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Follow along as NASA launches the Mars 2020 Mission, perhaps the most ambitious hunt yet for signs of ancient life on Mars. In February 2021, the spacecraft blazes into the Martian atmosphere at some 12,000 miles per hour and lowers the Perseverance Rover into the rocky Jezero Crater, home to a dried-up river delta scientists think could have harbored life. Perseverance will comb the area for signs of life and collect samples for possible return to Earth. Traveling onboard is a four-pound helicopter that will conduct a series of test flights—the first on another planet. During its journey, Perseverance will also test technology designed to produce oxygen from the Martian atmosphere, in hopes that the gas could be used for fuel—or for humans to breathe—on future missions. (Premiered February 24, 2021)

NASA launches its most ambitious search yet for traces of ancient life on Mars.

Looking for Life on Mars

Without the chemistry of photosynthesis, ozone, and a molecule called Rubisco, none of us would be here. So how did we get so lucky? To find out, host David Pogue investigates the surprising molecules that allowed life on Earth to begin, and ultimately thrive. Along the way, he finds out what we’re all made of—literally. (Premiering February 17, 2021)

Discover the origins of life and the chemistry that made it all happen.

Beyond the Elements: Life

Kids' Nightmares & Sleep Terrors: When to Worry Hero

Hosts Alok Patel and Bethany Van Delft offer an understanding of the frightening episodes your child may be experiencing when they go to sleep, so you can help your little one navigate through the night. Nightmares can be brought on by something a child sees during their waking hours, like a book, show, or movie. But they can also be related to trauma or brought on by life changes or a specific event.Humans evolved to recognize that what they can’t see might hurt them, meaning many children are afraid of the dark. Now that we live in houses, apartments, and other types of shelters, a physical barrier between us and “whatever may be out there” exists. Young children may have a hard time distinguishing between what’s real and imaginary, making it challenging for many to grasp that what’s “out there” can’t get in—including that fictitious monster hiding under the bed.How can you acknowledge that your child has fear and help them get through it? A night light and comforting toys may help, Bethany says. “As you’re helping your child get through something like sleeping in the dark or dealing with nightmares, you want to give them an element of control,” Alok adds.Unlike nightmares, sleep terrors tend to occur during non-REM sleep. “Night terrors are these frightening reactions where kids can kick, thrash or scream for seemingly no reason,” Alok says. “They may have an elevated heart rate, sweating, or even dilated pupils.” Sleep terrors can be caused by caffeine, stress, new medications, or sleep deprivation. And while there’s no genetic proof that night terrors are hereditary, they tend to run in families.If your child suffers from nightmares or sleep terrors, it’s worth checking whether something external or internal (i.e., a medication) is causing frequent sleep disturbances. (If your child is excessively tired during the day, you might want to contact their pediatrician.) Ultimately, the easier it is for your little one to catch some Zs, the easier it will be for you, too.<a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/parentalogic">Subscribe to the YouTube channel</a> and receive alerts when new episodes launch!

Have you ever put your little one peacefully to bed only to hear them crying out in distress later in the night? Dreams and nightmares, which occur during REM sleep, are a normal part of human brain activity—and they don’t stop as you get older.

Kids' Nightmares & Sleep Terrors: When to Worry

Since the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947, these fragile parchment relics have intrigued scholars, religious leaders, and profiteers alike. The 2,000-year-old scrolls include the oldest-known versions of the Hebrew Bible and hold vital clues about the birth of Christianity. While certain scrolls have survived intact, others have been ravaged by time—burnt, decayed, or torn to pieces—and remain an enigma. Now, scientists are using new technologies to read the unreadable, solve mysteries that have endured for millennia, and even discover million-dollar fakes. (Premiered November 6, 2019)

New technologies unravel the Dead Sea Scrolls’ mysteries and uncover million-dollar fakes.

Dead Sea Scroll Detectives

The Dead Sea is dying: Since 1976, its level has dropped more than 100 feet, leaving its coastline pockmarked with thousands of sinkholes. But after more than a decade of research and debate, scientists, engineers, and political leaders have come up with a daring plan: connect the Red Sea to the Dead Sea by way of a massive desalination plant. If it’s successful, the project could not only revive the sea, but also help ease political tensions and water shortages in the region. NOVA follows this unprecedented endeavor—perhaps the world’s largest water chemistry experiment—as scientists race to save the Dead Sea and bring water to one of the driest regions on Earth. (Premiered April 24, 2019)

Can a daring water engineering project revive the Dead Sea without altering its unique chemistry?

Saving the Dead Sea

Tiny, transparent, and threatened, krill are crucial to the Antarctic ecosystem. But the population of krill is crashing for reasons that continue to baffle the experts. A leading theory says that krill’s life cycle is driven by an internal body clock that responds to the waxing and waning of the Antarctic ice pack, and as climate change alters the timing of the ice pack, their life cycle is disrupted. To test it, NOVA travels on the Polarstern, a state-of-the-art research vessel, to the frigid ice pack in the dead of winter. From camps established on the ice, scientists dive beneath the surface in search of the ice caves that shelter juvenile krill during the winter. There, they hope to discover what’s causing the krill to vanish and, ultimately, how the shifting seasons caused by climate change could disrupt ecosystems around the world. (Premiered January 20, 2016)

What’s behind the death of a tiny creature with an outsized role in the Antarctic?

Mystery Beneath the Ice

Women make up less than a quarter of STEM professionals in the United States, and numbers are even lower for women of color. But there is a growing group of researchers who are writing a new chapter for women scientists, exposing longstanding discrimination, and leading the way in making science more inclusive. A biologist, a chemist, and a geologist lead viewers on a journey through their own experiences in the sciences, ranging from outright harassment to years of subtle slights. Along the way, from cramped laboratories to spectacular field stations, scientific visionaries, including social scientists, neuroscientists, and psychologists, provide new perspectives on how to make science itself more diverse, equitable, and open to all. (Premiering April 14 at 9 pm on PBS)

Researchers expose longstanding discrimination against women in science.

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