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20 Episodes 1989 - 1989
Episode 1
Tue, Jan 17, 198924 mins
Was the searing summer of 1988 a taste of things to come? NOVA looks at the greenhouse effect, which portends higher temperatures, rising sea levels and other environmental disasters.
Episode 2
Tue, Jan 24, 1989
NOVA looks at the bongo-playing scientist, adventurer, safe-cracker and yarn-spinner Richard Feynman, most recently famous for his role as gadfly of the Presidential Commission investigating the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.
Episode 3
Tue, Jan 31, 1989
NOVA explains "chaos," a new science that is making surprising sense out of chaotic phenomena in nature, from the weather to brain waves.
Episode 4
Tue, Feb 14, 1989
NOVA goes to the Soviet Union for an inside investigation of the world's most catastrophic nuclear power accident with correspondent Bill Kurtis.
Episode 5
Tue, Feb 21, 1989
Creationists now argue that the scientific evidence is on their side. NOVA reports on this new twist in the long-running battle between creationism and evolution.
Episode 6
Tue, Feb 28, 1989
NOVA explores the importance of the Gulf Stream to ocean life, climate and human history.
Episode 7
Tue, Mar 7, 1989
In this two-part series, NOVA investigates the mystery of Easter Island in the South Pacific. Who built its celebrated statues and why?
Episode 8
Tue, Mar 7, 1989
In the second part of this two-part series, NOVA explores how ancient legends hold the clues to the violent history of the South Pacific's Easter Island.
Episode 9
Tue, Mar 21, 1989
Scientific detectives test their ingenuity in the effort to find underground oil deposits.
Episode 10
Tue, Mar 28, 1989
Huntington's disease: NOVA looks at this incurable disease which affects 20,00 people in the US and threatens tens of thousands of others.
Episode 11
Tue, Oct 3, 1989
Actor Judd Hirsch narrates this behind-the scenes look at what makes New York City tick. Water, power and waste are the critical systems that usually work, but sometimes break down with disastrous consequences.
Episode 12
Tue, Oct 10, 1989
In this profile of the former Surgeon General, NOVA follows events as they unfold in a unique behind-the-scenes account of a man who speaks his mind on AIDS, smoking and abortion.
Episode 13
Tue, Oct 17, 1989
Five architects compete for the approval of architecture-obsessed Chicagoans in the contest to build the city's new public library. NOVA looks at the strengths and weakness of each of the surprisingly varied entries.
Episode 14
Tue, Oct 24, 1989
The atomic bomb might have ended World War II, but radar was the quiet miracle that won battles. NOVA tells the little-known wartime history of radar.
Episode 15
Tue, Oct 31, 1989
Biologists around the world gear up to decode the three-billion-letter genetic message that describes how humans are made. Ethicists warn that it may not be such a good idea.
Episode 16
Tue, Nov 7, 1989
NOVA studies hurricanes -the lurking giants waiting to destroy many coastal areas- by flying straight into one. Scientists hope that such close-up studies will supply the data to make better predictions.
Episode 17
Tue, Nov 14, 1989
Increasingly awash in high water, the romantic city of Venice is counting on high-tech floodgates to save it from drowning. Environmentalists worry that the gates may destroy the fragile lagoon that surrounds the city.
Episode 18
Tue, Nov 21, 1989
NOVA explores the science of musical sound -from what makes a classic violin to how the human brain perceives music. Bells, trumpets, human voices and computers all perform.
Episode 19
Tue, Dec 5, 1989
The 1988 Yellowstone fire may have been one of the worst in human memory, but nature has had eons of experience with such events. NOVA accompanies scientists who are studying the surprisingly rapid recovery from the blaze.
Episode 21
Tue, Dec 12, 1989
NOVA re-enacts a classic case of classroom detection when English schoolboys track down a secret Soviet launch site.