Special Features
- General Article: The Publication of Ovum Humanum
- Biography: Robert Edwards
- General Article: In Vitro Fertilization Today
- Biography: Judy and Roger Carr
- General Article: First Human Eggs Fertilized in a Laboratory
- General Article: Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital
The pioneering researchers in the effort to conceive babies through in vitro fertilization faced daunting obstacles and much controversy before the world's first test tube baby was born on July 25, 1978.
My American Experience
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We invite you to tell us your own stories - whether you lived through a tumultuous time period or learned about it from a relative, a book or a movie.
Series Blog
Robert Edwards Wins Nobel Prize
This morning the Nobel committee announced Robert Edwards as recipient of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Edwards is featured prominently in the AMERICAN EXPERIENCE film Test Tube Babies, which recounts how his pioneering work in in vitro fertilization led to the birth of the world's first "test-tube baby" in 1978.
The Living Weapon
The international race to develop biological weapons during the 20th century.
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Radio Bikini
While the U.N. debated strategies for control of atomic energy, the U.S. Navy was preparing for nuclear tests on Bikini Island.
Film Details
Influenza 1918
The worst epidemic in American history killed over 600,000 Americans during World War I.
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The Telephone
Though first seen only as an expensive luxury, Alexander Graham Bell's telephone soon transformed American life and became a necessity.
Film Details
Partners of the Heart
At the height of segregation, an unlikely alliance between a black medical genius and a white surgeon led to a pioneering medical breakthrough.
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Spy in the Sky
In 1960, Francis Gary Powers' U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union.
Film Details
Grand Central
A marvel of engineering, architecture, and vision, the story of the Beaux Arts structure on 42nd street that forever changed midtown Manhattan.
Film Details
The Boy in the Bubble
The unusual life of David Vetter, who lived permanently inside a germ-free environment due to severe combined immunodeficiency.
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