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Key facts
| Type | Weekly Classes |
|---|---|
| Location | Reading |
| Address | London Road Campus Reading |
| Dates | Wed 24 Apr to Wed 26 Jun 2013 Day: Wednesday Time of meeting: 7.00-9.00pm Number of meetings: 10 |
| Subject area(s) | Physical Sciences |
| CATS points | 10 |
| Fees | From £145.00 |
| Application status | Course cancelled |
| Course code | R12P461PYW |
| Course contact | If you have any questions about this course, please email ppweekly@conted.ox.ac.uk. |
Overview
This course will look at key developments and key figures in the development of Science and Scientific ideas. The course will look at the Natural Sciences but will also consider key developments in the newer Social Sciences.Description
This course will look at the development of Scientific ideas as well as at the most influential and pivotal contributors that shaped Science over the last two thousand years. The course will commence with the Babylonians, the Egyptians and the Greeks of antiquity. Discussions of Copernicus, Hooke, Newton and Halley leading to the idea of Universal Gravitation will also be included. The theory of Evolution will be discussed and brief histories of Chemistry including Lavoisier, Dalton and Mendeleyev will be included. A brief history of Statistics and Computing will also be discussed.The course will concentrate on the development of Science and the Scientists that helped to shape it.
Programme details
Week 1: Ancient Science: Babylonia, Egypt and Greece.Week 2: Science in the Orient and Medievel Europe.
Week 3: The Scientic Revolution in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries: Galileo, the telescope and the role of the Church.
Week 4: Descartes, Copernicus, Hooke and the microscope, Newton and Halley.
Week 5: Discovering Electricity: Voltaire, Franklin, Faraday, Coulomb and Maxwell.
Week 6: Alchemy to Chemistry: Priestly, Cavendish, Lavoisier, Avagadro, Mendeleyev.
Week 7: Evolution: Darwin, Wallace, Natural Selection and the role played by geology.
Week 8: The Birth of Statistics: Pascal, Fermat and Laplace.
Week 9: Astronomy revisited and the use of Mathematics in it's Exposition: Ptolemy,Copernicus, Kepler, Newton, Laplace, Einstein and Hawking.
Week 10: The Social Sciences catch up: Economics and Computer Science. A look at the contributions of Keynes, Nash, Turing and Von Neumann.
Background reading:
Masosn, F.S: A Hisory of Science, Collier Books Crump,
T, Robinson: A Brief History of Science, Crump, T, Robinson., London.
Singer, C: A Short History of Scientific Ideas to 1900, Oxford Paperbacks.
Hawking, S: The Illustrated, On the Shoulders of Giants, The Great Works of Physics and Astronomy, Running Press.
Staff
Dr Vasos Pavlika
Role: Tutor
Dr Vasos Pavlika is a Lecturer at SOAS, UEA and the LSE (University of London). He has been a lecturer in the Department for Continuing Education,...more
Course aims
Course aim:To introduce key, pivotal Scientists responsible for the development of Science.
To discuss the key influences in the shaping of Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Biology, Economics and Computer Science.
Course objectives:
To give insight into the development of Science.
To discuss the factors that influenced and accelerated the development of Science and of Scientific ideas.
To introduce many of the men and women responsible for the shaping of Science from Babylon to present day.
Assessment methods
The Students will write an essay on a topic/topics discussed on the course.Teaching methods
All lectures will comprise a power point presentation with accompanying written work.Teaching outcomes
By the end of the course students will:Understand the key developments in Science due to the ancients.
Be aware of pivotal great scientists in the development of Physics/Astronomy.
Understand the great works of Galileo, Newton, Darwin.
Apply for this course
Sorry, this course is not currently accepting applications. If you have any questions about this course, please use the course enquiry form.