This is an introductory course to Human Biology covering “where do we come from”; “the inner workings of the body”; “inheritance/genes and stem cells”; and “an overview of nutrition, stress, the mind and mental health”. The course is based on material developed by U3A Network.
The main topics are:

• Where do we come from – development of life on Earth and significant milestones in the development of vertebrates including man.
• The Inner workings of the body – some insight into the autonomic nervous system and our hormones. These systems unconsciously regulate our internal environment. Inheritance, genes, and stem cells – we will look at how our genome and how characteristics are inherited; we will look at the emerging sciences of gene and stem cell therapies
• An overview of nutrition, stress, the mind, and mental health – as these topics have already been covered in other recent courses
• As we have done in other Science for the Curious Units, we will use week 5 to do Q&A

The course is based on material developed by U3A Network and is the result of the combined work of a number of individuals and organisations whose contributions are much appreciated.

Course writer: Dr John Cowley Course updates: Dr John Vanlint Administrative notes 

Course published 22 June 2008 (Updated 10 December 2010) 

Images throughout the course are courtesy of: www.britannica.com www.geographyalltheway.com/ www.wikipedia.org/