NOVA: Season 14
Season 14 Lore Primer
Key plot threads, lore context, and character stakes you need to remember before diving into this season.
- Directly follows the overarching narrative developments of NOVA Season 13.
- Faction dynamics and core character alliances shift under escalating external stakes.
- Crucial mysteries introduced previously reach key turning points and narrative reckonings.
- Sets up serialized story arcs that build directly toward the climactic season finale.
Episode Guide
Season 14 Progress Shield
Countdown to the Invisible Universe
Jan 20, 1987 · 55 min
NOVA scans the universe with the infrared eye of IRAS—the Infrared Astronomical Satellite—and discovers never-before-seen comets, stars, galaxies and other celestial wonders and en
Children of Eve
Jan 27, 1987 · 55 min
NOVA examines a controversial theory that traces our ancestry to a small group of women living in Africa 300,000 years ago.
Why Planes Crash
Feb 3, 1987 · 55 min
Between 60 and 80 percent of all commercial airplane accidents are attributable to pilot error. NOVA looks at some shocking instances of pilot negligence and what airlines are doin
Orangutans of the Rain Forest
Feb 10, 1987 · 55 min
NOVA cameras travel to Borneo, one of the last habitats of the wild orangutans, where scientists study the endangered ape. Who is observing whom? It is not always clear.
Freud Under Analysis
Feb 17, 1987 · 55 min
Fifty years after his death, the creator of psychoanalysis is still the subject of intense debate. Was Freud right or wrong? NOVA profiles the enigmatic man and his controversial l
The Hole in the Sky
Feb 24, 1987 · 55 min
NOVA travels to Antarctica with an emergency scientific expedition to study a baffling "hole" in the Earth's protective ozone layer.
Confessions of a Weaponeer
Mar 3, 1987 · 55 min
Harvard chemist George Kistiakowsky was an anti-Bolshevik soldier in 1919 Russia, an atomic bomb scientist at Los Alamos, a presidential advisor in the Eisenhower White House and a
Great Moments from NOVA
Mar 10, 1987 · 55 min
NOVA presents two hours of the best from its 14 seasons of exciting science coverage. A "talking" chimp, an exploding volcano and a sight-and-sound space video are but a few of the
Will the World Starve?
Mar 24, 1987 · 55 min
All over the world, farmers are taking more from the soil than they return. NOVA reports on the soil crisis in world agriculture—a plight that has already resulted in massive starv
The Desert Doesn't Bloom Here Anymore
Mar 31, 1987 · 55 min
In rich and poor countries alike, once-productive farms are turning to desert because of mismanagement of water resources. NOVA examines the causes and cures of desertification.
Rocky Road to Jupiter
Apr 7, 1987 · 55 min
In a case study of the strengths and weaknesses of the United States space program, NOVA chronicles the ambitious and long-delayed Galileo mission to Jupiter—still on the ground lo
Death of a Star
Oct 6, 1987 · 55 min
Why do stars explode and how is the energy generated? What is the effect of all those little “aftermath” particles floating through space? Nova: Death of a Star is a 60-minute scie
Spy Machines
Oct 13, 1987 · 55 min
On the 25th anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis, NOVA investigates the spy planes and satellites that played a critical role in history and influence arms control today.
Hidden Power of Plants
Oct 20, 1987 · 55 min
Plants produce some of the world's most potent chemicals in the fight against disease. NOVA follows the urgent efforts to track down new medicines in nature.
Japan's American Genius
Oct 27, 1987 · 55 min
Is Detroit inventor Stanford Ovshinsky the new Thomas Edison? Japanese industries are betting that the genius behind amorphous materials-a simpler and less expensive alternative to
A Man, A Plan, A Canal, Panama
Nov 3, 1987 · 55 min
The Panama Canal opened in 1914 after a 30-year effort that dwarfed the building of the pyramids. Historian David McCullough navigates through the canal and tells the story of the
Volcano!
Nov 10, 1987 · 55 min
Millions live in the shadows of nature's ticking time-bombs—volcanos. NOVA accompanies scientists who are developing new techniques to predict when volcanos will erupt and how viol
How Good is Soviet Science?
Nov 17, 1987 · 55 min
Princeton professor and author Robert Mark tracks down the engineering secrets of some of the beautiful buildings in the world including Notre Dame in Paris, St. Paul in London and
Ancient Treasures from the Deep
Dec 1, 1987 · 55 min
NOVA joins underwater archaeologists as they explore the oldest shipwreck ever excavated, a richly-laden merchant vessel dating from the time of King Tut.
Riddle of the Joints
Dec 8, 1987 · 55 min
A trail of evidence leading from a medieval abbey to a small town in Connecticut sheds new light on rheumatoid arthritis, a crippling inflammation of the joints with no known cause
Secrets of the Lost Red Paint People
Dec 15, 1987 · 55 min
NOVA follows archaeologists as they unearth clues, some 7,000 years old, about an unknown, mysterious and advanced sea-faring people who lived along the North Atlantic coast of the