Introducing EinSteinchen, an animated techno-Einstein who has a genius for explaining physics. In section one of this DVD, this likable know-it-all elucidates 12 essential topics in 90-second segments that are perfect for launching lectures or illustrating concepts. Section two departs from EinSteinchen’s virtual world to show 12 cutting-edge applications or studies of Einsteinian physics in high-level mini-documentaries of two to five minutes in length.

Section one’s animated segments include…

• Absolute and Relative: How size can appear to be relative through perspective

• E=mc²: What exactly this famous formula means

• The Discovery of Slowness: Relativity of time when traveling through space

• As Fast as Light: Why light’s velocity is constant, and why nothing can outpace it

• Glowing Atoms—Stimulated Emissions: The role that excited atoms play in laser emissions

• The Super-molecule—Bose-Einstein Condensation: Wave-like behavior of atoms at temperatures approaching absolute zero

• The Spooky Long Distance Effect: Entanglement of spatially separated particles

• Bent Space: How massive objects exerting enormous gravity bend space

• Dancing Particles: How the forces that play a role in molecular interactions can be defined by formulas

• Electricity from Light: How light energy can be converted into electrical energy

• The Invisible Force: How gravity exerted by stars and planets keeps the universe in motion

• Wormholes: Theoretically speaking, how travel through a wormhole could provide a shortcut across space

Section two’s mini-documentaries include…

• Nuclear Medicine—A Formula and Its Results: E=mc² as it relates to PET scans

• Satellite Navigation—Einstein’s Contribution to GALILEO: Compensating for time relativity in navigational satellites

• The Speed of Light, Part 1—Light Researchers: A satellite experiment to test whether light really does propagate at the same speed in all directions

• The Speed of Light, Part 2—Radar Satellite: TerraSAR-X, an X-band radar mapping satellite that relies on measurements based on the speed of light

• The World’s Fastest Flash: Stimulated emissions and history’s first attosecond laser pulse

• Juggling Ultra-cold Atoms: Implications of Bose-Einstein condensation waves on the possibility of making a quantum computer

• Cloned Atoms through Teleportation: Implications of “spooky action at a distance” on the possibility of making a quantum computer

• Cosmic Telescopes: Using gravitational lenses to search for undiscovered galaxies and dark matter

• Racing Down Einstein’s Paths: detecting gravity waves with laser interferometers

• Organic Solar Cells: Applying the photoelectric effect to hydrocarbon polymers

• Time Travel through Wormholes—Nothing More Than a Dream?: Speculations on wormholes and how, theoretically, to make use of them

• The Search for a Theory of Everything: Hunting for evidence of the Higgs boson as a part of the search for Einstein’s elusive Theory of Everything

A Deutsche Welle Production. (60 minutes)