NOVA

NOVA Wonders

The search for extraterrestrial life is an age-old quest. But recent breakthroughs make today an era unlike any in the history of astronomy. From the exhilarating probing of our own solar system and the Kepler mission’s astounding discovery of thousands of extrasolar planets, to the next-generation telescopes under development, the prospects for finding life beyond Earth have never been stronger.

Hunt for clues in the universes to answer one of humanity’s biggest questions.

NOVA Wonders Are We Alone?

Are We Alone? Preview

Tabby’s star flickers erratically and no one knows why—could it be an alien megastructure?

The Mystery of Tabby’s Star

Mystery of Tabby’s Star

Astrophysicist Jason Kalirai observes stars and searches for habitable planets in the hopes of finding life.

Astrophysicist Jason Kalirai observes stars and searches for habitable planets.

Profile: Jason Kalirai

The hunt for pollution in other planets’ atmospheres may determine whether or not we are alone in the universe.

The hunt for pollution in other planets’ atmospheres may determine whether we are alone.

Can We Use Pollution to Find Aliens?

the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

The John Templeton Foundation

The National Science Foundation

The search for extraterrestrial life is an age-old quest. But recent breakthroughs make today an era like no other in the history of astronomy. From the exhilarating probing of our own solar system and the Kepler mission’s astounding discovery of thousands of extrasolar planets, to the next-generation telescopes under development, the prospects for finding life beyond Earth have never been stronger. Still, daunting hurdles remain. How can we study anything light years away, let alone a little planet? In the vast universe, where should we even start to look? Is our failure to hear any other voices in the galaxy a sign that we are special? NOVA Wonders joins leading explorers now searching the galaxy for life and intelligence on other planets—and asks, if we do find other life in the universe…what would that mean?

Hunt for clues in the universe to answer one of humanity's biggest questions: Are we alone?

NASA Ames Research Center

Louisiana State University

Cfa | Harvard & Smithsonian

Arizona State University

Affectiva

New York University

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Space Telescope Science Institute

CfA | Harvard & Smithsonian

SETI Institute

Stone Aerospace

Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence

NASA Senior Astrobiologist

Harvey Mudd College

Hunt for clues in the universe to answer one of humanity's biggest questions: Are we alone?

Are We Alone?

Space & Flight

Microbes colonize our skin, guts, and bodies—but we wouldn’t be ourselves without them.

Six Microbes Living in You

Jack Gilbert studies the effects of the microbiome on the human body and mind.

Profile: Jack Gilbert

"I felt an almost father-child relationship with this organism," the entomologist says.

Researcher Raises Botflies Under Skin

Toxoplasma, a parasite found in cat waste, takes over the brain.

Can Cat Poop Make You Crazy?

Whether they make you fat, fart, or freak out, microbes play a central role in your life. Right beneath your nose—on your face, in your gut, and everywhere in between—trillions of bacteria, viruses, and fungi are so abundant in your body, they outnumber your human cells. But these aren’t just nasty hitch-hikers. Many are crucial to your survival.

Discover how a world of microbes living in and on you can make you sick.

What's Living in You? Preview

NOVA Wonders What's Living in You?

Whether they make you fat, fart, or freak out, microbes play a central role in your life. Right beneath your nose—on your face, in your gut, and everywhere in between—trillions of bacteria, viruses, and fungi are so abundant in your body, they outnumber your human cells. But these aren’t just nasty hitch-hikers. Many are crucial to your survival. Evidence suggests that a diverse microbiome can keep you healthy and, conversely, a damaged one could kill you. NOVA Wonders peers into this microscopic world to discover the fascinating, bizarre, and downright surprising secrets of the human microbiome, including the world’s largest stool bank, which transforms raw stool into life-saving poop pills.

Discover how a world of microbes living in and on you can make you sick-and keep you healthy.

University of California, Davis

Indiana University Hospital

University of Chicago

OpenBiome

University of California, San Diego

Indiana Amish Community

Caltech

Patient, Indiana University Hospital

National Institutes of Health

California Academy of Sciences

Discover how a world of microbes living in and on you can make you sick-and keep you healthy.

