Adventures in Public Television

I watched the new Nova special The Fabric of the Cosmos tonight. It's narrated by Columbia physicist Brian Greene and it's based on his book of the same name. Here's the preview for it, and you can watch the entire episode over at PBS' website if you are so inclined.

It goes into detail about what we know about space, going from a general overview of how our understanding of it has evolved from Newton to today to the basics of some cutting edge theories that are still be debated in the physics community. It gives a pretty good overview of the physical principles, while still putting them in terms that are understandable to someone without an advance degree in physics. It does bear a striking similarity to the first part of Brian Greene's previous book/Nova special The Elegant Universe, but it is still quite enjoyable.

I love Nova, and I have since I was in grade school and it made me fall in love with science. (Between Nova, Bill Nye the Science Guy, and The Magic School Bus  I never really stood a chance in the face of science, but I guess that's what happens when you spend you're formative years nearly exclusively watching PBS.)

Anyways, I love the show, but I have a hard time watching now that I've undergone some actual science education. Take this episode for example; it does a really good job of explaining the basics of how we understand space, but, because it's made for the general PBS watching public, it completely leave out the math. This makes sense, because including the math would make it extremely long and completely unwatchable, but as someone whose taken basic physics classes, I know that the metaphors and descriptions they use mean nothing without the math the support it. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely do not want to go through the derivations of space time and the Higg's field, but when they start describing some of the strange new theories, like how everything in the 3D universe might just be a projection of 2D information stored on the surface of the universe, I honestly want to see the math the supports it and causes some really smart people to believe it, even though I know I won't understand it.

All of this is to say that if you want to watch something interesting about how we understand the universe around us that doesn't require you to know anything about physics, this is your show. But, if you've undergone enough science education to have a hard time accepting things without seeing the derivations and/or have taken more than a semester of physics, watch this because it is enjoyable and entertaining, not because it will greatly contribute to your understanding of the universe.

It was enjoyable, and you should give it a watch, imaginary readers.