Nova: The Fabric of the Cosmos

ANOTHER GREAT UP-TO-DATE SCIENCE PROGRAM FROM PBS/NOVAHow well do you understand this universe you live in? Science has come a long way in recent times. Programs nowadays are transformed to keep pace with our rapid information media society. This one is no exception, as it excels at getting the latest and greatest info to make you ponder deeper about the fabric of what this world is really made of, from the tiniest of strings, to the expanse of what's beyond our own universe.BASICS ARE REVIEWEDSome basic concepts (and prerequisites for the laymen) are reviewed in the 1st episode, Space. (For example, this show is NOT about black holes. But they briefly review it to show a concept they're getting at, i.e. the fabric of space, and how it can be warped.) Otherwise, besides episode 1, there are may be parts of this program where you may need to hit the pause to process the info and let it sink in.TIME AND SPACE DEVIATIONSAs a follow up to " NOVA - The Elegant Universe ," Dr. Brian Greene continues where he left off, presenting hard science understandable today by using colorful illustrations, and the down to earth explanations. This is a biggest noticeable improvement compared to programs decades ago. Modern physics is a tough topic to grasp even for those with a science background, because this topic is beyond the realm of what we humans normally perceive in our daily lives. For example, in the Time episode 2, Greene takes an imaginary sword and slices across the time continuum graft, to show how the concept of "now" may not be the same as someone else's "now." Deviations in the "now" (or "then") may be more evident in the large vastness of time and space (distances), but doesn't mean it's not there for shorter distances too, such as here on earth. It may be negligible or irrelevant, to the point where time variations are barely perceivable in our daily lives, especially from a human perspective. But it IS there, from a relativity (Einstein) standpoint. (Note: Einstein once said, "the distinction between the past, present, and future is nothing more than a stubborn persistent delusion.") The notion of "now" being different than someone else's "now," is based on each observer's perspective in what is seen and perceived. This has huge implications in that a different observer's time may be slightly different from someone else's time (and space), and because of that, the significance is that we carry our universe with us individually. Hence, in essence, an infinite amount of possibilities would then exist, with each observer associated with each time and space. This leads to the concept of parallel universes and this idea is the harbinger for one of the many basis for the multi-verse theory, episode 4. Time dilation is the same principle as when we physically travel (far distances), our clocks become different relative to others, and we disengage our universe from others' in terms of time and space. Likewise, as with time travel (via wormholes), the paradoxes associated with that is nothing more than a splitting detachment from your previous universe. So, BTW you can go back in time, but if you kill your great, great grandfather you won't disappear.THE WORLD IS NOT WHAT YOU THINKGreene further states that our whole universe and how we view and experience it, may be nothing more than an illusion, or even a simulation. This might be mind boggling to grasp, though not a new concept, nor his original idea, it is really based on these 3 or more premises: 1) The holographic principle of the universe. That what we see and experience are really projections of a higher dimension, by Michael Talbot ( The Holographic Universe: The Revolutionary Theory of Reality ). For example if someone sees your shadow on the ground, it is really a projection of the 3 dimensional you. 2) Quantum Probability (that everything possible exists, in a wave form), and that when we look, the wave function collapses, and only 1 possibility is revealed (the double-slit experiment), i.e. the one your mind (brain) will seep out and perceive to be real. This program illustrates this point by showing the moon fluctuating in all areas behind Greene, but by the time Greene turns around to look, the moon is in one place only. 3) Since every particle is linked to every particle (via entanglement), your thoughts (subatomic particles in you brain) have an impact on how "your" universe behaves and molds to your perception (implying the universe is framed). Also revealed is that entanglement is instantaneous, i.e. faster than the speed of light.ENTANGLEMENTNoteworthy, it shouldn't be a surprise that entanglement possesses inferences faster than speed of light. After all, instantaneity (like spontaneity) is an entity, whereas the speed of light is an actual physical property (measurable), like temperature. Much the likes the speed of sound including its variation through different media. We assumed light speed "c" to be the benchmark which cannot be surpassed. The speed of light is actually the speed of a subatomic particle "hv" photon, which has mass. Inferences like entanglement have nothing to do with particle, and hence not limited to a speed. So in essence, it was our own myopia in hindsight at man's progression in the history of scientific knowledge and revolution in assuming "c" to be the ultimate limit. Greene alludes to a concept where theoretical work is still being done regarding the notion of one particle inside the black hole, while the other is entangled outside the hole. Ie, measuring the property of the particle outside the hole could determine what goes on inside a black hole. Bet you didn't see that coming.STRING THEORYEpisode 4 further goes into the idea that everything is made up of strings (11 dimensions curled up in an array of vibrations or harmonic frequencies), and how we may be sitting on membrane(s). This concept or theory stemmed from the fact that gravity force is so much weaker than the other 3 fundamental forces: electromagnetic, and the strong and weak nuclear forces. Mathematical calculations in the gravity force shows it may actually be as strong as the other 3, but its appearance is greatly weakened as the subatomic particle representative graviton floats partially in only briefly then exits out of our current dimension.BOTH EVERYTHING AND NOTHING EXISTS SIMULTANEOUSLY, UNTIL YOU PEEKIn episode 3, The glove in the box thought experiment (the one glove is neither right nor left until you open the box and look), is just another way of showing the classic Erwin Schrödinger's cat equations. Not sure why they didn't just reference that to Schrodinger, who played a much more historical and significant role in quantum mechanics.REALITY OF THE FABRICAfter watching this program, you'll see that the real universe (true reality) is much different than your normal daily perceived universe. Remember after all, we are seeing the universe from our encapsulated (restricted) human mental elucidation. The human body is so tiny in comparison to the real universe. Much like a single bacterium on top of a desk cannot perceive the entire desk. Careful, you may be inclined to assume I mean we are too small, but likewise we are too big to see the functions of our same small universe: the molecular and