Life in Our Universe
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Narrated by:
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The Great Courses
About this listen
Are we alone in the universe? This is one of the most profound issues facing mankind - and one of the unresolved questions that science may finally be able to answer in this century.
These 24 mind-expanding lectures reveal the cutting-edge research leading scientists to believe that life is not exclusively the domain of Earth. Professor Close offers an unparalleled look at the subject of life and the mysteries that remain. You'll examine the remarkable coincidences that created our planet and sustained its habitability for 3.5 billion years. And you'll join the hunt for microbial life elsewhere in our solar system and Earth-like planets in alien solar systems.
With Professor Close's expert guidance, you'll delve into some of the biggest questions facing science today. What can the Earth and its current and past life tell us about life in our universe? Where else in our solar system can there be life? Are there habitable planets and life around other stars? Is there other intelligent life in our universe? Is there a new home for mankind? If so, how can we find it?
Suited for the scientifically inclined and curious alike, these lectures make even the most complex content highly accessible. And they’ll give you the essential context necessary to make sense of the news on emerging discoveries and their implications.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
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Over the course of 24 lessons, including the eight meditation checkups within lessons, you will learn both what Zen has traditionally meant for East Asians and what it can mean for contemporary Westerners. Prepare to be challenged as Professor Davis asks you to set aside your preconceptions in order to open yourselves to what Zen masters who lived in the past and in distant lands have to teach you.
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The trick: just sit down and be quiet. Trust me.
- By Kindle Customer on 03-04-21
By: Bret W. Davis, and others
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1066: The Year That Changed Everything
- By: Jennifer Paxton, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Jennifer Paxton
- Length: 3 hrs
- Original Recording
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With this exciting and historically rich six-lecture course, experience for yourself the drama of this dynamic year in medieval history, centered on the landmark Norman Conquest. Taking you from the shores of Scandinavia and France to the battlefields of the English countryside, these lectures will plunge you into a world of fierce Viking warriors, powerful noble families, politically charged marriages, tense succession crises, epic military invasions, and much more.
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History brought to life
- By Joshua on 07-10-13
By: Jennifer Paxton, and others
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The Theory of Evolution: A History of Controversy
- By: Edward J. Larson, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Edward J. Larson
- Length: 6 hrs and 10 mins
- Original Recording
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Charles Darwin's theory of organic evolution-the idea that life on earth is the product of purely natural causes, not the hand of God-set off shock waves that continue to reverberate through Western society, and especially the United States. What makes evolution such a profoundly provocative concept, so convincing to most scientists, yet so socially and politically divisive? These 12 eye-opening lectures are an examination of the varied elements that so often make this science the object of strong sentiments and heated debate.
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Little mistakes here and there
- By Daniel on 06-21-16
By: Edward J. Larson, and others
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The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World
- By: Robert Garland, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Robert Garland
- Length: 24 hrs and 28 mins
- Original Recording
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Look beyond the abstract dates and figures, kings and queens, and battles and wars that make up so many historical accounts. Over the course of 48 richly detailed lectures, Professor Garland covers the breadth and depth of human history from the perspective of the so-called ordinary people, from its earliest beginnings through the Middle Ages.
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Tantalizing time trip
- By Mark on 08-21-13
By: Robert Garland, and others
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The Evidence for Modern Physics
- How We Know What We Know
- By: Professor Don Lincoln, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Professor Don Lincoln
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Original Recording
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In this 24-lesson course aimed at non-scientists, noted particle physicist Dr. Don Lincoln of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory covers more than a century of progress in physics, describing exactly how scientists reach the conclusions they do. He starts with the atom, which was long hypothesized but wasn’t definitively proven until a paper by Albert Einstein in 1905. That was just the beginning, as researchers probed ever deeper into the atom’s complex structure, leading to the weird findings of quantum mechanics.
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Strongly Recommend for Everyone
- By Liam A on 05-23-21
By: Professor Don Lincoln, and others
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The Age of Benjamin Franklin
- By: The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Professor Robert J. Allison PhD Harvard University
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Original Recording
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Why is Benjamin Franklin so compelling? What made him so successful in his day? And why has he continued to influence generations of Americans? Tackle these questions and more in The Age of Benjamin Franklin, a thorough - and sometimes surprising - course that presents a full portrait of a personality that defies easy definition.
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It's a lecture
- By Amazon Customer on 05-17-18
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This Way to the Universe
- A Theoretical Physicist's Journey to the Edge of Reality
- By: Michael Dine
- Narrated by: Michael Dine
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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This Way to the Universe is a celebration of the astounding, ongoing scientific investigations that have revealed the nature of reality at its smallest, at its largest, and at the scale of our daily lives. The enigmas that Professor Michael Dine discusses are like landmarks on a fantastic journey to the edge of the universe. Asked where to find out about the big bang, dark matter, the Higgs boson particle - the long cutting edge of physics right now - Dine had no single book he could recommend. This is his accessible, authoritative, and up-to-date answer.
