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Nova Season 42 Episodes
Season 42 Episode Guide
21 Episodes 2015 - 2024
Episode 1
Big Bang Machine
Wed, Jan 14, 201554 mins
On July 4, 2012, scientists at the giant atom smashing facility at CERN announced the discovery of a subatomic particle that seems like a tantalizingly close match to the elusive Higgs Boson, thought to be responsible for giving all the stuff in the universe its mass. Since it was first proposed nearly 50 years ago, the Higgs has been the holy grail of particle physicists: finding it completes the "standard model" that underlies all of modern particle physics. Now CERN's scientists are preparing for the Large Hadron Collider's second act, when they restart the history-making collider, running at higher energy -- hoping for the next great discovery that will change what we know about the particles and forces that make up our universe.
Episode 2
Sunken Ship Rescue
Wed, Jan 21, 201554 mins
NOVA follows the epic operation to secure, raise and salvage the Costa Concordia cruise ship, which ran aground and capsized off the coast of Italy on January 13, 2012, killing 32 people. The wreck stretches the length of three football fields, weighs 45,000 tons and lies half submerged on the site of a protected reef, with a 160-foot-long hole in its hull. Moving it from its precarious perch on the edge of an underwater cliff will be a huge technical and logistical challenge. Now, NOVA joins a team of more than 500 divers and engineers working around the clock as they attempt the biggest ship recovery project in history.
Episode 3
Sinkholes-Buried Alive
Wed, Jan 28, 201554 mins
In Tampa, Florida, in February 2013, a giant hole opened up under the bedroom floor of Jeffrey Bush, swallowing the 36-year-old as he slept. His body was never found. Bush was a victim of a sinkhole -- a growing worldwide hazard that lurks wherever limestone and other water-soluble rocks underpin the soil. When carbon dioxide in the air dissolves in rainwater, it forms a weak acid that attacks the soft rocks, riddling them with holes like Swiss cheese. Sinkholes can occur gradually when the surface subsides into bowl-shaped depressions or suddenly, when the ground gives way -- often catastrophically. Sinkholes have swallowed highways, apartment buildings, horses, camels, even golfers, with monster-size holes cracking the earth from Siberia to Louisiana. With compelling eyewitness video of dramatic collapses, and following scientists as they explore the underlying forces behind these natural disasters, NOVA travels the globe to investigate what it's like to have your world vanish beneath your feet.
Episode 4
Colosseum: Roman Death Trap
Wed, Feb 11, 201554 mins
The Colosseum is a monument to Roman imperial power and cruelty. Its graceful lines and harmonious proportions concealed a highly efficient design and advanced construction methods that made hundreds of arches out of 100,000 tons of stone. In its elliptical arena, tens of thousands of gladiators, slaves, prisoners and wild animals met their deaths. Ancient texts report lions and elephants emerging from beneath the floor, as if by magic, to ravage gladiators and people condemned to death. Then, just as quickly, the Colosseum could be flooded with so much water that ships could engage in sea battles. Could these legends be true? Now, with access to one of the world's most protected world heritage sites, archaeologists and engineers team up to re-create ancient Roman techniques to build a 25-foot lifting machine and trap-door system capable of releasing a wolf into the Colosseum's arena for the first time in 1,500 years.
Episode 5
Petra: Lost City of Stone
Wed, Feb 18, 201554 mins
More than 2,000 years ago, the thriving city of Petra rose up in the bone-dry desert of what is now Jordan. An oasis of culture and abundance, the city was built by wealthy merchants who carved spectacular temple-tombs into its cliffs, raised a monumental Great Temple and devised an ingenious system that channeled water to vineyards, bathhouses, fountains and pools. But following a catastrophic earthquake and a slump in its desert trade routes, Petra's unique culture faded and was lost to most of the world for nearly 1,000 years. Now, in a daring experiment, an archaeologist and sculptors team up to carve an iconic temple-tomb to find out how the ancient people of Petra built their city of stone.
Episode 6
Hagia Sophia: Istanbul's Mystery
Wed, Feb 25, 201554 mins
Istanbul's magnificent Hagia Sophia has survived on one of the world's most active seismic faults, which has inflicted a dozen devastating earthquakes since Hagia Sophia was built in 537 AD. As Istanbul braces for the next big quake, a team of architects and engineers is investigating Hagia Sophia's seismic secrets. NOVA follows the team's discoveries as they examine the building's unique structure and other ingenious design strategies that have insured the dome's survival. The engineers build a massive eight-ton model of the building's core structure, place it on a motorized shake table and hit it with a series of simulated quakes.
Episode 7
The Great Math Mystery
Wed, Apr 15, 201554 mins
NOVA leads viewers on a mathematical mystery tour -- a provocative exploration of math's astonishing power across the centuries. We discover math's signature in the swirl of a nautilus shell, the whirlpool of a galaxy and the spiral in the center of a sunflower. Math was essential to everything from the first wireless radio transmissions to the prediction and discovery of the Higgs boson and the successful landing of rovers on Mars. But where does math get its power? Astrophysicist and writer Mario Livio, along with a colorful cast of mathematicians, physicists and engineers, follows math from Pythagoras to Einstein and beyond, all leading to the ultimate riddle: Is math an invention or a discovery? Humankind's clever trick or the language of the universe?
