English novelist and scientist C. P. Snow classed certain scientific ideas with the works of Shakespeare as things every educated person should know. The lectures in this series explore the fundamental discoveries and principles of the physical and biological sciences--physics, genetics, biology, astronomy, chemistry, meteorology, thermodynamics, and more--providing a comprehensive and integrated introduction to all of science. The Joy of Science,...

You live with it 24 hours a day, but how well do you really know it? This course is an owner's manual to a remarkably complex, resilient, and fascinating structure: the human body. Using detailed color illustrations, life-sized models, and, even a video shot during surgery, this course examines the major systems of the body, explaining exactly how things work and why they sometimes don't. Each lecture concentrates on a particular organ or organ system,...

In this video course, Dr. Anthony Goodman presents a systematic survey of what can go wrong in the human body, why it goes wrong and how the body itself responds, as well as what doctors can do to intervene.

"More than just a biography of Einstein's life, this course provides you with an inside look at how this brilliant thinker arrived at his various revolutionary breakthroughs. One of the secrets of Einstein's success was that he was well read in philosophy, and that guided his approach not only to framing and solving problems in physics but also to interpreting his discoveries in a more universal context. In addition, his philosophical background gave...

Course covers the making of our planet from the Big Bang, to the formation of the solar system, to the subsequent evolution of Earth. Travel to the center of our planet and out again, charting the geologic forces that churn beneath our feet to push the continents and seafloor.

Nearly everyone has heard of black holes, but few people outside of complex scientific fields understand their true nature and their implications for our universe. This lecture course makes this cosmological subject graspable, with 12 lavishly illustrated lectures by veteran Great Courses Professor Alex Filippenko, a distinguished astronomer and award-winning teacher at the University of California, Berkeley.

Examines how scientists know what they do about the past. These lectures cover an astonishing range of cases in which physics has helped to redefine history--in astronomy, archaeology, geology, climatology, art history, and other fields.

An overview of significant evolutionary transitions in the 4 billion-year history of life.

This course explores the science and mystery of the human nervous system, from essential neurochemical and neurobiological processes to the psychological and social constructs they are thought to produce.

Professor Donald G. Saari of the University of California, Irvine, presents 24 lectures (ca. 30 min. each) showing the power of applying mathematical ideas across disciplines.