January - December 2005
Welcome to Mars
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On January 3, 2004, a tiny rover named Spirit crash-landed on the dusty
surface of Mars and sent its first message home. The elation of the assembled
scientists as well as the behind-the-scenes engineering story leading up to the
landing were captured by NOVA in its popular documentary "MARS Dead or Alive."
That elation is the starting point for the sequel, "Welcome to Mars," which
follows the adventures of Spirit and Opportunity
on the Red Planet. Once again, NOVA's producers enjoyed unprecedented access to
the mission scientists at JPL as they wrestled with the technical crises that
soon beset the rovers.
All goes well until Spirit suddenly falls silent and then, inexplicably,
starts spewing gibberish. For three agonizing days the engineers struggle to
regain control of the unhinged rover before they finally solve the problem.
Then Opportunity lands and sends back the image of an outcrop of bedrock
just a few yards away. The rock turns out to be a crucial clue in the long
quest to discover if there was once water and life on Mars. But the race to
collect confirming data turns into an emotional rollercoaster for the engineers
as they struggle to keep their earthly lives in synch with the longer day/night
cycle of the Red Planet. Eventually, the evidence adds up, and after 40 years
of speculation, NASA finally announces solid proof that Mars was once awash in
water. "Welcome to Mars" presents a compelling inside story of triumph and
technical ingenuity, full of scientific and human drama, with stunning fresh
images from an alien world.
Original broadcast date: 1/4/2005
The Boldest Hoax
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In 1912, Charles Dawson, a British amateur fossil hunter, made a shattering
claim: he'd discovered the bones of a primitive human in a gravel pit at
Piltdown, Sussex. Here was the long-sought evidence of the "missing link"
between the apes and mankind. British scientists were now suddenly at the
forefront of the worldwide quest for human origins. It took 40 years for the
shocking truth to emerge: Piltdown man was not a scientific treasure but a
fiendishly elaborate hoax. Since this unmasking, suspicion has fallen not only
on Dawson but on a host of possible conspirators, including Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. NOVA reviews the gallery of suspects and
the twists and turns of the bizarre, unsolved story of science's greatest
fraud, which still teases and tantalizes investigators today.
Original broadcast date: 1/11/2005
Supersonic Dream
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NOVA looks back affectionately over the 30-year story of the development of the
world's first operational supersonic airliner. How did Concorde's designers and
engineers come up with their revolutionary design? What happened to the dream
that supersonic passenger flight would become an everyday, affordable way to
travel, expanding Concorde's business beyond its luxury niche? Revisiting the
thrill of its maiden flight of 1969 and the tragic Paris crash of 2000,
"Supersonic Dream" is a unique and colorful aviation saga, drawing on rare
behind-the-scenes footage and including interviews with Concorde fans such as
Henry Kissinger, David Frost, and many more.
Original broadcast date: 1/18/2005
NOVA scienceNOW
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Science and technology are changing our lives at a dizzying pace. Hidden clues
in your genes will soon enable your doctor to tell you whether you're likely to
get a major disease perhaps decades before it happens. Advanced "nanotech"
materials will lead to unimaginably tiny and powerful computers. Recently the
first private space probe reached low-Earth orbit, opening up a whole new era
in aerospace. And increasingly sophisticated studies of climate change offer
unsettling evidence of the environment our children and grandchildren will
inherit from us. So how can you keep up with the fast-moving frontiers of
science and technology? The answer is "NOVA scienceNOW", an innovative
science news and magazine show developed by the producers of NOVA.
Airing five times a year, the program brings to life the "how" and "why" behind
cutting-edge discoveries and show the everyday impact and human side of science
with accuracy, clarity, and flair.
Well-known correspondent Robert Krulwich of Nightline and ABC
News hosted the 2005 episodes. Features in Episode One include segments on
MIT's James McLurkin, the world's leading expert on "swarms" of robots; mirror
neurons, a newly discovered system in the brain that may explain why we get so
worked up watching other people; the science of predicting hurricanes; why some
sand dunes make booming sounds; and kinetic sculptor Arthur Ganson.
Original broadcast date: 1/25/2005
The Viking Deception
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There are few more tantalizing or notorious historical documents than the
Vinland map. A faded, yellowing scrap of parchment bearing a faint tracery of
lines, the map apparently shows the eastern seaboard of North America—yet
it was drawn at least half a century before Columbus reached the New World.
It seems to present unshakeable proof that the Vikings were the real discoverers
of the Americas. But for 40 years, a bitter debate over its authenticity has
raged among cartographers, historians, and scientists. Despite chemical
analysis and radiocarbon tests, the case remained unresolved. Now, in an
exclusive investigation, NOVA presents fresh evidence confirming that the map
was probably one of the cleverest forgeries of all time, and probes who might
have wanted to carry out the deception. In this enthralling cartographic
detective story, NOVA pursues a trail from Scandinavia to Austria, Switzerland,
London, and the U.S.