What's Living in You?

Body & Brain

Rana el Kaliouby is on a mission to humanize technology with artificial emotional intelligence.

Rana el Kaliouby wants to humanize technology with artificial emotional intelligence.

Profile: Rana el Kaliouby

Artificially intelligent machines are taking over. They’re influencing our everyday lives in profound and often invisible ways. They can read handwriting, interpret emotions, play games, and even act as personal assistants. They are in our phones, our cars, our doctors’ offices, our banks, our web searches…the list goes on and is rapidly growing ever longer.

How does today's artificial intelligence actually work-and is it truly intelligent?

NOVA Wonders Can We Build a Brain?

Dr. Roberto Novoa of Stanford Medical School used a database of nearly 130,000 images from the internet to train a deep learning algorithm to identify skin cancers as accurately as his fellow dermatologists.

A deep learning system has learned to accurately identify skin cancers in photographs.

Using Artificial Intelligence to Diagnose Melanoma

Neural nets have revolutionized the AI industry for years. But what exactly are they?

What is a Neural Net?

How does today’s artificial intelligence actually work—and is it truly intelligent?

Can We Build a Brain? Preview

Meet the Robots at Amazon

Artificially intelligent machines are taking over. They’re influencing our everyday lives in profound and often invisible ways. They can read handwriting, interpret emotions, play games, and even act as personal assistants. They are in our phones, our cars, our doctors’ offices, our banks, our web searches…the list goes on and is rapidly growing ever longer. But how does today’s A.I. actually work—and is it truly intelligent? And for that matter, what is intelligence? The world’s brightest computer programmers are trying to build brighter machines by reverse-engineering the brain and by inventing completely new kinds of computers, with exponentially greater speed and processing power. NOVA Wonders looks at how far we’ve come and where machines are headed as their software becomes ever more…cerebral. How close are we from a world in which computers take over—from diagnosing cancer to driving our cars to targeting weapons? If we place more and more of our lives under the control of these artificial brains, what are we putting at risk?

DeepMind

Microsoft

Google

Harvard University

University of Washington

Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence

Ford Motor Company

University of Toronto

Stanford University

Facebook

The New York Times

Argo AI

New America Foundation

How does today’s artificial intelligence actually work—and is it truly intelligent?

Can We Build a Brain?

Mixing mammoth and elephant genes could be the key to saving the Arctic.

Bringing Back Woolly Mammoths

CAR-T Gene Therapy is a new treatment for some forms of Leukemia and Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.

Can Gene Therapy Cure Cancer?

"It's alive!" Since Dr. Frankenstein spoke those famous words, we've been alternately enthralled and terrified by the idea of creating life in the lab. Now, a revolution in genetic engineering and thrilling innovations in synthetic biology are bringing that dream—or nightmare, as the case may be—closer to reality. New tools allow researchers to use cells to create their own DNA.

A revolution in gene editing technology enables scientists to create and edit DNA.

NOVA Wonders Can We Make Life?

CRISPR makes gene editing faster, cheaper, and easier than ever before. Here's how.

How does CRISPR work?

Kevin Esvelt is on a mission to eradicate Lyme disease on Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.

Kevin Esvelt's on a mission to eradicate Lyme disease on Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.

Profile: Kevin Esvelt

A revolution in gene editing enables scientists to create and edit DNA like never before.

Can We Make Life? Preview

"It's alive!" Since Dr. Frankenstein spoke those famous words, we've been alternately enthralled and terrified by the idea of creating life in the lab. Now, a revolution in genetic engineering and thrilling innovations in synthetic biology are bringing that dream—or nightmare, as the case may be—closer to reality. New tools allow researchers to use cells to create their own DNA and edit it into existing genomes with more ease and less cost than ever before. Along with renewed hopes for treating some genetic diseases, there's serious talk of using the newest technologies to bring long-extinct animals back from the dead – like the team hoping to resurrect the woolly mammoth. Science fiction is quickly becoming science fact. Another daring genetic experiment to bioengineer animals could prevent Lyme disease. But the power to make life comes with deep ethical questions. What are the potential rewards—and dangers—of tinkering with nature? NOVA Wonders explores the benefits and the burden of risk surrounding the controversial new technology.

