NOVA
Season 31 Episode 4 - The Elegant Universe: String's the Thing (2)
Part 2, "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. Strings are truly tiny, being smaller than an atom by the same factor that a tree is smaller than the solar system. But, as Greene explains, they are able to combine the laws of the large and the laws of the small into a proposal for a single, harmonious theory of everything.
Episodes in Season 31
Infinite Secrets
55 min
Who Killed the Red Baron?
55 min
The Elegant Universe: Einstein's Dream (1)
55 min
The Elegant Universe: String's the Thing (2)
55 min
The Elegant Universe: Welcome to the 11th Dimension (3)
55 min
Wright Brothers' Flying Machine
55 min
Magnetic Storm
55 min
Volcano Above the Clouds
55 min
MARS Dead or Alive
55 min
Secrets of the Crocodile Caves
55 min
Dogs and More Dogs
55 min
Descent Into the Ice
55 min
Crash of Flight 111
55 min
Life and Death in the War Zone
55 min
Hunt for the Supertwister
55 min
World in the Balance: The People Paradox (1)
55 min
World in the Balance: China Revs Up (2)
55 min
Battle Plan Under Fire
55 min
