NOVA

Season 23

20 episodes 53 seasons

Release Date

Premiered

NOVA Season 23 released on October 10, 1995.

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S23E01 Aired January 09, 1996

Terror in the Mine Fields

S23E02 Aired January 16, 1996

The Day the Earth Shook

On the same date in January one year apart, Earthquakes of almost identical power shook Northridge, California (1994) and Kobe, Japan (1995). NOVA probes why almost 100 times more people died in Japan than in the United States and what scientists have learned from the twin calamities.

S23E03 Aired January 30, 1996

B-29 Frozen in Time

Travel on a perilous mission to repair and refly a rare B-29 bomber stranded on a Greenland icecap for almost 50 years.Gleaming like a jewel this well preserved bomber from World War II rests on the Arctic tundra where it was abandoned when it crash landed in 1947. This plane has long been a legend and now facing incredible hardship a team of adventurers struggle to bring the frozen warbird back to life.NOVA follows bold pilot Darryl Greenamyer and his team on two expeditions to revive Kee Bird and make it fly again in one of the most isolated and harshest environments on Earth. Despite severe weather illness and difficulties with the shuttle plane in 1994 Greenamyer returns in May 1995 with a larger crew a more reliable shuttle plane and a new plan to bring Kee Bird back to life and back home.

S23E04 Aired February 06, 1996

Ebola: The Plague Fighters

AKA Inside an Outbreak The Ebola filovirus causes a very deadly and highly contagious disease. Outbreaks thus far have been limited due to the implementation of strict isolation, sterilization, and waste disposal procedures; the remoteness of areas in which the outbreaks appeared; and the fact that the virus kills so quickly that many of its victims die before it can be transmitted. Most recently, the Ebola virus struck in the city of Kikwit in Zaire, Africa, in early 1995 and killed almost 250 people before it was contained. Medical experts and relief workers went to work quickly to locate victims, to provide educational and prevention services to neighbors and families, and to research the Ebola virus. This NOVA program follows the medical researchers and doctors as they work to prevent the virus from wiping out an entire community and to locate where the virus originated.

S23E05 Aired February 20, 1996

War Machines of Tomorrow

NOVA travels to the testing ranges and training grounds for a leaner, meaner and more effective United States military force that can fight and win on almost any battlefield in the world. One innovation in the works: super-accurate "brilliant" weapons, designed as successors to the smart munitions used in the Gulf War.

S23E06 Aired February 27, 1996

Kidnapped by UFOs?

Carl Sagan and other scientists investigate claims that people have been visited or abducted by aliens.

S23E07 Aired March 26, 1996

Flood!

The Great Flood of 1993 leaves a wake of destruction across the Midwest. Can rivers ever be contained?

S23E08 Aired April 02, 1996

Dr. Spock the Baby Doc

NOVA profiles Dr. Benjamin Spock, whose best-selling baby and child care guide revolutionized the way Americans raise their children. At ninety-something, Dr. Spock continues to mix a lively interest in babies with his long-standing activism for world peace, on the theory that war is potentially more dangerous to children than accidents or illness.

S23E09 Aired April 09, 1996

Warriors of the Amazon

Explore the unique culture of the Yanomami, an isolated tribe living deep in the Amazonian rainforest.

S23E10 Aired April 16, 1996

The Bombing of America

Bombing is on the rise across the United States. But science is fighting back. Hidden within the chaos of a crime scene lie clues that can solve the case. Can science help stop the "Bombing of America"?

S23E11 Aired October 01, 1996

Einstein Revealed

This two-hour program chronicles Albert Einstein's life and scientific achievements from his birth in 1879 to his death in 1955. The first hour follows Einstein in his quest to understand the nature of light. Graphics depict some of Einstein's famous thought experiments, including his eventual understanding of the interplay between the speed of light and time and his development of the special theory of relativity. The program also goes into great depth about Einstein's personal life, including his romance with and marriage to fellow student Mileva Maric and the death of his father. The second hour unfolds with Einstein preoccupied with finding a theory that accounts for gravitation and determining what orders the universe. Einstein addresses gravitation in the universe with his general theory of relativity. This is confirmed experimentally in 1919 when a solar eclipse reveals stars in positions that could best be explained by his theory: that gravity causes light to bend.

S23E12 Aired October 08, 1996

Lost City of Arabia

Helped by remote sensing, an expedition searches Oman's vast al-Khali desert for the lost city of Ubar.

S23E13 Aired October 15, 1996

Three Men and a Balloon

One of the final aeronautics challenges left in the world today does not involve the use of a plane, a rocket, or even an engine. No one has yet been able to circumnavigate the earth in a balloon. Any team attempting the feat would have to fly higher than most planes ever fly and would need a passenger capsule that could both offer protection from extreme cold and carry the proper navigation and life support equipment. Depending on the powerful jet stream to propel them, crew members would have to plot their course carefully and plan their schedule to coincide with the most advantageous winds. Even landing would be a risky venture. This program follows a team of three adventurers as they attempt to make just such a journey.

S23E14 Aired October 22, 1996

Secrets of Making Money

With a radically redesigned bill, the U.S. Treasury fights back against a new breed of counterfeiters.

S23E15 Aired November 12, 1996

Top Gun Over Moscow

Flights in Russia's powerful fighter jets are for sale to foreign travelers. So is the Russian Air Force still in the game?

S23E16 Aired November 19, 1996

Shark Attack

Sharks are known as the "perfect predators," but sometimes they slip up and attack the wrong prey—people.

S23E17 Aired November 24, 1996

Odyssey of Life: The Ultimate Journey

NOVA explores the links between our individual development and the evolution of life itself.

S23E18 Aired November 25, 1996

Odyssey of Life: The Unknown World

This program reveals some of the billions of practically invisible organisms that live on, in, and around us.

S23E19 Aired November 26, 1996

Odyssey of Life: The Photographer's Secrets

Lennart Nilsson, the famed photographer behind the spectacular glimpse into the mysteries of life before birth in Nova's "Miracle of Life" and "Ultimate Journey", shares some of his secret state-of-the-art microphotography techniques.

S23E20 Aired December 31, 1996

Cracking the Ice Age

Did the crash of continents that produced the Himalayan Mountains also trigger the Ice Age?