NOVA

Humans are born to roam. See how engineers are inventing new ways to explore and extend our range.

Is engineering humanity's superpower? See how we can amplify our natural abilities in amazing ways.

Dive into the universe at the tiniest - and weirdest - of scales.

From meteorites that impact Earth, to a moon that orbits backwards, to an imposter lurking in the asteroid belt, a variety of strange, wandering worlds are rewriting what we know - and even how we think about - our solar system.

Out in the solar system, ice can get bizarre. Visit strange, frozen worlds - from Uranus's ultra-hot superionic ice, to glaciers of nitrogen ice on Pluto, to carbon dioxide snow on Mars - and discover why the ice here on Earth is so unique.

Around our solar system, violent eruptions are shaping distant worlds. Discover the explosive forces that helped create some of the most dynamic worlds in our cosmic neighborhood - and what makes the volcanoes right here on Earth so special.

From a dwarf planet that looks like a deflated football, to a tiny moon with cliffs taller than Mt. Everest, to the spectacular rings of Saturn, discover how the effects of gravity produce the amazing variety of weird worlds in our solar system.

Out in the solar system, the weather gets wacky - with globe-spanning dust storms, monsoons of liquid methane, and lightning 10 times stronger than here on Earth. Discover the forces driving the dramatic weather on neighboring planets and moons.

How big is the universe? If it began with the Big Bang, will it also have an end? Is there life beyond our planet?

Whether you�re on social media or surfing the web, you�re sharing more personal data than you realize.

Explore the spectacular cosmic phenomenon of a total solar eclipse.

A.I. tools like ChatGPT seem to think, speak, and create like humans. But what are they really doing? From cancer cures to Terminator-style takeovers, leading experts explore what A.I. can � and can�t � do today, and what lies ahead.

For decades, scientists have tried to unlock the secrets of ancient DNA. But life�s genetic blueprint is incredibly fragile, and researchers have struggled to find DNA in fossils that could survive millions of years. Then, one maverick scientist had the controversial idea to look for DNA not in fossils or frozen ancient tissue � but in dirt. Join the hunt as scientists decipher the oldest DNA ever found, and reveal for the first time the genes of long-extinct creatures that once thrived in a warm, lush Arctic.

Explore the revolutionary engineering behind Paris�s iconic landmark. Completed in just over two years for the 1889 World�s Fair, the iron tower smashed the record for the tallest structure on Earth, ushering in a new age of global construction that reached for the skies. How did the engineers do it? Follow the innovations, successes, and failures that made one of the most famous buildings on the planet possible.

How were the giant stone heads of Rapa Nui�also known as Easter Island�carved and raised, and why? Since Europeans arrived on this remote Pacific island over 300 years ago, controversy has swirled around the iconic ancient statues and the history of the people who created them. Now, a new generation of researchers is overturning old theories, revealing the rich history, innovation, and resilience of the Rapanui people, and uncovering intriguing new evidence about where they�and their practice of monumental stone building�came from.

In Egypt�s Sahara Desert, massive skeletons with strange skulls and gigantic teeth jut out from the sandy ground. This fossil graveyard, millions of years old, is known as the �Valley of the Whales.� Now, paleontologists have unearthed a whole new species of ancient whale dating to 43 million years ago, and this predator wasn�t just able to swim � it also had four legs and could walk. Follow scientists as they search for new clues to the winding evolutionary path of mammals that moved from the land into the sea to become the largest animals on Earth.

Many descendants of enslaved people have little record of their family's ancestry. Follow one family's quest to discover their lost history, and see how science and genealogy can help rebuild a family tree broken by slavery. Join filmmaker Byron Hurt at his extended family reunion as they celebrate the joy of family in the African diaspora, and discover new details of their history that they thought were lost forever.

Malaria is one of humanity�s oldest and most devastating plagues. In many parts of the world, it remains an ever-present scourge that sickens or kills millions of people each year. What if it could finally be defeated? Now, scientists may be on the verge of a breakthrough with a promising vaccine in the final stages of testing and approval. Follow researchers on a quest to deliver humankind from one of the world�s deadliest diseases.

In the span of just a few decades, China has transformed into a science and technology superpower. But how did it get here and where is it headed? Take an insider�s tour of high-profile tech companies and labs that are driving China�s meteoric rise to the forefront of global innovation. How does China innovate? What drives its bid for technological supremacy? And what does its rise mean for the future of the global economy?

The story of Earth can only be told because now, 4.5 billion years into its existence, a technological and self-aware animal species roams its surface, able to study the very planet that gave rise to it. But how exactly did Earth give rise to humans? Through stunningly realistic animation, witness the cataclysmic asteroid strike that wiped out the dinosaurs, the tumultuous changing climates that allowed early primates to spread across the planet, and the geologic events that created the conditions for the evolution of an animal that walks upright on two legs. Explore the power and paradox of humanity�s profound impact on our planet, and ponder the question of how we may shape its future.

252 million years ago, the most devastating mass extinction of all time abruptly wiped out around 90% of all species on Earth. The culprits were the biggest volcanic eruptions the world has ever seen, emitting some 700 thousand cubic miles of magma and rock. Volcanic gasses permeated the atmosphere and acidified the oceans while toxic gasses destroyed the ozone layer, bathing the planet in destructive UV radiation. The event � now called �The Great Dying� � came close to wiping out all life on the planet. Follow scientists as they piece together geologic evidence from the deep past and clues from today�s ecosystems to discover how life made it through and evolved into the astonishing variety we see around us today.

For billions of years, life teemed in the oceans of planet Earth while the land was desolate and inhospitable. So how did life make the leap to land? Scientists explore how some of the earliest life emerged and invaded a barren, rocky landscape, eventually transforming it into a verdant, green world. Gripping visual effects reveal an alien landscape dominated by towering fungi before the arrival of plants. Witness how the first plants made landfall and partnered with fungi to create soil that would sustain them. And discover how, once life emerged on land, it fundamentally altered the very ground it grew on.

700 million years ago, Earth was a giant snowball cloaked in ice from pole to pole � a global deep freeze that held the planet in a stranglehold, threatening the survival of the earliest complex life. How did life manage to hold on in this forbidding world? Leading scientists investigate how this catastrophe may have become a catalyst for life to evolve in creative new ways as it bounced back from the brink � setting the stage for the astonishing complexity we see today.

Today, Earth is enveloped by a thin veil of gas, a narrow band of atmosphere that protects a world covered in lush green vegetation, deep blue oceans, and abundant life. But 4.5 billion years ago, Earth was a very different place: a hellscape of molten lava and barren rock, under relentless bombardment from meteors, and with no atmosphere whatsoever. So how did our familiar blue sky come to be? Breathtakingly realistic animations and a chorus of science experts reveal how the primordial inferno first gave rise to an orange-hued cauldron of toxic gasses that would be deadly to us today. Witness how the first drops of rain splashed down on the searing planet, setting the stage for the evolution of life. And discover how life itself helped create the air we all breathe today.

Are you in control, or is your brain controlling you? Dive into the latest research on the subconscious with neuroscientist Heather Berlin. Sleepwalking, anesthesia, game theory, and more reveal surprising insights in this eye-opening journey to discover what�s really driving the decisions you make.

Is what you see real? Join neuroscientist Heather Berlin on a quest to understand how your brain shapes your reality, and why you can�t always trust what you perceive. In the first hour of this two-part series, learn what the latest research shows about how your brain processes and shapes the world around you, and discover the surprising tricks and shortcuts your brain takes to help you survive.

Investigates one of the most powerful volcanic eruptions in recorded history.

North Atlantic right whales are among the planet�s most critically endangered large ocean mammals. With fewer than 350 remaining as of 2023, they could be extinct within 20 years. But teams of marine biologists and whale rescuers are determined to help save the species. Follow their efforts and get a glimpse into the lives of these giants of the sea and their prospects for survival.

The U.S. recently set an ambitious climate change goal: zero carbon emissions by 2050. And to achieve that, slash emissions in half by 2030. Is it possible? And what kind of technology would it take? Meet scientists and engineers who are convinced we can achieve carbon zero in time to avoid the biggest impacts of climate change.

It�s hard not to notice: our weather is changing. From longer, hotter heat waves, to more intense rainstorms, to megafires and multi-year droughts, the U.S. is experiencing the full range of impacts from a changing global climate. At the same time, many on the front lines are fighting back � innovating solutions, marshaling ancient wisdom, and developing visionary ideas. The lessons they're learning today can help all of us adapt in the years ahead, as the planet gets warmer and our weather gets more extreme.

In July 2022, NASA�s James Webb Space Telescope released its first images, looking further back in time than ever before to show our universe in stunningly beautiful detail. But that was just the beginning: With tons of new data and spectacular images flooding in, Webb is allowing scientists to peer deep in time to try to answer some of astronomy�s biggest questions. When � and how � did the first stars and galaxies form? And can we see the fingerprints of life in the atmospheres of distant worlds�or even within our own solar system?

Recent stunning discoveries are exploding the myth of the Amazon as a primeval wilderness, revealing traces of ancient civilizations that flourished there for centuries. Dense settlements indicate populations in the millions, supported by sophisticated agricultural systems, while huge geometric earthworks and roadways bear witness to complex religious ideas and social networks. The evidence is now clear that, far from being an untouched wilderness, the Amazon has been shaped by human hands for millennia.

A NASA spacecraft named Lucy blasts off from Cape Canaveral on a mission to the Trojans, a group of asteroids over 400 million miles from Earth thought to hold important clues about the origins of our solar system. Just hours before, in Senegal, West Africa, a team of scientists sets out to capture extraordinarily precise observations vital to the success of the Lucy mission � crucial data needed to help NASA navigate Lucy to its asteroid targets across millions of miles of space. The team�s leader, Senegalese astronomer Maram Kaire, takes viewers on a journey to investigate his nation�s rich and deep history of astronomy, reaching back thousands of years � and the promising future ahead.

For over a decade, more than 10,000 engineers and construction workers race to build a brand-new subterranean railroad under London� the Elizabeth Line�London�s new Underground. One of Europe�s biggest engineering projects, the construction teams confront immense challenges, from building platforms and concourses the size of aircraft carriers hidden under London�s busiest shopping venue, Oxford Street, to designing, outfitting, and testing a fleet of 70 new high-speed trains from scratch in just two years. Facing delays and cost overruns worsened by the pandemic, the engineers and technicians race to create 10 new stations, learn to operate the new trains, and test out new 13-mile twin tunnels under London. Drawing on more than 1,500 hours of footage, NOVA provides intimate glimpses of the challenges, setbacks, and ingenious solutions that lead to ultimate success, as the Queen finally opens the Elizabeth Line on May 24, 2022.

In April 2019, the world watched as a devastating fire almost destroyed Paris�s iconic Notre Dame Cathedral. Go behind the scenes with a team of engineers, masons, and timber workers tackling the daunting challenges of restoring the historic landmark.

Zero and infinity. These seemingly opposite, obvious, and indispensable concepts are relatively recent human inventions. Discover the surprising story of how these key concepts that revolutionized mathematics came to be � not just once, but over and over again as different cultures invented and re-invented them across thousands of years.

From Bitcoin to NFTs, crypto is making headlines. But what exactly is it, and how does it work? Experts go beyond the hype and skepticism to unravel the social and technological underpinnings of crypto � exploring how it came to be and why this new technology may change more than just money.

One of the world�s greatest ancient enigmas, the Nazca lines are a dense network of criss-crossing lines, geometric shapes, and animal figures etched across 200 square miles of Peruvian desert. Who created them and why? Ever since they were seen from the air in the 1940s, scholars and enthusiasts have raised countless theories about their purpose. Now, archaeologists have discovered hundreds of long-hidden lines and figures as well as evidence of ancient rituals, offering new clues to the origins and motivations behind the giant desert symbols.

Lionfish � long prized in home aquariums � have invaded the Atlantic, and are now one of the ocean�s most successful invasive species, wreaking havoc in waters across the globe. Join ocean explorer Danni Washington on a journey to find out how they took over, why they�re doing so much damage, and what can be done about it. These fascinating creatures are a window into the impacts of invasive species in a globalized world where human activity is an increasingly powerful evolutionary force.

Hallucinogenic drugs�popularly called psychedelics�have been used by human societies for thousands of years. Today, scientists are taking a second look at many of these mind-altering substances�both natural and synthetic�and discovering that they can have profoundly positive clinical impacts, helping patients struggling with a range of afflictions from addiction to depression and PTSD.

In police departments and courts across the country, artificial intelligence is being used to help decide who is policed, who gets bail, how offenders should be sentenced, and who gets parole. But is it actually making our law enforcement and court systems fairer and more just? This timely investigation digs into the hidden biases, privacy risks, and design flaws of this controversial technology.

Almost 40 years after the discovery of HIV, could we be on the verge of ending the AIDS epidemic in America? As of 2019, in the U.S., there were only 34,000 new cases of the disease�a feat that once seemed near-impossible to achieve. How did scientists and the public health community tackle one of the most elusive deadly viruses to ever infect humans? Can innovative drugs bring new infections to zero? This is the story of an incredible scientific achievement and the public health work that still needs to be done to end HIV in America.

Rising seas and sinking land threaten to destroy Venice. Can the city�s new hi-tech flood barrier save it? Discover the innovative projects and feats of engineering designed to stop this historic city from being lost to future generations.

Follow the dramatic story of NASA�s James Webb Space Telescope � the most complex machine ever launched into space � in hopes of peering deeper back in time than ever before and answering some of astronomy�s biggest questions.

Ancient footprints provide new evidence of humans and extinct giant beasts of the Ice Age.

How could a single ship cause a major supply chain crisis around the globe?

Scientists use new fossils to reconstruct the day the dinosaurs died.

Striking new fossils paint a picture of life right before the asteroid impact.

Follow three women at risk of developing Alzheimer�s as they join a groundbreaking study to try to prevent the disease � sharing their ups and downs, anxiously watching for symptoms, and hoping they can make a difference.

Follow the dramatic personal journey of Hugh Herr, a biophysicist working to create brain-controlled robotic limbs. At age 17, Herr�s legs were amputated after a climbing accident. Frustrated by the crude prosthetic limbs he was given, Herr set out to remedy their design, leading him to a career as an inventor of innovative prosthetic devices.

Sir David Attenborough investigates a unique site in southern England where amateur fossil hunters uncovered giant mammoth bones and evidence of Neanderthals. A team of paleontologists and archaeologists soon discover that the site preserves rare evidence of the extinct beasts and early human inhabitants of Britain dating to over 200,000 years ago.

Scott Burnett is �Scatman��an Australian ecologist on the trail of the secrets of poop. By identifying and analyzing animal scat for DNA and hormones, he discovers essential details of their behavior, how they fit in the ecosystem, and even how to protect them. From the mysterious cubic poop of wombats to the precious pink waste of whales, join scientists as they explore nature�s smelliest secrets.

Colossal explosions shake a remote corner of the Siberian tundra, leaving behind massive craters. In Alaska, a huge lake erupts with bubbles of inflammable gas. Scientists are discovering that these mystifying phenomena add up to a ticking time bomb, as long-frozen permafrost melts and releases vast amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. What are the implications of these dramatic developments in the Arctic? Scientists and local communities alike are struggling to grasp the scale of the methane threat and what it means for our climate future.

Explore ancient Maya cities and learn why their inhabitants abandoned them. The ancient ancestors of today�s Maya people thrived in large sophisticated cities across Central America for centuries. Why, around 750 CE, did they begin to abandon many of their major cities? Archaeologists investigate dramatic new evidence of the catastrophic droughts and instability that pushed cities beyond their limits. The evidence also testifies to the survival and resilience of the Maya people, whose traditions and creativity continue to enrich the world today.

A team of intrepid paleontologists discovers that dinosaurs thrived in the unlikeliest of places�the cold and dark of winter in the Arctic Circle. How did they survive year-round and raise their young in frigid and dark winter conditions?

The hidden scientific secrets of butterflies reveal them to be more inventive and resilient than we ever imagined. Follow their extraordinary life cycle and migrations to tropical rainforests, windswept prairies, and even inside a chrysalis as it�s being spun. Discover how butterfly science is inspiring groundbreaking technology, including more efficient solar power cells, and bulletproof vests stronger than Kevlar.

Skyscrapers are gleaming symbols of prestige, and an ingenious way to save space in dense urban areas. But as buildings rise ever higher, what are the risks of these architectural behemoths? Do we truly know how they will hold up in earthquakes, fires, and other potential disasters? What have--or haven�t�we learned from past tragedies?

Take a seat on the ultimate thrill ride to explore nature�s strangest and most powerful objects. Discover new science showing how black holes reshape entire galaxies, warp the fabric of space and time, and might even be portals to another universe.

From crunchy crickets to nutty fly grubs, NOVA takes a tasty look at insect foods and how they could benefit our health and our warming planet. From Thailand to Texas, insect farmers are showing how the tiny critters stack up as an environmentally friendly alternative to beef protein and can, pound for pound, deliver better nutritional value than the finest steak. But will Americans overcome the �ick� factor and share the appetite of many cultures around the world for insect feasts?

Join scientists on the most ambitious Arctic research expedition of all time. Experts from over twenty different nations join the voyage of the massive Polarstern icebreaker as it�s gripped by the polar ice and drifts for nearly an entire year. From this unique research station, they can make long-term observations and perform experiments in unprecedented detail. Facing hungry polar bears, perilous sea ice cracks, and brutal cold, the team strives to understand the forces that are changing the region�and the world�forever.

Outnumbering atoms a billion to one, neutrinos are the universe�s most common yet most elusive and baffling particle. NOVA joins an international team of neutrino hunters as they try to capture an elusive fourth form of neutrino. Their results may force scientists to redraw their blueprint of the subatomic world, the Standard Model of physics, and change our understanding of how the universe works.

NOVA investigates the story of cannabis from the criminalization that has disproportionately harmed communities of color to the latest medical understanding of the plant. What risks does cannabis pose to the developing brain? How much do we know about its potential medical benefits? As cannabis becomes socially accepted, scientists are exploring its long-term health consequences.

Bats have been implicated in deadly epidemics such as COVID-19 and Ebola, yet scientists are discovering evidence that they may hold a key to a longer and healthier life. From caves in Thailand and Texas to labs around the globe, NOVA meets the scientists who are decoding the superpowers of the bat.

Some five centuries ago, a major revolution overturned traditional ship design: in just a few years, ships were transformed from small coastal-bound transports into massive ocean-going vessels. Once regular trans-oceanic travel became feasible, everything changed. Powerful navies arose and fought for supremacy at sea, while the new ships enabled empire-building European powers to invade and colonize Indigenous lands and exploit their peoples. How did this transformative change in ship design come about? Scholars and historians have always faced a problem: few wrecks dating back to this crucial period survive, so rough drawings and incomplete records have been their only evidence. Now, a well-preserved wreck off the coast of Sweden dating back to the era of Columbus reveals new details about the engineering that changed the world. Dive with NOVA as we recover the sunken clues to this significant new discovery.

Will electric planes replace polluting airliners and lead to flying taxis in our cities?

80 years after the world�s largest airship ignited in a giant fireball, newly discovered footage sparks a reinvestigation of what exactly caused the Hindenburg disaster.

Meet people struggling with infertility and the challenges of assisted reproduction.

Coral reefs are not just beautiful, they are also home to over a quarter of all marine life and are crucial to human societies around the globe. But as the climate changes and oceanic heat waves become commonplace, corals are bleaching and reefs are dying off. Now, marine biologists from across the world are teaming up to counteract this catastrophe with a technique called assisted evolution. Follow scientists as they attempt to crossbreed heat-resistant corals, and even transplant corals� algae, in a race to save the coral reefs from extinction.

NASA launches its most ambitious hunt for traces of life on Mars, landing a car-sized rover in a rocky, ancient river delta. The rover will stow samples for possible return to Earth and test technology that may pave the way for human travel to Mars.

The value of DNA testing and the risks of entrusting this private data to commercial enterprises and online databases.

When the roof of Notre Dame Cathedral erupted in flames in April of 2019, firefighters battled for nine grueling hours to save the historic landmark. Still, Paris came alarmingly close to losing more than 800 years of history. Now engineers are in a different race against time: to rebuild the roof and secure the medieval structure of Notre Dame. Underneath the charred scaffolding and vaulted ceilings of the cathedral, scientists study the components of Notre Dame�s iconic structure to puzzle out how best to repair it.

As global temperatures continue to rise, scientists are wondering if we need solutions beyond reducing emissions. Enter geoengineering. From sucking carbon straight out of the air to physically blocking out sunlight, the options may seem far-fetched. But as time runs out on conventional solutions to climate change, scientists are asking the hard questions: Can geoengineering really work? How much would it cost? And what are the risks of engineering Earth's climate?

If spacecraft OSIRIS-REx can grab a piece of an asteroid and bring it back to Earth, scientists could gain great insight into our planet's origins, and even how to defend against rogue asteroids. But NASA only gets three shots at collecting a sample.

For animals in Mozambique�s Gorongosa National Park, the normal balance of competition and predation was upended when a war wiped out the top predators. The remaining animals didn�t simply grow in numbers�they began behaving in unusual ways, veering outside their typical territories and feeding patterns. Could it be that it�s not just predators� kills that keep other populations in check, but also the fear they inspire? NOVA joins a team of scientists as they reintroduce wild dogs to Gorongosa to find out if restoring the park�s �landscape of fear� can restore balance to an entire ecosystem.

Just as writing changed the course of human history, the evolution of paper and printing revolutionized the spread of information. The printing press kicked off the Industrial Revolution that fast-tracked us to the current digital age. But as the 4,000-year-old tradition of penmanship falls out of favor, should we consider what might be lost in this pursuit of ever more efficient communication?

Writing shaped our world and the rise of human knowledge, from the trading of goods to tales of ancient goddesses and kings. Follow the evolution of the written word, from 4,000-year-old carvings in an Egyptian turquoise mine to modern-day alphabets.

Who says you need brains to be smart? Extremely primitive life-forms called slime molds can navigate mazes, choose between foods, and create efficient networks�no brain required. New research on these organisms, which are neither plant nor animal, could help reveal the fundamental rules underlying all decision making.

With an extraordinary new technology called CRISPR, we can now edit DNA�including human DNA. But how far should we go? Gene-editing promises to eliminate certain genetic disorders like sickle cell disease. But the applications quickly raise ethical questions. Is it wrong to engineer soldiers to feel no pain, or to resurrect an extinct species? And is there harm in allowing parents to choose their child�s features, like eye color or height? The scientists who pioneered human genome studies and CRISPR grapple with these questions.

Eagles dominate the skies. But what makes these predators so special? Researchers study one special bird�and stunning up-close footage reveals her exceptional strength, eyesight, and flying skills. With intimate access to a new bald eagle family, NOVA takes you into the nest to witness the drama of chicks struggling to survive.

The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has upended life as we know it in a matter of mere months. But at the same time, an unprecedented global effort to understand and contain the virus�and find a treatment for the disease it causes�is underway. Join the doctors on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19 as they strategize to stop the spread, and meet the researchers racing to develop treatments and vaccines. Along the way, discover how this devastating disease emerged, what it does to the human body, and why it exploded into a pandemic.

The mysteries of fat and its role in hormone production, hunger and pregnancy.

Cuban scientists develop their own biotech industry, including lung cancer vaccines that may give new hope to patients around the world.

From fruit flies to whales, virtually every animal sleeps. But why? Why do we need to spend nearly a third of our lives in such a defenseless state? Scientists are peering more deeply into the sleeping brain than ever before, discovering just how powerful sleep can be, playing a role in everything from memory retention and emotional regulation to removing waste from our brains. So why are we getting so little of it?

Worshipped as a goddess, condemned as satanic, and spun into a stunning array of breeds, cats have long fascinated humans. But did we ever really domesticate them? And what can science tell us about our most mysterious companions?

Dogs have long been dependable companions by our sides. But it wasn�t always that way, and a look at their closest living relative, the wolf, makes it clear why. Research into dog domestication and intelligence offers clues into what the human-dog relationship is all about. And analyzing dogs� brain activity and genes may even help answer the question of whether dogs are in it for the food�or if they really love us.

In this two-hour special, renowned paleontologist Kirk Johnson takes us on an epic adventure through time at the polar extremes of our planet. Following a trail of strange fossils found in all the wrong places�beech trees in Antarctica, hippo-like mammals in the Arctic�Johnson uncovers the bizarre history of the poles, from miles-high ice sheets to warm polar forests teeming with life. What caused such dramatic changes at the ends of the Earth? And what can the past reveal about our planet�s climate today�and in the future?

How do you study giant armadillos when hardly anyone has ever seen one? Or figure out if a whale is losing weight�without getting too close? Camera and drone technologies are allowing scientists to watch animals more closely than ever before, without disturbing them. Scientists in India are using thousands of camera trap photos to track tigers' movements. In Canada, caribou outfitted with collar cams show conservationists which habitats they rely on throughout the winter. Capturing everything from the unexpected to the comical, these technologies are giving wildlife managers insights that could ultimately help them fight extinction and habitat loss.

Violence is all over the news. But some say we�re living in the most peaceful time in history. Journey through time and the human mind to investigate whether�and how�violence has declined. And witness how people are working to stop violence today.

A visit to Florence, Italy to explore how Leonardo da Vinci used science, from human dissections to innovative painting techniques, to create his artwork.

New technologies unravel the Dead Sea Scrolls� mysteries and uncover million-dollar fakes.

As self-driving cars take to the streets, investigate how they work, and if they are safe.

In 2018, Italy�s Morandi Bridge collapsed, tragically killing 43 people. For 50 years, the iconic bridge had withstood the elements�and stress from ever-increasing traffic. What went wrong that fateful day? And how can new engineering technology protect bridge infrastructure to prevent such tragic failures in the future?

Sixty-six million years ago, an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs in a fiery global catastrophe. But we know little about how their successors, the mammals, recovered and took over the world. Now, hidden inside ordinary-looking rocks, an astonishing trove of fossils reveals a dramatic new picture of how rat-sized creatures ballooned in size and began to evolve into the vast array of species

Beyond the bizarre, icy worlds of Uranus and Neptune, Pluto dazzles with its mysterious ocean.

Nasa's Cassini reveals the mysteries of Saturn's rings and new hope for life on one of its moons.

Jupiter's massive gravitational force has made it both a wrecking ball and a protector of Earth.

Before it was the dry Red Planet, Mars was a wet world that may have had the ingredients for life.

The rocky planets have similar origins, but only one supports life. Was it always this way?

