids, peaceful and military use of nuclear power, and traditional and alternative forms of energy. To participate in this seminar, students must enroll concurrently in Political Science 1101, American Politics, and Physics 1150, Physics and Society.

This is the first time a class combining physics and politics has been offered at College of DuPage. According to professor of political science Christian Goergen, it's a collaboration that is long overdue.

"Political problems often have underlying physical realities to consider," said Goergen. "Too often, those realities are not well understood or they may be distorted by the partisan debate. We cannot have good public policies if we ignore the physical realities."

Carter noted that in an era marked by considerable global issues related to science, rapidly progressing technology and an abundance of conflicting information, this offering is particularly relevant.

"So many of the important issues today depend on the interplay between policy and science," said Carter.

"As a society, we need a solid understanding of science to analyze many current problems and to initiate possible solutions. We are teaching students to stop and think about the sources of some of the information they receive and to consider the implications of each source."

For more information about this seminar, please contact Tom Carter at cartert@cod.edu or Christian Goergen at goergen@cod.edu. To register for this course, visit myACCESS.cod.edu.