January - December 1992
Hell Fighters of Kuwait
NOVA covers the fight to put out Saddam Hussein's bonfire of
oil wells in Kuwait, which has created the worst manmade
pollution event in history. Fire fighting teams from Houston
and elsewhere are faced with a Texas-size job.
Original broadcast date: 01/14/92
Topic: environment/ecology
Submarine!
NOVA takes a voyage on the newest of America's doomsday
machines—the ballistic missle submarine USS Michigan.
The Cold War may be won, but these submerged super arsenals
continue to prowl the deep.
Original broadcast date: 01/21/92
Topic: technology/weapons & warfare
Saddam's War on Wildlife
Few people give any thought to wildlife in the midst of a war.
During the Gulf War, environmentalist John Walsh did his best
to save animals from oil spills, bullets and other dangers.
Original broadcast date: 01/28/92
Topic: environment/ecology
What Smells?
The nose knows. How much is the subject of NOVA's
investigation of the mysterious aromas and hidden messages
picked up by our sense of smell. David Suzuki hosts.
Original broadcast date: 02/11/92
Topic: human biology/behavior
Can You Believe TV Ratings?
Rating the audience for TV shows is a classic problem in
statistical analysis. NOVA finds that ratings are getting more
accurate but still are far from scientific.
Original broadcast date: 02/18/92
Topic: social sciences/miscellaneous
Making a Dishonest Buck
Criminals still make money the old-fashioned way—by
counterfeiting. NOVA looks at why US currency is so easy to
fake and what the government is doing about it.
Original broadcast date: 03/03/92
Topic: technology/crime
Rescuing Baby Whales
NOVA examines the mysterious whale strandings along the
beaches of Cape Cod Bay, as the puzzling behavior becomes more
common.
Original broadcast date: 03/10/92
Topic: animal biology/behavior
An Astronaut's View of the Earth
NOVA goes behind the scenes to watch the filming of a
big-screen Imax/Omnimax space spectacle. Astronauts operate
the cameras on location aboard the Space Shuttle.
Original broadcast date: 03/17/92
Topic: astronomy/space exploration
Eclipse of the Century
The spectacular eclipse of 1991 passed over major
observatories on the island of Hawaii. NOVA was there for 6
1/2 minutes of frenetic research that revealed new secrets
about our sun.
Original broadcast date: 03/24/92
Topic: astronomy/space exploration
Animal Olympians II
NOVA looks at grace, speed, strength and endurance of humans
and animals.
Original broadcast date: 08/25/92
Topic: animal biology/behavior
The Genius Behind the Bomb
Physicists Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard reenact the signing
of the 1939 letter that alerted President Franklin Roosevelt
to the feasibility of atomic weapons. Szilard drafted and
Einstein signed the famous warning, which led to the building
of the first atomic bomb.
Original broadcast date: 09/29/92
Topic: physics
Mind of a Serial Killer
NOVA goes behind the scenes to give the real story behind the
FBI unit popularized in the Academy Award-winning film, The
Silence of the Lambs. Using a detailed psychological profile,
the unit helped the Rochester, New York police department
catch a notorious serial killer who targeted prostitutes.
Actor Patrick Stewart narrates.
Original broadcast date: 10/13/92
Topic: psychology
Search for the First Americans
NOVA follows the trail of America's first inhabitants. Did
they migrate across a Bering Sea land bridge at the end of the
last Ice Age, as we all learned in school? Or did they arrive
thousands of years earlier, possibly by some different route,
as new archaeological evidence increasingly hints?
Original broadcast date: 10/20/92
Topic: anthropology/ancient
Rafting Through the Grand Canyon
NOVA explores Earth's greatest natural wonder by rafting down
the river that created it, repeating the spectacular first
canyon voyage of the 19th-century explorer John Wesley Powell.
The Grand Canyon tells the story of nearly 2 billion years of
earth history plus the changes caused by three decades of
human intervention.
Original broadcast date: 10/27/92
Topic: geology
This Old Pyramid
In a 90-minute special presentation, NOVA reveals the ancient
secrets of how the pyramids were built by actually building
one. A noted Egyptologist, Mark Lehner, and a professional
stonemason, Roger Hopkins (This Old House), join forces in the
shadow of the Great Pyramid of Giza to put clever and
sometimes bizarre pyramid construction theories to the test.
Original broadcast date: 11/04/92
Topic: technology/engineering
Iceman
Five thousand years ago, a man perished in a mountain storm.
In 1991, his frozen body was found along with artifacts of his
vanished way of life. NOVA covers the international effort to
unlock the secrets of this astonishing discovery.
Original broadcast date: 11/10/92
Topic: anthropology/ancient
Private Lives of Dolphins
NOVA delves into the deep sea drama of life among the dolphins
at research stations in Florida and Australia. Like humans and
chimpanzees, dolphins have evolved a sophisticated social
system that provides clues about the origins and purpose of
big brains and intelligence.
Original broadcast date: 11/17/92
Topic: animal biology/behavior
Brain Transplant
Two paralyzed drug addicts travel to Sweden to receive a
revolutionary treatment for brain disease that is largely
unavailable in the US due to the ban on fetal tissue research.
"Brain Transplant" continues the remarkable story of a
mysterious malady linked to a bad batch of synthetic heroin
that NOVA first covered in the 1986 award-winning film, "The
Case of the Frozen Addict."
Original broadcast date: 12/01/92
Topic: medicine/disease & research
Can You Stop People from Drinking?
NOVA looks at how Russia and the United States are attacking
the intractable problem of alcohol abuse with old and new
weapons—including prohibition, hypnotism, imprisonment,
surveillance, deception, aversion therapy and group therapy as
practiced by Alcoholics Anonymous.
Original broadcast date: 12/22/92
Topic: human biology/behavior
Sex and the Single Rhino
NOVA examines the high-tech efforts to preserve the world's
animal diversity. Noah needed only an ark—but today's
conservationists need all the tools that biology, ecology,
diplomacy and politics can muster if endangered species are to
survive beyond the next century.
Original broadcast date: 12/29/92
Topic: animal biology/behavior