| Author | Message | ||
     Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
If you're not watching this (on BBC2, Sunday evenings), then you're missing a treat. Truly awe-inspiring, humbling (and utterly depressing to this pessimist) television: a real must-see documentary series. I'd be interested in Proto's view on it, actually. The programme's obviously aimed at the layman, but I think it manages to capture the utter beauty and poetry inherent in science and the study of the stars. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.252.223 |
I haven't seen it. Does anyone know if Brian Cox actually grinning all of the time or does he just have one of those faces? Why is it depressing, Zed? Try some Clarke - he makes our insignificance beautiful. Brian Cox was on the 700th episode of THE SKY AT NIGHT last night. It was very touching. Sir Patrick is possibly the only person to have met the first man to fly, the first man in space and the first man on the Moon. The longest-running TV programme in the world. The current Astronomer Royal observed that Dr. Brian May (yes, him) looks just like Isaac Newton. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
Depressing (to me), because eventually the universe will die. Nothing means anything. It was great, though; utter pointlessness has never seemed so beautiful  I think Cox just has one of those faces: the kind you want to slap because its always smirking. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 88.104.137.65 |
'Brian Cox was on the 700th episode of THE SKY AT NIGHT last night. It was very touching. Sir Patrick is possibly the only person to have met the first man to fly, the first man in space and the first man on the Moon. The longest-running TV programme in the world.' Saw that Proto. I was up until about 3a.m. I used to watch THE SKY AT NIGHT and got caught up in all the excitement. Last night, when all were asked which was the most exciting moment... I was thinking...the day I saw the space shuttle land like an aeroplane. And this...saw it over Oldham  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui-GL2aAUok | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.171.129.70 |
Yeah, I enjoyed the 700th epsiode of the Sky at Night. The world will be a poorer place when Sir Patrick's no longer spying on the heavens. There's a longer version of the show on BBC4 tomorrow, I believe. Annoyingly timed to clash with the repeat of Cox's Wonders, which I'll try catch then. And I'll just second what Justin says about Arthur C Clarke's work. The bliss of insignificance has rarely been more beautifully expressed. Can't wait for Cox's Wonders of the Multiverse, which surely must be the next logical show he does... Everything's not only eventual but a necessity. No wonder multiverse pioneers had a habit of shooting themselves till they were dead. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.79.70.51 |
"Depressing (to me), because eventually the universe will die. Nothing means anything." Oh, but Zed, I've good news for you - you're being depressed over nothing! The heat death of the Universe is just an extrapolation of the second law of thermodynamics. Even in itself it's not a law as such, more a statistical tendency of the Universe to behave in a certain way. And when we say Universe, we really mean the tiny parts of it we can directly test. All of science could just be valid in a tiny bubble around our part of the Universe. There's no fundamental reason the rest of it has to obey those laws. All science is provisional. Plus, we've several billion years of understanding ahead of us. Really, extrapolations about the ultimate fate of the Universe are like trying to predict how a person's life will go based on their DNA. There are so many variables and unknowns, it's just an amusing parlor game for now. Don't take it that seriously - just enjoy the awe! | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.79.70.51 |
Didn't Azimov write a story about mankind building a computer to solve the problem of the heat death of the Universe? The computer took so much energy to run and took billions of years to come up with a solution, by which time it was so powerful that it ignited a new Big Bang. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.79.70.51 |
After 13 years, this week I'm just putting the finishing touches to a final paper that summarises my doctoral research. We discovered the heaviest atomic nucleus ever found in nature. At charge 96, curium is heavier than uranium and doesn't occur naturally on Earth. We found it in the Galactic cosmic rays using this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Duration_Exposure_Facility | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.171.129.68 |
I dropped a hammer on my foot today. That was bloody heavy. Think your stuff wins, though, Proto. Well done, sir. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.142.199.132 |
I watched it last night and think it's quite dreary. I'm starting to hate that chap and his weird face and keep thinking I'm watching a Take That video about everybody dying. What is it with the beeb and death? This morning we had a mad-sounding vicar on Thought for the Day saying he didn't believe in an afterlife but he did believe in God. It was mental. It's just all making me depressed, wanting to hurry on the end of things and just get it over with. I mean, what's the point? It's like someone's trying to herd us all over a cliff while trying to make us smile about it and play some persuasive trippy tunes. I hate the music in the prog. It's the kind of uplift-on-uplift shit that's destroyed Doctor Who. Forcing the transcendent upon us with more and more happy-melancholy.  | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.142.199.132 |
And is it me, or is Cocks not just reading out a whole load of phone numbers? | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
Each to his own, Tony, but I thought the programme was excellent. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.142.199.132 |
It must just be the mood I'm in. I've been enjoying the more optimistic Human Earth much more. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.142.199.132 |
And part of me's starting to think space is a bit irrelevant to us, technically not really worth thinking about. It's real but has the everyday impact on us as Pokemon. I don't know where this has come from. Something to do with feeling like a flea on a dying dog or something, I suppose. I do feel sad to report it. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.171.129.69 |
Funny, I found Human Planet more depressing, Tony. I suppose we're seeing Darwinism in one respect with HP, our niche-filling abilities. But it makes life seem tawdry. With Wonders I guess the spectacle of the immaculate immenseness makes me forget the grubiness of our existence. Then again, your experience of the immense stuff can make you depressed, feeble, and insignificant. I do think that Martin Amis touches on it in Night Train. Don't think it's much of a giveaway to say that in his story 'the universe did it'. It's all about perspective, innit, Keith? |