Welcome to the new OLLI course, Learning About Science from Cosmicomics.
Schedule: Eight meetings, Wishcamper room 203, Thursdays 9:30 to 11:30 AM, starting September 18.
Required text: The Complete Cosmicomics, by Italo Calvino.
Read and discuss the Cosmicomics stories of Italo Calvino, and then get a better grasp of the scientific roots of his fanciful, funny stories. We will learn about the Big Bang, gravity, spacetime, light, magnetism, molecules, genetics, evolution, plate tectonics --- you name it. An alternative name for this course could be A Random Walk in Science.
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If x - 4 = 7, what is x?
Balance this chemical equation:
CH4 + O2 ---> CO2 + H2O
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaa !!!!!!!
lemmeoutahere !!!
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If you ran screaming from your first exposure to algebra or chemistry, here's your chance to reopen some of the doors you closed way back then, and perhaps have not tried since.
If you love science already, here's your chance to explore fields that are new to you.
If you think science and the humanities are two different cultures, wrong; find out more in this course, and lots more at
One Culture: Science and the Humanities
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Sample Calvino's Cosmicomics HERE. (This source does not provide the complete book; for the complete book, follow the links in the next paragraph.)
The best PRINT version of the book to buy: HERE. When I refer to page numbers in assignments, those numbers are for the print edition of this book. The book is also available in digital form to read in Kindle (Amazon) or iBooks (Apple), but paging is variable in those sources, depending on your person settings in the electronic versions. Nevertheless, you should have no problems finding assigned readings by their titles in Kindle, iBooks, or other editions.
Hope to see you this fall.
