Space and time are one? If you say so
Physicist and acclaimed author Brian Greene returns to NOVA with "The Fabric of the Cosmos." The four-part miniseries takes us to the frontiers of physics to see how scientists are piecing together the most complete picture yet of space, time and the universe, revealing that just beneath the surface of our everyday experience lies a world that is far stranger and more wondrous than anyone expected. Credit: WGBH/
THE SHOW "The Fabric of the Cosmos" on "Nova"
WHEN | WHERE Wednesday nights at 9, through Nov. 23, on WNET/13
REASON TO WATCH Columbia physicist Brian Greene is your tour guide on a wild and woolly ride.
WHAT IT'S ABOUT Based on Greene's 2004 bestseller of the same name, this series is the logical and in some ways slightly more accessible companion to his earlier book (and 2003 PBS series), "The Elegant Universe," which was largely preoccupied with string theory and other highly esoteric manifestations of quantum mechanics.
The four hours here are entitled: "What Is Space?" (tonight), "The Illusion of Time" (Nov. 9), "Quantum Leap" (Nov. 16) and "Universe or Multiverse?" (Nov. 23). Tonight's hour shows how space is "something as opposed to nothing" -- as established by Einstein, that the presence of matter stretches or alters the fabric of space -- and then quickly guides viewers into the "soup" of space, in which particles come and go at will.
Next week's "Illusion of Time" shows (in Greene's words) that "our past may not be gone, and our future may already exist." That's right -- time is but a dream.
MY SAY Television is usually not the best place to get an understanding of great or difficult ideas; that's what books are for. You can go back to the page and puzzle over yet another thought experiment that promises to deliver the full power and glory of the "space-time continuum" -- that idea that space and time are one.
Greene is the spectacular exception to this rule about grasping complex ideas. His books are superb, but his singular TV achievement is to take the ideas contained within and splash them onto the screen in a riot of color, kinetic energy and analogy with pinpoint clarity.
Next week, for example, he deploys a bread loaf to establish how time is different for two separate observers when one of them is in motion, thereby leading to the conclusion that past, present and future are one. The segment is at once elegant, beautiful and utterly mind-blowing -- just like the series.
BOTTOM LINE Completely accessible.
GRADE A+
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