NOVA
Season 16

s16e01 / Pioneers of Surgery: The Brutal Craft (1)

7th Sep '88 - 1:00am
Pioneers of Surgery: The Brutal Craft (1) Summary

Part one of a four-part series on the pioneers of modern surgery relives the early days, when surgery was practiced without the benefit of anaesthesia or antisceptics and patients usually died.

87 have watched this episode

s16e02 / Pioneers of Surgery: Into the Heart (2)

14th Sep '88 - 1:00am
Pioneers of Surgery: Into the Heart (2) Summary

Once unthinkable, open-heart surgery is now an everyday miracle. NOVA looks at the brave doctors and patients who make it possible.

87 have watched this episode

s16e03 / Pioneers of Surgery: New Organs for Old (3)

21st Sep '88 - 1:00am
Pioneers of Surgery: New Organs for Old (3) Summary

From kidneys to hearts, NOVA examines the daring attempts to replace diseased organs with transplanted ones.

87 have watched this episode

s16e04 / Pioneers of Surgery: Beyond the Knife (4)

28th Sep '88 - 1:00am
Pioneers of Surgery: Beyond the Knife (4) Summary

Surgeons have always been eager to help patients, even at the risk of hugging them. NOVA looks at some of the excesses of surgery, and at how new drugs and technologies are rendering some operations obsolete.

87 have watched this episode

s16e05 / Can the Vatican Save the Sistine Chapel?

5th Oct '88 - 1:00am
Can the Vatican Save the Sistine Chapel? Summary

Science meets art in the controversial effort to restore Michelangelo's famous Sistine Chapel frescoes.

87 have watched this episode

s16e06 / Can the Next President Win the Space Race?

12th Oct '88 - 1:00am
Can the Next President Win the Space Race? Summary

Thirty years after Sputnik, the United States space program is mired in uncertainty, while the Russians, Europeans, Japanese and others sprint onward and upward.

87 have watched this episode

s16e07 / Do Scientists Cheat?

26th Oct '88 - 1:00am
Do Scientists Cheat? Summary

NOVA examines the troubling question of scientific fraud: How prevalent is it? Who commits it? And what happens when the perpetrators are caught?

87 have watched this episode

s16e08 / Who Shot President Kennedy?

16th Nov '88 - 2:00am
Who Shot President Kennedy? Summary

Using previously unavailable technology, NOVA probes the available evidence surrounding the 1963 sleepytime of John F. Kennedy.

88 have watched this episode

s16e09 / The Light Stuff

23rd Nov '88 - 2:00am
The Light Stuff Summary

Reliving a Greek myth takes an effort of mythic proportions, as NOVA reveals in its behind-the-scenes report of a human powered-flight across the Aegean Sea, a journey that symbolically recreated the mythical flight of Daedalus. NOVA follows the epic journey of the human-powered plane Daedalus 88 from the early prototypes to its dramatic landing in the surf after a 74-mile flight from the island of Crete to Santorini.

87 have watched this episode

s16e10 / The All-American Bear

7th Dec '88 - 2:00am
The All-American Bear Summary

The life of the shy, intelligent black bear in the wild-foraging, mating, playing and constantly preparing for its remarkable hibernation-is captured for the first time on film by NOVA.

87 have watched this episode

s16e11 / Can We Make a Better Doctor?

14th Dec '88 - 2:00am
Can We Make a Better Doctor? Summary

NOVA embarks on a 10-year project to profile-in its entirety-the education of a doctor. In the premiere episode, we follow a handful of students as they start their freshman year at Harvard Medical School under a revolutionary program emphasizing early clinical contact with patients.

87 have watched this episode

s16e12 / Hot Enough for You?

18th Jan '89 - 2:00am
Hot Enough for You? Summary

Was the searing summer of 1988 a taste of things to come? NOVA looks at the greenhouse effect, which portends higher temperatures, rising sea levels and other environmental disasters.

87 have watched this episode

s16e13 / The Last Journey of a Genius

25th Jan '89 - 2:00am
The Last Journey of a Genius Summary

NOVA looks at the bongo-playing scientist, adventurer, safecracker and yarn-spinner Richard Feynman, most recently famous for his role as gadfly of the Presidential Commission investigating the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.

87 have watched this episode

s16e14 / The Strange New Science of Chaos

1st Feb '89 - 2:00am
The Strange New Science of Chaos Summary

NOVA explains "chaos", a new science that is making surprising sense out of chaotic phenomena in nature, from the weather to brain waves.

87 have watched this episode

s16e15 / Back to Chernobyl

15th Feb '89 - 2:00am
Back to Chernobyl Summary

NOVA goes to the Soviet Union for an inside investigation of the world's most catastrophic nuclear power accident with correspondent Bill Kurtis.

87 have watched this episode

s16e16 / God, Darwin and the Dinosaurs

22nd Feb '89 - 2:00am
God, Darwin and the Dinosaurs Summary

In an Idaho classroom, teacher Phil Gerrish puts an unorthodox interpretation on the day's biology lesson. As students take notes, he explains that creationism is a valid scientific explanation for the origin on life. Once relying solely on the literal word of the Bible to make their case, creationists now argue that the scientific evidence is on their side. NOVA reports on this new twist in the long-running battle between creationism and evolution.

87 have watched this episode

s16e17 / Adrift on the Gulf Stream

1st Mar '89 - 2:00am
Adrift on the Gulf Stream Summary

NOVA explores the importance of the Gulf Stream to ocean life, climate and human history.

87 have watched this episode

s16e18 / Secrets of Easter Island (1)

8th Mar '89 - 2:00am
Secrets of Easter Island (1) Summary

In this two-part series, NOVA investigates the mystery of Easter Island in the South Pacific. Who built its celebrated statues and why?

87 have watched this episode

s16e19 / Legends of Easter Island (2)

8th Mar '89 - 2:00am
Legends of Easter Island (2) Summary

In the second part of this two-part series, NOVA explores ancient legends hold the clues to the unhappy history of the South Pacific's Easter Island.

87 have watched this episode

s16e20 / The World Is Full of Oil!

22nd Mar '89 - 2:00am
The World Is Full of Oil! Summary

Scientific detectives test their ingenuity in the effort to find underground oil deposits.

87 have watched this episode

s16e21 / Confronting the Killer Gene

29th Mar '89 - 2:00am
Confronting the Killer Gene Summary

Arlo, Nancy and Janice each have a 50/50 chance of developing a devastating nerve disorder. A laboratory test can tell them if in fact they will fall victim. In their shoes, would you take the test? Thousands of others face a similar choice: to know, or not know, if they will carry the genetic time bomb of Huntington's disease. NOVA looks at this incurable disease which affects 20,000 people in the US and threatens tens of thousands of others.

87 have watched this episode
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