Sylvester James Gates

NOVA leads viewers on a mathematical mystery tour -- a provocative exploration of math's astonishing power across the centuries. We discover math's signature in the swirl of a nautilus shell, the whirlpool of a galaxy and the spiral in the center of a sunflower. Math was essential to everything from the first wireless radio transmissions to the prediction and discovery of the Higgs boson and the successful landing of rovers on Mars. But where does math get its power? Astrophysicist and writer Mario Livio, along with a colorful cast of mathematicians, physicists and engineers, follows math from Pythagoras to Einstein and beyond, all leading to the ultimate riddle: Is math an invention or a discovery? Humankind's clever trick or the language of the universe?

In the early 1900s, Albert Einstein developed an idea - called Relativity - that changed our understanding of reality. It explained how both space and time were flexible - and how the Universe was made of a four-dimensional fabric called space-time. This single idea gave us a new way to understand the force of gravity, explained how the stars were born and introduced us to the concept of the big bang. And, in the hands of Stephen Hawking, it allowed us to understand the most extreme monsters in the Universe - black holes. This two-part BBC documentary explores how two of the most famous scientists of the 20th Century transformed our understanding of the Universe - thus changing the world.