Scan barcode
qaphsiel's review
4.0
An excellent course covering the various theories of the origins of life. The coverage is quite broad and I learned about theories I'd never heard of elsewhere. Hazen interjects biographical and autobiographical to round out the history and context of the material.
I'd recommend this to anyone with an interest in science.
I'd recommend this to anyone with an interest in science.
shouldgowork's review
informative
medium-paced
5.0
my only caveat is that the lecture series is now about 15 years old and so may be a little out of date, but it was hugely informative and entertaining
brucemri's review
5.0
This is a series of 24 lectures, each half an hour or a bit longer, about the origins of life. Prof. Hazen is himself involved in research on the subject, and this is what makes the series really stand out. Some of the technicalities are a bit beyond me, since I would have trouble remembering whether carboxyl groups include hydroxyl groups or vice versa. But that doesn't matter much, since Hazen excels at establishing overall context even when details pass me by. Even more, his lectures shine with insights into what it is scientists actually do and how they think about it.
For instance, early on he describes conducting an experiment into how readily some of the chemical precursors of life form under intense heat and pressure like you'd find a mile or two underground. He explains about the apparatus that creates the heat and pressure - essentially a long big gun. He then goes into just what it is you do to prepare a specimen, including (in this case) making little gold foil envelopes to hold specific chemicals and gases, and sealing them with precise welds (with a rueful note about how long it took him to get to a 50% success rate at that). He gives the length of the experiment, the firing taking just an instant but then the apparatus needing time to cool. He describes the complete shocked surprise and he and his fellow experimenters felt opening up the crushed packets, expecting to get a simple white powder of the things they expected to form and instead getting a smelly red-brown sludge. Then he explains about the kinds of instruments they used to analyze the ingredients, and the time each step took, and so on.
He does that again and again, bringing a very human touch to all aspects of scientific research: who pays for it, organizing groups, the sometimes bizarrely difficult search for needed materials, the flow of careers from graduate research to senior standing, the role of in-a-flash inspiration and the ways it interacts with long, tedious routines, the usefulness of projects that end up disproving the hypotheses they set out to confirm, the importance of ego clashes and harmonious working relationships, and a lot more. This is, I think, the single best coherent explanation of what it feels like to do science in a realm where the outcomes aren't just unknown in advance, but often downright impossible to foresee. This is the exact opposite of the cliche about science as a bundle of facts; here you get to see science as a shared commitment to methods, allowing researchers to venture again and again beyond any bundle of verified data.
Hazen excels also at pushing past another cliche, the idea that exposition must be somehow detached and disembodied so as to be objective. Hazen has his preferences. But he's clear and honest about them, and deals fairly with alternatives and even rivals. He goes from describing the truly fundamental experiments in synthesizing organic chemicals in conditions like those of early Earth by Miller and Urey to describing in another how much it hurt when research he was involved in came under callously dismissive criticism by Miller and his students to describing in a third lecture the continuing relevance and importance of Miller's work. He doesn't use his personal resentment at the attacks as license to downplay the merits of the work, nor the talent of the people doing it. That's generous in a way I'd be hard-pressed to live up to sometimes, and I admire it greatly.
This is my first experience with the Great Courses series of audiobooks. On the strength of it, I'll be looking for more, and I recommend this one to anyone who may want an expert, friendly look at how life may have begun and what it's like to take part in the effort to find out.
For instance, early on he describes conducting an experiment into how readily some of the chemical precursors of life form under intense heat and pressure like you'd find a mile or two underground. He explains about the apparatus that creates the heat and pressure - essentially a long big gun. He then goes into just what it is you do to prepare a specimen, including (in this case) making little gold foil envelopes to hold specific chemicals and gases, and sealing them with precise welds (with a rueful note about how long it took him to get to a 50% success rate at that). He gives the length of the experiment, the firing taking just an instant but then the apparatus needing time to cool. He describes the complete shocked surprise and he and his fellow experimenters felt opening up the crushed packets, expecting to get a simple white powder of the things they expected to form and instead getting a smelly red-brown sludge. Then he explains about the kinds of instruments they used to analyze the ingredients, and the time each step took, and so on.
He does that again and again, bringing a very human touch to all aspects of scientific research: who pays for it, organizing groups, the sometimes bizarrely difficult search for needed materials, the flow of careers from graduate research to senior standing, the role of in-a-flash inspiration and the ways it interacts with long, tedious routines, the usefulness of projects that end up disproving the hypotheses they set out to confirm, the importance of ego clashes and harmonious working relationships, and a lot more. This is, I think, the single best coherent explanation of what it feels like to do science in a realm where the outcomes aren't just unknown in advance, but often downright impossible to foresee. This is the exact opposite of the cliche about science as a bundle of facts; here you get to see science as a shared commitment to methods, allowing researchers to venture again and again beyond any bundle of verified data.
Hazen excels also at pushing past another cliche, the idea that exposition must be somehow detached and disembodied so as to be objective. Hazen has his preferences. But he's clear and honest about them, and deals fairly with alternatives and even rivals. He goes from describing the truly fundamental experiments in synthesizing organic chemicals in conditions like those of early Earth by Miller and Urey to describing in another how much it hurt when research he was involved in came under callously dismissive criticism by Miller and his students to describing in a third lecture the continuing relevance and importance of Miller's work. He doesn't use his personal resentment at the attacks as license to downplay the merits of the work, nor the talent of the people doing it. That's generous in a way I'd be hard-pressed to live up to sometimes, and I admire it greatly.
This is my first experience with the Great Courses series of audiobooks. On the strength of it, I'll be looking for more, and I recommend this one to anyone who may want an expert, friendly look at how life may have begun and what it's like to take part in the effort to find out.
More...