Series Fact Sheet
| Series title | A Science Odyssey |
| Series premiere | Sunday, January 11, 1998 |
| Series length | Five, two-hour programs |
| Broadcast schedule | Programs to air over five consecutive evenings, Sunday, January 11 through Thursday, January 15, 1998, 8 to 10pm ET (check local listings) |
| Series overview | Penicillin. The Wright Flyer. Black holes. Nylon. Radio. Psychoanalysis. Organ transplants. Volcanoes. The atomic bomb. The Big Bang. These are just a few of the stories explored in A Science Odyssey, an extraordinary chronicle of twentieth-century scientific adventure. Host Charles Osgood takes viewers on the journey of a century, illuminating the people, breakthroughs, and social forces that have made this the most dynamic 100 years in the history of science and technology. |
| Program titles and descriptions | "Matters of Life and Death" investigates remarkable breakthroughs in surgery, vaccines, drugs, and medical technology, examines medicine's evolving ethical questions and changes in our assumptions about life and death.
"Mysteries of the Universe" probes the twin revolutions in physics and astronomy and delves into scientists' century-long struggle to discover the fundamental laws of Everything.
"In Search of Ourselves" explores what we've learned about human behavior over the past 100 years -- and how much more of this dramatic frontier we have yet to discover.
"Bigger, Better, Faster" spotlights the inventors and entrepreneurs who fuel the century's technological revolution, the surprising forces that bring their inventions to life, and how their discoveries have changed the way we live, work, and think about the world.
"Origins" reveals what we have learned about the history of our planet, our own species, and life itself through the discoveries of geologists, biochemists, paleoanthropologists, and many others. |
| Host and narrator | Charles Osgood |
| Program producers | Larry Klein and Sarah Holt ("Matters of Life and Death") Noel Buckner and Rob Whittlesey ("Mysteries of the Universe") Alice Markowitz and Cheryl Wang Gall ("In Search of Ourselves") Carl Charlson and Harry Gural ("Bigger, Better, Faster") David Espar and Diane Hendrix ("Origins") |
| Executive-in-charge | Paula S. Apsell |
| Executive producer and project director | Thomas Friedman |
| Produced for PBS by | WGBH Boston and the WGBH Science Unit |
| Funding | Major funding for the series is provided by the National Science Foundation.
Corporate sponsorship is provided by IBM Corporation. IBM is a registered trademark of IBM Corporation. Additional funding comes from public television viewers, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, Carnegie Corporation of New York, and Becton Dickinson and Company. |
| Project partners | |
| Ancillary products (link to A Science Odyssey Shop) |
A Science Odyssey: 100 Years of Discovery, written by Charles Flowers, with a foreword by Charles Osgood and introduction by Charles Kuralt, will be published by William Morrow and Company to coincide with the television broadcast premiere. |
| Accessibility | A Science Odyssey is closed captioned for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers by
The Caption Center at WGBH Boston.
Narrated descriptions of the programs are provided by Descriptive Video Service® (DVS®), a national service of WGBH Boston that makes television, cable, and home video programming accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired. |
| Available on request | Photography:
Color and additional
black-and-white images Film: Preview cassettes and sampler reels Biographies of key series interviewees, members of the production team Interviews with series interviewees, Charles Osgood (schedule permitting), Thomas Friedman, and members of the production team |
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125 Western Ave Boston, MA 02134 A production of WGBH Boston 617.492.2777 www.pbs.org |
Major funding is provided by the National Science Foundation. |
Corporate sponsorship is provided by IBM. IBM is a registered trademark of IBM Corporation. |
Additional funding comes from public television viewres, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, Carnegie Corporation of New York, and Becton Dickinson and Company. |
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