NOVA ScienceNow is my favourite science program. The subjects are diverse and reporting informative and light. The segments
dont drag on too long and they provide LOTS more info on their website - a nice bonus.
| Episode 1 | January 2005 | Watch |
| Mirror Neurons |
A recently discovered system in the brain may help explain why we humans can get so worked up watching other people. |
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| Hurricanes | Predicting a hurricane's intensity is notoriously difficult, but new tools may make it easier. |
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Profile:
James McLurkin | James McLurkin of MIT is one of the world's leading designers of robot "swarms"—groups of robots that work together for a greater purpose. |
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| Booming Sands | Scientists look into a generations-old conundrum: how and why do certain sand dunes produce mysterious noises? |
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| Kinetic Sculptor | Artist and self-taught engineer Arthur Ganson describes the process he uses to create his sculptures in motion. |
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| Conundrum | Can you guess the answer to this riddle? From the Sapodilla Tree |
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| Episode 2 | April 2005 | Watch |
| Little People of Flores | The remains of three-foot-tall humans are discovered on a remote Indonesian island. |
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| T. Rex | An astonishing adolescent growth spurt accounts for T. Rex's enormous size. |
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Profile:
Naomi Halas | Naomi Halas is a pioneering nanotechnologist bent on seeing practical applications for her work—and soon. |
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| Stem Cells | What are they, and how do we find a balance between hope for cures and respect for life? |
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| Frozen Frogs | The common wood frog freezes solid every winter and then, come spring, defrosts and mates. |
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| Episode 3 | July 2005 | Watch |
| Fuel cells | Hydrogen fuel cell cars promise pollution-free driving, but will we see them anytime soon? |
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| RNAi | A wayward petunia leads to the discovery of modest little molecules with enormous medical promise. |
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| Fastest Glacier | A glacier moving way too fast reveals how unpredictable the effects of global warming can be. |
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Profile:
Brothers Chudnovsky | The story of two brilliant mathematicians, a unicorn, and a homemade supercomputer |
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| Episode 4 | October 2005 | Watch |
| Artificial Life | Are scientists on the verge of making living things from little more than dust? |
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| Lightning | Experts still aren't sure what triggers it, but they suspect cosmic rays from outer space. |
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Profile:
Erich Jarvis | The work of neuroscientist Erich Jarvis demonstrates the power of open-mindedness in the lab. |
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| Fish Surgery | Veterinary medicine has caught up with Americans' love for their number one choice of pet: the fish. |
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Don't Ask the Expert:
Neil deGrasse Tyson | Neil deGrasse Tyson has a bone to pick with Hollywood aliens. |
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| Hurricane Katrina | Our January 2005 segment on New Orleans' risk from hurricanes proved sadly prescient, as this update reveals. |
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| Episode 5 | January 2006 | Watch |
| 10th Planet | A stunning discovery at the far reaches of our solar system raises questions about what makes a planet a planet. |
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| Twin Prime Conjecture | New insight into a 2,300-year-old mystery surrounding prime numbers inspires a song. |
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| Ivory-Billed Woodpecker | An enchanting bird believed extinct mysteriously reappears ... maybe. |
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| Pandemic Flu | Will the virus that causes bird flu develop the ability to move from person to person? |
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| Lab Meat? | Scientists can grow edible meat in culture from a few animal cells. Bon appétit? |
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| Stem Cells Update | A new technique for creating stem cells may ease ethical concerns. |
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| Stronger Hurricanes | Is global warming making hurricanes more intense? |
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Profile:
Tyler Curiel | In the midst of Hurricane Katrina a cancer researcher risks everything to save a medical treasure. |
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| Episode 6 | October 2006 | Watch |
| Asteroid | Will a doomsday rock the size of the Rose Bowl hit Earth in 2036? |
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| Island of Stability | Follow the decades-long quest to create the elusive element 114. |
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| Obesity | Examine the biology behind the compulsion to eat. |
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Profile:
Karl Iagnemma | An innovative MIT roboticist is also an acclaimed fiction writer. |
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| Episode 7 | November 2006 | Watch |
| 1918 Flu | A virus that killed up to 50 million people is brought back to life to decipher its deadliness. |
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| Mass Extinction | What caused the mother of all extinctions 250 million years ago? |
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| Papyrus | Scraps of writings from a garbage dump in ancient Egypt reveal what life was like 2,000 years ago. |
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Profile:
Cynthia Breazeal | A daring engineer designs robots to communicate and interact the way people do. |
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| Episode 8 | January 2007 | Watch |
| Aging | Will research into "longevity genes" help us live longer and healthier lives? |
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| Space Elevator | Can we build a 22,000-mile-high cable to transport cargo and people into space? |
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| Maya | NASA archeologists use satellites to pinpoint ancient ruins buried deep in the jungle. |
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Profile:
Bonnie Bassler | Her insight into how bacteria "talk" has launched a revolution in biological and medical research. |
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| Episode 9 |
July 10 2007 |
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| Sleep |
Why do we need sleep? Part of the answer may be to strengthen memories. |
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| CERN |
Beneath the Alps, the mother of all particle accelerators nears completion. |
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| Emergence |
How does the "intelligence" of an ant colony or the stock market arise out of the simple actions of its members? |
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Profile:
Julie Schablitsky |
Meet an archeologist who is helping to rewrite the history of the Old West.
