Magnetic Fields Made Visible
Video Lectures for the Science Mind
We talk a good deal here about free university courses and lectures, and mostly we end up talking about the humanities. But here’s a good excuse to talk about the sciences, and particularly about computer science. A project started in Slovenia, Videolectures.net provides “free and open access of high quality video lectures presented by distinguished scholars and scientists at the most important and prominent events…” Among the most popular lectures, you’ll find lectures along these lines: Fuzzy Logic, Where the Social Web Meets the Semantic Web, and an Interview with Tim Berners Lee. But, you’ll also stumble upon a few non-scientific talks given by some well known names. Take for example Noam Chomsky (Force, law and the prospects of survival) and Umberto Eco (On The History of Ugliness).
For more university content, visit our University Podcast Collection and our list of Free Online Courses, which includes a good deal of scientific content. Also see our Science Podcast Collection.
Self-Regenerating Robots
The University of Pennsylvania has done it. They’ve created a robot that you can kick apart, and it knows how to reassemble itself. Eerie stuff. Give it a few decades, and these guys (the robots and the students) will be running the show. (Video added to our YouTube playlist)
For lots of good science podcasts, check out our list here.
MIT’s (Free) Introduction to Physics
Welcome to MIT. Here’s your introduction to Physics.
Today, we present Physics I: Classical Mechanics, a freshman course taught by Walter Lewin, the popular physics professor who was recently written up in The New York Times. The course covers the foundations of modern physics, which takes you from Isaac Newton’s groundbreaking work to supernovas, and which covers such other topics as Fluid Mechanics, Kinetic Gas Theory, Binary Stars, Neutron Stars, Black Holes, Resonance Phenomena, Musical Instruments, and Stellar Collapse.
You can download the course lectures in video via iTunes or in various formats here. (The course is also listed in our collection of Free Online Courses from Great Universities, which now contains over 200 free courses.) For more lecture series by Walter Lewin, look here (Electricity and Magnetism) and here (Vibrations and Waves).
Einstein’s Theory of Relativity Explained
Einstein’s Theory of Relativity needs no introduction. Actually maybe it does since we’re not dealing with light concepts here.
Relativity in a Nutshell (MP3) offers a free, 30-minute introduction to Einstein’s theoretical work. The lecture was presented by Richard Wolfson of Middlebury College. And it’s coupled with a second free lecture called Einstein’s Miraculous Year. Both lectures were produced by The Teaching Company to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Einstein’s work on relativity (1905), and they tie into a larger commercial course taught by Wolfson: Einstein’s Relativity and the Quantum Revolution: Modern Physics for Non-Scientists. The Teaching Company courses are not free, but they’re well done. And if you buy the mp3 versions when they’re on sale, you can often get the courses at a good price. Also, you can frequently find DVD versions discounted on Amazon (see, for example, here). And, even better, you can sometimes rent them for free from your local library.
In the meantime, if you’re looking for a good selection of free university courses, visit our meta list of Free Online Courses from Great Universities. Also see our Science Podcast Collection.
Related Content:
Google Sky, Moon and Mars
Here’s what you get when Google engineers put their heads together with astronomers from large observatories: With Google Sky, “you can search for planets, listen to Earth & Sky podcasts, watch some beautiful Hubble telescope images, or explore historical maps of the sky from the comfort of your browser.” The product was rolled out just last week, and you can get more info on the new release from Google’s official blog.
The new Sky product sits comfortably alongside Google Moon and Google Mars, which have been around since 2005–2006. Created in conjunction with scientists at the NASA Ames Research Center, Google Moon offers a collection of lunar maps and charts and delves into the Apollo missions. The Mars product, meanwhile, offers some of the most detailed existing maps of the red planet.
For more good science, see our Science Podcast Collection here.
Richard Feynman Plays the Bongos
When he wasn’t busy hashing out the theory of quantum electrodynamics, Nobel Prize winning physicist Richard Feynman was hitting the bongos and singing praises to orange juice. Watch him go. And find more vintage Feynman resources below.
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Learn How Richard Feynman Cracked the Safes with Atomic Secrets at Los Alamos
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