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Nova Season 29 Episodes
Season 29 Episode Guide
15 Episodes 2001 - 2002
Episode 1
Death Star
Tue, Jan 8, 2002
Astronomers struggle for decades to determine where gamma ray bursts are coming from unsure whether they are nearby or half way across the universe. Once that is pinned down an even bigger question arises, what could possibly produce them.
Episode 2
Neanderthals on Trial
Tue, Jan 22, 2002
Examining the anthropological controversy surrounding Neanderthals, who died out almost 30,000 years ago. Were they our ancestors, or were they an evolutionary dead end?
Episode 3
Fireworks!
Tue, Jan 29, 2002
This explosive NOVA presents the colorful history of pyrotechnics and reveals how hi-tech firing systems are transforming public displays into a dazzling, split-second science.
Episode 4
Secrets, Lies, and Atomic Spies
Tue, Feb 5, 2002
Chronicling the lives and covert activities of the so-called "atom spies" in the 1940's, including the big one that got away, Theodore Alvin Hall.
Episode 5
The Missing Link
Tue, Feb 26, 2002
A paleontological tour-de-force and suspenseful scientific detective story, the program documents the search for the ancestor of all four-limbed animals, including humans.
Episode 6
Shackleton's Voyage of Endurance
Tue, Mar 26, 2002118 mins
In late 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton set forth for Antarctica with 27 men, determined to be the first man to cross the continent from coast to coast. His ship, the Endurance, became trapped in pack ice just short of the continent. When the ice crushed their ship to splinters, they were left stranded on the ice floes. Shackleton resolved to rescue each and every man, and turned disaster into one of the greatest survival stories of all time.
Episode 7
Why the Towers Fell
Tue, Apr 30, 200250 mins
In the aftermath of the collapse, the questions came quickly and urgently: was it inevitable that such a severely damaged structure would completely collapse? Or was there something about the building's design or construction that made it especially susceptible to failure? What exactly caused that failure-fire, heat, internal damage? Was the evacuation plan adequate enough to save the maximum number of lives? And are other tall buildings just as vulnerable to collapse when the blast is great and the fire uncontrolled? In the gray wasteland of smoke and dust and mangled steel that was once the third tallest building in the world, forensic engineers began sifting the wreckage for clues and answers to these and other structural truths. This blue-ribbon team of engineers is nearing the end of its task, and NOVA has been there from the beginning, following its investigation of the causes of the calamity. Why the Towers Fell presents the engineers' conclusions in the most definitive explanation yet of how and why the towers collapsed. But the Twin Towers weren't the only buildings that collapsed. Standing well over a city block from Trade Center Tower #1, a forty-eight-story glass and steel structure known simply as Building #7 did not seem to suffer structural damage from the collapsing towers but nonetheless crashed to the ground after several hours of severe and uncontrolled fire. Since Building #7 is a typical glass and steel building and seems to have collapsed from fire alone, does this mean that office workers the world over are far more vulnerable than anyone ever imagined? Featuring many of this country's best structural engineers including Gene Corley, the lead investigator on the Oklahoma City bombing; Charles Thornton, the builder of the Petronas Towers (the world's tallest building); and Mark Loiseaux, the leading expert on the "purposeful" demolition of big buildings, the program takes viewers through the process by which these professionals came to understand the how's and why's of one of modern America's greatest tragedies. Also presented are several of the buildings' survivors, who tell compelling real-life stories of their harrowing journeys to safety, including three firemen who miraculously escaped death as Tower #2 collapsed around them. With rare, video-enhanced footage showing details of the buildings' structural damage never before seen on TV, and detailed animation sequences that let viewers "see through" the buildings to the damage that had occurred inside, this NOVA is one of its most harrowing and memorable hours.
Episode 8
Fire Wars
Tue, May 7, 2002120 mins
In 2000, one of the most destructive fire seasons ever, uncontrollable blazes raged across the American West, scorching more than 6 million acres. Among those battling the flames were the Arrowhead Hotshots, an elite firefighting crew whose skill and bravery helped stamp out the inferno. This program joins the team for an up-close look at the war on wildfires and examines the fire suppression policies that may lead to such costly catastrophes.
Episode 9
Killer Disease on Campus
Tue, Sep 3, 2002
Exploring meningococal disease, which strikes mostly young children and young adults. It's rare (just 3000 cases a year in the U.S.) but it can be deadly.
Episode 10
Mysterious Life of Caves
Tue, Oct 1, 2002
Two scientists studying the legendary Carlsbad Caverns come to question the conventional wisdom of how the massive caves system formed. They propose a new theory that extremophile bacteria producing hydrogen sulfide, a precursor to sulfuric acid, are the main cause of the caves formation rather than geological processes.
Episode 11
Lost Roman Treasure
Tue, Oct 8, 2002
Experts rescue priceless mosaics from an ancient city that is about to disappear beneath a reservoir.
Episode 12
Galileo's Battle for the Heavens
Tue, Oct 29, 2002
In this two-hour special, NOVA celebrates the story of the father of modern science and his struggle to get Church authorities to accept the truth of his astonishing discoveries. The program is based on Dava Sobel's bestselling book, Galileo's Daughter, which reveals a new side to the famously stubborn scientist-that his closest confidante was his illegitimate daughter, Sister Maria Celeste, a cloistered nun.
Episode 13
Volcano's Deadly Warning
Tue, Nov 12, 2002
Explores a seismic shift in the way scientists predict eruptions. The new method: reading seismic signals indicating magma and gas buildup in active volcanoes.
Episode 14
Sinking City of Venice
Tue, Nov 19, 2002
NOVA covers the battle to keep the world's most unusual city -Venice- from drowning beneath the rising tides of the Adriatic Sea. The lessons we learn will prove essential for other coastal cities around the world.
Episode 15
The Orchid Hunter
Tue, Nov 26, 200260 mins
"Orchid Hunter" explores the appeal of the world's largest plant family by following a young Englishman as he risks life and limb in Indonesian jungles to find a new species to name after his grandmother.