NOVA - The Elegant Universe
by Joseph McMaster, Julia Cort
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Actor: Brian Greene, Joseph Lykken, Michael B. Green, Michael Duff, Walter LewinDirector: Joseph McMaster, Julia Cort
Brand: Wgbh Wholesale
Writer: Brian Greene
Producer: Joseph McMaster
Writer: Joseph McMaster
Writer: Julia Cort
Producer: Andrea Cross
Producer: David Hickman
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.77:1
Running Time: 180 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-01-20
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: WG36779
Studio: PBS
Product features:
- One of the most ambitious and exciting scientific theories over posed one that may be the long-south Theory of everything gets a masterful and lavishly animated explanation that will excite scientists and non-scientists alike. Beginning will simple and clear explanations of major concepts of physics, including gravity, electromagnetism and relativity, the Elegant Universe illuminates one of the mo
DVD Reviews of NOVA - The Elegant Universe
DVD Review: The Superstars of Physics comment on the Theory of Everything
Summary: 5 Stars
Brian Greene, Prof of Physics and Mathematics at Columbia and PBS NOVA have come together to present the best possible case for the theory of everything using Greene's bestselling "The Elegant Universe" as a bases for the presentation.
The Elegant Universe (TEU) the miniseries by PBS ran on the 28th October 2003 in three parts on the science series NOVA. This DVD contains all three one hour episodes. The series starts with classical physics and then moves on to the big controversies in unifying two major disciplines in science, relativity and quantum mechanics. It does this by combining Brian Greene in lecture form with cutting edge computer graphics. The outcome makes this an essential talk on understanding modern thinking for an explanation of the cosmos.
Hour 1: Einstein's Dream
Hour 2: String's The Thing
Hour 3: Welcome to the 11th Dimension
TEU covers the biggest conflicts in physics. String theory becomes a solution. It explains logic of probability in the world and how the standard model (TSM) has come to be (unifying electromagnetism and the weak force into the electroweak force) but without incorporating gravity. Newton is covered with his mechanical physics and Einstein's relativity is easily absorbed.
Quantum topics are the trickiest to understand but TEU the miniseries does a good job of explaining Quantum theory, its mechanisms and how things breakdown when we go further into the quantum world. This breakdown is resolved in the unification of Einstein's theory of General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics through string theory.
The remainder of the miniseries is about how string theory works and what it predicts and where we are in scientifically proving it today (they can't but they have the core math work done). Much like Hawking's approach to educating people about physics, Greene explains it all in layman's terms.
While this is nowhere near as good as Greene's book of the same name it does help to visualize what he is saying and so as a companion is well worth getting but it has greater values other than just as a compliment to his work.
The best thing this miniseries has going for it is the list of superstars in physics who comment on the TOE. These big names include Michael Duff, Brian Green, Michael B. Green, Walter Lewin, Joseph Lykken, Amanda Peet, John Schwarz, Maria Spiropulu, Leonard Susskind, Cumrun Vafa, Gabriele Veneziano, Steven Weinberg and the highly acclaimed Edward Witten who is the real reason for watching this.
The bottom line is that string theory is still highly theoretical and it is even questionable if there are any experiments that exist to show to it but the maths is there for it and the search for the supersymmetry circumstantial proof is underway at CERN. Also if the fact that scientists haven't provided scientific proof of strings isn't bad enough, ST produced not just one TOE but five different ones! It is obvious that the existence of five realities poses the big questions of which of the five is our universe and where are the other four? This problem was eventually resolved by Witten's M-Theory which discovered that the 5 realities were just a reflection of 1 and established the 11 dimensional superstring model that has the ability to become one big large membrane (as big as the universe) and for these various branes to float around as alternative dimensions. However none of this has been verified.
Greene's detractors claim that ST is pseudoscience... and they have a point but what these people don't tell you is that ST is extremely hard to disprove.