Fifty years after humans first stepped foot on the moon, engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs engage in new discoveries to make life on the moon a reality.

Bioarchaeologists investigate a ninth-century mass grave in a rural English village. Will the remains unlock the mystery of the �Great Heathen Army,� a legendary Viking fighting force that once invaded England?

Horse riding played a key role in human expansion and civilization. Scientists use archeology and genetics to uncover clues about the first horse riders and how they shaped the world.

From the front line of the Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in California history, NOVA tells the stories of residents who had to flee for their lives during the 2018 fire season. Scientists racing to understand what�s behind the rise of record-breaking megafires across the American West take to the forest, and even a fire lab, in search of answers. They investigate how forestry practices, climate change, and the physics of fire itself play a role in the dramatic increase in wildfires in recent decades.

The Dead Sea is dying: Since 1976, its level has dropped more than 100 feet, leaving its coastline pockmarked with thousands of sinkholes. But after more than a decade of research and debate, scientists, engineers, and political leaders have come up with a daring plan: connect the Red Sea to the Dead Sea by way of a massive desalination plant. If it�s successful, the project could not only revive the sea, but also help ease political tensions and water shortages in the region. NOVA follows this unprecedented endeavor�perhaps the world�s largest water chemistry experiment�as scientists race to save the Dead Sea and bring water to one of the driest regions on Earth.

In the shadow of Vesuvius and Pompeii, a lesser-known volcano puts the city of Naples at risk.

With new technologies, NASA and private companies are promising a new renaissance in space travel.

New archeological evidence sheds light on the stunning engineering of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Journey to Hawaii's Kilauea volcano, which sent rivers of lava through communities and into the sea when it erupted in 2018. A group of scientists and locals investigate the spike in volcano activity that turned paradise into an inferno.

Einstein called it �spooky action at a distance,� but today quantum entanglement is poised to revolutionize technology from computers to cryptography. Physicists have gradually become convinced that the phenomenon�two subatomic particles that mirror changes in each other instantaneously over any distance�is real.

Since it explored Pluto in 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft has been zooming toward NASA�s most distant target yet. Join the mission team as the probe attempts to fly by Ultima Thule, an object 4 billion miles from Earth.

Apollo astronauts and engineers tell the inside story of Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon. The U.S. space program suffered a bitter setback when Apollo 1 ended in a deadly fire during a pre-launch run-through. In disarray, and threatened by the prospect of a Soviet Union victory in the space race, NASA decided upon a radical and risky change of plan: turn Apollo 8 from an earth-orbit mission into a daring sprint to the moon while relying on untried new technologies. Fifty years after the historic mission, the Apollo 8 astronauts and engineers recount the feats of engineering that paved the way to the moon.

Peregrine falcons are examined in order to learn how they achieve such incredible speed.

In July 2018, the world held its breath as an international team of cave divers endeavored to rescue 12 boys and their soccer coach stranded deep in a flooded cave in Thailand. Follow the harrowing operation and discover the scientific ingenuity that made the rescue possible. Hear how rescuers explored every option�from pumping water, to drilling a new exit, to ultimately cave diving with the children through the treacherous, flooded passages.

Underwater archaeologists and technical divers excavate the wreckage of the B-24 Liberator bomber Tulsamerican in hopes of finding out what happened to the three airmen who went missing when the plane crashed off the coast of Croatia in 1944.

NOVA takes you inside the historic international race to develop the first supersonic airliner, the Concorde. Hear stories from those inside the choreographed effort to design and build Concorde in two countries at once�and the crew members who flew her. Then, follow Concorde�s legacy to a new generation of innovators reviving the dream of supersonic passenger travel today.

Hear firsthand from individuals struggling with addiction and follow the cutting-edge work of doctors and scientists as they investigate why addiction is not a moral failing, but a chronic, treatable medical condition. Easy access to drugs like heroin, fentanyl, and even prescription medications like OxyContin has fueled an epidemic of addiction�the deadliest in U.S. history.

Explore Nyamuragira, one of the world�s most active and mysterious volcanoes in Africa. Decades of civil strife have prevented scientists from investigating the volcano, but a brief pause allows an international team of experts to fly by helicopter to the summit to investigate. Discover the volcano�s hidden dangers and probe whether magma pressure is building up to threaten another eruption.

Climb with volcano experts to the summit of Nyiragongo, a highly active volcano in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Twice in recent memory it has erupted, devastating Goma, a neighboring city of 1 million people. To investigate when it might erupt next, scientists climb into its crater toward a bubbling lava lake to deploy sensors and monitor the volcano�s activity.

Follow the race to rebuild the Old Blenheim Bridge in New York State, an icon of 19th century American engineering, destroyed by Hurricane Irene in 2011. Watch a team of elite craftsmen faithfully reproduce the massive, intricate wooden structure under grueling time pressure as flooding threatens their worksite. In China, witness craftsmen restoring thousand-year-old covered bridges based on ingenious frameworks of woven timber beams. Discover how Chinese artisans are keeping traditional skills alive to ensure the survival of these stunning ancient structures.

The experience of organ donation, including patients who need transplants and families who make the choice to donate organs of deceased family members; the critical shortage of organs; research into "organs by design."

In just one devastating month, Houston, Florida, and the Caribbean were changed forever. In summer 2017, three monster hurricanes swept in from the Atlantic one after another, shattering storm records and killing hundreds of people. First, Harvey brought catastrophic rain and flooding to Houston, causing $125 billion in damage. Less than two weeks later, Irma lashed the Caribbean with 185 mile per hour winds - and left the island of Barbuda uninhabitable. Hot on Irma's heels, Maria intensified from a Category 1 to a Category 5 hurricane in just 15 hours, then ravaged Puerto Rico and left millions of people without power. As the planet warms, are these superstorms the new normal? How well can we predict them? And with hurricane season just around the corner, does the U.S. need to prepare for the reality of climate refugees? NOVA takes you inside the 2017 superstorms and the cutting-edge research that will determine how well equipped we are to deal with hurricanes in the future.

Disastrous hurricanes. Widespread droughts and wildfires. Withering heat. Extreme rainfall. It is hard not to conclude that something�s up with the weather, and many scientists agree. It�s the result of the weather machine itself�our climate�changing, becoming hotter and more erratic. In this two-hour documentary, NOVA will cut through the confusion around climate change. Why do scientists overwhelmingly agree that our climate is changing, and that human activity is causing it? How and when will it affect us through the weather we experience? And what will it take to bend the trajectory of planetary warming toward more benign outcomes? Join scientists around the world on a quest to better understand the workings of the weather and climate machine we call Earth, and discover how we can be resilient�even thrive�in the face of enormous change.

Predictions underlie nearly every aspect of our lives, from sports, politics, and medical decisions to the morning commute. With the explosion of digital technology, the internet, and �big data,� the science of forecasting is flourishing. But why do some predictions succeed spectacularly while others fail abysmally? And how can we find meaningful patterns amidst chaos and uncertainty? From the glitz of casinos and TV game shows to the life-and-death stakes of storm forecasts and the flaws of opinion polls that can swing an election, �Prediction by the Numbers� explores stories of statistics in action. Yet advances in machine learning and big data models that increasingly rule our lives are also posing big, disturbing questions. How much should we trust predictions made by algorithms when we don�t understand how they arrive at them? And how far ahead can we really forecast?

As France fell to the German armies in May 1940, 300,000 Allied troops were trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk. Their annihilation seemed certain - a disaster that could have led to Britain's surrender. But then, in a last-minute rescue dramatized in Christopher Nolan's recent film, Royal Navy ships and a flotilla of tiny civilian boats evacuated hundreds of thousands of soldiers to safety across the Channel - the legendary "miracle of Dunkirk." Now, NOVA follows a team of archaeologists, historians, and divers as they recover the remains of ships, planes, and personal effects lost during the epic operation. With access to previously classified files recently released by the UK government, they also uncover the truth behind the myths of Dunkirk - notably, a claim that the Royal Air Force failed to protect the stranded men from the Luftwaffe's constant bombing of the beaches. Featuring an exclusive excavation of a newly-found Spitfire wreck, NOVA debunks the myth and highlights the essential role that the RAF's iconic fighter played in reversing the desperate stakes that played out in the air above the beleaguered men.

The remains of a 13,000-year-old skeleton of a prehistoric teenager are located in an underwater cave in Mexico. One unlucky day 13,000 years ago, a slight, malnourished teenager missed her footing and tumbled to the bottom of a 100-foot pit deep inside a cave in Mexico�s Yucat�n. Rising seas flooded the cave and cut it off from the outside world�until a team of divers chanced upon her nearly complete skeleton in 2007. Intricate detective work reveals that the young woman�s bones are among the earliest known human remains in the Americas. What drove her to venture nearly a mile underground inside a vast cave? Where did her people come from, and why does she look so distinct from today�s Native Americans? From a stunning Mexico cave to the wilderness of the Yukon, from the genetics lab to the forefront of forensics, NOVA pursues tantalizing new clues that are rewriting the story of the forgotten first people who ventured into our continent.

For the first time, two intrepid pilots fly a solar-powered airplane around the world.

Black holes are the most enigmatic and exotic objects in the universe. They�re also the most powerful, with gravity so strong it can trap light. And they�re destructive, swallowing entire planets, even giant stars. Anything that falls into them vanishes�gone forever. Now, astrophysicists are realizing that black holes may be essential to how our universe evolved�their influence possibly leading to life on Earth and, ultimately, us. In this two-hour special, astrophysicist and author Janna Levin takes viewers on a journey to the frontiers of black hole science. Along the way, we meet leading astronomers and physicists on the verge of finding new answers to provocative questions about these shadowy monsters: Where do they come from? What�s inside? What happens if you fall into one? And what can they tell us about the nature of space, time, and gravity?

Scientists discover new clues as to the catastrophe that ended the reign of the dinosaurs on Earth.

Scientists test avian aptitude with brainteasers that reveal acute intelligence.

Why some animals have extreme armaments, including claws, horns, fangs and stings.

Efforts to uncover the geologic footprints of colossal megafloods in Iceland and on the seabed of the English Channel.

Researching the Great Hurricane of 1780, which blasted its way across the Caribbean, why it was so dangerous and the potential for more mega-storms in the future.

The hunt for a volcanic mega-eruption that plunged medieval Earth into a deep freeze includes geologic evidence from Greenland to Antarctica.

The architectural design of Beijing's ancient complex of palaces and temples enabled it to survive centuries of earthquake shocks.

Archaeological digs reveal new clues as to who built Stonehenge and why.

A re-engineering of Greenwich armor to get a sense of what it was like to be a knight and how the armor was manufactured in medieval times.

The Cassini space probe attempts to dive between the innermost ring and top of Saturn's atmosphere.

The history of eclipse science and research into the solar corona.

The water crisis in Flint, Mich., brings awareness to the vulnerabilities of water systems across the U.S.

Design secrets that made chariots a war machine for hundreds of years; how they were used and how they helped unify China.

Engineers build a dome to contain the crumbling remains of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor.

Archaeologists discover a tunnel near Vilnius, Lithuania, which served as an escape route for Jews fleeing the Nazis during World War II.

Investigators study wreckage of train accidents; safety experts test crash prevention designs.

The art of origami reshapes the world, affecting drug development and future NASA space missions.

Shipbuilders in Italy work around the clock to build the Seven Seas Explorer, the world's largest and most luxurious cruise ship.

David Pogue investigates how batteries work and what the future may hold for technical innovation.

Scientists and engineers work to control a nuclear renaissance five years after the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

The towering Himalayas were among the last places on Earth that humanity settled. Scaling sheer cliff sides, a team of daring scientists hunts for clues to how ancient people found their way into this forbidding landscape and adapted to survive the high altitude. They discover rock-cut tombs filled with human bones and enigmatic artifacts, including gold masks and Chinese silk dating back thousands of years, and piece together evidence of strange rituals and beliefs designed to ward off the restless spirits of the dead.

Drill down to discover how Earth's natural treasures provide bountiful energy to power our modern world yet are also driving us to seek new, cleaner alternatives that can help us keep the lights on.

Gold, bronze, iron, steel... metals are pillars of our civilization, but what makes them so special? Discover their unique properties and explore how our mastery of metals has led us from the stone age to today's hi-tech world.

Gemstones like diamonds, rubies, opal and jade are the ultimate treasures. Delve into Earth's depths to discover how these precious stones are forged and what explains the unique allure of each captivating gemstone.

Join engineers as they build a massive new railway deep beneath the streets of London.

Follow our ancient ancestors� footsteps out of Africa and into every corner of our planet.

How the science of learning may change education for all children.

From 9/11 to today�s crowd-sourced violence, trace how terrorists� strategies have evolved.

Engineers and World War II historians investigate Hitler's fearsome bank of "superguns."

Engineers race to rescue the Gay Head Lighthouse on Martha's Vineyard from the ocean's erosion.

Explore how newly established wildlife corridors offer hope to endangered species.

Alzheimer's ravages the minds of over 40 million victims worldwide. Join scientists as they untangle the cause of this tragic illness and go behind the scenes of major drug trials to discover the therapies that may slow and even prevent the disease.

Uncover the truth behind the legendary Vikings and their epic journey to the Americas.

Machines are everywhere. They run our factory assembly lines and make our coffee. But humanoid robots�machines with human-like capabilities�have long been the stuff of science fiction. Until now. Fueled by an ambitious DARPA challenge, the race is on to design a robot that can replace humans in disaster relief situations. Follow the robots and the engineers that program them as they strive to make their way out of the lab and into the real world. But how capable are they, really? How close are we to a future where humanoid robots are part of our everyday lives? And what will the future look like with robots that can do a human�s job? NOVA investigates the cutting-edge technologies that are advancing robotics�and the enormous challenges that robots still face.

He was stalked, attacked and left to die alone. Murdered more than 5,000 years ago, Otzi the Iceman is Europe�s oldest known natural mummy. Miraculously preserved in glacial ice, his remarkably intact remains continue to provide scientists, historians, and archeologists with groundbreaking discoveries about a crucial time in human history. But in order to protect him from contamination, this extraordinary body has been locked away, out of reach, in a frozen crypt�until now. NOVA joins renowned artist and paleo-sculptor Gary Staab as he has been granted rare access into the Iceman�s frozen lair. Gary has been charged with creating an exact replica of the mummy, which scientists and the public alike can then study up close and in person. As we see the Iceman reborn from 3D printing, resin, clay and paint, new revelations about Otzi�s life and legacy come to light, including surprising secrets hidden in his genetic code.

Memory is the glue that binds our mental lives. Without it, we�d be prisoners of the present, unable to use the lessons of the past to change our future. From our first kiss to where we put our keys, memory represents who we are and how we learn and navigate the world. But how does it work? Neuroscientists using cutting-edge techniques are exploring the precise molecular mechanisms of memory. By studying a range of individuals ranging�from an 11-year-old whiz-kid who remembers every detail of his life to a woman who had memories implanted�scientists have uncovered a provocative idea. For much of human history, memory has been seen as a tape recorder that faithfully registers information and replays intact. But now, researchers are discovering that memory is far more malleable, always being written and rewritten, not just by us but by others. We are discovering the precise mechanisms that can explain and even control our memories. The question is�are we ready?

On a summer�s night, there�s nothing more magic than watching the soft glow of fireflies switching on and off. Few other life forms on land can light up the night, but in the dark depths of the oceans, it�s a different story: nearly 90% of all species shine from within. Whether it�s to scare off predators, fish for prey, or lure a mate, the language of light is everywhere in the ocean depths, and scientists are finally starting to decode it. NOVA and National Geographic take a dazzling dive to this hidden undersea world where most creatures flash, sparkle, shimmer, or simply glow. Join deep sea scientists who investigate these stunning displays and discover surprising ways to harness nature�s light�from tracking cancer cells to detecting pollution, lighting up cities, and even illuminating the inner workings of our brains.

On April 25, 2015, a devastating earthquake rocked Nepal. As it ripped across the Himalayas, it wiped out villages and left thousands dead. Hear the harrowing stories of the Nepalese people who lived near the epicenter and of survivors trapped on Everest. Through dramatic eyewitness footage, expert interviews, and stunning graphics, NOVA reveals the anatomy of this megaquake while scientists race to answer urgent questions�Is another big one just around the corner? What can we learn from the deadly combination of earthquakes and landslides? And can we rebuild to survive the next big one?

Tiny, transparent, and threatened, krill are crucial to the Antarctic ecosystem. But the population of krill is crashing for reasons that continue to baffle the experts. A leading theory says that krill�s life cycle is driven by an internal body clock that responds to the waxing and waning of the Antarctic ice pack, and as climate change alters the timing of the ice pack, their life cycle is disrupted. To test it, NOVA travels on the Polarstern, a state-of-the-art research vessel, to the frigid ice pack in the dead of winter. From camps established on the ice, scientists dive beneath the surface in search of the ice caves that shelter juvenile krill during the winter. There, they hope to discover what�s causing the krill to vanish and, ultimately, how the shifting seasons caused by climate change could disrupt ecosystems around the world.

Four and a half billion years ago, the young Earth was a hellish place�a seething chaos of meteorite impacts, volcanoes belching noxious gases, and lightning flashing through a thin, torrid atmosphere. Then, in a process that has puzzled scientists for decades, life emerged. But how? NOVA joins mineralogist Robert Hazen as he journeys around the globe. From an ancient Moroccan market to the Australian Outback, he advances a startling and counterintuitive idea�that the rocks beneath our feet were not only essential to jump-starting life, but that microbial life helped give birth to hundreds of minerals we know and depend on today. It's a theory of the co-evolution of Earth and life that is reshaping the grand-narrative of our planet�s story.

During World War I, the Allies and Germans repeatedly struggled to break the hideous stalemate of trench warfare. In the winter of 1916, Allied engineers devised a massive surprise attack: over 1 million pounds of explosives hidden in secret tunnels driven under German lines. Building the tunnels was desperate work, with tunnelers at constant risk from flooding, cave-ins, and enemy digging teams. In June of 1917, the planted mines at Messines were simultaneously triggered, killing an estimated 10,000 German troops instantly. Now, archaeologists are revealing the extraordinary scale and risks of the Allied tunneling operations in one of the biggest excavations ever undertaken on the Western Front. �Secret Tunnel Warfare� opens a unique window on the frenzy of Allied mining activity that led up to the attack and its bitter aftermath.

On November 25th, 1915, Einstein published his greatest work: general relativity. The theory transformed our understanding of nature�s laws and the entire history of the cosmos, reaching back to the origin of time itself. Now, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Einstein�s achievement, NOVA tells the inside story of Einstein�s masterpiece. The story begins with the intuitive thought experiments that set Einstein off on his quest and traces the revolution in cosmology that is still playing out in today�s labs and observatories. Discover the simple but powerful ideas at the heart of relativity, illuminating the theory�and Einstein�s brilliance�as never before. From the first spark of an idea to the discovery of the expanding universe, the Big Bang, black holes, and dark energy, NOVA uncovers the inspired insights and brilliant breakthroughs of �the perfect theory.�

Explore the intimate connections between the landscape, the colonizing of the continent, and the emergence of our industrial world. Beginning with Native American ancestors who crafted hunting weapons from stone traded across hundreds of miles, the program shows how pre-Columbian civilizations developed an expert knowledge of the landscape and its resources. With the�arrival of Europeans, North America�s hidden riches became to key to prosperity, from the gold rush to today�s oil and gas boom.�As a result,�human activity has transformed the continent�on a scale that rivals the geological forces that gave birth to it billions of years before.�Yet,�scientists warn of sleeping giants like the Cascadia fault, and the earthquake/tsunami one-two punch it could unleash on the Pacific Northwest.�Even as we re-mold the continent to suit our needs, geologic processes inexorably continue, and they raise potential risks of catastrophe to our human civilization.

How did life emerge on our primeval continent? Why was North America home to so many iconic dinosaurs like T. rex? And how did a huge sea filled with giant marine reptiles end up covering Kansas? We tell the surprising intertwined story of life and the landscape in North America.

The epic 3 billion-year story of how our continent came to be. From the palm trees that once flourished in Alaska to titanic eruptions that nearly tore the Midwest in two, discover how forces of almost unimaginable power gave birth to North America.

NOVA joins a team of leading Egyptologists who deploy the latest medical imaging to peer beneath the wrappings of Egyptian mummified beasts without damaging the animal bodies inside. The results are enlightening, often surprising insights into the weird beliefs and practices that clung to the Egyptian quest for immortality.

NOVA examines the science and technology behind cyber warfare and asks if we are already in the midst of a deadly new arms race.

A team of historians and expert boat builders investigates the fascinating Noah's Ark flood legend and sets out to rebuild a tantalizing, ancient forerunner of the Ark.

The Franklin Expedition is explored 160 years after vanishing while charting the Northwest Passage.

Deep in a South African cave, an astounding discovery reveals clues to what made us human.

NOVA reveals the minute-by-minute story of the Fukushima nuclear crisis�the one you know about, and the one you likely don�t: the perilously close call at the other Fukushima nuclear power plant a few miles away from the meltdowns. With unprecedented access inside both Fukushima nuclear power plants, NOVA speaks with workers who were there during the harrowing days�a crisis that began as a natural a disaster but was made worse by human beings. But why did the worst happen at one plant while another that faced nearly identical challenges emerged unscathed? It may come down to the skill and knowledge of one man, who has worked there since they started construction. These are crucial questions as the company that runs both plants, TEPCO, tries to clean up an unprecedented radioactive mess and seeks to reopen the plant that was just barely saved.

On July 14, 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft, one of the most advanced ever built, is scheduled to fly by Pluto to take the very first detailed images of the dwarf planet. After nine years and 3 billion miles, we will finally get a close look at this strange, icy world, but only if the craft can survive the final, treacherous leg of its journey, which could take it through a dangerous field of debris. If it does, New Horizons is poised to make dramatic new discoveries, not just about Pluto, but about the vast realm of icy bodies lurking beyond Neptune, relics of the earliest days of the solar system�s formation. Back on Earth, the planetary scientists who have spent decades working on this mission anxiously await a signal from their spacecraft. Our cameras will be there to witness the moment. If all goes well, we�ll see Pluto�s mysterious surface in unprecedented detail and learn new secrets about other alien worlds at the far limits of our solar system.

A unique coral garden in Papua New Guinea shows what the future may hold as oceans acidify

A sunken German U-boat off the coast of New Orleans tells the story of Operation Drumbeat

Follow the historic rescue of Hubble�the space telescope that unveiled the cosmos.

Join NOVA 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. Astrophysicist and writer Mario Livio, along with a colorful cast of mathematicians, physicists, and engineers, follow math from Pythagoras to Einstein and beyond. It all leads to the ultimate riddle: Is math a human invention or the discovery of the language of the universe?

Whether serving as Christian church, Islamic mosque, or secular museum, Hagia Sophia and its saring dome have inspired reverence and awe. For 800 years, it was the largest enclosed building in the world�the Statue of Liberty can fit beneath its dome with room to spare. How has it survived its location on one of the world�s most active seismic faults, which has inflicted a dozen devastating earthquakes since it was built in 537? As Istanbul braces for the next big quake, a team of architects and engineers is urgently investigating Hagia Sophia�s seismic secrets. Follow engineers as they build a massive 8-ton model of the building�s core structure, place it on a motorized shake table, and hit it with a series of simulated quakes, pushing it collapse�a fate that the team is determined to avoid with the real building.

More than 2,000 years ago, the thriving city of Petra rose up in the bone-dry desert of what is now Jordan. An oasis of culture and abundance, the city was built by wealthy merchants whose camel caravans transported incense and spices from the Arabian Gulf. They carved spectacular temple-tombs into its soaring cliffs, raised a monumental Great Temple at its heart, and devised an ingenious system that channeled water to vineyards, bathhouses, fountains, and pools. But following a catastrophic earthquake and a slump in its desert trade routes, Petra's unique culture faded and was lost to most of the world for nearly a thousand years. Now, in a daring experiment, an archaeologist and sculptors team up to carve an iconic temple-tomb to find out how the ancient people of Petra built their city of stone. Meanwhile, scientists using remote sensors and hydraulic flumes uncover the vast city and its sophisticated water system. The race is on to discover how these nomads created this oasis of culture in one of the harshest climates on Earth.

One of the ancient world's most iconic buildings, the Colosseum is a monument to Roman imperial power and cruelty. Its graceful lines and harmonious proportions concealed a highly efficient design and advanced construction methods that made hundreds of arches out of 100,000 tons of stone. In its elliptical arena, tens of thousands of gladiators, slaves, prisoners, and wild animals met their deaths. Ancient texts report lions and elephants emerging from beneath the floor, as if by magic, to ravage gladiators and people condemned to death. Then, just as quickly, the Colosseum could be flooded with so much water that ships could engage in sea battles to the delight of the crowd. Now, archaeologists and engineers are teaming up to recreate a 25-foot lifting machine and trap door system capable of releasing a wolf into the Colosseum's arena for the first time in 1,500 years. Do they have what it takes to replicate the innovation and ingenuity of the Romans?

A look at one of the most destructive natural phenomena known to man. All over the world sinkholes are causing chaos and destruction wherever they appear: swallowing up whole streets, ripping up motorways, destroying entire forests and even dragging unfortunate bystanders to their untimely deaths.

Efforts to secure, raise and salvage the Costa Concordia cruise ship which capsized off the Italian coast on Jan. 13, 2012, killing 32 people.

CERN scientists prepare to restart the Large Hadron Collider to examine the world's tiniest particles.

Everyone knows Neil Armstrong was the first to set foot on the moon. But this modest and unassuming man was determined to stay out of the spotlight. NOVA presents an intimate portrait of Armstrong through interviews with his family and friends, many of whom have never spoken publicly before. Discover and relive his achievements before and after Apollo, from his time as a Navy combat veteran and later as a pioneer of high-speed flight to his leading role in the inquiry into the Challenger disaster and his efforts to encourage young people to take to the skies.

Just before 11 a.m. on March 22, 2014, an ominous rumble startled the residents of the little town of Oso, Washington, about an hour�s drive from Seattle. It was the terrifying sound of the United States� deadliest landslide in decades. In less than two minutes, a 250 acre field of debris 20 feet deep slammed into a neighborhood of 35 homes. In the wake of the tragedy, geomorphologists are tracing the geological history of Oso to explain why the site was so unstable. But Oso isn't alone. Globally, landslides and other ground failures cost more lives and money each year than all other natural disasters combined. The threat of bigger, more frequent landslides is growing as climate change increases intense precipitation events. As NOVA follows scientists surveying landslide danger zones, discover how and why landslides happen and how new laser monitoring technologies may help predict landslides before disaster strikes.

