Nova

Gothic cathedrals are marvels of human achievement and artistry.

In its worst crisis since World War II, Japan faces disaster on an epic scale: a rising death toll in the tens of thousands, massive destruction of homes and businesses, shortages of water and power, and the specter of nuclear reactor meltdowns.

He's been dead for more than 5,000 years. He's been poked, prodded and probed by scientists for the last 20.

It contains 99.9 percent of all the matter in our solar system and sheds hot plasma at nearly a million miles an hour.

How and why did the ancient islander inhabitants of Easter Island build and move nearly 900 giant statues weighing up to 86 tons? Join a team of investigators as they test a high-risk and seemingly unlikely theory with a 15-ton replica statue.

A blinding streak of light screaming across the Russian sky, followed by a shuddering blast strong enough to damage buildings and send more than 1000 people to the hospital.

The asteroid that exploded in the skies over Siberia injuring more than 1,000 and damaging buildings in six cities was a shocking reminder that Earth is a target in a cosmic shooting range.

NOVA follows archaeologists and forensic experts in Ireland's County Tipperary in their methodical hunt for clues to the identity and the circumstances of various violent deaths of bog body victims.

Beneath the streets of Rome lies an ancient city of the dead known as the Catacombs -- a labyrinth of tunnels, hundreds of miles long, lined with tombs.

What would it be like to go inside the mind of an animal? We have all gazed into a creature's eyes and wondered: what is it thinking about? What does it really know? Now, the revolutionary science of animal cognition is revealing hard evidence about how animals understand the world around them, uncovering their remarkable problem-solving abilities and exploring the complexity of their powers of communication and even their emotions.

What would it be like to go inside the mind of an animal? We have all gazed into a creature's eyes and wondered: what is it thinking about? What does it really know? Now, the revolutionary science of animal cognition is revealing hard evidence about how animals understand the world around them, uncovering their remarkable problem-solving abilities and exploring the complexity of their powers of communication and even their emotions.

In recent years, an unusual spate of deadly shark attacks has gripped Australia, resulting in five deaths in 10 months.

NOVA presents an intimate portrait of Neil Armstrong, the first person to set foot on the moon, through interviews with Armstrong's family and friends.

Almost a century ago, paleontologists found the first tantalizing hints of a monster even bigger than Tyrannosaurus Rex, perhaps the largest predator ever to walk the Earth: spectacular fossil bones from a dinosaur dubbed Spinosaurus.

Emperor Qin Shi Huang of China was buried in a mausoleum with around 9,000 terracotta statues.

NOVA leads viewers on a mathematical mystery tour-a provocative exploration of math's astonishing power across the centuries.

From a deep cave in South Africa comes an astounding discovery of an unprecedented trove of fossils of human relatives.

A deadly recipe threatens the survival of countless creatures throughout Earth's oceans.

Unravel the greatest mystery in Arctic exploration: 160 years ago, the Franklin Expedition to chart the Northwest Passage vanished.

A 3,700-year-old inscribed clay tablet reveals a surprising new version of the Biblical flood story, complete with how-to instructions for assembling an ark.

See the epic 3-billion-year story of how our continent came to be.

Discover the surprising intertwined story of life and the landscape in North America-from origins to iconic dinosaurs to giant marine reptiles swimming in an ancient sea that once split the continent in two.

From Ice Age to oil boom, discover the challenges faced and the wealth uncovered as humans take over the continent.

Retrace Einstein's thought experiments as NOVA reveals the simple but powerful ideas that reshaped our understanding of gravity, illuminating the theory of general relativity-and Einstein's brilliance-as never before.

From the first sparks of life to the survival of the fittest, unearth the secret relationship between rocks and life.

Dive under the ice to explore Antarctica's under-ice landscape with a team of scientists as they search for the mystery killer that's decimating the population of delicate shrimp-like creatures at the foundation of the Antarctic food chain.

Murdered more than 5,000 years ago, Otzi the Iceman is the oldest human mummy on Earth.

From Yellowstone to the Yukon, to Southern Africa's elephant highways stretching across five nations, explore how newly established wildlife corridors may offer a glimmer of hope to some of our planet's most cherished - but endangered - species.

Walk in the footsteps of our ancient ancestors as scientists trace the paths that led us out of Africa and around the world.

The Gay Head Lighthouse, a historic landmark perched high on the cliffs of Martha's Vineyard, is soon to become the next victim of the ocean's relentless erosion of the island's cliffs.

In the spring of 1943, Hitler hatched plans for a diabolical "supergun" in an effort to turn the tide of the war back in his favor.

Follow an army of engineers and designers as they tackle the complex challenge of building Crossrail, a massive new subterranean railway deep beneath the streets of London.

Gemstones like diamonds, rubies, opal and jade are the ultimate treasures.

Gold, bronze, iron, steel... metals are pillars of our civilization, but what makes them so special? Discover their unique properties and explore how our mastery of metals has led us from the stone age to today's hi-tech world.

Drill down to discover how Earth's natural treasures provide bountiful energy to power our modern world yet are also driving us to seek new, cleaner alternatives that can help us keep the lights on.

Join renowned gadget geek and host David Pogue as he sets out on a quest to discover how batteries work and uncover what the future of batteries means for our gadgets, our lives and even our planet.

Weighing 54,000 gross tons and stretching over two football fields, the Seven Seas Explorer is no ordinary boat.

The ancient art of paper folding is sparking scientific advances, affecting drug development and future NASA space missions.

In the heart of Lithuania, a Holocaust secret lies buried.

Engineers race to build a massive dome to contain the crumbling remains of Chernobyl's reactor.

