NOVA
Season 9

s09e01 / Computers, Spies and Private Lives

28th Sep '81 - 1:00am
Computers, Spies and Private Lives Summary

NOVA reports on the potential danger of modern computers that gather "routine" information about our daily lives as we buy things, go to the hospital, or make donations. Computers can know more about us than our closest friends. NOVA examines how much of that personal information is readily shared with other computers.

88 have watched this episode

s09e02 / Why America Burns

5th Oct '81 - 1:00am
Why America Burns Summary

More people die in fires in the US than in any other industrialized country. In an alarming report that challenges the complacency of the US fire prevention establishment, NOVA uncovers glaring gaps in our defenses against flames thathug. Sealing any one of these gaps might save thousands of lives and prevent enormous pain and misery.

88 have watched this episode

s09e03 / The Great Violin Mystery

12th Oct '81 - 1:00am
The Great Violin Mystery Summary

A great secret lies locked inside the master violins created by Italian craftsmen like Antonio Stradivari in the 17th and 18th centuries. Now, a Wisconsin physicist, working alone in his cellar, may have solved the violin mystery.

88 have watched this episode

s09e04 / Cosmic Fire

19th Oct '81 - 1:00am
Cosmic Fire Summary

A NOVA showing the extraordinary discoveries of X-ray astronomy. This new science has revealed that our universe is much stranger and more unhappy than ever imagined, filled with neutrons, stars, exploding galaxies, quasars and black holes—a universe seething with energy, bursting across vast distances of space and time.

88 have watched this episode

s09e05 / Locusts: War Without End

26th Oct '81 - 2:00am
Locusts: War Without End Summary

Called the "teeth of the wind" by those who have battled them for centuries, locusts continue to plague hundreds of millions of people. Rare desert rains transforms locusts from harmless grasshoppers to voracious swarms capable of destroying all vegetation in their path. NOVA reveals some of man's latest attempts to rid himself of his age-old enemy, the locust.

88 have watched this episode

s09e06 / Did Darwin Get It Wrong?

2nd Nov '81 - 2:00am
Did Darwin Get It Wrong? Summary

The controversy which exploded a century ago when Charles Darwin published "The Origin of Species" is erupting again with new facts and emotion. NOVA explores challenges to the theory of evolution coming from evidence in fossils, from biology laboratories, and Creationists.

88 have watched this episode

s09e07 / Artists in the Lab

16th Nov '81 - 2:00am
Artists in the Lab Summary

Many were delighted by the extraordinary special effects in movies like "2001" and" Star Wars," but few realized how their magic relied on technologies as futuristic as their science fiction plots. NOVA introduces 20th century pioneers who use computers and lasers to create an extraordinary array of strange, exciting new art forms.

88 have watched this episode

s09e08 / Notes of a Biology Watcher: A Film with Lewis Thomas

23rd Nov '81 - 2:00am
Notes of a Biology Watcher: A Film with Lewis Thomas Summary

You are not alone! Like it or not, every human being and virtually every living creature is, in a sense, owned and operated by legions of prehistoric organisms, hordes of them in each cell in the body. That is one of the startling revelations as NOVA explores the mysterious wonder of life with Dr. Lewis Thomas, a leading biologist and award-winning author described by Time as "quite possibly the best essayist on science anywhere in the world."

88 have watched this episode

s09e09 / City Spaces, Human Places

30th Nov '81 - 2:00am
City Spaces, Human Places Summary

William H. Whyte's insightful and humorous look at city parks, plazas and streets, and the people who use them. Whyte shows the remarkable research he did over a period of many years to find out why some city squares and small parks are enjoyable while others are so dreary. His work led to the transformation of some New York City plazas from barren to bustling. Whyte shows how any city - large or small - can lick the problem of downtown dreariness.

88 have watched this episode

s09e10 / Twins

7th Dec '81 - 2:00am
Twins Summary

Ever thought what it's like having your mirror image talk back to you? It can be an everyday occurrence for identical twins. NOVA tells the incredible story of scientific research on twins - a field marked by brazen and damaging fraud, but also by surprising and important new discoveries about nature's recipe of heredity and environment which makes us all unique individuals.

88 have watched this episode

s09e11 / Salmon on the Run

11th Jan '82 - 2:00am
Salmon on the Run Summary

NOVA captures the breathtaking power and determination of these amazing creatures and examines how business and technology are changing the fishing industry - and the salmon itself.

88 have watched this episode

s09e12 / Test-Tube Babies: A Daughter For Judy

18th Jan '82 - 2:00am
Test-Tube Babies: A Daughter For Judy Summary

NOVA presents a dramatic, exclusive film of the first "test-tube" baby born in America, Elizabeth Jordan Carr. NOVA follows the pregnancy from the start, presenting the only view on American TV of the extraordinary medical procedures used to remove and fertilize the egg, and of the historic birth, December 28, 1981 in Norfolk, VA.

89 have watched this episode

s09e13 / A Field Guide to Roger Tory Peterson

25th Jan '82 - 2:00am
A Field Guide to Roger Tory Peterson Summary

NOVA takes an intimate look at Robert Tory Peterson, the man whose best-selling guide books to ornithology have played a pivotal role in turning bird-watching into a mass sport.

88 have watched this episode

s09e14 / The Hunt for the Legion Killer

1st Feb '82 - 2:00am
The Hunt for the Legion Killer Summary

One of the biggest investigations in medical history began when a mysterious hugger disease broke out during independence celebrations in Philadelphia in 1976: Legionnaire's Disease. NOVA traces the search for a cause and cure - a search bedeviled by false trails, accusations of incompetence and cover-up, and increasing urgency as the passing toll mounted.

88 have watched this episode

s09e15 / Finding a Voice

8th Feb '82 - 2:00am
Finding a Voice Summary

What is it like not to be able to communicate with others? NOVA explores the severest of speech disabilities with Dick Boydell - born with cerebral palsy, confined to a wheel chair and unable for 30 years to say more than "yes" or "no" and investigates some of the new technology that gives the speechless a 'voice'.

88 have watched this episode

s09e16 / The Television Explosion

15th Feb '82 - 2:00am
The Television Explosion Summary

NOVA explores the past, present, and future of American television including the potential of cable, the Columbus, Ohio, two-way TV experiment, the array of new techniques and their potential social impact. Will the new video technology let people see what they really want, rather than what the networks want?

88 have watched this episode

s09e17 / Life: Patent Pending

1st Mar '82 - 2:00am
Life: Patent Pending Summary

NOVA shows how scientists go about creating new forms of life, and investigates the impact of the gene bonanza on industry, medicine, and the universities themselves. NOVA reveals that other countries are plowing far more resources than the US into the burgeoning industry.

88 have watched this episode

s09e18 / Palace of Delights

8th Mar '82 - 2:00am
Palace of Delights Summary

NOVA visits San Francisco's Exploratorium - part laboratory, part school, part three-ring circus - run by an unlikely collection of physicists and high school students.

88 have watched this episode

s09e19 / Animal Impostors

15th Mar '82 - 2:00am
Animal Impostors Summary

In this vivid study of mimicry and camouflage NOVA shows dramatically how snakes, butterflies, fish, turtles and many other kinds of animals, both predators and their intended victims, use remarkable forms of deception to achieve their goal: to eat, or avoid being eaten.

88 have watched this episode

s09e20 / Aging: The Methuselah Syndrome

29th Mar '82 - 2:00am
Aging: The Methuselah Syndrome Summary

What is aging? Why does it happen? Can it be stopped? NOVA presents a startling report on research into the processes which make us age and how to control them.

88 have watched this episode
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