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Interesting but far above my intellect
- By Richard M. on 04-25-23
By: Michael Dine
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Understanding the Science for Tomorrow: Myth and Reality
- By: Jeffrey C. Grossman, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Jeffrey C. Grossman
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Original Recording
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Science and technology are, without a doubt, two forces that will change the way you live your life in the coming months, years, and decades. And in recent decades, these forces have evolved and developed at a lightning-fast pace. Explore the many possibilities of what your future may look like with these 24 lectures: a scientifically accurate and enlightening survey of today's most advanced research in fields such as engineering, biology, chemistry, and theoretical physics.
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Outdated - The "tommorow" is tomorrow of ~2010.
- By Ran on 11-06-19
By: Jeffrey C. Grossman, and others
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Einstein's Relativity and the Quantum Revolution: Modern Physics for Non-Scientists, 2nd Edition
- By: Richard Wolfson, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Richard Wolfson
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Original Recording
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"It doesn't take an Einstein to understand modern physics," says Professor Wolfson at the outset of these 24 lectures on what may be the most important subjects in the universe: relativity and quantum physics. Both have reputations for complexity. But the basic ideas behind them are, in fact, simple and comprehensible by anyone. These dynamic and illuminating lectures begin with a brief overview of theories of physical reality starting with Aristotle and culminating in Newtonian or "classical" physics.
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Great primer for hard SF fans and physics laymen
- By David on 01-05-15
By: Richard Wolfson, and others
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Elements of Jazz: From Cakewalks to Fusion
- By: Bill Messenger, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Bill Messenger
- Length: 5 hrs and 59 mins
- Original Recording
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Jazz is a uniquely American art form, one of America's great contributions to not only musical culture, but world culture, with each generation of musicians applying new levels of creativity that take the music in unexpected directions that defy definition, category, and stagnation. Now you can learn the basics and history of this intoxicating genre in an eight-lecture series that is as free-flowing and original as the art form itself.
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A Disappointingly Distorted, Myopic View Of Jazz
- By Parallax View on 08-18-13
By: Bill Messenger, and others
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The Foundations of Western Civilization
- By: Thomas F. X. Noble, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Thomas F. X. Noble
- Length: 24 hrs and 51 mins
- Original Recording
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What is Western Civilization? According to Professor Noble, it is "much more than human and political geography," encompassing myriad forms of political and institutional structures - from monarchies to participatory republics - and its own traditions of political discourse. It involves choices about who gets to participate in any given society and the ways in which societies have resolved the tension between individual self-interest and the common good.
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Not Engaging or Very Interesting
- By Tommy D'Angelo on 03-05-17
By: Thomas F. X. Noble, and others
What listeners say about Life in Our Universe
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- John B Swain
- 11-26-22
Humanities future
All the people of this planet should read and become aware of the dangers our world would be in if climate change is not checked.
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-31-19
Great course
Pdf doesn't contain all video the teacher speaks about. Great content and intresting topic. Liked it
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3 people found this helpful
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- Phillip McNamee
- 12-23-22
Be patient
The title is somewhat misleading
The science is good
There is a lot to learn in this series
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1 person found this helpful
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- George
- 09-02-19
Fascinating and very good communicator
I like the lecturer for this one. Very clear and easy to understand. Highly recommend.
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- Patrick Mullane
- 04-07-23
Life: above and beyond
An interesting and informative tour of life on Earth and the chance of such in the wider Universe.
The course presenter is enthusiatic about his subject and provides clear analogies to aid the listener in visualising the swirl of speculation and sciene that this search involves. If I must highlight an issue, is that course dervives from a video presentation (hence referencing movie content etc) that detracts somewhat from the audio format. Apart from this, well worth the listen.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Timothy Knox
- 02-14-22
A bit disappointing
This is clearly the audio track to a video course, and the speaker makes frequent references to diagrams which are NOT included in the course book. But that is not my biggest beef
While the presenter is clearly very excited about the material, his pronunciation of some fairly common words is so awful it yanks me out of the flow completely. It’s as if he had never heard these words spoken, and tried to “sound them out.” While that is often reasonable, it fails for many words, like “iron,” “congeal,” and “gaseous.” It was like fingernails on the chalkboard of my soul to here him say those words, among others.
So if you are interested in a survey course of the possibilities of life off planet Earth, you might enjoy this. But if mispronunciations bother you as much as they bother me, prepare to grit your teeth a lot, and to shout in your head, “That’s not how you pronounce that word.”
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- Anonymous User
- 02-07-23
How to make an interesting topic boring
Topic could be very interesting. The lecture however, spent probably close to a4 to 1/3 of the time repeating himself. Pregnant pauses, and stuttering over words also was detrimental to the topics. Add end it is said about 1/10 of the time he was more or less to the new stone horn, and you made a very interesting topic somewhat boring. I.
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- Billzen
- 01-26-24
No images or videos!
There are numerous references to images and animations that are not in the PDF. I did find a YouTube by Dr. Close that might complement the lectures (which otherwise are excellent).
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- Kara
- 06-06-21
No images
Throughout the entire lecture, images are supposed to help you understand what is happening, but they are not in the included PDF. This makes it hard to understand what is being discussed.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Azrharn
- 08-24-19
Pretty good, but very old
This course was released in 2019, but seems to be actually recorded in 2012 or earlier. It's information is too old.
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19 people found this helpful