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Hagia Sophia: Istanbul's Ancient Mystery Hero

Whether serving as Christian church, Islamic mosque, or secular museum, Hagia Sophia and its soaring dome have inspired reverence and awe. For 800 years, it was the largest enclosed building in the world—the Statue of Liberty can fit beneath its dome with room to spare. How has it survived its location on one of the world&#x27;s most active seismic faults, which has inflicted a dozen devastating earthquakes since it was built in 537? As Istanbul braces for the next big quake, a team of architects and engineers is urgently investigating Hagia Sophia&#x27;s seismic secrets. Follow engineers as they build a massive 8-ton model of the building&#x27;s core structure, place it on a motorized shake table, and hit it with a series of simulated quakes, pushing it collapse—a fate that the team is determined to avoid with the real building. (Premiered February 25, 2015)

How has this unique structure, built on a seismic fault, survived centuries of quakes?

Hagia Sophia: Istanbul's Mystery

More than 2,000 years ago, the thriving city of Petra rose up in the bone-dry desert of what is now Jordan. An oasis of culture and abundance, the city was built by wealthy merchants whose camel caravans transported incense and spices from the Arabian Gulf. They carved spectacular temple-tombs into its soaring cliffs, raised a monumental Great Temple at its heart, and devised an ingenious system that channeled water to vineyards, bathhouses, fountains, and pools. But following a catastrophic earthquake and a slump in its desert trade routes, Petra&#x27;s unique culture faded and was lost to most of the world for nearly a thousand years. Now, in a daring experiment, an archaeologist and sculptors team up to carve an iconic temple-tomb to find out how the ancient people of Petra built their city of stone. Meanwhile, scientists using remote sensors and hydraulic flumes uncover the vast city and its sophisticated water system. The race is on to discover how these nomads created this oasis of culture in one of the harshest climates on Earth. (Premiered February 18, 2015)

How did early engineers carve tombs into rock cliffs and funnel water to this desert city?

Petra: Lost City of Stone

The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has upended life as we know it in a matter of mere months. But at the same time, an unprecedented global effort to understand and contain the virus—and find a treatment for the disease it causes—is underway. Join the doctors on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19 as they strategize to stop the spread, and meet the researchers racing to develop treatments and vaccines. Along the way, discover how this devastating disease emerged, what it does to the human body, and why it exploded into a pandemic. (Premiered May 13, 2020)

Scientists race to understand and defeat the coronavirus behind the COVID-19 pandemic.

Decoding COVID-19

One unlucky day 13,000 years ago, a slight, malnourished teenager missed her footing and tumbled to the bottom of a 100-foot pit deep inside a cave in Mexico’s Yucatán. Rising seas flooded the cave and cut it off from the outside world—until a team of divers chanced upon her nearly complete skeleton in 2007. Intricate detective work reveals that the young woman’s bones are among the earliest known human remains in the Americas. What drove her to venture nearly a mile underground inside a vast cave? Where did her people come from, and why does she look so distinct from today’s Native Americans? From a stunning Mexico cave to the wilderness of the Yukon, from the genetics lab to the forefront of forensics, NOVA pursues tantalizing new clues that are rewriting the story of the forgotten first people who ventured into our continent. (Premiered February 7, 2018)

Discover remains of a 13,000 year-old teenager in an underwater cave in Mexico.

First Face of America

General - US & Territories

For animals in Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park, the normal balance of competition and predation was upended when a war wiped out the top predators. The remaining animals didn’t simply grow in numbers—they began behaving in unusual ways, veering outside their typical territories and feeding patterns. Could it be that it’s not just predators’ kills that keep other populations in check, but also the fear they inspire? NOVA joins a team of scientists as they reintroduce wild dogs to Gorongosa to find out if restoring the park’s “landscape of fear” can restore balance to an entire ecosystem. (Premiered October 14, 2020)

Can bringing predators—and fear—back into an ecosystem help restore its natural balance?

Nature's Fear Factor

Eleven dimensions, parallel universes, and a world made out of strings? It&#x27;s not science fiction, it&#x27;s string theory. Bestselling author and physicist Brian Greene offers a tour of this seemingly strange world in &quot;The Elegant Universe,&quot; a three-hour Peabody Award-winning miniseries.Part 1, &quot;Einstein&#x27;s Dream,&quot; introduces string theory and shows how modern physics—composed of two theories that are ferociously incompatible—reached its schizophrenic impasse: One theory, general relativity, successfully describes big things like stars and galaxies, while another, quantum mechanics, is equally successful at explaining small things like atoms and subatomic particles. Albert Einstein, the inventor of general relativity, dreamed of finding a single theory that would embrace all of nature&#x27;s laws. But in this quest for the so-called unified theory, Einstein came up empty-handed, and the conflict between general relativity and quantum mechanics has stymied all who&#x27;ve followed. That is, until the discovery of string theory.

