Cosmology. Neurology. Genetics. Chemistry. These are just a few of many fascinating branches of the scientific world ripe for exploration. But because science is such a vast arena of knowledge, people looking for a better grasp of its secrets often wonder where to begin. The answer: with the essentials.

Science’s most vital concepts and ideas—some of which have been around for centuries, others of which we’ve only uncovered in recent decades—make the perfect starting point for a deeper dive into regions of the scientific world you’ve long wanted to take a closer look at. Whether it’s evolution, electromagnetism, thermodynamics, or the nature of matter, these and other eye-opening concepts are all connected by the profound role they play in our everyday lives and in our larger understanding of the world.

By narrowing your approach to the expansiveness of science and drilling down to some of its essentials, you’ll

- grasp the true nature, challenge, and excitement of scientific inquiry;
- shed light on the scientific marvels of today and tomorrow, from nanotechnology to artificial intelligence;
- develop a solid foundation of knowledge that will put more advanced areas of science within your reach; and
- enhance your sense of wonder at the hidden marvels of everything from driving to work to creating new memories.

With 12 Essential Scientific Concepts, you can finally satisfy your desire for scientific inquiry in a way that makes this enormous field accessible, understandable, and undeniably captivating. Indre Viskontas, an award-winning cognitive neuroscientist affiliated with the Memory and Aging Center at the University of California, San Francisco, has a knack for making hard science clear to laypeople. She boils down the scientific world into 12 key concepts every educated person should know. Devoting two lectures to each concept to give you more time to engage with it, her 24-lecture course is your introduction to everything from the behavior of subatomic particles to the latest theories about the Big Bang. Concepts that may have eluded you in school, that you may not be familiar with, or that you simply never appreciated for their intricate beauty are now brought to vivid life in a way that sticks. Welcome to the world of science—reduced to its powerful essence.

Explore 12 of Science’s Bedrock Ideas

This course is your chance to get a single, accessible way to explore essential concepts from a broad range of scientific areas. Professor Viskontas offers you an engaging and accessible look at key building blocks of scientific knowledge.

- The modular brain: With so many intricate, scattered parts and actions going into how human beings perceive the world, how is it that we experience reality as a seamless, coherent story? This is where the mind-boggling concept of modularity and coherence comes into play, which probes how our conscious experience emerges.
- Brain plasticity: Scientists now understand that our brains act like plastic, in that they can be molded over time into many different shapes—a concept that’s caused a radical paradigm shift in the field of neuroscience. From breaking bad habits to learning new ideas, brain plasticity encompasses the tiniest modifications to a single brain cell to sweeping changes across neural circuits.
- Quantum theory: How do we explain the behavior of particles smaller than an atom? The answer lies in the concepts of quantum mechanics, which operate within a unique set of mathematical rules and formulas different from those in classical physics. And, as you’ll learn, the ramifications of quantum theory, in everything from robots to supercomputers, are astounding.
- Emergence: The quest to understand how complex systems work lies at the heart of the concept of emergence, where simple agents (following simple rules) together perform complex feats impossible for any individual unit to accomplish on its own. Where can you see emergence at work around you? It’s in everything from migrating flocks of birds to the layout of your neighborhood. But it may explain human consciousness as well.

You’ll also investigate other essential concepts: life, evolution, genetics, electromagnetism, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, the Big Bang, and the nature of matter. For each of them, Professor Viskontas gives you an expert’s introduction to their key ideas, the math and science behind them, the great minds responsible for uncovering them, and their relevant applications to (sometimes surprising) areas of life.

Learn Eye-Opening Scientific Facts

Every lecture of 12 Essential Scientific Concepts is filled with a sense of wonder and awe at the knowledge that scientific inquiry has brought us. Just as memorable as the concepts you explore are the eye-opening facts you’ll learn along the way.

- Hurricanes transform heat into work much more efficiently than a car or jet does; so much so that a tropical cyclone can release heat energy at a rate of 10 to 15 watts per day—about 70 times the daily world energy consumption, or the equivalent of setting off a nuclear bomb every 20 minutes for the life of the storm.
- The Big Bounce, a possible alternate theory for the origin of the universe, posits that before the Big Bang, there was no singularity but instead a tiny, compressed universe that preceded it. So instead of a beginning of everything, there could just be an infinite loop, of which we occupy a small part and during which the universe expands and contracts for eternity.
- One possible explanation for the emergence of the theory of mind (the recognition that other people have thoughts, desires, and goals just as we do) lies in so-called “mirror neurons” that encourage babies to mimic other people’s actions. These specific neurons also offer neurologists a solid case study for how sentience and self-awareness might emerge from simple cells.

Spark Your Curiosity about Science

Regardless of how complex the concepts may appear at first, Professor Viskontas always takes care to present each one in a clear and concise way that will inform and delight you. She brings her remarkable teaching talent as well as an undeniable passion for sharing the wonders of science with an audience eager to learn.

An experienced observer of human behavior, Dr. Viskontas has published groundbreaking work on the neural basis of memory and creativity and has won numerous research awards. And as a professor of music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, she is pioneering the application of neuroscience to musical training and performance.

Accompanying you on this exploration are hundreds of informative visual elements to aid in your understanding, including green screen technology, helpful in-studio demonstrations, and explanatory 3-D graphics and animations. These captivating enhancements add an even greater level of depth and clarity to 12 Essential Scientific Concepts, giving you the opportunity to probe the invisible life of living cells, to tour the tiniest corners of the human brain, and even to visit the universe seconds after its birth.

Above all, Professor Viskontas has crafted this course to excite you for the countless possibilities ahead. “Science doesn’t reduce our imagination, it expands it,” she says. “Instead of quenching your curiosity, I hope I’ve sparked it—because there’s so much more to explore.”

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