The Elegant Universe

Season 12003

One of the most ambitious and exciting theories ever proposed—one that may be the long-sought "theory of everything," which eluded even Einstein—gets a masterful, lavishly computer-animated explanation from bestselling author-physicist Brian Greene, when NOVA presents the nuts, bolts, and sometimes outright nuttiness of string theory.

Overview Episodes Videos Photos Download

3 Episodes

E01 Einstein's Dream

Introduces string theory and shows how modern physics—composed of two theories that are ferociously incompatible—reached its schizophrenic impasse: One theory, general relativity, successfully describes big things like stars and galaxies, while another, quantum mechanics, is equally successful at explaining small things like atoms and subatomic particles. Albert Einstein, the inventor of general relativity, dreamed of finding a single theory that would embrace all of nature's laws. But in this quest for the so-called unified theory, Einstein came up empty-handed, and the conflict between general relativity and quantum mechanics has stymied all who've followed. That is, until the discovery of string theory.

October 28, 2003

E02 String's the Thing

Opens with a whimsical scene in a movie theater in which the history of the universe runs backwards to the Big Bang, the moment at which general relativity and quantum mechanics both came into play, and therefore the point at which our conventional model of reality breaks down. Then it's string theory to the rescue as Greene describes the steps that led from a forgotten 200-year-old mathematical formula to the first glimmerings of strings—quivering strands of energy whose different vibrations give rise to quarks, electrons, photons, and all other elementary particles.

October 28, 2003

E03 Welcome to the 11th Dimension

Edward Witten of Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study, aided by others, revolutionized string theory by successfully uniting the five different versions into a single theory that is cryptically named "M-theory," a development that requires a total of eleven dimensions.

November 4, 2003

The Elegant Universe

E01 Einstein's Dream

E02 String's the Thing

E03 Welcome to the 11th Dimension

2 Stupid Dogs

When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts

Dark Matters: Twisted But True

Kizlar sinifi

John Adams

Silo

It

Mr. Robot

Breaking Bad

Game of Thrones

The Mandalorian

Arcane

Chernobyl

The Simpsons

3 Body Problem

Friends

The Walking Dead

The Witcher

Stranger Things

Barry

E01 Einstein's Dream

E02 String's the Thing

E03 Welcome to the 11th Dimension