
The Science of Energy
Resources and Power Explained
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Narrated by:
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Michael E. Wysession
About this listen
Energy is, without a doubt, the very foundation of the universe. It's the engine that powers life and fuels the evolution of human civilization.
To better put into perspective the various issues surrounding energy in the 21st century, you need to understand the essential science behind how energy works. And you need a reliable source whose focus is on giving you the facts you need to form your own educated opinions.
In the 24 riveting lectures of The Science of Energy: Resources and Power Explained, expert geophysicist Professor Wysession presents an unbiased investigation into the energy sources that power our world. With clear and easy-to-follow explanations that make scientific and mathematical concepts approachable and understandable, this course is a marvelous window into the inner workings of energy that will keep you constantly engaged. You'll examine a wide portfolio of energy sources, how these sources work, the engineering marvels that adapt them to human needs, the economic and environmental consequences of using them, and more. Whatever exciting changes await us in the coming decades (from food production to public transportation to industrial manufacturing), they'll most certainly require lots of power. For this reason and many more, this course imparts essential information for any well-informed citizen of the world - whether you're powering a major city or simply turning on the light.
The world-spanning civilizations that we have built rely on a vast, dependable, and lasting supply of energy. The choices we make have profound consequences for how the world will continue to develop. Get the facts you need to choose well.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
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Great Professor, Hard to Follow.
- By Jen on 05-14-19
By: Ron B. Davis, and others
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The Grid
- The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future
- By: Gretchen Bakke
- Narrated by: Emily Caudwell
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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The grid is an accident of history and of culture, in no way intrinsic to how we produce, deliver and consume electrical power. Yet this is the system the United States ended up with, a jerry-built structure now so rickety and near collapse that a strong wind or a hot day can bring it to a grinding halt. The grid is now under threat from a new source: renewable and variable energy, which puts stress on its logics as much as its components.
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A disappointment
- By Ronald on 09-24-16
By: Gretchen Bakke
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Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behavior
- By: Mark Leary, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Mark Leary
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Original Recording
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Every day of your life is spent surrounded by mysteries that involve what appear to be rather ordinary human behaviors. What makes you happy? Where did your personality come from? Why do you have trouble controlling certain behaviors? Why do you behave differently as an adult than you did as an adolescent?Since the start of recorded history, and probably even before, people have been interested in answering questions about why we behave the way we do.
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I wanted to like this course
- By Diane Tincher on 08-06-18
By: Mark Leary, and others
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Degree in a Book: Philosophy
- By: Peter Gibson
- Narrated by: Laurence Bouvard
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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The perfect introduction to philosophy, Degree in a Book: Philosophy covers every major subject of philosophy, every school of thought, and every philosopher in an accessible manner. Including helpful summary sections, ideas for further reading, and questions to consider, you will soon be able to understand the differences between Plato and Aristotle, the links between Kierkegaard and Camus, and the essential truth behind Zeno's paradox.
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Excellent Refresher for anyone
- By Robert Mills on 12-02-22
By: Peter Gibson
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Energy
- A Human History
- By: Richard Rhodes
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Through an unforgettable cast of characters, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes explains how wood gave way to coal and coal made room for oil, as we now turn to natural gas, nuclear power, and renewable energy. Rhodes looks back on five centuries of progress, through such influential figures as Queen Elizabeth I, King James I, Benjamin Franklin, Herman Melville, John D. Rockefeller, and Henry Ford.
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No more accents, please!
- By Ned Gulley on 08-30-18
By: Richard Rhodes
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Power Density
- A Key to Understanding Energy Sources and Uses
- By: Vaclav Smil
- Narrated by: Daniel Henning
- Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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In this book, Vaclav Smil argues that power density is a key determinant of the nature and dynamics of energy systems. Any understanding of complex energy systems must rely on quantitative measures of many fundamental variables. Power density—the rate of energy flux per unit of area—is an important but largely overlooked measure. Smil provides the first systematic, quantitative appraisal of power density, offering detailed reviews of the power densities of renewable energy flows, fossil fuels, thermal electricity generation, and all common energy uses.
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A Different Look at the Pros and Cons of Renewable Energy and Fossil Fuels
- By Anonymous User on 07-10-24
By: Vaclav Smil
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Conquering the Electron
- The Geniuses, Visionaries, Egomaniacs, and Scoundrels Who Built Our Electronic Age
- By: Derek Cheung, Eric Brach
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 14 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Want to know how AT&T's Bell Labs developed semiconductor technology - and how its leading scientists almost came to blows in the process? Want to understand how radio and television work - and why RCA drove their inventors to financial ruin and early graves? Conquering the Electron offers these stories and more, presenting each revolutionary technological advance right alongside blow-by-blow personal battles that all too often took place.
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Tech, science, engineering & the people behind it.
