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Designed to meet the powerful demand for lifelong learning, The Great Courses is an intellectual engaging series of video and audio courses led by the world's best professors and experts in diverse fields such as philosophy, history, literature, science, and the arts. The Great Courses currently maintains a catalog of more than 350 courses delivered by great teachers from universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale, and more.

We work closely with our customers and professors to create every single Great Course. Here's how we do it:

  • Customers Choose the Professor:We begin with the most engaging professors—the top 1% as determined by The Great Courses and its customers. In the end, only 1 in 5,000 professors meets the standards set by our customers, who vote on all professors we retain.
  • Customers Choose the Course: We interview thousands of customers to find out what courses they want and how they want them made.
  • Professors Carefully Craft the Course: Months of preparation ensure that a course will satisfy our customers. Long before a word is spoken on stage, our professor outlines and prepares each lecture and writes the extensive Course Guidebook.
  • We Record the Course: Working in our in-house recording studios, we record the video of each lecture on high-definition-quality equipment and media, or record the audio of each lecture on the latest CD-quality equipment and media. We then devote weeks to include dynamic visual elements into the video lectures and to professionally master the sound for the audio lectures.

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The answer is simple. By producing large quantities of only the sale courses, we keep our costs down and pass the savings on to you. This approach also enables us to fill your order immediately—99% of all orders ship within 24 hours.

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Every single Great Course you order comes with a Lifetime Satisfaction Guarantee.

If a course is ever less than completely satisfying, you may exchange it for another or we will refund your money promptly. If a disc ever breaks, warps, or gets damaged, we'll replace it as long as the course is in print. Absolutely free.

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Science & Mathematics

Whether you’re someone who’s up-to-date on the latest research on chaos theory or someone who’s long been intimidated by the complexities of topology, these accessible courses will reveal the layers of wonder hidden within science and mathematics.

Math 23, Astronomy 9, Physics 11, Biology 22, Earth Science 5, History of Science 7, Social Science 8, Other 9, Special Sets 1

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Include Sale items only (44)
  • Understanding the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy, 2nd Edition
    Quick Look
    Understanding the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy, 2nd Edition Professor Alex Filippenko
  • Physics and Our Universe: How It All Works
    Quick Look
    Physics and Our Universe: How It All Works Professor Richard Wolfson
  • Trails of Evidence: How Forensic Science Works
    Quick Look
    Trails of Evidence: How Forensic Science Works Professor Elizabeth A. Murray Save up to $325
  • Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behavior
    Quick Look
    Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behavior Professor Mark Leary
  • Optimizing Brain Fitness
    Quick Look
    Optimizing Brain Fitness Professor Richard Restak
  • Neuroscience of Everyday Life
    Quick Look
    Neuroscience of Everyday Life Professor Sam Wang Save up to $310
  • Biology: The Science of Life
    Quick Look
    Biology: The Science of Life Professor Stephen Nowicki
  • Understanding the Human Body: An Introduction to Anatomy and Physiology
    Quick Look
    Understanding the Human Body: An Introduction to Anatomy and Physiology Dr. Anthony A. Goodman
  • How the Earth Works
    Quick Look
    How the Earth Works Professor Michael E. Wysession
  • Secrets of Mental Math
    Quick Look
    Secrets of Mental Math Professor Arthur T. Benjamin
  • Oceanography: Exploring Earth's Final Wilderness
    Quick Look
    Oceanography: Exploring Earth's Final Wilderness Professor Harold J. Tobin
  • Chemistry, 2nd Edition
    Quick Look
    Chemistry, 2nd Edition Professor Frank Cardulla Save up to $220
  • Joy of Science
    Quick Look
    Joy of Science Professor Robert M. Hazen
  • Nutrition Made Clear
    Quick Look
    Nutrition Made Clear Professor Roberta H. Anding
  • Stress and Your Body
    Quick Look
    Stress and Your Body Professor Robert Sapolsky
  • Understanding the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy, 2nd Edition
Understanding the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy, 2nd Edition
Professor Alex Filippenko
In 96 richly illustrated half-hour lectures you will survey the main concepts, methods, and discoveries in astronomy—from the constellations drawn by the ancients, to the latest reports from planetary probes in our Solar System and the most recent images offered by telescopes probing the farthest frontiers of space and time. While updating this course, Professor Alex Filippenko added hundreds of images, including nearly 300 short movies and computer animations.
  • Physics and Our Universe: How It All Works
Physics and Our Universe: How It All Works
Professor Richard Wolfson

Discover the beauty and simplicity of science's most fundamental branch with Physics and Our Universe: How It All Works. Intensively illustrated with diagrams, experiments, animations, graphs, and other visual aids, these 60 lectures by engaging and award-winning Professor Richard Wolfson introduce you to scores of fundamental ideas such as Newtonian mechanics, waves and fluids, thermodynamics, electricity and magnetism, optics, and relativity and quantum theory.

