Mobile phones that read your mind? Video games that can cure cancer? Wearable robots that give you the strength of Ironman? David Pogue predicts which technologies will transform our daily lives. These advancements are already taking shape in laboratories around the world – and gadgets that once were purely science fiction are on the verge of becoming as common as the iPhones and Androids Pogue reviews every day.
Grade levels: Senior High (10-12)
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Earth from Space
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. 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, Earth From Space reveals the astonishing beauty and complexity of our dynamic planet.
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Mind of a Rampage Killer
What makes a person walk into a theater, church, or classroom and open fire? What combination of circumstances compels a human being to commit the most inhuman of crimes? As the nation tries to comprehend the tragic events in Newtown, Connecticut, NOVA correspondent Miles O’Brien investigates theories that many rampage killers are driven most of all by the wish to die, not the urge to kill. Could suicide-and the desire to go out in a media-fueled blaze of glory-be their main motivation? How much can science tell us about a brain at risk for violence? Most important, can we recognize dangerous minds in time to stop the next Newtown?
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Longest Hatred
“They are the other. They are not us.” Throughout time, words such as these have been used to justify and vilify. This stunning documentary takes an unsparing look at the ways such words have shaped the experience of Jewish people, from the first century to the present. In part one, “From the Cross to the Swastika,” traces an image that begins with the earliest writing of Christianity. In part two, “Enemies of the People,” shows how anti-Semitic sentiment has accompanied a growing nationalism in Europe in recent decades. Part three, Between Moses and Muhammed, takes a humanistic look at relations between Arabs and Israelis, once linked by pseudo-science under the degrading label ”Semite,” and now enmeshed in one of the world’s most violent conflicts. (2.5 hrs. on 2 cassettes)
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Sister Wendy in Conversation with Bill Moyers Book
A 96-page companion book to the video Sister Wendy in Conversation with Bill Moyers, contains the complete transcript of the three-hour conversation between Sister Wendy and Bill Moyers–including additional dialogue not in the video.
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The Churchills
An astounding portrait of one of history’s most important families. They overcame doubters with powerful persuasion. They overthrew enemies with ruthless determination. They overjoyed the public with courageous leadership. The Churchills–regally descended from the first Duke of Marlborough–blended aristocratic privilege with ceaseless ambition to ultimately bring glory to their nation and their name. Special DVD features include: a link to the American Experience Web site; closed captions; and video descriptions. (2.5 hrs on 1 disc)
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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.