UNIVERSAL THOUGHT

Program 04-07-25-A

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To The Best of Our Knowledge
from Wisconsin Public Radio

Physicist Brian Greene sees an elegant universe – one where even baking a batch of cookies can yield surprising lessons about the fabric of the universe, or watching an egg splatter suggests a model for the Big Bang theory. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, thoughts from one of the bright minds of the scientific world.

SEGMENT 1:

David Grinspoon is the author of "Lonely Planets: The Natural Philosophy of Alien Life." He tells Anne Strainchamps we're more likely to find microbes, but can't help longing to find other creatures to talk to, and that if and when we do, such a find will pose a big challenge to traditional religions. Does every life form rank its own Redeemer, or is Jesus Christ, as some have maintained, a planet-hopper? Also, Frank Drake, founder of the SETI program, tells Jim Fleming about his first radio search for extra-terrestrial intelligent life. He says SETI gets lots of false alarms and they're all caused by signals that originate on earth, and that the situation will only get worse. But he's still optimistic.

SEGMENT 2:

Chiori Miyagawa is a playwright in New York and teaches at Bard College. Jim Lattis, an astronomy historian was her technical advisor for "Comet Hunter." They join Steve Paulson along with actors Catherine Johnson, Lisa Dixon and Jim Stauffer, who perform excerpts from the play. "Comet Hunter" is the story of Caroline Herschel who collaborated with her brother William during the 18th and early 19th centuries and made several important contributions to astronomy.

SEGMENT 3:

Brian Greene is a physicist who specializes in string theory. His latest book is "The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality." Greene tells Steve Paulson that time appears to move in one direction only to complex organisms like people. At the atomic level, electrons don't know one direction from another. So time travel ought to be theoretically possible in either direction. Einstein proved we can visit the future. Greene tells Steve how time travel to the past may still be a theoretical possibility.

Cassette copies are available at 1-800-747-7444. Ask for program number 04-07-25-A.

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Books:

• Brian Greene, The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality (Knopf)
  
• David Grinspoon, Lonely Planets: The Natural Philosophy of Alien Life (ecco)

Links:

• SETI Institute:
  http://www.seti.org/Welcome.html
• Frank Drake:
  http://www.seti.org/about_us/leadership/staff/frank_d.html

Music:

• Surf Trek/ The Rubinoos/ Brain in a Box - The Science Fiction Collection/Disc 5 - Novelty/ Rhino
• Two Little Men in a Flying Saucer/ Ella Fitzgerald/ Brain in a Box - The Science Fiction Collection/ Disc 5 - Novelty/ Rhino
• Cosmic Ballad/ Perry & Kingsley/ The Out Sound from Way In: The Complete Vanuguard Recordings/ Vanguard Records
• Space Child/ Spirit/ Brain in a Box - The Science Fiction Collection/ Disc 3 - Pop/ Rhino
• Fly Like an Eagle/ Steve Miller Band

Distribution dates:

week of 07/31/2005 - hour 2 week of 07/25/2004 - hour 1

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

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