Einstein&#x27;s Dream: Combining the laws of the universe in one theory that explains it all is the Holy Grail of physics.

The Elegant Universe: Pt 1

When the roof of Notre Dame Cathedral erupted in flames in April of 2019, firefighters battled for nine grueling hours to save the historic landmark. Still, Paris came alarmingly close to losing more than 800 years of history. Now engineers are in a different race against time: to rebuild the roof and secure the medieval structure of Notre Dame. Underneath the charred scaffolding and vaulted ceilings of the cathedral, scientists study the components of Notre Dame’s iconic structure to puzzle out how best to repair it. (Premiered November 25, 2020)

Scientists and engineers fight to save Notre Dame Cathedral after the 2019 fire.

Saving Notre Dame

NOVA revolves around a simple premise: the world of science is exciting! For NOVA viewers, science means adventure and exploration--because from ants to aliens, this weekly documentary series probes the far reaches of earth, sea and stars.  NOVA proves that science is neither secret lore nor sacred ritual but rather, at its heart, a lifelong journey of discovery.

Inside OSIRIS-REx’s Mission to Tag Asteroid Bennu Hero

NASA&#x27;s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully touched and collected a sample from the surface of asteroid Bennu—without a human at the controls.

Learn more about OSIRIS-REx’s mission to an asteroid 200 million miles away.

Inside OSIRIS-REx’s Mission to Tag Asteroid Bennu

Asteroids Provide Hints About the "Ingredients" in Planets Hero

The composition of asteroid Bennu may hold clues about the ingredients that make Earth.

By studying asteroids, researchers can learn about the formation of planets.

Asteroids Provide Hints About the "Ingredients" in Planets

Election officials have braced for an unprecedented wave of mail-in ballots. What safeguards are in place to track individual ballots as they travel to voters and back to the election office?

Due to the pandemic, millions are voting by mail in the 2020 presidential election.

The Tech Behind Mail-In Voting

The Science of the COVID-19 Treatments Trump Received Hero

President Trump said that he recovered from COVID-19 in part thanks to an antibody cocktail. What is an antibody cocktail and how does it work?

In early October 2020, President Trump tested positive for COVID-19.

The Science of the COVID-19 Treatments Trump Received

Lions Return to Mozambique's Gorongosa National Park Hero

By protecting lions from traps and snares, veterinarians, park rangers, and ecologists are working together to restore this feline&#x27;s population in Gorongosa National Park.

Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique was once one of the most species-rich places in Africa.

Lions Return to Mozambique's Gorongosa National Park

Did This Asteroid Just Turn into a Comet? Hero

Scientists found bits of rock and dust flying off the asteroid Bennu. Is the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft in danger?

Everything in the solar system is dynamic—you can watch it evolve in real time.

Did This Asteroid Just Turn into a Comet?

Call somebody a “bird brain,” and you’re not delivering them a compliment. But as NOVA shows, birds turn out to have advanced problem-solving skills that we usually assume are unique to humans. Watch astonishing tests of avian aptitude: parrots that can plan for the future, jackdaws that can “read” human faces, and crows that can solve multi-step puzzles with tools like pebbles, sticks, and hooks. Could these just be clever tricks based on instinct or triggered by subtle cues from their human handlers? To rule out any doubts, NOVA puts feathered Einsteins through their paces and reveals skills that even three- or four-year-old children have a hard time mastering—such as putting off one reward now to get a bigger one later. From this revolution in thinking about our feathered friends, the conclusion seems irresistible that bird brains see the world in ways that aren’t so different from our own.

Watch as birds solve puzzles and challenge our basic notions of intelligence.

Bird Brain

Rockets are becoming cheaper and more powerful than ever before thanks to stunning new technologies. As companies like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic make space more accessible, and NASA returns to crewed spaceflight, a new era of space exploration seems to be on the horizon. But will this seeming rocket Renaissance become more than just hype? NOVA explores the latest rocket technologies and the growing role private citizens may have in space. (Premiered February 13, 2019)

With new technologies, NASA and private companies are promising a new renaissance in space travel.

Rise of the Rockets

Einstein called it “spooky action at a distance,” but today quantum entanglement is poised to revolutionize technology from computers to cryptography. Physicists have gradually become convinced that the phenomenon—two subatomic particles that mirror changes in each other instantaneously over any distance—is real. But a few doubts remain. NOVA follows a ground-breaking experiment in the Canary Islands to use quasars at opposite ends of the universe to once and for all settle remaining questions. (Premiered January 9, 2019.)

Join scientists as they grab light from across the universe to prove quantum entanglement is real.

