Science and Nature

NOVA

NOVA brings you stories from the frontlines of science and engineering, answering the big questions of today and tomorrow, from how our ancestors lived, to whether parallel universes exist, to how technology will transform our lives. Visit the official website to watch full-length documentaries, or explore our world through short-form video, on our digital publication NOVA Next.

Great American Eclipse

53m 34s

Explore the spectacular cosmic phenomenon of a total solar eclipse. In April 2024, the Moon’s shadow is sweeping from Texas to Maine, as the U.S. witnesses its last total eclipse until 2044, and scientists scramble to unlock the secrets of our Sun.

Episodes

  • Ancient Maya Metropolis: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Ancient Maya Metropolis

    S48 E22 - 53m 31s

    The ancient ancestors of today’s Maya people thrived in large sophisticated cities across Central America for centuries. Why, around 750 CE, did they begin to abandon many of their major cities? Archaeologists investigate dramatic new evidence of the catastrophic droughts and instability that pushed cities beyond their limits.

  • Alaskan Dinosaurs: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Alaskan Dinosaurs

    S48 E21 - 53m 21s

    A team of intrepid paleontologists discovers that dinosaurs thrived in the unlikeliest of places—the cold and dark of winter in the Arctic Circle. How did they survive year-round and raise their young in frigid and dark winter conditions?

  • Butterfly Blueprints: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Butterfly Blueprints

    S48 E20 - 53m 20s

    The hidden scientific secrets of butterflies reveal them to be more inventive and resilient than we ever imagined. Follow their extraordinary life cycle and migrations to tropical rainforests, windswept prairies, and even inside a cocoon as it’s being spun.

  • High-Risk High-Rise: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    High-Risk High-Rise

    S48 E8 - 52m 36s

    Gleaming symbols of prestige, skyscrapers are an ingenious way to save space in dense urban areas. But even as we devise ways to defend them against fires, wind, and earthquakes, can we also make them more livable, interactive, and eco-friendly?

  • NOVA Universe Revealed: Big Bang: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    NOVA Universe Revealed: Big Bang

    S48 E19 - 53m 16s

    The Big Bang is when the cosmos started and time itself began. With stunning animation based on space telescope images, NOVA winds back the ages to discover new clues about this ultimate genesis and what happened in the universe’s first few seconds.

  • NOVA Universe Revealed: Black Holes: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    NOVA Universe Revealed: Black Holes

    S48 E18 - 53m 16s

    Take a seat on the ultimate thrill ride to explore nature’s strangest and most powerful objects. Discover new science showing how black holes reshape entire galaxies, warp the fabric of space and time, and might even be portals to another universe.

  • NOVA Universe Revealed: Alien Worlds: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    NOVA Universe Revealed: Alien Worlds

    S48 E17 - 53m 17s

    Ultra-sensitive telescopes have transformed alien planet-hunting from science fiction into enthralling hard fact. Join NOVA on a visit to exotic worlds orbiting distant suns to answer an age-old question with thrilling new science: are we alone?

  • NOVA Universe Revealed: Milky Way: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    NOVA Universe Revealed: Milky Way

    S48 E16 - 53m 17s

    Straddling the night sky, the Milky Way reminds us of our place in the galaxy we call home. But what shaped this giant spiral of stars and what will be its destiny? NOVA travels back in time to unlock the turbulent story of our cosmic neighborhood.

  • NOVA Universe Revealed: Age of Stars: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    NOVA Universe Revealed: Age of Stars

    S48 E15 - 53m 17s

    The sun is our life-giving source of light, heat, and energy, and new discoveries are unraveling its epic history. Join NOVA on a spectacular voyage to discover its place in a grand cycle of birth, death and renewal that makes this the age of stars.

  • Edible Insects: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Edible Insects

    S48 E14 - 53m 28s

    From crunchy crickets to nutty fly grubs, NOVA takes a tasty look at insect foods and how they could benefit our health and our warming planet.

  • Arctic Drift: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Arctic Drift

    S48 E13 - 53m 31s

    Join scientists on the biggest Arctic research expedition of all time. Facing hungry polar bears, perilous sea ice cracks, and brutal cold, the team strives to understand the forces that are changing the region—and the world—forever.

