''Nova'' (stylized as ''NOVΛ'') is an American

popular science ''Popular Science'' (also known as ''PopSci'') is an American digital magazine carrying popular science content, which refers to articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. ''Popular Science'' has won over 58 awards, incl ...

television program produced by

WGBH WGBH may refer to: * WGBH Educational Foundation, based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States ** WGBH (FM), a public radio station at Boston, Massachusetts on 89.7 MHz owned by the WGBH Educational Foundation ** WGBH-TV WGBH-TV (channel 2), ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

, since 1974. It is broadcast on PBS in the United States, and in more than 100 other countries. The program has won many major television awards. ''Nova'' often includes interviews with scientists doing research in the subject areas covered and occasionally includes footage of a particular discovery. Some episodes have focused on the history of science. Examples of topics covered include the following:

Colditz Castle Castle Colditz (or ''Schloss Colditz'' in German) is a Renaissance castle in the town of Colditz near Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz in the state of Saxony in Germany. The castle is between the towns of Hartha and Grimma on a hill spur over the ...

, the Drake equation,

elementary particle In particle physics, an elementary particle or fundamental particle is a subatomic particle that is not composed of other particles. Particles currently thought to be elementary include electrons, the fundamental fermions ( quarks, leptons, ...

s, the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, Fermat's Last Theorem, the

AIDS epidemic The global epidemic of HIV/AIDS (human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) began in 1981, and is an ongoing worldwide public health issue. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), as of 2021, HIV/AI ...

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

, moissanite,

Project Jennifer Project Azorian (also called "Jennifer" by the press after its Top Secret Security Compartment) was a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) project to recover the sunken Soviet submarine ''K-129'' from the Pacific Ocean floor in 1974, using ...

storm chasing Storm chasing is broadly defined as the deliberate pursuit of any severe weather phenomenon, regardless of motive, but most commonly for curiosity, adventure, scientific investigation, or for news or media coverage. A person who chases stor ...

, Unterseeboot 869,

Vinland Vinland, Vineland, or Winland ( non, Vínland ᚠᛁᚾᛚᛅᚾᛏ) was an area of coastal North America explored by Vikings. Leif Erikson landed there around 1000 AD, nearly five centuries before the voyages of Christopher Columbus and John ...

Tarim mummies The Tarim mummies are a series of mummies discovered in the Tarim Basin in present-day Xinjiang, China, which date from 1800 BC to the first centuries BC, with a new group of individuals recently dated to between c. 2100 and 1700 BC.School o ...

, and the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. The ''Nova'' programs have been praised for their pacing, writing, and editing. Websites that accompany the segments have also won awards.

Episodes

History

''Nova'' was first aired on March 3, 1974. The show was created by Michael Ambrosino, inspired by the

BBC 2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream ...

television series ''

Horizon The horizon is the apparent line that separates the surface of a celestial body from its sky when viewed from the perspective of an observer on or near the surface of the relevant body. This line divides all viewing directions based on whether i ...

'', which Ambrosino had seen while working in the UK. In the early years, many ''Nova'' episodes were either co-productions with the BBC ''Horizon'' team, or other documentaries originating outside of the United States, with the narration re-voiced in

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances ...

. Of the first 50 programs, only 19 were original

productions, and the first ''Nova'' episode, "The Making of a Natural History Film", was originally an episode of ''Horizon'' that premiered in 1972. The practice continues to this day. All the producers and associate producers for the original ''Nova'' teams came from either England (with experience on the ''Horizon'' series), Los Angeles or New York. Ambrosino was succeeded as executive producer by John Angier, John Mansfield, and

Paula S. Apsell Paula S. Apsell (born July 4, 1947) is the television Executive Producer Emerita of PBS's '' NOVA'' and was director of the WGBH Science Unit. Among Apsell's signature award-winning NOVA productions are "The Elegant Universe" with Dr. Brian Gree ...

, acting as senior executive producer.

