The Great Courses

As I mentioned on the main page The Great Courses offers several classes, hosted online at their site and at Kanopy, and the Cincinnati Public Library also carries many of their classes on DVD. Here are my detailed thoughts.

The Remarkable Science of Ancient Astronomy

by Professor Bradley E. Schaefer, Ph.D. - Louisiana State University

The official course description is below. This is a 24 episode TV show style course with a good presenter and good visuals, although I think they move the cameras around too much to try to keep the topic "dynamic". It starts from prehistory, works through StoneHenge and the Greeks, and provides a good historical introduction to astronomy generally, ending at Copernicus and Kepler - as astronomy becomes an established science. Kanopy link to watch, or go to my Episode-by-Episode page.

In a world without artificial lights, the night sky was ablaze with over a thousand stars, whose patterns illustrated stories people had heard since childhood. Thus, ancient people viewed the sky differently than we do. Skywatching was crucial to daily life, since the motions of the heavens served as timekeeper, calendar, compass, and almanac for planning when to plant and harvest. The perfect regularity of celestial cycles was the only guaranteed aspect of life and inspired a wide range of religious and philosophical views, as different cultures struggled to grasp the unseen forces that govern the cosmos.

A Visual Guide to the Universe with the Smithsonian

by Professor David M. Meyer, Ph.D. - Northwestern University

The official course description is below. This is a 18 episode TV show style course with a good presenter and excellent visuals. It covers all of the recent (since about 1990) robotic space exploration missions, including all of the space telescopes, and what they have taught us. This one I had to buy to watch, and you can find it here. Go to my Episode-by-Episode page for my reviews of the episodes.

For the first time in human history, we can see the full splendor and mystery of the universe, thanks to instruments on scores of planetary probes and observatories that have been launched into space since the 1990s.

The Search for Exoplanets: What Astronomers Know

Professor Joshua Winn, Ph.D. - Princeton University

The official course description is below. This is a 24 episode TV show style course. I have not yet watched this series, but I plan to and will review it when I do. This show is available from the library on Kanopy here. Go to my Episode-by-Episode page for my reviews of the episodes.

Half a century ago, television viewers thrilled to the exploits of the original Star Trek series with its mission “to explore strange new worlds.” Today, astronomers are doing exactly that, analyzing the data from advanced telescopes and discovering strange worlds orbiting other stars in our galaxy.

What Einstein Got Wrong

Professor Dan Hooper, Ph.D. - University of Chicago

The official course description is below. This is a 12 episode TV show style course. I have not yet watched this series, but I plan to and will review it when I do. This show is available from the library on Hoopla here. Go to my Episode-by-Episode page for my reviews of the episodes.

'He was the quintessential genius whose brainpower rewrote the laws of the universe. Albert Einstein may have died decades ago, but his immense legacy continues. Who has not heard of Einstein’s theory of relativity, which revolutionized our understanding of space, time, and matter? His other discoveries are themselves titanic achievements that on their own would have made him a famous scientist..

The Theory of Everything: The Quest to Explain All Reality

Professor Don Lincoln, Ph.D. - Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab)

The official course description is below. This is a 24 episode TV show style course. I have not yet watched this series, but I plan to and will review it when I do. This show is available from the library on Kanopy here. Go to my Episode-by-Episode page for my reviews of the episodes.

The great theories of physics are like great works of art. And much like the greatest works of art, you don’t need to completely understand them in order to appreciate them. The unifying theories of physics are among the greatest and most complex in all of science; they stand as incomparable masterpieces in the gallery of modern thought. As you experience them, you will witness their progression toward ever-grander insights, pointing towards an as-yet-unfinished ultimate synthesis that will transform our understanding of the universe. Anyone, no matter what their training in science and mathematics, can appreciate this quest, which is nothing less than a search for the theory of everything.

Black Holes, Tides, and Curved Spacetime

Professor Benjamin Schumacher, Ph.D. - Kenyon College

The official course description is below. This is a 24 episode TV show style course. I have not yet watched this series, but I plan to and will review it when I do. This show is available from the library on Kanopy here. Go to my Episode-by-Episode page for my reviews of the episodes.

The force of gravity rules the universe. It governs our everyday lives on Earth and it controls the motions of the heavens above. Yet it is one of the least understood of all the forces of nature. To endeavor to understand this fundamental force is to experience anew something as simple as getting out of bed, throwing a ball, or diving into a pool; and it gives deep insight into the central organizing principle of the cosmos.

Radio Astronomy: Observing the Invisible Universe

File:Radio Astronomy.jpg

Professor Felix J. Lockman, Ph.D. - Principal Scientist at the Green Bank Observatory

The official course description is below. This is a 24 episode TV show style course. I have not yet watched this series, but I plan to and will review it when I do. This show is available from the library on Kanopy here. Go to my Episode-by-Episode page for my reviews of the episodes.

It’s easy to imagine the first modern humans staring up at the heavens in wonder, their eyes and minds dazzled by a beautiful band of light splashed across the night sky, the ever-changing moon so large and bright, and pinpoints of light in every direction. For a few hundred thousand years, our eyes were our primary astronomical tool, and we used them well. We catalogued and analyzed what we saw, filled in the gaps with powerful stories, applied what we knew of mathematics, and then invented complex tools of stone, metal, and glass to expand our knowledge. Everything we knew about the universe was based on light, that small part of the electromagnetic spectrum detectable by human eyes.

Einstein's Relativity and the Quantum Revolution: Modern Physics for Non-Scientists, 2nd Edition

Professor Richard Wolfson, Ph.D. - Middlebury College

The official course description is below. This is a 24 episode TV show style course. I have not yet watched this series, but I plan to and will review it when I do. This show is available from the library on Kanopy here. Go to my Episode-by-Episode page for my reviews of the episodes.

"It doesn't take an Einstein to understand modern physics," says Professor Richard Wolfson at the outset of this course on what may be the most important subject in the universe.