The scene: a very nicely appointed high-rise hotel room in 1953. Two figures – “the Actress” (who looks remarkably like Marylin Monroe, played by Theresa Russell) and “the Professor” (looking every bit the spitting image of Albert Einstein, played by Michael Emil) – are gazing out a large window into the night. Professor: I prefer […]
Our universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding,
In all of the directions it can whiz;
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute and that’s the fastest speed there is.
So sang Eric Idle to a perplexed housewife (a drag-clad Terry Jones) in “Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life.” Truly, it’s one of the most beloved science songs of the twentieth century; right up there with Tom Lehrer singing “The Elements.”