Category Archives: Science

The Chemical History of a Candle

Engineer Guy: The Chemical History of a Candle. “Faraday’s Great 19th Century Lectures for a 21st Century Audience” is divided into five lectures. You can also watch the five lectures with commentary. An accompnagnying book is available as hardcover, paperback, ebook or free PDF.

Direct links to the series on YouTube:

  1. Introduction: The Chemical History of a Candle by Michael Faraday
  2. Lecture One: The Sources of its Flame (with commentary)
  3. Lecture Two: Brightness of the Flame (with commentary)
  4. Lecture Three: Products of Combustion (with commentary)
  5. Lecture Four: The Nature of the Atmosphere (with commentary)
  6. Lecture Five: Respiration & the Burning of a Candle (with commentary)

It’s a classic!

Links via MetaFilter: Six Easy Pieces, 19th century edition.

Shhh…

NPR Science: Beyond Sightseeing: You’ll Love The Sound Of America’s Best Parks.

“Every place has its own sound. A small group of scientists is hard at work recording the natural sounds of national parks all across the U.S. — more than 70 soundscapes so far.

For our series on the centennial of the national parks, we traveled to Colorado, to find out how they create these portraits of sound.”

I recommend listening to the seven minute article instead of just reading the (abbreviated, loose) transcript because there are a lot of sound clips.