Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Experiencing America: A Smithsonian Tour through History (Transcript)
    Experiencing America: A Smithsonian Tour through History (Transcript)
    Experiencing America: A Smithsonian Tour through History (Transcript)
    Ebook535 pages9 hours

    Experiencing America: A Smithsonian Tour through History (Transcript)

    By Richard Kurin

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Experiencing America: A Smithsonian Tour through History is the companion book to the audio/video series of the same name. It contains a full transcript of the series as well as the complete course guidebook which includes lecture notes, bibliography, and more.

    About this series:

    Chemistry is defined as the study of matter and its properties. With regard to this definition, the roots of the study of chemistry can be traced back to more than one ancient civilization. Most notably, the Greeks and Chinese each independently postulated thousands of years ago that there must be a small number of elemental substances from which all other things were created as admixtures. Remarkably, both civilizations theorized that air, earth, water, and fire were among those elements. It was much more recently, however—just about 300 years ago—that famed French nobleman and chemist Antoine Lavoisier correctly identified one of the elements experimentally. Lavoisier’s discovery is often cited as the event that heralded the birth of chemistry as a proper science. Theorizing based on observation of natural systems began to give way to controlled testing of the properties of matter, leading to an explosion of understanding, the echoes of which are still ringing in modern-day laboratories. Organic chemistry is the subject dedicated to the study of a deceptively simple set of molecules—those based on carbon. Even today, centuries after the most basic governing principles of this subject were discovered, many students struggle to make sense of this science. At the university level, professors are often in a race against time to dispense the vast body of knowledge on organic chemistry to their students before semester’s end, leaving little time for discussion of exactly how this information came to be known or of just how new experimentation might change the world we live in. This course endeavors to fill that gap. As humanity’s understanding of chemistry grew, so did the library of elements that had been isolated and identified, yet even as this library of elements grew, one of the simplest of them—carbon—seemed to play a very special and indispensable role in many small molecules. This was particularly true of the molecules harvested from living organisms. So obvious was the importance of this role that chemists dubbed the study of the fundamental molecules of life “organic chemistry,” a science that today has been expanded to include any molecule relying principally on carbon atoms as its backbone. In this course, you will investigate the role of carbon in organic molecules—sometimes acting as a reactive site on molecules, sometimes influencing reactive sites on molecules, but always providing structural support for an ever-growing library of both naturally occurring and man-made compounds. Other elements will join the story, bonding with carbon scaffolds to create compounds with a stunningly broad array of properties. Most notable are the elements hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, chlorine, and bromine. The presence of these elements and others in organic chemistry spices up the party, but none of them can replace carbon in its central role. The goal of this course is to take the uninitiated student on a tour of the development and application of the discipline of organic chemistry, noting some of the most famous minds to dedicate themselves to this science in the past few centuries, such as Dmitry Mendeleev (of periodic table fame), Friedrich Wöhler (the father of modern organic chemistry), and Alfred Nobel (the inventor of dynamite and founder of the most influential scientific prize in the history of humanity). You will also meet some very famous scientists from other fields whose forays into organic chemistry helped shape the science, such as Louis Pasteur of microbiology fame and Michael Faraday, the father of electromagnetism. Approximately the first half of the course is dedicated to building th
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThe Great Courses
    Release dateAug 22, 2014
    ISBN9781598036343
    Experiencing America: A Smithsonian Tour through History (Transcript)

    Related to Experiencing America

    Related ebooks

    Chemistry For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      A Walk Among The Ancients

      Mar 2, 2021

      A Walk Among The Ancients
      6 min read

    • Article

      Front And Center

      Nov 26, 2019

      Front And Center
      4 min read

    • Article

      A National Museum

      Oct 1, 2022

      A National Museum
      1 min read

    • Article

      Dispatches from The Aia

      Feb 14, 2019

      Dispatches from The Aia
      3 min read

    • Article

      Dispatches From The Aia

      Aug 10, 2021

      An important aspect of the AIA’s core mission is supporting archaeological research. Every year, we award grants and fellowships that help fund excavations, surveys, post-fieldwork analysis, and publication. For the last two years, in addition to our

      3 min read

    • Article

      #A People’s HISTORY

      Jun 18, 2019

      Thanks to modern air travel and the luck of the weather, I found myself this spring amidst the peak of cherry blossom season in both Tokyo and Washington, D.C. To start, I helped close our first Milken Institute Japan Symposium on stage with US finan

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Hyper-local Parent Power Winning The Culture War In The American South

      Apr 1, 2022

      RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, IS ALMOST AN English town. A settlement older than the United States itself, it is perhaps the perfectly preserved symbol of the deep roots and common ties of its country with the greater Anglosphere; to use the former Senator and

      8 min read

    • Article

      In Awe Of All Our Relations

      Aug 24, 2021

      Awe—it’s one of our most profound emotions. According to evolutionary psychologist Dacher Keltner, founder of the Greater Good Science Center, it happens when something vast stretches the limits of our frame of reference. Big vistas induce awe. So do

      2 min read

    • Article

      How Tycoons Created the Dinosaur

      Oct 20, 2021

      The dinosaur is a chimera. Some parts of this complex assemblage are the result of biological evolution. But others are products of human ingenuity, constructed by artists, scientists, and technicians in a laborious process that stretches from the di

      14 min read

    • Article

      How American Tycoons Created the Dinosaur

      Sep 5, 2019

      The dinosaur is a chimera. Some parts of this complex assemblage are the result of biological evolution. But others are products of human ingenuity, constructed by artists, scientists, and technicians in a laborious process that stretches from the di

      14 min read

    • Article

      Cultural Notes

      May 18, 2023

      Once upon a time, ancient Chinese philosopher and educator Confucius (551-479 B.C.) used the fragrance of orchids, light yet lingering, to express the sublimity, humility and nobility of character for which he believed everyone should strive. This fo

      4 min read

    • Article

      Letters |

      Nov 2, 2022

      Letters |
      4 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Nov 2, 2023

      Letters
      4 min read

    • Article

      What’s On

      Jan 23, 2018

      Sydney Writers’ Festival presents more than 400 events, attracting audiences of 100,000 plus for a week-long conversation of books and ideas. The festival brings together some of the world’s most curious and compassionate, irreverent but respectful,

      2 min read

    • Article

      Food As Art With A Hungry Cause

      Apr 13, 2024

      Food As Art With A Hungry Cause
      1 min read

    • Article

      Our Shared Cultural Legacy

      Apr 8, 2021

      Our Shared Cultural Legacy
      5 min read

    • Article

      What’s On

      Jan 27, 2020

      What’s On
      2 min read

    • Article

      Michael Wood On…

      Sep 1, 2022

      In my job, travelling the world making films on history and culture, I’ve spent a lot of time exploring religion in its many manifestations. Religion, after all, is a gift for the camera: full of colour, action and often moving rituals. It’s also a c

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Experiencing America

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Experiencing America - Richard Kurin

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1