particle structures behaving the irrational quantum dynamics. The universe of the small is another whole vibrant invisible to our physical human being perception, and size of course is all relative. (Fortunately Heisenberg crunched out the mathematical differential equations to show the unpredictability of the tiny world in his famous Uncertainty Principle.)HUMAN PERCEPTION AND GREAT MINDSYou can see the span of large to small is so exponential, and the being of man to study it is restricted to not just physical size. Not only are we within the cosmos, we are part of it. The limitation of our understanding of the entire scientific basis of our cosmos is intrinsic to us, and biased on our humanistic observation and perception. But we have programs like this to provide the framework facilitating us to think "outside the box." Life after all, is the greatest mind simulation game played out in this universe and from there it's all about discovering the fabric barring such limitations. Life, and the constituent of our existential being, is essentially hampered in 2 elementary ways. 1) Each of us in a physical sense has mass and hence is "hardware" subjected to the laws of physics (such as the 2nd law of thermodynamics), i.e. we are not immortal. Also our hardware inputs are limited to only 5 senses. 2) Our mind is the "software," by which each human is the recipient and beneficiary of consciousness to observe and understand the cosmos, but its processing ability is limited by IQ (we don't possess infinite smartness). But the latter requirement is that only a mere simple thought may be enough to elucidate this fabric of reality. The scaffolding outside the box (true reality) has always been there from the beginning of big bang (and possibly before). It just takes a run of the mill imagination to see it. Lamentably it is our own daily routines that equilibrate our conscious worldly thoughts back to the secular attentiveness (the way we are wired). But the great minds of our times (and programs like these) maintain that perception in check. Will the next Einstein, please step up to the plate. Okay Mr. Greene, you're on deck for the clutch hit; and in this program he drives in the winning run (figuratively).QUANTUM MECHANIC BASIS OF THE SIMULATION MODELIf you're still tripping about the simulation model, I'll carve out more details here. If you're still reading, I assume I've held your attention. I'll pat my back. OK, here goes. Since the fabric of everything (time, space, and mass) is quantized, everything comes in distinct packets (of energy, mass, and even time) rather than a titrated gradient. In essence, when the "stuff of everything" is broken down, the subatomic particles become whimsical flavors of properties humans can't even name, except for something like "charm" or "strange." (Note: yes those 2 do sound subjective but are real objective physics terms. Scientists had difficulty assigning nomenclature because it's beyond the realm of Newtonian classics; one even coined it "pigments of your imagination.") The easiest way to put it, life and cosmos is analogous to a simulation. In the simplest terms, like a computer simulation, made of bunch of ones and zeros. (You've probably been to an art gallery and seen one of those pictures of a beautiful face where if you look closely, it's becomes a blur, and then you see it is simply made of elementary repeating grains.) But this running program is so finely detail pixilated to a sufficient amount enough that we fallaciously presume the world we live in to be real. Yes, welcome to the fabric of our cosmos. The distinction between the real reality and simulation is no different, they merge and are identical, and hence each individual is living in a simulation, hah right now. (Like a movie, the acting needs to be enough to be believable.) Not only are we lead to think our life is real, but we also assume to be the only one (aka "uni-"verse) to exist from each individual's vantage point. At the most fundamental level, cut down to the constituent ingredients, everything becomes vibrations and distinct packets of information with infinite numbers of simulated possibilities (parallel multi-universes). (An analogy would be the following: like there are plenty of Hollywood movies to choose from, so are many copies of the exact you living in infinite other worlds, and all this time, you thought your life was the only story of you, as if like Tom Cruise made only 1 movie his whole career.) BTW, in Geneva, Switzerland, the largest science experiment in the world, the large Hadron Collider (17 miles wide, and costing the US equivalent of almost $10 billion to build) is currently smashing and breaking up pealing away atoms so we can observe the fabric's behavior. Particularly in search of the elusive Higgs Boson. Stay tuned for more discoveries.SO WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL?When Copernicus said the Sun was the center, the shock took centuries before man came to grips with it. 40 years ago, Armstrong first stepped on the moon the world gasped; today it's no longer a big deal. Same with new physics model explaining reality and science. Not a big deal. Everything we have discovered (and yet to) has been both in and outside the box all this time. Just knowledge, science is all about learning, aka interesting & fun. What was really cool is I've had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Greene during his public lecture and book signing at the Griffith Observatory. I may be another layman to him in passing, but as you can tell from his video, he's very down to earth and probably very good with kids. Please do share our knowledge to the future. Again, who's next at bat?EXTRASI would have liked to see some extras on this blu ray (there are none). For example, 1) the interview with Dr. Greene to accommodate this program, is available only on the PBS NOVA website, and 2) The mini documentary, "Brian Greene: The Search For Hidden Dimensions" is on YouTube. These should have included on this blu ray. Other than that, as far as the quality of this program, you really can't ask for anything more. Programs nowadays need to compete for your attention since we are bombarded with so many distractions in life, and this one does succeed, and I have no doubt will work even for the ditzy teenager hung over from Katy's Friday night. Fabric of the Cosmos uses plenty of art, flashy graphics and designs, and media, really look advanced. BTW, though Brian Greene is the main host and is based on his book, this program does also feature a plate of renowned guest scientists including Alex Filippenko, Jim Gates, Janna Levin, Max Tegmark, and many others to get your juices flowing.OTHEROther science programs I recommend to accommodate your collection: 1)  Into The Universe With Stephen Hawking [Blu-ray ]; 2)  Nova: Finding Life Beyond Earth [Blu-ray ]; 3) Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman: Season 3 ; and 4)  What the Bleep!? - Down the Rabbit Hole (QUANTUM Three-Disc Special Edition) . As far as Hollywood movies similar in topic of time, space, and the concept of reality to wrap your mind in, I recommend: The Adjustment Bureau (Matt Damon), Truman Show (Jim Carrey), Inception (Leonardo DiCaprio), and The Matrix (Keanu Reeves).

