Nova: Fabric of the Cosmos

Brian Greene is going to let you in on a secret: We've all been deceived. Our perceptions of time and space have led us astray. Much of what we thought we knew about our universe--that the past has already happened and the future is yet to be, that space is just an empty void, that our universe is the only universe that exists--just might be wrong. The Fabric of the Cosmos, a four-hour series based on the book by renowned physicist and acclaimed author Brian Greene, takes us to the frontiers of physics to see how scientists are piecing together the most complete picture yet of space, time and the universe. With each step, audiences will discover that just beneath the surface of our everyday experience lies a world we'd hardly recognize, a startling world far stranger and more wondrous than anyone expected. Interweaving provocative theories, experiments, and stories with crystal-clear explanations and imaginative metaphors like those that defined the groundbreaking and highly-acclaimed series The Elegant Universe, The Fabric of the Cosmos promises to be the most compelling, visual, fun, and comprehensive picture of modern physics ever seen on television.

Physicist-author Brian Greene, whose iNova/i presentation iThe Elegant Universe/i made string theory comprehensible to the armchair scientist, returns with the four-part iFabric of the Cosmos/i, an even more whiz-bang approach to current ideas in physics. Imagine the final section of i2001: A Space Odyssey/i interrupted by talking heads and voiceover narration, and you'll get a grasp for the baffling realm Greene and his cadre of brainiacs enter here: theories of quantum physics, "entanglement" (that one'll mess with your mind), and the possibility of a multiverse, a set of universes beyond our own visible one. Various explanations for the Big Bang are also explored. Greene, a humorous if somewhat awkward presenter, knows perfectly well he is dealing with stuff that goes beyond the knowledge of the average viewer, so he offers many examples and demonstrations, and the information is reliably intriguing. Not so intriguing is the show's overall style, which is so full of pulsating graphics and cutesy metaphors that it might prove headache-inducing. Too bad the makers of this series didn't trust the information contained here, because it's pretty exciting on its own. i--Robert Horton/i