In central China, a vast underground mausoleum conceals a life-size terracotta army of cavalry, infantry, horses, chariots, weapons, administrators, acrobats, and musicians, all built to serve China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang Di, in the afterlife. Lost and forgotten for over 2,200 years, this clay army, 8,000-strong, stands poised to help the First Emperor rule again beyond the grave. Now, a new archaeological campaign is probing the thousands of figures entombed in the mausoleum. With exclusive access to pioneering research, "Emperor's Ghost Army" reveals how the Emperor directed the manufacture of the tens of thousands of bronze weapons carried by the clay soldiers. NOVA tests the power of these weapons with high-action experiments and reports on revolutionary 3D computer modeling techniques that are revealing new insights into how the clay figures were made, revealing in the process the secrets of one of archaeology's greatest discoveries.

Almost a century ago, paleontologists found the first tantalizing hints of a monster even bigger than Tyrannosaurus rex, perhaps the largest predator ever to roam the Earth: spectacular fossil bones from a dinosaur dubbed Spinosaurus. But the fossils were completely destroyed during a World War II Allied bombing raid, leaving only drawings, questions, and a mystery: What was Spinosaurus? Now, the discovery of new bones in a Moroccan cliff face is reopening the investigation into this epic beast. What did it feed on and how? Why did it grow so big? We follow the paleontologists who are reconstructing this terrifying carnivore, revealing a 53-foot-long behemoth with a huge dorsal sail, enormous, scimitar-like claws, and massive jaws tapered toward the front like a crocodile. Bringing together experts in paleontology, geology, climatology and paleobotany, this NOVA/National Geographic special brings to life the lost world over which Spinosaurus reigned more than 65 million years ago.

When World War I began in 1914, the air forces of the opposing nations consisted of handfuls of rickety biplanes from which pilots occasionally took pot shots at one another with rifles. By the war�s end, the essential blueprint of the modern fighter had emerged: it was now an efficient killing machine that limited the average life expectancy of a front line pilot to just a few weeks. To trace the story of this astonishingly rapid technological revolution, NOVA takes viewers inside The Vintage Aviator, a New Zealand-based outfit of aviation buffs dedicated to bringing back classic World War I fighters such as the SE5A and Albatros DV. NOVA joins the team as they discover the secrets of some of aviation�s most colorful and deadly early flying machines and explores how their impact played a key role in the nightmare slaughter on the Western Front.

The first stage in human flight didn�t begin with the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk, but with daring inventors and aeronauts in 18th century Paris. In a period of just 19 months, humanity not only left the ground for the first time�a moment as significant as the Apollo moon landing�but thanks to a handful of brilliant and colorful pioneers, developed all the essential features of today's hot air and gas balloons. Their exploits fascinated Benjamin Franklin, who was serving in Paris as the American ambassador. He reported that these early flights brought tens of thousands of citizens into the streets to watch the spectacle. To explore this burst of innovation, NOVA recreates key flights, including the world�s first manned voyage that took place on November 21, 1783. Joining the team will be a descendant of the Montgolfier brothers, inventors of the hot-air balloon, who will build an accurate replica of the fragile paper and canvas craft using 18th century tools and materials. NOVA reveals the secrets of how the Montgolfiers invented flight and relives the experiences of the balloon pioneers who left Earth for the first time.

In December, 2013, in a small village in West Africa, a young boy died from the dreaded disease, Ebola. Over the next nine months the virulent killer would claim more victims than all previous Ebola epidemics put together. And for the first time, the disease escaped the isolated, rural villages where it had first appeared and traveled in infected patients by air to densely populated cities in several African countries. As the epidemic threatens to spiral out of control, NOVA reports from the hot zone, where courageous medical teams struggle to cope with a flood of victims, and in labs where scientists are racing to test vaccines and find a cure. "Surviving Ebola" includes chilling first-hand interviews of what it�s like to catch�and�survive this terrible affliction.

The disappearance of Flight MH370 stunned the world. In an era of smart-phones and GPS, how could a 270-ton passenger jet vanish into thin air? It was a rude awakening for all of us, showing just how far we are from the world we imagined we lived in�in which every move is monitored all the time. NOVA tells the inside story of the search for Flight MH370 and meets the key players from all corners of the globe who have spent months searching for the lost plane. In the search for answers, we'll reveal how today's planes must fly through vast radar "blind spots," and investigate new technologies that could allow ground stations and satellites to track planes automatically, without pilot intervention, even in remote areas with no radar coverage. What will it take to guarantee that in the future, nothing will ever be 'lost' again?

Our lives are going digital. We shop, bank, and even date online. Computers hold our treasured photographs, private emails, and all of our personal information. This data is precious�and cybercriminals want it. Now, NOVA goes behind the scenes of the fast-paced world of cryptography to meet the scientists battling to keep our data safe. They are experts in extreme physics, math, and a new field called "ultra-paranoid computing," all working to forge unbreakable codes and build ultra-fast computers. From the sleuths who decoded the world's most advanced cyber weapon to scientists who believe they can store a password in your unconscious brain, NOVA investigates how a new global geek squad is harnessing cutting-edge science�all to stay one step ahead of the hackers.

Diseases that were largely eradicated in the United States a generation ago�whooping cough, measles, mumps�are returning, in part because nervous parents are skipping their children�s shots. NOVA�s �Vaccines�Calling the Shots" takes viewers around the world to track epidemics, explore the science behind vaccinations, hear from parents wrestling with vaccine-related questions, and shed light on the risks of opting out.

On June 6, 1944, the Allies launched the biggest armada in history to invade the Normandy beaches and liberate Europe from the Nazis. In less than 24 hours, more than 5,000 ships crossed the English Channel, along with thousands of tanks and landing craft and nearly 200,000 men. Throughout the operation, hundreds of ships sank running the gauntlet of mines and bunkers, creating one of the world's largest underwater archaeological sites. Now, NOVA has exclusive access to a unique collaboration between military historians, archaeologists, and specialist divers to carry out the most extensive survey ever done of the seabed bordering the legendary beachheads. Dive teams, submersibles, and underwater robots will discover and identify key examples of Allied craft that fell victim to German shellfire, mines, and torpedoes, using the latest 3D-mapping tools to plot the relics on the sea floor. Highlighting the ingenious technology that helped the Allies overcome the German defenses, and featuring first-hand accounts from Allied veterans who have returned to the site of this epic battle to share their harrowing stories, "D-Day's Sunken Secrets" unfolds a vivid blow-by-blow account of the tumultuous events of D-Day and reveals how the Allies' intricate planning and advanced technology assured the success of the most ambitious and risky military operation ever launched.

Colditz Castle, a notorious prisoner of war camp in Nazi Germany, was supposed to be escape-proof. But in the dark days at the end of World War II, a group of British officers dreamt up the ultimate escape plan: in a secret attic workshop, they constructed a two-man glider out of bed sheets and floorboards. Their plan was to fly to freedom from the roof of the castle, but the war ended before they could put it to the test. Now a crack team of aero engineers and carpenters rebuild the glider in the same attic using the same materials, and they�ll do something the prisoners never got a chance to try: use a bathtub full of concrete to catapult the glider off the roof of the castle. As the hair-raising launch 90 feet up draws near, the program explores the Colditz legend and exposes the secrets of other ingenious and audacious escapes. Then, after a 70-year wait, the team finally finds out if the legendary glider plan would have succeeded.

In recent years, an unusual spate of deadly shark attacks has gripped Australia, resulting in five deaths in ten months. At the same time, great white sharks have begun appearing in growing numbers off the beaches of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, not far from the waters where Steven Spielberg filmed the ultimate shark fright film, Jaws. What's behind the mysterious arrival of this apex predator in an area where they've rarely been seen for hundreds of years? Are deadly encounters with tourists inevitable? To separate fact from fear, NOVA teams up with leading shark experts in Australia and the United States to discover the science behind the great white's hunting instincts. Do sharks ever target humans, or is each attack a tragic case of mistaken identity? And can a deeper understanding of shark senses lead scientists to design effective deterrents and help prevent future attacks?

On Inside Animal Minds� third and final installment, �Who�s the Smartest?�, we ask �What makes an animal smart?�. Many scientists believe the secret lies in relationships. Throughout the animal kingdom, some of the cleverest creatures � including humans � seem to be those who live in complex social groups, like dolphins, elephants and apes. Could the skills required to keep track of friend and foe make animals smarter? To find out, NOVA goes inside the social lives of some of the smartest animals on the planet.

On Inside Animal Minds� second installment, �Dogs & Super Senses�, see everything from a dog that seems to use smell to tell time to a dolphin that can �see� with its ears, discover how animals use their senses in ways we humans can barely imagine. But it�s not just the senses that are remarkable -- it�s the brains that process them.

Inside Animal Minds explores how animals understand the world around them through the eyes of three iconic creatures: dogs, birds, and dolphins. As we discover how scientists are pushing the animal mind to its limits, we�ll uncover surprising similarities to--and differences from--the human mind. In the first installment, �Bird Genius�, we�ll meet a cockatoo with a talent for picking locks; a wild crow on a mission to solve an eight-step puzzle; and a tame raven who can solve a puzzle box so quickly that his performance has to be captured with high-speed photography. Are these skills really evidence of high intelligence or just parlor tricks, the result of training and instinct?

Over the last few centuries we have shot, trapped, and skinned the predators that formerly thrived at the top of the food chain in the wild. Wild bears, wolves, and big cats are all in retreat, and a growing number of scientists are discovering that by eliminating predators, we have changed the environment. Removing predators from the wild has thrown ecosystems off-kilter, triggering domino effects that scientists are just beginning to understand. In "Wild Predator Invasion," NOVA follows scientists who are trying a simple but controversial solution: returning apex predators�like wolves, bears, and panthers�to their natural environments. Can these newly reintroduced predators restore the natural balance of their ecosystems without threatening the humans who live among them?

It was the strongest cyclone to hit land in recorded history. On November 8, 2013, Typhoon Haiyan slammed into the Philippines, whipping the low-lying and densely-populated islands with 200 mph winds and sending a two-story-high storm surge flooding into homes, schools, and hospitals. It wiped villages off the map and devastated cities, including the hard-hit provincial capital Tacloban. Estimates count more than 5,000 dead and millions homeless. What made Haiyan so destructive? Meteorologists charged with tracking Pacific storms reveal why the Pacific is such fertile ground for cyclones, and NOVA�s film crew documents how conditions dramatically deteriorated in the storm�s aftermath, as impassable roads and shuttered gas stations paralyzed the critical relief effort, leaving food, water, and medicine to pile up at the airport. Disaster preparedness experts scramble to understand why the Philippines was so vulnerable. As climate change and sea level rise threaten millions of the world�s most impoverished people with stronger, and perhaps more frequent, storms, how can we prepare for the next monster typhoon?

The dome that crowns Florence�s great cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore�the Duomo�is a towering masterpiece of Renaissance ingenuity and an enduring source of mystery. Still the largest masonry dome on earth after more than six centuries, it is taller than the Statue of Liberty and weighs as much as an average cruise ship. Historians and engineers have long debated how its secretive architect, Filippo Brunelleschi, managed to keep the dome perfectly aligned and symmetrical as the sides rose and converged toward the center, 40 stories above the cathedral floor. His laborers toiled without scaffolding or safety net, applying novel, untried methods. Over 4 million bricks might collapse at any moment�and we still don�t understand how Brunelleschi prevented it. To test the latest theories, a team of U.S. master bricklayers will help build a unique experimental model Duomo using period tools and techniques. Will it stay intact during the final precarious stages of closing over the top of the dome?

Beneath the streets of Rome lies a city of the dead known as the Catacombs�a labyrinth of tunnels, hundreds of miles long, lined with the neatly laid out tombs of the citizens of ancient Rome. Here, in 2002, maintenance workers fixing a broken water main stumbled upon a previously unknown burial chamber like none other in the complex. It was a mass grave of hundreds of bodies spread across six roughly carved caverns, locked away for nearly 2000 years. Who were these people? And can we discover, after all these centuries, what killed them? Could they be Christian martyrs massacred by the Emperor? Or were they felled by a deadly plague? In �Roman Catacomb Mystery,� NOVA�s forensic investigation follows a trail of ancient clues to uncover new secrets of life, death, and disease in the heyday of a mighty empire.

In the rolling hills of Ireland's County Tipperary, a laborer harvesting peat from a dried-up bog spots the remnants of a corpse and stops his machine just in time, revealing a headless torso almost perfectly preserved and stained dark brown by the bog. Archeologists recognize the corpse as one of Europe's rare bog bodies: prehistoric corpses flung into marshes with forensic clues often suggesting execution or human sacrifice. The corpse will eventually be dated to the Bronze Age, over 3,000 years ago. Many of these were victims of shocking violence, showing evidence of axe blows, hanging, and stab wounds. Like a crime thriller, NOVA follows archaeologists and forensic experts in their methodical hunt for clues to the identity and the circumstances of this and other violent deaths of bog body victims. A new theory emerges that they are those of ritually murdered kings, gruesomely slain to assure the fertility of land and people. NOVA�s ancient detective story opens a tantalizing window on the strange beliefs of Europe's long vanished prehistoric peoples.

In the early days of World War I, Germany, determined to bring its British enemies to their knees, launched a new kind of terror campaign: bombing civilians from the sky. But the aircraft delivering the lethal payloads weren�t planes. They were Zeppelins, enormous airships, some the length of two football fields. With a team of engineers, explosives experts, and historians, NOVA investigates the secrets behind these deadly war machines. "Zeppelin Terror Attack" explores the technological arms race that unfolded as Britain desperately scrambled to develop defenses that could neutralize the threat, while Germany responded with ever bigger and more powerful Zeppelins. Why were these German monsters of the sky, filled with highly flammable hydrogen gas, so difficult to shoot down? How were their massive gas bags pieced together from the intestines of millions of cows? Experts reconstruct and detonate deadly WWI incendiary bombs and test fire antique flaming bullets, all to discover how the British came up with the unique artillery that would finally take down the biggest flying machines ever made. This also aired on the following: � Channel 4 (UK) Documentaries - S2013E46 - Attack of the Zeppelins � NOVA - S41E11 - Zeppelin Terror Attack � National Geographic Documentaries - S2014E08 - Attack Of The Zeppelins

It�s a golden age for planet hunters: NASA's Kepler mission has identified more than 3,500 potential planets orbiting stars beyond our Sun. Some of them, like a planet called Kepler-22b, might even be able to harbor life. How did we come upon this distant planet? Combining startling animation with input from expert astrophysicists and astrobiologists, �Alien Planets Revealed� takes viewers on a journey along with the Kepler telescope. How does the telescope look for planets? How many of these planets are like our Earth? Will any of these planets be suitable for life as we know it? Bringing the creative power of veteran animators together with the latest discoveries in planet-hunting, �Alien Planets Revealed� shows the successes of the Kepler mission, taking us to planets beyond our solar system and providing a glimpse of creatures we might one day encounter.

The asteroid that exploded over Siberia�injuring more than 1,000 and damaging buildings in six cities�was a shocking reminder that Earth is a target in a cosmic shooting range. From the width of a football field to the size of a small city, these space rocks have the potential to be killers. In a collision with Earth, they could set off deadly blast waves, raging fires and colossal tidal waves. But some audacious entrepreneurs look up at asteroids and see payday, not doomsday. Some asteroids are loaded with billions of dollars� worth of elements like iron, nickel, and platinum. NASA is planning an ambitious mission to return samples from a potentially hazardous asteroid, and would-be asteroid miners are dreaming up their own program to scout for potentially profitable asteroids. Will asteroids turn out to be our economic salvation�or instruments of extinction?

Between the blue sky above and the infinite blackness beyond lies a frontier that scientists have only just begun to investigate. In "At the Edge of Space," NOVA takes viewers on a spectacular exploration of the Earth-space boundary that's home to some of nature's most puzzling and alluring phenomena: the shimmering aurora, streaking meteors, and fleeting flashes that shoot upwards from thunderclouds, known as sprites. Only discovered in 1989, sprites have eluded capture because they exist for a mere split-second�40-times faster than an eye blink. NOVA rides with scientists in a high-flying weather observation plane on a hunt for sprites, finally snaring them in 3D video and gaining vital clues to unraveling their mystery. Combining advanced video technology with stunning footage shot from the International Space Station, "At the Edge of Space" probes the boundary zone and offers an entirely new perspective on our home planet.

For decades, the assassination of John F. Kennedy has fueled dark rumors of conspiracies and mishandled evidence. Now, fifty years later, NOVA asks: Could modern investigators do better? We�ll see how state-of-the art forensic tools would be applied to the investigation were it to happen today. At the same time, NOVA takes a critical look at contemporary cases, like the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, to reveal how charges of evidence mishandling and human error can mar even scientifically sophisticated detective work. Will forensics ever be truly foolproof, or does modern technology just give a scientific sheen to a practice that will always be more art than science?

The world has always been a dangerous place, so how do we increase our odds of survival? In "Making Stuff Safer," David Pogue explores the cutting-edge research of scientists and engineers who want to keep us out of harm�s way. Some are countering the threat of natural disasters with new firefighting materials and safer buildings. Others are at work on technologies to thwart terrorist attacks. A next-generation vaccine will save millions from deadly disease. And innovations like smarter cars and better sports gear will reduce the risk of everyday activities. We�ll never eliminate danger�but science and technology are making stuff safer.

Cold is the new hot in this brave new world. For centuries we've fought it, shunned it, and huddled against it. Cold has always been the enemy of life, but now it may hold the key to a new generation of science and technology that will improve our lives. In "Making Stuff Colder," David Pogue explores the frontiers of cold science from saving the lives of severe trauma patients to ultracold physics, where bizarre new properties of matter are the norm and the basis of new technologies like levitating trains and quantum computers.

What happens when scientists open up nature's toolbox? In "Making Stuff Wilder," David Pogue explores bold new innovations inspired by the Earth's greatest inventor, life itself. From robotic "mules" and "cheetahs" for the military, to fabrics born out of fish slime, host David Pogue travels the globe to find the world�s wildest new inventions and technologies. It is a journey that sees today's microbes turned into tomorrow�s metallurgists, viruses building batteries, and ideas that change not just the stuff we make, but the way we make our stuff. As we develop our own new technologies, what can we learn from billions of years of nature�s research?

Ever since humans stood on two feet we have had the basic urge to go faster. But are there physical limits to how fast we can go? David Pogue wants to find out, and in "Making Stuff Faster," he�ll investigate everything from electric muscle cars and the America�s cup sailboat to bicycles that smash speed records. Along the way, he finds that speed is more than just getting us from point A to B, it's also about getting things done in less time. From boarding a 737 to pushing the speed light travels, Pogue's quest for ultimate speed limits takes him to unexpected places where he�ll come face-to-face with the final frontiers of speed.

In October 2012, superstorm Sandy cut a path of devastation across the Caribbean and the East Coast, killing hundreds and doing tens of billions of dollars in damage. Now, one year after Sandy�s deadly strike, NOVA follows up on its 2012 film �Inside the Megastorm� with a fresh investigation of the critical questions raised by this historic storm: Was Hurricane Sandy a freak combination of weather systems? Or are hurricanes increasing in intensity due to a changing climate and rising seas? How can we gird cities against future storm surges? Join NOVA on a trip to the Netherlands, a country which has combined extraordinary engineering with natural landscape restoration to protect its low-lying cities from the sea. And meet climate scientists who are racing to understand how a warming world will affect extreme�but unpredictable�weather phenomena like hurricanes and tornadoes. To many, Sandy was a wake-up call: One year later, are we still listening? And how will we answer?

NOVA kicks off the fall season with a return to Ground Zero to witness the final chapter in an epic story of engineering, innovation, and the perseverance of the human spirit. �Ground Zero Supertower� examines the new skyscraper, One World Trade Center, rising up 104 stories and 1,776 feet from the site where the Twin Towers once stood. NOVA also goes underground to see another engineering marvel taking shape here: the construction of the National September 11 Memorial Museum that will house almost a thousand artifacts from that devastating day. In this update of NOVA�s Emmy-nominated special �Engineering Ground Zero,� which featured extraordinary behind-the-scenes access to the struggles of the engineers and architects working at 1 WTC and the 9/11 Memorial, NOVA goes inside the construction of the tower�s final floors and the installation of its soaring, 408-foot spire and beacon. The greatest test is still to come, though: Will One World Trade Center, a multi-billion dollar supertower, live up to its promise to be safe, beautiful and ahead of its time?

On May 20, 2013, a ferocious EF5 tornado over a mile wide tore through Moore, Oklahoma, inflicting 24 deaths and obliterating entire neighborhoods. It was the third time an exceptionally violent tornado had struck the city in 14 years. Yet predicting when and where these killer storms will hit still poses a huge challenge. Why was 2011�the worst ever recorded tornado season that left 158 dead in Joplin, Missouri�followed by the quietest ever year of activity prior to the Moore disaster? Can improved radar and warning technology explain why so many fewer died in Moore than in Joplin? And will tornadoes get worse as Earth's climate heats up? In this NOVA special, we meet scientists in the front ranks of the battle to understand these extreme weather events. We also meet storm survivors whose lives have been upended and learn how we can protect ourselves and our communities for the uncertain future.

NOVA follows the manhunt for the 2013 Boston Marathon bombers examining the role modern technology played in the case.

On February 15, 2013, a 7,000-ton asteroid crashed into the Earth's atmosphere over Russia with the power of 30 Hiroshima bombs. Within days, NOVA crews joined impact scientists in Russia as they hunted for clues about the meteor's origin and makeup.

In the wake of the catastrophic asteroid impact believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs, Australia was set adrift on a lonely voyage across southern seas. With host Richard Smith, NOVA travels the walkabout continent to uncover how it became the strange land it is today. In this final episode, "Strange Creatures," NOVA traces the last 65 million years, revealing the events that shaped the Australia we know today. Prehistoric jungles retreated, replaced by eucalypt forests, grasslands, and deserts. When humans first arrived, giant marsupials dominated the land and the Great Barrier Reef was yet to form. This is a tale of calamity and conquest; how a conspiracy of climate, biology, and geology shaped the Earth we now call home.

"Monsters" begins Down Under at the dawn of the Age of Dinosaurs. Host Richard Smith comes face-to-face with the previously unknown reptilian rulers of prehistoric Australia. NOVA resurrects the giants that stalked the Great Southern Land and discovers that some of these animals were among the largest ever to have walked the Earth. Others were some of the most dangerous. In the dry desert heart, scientists unearth an ancient inland ocean full of sea monsters. Opal fossils of some of these beasts paint a colorful picture of the exotic seascape, where long-necked plesiosaurs snacked on shelled creatures that grew as large as truck tires. The most fearsome was Kronosaurus, with a skull twice as long as T. rex. But reptiles didn't have the world all to themselves. Mammals like the enigmatic platypus lived alongside them, ready for their moment in the sun.

How did life storm the beaches and dominate planet Earth? Ancient Australian fossils offer clues in "Life Explodes." Half a billion years ago, Australia was still part of the super-continent Gondwana. The oceans were teeming with weird and wonderful animals, but the world above the waves remained an almost lifeless wasteland. All that was about to change, though. Host Richard Smith introduces Earth's forgotten pioneers: the scuttling arthropod armies that invaded the shores and the waves of green revolutionaries whose battle for the light pushed plant life across the face of a barren continent. Evolution continued underwater as well, with armor-plated fish experimenting with teeth, jaws, sex, and lungs. NOVA's prehistoric adventure continues with four-legged animals walking onto dry land�and the planet poised for disaster.

What can Australia reveal about how Earth was born and how life took hold? Join NOVA and host Dr. Richard Smith as they journey back to the very beginning of the Australian story in "Awakening." The first stop is Western Australia, around four and a half billion years ago, where we encounter an Earth shortly after its fiery birth. Hidden in the red hills of Australia are clues to the mysteries of when the Earth was born, how life first arose, and how it transformed the planet. Experts unveil how the earliest forms of life�an odd assortment of bacterial slime�flooded the atmosphere with oxygen, sparking the biological revolution that made animal life possible. It is the beginning of the great drama of life on Earth.

What makes a person walk into a theater or a church or a classroom full of students and open fire? What combination of circumstances compels a human being to commit the most inhuman of crimes? Can science in any way help us understand these horrific events and provide any clues as to how to prevent them in the future? As the nation tries to understand the tragic events at Newtown, NOVA correspondent Miles O�Brien separates fact from fiction, investigating new theories that the most destructive rampage killers are driven most of all, not by the urge to kill, but the wish to die. Could suicide�and the desire to go out in a media-fueled blaze of glory�be the main motivation? How much can science tell us about the violent brain? Most importantly, can we recognize dangerous minds in time�and stop the next Newtown?

In 1900, Greek sponge divers discovered a 2,000 year-old shipwreck containing a geared bronze mechanism whose workings have puzzled scientists for decades. New hi-tech imaging has revealed that this clockwork machine was the world's first computer.

"Earth From Space" is a groundbreaking two-hour special that reveals a spectacular new space-based vision of our planet. Produced in extensive consultation with NASA scientists, NOVA takes data from earth-observing satellites and transforms it into dazzling visual sequences, each one exposing the intricate and surprising web of forces that sustains life on earth. Viewers witness how dust blown from the Sahara fertilizes the Amazon; how a vast submarine "waterfall" off Antarctica helps drive ocean currents around the world; and how the sun's heating up of the southern Atlantic gives birth to a colossally powerful hurricane. From the microscopic world of water molecules vaporizing over the ocean to the magnetic field that is bigger than Earth itself, the show reveals the astonishing beauty and complexity of our dynamic planet.

3,600-year-old reliefs in Egyptian tombs and temples depict pharaohs and warriors proudly riding into battle on horse-drawn chariots. Some historians claim that the chariot launched a technological and strategic revolution, and was the secret weapon behind Egypt's greatest era of conquest known as the New Kingdom. But was the Egyptian chariot really a revolutionary design? How decisive a role did it play in the bloody battles of the ancient world? In "Building Pharaoh's Chariot," a team of archaeologists, engineers, woodworkers, and horse trainers join forces to build and test two highly accurate replicas of Egyptian royal chariots. They discover astonishingly advanced features, including spoked wheels, springs, shock absorbers, anti-roll bars, and even a convex-shaped rear mirror, leading one of them to compare the level of design to the engineering standards of 1930's-era Buicks! By driving our pair of replicas to their limits in the desert outside Cairo, NOVA's experts test the claim that the chariot marks a crucial turning point in ancient military history.

