Season 4

episodes

1. 1. Hitler's Secret Weapon 1977-01-05 55 min NOVA traces the development of Hitler's V-2 rocket through rare footage obtained from the National Archives—some never broadcast before on television.
2. 2. The Hot Blooded Dinosaurs 1977-01-12 55 min If you were a dinosaur scientist, what would you do with a pile of fossil bones? How would you even start to put the giant jigsaw puzzle together, never mind discover anything about how these dinosaur...
3. 3. What Price Coal? 1977-01-19 55 min What is the price we are prepared to pay for coal? NOVA looks at the environmental and health safety issues raised by the government, industry, and the victims.
4. 4. The Sunspot Mystery 1977-02-02 55 min NOVA explores the research on the 1976 drought in the western United States which led some solar scientists to discover the link between weather patterns and the 11 year sunspot mystery.
5. 5. The Plastic Prison 1977-02-09 55 min NOVA follows the lives of three boys who have combined immuned deficiency—a disease that leaves its victims with no immune system.
6. 6. Incident at Brown's Ferry 1977-02-23 55 min NOVA recreates March 1975 at Brown's Ferry, an Alabama nuclear power plant—the largest in the world—that suffered a seven-hour fire which came very close to developing into a major public disaster.
7. 7. Bye Bye Blackbird 1977-03-02 55 min NOVA looks at blackbirds, their winter habit of nesting in the millions, and the destruction they do to crops.
8. 8. The Pill for the People 1977-03-09 55 min NOVA profiles chemist Russell Marker who made the birth control pill possible by discovering a synthetic substitute for the hormone progesterone.
9. 9. The Gene Engineers 1977-03-16 55 min NOVA explores the history of genetic engineering and the possible risks and benefits of this area of research
10. 10. The Human Animal 1977-03-23 55 min NOVA investigates the controversial theory of Harvard University biologist E.O. Wilson, that many aspects of human behavior are genetically determined.
11. 11. The Wolf Equation 1977-03-30 55 min In the winter of 1976-77, 80 percent of the wolf population in Northwest Alaska was the target of aerial hunts. Although the area is roamed by the Western Arctic caribou herds—a natural predator of th...
12. 12. The Dawn of the Solar Age 1977-04-20 55 min Solar energy is increasingly popular as a home heating source. But only recently has it been seriously considered as a source of industrial power. NOVA looks at this new industrial approach, such as t...
13. 13. The Business of Extinction 1977-04-20 55 min NOVA explores the huge international illegal trade in animals, penetrates the thriving underworld of smugglers and assesses the effects on vanishing wildlife.
14. 14. The Red Planet 1977-04-27 55 min NOVA traces 300 years of speculation, investigation and discovery that have centered on Mars—particularly the theory that the planet could support life. Questions raised by NASA's 1976 Viking mariner...
15. 15. Tongues of Men (1) 1977-05-11 55 min In part one of this two-part exploration of the diversity of world languages, NOVA examines how and why the bewildering confusion of languages came about.
16. 16. Tongues of Men (2) 1977-05-18 55 min In part two of this two-part series on the diversity of language, NOVA explores how man has coped with the confusion of language and asks if the growing acceptance of English is the answer.
17. 17. Linus Pauling: Crusading Scientist 1977-06-01 55 min NOVA profiles Linus Pauling—the only person to have received two unshared Nobel Prizes for his work in nuclear weapons.
18. 18. Across the Silent Barrier 1977-06-22 55 min NOVA explores the different means by which hearing-impaired people have learned to penetrate the world of the hearing by visiting with Kitty O'Neil—a woman record-holding speed car racer; Frances Pars...
19. 19. The New Healers 1977-06-29 55 min NOVA explores the delibitating diseases that are often caused by poverty and follows two paths to health care in Tanzania and the United States.