Everybody's heard of E=mc²... but what does the world's most famous equation really mean?

Einstein's Big Idea
Tuesday, October 11, 2005, from 8 to 10pm ET/PT on PBS
(check local listings)
Narrated by John Lithgow

NOVA pays tribute to Einstein's remarkable equation with Einstein's Big Idea, a special two-hour presentation that dramatizes the stories of the men and women whose innovative thinking across four centuries led to Einstein's bold breakthrough.

The program's October 11th premiere is timed to coincide with the equation's centenary and the World Year of Physics (2005).

Based on David Bodanis' bestseller, E=mc² (2000), Einstein's Big Idea celebrates the ingenuity and chronicles the human conflicts that ultimately unleashed the power of the atom and the myriad number of ways the equation has changed the world.

Starring Aidan McArdle (Ella Enchanted, Not Only But Always) as Einstein and Shirley Henderson (Bridget Jones and Harry Potter franchises) as the first Mrs. Einstein, Mileva Maric, Einstein's Big Idea is an engrossing docudrama brimming with stories of triumph and failure, love and politics, bitter rivalries and revenge—all drawn from the lives and times of the scientists who intersected with the world's most famous equation.

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Major funding for NOVA is provided by Google. Additional funding is provided by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and public television viewers. Major funding for Einstein's Big Idea is provided by the National Science Foundation. Additional funding is provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Department of Energy. Special thanks to the American Physical Society.