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Nova Season 21 Episodes
Season 21 Episode Guide
20 Episodes 1994 - 1994
Episode 1
Codebreakers
Tue, Jan 18, 1994
NOVA delves into the history of secret communications and the people who wrack their brains to decipher them. The program probes the most celebrated of cryptographic coups: the breaking of the World War II codes used by Japan and Germany.
Episode 2
Dinosaurs of the Gobi
Tue, Jan 25, 1994
Velociraptors and primitive birds are among the fabulous fossil finds as NOVA accompanies an American Museum of Natural History expedition to the Gobi Desert. The trip relives the exploits of the Museum's dashing explorer of the 1920s.
Episode 3
Daredevils of the Sky
Tue, Feb 1, 1994
NOVA follows members of the US Aerobatic Team as they prepare for and compete in the 1992 World Aerobatic Championship. The sport has always been on the leading edge of developments in aviation.
Episode 4
Journey to Kilimanjaro
Tue, Feb 8, 1994
NOVA explores ice-capped mountains, on the equator. These African giants are magical islands of life above the scorched plains. Giant forest hogs, the elusive bongo and other exotic creatures live in this harsh and isolated high country.
Episode 5
Can Chimps Talk?
Tue, Feb 15, 1994
NOVA covers exciting and controversial research with chimpanzees who have been trained to express themselves with human symbols. Are they speaking their minds? Or are they just aping their trainers?
Episode 6
In Search of Human Origins: Part I
Mon, Feb 28, 1994
In the first of a three-part series, noted anthropologist Donald Johanson probes the earliest ancestors of the human species - reaching back more than three million years to a strange ape who walked upright.
Episode 7
In Search of Human Origins: Part II
Tue, Mar 1, 1994
Donald Johanson looks at how our human ancestors of two million years ago made their living. Contrary to popular myth, scavenging was a more lucrative living than hunting-and may have contributed to the development of human intelligence.
Episode 8
In Search of Human Origins: Part III
Wed, Mar 2, 1994
At what point did our distant ancestors become anatomically like us? And, more importantly, when did they begin to act like us? Anthropologist Donald Johanson looks at what it is that makes us human.
Episode 9
Can China Kick the Habit?
Tue, Apr 12, 1994
NOVA visits the most cigarette-addicted nation in the world-China. Western advertising and trading practices have exacerbated the fatal romance with smoking in the world's most populous country.
Episode 10
Aircraft Carrier!
Tue, Apr 19, 1994
NOVA experiences the relentless, round-the-clock life aboard the US Navy aircraft carrier, Independence-where every day is a constant drill of launching and landing aircraft atop a floating city of 5,000 people.
Episode 11
The Great Wildlife Heist
Tue, Oct 11, 1994
Polly wants a crackdown when it comes to the illegal trade in the world's most beautiful and intelligent birds: parrots. NOVA goes undercover with a US government sting that breaks an international parrot smuggling ring.
Episode 12
The Secret of the Wild Child
Tue, Oct 18, 199455 mins
NOVA profiles "Genie," a girl whose parents kept her imprisoned in near total isolation from infancy. When social workers discovered her as a teenager, Genie had not learned to walk or talk.
Episode 13
Haunted Cry of a Long Gone Bird
Tue, Oct 25, 1994
NOVA explores the legacy of the great Auk, a magnificent flightless bird that was hunted to extinction over a century ago. Richard Wheeler kayaks from Newfoundland to Cape Cod and discovers that other marine species face the Auk's fate.
Episode 14
What's New About Menopause
Tue, Nov 1, 1994
NOVA tackles the long-taboo subject of menopause, profiling new research and examining the medical and ethical controversies that arise when science enables women to postpone menopause or even to bear children long after "the change."
Episode 15
The Tribe That Time Forgot
Tue, Nov 8, 1994
NOVA travels deep into the Amazon wilderness in search of a mysterious tribe. Locating the group, NOVA lives with them for 3 months, gaining insight into the customs and beliefs of a people whose lifestyle has not changed for centuries.
Episode 16
Killer Quake!
Tue, Nov 15, 1994
NOVA probes the 1994 Los Angeles earthquake. Even as the city struggles to repair itself, seismic pressure continues to build. Scientists fear that newly discovered faults could trigger California's most devastating natural disaster.
Episode 17
Buried in Ash
Tue, Nov 29, 1994
Ten million years ago, an enormous volcanic eruption buried Nebraska in up to 10 feet of ash, preserving countless skeletons of prehistoric big game animals. NOVA learns what life was like when a lot more than buffalo roamed the West.
Episode 18
Rescue Mission in Space
Tue, Dec 6, 1994
Hobbled by defective eyesight because of its original, bungled prescription, the Hubble Space Telescope was recently repaired in a dramatic Space Shuttle mission. NOVA follows the exploits of astronauts who saved the day.
Episode 19
Journey to the Sacred Sea
Tue, Dec 20, 1994
NOVA travels to Lake Baikal, the world's oldest and deepest lake, containing one-fifth of all the fresh water on Earth. NOVA charts its dramatically changing environment over the course of four seasons.
Episode 20
In Search of the First Language
Tue, Dec 27, 1994
NOVA explores the common threads that link the more than 5,000 languages of Earth, including a controversial theory that claims to reconstruct words from a time when only a handful of languages were spoken.