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From: ix442@sdcc6.ucsd.EDU (Nidhal Guessoum)
Newsgroups: sci.misc,rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: Science on PBS
Message-ID: <3410@sdcc6.ucsd.EDU>
Date: Wed, 21-Oct-87 19:36:36 EDT
Article-I.D.: sdcc6.3410
Posted: Wed Oct 21 19:36:36 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 24-Oct-87 08:27:26 EDT
References: <1336@ilium.swatsun.UUCP> <1706@ukecc.engr.uky.edu> <987@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
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Organization: University of California, San Diego
Lines: 34
Summary: The Creation of the Universe
Xref: mnetor sci.misc:593 rec.arts.tv:4197


 >>I do not remember the exact title
 >>but the program attempted to show some theories on the various fundamental
 >>forces in the Universe.  It had the narrator climbing up a light tower
 >>and opening windows when explaining the march back in time to the beginning
 >>of the Universe.
 >
>  The program Eiji "A.G." Hirai refers to was a one-time
> special on the beginning of the universe.  Titled something like
> "The Beginning of the Universe".  It had its first run last year (maybe
> the year before), and I happened to find it quite interesting.  Probably
> because I'm not a physics major (and therefore don't find the simplifications
> trivializing), but am greatly interested in the material (and I didn't
> get too lost by the technicalness).
> 

The program you are refering to was titled " The Creation of the
Universe," and was an excellent one if only for its computer
animation . I *am* a physics major, an astrophysics graduate student
as a matter of fact, and I thought the show was totally absorbing.
I did get the feeling, however, that a "non-specialist" might get
lost in the principles and in the technical jargon, even though they
tried their best to simplify the ideas and terminology with
analogies and animation. I also had a problem with the show, or more
precisely with the interviewees, in that they made it appear as if
physicists do understand everything about the history of the
universe back to 1.0e-32 seconds after the creation of the universe,
and that all is fine with the theories of cosmology. That is a
totally wrong impression, as any impartial cosmology physicist will
testify... Aside from that, the show was very nice; I recorded it on
tape and still have it.

Nidhal Guessoum
U.C. San Diego