The third hour will likely get into some real "meaty" stuff. It's entitled, "Welcome to the 11th Dimenson". The first hour was probably a "necessary evil". I.e. they had to have it to make a complete production - but it was just a summary of things that were already available from other sources. BTW, if you haven't already checked out the website - you are really missing out. It's got some great stuff. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/

-----Original Message----- From: Chuck Hards [mailto:chuckhards@yahoo.com] Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2003 11:51 AM To: Utah-Astro Subject: [Utah-astronomy] The Elegant Universe

While the show was aimed at the layperson, there wasn't much depth, but it was still entertaining.

The first hour was pretty much a summation of the history of modern physics; the second hour delved into string theory.

Decent special-effects, though I'm sure most people who never took a physics class will come away thinking that the macro world really looks like the graphics shown. (It almost certainly doesn't, but how else do you represent a multi-dimensional realm on a TV screen?)

I thought it funny that some of the physicists who obviously don't like string theory because it can't be tested or observed called it "philosophy", rather than theory, on grounds that if it can't be observed or tested it isn't science. Funny because these are the same people who eschew the Anthropomorphic Principle, yet the requirement of testing & observation itself restricts science to the realm of human cognition. Science exists because of Mankind.

It's been said before that not only is the universe stranger than we understand, it may be stranger than we CAN understand.

In other words, the "Theory of Everything" just may not be representable by mathematics (a human invention), or understood by a living brain. We'll see.

On the whole, though, I'm giving the show a solid 4 stars, mostly because deep down inside I'm a nerd at heart and can't get enough of this stuff! Not up to the grand scale of "Cosmos" (I miss Carl Sagan deeply), but pretty darn good for 2 hours.

My 2 cent review.

C.