JustWatch
S03 Episode 1
Dark Matter, Mice, Crowd Wisdom
Dark Matter - Turns out most of the universe is held together by a mysterious, invisible substance.
Of Mice and Memory - Mice placed in enriched environments can recover lost memories, giving hope to those who study Alzheimer's.
Profile: Hany Farid - This self-proclaimed "accidental scientist" is a digital detective inventing new ways to tell if photos have been faked.
Wisdom of the Crowds - Ask enough people to estimate something, and their combined guesses will get you surprisingly close to the right answer.
Wed, 25 Jun 2008
S03 Episode 2
Personal Genome; Digital Art Authentication; Carbon Sequestration; Pardis Sabeti Profile
Personal DNA Testing - Genetic testing to assess risk factors for a handful of serious illnesses is now commercially available. But is it a good idea?
Art Authentication - See how clever computer algorithms can distinguish a master fake from a masterpiece.
Capturing Carbon - An eighth-grader's science fair project prompts her scientist father to develop a new way to pull excess carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
Profile: Pardis Sabeti - By night she's a rocker. By day, she's a Harvard geneticist tracking the evolution of the human genome.
Wed, 2 Jul 2008
S03 Episode 3
Saving Hubble, First Primates, Iraqibacter
Saving Hubble - Two teams of spacewalkers take on the risky mission of reviving the ailing Space Telescope.
First Primates - Our most distant primate ancestors, which lived about 55 million years ago, were tree-dwellers the size of mice.
Profile: Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa -
He jumped the fence from Mexico to work as a farmhand and ended up a leading brain surgeon.
Killer Microbe - A relatively benign bug becomes a highly lethal pathogen, known to U.S. soldiers as Iraqibacter.
Wed, 9 Jul 2008
S03 Episode 4
Bird Brains, Space Storms, Smart Bridges
Bird Brains - Clues to the origins of human language are turning up in the brains of birds.
Space Storms - Behind the dazzling display of the aurora borealis are space storms that could turn the lights off here on Earth.
Profile: Yoky Matsuoka - A former tennis prodigy aims to create advanced prosthetic limbs controlled by human thought.
Smart Bridges - Can we engineer bridges that tell us what's wrong with them before it's too late?
Wed, 16 Jul 2008
S03 Episode 5
Leeches; SETI; Stem Cells; Edith Widder
Leeches - A century after falling out of favor, medicinal leeches are back in hospitals, sucking away on patients' wounds.
SETI - Astronomers have their radio telescopes tuned to receive signals from alien worlds. But is anybody out there?
Stem Cells Breakthrough - Three separate teams overcome a biomedical hurdle—creating stem cells without the use of human embryos.
Profile: Edith Widder - Meet a marine biologist and explorer who has engineered new ways to spy on deep-sea creatures.
Wed, 23 Jul 2008
S03 Episode 6
Phoenix; Mammoth Mystery; Judah Folkman Tribute
Phoenix Mars Lander - NASA's latest robot has already found frozen water and is looking for more signs that the Red Planet could support life.
Brain Trauma - Even so-called "mild" head injuries turn out to be anything but.
Mammoth Mystery - A pair of mammoth skeletons is found locked together by their tusks. What happened?
Profile: Judah Folkman - Once scorned for his ideas about how cancer grows, the late Judah Folkman is now hailed as a visionary.
Wed, 30 Jul 2008
S03 Episode 7
Aging, Space Elevator, Maya from Space
Aging - Will research into "longevity genes" help us live longer and healthier lives?
Space Elevator - Can we build a 22,000-mile-high cable to transport cargo and people into space?
Maya - NASA archeologists use satellites to pinpoint ancient ruins buried deep in the jungle.
Profile: Bonnie Bassler - Her insight into how bacteria "talk" has launched a revolution in biological and medical research.
Wed, 6 Aug 2008
S03 Episode 8
Mass Extinction, 1918 Flu, Papyrus
Mass Extinction - What caused the mother of all extinctions 250 million years ago?
1918 Flu - A virus that killed up to 50 million people is brought back to life to decipher its deadliness.
Profile: Cynthia Breazeal - A daring engineer designs robots to communicate and interact the way people do.
Papyrus - Scraps of writings from a garbage dump in ancient Egypt reveal what life was like 2,000 years ago.
Wed, 13 Aug 2008
S03 Episode 9
Asteroid, Island of Stability, Karl Iagnemma
Asteroid - Will a doomsday rock the size of the Rose Bowl hit Earth in 2036?
Island of Stability - Follow the decades-long quest to create the elusive element 114.
Obesity - Examine the biology behind the compulsion to eat.
Profile: Karl Iagnemma - An innovative MIT roboticist is also an acclaimed fiction writer.
Wed, 20 Aug 2008
S03 Episode 10
T-Rex Blood, Epigenetics, Kryptos
T-Rex Blood? - Preserved soft tissue, including possible blood vessels and red blood cells, are turning up in dinosaur fossils.
Epigenetics - Our lifestyles can change the way our genes are expressed, leading even identical twins to become distinct as they age.
Kryptos - A coded sculpture at CIA headquarters has yet to be fully broken.
Profile: Arlie Petters - A boy from a rural village in Belize grows up to become a world-class mathematician and cosmologist.
Wed, 20 Aug 2008
