A Brief History of Time (Lecture)
Hawking explains the origins of the universe in accessible terms.
A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field
Maxwell's unification of electricity and magnetism.
Aequanimitas
The father of modern medicine on the art of medicine.
Being Mortal
Gawande on mortality and medicine.
Black Holes and the Information Paradox
Susskind explains one of the deepest puzzles in theoretical physics.
Chance and Necessity
Monod on chance and necessity in evolution.
Cosmos: A Personal Voyage
Carl Sagan's groundbreaking 13-part series exploring the universe, science, and humanity's place in the cosmos.
Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems
Galileo's dialogue defending the heliocentric model.
Entropy and the Arrow of Time
Why does time flow in one direction? Sean Carroll explains entropy.
Fermi Problems
Fermi's approach to estimation and problem-solving.
Full Catastrophe Living
The 1990 classic on mindfulness-based stress reduction.
Gravitational Waves
Thorne explains gravitational waves and their detection.
Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems
A clear explanation of one of the most important results in mathematics.
Inflationary Cosmology
Guth explains cosmic inflation and the origin of the universe.
It from Bit
Wheeler on the nature of reality and information.
Life in the Universe
Hawking explores the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe.
On the Constitution of Atoms and Molecules
Bohr's model of the atom and quantum theory.
On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies
Einstein's original 1905 paper introducing special relativity.
Photo 51
The crucial X-ray crystallography that revealed DNA's structure.
Principia Mathematica
Newton's foundational work on physics and mathematics.
Punctuated Equilibrium
Gould on punctuated equilibrium and evolution.
Quantum Computing Explained
The father of quantum computing explains how it works.
Radioactive Substances
Curie's Nobel lecture on radioactivity.
Sociobiology
Wilson on sociobiology and the biological basis of behavior.
Symbiotic Planet
Margulis on symbiosis and the origin of complex cells.
The Anthropic Principle
Why does the universe appear fine-tuned for life?
The Central Dogma
Crick on the central dogma of molecular biology.
The Character of Physical Law
Feynman's famous Messenger Lectures at Cornell, exploring the nature of physical laws.
The Chemical History of a Candle
Faraday's Christmas lectures on the chemical history of a candle.
The Double Helix
Watson's account of the discovery of DNA's structure.
The Double Slit Experiment
The most beautiful experiment in physics, explained clearly.
The Elegant Universe
Brian Greene explains string theory and the quest for a unified theory of physics.
The Emperor's New Mind
Penrose on consciousness and the limits of computation.
The Feynman Lectures on Physics
The complete Feynman Lectures on Physics, freely available online. Perhaps the best physics textbook ever written.
The Great Silence
A comprehensive review of the Fermi Paradox and proposed solutions.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
The story of the woman whose cells changed medicine forever.
The Mathematical Theory of Black Holes
Chandrasekhar on the structure and evolution of stars.
The Molecular Biology of Life
Nobel laureate on the molecular biology revolution.
The Most Astounding Fact
Neil deGrasse Tyson on the most astounding fact about the universe.
The Nature of the Chemical Bond
Pauling on the nature of the chemical bond.
The Nerve Growth Factor
Levi-Montalcini on nerve growth factor.
The Origin of Species (Chapter 1)
Darwin's revolutionary work that changed our understanding of life on Earth.
The Principles of Quantum Mechanics
Dirac's Nobel lecture on quantum mechanics.
The Quark and the Jaguar
Nobel laureate explains quarks and the structure of matter.
The RNA World Hypothesis
Nobel laureate Jack Szostak explains the leading theory for how life began on Earth.
The Realm of the Nebulae
Hubble's discovery of the expanding universe.
The Scale of the Universe
An interactive visualization letting you zoom from the smallest particles to the entire observable universe.
The Secret Life of Chaos
How chaos theory and simple rules can create the complex patterns we see in nature.
The Selfish Gene Explained
Dawkins explains the gene-centered view of evolution.
The Significance of Responses of the Genome to Challenge
McClintock on genetic transposition.
The Story of Stuff
A look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns.
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Kuhn's influential work introducing 'paradigm shifts' in science.
The Uncertainty Principle
Heisenberg explains the uncertainty principle.
The X-ray Analysis of Complicated Molecules
Hodgkin on X-ray crystallography and molecular structure.
Time Without End
Dyson on the future of life in the universe.
What We Still Don't Know
Astronomer Royal Martin Rees explores the biggest unanswered questions in science.
What is Life?
Schrödinger's influential 1944 book exploring the physical basis of life, which inspired the discovery of DNA.