The world changed fifty years ago, on October 4, 1957, when the U.S. public heard the shocking news that the Soviet Union had successfully launched the first satellite, Sputnik The astonishing behind-the-scenes story of the politics and personalities that collided over the earliest efforts to get America into space, long before the founding of NASA. Anticommunist witch-hunts drove some of the nations most talented rocketry pioneers out of the country even as we welcomed Wernher von Braun and his former Nazi colleagues. With help from Walt Disney, von Braunís vision of future space travel swiftly captivated U.S. TV watchers. But even as he became the first media star of the Space Age, von Braunís attempts to build space probes were hobbled by inter-service rivalries. In “Secrets of the Sputnik Race” NOVA details the previously untold story of the technological and political missteps that made the U.S. lose out to the Soviets bleeping electronic basketball.
Countries: US
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Marathon Challenge
Every year thousands of athletes from across the globe flock to Boston to run the city’s marathon, known worldwide as the ultimate test of stamina and endurance. But how do you run 26 miles if you have trouble making it around the block? With good coaching, discipline, and lots of group support, as NOVA shows when it follows 13 sedentary people through a nine-month regimen designed to prepare them for the grueling Boston Marathon.
Filled with personal drama, Marathon Challenge also takes viewers on a scientific adventure inside the human body. What happens to our muscles and hearts when couch potatoes become endurance runners? And what are the hidden risks? NOVA’s behind-the-scenes portrait of the trials, tribulations, and joys of marathon training reaches a climax at the 2007 Boston Marathon. Here our 13 rookie athletes put all their hopes and hard work to the final test, experiencing hidden rewards and floods of emotion at the finish line. -
Lost Treasures of Tibet
Join the race against time as art and restoration experts mix history, science, and politics in a complicated and daunting mission to preserve the surviving sacred masterpieces of an ancient Buddhist kingdom. Travel to a remote part of the world for a remarkably rare look at the spectacular art created by a clandestine Buddhist culture. See astonishingly intricate and expressive Medieval wall paintings, woodcarvings, and a gravity-defying monastery built atop a cliff. And watch as science helps reveal vibrantly colored treasures from the past.
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DNA – Secret of Photo 51
NOVA investigates the shocking truth behind the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA and presents a moving portrait of a brilliant woman in an era of male-dominated science-Rosalind Franklin. Watson and Crick had seen a crucial piece of her data without her permission, an X-ray image, ”Photo 51,” that proved to be a vital clue in their decoding of the double helix. Narrated by Sigourney Weaver.
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Percy Julian – Forgotten Genius
His house was firebombed. He lost his job on the eve of the Depression. He took on powerful, entrenched interests in the scientific establishment and overcame countless obstacles to become a world-class chemist, a self-made millionaire, and a humanitarian. Yet despite his achievements, Percy Julian’s story is largely unknown. The grandson of Alabama slaves, Julian broke the color barrier in American science more than a decade before Jackie Robinson did in baseball. A brilliant innovator, he discovered a way to turn soybeans into synthetic steroids on an industrial scale, helping to make drugs like cortisone available to millions. In Forgotten Genius, a special two-hour presentation starring Tony-award winning actor Ruben Santiago-Hudson, NOVA brings Julian’s scientific breakthroughs and gripping biography to life, with vivid period reenactments based on newly opened family archives and interviews with dozens of colleagues and relatives.
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Lost King of the Maya
In an ancient Mayan arena, enemies of notorious King Yax K’uk Mo square off in a ball game that appears much like modern soccer. But in this fateful contest, winners live- and losers lose their heads. From 200 to 900 A.D., Yax K’uk Mo’s dynasty of Blood Lords presided over the Maya city of Copan, conducting hallucinogenic vision quests, ritual warfare and human sacrifice. Join a team of archaeologists and historians who are piecing together the fascinating rise and fall of this ancient city, its legendary founder, Yax K’uk Mo and its amazingly advanced culture. This set also includes Maya Lords of the Jungle: The civilization of the Maya, which rose out of Central America’s rain forests more than 2000 years ago, grew to dizzying heights of achievement before declining precipitously in the ninth century AD No one yet knows why Maya civilization collapsed, but in Maya Lords of the Jungle, we witness the quest for an answer as archaeologists investigate temples and monuments, piece together the meaning of a complex hieroglyphic language, and analyze Maya trade routes and agricultural techniques. (112 min on 2 DVDs)
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Global Warming – What’s Up With the Weather?
Deadly flooding in Africa. Catastrophic hurricanes in the U.S. Record-high temperatures worldwide. Are these natural, temporary glitches in our global climate, or is the devastation the result of global warming? The weather is different now — but why?
Find out when NOVA and FRONTLINE join forces to determine What’s Up with the Weather? Man-made carbon dioxide has overloaded the earth’s atmosphere. With demand for fossil fuels increasing daily, experts predict emission levels will triple in the next 100 years. But the greenhouse effect remains the subject of heated debate among scientists, climatologists, and futurists. Some believe the earth’s temperature will rise by nearly 10 degrees, melting arctic ice caps and, paradoxically, bringing about a new Ice Age. Others believe the weather will stay relatively normal. Who’s right? Decide for yourself as this riveting two-hour special gives you the fascinating — and occasionally frightening — forecast for the future. -
Underwater Dream Machine
Building a submarine without the resources of a big shipyard and using only scavenged or off-the-shelf parts is an unusual idea by any standard. But Peter Robbins has dreamed of submarines all his life, and he is an unusually determined man. Over the course of four years, Robbins staked everything he owned to build his own submarine, the Alicia, in a bid to explore, first-hand, the sunken wrecks of German U-boats. As an engineer, he is fascinated by the precision of U-boat technology; as an entrepreneur, he is intrigued by the prospect of underwater tourism. Assembled from more than 2 million parts, at a cost of $1.5 million, will the Alicia be the success he hoped for? Dive into uncharted waters with NOVA for the maiden voyage of one man’s lifelong dream.
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Bees – Tales from the Hive
Amazingly up-close footage filmed with specially developed macro lenses brings you the most intimate- and most spectacular- portrayal of a working bee colony ever filmed. It’s not frightening- it’s fascinating. See things you never imagined. Hear things only bees hear. Discover new found facts about the strange and complex life of bees.
Have you ever seen the high-speed mid-air “wedding flight” of a drone and his queen? Do you know how the colony defends itself against honey-loving bears? Did you know it takes nectar from 10 million flowers to create a single liter of honey? No wonder they’re called worker bees! Bees: Tales from the Hive exposes a bee colony’s secret world- detailing such rarely-seen events as the life-or-death battle between a pair of rival queens, a bee eater’s attack on the hive, and a scout bee’s mysterious dance that shares special “nectar directions” with the rest of the hive. -
Ants – Little Creatures Who Run the World
From vast underground caverns, working class armies pour forth to defend their highly structured communal way of life. Are these feudal societies in the Middle Ages? No, they’re ants! 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. All ants belong to extended families and carry their prey home to share. Unselfishness is the rule. Everything they do is for their colony’s good. For them, socialism works.