BEYOND EINSTEIN

Program 03-11-30-A

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To The Best of Our Knowledge
from Wisconsin Public Radio

Cosmologist Janna Levin feels cramped. Thirty billion light years just isn't enough space for her. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, consider the Universe Beyond Einstein. Janna Levin tackles the shape and size of space. Also, we'll try to catch a gravity wave, Marvel at the snapshots our robot friends send home from their interplanetary travels, and meet a man who took a couple of bright ideas from a satellite and saved sixty-five thousands lives on earth.

SEGMENT 1:

Cosmologist Janna Levin tells Steve Paulson that the universe may be shaped like a soccer ball, but it must be finite. On the other hand, there could be many universes. Levin's book is How the Universe Got Its Spots: Diary of a Finite Time in a Finite Space. Also, Marcia Bartusiak tells Anne Strainchamps about the race to document the existence of gravity waves - Einstein's last prediction. She says we're on the verge of a brand new kind of astronomy. Her book is Einstein's Unfinished Symphony.

SEGMENT 2:

Robert Fischell was chief engineer at Johns Hopkins' Applied Physics Lab. He applied his satellite savvy to the human body and developed several implantable medical devices credited with saving tens of thousands of lives on Earth. Fischell just won a Discover Magazine Innovation Award. He tells Jim Fleming what made the space program so productive. Also, Michael Benson is a film-maker who's compiled an extraordinary book of sill photographs. Beyond: Visions of Interplanetary Probes contains images Benson collected from the Internet. Lawrence Weschler wrote the book's Afterward. Both men talk with Anne Strainchamps about how the images were made and what they mean to Earth-bound viewers.

SEGMENT 3:

Science writer James Gleick is the author of Isaac Newton. His biography of the man who invented gravity, calculus and celestial mechanics, also reveals that Newton was the pre-eminent alchemist of his age and an expert Biblical scholar. Gleick tells Steve Paulson that Newton may have invented modern science, but he lived in a very medieval world.

Cassette copies are available at 1-800-747-7444. Ask for program number 03-11-30-A.

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Links:

• A Planetary Photojournal http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/
  
• Planetary Image Atlas http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/Atlas/
• Visible Earth http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/

Books:

• Marcia Bartusiak, Einstein's Unfinished Symphony: listening to the sounds of space-time (Berkley)
  
• Michael Benson, Beyond: Visions of the Interplanetary Probes (Abrams)
  
• Janna Levin, How the Universe Got Its Spots: diary of a finite time in a finite space (Anchor Books)
  
• James Gleick, Isaac Newton (Pantheon)

Music:

• Button after Levin: “Crossfire” from Upfront by David Sanborn Elektra 61272-2
  Button/Option after Bartusiak: “Snakes” from Upfront (as above)
• Button after Fischell: “Interlude” from The Rodeo Erodes by Tin Hat Trio ropeadope records 0-7567-93134-2-3
• Button/Option after Benson & Weschler: “Under the Gun” from The Rodeo Erodes (as above)

• Alternative Close Music: “A Happy Home in Kathmandu” from The Opening of Doors by Will Ackerman Windham Hill 01934 1114-2
  

Distribution dates:

week of 11/07/2004 - hour 2 week of 11/30/2003 - hour 1

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Questions and comments can be addressed to: flemingj@wpr.org

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