The Nature of Things Season 9 Episodes

Episode 1

Thomas Edison

Thu, Sep 26, 1968

Thomas Edison wasn't merely a lone inventful genius. He invented modern research team makes possible technology shaping our world.

Episode 2

Human Engineering

Thu, Oct 3, 1968

Episode 3

Materials

Thu, Oct 10, 1968

A review of history of man's oldest materials: wood, stone, iron, bronze and glass.

Episode 4

Structure

Thu, Nov 7, 1968

Defying force of gravity, man has strewn his structures across earth. This program looks at some of them.

Episode 5

Communications

Thu, Nov 14, 1968

Much of this program deals with basic communications problem of getting a signal through noise.

Episode 6

Canals And Tunnels

Thu, Nov 21, 1968

The great engineers of past - men like DE Lesseps of Suez fame and Panama infamy and Bradley - whose canals were arteries of industrial revolution, sacrificed health and fortune, and sometimes lives.

Episode 7

Central Power

Thu, Nov 28, 1968

One test of civilization is ability to organize sources of energy. Central power was something new in 1876.

Episode 8

Man And Machines

Thu, Dec 5, 1968

The Greek inventor, Alexander Hero, first defined five basic devices which make all machines possible: lever, wedge, wheel, pulley and screw.

Episode 9

Land And Water

Thu, Dec 12, 1968

This program shows how man changes his environment by shaping land he lives on, reclaiming land from sea, making new lakes and rivers.

Episode 10

Man Aloft

Thu, Dec 19, 1968

This film looks, sometimes whimsically, at examples of old and modern flying machines.

Episode 11

Portable Power

Thu, Dec 26, 1968

Man's first "portable power" device was part of his own body, energy from contraction of long molecules in presence of sugar: muscle power.

Episode 12

Machines And Man: Transportation

Thu, Jan 2, 1969

Are problems of urban transportation insurmountable? The traffic jams which are a regular feature of city life make it appear so.

Episode 13

Machine And Man: Systems Engineering

Thu, Jan 9, 1969

A system, according to Oxford dictionary, is a whole composed of parts in orderly arrangement, according to some scheme or plan.

Episode 14

Audubon

Tue, Mar 18, 1969

A study of life and work of Jean Jacques Audubon, great painter-naturalist who captured beauty of American wildlife on canvas.