For over 1000 years, chariots thundered across China's battlefields-dominating warfare longer than anywhere else on earth.

Discover what it was like to be a knight in shining armor and follow the historic manufacturing process.

Who built Stonehenge and why? Discover how the last decade of groundbreaking archaeological digs has revealed major new clues to Britain's enigmatic 5,000-year-old site and the people who constructed it.

Discover the ingenious engineering of Beijing's Forbidden City, the power center of imperial China for nearly 500 years.

Explore the secrets that underlie nature's battleground.

Long mocked as empty-headed, birds hide surprisingly acute intelligence.

Investigate how an asteroid vanquished the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.

Follow two intrepid pilots as they take on the greatest aviation adventure of our time, overcoming countless challenges as they construct and fly the first solar-powered airplane around the world.

Join astrophysicist and novelist Janna Levin on a mind-blowing voyage to the frontiers of black hole science, which is shining new light on the most powerful and mysterious objects in the universe.

Take a risky dive into an underwater cave in Mexico to uncover the 13, 000 year-old skeleton of a prehistoric teenager.

Join archaeologists and divers recovering remains of ships and planes lost during World War II's epic Dunkirk operation.

Discover how predictions underpin nearly every aspect of our lives and why some succeed spectacularly while others fail.

Join scientists on a quest to better understand the weather and climate machine we call Earth.

Dive into the devastation wrought by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.

Follow the patients who desperately need transplants to save their lives, see the profound decisions families face in donating the organs of loved ones who die, and learn about the critical shortage of organs and new research into "organs by design.

Climb up the cone of Nyiragongo, one of the world's least studied volcanoes, and join volcanologists as they descend into its crater, down towards its bubbling and seething lava lake, to discover when it will erupt next.

Join a team of volcanologists as they explore one of the world's most active and mysterious volcanoes in central Africa: Nyamuragira.

Delve into America's opioid crisis - in a world in which many other diseases can be traced to addictive behavior, how do addictions work, and what can the science of addiction tell us about how we can resolve this dire social issue?

A history of the legendary Concorde, the passenger plane that flew from the late 70s till 2003 at twice the speed of sound.

Follow the remarkable story of how a Thai boys' soccer team became trapped in a cave system, how they were located, and how rescuers worked against the clock to make a miraculous rescue of all 12 boys and their coach.

In 1944 a smoking, battle-scarred B-24 Liberator bomber known as the Tulsamerican crashed into the choppy seas off the coast of Croatia, entombing three of its occupants under 135 feet of water.

Follow the rebuilding of the 19th century Blenheim Covered Bridge.

The Peregrine Falcon is famously the fastest bird on earth, capable of reaching speeds of up to 242 mph in a dive.

Hear Apollo astronauts and engineers tell the inside story of how the first mission to the moon, Apollo 8, pioneered groundbreaking technologies that would pave the way to land a man on the moon and win the space race.

Join the mission as the New Horizons spacecraft attempts to fly by NASA's most distant target yet.

Quantum entanglement is poised to revolutionize technology from networks to code breaking, but first we need to know it's real.

Journey to Hawai'i's Kilauea volcano, which sent rivers of lava through communities and into the sea when it erupted in 2018.

Stunning new archaeological evidence provides clues about the Egyptians who built the Great Pyramid of Giza -- and how they did it.

Marvel at a new era of space exploration and accessibility, thanks to NASA's return to crewed spaceflight, as well as private companies like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, and technologies that make rockets cheaper and more powerful than ever.

Discover Campi Flegrei, a lesser-known volcano in the shadow of Vesuvius.

There's no place on Earth like it. Cleopatra attributed her beauty to its secrets.

Horse riding played a key role in human expansion and civilization.

Bioarchaeologists investigate a ninth-century mass grave in a rural English village.

Fifty years after humans first set foot on the moon, new scientific discoveries are fueling excitement for a return to the lunar surface -- this time, perhaps, to stay.

The rocky planets - Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars - were born of similar material around the same time, yet only one supports life.

Mars was once a blue water world studded with active volcanoes.

Jupiter's massive gravitational force made it a wrecking ball when it barreled through the early solar system.

NASA's Cassini explores Saturn for 13 years, looping through its icy rings and flying by its moons.

In the far reaches of the solar system, Uranus and Neptune dazzle with unexpected rings, supersonic winds and dozens of moons.

In 2018, Italy's Morandi Bridge collapsed, killing 43 people.

Tech giants and car manufacturers alike are developing self-driving cars - and some of them are already on public roads.

What can new technology reveal about the ancient Dead Sea Scrolls? Join scientists as they investigate suspicious, newly surfaced fragments to see if they're forfeited, and use imaging techniques to digitally unravel the charred remains of a scroll.

Journey to Florence to discover how Leonardo da Vinci used science, from human dissections to innovative painting techniques, to create his legendary artwork.

Violence is all over the news. But some say we're living in the most peaceful time in history.

Camera traps and drones are revolutionizing the study of wildlife by providing an up-close look at animals without disturbing them.

Sixty-six million years ago, an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs in a fiery global catastrophe.

Following a trail of fossils found in all the wrong places -- beech trees in Antarctica, redwoods and hippo-like mammals in the Arctic -- uncover the bizarre history of the poles, from miles-thick ice sheets to warm polar forests teeming with life.

Dogs have long been dependable companions by our sides.

Worshiped as a goddess, condemned as satanic and spun into a stunning array of breeds, cats have long fascinated humans.

From fruit flies to whales, virtually every animal sleeps.

Like virtually every other animal, humans need sleep to survive.