  • Trails of Evidence: How Forensic Science Works Save Up To $325
Trails of Evidence: How Forensic Science Works
Professor Elizabeth A. Murray

The desire to identify lawbreakers and bring them to justice is so great that it has inspired countless stories, novels, plays, movies, and television series. But how accurate are the fictional portrayals of crime investigations? What happens behind the scenes when forensic scientists crack a case? Trails of Evidence: How Forensic Science Works takes you from the crime scene to the lab to the courtroom in 36 riveting half-hour lectures by forensic anthropologist and Professor Elizabeth A. Murray that reveal how forensic science really works.

  • Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behavior
Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behavior
Professor Mark Leary

Why do people behave the way they do? Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behavior, by psychologist and Professor Mark Leary, is your guide to the latest theories and research from psychology and other behavioral sciences on this age-old question. Understanding the answers will help you better know yourself and the people around you. With the powerful insights you’ll find in these 24 intellectually scintillating lectures, you’ll start looking at your own and other people’s behavior with a little more insight, curiosity, and wonderment.

  • Optimizing Brain Fitness
Optimizing Brain Fitness
Professor Richard Restak
Discover the secrets to increasing your brain's power to meet everyday challenges and enhance your life with Optimizing Brain Fitness. This engaging 12-lecture course shows you how to take advantage of the basic principles of brain operation and build the brain you want to live with for the rest of your life. Delivered by Dr. Richard Restak, an award-winning teacher and practicing neurologist, these lectures are packed with vital information and research-based exercises you can perform every day to tap into your hidden mental potential.
  • Neuroscience of Everyday Life Save Up To $310
Neuroscience of Everyday Life
Professor Sam Wang
Discover what the exciting field of neuroscience reveals about how the intricate inner workings of the human brain produce all the experiences of daily life. The Neuroscience of Everyday Life, crafted by distinguished neuroscientist and Princeton University Professor Sam Wang, covers a remarkable range of subjects in 36 richly detailed lectures. You'll explore the brain under stress and in love, learning, sleeping, thinking, hallucinating, and just looking around. Assuming no background in science, Professor Wang's insightful approach makes this course a joy for people who want to know how their brains work every single day of their lives.
  • Biology: The Science of Life
Biology: The Science of Life
Professor Stephen Nowicki

One of the greatest scientific feats of our era is the astonishing progress made in understanding the intricate machinery of life. This intensive, 72-lecture course gives you the background and guidance to explore in depth the fundamental principles of how living things work—principles such as evolution by natural selection, the cellular structure of organisms, the DNA theory of inheritance, and other key ideas that help you appreciate the marvelous diversity and complexity of life.

  • Understanding the Human Body: An Introduction to Anatomy and Physiology
Understanding the Human Body: An Introduction to Anatomy and Physiology
Dr. Anthony A. Goodman
Surgeon, writer, and Professor Anthony A. Goodman puts a solid understanding of human anatomy and physiology within your grasp. You'll learn to see how structure and function are integrated into efficient unity—a perspective that reveals the logic and symmetry of the human organism with awesome clarity. Using detailed color illustrations, life-sized models, and, in one lecture, a video shot during surgery, Dr. Goodman gives clear descriptions of anatomy and physiology aimed at the level of the interested layperson.
  • How the Earth Works
How the Earth Works
Professor Michael E. Wysession
The combination of continents, oceans, and atmosphere makes Earth unique among all the planets in the solar system, and perhaps in the galaxy. These features also create the conditions for life in all its diversity. But where did the land, water, and air come from? And how do these systems work together to produce the complex phenomena that are evident everywhere on this beautiful planet? How the Earth Works takes you on an astonishing journey through time and space, from the big bang, to the formation of the solar system, to the subsequent evolution of Earth.
  • Secrets of Mental Math
Secrets of Mental Math
Professor Arthur T. Benjamin
Improve and expand your math potential—whether you're a corporate executive or a high-school student—in the company of Professor Arthur T. Benjamin, one of the most entertaining members of The Great Courses faculty. The Secrets of Mental Math, his exciting 12-lecture course, guides you through all the essential skills, tips, and tricks for enhancing your ability to solve a range of mathematical problems right in your head. Along the way, you'll discover how mental mathematics is the gateway to success in understanding and mastering higher fields, including algebra and statistics.
  • Oceanography: Exploring Earth's Final Wilderness
Oceanography: Exploring Earth's Final Wilderness
Professor Harold J. Tobin
Discover the wonder, delight, and awe-inspiring majesty of Earth's ocean with Oceanography: Exploring Earth's Final Wilderness. Professor Harold J. Tobin, an ocean scientist who has visited landscapes on the seabed that no human eyes have seen before, takes you on a scientific expedition to fathom the ocean's many mysteries—from its shallowest tidal zone to its deepest depths. Requiring no background in science, these 36 intensively illustrated lectures will give you a thorough appreciation for the ocean as a system arguably more intricate and intriguing than the continents themselves.

