NOVA: Season 5
NOVA is an American popular science television program produced by WGBH in Boston, Massachusetts, which has been in production since 1974. As the premier science series for PBS, the program is designed to help viewers of all ages explore the science behind current headlines while working to demystify technology and science. The series is recognized as the most-watched primetime science series on television, reaching
Season 5 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 has been active since 1974.
- The series focuses on demystifying science and technology.
- The show explores the science behind current headlines.
Season overview
NOVA is an American popular science television program produced by WGBH in Boston, Massachusetts, which has been in production since 1974. As the premier science series for PBS, the program is designed to help viewers of all ages explore the science behind current headlines while working to demystify technology and science. The series is recognized as the most-watched primetime science series on television, reaching an average of five million viewers. Season 5 of the program consists of 21 episodes and continues the overarching saga of the series. The program is stylized as NOVΛ and maintains a focus on educational content regarding scientific discovery and technological advancement for a general audience.
Episode Guide
Season 5 Progress Shield
In The Event of Catastrophe
Jan 4, 1978
Can a nuclear war be survived? Some members of the defense community say yes. NOVA explores the possibility.
The Green Machine
Jan 11, 1978
Botany is a neglected science and plants are all around us, but unfamiliar. NOVA examines our state of knowledge of how plants work: growth hormones, responses to light and shade,
Blueprints in the Bloodstream
Jan 18, 1978
It has been known since the turn of the century that there are four human blood groups, based on different red cells and serum characteristics. NOVA looks at the more recent discov
One Small Step
Jan 25, 1978
Part one of a two-part series on the subject of man in space, NOVA examines the history of NASA—from the origin of the space race through the triumph of the Apollo programs. By tra
The Final Frontier
Feb 1, 1978
Second of the two-part series on space programs, NOVA looks ahead to the future, post-Apollo and the role that man in space will play, including the possibility of space colonizati
BaMiki BaNdula: Children of the Forest
Feb 15, 1978
In the rain forests of Zaire, in the heart of Africa, live the Mbuti Pygmies. The Pygmy way of life has always been extraordinarily difficult to capture on film, though many have t
Trial of Denton Cooley
Feb 22, 1978
In a dramatic docudrama, NOVA reconstructs the controversial lawsuit raised against renowned heart surgeon Dr. Denton Cooley when one of his patients died after heart surgery, and
The Great Wine Revolution
Mar 1, 1978
A science-based revolution in the making of wine is underway. NOVA traces the secrets of the aging process and science's involvement with the predicting of mass production high-qua
The Case of the Ancient Astronauts
Mar 8, 1978
NOVA investigates the theories of von Daniken and others that the Earth has been visited by intelligent beings from outer space. Among claims examined are: that the building techni
The Mind Machines
Mar 22, 1978
Today's scientists may be creating their own successors. Work being done in Artificial Intelligence (AI), a branch of computer science, only suggest that in the not too distant fut
Icarus' Children
Mar 29, 1978
In the summer of 1977 Paul MacCready, a California scientist and businessman, won the coveted Kremer Prize. His achievement was to design and build an airplane which completed, una
Still Waters
Apr 12, 1978
NOVA shows a year in the life of a beaver pond and includes almost every life form that exists in, on, under, around and above the water, from the microscopic plant life of summer
Battle for the Acropolis
Apr 19, 1978
The fortified plateau above Athens known as the Acropolis is the site of some of the most remarkable architecture in the world: its marble structures built in the fifth century BC,
The Road to Happiness. : The Life and Times of Henry Ford
May 3, 1978
Henry Ford, a great friend of Edison, was a film enthusiast who amassed some one and a half million feet of film during his lifetime. Deposited in the National Archives and known a
Laser : Light of the 21st Century
May 10, 1978
When first invented 18 years ago, lasers were called "a solution looking for a problem;" nobody could think what to do with them. But in fact research scientists immediately began
Insect Alternative
May 24, 1978
In a world that each year loses up to 40 percent of its crops to insects, some form of pest control is desperately needed. But chemical pesticides have backfired. Pesticide-resista
The Desert's Edge
May 31, 1978
For thousands of years people have managed to live in deserts all over the world. But in recent years, a growing population and the demands of the international market have put mor
The Tsetse Trap
Jun 7, 1978
NOVA explores Bovine sleeping sickness. Spread by a fly, it is a deadly disease that poses a threat to Africa's cattle.
Memories From Eden
Jun 14, 1978
Traditionally zoos were designed neither for people nor animals; barred cages taught people more about their separation from nature than about an animal and its habitat. But just a
A Whisper from Space
Jun 21, 1978
In 1965, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, two radio astronomers at Bell Telephone Laboratories, discovered faint, but ever-present, microwave signals from space—the most ancient and
Alaska: The Closing Frontier
Jun 28, 1978
Congress is currently considering a proposal that would double the size of America's national park system by designating a sizeable chunk of Alaska as off-limits to developers. NOV