Lectures Documentaries & Books (Science, Physics, Cosmology)

[setven17]

can anyone from here recommend the best book about study of stars for a sixth grader?
my son is asking me very seriously about on that book...
thank is advance...

 

[JWalter]

Hi,
Space is a very debatable topic with a very vast area for discussions. Space has always interested me I love to read books, but the documentary is a new thing and seen a couple of them they were very good. Looking forward to have more link for documentaries.

 

[BoJangles2]

Just added a lecture 'A Universe From Nothing' by Lawrence Kraussin courtesy of Jeters_Boy in the "New Stuff" section at the start of the thread

 

[Zipi]

Gravity Wells: (presented rather fun way)

http://www.xkcd.org/681/
(click the picture to get a larger one)

 

[nimbus]

Big repository of lectures on all things, incl space and physics related, with some overlap with the MIT OCW resources.
http://academicearth.org

 

[EarthlingX]

ESA : Eduspace

What is Eduspace?

The Eduspace website aims to provide secondary school students and teachers with a learning and teaching tool. It is meant to be an entry point for space image data, and, in particular, to a widespread visibility of Earth observation applications for education and training.

New Eduspace website offers schools a clearer window on the world

4 March 2010
For the past 12 years, ESA’s Eduspace website has been a window on the world for secondary students and teachers. Now the website has been completely redesigned and updated, so that it provides an even more valuable introduction to Earth observation and its applications.

 

[EarthlingX]

Another ESA link, with a lots of a very nice videos, lectures, whatnot, can't say more, still watching :
http://astronomy2009.esa.int/

 

[EarthlingX]

This might also be interesting, from ESA :
Take your classroom into space

The 'Take your classroom into space' activity is part of the education programme of ESA's Directorate of Human Spaceflight and was one of several education activities done during the ESA astronaut Frank De Winne's OasISS mission.

 

[EarthlingX]

Education resources at NASA :
NASA Education

NASA’s journeys into air and space have deepened humankind’s understanding of the universe, advanced technology breakthroughs, enhanced air travel safety and security, and expanded the frontiers of scientific research.

a couple of pictures with links :

 

[EarthlingX]

I was cruising a bit through the first posts in the thread and found this :
The Official Richard Dawkins YouTube Channel

For a taste, very handy :

RDF TV - Baloney Detection Kit - Michael Shermer
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUB4j0n2UDU[/youtube]

 

[EarthlingX]

For a day, when you feel very smart, from NobelPrize.org :

Video Lectures from Nobel Laureates in Physics

According to the Nobel Foundation statutes, the Nobel Laureates are required "to give a lecture on a subject connected with the work for which the prize has been awarded". The lecture should be given before, or no later than six months after, the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony, which takes place in Stockholm or, in the case of the Peace Prize, in Oslo on 10 December. Click on the names of the Nobel Laureates in Physics below to see their Nobel Lectures.

 

[LoneStar77]

BoJangles2, thank you! Years ago, one of my favorite books was the ancient primer on extrasolar planets, the Dole and Asimov book, "Planets for Man." The Rand study on which the book was derived proves to be even more delicious. Thanks for including resources on extrasolar planets. I'm currently living in the Philippines and internet connections are not the swiftest things here, so if you also have resources requiring less bandwidth, those would be greatly appreciated. A good lecture is certainly worth waiting for, but I could read a significant portion of a book in the time it takes to download some vids.

R. Carl Martin, Jr.

 

[nimbus]

A couple more lectures here, including some by Feynman.
http://www.vega.org.uk/video/

 

[EarthlingX]

Wiki : Carolyn Porco :

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGSv-uZCOyY[/youtube]


http://www.ciclops.org : Cassini Imaging Leader Honored With American Astronomical Society Carl Sagan Award

For immediate release: May 28, 2010

Carolyn Porco, veteran planetary imaging scientist and leader of the imaging team on NASA's Cassini mission at Saturn, has been awarded the 2010 Carl Sagan Medal for Excellence in the Communication of Science to the Public by the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society.

The award, which is given "to recognize and honor outstanding communication by an active planetary scientist to the general public," will be presented to Porco by Ann Druyan, author and TV and film writer-producer, at the DPS annual meeting to be held in October in Pasadena, Calif. Druyan was wife and collaborator of the late Carl Sagan, the renowned planetary scientist, best-selling author, and the 20th century's most successful and beloved science communicator for whom the award is named.