  • Particles Unknown: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Particles Unknown

    S48 E12 - 53m 28s

    Outnumbering atoms a billion to one, neutrinos are the universe’s most common yet most elusive and baffling particle. NOVA joins an international team of neutrino hunters whose discoveries may change our understanding of how the universe works.

Extras + Features

  • Search Engine Breakdown: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Search Engine Breakdown

    S48 E101 - 20m 37s

    Why does a widely used internet search engine deliver results that can be blatantly racist and sexist? Two leading information researchers investigate their discoveries of hidden biases in the search technology we rely on every day.

  • Picture a Scientist Preview: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Picture a Scientist Preview

    S48 E3 - 29s

    Women make up less than a quarter of STEM professionals in the United States, and numbers are even lower for women of color. But a growing group of researchers is exposing longstanding discrimination and making science more inclusive.

  • The Big Lie about Monarch Butterflies: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    The Big Lie about Monarch Butterflies

    S48 - 9m 25s

    Discover a piece of false information about monarch butterflies and Mexico’s Indigenous Purépecha community, and why tourism may be partly to blame.

  • This NASA Scientist Helps Prevent Mars from Contamination: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    This NASA Scientist Helps Prevent Mars from Contamination

    S48 E2 - 4m 58s

    The spacecraft has to be extremely clean. The entire spacecraft—that includes the rover, the heat shield, the descent stage, and back shell—must contain less than 500,000 bacterial endospores, or spores. Just to give you an idea, a teaspoon of seawater has ten times more bacteria.

  • Looking for Life on Mars Preview: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Looking for Life on Mars Preview

    S48 E2 - 30s

    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 will blaze into the Martian atmosphere at some 12,000 miles per hour and attempt to lower the Perseverance Rover into the rocky Jezero Crater, home to a dried-up river delta scientists think could have harbored life.

  • Why NASA is Back on Mars: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Why NASA is Back on Mars

    S48 E2 - 5m 10s

    This NASA rover landed on Mars, more than 130 million miles from Earth. It’s task? To continue the search for past life on the red planet.

  • Dream Hacking: Decisions, Addictions, and Sleep: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Dream Hacking: Decisions, Addictions, and Sleep

    S48 - 14m 34s

    Neuroscience is beginning to demystify such feelings. Our agency and decisions, it turns out, can be measurably influenced by events that evade the conscious part of our brains. We’ll see three groundbreaking experiments that illustrate that influences we are unaware of in our waking life, during dreamless sleep, or even in our dreams can impact our memory and behavior.

  • Why Misinformation Matters: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Why Misinformation Matters

    S48 - 2m 41s

    Learn the science behind misinformation–how it’s shared, why it's believed, and what we can do to address it.

Schedule

  • Image
    NOVA: TVSS: Iconic

    NOVA

    Making North America: Life

    Sunday
    Apr 28

    1 Hour

    The intertwined story of life and the landscape in North America -- from origins to dinosaurs and an ancient primate invasion.
  • Image
    NOVA: TVSS: Iconic

    NOVA

    Making North America: Life

    Sunday
    Apr 28

    1 Hour

    The intertwined story of life and the landscape in North America -- from origins to dinosaurs and an ancient primate invasion.
  • Image
    NOVA: TVSS: Iconic

    NOVA

    Making North America: Life

    Sunday
    Apr 28

    1 Hour

    The intertwined story of life and the landscape in North America -- from origins to dinosaurs and an ancient primate invasion.
  • Image
    NOVA: TVSS: Iconic

    NOVA

    Making North America: Life

    Tuesday
    Apr 30

    1 Hour

    The intertwined story of life and the landscape in North America -- from origins to dinosaurs and an ancient primate invasion.
  • Image
    NOVA: TVSS: Banner-L1

    NOVA

    Wednesday
    May 1

    1 Hour

    This long-running, award-winning documentary series focuses on science, its many applications, speculation, history and researchers. Inspired by the BBC documentary program "Horizons, " the U.S. series frequently features interviews with scientists directly involved in the topic at hand, and sometimes even boasts footage of a particular discovery.
  • Image
    NOVA: TVSS: Iconic

