The Real Jurassic Park

The Real Jurassic Park 1993

5.80

Could scientists recreate Hollywood's Jurassic Park using 100-million-year-old dinosaur DNA? Director Steven Spielberg, author Michael Crichton, actor Jeff Goldblum, and a host of scientific experts answer this compelling question in the award-winning Nova documentary, The Real Jurassic Park. Behind-the-scenes clips, interviews, and demonstrations with leading paleontologists investigate the viability of reviving the extinct species. All phases of logistics are addressed, including extracting prehistoric insect DNA, creating embryos for placement in host eggs, and more. The scientific analysis of the process leads to the examination of the ethics of recreating a vanished life form.

1993

Dinosaurs: The Final Day with David Attenborough

Dinosaurs: The Final Day with David Attenborough 2022

7.30

David Attenborough brings to life, in unprecedented detail, the last days of the dinosaurs. Palaeontologist Robert DePalma has made an incredible discovery in a prehistoric graveyard: fossilised creatures, astonishingly well preserved, that could help change our understanding of the last days of the dinosaurs. Evidence from his site records the day when an asteroid bigger than Mount Everest devastated our planet and caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. Based on brand new evidence, witness the catastrophic events of that day play out minute by minute.

2022

Flying Supersonic

Flying Supersonic 2018

8.00

Thundering across the sky on elegant white wings, the Concorde was an instant legend. But behind the glamour of jet setting at Mach 2 were stunning scientific innovations and political intrigue. Fifteen years after Concorde's final flight, this documentary takes you inside the historic international race to develop the first supersonic airliner. Hear stories from those inside the choreographed effort to design and build Concorde in two countries at once - and the crew members who flew her.

2018

Britain's Viking Graveyard

Britain's Viking Graveyard 2019

1

Archaeologists believe that a massive grave in a vicarage garden in Derbyshire may be the last resting place of a vast army of thousands of warriors that invaded Britain in the ninth century.

2019

Black Hole Apocalypse

Black Hole Apocalypse 2018

7.40

Astrophysicists show how black holes might hold answers to how the universe evolved, leading to life on Earth and, ultimately, the human race.

2018

NOVA: Decoding da Vinci

NOVA: Decoding da Vinci 2019

7.50

Leonardo da Vinci was a Renaissance genius. Not only did he paint masterpieces of art, but he was an obsessive scientist and inventor, dreaming up complex machines centuries ahead of his time, including parachutes, armored tanks, hang gliders and robots. On the 500th anniversary of Leonardo’s death, with the help of biographer Walter Isaacson, NOVA investigates the secrets of Leonardo’s success. How did his scientific curiosity, from dissections of cadavers to studies of optics, shape his genius and help him create perhaps the most famous painting of all time, the "Mona Lisa"?

2019

Can We Cool the Planet?

Can We Cool the Planet? 2020

7.33

Capturing CO2 to recycle it, brightening clouds to better intercept sunlight, massive reforestation: here's an overview of scientific solutions to combat global warming that offer a glimmer of hope.

2020

Eiffel Tower: Building the Impossible

Eiffel Tower: Building the Impossible 2023

8.50

In 1889, Gustave Eiffel decides to attempt the impossible for the Universal Exhibition in Paris: to build the tallest tower in the world. Before this project, this pioneer and visionary had created more than 300 metal structures around the world.

2023

Fractals: Hunting the Hidden Dimension

Fractals: Hunting the Hidden Dimension 2008

6.70

Determined to understand the repeating patterns he was finding in nature, French mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot used an early form of computer imagery to produce his own versions, coining the recurring shapes fractals. This installment of the PBS series "Nova" examines the rules of these self-similar patterns and explores the ways these fascinating geometric configurations can be applied in the fields of science, medicine and the arts.

2008

What Darwin Never Knew

What Darwin Never Knew 2009

9.00

Earth teems with a staggering variety of animals, including 9,000 kinds of birds, 28,000 types of fish, and more than 350,000 species of beetles. What explains this explosion of living creatures—1.4 million different species discovered so far, with perhaps another 50 million to go? The source of life's endless forms was a profound mystery until Charles Darwin brought forth his revolutionary idea of natural selection. But Darwin's radical insights raised as many questions as they answered. What actually drives evolution and turns one species into another? To what degree do different animals rely on the same genetic toolkit? And how did we evolve?

2009

Interruption

Interruption 2016

6.71

A post-modern theater adaptation of a classic Greek tragedy takes place in a central theater of Athens. Like every night, the audience take their seats and the play begins. Suddenly, the lights on stage go out. A group of young people, dressed in black and carrying guns, come up on stage. They apologize for the interruption and invite people from the audience to participate on stage. The play resumes with a main difference; life imitates art and not the opposite.

2016

The Great Robot Race: The DARPA Grand Challenge

The Great Robot Race: The DARPA Grand Challenge 2006

1

Twenty-three bizarre looking vehicles line up at the starting gate of the DARPA Grand Challenge with one thing in common: there's nobody behind the wheel. Sponsored by the Pentagon's research agency, this race for robotic, driverless vehicles has a $2 million prize. Its ultimate goal is to gather new ideas for the future of unmanned warfare.

2006

Looking for Life on Mars

Looking for Life on Mars 2021

7.30

NASA launches its most ambitious hunt for traces of life on Mars, landing a car-sized rover in a rocky, ancient river delta. The rover will stow samples for possible return to Earth and test technology that may pave the way for human travel to Mars.

2021

The Mind's Big Bang

The Mind's Big Bang 2001

1

The events and coincidences that led to rapid advances in human intelligence 50,000 years ago.

2001

Dawn of Humanity

Dawn of Humanity 2015

7.50

Nova and National Geographic present exclusive access to an astounding discovery of ancient fossil human ancestors.

2015

Pluto and Beyond

Pluto and Beyond 2019

8.20

Since it explored Pluto in 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft has been zooming toward NASA's most distant target yet. Join the mission team as the probe attempts to fly by Ultima Thule, an object 4 billion miles from Earth.

2019

NOVA: Secrets of the Viking Sword

NOVA: Secrets of the Viking Sword 2012

7.50

The Vikings were the most ferocious warriors of the Middle Ages. Especially fearsome were the select few who wielded a formidable weapon: a light, razor sharp, virtually indestructible sword with its maker's name, Ulfberht, inlaid along the blade.

2012

Einstein Revealed

Einstein Revealed 1997

4.50

NOVA biography of Albert Einstein, covering his early years, relativity research and personal life.

1997

When Whales Could Walk

When Whales Could Walk 2024

1

In Egypt's Sahara Desert, massive skeletons with strange skulls and gigantic teeth jut out from the sandy ground. This fossil graveyard, millions of years old, is known as the "Valley of the Whales." Now, paleontologists have unearthed a whole new species of ancient whale dating to 43 million years ago, and this predator wasn't just able to swim – it also had four legs and could walk. Follow scientists as they search for new clues to the winding evolutionary path of mammals that moved from the land into the sea to become the largest animals on Earth.

2024

The Secrets of the Colosseum

The Secrets of the Colosseum 2014

1

Sea battles in the morning and gladiator fights in the afternoon with wild beasts magically appearing in the arena? A subterranean archaeologist investigates tunnels to see how the Colosseum could be flooded; and architects, engineers, and builders construct a lift and trap door system to attempt the release of a wolf into the most famous amphitheater in the world for the first time in 1500 years.

2014