NOVA: Season 8
Season 8 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 7.
- 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 8 Progress Shield
Doctors of Nigeria
Jan 6, 1981 · 55 min
Is the fagara root a match for the stethoscope? This program looks at the contributions of both traditional herbal medicine and western orthodox medicine to the health of the Niger
Message in the Rocks
Jan 20, 1981 · 55 min
This program explores clues gathered from ancient rocks and Meteorites in an attempt to piece together how our planet formed, what happened during its earliest days, and when life
The Dead Sea Lives
Jan 27, 1981 · 55 min
NOVA examines the Dead Sea. The lowest place on Earth, at 1400 feet below sea level, it is jointly owned by Israel and Jordan. If used properly it could become a vital natural reso
Anatomy of a Volcano
Feb 10, 1981 · 55 min
When Mount St. Helens erupted earlier this year, it focused the attention of the whole world on the almost incredible destructive forces that volcanos can release. Geologists from
The Science of Murder
Feb 17, 1981 · 55 min
NOVA investigates what science can do in helping to solve murder—in understanding why it occurs, and how the rate might be reduced—and explores the work of people who have the star
The Malady of Health Care
Feb 24, 1981 · 55 min
Health care is no longer two Aspirins and some chicken soup—it is a huge enterprise capable of amazing feats and costing billions of dollars. How can we afford to pay the bills? Is
Beyond the Milky Way
Mar 3, 1981 · 55 min
Sophisticated instruments used by astronomers enable earthlings to see beyond what was once the cloudy barrier of the Milky Way, to a universe of perhaps 100 billion other galaxies
The Asteroid and the Dinosaur
Mar 10, 1981 · 55 min
For 150 million years, non-avian dinosaurs dominated the Earth. Then, 65 million years ago, they suddenly vanished, along with a great deal of the planet's animal and plant life. N
Animal Olympians
Mar 17, 1981 · 55 min
The beauty, endurance, and raw power of animals in the wild are captured on film as NOVA juxtaposes Olympic athletes performing feats which have parallels in the animal kingdom wit
Resolution on Saturn
Aug 25, 1981 · 55 min
It's over 300 years since Galileo turned his new telescope on Saturn and first saw its spectacular rings. NOVA shows the beauty and new mysteries discovered by Voyager 1 on its his
Computers, Spies and Private Lives
Sep 27, 1981 · 55 min
NOVA reports on the potential danger of modern Computers that gather "routine" information about our daily lives as we buy things, go to the hospital, or make donations. Computers
Why America Burns
Oct 4, 1981 · 55 min
More people die in fires in the US than in any other industrialized country. In an alarming report that challenges the complacency of the US fire prevention establishment, NOVA unc
The Great Violin Mystery
Oct 11, 1981 · 55 min
A great secret lies locked inside the master Violins created by Italian craftsmen like Antonio Stradivari in the 17th and 18th centuries. Now, a Wisconsin physicist, working alone
Cosmic Fire
Oct 18, 1981 · 55 min
A NOVA showing the extraordinary discoveries of X-ray astronomy. This new science has revealed that our universe is much stranger and more violent than ever imagined, filled with n
Locusts: War Without End
Oct 25, 1981 · 55 min
Called the "teeth of the wind" by those who have battled them for centuries, locusts continue to plague hundreds of millions of people. Rare desert rains transforms locusts from ha
Did Darwin Get It Wrong?
Nov 1, 1981 · 55 min
The controversy which exploded a century ago when Charles Darwin published "The Origin of Species" is erupting again with new facts and emotion. NOVA explores challenges to the the
Artists in the Lab
Nov 15, 1981 · 55 min
Many were delighted by the extraordinary special effects in movies like "2001" and "Star Wars," but few realized how their magic relied on technologies as futuristic as their scien
Notes of a Biology Watcher: A Film with Lewis Thomas
Nov 22, 1981 · 55 min
You are not alone! Like it or not, every human being and virtually every living creature is, in a sense, owned and operated by legions of prehistoric organisms, hordes of them in e
City Spaces, Human Places
Nov 29, 1981 · 55 min
William H. Whyte's insightful and humorous look at city parks, plazas and Streets, and the people who use them. Whyte shows the remarkable research he did over a period of many yea
Twins
Dec 6, 1981 · 55 min
Ever thought what it's like having your mirror image talk back to you? It can be an everyday occurrence for identical Twins. NOVA tells the incredible story of scientific research