Growing Up in the Universe: Richard Dawkins Presents Captivating Science Course for Kids (1991)

Back in 1825, Michael Fara­day, the ven­er­at­ed Eng­lish sci­en­tist, estab­lished The Roy­al Insti­tu­tion Christ­mas Lec­tures for Chil­dren. Fara­day gave the inau­gur­al lec­ture him­self, hop­ing to get a younger gen­er­a­tion inter­est­ed in sci­ence, and the tra­di­tion has car­ried on ever since. Above, we’re skip­ping for­ward 166 years to 1991, when Richard Dawkins, one of the world’s best known evo­lu­tion­ary biol­o­gists, pre­sent­ed a five part lec­ture series called Grow­ing Up in the Uni­verse. It’s a rather bril­liant look at life, the uni­verse, and our place in it. And while it’s geared toward a younger crowd, adults will enjoy it too. Orig­i­nal­ly tele­vised by the BBC, the lec­tures now appear on YouTube, cour­tesy of The Richard Dawkins Foun­da­tion for Rea­son and Sci­ence.

All of the lec­tures, whose titles are list­ed below, can be viewed in the playlist above. More RI Christ­mas Lec­tures for Chil­dren can be viewed online here. This series will be added to our col­lec­tion. 1,700 Free Online Cours­es from Top Uni­ver­si­ties.

Lec­ture 1: Wak­ing Up in the Uni­verse

Lec­ture 2:  Designed and Desig­noid Objects

Lec­ture 3:  Climb­ing Mount Improb­a­ble

Lec­ture 4: The Ultra­vi­o­let Gar­den

Lec­ture 5: The Gen­e­sis of Pur­pose

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