Nova

- Season 35

(2008)

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 cold? How do you achieve it, and how cold can it get?

Nova examines scientific efforts to produce colder and colder temperatures.

Nova checks in to see how the multi-decade restoration of the Parthenon is going. They find the restorers dealing with a massive jigsaw puzzle with pieces that are only slightly different, many of which are broken or missing, and the remaining pieces were reassembled wrong by the last restoration team. Even modern methods are not up to the challenge of reconstructing the missing pieces with the necessary precision so it is necessary to rediscover the ancient methods.

This documentary investigates the background of a secret 1960s USAF space project named MOL (Manned Orbiting Laboratory) and its Russian counterpart ALMAZ.

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A Chinese paleontologist flies into controversy when he discovers a four winged dinosaur and claims it is the missing link between dinosaurs and birds rather than evolving from reptiles. Opposing sides in the controversy prepare skeletal reproductions to demonstrate their position but neither can figure out how the creature could possibly fly, leading to the creation of a detailed, poseable scale model for wind tunnel testing.

Nova examines the fascinating history behind the scientific effort to decode the Mayan writing system.

Click and Clack from NPR's Car Talk look at the future of motor vehicle transportation. New designs, new construction materials and new fuel sources are all discussed. Social and Political issues are also touched on lightly.

A difficult journey that begins in loneliness and shame for thousands of Ethiopian women ends in a productive new life and hope for the future in this award-winning film. Shot against a starkly beautiful landscape, A Walk to Beautiful shares the inspiring stories of three women, rejected by their husbands and ostracized by their communities, who leave home in search of treatment for obstetric fistula. In a courageous attempt to reclaim their lives, these women embark on a remarkable journey.

Narrated by Harrison Ford. At age 78, E.O. Wilson is still going through his 'little savage' phase of boyhood exploration of the natural world. NOVA profiles this soft-spoken Southerner and Professor Emeritus at Harvard, who is an acclaimed advocate for ants, biological diversity, and the controversial extension of Darwinian ideas to human society.

Dinosaurs are generally considered tropical animals. So what are their fossils doing north of the arctic circle? Paleontologists battle the fierce climate to find out if the arctic was warmer then than it is now, or the arctic was farther from the North Pole, or the dinosaurs were migratory animals, or if they warm blooded.

A look at the Columbia space shuttle disaster in 2003. It includes interviews with shuttle astronauts, family members, flight control personnel, administrators and investigators. Also included is a brief history of the space shuttle program.

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A look at fractal geometry, and how it is found just about everywhere in everything, and how the mathematics of fractals can be used to model and measure such things as mountains, coastlines, telephone line noise and heart rhythm. It also shows how they are used in animation, communications and textile design.

NOVA investigates the furious scientific debate raging over what "Hobbit" bones represent.

A powerful partnership between science and scholarship breaks exciting new ground in investigating the origins of the ancient Israelites, their faith in a single, omnipotent God and the creation of the Bible.

San Francisco veterinarian Dr. Frances Gulland is committed to saving sick marine mammals, but she's also desperately trying to figure out what's killing them.

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Nova investigates California's aggressive pro-environment energy policies and examines whether such policies will be good or bad for business.