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Nova Season 15 Episodes
Season 15 Episode Guide
22 Episodes 1988 - 1988
Episode 1
Top Gun and Beyond
Tue, Jan 19, 1988
Today's sophisticated fighter jets can almost fly themselves, but well-trained pilots are still needed to win air battles. NOVA looks at how planes and pilots are adapting to high technology.
Episode 2
How to Create a Junk Food
Tue, Jan 26, 1988
Julia Child introduces NOVA's behind-the-scenes look at how science aids in the creation of snack foods.
Episode 3
Buried in Ice
Tue, Feb 2, 1988
Scientists investigate the frozen remains of members of the 19th century Franklin Expedition to the Canadian Arctic and ask why all perished.
Episode 4
Why Planes Burn
Tue, Feb 9, 1988
Airplane fires are often deadly. NOVA looks at efforts to make fires aboard planes less likely and more survivable.
Episode 5
Battles in the War on Cancer: A Wonder Drug on Trial
Tue, Feb 23, 1988
In part one of a two-part special, NOVA reports on the trials to determine whether the new drug Interleukin-2-the first to make use of the body's own disease-fighting strategy -will live up to its promise as a pivotal cancer breakthrough.
Episode 6
Battles in the War on Cancer: Breast Cancer - Turning the Tide
Tue, Mar 1, 1988
Breast cancer claims the lives of four American women every hour. Jane Pauley of NBC News hosts and narrates this NOVA report on stepped-up efforts to reduce the death rate from this all-too-common killer.
Episode 7
The Mystery of the Master Builders
Tue, Mar 8, 1988
Princeton professor and author Robert Mark tracks down the engineering secrets of some of the beautiful buildings in the world including Notre Dame in Paris, St. Paul in London and the Roman Pantheon.
Episode 8
Whale Rescue
Tue, Mar 15, 1988
NOVA recounts this tragic episode of stranded whales in the confined shallows of Cape Cod. And the happy surprise ending for the young whales who survived after being nursed back to health by the New England Aquarium in Boston.
Episode 9
The Man Who Loved Numbers
Tue, Mar 22, 1988
NOVA explores the life of Srinivasa Ramanujan, a poor clerk from India who astounded mathematicians in the 1910s with his brilliant insight into the world of numbers.
Episode 10
Race for the Superconductor
Tue, Mar 29, 1988
NOVA charts an electronics revolution in the making as Japan and the United States race to develop a material that will conduct electricity at room temperature with zero resistance.
Episode 11
Can You Still Get Polio?
Tue, Apr 5, 1988
Most cases of polio in this country are caused by the vaccine designed to prevent it. NOVA examines the controversy surrounding the nation's vaccine policy.
Episode 12
Pioneers of Surgery: The Brutal Craft (1)
Tue, Sep 6, 1988
Part one of a four-part series on the pioneers of modern surgery relives the early days, when surgery was practiced without the benefit of anesthesia or antiseptics and patients usually died.
Episode 13
Pioneers of Surgery: Into the Heart (2)
Tue, Sep 13, 1988
Once unthinkable, open-heart surgery is now an everyday miracle. NOVA looks at the brave doctors and patients who make it possible.
Episode 14
Pioneers of Surgery: New Organs for Old (3)
Tue, Sep 20, 1988
From kidneys to hearts, NOVA examines the daring attempts to replace diseased organs with transplanted ones.
Episode 15
Pioneers of Surgery: Beyond the Knife (4)
Tue, Sep 27, 1988
Surgeons have always been eager to help patients, even at the risk of killing them. NOVA looks at some of the excesses of surgery, and at how new drugs and technologies are rendering some operations obsolete.
Episode 16
Can the Vatican Save the Sistine Chapel?
Tue, Oct 4, 1988
Science meets art in the controversial effort to restore Michelangelo's famous Sistine Chapel frescoes.
Episode 17
Can the Next President Win the Space Race?
Tue, Oct 11, 1988
Thirty years after Sputnik, the United States space program is mired in uncertainty, while the Russians, Europeans, Japanese and others sprint onward and upward.
Episode 18
Do Scientists Cheat?
Tue, Oct 25, 1988
NOVA examines the troubling question of scientific fraud: How prevalent is it? Who commits it? And what happens when the perpetrators are caught?
Episode 19
Who Shot President Kennedy?
Tue, Nov 15, 198860 mins
Using previously unavailable technology, NOVA probes the available evidence surrounding the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Episode 20
The Light Stuff
Tue, Nov 22, 1988
NOVA follows the epic journey of the human-powered plane Daedalus 88 from the early prototypes to its dramatic landing in the surf after a 74-mile flight from the island of Crete to Santorini.
Episode 21
The All-American Bear
Tue, Dec 6, 1988
The life of the shy, intelligent black bear in the wild-foraging, mating, playing and constantly preparing for its remarkable hibernation-is captured for the first time on film by NOVA.
Episode 22
Can We Make a Better Doctor?
Tue, Dec 13, 1988
NOVA embarks on a 10-year project to profile -in its entirety- the education of a doctor. In the premiere episode, we follow a handful of students as they start their freshman year at Harvard Medical School.