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Science

The Elegant Universe, Now Available Online 309

Posted by jamie from the 11th-dimension dept.
Photon Ghoul writes "PBS has made available online all three hours of the NOVA program on unified theory. Formats are QuickTime and RealVideo with each hour broken up into eight chapters each." I watched the whole thing, and while it's clearly for a lay audience (no math required), it was fun and informative. I was pleased to note that dissenting views on whether string theory was science were presented, and even brief discussion of what constitutes science.
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The Elegant Universe, Now Available Online More

The Elegant Universe, Now Available Online

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  • How long will it be up for free? (Score:5, Funny)

    by 403Forbidden ( 610018 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @08:37PM (#7478740)
    Three...
    Two...
    One...

    They are now holding a fundraiser to cover the multimillion dollar bandwidth costs of three hours of video on SLASHDOT.
    • They are now holding a fundraiser to cover the multimillion dollar bandwidth costs of three hours of video on SLASHDOT.

      Come on, buddy. At any decent hosting facility, the *real* cost of bandwidth is around $0.50 per GB of network transfer. The "retail" cost is usually anywhere from $1/$5 per GB, depending on other options.

      Bandwidth isn't free, but it's actually quite reasonable.

      Multimillion?
    • an, this is terrible. I can barely afford to RTFA most of the times, where exactly do you want me to find 3 hours to view these videos?? My boss is going to kill me!

      Bah, I'll just talk my ass off, as usual.
    • They're posted several times over further down.

      And don't forget to leave bitTorrent running for a while after the download completes to help speed up the download for people after you.

      If we get everyone to use bitTorrent instead of the PBS site, maybe we can slashdot half the Internet instead of just one site. =D
    • I don't know if anyone else noticed, but the call letters of the PBS station 'watermarked' in these videos is 'KQED'. Rather approporiate, don't you think? Is that a real station?

  • Download? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Prof.Phreak ( 584152 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @08:37PM (#7478747) Homepage
    Is it possible to download? (can someone posts all the links?) BitTorrent?

    • Re:Download? (Score:3, Informative)

      by werdnapk ( 706357 )
      Part I:
      http://www.logged.org/suprnova/torrents/528/PBS-N o va-The.Elegant.Universe-Part.I-Einsteins.Universe- SctV-avi.torrent

      Part II:
      http://www.logged.org/suprnova/torrents/530/PBS-No va-The.Elegant.Universe-Part.II-Strings.the.Thing- SctV-avi.torrent

      Part III:
      http://www.oinkfrickinbaaa.co.uk/suprnova/torrents /537/PBS-Nova-The.Elegant.Universe-Part.III-Welcom e.to.the.11th.Dimension-SctV-avi.torrent

      Remove the spaces from the urls, I don't know why they're there.

      • Re:Download? (Score:5, Informative)

        by Gherald ( 682277 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @09:25PM (#7479039) Journal
        The spaces are there because you chose "Plain Old Text" when you posted.

        And third URL doesn't even work, so here are some working and proper links:

        Part I [logged.org]

        Part II [logged.org]

        Part III [logged.org]

      • Remove the spaces from the urls, I don't know why they're there

        They come from the width of your text box, which in your case is 50 columns (the default). You can change that in your user Preferences under the Comments tab. However, it is rather rude to use plain text. One person saving time by not making links clickable wastes the time of the many people who want to use the link.

        • "However, it is rather rude to use plain text. One person saving time by not making links clickable wastes the time of the many people who want to use the link."

          I'm sorry, but in my world it is the computer's job to make the links clickable, not me. That's what it's for, after all.

          A.
      • Remove the spaces from the urls, I don't know why they're there.

        That's a six dimension string action applied to your post. If you actually watched the film, you'd understand! ;)

  • Oh for the love of sweet Baby Jesus on a skewer! (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I'm not even done watching this, and now you filthy, unwashed hellshits are gonna turn WBGH's poor little servers into charcoal briquettes!

    *SIGH*

    Stab-stabbity-stabby-stab!!

  • I don't have quicktime (Score:5, Funny)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @08:38PM (#7478757)
    I guess I'll have to wait for an ascii version [usethesource.com] ...

  • Great Show (Score:5, Informative)

    by strictnein ( 318940 ) <strictfoo-slashdotNO@SPAMyahoo.com> on Friday November 14, 2003 @08:41PM (#7478766) Homepage Journal
    Stumbled upon the show when it aired. As the post states it was a little basic in some parts, but they really lay string theory out. It was the first time I really felt like I had at least a little grasp of the subject.

    The 3D animated scenes around the host were also quite good.