In the aftermath of his 1927 solo transatlantic flight, Colonel Charles Augustus Lindbergh�the Lone Eagle�became the most famous human being on earth. And when he and his lovely wife Anne produced an adorable baby son, Charlie, an eager press quickly dubbed him Little Lindy or sometimes just the Eaglet. But on the evening of March 1, 1932 Lucky Lindy's luck ran out. Bold kidnappers snatched his baby from the family home near Hopewell, New Jersey, while everyone in the house was awake. Negotiations with the kidnappers stretched out for weeks. But Little Charlie never came back. His body was discovered not five miles from Hopewell. Now, NOVA is reopening one of the most intriguing, grisly, and confounding crime mysteries of all time as a team of expert investigators employ state-of-the-art forensic and behavioral science techniques in an effort to determine what really happened to Lindbergh's baby and why.

Drones. These unmanned flying robots�some as large as jumbo jets, others as small as birds�do things straight out of science fiction. Much of what it takes to get these robotic airplanes to fly, sense, and kill has remained secret. But now, with rare access to drone engineers and those who fly them for the U.S. military, NOVA reveals the amazing technologies that make drones so powerful as we see how a remotely-piloted drone strike looks and feels from inside the command center. From cameras that can capture every detail of an entire city at a glance to swarming robots that can make decisions on their own to giant air frames that can stay aloft for days on end, drones are changing our relationship to war, surveillance, and each other. And it's just the beginning. Discover the cutting edge technologies that are propelling us toward a new chapter in aviation history as NOVA gets ready for "Rise of the Drones."

Examining evidence about Neanderthals that sheds light on the hominids, which died off some 30,000 years ago. Included: geneticist Svante P��bo's 2010 reconstruction of the Neanderthal genome, which posits that modern humans and Neanderthals interbred at some point in the distant past.

In April, 2010 the eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallaj�kull volcano turned much of Europe into an ash-strewn no-fly zone, stranding millions of travelers. But was Eyjafjallaj�kull just the start? Now, an even more threatening Icelandic volcano, Katla, has begun to swell and grumble. Two more giants, Hekla and Laki, could erupt without warning. Iceland is a ticking time bomb: When it blows, the consequences could be global. As CGI takes us inside these geological monsters, we meet atmospheric scientists who are working to understand just how devastating an eruption could be�not just for air travel but for the global food supply and for Earth's climate. Could we be plunged into years of cold and famine? What can we do to prepare for the disaster to come?

Was Hurricane Sandy a freak combination of weather systems? Or are hurricanes increasing in intensity due to a warming climate? How did this perfect storm make search and rescue so dangerous? "Inside the Megastorm" takes viewers moment by moment through Hurricane Sandy, its impacts, and the future of storm protection. Through first person accounts from those who survived, and from experts and scientists, "Inside the Megastorm" gives scientific context to a new breed of storms.

Why go back to Mars? Far from dead, Mars holds untold potential. Nearly half a century of Mars exploration has yielded tantalizing clues that Mars may once have harbored life�and may harbor it still. The extraordinary landing of a revolutionary rover named Curiosity�which successfully touched down inside the Gale Crater�means we have wheels down on the planet once again, in the form of the most sophisticated robot ever to rove the Mars surface. Will NASA's bold mission and this marvel of technology answer some of our biggest questions and usher in a new golden age of exploration? NOVA goes behind the scenes on NASA�s quest to solve the riddles of the red planet.

A remote, bleak speck of rock in the middle of the Pacific, Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, has mystified the world ever since the first Europeans arrived in 1722. How and why did the ancient islanders build and move nearly 900 giant statues or moai, weighing up to 86 tons? And how did they transform a presumed paradise into a treeless wasteland, bringing ruin upon their island and themselves? NOVA explores controversial recent claims that challenge decades of previous thinking about the islanders, who have been accused of everything from ecocide to cannibalism. Among the radical new theories is that the islanders used ropes to "walk" the statues upright, like moving a fridge. With the help of an accurate 15-ton replica statue, a NOVA team sets out to test this high-risk, seemingly unlikely theory�serving up plenty of action and surprises in this fresh investigation of one of the ancient world's most intriguing enigmas.

There is a startling gap between the glamorous television world of �CSI� and the gritty reality of the forensic crime lab. With few established scientific standards, no central oversight, and poor regulation of examiners, forensics in the U.S. is in a state of crisis. In "Forensics on Trial", NOVA investigates how modern forensics, including the analysis of fingerprints, bite marks, ballistics, hair, and tool marks, can send innocent men and women to prison�and sometimes even to death row. Shockingly, of more than 250 inmates exonerated by DNA testing over the last decade, more than 50 percent of the wrongful convictions stemmed from invalid or improperly handled forensic science. With the help of vivid recreations of actual trials and cases, NOVA will investigate today�s shaky state of crime science as well as cutting-edge solutions that could help investigators put the real criminals behind bars.

The Vikings were among the fiercest warriors of all time. Yet only a select few carried the ultimate weapon of their era: the feared Ulfberht sword. Fashioned using a process that would remain unknown to the Vikings� rivals for centuries, the Ulfberht was a revolutionary high-tech tool as well as a work of art. Considered one of the greatest swords ever made, it remains a fearsome weapon more than a millennium after it last saw battle. But how did Viking sword makers design and build the Ulfberht, and what was its role in history? Now, NOVA uses cutting edge science and old-fashioned detective work to reconstruct the Ulfberht and finally unravel the "Secrets of the Viking Sword."

It contains 99.9 percent of all the matter in our solar system and sheds hot plasma at nearly a million miles an hour. The temperature at its core is a staggering 27 million degrees Fahrenheit. It convulses, it blazes, it sings. You know it as the sun. Scientists know it as one of the most amazing physics laboratories in the universe. Now, with the help of new spacecraft and Earth-based telescopes, scientists are seeing the sun as they never have before and even recreating what happens at its very center in labs here on Earth. Their work will help us understand aspects of the sun that have puzzled scientists for decades. But more critically, it may help us predict and track solar storms that have the power to zap our power grid, shut down telecommunications, and ground global air travel for days, weeks, or even longer. Such storms have happened before�but never in the modern era of satellite communication. "Secrets of the Sun" reveals a bright new dawn in our understanding of our nearest star�one that might help keep our planet from going dark.

Twenty million passengers embark on cruises each year, vacationing in deluxe "floating cities" that offer everything from swimming pools to shopping malls to ice skating rinks. And the ships just keep getting bigger: The average cruise ship has doubled in size in just the last ten years. Some engineers fear that these towering behemoths are dangerously unstable, and the recent tragedy of the Costa Concordia has raised new questions about their safety. Now, NOVA brings together marine engineering and safety experts to reconstruct the events that led up to famous cruise disasters, including the ill-fated Concordia, the Sea Diamond, and the Oceans.

In April 2011, the worst tornado outbreak in decades left a trail of destruction across the U.S., killing more than 360 people. Why was there such an extreme outbreak? How do such outbreaks form? With modern warning systems, why did so many die? Is our weather getting more extreme�and, if so, how bad will it get? In this NOVA special, we meet scientists striving to understand the forces at work behind last year's outbreak. Could their work improve tornado prediction in the future? We also meet people whose lives have been upended by these extreme weather events and learn how we all can protect ourselves and our communities for the future.

Where do nature�s building blocks, called the elements, come from? They�re the hidden ingredients of everything in our world, from the carbon in our bodies to the metals in our smartphones. To unlock their secrets, David Pogue, the lively host of NOVA�s popular "Making Stuff" series and technology correspondent of The New York Times, spins viewers through the world of weird, extreme chemistry: the strongest acids, the deadliest poisons, the universe�s most abundant elements, and the rarest of the rare�substances cooked up in atom smashers that flicker into existence for only fractions of a second.

What will it mean when most of us can afford to have the information in our DNA�all three billion chemical letters of it�read, stored, and available for analysis? In "Cracking Your Genetic Code," NOVA reveals that we stand on the verge of a revolution. We meet cancer patients returned to robust health and a cystic fibrosis sufferer breathing easily because scientists have been able to pinpoint and neutralize the genetic abnormalities underlying their conditions. What are the moral dilemmas raised by the new technology? Will it help or hurt us to know our genetic destiny? What if such information falls into the hands of insurance companies, employers, and prospective mates? One thing is for certain: The new era of personalized, gene-based medicine is relevant to everyone. Soon, all of us may be deciding whether to join the ranks of the DNA generation.

Witness the extraordinary surgery that will allow twin girls, born joined at the head, to live separate lives.

In a race against developers in the Rocky Mountains, archaeologists uncover a unique fossil site packed with astonishingly well-preserved bones of mammoths, mastodons, and other giant extinct beasts. The discovery opens a highly focused window on the vanished world of the Ice Age in North America.

In October 2007, a striking portrait of a young woman in Renaissance dress made world news headlines. Originally sold nine years before for around $20,000, the portrait is now thought to be an undiscovered masterwork by Leonardo da Vinci worth more than $100 million. How did cutting-edge imaging analysis help tie the portrait to Leonardo? NOVA meets a new breed of experts who are approaching "cold case" art mysteries as if they were crime scenes, determined to discover "who committed the art." And it follows art sleuths as they deploy new techniques to combat the multibillion-dollar criminal market in stolen and fraudulent art.

During World War II, Hitler�s scientists developed terrifying new weapons of mass destruction. Alarmed by rumors of advanced rockets and missiles, Allied intelligence recruited a team of brilliant minds from British universities and Hollywood studios to a country house near London. Here, they secretly pored over millions of air photos shot at great risk over German territory by specially converted, high-flying Spitfires. Peering at the photos through 3D stereoscopes, the team spotted telltale clues that revealed hidden Nazi rocket bases. The photos led to devastating Allied bombing raids that dealt crucial setbacks to the German rocket program and helped ensure the success of the D-Day landings. With 3D graphics that recreate exactly what the photo spies saw, NOVA tells the suspenseful, previously untold story of air photo intelligence that played a vital role in defeating the Nazis.

In 1943 a squadron of Lancaster bombers staged one of the most audacious raids in military history: destroying two gigantic dams in Germany�s industrial heartland and cutting the water supply to arms factories. Their secret weapon? A revolutionary bouncing bomb invented by British engineer Barnes Wallis. Wallis and the pilots of 617 Squadron�a lively mix of Britons, Australians, Americans, and Canadians�were hailed as heroes who dealt a mighty blow to the German war machine. Now, NOVA recreates the extreme engineering challenges faced by Wallis and the pilots. A crack team of experts, including dam engineers, explosives specialists, mechanics, and aircrew, steps into the shoes of the "dambusters" and attempts to overcome each of the obstacles the original team faced. They must adapt a vintage World War II DC-4 to carry a bomb the size of an oil drum, train to drop it from a dangerously low altitude in pitch darkness, and get it to bounce over obstacles and onto the target, a scale model the German dam struck by the original dambusters. Can they succeed in destroying the dam and unraveling the mysteries of the one-of-a-kind bouncing bomb?

Millions of people around the world live in the shadow of active volcanoes. Under constant threat of massive volcanic eruptions, their homes and their lives are daily at risk from these sleeping giants. From Japan�s Mount Fuji to the "Sleeping Giant" submerged beneath Naples to the Yellowstone "supervolcano" in the United States, we will travel with scientists from around the world who are at work on these sites, attempting to discover how likely these volcanoes are to erupt, when it might happen, and exactly how deadly they could prove to be.

Our universe may be just one of an infinite number of worlds that make up the multiverse. In this show, Brian Greene explains why scientists believe this is true and shows what some of these alternate realities might be like.

Brian Greene explores the weirdness of quantum physics, which governs the universe on the tiniest of scales. While counterintuitive, it's one of the most successful theories in the history of science.

Ask physicists what time actually is, and the answer might shock you: they have no idea. The deep sense we have of time passing from present to past may be an illusion. How can our understanding of something so familiar be so wrong? In search of answers, Brian Greene takes us on the ultimate time-traveling adventure.

Brian Greene reveals space as a dynamic fabric that can stretch, twist, warp, and ripple under the influence of gravity. Stranger still is the newly discovered dark energy, an ingredient of space that makes up 70 percent of the universe.but scientists have no idea what it is.

He�s been dead for more than 5,000 years and poked, prodded, and probed by scientists for the last 20. Yet �tzi the Iceman, the famous mummified corpse pulled from a glacier in the Italian Alps, continues to keep many secrets. Now, through an autopsy like none other, scientists will attempt to unravel mysteries about this ancient mummy, revealing not only the details of �tzi�s death but also an entire way of life. How did people live during �tzi�s time, the Copper Age? What did they eat? What diseases did they cope with? Join NOVA as we defrost the ultimate time capsule�the 5,000-year-old man

Take a spectacular trip to distant realms of our solar system to discover where secret forms of life may lie hidden. Combining the latest telescope images with dazzling animation, this program immerses audiences in the sights and sounds of alien worlds, while top astrobiologists explain how these places are changing how we think about the potential for life in our solar system. We used to think our neighboring planets and moons were fairly boring�mostly cold, dead rocks where life could never take hold. Today, however, the solar system looks wilder than we ever imagined.

The earthquake that hit the northern coast of Japan on March 11, 2011, was recorded at magnitude 9.0 the worst ever recorded in Japan. It generated an unprecedented tsunami, obliterating coastal villages and towns in a matter of minutes. In some areas, the tsunami climbed above 100 feet in height and traveled miles inland. Amazingly, amateur and professional photographers captured it all on video, including remarkable tales of human survival, as ordinary citizens became heroes in a drama they never could have imagined. As the waves rush in, a daughter struggles to help her elderly mother ascend their rooftop to safety; a man climbs onto an overpass just as the wave overtakes his car. These never-before-seen stories are captured in video and retold after the fact by the survivors who reveal what they were thinking as they made their life-saving decisions. Their stories provide lessons for how we should all act in the face of life-threatening disasters.

To commemorate the 10th anniversary of 9/11, NOVA presents an epic story of engineering, innovation, and the perseverance of the human spirit. With extraordinary access granted by The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, �Engineering Ground Zero� follows the five-year construction of One World Trade Center (1 WTC) and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.

Can emerging technology defeat global warming? The United States has invested tens of billions of dollars in clean energy projects as our leaders try to save our crumbling economy and our poisoned planet in one bold, green stroke. Are we finally on the brink of a green-energy "power surge," or is it all a case of too little, too late? From solar panel factories in China to a carbon capture-and-storage facility in the Sahara desert to massive wind and solar installations in the United States, NOVA travels the globe to reveal the surprising technologies that just might turn back the clock on climate change. NOVA will focus on the latest and greatest innovations, including everything from artificial trees to green reboots of familiar technologies like coal and nuclear energy. Can our technology, which helped create this problem, now solve it?

In its worst crisis since World War II, Japan faces disaster on an epic scale: a death toll likely in the tens of thousands, massive destruction of homes and businesses, shortages of water and power, and the specter of nuclear meltdown. With exclusive footage, NOVA captures the unfolding human drama and offers a clear-headed investigation of what triggered the earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent nuclear crisis. Can science and technology ever prevent devastation in the face of overwhelmingly powerful forces of nature?

Over the millennia, thousands of creatures have developed that most sophisticated of biological and chemical weapons: venom. These complex chemicals can scramble your brain signals, paralyze your muscles, puncture your blood cells, even begin digesting you from within. But nature's most potent toxins might also contain the keys to a new generation of advanced drugs. Such drugs might help doctors treat heart attacks, cancer, diabetes, and other serious illnesses. Follow NOVA crews as they join scientists on a dangerous quest to track down and capture the world's most venomous animals - to find out both how they can kill us, and how they can save us.

On June 1, 2009, Flight AF447, an Air France Airbus A330 flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean with the loss of all 228 lives. How could a state-of-the-art airliner with elaborate electronic safety and navigation features and a faultless safety record simply fall out of the sky? NOVA assembles a team of seasoned pilots, engineers, and safety experts to examine the evidence that emerged in the weeks following this horrific disaster. What led Flight 447's crew to fly straight into a towering thunderstorm? With expert testimony, satellite weather images, and messages transmitted by the doomed plane's computer system, NOVA pieces together the fatal chain of events.

Augmenting human intelligence is a lot tougher than it looks, and the promise of "Hal" from 2001: A Space Odyssey is still just a fantasy. But scientists are edging closer with machines like "Watson," an IBM computing system that is gearing up for a first-of-its-kind challenge: taking on human contestants on the game show Jeopardy! With a brain the size of 2,400 home computers and a database of about 10 million documents, will Watson be able to compute its way to victory? Given the complexity of human language, could any computer truly understand it? It remains to be seen if this amalgam of circuits and silicon can really take us closer to the dream of a fully developed artificial intelligence, a truly "conscious" machine. Win or lose, the difficulty of mimicking the human thought process with software is showing artificial-intelligence researchers that there's more than one way to be "intelligent."

"Making Stuff: Smarter" looks at materials that respond to their environments and even learn, such as an airplane wing that changes shape as it flies. Scientists are turning to nature in developing such "smart" stuff. Sharkskin, for instance, has inspired a substance that, when sprayed in hospitals, could eliminate antibiotic-resistant bacteria. David Pogue visits a scientist who has even created a material that can render objects invisible. "Smarter" concludes with a vision of the ultimate in "life-like" stuff: programmable matter that could create a duplicate of a human being.

Can innovations in materials science help clean up our world? In "Making Stuff: Cleaner," David Pogue explores the rapidly developing science and business of clean energy and examines alternative ways to generate it, store it, and distribute it. Is hydrogen the way to go? What about lithium batteries? Does this solve an energy problem or create a new dependency? Pogue investigates the latest developments in bio-based fuels and in harnessing solar energy for our cars, homes, and industry in a program full of the stuff of a sustainable future.

How small can we go? Could we one day have robots taking "fantastic voyages" in our bodies to kill rogue cells? The triumphs of tiny are seen all around us in the Information Age: transistors, microchips, laptops, cell phones. Now, David Pogue takes NOVA viewers to an even smaller world in "Making Stuff: Smaller," examining the latest in high-powered nano-circuits and micro-robots that may one day hold the key to saving lives.

What is the strongest material in the world? Is it steel, Kevlar, carbon nanotubes, or something entirely new? NOVA kicks off the four-part series "Making Stuff" with a quest for the world's strongest substances. Host David Pogue takes a look at what defines strength, examining everything from steel cables to mollusks to a toucan's beak. Pogue travels from the deck of a U.S. naval aircraft carrier to a demolition derby to the country's top research labs to check in with experts who are re-engineering what nature has given us to create the next generation of strong stuff.

In 2010, several epic earthquakes delivered one of the worst annual death tolls ever recorded. The deadliest strike, in Haiti, killed more than 200,000 people and reduced homes, hospitals, schools, and the presidential palace to rubble. In exclusive coverage, a NOVA camera crew follows a team of U.S. geologists as they enter Haiti in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy. The team hunts for crucial evidence that will help them determine exactly what happened deep underground and what the risks are of a new killer quake. Barely a month after the Haiti quake, Chile was struck by a quake 100 times more powerful, unleashing a tsunami that put the entire Pacific coast on high alert. In a coastal town devastated by the rushing wave, NOVA follows a team of geologists as they battle aftershocks to measure the displacement caused by the earthquake. Could their work, and the work of geologists at earthquake hot spots around the U.S., one day lead to a breakthrough in predicting quakes before they happen? NOVA investigates compelling new leads in this profound scientific conundrum.

Almost three miles of ice buries most of Antarctica, cloaking a continent half again as large as the United States. But when an Antarctic ice shelf the size of Manhattan collapsed in less than a month in 2002, it shocked scientists and raised the alarming possibility that Antarctica may be headed for a meltdown. Even a ten percent loss of Antarctica's ice would cause catastrophic flooding of coastal cities unlike any seen before in human history. What are the chances of a widespread melt? "Secrets Beneath the Ice" explores whether Antarctica's climate past can offer clues to what may happen. NOVA follows a state-of-the-art expedition that is drilling three-quarters of a mile into the Antarctic seafloor. The drill is recovering rock cores that reveal intimate details of climate and fauna from a time in the distant past when the Earth was just a few degrees warmer than it is today. As researchers grapple with the harshest conditions on the planet, they discover astonishing new clues about Antarctica's past�clues that carry ominous implications for coastal cities around the globe.

Countless treasure-seekers have set off in search of King Solomon's mines, trekking through burning deserts and scaling the forbidding mountains of Africa and the Levant, inspired by the Bible's account of splendid temples and palaces adorned in glittering gold and copper. Yet to date, the evidence that has claimed to support the existence of Solomon and other early kings in the Bible has been highly controversial. In fact, so little physical evidence of the kings who ruled Israel and Edom has been found that many contend that they are no more real than King Arthur. In the summer of 2010, NOVA and National Geographic embarked on two cutting-edge field investigations that illuminate the legend of Solomon and reveal the source of the great wealth that powered the first mighty biblical kingdoms. These groundbreaking expeditions expose important new clues buried in the pockmarked desert of Jordan, including ancient remnants of an industrial-scale copper mine and a 3,000-year-old message with the words "slave," "king," and "judge."

Dated to the late Stone Age, Stonehenge may be the best-known and most mysterious relic of prehistory. Every year, a million visitors are drawn to England to gaze upon the famous circle of stones, but the monument's meaning has continued to elude us. Now investigations inside and around Stonehenge have kicked off a dramatic new era of discovery and debate over who built Stonehenge and for what purpose. How did prehistoric people quarry, transport, sculpt, and erect these giant stones? Granted exclusive access to the dig site at Bluestonehenge, a prehistoric stone-circle monument recently discovered about a mile from Stonehenge, NOVA cameras join a new generation of researchers finding important clues to this enduring mystery.

"Dogs Decoded" reveals the science behind the remarkable bond between humans and their dogs and investigates new discoveries in genetics that are illuminating the origin of dogs�with surprising implications for the evolution of human culture. Other research is proving what dog lovers have suspected all along: Dogs have an uncanny ability to read and respond to human emotions. Humans, in turn, respond to dogs with the same hormone responsible for bonding mothers to their babies. How did this incredible relationship between humans and dogs come to be? And how can dogs, so closely related to fearsome wild wolves, behave so differently?

New Yorker Nicholas White was trapped in an elevator for 41 hours. How did it happen? How do elevators work? Are they safe? Why are so many people afraid of them? Across North America, elevators move 325 million passengers every day, most of the time without problems. But will the elevator-wary be comfortable handing over the reins to computers? Once brawny but simple machines, elevators are now getting a brainy makeover and reaching new heights. "Trapped in an Elevator" reveals the secrets of these ubiquitous machines and investigates personal stories of those who have been caught inside when they do fail.

This one-hour film chronicles the fate of the 33 miners trapped in a collapsed Chilean gold and copper mine in August 2010 and investigates the many challenges faced by both the miners and those working around the clock to bring them safely to the surface. NOVA was on-site at the San Jos� mine in Chile by early September. Conferred special access, NOVA's film crew interviewed engineers, NASA experts, medical personnel, and key figures from the companies that provided drills and crucial rescue equipment to give a more detailed scientific account of the unfolding events. The resulting film, using footage from the scene as well as advanced animation, showcases the extraordinary feats of engineering as well as the biological and geological factors inherent in the rescue. "Emergency Mine Rescue" also examines the psychological and physiological impact of this kind of prolonged ordeal on the miners and those involved in the rescue efforts.

Take a dazzling architectural journey inside those majestic marvels of Gothic architecture, the great cathedrals of Chartres, Beauvais and other European cities. Carved from 100 million pounds of stone, some cathedrals now teeter on the brink of catastrophic collapse. To save them, a team of engineers, architects, art historians, and computer scientists searches the naves, bays, and bell-towers for clues. NOVA investigates the architectural secrets that the cathedral builders used to erect their towering, glass-filled walls and reveals the hidden formulas drawn from the Bible that drove medieval builders ever upward.

For 27 years, biologist Charlie Crisafulli has been documenting the dramatic return of plant and animal life to Mt. St. Helens after the 1980 eruption. / When Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, every living thing in the blast zone was buried beneath 300 feet of avalanche debris, covered with steaming mud and, finally, topped with a superheated layer of frothy rock from deep within the earth. Biologist Charlie Crisafulli has remained at the site for 27 years, documenting the dramatic return of plant and animal life to the barren landscape and pioneering a new understanding of the interaction between geologic forces and the life surrounding the mountain.

Exposes the mysterious and surprising nature of the two most powerful forces on the planet: the human mind and money. Using analysis and experiment, this film explores why economists failed to predict the 2008 crash and why we so often make irrational financial decisions.

In a two-hour special, NOVA examines how a simple instrument, the telescope, has fundamentally changed our understanding of our place in the universe.

In a two-hour special, NOVA examines how a simple instrument, the telescope, has fundamentally changed our understanding of our place in the universe.

When the American Museum of Natural History's Hayden Planetarium stopped calling Pluto a planet, director Neil deGrasse Tyson found himself at the center of a firestorm led by angry Pluto-loving elementary school students. What is it about Pluto�a cold, distant, icy rock�that captures so many hearts? Four years after the IAU (International Astronomical Union) officially reclassified the ninth planet as a plutoid, NOVA travels cross-country with Tyson to find out.

"Extreme Cave Diving" follows a fearless team of scientists as they venture into blue holes�underwater caves that formed during the last ice age, when sea level was nearly 400 feet below what it is today. These caves, little-known treasures of the Bahamas, are one of Earth's least explored and perhaps most dangerous frontiers. The interdisciplinary team of biologists, climatologists, and anthropologists, led by renowned cave explorer Kenny Broad, discover intriguing evidence of the earliest human inhabitants of the islands, find animals seen nowhere else on Earth, and recover a remarkable record of the planet's climate. The stakes are high as the scientists swim hundreds of feet through narrow, dark passages that have trapped and killed divers in the past, but the scientific payoff is considerable.

Perched atop a mountain crest, mysteriously abandoned more than four centuries ago, Machu Picchu is the most famous archeological ruin in the Western Hemisphere and an iconic symbol of the power and engineering prowess of the Inca. In the years since Machu Picchu was discovered by Hiram Bingham in 1911, there have been countless theories about this "Lost City of the Incas," yet it remains an enigma. Why did the Incas build it on such an inaccessible site? Who lived among its stone buildings, farmed its emerald green terraces, and drank from its sophisticated aqueduct system? NOVA joins a new generation of archeologists as they probe areas of Machu Picchu that haven't been touched since the time of the Incas. See what they discover when they unearth burials of the people who built the sacred site.

