Catalog Search Results
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 22
Language
English
Description
How do hurricanes get so big? Start off the coast of West Africa to see how this region is the perfect breeding ground for low-pressure disturbances. Chart the role of the Coriolis force, water temperature, and other factors that must coincide for these systems to grow into hurricanes threatening the U.S.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 17
Language
English
Description
The region downwind from the Great Lakes is famous for its lake effect snowstorms, which can total more than 200 inches of snow per year for some locations. Examine the factors behind this phenomenon as well as the mortal danger posed by blizzards, as shown by the tragic Children's Blizzard of 1888.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 21
Language
English
Description
Despite being a common disease, the flu is responsible for some of the deadliest pandemics of all time. Explore two important biological aspects of influenza-antigenic drift and antigenic shift-to understand why changes in viruses can have such a huge impact on disease prevalence.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 7
Language
English
Description
In the 1920s, astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered the true nature of galaxies as island universes. Some 80 years later, the telescope named in his honor has made thousands of breathtaking pictures of galaxies. Focus on one in particular: an edge-on view of the striking Sombrero galaxy.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 2
Language
English
Description
The naked eye is a powerful instrument, for those who know how to use it. Learn the best times and conditions for observing, how to identify the positions and magnitudes of stars and planets, how the sky changes over the course of a night, how to use astronomical maps such as a planisphere, and more.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 23
Language
English
Description
Hurricanes destroy life and property in four ways: through storm surge, inland flooding, high winds, and embedded tornadoes. Consider examples of each. Then focus on high water as the deadliest factor, responsible for 80% of all hurricane fatalities.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 30
Language
English
Description
Modern technology has transformed procreation, birth, and parenting. Given the different donor and surrogate options, it's perfectly possible to have a child with five biologically contributing parents. What are the implications of this revolution, especially if human cloning becomes the next new option?
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 28
Language
English
Description
Home to some of the world's most beautiful beaches, the Maldives in the Indian Ocean show the tranquil end-stage of ocean islands built on hotspots. The volcanoes beneath this coral reef archipelago are long since dormant, and the islands themselves barely rise above sea level.
9) World's Greatest Geological Wonders: 36 Spectacular Sites: The Himalayas - Mountains at Earth's Roof
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 8
Language
English
Description
What makes the highest mountains in the world so high? Follow the events that created Mount Everest and the rest of the Himalayan range on the vast Tibetan Plateau. Learn the role of the plateau in cooling the entire planet over the last 60 million years.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 2
Language
English
Description
Trace a scientific revolution that started with a curious observation about light and a seemingly nonsensical explanation. Learn how Max Planck's proposal that energy is related to frequency, and Albert Einstein's application of this principle to light, gave birth to modern physics.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 53
Language
English
Description
In 1926 Erwin Schrödinger developed an equation that underlies much of our modern quantum-mechanical description of physical reality. Solve a simple problem with the Schrödinger equation. Then learn how the merger of quantum mechanics and special relativity led to the discovery of antimatter.
12) Experiencing Hubble: Understanding the Greatest Images of the Universe: Hubble's Legacy and Beyond
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 12
Language
English
Description
Finish the course by looking at the future of Hubble and the next generation of space telescopes. Focus in particular on the search for extrasolar planets, how they are found, and the role Hubble and other telescopes play in extending the knowledge of possibly earthlike worlds.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 7
Language
English
Description
For a long time, scientists thought that the neurotransmitter dopamine was directly related to pleasure. But it turns out that dopamine is more about the anticipation of reward than the reward itself. Here, plunge into the neuroscience behind why we're willing to deal with such long delays in gratification, and what it says about human motivation and addiction.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 5
Language
English
Description
Where did atoms come from? Trace the story of nucleosynthesis-the formation of complex nuclei and atoms. Cover this process from the big bang, which filled the universe with hydrogen and helium, to the events inside stars that produced practically all of the heavier elements.
15) World's Greatest Geological Wonders: 36 Spectacular Sites: Namib/Kalahari Deserts - Sand Mountains
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 31
Language
English
Description
Contrast two of the world's most fascinating deserts, the Namib and Kalahari deserts in southern Africa. The Atlantic shoreline of the Namib Desert has been aptly named the Skeleton Coast. The Kalahari Desert includes the mighty Okavango River, which empties into the arid landscape and then disappears.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 10
Language
English
Description
Traditional attempts to understand the world assumed that it was regular, simple, periodic, and predictable. But nature surprised scientists, giving them a richer picture of reality through chaos theory, which includes fractal structures. Learn how chaos is not randomness but a previously unimagined complexity within the universe.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 16
Language
English
Description
Remembering the past and projecting into the future are crucial for human consciousness, as shown by cases where these faculties are impaired. Investigate what happens in the brain when we remember, exploring different kinds of memory and the phenomena of false memories and false forgetting.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 18
Language
English
Description
See how Einstein's general theory of relativity predicts the bending of light in a gravitational field, famously confirmed in 1919 by the British scientist Arthur Eddington. Learn how this phenomenon creates natural gravitational lenses-and how the bending of light reveals invisible matter in deep space.
19) World's Greatest Geological Wonders: 36 Spectacular Sites: Erta Ale - Compact Fury of Lava Lakes
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 5
Language
English
Description
Zoom in on a remarkable feature of the African Rift Valley: the lava lake at Erta Ale in Ethiopia. This seething cauldron of molten rock is the oldest of the world's five active lava lakes, and it replicates on a small scale the complex process of plate tectonics.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 7
Language
English
Description
The world of games is filled with scams. The trick: knowing the strategies behind how these hustles work so you can avoid being exploited. Explore the fundamentals of nontransitive properties through penny ante, Bingo, and games involving dice and cards. Then, get a lively introduction to some simple puzzles involving cups, coins, and toothpicks-and their surprisingly sneaky answers.