Friday, September 3

Wonders of the Solar System

This new 5-episode series from the Science Channel is ending this week, but I highly recommend "Wonders of the Solar System" to anyone looking for an informative and fun take on the origins and oddities of our solar system.  Go here for the program trailer.

Narrated by Professor Brian Cox, who comes across as the goofy young brother of Carl Sagan, it is a thoroughly enjoyable tour of the solar system.  Just the visuals are stunning, but when you add in Dr. Cox's story telling, observations, demonstrations, and globe trotting, you find the hour flies by and you are now filled with a whole new set of interesting tidbits on this amazing corner of this enormous galaxy.

Dr. Cox is a professor of particle physics at the University of Manchester, though he has also been part of a rock band and looks the part.  Created by the BBC, the program broadcast over in Great Britain earlier this year to great acclaim.  The Telegraph stated "Cox is a confirmed atheist, but when I watched him on TV, his enchantment with nature both on this planet and beyond struck me as almost religious. As we talk, he has a near-permanent smile playing on his lips that puts me in mind of an earnest young vicar. He doesn’t reject the comparison."  Consider me a convert.  And I can only hope Dr. Cox will find time to make a second season.