About This Activity
This is a Spark Lab Research stream course and it is recommended students have a minimum overall average of 85%. Did you know that plants can glow? At the intersection of physics, chemistry, and biology, the field of biophotonics–“life” and “light”–is a branch of biophysics which finds itself uniquely suited to tackle one of the most pressing topics of our time: the health of our environment and sustainability on Earth. In this course, students will uncover nature’s strategies for breathing colour into life with a focus on the intriguing phenomenon of fluorescence. Students will have the opportunity to learn about exotic plant species housed at the YorkU greenhouse. In chemistry and physics labs, students will gain hands-on experience with fluorescence spectroscopy, even by counting individual particles of light! By the end of the course, students will gain valuable skills in research and understand how the light-matter interaction is an important tool for studying the health of plants and other organisms. Students will also look beyond—they will visit the MiBAR Biophotonics Research Lab to explore new frontiers for these techniques in medicine and how they can be used to study human health in space! ABOUT THE INSTRUCTORS Taught by Dr. Ozzy Mermut, Dr. William Pietro, and PhD candidate Coral Hillel. See website for Instructor profiles.
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