I have always wondered how the universe is "put-together". I'm a college student, and I've taken my share of Chem, Bio, and Physics to learn basic rules and understand what happens, how to calculate formulas, etc. However, none of these classes ever answered the major, over-arching "why?" questions. In all honesty, memorizing formulas and rules for for undergrad university classes actually bores me - however, the thought-provoking material presented in these documentaries greatly fascinates me. All I want from a documentary is to be entertained, learn accurate and current information, and have enough supporting information to believe the claims (but not have so much evidence that I need to have Masters Degree to understand it.) The Fabric of the Cosmos is the most well presented and concise documentary on this topic.~~~~~~Here's why this documentary series is so good:~~~~~~1) Presentation. It's not a boring science documentary by any means. It's a NOVA documentary meaning it's high budget, well animated and genuinely fun to watch. This isn't something that you have to force yourself to watch - the plethora of examples, metaphors, clips from interviews with professors and researchers, and thought provoking questions always keep you engaged. That being said it's still a documentary and you do have to pay attention - you can't just stare blankly at the screen and hope to become an expert.2) The information is given in a question-answer format. They start by explaining something simple that seems like common sense and then they keep complicating it by asking questions that require new experiments and thus new theories. In other words, they present models and then raise questions and show anomalies that push for a new paradigm. Rather than going in a boring linear progression that cites major scientists to show how humanity's perception of the universe progressed, the question answer approach is much more engaging.3) The supporting evidence they give is also very concrete and useful. Every study and experiment is described well enough to not bore but also explain what is actually going on. Rather than just saying "Joe Mac did an experiment that proved blah blah," they phrase it as "Joe Mac devised an experiment using blahbalh and if the results were blabhblah then the theory would be supported". When it comes to science, I usually am a skeptic until I see solid evidence and this show backs up almost all of its claims. Going back to what I said earlier, this is because they start from a common sense, every-10-year-old-knows-that idea and keeps on building until they arrive at today's current model.4) Easily accessible but highly informative. This is the beauty of the series: you could know nothing about physics or the universe and still learn a huge amount, but even if you are knowledgeable on the subject, you won't be bored. There are plenty of metaphors that anyone could grasp (for example, they use the popular rubber sheet gravity example to show how heavy objects like the earth can bend space as shown by sinking into the rubber sheet, then showing how this causes smaller objects like the moon to stay in revolution around the earth -- if you couldn't catch that, blame my description because the metaphor in the video is gold). Whilst making complex ideas easier to grasp, they continuously cite experiments or play clips from interviews that introduce new information and keep you engaged.~~~~~Conclusion~~~~~This series is new, features quite new discoveries, and is packed with information. If you watch it, you will learn plenty and maybe you could even share it with friends or family over dinner. The best part is that it's open to anyone and it's actually fun to watch. If you're a prime member, it's even free to stream. If you want to get an overview of how the universe "works" but don't want to read dozens of technical and theoretical texts, then this is the perfect introduction to satisfy your curiosity. I highly recommend it, it's everything and more of what you'd come to expect from a NOVA documentary.

