Paula S. Apsell

Over 60,000 years ago, the first modern humans - people physically identical to us today - left their African homeland and entered Europe, then a bleak and inhospitable continent in the grip of the Ice Age. But when they arrived, they were not alone: the stocky, powerfully built Neanderthals had already been living there for hundreds of thousands of years. So what happened when the first modern humans encountered the Neanderthals? Did they make love...

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!

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?

How did the Egyptians engineer the Great Pyramid of Giza so precisely, and who were the thousands of laborers who raised the stones? New archaeological evidence, including a logbook of a labor team leader, provides new insights into these age-old questions. NOVA delves into these construction secrets to trace how mobilizing labor and resources on such a massive scale transformed ancient Egypt.

A reopening of one of the most confounding crime mysteries of all time as a team of expert investigators employs state-of-the-art forensic and behavioral science techniques in an effort to determine what really happened to Charles Lindbergh's baby, and why.

Based on the book by physicist and author Brian Greene, his film takes us to the frontiers of physics to see how scientists are piecing together the most complete picture yet of space, time, and the universe. With each step, audiences will discover that just beneath the surface of our everyday experience lies a world we'd hardly recognize, a startling world far stranger and more wondrous than anyone expected.

Within the icy slopes of Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps, there exists a secret waterworld. In this program, scientists travel into these previously unexplored recesses to learn why, in 1892, one of Mont Blanc's hidden lakes burst forth, enveloping the villages below and killing 200 unsuspecting people.

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...

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...