Einstein's Quantum Riddle

Image of Earthrise taken aboard the Apollo 8 mission

Apollo astronauts and engineers tell the inside story of Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon. The U.S. space program suffered a bitter setback when Apollo 1 ended in a deadly fire during a pre-launch run-through. In disarray, and threatened by the prospect of a Soviet Union victory in the space race, NASA decided upon a radical and risky change of plan: turn Apollo 8 from an earth-orbit mission into a daring sprint to the moon while relying on untried new technologies. Fifty years after the historic mission, the Apollo 8 astronauts and engineers recount the feats of engineering that paved the way to the moon. (Premiered December 26, 2018)

Apollo astronauts and engineers tell the inside story of the first manned mission to the moon.

Apollo's Daring Mission

The New Horizons spacecraft attempts to fly by a mysterious object known as Ultima Thule, believed to be a primordial building block of the solar system. Three years after taking the first spectacular photos of Pluto, New Horizons is four billion miles from Earth, trying to achieve the most distant flyby in NASA’s history. If successful, it will shed light on one of the least understood regions of our solar system: the Kuiper Belt. NOVA is embedded with the New Horizons mission team, following the action in real time as they uncover the secrets of what lies beyond Pluto. (Premiered January 2, 2019 at 9 pm)

The New Horizons spacecraft zooms toward an object 4 billion miles from Earth.

Pluto and Beyond

NOVA takes you inside the historic international race to develop the first supersonic airliner, the Concorde. Hear stories from those inside the choreographed effort to design and build Concorde in two countries at once—and the crew members who flew her. Then, follow Concorde’s legacy to a new generation of innovators reviving the dream of supersonic passenger travel today. (Premiered October 24, 2018)

Discover the feats of engineering that made the Concorde the first supersonic airliner.

Flying Supersonic

On March 9, 2015, Solar Impulse II took off from Abu Dhabi on one of the greatest aviation adventures of our time: the first solar-powered flight around the world. Together with a team of brilliant engineers, two visionary pilots—Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg—designed and built Solar Impulse from scratch, even though top airplane manufacturers told them it would be “impossible to control.” To pull it off, they had to re-invent everything, from innovative solar cells and batteries to massive carbon-fiber wings. Despite all their efforts, the performance of the plane was balanced on a knife-edge, demanding near-perfect weather conditions and hour after hour of vigilant, skillful piloting. The longest nonstop leg, from Japan to Hawaii, lasted five days and set a new world solo flight record. NOVA captures an insider’s view of the Solar Impulse pilots and ground team as they experience moments of hair-raising crisis, remarkable endurance, and ingenious problem-solving. (Premiered January 31, 2018)

For the first time, two intrepid pilots fly a solar-powered airplane around the world.

The Impossible Flight

Predictions underlie nearly every aspect of our lives, from sports, politics, and medical decisions to the morning commute. With the explosion of digital technology, the internet, and “big data,” the science of forecasting is flourishing. But why do some predictions succeed spectacularly while others fail abysmally? And how can we find meaningful patterns amidst chaos and uncertainty? From the glitz of casinos and TV game shows to the life-and-death stakes of storm forecasts and the flaws of opinion polls that can swing an election, “Prediction by the Numbers” explores stories of statistics in action. Yet advances in machine learning and big data models that increasingly rule our lives are also posing big, disturbing questions. How much should we trust predictions made by algorithms when we don’t understand how they arrive at them? And how far ahead can we really forecast?

Discover why some predictions succeed and others fail as experts forecast the future.

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Hero Area

Saving Notre Dame

Upcoming Schedule

Bird Brain

Rise of the Rockets

Einstein's Quantum Riddle

Episodes

Hagia Sophia: Istanbul's Mystery

Petra: Lost City of Stone

Decoding COVID-19

First Face of America

Nature's Fear Factor

The Elegant Universe: Pt 1

Shorts

Inside OSIRIS-REx’s Mission to Tag Asteroid Bennu

Asteroids Provide Hints About the "Ingredients" in Planets

The Tech Behind Mail-In Voting

The Science of the COVID-19 Treatments Trump Received

Lions Return to Mozambique's Gorongosa National Park

Did This Asteroid Just Turn into a Comet?

Watch Page

Hero Area

Saving Notre Dame

Upcoming Schedule

Bird Brain

Rise of the Rockets

Einstein's Quantum Riddle

Episodes

Hagia Sophia: Istanbul's Mystery

Petra: Lost City of Stone

Decoding COVID-19

First Face of America

Nature's Fear Factor

The Elegant Universe: Pt 1

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Shorts

Inside OSIRIS-REx’s Mission to Tag Asteroid Bennu

Asteroids Provide Hints About the "Ingredients" in Planets

The Tech Behind Mail-In Voting

The Science of the COVID-19 Treatments Trump Received

Lions Return to Mozambique's Gorongosa National Park

Did This Asteroid Just Turn into a Comet?