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| Episode 10 |
July 24 2007 |
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| T.Rex Blood |
Preserved soft tissue, including possible blood vessels and red blood cells, are turning up in dinosaur fossils. |
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| Epigenetics |
Our lifestyles and environment can change the way our genes are expressed, leading even identical twins to become distinct as they age. |
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| Kryptos |
A coded sculpture at CIA headquarters has yet to be fully broken. |
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Profile:
Arlie Petters |
A boy from a rural village in Belize grows up to become a world-class mathematician and cosmologist. |
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| Episode 11 |
June 25 2008 |
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| Dark Matter |
Turns out most of the universe is held together by a mysterious, invisible substance. |
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| Of Mice and Memory |
Mice placed in enriched environments can recover lost memories, giving hope to those who study Alzheimer's. |
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| Profile: Hany Farid |
This self-proclaimed "accidental scientist" is a digital detective inventing new ways to tell if photos have been faked. |
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| Wisdom of the Crowds |
Ask enough people to estimate something, and their combined guesses will get you surprisingly close to the right answer. |
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| Episode 12 |
July 2 2008 |
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| Personal DNA Testing |
Genetic testing to assess risk factors for a handful of serious illnesses is now commercially available. But is it a good idea? |
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| Art Authentication |
See how clever computer algorithms can distinguish a master fake from a masterpiece. |
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| Capturing Carbon |
An eighth-grader's science fair project prompts her scientist father to develop a new way to pull excess carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. |
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| Profile: Pardis Sabeti |
By night she's a rocker. By day, she's a Harvard geneticist tracking the evolution of the human genome. |
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| Episode 13 |
July 9 2008 |
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| Saving Hubble |
Two teams of spacewalkers take on the risky mission of reviving the ailing Space Telescope. |
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| First Primates |
Our most distant primate ancestors, which took the stage shortly after the dinosaurs left it, were tree-dwellers the size of mice. |
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| Profile: Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa |
He jumped the fence from Mexico to work as a farmhand and ended up a leading brain surgeon. |
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| Killer Microbe |
A relatively benign bug becomes a highly lethal pathogen, known to U.S. soldiers as Iraqibacter. |
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| Episode 14 |
July 16 2008 |
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| Bird Brains |
Clues to the origins of human language are turning up in the brains of birds.
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| Space Storms |
Behind the dazzling display of the aurora borealis are space storms that could turn the lights off here on Earth.
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| Profile: Yoky Matsuoka |
A former tennis prodigy aims to create advanced prosthetic limbs controlled by human thought.
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| Smart Bridges |
Can we engineer bridges that tell us what's wrong with them before it's too late?
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| Episode 15 |
July 23 2008 |
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| Leeches |
A century after falling out of favor among doctors, medicinal leeches are back in hospitals, sucking away on patients' wounds. |
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| The Search for ET |
Astronomers have their radio telescopes tuned to receive signals from alien worlds. But is anybody out there? |
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| Stem Cells Breakthrough |
Three separate teams overcome a biomedical hurdle—creating stem cells without the use of human embryos. |
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| Profile: Edith Widder |
Meet a marine biologist and explorer who has engineered new ways to spy on deep-sea creatures. |
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| Episode 16 |
July 30 2008 |
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| Phoenix Mars Lander |
NASA's latest robot has already found frozen water and is looking for more signs that the Red Planet could support life. |
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| Brain Trauma |
Even so-called "mild" head injuries turn out to be anything but. |
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| Mammoth Mystery |
A pair of mammoth skeletons is found locked together by their tusks. What happened? |
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| Profile: Judah Folkman |
Once scorned for his ideas about how cancer grows, the late Judah Folkman is now hailed as a visionary. |
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