Brian Greene flawlessly hosts and narrates a series that often feels more like a sci-fi fantasy than hard documentary: Greene brings mind-bending Physics to light with surprising simplicity. Buy this and you'll be introduced to space, time travel, teleporting, holograms and just about anything that sounds that geeky. The series is certainly welcoming and even thought-provoking. My only criticism is that, perhaps, Greene could spend more time on some of the more complex, philosophical episodes (at least I found them like that), such as the Multiverse. I feel some episodes were a bit rushed in places and thus left rather vague, even rudimentary. All in all, however, I would recommend Greene's The Fabric of The Cosmos.

very good series from presenter scientist brian greengiving an all together different viewpoint of how the universe might havebeen created, and the functionality of how the universe works atthe quantum mechanics level e.g. string theory and the possibilitiesregarding a multiverse instead of just a single universeall interesting stuff. the only reason i gave 4 stars was the way thegraphics was used throughout the series, all be it for illustrationpurposes, which i found a little irritating, other than that veryinteresting series, would recommend to buy. pcc

Fascinating, educational and informative and easy to understand the concepts even for the layman. Also, being DVD, you can skip through the 'thanks to our sponsors' sections at the beginning of each episode.

Brian Greenes Nova laymen documentaries are informative with talking heads who know what they are talking about

complete propaganda, this is what to think and what NOT to imagine, complete let down