Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking

And what a universe!
I recently watched this Discovery Channel TV miniseries on Netflix like I do a lot of things. I originally turned it on so that I could have some background noise while I cleaned my room and feel smarter while I did it. However, the vocal tones of Benedict Cumberbatch and Steven Hawking mixed with the gorgeous visuals and the truly fascinating subject matter left me sitting down and watching the documentary, absorbed.

I went to work gushing about time travel and possibilities of life on Europa like some kind of nutter and my coworkers were left looking for an off-switch (best one was the sheer stupidity of one coworker who didn't believe in aliens, but did believe in Creationism). It just lit my brain on fire.

The series has three parts:
  1. Aliens
  2. Time Travel
  3. The Story of Everything
"Aliens" is about... well, the possibilities of aliens in the universe somewhere. It covers life similar to the kind of life we're used to carbon-based located somewhere with high water content, life in areas of low temperature which we would have no idea about but would be silicon-based, and life that would take a form we can't even imagine. It also covered Goldie Locks Zones and other ways to locate liquid water... like Europa which is solid ice on the surface, but there may be liquid water miles under the surface due to the unusual rotation pattern it has around Jupiter which puts pressure on the moon.

"Time Travel"... umm... yeah... He covers Wormholes, the Grandfather paradox, and the definitive possibility of time travel to the future. I watched it and it sparked so many ideas... which are now going to be put to use in 50 Shades of Blue. I just hope people like them. I have rewatched this episode over and over again though. I'm also reading separate articles.

"The Story of Everything" is about... the universe from the very beginning to the very end. Mr. Hawking talks about the current theory on how the universe began, how Earth formed, how life began on Earth, how Earth will be destroyed, how we, the human race, can avoid it, etc. etc. I really enjoyed it. I wish I could see the way the world is really going to go, but I know that I'm only going to get to see seventy years of the whole gorgeous and magical production that is our existence.

I really enjoyed this series which has, in a sense, reawakened my interest in science. I can't wait to learn more.

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