"In-House" Lectures* at University
of Massachusetts-Boston

this page is at http://site.www.umb.edu/faculty/salzman_g/SfHS/GSLects.htm

Science for Humane Survival
--Science for the People courses--

George Salzman   Physics Dept, Univ of Massachusetts, Boston, MA 02125

1. Introduction to "radical science"

What does it mean?, What is radical science?
Why teach radical science?

2. How and Why Science for Humane Survival Began: a personal note

3. Knowing the World in Which We Live
      A. The Importance of Reading
      B. The Shaping of Ideas and Consciousness
      C. Unstated Assumptions
      D. Knowledge and Wisdom, Two Aspects of Knowing
      E. The Role of Science
      F. The Inevitability of Indoctrination

The above sections were changed in Fall 1996. The following sections, in notes dated August 19, 1993, remain to be reworked, and of course the pages will need to be renumbered. The page numbers here refer to the original hardcopy, not to what will eventually be printed from the website.

3. Evolution of the Earth's Ecosphere
      A. How Big is the Ecosphere? An Estimate . . . page 6
           Estimating the mass of the ecosphere . . . page 7
           The Oceans; The Land; The Atmosphere . . . page 8
           Ecosphere Mass and Earth Mass . . . page 8
           Poem, The Girl-Child of Pompei, by Primo Levi . . . page 9
      B. Sunlight and Nuclear Energy . . . page 9
      C. Formation of the Solar System . . . page 11
      D. Evolution of the Sun, From Birth to `First Death' as a Red Giant Star . . . page 12
      E. Evolution of the Earth Below the Ecosphere . . . page 12
      F. The Biological Evolutionary Timescale of the Ecosphere . . . page 14
                F insert, on Getting Numerical Values from Graphs, Trying
                  to Determine when Life Began . . . page 19
      G. More Information on the Evolutionary Timescale of the Ecosphere . . . page 21
      H. Conclusion . . . page 24
4. What is Good Science?
      A. Science-hard, soft, interdisciplinary . . . page 26
      B. Bad Science and Good Science . . . page 27
           An Example of Good Science . . . page 29
5. The `Population Problem,' the `Debt Problem,' and Exponential Growth
      A. Introductory Remarks . . . page 31
           Introduction to the Argument of Malthus . . . page 31
           Biological Determinism . . . page 32
      B. Population Growth by Geometrical Ratio . . . page 33
           Exponents . . . page 34
           A Discontinuous Function . . . page 35
           The `Explosive' Quality of Exponential Growth . . . page 37
      C. Introduction to Exchange, Money, and Unearned Income . . . page 38
           Interest, Simple and Compound . . . page 41
           Compound Interest . . . page 44
           Banking profits of $7.9b set record . . . page 47
           Study: Harvard has below average endowment return . . . page 48
           Cleaning Up Salomon's Mess . . . page 50
(further material in preparation)

*Separate from the "In-house" Lectures by G.S. is the Guest Lecture series on a variety of topics relevant to humane survival.

contact: <george.salzman@umb.edu>

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Last update of this page: January 25, 2004