NOVA: Season 6
Season 6 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 5.
- 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 6 Progress Shield
Black Tide
Jan 4, 1979 · 55 min
On the morning of March 16, 1978, the US owned, Liberian registered supertanker, the Amoco Cadiz, went aground off the coast of Brittany. Over the following days and weeks its enti
Long Walk Of Fred Young
Jan 11, 1979 · 55 min
As a child, Fred Young hunted birds and wild animals with primitive weapons, spoke only the Indian languages Ute and Navajo, went to a medicine man when he was sick, and slept unde
A World Of Difference
Jan 18, 1979 · 55 min
In 1945, B.F. Skinner shocked the world by putting his 13 month-old daughter, Deborah, into a "box." The box was actually a climate-controlled crib designed for comfort and protect
Cashing In On The Ocean
Feb 1, 1979 · 55 min
The bed of the northeast Pacific Ocean is covered with a "carpet" estimated to be worth a staggering ten million dollars. These manganese nodules—the bumpy carpet—are rich not only
Patterns From The Past
Feb 8, 1979 · 55 min
Below the snow-capped peaks of the Peruvian Andes, the Q'eros Indians live a life patterned on that of their ancestors thousands of years ago. NOVA takes a look at the unchanging w
The Invisible Flame
Feb 22, 1979 · 55 min
Some day hydrogen may replace the gasoline that we are now using up so rapidly. NOVA looks at the potential of hydrogen as a zero-pollution fuel.
The End Of The Rainbow
Mar 1, 1979 · 55 min
Is nuclear fusion the solution to the energy crisis? NOVA examines the promise—and problems—of fusion as a future energy source.
The Beersheva Experiment
Mar 8, 1979 · 55 min
Health care is the third largest industry in the US. As a result of billions of dollars spent for medical education in the 1960s, there are now too many specialists and too few pri
Einstein
Mar 15, 1979 · 55 min
One hundred years after his birth, Albert Einstein remains an enigma to most Americans. NOVA presents an insightful portrait of the man and his mind through rarely viewed film foot
The Keys Of Paradise
Mar 29, 1979 · 55 min
Some powerful and complex painkilling drugs have just been discovered—in a place where you would least expect to find them. Endorphins and their component enkephalins are manufactu
A Plague on our Children
Oct 2, 1979 · 55 min
Is the chemical industry a boom to modern civilization, or a major threat to our health and that of future generations? NOVA examines how toxic heribicides, Pesticides, and other c
Life on a Silken Thread
Oct 9, 1979 · 55 min
Sinister, sometimes even deadly, spiders have little popular appeal; yet their silken webs are among nature's loveliest creations. NOVA takes a close-look in slow motion, as spider
Sweet Solutions
Oct 16, 1979 · 55 min
NOVA views the history of sugar—from its scientific, religious and political history to its medical controversy.
Race for the Gold
Oct 30, 1979 · 55 min
At the 1976 Olympics, East German athletes walked off with 40 of the coveted gold medals, though their country is only the size of New Jersey. NOVA investigates whether a drug is r
All Part of the Game
Nov 6, 1979 · 55 min
Thousands of amateur athletes are hurt every year, and many professional athletes suffer injuries that may mean the end of a career. NOVA looks at a new medical specialty—sports me
India: Machinery of Hope
Nov 20, 1979 · 55 min
Most of India lives by the same rhythm, the same tools, as in centuries past. But there is another India—with thriving commercial centers, spotless research laboratories and large-
The Bridge that Spanned the World
Dec 4, 1979 · 55 min
The Iron Bridge across the River Severn in Telford, England is two centuries old this year. It remains a monument to the Shropshire iron masters who built it, and a symbol of the I
Termites to Telescopes
Dec 11, 1979 · 55 min
Dr. Philip Morrison, Institute Professor and professor of Physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, presents this thoughtful and provocative commentary on the nature of civ
Blindness: Five Points of Views
Dec 18, 1979 · 55 min
For many people the idea of life without vision is as fearful as death. NOVA looks at five people struggling to save their threatened vision using drugs, surgery, counseling and de