NOVA - Season 17
Run Time: 55 mins
Air Date: Tue, 9 Jan 1990
Average Rating: ⭐ 7 (133 votes)
PBS20 Episodes
Poison in the Rockies
Season 17 - Episode 1
NOVA reports on the 100-year-old legacy of pollution from mining that poisons the once-pristine waters of the Rocky Mountain states. Acid Ra...
Race for the Top
Season 17 - Episode 2
Using some of the largest machines ever built on earth, American and European physicists race to discover one of the most fundamental and mo...
Disguises of War
Season 17 - Episode 3
Sixty-five years after attempts to ban them, chemical weapons pose more of a threat than ever. NOVA looks at the problem of controlling subs...
The Bomb's Lethal Legacy
Season 17 - Episode 4
NOVA examines an alarming nuclear waste problem at the Hanfrod Nuclear Reservation in eastern Washington state, where 45 years of mismanagem...
The Big Spill
Season 17 - Episode 5
Covering last year's Exxon Valdez oil spill from an unexplored angle, NOVA focuses on how technology failed in preventing, containing and cl...
The Genius That Was China: Rise of the Dragon
Season 17 - Episode 6
China in the 13th century was the richest, most powerful, most technologically advanced civilization on earth. NOVA looks at how China achie...
The Genius That Was China: Empires in Collision
Season 17 - Episode 7
NOVA examines the extraordinary transformation that propelled Europe outward into the world from the 15th to 18th centuries, while China rem...
The Genius that Was China: The Threat from Japan
Season 17 - Episode 8
Ever wonder how junk mail finds you? NOVA investigates the hidden world of direct marketing, pointing out how advertisers know a lot more ab...
The Genius That Was China: Will the Dragon Rise Again?
Season 17 - Episode 9
NOVA covers China's long road to economic and technological equality with the West, punctuated by frequent setbacks such as the 1989 massacr...
The KGB, The Computer and Me
Season 17 - Episode 10
This documentary covers the surprising tale of an average systems administrator who stumbled upon a KGB spy operation. Clifford Stoll carrie...
Neptune's Cold Fury
Season 17 - Episode 11
NOVA visits Neptune, the planet that took Voyager 12 years to reach. Mysteries abound in and around this big, blue world at the outer limits...
To Boldly Go...
Season 17 - Episode 12
NOVA chronicles the Voyager space mission—from Earth to the ends of the solar system. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and dozens of moons star in th...
Poisoned Winds of War
Season 17 - Episode 13
Sixty-five years after attempts to ban them, chemical weapons pose more of a threat than ever. NOVA looks at the problem of controlling subs...
The Blimp is Back!
Season 17 - Episode 14
NOVA examines the troubled past and promising future of blimps, zeppelins, cyclocranes and other species of airships. There's life in the ol...
Earthquake!
Season 17 - Episode 15
NOVA looks at the high-stakes quest to predict earthquakes. Despite past disappointments, geologists still hope to divine the clues that pre...
Killing Machines
Season 17 - Episode 16
Robotic weapons that seek out and destroy ships, planes, and other targets are the wave of the future. NOVA questions whether their prolifer...
Can the Elephant Be Saved?
Season 17 - Episode 17
Is the ivory ban in the elephant's best interest? NOVA looks at the controversial strategies to save the world's largest land animal from ex...
We Know Where You Live
Season 17 - Episode 18
Ever wonder how junk mail finds you? NOVA investigates the hidden world of direct marketing, pointing out how advertisers know a lot more ab...
In the Land of the Llamas
Season 17 - Episode 19
NOVA profiles the llama, alpaca, vicuna and guanaco of South America. At one time nearly extinct, these four members of the camel family are...
What's Killing the Children?
Season 17 - Episode 20
NOVA tracks a mysterious disease that suddenly and fatally attacks the children of a small Brazilian town. Researchers from the Centers for ...