A team of archeologists carries out experiments that reveal the techniques and labor invested in the carving of the Sphinx. The team also unearths new discoveries about the people who built the gigantic sculpture and why they created such a haunting and stupendous image.

A magnificent trading vessel embarks on a royal expedition to a mysterious, treasure-laden land called Punt. Is this journey, intricately depicted on the wall of one of Egypt's most impressive temples, mere myth--or was it a reality? NOVA follows a team of archeologists and boat builders as they reconstruct the mighty vessel shown in the mysterious carving, and then finally launch it in to the Red Sea on a unique voyage of discovery.

NOVA dives beneath the waters of Pearl Harbor to trace provocative new clues to one of the most tragic events of World War II -- the sinking of the USS Arizona.

NOVA takes viewers on a journey from the Galapagos Islands to the Arctic, and from the Cambrian explosion of animal forms half a billion years ago to the research labs of today. Here scientists are finally beginning to crack nature�s biggest secrets at the genetic level. And, as NOVA shows in this absorbing detective story, the results are confirming the brilliance of Darwin�s insights while exposing clues to life�s breathtaking diversity in ways the great naturalist could scarcely have imagined.

What are dreams and why do we have them? Are they a window into a hidden realm within us? Science is only just beginning to understand. NOVA joins the leading dream researchers and witnesses the extraordinary experiments they use to investigate the world of sleep. From human narcoleptics to sleepwalking cats, from recurrent nightmares to those who can�t dream, each sequence contains a vital clue to the question these scientists are pursuing: Why do we dream?

The final program examines the roots of our own species, Homo sapiens, which new evidence pinpoints to southern Africa some 200,000 years ago. New discoveries are upending old ideas and suggesting that our exodus from Africa was far earlier than previously thought.

In gripping forensic detail, the second program in �Becoming Human� investigates the first skeleton that really looks like us � �Turkana Boy� � an astonishingly complete specimen of Homo erectus found by the famous Leakey team in Kenya.

The first hour examines the factors that caused the split from the apes. The film explores the fossil of �Selam,� also known as �Lucy�s Child� � an amazing, nearly complete child fossil that helps shed light on our ancestors� early development and how we began to depart from that of chimps.

Though they may look like dragons and inspire stories of man-eating, fire-spitting monsters with long claws, razor-sharp teeth and muscular, whip-like tails, these creatures are actually monitor lizards, the largest lizards to walk the planet. With their acute intelligence � including the ability to plan � these lizards are a very different kind of reptile, blurring the line between reptiles and mammals. And even though these bizarre reptiles haven�t changed all that much since the dinosaurs, they are a successful species, versatile at adapting to all kinds of settings. �Lizard Kings� looks at what makes these tongued reptiles so similar to mammals and what has allowed them to become such unique survivors. But while the creatures can find their way around many different habitats, finding them is no easy task. Natural loners, and always on guard, they sense anything or anyone from hundreds of feet away. NOVA follows expert lizard hunter Dr. Eric Pianka as he tracks the elusive creatures through Australia�s heartland with cutting-edge �lizard cam� technology for an unparalleled close encounter with these versatile �living dragons.�

The best-known scientific instrument in history was dying. After nearly 20 years in space and hundreds of thousands of spectacular images, the Hubble Space Telescope's gyroscopes and sensors were failing, its batteries running down, and some of its instruments were already dead. The only hope to save Hubble was a mission so dangerous that in 2004 NASA cancelled it because it was considered too risky.

This two-hour scripted drama tells the remarkable story behind the unveiling of the most influential scientific theory of all time, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. The program is a special presentation from NOVA and National Geographic Television, written by acclaimed British screenwriter John Goldsmith and directed by John Bradshaw.

An exploration of the effect of music on the brain via four case studies from neurologist Oliver Sacks book "Musicopia" and the MRI visualizations from Sacks' own brain as classical music is played, including Bach's "Mass in B Minor." Study subjects include a man with Tourettes syndrome who has found relief while playing the drums; an autistic savant who is simply dazzling on the piano; a woman who suffers the inability to process music, known as amusia; and a surgeon whose life changed after being struck by lightning.

Seven doctors, 21 years... Saving lives is only part of the story.

In 1987, NOVA's cameras began rolling to chronicle the lives of seven young, bright medical students embarking on the longest and most rigorous endeavor in higher education: the years-long journey to become a doctor. From their first days at Harvard Medical School to the present day, none of them could have predicted what it would take, personally and professionally. In "Doctors' Diaries," a two-hour special, NOVA returns to find out what sorts of doctors�and people�the seven young students have become. The program is the latest installment in the longest-running U.S. documentary of its kind.

What killed the mammoths? Near the end of the last ice age 13,000 years ago, these mighty beasts disappeared from North America together with some 35 other groups of mammals, including giant ground sloths, saber-tooth cats, and American lions. For four decades, debate has raged over the cause of their abrupt demise. In Last Extinction, NOVA presents an exclusive in-depth investigation of a bold and controversial new hypothesis, which suggests that a massive impact from space could be the culprit. According to the theory, an incoming comet broke up over North America in a devastating series of explosions, causing widespread forest fires and wiping out plants, animals, and prehistoric people. The evidence comes from a mysterious black mat layer discovered at more that fifty sites across the continent. The black mat contains exotic materials including rare microscopic nanodiamonds that are claimed to be the signature of an extraterrestrial impact. But other scholars question the evidence and argue that ancient hunters armed with a lethal stone weapon the Clovis spear point drove the giant beasts into oblivion. Still others believe the unstable climate at the end of the Ice Age was responsible. NOVA explores the dramatic new evidence of a cosmic explosion and the possibility that all three explanations may be correct.

In collaboration with National Geographic, NOVA follows the exploits of acclaimed photojournalist James Balog and a scientific team as they deploy time-lapse cameras in risky, remote locations in the Alps and Arctic, including Alaska and Greenland. Grappling with blizzards, fickle technology, and climbs up craggy precipices, the team must anchor cameras capable of withstanding subzero temperatures and winds up to 170 miles per hour. In this high-action scientific adventure, NOVA and National Geographic investigate the mystery of the mighty ice sheets, whose still-unknown behavior will affect the fate of coastlines around the world.

Once every 48 years, bamboo forests in parts of northeast India go into exuberant flower. Then, like clockwork, the flowering is invariably followed by a plague of black rats that appear to spring from nowhere to spread destruction and famine in their wake. For the first time on film, NOVA and National Geographic capture this rat population explosion in vivid detail and show how scientists are unraveling the connections between bamboo flowering and rat outbreaks. Ultimately, their research should help local people better cope with the next attack�due in 2056.

NOVA investigates the high-tech eavesdropping carried out by the National Security Agency and the effectiveness of surveillance in an age of terrorism.

Orange-and-black wings fill the sky as NOVA charts one of nature's most remarkable phenomena: the epic migration of monarch butterflies across North America. To capture a butterfly's point of view, NOVA�s filmmakers used a helicopter, ultralight, and hot-air balloon for aerial views along the transcontinental route. This wondrous annual migration, which scientists are just beginning to fathom, is an endangered phenomenon that could dwindle to insignificance if the giant firs that the butterflies cling to during the winter disappear.

Can California's ambitious plan to cut greenhouse gases actually succeed?

NASA's twin robot explorers, Spirit and Opportunity, have endured the worst Martian storm ever recorded and survived near-fatal glitches�yet continue to operate. Now they're joined on the Red Planet by NASA's Phoenix probe, which has already made significant discoveries of its own.

With a passion that will leave few viewers unmoved, veterinarians and volunteers at California's Marine Mammal Center work to rescue and rehabilitate a variety of marine mammals, including harbor seal pups and California sea lions.

�The Bible�s Buried Secrets,� produced by Rhode Island-based Providence Pictures for PBS's science series Nova, attempts to uncover who wrote the Hebrew Bible and whether it�s history or parable, delving into the origins of the Israelites to explore their gradual transformation into a monotheistic people. The show also poses provocative ideas � including the �revelation� that many Israelites believed that God had a wife � and disputes literal readings of the text.

The 2004 discovery of tiny human fossil bones on the island of Flores, Indonesia, raised new�and controversial�speculation about the history of the human race. Ever since, scientists have been scrambling to find more information about these "hobbits."

Fractals are more than just pretty pictures. These simple but sophisticated equations describe the world we live in, from forest growth patterns to the beating of a human heart, and they are inspiring new investigation in myriad fields of science and technology.

Join Mark Everett on his quixotic quest to understand his father Hugh, creator of a radical theory of quantum physics.

An investigation uncovers the human failures and design flaws behind the 2003 Columbia tragedy.

A field expedition to collect new fossil clues on Alaska's North Slope reveals details of the lives of polar dinosaurs.

At age 78, E.O. Wilson is still going through his "little savage" phase of boyhood exploration of the natural world. In "Lord of the Ants," NOVA profiles this soft-spoken Southerner and Harvard professor, who is an acclaimed advocate for ants, biological diversity, and the controversial extension of Darwinian ideas to human society. Actor and environmentalist Harrison Ford narrates this engaging portrait of a ceaselessly active scientist and eloquent writer, who has accumulated two Pulitzer Prizes among his many other honors. Says fellow naturalist David Attenborough: "He will go down as the man who opened the eyes of millions 'round the world to the glories, the values, the importance of�to use his term�biodiversity."

Surviving injuries incurred through childbirth, three Ethiopian women travel to a special hospital in Addis Ababa where they begin to rebuild their lives.

Tom and Ray Magliozzi of NPR's Car Talk, explore new technologies and ideas for the future of automobiles.

NOVA retraces the paths of a few pioneers who deciphered the complex system of Mayan hieroglyphs.

A look at the 2002 discovery of a four-winged crow-sized dinosaur fossil dubbed Microraptor, which has rekindled the scientific debate over the origins of flight. Included is a wind tunnel test of a "flight-ready" model of the 130 million-year-old Microraptor.

As new research continues to reveal that apes are smarter than previously thought, NOVA explores just what separates humans from the great apes.

NOVA explores the other Cold War space race, the top-secret programs by the U.S. and the USSR, to place military astronauts aboard orbiting spy stations.

A look at the Greek government's Acropolis Restoration Project as they restore the Parthenon and learn its many secrets.

Our mastery of cold is something we take for granted, whether it s air conditioning and frozen food or the liquefied gases and superconductivity at the heart of cutting-edge technology. But what is cold? How do you achieve it, and how cold can it get? This two-part NOVA special brings the history of this frosty fascination to life with brilliant dramatic recreations of high moments in low-temperature research and the quest for ever-lower notches on the thermometer. The first hour, The Conquest of Cold, opens in the 1600s when the nature of cold and heat was a complete mystery. Were they different aspects of the same phenomenon? The experiments that settled these questions helped stoke the Industrial Revolution. In the second hour, The Race For Absolute Zero dramatizes the titanic rivalry between Scottish researcher James Dewar and Dutch physicist Heike Onnes, who plunged cold science to the forbidding realm at which oxygen and then nitrogen turn into liquids. The race continues today as scientists pioneer super-fast computing near absolute zero the ultimate chill of -459.67� F where atoms slow to a virtual standstill.

In the early 1950s, epic battles unfolded in the skies over North Korea as American and Russian fighters faced off in history's first jet war. This program explores the Korean War's aerial tactics, technology, and grim aftermath for downed pilots, many of whom disappeared without a trace. The Korean War pitted the two most advanced fighters of their day, the American F-86 Sabre and the Soviet MiG-15, in furious air battles in North Korea's notorious "MiG Alley." With the help of dramatic reconstructions, rare archival footage, and interviews with veteran American and Soviet pilots, NOVA puts viewers in the cockpit to experience the lethal split-second duels that erupted in MiG Alley.

The Mofu people of northern Cameroon have a close relationship with insects, in particular, the red driver ants which they use to combat termites.

In this two-hour special, NOVA captures the turmoil that tore apart the community of Dover, Pennsylvania in one of the latest battles over teaching evolution in public schools. Featuring trial reenactments based on court transcripts and interviews with key participants, including expert scientists and Dover parents, teachers, and town officials, "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial" follows the celebrated federal case of Kitzmiller v. Dover School District. This program was coproduced with Paul G. Allen's Vulcan Productions, Inc. In 2004, the Dover school board ordered science teachers to read a statement to high school biology students suggesting that there is an alternative to Darwin's theory of evolution called intelligent design�the idea that life is too complex to have evolved naturally and therefore must have been designed by an intelligent agent. The teachers refused to comply. Later, parents opposed to intelligent design filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing the school board of violating the constitutional separation of church and state. "There was a blow-up like you couldn't believe," Bill Buckingham, head of the school board's curriculum committee, tells NOVA. Buckingham helped formulate the intelligent-design policy when he noticed that the biology textbook chosen by teachers for classroom use was, in his words, "laced with Darwinism." NOVA presents the arguments by lawyers and expert witnesses in riveting detail and provides an eye-opening crash course on questions such as "What is evolution?" and "Is intelligent design a scientifically valid alternative?" Kitzmiller v. Dover was the first legal test of intelligent design as a scientific theory, with the plaintiffs arguing that it is a thinly veiled form of creationism, the view that a literal interpretation of the Bible accounts for all observed facts about nature. During the trial, lawyers for the plaintiffs showed that evolution is one of the best-tested and most thoroughly con

Using previously classified documents, NOVA uncovers the secret history of U.S. space programs in the 1950's and how those aspirations were given a boost in 1957 when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I.

13 amateurs train for the 26.2 mile Boston Marathon.

Experts investigate how a mysterious "second genome" helps determine our biological fates.

NOVA follows the long and exacting centuries-old process of making a Japanese samurai sword, from smelting the ore to the finished katana.

In collaboration with National Geographic Television, NOVA explores new evidence about the last days of the Inca Empire.

NOVA follows a group of paleontologists to a cave in southwestern Australia where the fossils of a meat-eating marsupial lion, and other extinct giant animals, have recently been discovered.

The recent archeological discovery of the Native American Powhatan village of Werowocomoco, sheds new light on the Jamestown story of Pocahontas.

NOVA explores solar energy and its contribution towards getting humanity off of fossil fuels.

In the remote mountains of China, scientist come closer to understanding the origins of flowers.

NOVA explores the lives of cuttlefish. Not actually fish, these cephalopods can change their shape and color, they can put on dazzling light shows, and they're surprisingly intelligent.

Scientists return to the jungles of Congo to further explore the peaceful lives of bonobos.

Against all odds, African-American chemist Percy Julian became one of the greatest scientists of the 20th-Century.

Follow one man's dream to engeneer a submarine with panaramic views.

Experts explore the mysterious story of five siblings living in a remote Turkish village.

The flamboyant rise and tragic death of pioneering aviator Alberto-Santos Dumont.

Join NOVA on a mind-bending hunt for a monster lurking at the heart of our Milky Way galaxy. Astronomers are closing in on one of the most destructive objects in the universe � a supermassive black hole � and it�s hiding right in the center of our own galaxy. Eventually, it will blast jets of radiation millions of miles its space, incinerating everything in its neighborhood, including planet Earth. For a long time, black holes were dismissed as pure science fiction. Even Albert Einstein could not bring himself to accept them, despite pioneering the theory of relativity that predicted their existence. But recently, scientists have found convincing evidence that black holes are not only real but are crucial to the life and death of galaxies everywhere in the cosmos.From the explosive birth of a black hole to its cannibalistic death throes, NOVA investigates one of the universe�s darkest secrets. With striking special effects, Monster of the Milky Way takes viewers on a scientifically accurate voyage into the belly of a supermassive black hole. When will it erupt and destroy the Milky Way?

On March 27, 1977, on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands, two fully loaded 747 jumbo jets collided on a fogbound runway, killing 583 people in what is still the deadliest crash in aviation history. NOVA looks back at the crucial final hours before the disaster. Despite new technology to improve runway safety, near-misses on the ground are still the leading cause of deadly aviation accidents.

Researchers unearth clues about the greatest Volcanic eruption of the past 100000 years.

Can lessons learned from the Twin Towers' collapse make new buildings safer?

Everyone has heard of global warming, but a lesser-known man-made phenomenon has been nearly as powerful at affecting Earth's climate. A look at global dimming, created by soot and pollution reflecting the sun's rays and surprisingly helping to offset global warming's catastrophic advance.

A mission to Saturn and its enigmatic sattelite, Titan, looks for clues to the origins of life.

Driverless vehicles compete in a 130-mile race across the Majove Desert.

NOVA recreates the expeditions of Sir John Franklin and Roald Amundsen, two Arctic explorers who set out to find the legendary Arctic sea route known as the Northwest Passage.

A 40-year hunt for solar neutrinos leads to a new understanding of matter itself.

David Attenborough probes the mystery of ancient life-forms perfectly preserved in amber.

Forensic investigators tease secrets from the well preserved bodies of people buried long ago under peat bogs.

Doctors, rescuers and mountaineers try to determine why people die attempting to climb Mount McKinley.

Could a mummy found in Niagara Falls be the remains of a long-lost Pharaoh?

The narration is melodramatic, some of the interviews feel stagy--but the footage of Hurricane Katrina and its horrendous aftermath is staggering. Hurricane Katrina - The Storm That Drowned a City, a NOVA special, begins a year earlier, when a team of scientists created a computer simulation of the destructive effect a powerful storm could have on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Though local officials took it seriously, the federal response was skeptical, and little was done to strengthen the city's protection. Using a combination of remarkable video of the developing storm and interviews with scientists, city residents (black and white), and member of the Army Corps of Engineers, Hurrican Katrina builds a compelling story of the disaster as it unfolded. Sophisticated graphics explain how hurricanes form and how the levees failed. The special touches lightly on the possibility that global warming may be exacerbating the intensity of hurricanes, but shies away from the political storm of the meager federal response to the devastation of New Orleans. The result is a vivid, detailed description of the natural disaster, but an incomplete portrait of the social one. --Bret Fetzer

This docudrama looks at Isaac Newton's discoveries in mathematics, physics and optics, as well as his lesser known pursuit of alchemy and hidden meanings in the Bible.

One of the most daring clandestine operations of World War II was the 1944 sinking of the Norwegian ferry Hydro with its cargo of "heavy water" destined for the Nazis' secret atomic bomb project. Although the mission was declared a success, no one ever established if the special shipment was actually on board. In this program, NOVA descends 1,300 feet beneath a remote Norwegian lake to find the answer.

A restless mountain threatens a bustling metropolis perched on its flanks.

Exactly 100 years ago, Albert Einstein grappled with the implications of his revolutionary Special Theory of Relativity and came to a startling conclusion: mass and energy are one, related by the formula E = mc2. Among Einstein's ideas, E = mc2 is by far the most famous. Yet how many people know what it really means? In a thought-provoking and engrossing documentary, Einstein's Big Idea illuminates this deceptively simple formula by unrevealing the story of how it came to be.

The search for the wreck of the Yamato, the largest and mightiest battleship ever floated and the pride of the Japanese Imperial Fleet. Constructed in absolute secrecy and sunk by American planes toward the end of World War II, her rapid demise had been a mystery, rather like a military Titanic.

It was the greatest flood of the past two million years, and it posed a giant scientific riddle. A maverick geologist became convinced that thousand-foot-deep floodwaters had scoured out vast areas of the American northwest near the end of the last ice age. Mainstream scientists scorned his theory while he searched patiently for answers to what could have triggered such an inconceivably violent event. Finally, an ingenious solution silenced the skeptics: traces of an enormous ice dam half a mile high, which had blocked a valley in present-day Montana and created an enormous lake behind it. With the help of stunningly realistic animation, NOVA takes viewers back to the Ice Age to reveal what happened when the dam broke, unleashing a titanic flood that swept herds of woolly mammoth and everything else into oblivion.

On December 26, 2004 a devastating tsunami in the Indian Ocean kills more than 250,000 people. NOVA takes an in depth look at just what happened on that fateful day.

In 1909, Louis Bleriot undertakes a heroic first-ever flight over the English Channel.

A team of experts takes on the preservation of the origianl Constitution, Declaration of Indipendance and Bill of Rights.

Ever since its sensational unveiling by Yale University scholars in October 1965, the Vinland Map has been a lightning rod for passionate debate. Most reviews of the arguments, including NOVA's program, have focused on scientific tests designed to gauge the authenticity of the map's ink. The opinions of experts in cartography and historical manuscripts have commanded much less attention, yet from the outset scholars in these disciplines pointed out glaring anomalies in the case for the Vinland Map's authenticity.

A chronicle of the turbulent birth, life and death of the Concorde, the world's first and only supersonic airliner.

For decades, a fossil skull discovered in Piltdown, England, was hailed as the missing link between apes and humans. Entire careers were built on its authenticity. Then in 1953, the awful truth came out: "Piltdown Man" was a fake! But who done it? In "The Boldest Hoax," NOVA gets to the bottom of the greatest scientific hoodwinking of all time.

The great PBS science series Nova scores another hit with Mars: Dead or Alive, capturing all the excitement surrounding the Mars rover landings of early 2004. Originally broadcast just as the first of the twin rovers (�Spirit� and �Opportunity�) was experiencing temporary communication problems with Earth-bound mission controllers, this riveting hour-long episode chronicles the risky $820 million Mars Exploration Rover (MER) project from design to touchdown, dramatically illustrating (through the use of detailed simulations and sophisticated computer animation) the considerable chances of failure�a nail-biting gamble considering that fully two-thirds of all previous Mars missions never reached their destination. Through rigorous testing and initial failure of the MER parachute system to the celebrated transmission of pristine photos from the �Spirit� landing site, we see just how intensely complex and emotionally involving the missions are, especially for Cornell University astronomer and lead MER scientist Steve Squyres and his devoted team of colleagues at Pasadena's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Careers are on the line as technical problems accumulate, and one feels the same mixture of dread, anxiety, and elation that accompanied the historic return of Apollo 13. A bonus interview with Mars-mission pioneer Donna Shirley puts everything into resonant perspective, celebrating science and the MER missions as an essential human endeavor. Inside NASA's risky field trip to the Red Planet. Two-thirds of all spacecraft previously launched to Mars never reached their destination. Now, in a pioneering and risky mission, twin rovers named Spirit and Opportunity hurtle toward Mars at 12,000 miles per hour, with Spirit scheduled to touch down first. In the final �six minutes of terror� a parachute will open, giant protective airbags will inflate around the lander, and retrorockets will fire for a few seconds before Spirit is cut loose, bouncing its way to wha

Isreal's remote Cave of Letters holds clues to a Jewish uprising against the Romans.

Archeologists excavate Stalag Luft 3, the site of the greatest WWII prisoner escape. Prisoners of the camp are also interviewed.

Who were the first Ameicans and where did they come from?

Examine the complex case of Typhoid Mary, a cook that was quaratined for life against her will in the early 1900s.

NOVA reports on the different ways scientists explain how life emerged on Earth. The program relates the discovery of extremophiles�bacteria that thrive in harsh subterranean and deep ocean environments similar to those believed to have existed on primitive Earth and describes an attempt to determine when life began on Earth by searching rock formations in Greenland for higher-than-expected ratios of carbon 12 to carbon 13 (in ratios currently only known to be created by life processes).

NOVA explores the search for extraterrestrial life. The program describes the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), a program that scans star systems for radio transmissions from advanced extraterrestrial civilizations and introduces the Drake equation, created by SETI founder Frank Drake, which attempts to quantify the probability of intelligent life in the Milky Way galaxy.

NOVA chronicles the discoveries that led to scientists' current understanding of how the universe was formed. The program describes the serendipitous discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation, a faint energy signal believed to be left over from the big bang.

NOVA traces Earth's geologic evolution. The program chronicles the formation of Earth from solar system dust particles that coalesced and became one of the four rocky planets closest to the sun.

Can the US military's high tech weaponry prevail against insurgants.

Nova investigates the impact of forces that are radically changing populations in both rich and poor nations.

Scientists, meteorologists and storm chasers try to uncover the secrets of F5 tornadoes, the largest, most powerful and most dangerous on Earth. Included are looks at how funnels form and the devastating 2003 tornado in Moore, Oklahoma, plus "tornado tourists," who pay companies to take them to the ferocious phenomena to see them first-hand.

An American mobile hospital mobilized in Iraq faces a daily drama of war-time treatment.

One of the most exhaustive investigations in aviation history reveals telling clues to the cause of a dissaster off Nova Scotia.

A team of "glacionauts" verntures into a labyrinth of unexplored and hazardous glacier caves on France's Mt. Blanc.

NOVA goes beyond the wagging tails and floppy ears to reveal surprising insights into the origin and evolutionary strategy of our canine companions. From a wolf research facility in rural Indiana to New York�s Westminster Dog Show, you�ll discover some amazing dog facts. Did you know the Saluki can beat any other mammal on earth in a three-mile race? That dogs developed spots for a specific reason? And that their evolution is helping us learn about our own?

Rare lemurs and crocodiles with bizarre cave-dwelling behavior draw scientists to remote corner of Madagascar.

The journey to Mars to search for evidence of past water.

Join a scientific expedition to the glacier-capped summit of Kilimanjaro, Africa's tallest mountain.

Is the magnetic field protecting Earth from deadly radiation about to reverse direction or even dissapear?

Relive the engineering challenges that two bicycle makers overcame to become the first in flight.

String theory is radically changing our ideas about the nature of space, opening up the possibility that extra dimensions, rips in the fabric of space, and parallel universes actually exist.

In order to solve some of the deepest mysteries of the universe, the rules that govern large objects like galaxies must be combined with the rules that govern small objects like subatomic particles.

An introduction to string theory and its unification of general relativity and quantum mechanics.

Forensic experts investigate the most famous aviation mystery of World War 1.

A battered manuscript turns up after 1000 years revealing the mind of the Greek genius Archimedes

On April 25, 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick published their groundbreaking discovery of the double helix structure of DNA, the molecule essential for passing on our genes and the ''secret of life.'' But their crucial breakthrough depended on the pioneering work of another biologist�Rosalind Franklin. She would never know that Watson and Crick had seen a crucial piece of her data without her permission. This was an X-ray image, ''Photo 51,'' that proved to be a vital clue in their decoding of the double helix. 50 years later, NOVA investigates the shocking truth behind one of the greatest scientific discoveries and presents a moving portrait of a brilliant woman in an era of male-dominated science. Sadly, Franklin never lived to see her vital role in the discovery vindicated. While Watson and Crick went on to win the Nobel Prize in 1962, Franklin died in 1958, at 37, from ovarian cancer; and the Nobel is not awarded posthumously. Hear the inside story from Maurice Wilkins, the colleague who showed her crucial x-ray to Watson; Raymond Gosling, Franklin�s Ph.D. student with whom she made Photo 51; and Nobel Prize winner Sir Aaron Klug, Franklin�s last collaborator, who shows new evidence of just how close Franklin came to making the vital double helix discovery herself.

