One of the most daring resistance operations of World War II was the 1944 sinking of the Norwegian ferry Hydro, with its cargo of “heavy water” destined for the Nazi’s secret atomic bomb project. If the Germans had obtained a large supply, it could have helped their physicists develop nuclear weapons that would have made the Third Reich invincible. Fear of that outcome sparked the Allies to undertake the Manhattan Project, which ultimately produced the first atomic bomb. Hitler’s Sunken Secret features gripping first-person interviews with the sole living Norwegian saboteur and survivors who were on board the Hydro when it blew up. Among the NOVA team’s startling new discoveries is evidence that a second secret consignment of barrels eluded the saboteurs and made it all the way to Germany, but arrived too late to make a Nazi bomb feasible. Special DVD features include: materials and activities for educators; a link to the NOVA Web site; scene selections; closed captions; and described video for the visually impaired.
Languages: English
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Killer Quake!
Metropolitan Los Angeles is sitting on ground zero. Slicing under the highrises of downtown is a network of potentially deadly faults which could trigger the nation’s most devastating natural disaster. On January 17, 1994 a previously unknown fault convulsed beneath Northridge. It was the most destructive earthquake in modern Los Angeles history. NOVA takes viewers from urban trench sites to the top of the Santa Susanna Mountains, in search of clues to where nature will strike next.
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In the Path of a Killer Volcano
The Philippines’ Mount Pinatubo is about to blow big. Is there enough time to evacuate the hundreds of thousands in its raging path? Stay with the scientists who remain behind- and see some astonishing footage of the world’s largest volcanic eruption in 80 years. Local tribespeople were the first to see the signs. “There was a flash of light from the sky,” said one. “I thought it was my time to die.” The Philippines’ Mount Pinatubo was acting restless- and the volcanologists at Clark Air Force Base were starting to sweat. An angry mountain is highly unpredictable. If they misread its fits and starts, a violent explosion could send pyroclastic flow- hot, dense avalanches- roaring down its sides at 100 miles per hour, burning everyone and everything in its path. But if they ordered an evacuation and nothing happened, these experts could lose their credibility for good. With a typhoon headed in their direction, the stakes are even higher. Torrential rains turn ash and rock into hot mud flows that can bury a town in minutes. Is it time to issue a Level 4 alert- ordering hundreds of thousands to flee their homes? Stay with the courageous scientists who remain behind- and see some astonishing footage as the world’s biggest eruption in 80 years really starts to blow.
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Galileo’s Battle for the Heavens
At a time when heretics were burned alive for dissent, scientist Galileo Galilei risked his life to advance his revolutionary concepts of the universe. British actor Simon Callow (Shakespeare in Love, Four Weddings and a Funeral) brings Galileo to life, humanizing the great thinker’s passion, intelligence, and arrogance while depicting his frustrations with fellow philosophers and scientists, and with Roman Based on Dava Sobel’s best-selling biography Galileo’s Daughter, this two-hour film offers a vivid re-imagining of the incredible achievements that forever changed the way we view our place in the universe. Simon Callow (Four Weddings and a Funeral) and noted Galileo authorities shed new light on Galileo’s pioneering telescopic observations, his fateful Inquisition trial for heresy, and life in the seventeenth century.
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Earth Science
This DVD set including Killer Quake, In the Path of a Killer Volcano, Tsunami: Wave that Shook the World, and Everest: The Death Zone.
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Deadly Ascent
Each year, more than 1,000 mountain climbers venture to Denali National Park in Alaska and attempt to reach Mt. McKinley’s summit, the highest point in North America. In an exploration of extreme medical science, NOVA ascends to the top of Denali to try to solve the mystery of high altitude deaths on one of the most dangerous mountains on earth. Deadly Ascent chronicles daring mountain rescues, emergency medical evacuations, and cutting-edge science experiments as a team of researchers, doctors, and mountaineering experts employing the latest NASA technology investigate the lethal diseases attacking climbers all over the world.
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Shackleton’s Voyage of Endurance – DVD
A definitive and spellbinding record of the legendary Antarctic expedition. Trapped in the Antarctic ice over 1,000 miles from civilization, polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton and his 28 brave crewmembers endured nearly 15 harrowing months stranded on the ice pack in a daring and courageous adventure that became the greatest survival story of all time.
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The Mummy Who Would Be King
It is a tantalizing idea: a shriveled mummy that has lain neglected on a dusty museum shelf at Niagara Falls could be the remnants of a long-lost Egyptian pharaoh. While a trail of clues hints at how the looted mummy made its way to North America a century and a half ago, archaeologists go to Emory University to employ the latest imaging and DNA techniques in hopes of confirming the body’s hidden identity. Their results provide compelling evidence that the mummy may indeed be that of Ramesses I, founder of ancient Egypt’s most illustrious dynasty. This amazing story of historical intrigue and forensic science concludes as the mummy takes its rightful place alongside royal relatives in an Egyptian museum, a fitting solution to a 3,000 year-old puzzle.
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America’s Stone Age Explorers
Who were the first Americans and where did they come from? The conventional view is that they arrived here around 13,500 years ago, but startling new archaeological discoveries suggest it may have been long before that. And experts are testing contentious theories regarding how they got here, including the idea of a dangerous canoe-born voyage from Asia down the west coat of the Americas, or even across the Atlantic from Europe.
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Tsunami – The Wave that Shook the World (DVD)
On December 26, 2004, a series of tidal waves killed hundreds of thousands and devastated communities around the Indian Ocean. With around 100 tsunamis striking the world’s coastlines each decade, NOVA investigates what made the recent event so powerful and catastrophic. In a special report shot within days of this shocking disaster, NOVA’s Tsunami: The Wave That Shook The World presents a clear explanation and analysis of the tragedy, revealing exactly how these deadly waves were triggered by one of the most powerful earthquakes recorded this century.