Acupuncture and Modern Sciences

This course is primarily aimed at students from the science, engineering, atomic science, life science, and electrical and information engineering colleges, as well as students from non-science and engineering backgrounds. Students from the humanities, social sciences, and technology management colleges are particularly welcome to take this course. The course will comprehensively introduce modern acupuncture through experimental results, theoretical analysis, model building, and practical applications in a clear and structured manner. Upon completing this interdisciplinary course, students will be able to develop independent critical thinking skills centered on systemic scientific significance. The main contents of this course are summarized as follows: Initially, the historical position of acupuncture in traditional Chinese medicine and its theoretical foundations will be introduced. To validate these theories, the course will explore how to design experiments and examine scientific literature to verify which can be used to establish scientific models. Subsequently, the course will address two crucial questions based on experimental results and theoretical models: Firstly, is there a meridian system, and if so, what is its essence? Secondly, what is the mechanism of action in acupuncture? These two questions are the core issues that modern acupuncture studies aim to clarify. Students from the science, engineering, humanities, and other colleges will be able to utilize their knowledge from previous professional courses, integrate it, and propose various arguments to be verified or falsified. The course will also review and compare these arguments with existing theories.