English novelist and scientist C. P. Snow classed certain scientific ideas with the works of Shakespeare as something every educated person should know. One such idea, according to Snow, was the second law of thermodynamics, which deals with the diffusion of heat and has many profound consequences.
He might well have added Newton's laws, the periodic table of elements, the double-helix structure of DNA, and scores of other masterpieces of scientific discovery.
Now, Professor Robert M. Hazen introduces these and other great ideas in 60 lectures that explore the fundamental discoveries and principles of all of the physical and biological sciences—physics, genetics, biology, astronomy, chemistry, meteorology, thermodynamics, and more.
Course Lecture Titles
1. The Nature of Science
2. The Scientific Method
3. The Ordered Universe
4. Celestial and Terrestrial Mechanics
5. Newton's Laws of Motion
6. Universal Gravitation
7. The Nature of Energy
8. The First Law of Thermodynamics
9. The Second Law of Thermodynamics
10. Entropy
11. Magnetism and Static Electricity
12. Electricity
13. Electromagnetism
14. The Electromagnetic Spectrum, Part I
15. The Electromagnetic Spectrum, Part II
16. Relativity
17. Atoms
18. The Bohr Atom
19. The Quantum World
20. The Periodic Table of the Elements
21. Introduction to Chemistry
22. The Chemistry of Carbon
23. States of Matter and Changes of State
24. Phase Transformations and Chemical Reactions
25. Properties of Materials
26. Semiconductors and Modern Microelectronics
27. Isotopes and Radioactivity
28. Nuclear Fission and Fusion Reactions
29. Astronomy
30. The Life Cycle of Stars
31. Edwin Hubble and the Discovery of Galaxies
32. The Big Bang
33. The Ultimate Structure of Matter
34. The Nebular Hypothesis
35. The Solar System
36. The Earth as a Planet
37. The Dynamic Earth
38. The Plate Tectonics Revolution
39. Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Plate Motions Today
40. Earth Cycles—Water
41. The Atmospheric Cycle
42. The Rock Cycle
43. What Is Life?
44. Strategies of Life
45. Life's Molecular Building Blocks
46. Proteins
47. Cells—The Chemical Factories of Life
48. Gregor Mendel, Founder of Genetics
49. The Discovery of DNA
50. The Genetic Code
51. Reading the Genetic Code
52. Genetic Engineering
53. Cancer and Other Genetic Diseases
54. The Chemical Evolution of Life
55. Biological Evolution—A Unifying Theme of Biology
56. The Fact of Evolution—The Fossil Record
57. Charles Darwin and the Theory of Natural Selection
58. Ecosystems and the Law of Unintended Consequences
59. The Ozone Hole, Acid Rain, and the Greenhouse Effect
60. Science, the Endless Frontier
Thanks to MorpheoZ
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