4320 http://www.rmpbs.org/content/index.cfm/program/54 en-us PBS' premier science series helps viewers of all ages explore the science behind the headlines. Along the way, Nova programs demystify science and technology, and highlight the people involved in scientific pursuits. © 2009 Rocky Mountain PBS http://www.rmpbs.org/resources/files/programs/100x100/54.jpg http://www.rmpbs.org/content/index.cfm/program/54 100 100 "Nova" presents a definitive three-part special that investigates explosive new discoveries that are transforming the picture of how we became human. The first program explores fresh clues about our earliest ancestors in Africa, including the stunningly complete fossil nicknamed "Lucy's Child." These three-million-year-old bones from Ethiopia reveal humanity's oldest and most telltale trait, upright walking, rather than a big brain. The second program tackles the mysteries of how our ancestors managed to survive in a savannah teeming with vicious predators, and when and why they first left the African cradle to colonize every corner of the earth. In the final program, "Nova" probes a wave of dramatic new evidence, based partly on cutting-edge DNA analysis, that reveals new insights into how we became the creative and "behaviorally modern" humans of today, and what really happened to the enigmatic Neanderthals who faded into extinction. Shot "in the trenches" as discoveries were unearthed throughout Africa and Europe, each hour of "Becoming Human" unfolds with a forensic investigation into the life and death of a specific hominid ancestor. Dry bones spring back to vivid life with stunning animation, the product of a unique "Nova" collaboration between top anthropologists and a talented team of movie animators. http://www.rmpbs.org/content/index.cfm/program/54-3615/rss http://www.rmpbs.org/content/index.cfm/program/54-3615/rss Sun, 22 Nov 09 04:00:00 -0700 What are dreams and why do we have them? Are they a window into a hidden realm within us? Science is only just beginning to understand. "Nova" joins the leading dream researchers and witnesses the extraordinary experiments they use to investigate the world of sleep. From human narcoleptics to sleepwalking cats, from recurrent nightmares to those who can't dream, each sequence contains a vital clue to the question these scientists are pursuing: why do we dream? http://www.rmpbs.org/content/index.cfm/program/54-3612/rss http://www.rmpbs.org/content/index.cfm/program/54-3612/rss Tue, 24 Nov 09 19:00:00 -0700 For the first time on television, "Nova" exposes the hidden world of high-tech, 21st-century eavesdropping carried out by the National Security Agency (NSA). Today, the NSA is the world's largest intelligence agency, three times the size of the CIA and far more secret. Its mission is to eavesdrop on the world - from cell phones in Europe to pay phones in Afghanistan to email messages from Pakistan to Baghdad. But since 9/11, it has also turned its giant ear inward, listening in without warrant on thousands of American citizens, many of whom are on the government's secret watch list, now more than half-a-million names long. Based on the latest best-seller by journalist James Bamford, "Inside the Spy Factory" is a gripping investigation of the NSA, from its tragic failures leading up to the 9/11 attacks to its secret listening rooms currently installed in the nation's telecom networks. The program presents groundbreaking new evidence about how the agency listened in to the phone calls of key 9/11 plotters, yet failed to realize they were located in the U.S. To show how current eavesdropping technology works, "Nova" traces the path of an email sent from Asia to the U.S. via fiber optic cables on the Pacific sea floor. From a beach in California, the email then travels to a telecom switching facility in San Francisco, where the cables are covertly duplicated, with one copy of everything - including the original email - going to the NSA's secret room and the other transmitted to its proper destination. This is a suspenseful and eye-opening report on the threat to privacy and the effectiveness of high-tech surveillance in the age of terrorism. http://www.rmpbs.org/content/index.cfm/program/54-3602/rss http://www.rmpbs.org/content/index.cfm/program/54-3602/rss Tue, 15 Dec 09 19:00:00 -0700 For the first time on television, "Nova" exposes the hidden world of high-tech, 21st-century eavesdropping carried out by the National Security Agency (NSA). Today, the NSA is the world's largest intelligence agency, three times the size of the CIA and far more secret. Its mission is to eavesdrop on the world - from cell phones in Europe to pay phones in Afghanistan to email messages from Pakistan to Baghdad. But since 9/11, it has also turned its giant ear inward, listening in without warrant on thousands of American citizens, many of whom are on the government's secret watch list, now more than half-a-million names long. Based on the latest best-seller by journalist James Bamford, "Inside the Spy Factory" is a gripping investigation of the NSA, from its tragic failures leading up to the 9/11 attacks to its secret listening rooms currently installed in the nation's telecom networks. The program presents groundbreaking new evidence about how the