- By James S. on 05-29-20
By: Derek Cheung, and others
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Being Human: Life Lessons from the Frontiers of Science
- By: Robert Sapolsky, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: The Great Courses
- Length: 5 hrs and 53 mins
- Original Recording
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Understanding our humanity - the essence of who we are - is one of the deepest mysteries and biggest challenges in modern science. Why do we have bad moods? Why are we capable of having such strange dreams? How can metaphors in our language hold such sway on our actions? As we learn more about the mechanisms of human behavior through evolutionary biology, neuroscience, anthropology, and other related fields, we're discovering just how intriguing the human species is.
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Somewhat Interesting but not Quite as Advertised
- By Adam J Duhame on 10-05-13
By: Robert Sapolsky, 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
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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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Plant Science: An Introduction to Botany
- By: Catherine Kleier, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Catherine Kleier
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Original Recording
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Dr. Catherine Kleier invites us to open our eyes to the phenomenal world of plant life and to the process she calls “Natura Revelata”, the joy of celebrating and learning from the secrets of nature. As Dr. Kleier shares her knowledge with contagious excitement for her subject, she emphasizes the middle ground: Instead of focusing on cell microbiology or the study of ecosystems and habitats, she stresses the basic biology, function, and the amazing adaptations of the plants we see all around us.
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Needs accompanying documentation and visual aides
- By Ryan on 04-04-19
By: Catherine Kleier, and others
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Language and the Mind
- By: Spencer D. Kelly, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Spencer D. Kelly
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Original Recording
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What is our species' greatest invention? Medicine, computers, space travel? Not even close. The innovation that underlies each of our past achievements and those we still aspire to is language. Language is the ultimate invention of Homo sapiens - one that has allowed us to change the physical and social world around us in every conceivable way, and an invention that has fundamentally changed us, as well.
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Well Thought, Well Spoken
- By Mike on 04-17-20
By: Spencer D. Kelly, and others
What listeners say about The Science of Energy
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- Jus
- 04-17-16
Equally informative and enjoyable
I Loved these lectures! Professor Wysession is straight-forward no non-sense in his approach to lecturing. I learned a great deal from this series and it's definitely one of my favorite from the Great Courses. I like how Prof. Wysession called the recent wars out for what they are really about, not religion or democracy but energy and the fierce competition for dominance. Nothing new about that in the sense of history but while we are comfortable within our high-tech bubbles we tend to forget how desperately dependent we are on the politics and business of energy.
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16 people found this helpful
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- Adrian
- 04-22-19
one of the best great courses
A very thorough and informative course. It is refreshing looking at the issue through a scientific approach without any attached political agenda that usually taints the issue of energy and global warming. So much to take in I plan to listen to this course again
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- Adam Bourque
- 08-27-16
Informative, Unbiased, Great Voice
Definitely a recommend for anybody with a keen interest in energy & power. Anybody who has had Professor Wysession is a lucky student.
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- Targetsea
- 07-02-18
Excellent even handed survey: please update!!
This is excellent. Energy like everything else has become political, but Professor Wysession is scrupulously neutral, presenting the pros and cons of each source of energy alongside common issues such as storage and impact on the environment. He is particularly good at orders of magnitude calculations. In a fast changing sector, it is helpful to look at the big picture and Wysession goes a long way on the back of an envelope. Usefully global in scope, citing developments across the world. Would like more on comparative capital costs vs run costs across the sources.
The course needs an update! Most of the data is from 2014 and given the progress in many sectors, it would be really helpful to see what has changed in the last four years and whether this alters any conclusions. Maybe for 2019 based on 2018 data?
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- Kindle Customer
- 05-12-18
Insightful & provide good understanding
I really love it. Would recommend to my friends to help us sustaining our future.
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- Armando
- 05-19-17
Very insightful series about energy sources.
Great breakdown of all the energy sources and their implications in terms of use, pros, cons, economics, and geopolitics.
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- John Sanford
- 07-30-17
A prerequisite to informed citizenship
This series of lectures is well thought out and organized. The speaker's voice is easy on the ears and he presents a wealth of easy to understand information in just the right amount of detail. The content is very matter of fact and he offers very little in the way of opinions. I plan on listening to it a second time to reinforce some of the important key points.
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- Jean-Jacques
- 04-15-18
I am an engineer with a passion for sustainability
Not to sound arrogant, but I have researched energy and sustainable energy for some time. I was familiar with most of the content of course. However, I felt that the author/teacher did an incredible job arranging and presenting the material, and no prior knowledge was necessary to understand most of the material. The author also shared some valuable perspectives and insights, that I don't think are readily available without the author's background. Also, the author was incredible clear and fair, which is outstanding considering the potential controversy and abundance of misinformation surrounding the course topic. This has been one of my favorite audiobooks, and courses, of all time. Thank you.
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- Daniel
- 05-16-16
Great Lecture
Wysession offers a great Lecture on energy with a rather unbiased approach to energy production and use. Each chapter offered new and interesting information in a way I could easily picture and relate to.
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- marc grub
- 01-23-18
Good overview
Very comprehensive overview of the science (and basically everything) else around modern energy. And I liked the professor too.
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