The Elegant Universe - Online!

When I was in high school, I read a book that steered me to what I was certain would be my profession - theoretical physics, specifically string theory. The book was The Elegant Unvierse, by Brian Greene. Now of course, my interests have changed somewhat, so by sophomore year of college I had abandoned that career path, but I still cannot recommend this book enough.

Brian Greene has the amazing ability to break down string theory, one of the most complicated and difficult to understand physics theories there is, to the lay man, in a way not seen since Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time. You do need a very rudimentary understanding of physics to appreciate it, but again, I read it in high school.

I could write about string theory, tell you what the book's basically about, but I'll let the author do it himself , since he's better at it. On the title, he says:

Physicists often use the term elegant to describe a solution to a problem that is as powerful as it is simple. It's a solution which cuts to the heart of an important problem with such clarity that it almost leaves no doubt that the solution is either right or at least on the right track. And string theory is just that kind of solution. It provides the first way of putting quantum mechanics and general relativity together -- that is, merging the laws of the small and the laws of the large -- and it does it in such a sleek manner that it is quite breathtaking. And the term elegant really describes that kind of solution.

Anyway, NOVA turned it into a three hour mini-series back in 2003, and now it's online. So if you're too lazy to read the book, at least watch this. Seriously, it changed my life.