In 1989 marine biologist Alexandre Meinesz went diving off southern France and was stunned by what he saw: a dense blanket of waving green fronds stretching around him in every direction on the seabed. At first Meinesz had no idea what it was. Then he made the alarming discovery that a tropical alga had taken root in the cold water of the Mediterranean, wiping out native sea life wherever it grew. "Deep Sea Invasion" follows Meinesz on his scientific detective hunt to discover the source of this deadly organism, his uphill battle to alert authorities to its danger, and the struggle to find a non-toxic way to control it.

"Dirty Bomb" probes the realities and implications for public health policy of a disaster that many consider to be all but inevitable: a terrorist attack on a major city using a radioactive "dirty bomb." The program strives to answer crucial questions about this menacing new weapon in the terrorists' arsenal, questions such as: What exactly is a dirty bomb? How dangerous could one be, and how much radiation could it release? What will need to be done to clean up after an explosion?

Before Leonardo da Vinci painted "The Last Supper," Tibetan craftsmen were creating stunning artistry of their deities in the remote Himalayan kingdom of Mustang. In "Lost Treasures of Tibet," NOVA goes behind the scenes with the first conservation team from the West, as it undertakes the painstaking restoration of these ancient masterpieces and the beautiful monasteries that house them.

In this high-altitude adventure, Jon Krakauer, author of Into Thin Air, world-class mountaineer Conrad Anker, and their team of climbers, scientists, and filmmakers take a trailblazing expedition to the top of Antarctica's tallest peak, Vinson. Along the way, their experiences are contrasted with those of Norwegian adventurer Roald Amundsen and British explorer Robert Falcon Scott who in 1911 raced to be first to reach the South Pole. Join NOVA and battle 60-mile-an-hour winds and temperatures as low as 35 degrees below zero. Learn about the horrible fate that befell Scott and his team after reaching the South Pole one month after Amundsen. See spectacular panoramic footage. Top scientists join mountaineers on an expedition to explore Antarctica and climb to Vinson Massif, which stands as the highest peak in the continent. Expert mountaineer Jon Krakuer narrates this documentary that also includes a look back to the year 1912 when Scott and Amundsen raced to reach the South Pole.

A behind the scenes look at the competition to build the Joint Strike Fighter. Cameras follow engineering teams from Boeing and Lockheed Martin as each makes fateful design decisions.

NOVA chronicles the discovery of a "living fossil," a fish called the coelacanth that has remained relatively unchanged since prehistoric times. The program recalls Darwin's prediction that some creatures would have not undergone any major adaptations due to selective pressures and would have remained relatively the same since prehistoric times.

On March 25, 1944, a U.S. Navy bomber disappeared into the fog over the Bering Sea heading for a Japanese target. Fifty-five years later it has suddenly reemerged with a remarkable tale. NOVA travels to the plane's final resting place to unravel the mystery. Using clues found at the crash site and the latest forensic techniques, a U.S. government team gets to the bottom of this half-century-old disappearance.

The air war in Afghanistan showed that sometimes the hottest pilots are sitting on the ground operating the remote controls of UAVs�or unmanned aerial vehicles. In newly declassified footage, "Spies That Fly" reveals the astounding capabilities of UAVs and the ambitious plans for future models.

For nine months in 2000, Tom Hart Dyke was a captive of guerrillas who seized him while he was collecting wild orchids in the Colombian rain forest. Now Hart Dyke is at it again in the most orchid-rich and one of the most politically unstable parts of Irian Jaya, the western half of the island of New Guinea.

Experts struggle to save the City of Canals before it vanishes beneath the waves.

In January 1993, six scientists and three hikers were scalded and crushed to death when they ventured into the smoking mouth of the active volcano Galeras in Colombia, confident that no eruption was imminent. This program tells the gripping story of this controversial field trip and the quest to predict when volcanoes will blow.

In this two-hour special, NOVA celebrates the story of the father of modern science and his struggle to get Church authorities to accept the truth of his astonishing discoveries. The program is based on Dava Sobel's bestselling book, Galileo's Daughter, which reveals a new side to the famously stubborn scientist�that his closest confidante was his illegitimate daughter, Sister Maria Celeste, a cloistered nun.

Experts rescue priceless mosaics from an ancient city that is about to disappear beneath a reservoir.

Toxic caverns teaming with strange life-forms spark a brand new theory about how caves form.

Doctors combat the deadliest for of meningitis which strikes young people out of the blue.

In the program, NOVA accompanies the men and women of a wildland firefighting crew known as the Arrowhead Hotshots as they battle one of the most destructive wildfire seasons ever, the summer of 2000.

Can lessons learned from the Twin Towers' collapse make new buildings safer?

In October and November 1999, NOVA journeyed into ice-choked Antarctic waters and onto the shores of rugged Elephant and South Georgia Islands as we followed in the footsteps of Sir Ernest Shackleton. This legendary explorer's 1914-1916 Endurance expedition is one of the greatest survival stories of all time. Then, in April 2000, we returned to document Shackleton's final trial -- the crossing of South Georgia -- by three of the world's most distinguished mountaineers, Reinhold Messner, Conrad Anker and Stephen Venables. Follow the expeditions as they unfolded in real-time on this Web site, and also watch for a NOVA Giant Screen Film Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure, as well as a NOVA program, "Shackleton's Voyage of Endurance," which originally aired on March 26, 2002.

A paleontological tour-de-force and suspenseful scientific detective story, the program documents the search for the ancestor of all four-limbed animals, including humans.

The program chronicles the lives and covert activities of the so-called "atom spies" in the 1940's, including the big one that got away, Theodore Alvin Hall.

This explosive NOVA presents the colorful history of pyrotechnics and reveals how hi-tech firing systems are transforming public displays into a dazzling, split-second science.

The film probes the enigma of our Neanderthal cousins and the roots of our own ancestry.

The program probes the deep mysteries of gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful celestial explosions since the big bang.

The program, with Sir David Attenborough narrating, celebrates the extraordinary antics male bowerbirds get up to when courting a female.

Marked by striking imagery and a poetic style, the film dramatizes the life cycle of the world's oldest living thing, the bristlecone pine of California's White Mountains.

A sequel to the most popular NOVA of all time, "Miracle of Life," the program once again uses the extraordinary microimagery of Swedish photographer Lennart Nilsson to track human development from embryo to newborn.

The film follows three New York Times reporters as they delve into the murky past of bioweapons research and grapple with the current threat of anthrax and other attacks.

The film investigates the complicated world of gender identity.

This NOVA program delves into the mind-tingling efforts of neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran to discover how the brain works.

The program investigates the brave new world of assisted reproduction.

The program chronicles the tobacco industry's decades long effort to create a "safer" cigarette.

A gene from a jellyfish is placed in a potato plant, making it light up whenever it needs watering. Rice plants are genetically transformed to produce vitamin A, preventing millions of African children from going blind. Other plants are modified to produce plastic or pharmaceuticals. While many see these as wondrous advancements, others fear they could spawn serious new threats to human health, a loss of genetic viability in our most important crop species, and other signficant and perhaps unforeseen problems. In "Harvest of Fear," NOVA and FRONTLINE join forces to explore the growing controversy over genetically modified agriculture.

This two-hour special, hosted by ABC "Nightline" correspondent Robert Krulwich, chronicles the race to capture one of the biggest prizes in scientific history: the complete letter-by-letter sequence of genetic information that defines human life -- the human genome.

In 1987 NOVA embarked with seven brilliant, natural-born survivors on the longest-running boot camp in higher education: the nearly decade-long process of training to be a fully qualified doctor. Now all but one of them (who switched careers) are out in the world in high-powered medical careers, trying to balance the demands of work, families, and personal lives, as NOVA reports on Survivor MD, which airs in three one-hour segments.

In 1987 NOVA embarked with seven brilliant, natural-born survivors on the longest-running boot camp in higher education: the nearly decade-long process of training to be a fully qualified doctor. Now all but one of them (who switched careers) are out in the world in high-powered medical careers, trying to balance the demands of work, families, and personal lives, as NOVA reports on Survivor MD, which airs in three one-hour segments.

In "Tattooed Doctor," the first hour of NOVA's "Survivor M.D." series, emergency-room physician Dr. Tom Tarter eloquently describes some of the challenges and rewards of emergency medicine.

The program follows the extraordinary odyssey of surgeon-turned-researcher Dr. Judah Folkman, who, together with colleagues at Children's Hospital in Boston, has spent over 30 years searching for ways to curb cancer by cutting off blood flow to tumors.

The film follows the work of archeologists who are using new excavations and hieroglyphic translations to interpret the early history of Cop�n, a Classic Maya site in northern Honduras.

The program documents a series of spectacular escape attempts made at Colditz Castle, the Nazi's most impregnable prison.

The program investigates the mysterious disappearance -- and, half a century later, reappearance -- of Stardust, a civilian aircraft that crashed in the Andes in 1947.

The program follows a French-led expedition to recover thousands of porcelain and other artifacts from a centuries-old Chinese shipwreck off the coast of Brunei.

The program chronicles a year in the life of wildlife and people around Lake Biwa, Japan, a cycle that has continued unchanged for thousands of years.

The film examines a disturbing increase in the prevalence of debilitating and sometimes life-threatening eating disorders, particularly anorexia and bulimia.

The film takes a look at the extraordinary natural history of the Seychelles, an ancient archipelago of about 100 islands scattered between India and Madagascar.

The program follows the efforts of two rival teams of astronomers as they search for exploding stars, map out gigantic cosmic patterns of galaxies, and grapple with the ultimate question: What is the fate of the universe?

The film follows a six-year odyssey by a group of divers to identify a mysterious U-boat they discovered in 1991 off the coast of New Jersey

The film uses a celebrated recent trial as a springboard to examine and successfully challenge the notion of Holocaust denial

The film chronicles an expedition to study and retrieve parts of the USS Monitor, the famous Civil War ironclad, which sank off North Carolina only months after its famous battle with the CSS Virginia.

In this two-hour special, NOVA presents a dramatic investigation of a people who were much more than axe-wielding pirates. It features stunning camerawork in Scandinavia and the far-flung countries that the Vikings penetrated, while historians and archaeologists present us with an image of the Vikings that goes far deeper than their savage stereotype. The latest research shows that they were canny merchants, expert shipbuilders, superb artisans, and bold colonizers of lands that lay beyond the edge of the known world.

The broadcast explores America's manned space program and the crisis caused by Russia's delay in delivering the critical third piece of the International Space Station.

In "What's Up with the Weather?" NOVA and FRONTLINE join forces to investigate the science and politics of one of the most controversial issues of the 21st century: the truth about global warming.

The film, which is a part of the NOVA series Secrets of Lost Empires, documents a 1999 effort by a NOVA-assembled crew of scholars and timber framers to design and build a Chinese bridge known only from an ancient painting.

At the heart of Jewish tradition lies the haunting mystery of the Lost Tribes of Israel. Ever since their defeat and banishment by the Assyrians in 722 BC., the Lost Tribes fate has inspired countless claims to Jewish ancestry by groups scattered on every continent. But now, surprisingly, new advances in genetics are dispelling myth and fantasy, and raising a curtain on the forgotten reality of the dispersal that happened so many centuries ago. This story will follow the first attempt to use the new tests to investigate a seemingly improbable African candidate for a Lost Tribe. It will dramatize a scientific quest that leads from the gene labs of London to the remote bush country of Zimbabwe and the lunar-like desert wilderness of southern Yemen.

In the film, which is a part of the NOVA series Secrets of Lost Empires, an international crew of archeologists, engineers, and historians designs, builds, and tests a functioning Roman bath in the Turkish countryside.

In 1996, near Kennewick, Washington, a suspected murder victim is identified by forensic anthropologists as Caucasian - but turns out to be almost 10,000 years old. For fifty years our picture of prehistoric America has rested on the premise that the earliest inhabitants of the Americas were east Asians of mongoloid stock, the ancestors of today's Native Americans. But the discovery of the Kennewick Man, along with several other startling finds in recent years, has thrown that once widely accepted idea into question and revolutionized the science of paleo-anthropology. It has also embroiled scientists in a bitter conflict with Native American groups who want the scientific study of early Americans halted. Who and what do Kennewick Man and others represent? NOVA is following the efforts of paleo-anthropologists work to decode the story in the bones of people who died 10,000 years ago.

The film, which is a part of the NOVA series Secrets of Lost Empires, showcases the efforts of a team of archeologists, engineers, and other experts to transport an Easter Island moai, or carved stone monolith, overland and successfully raise it onto a pedestal.

The film tells the fascinating story of the invention of the Black-Scholes Formula, a mathematical Holy Grail that forever altered the world of finance and earned its creators the 1997 Nobel Prize in Economics.

In the film, which is a part of the NOVA series Secrets of Lost Empires, NOVA brings together a team of Egyptologists, engineers, stonemasons, and timber framers to probe the mystery of how the ancients shaped, transported, and erected their elegant obelisks.

The film documents the efforts of researchers around the world to create synthetic diamonds, some of which have become so indistinguishable from natural diamonds as to fool experts.

In the film, which is a part of the NOVA series Secrets of Lost Empires, a team of timber framers and other specialists design, build, and fire a pair of trebuchets, a devastating engine of war popular in the Middle Ages.

The program chronicles a successful 1999 NOVA expedition to investigate the mysterious disappearance of George Mallory and Andrew Irvine high on Everest in 1924. During this expedition, which included a NOVA/PBS Online Adventure, Mallory's body was found, though the mystery only deepened.

In this NOVA program, our cinematographer literally filmed inside a hive and followed bees in flight to capture closeups of honeybee behavior.

The program tells the story of a handful of brilliant, obsessed surgeons and researchers who have pursued the target of a practical artificial heart for decades.

Buried in mud beneath the shallow waters of Matagorda Bay in Texas, lay a glorious remnant of one of the most ill-fated voyages of the Age of Discovery. After years of searching the area, nautical archaeologists doing a magnetometer survey honed in on a promising site. And on the first day of diving, they were astounded to feel the distinctive outlines of a cannon, and sense the massive size of the wreck. When the cannon was hauled from the water, their hunch was confirmed: This ship, called La Belle, belonged to the 17th Century French explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle. NOVA follows the building of a coffer dam and subsequent complete excavation of this remarkable site. Preserved were not only armaments and trade beads, but also a wealth of organic material�the wooden hull, leather shoes, and even a skeleton�that brings the voyage to life.

Most historians agree that by enabling Allied commanders to eavesdrop on German plans, Station X shortened the war by 2 or 3 years. Its decoded messages played a vital role in defeating the U-boat menace, cutting off Rommel's supplies in North Africa, and launching the D-Day landings. Now, for the first time on television, a 2-hour NOVA Special tells the full story of Station X, drawing on vivid interviews with many of the colorful geniuses and eccentrics who attacked the Enigma. Wartime survivors recall such vivid episodes as the British capture of the German submarine U-110; one of its officers describes how he saved a book of love poems inscribed to his sweetheart but failed to destroy vital Enigma documents on board. "Decoding Nazi Secrets" also features meticulous period reenactments shot inside the original buildings at Station X, including recreations of the world's first computing devices that aided codebreakers with their breakthroughs. Station X not only helped reverse the onslaught of the Third Reich, but also laid the groundwork for the invention of the digital computer that continues to transform all our lives.

In the far north of Japan, thrust out into the north Pacific, is the remote island of Hokkaido. It's a land of towering volcanoes and steaming lakes, marshy valleys and fairy tale forests. Among this magical scenery, where summers are brief and winters are fierce, lives an extraordinary spectrum of life, found nowhere else in Japan. Here among the coastal lowlands, grizzly bears plunge into icy streams for salmon, Japanese cranes perform balletic courtship dances to one another, the rare and enormous Blakistons fish owl swoops on flying squirrels, and white-tailed eagles scan the rugged ocean cliffs for unsuspecting seabirds. HIgh on the mountains Asiatic pikas, arctic hares and Siberian chipmunks gather food, ever-watchful for the predatory sable. We think of Japan as a highly-populated, ultra modern society, and yet it remains a highly spiritual place where wildlife is treasured and carefully protected. Weaving Ainu legend with fascinating natural behavior, this film will follow the lives of Hokkaido's special creatures through the seasons, to capture the true essence and beauty of this other-worldly place.

The death of Marilyn Sheppard in 1954 is one of the most famous unsolved murders in America. The indictment of her husband, Dr. Sam Sheppard, quickly became the "Trial of the Century," then the "Re-Trial of the Century," making a celebrity out of lawyer F. Lee Bailey. Although most of the forensic evidence gathered in 1954 was ignored during Sheppard's trial, it is being re-examined with today's advanced technology. Like an intricate puzzle, the clues come together to overturn previous assumptions about the killer and point to an entirely new suspect. NOVA assembles a notable team of experts�including Barry Scheck, a well-known lawyer from the O.J. Simpson trial�and builds a precise replica of the Sheppard house, complete with the original furniture. With this unique revisiting of a vanished crime scene, NOVA investigates a horrifying and sensational milestone in forensic science.

Is time travel anything more than sci-fi fantasy? Many leading physicists now believe that time travel is not only possible in theory but are discussing how to build a time machine. Physicist Kip Thorne tells NOVA how humankind's infinitely advanced descendants might go about achieving it with "quantum wormholes" and some "exotic matter." Demonstrating that faster-than-light travel may be possible, German physicist Guenter Nimtz claims to have transmitted Mozart's 40th Symphony across his lab at 4.7 times the speed of light. Impossible, yes, but recorded by NOVA's cameras and perhaps another step on the road to reaching the future or the past. The truth about time travel is wrapped up in the detail of how our universe works and how it all began. Mind-boggling as these perspectives are, NOVA dramatizes them in a playful and visually dazzling style that will captivate viewers and sweep them along on the ultimate thrill ride.

The film explores why the famous tower of Pisa hasn't fallen over yet and investigates the many efforts taken to preserve this medieval treasure.

At the height of tensions in the Middle East, the United States placed a huge armada at ground zero in the Persian Gulf. This strategic move was without precedent during peace time operations�a big stick waved at a defiant Saddam Hussein. In an ironic twist of timing, at the center of this massive military force was the Navy's oldest and most celebrated aircraft carrier, the USS Independence, on her final voyage, and the newest, the highly sophisticated nuclear powered aircraft carrier, the USS John C. Stennis, on her maiden voyage. Join NOVA as it moves with exclusive access throughout the fleet, from carriers and cruisers to submarines and jet fighters

The past five years have seen remarkable progress in both treatment and basic understanding of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS. In laboratories and clinics across the country and around the world, scientists and doctors have pooled their expertise to keep people infected with HIV alive and disease-free longer than was imaginable at the start of the epidemic. And now, through what may well be an unprecedented cross-fertilization process among molecular biologists, immunologists, geneticists, and practicing physicians, a series of discoveries about HIV-infected patients who have successfully fought off AIDS for as long as 20 years are being closely analyzed for clues to the ultimate goal in this fierce scientific battle�a vaccine. NOVA tells the story of this ongoing battle through the experiences of patients like Robert Massie, a "long-term non-progressor." Massie, a 43-year old environmental activist and Episcopalian minister was infected by a blood transfusion in 1978 and after an acute period of illness, somehow his immune system has kept the HIV virus at bay without drugs. Surviving AIDS reveals the scientific community engaged in an enormous and ongoing struggle, with discoveries traveling from labs to patients and back. And NOVA brings together the most promising research with compelling human stories of the patients and doctors who are devoting themselves to unraveling one of the most complicated mysteries in scientific history.

At the height of the Cold War, US subs gathered secrets that neither spies nor satellites could expose. Until recently, almost nobody knew the hidden history of their tragedies and triumphs. As the US strove for supremacy in the Cold War, it pushed submarine technology to its limits. Breakthroughs led to unparalleled triumphs of espionage. And, missteps cost hundreds their lives. With recently declassified film, NOVA lifts the veil on tragic and mysterious submarine accidents and their high-risk spy missions that helped win the Cold War. Along with celebrated oceanographer and explorer, Robert Ballard (discoverer of the Titanic), NOVA goes in search of clues to two tragedies of the Cold War, the wrecks of the nuclear submarines Thresher and Scorpion. Recently declassified footage gives a unique glimpse of the wrecks and a chance to investigate the catastrophic accidents that overtook these subs and their crew.

Is it just a fairy tale, or could a primeval beast lurk in the deep, dark waters of a Scottish lake? Since it was first reported more than 60 years ago, hundreds claim to have witnessed the Loch Ness Monster, while one scientist after another has brought the latest technology to the loch to probe the phenomenon. Twenty-five years after their first, groundbreaking expedition to Loch Ness, NOVA joins two American scientists as they return to Scotland for one last go at Nessie. During a three-week expedition, they use state-of-the-art sonar and sensitive underwater cameras in an attempt to track down and identify the elusive beast. Biologists study the ecosystem of the loch to determine if it could support a large animal. Geologists study its history, looking for clues about what kind of creature might have colonized it, and when. NOVA examines the photographic evidence in the case. And eyewitnesses vividly recount their sightings. Could this legendary creature be real, perhaps a relic from the time of dinosaurs? Or is it a shared illusion�a product of myth, mirage and wishful thinking?

The pearl�the only gem produced by a living animal�has long carried a certain allure. Yet the best mollusk for making this gem�the pearl oyster�doesn't always produce a pearl, and even then, the pearls are rarely perfectly round. It wasn't until the late nineteenth century, when a Japanese scientist discovered a technique to incite oysters to produce these gems, that an industry was formed. Inducing an oyster to create a pearl is only half the battle�the oyster then needs a nutrient-rich, open environment in which to grow. This NOVA program looks at the science of pearl farming, follows efforts of oyster farmers trying to cope with growing problems of pollution and overcrowding, and considers the shifting sands of dominance within the pearl industry.

Night stalkers by nature, leopards are observed both by night and day, using state-of-the-art camera equipment, to reveal never before seen hunting behavior. Filmed in the Luangua Valley in Zambia, Leopard reveals the challenges and dangers faced daily by these beautiful animals. Shadowed by hungry hyenas in pursuit of leftovers, and stalked by lumbering crocodiles hoping to tackle a lone leopard on a kill, how can they hope to challenge such beasts?

Cutting-edge science and archaeology are reconstructing the life and culture of The Iceman�the 5000-year-old frozen corpse found buried in the ice of the Alps. By analyzing every inch of the Iceman's body and the tools and equipment found with it, scientists are piecing together the most complete picture yet of the late Stone Age in this part of Europe. X-ray, CAT scan, and microscopic analysis of this spectacular find is revealing where the iceman lived, what he ate, and how he may have died; nuclear physics reveals that the Iceman's hair was contaminated with arsenic and copper, suggesting he was involved in copper production centuries before it was known to exist in the region.

The Siberian Ice Maiden, discovered in the Pastures of Heaven, on the high Steppes, is believed to have been a shamaness of the lost Pazyryk culture. She had been mummified and then frozen by freak climatic conditions around 2400 years ago, along with six decorated horses and a symbolic meal for her last journey. Her body was covered with vivid blue tattoos of mythical animal figures. Together with the newly discovered body of a man, nicknamed "Conan," her body has now been restored, and is providing new clues to the role and power of women in the nomadic peoples of ancient Siberia.

This is the bizarre and fascinating story of the remains of Inca culture, frozen for posterity high in the mountains of the Andes. Evidence has emerged of sacrifice to the mountain gods, whose existence dominated the civilization over 500 years ago. The film traces the frozen bodies of children uncovered by archaeologists in South America, and follows an archaeological expedition to a high-altitude sacred site in search of ritual remains and another body. How did they come to be there? Why did they go to their deaths willingly? What was the religious framework that dictated their sacrifice to fierce gods?

The shattered remnants of the Roman city of Pompeii bear witness to the risk that the people of Naples still face today.

NOVA goes behind the scenes in Hollywood, where the art of illusion meets the science of perception.

Experience the harrowing and life-threatening problems aboard the aging Mir space station through the eyes of the Russian and American astronauts who lived through them. Feel the heat from the fire that erupted on board. See the collision between Mir and another space craft. Endure the power outages and the computer failures that have jeopardized lives. Hear the debate over whether NASA should continue to risk its astronauts by sending them to Mir in preparation for the launch later this year of the most ambitious space project yet�the International Space Station.

A massive planet-sized machine controls our weather day-to-day, and our climate season-to-season. It takes an event of staggering proportions to disrupt a machine this large and powerful, a juggernaut with more energy than a million nuclear bombs. Signs now indicate that such an event is underway - El Ni�o. More than a series of storms stunning the California coastline, El Ni�o is second only to the seasons in its effect on global weather. In a P-3 off the coast, a team plunges into a storm front to explore its cause and effects. In a boat off the Galapagos, an array of buoys are checked for temperature and current data. On a mountan in Peru, signs of the devastation of past El Ni�os are revealed. As scientists push to extremes to explore this phenomenon, they understand for the first time the extent to which all the world's weather is connected, and just how delicate is the balance.

In 1714, following a maritime disaster, British Parliament offers �20,000 for the first reliable method of determining longitude on a ship at sea. It's known that longitude can be found by comparing a ship's local time to the time at the port of origin. The challenge is finding a clock�a chronometer�that can keep time at sea, where temperature changes, humidity, gravity and a ship's movement affect accuracy. NOVA chronicles the seventeenth-century journey to determine longitude.

NOVA reports on new hope for victims of erectile dysfunction, also known as impotence. Among the promising therapies covered in the program are ones developed by Dr. Irwin Goldstein of Boston University School of Medicine and Dr. Harin Padma-Nathan, director of the Male Clinic in Santa Monica, CA. Actual cases are profiled, featuring men talking candidly about their problem�and going through treatment�on camera. Erectile dysfunction affects an estimated 52% of men between the ages of 40 and 70.

An unprecedented look at a dangerous predator, this is the second of three natural history programs hosted by Sir David Attenborough. Surviving virtually unchanged since the days of the dinosaur and found throughout the world, these remarkable creatures have the tools for survival. Long known as vicious hunters, new photographic techniques now allow us to see them cooperating with each other and protecting their families. From tiny babies hatching from the shell we see them grow into great beasts capable of standing up to the lion and bringing down a zebra.

