Paula S. Apsell

NOVA returns to Ground Zero to witness the completion of One World Trade Center. As the superstorm Sandy bore down on New York, many feared that the still-incomplete structures would be especially vulnerable to the storm's wrath. NOVA reveals the engineering story behind their remarkable resilience to nature's worst blows. The greatest test is still to come, though: will the final product be a fitting site for national remembrance?

In October 2012, Superstorm Sandy cut a path of devastation across the Caribbean and the East Coast of the United States, killing hundreds and causing tens of billions of dollars in damage. One year after Sandy's deadly strike, NOVA investigates the critical question raised by this historic storm: What can we do to prepare ourselves for the next Sandy?

In Building Pharaoh's Chariot, a team of archaeologists, engineers, woodworkers, and horse trainers join forces to build and test two highly accurate replicas of Egyptian royal chariots. They discover advanced features, including spoked wheels, springs, shock absorbers, anti-roll bars, and even a convex shaped rear mirror, leading one of them to compare the level of design to the engineering standards of 1930's-era Buicks!

Are there physical limits to how fast humans can go? David Pogue wants to find out how much we can tweak physiology and engineering to move humans and machines even faster. He investigates everything from lightning-fast electric muscle cars to ultra-sleek sailboats to ultra-fast cameras and quantum teleportation. But faster is also about efficiency and the science of optimization: getting things done in less time. From the floor of the New York Stock...

Host Richard Smith comes face-to-face with the previously unknown reptilian rulers of prehistoric Australia. NOVA resurrects the giants that stalked the land and discovers that some of them were among the largest ever to have walked the Earth. Others were some of the most dangerous. In the dry desert heart, scientists unearth an ancient inland ocean, full of sea monsters. But reptiles didn't have the world all to themselves. Mammals like the enigmatic...

Cold. For centuries we've fought it, shunned it and huddled against it. Cold has always been the enemy of life, but now it may hold the key to a new generation of science and technology that will improve our lives. David Pogue explores the frontiers of cold science, from saving the lives of severe trauma patients and cooling a warming planet to ultracold physics, where bizarre new properties of matter are the norm and the basis of new technologies...

What happens when engineers open up nature's toolbox? David Pogue explores bold innovations inspired by the Earth's greatest inventor, life itself. From underwater wi-fi based on dolphin communication, to robotic "mules" and "cheetahs" for the military, to swarms of robotic bees, Pogue travels the world seeing the "wildest" ideas put into action in new inventions and technologies. It is a journey that sees today's bacteria turned into tomorrow's metallurgists,...

"America is in the midst of the deadliest drug epidemic in US history. In 2017 alone, around 70,000 Americans died from drug overdoses, driven by a dramatic rise in the abuse of opioids like OxyContin, heroin, and fentanyl. It's a slow-motion disaster that is destroying whole communities, with no end in sight. As our nation looks for answers, take an unflinching look at the epidemic through the eyes of those living through it. Along the way, join...

In the heart of Lithuania, a Holocaust secret lies buried. A team of archaeologists probes the ruins of a Nazi death camp to find the truth behind tales of a tunnel dug by desperate Jewish prisoners and their daring escape.

Twenty-three unmanned robotic vehicles compete in a race sponsored by the Pentagon's research agency across a 130-mile stretch of Nevada desert.