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NOVA - Physics: The Elegant Universe and Beyond Movie Streaming

Mardi, mai 18th, 2010
NOVA - Physics: The Elegant Universe and Beyond Movie Streaming. NOVA - Physics: The Elegant Universe and Beyond Movie Streaming.

Movie Title: NOVA - Physics: The Elegant Universe and Beyond
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NOVA - Physics: The Elegant Universe and Beyond is available for streaming or downloading.

Click Here to Stream or Download NOVA - Physics: The Elegant Universe and Beyond

As a warning to other potential purchasers, please note that this is not a new program “Beyond” the original “The Elegant Universe” but just a repackaging with 2 other programs.

Buy,Download, Or Stream NOVA - Physics: The Elegant Universe and Beyond! Click Here

I thought the first DVD was great, and was just about to purchase this one because it sounded like a new program continuing where the first left off, but in fact it is EXACTLY the same program! I got the details from WGBH.org and here they are :-

THE ELEGANT UNIVERSE AND BEYOND is a compliation of three different NOVA programs that have already aired. They are listed below with synopses on each one:

Buy,Download, Or Stream NOVA - Physics: The Elegant Universe and Beyond! Click Here

1) The Elegant Universe (WG36779)

Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory Join host Brian Greene, professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University and the best-selling author of The Elegant Universe, for an in-depth exploration of the groundbreaking new string theory that will excite scientists and non-scientists alike. 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

2) Einstein’s Big Idea (WG38889)

Everyone’s heard of it, but what does E=mc2 really mean? With brilliant period recreations, discover how an obscure patent clerk, Albert Einstein, came up with his shattering 1905 discovery that the realms of matter and energy are inescapably linked. Starring Aidan McArdle (Ella

Enchanted) as Einstein, and Shirley Henderson (Bridget Jones’s Diary) as Einstein’s first wife, Mileva Maric.

3) Einstein Revealed (WG26479)

Journey into the mind of a genius in this penetrating profile of the world’s most renowned physicist, who contributed more than any other to our modern vision of physical reality. Andrew Sachs (Fawlty Towers) stars as Albert Einstein.

I Hope this helps prevent anyone wasting their money buying the same program twice.

Anyone accustomed to the sober atmosphere of science writing will be rather shocked by Nova’s treatment of “The Elegant Universe”. Zany examples, intentional facetiousness and dazzling imagery a serious science discussion does not make. However if you’re familiar with Brian Greene’s writing style you’ll immediately recognize that tounge-in-cheek is par for the course.

Greene’s book is at once an intellectual excercise and a lightweight science review, and for that we are all grateful: much of the 19th & 20th century science leading up to the ‘discovery’ of the String Theories is poorly understood by educated Americans (most definitely including me), and the brushing-up is well deserved. And while some equations are included and some (light) mathematical work required, for the most part Greene realizes that most people will require some help visualizing those things which can never be visualized; quantum mechanics, strings, 11 dimensions.

Which is why it should not come as a suprise to many familiar with his books that the Nova treatment is so lighthearted, or contains so many simplistic visual examples again and again. This new math is inaccesible to most and challenging to the rest, so the eye candy is warranted.

And what eye candy! The visual elements, while at times capricious and overwhelming, are expertly done and do serve to provide further understanding of the subject. The visual effects team at Edgeworx has provided entertaining, educational visual material that should hold up to scrutiny over time.

Greene himself is generally an engaging host. While he has but one on-camera trick (pause, put hands together, glance at floor, then BANG back at the camera), he works it, all the while clearly explaining the subject.

One last thing that can be said about Nova’s “The Elegant Universe” is that it is =responsible=. There is a large cast of scientists, mathematicians and others on both sides of String Theory. It is continually brought into question as untested, untestable, and possibly dead wrong. The closest to proselytizing that anyone does is to explain that Quantum Physics, the set of mathematical ideas that give extremely good approximations of what happens to sub-atomic particles, has never made an incorrect prediction. Not so with String Theory; no one is willing to say, on-camera, that String Theory is the truth, and in so doing, the piece retains a certain respectful distance from the subject.

Nova’s “The Elegant Universe” is up-to-date, expertly made and provides a reasonably accessible overview of the various ideas known as String Theory as to be approrpriate for an audience of any age. I would like to live in the alternate universe in which “Stephen Hawking’s Universe” and “Nova - The Elegant Universe” were shown back-to-back to school-age children as a comprehensive introduction to modern cosmological science.