Could the earth as we know it be about to drown? Huge ice sheets in Antarctica may be in the process of collapse, triggering a catastrophic rise in sea level that will inundate the most populous regions of the world. Battle extreme weather conditions in Antarctica with NOVA scientists as they gather data that will reveal new insight into the nature of global climate change.

NOVA follows an international team of archaeologists and spelunkers into the Rio la Venta Gorge deep in the Chiapas jungle of Central America. In a rugged canyon they find caves filled with startling remains of a people called the Zoque who lived hundreds of years before the Maya. The extreme inaccessibility and relative dryness of the caves has preserved rare artifacts including bones, clothes, rope, and jewelry. Moving downstream from the caves the team finds a legendary city hidden in a tangle of jungle vines. Evidence of the Zoque's sophisticated writing system and their practice of ritualistic cannibalism and child sacrifice is shedding new light on a little known civilization.

NOVA treks with a group of Himalayan climbers in their quest to reach the summit of Everest, along the way exploring in never-before-conducted tests how extremes of weather and altitude affect the human mind and body. Why do some people succumb so quickly to the ills caused by high altitude while others do not? Does exposure to extreme hypoxia�or lack of oxygen�take a lasting toll on the mind and body? Images of the brain scanned before and after the expedition may reveal truths about the physical traumas suffered in an oxygen-depleted environment, and give us new insight into why the tallest mountain in the world has claimed so many victims.

In this scientific mystery, NOVA ventures to the front lines of medical research where scientists are scrambling to understand the strange new ailment popularly known as "mad cow disease." Highly infectious and incurable, this disease has claimed the lives of nearly a million cattle in Britain, and a variant is responsible for a handful of deaths in humans. Millions more people may have been exposed, and now the race is on to determine if we are on the brink of another deadly epidemic like AIDS or Ebola. What scientists are finding is making them rethink many fundamental assumptions about epidemiology and may hold startling implications for public health in the future.

Tapping into the clearly demonstrated affection we all have for our pets, this program will offer an offbeat, sometimes humorous, sometimes sad portrait of pets, their owners, and the veterinarians who treat our beloved animals' ailments. From race horses under the knife for cancer treatment, to Manhattan hounds on Prozac, to anorexic boa constrictors, we will show how cutting edge veterinary medicine is saving lives, and draw viewers into the mini-dramas that unfold each day in homes, in zoos, and in veterinary hospitals across the country.

The race to build the world's first supersonic passenger airliner led to a massive espionage effort during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the west. The Soviets started years behind the Concorde team, but espionage enabled Konkordski to beat Concorde into the air by three months. Now, NOVA reveals the cause behind the fatal Konkordski disaster at the 1973 Paris Air Show, which put the Soviet's work on the plane in a deep freeze. In a twist of fate, Konkordski is being resurrected in a NASA initiative to build the second generation of supersonic jets.

Perfectly preserved 3000-year-old mummies have been unearthed in a remote Chinese desert. They have long, blonde hair and blue eyes, and don't appear to be the ancestors of the modern-day Chinese people. Who are these people and how did they end up in China's Takla Makan desert? NOVA takes a glimpse through a crack in the door of history, to a past that has never before been seen outside of China.

Beneath the grassland plains of the Kalahari lies a hidden world of rare and exotic animals. By day, the Kalahari belongs to familiar predators and grazing animals. At night, the earth seems to release scores of seldom seen nocturnal creatures�Bush Babies, Brown Hyenas, Aardvarks and Fungal Termites�in search of food.

NOVA covers the latest efforts to be first to circumnavigate the planet non-stop in a balloon. NOVA's cameras are on board for all three attempts, including that of the long-shot underdog, American Steve Fossett, who rode high-speed winds solo from Missouri to a remote corner of India against incredible odds.

Viewers see what it's like to be overwhelmed by a sudden onslaught of "white death"�an avalanche. Avalanches are an escalating peril as skiers and snowmobilers push the limits into the back country. NOVA witnesses scientists getting buried alive in their attempts to understand these forces of nature.

The Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, guided sailors in the Mediterranean Sea for 16 centuries. NOVA follows an international team of archeologists, cartographers, topographers, and divers as they catalog and map thousands of previously inaccessible ancient artifacts.

Viewers are sidewalk supervisors for one of the most unusual construction projects in the U.S. - the building of the stunningly beautiful and eminently practical Clark Bridge over the Mississippi River. Contractors faced every obstacle in the book�and then some�to build this complex structure.

Sir David Attenborough hosts a never-before-seen look at one of the most misunderstood creatures in nature. Special photography, including infrared photography, exposes the secret life of the wolf pack.

In a tale of secrecy, obsession, dashed hopes, and brilliant insights, Princeton math sleuth Andrew Wiles goes undercover for eight years to solve history's most famous math problem: Fermat's Last Theorem. His success was front-page news around the world. But then disaster struck.

IRA terrorists and British bomb disposal experts tell behind-the-scenes stories of a a deadly cat-and- mouse game that pits ingenious IRA explosives officers against the most creative bomb squad in the world.

On the 50th anniversary of the first supersonic flight, Chuck Yeager relives his gutsy assault on the sound barrier and tells how it was done. Other top test pilots of the day�those who survived�describe the dangers, mysteries, and thrill of trying to fly faster than sound at the dawn of the jet age.

A famous brain surgeon struggles to save the life of a comatose child using a controversial new method of treating severe head injuries. In charge is Dr. Jan Ghajar, who gained notoriety in 1996 by successfully treating a woman who was savagely beaten in Manhattan's Central Park and expected to die. Dr. Ghajar believes the measure that helped save her life should be available to all.

The world's leading sea horse biologist journeys to Australia and the Philippines to explore the secret lives of these extraordinary fish.

Ever since World War II, physicians have struggled to find ways to treat heart failure, the biggest killer in the modern world.

How do paleontologists and commercial fossil hunters know where to look for rare and priceless dinosaur bones?

Astronomers discover planets beyond our solar system. But is there life on them?

Citizens of Rome came to the Colosseum to behold free entertainment that usually came in the form of violent war games and bloody battles between humans and animals. This structure's most impressive feature was a massive canopy that provided shade from the hot sun. In order to investigate the possible forms the roof may have taken, NOVA's team constructs models at a smaller arena in Spain.

Pharaohs who built magnificent temples to preserve their names for eternity often graced temple gates with pairs of obelisks, four-sided shafts of granite that taper gently upward until the sides meet at the top to form a pyramid shape. NOVA's team of experts attempts to build, transport, and raise a scale model obelisk using those materials available to ancient Egyptian engineers: rope, dirt, sticks, and stones.

Even without such technological advances as wheels, arches, draft animals, iron tools, or a system of writing, the Inca�utilizing a tradition of shared labor�achieved a number of engineering feats. The NOVA team explores both stonework and bridge building, experimenting with dragging and fitting huge stones, and working with the people of an Andean village to create a suspension bridge made only of grass ropes.

A distinctive feature of this stone site are the trilithons, which consist of two upright stones topped by a horizontal lintel stone. In this program, the NOVA team considers how to transport and raise the massive stones, as well as how to place the lintel stone on top. By comparing different strategies and adapting ramps, levers, and other tools that might have been available to the ancient builders, the team works to meet the challenge.

NOVA reveals the ancient secrets of how the pyramids were built by actually building one. A noted Egyptologist, Mark Lehner, and a professional stonemason, Roger Hopkins (This Old House), join forces in the shadow of the Great Pyramid of Giza to put clever and sometimes bizarre pyramid construction theories to the test. Borrows from S19E15 This Old Pyramid

The program follows underwater explorer Robert Ballard as he uses sonar technology to find the Britannic, a ship lost in the Aegean in World War I.

An in-depth and heart stopping look at the ultimate chemical reaction - the explosion. Using high speed photography and dramatic reconstruction, the film will chart the tarnished history of explosives: the terrible accidents, the scientific ingenuity and ultimately, the carnage of war and terrorism.

Did the crash of continents that produced the Himalayan Mountains also trigger the Ice Age?

Lennart Nilsson, the famed photographer behind the spectacular glimpse into the mysteries of life before birth in Nova's "Miracle of Life" and "Ultimate Journey", shares some of his secret state-of-the-art microphotography techniques.

This program reveals some of the billions of practically invisible organisms that live on, in, and around us.

NOVA explores the links between our individual development and the evolution of life itself.

Sharks are known as the "perfect predators," but sometimes they slip up and attack the wrong prey�people.

Flights in Russia's powerful fighter jets are for sale to foreign travelers. So is the Russian Air Force still in the game?

With a radically redesigned bill, the U.S. Treasury fights back against a new breed of counterfeiters.

One of the final aeronautics challenges left in the world today does not involve the use of a plane, a rocket, or even an engine. No one has yet been able to circumnavigate the earth in a balloon. Any team attempting the feat would have to fly higher than most planes ever fly and would need a passenger capsule that could both offer protection from extreme cold and carry the proper navigation and life support equipment. Depending on the powerful jet stream to propel them, crew members would have to plot their course carefully and plan their schedule to coincide with the most advantageous winds. Even landing would be a risky venture. This program follows a team of three adventurers as they attempt to make just such a journey.

Helped by remote sensing, an expedition searches Oman's vast al-Khali desert for the lost city of Ubar.

This two-hour program chronicles Albert Einstein's life and scientific achievements from his birth in 1879 to his death in 1955. The first hour follows Einstein in his quest to understand the nature of light. Graphics depict some of Einstein's famous thought experiments, including his eventual understanding of the interplay between the speed of light and time and his development of the special theory of relativity. The program also goes into great depth about Einstein's personal life, including his romance with and marriage to fellow student Mileva Maric and the death of his father. The second hour unfolds with Einstein preoccupied with finding a theory that accounts for gravitation and determining what orders the universe. Einstein addresses gravitation in the universe with his general theory of relativity. This is confirmed experimentally in 1919 when a solar eclipse reveals stars in positions that could best be explained by his theory: that gravity causes light to bend.

Bombing is on the rise across the United States. But science is fighting back. Hidden within the chaos of a crime scene lie clues that can solve the case. Can science help stop the "Bombing of America"?

Explore the unique culture of the Yanomami, an isolated tribe living deep in the Amazonian rainforest.

NOVA profiles Dr. Benjamin Spock, whose best-selling baby and child care guide revolutionized the way Americans raise their children. At ninety-something, Dr. Spock continues to mix a lively interest in babies with his long-standing activism for world peace, on the theory that war is potentially more dangerous to children than accidents or illness.

The Great Flood of 1993 leaves a wake of destruction across the Midwest. Can rivers ever be contained?

Carl Sagan and other scientists investigate claims that people have been visited or abducted by aliens.

NOVA travels to the testing ranges and training grounds for a leaner, meaner and more effective United States military force that can fight and win on almost any battlefield in the world. One innovation in the works: super-accurate "brilliant" weapons, designed as successors to the smart munitions used in the Gulf War.

AKA Inside an Outbreak The Ebola filovirus causes a very deadly and highly contagious disease. Outbreaks thus far have been limited due to the implementation of strict isolation, sterilization, and waste disposal procedures; the remoteness of areas in which the outbreaks appeared; and the fact that the virus kills so quickly that many of its victims die before it can be transmitted. Most recently, the Ebola virus struck in the city of Kikwit in Zaire, Africa, in early 1995 and killed almost 250 people before it was contained. Medical experts and relief workers went to work quickly to locate victims, to provide educational and prevention services to neighbors and families, and to research the Ebola virus. This NOVA program follows the medical researchers and doctors as they work to prevent the virus from wiping out an entire community and to locate where the virus originated.

Travel on a perilous mission to repair and refly a rare B-29 bomber stranded on a Greenland icecap for almost 50 years.Gleaming like a jewel this well preserved bomber from World War II rests on the Arctic tundra where it was abandoned when it crash landed in 1947. This plane has long been a legend and now facing incredible hardship a team of adventurers struggle to bring the frozen warbird back to life.NOVA follows bold pilot Darryl Greenamyer and his team on two expeditions to revive Kee Bird and make it fly again in one of the most isolated and harshest environments on Earth. Despite severe weather illness and difficulties with the shuttle plane in 1994 Greenamyer returns in May 1995 with a larger crew a more reliable shuttle plane and a new plan to bring Kee Bird back to life and back home.

On the same date in January one year apart, Earthquakes of almost identical power shook Northridge, California (1994) and Kobe, Japan (1995). NOVA probes why almost 100 times more people died in Japan than in the United States and what scientists have learned from the twin calamities.

A search for the causes of Sick Building Syndrome. Experts look at various problem buildings, inspecting their air conditioning, lights and carpets for clues to the mysterious maladies afflicting the workers inside.

In 1985 a chemist looking at stardust, paired with one searching for brand new materials, stumbled across what science said could not exist � a third form of carbon. They named the soccer ball-shaped molecules "Buckminsterfullerene" after the architect who invented the geodesic dome. Today "Buckyballs," as the molecules are playfully known, are revolutionizing chemistry and promise countless technological applications. NOVA traces this remarkable tale of serendipity in scientific discovery.

The Great Barrier Reef along the northeast coast of Australia is the largest coral formation in the world, covering more than 365,000 square kilometers. Within it exists a unique underwater environment that is continually evolving: the coral itself can vary greatly from one region of the reef to another as it adapts to varying conditions of light, surf, and temperature. In this program, marine biologists and photographers explore the reef using specialized underwater cameras to investigate the diverse and interdependent plants and animals that live there. The program also documents the annual spawning of coral and the geological and biological forces that make it possible for coral reefs to survive. Coral reefs around the world are incredibly fragile; many are endangered by overfishing and excessive use by humans.

One out of every three fires in the United States is set deliberately. Firefighters must report the cause and origin of each fire they fight. If the cause of a fire cannot be determined immediately, a fire investigator may be assigned to the case. Investigators sift through the remains of a fire for clues about its cause, and if there is evidence of arson, the investigators also collect information to help police identify and locate the arsonist. In this episode of NOVA, a series of similar arson fires in California raises concern that a serial arsonist might be at work. The program follows the investigative team that solved this incredibly difficult case.

Lightning! takes you on a high-voltage trip into the most electrically charged weather in the world--culminating in a dazzling lightning show set to music that rivals the most extraordinary fireworks display. The program also visits with some of lightning's tragic victims who thought they were out of harm's way. Lightning's fleeting rivers of electricity strike Earth 6,000 times a minute; jolt every commercial airplane one to two times a year; wipe out power to entire cities; hit 1,000 people annually; and account on average for more deaths than hurricanes and tornadoes put together. Join the scientists as they tempt nature by creating the world's tallest lightning rod, a wire leading thousands of feet into storm clouds, which triggers awe-inspiring thunderbolts a few hundred feet from the observers--and creates a chunk of "petrified" lightning. "I think lightning fascinates everyone," says "stormchaser" Dan Davis. "It's a personification of the intensity, the chaos and the unpredictability of nature."

Is there an asteroid or comet out there with our name on it? NOVA scans the skies and the geological record on Earth, for evidence that giant rocks from outer space have struck before and will eventually plow into our planet again.

From their blistering beginnings as molten rock, the Hawiian islands have grown into a verdant paradise of unique lifeforms.

NASA's radar-equipped spacecraft, the Magellan, has sent back unprecedented images of the surface of Venus. Scientists find that most of what was previously believed about the planet was wrong. NOVA uses Magellan's images as well as interviews with scientists to investigate what the surface of the planet is really like and what mysteries it may hold.

Shortly after midnight on 17 July 19l8, at a house in the town of Ekaterinburg in the Ural mountains, Bolshevik guards awakened the deposed Tsar Nicholas II together with his family and forced them into the basement, where they were shot and clubbed to death. NOVA follows forensic tests of skeletons discovered in Ekaterinburg in 1979 that are alleged to be the remains of the Russian royals, and explores the intriguing claim that Anna Anderson of Charlottesville, Virginia, was really the long lost Anastasia

What does it take to win at Indy? NOVA follows champion race driver Bobby Rahal and a team of engineers as they strive to design a new car that can win the checkered flag at the Memorial Day classic. The program also features racing insights from top drivers Emerson Fittipladi, Willy T. Ribbs and Lyn Saint James.

In the third installment of a 10-year project, NOVA checks up on a group of aspiring doctors who've been chronicled since their first day of medical school in 1987. Now bona fide MDs and in the middle of residency training, the group faces the awesome responsibility of curing the sick and keeping their own lives intact.

What amazing processes go on inside super-athletes and couch potatoes alike? NOVA uses the latest medical imaging techniques to explore the body's incredible inner workings-with the help of Olympic ice skater Bonnie Blair, world record long jumper Mike Powell and others.

Born joined at the pelvis, Siamese twins Dao and Duan were brought to the United States from Thailand to assess their chances for being separated surgically. NOVA covers the intricate planning and protracted operations that eventually made the two girls into two distinct individuals.

NOVA uses recently discovered documents to uncover the complicity of German architects and engineers in the Holocaust. Focusing on Auschwitz, the program tells a tale of ever-deepening evil as the prison camp was methodically converted into a super-efficient factory for genocide.

NOVA looks at the most successful life forms on the face of the planet in Ants: Little Creatures Who Run the World, hosted by Harvard University's internationally renowned ant authority, naturalist Edward O. Wilson. What's impressive about ants is how they practice what we preach: family values. Unselfishness is the rule. Everything they do is for their colony's good. For them, socialism works.

NOVA investigates the myth and reality of the first known Europeans to reach North America -Vikings. These intrepid Norsemen explored and settled parts of present-day North America 500 years before Columbus set sail.

The subjects of Stone Age cave paintings thunder onto the screen as NOVA explores Woolly Mammoths. Recent discoveries show that the hairy ancestors of elephants fought off extinction much longer than anyone thought, surviving on an isolated island in the Arctic Ocean until as recently as 4,000 year ago.

NOVA explores the common threads that link the more than 5,000 languages of Earth, including a controversial theory that claims to reconstruct words from a time when only a handful of languages were spoken, recalling the biblical story of the Tower of Babel.

NOVA travels to Lake Baikal, the world's oldest and deepest lake, containing one-fifth of all the fresh water on Earth. Investigating Baikal from above, below and all around, NOVA charts its dramatically changing environment over the course of four seasons.

Hobbled by defective eyesight because of its original, bungled prescription, the Hubble Space Telescope was recently repaired in a dramatic Space Shuttle mission. NOVA follows the exploits of astronauts who saved the day, and the stunning work that Hubble has performed in the months since its repair.

Ten million years ago, an enormous volcanic eruption buried much of what is now Nebraska in up to 10 feet of ash, preserving countless skeletons of prehistoric big game animals. NOVA joins the discoverer of this treasure trove to learn what life was like when a lot more than buffalo roamed the West.

NOVA probes the 1994 Los Angeles earthquake. Even as the city struggles to repair itself from the tragedy, seismic pressure continues to build. Scientists fear that newly discovered faults could, at any moment, trigger California's most devastating natural disaster.

NOVA travels deep into the Amazon wilderness in search of a mysterious tribe- a tribe that dismembered and partially ate three prospectors in 1976. Locating the group, NOVA lives with them for three months, gaining insight into the customes and beliefs of a people whose lifestyle has not changed for centuries.

NOVA tackles the long-taboo subject of menopause, profiling new research and examining the medical and ethical controversies that arise when science enables women to postpone menopause or even to bear children long after "the change." Stockard Channing narrates.

NOVA explores the legacy of the great Auk, a magnificent flightless bird that was hunted to extinction over a century ago. In a journey retracing its migratory route, host Richard Wheeler kayaks from Newfoundland to Cape Cod and discovers that other marine species face the Auk's luckless fate.

NOVA profiles "Genie," a girl whose parents kept her imprisoned in near total isolation from infancy. When social workers discovered her as a teenager, Genie had not learned to walk or talk. This NOVA documentary includes never-before-seen footage of Genie during her rehabilitation and probes how and when we learn the skills that make us "human."

Polly wants a crackdown when it comes to the illegal trade in the world's most beautiful and intelligent birds: parrots. NOVA goes undercover with a US government sting that breaks an international parrot smuggling ring, landing some surprising suspects.

NOVA experiences the relentless, round-the-clock life aboard the US Navy aircraft carrier, Independence-where every day is a constant drill of launching and landing aircraft atop a floating city of 5,000 people. The action includes Top Gun mock combat exercises and live-ammunition patrols over Iraq.

NOVA visits the most cigarette-addicted nation in the world-China. Western advertising and trading practices have exacerbated the fatal romance with smoking in the world's most populous country, where lung cancer cases are beginning to strain the nation's health care system.

At what point did our distant ancestors become anatomically like us? And, more importantly, when did they begin to act like us? Anthropologist Donald Johanson looks at what it is that makes us human.

Anthropologist Donald Johanson looks at how our human ancestors of two million years ago made their living. Contrary to popular myth, scavenging was a more lucrative living than hunting-and may have contributed to the development of human intelligence.

In the first of a three-part series, noted anthropologist Donald Johanson probes the earliest ancestors of the human species - reaching back more than three million years to a strange ape who walked upright. Johanson takes viewers to the site in Ethiopia where he discovered the fossil remains of this missing link nicknamed "Lucy."

NOVA covers exciting and controversial research with chimpanzees who have been trained to express themselves with human symbols. Are they speaking their minds? Or are they just aping their trainers?

NOVA explores ice-capped mountains-on the equator. These African giants are magical islands of life towering above the scorched plains. Giant forest hogs, bearded vultures, the elusive bongo and other exotic creatures live in this harsh and isolated high country.

NOVA follows members of the US Aerobatic Team as they prepare for and compete in the 1992 World Aerobatic Championship. The sport, as precisely choreographed as gymnastics-except that it takes place in airplanes at 200 miles per hour-has always been on the leading edge of developments in aviation.

Velociraptors and primitive birds are among the fabulous fossil finds as NOVA accompanies an American Museum of Natural History expedition to the Gobi Desert. The trip relives the exploits of the Museum's dashing explorer of the 1920s, Roy Chapman Andrews -said to be the real-life model for Indiana Jones.

NOVA delves into the history of secret communications and the people who wrack their brains to decipher them. The program probes the most celebrated of all cryptographic coups: the breaking of the World War II codes used by Japan and Germany and how codebreaking helped shorten the war.

NOVA explores the nature of human perception through the puzzling condition called visual agnosia, the inability to recognize faces and familiar objects, made famous in Oliver Sacks' book, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.

A profile of the late Richard Feynman�atomic bomb pioneer, Nobel prize-winning physicist, acclaimed teacher and all-around eccentric, who helped solve the mystery of the space shuttle Challenger explosion.

Bill Cosby guides viewers through the most exciting footage from two decades of NOVA in a 20th anniversary salute. Real-life action, adventure, mystery, drama and non-stop discovery fill this 90-minute special.

US federal investigators are called in to determine the cause of a mysterious jetliner crash in Panama. Nothing about the accident makes sense, until a key clue emerges.

NOVA takes viewers on the ride of their lives as it explores the science of roller coasters, where physics and psychology meet. New rides of the future may take place entirely in the mind�with virtual reality.

With help from director Steven Spielberg, author Michael Crichton and a host of scientific experts , NOVA investigates what it would take to recreate the dinosaur theme park in Jurassic Park. It won't be as easy as it was for Hollywood.

NOVA soars with the condor, an extraordinary bird that lives a tenuous existence in the California mountains and the Andes of South America. Footage includes never-before-photographed nesting sites in the cliffs of Patagonia.

NOVA covers the tense vigil of three people with terminal lung disease as they await the most complex of all organ transplants�a new lung. Months of waiting end in a few frenzied hours of intricate surgery.

Magician James "The Amazing" Randi tests the claims of mind readers, fortune tellers, faith healers and others with purported paranormal powers. As a magician, "I know how people are deceived," Randi says.

Forensic sleuth Clyde Snow and a posse of experts travel to Bolivia in search of the remains of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. They find Hollywood and legend got a few things wrong.

NOVA fans from around the country match wits in a fast-paced contest of general science knowledge celebrating NOVA's 20th anniversary. Famous guests pose questions for the viewers at home. Marc Summers hosts.

NOVA covers both sides of the stormy controversy over the Tasaday tribe. When these isolated cave dwellers were discovered in the Philippines in 1971, they were hailed as a Stone Age relic. Now, many anthropologists denounce them as fakes.

Wherever we shed our body cells, we leave an indisputable identity card: our DNA. NOVA investigates the new science of DNA typing which is putting increasing numbers of murderers and rapists behind bars.

These days, piracy on the high seas often involves sonar, magnometers, metal detectors and other high-tech equipment for finding and plundering sunken ships. NOVA explores the swashbuckling seafaring pirates of old and their present-day successors.

Athletes are training smarter, running faster, jumping higher and generally outperforming their predecessors�thanks to high technology. NOVA covers the record-setting trend for improving sports performance with science.

NOVA covers scientists on the brink of a sputtering, shaking, impatient volcano, trying to forecast when it will go off. When it does, Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines goes big time, producing the largest volcanic eruption in 80 years.

NOVA tells the story of the German scientists abducted to the Soviet Union after World War II to help build an atomic bomb. The success of the crash program in 1949, with the explosion of the first Soviet nuclear weapon, shocked the world.

For four decades, 400 African American men from Macon, Alabama were unwitting participants in a government study of untreated syphilis. NOVA tells the story of this notorious human experiment. George Strait, ABC News Medical Correspondent, hosts.

The Gulf War was fought in 38 days of non-stop bombing and four days of swift ground action. Did bombing win it? NOVA looks at the history of strategic bombing and asks whether bombing has now achieved preeminence in warfare.

After an agreement was made by members of the United Nations, which mandated Iraq to end its pursuit in creating weapons of mass destruction, an international group of advisors and inspectors are on a mission to find and stop any threats that may remain. From nuclear and chemical weaponry, to missiles and guns, the team must face real dangers while searching for any illegal weapon activity in Iraq

NOVA examines the high-tech efforts to preserve the world's animal diversity. Noah needed only an ark�but today's conservationists need all the tools that biology, ecology, diplomacy and politics can muster if endangered species are to survive beyond the next century.

NOVA looks at how Russia and the United States are attacking the intractable problem of alcohol abuse with old and new weapons�including prohibition, hypnotism, imprisonment, surveillance, deception, aversion therapy and group therapy as practiced by Alcoholics Anonymous.

