Elegant Universe Airs Tonight on PBS

fatarfy writes "USA Today among others has an article discussing tonight's presentation of Brian Greene's Elegant Universe, which discusses String Theory. It airs on PBS. From the article: 'The two segments of the show turn their spotlights on a crisis in physics, one invisible to the general public but increasingly embarrassing to the discipline. Simply put, Einstein's unbelievably accurate explanation of gravity, known as general relativity, is completely out of whack with the equally accurate explanation of electromagnetism, radioactivity and atomic forces known as quantum mechanics. The theories are mankind's most fundamental views of verifiable reality, and the disagreement means that something important about the universe eludes our understanding.' Sounds like it's worth watching."

Comments

For sure, more than one thing *grin*

[Futurepower(R)]

"... something important about the universe eludes our understanding..."

Exactly correct, but also unintentionally funny. I'm guessing something is more accurately 100,000,000 things.

Re:String Theory

[squiggleslash]

Apparently most washing machines are four dimensional objects, which is why you keep losing socks in them.

In order to balance, one of the two opposing socks is pushed away from the other in the unseen plane, balancing the washing machine but, regretfully, making that sock unobtainable. Many scientists believe that at the opposing side of the washing machines is a large black hole, into which the socks go, which in turn is unbalanced as a result causing each sock to remove a small amount of mass from the hole on entry.

This is why you get holes in your socks. It's symmetry.