Within our lifetime, scientific advances have fundamentally changed our world.
This book describes scientific advances in five areas that changed the course of humanity, and set the stage for our generation and those to follow to play out our lives. These advances underpinned technological revolutions, and transformed some of our most basic notions of how the world works.
- Aircraft and the air transport revolution
- Nuclear energy: Mankind’s saviour or curse?
- Relativity and the nature of time and space
- The electricity, electronics and digital revolution
- Pushing structural limits of what can be built.
The author sets these developments in perspective of his own experiences growing up amidst an electronics revolution, onset of the jet age, and the Cold War within the surroundings of New York City undergoing major social, racial and physical transitions. To make sense of these developments, the author draws upon his subsequent training and experience as a physical chemist, scientific writer, and specialist in energy technology.
The content of this book formed the basis for the course ‘Science and the Big Issues of Our Time’, taught by the author at the University of the Third Age (U3A) in Brisbane, Australia over a two-year period.
Table of Content
Part 1. Flight: The technology that changed the 21st centuryIntroduction
Winged aircraft
Power required for winged flight
Helicopters
Part 2. Nuclear energy: Mankind’s saviour or curse for the 21st century?
Introduction
Discovery of the atomic nucleus
Atomic nuclei, and insights they provide into our past
Radioisotope power generators
Nuclear fusion: Energy source for the sun and stars
Power from nuclear fusion
Dawn of the nuclear era
Nuclear power reactors
Part 3. Our place in the universe, and the nature of reality
Introduction
Special relativity and the nature of reality
Special relativity and equivalence of mass & energy
Part 4. Electricity, electronics and the digital revolution
Introduction
Overview of the electronics revolution
Electrical conductivity
Semiconductors
Transistors
Part 5. Buildings and structures: Icons of modern society
Introduction
Materials and structures in the pre-industrial age
Steel beams: A great innovation of the 19th century
Distributed loads on beams and trusses
Cable-stayed bridges
Suspension bridges
About the author
As a physical chemistry by training, Martin Gellender undertook a career as a laboratory chemist, scientific writer, government technical adviser specialising in energy projects, and Manager of an Energy Information Centre; and set up and operated a government program that funded development of energy and water technology. He teaches a science course for retired seniors at the University of the Third Age.More ebooks from the same author(s) / Editor
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