Paula S. Apsell

In Building Pharaoh's Chariot, a team of archaeologists, engineers, woodworkers, and horse trainers join forces to build and test two highly accurate replicas of Egyptian royal chariots. They discover advanced features, including spoked wheels, springs, shock absorbers, anti-roll bars, and even a convex shaped rear mirror, leading one of them to compare the level of design to the engineering standards of 1930's-era Buicks!

In October 2012, Superstorm Sandy cut a path of devastation across the Caribbean and the East Coast of the United States, killing hundreds and causing tens of billions of dollars in damage. One year after Sandy's deadly strike, NOVA investigates the critical question raised by this historic storm: What can we do to prepare ourselves for the next Sandy?

NOVA returns to Ground Zero to witness the completion of One World Trade Center. As the superstorm Sandy bore down on New York, many feared that the still-incomplete structures would be especially vulnerable to the storm's wrath. NOVA reveals the engineering story behind their remarkable resilience to nature's worst blows. The greatest test is still to come, though: will the final product be a fitting site for national remembrance?

Recounts how John Harrision discovered the concept of longitude in the 18th century, thus making the waters safe for navigation.

How did life storm the beaches and dominate planet Earth? Ancient Australian fossils offer clues. While the oceans were teeming, the world above the waves remained an almost lifeless wasteland - until the Silurian period, when the conquest of the land began. Host Richard Smith introduces Earth's forgotten pioneers: the scuttling arthropod armies that invaded the shores and the waves of green revolutionaries whose battle for the light pushed plant...

Are there physical limits to how fast humans can go? David Pogue wants to find out how much we can tweak physiology and engineering to move humans and machines even faster. He investigates everything from lightning-fast electric muscle cars to ultra-sleek sailboats to ultra-fast cameras and quantum teleportation. But faster is also about efficiency and the science of optimization: getting things done in less time. From the floor of the New York Stock...

What happens when engineers open up nature's toolbox? David Pogue explores bold innovations inspired by the Earth's greatest inventor, life itself. From underwater wi-fi based on dolphin communication, to robotic "mules" and "cheetahs" for the military, to swarms of robotic bees, Pogue travels the world seeing the "wildest" ideas put into action in new inventions and technologies. It is a journey that sees today's bacteria turned into tomorrow's metallurgists,...

Host Richard Smith comes face-to-face with the previously unknown reptilian rulers of prehistoric Australia. NOVA resurrects the giants that stalked the land and discovers that some of them were among the largest ever to have walked the Earth. Others were some of the most dangerous. In the dry desert heart, scientists unearth an ancient inland ocean, full of sea monsters. But reptiles didn't have the world all to themselves. Mammals like the enigmatic...

NOVA investigates the water disaster in Flint and unravels a disturbing truth about the vulnerabilities of water systems across the country.