The Fabric of the Cosmos: Universe or Multiverse? (23 Nov. 2011)

Director:

Rushmore DeNooyer

Writers:

Rushmore DeNooyer, David Elisco,

Stars:

Andreas Albrecht, Raphael Bousso, Brian Greene

Cast

Episode credited cast:
Andreas Albrecht	...	Himself - UC Davis
Raphael Bousso	...	Himself - UC Berkeley
Brian Greene	...	Himself - Host, Columbia University
David Gross	...	Himself - UC Santa Barbara
Alan Guth	...	Himself - MIT
Clifford Johnson	...	Himself - Univ. of Southern California
Shamit Kachru	...	Himself - Stanford University
Andrei Linde	...	Himself - Stanford University
Joseph Polchinski	...	Himself - UC Santa Barbara
Jay O. Sanders	...	Himself - Narrator
Delia Schwartz-Perlov	...	Herself - Tufts University
Victor Shopov	...	Himself
Paul Steinhardt	...	Himself - Princeton University
Leonard Susskind	...	Himself - Stanford University
Alex Vilekin	...	Himself - Tufts University

Storyline

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Plot Keywords:

reference to galileo | wmap | multiverse | mathematical equation | satellite | 

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Genres:

Documentary | Biography

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Details

Release Date:

23 November 2011 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Yankee Studios, Inwood, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Lone Wolf Documentary Group, Arte France, National Geographic Channel

Technical Specs

Runtime:

45 min

User Reviews

The new Copernican revolution?

So you thought you were unique?

Well, you're probably not, say physicists promoting the theory that we live in an expanding sea of multiplying universes called the "multiverse."

They say there could be another version of you in another universe -- only it looks like we may never know for sure because it would be impossible to get from one universe to another.

Proponents of the multiverse say that 100 years from now it will be as accepted as Copernicus's theory that the sun, and not the Earth, is at the center of the solar system.

This show tries to use simple language and examples to explain some pretty heady stuff and I'm not at all sure I understood it all.

The program makes an effort to explain something called inflation, which was when gravity sped outward, at the birth of our universe, constituting "the bang of the Big Bang."

We also learn about "dark energy," which, when it explodes like a spark, creates a new universe. The multiverse finds support in string theory, which tells us there are dimensions beyond height, width, and depth that we can't see. The "strings" take on different qualities depending on how they vibrate and it's they that determine how a universe will behave.

A discovery, we're told, that has turned physics on its ear is that the expansion of the universe is not slowing down –- as a ball would if you threw it into the sky –- but speeding up.

Dark energy is abundant in our universe, but not so abundant that it tore stars and galaxies apart. That would have precluded life.

If you can't understand what I've written -- and I'm not sure even I do -- watch the show yourself. It's certainly interesting stuff. Just very hard to rephrase and explain to someone else!