How ST produced a TOE is not mystery. It is not a bunk pseudoscience. A mathematician can reproduce and verify the results of ST without any anomalies and makes some predictions which fit quite well with what we know today (especially with particle spins). Strings are mathematically explained from an equation called the "Euler-beta function". Michael Greene and John Schwarz resolved gravity with the quantum mathematically using strings in 1984 after twelve years of work. Strings also explained why known particles have their known masses. It is extremely difficult to ignore the data yet the idea of not being able to observe it is problematic.
The TOE as per ST is solved. Even if we never detect strings somehow, we still have the question of 11 dimensions and how they work. The software is there but it's a highly detailed and complicated one. It runs the hardware but there are all these extra fuctions and buttons that scientists can't explain yet. Quite simply put, ST is a whole lot more than what we need to explain everything! Scientists just don't like that, and right fully so.
For the record Hawking has already stated that this is the course that his work has taken after admitting that information cannot be destroyed [see laws of thermodynamics] nor is it destroyed by a black hole in response to the Hawking Paradox.
Overall TEU suggests one huge powerful thing for everybody and one detrimental thing for modern science. The power of ST is unquestionable. It can do anything and is absolutely logical. ST just needed to unify the principles of physics and it has done its job. The detrimental part is that like the death of classical physics with Einstein, a lot of scientists may be gambling instead of doing things scientifically. If you can't prove it scientifically then it isn't science. Yet again, imagination and experimentation is what science is all about. It is not that we have given ST too much imagination... we probably haven't given it enough as M-theory shows! However when you find out that ploughing nearly all the brain power of new physics grads into it (1 in 10 students choose ST), this is either a very positive thing for ST or a harmful thing for science if it turns out ST was wrong. Still who wants to sit on their laurels with ST waving?
ST feels right... in fact, very right. Baring this in mind it was Carl Sagan who when asked about gut feelings said "I think with my brain not my stomach". If ST could replace the gut instinct drive with verifiable experiments then we would know for certain that ST is definitely how the universe works.
Until you see the headlines "Supersymmetry Found", taste the very real possibility of knowing everything by watch Nova's The Elegant Universe presented by Brian Greene.
(If you like this I highly recommend Carl Sagan's Cosmos on DVD and for a deeper understanding of physics try finding the 52 parts of The Mechanical Universe series)
Description of NOVA - The Elegant Universe
One of the most ambitious and exciting scientific theories ever posed?one that may be the long-sought "Theory of Everything"?gets a masterful and lavishly animated explanation that will excite scientists and non-scientists alike. Beginning with simple and clear explanations of major concepts of physics, including gravity, electromagnetism, and relativity, The Elegant Universe illuminates one of the most revolutionary theories in physics today.Known as string theory or superstring theory, this startling idea proposes that the fundamental ingredients of nature are inconceivably tiny strands of energy, whose different modes of vibration underlie everything that happens in the universe. The theory attempts to unite the laws of the large?general relativity?and the laws of the small?quantum mechanics?breaking a conceptual logjam that has frustrated scientists for nearly a century.
If string theory proves correct, the universe we see obscures a reality that is far richer and more complex than anyone ever imagined?a universe with numerous hidden dimensions, a universe in which the fabric of space can rip and tear, a universe that may be but one of many parallel universes.
Join host Brian Greene, professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University and the best-selling author of The Elegant Universe, for this exciting and in-depth exploration of this groundbreaking new theory.
Special DVD features include: bonus video?how the animation was created; Multidimensional Math activity; The Making of The Elegant Universe activity; printable materials and activities for educators; link to The Elegant Universe Web site; excerpt from the best-selling book The Elegant Universe; scene selections; closed captions; and described video for the visually impaired.
On two DVD9 discs. Region coding: All regions. Audio: Dolby stereo. Screen format: Letterboxed.
On two DVD9 discs. Region coding: All regions. Audio: Dolby stereo. Screen format: Letterboxed.
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