Tonight the SCIENCE channel (the channel recently replaying Firefly, bless em) will air the season 2 finale of its Morgan Freeman-narrated Through the Wormhole, and the title has us hooked: “What Do Aliens Look Like?” Totally up our alley. This will be preceded by a new episode of Wonders of the Universe, which this week discusses the nature of Time. It’s good to get some science fact to back up the fiction. Check out the clips and press releases:
THROUGH THE WORMHOLE with MORGAN FREEMAN
Season Two Season Finale: Wednesday, August 3, at 10 PM (ET/PT)Episode: WHAT DO ALIENS LOOK LIKE?
Science fiction writers have always had their little green men. But these humanoid aliens were based soundly on Earth-based life, not any extra-terrestrial evidence. Today, we’ve discovered hundreds of planets around other stars. As we learn what some of these alternative Earths might look like, science and imagination have allowed us to use real science to imagine the biology of their inhabitants. Will they have two eyes? Two legs? What color will their skin be? Which species on Earth can give us clues about likely biology of aliens? And what can we learn from how life on Earth developed to help us understand what ET really looks like?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU1jrC-rjzw[/youtube]
WONDERS OF THE UNIVERSE
Episode Two Premiere: Wednesday, August 3, at 9 PM (ET/PT)Episode: COSMOS MADE CONSCIOUS
In this episode, Cox seeks to understand the nature of time and its role in creating both the universe and ourselves. From an extraordinary calendar built into the landscape of Peru to the beaches of Costa Rica, he explores the cycles of time which define our experiences, quickly discovering that even our most epic ideas disappear in the vast expanse of cosmic time. Ultimately, Cox discovers that time is characterized not by repetition, but by irreversible change. From the relentless march of a glacier to the decay of an old mining town, the ravaging effects of time are all around us. As we look farther out across the cosmos, we envision the story of universal evolution concluding with the eventual disintegration of all matter. This journey from birth to death must inevitably lead to the destruction not just of our planet, but of the entire universe, and with it the end of time itself. Yet, without this progression toward the end of time, the universe would be without what is perhaps the greatest wonder of all—the briefest moment in which life can exist.
Wonders of the Universe airs Wednesdays at 9/8c, and the season 2 finale of Through the Wormhole airs Wednesday, August 3 at 10/9c, both on the SCIENCE channel.
