Science and Society

What is Science?.- Modes of Logic.- Modelling and Occam's Razor.- Theory, Model, and Law.- Defining Science.- Progress and Change in Science .- Answerable and Unanswerable in Science.- Why Does Science Exist?.- Doing Science.- The Beginnings of Science.- Studies.- Study Design.- Statistics and Studies.- Improving Study Reliability.- Pseudoscience.- Pseudoscience and Society.- Bad Science, Bad Scientists.- Case Studies.- Deconstructing Pseudoscience.- Energy and Entropy.- Definitions and Units.- Entropy.- Energy, Entropy, and Life.- Energy Flow in Society.- The Arrow of Time.- Electricity, Magnetism, and Light.- Magnetism and Force.- Electricity.- Faraday and Fields.- Maxwell and Light.- Vision and Light.- Measuring Light.- Spectral Lines.- Atom and Light.- The Electron.- Rutherford's Atom.- Blackbody Radiation.- The Photoelectric Effect.- Bohr's Atom.- The Quantum Atom.- Nuclear and Atomic Scales.- The Interaction of Light and Matter.- Climate.- Fossil Fuels.- Greenhouse Gases.- Energy Flow in the Environment.- Climate Modelling.- Implications of Climate Change.- Nuclear Energy and Radiation.- Into the Atom.- Nuclear Decay.- Nuclear Transmutation.- Health Effects of Radioactivity.- The Bomb.- Nuclear Power.- Nuclear Disasters.- Other Uses of Radioactivity.- Why Stars Shine.- A Finite Planet.- Population Growth.- Economic Growth.- Resource Management.- Beyond Carbon.- Electric Transport.- Outlook.- Space Travel.- Looking Out.

Eric Swanson is an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh. He has published more than 100 papers on theoretical hadronic physics, condensed matter physics, and biophysics. Swanson is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and is a founder of the APS Topical Group on Hadronic Physics. He has been a visiting scientist at Oxford University, TRIUMF in British Columbia, Jefferson Lab in Virginia, and Los Alamos National Laboratory.