    • Re: Great Show (Score:3, Interesting)

      by gidds ( 56397 )
      It was the first time I really felt like I had at least a little grasp of the subject.

      Nothing personal, but if there was no mathematical background, then I'd suggest that at best you have a grasp of the consequences of the theory. Like Relativity, QM, and several other recent developments, if you don't know the maths, then I don't think you really understand it - the underlying reasons for its strangeness, how it was developed, the way it fits into our current understanding of the universe, its internal

  • Superstring theory (Score:5, Informative)

    by drivelikejehu ( 601752 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @08:47PM (#7478804)
    Michio Kaku's Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps and the Tenth Dimension [wkonline.com] is a really fascinating introduction into some of the theoretical physics that looks promising to develop a grand unified theory.
    • I second that. I own the book and it is really interesting. A book written by a guy that built his own kilowatt particle accelerator from spare wire and junk when he was a teen [?] has got to be pretty good. I'll have to read it again since I haven't read it in years. IIRC, he even was on a Discovery Channel show about physics.

      But then again, I have to finish "Alice in Quantumland", and find my "The God Particle" by Leon Lederman to read again, which is a hillarious and extremely informative book. It

      • Re:Superstring theory (Score:3, Informative)

        by tloh ( 451585 )
        I've been a astro-geek for as long as I can remember. A few years ago, I was blown away after reading "Hyperspace". At the time, I was truly impressed with Prof. Michio Kaku's elequent and penatrating writing style. As far as books on physics goes, my opinion is that his is a head and shoulder above Stephen Hawkings "A Brief History of Time". Unlike Hawking's tome, "Hyperspace" at times reads like a well written novel with an evolving plotline and compeling characters that put a human dimension on our q

  • One of the best points... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by tinrobot ( 314936 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @08:50PM (#7478825)
    One of the best points of the program was when they discussed whether or not string theory could ever be verified experimentally. If it couldn't, most of the physicists had to put it in the category of philosophy rather than science. Interesting how science and philosophy intersects at times.

    I also liked the part where they explained 'brane theory. I had been reading about it, but could never quite visualize it. The animation really worked for me.

    • Wow man! You just took the most acid... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by disc-chord ( 232893 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @09:48PM (#7479156)
      I also liked the part where they explained 'brane theory. I had been reading about it, but could never quite visualize it. The animation really worked for me.

      Yes they really did a tremendous job really bringing everything to life in visual terms. Most people find it hard thinking in terms of 4 dimensions, let alone 11. The whole series had a very professional presentation and did a good job of being interesting, while not resorting to cheap Cheech and Chong LSD effects.

      While I have no real background education in physics, I naturally have the strong human curiousity of where we're from and where we're going. I watched this show in awe. It really did a great job of demonstrating all of the history and evolution of the theories as well as how to really understand what string theory is all about.

      PBS and NOVA really earned their keep on this one.

    • > One of the best points of the program was when they discussed whether or not string theory could ever be verified experimentally. If it couldn't, most of the physicists had to put it in the category of philosophy rather than science.

      I'm not sure I agree. There's a role for the "merely descriptive" in science. If string theory gives identical results to relativity + quantum mechanics over all the ranges that we have power to test, but adds the benefit of unifying them into a common framework, then wh

    • "Interesting how science and philosophy intersects at times." ...but not completely surprising, giving how recently science became a separate and distinct discipline from philosophy.

      As recently has 150-200 years ago, the practitioner of one was almost always a practitioner of the other.

      --Richard

  • Experiment is what counts (Score:4, Informative)

    by mpn14tech ( 716482 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @08:53PM (#7478845)
    Just remember, no matter how elegant the theory or fascinating this series is, it is just a theory. A big leap of faith. For it to be worth anything, there must be an experimentally verifiable result.

    Personally, I hope we are getting close.
    • Riight...like Freud is to Psychology. His theories cannot be verified experimentally, but does anyone doubt that we have an unconscious mind/consciousness? No.

      Face it, science is in it's infancy.

    • Re:Experiment is what counts (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Listen Up ( 107011 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @10:22PM (#7479313)
      One thing that even the people at NOVA have misinterpreted, and I wish they hadn't, is that there is a difference between applied science and pure science. They are not the same.

      I am a pure mathematician and my passion and work is in pure science. What I do is explore pure mathematics. None of my work will most likely ever be directly appliable to experiment. But, some day the work that I do, along with many other mathematicians will provide the foundation, the pure science, which physics will be able to use for experimental understanding. Without pure scientific understanding, experimentation can never be anything more than observation.

