On August 29th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, killing at least 1,300, destroying over 600,000 houses, and turning downtown New Orleans into an uninhabitable swamp. Hurricane Katrina: The Storm that Drowned a City presents astonishing storm footage, suspenseful eyewitness testimony, and a penetrating analysis of what went wrong. Viewers relive the storm through the eyes of survivors and the stories of top engineers, hurricane experts, and emergency officials as they grappled with the arrival of the storm and its traumatic aftermath. Hurricane! – Witness nature’s fury as hurricanes Camille and Gilbert crash onto the Gulf coast. “It’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen,” says Hugh Willoughby, relishing the unusual object of his profession. “That’s one of the reasons why people fly into hurricanes.” Join Willoughby on a data-gathering flight made into the eye of Hurricane Gilbert in September 1988. NOVA obtained spectacular footage of the storm’s center–a canyon of clear blue sky surrounded by a wall of clouds 10 miles high. Watch how these highly-trained scientists routinely–and carefully–fly into the world’s most destructive storms to discover what makes them tick and to measure their intensity and probable path. Then hear first-hand accounts of Hurricane Camille, the most devastating storm ever to strike the United States. (112 min on 2 discs)
Grade levels: Senior High (10-12)
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Treasures of the Great Barrier Reef
The brilliant colors and extraordinary creatures of the undersea world are revealed as NOVA takes you on the most dramatic tour ever of the wonders of the Great Barrier Reef off Australia.
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The Great Robot Race
Twenty-three bizarre looking vehicles line up at the starting gate of the DARPA Grand Challenge with one thing in common: there’s nobody behind the wheel. Sponsored by the Pentagon’s research agency, this race for robotic, driverless vehicles has a $2 million prize. Its ultimate goal is to gather new ideas for the future of unmanned warfare. NOVA follows the competing engineering teams as they deal with the glitches, system crashes, and tight deadlines that threaten to derail them at every turn. NOVA’s cameras capture the race’s technical challenges, hilarious pitfalls, and a final twist as a surprise contender comes up from behind to steal the race.
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The Private Lives of Dolphins
Dive beneath the surface and explore the secret world of dolphins. NOVA offers a rare glimpse into the private lives of dolphins with amazing scientific evidence collected over nearly 30 years. Visit a remote beach on Shark Bay off Australia’s western coast where wild bottlenose dolphins make a daily visit to swim, feed and mingle with people of all ages. Travel to Sarasota Bay, Florida and experience life in a remarkable “dolphin colony” that’s been tracked, tested and recorded over two decades and three generations. And enjoy this unprecedented look at the rarely seen underwater world of dolphins.
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Kingdom of the Seahorse
They’re the stuff of myth: a remarkable fish whose male becomes pregnant and gives birth. Tour the magical and complex world of the seahorse-from an underwater enclave in Australia (where their mating dance is caught on film for the first time) to the bustling apothecary shops of Hong Kong to a village in the Philippines dependent on the seahorse for survival.
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Under the Sea – The Real World of Sharks, Dolphins and Seahorses
This set contains three NOVA DVDs: Kingdom of the Seahorse, Shark Attack! and Private Lives of Dolphins. 168 min on 3 discs
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Shark Attack!
Are sharks developing a taste for human flesh? A rash of shark attacks off Hawaii spurs a team of researchers to track the predators’ elusive movements-and the scientists discover some surprising truths about the way sharks kill.
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Cracking the Code of Life
ABC Nightline correspondent Robert Krulwich lends a lighthearted touch to genetic science in this provocative two-hour NOVA special that takes you inside the amazing, complex and contentious race to decode the human genome. The Human Genome Project was born in 1990, when an international consortium of labs set out to sequence all 3 billion letters of our DNA. Armed with this powerful information, medical pioneers are in the midst of astonishing breakthroughs that will change medicine as we know it. Will you get cancer, arthritis, or Alzheimer’s? The answer lies in your genetic code–but the question is: Do you want to know? And will these new discoveries eventually lead to cures?
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Apollo 13 – Journey to the Moon, Mars and Back
Apollo 13: To the Edge and Back tells the gripping, true story of the catastrophic flight of the Apollo 13 and the heroic struggle to bring the astronauts back alive. With first-hand accounts from the pilots, their families, and the people of mission control, it documents a thrilling struggle against time and all odds and serves as a reminder that, in the words of James Lovell, “We do not realize what we have on Earth until we leave it.” To the Moon: The mission was impossible. The odds were astronomical. The results were spectacular. NOVA shares the fascinating inside story behind “one giant leap for mankind.” MARS Dead or Alive: Go inside NASA’s risky field trip to the red planet in this tense and dramatic behind-the-scenes chronicle of the $820 million Mars Exploration Rover (MER) project. (258 min on 3 discs.)
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Hurricane!
Witness nature’s fury as hurricanes Camille and Gilbert crash onto the Gulf coast. Join Hugh Willoughby on a data-gathering flight made into the eye of Hurricane Gilbert in September 1988. NOVA obtained spectacular footage of the storm’s center–a canyon of clear blue sky surrounded by a wall of clouds 10 miles high. As Bob Sheets, director of the National Hurricane Center says, “Even if we could issue the perfect forecast, it does no good unless you motivate people to take the right action.”