Summary: Is M theory Einstein's elusive "theory of everything"? In this program, visionary physicists Neil Turok, of Cambridge University; Burt Ovrut, of the University of Pennsylvania; Paul Steinhardt, of Princeton University; and others theorize on a revolutionary cosmology that explains what happened at the Big Bang-and in the process posit a continuum in which our universe is but one bubble among an...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: An astronomer recently made an unexpected discovery - that the universe is expanding faster than ever and is actually being pushed apart. This episode of NOVA follows two rival astronomy teams as they work to unlock the secrets of the universe, including the riddle of a mysterious force that some scientists believe counteracts gravity. Stunning three-dimensional cosmic simulations captured with...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2000
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Summary: The Big Bang is a widely accepted theoretical model, but CERN's Large Hadron Collider offers something more tangible: creating the physical conditions surrounding the birth of the universe. This program introduces viewers to that experiment and to others under way around the world-all of them designed to increase our knowledge of the physical structure of the cosmos. Dr. Andy Kirk of the U.K....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: The laws of physics are all well and good, but near-chaos apparently rules the cosmos. This program illustrates the extreme volatility of the forces at work in our universe, underscoring both the creative and destructive potential of celestial collisions, eruptions, and explosions. From awe-inspiring supernova bursts to fiery coronal mass ejections to careening asteroids that threaten our...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: The Lucasian chair of mathematics at Cambridge University is one of the most prestigious professorships in the world, occupied at one time by Isaac Newton. Its present incumbent is Stephen Hawking, who established his reputation as one of this century's most brilliant astrophysicists and mathematicians with his discovery that black holes are not necessarily black, and that some of them even...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: Today's astronomers use more sophisticated "eyes" than stargazers of centuries past, but peering into the night sky remains the principal way of exploring the depths of space. This program features observatories and instruments that use state-of-the-art technology to provide glimpses of the distant cosmos. Journeying to Chile's Atacama Desert, home of the world's largest telescope, the film...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: Janna Levin is a professor of physics and astronomy at Barnard, where she studies the early universe, chaos, and black holes. She's also the author of How the Universe Got Its Spots and the novel A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines. According to Levin, the universe has a soundtrack - a sonic composition that records celestial events - and she offers the example of black holes, which bang on...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: The origins of the cosmos are shrouded in the distant past. But new discoveries may emerge in a place that is just as dark and obscure-buried, in fact, under 100 meters of Swiss bedrock. This program goes inside the massive research facility known as CERN to follow work undertaken with its Large Hadron Collider. Viewers learn about an experiment that forces sub-atomic particles to crash into...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: What is everywhere, not made of atoms, and can't be seen? Dark matter, says renowned astrophysicist David Spergel-but not everyone in the cosmological community is in agreement with him. This program presents the views of Spergel and other key figures in the debate, including Princeton University's P. James Peebles and Jeremiah Ostriker; Timothy Sumner, of Imperial College London;...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: This program surveys some of the 88 official constellations, from Orion, to the North Star, to the little-known 13th zodiac sign.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: In the darkness of space, invisible energy fills the vast regions between the stars. This video sheds light on intergalactic radio waves, microwaves, X-rays, deadly gamma rays, and other forms of energy not visible to the naked eye. Information on technology for seeing the invisible universe such as the Very Large Array radio telescope, the Infrared Astronomical Satellite, the Compton Gamma Ray...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: On September 30, 2010, a NASA space telescope called the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, completed its sweeping goal: to record observations of the entire sky in infrared light. The WISE science team is now sifting through the telescope's two million images to spot objects that no astronomer has ever seen before. WISE's most intriguing finds will include mysterious objects called...
Format: moving image
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010