      What 'string theory' should be more properly stated as is 'string hypothesis'. It is certainly not yet a true theory and it is certainly not yet a law. Currently, it is purely a hypothetical explanation and possible prediction model. That does not make it any less powerful or less important. Some day it may prove to be the 'bridge' that is needed to complete one more piece or pieces of the grand puzzle. Although, alone it does not need to be experimentally verifiable. And it is certainly not philosophy.
      • However for it to even be pure science rather than simply mathmatics or philosophy it needs to be testable in some way. It might not be testable with current technology or method, but it has to be falsifiable to be science.

      • Re:Experiment is what counts (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Jagasian ( 129329 ) on Saturday November 15, 2003 @01:40AM (#7480067)
        Mathematics is not science. It is mathematics. Math is its own thing, and unless you take an extreme Platonic foundation of mathematics... math is not explored, it is created. That is, math is simply about pure mental constructions, and doesn't necessarily have any connection to the "outside world" or "reality".

        As a fan of math myself (I am currently playing with non-well-founded axiomatic set theory), it irks me when people claim that math is a science, or has applications as its purpose. Similarly, it is bothersome when people bring religious concepts such as the Platonic Realm into math.

        The very intent of math is to have certainty, not faith in the external existence of mathematical objects - somehow independent and trancendental apart from our minds.

        Who knows, maybe these theories do exist independently from our thought, but we can't confirm this. However, we can confirm our own thought's existence, and therefore math should be founded on such a thing.

        String Theory is either a religion or philosophy in that it makes a claim about reality based on nothing other than faith. It is just as valid a science as creationism. I do find String Theory to be more interesting though as it makes use of interesting math :)
        • Spot on.

          The entire point of mathematics is to produce perfect but abstract models. In some cases, these models are produced with no consideration for actual application. This is the job of the mathematician. He sets down a set of axioms, and granted those axioms, makes known-true claims about models. His claims are not "true" because they have anything to do with reality, but because they follow a commonly accepted set of axioms. The logician is a mathematician. Technically a statician is as well, bu

  • The coolest (Score:3, Insightful)

    by bigjnsa500 ( 575392 ) <bigjnsa500@yaho o . com> on Friday November 14, 2003 @08:59PM (#7478876) Homepage Journal
    I loved this program when it aired. BUT, the coolest thing on the planet will go to the fist d00d or gal who puts a torrent available for each or all episodes ;) What a thing to do on a Friday night.

  • xine problem. (Score:3, Funny)

    by cgranade ( 702534 ) <cgranade.gmail@com> on Friday November 14, 2003 @08:59PM (#7478881) Homepage Journal
    xine tells me that it can't play these because they're in "gif video format," something that seems unlikely. Any advice?

  • Einstein's Wife (Score:5, Interesting)

    by C60 ( 546704 ) * <salad@carbon6 0 . net> on Friday November 14, 2003 @09:02PM (#7478902) Homepage
    When The Elegant Universe aired here locally, PBS followed it by another noteworthy program called Einstein's Wife, which questions wether Einstein was alone in his creation of the Theory of Relativity as well as several other papers, or if he was in fact aided by his first wife Mileva who was as insightful into the universe as Einstein himself.
    This program gives an interesting look into the human side of Einstein (never imagined him as a romantic), as well as a lot of issues of the day. While it doesn't delve into the physics, it does serve to illustrate Einstein's life in a much different manner than I've previously seen. It's a fascinating program and well worth a look.
    Einstein's Wife [pbs.org]

    • > When The Elegant Universe aired here locally, PBS followed it by another noteworthy program called Einstein's Wife, which questions wether Einstein was alone in his creation of the Theory of Relativity as well as several other papers, or if he was in fact aided by his first wife Mileva who was as insightful into the universe as Einstein himself.

      Yes, a very interesting show... unfortunately I only caught about half of it.

      To add a bit of detail, the show said that Mileva and Albert were listed as co

    • You might want to try Gordon Lightman's "Einstein's Dreams" to get a different experience. I found the visions compelling.

  • From one of those Lay People . . . (Score:5, Interesting)

    by CleverNickName ( 129189 ) * <wilNO@SPAMwilwheaton.net> on Friday November 14, 2003 @09:05PM (#7478922) Homepage Journal
    I loved ths book that this series is based upon, and it complimented Kaku's Hyperspace to guide me to a better understanding of Life, The Universe and Everything. (Yes, despite what you may have seen on TV, I know next to nothing about complex quantum theory).

    I watched the Nova series with my stepson, and it reminded me of watching Cosmos with my parents. The production values were fantastic, too. This show may be beneath the average /. reader, but for lamers like me, it was awesome.

