NOVA

In May of 2008, a scientific team made headlines by announcing evidence that a previously unsuspected impact from space had devastated prehistoric North America at the end of the last Ice Age. Nova takes a look at this new theory that states that the extinction of more than 34 types of large mammoths was not due to climate change or human hunters, but rather by the massive breakup of a comet over the Great Lakes region.

In this documentary, cameras follow a team of climatologists as they go deep into Blue Holes, which are underwater caves that formed during the last ice age when sea level was nearly 400 feet below what it is today. They are the Earth’s least explored and perhaps most dangerous frontiers, and the team is there to investigate the hidden history of the Earth’s climate as revealed by finds in this beautiful “alternative universe”.

Machu Picchu, mysteriously abandoned 400 years ago, is the most famous ruin in the Western Hemisphere and a symbol of the power and engineering prowess of the Inca. In the years since it was discovered in 1911, there have been numerous theories about this lost city. This documentary follows a new generation of archeologist as they probe areas of Machu Picchu that have never been touched since the time of the Incas and unearth burial grounds of the people who built the sacred site.

This episode deals with the questions “what are dreams?” and “why do we have them?” Leading dream researchers provide some answers through extraordinary experiments on the world of sleep, as they compile vital clues that may unlock the mystery.

For nearly 5,000 years, the Great Sphinx of Egypt has been one of the world’s most recognized structures. But the years have taken its toll, and the face of the mysterious Pharaoh is being sandblasted by the elements into oblivion, while its limestone lion’s body is dissolving. Nova follows a group of archeologists and engineers as they try to save the Sphinx, while also trying to solve the age-old riddles of ‘who is the Sphinx?” and “what did it symbolize?”

The Parthenon in Athens, erected by the ancient Greeks as a temple to Athena, has served as a church, fortress, and ammunition dump, and has inspired the design for countless banks, courthouses, and museums around the world. This program examines the recent restoration project and the challenges and controversies involved in conserving one of the world’s best-known buildings.

On a wall of one of Egypt’s most impressive temples is a depiction of a magnificent trading vessel embarking on a royal expedition to a mysterious, treasure-laden land called Punt. Nova travels to the 3,500-year old temple to investigate whether or not Punt was a myth or a reality. Part of the investigation is the re-creation of the vessel in the carving so that it can be launched into the Red Sea to determine if the Egyptians had mastered the art of long sea voyage.

Nova goes along on an exclusive dive beneath the waters of Pearl Harbor to trace new clues to the historic sinking of the USS Arizona. Although it had been assumed that the battleship had been brought down by Japanese aircraft, the discovery of the remains of a Japanese “midget sub” raises new questions about the Arizona’s final hours.

This episode looks at the concept of evolution in the animal kingdom and how certain species are created from other species. The earth has a staggering variety of animals, including 9,000 kinds of birds, 28,000 types of fish, and more than 350,000 species of beetles. Many of these did not previously exist. Nova asks “Where did they come from?”

This documentary takes a look at one of the world’s most beautiful and mysterious creatures, the Monarch butterfly. Nova visits the spectacular locations the butterfly calls home, and flies with it on one of the most inspiring migratory odysseys imaginable.