Reception

Rob Owen of ''

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', also known simply as the PG, is the largest newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Descended from the ''Pittsburgh Gazette'', established in 1786 as the first newspaper published west of the Alle ...

'' wrote, "Fascinating and gripping." Lynn Elber of the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. new ...

wrote of the episode "

The Fabric of the Cosmos ''The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality'' (2004) is the second book on theoretical physics, cosmology, and string theory written by Brian Greene, professor and co-director of Columbia's Institute for Strings, Cosmolo ...

", "Mind-blowing TV." ''

The Futon Critic ''The Futon Critic'' is a website that provides articles and information regarding prime time programming on broadcast and cable networks in the United States. The site publishes reviews of prime time programming and interviews of people in th ...

'' wrote of the episode "Looking for Life on Mars", "Astounding ndexhilarating."

Awards

''Nova'' has been recognized with multiple

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...

s and

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

s. The program won a Peabody in 1974, citing it as "an imaginative series of science adventures," with a "versatility rarely found in television." Subsequent Peabodys went to specific episodes: * "

The Miracle of Life "The Miracle of Life" is a documentary film about the human reproductive process. The film won multiple awards including a Peabody and an Emmy when it was broadcast as part of the American TV series ''Nova (American TV series), Nova''. Photographe ...

" (1983) was cited as a "fascinating and informative documentary of the human reproductive process," which used "revolutionary microphotographic techniques." This episode also won an Emmy. * "Spy Machines" (1987) was cited for "neatly recount ngthe key events of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...

and look nginto the future of American/

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

SDI competition." * "

The Elegant Universe ''The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory'' is a book by Brian Greene published in 1999, which introduces string and superstring theory, and provides a comprehensive though non-technical assess ...

" (2003) was lauded for exploring "science's most elaborate and ambitious theory, the

string theory In physics, string theory is a theoretical framework in which the point-like particles of particle physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings. String theory describes how these strings propagate through space and intera ...

" while making "the abstract concrete, the complicated clear, and the improbable understandable" by "blending factual story telling with animation,

special effect Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual ...

s, and trick photography." The episode also won an Emmy for editing. The

National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) is an American professional service organization founded in 1955 for "the advancement of the arts and sciences of television and the promotion of creative leadership for artistic, edu ...

(responsible for documentary Emmys) recognized the program with awards in 1978, 1981, 1983, and 1989. Julia Cort won an Emmy in 2001 for writing "Life's Greatest Miracle." Emmys were also awarded for the following episodes: * 1982 "Here's Looking at You, Kid" * 1983 "The Miracle of Life" (also won a Peabody) * 1985 "AIDS: Chapter One", "

Acid Rain Acid rain is rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it has elevated levels of hydrogen ions (low pH). Most water, including drinking water, has a neutral pH that exists between 6.5 and 8.5, but ac ...

: New Bad News" * 1992 "Suicide Mission to

Chernobyl Chernobyl ( , ; russian: Чернобыль, ) or Chornobyl ( uk, Чорнобиль, ) is a partially abandoned city in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, situated in the Vyshhorod Raion of northern Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. Chernobyl is about n ...

", "The Russian Right Stuff" * 1994 "Secret of the Wild Child" * 1995 " Siamese Twins", "Secret of the Wild Child" * 1999 "Decoding Nazi Secrets" * 2001 " Bioterror" * 2002 "

Galileo Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He was ...

's Battle for the Heavens", " Mountain of Ice", " Shackleton's Voyage of

Endurance Endurance (also related to sufferance, resilience, constitution, fortitude, and hardiness) is the ability of an organism to exert itself and remain active for a long period of time, as well as its ability to resist, withstand, recover from an ...

", "Why the Towers Fell" * 2003 "Battle of the X-planes", "

" (also won a Peabody) * 2005 "Rx for Survival: A Global Health Challenge" In 1998, the National Science Board of the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...

awarded ''Nova'' its first-ever Public Service Award.

References

External links