Cynthia Breazeal: Expert Q&A
Cynthia Breazeal answers questions about her life, her sociable robots, and the future of robotics in society.
Search Results
Sort By:
- Text
- Format:
- Expert Q&A
Cynthia Breazeal: Expert Q&A
Engineer Cynthia Breazeal answered questions about her work with sociable robots, offered her career advice, and more on November 28, 2006.
- Text
- Format:
- Expert Q&A
Mass Extinction: Expert Q&A
On November 28, 2006, paleontologist Doug Erwin answered questions about the Permian and other mass extinctions in the past. He also addressed the possibility of mass extinctions in the present and future.
Mass Extinction: Expert Q&A
The Smithsonian's Doug Erwin answers questions about the Permian and other mass extinctions.
- Text
- Format:
- Expert Q&A
Papyrus: Expert Q&A
On November 28, 2006, papyrologist Roger Macfarlane answered questions about the Oxyrhynchus papyri, the NASA-developed multispectral imaging being used to decipher them, and more.
Papyrus: Expert Q&A
Papyrologist Roger Macfarlane answers questions about ancient papyri, high-tech ways to decipher them, and more.
- Text
- Format:
- Expert Q&A
1918 Flu: Expert Q&A
On November 27, 2006, Terrence Tumpey answered selected viewer questions about the 1918 flu virus, its recent revivification, and the implications of bringing it back to life.
1918 Flu: Expert Q&A
Microbiologist Terrence Tumpey, whose team revived the virus, answers questions about the 1918 flu and its recreation.
- Video
- Format:
- Video Short
- Running Time:
- 12:52
1918 Flu
Can we better prepare for future flu pandemics by resurrecting the 1918 flu virus? This microbe, recovered from tissue samples of World War I soldiers, is perhaps the deadliest pathogen in human history. In this NOVA scienceNOW video segment, meet microbiologists working in the trenches to (very carefully) reconstruct a virus that killed up to 50 million people worldwide.
1918 Flu
A virus that killed up to 50 million people is brought back to life to decipher its deadliness.
- Video
- Format:
- Video Short
- Running Time:
- 13:16
Mass Extinction
Host Neil deGrasse Tyson joins a team of investigators hot on the trail of a mass murderer—one that knocked off its victims 250 million years ago when it wiped out the majority of life on our planet. Long before the dinosaurs, at the end of the Permian Period, something triggered Earth's most profound mass extinction and reset the evolution of life on this planet.
The clues suggest it was not the result of an asteroid impact, the likely cause of the dinosaur extinction later on. Could deadly bacteria have set off a chemical chain reaction that poisoned the Permian seas and atmosphere? As well as a fascinating whodunit, the story is a cautionary tale on the threat posed by modern-day global warming.
Mass Extinction
What caused the Permian extinction—the mother of all extinctions—250 million years ago?
- Video
- Format:
- Video Short
- Running Time:
- 09:01
Papyrus
Can a space-age technology help crack the secrets of barely legible writings from ancient Egypt? Excavated from a long-buried city, a half-million papyri fragments now sit in a vault at Oxford University. To try to read these faded, stained, or even charred bits, a NASA scientist has turned to multispectral imaging technology. Could this be just the kind of "X-ray vision" the scholars need?
Papyrus
Scraps of writings from a garbage dump in ancient Egypt reveal what life was like 2,000 years ago.
- Video
- Format:
- Video Short
- Running Time:
- 12:35
Profile: Cynthia Breazeal
"Robots have been in the deepest oceans, to Mars — but your living room is the final frontier," says MIT roboticist Cynthia Breazeal. Thinking outside the box of traditional engineering, Breazeal designs "sociable robots" with theories of child development and parent-child interactions in mind, equipping her creations with an ability to learn and giving them expressive, human-like features.
Profile: Cynthia Breazeal
A daring engineer designs sociable robots to communicate and interact the way people do.
- Audio
- Format:
- Audio Story
Antique Aviation
At Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome, a "living" museum of aviation history, pilots coax antique machines made of wood, cloth, and wire into the skies over upstate New York. Some are unlike almost any modern aircraft. What's it like to fly them? We talked to three of the museum's pilots to find out.
Antique Aviation
Hear three pilots describe what it's like to fly pioneer aircraft.
- Text
- Format:
- Article
My First Balloon Ascent
At the height of his career, the pioneering aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont believed that flight could be a pathway to world peace, enabling people to reflect on the all-too-human world below and inspiring them to lead more just and moral lives. But when he first took to the skies at the age of 24, flight for Santos was foremost an act of adventure and joy. In the following excerpt from his memoir My Airships, Santos reminisces about the virgin voyage he took in 1897.
My First Balloon Ascent
The pioneering aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont recalls his initial exhilarating experience among the clouds.
- Multimedia
- Format:
- Slide Show
Ancient Papyrus Fragments
During the Greek and Roman occupations of Eygpt, from 332 B.C. to A.D. 641, the city of Oxyrhynchus became the third-largest in Egypt. Even though the city remains buried, scholars know much about it—from myriad fragments of ancient writing on papyrus uncovered there in the 19th century. In this slide show, see a selection of papyrus writings that have revealed a city and a time.
Ancient Papyrus Fragments
Browse papyri remnants, from Sophocles to Sappho, from lost sayings of Jesus to an early guidebook on sex.
- Audio
- Format:
- Audio Story
Extinction Happens
While the mass extinction that decimated the dinosaurs 65 million years ago may be more famous, Sam Bowring, a professor in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at MIT, explains why we all should know about another, even greater biotic wipeout, the Permian extinction.
Extinction Happens
MIT geologist Sam Bowring muses on mass extinctions and why we can't take Earth's hospitable climate for granted.
Narrow Results
Add filters to refine your search
Date
NOVA Topics
- Ancient Worlds (21)
- Body & Brain (38)
- Evolution (8)
- Military & Espionage (12)
- Nature (21)
- Physics & Math (27)
- Planet Earth (58)
- Space & Flight (44)
- Tech & Engineering (30)
Subjects
- Anthropology (27)
- Archeology (25)
- Earth Science (71)
- Engineering (52)
- Environmental Science (36)
- Forensic Science (7)
- Geography (23)
- Health Science (50)
- History (75)
- Life Science (52)
- Math (9)
- Paleontology (12)
- Physical Science (53)
- Science & Society (77)
- Space Science (34)
- Technology (78)
Media Type
- Audio (10)
- Multimedia (83)
- Text (114)
- Video (52)
Format
- Article (51)
- Audio Slide Show (6)
- Audio Story (10)
- Episode Preview (1)
- Episode Transcript (7)
- Expert Q&A (26)
- Full Episode (6)
- Inquiry (12)
- Interactive (52)
- Interview (36)
- Producer's Story (1)
- Quiz (6)
- Slide Show (16)
- Timeline (3)
- Video Short (38)