Original broadcast date: 2/8/2005
Saving the National Treasures
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Every year, more than a million people visit the Rotunda at the National
Archives in Washington to gaze at three documents that define our nation's
heritage: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of
Rights. But these touchstones of democracy are in serious trouble. The ink is
flaking from parchments that are already badly faded, while the glass casements
built to exhibit them are disintegrating. To head off the danger, the Archives
embarked on a five-year project to design state-of-the-art encasements and a
new Rotunda. NOVA was given exclusive behind-the-scenes access to this unique
project and commissioned Middlemarch Films, producers of the Peabody
Award-winning PBS series "Liberty: The American Revolution," to follow the
entire process from start to finish. The result is a brilliant evocation of the
colorful history of these documents and an insider's look at the extraordinary
engineering efforts that are safeguarding America's equivalent of the Crown
Jewels.
Original broadcast date: 2/15/2005
A Daring Flight
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On the morning of July 25, 1909, Louis Bleriot set out on his epic flight
across the English Channel, marking the first long-distance flight over water
and the first air crossing of a national boundary. Bleriot's triumph came after
years of experiments with primitive flying machines and innumerable
crashes—a story of perseverance and ingenuity as memorable as that of his competitors, the Wright
Brothers. "A Daring Flight" dramatizes Louis Bleriot's colorful story through
the present-day quest of his grandson to relive his family heritage and repeat
the heroic cross-channel flight—a quest that will prove both dangerous
and elusive.
Original broadcast date: 2/22/2005
Wave That Shook the World
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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, "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.
Can an effective early warning system help avert another such catastrophe? Ever
since a tsunami killed 159 on Hawaii's Big Island in 1946, awareness of the
threat in the Pacific has steadily grown, leading to an early warning system
there that has saved untold numbers. NOVA takes viewers back to the morning of
December 26, 2004, when scientists at the Pacific Center registered the massive
quake and tsunami risk in the Indian Ocean but were mostly powerless to alert
those in peril. NOVA looks at the status of efforts to implement a similar
system in the Indian Ocean, with a special update to be produced just before
the program airs.
"Wave That Shook the World" presents a chilling, minute-by-minute picture of
what happened that fateful morning. With the help of clear explanations and
animation, together with the human stories of individuals caught up in the
catastrophe, this program is both illuminating and heartbreaking.
Original broadcast date: 3/29/2005
NOVA scienceNOW
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The second installment of NOVA's science magazine show features segments on the
recently discovered "Little People" of Flores, an extinct race of human beings
found on a remote Indonesian island; how an apparent growth spurt during
adolescence accounts for the enormous size of Tyrannosaurus rex;
nanotechnologist Naomi Halas; the controversial but hugely promising field of
stem-cell research; and frogs that freeze solid in winter, calling into
question exactly when life ends—or doesn't.
Original broadcast date: 4/19/2005
NOVA scienceNOW
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The third episode of NOVA's science magazine series features segments on the
promise of cars that run on hydrogen fuel cells, whose "waste" is pure water;
RNAi, recently discovered molecules that may someday help treat a wide variety
of diseases; the world's fastest glacier and what it says about the effects and
peril of global warming; and the Chudnovsky brothers, who used a homemade
supercomputer to help digitize a famous tapestry.
Original broadcast date: 7/26/2005
Mystery of the Megaflood
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It was the greatest flood of the past two million years, and it posed a giant
scientific riddle. A maverick geologist became convinced that
thousand-foot-deep floodwaters had scoured out vast areas of the American
northwest near the end of the last ice age. Mainstream scientists scorned his
theory while he searched patiently for answers to what could have triggered
such an inconceivably violent event. Finally, an ingenious solution silenced
the skeptics: traces of an enormous ice dam half a mile high, which had blocked
a valley in present-day Montana and created an enormous lake behind it. With
the help of stunningly realistic animation, NOVA takes viewers back to the Ice
Age to reveal what happened when the dam broke, unleashing a titanic flood that
swept herds of woolly mammoth and everything else into oblivion.
Original broadcast date: 9/20/2005
Sinking the Supership
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In April 1945, the largest battleship ever built set out on the ultimate
suicide mission. With its crew of 3,000, Battleship Yamato, the pride of
Japan's fleet, sailed to a solo confrontation with the 1,500-strong United
States Navy. Attacked by a swarm of U.S. dive bombers, the battleship sank
within minutes. A NOVA team discovers the wreck and retells the Yamato's
extraordinary saga through the eyes of the few Japanese crew who survived the
sinking and are still living today. State-of-the-art CGI animation shows
viewers what the colossal battleship was like in all its glory at the time of
its launching. The program opens a dramatic perspective on the great age of
battleships and why it ended so abruptly with the Yamato's disastrous
sinking.
