Click on the title of each section to go to that page. Click on the title of the lesson to download a .pdf file containing all of the sections for that lesson. To read or print out .pdf files, you will need to have Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer. This is a program that can be downloaded without charge. For more information about .pdf files, or to get Adobe Acrobat for your computer, click here. Course Overview Lesson 1: Ecology of the System 1.0 Introduction and Overview 1.1 Discovery of the Solar System 1.2 The Age of the Solar System 1.3 The Life-giving Sun 1.4 The Nuclear Generator 1.5 The Planets of the Solar System 1.6 Origin of the Solar System: Clues from Meteorites 1.7 Origin of the Solar System: Clues From Comets 1.8 Discovery of the Galaxy and the Vastness of Space Lesson 2: Life's Home Planet 2.0 Introduction and Overview 2.1 The Earth From Space 2.2 The Earth in Space 2.3 The Water Planet 2.4 Carbon and Oxygen 2.5 Drifting Continents 2.6 Plate Tectonics 2.7 Onion Structure of the Earth 2.8 Origin of the Earth 2.9 History of the Earth Lesson 3: The Essence of Life 3.0 Overview and Introduction 3.1 Life Is All Around Us 3.2 What People Say About Life 3.3 What Living Things Have In Common 3.4 Life Is As Life Does 3.5 Environmental Limits of Life 3.6 The "Tree" of Life 3.7 Evolution, The Central Concept 3.8 Discovery of Extinction Lesson 4: The Origin of Knowledge 4.0 Overview and Introduction 4.1 The Rise of Science 4.2 How Science is Done 4.3 The Power of Mythos 4.4 Creation Myths 4.5 Beliefs, Delusions and Fraud 4.6 Science and Belief: Astrology 4.7 The Test for Credibility 4.8 Where Scientists find Information Lesson 5: Life's History The Great Adventure 5.0 Overview and Introduction 5.1 Classification, Natural Selection, and the Quanta of Inheritance 5.2 Clues From Development 5.3 The Nature of Fossils 5.4 The Nature of the Fossil Record 5.5 The Stratigraphic Record 5.6 The Genetic Record 5.7 The Rules of Evolution 5.8 Disturbance and Mass Extinction 5.9 Why Brains? The Likelihood for Getting Smart Lesson 6: Life's Origins 6.0 Overview and Introduction 6.1 When Did Life on Earth Arise? 6.2 What Were the Conditions? 6.3 Suddenly, Life! 6.4 The Blueprint Problem 6.5 How Life Became Complicated Through Symbiosis 6.6 Lateral Gene Transfers- Crossing the Species Border 6.7 The Faint Young Sun Paradox Lesson 7: Life in the Solar System 7.0 Overview and Introduction 7.1 Modern Views of Mars 7.2 Water on Mars? 7.3 Mars' History 7.4 From Mars with Love: Mars Meteorite ALH 84001 7.5 Terraforming Mars 7.6 Looking Elsewhere: Life on Europa? 7.7 Panspermia? Lesson 9: Other Worlds, Other Life 9.0 Introduction and Overview 9.1 What to Look For - Biomarkers 9.2 Planets of "Nearby" Stars 9.3 Your Own Planetarium 9.4 Strategies of Searching 9.5 Looking for Life in all the Right Places Revisiting the Drake Equation 9.6 Where is Everybody? The Fermi Paradox 9.7 What if There is Contact? 9.8 How to Make a Galactic Civilization 9.9 Universe Endgame 9.10 References