How Smart Can We Get? How do you get a genius brain? Is it all in the genes? Or is it hard work? Episodes include: Einstein’s Brain; Mystery of the Savant Brain; What is Intelligence?; and Profile: Sian Beilock.
Countries: US
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NOVA: Hurricane Sandy: Inside the Megastorm
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.
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NOVA: Doomsday Volcanoes
n April 2010, the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano turned much of the northern hemisphere into an ash-strewn no-fly zone, stranding hundreds of thousands of travelers. But Eyjafjallajökull was just the start. Now, an Icelandic volcano ten times bigger, 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 will be global. As CGI takes us inside these geological monsters, 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?
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NOVA: Decoding Neanderthals
Over 60,000 years ago, the first modern humans – people physically identical to us today – left their African homeland and entered Europe, then a bleak and inhospitable continent in the grip of the Ice Age. But when they arrived, they were not alone: the stocky, powerfully built Neanderthals had already been living there for hundreds of thousands of years. So what happened when the first modern humans encountered the Neanderthals? Did they make love or war? That question has tantalized generations of scholars and seized the popular imagination. Then, in 2010, a team led by geneticist Svante Paabo announced stunning news. Not only had they reconstructed much of the Neanderthal genome – an extraordinary technical feat that would have seemed impossible only a decade ago – but their analysis showed that “we” modern humans had interbred with Neanderthals, leaving a small but consistent signature of Neanderthal genes behind in everyone outside Africa today. In “Decoding Neanderthals,” NOVA explores the implications of this exciting discovery. In the traditional view, Neanderthals differed from “us” in behavior and capabilities as well as anatomy. But were they really mentally inferior, as inexpressive and clumsy as the cartoon caveman they inspired? NOVA explores a range of intriguing new evidence for Neanderthal self-expression and language, all pointing to the fact that we may have seriously underestimated our mysterious, long-vanished human cousins.
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NOVA: Rise of the Drones
NOVA reveals the amazing technologies that make drones so powerful. 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. Discover the cutting-edge technologies that are propelling us toward a new chapter in aviation history.
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NOVA: Ancient Computers
An unpromising lump of metal found in a 2,000-year-old shipwreck turns out to be an extraordinary treasure: the world’s first computer. NOVA follows the ingenious detective work that painstakingly discovered the truth about the ancient Greek device: it was an astonishingly sophisticated astronomical calculator and eclipse predictor, unrivaled until the era of modern science and believed to be from the workshop of Archimedes.
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scienceNOW – Can We Make it to Mars? – Public Performance
This NOVA scienceNOW poses the question – Can We make it to Mars? – and host Neil deGrasse Tyson tackles one of science’s major challenges in each episode. He will guide us as he explores dramatic discoveries and the frontiers of research that connect each central, provocative mystery. Program episodes include Space Dangers – A trip to Mars and back could take two to three years. Can humans survive the journey, fraught with deadly meteoroids, bone and muscle wasting, and perilous levels of radiation? Scientists are developing new ways to keep astronauts alive, using novel meteoroid-proof materials, artificial gravity, and exercise. But will they be enough?
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scienceNOW – Can We Make it to Mars? – Home Use
This NOVA scienceNOW poses the question – Can We make it to Mars? – and host Neil deGrasse Tyson tackles one of science’s major challenges in each episode. He will guide us as he explores dramatic discoveries and the frontiers of research that connect each central, provocative mystery. Program episodes include Space Dangers – A trip to Mars and back could take two to three years. Can humans survive the journey, fraught with deadly meteoroids, bone and muscle wasting, and perilous levels of radiation? Scientists are developing new ways to keep astronauts alive, using novel meteoroid-proof materials, artificial gravity, and exercise. But will they be enough?
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The Perfect Corpse – Public Performance
Central Ireland’s waterlogged landscape is no ordinary ground. Here, the moist earth halts decomposition, perfectly preserving stunning evidence of brutal ritualistic killings, corpses from the prehistoric Iron Age, over 2,000 years ago. These are not skeletons or mummies, but the soft tissue and remains of people trapped in time. NOVA is granted exclusive access to the investigation of two recently unearthed and exceedingly rare bog bodies.
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NOVA: Secrets of Stonehenge
Every year, a million visitors are drawn to the Salisbury Plain, in southern England, to gaze upon a mysterious circle of stones. Who built Stonehenge? What was its purpose? A new generation of researchers is tackling these questions, finding important clues in the landscape surrounding Stonehenge -one of the densest concentrations of prehistoric structures in the world. The story of Stonehenge is being rewritten.