New York University School of Medicine

Harvard Medical School

Nantucket Resident

Center for Genetics and Society

Boston Children's Hospital

MIT Media Lab

Nantucket Physician

Oregon Health and Science University

Wilson Center

University of California, Santa Cruz

Tufts University

A revolution in gene editing enables scientists to create and edit DNA like never before.

Can We Make Life?

Dark energy is spreading the universe apart—what’s it mean for astronomy in the future?

How the Universe Will End

Physics rarely yields finite answers, but that doesn’t deter scientists.

Physics Is a Never-Ending Puzzle

The universe is hiding something. In fact, it is hiding a lot. Everything we experience on Earth, the stars and galaxies we see in the cosmos—all the “normal” matter and energy that we understand—make up only 5% of the known universe. Find out how scientists are discovering new secrets about the history of the universe, and why they’re predicting a shocking future.

Peer into the deep unknowns of the universe to explore its mysteries.

NOVA Wonders What's the Universe Made Of?

What kind of clues led to the discovery of Dark Matter and its place in the universe?

How Scientists Discovered Dark Matter

Peer into the universe’s deep unknowns to explore the mysteries of dark matter and energy.

What's the Universe Made Of? Preview

Theoretical Astrophysicist Priya Natarajan has loved atlases and maps since she was a little girl.

Astrophysicist Priya Natarajan has loved atlases and maps since she was a little girl.

Profile: Priya Natarajan

The universe is hiding something. In fact, it is hiding a lot. Everything we experience on Earth, the stars and galaxies we see in the cosmos—all the “normal” matter and energy that we understand—make up only 5% of the known universe. The other 95% is made up of two mysterious components: “dark matter” and “dark energy.” We can’t see them, but we know they’re there. And what’s more—these two shadowy ingredients are locked in an epic battle to control the very fate of the universe. Now, scientists are trying to shed light on the so-called “dark sector” as the latest generation of detectors rev up, and powerful telescopes peer deeper into space than ever before to observe how it behaves. Will the discoveries help reveal how galaxies formed? In the series finale, NOVA Wonders journeys to the stars and back to investigate what we know—and don’t know. Find out how scientists are discovering new secrets about the history of the universe, and why they’re predicting a shocking future.

SNOLAB

University of California, Berkeley

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

University of Michigan

Dark Energy Survey Collaboration

SNOLAB, Laurentian University

Fermilab

Yale University

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

University of California, Riverside

Peer into the universe’s deep unknowns to explore the mysteries of dark matter and energy.

What's the Universe Made Of?

Can scientists stomach hours of spider sex in order to understand their language?

The Secrets of Spider Seduction

Secrets of Spider Seduction

From singing whales and squeaking bats to thumping spiders and clicking dolphins, the world is filled with the exotic sounds of our fellow creatures. What are they saying? Can we decode their own communications? NOVA Wonders follows researchers around the globe who are deciphering an amazing array of clues that reveal how animals share information critical to their survival.

Can we crack the code of animal communication?

What are Animals Saying? Preview

NOVA Wonders takes viewers on a journey to the frontiers of science, where researchers are tackling some of the biggest questions about life and the cosmos. From the mysteries of astrophysics to the secrets of the body to the challenges of inventing technologies that could rival—and even surpass—the abilities of the human mind. These six hours reveal how far we’ve come in our search for answers.

A 6-part series exploring the biggest questions on the frontiers of science.

NOVA Wonders Series Preview

Meet Dr. André Fenton, the co-host of NOVA Wonders.

Meet André Fenton

Animal and human forms of communication may be much closer than we previously thought.

The Law all Languages Obey

Law all Languages Obey

Meet Dr. Talithia Williams, host of NOVA Wonders.

Meet Talithia Williams

Meet Dr. Rana el Kaliouby, the co-host of NOVA Wonders.

Meet Rana el Kaliouby

Meet Erich Jarvis, a scientist and salsa dancer studying vocal-learning in mice and songbirds.