Episode 8
Invisible Universe Revealed
Wed, Apr 22, 201554 mins
Twenty-five years ago, NASA launched one of the most ambitious experiments in the history of astronomy: the Hubble Space Telescope. In honor of Hubble's landmark anniversary, NOVA tells the remarkable story of the telescope that forever changed our understanding of the cosmos and our place in it. But amazingly, when the telescope first sent images back to earth, it seemed that the entire project was a massive failure; a one-millimeter engineering blunder had turned the billion-dollar telescope into an object of ridicule. It fell to five heroic astronauts in a daring mission to return Hubble to the cutting edge of science. NOVA hears from the scientists and engineers on the front line who tell the amazing Hubble story as never before. This single telescope has helped astronomers pinpoint the age of the universe, revealed the birthplace of stars and planets, advanced our understanding of dark energy and cosmic expansion, and uncovered black holes lurking at the heart of galaxies. For more than a generation, Hubble's stunning images have brought the beauty of the heavens to millions, revealing a cosmos richer and more wondrous than we ever imagined. Join NOVA for the story of this magnificent machine and its astonishing discoveries.
Episode 9
Nazi Attack on America
Wed, May 6, 2015
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor German seizes the opportunity to attack cargo ships along the United State East coast while the United States is unprepared. This program describes the scope of the German assault as a backdrop to the efforts of a group of investigators to determine how the first sunken German submarine, U-166, met its fate to determine if disgraced Commander Herbert G. Claudius deserves credit to the kill.
Episode 10
Lethal Seas
Wed, May 13, 201554 mins
A deadly recipe threatens the survival of countless creatures throughout Earth's oceans. We've known for years that oceans absorb about a quarter of the carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. With carbon emissions sharply rising, the silent killer is entering the seas at a staggering rate -- raising the oceans' acidity. As a result, the skeletons and shells of marine creatures that form the foundation of the web of life are dissolving. Follow scientists who are seeking solutions and making breakthrough discoveries, including a unique coral garden in Papua New Guinea that offers a glimpse of what the seas could be like in a half-century. Can experts crack the code of a rapidly changing ocean -- before it's too late?
Episode 11
Chasing Pluto
Wed, Jul 15, 201554 mins
NOVA captures New Horizons' historic flyby of Pluto, the culmination of the spacecraft's nine-year, three-billion-mile journey to reveal the first ever detailed images of this strange, icy world at the very edge of our solar system.
Episode 12
Nuclear Meltdown Disaster
Wed, Jul 29, 201554 mins
Four years after one of history's worst nuclear accidents, NOVA reveals the minute-by-minute story of the Fukushima nuclear crisis and its ongoing aftermath, told by the brave workers who stayed behind as an earthquake and tsunami crippled the plant.
Episode 13
Dawn of Humanity
Wed, Sep 16, 2015114 mins
NOVA and National Geographic present exclusive access to an astounding discovery of ancient fossil human ancestors. Deep in a South African cave, a special team of experts has brought to light an unprecedented wealth of fossils belonging to a crucial gap in the record of our origins that spans the transition between the ape-like australopithecines (such as the famous Lucy) and the earliest members of the human family. At the center of the discovery is paleoanthropologist Lee Berger, a character brimming with enthusiasm and opinions, whose claims have stirred long controversy in the contentious field of human origins. Join NOVA to solve a two million year-old "crime scene" and dig into extraordinary new clues about what made us human.
Episode 14
Arctic Ghost Ship
Wed, Sep 23, 201556 mins
160 years ago, the Franklin Expedition to chart the Northwest Passage vanished. NOVA is on board as a Canadian team makes a breakthrough discovery of one of Franklin's lost ships--a vital new clue to the fate of the ill-starred expedition.
Episode 15
Secrets of Noah's Ark
Wed, Oct 7, 201553 mins
A new version of the biblical flood story includes instructions for assembling an ark.
Episode 16
Cyberwar Threat
Wed, Oct 14, 201554 mins
Cyber weapons have the ability to inflict physical damage on factories, power plants and pipelines.
Episode 17
Animal Mummies
Wed, Oct 28, 201552 mins
Animal mummies from the Egyptian catacombs are examined. Also discussed, the role of animals in Egyptian beliefs.
Episode 18
Making North America: Origins
Wed, Apr 17, 2024
The shaping of North America, including palm trees that once thrived in Alaska and an eruption that nearly tore the Midwest in two.
Episode 19
Making North America: Life
Wed, Apr 24, 202453 mins
North America's geological history answers some curious riddles about life on the continent. Why were there so many dinosaur species in western North America? Why were there fish in Kansas and shellfish in the Rockies? What happened to the numerous North American lemur species?
Episode 20
Making North America: Human
Wed, Nov 18, 201553 mins
The influence of geology on the human occupation of North America is described.
Episode 21
Inside Einstein's Mind
Wed, Nov 25, 201553 mins
On November 15th, 1915, Einstein published his greatest work: general relativity. The theory transformed our understanding of nature's laws and the entire history of the cosmos, reaching back to the origin of time itself. Now, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Einstein's achievement, NOVA tells the inside story of Einstein's masterpiece. The story begins with the intuitive thought experiments that set Einstein off on his quest and traces the revolution in cosmology that is still playing out in today's labs and observatories. Discover the simple but powerful ideas at the heart of relativity, illuminating the theory-and Einstein's brilliance-as never before. From the first spark of an idea to the discovery of the expanding universe, the Big Bang, black holes, and dark energy, NOVA uncovers the inspired insights and brilliant breakthroughs of "the perfect theory."