episodes
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1.
Secrets of the Samurai Sword
English archers had their longbows, Old West sheriffs had their six-guns, but Japan’s samurai warriors had the most fearsome weapon of all: the razor-sharp, unsurpassed technology of the katana, or sa...
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2.
Ghost in Your Genes
Experts investigate how a mysterious "second genome" helps determine our biological fates.
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3.
Marathon Challenge
Can anyone run a marathon? How do you run 26.2 miles if you have trouble making it around the block? With good coaching, discipline, and lots of group support, as NOVA shows when it follows 13 general...
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4.
Sputnik Declassified
On October 4, 1957, the Space Age dawned with the red hue of the Communist flag when the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite. Sputnik I stunned the world and spurred a surge in scienc...
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5.
Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial
Using courtroom reenactments based on transcripts and interviews with those present, NOVA looks at the events of the federal case of Kitzmiller v. Dover School District.
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6.
Master of the Killer Ants
The Mofu people of northern Cameroon have a close relationship with insects, in particular, the red driver ants which they use to combat termites.
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7.
Missing in MiG Alley
In the early 1950s, epic battles unfolded in the skies over North Korea as American and Russian fighters faced off in history's first jet war. This program explores the Korean War's aerial tactics, te...
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8.
Absolute Zero: The Conquest of Cold
Our mastery of cold is something we take for granted, whether it s air conditioning and frozen food or the liquefied gases and superconductivity at the heart of cutting-edge technology. But what is co...
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9.
Absolute Zero: The Race for Absolute Zero
Our mastery of cold is something we take for granted, whether it s air conditioning and frozen food or the liquefied gases and superconductivity at the heart of cutting-edge technology. But what is co...
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10.
Secrets of the Parthenon
For 25 centuries the Parthenon has been shot at, set on fire, rocked by earthquakes, looted for its sculptures, almost destroyed by explosion, and disfigured by well-meaning renovations. It has gone f...
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11.
Astrospies
Millions remember the countdowns, launchings, splashdowns, and parades as the U.S. raced the USSR to the moon in the 1960s. But few know that both countries also ran parallel space programs, whose cov...
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12.
Ape Genius
At a research site in Fongoli, Senegal, a female chimpanzee breaks off a branch, chews the end to make it sharp, and then uses this rudimentary spear to skewer a tasty bush baby hiding inside a holl...
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13.
The Four Winged Dinosaur
A look at the 2002 discovery of a four-winged crow-sized dinosaur fossil dubbed Microraptor, which has rekindled the scientific debate over the origins of flight. Included is a wind tunnel test of a "...
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14.
Cracking the Maya Code
The ancient Maya civilization of Central America left behind an intricate and mysterious hieroglyphic script, carved on monuments, painted on pottery, and drawn in handmade bark-paper books. For centu...
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15.
Car of the Future
Tom and Ray Magliozzi of NPR's Car Talk, explore new technologies and ideas for the future of automobiles.
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16.
A Walk to Beautiful
In this award-winning documentary, a difficult journey that begins in hopelessness and shame for thousands of women in Ethiopia ends in a productive new life. The film tells the personal stories of ru...
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17.
Lord of the Ants
At age 78, E.O. Wilson is still going through his "little savage" phase of boyhood exploration of the natural world. In "Lord of the Ants," NOVA profiles this soft-spoken Southerner and Harvard profes...