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. Beginning a year before launch, NOVA’s cameras follow MER scientists and engineers through a gauntlet of potentially fatal problems. Then, seven months later, experience the final nail-biting minutes of the journey, as Spirit successfully lands on Mars and begins sending back its first spectacular images of the Martian landscape. Special DVD features include: materials and activities for educators; a link to the NOVA Web site; closed captions; and video descriptions.
Producers: WGBH
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The Miracle of Life
Each minute, all over the world, a baby is born. An everyday occurrence, yet each birth is the culmination of one of nature’s most complex, mysterious, and seemingly miraculous processes. A dramatic breakthrough in science and cinematography, The Miracle of Life takes you on an incredible voyage through the human body as a new life begins. World-renowned Swedish photographer Lennart Nilsson presents a spectacular look at a microscopic world of beautiful colors and forms deep inside ourselves. Special DVD features include: Access to the award-winning NOVA Web site; chapter search; English audiotrack; subtitles.
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Odyssey of Life: The Photographer’s Secrets
The photographer who led us into the awe-inspiring world of the womb has agreed to take us behind the scenes of his own work. For the first time ever, Lennart Nilsson reveals the state-of-the-art techniques that gave us The Miracle of Life and so much more. For decades, this unparalleled photographer has astonished the world with images–from the creatures under the sea to the viruses inside our cells–that make visible the mysteries of life. Yet Lennart Nilsson has kept his own secrets to himself…until now. Special DVD features include: Access to the NOVA Web site featuring an interview with Lennart Nilsson, a time-lapse sequence of growing embryos, an online teacher’s guide, and more; chapter search; English audiotrack; and subtitles.
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Search for a Safe Cigarette
In Search for a Safe Cigarette, NOVA gains unprecedented access to tobacco research and manufacturing facilities and asks the question: Can science help create a safer cigarette? Journey inside a lit cigarette and see how superheated tobacco creates over 45 known carcinogens. Trace the little-known history of “reduced risk” cigarettes, and discover why safer cigarettes developed in the 1960s were discontinued. See how tobacco-specific nitrosomines damage human DNA. Explore America’s love affair with cigarettes, including tobacco’s role in US history, shrewd cigarette marketing, and the impact of the Surgeon General’s warning. Then look into the future of “safer” tobacco products, like Accord, a new smoking system that features an external battery-powered tobacco lighter. Special DVD features include: Access to the Search for a Safe Cigarette Web site which features the anatomy of a cigarette, a history of “safer” cigarettes, effects of nicotine, a virtual science lab, an online teacher’s guide, and more; chapter search; English audiotrack; and subtitles.
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To the Moon
NOVA presents the fascinating story behind the Apollo space program, including the most remarkable feat in human history–the historic walk on the moon in 1969. Meet the unsung heroes, experience the dangers and discover a broader range of Apollo perspectives than any space documentary ever produced. Special DVD features include: Access to the To The Moon Web site, featuring panorama views from six moon landings, interactive lunar puzzles, interviews with top Apollo astronauts, and more; access to the NASA and NOVA web sites; chapter search; English audiotrack; subtitles.
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Volcano Above the Clouds
Just 200 miles south of the equator, Kilimanjaro has both equatorial and arctic conditions. Here, five distinct climatic zones inhabit the slopes of this 19,340-foot peak. It is a botanist’s dream: Rain forests rise out of the savanna, giving way to moorlands and alpine meadows where rare giant high altitude plants thrive. Atop this peak, a young female geologist takes viewers back to the dawn of time and the splitting apart of the African continent. Special DVD features include: materials and activities for educators; a link to the NOVA Web site; closed captions; and video descriptions.
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Saving the National Treasures – DVD
Every year, more than a million people visit the Rotunda at the National Archives in Washington to view the three most tangible symbols of democracy: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The parchments, faded from two centuries of wear, seem safe behind their green-tinted, bullet-proof glass. But the Archives’ curators, looking more closely, have detected flaking ink and other worrisome signs of decay. To head off the danger, the Archives has embarked on a five-year project to design and build new encasements for the charters — and a new Rotunda in which to view them. Special DVD features include: materials and activities for educators; a link to the NOVA Web site; closed captions; and video descriptions.
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Life and Death in the War Zone
NOVA follows the Army’s 10th Combat Support Hospital medical unit prior to (at their headquarters in Fort Carlson, Colorado), and following, the unit’s deployment to the Gulf region. Special DVD features include: a link to the NOVA web site; closed captions; and video descriptions.
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The Inspector Lynley Mysteries: A Great Deliverance – DVD
Talk about a puzzling case. Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley of Scotland Yard (Nathaniel Parker, Far from the Maddding Crowd) is assigned to investigate the gruesome murder of a farmer in a seemingly peaceful country village, but it’s his new partner, Sgt. Barbara Havers (Sharon Small, About a Boy), whom he’s finding indecipherable. Havers is as gritty, rumpled, and working-class as the Inspector is refined, well-heeled, and sophisticated. Special DVD features include: virtual tour of the Mystery! studio; Q&A with Nathaniel Parker and Sharon Small; selected cast filmographies; selected cast list; biography for Diana Rigg, host of Mystery!; bibliography for Elizabeth George; selected cast list; link to the Mystery! Web site; closed captions; and video descriptions. (3 hrs. on 1 disc)
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Battle of the X-Planes
Inside the high-tech, high-stakes competition to create America’s newest fighter plane. NOVA goes behind the doors of the world’s two largest aerospace companies to record classified meetings, climbs into cockpits to fly the most revolutionary planes, and examines the high-stakes battle waged between Boeing and Lockheed Martin to build the most capable and versatile fighter ever created–the Joint Strike Fighter. You’re on the front line as the two aerospace giants fight for a contract that will make aviation history and help protect America, and that could provide the winner total domination of the U.S. defense fighter industry. Special DVD features include: bonus video footage of Lockheed fighters; a visit to a “graveyard” for old military planes; materials and activities for educators; outfitting a fighter pilot activity; designing a stealth plane; link to the Battle of the X-Planes companion Web site; closed captions; and video descriptions.