NOVA: Season 2
NOVA is an American popular science television program produced by WGBH in Boston, Massachusetts, and broadcast on PBS. Since its inception in 1974, the series has functioned as a premier science program designed to help viewers of all ages explore the science behind current headlines while demystifying technology and science. The program is recognized as the most-watched primetime science series on television, reach
Season 2 Lore Primer
Key plot threads, lore context, and character stakes you need to remember before diving into this season.
- NOVA is a PBS science series produced by WGBH in Boston.
- The program began broadcasting in 1974.
- The series aims to demystify science and technology for viewers of all ages.
- The show focuses on exploring the science behind current headlines.
Season overview
NOVA is an American popular science television program produced by WGBH in Boston, Massachusetts, and broadcast on PBS. Since its inception in 1974, the series has functioned as a premier science program designed to help viewers of all ages explore the science behind current headlines while demystifying technology and science. The program is recognized as the most-watched primetime science series on television, reaching an average of five million viewers. Season 2 of the series consists of 17 episodes and continues the overarching saga of the program. As a documentary and educational series, it focuses on providing scientific insight and information to its audience. The production remains ongoing, contributing to a total of 618 episodes across its broadcast history. The series maintains a focus on making complex scientific topics accessible to a general audience through its primetime programming on the PBS network.
Episode Guide
Season 2 Progress Shield
Why Do Birds Sing?
Nov 3, 1974
NOVA travels to forests and marshes to discover why birds sing and finds surprising parallels with the acquisition of speech in humans.
How Much Do You Smell?
Nov 10, 1974
Many insects and some mammals use smell as a primary means of communication. NOVA explains how, for example, the entire economy of an ant's nest is organized by smell, and how some
The Hunting Of The Quark
Nov 17, 1974
Smashing matter into ever smaller pieces in an attempt to find its fundamental building blocks has produced a confused nightmare of particles. NOVA looks at this on-again, off-agai
The Secrets Of Sleep
Nov 24, 1974
Most of us spend one-third of our lives in a state of which we understand remarkably little—some people sleep for only a few minutes a night, and function perfectly well, while oth
Inside the Golden Gate
Dec 1, 1974
NOVA joins a team of U.S. Geological Survey scientists on a mission to find out just how San Francisco Bay works: its physics, its chemistry and its biology.
The Men Who Painted Caves
Dec 8, 1974
Just why did Cro-Magnon man living in France's Dordogne Valley some 15,000 years ago take time out from the desperate business of survival to paint pictures in inaccessible corners
Red Sea Coral
Dec 15, 1974
NOVA joins a group of English biologists living literally on a platform in the middle of the Red Sea, who for several years have been studying the crown-of-thorns starfish, notorio
What Time is Your Body?
Jan 12, 1975
Have you ever sensed that your body reacts differently at different times of the day? NOVA examines the best and worsetimes for work, good times for sex drives and your body's most
The Rise And Fall Of DDT
Jan 19, 1975
Has the case against DDT been proven? A strange question, perhaps, to be asking one year after the US has banned the insecticide, but NOVA dares to ask. Tracing the history of DDT
Take the World From Another Point of View
Feb 2, 1975
NOVA profiles two very different scientists: Richard Feynman, a theoretical physicist, at the pinnacle of his career—a Nobel prizewinner; and Richard Lewontin, a biologist and high
The Lysenko Affair
Feb 9, 1975
NOVA explores T.D. Lynsenko's rise to power in the Soviet Union in the early 20th century, and how it affected plant genetic research in the USSR.
The Tuaregs
Feb 16, 1975
High in the Hoggar Mountains, in the exact center of the Sahara desert, lives Sidi Mohammed and his family: children, grandchildren, cousins and a few former slave women. Their env
The Plutonium Connection
Mar 9, 1975
How likely is it that a terrorist group will steal plutonium intended for nuclear reactor fuel and put together a blackmail weapon of unprecedented power in the shape of a homemade
The Other Way
Mar 16, 1975
Since the Industrial Revolution, bigger has been better. NOVA profiles E.F. Schumacher, the author of Small is Beautiful, who thinks that enough is enough; that the time has come f
The Lost World Of The Maya
Mar 30, 1975
For over a thousand years the Mayan civilization grew and flourished in the rain forests of Central America. Discovered and finally destroyed by the Spanish Conquistadors, it was l
Will The Fishing Have to Stop?
Apr 6, 1975
Fish is an excellent source of protein; it could help ease the growing international food shortage. But in 1972 the total world fish catch dropped. NOVA explores the possible reaso