  • Chemistry, 2nd Edition Save Up To $220
Chemistry, 2nd Edition
Professor Frank Cardulla
Discover why success in chemistry depends only on a genuine understanding of the field's concepts and ideas. Chemistry, 2nd Edition provides a foundation for future success by giving students a deep and thorough grasp of the fundamental problem-solving skills needed to study chemistry. Veteran science teacher and Professor Frank Cardulla's 36 carefully designed lectures are valuable tools for struggling students, students looking to perform better, home-schooled students, or anyone interested in finally understanding this important science.
  • Joy of Science
Joy of Science
Professor Robert M. Hazen
This course provides a clear and bracing overview of the entire scientific world from the laws of motion first formulated 300 years ago by Sir Isaac Newton to the latest marvels of contemporary genetic research. These lucid, information-packed lectures convey the excitement of scientific discovery and trace the connections between discoveries over time. Veteran science educator Professor Robert Hazen renders the most complex ideas simple and memorable.
  • Nutrition Made Clear
Nutrition Made Clear
Professor Roberta H. Anding
Replace nutritional misconceptions with hard science you can understand in Nutrition Made Clear. In 36 in-depth lectures taught by dietitian and Professor Roberta H. Anding, explore the fundamentals of good nutrition and learn how to practically apply them to your unique lifestyle. Designed to appeal to anyone at any age, this course is an invaluable source of medically backed, statistically proven information about the necessary guidelines for healthy living and eating.
  • Stress and Your Body
Stress and Your Body
Professor Robert Sapolsky
From Dr. Robert Sapolsky, one of the world's foremost researchers on stress and neurobiology, comes this fascinating 24-lecture course that guides you through the science of the stress that is a central part of daily life. You'll explore the nuts and bolts of the stress-response system, its various effects on the body, its ramifications on psychological health, and more. Filled with intriguing case studies, helpful analogies, and heartfelt stories, Stress and Your Body will give you a thorough knowledge of how and why stress affects you the way it does.
  • Understanding the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy, 2nd Edition
  • Physics and Our Universe: How It All Works
  • Trails of Evidence: How Forensic Science Works SALE
  • Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behavior
  • Optimizing Brain Fitness
  • Neuroscience of Everyday Life SALE
  • Biology: The Science of Life
  • Understanding the Human Body: An Introduction to Anatomy and Physiology
  • How the Earth Works
  • Secrets of Mental Math
  • Oceanography: Exploring Earth's Final Wilderness
  • Chemistry, 2nd Edition SALE
  • Joy of Science
  • Nutrition Made Clear
  • Stress and Your Body
  • Big History: The Big Bang, Life on Earth, and the Rise of Humanity SALE
  • Memory and the Human Lifespan
  • Understanding the Brain
  • The Human Body: How We Fail, How We Heal
  • How We Learn
  • Joy of Mathematics
  • Understanding the World's Greatest Structures: Science and Innovation from Antiquity to Modernity
  • Lifelong Health: Achieving Optimum Well-Being at Any Age
  • Mathematics Describing the Real World: Precalculus and Trigonometry
  • Algebra I
  • Quantum Mechanics: The Physics of the Microscopic World
  • Understanding Calculus: Problems, Solutions, and Tips
  • Rise of Humans: Great Scientific Debates SALE
  • Understanding the Secrets of Human Perception
  • Nature of Earth: An Introduction to Geology
  • Dark Matter, Dark Energy: The Dark Side of the Universe SALE
  • Skywatching: Seeing and Understanding Cosmic Wonders SALE
  • Experiencing Hubble: Understanding the Greatest Images of the Universe
  • Mastering the Fundamentals of Mathematics
  • Biology and Human Behavior: The Neurological Origins of Individuality, 2nd Edition SALE
  • Mastering Differential Equations: The Visual Method
  • Cosmology: The History and Nature of Our Universe
  • Meteorology: An Introduction to the Wonders of the Weather
  • The Inexplicable Universe: Unsolved Mysteries SALE
  • Algebra II
  • Understanding the Science for Tomorrow: Myth and Reality
  • Change and Motion: Calculus Made Clear, 2nd Edition
  • Einstein's Relativity and the Quantum Revolution: Modern Physics for Non-Scientists, 2nd Edition
  • Understanding Genetics: DNA, Genes, and Their Real-World Applications SALE
  • Discrete Mathematics SALE
  • Joy of Thinking: The Beauty and Power of Classical Mathematical Ideas SALE