agency listened in to the phone calls of key 9/11 plotters, yet failed to realize they were located in the U.S. To show how current eavesdropping technology works, "Nova" traces the path of an email sent from Asia to the U.S. via fiber optic cables on the Pacific sea floor. From a beach in California, the email then travels to a telecom switching facility in San Francisco, where the cables are covertly duplicated, with one copy of everything - including the original email - going to the NSA's secret room and the other transmitted to its proper destination. This is a suspenseful and eye-opening report on the threat to privacy and the effectiveness of high-tech surveillance in the age of terrorism. http://www.rmpbs.org/content/index.cfm/program/54-3602/rss http://www.rmpbs.org/content/index.cfm/program/54-3602/rss Sun, 20 Dec 09 04:00:00 -0700 Deep in the Congo lives a little-studied group of apes called the bonobos. Like chimpanzees, bonobos are among humans' closest relatives. But unlike chimps, known for their violent behavior, bonobos are far more peaceful, even matriarchal. They embrace their neighbors and resolve conflict in an usual way - by having sex. Much like humans, bonobos have sex not just to procreate, but also for pleasure. The discovery of these more gentle ape traits have fascinated scientists and led them to question our origins and the roots of human nature as a whole. But in 1997, just as research on these elusive apes was getting off the ground, civil war broke out in the Congo. Bonobo researchers were forced to evacuate immediately, leaving behind the astonishing apes they were studying. Now, years later, "Nova" returns to the Congo with veteran bonobo researchers who are worried that war and the bush meat industry may have decimated the bonobo population. What they find gives them hope for the future of the species. The program tells the intimate, emotional story of these amazing apes, detailing their survival, and the experiences of the scientists who have followed them so closely for so long. http://www.rmpbs.org/content/index.cfm/program/54-3404/rss http://www.rmpbs.org/content/index.cfm/program/54-3404/rss Tue, 22 Dec 09 19:00:00 -0700 Deep in the Congo lives a little-studied group of apes called the bonobos. Like chimpanzees, bonobos are among humans' closest relatives. But unlike chimps, known for their violent behavior, bonobos are far more peaceful, even matriarchal. They embrace their neighbors and resolve conflict in an usual way - by having sex. Much like humans, bonobos have sex not just to procreate, but also for pleasure. The discovery of these more gentle ape traits have fascinated scientists and led them to question our origins and the roots of human nature as a whole. But in 1997, just as research on these elusive apes was getting off the ground, civil war broke out in the Congo. Bonobo researchers were forced to evacuate immediately, leaving behind the astonishing apes they were studying. Now, years later, "Nova" returns to the Congo with veteran bonobo researchers who are worried that war and the bush meat industry may have decimated the bonobo population. What they find gives them hope for the future of the species. The program tells the intimate, emotional story of these amazing apes, detailing their survival, and the experiences of the scientists who have followed them so closely for so long. http://www.rmpbs.org/content/index.cfm/program/54-3404/rss http://www.rmpbs.org/content/index.cfm/program/54-3404/rss Sun, 27 Dec 09 04:00:00 -0700 On the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin's famous On the Origin of Species, "Nova" reveals answers to the riddles that Darwin couldn't explain. Stunning breakthroughs in a new science - nicknamed "evo devo" - are linking the enigma of origins to another of nature's great mysteries: the development of an embryo. To explore this exciting new idea, "Nova" takes viewers on a journey from the Galapagos Islands to the Arctic, from the Cambrian explosion of animal forms half a billion years ago to the research labs of today. Here, scientists are finally beginning to crack nature's biggest secrets at the genetic level. And, as "Nova" shows in this absorbing detective story, the results are confirming the brilliance of Darwin's insights,while exposing clues to life's breathtaking diversity in ways he could scarcely have imagined. http://www.rmpbs.org/content/index.cfm/program/54-3617/rss http://www.rmpbs.org/content/index.cfm/program/54-3617/rss Tue, 29 Dec 09 19:00:00 -0700 The great apes - which include chimps, orangutans, gorillas and bonobos - seem to have rich emotional lives similar to our own. But just how smart are these animals? A new generation of investigators is revealing the secret mental lives of great apes; our evolutionary next-of-kin are turning out to be far smarter than most experts ever imagined. But just as clever experiments are exposing the extraordinary abilities of great apes, new research is redefining the mental talents of our own species. Scientists are at last zeroing in on what separates us from our closest living relatives. http://www.rmpbs.org/content/index.cfm/program/54-3507/rss http://www.rmpbs.org/content/index.cfm/program/54-3507/rss Tue, 29 Dec 09 21:00:00 -0700