Original broadcast date: 10/4/2005
Einstein's Big Idea
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Everybody's heard of it, but what does the world's most famous equation, E =
mc2, really mean? NOVA dramatizes the stories of the men and
women whose innovative thinking across four centuries finally led to Einstein's
bold breakthrough. Based on David Bodanis' bestseller, E =
mc2, the program celebrates the ingenuity and chronicles the
human conflicts that ultimately unleashed the power of the atom, helping
viewers gain a better understanding of the equation by tracking its history and
the myriad numbers of ways it has changed the world. The program is the story
of young, ambitious scientists caught up by the huge forces of nature they seek
to understand. The film stars Aidan McArdle (Not Only But Also, Ella
Enchanted) as Einstein, Shirley Henderson (Harry Potter and
Bridget Jones franchises) as his wife Mileva, and Emily Woof (Oliver
Twist, The Woodlanders) as Lise Meitner.
Original broadcast date: 10/11/2005
NOVA scienceNOW
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The fourth installment of NOVA's science magazine program features segments on
the race to create artificial life in the laboratory; lightning and its
potential trigger—cosmic rays from outer space; neuroscientist Erich
Jarvis; a new generation of veterinarians who perform surgery on pets,
including goldfish; and a post-Katrina update on the January 25, 2005 NOVA
scienceNOW segment on hurricanes.
Original broadcast date: 10/18/2005
Volcano Under the City
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The towering volcano of Nyiragongo looms over the city of Goma in central
Africa, threatening to obliterate a thriving city of over 400,000 inhabitants.
In 2002, rivers of lava poured through the streets and destroyed 40 percent of
the city, forcing tens of thousands to flee. A year later, with ominous gas
clouds billowing over the crater rim, volcanologist Jacques Durieux leads a
team of specialists to try to figure out the volcano's inner secrets—when
and why it is likely to erupt next. "Volcano Under the City" reaches a
suspenseful climax as Durieux and his team clamber down into the crater to
lower test instruments into the boiling lava below. While the crater edge
crumbles and the volcano belches poisonous gas, the scientists' battle to
retrieve their vital data becomes a matter of life and death.
Original broadcast date: 11/1/2005
Hitler's Sunken Secret
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It was one of the most audacious exploits of the Norwegian resistance in World
War II. On February 19, 1944, three saboteurs crept on board a ferryboat, the
Hydro, moored at Lake Tinn in southeast Norway. On board were four dozen
barrels bound for Germany and containing deuterium or heavy water, which was
vital to Hitler's atomic bomb program. While the boat's crew was happily
playing poker, the saboteurs crept into the hold and concealed an improvised
time bomb. Next morning, the Hydro exploded as it crossed the middle of
the lake, tipping an avalanche of barrels into the depths and killing 18 crew
and passengers.
Was this daring operation a crucial defeat for Hitler's nuclear ambitions? An
exclusive NOVA salvage expedition sets out to find the Hydro on the
bottom of the lake and haul one of the barrels up to the surface. The NOVA team
opens up the barrel and a test of its contents helps answer the mysteries
surrounding Nazi Germany's race to build the atom bomb. The team also probes
Norwegian archives and makes new discoveries: 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. "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.
Original broadcast date: 11/8/2005
Newton's Dark Secrets
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Besides Einstein, no single scientist ever transformed the outlook and
worldview of his age more profoundly than Isaac Newton. Often hailed as both
the first modern scientist and the last of the ancient magicians, Newton
reduced nature's chaos to a single set of mathematical laws. This bold
intellectual leap gave scientists and thinkers of his era vital new confidence
that they could probe and predict nature's secrets. Over three centuries later,
Newton's laws still govern the way we analyze and forecast the motions of
everything from roller coasters to comets.
But Newton's genius was intertwined with an extreme
personality—obsessive, secretive, reclusive, and vindictive to his many
enemies. Besides his fundamental breakthroughs in physics, optics, and
calculus, Newton poured vast energy into fruitless explorations of alchemy and
religion. Like light shining through a prism, NOVA will show how these
intricate facets of Newton's turbulent personality combined together in a
single extraordinary life. With lively period recreations of key moments in his
career and replications of his experiments in optics and alchemy, "Newton's
Dark Secrets" explores how Newton became the giant on whose shoulders all later
scientists found a place to stand.
Original broadcast date: 11/15/2005
Storm That Drowned A City
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Hurricane Katrina precipitated the greatest natural disaster in U.S. history,
killing more than 1,000 people, leaving 800,000 homeless, and causing damage in
the hundreds of billions of dollars. In "Storm That Drowned a City," NOVA
offers a minute-by-minute reconstruction of the disaster told through gripping
eyewitness testimony. What made Katrina so destructive? How accurately did
scientists predict its impact? Why did flood defenses and relief planning fail
to match the storm's fury? And why are powerful hurricanes like Katrina likely
to strike more often? In this one-hour documentary, find the answers—at
least as far as they're currently known.
Original broadcast date: 11/22/2005
