NOVA: The Fabric of the Cosmos

NOVA's "The Fabric of the Cosmos" premieres tonight, November 2, at 9pm ET/PT on most PBS stations. Recommended for: families who aren't quite sure what relativity is, but want to find out.

Starting tonight, enjoy the four-hour series The Fabric of the Cosmos, based on physicist Brian Greene's breakthrough book. I've previewed the first episode of the show, and found it a worthy companion to the book, especially for those who aren't particularly up on physics in general: do you know what Einstein's theory of relativity really is? How about the Higgs Field (and that elusive Higgs boson) -- do you know what that actually is? How about dark energy, or the notion that the universe might be a holographic projection of a 2D version of itself? All of these are discussed in the first episode (airing tonight), which deals with the nature of "space" -- what is space, when you remove all the "stuff" (atoms and such), and how does it work? In a sense, the show is sort of "Physics for Dummies" in that it presents easily understandable metaphors for all of these questions (except the hologram thing, which still seems bonkers), and helps you to understand how physicists have thought about space over hundreds of years.

The only downside to the show is Brian Greene himself, as a host -- he doesn't quite have the spark of a Carl Sagan or a Neil deGrasse Tyson. He's good at explaining what he's talking about (and indeed he is accessible to a fault -- he often repeats simple concepts), but somehow the first hour seems a little flat -- at times I found myself wondering who the audience was supposed to be, because the show mixed extremely simple ideas (like "is space empty or not") with mind-blowingly complex ones (the universe is a hologram, projected from a 2D version of itself). In the middle there is a very easy-to-follow discussion of what Einstein really contributed to physics, and a good discussion of why space, time, and the speed of light are fundamentally kind of weird. The trick is, at times the material appears pointed at middle school students, at others it's very heady stuff.

Gather the Family Around

Because of this mixed-audience issue, I think this series makes sense for families. I can see some elementary school kids engaging with this material, though middle and high school ages seem more appropriate. There is nothing risque or dangerous in the material, and it's presented in a very friendly, engaging format. The production value is insanely high (lots of computer graphics and 3D modeling, even in static interview shots), which should make even the boring bits (or stuff that's over young kids' heads) fun to watch. And you might walk away saying, "Huh, I kinda actually do get why Einstein was a big deal." Seems worth your time, eh? Here's another video of Brian Greene introducing the series:

The first episode airs tonight, and subsequent episodes air weekly. There's more information on the Fabric of Cosmos website.

Blogger disclosure: I wasn't specially compensated to do this review. I'm a lifelong fan of NOVA, though!