Meet Erich Jarvis, a scientist studying vocal-learning in mice and songbirds.

Profile: Erich Jarvis

Chimps have their own rich world of communication.

What are Chimps Saying?

NOVA Wonders What Are Animals Saying?

From singing whales and squeaking bats to thumping spiders and clicking dolphins, the world is filled with the exotic sounds of our fellow creatures. What are they saying? While we believe language sets us apart, some animals demonstrate they can learn our language—like Chaser the dog, who recognizes hundreds of words, and Kanzi the bonobo, who appears to have a sophisticated understanding of spoken English. But can we decode their own communications? NOVA Wonders follows researchers around the globe who are deciphering an amazing array of clues that reveal how animals share information critical to their survival. Will we one day be able to write the bat dictionary or decode the hidden sign language of chimps? And what can these findings tell us about the roots of our own language?

Can we crack the code of animal communication?

What Are Animals Saying?

Nature

NOVA Wonders takes viewers on a journey to the frontiers of science, where researchers are tackling some of the biggest questions about life and the cosmos. From the mysteries of astrophysics to the secrets of the body to the challenges of inventing technologies that could rival—and even surpass—the abilities of the human mind, these six hours reveal how far we’ve come in our search for answers, how we managed to get here, and how scientists hope to push our understanding of the universe even further. Along the way, we meet the remarkable people who are transforming our world and our future.

A 6-part series exploring the biggest questions on the frontiers of science.

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This Squid’s Glowing Microbes Can Reprogram Its Eyes From Afar

Could You Upload Your Brain?

Humans are Driving Chimpanzee Culture Out of Existence

For Hyenas, Climbing the Social Ladder is Easier with Friends

Do Genes Dictate How Mice Cope With Trauma?

A Solar Storm Rocked the Earth 2,700 Years Ago—and Left Traces in Greenland’s Ice

Sharing the Womb with A Male Twin Might Change the Trajectory of a Woman’s Life

Can We Build a Brain?

Bacteria Get Funky in Space. Scientists Are Fighting With Metal.

Dispatch: Hurricane Katrina

Using Pollution to Find Aliens

Profile: Jason Kalirai

The Mystery of Tabby’s Star

Profile: Jack Gilbert

Can Cat Poop Make You Crazy?

Six Microbes Living in You

Researcher Raises Botflies Under Skin

What Are Animals Saying?

Meet André Fenton

What is a Neural Net?

Meet Talithia Williams

The Secrets of Spider Seduction

The Law all Languages Obey

What are Chimps Saying?

Meet the Robots at Amazon

How the Universe Will End

Physics Is a Never-Ending Puzzle

Dark Matter Clues

Saturn’s Innermost Moons Are Red Ravioli, Thanks to Its Rings

Radical ideas spread through social media. Are the algorithms to blame?

How Does CRISPR Work?

Can Gene Therapy Cure Cancer?

Chatty birds may put their friends at risk of colliding with buildings

Bringing Back Woolly Mammoths

Profile: Kevin Esvelt

Can You Change Your Microbiome?

Searching for Life Beyond Earth, Finding Our Dreams Instead

Erich Jarvis: Expert Q&A

NOVA Wonders

How CRISPR is Spreading Through the Animal Kingdom

What Birdsong Can Teach Us About Creativity

Sign Up for NOVA Wonders Events

Feast Your Eyes on the First Image of a Black Hole

Israel’s Beresheet Spacecraft Crashes During Attempted Moon Landing

Brains of Bilingual People Solve Math Problems Differently

These Mice Weathered Space. Here’s What Happened to Their Immune Systems.

Meteoroids Pelting the Moon Reveal Water Trapped in Its Soil

In the World of Parrots, Nerdy Guys Get the Girls

Scientists Partially Restore Function in Dead Pigs’ Brains

How Citizen Scientists Discovered the Strangest Star in the Galaxy

The Next Quest for New Worlds

Ethics and Self-Driving Cars

Can You Upload Your Brain?

Battle Scars on Pluto and Charon Reveal the Solar System’s Origins

Profile: Priya Natarajan