The Shedding Light on Atoms series uses demonstrations and animations to take students on a journey of discovery to explain what we know about atoms-and how we know what we know about atoms. The second episode explores how the discovery of oxygen helped to accelerate the study of chemistry. It examines how hydrogen was discovered and how it was revealed that water is formed when hydrogen and oxygen chemically join together. It then looks at oxygen's...

"From the Pythagorean theorem to DNA's double helix, from the discovery of microscopic life-forms to the theory of relativity--the big ideas of science and technology shape an era's worldview. Open this book, grasp the newest ideas from thought leaders of today, then spring off from them to move back through the past, one big idea at a time. Meet the people who gave birth to these ideas--and those who fought against them. Meet the MIT electrical engineer...

Exploring the antithesis of the wave model, this album of eight computer-animated video segments looks at the particle approach to studying light. Black-body radiation, Planck's constant, the Photoelectric Effect, and the work of James Clerk Maxwell are presented as forerunners to Einstein's concept of photon frequency. Examples of a slope intercept graph and a revised double-slit experiment using light-sensitive paper segue to an illustration of...

This book is backward! It starts at the end, ends at the beginning, and travels back in history to show you what life was like before major inventions and discoveries. Step into a time before smartphones, television, cars, or even the toilet; then learn about the major invention or discovery that changed the world.

"A lighthearted but informative look at chance discoveries made by ordinary people, of artifacts (and treasures) from the past. Many of these discoveries have led to leaps in our knowledge of history and science. Each short chapter will begin with a dramatic story of discovery, followed by the significance of the artifact that was discovered, followed by a look into the history of the civilization/era from which the artifact originates. The stories...

A beautifully illustrated celebration of science from the clever people who bring you AQUILA magazine. Ideas are important. They change things. A single idea can start a war, save billions of lives, even rearrange whole planetary systems, or simply make a person giggle until they pee a little bit. They can be totally wrong but widely believed, or undoubtedly right and completely ignored. What's more, they're free, and anyone can have one-including...

In this edition of Moyers & Company, Bill speaks with historian Joyce Appleby, whose new book Shores of Knowledge: New World Discoveries and the Scientific Imagination provides a captivating account of curiosity and how it has shaped our modern world. Dr. Appleby is a professor emerita at UCLA and has served as president of both the Organization of American Historians and the American Historical Association. Two of her other books include Inheriting...