 

[MeteorWayne]

She's been in the science biz for a long time doing good work. I saw somthing on TV yesterday with an interview of (a much younger) her when she discovered the cause of the spokes in the rings of Saturn...from the Voyager days!!

 

[EarthlingX]

Carolyn Porco ( ) is one of my rock stars

This here is a YouTube channel, with many nice videos - i will give a couple of fresh examples :

http://www.youtube.com/user/Best0fScience

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUH3Qg8M_8A[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P77SIn6cyLI[/youtube]

I find myself here a lot too :

http://www.youtube.com/user/ScienceMagazine

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWzbazYGKJM[/youtube]

While watching the above, i found also

http://www.youtube.com/user/UCBerkeley by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_University

with huge amount of lectures.

 

[StarRider1701]

I'd like to see more documentaries. Books are good but it's nice to see what we read about once in awhile.

I've been watching "Through the Wormhole" with Morgan Freeman on the Science Channel, Wednesday nights at 10pm.

I like it very much. Morgan Freeman is one of my favorite actors and he seems personally interested in the topics and genuinely interested in the answers. This isn't "woo" stuff, he talks to Scientists and Professors who gear their answers to a general, non-scientist audience. Some of the topics have included "Black Holes" "Is time travel possible?" which I have watched and they were quite good. Other topics are "Are We Alone?" and "Is there a Creator?" which I've recorded and will watch soon.

Actually, I just heard of the program and last Wed was the season finale program. They re-ran many of the shows last wednesday for a few hours prior to the final show and I recorded them and am watching them a few at a time. But they are still showing the reruns on Wed night at 10pm. I was coming to see if anyone had started a thread on this topic when I stumbled upon this one. I may start a new thread anyway, I think this program is worth it!

 

[dachemist]

I have a comment regarding the debate that has engaged hawking and susskind regarding the entropy of blackholes and where the information goes for infalling matter...

Since time is constricted for the object falling into the black hole .. the information then would simply be spread out with respect to time rather than space.
There is no constraint mathematically to the contrary is there?

Therefore entropy would continue to increase for the universe as expected for any influx of matter into a black hole and the information contained not destroyed.however constrained for the in-falling material and dilated for the observer.
pcyoung - aka da chemist

 

[StarRider1701]

I have a comment regarding the debate that has engaged hawking and susskind regarding the entropy of blackholes...

I think this is the wrong thread for that comment. If you read the OP, I beleive she was asking which you would like to see more of - L D or B? She created a poll and listed a goodly number of each.

I'm pretty sure there is a Black Hole thread around here somewhere. :roll:
Maybe do a search...

 

[ZenGalacticore]

Brian Cox Rocks!!

In addition to his academic achievements, he's a very good presenter and teacher.

(He reminds me of a young Roger Waters.)

 

[wolverine84]

Are there any good documentaries about Mir station and living on it?

 

[EarthlingX]

This are some links and starting points :

http://www.russianspaceweb.com/mir.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mir

http://www.orphansofapollo.com/

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br0vqXJ39pg[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBONpY3TxN8[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zo6OgEO8Ie8[/youtube]

 

[SteveCNC]

I just watched a 41 min. documentary on Hulu called astronaut down where most of the discussion is about medical needs in space and how a 2.5 year mission to mars would statistically need 1 ER visit during that time . Not a bad show but not great either , it aired in feb. 2009 although this was the first time I'd seen it .

 

[Bob_Vanderbei]

Hope it's okay to mention here a book that Richard Gott and I just finished called "Sizing Up The Universe" (http://www.sizinguptheuniverse.com). It discusses everything in the cosmos from the planets in our Solar System to the Cosmic Microwave Background and everything in between.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Technically it wouldn't be, except I was just about to add this book to this very discussion, as I just got my copy.

See you at the NJAA observatory tonight!

Bob is discussing the book tonight at the observatory for our last public program until February, for more info and directions, see: http://www.njaa.org/

NOVEMBER SPEAKER: Robert J. Vanderbei "Sizing Up The Universe" book discussion and signing
Saturday, November 27th, 8:30 PM. There will be a limited number of books available for purchase at the Observatory, please visit http://www.sizinguptheuniverse.com for a description


Meteor Wayne