  • Great Ideas of Psychology
  • Mysteries of the Microscopic World
  • Chaos
  • Great Scientific Ideas That Changed the World SALE
  • Games People Play: Game Theory in Life, Business, and Beyond SALE
  • Origins of the Human Mind
  • Major Transitions in Evolution
  • Meaning from Data: Statistics Made Clear
  • Particle Physics for Non-Physicists: A Tour of the Microcosmos
  • Mathematics from the Visual World SALE
  • High School Level—Geometry
  • Introduction to Number Theory SALE
  • New Frontiers: Modern Perspectives on Our Solar System SALE
  • Being Human: Life Lessons from the Frontiers of Science SALE
  • What Are the Chances? Probability Made Clear
  • Earth's Changing Climate SALE
  • Art and Craft of Mathematical Problem Solving
  • Zero to Infinity: A History of Numbers
  • Superstring Theory: The DNA of Reality
  • Origins of Life SALE
  • Impossible: Physics beyond the Edge
  • Black Holes Explained
  • The Spiritual Brain: Science and Religious Experience
  • Mysteries of Modern Physics: Time SALE
  • Great Thinkers, Great Theorems
  • Shape of Nature
  • Prove It: The Art of Mathematical Argument SALE
  • My Favorite Universe
  • Physics of History SALE
  • Science and Religion
  • Science of Self SALE
  • Sensation, Perception, and the Aging Process SALE
  • Queen of the Sciences: A History of Mathematics
  • Mathematics, Philosophy, and the "Real World"
  • Albert Einstein: Physicist, Philosopher, Humanitarian SALE
  • Introduction to Nanotechnology: The New Science of Small
  • Physics in Your Life
  • Earth at the Crossroads: Understanding the Ecology of a Changing Planet
  • Scientific Secrets for a Powerful Memory SALE
  • Our Night Sky
  • Biological Anthropology: An Evolutionary Perspective
  • Doctors: The History of Scientific Medicine Revealed Through Biography
  • Philosophy of Science SALE
  • Understanding Complexity
  • Darwinian Revolution
  • Peoples and Cultures of the World
  • Roots of Human Behavior SALE
  • Science in the 20th Century: A Social-Intellectual Survey
  • Theories of Human Development
  • Great Ideas of Classical Physics
  • Science Wars: What Scientists Know and How They Know It
  • History of Science: 1700–1900 SALE
  • Theory of Evolution: A History of Controversy
  • Understanding the Human Factor: Life and Its Impact
  • History of Science: Antiquity to 1700
  • Explaining Social Deviance
  • High School Level—World History & Early American History (Set)
  • Mathematics Describing the Real World & Understanding Calculus (Set) SALE
  • Quantum Mechanics: The Physics of the Microscopic World & Particle Physics for Non-Physicists (Set) SALE
  • Physics and Our Universe: How It All Works & Dark Matter, Dark Energy: The Dark Side of the Universe (Set) SALE
  • Impossible: Physics beyond the Edge & Quantum Mechanics (Set)
  • Introduction to Nanotechnology: The New Science of Small & Understanding the Science for Tomorrow: Myth and Reality (Set)
  • Understanding the Science for Tomorrow & Impossible: Physics beyond the Edge (Set)
  • Secrets of Mental Math & Joy of Mathematics (Set) SALE
  • Prove It: The Art of Mathematical Argument & Understanding Calculus: Problems, Solutions, and Tips (Set)
  • Mastering Differential Equations: The Visual Method & Discrete Mathematics (Set)
  • Meaning from Data: Statistics Made Clear & What Are the Chances? Probability Made Clear (Set) SALE
  • Introduction to Number Theory & Mastering Differential Equations: The Visual Method (Set) SALE
  • Major Transitions in Evolution & Biology: The Science of Life (Set)
  • Neuroscience of Everyday Life & Origins of the Human Mind (Set)
  • Neuroscience of Everyday Life & Science of Self (Set) SALE
  • The Rise of Humans: Great Scientific Debates & Major Transitions in Evolution (Set) SALE
  • Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behavior & Origins of the Human Mind
  • Understanding Mysteries of Human Behavior & Biology and Human Behavior: The Neurological Origins of Individuality, 2nd Edition
  • How We Learn & Memory and the Human Lifespan (Set) SALE
  • How the Earth Works & Nature of Earth (Set) SALE
  • The Inexplicable Universe: Unsolved Mysteries & My Favorite Universe (Set)
  • Black Holes Explained & Understanding the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy, 2nd Edition (Set) SALE
  • Lifelong Health: Achieving Optimum Well-Being at Any Age & The Human Body: How We Fail, How We Heal (Set) SALE
  • The Science of Natural Healing & Nutrition Made Clear (Set) SALE
  • Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills & Optimizing Brain Fitness (Set) SALE
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