Our mastery of cold is something we take for granted, whether it s air conditioning and frozen food or the liquefied gases and superconductivity at the heart of cutting-edge technology. But what is cold? How do you achieve it, and how cold can it get? This two-part NOVA special brings the history of this frosty fascination to life with brilliant dramatic recreations of high moments in low-temperature research and the quest for ever-lower notches on the thermometer. The first hour, The Conquest of Cold, opens in the 1600s when the nature of cold and heat was a complete mystery. Were they different aspects of the same phenomenon? The experiments that settled these questions helped stoke the Industrial Revolution. In the second hour, The Race For Absolute Zero dramatizes the titanic rivalry between Scottish researcher James Dewar and Dutch physicist Heike Onnes, who plunged cold science to the forbidding realm at which oxygen and then nitrogen turn into liquids. The race continues toda

A look at the Greek government's Acropolis Restoration Project as they restore the Parthenon and learn its many secrets.

NOVA explores the other Cold War space race, the top-secret programs by the U.S. and the USSR, to place military astronauts aboard orbiting spy stations.

As new research continues to reveal that apes are smarter than previously thought, NOVA explores just what separates humans from the great apes.

A look at the 2002 discovery of a four-winged crow-sized dinosaur fossil dubbed Microraptor, which has rekindled the scientific debate over the origins of flight. Included is a wind tunnel test of a "flight-ready" model of the 130 million-year-old Microraptor.

NOVA retraces the paths of a few pioneers who deciphered the complex system of Mayan hieroglyphs.

Tom and Ray Magliozzi of NPR's Car Talk, explore new technologies and ideas for the future of automobiles.

Surviving injuries incurred through childbirth, three Ethiopian women travel to a special hospital in Addis Ababa where they begin to rebuild their lives.

At age 78, E.O. Wilson is still going through his "little savage" phase of boyhood exploration of the natural world. In "Lord of the Ants," NOVA profiles this soft-spoken Southerner and Harvard professor, who is an acclaimed advocate for ants, biological diversity, and the controversial extension of Darwinian ideas to human society. Actor and environmentalist Harrison Ford narrates this engaging portrait of a ceaselessly active scientist and eloquent writer, who has accumulated two Pulitzer Prizes among his many other honors. Says fellow naturalist David Attenborough: "He will go down as the man who opened the eyes of millions 'round the world to the glories, the values, the importance of—to use his term—biodiversity."

A field expedition to collect new fossil clues on Alaska's North Slope reveals details of the lives of polar dinosaurs.

An investigation uncovers the human failures and design flaws behind the 2003 Columbia tragedy.

Join Mark Everett on his quixotic quest to understand his father Hugh, creator of a radical theory of quantum physics.

Fractals are more than just pretty pictures. These simple but sophisticated equations describe the world we live in, from forest growth patterns to the beating of a human heart, and they are inspiring new investigation in myriad fields of science and technology.

The 2004 discovery of tiny human fossil bones on the island of Flores, Indonesia, raised new—and controversial—speculation about the history of the human race. Ever since, scientists have been scrambling to find more information about these "hobbits."

“The Bible’s Buried Secrets,” produced by Rhode Island-based Providence Pictures for PBS's science series Nova, attempts to uncover who wrote the Hebrew Bible and whether it’s history or parable, delving into the origins of the Israelites to explore their gradual transformation into a monotheistic people. The show also poses provocative ideas – including the “revelation” that many Israelites believed that God had a wife – and disputes literal readings of the text.

With a passion that will leave few viewers unmoved, veterinarians and volunteers at California's Marine Mammal Center work to rescue and rehabilitate a variety of marine mammals, including harbor seal pups and California sea lions.

NASA's twin robot explorers, Spirit and Opportunity, have endured the worst Martian storm ever recorded and survived near-fatal glitches—yet continue to operate. Now they're joined on the Red Planet by NASA's Phoenix probe, which has already made significant discoveries of its own.