History | Nature
Station:
PBS (US)
Status:
Running
Start:
1974-03-03
Rating:
6.5/10 from 2 users
NOVA brings you stories from the frontlines of science and engineering, answering the big questions of today and tomorrow, from how our ancestors lived, to whether parallel universes exist, to how technology will transform our lives.
Next Episode is 'What Are UFOs?' (Season 52 Episode 1) and airs on 22 Jan 2025 20:00 (CDT).
S51E17 - Building Stuff: Change It!
Thousands of years of human innovation have allowed us to shape the environment to improve lives. The consequences of our activities are not always benign – but there are solutions. From electrifying aviation, to building robots to protect threatened coral reefs, a new generation of engineers is finding creative solutions to some of our most critical environmental challenges.
Air Date: 27 Nov 2024 20:00 (CDT)
S52E9 - Building Stuff: Change It!
Thousands of years of human innovation have allowed us to shape the environment to improve lives. The consequences of our activities are not always benign – but there are solutions. From electrifying aviation, to building robots to protect threatened coral reefs, a new generation of engineers is finding creative solutions to some of our most critical environmental challenges.
Air Date: 27 Nov 2024 20:00 (CDT)
S51E18 - Lost Tombs of Notre Dame
After the devastating 2019 fire at Notre Dame, two mysterious sarcophaguses were discovered under the cathedral's stone floor. Who is buried in them, and what secrets will these coffins reveal? Follow a team of archaeologists and historians as they attempt to solve centuries-old mysteries using the latest scientific investigation techniques. What can forensic analysis of the remains reveal about one of the world's most famous cathedrals and those who devoted their lives to it?
Air Date: 18 Dec 2024 20:00 (CDT)
S52E10 - Lost Tombs of Notre Dame
After the devastating 2019 fire at Notre Dame, two mysterious sarcophaguses were discovered under the cathedral's stone floor. Who is buried in them, and what secrets will these coffins reveal? Follow a team of archaeologists and historians as they attempt to solve centuries-old mysteries using the latest scientific investigation techniques. What can forensic analysis of the remains reveal about one of the world's most famous cathedrals and those who devoted their lives to it?
Air Date: 18 Dec 2024 20:00 (CDT)
S52E1 - What Are UFOs?
For decades UFOs have captivated the public, even as many scientists saw them as too taboo to investigate. Now, after highly publicized sightings of unidentified objects by Navy pilots, UFOs are moving out of the shadows and into the light, as NASA pledges to study them scientifically. So what does science have to say? Though some are identified as balloons or drones, weather phenomena, or optical illusions, others remain mysterious. Could they be the result of secret new technology developed by other governments – or our own? And what would it take for alien engineers to traverse vast distances to send probes or visit Earth from other solar systems? Explore the evidence, as astrophysicists and engineers use new technologies to investigate the strangest objects in our skies.
Air Date: 22 Jan 2025 20:00 (CDT)
S52E2 - Extreme Airport Engineering
In New York City, a team of elite designers, engineers, and construction workers are on a mission to build the ultimate airport. The new LaGuardia is America's first new airport in more than 25 years and cost more than $8 billion to build. Over the course of eight years, 7,000 workers must rebuild the old airport to create a brand new, fully connected facility that can handle more than 34 million passengers every year. It takes 72,000 tons of steel and almost 600,000 tons of concrete to construct this engineering marvel, and the team has to battle extreme weather, complex geology, and massive machines. Follow their ups and downs in the extraordinary race to build a new, world-class airport on the site of one of America's busiest aviation hubs.
Air Date: 29 Jan 2025 20:00 (CDT)
S52E3 - Dino Birds
Contrary to popular belief, dinosaurs never went extinct. They're still alive among us – in the form of birds! Birds are the only dinosaurs that survived the cataclysmic mass extinction caused by an asteroid the size of Mt. Everest crashing into Earth about 66 million years ago. The big question is: How? How did birds manage to not only live through the apocalypse, but also go on to diversify and populate every corner of our planet? Now, rare fossil discoveries are revealing the secrets of bird evolution going back more than 100 million years, telling the story of how some resilient feathered dinos persevered and transformed into the vast array of colorful bird species that fill our skies today.
Air Date: 05 Feb 2025 20:00 (CDT)
S52E4 - Egypt's Tombs of Amun
An archaeological detective story opens a door into an extraordinary moment in the history of Ancient Egypt, as the discovery of a long-lost cemetery not far from King Tut's tomb shines a light on an often-overlooked Egyptian kingdom. Treasures emerge revealing details of a unique period about 2,700 years ago, when kings from Nubia – present-day Sudan – conquered Egypt and shifted the status of Egyptian women, giving them remarkable power. Archaeologists and historians reveal how the ascent of The God's Wife of Amun lifted some women to the highest echelons of religious, political, and financial power in the ancient Egyptian empire.
Air Date: 12 Feb 2025 20:00 (CDT)
S52E5 - Pompeii's Secret Underworld
For over two centuries, archaeologists have hailed Pompeii as a sophisticated city at the heart of an advanced ancient civilization. But a series of new excavations is painting a much more complex picture of the city tragically buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. New archaeological finds – including 2,000-year-old lines of graffiti, human remains, and artifacts from ancient homes and businesses – are revealing a city of both staggering wealth and extreme poverty, dependent on slavery, and riven by political conflicts, violence, and riots. Before Vesuvius rumbled, the jewel of the ancient Roman Empire hid a very dark side.
Air Date: 19 Feb 2025 20:00 (CDT)
S52E6 - Baltimore Bridge Collapse
On March 26, 2024, the world collectively gasped as a massive container ship, the Dali, lost control and plowed into the landmark Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. The busy four-lane bridge suffered a catastrophic collapse and crashed into the Patapsco River. Six highway workers were killed, and the Port of Baltimore – a crucial link in the global shipping chain on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States – was blocked by thousands of tons of twisted steel and concrete. How did a modern ship lose all power and propulsion? And why did the bridge fail so catastrophically? Follow the high-stakes rescue and recovery, the efforts to reopen the port, and the investigations into what went wrong and how many other crucial bridges are at risk.
Air Date: 26 Feb 2025 20:00 (CDT)