Course Coordinators
Prof. Oren Levy, Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University .
Lecturers
Prof. Oren Levy, Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University .
Dr. Gal Eyal, Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University .
Dr. Yaarit Adamovich, Faculty of Biochemistry, Weizmann Institute of Science.
Dr. Shahar Alon, Faculty of Engineering, Bar-Ilan University .
Prof. Yoav Gothilf , המחלקה לנוירוביולוגיה, Tel Aviv University.
Prof. Lior Appelbaum, Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University .
Course Brief Description
A 10-day course. The course includes lectures, research projects, guided tours, and seminars. The course consists of two parts. The first part is theoretical, during which students are exposed to a variety of lectures in the field and it ends with an exam. In the second part, the research projects are carried-out and the student seminars are presented.
The course introduces the concept of time and rhythm oscillations in behavior and activity of marine biological systems. For this purpose, the following questions are examined: how organisms measure time, what the biological clock affects physiologically and behaviorally, how the biological clock is structured at the molecular biochemical level, and what environmental signals synchronize the biological clock and periodicity. Special emphasis is placed on biological clocks in relation to the complexity of living environments, from the level of symbiotic relationships to the ecological niche. The students are acquainted with the marine system in the Gulf of Eilat and carry out research projects. The purpose of the projects is to implement the concepts and theories that the students acquire in the lectures on the phenomena that are under the control of the biological clock, in various marine systems such as the tidal environment, horizontal and vertical artificial structures and the coral reef.
Key topics covered in the course:
- Time - what is a unit of time in biological systems, what is periodicity?
- The external clock facing the internal clock
- Adjusting the internal clock to various environmental variables such as light, temperature and lunar cycles in marine environments.
- Biological clocks in marine ecological niches.
- Symbiosis and the biological clock.
- Molecular biochemical structure of the biological clock.
- Evolution of the biological clock.
- The biological clock and metabolic processes.
- Reproduction cycles, the effect of endogenous and exogenous variables.
- Animal sensing, magnetism and gravitation.
- Pineal gland: Melatonin, daily and annual cycles.
- The biological clock under interference.
- Biological clocks in marine mammals.
- How social interaction initializes the biological clock in ecosystems.
The grade structure
Group research project 60%. The report will be submitted about a month after the end of the course.
The discussion on the project results will be written personally, submitted separately by each student and its weight will be 30% of the final grade in the course.
Participation and contribution to the course 10%
Audience
The course is limited to graduate and 3rd year undergraduate students that love the sea and have a biological background that enables their integration into the course.
Language
The language of instruction is Hebrew, however, if students who do not speak Hebrew will take part in the course, the language of instruction will be English. If the language of instruction is English, Hebrew speakers will be allowed to submit the personal assignments in Hebrew.