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Brian Greene,
Brian Greene
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Joseph McMaster,
Julia Cort,
Julia Cort,
more...
see all cast/crew...
: Not Rated
: WGBH Boston
: Documentary, Nature & Science , Miniseries
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NOVA: The Elegant Universe is a three-hour miniseries about the string theory, which some physicists believe may unify the forces of nature. Scientific commentary is provided by Brian Greene, a professor of physics at Columbia University. He uses computer animation to illustrate his explanations for the idea which has been called the "theory of everything." Contains three sections: "Einstein's Dream," "String's the Thing," and "Welcome to the 11th Dimension." Greene is the author of The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory, published by Norton in 1999. This miniseries was originally broadcast on PBS in October 2003. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
Disc One contains:
- Part 1: Einstein's Dream
- Part 2: String's the Thing
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| The Arrogant Universe - Black Holes, Big Bang and the Emperor's New Clothes
by NLee
May 17, 2007 - 8:16 AM PDT
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2 out of 3 members found this review helpful
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I watched Stephen Hawking's Universe (which introduced String Theory in the last episode) before this program, and one common theme struck me. In the previous program, A String Theorist made a statement to the effects of "Monkeys are not smart enogh to understand calculus or physics, so maybe humans are not smart enough to understand String Theory". In this program, Brian Greene went one step further. He was actually shown teaching Einstein's equation to a dog, before finally gave up with the conclusion: "Dogs are just not smart enough to get it".
But here's the problem: If String Theory is so advanced that the majority of physicists can't "get it", then how can you understand it by watching this TV series?
Answer: You are not supposed to understand it. You just have to BELIEVE it.
"The Elegant Universe" is made more like a flashy informercial for the purpose of selling/promoting String Theory. It made effective use of movie-grade special effects (Brian jumps off a tall building and lands on his feet, for example) and dazzling computer graphics (such as tiny strings swimming around, swallowing up rips and tears in the universe). It repeatedly mention that Theory of General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics cannot co-exist in Black Holes or during the Big Bang, and that only String Theory has the power to unite all forces and explain everything in our universe. Yet by the time you reached the end of this series and look back, you'll realize that nothing new was actually explained using String Theory - not the Black Holes, not the Big Bang, nothing! Even the way it expalins gravity (as a special, closed-loop string that drifts between parallel universes) is extremely clunky. Yet the promise remains to be: "Some day, String Theory will be able to explain everything".
Furthermore, there is not a shred of physical evidence that can prove String Theory is valid outside of its own 11-dimension mathematical space. String Theory claims to be able to explain everything in a self-consistent manner, therefore it can never be proven wrong. On the other hand, it makes no predictions that can be measured in the labs or observed in the stars, therefore it can never be proven right either. It is essentialy a faith-based theory that says "everything can be explained - if you believe in higher planes of existence".
So we have to ask: Is String Theory science, or is it religion?
(pondering)
Nevermind that. We dogs are not smart enough to know the difference, anyway.
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| Don't miss this!
by Hexmedia
August 24, 2006 - 9:23 PM PDT
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4 out of 5 members found this review helpful
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This review is for both of the discs for this NOVA episode.
NOVA is by far the best educational show ever made, and when they belted out this 3 hour/3 part episode on String Theory, they spared no expenses. I know nothing about physics or science, and by far am not really a nerd - but this is an amazing, well made, exciting, and profound explanation of String Theory, starting from the very beginning of Newton's laws - through an interesting history on Einstein's theories, and then in the second disc, explaining the fundamentals of String - and then its implications and application to other theories, like the Big Bang, alternate universes, intelligent life on other plantes, time travel, philosophy, and more. Uses examples and easy to follow stories so anyone can understand and appreciate what they are trying to do. |
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