  • Brian Greene (Score:4, Interesting)

    by squarooticus ( 5092 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @09:06PM (#7478927) Homepage
    I was an undergraduate student of Brian Greene's (honors freshman mechanics) at Cornell. I was very impressed by the Nova special, as having read The Elegant Universe several years ago, I found the special explained many elements of M-theory more clearly. In person, he was quite affable, and even seemed to take my freshman idol worship in stride. I'm happy to see he's gotten the kind of popular (ok, *more* popular than usual) admiration he deserves.

  • I tried to order the DVD set (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bigjnsa500 ( 575392 ) <bigjnsa500@yaho o . com> on Friday November 14, 2003 @09:10PM (#7478955) Homepage Journal
    So instead of waiting for torrents, I tried to order the DVD set plus book. Now they are telling me it'll be released January 2004. I might as well wait for the torrents and make my own DVD. I have it sooner than that!

    Still, I'd rather buy the $32 DVD set. Hey its good television. Support PBS!

  • If you would like to download the videos... (Score:3, Informative)

    by bobdotorg ( 598873 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @09:12PM (#7478971)
    OK, it took a bit of minor sleuthing, but if you would like to DL the raw videos here's a link to the first one:

    http://stream.qtv.apple.com/qtv/wgbh/http/nova_e u/ nova_eu_3012c01_hi_100.mov

  • BitTorrent links (Score:2, Informative)

    by Saeger ( 456549 )
    Here's the BitTorrent links [novasearch.net] to the same thing, except that it's in three convenient 300MB divx parts.

    --

  • torrents (Score:3, Informative)

    by frogsarefriendly ( 723785 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @09:18PM (#7479000) Journal
    Part I [logged.org]
    Part II [logged.org]
    Part III [oinkfrickinbaaa.co.uk]
    More downloaders, the better!

  • DVD/VHS (Score:3, Informative)

    by dissy ( 172727 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @09:19PM (#7479006)
    Can't help with a full download, but if you would concider supporting PBS for shows like this, you can buy it on DVD and VHS at the link below.

    http://shop.wgbh.org/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Cat alogSearchResultView?storeId=11051&catalogId=10051 &langId=-1&pageSize=20&searchText=elegant+universe [wgbh.org]

  • Bigtime KUDOS to PBS on Sting Theory series. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by zymano ( 581466 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @09:20PM (#7479012)
    It was EXCELLENT.

    It is a must download if you missed it because they explain string theory and what might have occured at the moment of the big bang or even if there was one. Nice explanations and good visual examples.

    One of the best Pbs shows in years.

    Now all we need is a once a week, one hour show about leading edge Sciences and Technology.
  • I remember watching it on TV and they used every graphic about 5 times and repeated every concept at least 3 times. The compressed video will be tiny!

  • The Fink connection (Score:5, Interesting)

    by hysterion ( 231229 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @09:39PM (#7479112) Homepage
    If you've read the book [amazon.com], you may have noticed among the scientists whose contributions are described at length David Morrison [duke.edu], who may be better known around here as co-leader of the Fink project [sf.net].

    That goes to show that pretty bright minds are working on Free Software, doesn't it? And suggests what could be a very interesting (though probably quite busy) Slashdot interviewee... I will admit I'm curious to know what drew him to that level of participation in Free Software.

    I was pleased to note that dissenting views on whether string theory was science were presented, and even brief discussion of what constitutes science.
    Having participated as a "pure mathematician", I guess he might be well-placed to explain that one can do science without a need for immediate applications or even ties to "experiment".

    (I saw the man once in Park City, Utah -- no, he wouldn't remember me -- busy with a PowerBook, and at the time helping launch another noteworthy open project, the UC Davis Math Archive [ucdavis.edu].)

    Slashdot editors?

  • Can anyone find non-stream URLs for the QuickTime versions of these movies? I'd love to post them to the cURL blog here:

    http://www.superdeluxo.com/wget_curl/

  • Truly Excellent! (Score:5, Informative)

    by Mister Transistor ( 259842 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @09:54PM (#7479188) Journal
    This was a superb series! I enjoyed it thoroughly, as did most of my colleagues.

    I snagged the 3 episodes on my hand-dandy video capture box and mastered a DVD from them, compressing the 3 hours onto 1 DVD.

    I'm glad they're making the whole thing available online; it makes me feel better about giving my buddy a copy of my DVD...

    He missed the second episode - the series had such a loooong (2:48) introduction, he thought they were re-airing the 1st episode again and turned it off! I told him no - there were 2 different episodes aired back-to-back :)

    All-in-all, while I agree it was a bit "lay" (non-technical) in nature, it did explain a few things I hadn't known about previously, so I did enjoy watching it.