Two paralyzed drug addicts travel to Sweden to receive a revolutionary treatment for brain disease that is largely unavailable in the US due to the ban on fetal tissue research. "Brain Transplant" continues the remarkable story of a mysterious malady linked to a bad batch of synthetic heroin that NOVA first covered in the 1986 award-winning film, "The Case of the Frozen Addict."

NOVA delves into the deep sea drama of life among the dolphins at research stations in Florida and Australia. Like humans and chimpanzees, dolphins have evolved a sophisticated social system that provides clues about the origins and purpose of big brains and intelligence.

Five thousand years ago, a man perished in a mountain storm. In 1991, his frozen body was found along with artifacts of his vanished way of life. NOVA covers the international effort to unlock the secrets of this astonishing discovery.

In a 90-minute special presentation, NOVA reveals the ancient secrets of how the pyramids were built by actually building one. A noted Egyptologist, Mark Lehner, and a professional stonemason, Roger Hopkins (This Old House), join forces in the shadow of the Great Pyramid of Giza to put clever and sometimes bizarre pyramid construction theories to the test.

NOVA explores Earth's greatest natural wonder by rafting down the river that created it, repeating the spectacular first canyon voyage of the 19th-century explorer John Wesley Powell. The Grand Canyon tells the story of nearly 2 billion years of earth history plus the changes caused by three decades of human intervention.

NOVA follows the trail of America's first inhabitants. Did they migrate across a Bering Sea land bridge at the end of the last Ice Age, as we all learned in school? Or did they arrive thousands of years earlier, possibly by some different route, as new archaeological evidence increasingly hints?

NOVA goes behind the scenes to give the real story behind the FBI unit popularized in the Academy Award-winning film, The Silence of the Lambs. Using a detailed psychological profile, the unit helped the Rochester, New York police department catch a notorious serial killer who targeted prostitutes. Actor Patrick Stewart narrates.

Physicists Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard reenact the signing of the 1939 letter that alerted President Franklin Roosevelt to the feasibility of atomic weapons. Szilard drafted and Einstein signed the famous warning, which led to the building of the first atomic bomb.

NOVA looks at grace, speed, strength and endurance of humans and animals.

The spectacular eclipse of 1991 passed over major observatories on the island of Hawaii. NOVA was there for 6 1/2 minutes of frenetic research that revealed new secrets about our sun.

NOVA goes behind the scenes to watch the filming of a big-screen Imax/Omnimax space spectacle. Astronauts operate the cameras on location aboard the Space Shuttle.

NOVA examines the mysterious whale strandings along the beaches of Cape Cod Bay, as the puzzling behavior becomes more common.

Criminals still make money the old-fashioned way�by counterfeiting. NOVA looks at why US currency is so easy to fake and what the government is doing about it.

Rating the audience for TV shows is a classic problem in statistical analysis. NOVA finds that ratings are getting more accurate but still are far from scientific.

The nose knows. How much is the subject of NOVA's investigation of the mysterious aromas and hidden messages picked up by our sense of smell. David Suzuki hosts.

Few people give any thought to wildlife in the midst of a war. During the Gulf War, environmentalist John Walsh did his best to save animals from oil spills, bullets and other dangers.

NOVA takes a voyage on the newest of America's doomsday machines�the ballistic missle submarine USS Michigan. The Cold War may be won, but these submerged super arsenals continue to prowl the deep.

Hell Fighters of Kuwait from the show NOVA is a 1992 documentary that profiles fire fighting teams from the United States as they try to extinguish more than 700 oil-well fires in Kuwait in the aftermath of the first Gulf War. Known as one of the worst environmental disasters of the 20th century, Saddam Hussein's attacks created a deadly legacy that took years to clean-up. The program originally aired on January 14, 1992

Richard Dreyfuss narrates NOVA's exploration of the collision between science, fine art and criminal activities. For as long as there have been masterpieces, there have been people who make copies of the masterpieces. Museums have to take these forgeries very seriously, which is why many have scientists on hand to carefully verify the authenticity of each new acquisition.

NOVA films engineers and construction workers who are building the Worldwide Plaza in New York City. Starting from a large hole in the ground, cameras capture the building's work-in-progress, which lead to the creation of a 47-story office building and 770-foot skyscraper. The episode ends with a quick look at other well-known skyscrapers and how engineers created them.

George Strait hosts this investigation of a ground-breaking 1991 study that aimed to change the face of surgery and medical treatment in general. When four patients seek safe, effective treatment for their heart disease, they are willing to accept unusual techniques that bypass traditional surgery or drugs, possibly leading to better results.

Fastest Planes in the Sky from the show NOVA explains how fast aviation technology is advancing. The fastest planes of today will look slow in comparison to models that are on the horizon. Advances in technology have made these planes more efficient as well, which is important due to rising jet fuel costs.

Taller Than Everest? is the fifth episode of the 19 season from the informative PBS science show NOVA. The episode originally aired on November 5, 1991. Narrated by Stacy Keach this episode examines whether Pakistan's K2 is taller than Everest. Additionally this episode features footage from both peaks and quotes from both scientists and climbers alike.

The sarcophagus is the giant structure that contains the nuclear reactor that melted down at Chernobyl in 1986. Now, scientists and researchers are attempting to open the sarcophagus to see just how bad the damage really is. This is considered a suicide mission because the reactor is still unstable and could explode at any time.

The Dead Sea Scrolls have been fascinating researchers for years, while at the same time remaining steeped in mystery and scandal. It has taken decades for researchers to compile the scrolls. While time intensive, these documents give scholars better insight into the origins of the Hebrew Bible and reveal new observations about world history.

A follow-up to the program "Can We Make a Better Doctor?" this two-hour special chronicles the lives of seven aspiring doctors during their four years of medical school. The show includes their first exams, anatomy class, first patient death, first baby delivered and more. Hosted by Neil Patrick Harris.

Baldness may seem like a trivial matter, but for thousands of men and women, it is a serious issue with deep-reaching societal implications. Alan Rachin hosts an episode that examines the causes of human baldness, as well as potential cures, prevalent social stigmas and the various methods humans have invented to hide baldness

Modern technology is advancing at an astounding rate. With computer technology comes a wide range of applications. A program has been developed that will allow a computer to play chess with a human. But, when the match begins, will the human or the computer prove victorious. Can a computer outsmart people?

Vancouver Island is one of the premier whale watching sites in the world. NOVA goes on location to try to catch glimpses of grays, humpbacks and many other species of whales. Gregory Peck narrates the story of these huge mammals and the way they continue to thrive in this environment.

In the conclusion of "Russian Right Stuff," cosmonauts rendezvous with the Mir space station in 1989. Included: the training of cosmonauts; their comments on the Soviet moon program.

Part 2 of "Russian Right Stuff" explores the costly and secretive Soviet lunar program. Included: bureaucratic infighting following chief designer Sergei Korolev's death; unmanned probes that photographed the moon's surface.

The three-part "Russian Right Stuff" begins by profiling Sergei Korolev, who pioneered the Soviet space program. Included: the historic Sputnik launches; the April 1961 orbital flight of Yuri Gagarin.

T.rex Exposed from the show Nova is a 54 minute TV science documentary from PBS with Don Lessem as host and narrator. The episode's storyline tells of a detailed and interesting look at the most famous dinosaur T.rex and will let the audience witness the discovery of the science and lore of dinosaurs in general. It unavails a suspenseful dig in Montana where a crew is carefully uncovering one of the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex specimens ever found: a remarkably preserved skeleton 40 feet long. T.rex Exposed is a creation of Michael Ambrosino with Paula Apsell as executive producer.

Explore the link between dinosaurs and birds, and tune in to the fierce debate, about whether dinosaurs are truly extinct, that continues to captivate no matter how you choose to draw the family tree.

Nova's The Hunt for China's Dinosaurs follows a team of Canadian paleontologists excavating dinosaur bones in the Gobi Desert. Inspired by the discoveries of Roy Chapman Andrews in the 1920s, the crew set out to find fossils in the Gobi, which had been closed to scientists since then. Having nearly come home empty-handed three years earlier, the scientists find a veritable treasure trove this time.

ConFusion in a Jar from the PBS science series NOVA instigates the amazing power and heated controversy over cold fusion in this 1991 episode. Cold fusion has the potential to supply unlimited energy to a world hungry for power, but many in the scientific community contradict this experimental theory and its dangers

Return to Mt. St. Helens from the show NOVA details how Mt. St. Helens has recovered ten years after its volcanic eruption. Local residents are interviewed about the subject and share their thoughts and firsthand experience of the disaster. Experts are also brought in to explain how long the recovery process will take

In a small Brazilian town, terror is all too real. Parents watch their children pass away unexpectedly as a brutal illness sweeps through their formerly peaceful village. When the locals cannot find a cure, scientists from the Centers for Disease Control travel from Atlanta to help rescue the children and defeat the disease.

NOVA profiles the llama, alpaca, vicuna and guanaco of South America. At one time nearly extinct, these four members of the camel family are exceptionally well adapted to life in the beautiful high Andes.

This NOVA episode examines direct marketing, a phenomenon that affects thousands of people, yet remains mysterious to most civilians. Advertisers are able to keep detailed tabs on their potential consumers, managing to land targeted ads in their mailboxes each week. Researchers uncover the controversial secrets and complex formulas that allow direct marketing to thrive.

Can the Elephant Be Saved? is a 1990 episode from the PBS series NOVA. The mighty elephant is the world's largest land mammal and also faces extinction. Scientists have developed many strategies to help save them, including a ban on ivory. The NOVA team explores the proposed solutions as well as the controversy surrounding them.

This episode originally aired in 1990. The NOVA team examines the possible future of robotic weaponry, which promises to expand the horizon of warfare in both positive and negative ways. Conflicts in the Middle East illustrate both the power of cutting edge weaponry, and the frightening drawbacks to overusing this technology

Earthquake! is a 1990 episode from the PBS science series NOVA that explores nature's frightening and destructive phenomenon of colliding land plates. Earthquakes can damage entire regions and trigger tsunamis but geologists still struggle to find the key to predicting them. The NOVA team interviews the scientists focused on solving this age-old puzzle.

Nova looks at the history and future of dirigible airships, from the early rigid, giant zeppelins to the smaller nonrigid blimps taking to the skies, including the Liteship. Also shown, some unsuccessful hybrids including the Cyclocrane and the ill-fated Piasecki Heli-stat.

NOVA reports on chemical warfare and the cruel effect it has on human beings. In the early 20s, Germany developed an acid bomb, which was used against French soldiers during World War I. Since then, governments have secretly developed chemical bombs, and peace agencies around the world have tried to get them banned without success

The Voyager program is one of the United State's most ambitious space missions. The two unmanned probes are designed to seek out the boundaries of the known universe, going beyond Jupiter to transmit important scientific knowledge and advance human understanding. This episode of NOVA originally aired in the October of 1990.

Neptune's Cold Fury is the second episode for season 18 of the show NOVA. In this episode, NOVA takes a look at the mysteries of this planet and why it took 12 years for the Voyager to reach it. Triton is the largest moon of Neptune and this episode examines the photos of it taken by Voyager 2 in 1989. Actor Patrick Stewart hosts

This documentary covers the surprising tale of an average systems administrator who stumbled upon a KGB spy operation. Clifford Stoll carried out one of the first successful digital forensics investigations by tracking down Markus Hess, a KGB hacker, after noticing a discrepancy in the logs of a University of California computer.

This episode is part-two of NOVA's instigative report on China and the country's battle in keeping up with western technology. The episode focuses on how the 1989 massacre of Chinese students led to sanctions, which contributed to the country's limited access to western expertise in the computer industry and its products

This episode is part-three of NOVA's instigative report on China and the country's battle in keeping up with western technology. In the nineteenth century, the west won the trade war with Japan, lending the small country access to the world's latest technology. NOVA explores what effect this had in China, and why Tokyo and Beijing seem worlds apart

This episode is part-two of NOVA's instigative report on China and the country's battle in keeping up with western technology. From the fifteenth to the eighteen century, European nations traveled westward to explore new countries to trade with. China excluded itself from its western neighbors, and NOVA wants to know why

In The Genius That Was China: Rise of the Dragon (1) episode of the television program NOVA, the show explores the history of the planet's most populous country. As early as the 13th century, China was the dominant technological, industrial and military power in the world. NOVA investigates how it was able to create and maintain its supremacy for hundreds of years.

The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill takes a center stage when NOVA heads to Alaska to find out how technology contributed to one of the world's largest oil spills. Cameras board the Valdez with expert scientists to film the supertanker's instruments and to get opinions on how some advanced gadgets, which were designed to protect the ship, failed in preventing the disaster

NOVA heads to Washington state to examine the Hanfrod Nuclear Reservation, a nuclear waste facility with a lot of problems. The environment and ecology take a center stage, as NOVA investigates how a 45-year mismanaged facility affects the environment and what steps need to be taken to correct the problems at the government agency.

In season 7, episode 13 "Disguises of War," Nova examines the various means of camouflage used in warfare to disguise weaponry and troops. The methods of camouflage which are shown range from the basic patterns used in soldier's uniforms to the incredibly complex technology used in stealth bombers to defeat radar detection.

If you're like most people, you've never heard of a quark. The top quark is likely the fundamental root of all matter. No scientist has ever been able to observe or document them. Scientists in the US and Europe are attempting to identify the top quark with some of the most massive machinery on Earth

Poison in the Rockies from the show NOVA is an episode focused on the damage that decades of mining operations in the Rockies have inflicted on the local environment. It covers other problems such as the acid rain that afflicts the region, but concentrates on the harmful chemicals entering the surrounding states' water supplies from mining drainage

The Schoolboys Who Cracked the Soviet Secret recreates the story of a British schoolteacher and his students who discovered secrets of the Soviet space program. In the 1960s, Geoffrey Perry at the Kettering Grammar School gave his students used short wave radios for a science project, but the school project had international reach when the group connected with Soviet transmissions.

In 1988, Yellowstone National Park became the site of raging forest fires. The park officials did not step in to quell the blaze, instead adopting the policy that the park would recover from the devastation naturally. The NOVA team heads to Yellowstone soon after the fires to examine the impact of the blaze on the local ecology.

Humans have traditionally enjoyed a complex relationship with music. Originally aired in 1989, this NOVA episode takes a closer look at the science behind the everyday phenomenon that affects so many lives. Scientists explore the human brain's ability to perceive music. Researchers also examine the impact of various instruments, from classic violins to human voices

In 1966, the city of Venice faced the beginnings of a large-scale crisis when the main square began to sink underwater. Since then, the government has been trying to find a solution to this potentially devastating problem. In 1989, a team from NOVA traveled to the city to explore the possible answers, as well as the possible challenges.

Hurricane! from the show NOVA takes the viewer inside the violent, cyclonic storms that can reach speeds of 72 miles per hour and threaten coastal areas throughout the North Atlantic region. This 1989 episode demonstrates how scientists are studying these killer storms and gathering data in hopes of better predicting their paths

Biologists around the world gear up to decode the three-billion-letter genetic message that describes how humans are made. Ethicists warn that it may not be such a good idea.

Echoes of War is a 1989 episode from the PBS science series NOVA. World War II may have ended with the atomic bomb, but it was the radar which provided the key to winning the battles leading to Hiroshima. The NOVA team recounts the importance and history of the radar in modern warfare.

NOVA examines the entries put forward by five architects and their teams, in a tough competition to choose a design for the new Chicago Public Library. The show gives viewers a chance to see the variation between the designs, as well as taking a closer look at the winning plan.

The Controversial Dr. Koop is an episode from the PBS documentary series NOVA that aired on October 10, 1989. The episode features C. Everett Koop, the former Surgeon General of the United States, who rattled the country with his distinct views on AIDS, tobacco, and abortion while in his position from 1982 to 1989

Four of the major systems forming the infrastructure of an urban center are examined. Judd Hirsch narrates as Nova looks at the distribution and disposal of electricity, water, sewage and garbage in New York City.

Arlo, Nancy and Janice each have a 50/50 chance of developing a devastating nerve disorder. A laboratory test can tell them if in fact they will fall victim. In their shoes, would you take the test? Thousands of others face a similar choice: to know, or not know, if they will carry the genetic time bomb of Huntington's disease. NOVA looks at this incurable disease which affects 20,000 people in the US and threatens tens of thousands of others.

Scientific detectives test their ingenuity in the effort to find underground oil deposits.

In the second part of this two-part series, NOVA explores ancient legends hold the clues to the violent history of the South Pacific's Easter Island.

In this two-part series, NOVA investigates the mystery of Easter Island in the South Pacific. Who built its celebrated statues and why?

NOVA explores the importance of the Gulf Stream to ocean life, climate and human history.

In an Idaho classroom, teacher Phil Gerrish puts an unorthodox interpretation on the day's biology lesson. As students take notes, he explains that creationism is a valid scientific explanation for the origin on life. Once relying solely on the literal word of the Bible to make their case, creationists now argue that the scientific evidence is on their side. NOVA reports on this new twist in the long-running battle between creationism and evolution.

NOVA goes to the Soviet Union for an inside investigation of the world's most catastrophic nuclear power accident with correspondent Bill Kurtis.

NOVA explains "chaos," a new science that is making surprising sense out of chaotic phenomena in nature, from the weather to brain waves.

NOVA looks at the bongo-playing scientist, adventurer, safecracker and yarn-spinner Richard Feynman, most recently famous for his role as gadfly of the Presidential Commission investigating the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.

Was the searing summer of 1988 a taste of things to come? NOVA looks at the greenhouse effect, which portends higher temperatures, rising sea levels and other environmental disasters.

NOVA embarks on a 10-year project to profile�in its entirety�the education of a doctor. In the premiere episode, we follow a handful of students as they start their freshman year at Harvard Medical School under a revolutionary program emphasizing early clinical contact with patients.

The life of the shy, intelligent black bear in the wild�foraging, mating, playing and constantly preparing for its remarkable hibernation�is captured for the first time on film by NOVA.

Reliving a Greek myth takes an effort of mythic proportions, as NOVA reveals in its behind-the-scenes report of a human powered-flight across the Aegean Sea, a journey that symbolically recreated the mythical flight of Daedalus. NOVA follows the epic journey of the human-powered plane Daedalus 88 from the early prototypes to its dramatic landing in the surf after a 74-mile flight from the island of Crete to Santorini.

Using previously unavailable technology, NOVA probes the available evidence surrounding the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy.

NOVA examines the troubling question of scientific fraud: How prevalent is it? Who commits it? And what happens when the perpetrators are caught?

Thirty years after Sputnik, the United States space program is mired in uncertainty, while the Russians, Europeans, Japanese and others sprint onward and upward.

Science meets art in the controversial effort to restore Michelangelo's famous Sistine Chapel frescoes.

Surgeons have always been eager to help patients, even at the risk of killing them. NOVA looks at some of the excesses of surgery, and at how new drugs and technologies are rendering some operations obsolete.

From kidneys to hearts, NOVA examines the daring attempts to replace diseased organs with transplanted ones.

Once unthinkable, open-heart surgery is now an everyday miracle. NOVA looks at the brave doctors and patients who make it possible.

Part one of a four-part series on the pioneers of modern surgery relives the early days, when surgery was practiced without the benefit of anaesthesia or antisceptics and patients usually died.

Most cases of polio in this country are caused by the vaccine designed to prevent it. NOVA examines the controvery surrounding the nation's vaccine policy.

NOVA charts an electronics revolution in the making as Japan and the United States race to develop a material that will conduct electricity at room temperature with zero resistance.

NOVA explores the life of Srinivasa Ramanujan, a poor clerk from India who astounded mathematicians in the 1910s with his brilliant insight into the world of numbers.

It was a blustery day in December 1986, and the New England Coast was in the midst of a winter storm, accompanied by strong on-shore gales and an unusually high tide�conditions perfect for stranding whales in the confined shallows of Cape Cod. NOVA recounts this tragic episode and the happy suprise ending for the young whales who survived after being nursed back to health by the New England Aquarium in Boston.

Princeton professor and author Robert Mark tracks down the engineering secrets of some of the beautiful buildings in the world including Notre Dame in Paris, St. Paul in London and the Roman Pantheon.

Breast cancer claims the lives of four American women every hour. Jane Pauley of NBC News hosts and narrates this NOVA report on stepped-up efforts to reduce the death rate from this all-too-common killer.

In part one of a two-part special presentation, NOVA reports on the trials to determine whether the new drug Interleukin-2�the first to make use of the body's own disease-fighting strategy�will live up to its promise as a pivotal cancer breakthrough. Jane Pauley of NBC News hosts and narrates.

Airplane fires are often deadly. NOVA looks at efforts to make fires aboard planes less likely and more survivable.

Scientists investigate the frozen remains of members of the 19th century Franklin Expedition to the Canadian Arctic and ask why all perished.

Julia Child introduces NOVA's behind-the-scenes look at how science aids in the creation of snack foods.

Today's sophisticated fighter jets can almost fly themselves, but well-trained pilots are still needed to win air battles. NOVA looks at how planes and pilots are adapting to high technology.

NOVA follows archaeologists as they unearth clues, some 7,000 years old, about an unknown, mysterious and advanced sea-faring people who lived along the North Atlantic coast of the United States and Canada.

A trail of evidence leading from a medieval abbey to a small town in Connecticut sheds new light on rheumatoid arthritis, a crippling inflammation of the joints with no known cause or cure.

NOVA joins underwater archaeologists as they explore the oldest shipwreck ever excavated, a richly-laden merchant vessel dating from the time of King Tut.

NOVA takes a behind-the-scences look at science and technology in the USSR, where the government is trying novel approaches in an effort to catch up with the West.

Millions live in the shadows of nature's ticking time-bombs�volcanos. NOVA accompanies scientists who are developing new techniques to predict when volcanos will erupt and how violently.

The Panama Canal opened in 1914 after a 30-year effort that dwarfed the building of the pyramids. Historian David McCullough navigates through the canal and tells the story of the human drama behind the engineering feat.

Is Detroit inventor Stanford Ovshinsky the new Thomas Edison? Japanese industries are betting that the genius behind amorphous materials-a simpler and less expensive alternative to silicon-is onto something big.

Plants produce some of the world's most potent chemicals in the fight against disease. NOVA follows the urgent efforts to track down new medicines in nature.

On the 25th anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis, NOVA investigates the spy planes and satellites that played a critical role in history and influence arms control today.

Why do stars explode and how is the energy generated? What is the effect of all those little �aftermath� particles floating through space? Nova: Death of a Star is a 60-minute science documentary that explores rare astronomical events in all their dimensions. The film features the 1987 explosion of a supernova - first observed by a Canadian astronomer in Chile - and discusses its impact on the universe. Witness the celestial phenomena that baffles the scientific community as you travel from South America to Japan to Cleveland. A discussion of supernova neutrinos is a special highlight of the tape.

In a case study of the strengths and weaknesses of the United States space program, NOVA chronicles the ambitious and long-delayed Galileo mission to Jupiter�still on the ground long after its planned May 1986 launch.

In rich and poor countries alike, once-productive farms are turning to desert because of mismanagement of water resources. NOVA examines the causes and cures of desertification.

All over the world, farmers are taking more from the soil than they return. NOVA reports on the soil crisis in world agriculture�a plight that has already resulted in massive starvation.

NOVA presents two hours of the best from its 14 seasons of exciting science coverage. A "talking" chimp, an exploding volcano and a sight-and-sound space video are but a few of the memorable segments. Richard Kiley hosts.

Harvard chemist George Kistiakowsky was an anti-Bolshevik soldier in 1919 Russia, an atomic bomb scientist at Los Alamos, a presidential advisor in the Eisenhower White House and an arms control activist. Shortly before Kistiakowsky death, he recounts his eventful career to interviewer Carl Sagan.

NOVA travels to Antarctica with an emergency scientific expedition to study a baffling "hole" in the Earth's protective ozone layer.

Fifty years after his death, the creator of psychoanalysis is still the subject of intense debate. Was Freud right or wrong? NOVA profiles the enigmatic man and his controversial legacy.

NOVA cameras travel to Borneo, one of the last habitats of the wild orangutans, where scientists study the endangered ape. Who is observing whom? It is not always clear.

Between 60 and 80 percent of all commercial airplane accidents are attributable to pilot error. NOVA looks at some shocking instances of pilot negligence and what airlines are doing to solve the problem.

NOVA examines a controversial theory that traces our ancestry to a small group of women living in Africa 300,000 years ago.

NOVA scans the universe with the infrared eye of IRAS�the Infrared Astronomical Satellite�and discovers never-before-seen comets, stars, galaxies and other celestial wonders and enigmas.

NOVA explores the ground-breaking experiments that led to the discovery of a tiny sequence of molecules�and more clues to the mystery of how a complete baby develops from a single cell.

Leprosy, a misunderstood disease that has been curable for 40 years, still afflicts some 12 million people. NOVA looks at the tragedy of the disease that need not be.

Yankee ingenuity has designs on the America's Cup. NOVA goes behind-the-scenes to look at the engineering effort to design a technically advanced sailboat.

NOVA dips into the sad plight of our coastal waters, where toxic chemicals, raw sewage and disease-carrying microbes are routinely dumped.

Birds do it; bees do it, butterflies, bats and eels do it�all leave one habitat to migrate to another, often thousands of miles away. NOVA penetrates the mystery of where animals migrate, why and how they get there.

Could there be life beyond Earth? Only recently has it become possible to scan the skies in a systematic attempt to find out. NOVA joins the search with guest host Lily Tomlin.

What are the prospects for halting or curing the deadliest epidemic ever to challenge modern medicine? NOVA finds cause for both hope and alarm in the battle against AIDS.

Scientific breakthroughs now make it possible to reproduce ourselves in ways never before imagined. NOVA looks at the medical, legal and moral questions raised by this brave new technology.

The adventures of the Voyager 2 spacecraft continue as it passes the rings of Uranus. Scientists suspect that violent events in the early history of the planet may have shaped Uranus and its strange collection of moons.

NOVA joins scientists in Argentina as they help locate kidnapped children and identify thousands of dead in the aftermath of a military reign of terror.

NOVA and Frontline combine resources to explore the Strategic Defense Initiative. The two-hour documentary contains the most comprehensive information on "Star Wars" ever produced. Bill Kurtis of WBBM-TV/Chicago hosts.

NOVA examines the medical community's alarm as the spread of antibiotic-resistant infection increases, and studies how one hospital fights its own dramatic epidemic.

When Alexander Fleming discovered the penicillin mold in 1928, he never considered its possible therapeutic value. NOVA explores the "Fleming myth" and reveals the true story of thescientists who worked behind the scenes to develop the wonder drug of the century.