NOVA

s01e01 The Making of a Natural History Film 1974-03-04 01:00 ⌄

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The Making of a Natural History Film

s01e01 · 1974-03-04 · 01:00

NOVA premieres on public television with a behind-the-scenes look at the making of a nature film. Oxford Scientific Films Unit shows how it tackles such problems as filming a wood-wasp laying its egg inside trees, the hatching of a chick and the courtship rituals of the stickleback.

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s01e02 Where Did the Colorado Go? 1974-03-11 01:00 ⌄

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Where Did the Colorado Go?

s01e02 · 1974-03-11 · 01:00

NOVA explores the mighty Colorado River which today has become the life-blood of the Southwest, providing water and electricity to the farms and cities of California, Nevada, and Arizona. The program examines the political expediency and technological over-optimism that has led to some major miscalculations of the river's capacity.

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s01e03 Whales, Dolphins, and Men 1974-03-18 01:00 ⌄

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Whales, Dolphins, and Men

s01e03 · 1974-03-18 · 01:00

NOVA explores the impact of whaling and the goods it produces for the industry, verses the grace and beatury of this intelligent mammal of the sea.

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s01e04 The Search for Life 1974-03-25 01:00 ⌄

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The Search for Life

s01e04 · 1974-03-25 · 01:00

Does life exist outside this planet? The Viking lander will set down on Mars in July 1976 to try to find out just that. NOVA explores how life started on Earth and examines the Viking Lander being built in its germ-free room before starting its long journey.

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s01e05 Last of the Cuiva 1974-04-01 01:00 ⌄

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Last of the Cuiva

s01e05 · 1974-04-01 · 01:00

How does a primitive nomadic tribe of the Amazon basin cope with the encroachment of Western settlers? NOVA looks at both sides of the story, revealing the misunderstandings between the two cultures.

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s01e06 Strange Sleep 1974-04-08 01:00 ⌄

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Strange Sleep

s01e06 · 1974-04-08 · 01:00

Medicine was transformed in the 19th century by the discovery of anesthesia; surgery, until then hasty, bloody and completely unable to deal with internal disorders, subsequently took its place in the front rank of medical practice. This NOVA docudrama depicts the pioneers of medicine.

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s01e07 The Crab Nebula 1974-04-15 01:00 ⌄

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The Crab Nebula

s01e07 · 1974-04-15 · 01:00

In 1054 AD, the Chinese recorded the explosion of a star so bright that it lit the sky for three weeks, even during the day. It was the explosion of a dying star that was bigger than our sun. NOVA explores this mysterious explosion that led to the discovery of Crab Nebula.

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s01e08 Bird Brain: The Mystery of Bird Navigation 1974-04-22 01:00 ⌄

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Bird Brain: The Mystery of Bird Navigation

s01e08 · 1974-04-22 · 01:00

Birds migrate in search of perpetual summer, sometimes traveling as much as 20,000 miles every year. NOVA uses radar to track and identify migrating birds that travel at night, focusing on how they coose routes tat avoid bad weather and make the best of prevailing winds—information that can aid meteorologists.

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s01e09 Are You Doing This for Me, Doctor? 1974-04-29 01:00 ⌄

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Are You Doing This for Me, Doctor?

s01e09 · 1974-04-29 · 01:00

The advance of medicine depends inevitably on the testing of experimental procedures on human volunteers from either the healthy or the sick. Yet such procedures are often dangerous, and may not be of direct benefit to the subject. NOVA examines how individuals' interests are safeguarded, and asks, under what circumstances experiments should be conducted on children.

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s01e10 The First Signs of Washoe 1974-05-06 01:00 ⌄

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The First Signs of Washoe

s01e10 · 1974-05-06 · 01:00

Washoe is a chimp more like a person: she talks with her hands. NOVA visits with Washoe and her teachers—Professor Allen Gardner and Dr. Trixie Gardner—to learn more about this unusual animal.

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s01e11 The Case of the Midwife Toad 1974-05-13 01:00 ⌄

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The Case of the Midwife Toad

s01e11 · 1974-05-13 · 01:00

When Paul Kammerer committed suicide in 1926, it was taken by most of his fellow biologists as a tacit admission of guilt that he had faked his experiments purporting to show the inheritance of acquired characteristics. Arthur Koestler joins NOVA in an in-depth examination of Kammerer's infamous experiment.

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s01e12 Fusion: The Energy of Promise 1974-05-20 01:00 ⌄

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Fusion: The Energy of Promise

s01e12 · 1974-05-20 · 01:00

Nuclear fusion offers the promises of an unlimited, clean source of energy. But achieving fusion has proved one of the most difficult and elusive goals of the physicist. NOVA tells the story of the twists and turns and the international competition along the road toward the achievement of fusion; and details the recent breakthroughs which seem at last to have brought it within reach.

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s01e13 The Mystery of the Anasazi 1974-05-27 01:00 ⌄

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The Mystery of the Anasazi

s01e13 · 1974-05-27 · 01:00

Who were the people that built the first cities -- complete with apartment blocks -- in North America? They were the Anasazi Indians, who lived in the Southwest for some eight or nine thousand years and who then, in about 1300 AD, abruptly abandoned their cities and apparently disappeared. NOVA traces the steps of this ancient sophisticated culture.

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