bloodyrosemccoy: (WOO SCIENCE)
bloodyrosemccoy ([personal profile] bloodyrosemccoy) wrote2012-04-04 01:37 am

Like A Hundred Billion Hot Dogs

Watchin' Nova's Fabric of the Cosmos. So far it hasn't covered anything I don't know,* but it's fun to see it illustrated with passable CG--even if some of the metaphors are clumsy.**

Also, Brian Greene seems really determined to BLOW YOUR MIND. He starts each segment with a question scientists are trying to answer, and then he always says "The answer ... could CHANGE EVERYTHING WE KNOW ABOUT REALITY." It seems a bit redundant, since you don't need to dress up black holes, time's relativity, possible alternate universes, crazyass quantum particles, or any of that to make them totally mind-blowing.

Of course, I am a giant nerd, so maybe they do have to wave big signs to tell non-nerds that THIS IS AMAZING. So I can't really fault Nova there, I guess.

There are some nice shots of the canyons in the American Southwest interspersed with random animations of clocks and black holes and shit, though. That makes everything better.


*Me being a giant nerd, you see.

**Most hilarious metaphor: Spacetime Is A Loaf Of Bread. But dammit, if I see one more Science Host messing around with billiard balls ...
(deleted comment)

[identity profile] padparadscha.livejournal.com 2012-04-05 03:39 am (UTC)(link)
...

...

APPARENTLY NOT.

I can send you to watch the bit, which starts at about 2:40 in this video and goes to about 8:00. It's a really bizarre and tortured way to describe time dilation and the relativity of simultaneity.