The Joy of Science

By: Robert M. Hazen, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Robert M. Hazen

Length: 30 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

Science is humanity's greatest achievement. It ranges from the study of the universe itself to the smallest particles of matter contained within it - and everything in between. It explores everything from the big bang to theories about the end of the universe.

If you want to better understand our physical world, as most of us do, gaining a basic understanding of science itself is profoundly important - yet many are intimidated by the breathtaking scope of such an endeavor.

Now an award-winning science teacher has taken out the intimidation, harnessing that breathtaking scope into a series of 60 exciting, comprehensive, and accessible lectures that let you explore and understand the wealth of ideas, discoveries, and principles in all of the physical and biological sciences. You learn that understanding science comes from understanding not only its component disciplines - each of which has its own theories, pioneers, problems, and fundamental questions - but of knowing how these disciplines work with one another to create an entire mosaic of human knowledge.

The lectures have been crafted to make those relationships crystal-clear, with an integrated approach that takes you through all of the major disciplines that fall under the umbrella of "science," including physics, chemistry, Earth science, geophysics, and biology.

Each lecture covers one of the 60 fundamental principles of the scientific world - offering you new knowledge and insight into topics such as the scientific method, gravitation, atoms, the big bang, plate tectonics, volcanoes, proteins, ecosystems, and electricity.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2001 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2001 The Great Courses

Little outdated

Not as good as Bill Bryson's, A short history of nearly everything. These are actually video lectures. With only audio, little difficult to picturise. Looks like it was done in twentieth century. Little outdated.

Still, it has many topics to offer. It would definitely make a good video lecture.

The big picture

this is a big puzzle with many pieces brought together to give the big picture in a way that we can understand.

Well rounded presentation of major topics

Great unbiased presentation of the major disciplines of science. Particularly appreciated tying in different disciplines, such as how the evidence of plate techtonics was corroborated by geology, paleontology, and volcanology.

Good but a bit outdated

I really enjoyed this lecture series. The information is couple decades old though. This impacts only a few of the lectures.

interesting but very long. May need to be listened

to in small bits. I enjoyed listening to this. I downloaded it in one part rather than the multipart format and that was the only thing wrong with it. it was so long that at times there was a feeling I wasn't making any progress. nevertheless it was an interesting and intriguing listen.

Great course, but a bit dated.

Where does The Joy of Science rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I really enjoyed the course, but a lot of the course's mentioned projects have been completed, and there is a great deal that is missing...since this just came out, I was assuming it would be more current.

If you’ve listened to books by The Great Courses before, how does this one compare?

This is the best course of the three I have listened to.

Any additional comments?

I find Dr. Hazen is very good at explaining complex material. I read his book on scientific literacy, and it is a great place to start on many subjects.

Well done.

What made the experience of listening to The Joy of Science the most enjoyable?

Well constructed and executed. This is a great guided tour of where we're at (scientifically) and how we got here.

Excellent overview of Science

Narration superior!

Some information is dated as I think is may have sections of narrative from the 90s, but was still mostly valid.

I enjoyed the discussion about religion vs. science, didn't agree with it but still enjoyed the view points.

It did get a little too preachy when it came to global warming. To me, it seemed he was using the logic religions use to explan nature as support for global warming. Not anything to stop you from listening, just forewarning.

Very enjoyable, glad I invested the time in it.

GREAT READ FOR SCIENCE OR ENGINEERING STUDENTS

I was unsure about reading this book due to the length, but am happy that I did. It is a very good way to grasp some of the deeper concepts in science and engineering. So worth putting in some effort if you are into these areas or want to understand more about these areas.

Great overview of science

Great overview of science. It goes into moderate detail about pretty much every aspect of science.