  • I can't wait for (Score:2, Insightful)

    by AndreyF ( 701606 )
    This program seems to be the new hip intellectual thing to talk about at my school (highschool)... really shows how dumb people are I think... Not that I didn't enjoy it, it's great "infotainment", it's just that anyone with any calc knowledge can go a much longer way into understanding this stuff if they look at better sources (the book for one)...
  • then you don't really understand it. Right? Discuss...
  • ... akamai provides download links here

    http://a768.g.akamai.net/5/768/142/3f9e9589/1a1a1a fb6ae049ae214fc034aad839a91985ea187bea5786f362d841 a61948bf2688f01f87fb6fdf0e7ceb61c22186fb/nova_eu_3 012c01_mp4_300.mov

    Where the first bold part is episode numbers 12-14 and the second the part numbers from 01-08. Between 20-26Mb each...

  • NOVA gone wrong (Score:2, Insightful)

    by snStarter ( 212765 )
    I'm surprised that the slash-dot group really liked this series. I know I found it frothy, heavy on the ol' special effects (I had the feeling that SOMEONE in the production team got a new non-linear editing system and just absolutely had to play with every possible feature). The first installment was by far the strongest.

    I've disliked Nova increasingly over the past few years - all the re-enactments (Gallileo for example) - they've gotten all touchy-feely. I have this awful thought that liberal-arts peopl
  • Okay, I watched all three hours, and it seems like 45 minutes of hours 2 and 3 were review. If they'd skipped the review they could have done the whole thing in 90 minutes, tops.

    But a fun show, and informative, despite some of its flaws.

  • Every science company and scientist in America needs to pull out their wallet or check book to pay tribute to PBS and the folks at NOVA. This is by far one of the most informative television programs ever created. I'm pretty sure PBS just recently lost a huge amount of governmental funding, so please, do your part.

  • The obligatory PBS quote (Score:3, Funny)

    by Equuleus42 ( 723 ) on Saturday November 15, 2003 @01:56AM (#7480120) Homepage
    The Elegant Universe was brought to you by contributions to PBS stations by viewers like you. Thank you!
  • Se also a recent speech [svt.se] (scroll down a bit) by Stephen Hawking on string theory and the origin of the universe.

  • No explanaiton of equal red-shift (Score:3, Insightful)

    by pauljlucas ( 529435 ) on Saturday November 15, 2003 @06:26AM (#7480620) Homepage Journal
    In Carl Sagan's "Cosmos," an explanation was given as why it should be the case that we observe objects in space all red-shifted equally in every direction. The theory presented was that our 3-physical dimension universe was warped into a 4th physical dimension like a sphere. We (our galaxy), along with every other galaxy, is on the "surface" of this hypersphere. As the universe expands (much like blowing air into a balloon), the "surface" area of the hypersphere increases. Every point on the "surface" is equal to every other and all are moving away from each other. The "center" of the universe is the center of the hypersphere and does not exist within what we know of as 3-dimensional "space." With 4 space dimensions, "time" is relegated to the 5th.

    However, I've never heard mention of the above theory since, including in "The Elegant Universe" (unless I somehow missed it). Yes, String Theory requires 11 dimensions total, but (apparantly) all of the 7 "extra" dimensions beyond the 3-phsycical and 1-time dimensions are "all curled up" and very small. In contrast, the 4th-physical dimension mentioned in "Cosmos" is the size of the entire universe.

    So the question is: is the theory of the 4th-physical dimension and the "hypershpere universe" as presented in "Cosmos" still believed to be true?

    • Self-righteous 12th dimensional bastard! I had just come to terms with 11 dimensions. Now you're throwing on another one and saying it is a big dimension, unlike all the others except the three we've known about and it is a membrane bubble-sphere?

      I hate you! :)
    • The analogy between expansion of the universe and expansion of a balloon is just that, an analogy. Just like all analogies in physics, it breaks down if you push it too far.

      Space-time is 4-dimensional, but curved in such a way that it is not possible to embed the curved 4-D space-time into a flat 5-D space - or even a flat space of any finite dimension.

      For an example, take a one-dimensional piece of string. Now I can curve this into something that can be embedded in two dimensions (say, by wrapping it

      • OK, but what is the explanation for equal red-shift in every direction?
        • That part of the analogy still holds, but the curvature of space-time is irrelevant to equal red-shift. The universe is expanding uniformly and symmeterically everywhere, and doesn't depend on where in the universe you are observing from.

          For another example, take a piece of pastry of uniform thickness. Put in some rasins in a grid spaced at equal distances. Now roll out the pastry smoothly in all directions. All of the rasins move the same distance from their nearest neighbors, and rasins initally at

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