    NOVA

    Making North America: Life

    Wednesday
    May 1

    1 Hour

    The intertwined story of life and the landscape in North America -- from origins to dinosaurs and an ancient primate invasion.
  • Image
    NOVA: TVSS: Iconic

    NOVA

    Making North America: Human

    Wednesday
    May 1

    1 Hour

    From Ice Age to the oil boom, humans face challenges and uncover wealth hidden in North America's landscape.
  • Image
    NOVA: TVSS: Iconic

    NOVA

    Making North America: Human

    Wednesday
    May 1

    1 Hour

    From Ice Age to the oil boom, humans face challenges and uncover wealth hidden in North America's landscape.
  • Image
    NOVA: TVSS: Iconic

    NOVA

    Making North America: Human

    Thursday
    May 2

    1 Hour

    From Ice Age to the oil boom, humans face challenges and uncover wealth hidden in North America's landscape.
  • Image
    NOVA: TVSS: Iconic

    NOVA

    Making North America: Human

    Thursday
    May 2

    1 Hour

    From Ice Age to the oil boom, humans face challenges and uncover wealth hidden in North America's landscape.
  • Image
    NOVA: TVSS: Iconic

    NOVA

    Making North America: Human

    Friday
    May 3

    1 Hour

    From Ice Age to the oil boom, humans face challenges and uncover wealth hidden in North America's landscape.
  • Image
    NOVA: TVSS: Iconic

    NOVA

    Making North America: Human

    Sunday
    May 5

    1 Hour

    From Ice Age to the oil boom, humans face challenges and uncover wealth hidden in North America's landscape.
  • Image
    NOVA: TVSS: Iconic

    NOVA

    Making North America: Human

    Sunday
    May 5

    1 Hour

    From Ice Age to the oil boom, humans face challenges and uncover wealth hidden in North America's landscape.
  • Image
    NOVA: TVSS: Iconic

    NOVA

    Making North America: Human

    Sunday
    May 5

    1 Hour

    From Ice Age to the oil boom, humans face challenges and uncover wealth hidden in North America's landscape.
  • Image
    NOVA: TVSS: Iconic

    NOVA

    Making North America: Human

    Tuesday
    May 7

    1 Hour

    From Ice Age to the oil boom, humans face challenges and uncover wealth hidden in North America's landscape.
  • Image
    NOVA: TVSS: Iconic

    NOVA

    Making North America: Human

    Wednesday
    May 8

    1 Hour

    From Ice Age to the oil boom, humans face challenges and uncover wealth hidden in North America's landscape.
  • Image
    NOVA: TVSS: Iconic

    NOVA

    Making North America: Human

    Wednesday
    May 8

    1 Hour

    From Ice Age to the oil boom, humans face challenges and uncover wealth hidden in North America's landscape.
  • Image
    NOVA: Why Bridges Collapse: TVSS: Iconic

    NOVA

    Why Bridges Collapse

    Wednesday
    May 8

    1 Hour

    The 2018 collapse of a section of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa, Italy; bridge collapses in the U.S.; engineering techniques that can make bridges safer and prevent them from breaking down.
  • Image
    NOVA: Why Bridges Collapse: TVSS: Iconic

    NOVA

    Why Bridges Collapse

    Wednesday
    May 8

    1 Hour

    The 2018 collapse of a section of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa, Italy; bridge collapses in the U.S.; engineering techniques that can make bridges safer and prevent them from breaking down.
  • Image
    NOVA: Why Bridges Collapse: TVSS: Iconic

    NOVA

    Why Bridges Collapse

    Thursday
    May 9

    1 Hour

    The 2018 collapse of a section of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa, Italy; bridge collapses in the U.S.; engineering techniques that can make bridges safer and prevent them from breaking down.

WETA Passport

Stream tens of thousands of hours of your PBS and local favorites with WETA Passport whenever and wherever you want. Catch up on a single episode or binge-watch full seasons before they air on TV.

Similar Shows