Time. We waste it, save it, kill it, make it. The world runs on it. Yet ask physicists what time actually is, and the answer might shock you: They have no idea. Even more surprising, the deep sense we have of time passing from present to past may be nothing more than an illusion. How can our understanding of something so familiar be so wrong? “The Illusion of Time,” an episode of NOVA’s four-hour series The Fabric of the Cosmos based on the book by renowned physicist and author Brian Greene, investigates how scientists are piecing together the most complete picture yet of the elusive Nature of Time.

Series nominated for 2011 Outstanding Science and Technology Programming Emmy
Winner 2012 Writers Guild of America award for writers Randall MacLowry and Joe McMaster

Air Date: November 9, 2011

More About the Film