Popular Lectures on Scientific Subjects


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This presents a summary of many of Hemholtz's areas of research. He investigated the workings of the brain in its appreciation of art and music, and also developed some of the first rigorous ideas of how our solar system formed itself. Then, he was a contributor to the new theories of Einstein's curved space-time universe, and lastly, worked with the nascent Quantum Theory. He lived one of the most productive eras of history.

The intent of the series of LibriVox project of which this book is the second part, is to get a double-barreled insight into the great 19th century scientists on whose shoulders Einstein stood in developing his Theory of Relativity. One "barrel" was to be a BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY ABOUT each one, and the second barrel was to be a selection of that scientist's own writings about his own work. This book does both in one: the first part is a compendium of his works and then follows an autobiography. - Summary by William Jones (6 hr 45 min)