jladam

Last night the PBS series "Nova" broadcast a three-hour special about String Theory called "The Elegant Universe" that was presented by Brian Greene. It was actually one 2-hour special followed by another one-hour special. I was very tired so I only watched the first hour. I TiVo'd it so I'll watch the whole program tonight.

Anyway, it was very fascinating. I'm not familiar with Physics so I was wanting to get the opinions of those who might have seen the program who are much more familiar with String Theory.

enrious

This aired last year, I think, but it's a very interesting program, you should do a search on this site as it was discussed then.



http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/

They have the episodes available for viewing via computer at that site.

Styrofoam

String Theory is awesome. I even did a small paper about it for my English class (yes, English ). I didn't see the program, but I've read Greene's book by the same title (as a source for the above mentioned paper). So I'm pretty familiar with String Theory. I think the most interesting thing about it is that it may have some very interesting consequences for the beginning and end of the universe. String Theory says that the universe has no real beginning or end; when shrinking, it shrinks to the Planck length, then bounces back out again. Presumably we live in a series of universes, expanding, shrinking to the Planck length, then bouncing out and expanding, then shrinking, ad infinitum. The Planck length is so small that the universe would be so dense and hot to pretty much destroy everything when it shrinks, producing a "new" universe every time it expands. Of course, this is all not going into the details and the "how" of it.

epepke

That aired last year, I think.

Anyway, I was disappointed with it. It was nice and flashy, with a gee whiz element to it, but I don't think it left most viewers understanding what string theory is, which is what I think a program like that should do.

MonCapitan2002

I thought the program was interesting. The one problem I had with the theory, though was that it didn't really get into how string theory works. While the program went into how string theory explains how the universe worsk it didn't delve too deeply into the theory's inner workings. I wish it had. It still is an interesting theory, though.

B_Sharp

One problem here. Some recents scientists said that the universe is expanding, forever. No shrinky, no big bangy.

sbaii

I enjoyed the show. It straightened out some misconceptions I had about string theory. I am not a scientist, only interested in a non-mathematical way. I have also seen a show on the Science Channel on membrane theory. What irks me about shows like these is when they get all sci-fi and start talking about going backwards in time or parallel universes where I may also exist or going through a blackhole into a new universe. It starts to destroy the credibility about the actual science presented. I guess some producers think that those ideas will attract more viewers or become talking points for the average viewer.

Friar Bellows

I don't think it's possible to "delve too deeply into the theory's inner workings" with getting stuck into some rather meaty mathematics. Popular science will always face that problem with highly mathematical theories.

Hookpunch

You can also read the book of the same name by the host Brian Greene. It was fairly accessible, but like other posters have said String Theory is a highly mathematical theory, so much so that there is some controversy about how valid it is, since it is difficult to make a prediction that is experimentally testable with it.