NOVA - Season 27
Season 27
Network
DatesOct 5, 1999 - May 9, 2000
Episodes
Season 27Episode 160 min
Fall of the Leaning Tower
The film explores why the famous tower of Pisa hasn't fallen over yet and investigates the many efforts taken to preserve this medieval treasure.
Oct 5, 1999
Season 27Episode 260 min
Time Travel
Is time travel anything more than sci-fi fantasy? Many leading physicists now believe that time travel is not only possible in theory but are discussing how to build a time machine. Physicist Kip Thorne tells NOVA how humankind's infinitely advanced descendants might go about achieving it with "quantum wormholes" and some "exotic matter." Demonstrating that faster-than-light travel may be possible, German physicist Guenter Nimtz claims to have transmitted Mozart's 40th Symphony across his lab at 4.7 times the speed of light. Impossible, yes, but recorded by NOVA's cameras and perhaps another step on the road to reaching the future or the past. The truth about time travel is wrapped up in the detail of how our universe works and how it all began. Mind-boggling as these perspectives are, NOVA dramatizes them in a playful and visually dazzling style that will captivate viewers and sweep them along on the ultimate thrill ride.
Oct 12, 1999
Season 27Episode 360 min
The Killer's Trail
The death of Marilyn Sheppard in 1954 is one of the most famous unsolved murders in America. The indictment of her husband, Dr. Sam Sheppard, quickly became the "Trial of the Century," then the "Re-Trial of the Century," making a celebrity out of lawyer F. Lee Bailey. Although most of the forensic evidence gathered in 1954 was ignored during Sheppard's trial, it is being re-examined with today's advanced technology. Like an intricate puzzle, the clues come together to overturn previous assumptions about the killer and point to an entirely new suspect. NOVA assembles a notable team of experts—including Barry Scheck, a well-known lawyer from the O.J. Simpson trial—and builds a precise replica of the Sheppard house, complete with the original furniture. With this unique revisiting of a vanished crime scene, NOVA investigates a horrifying and sensational milestone in forensic science.
Oct 19, 1999
Season 27Episode 460 min
Island of the Spirits
In the far north of Japan, thrust out into the north Pacific, is the remote island of Hokkaido. It's a land of towering volcanoes and steaming lakes, marshy valleys and fairy tale forests. Among this magical scenery, where summers are brief and winters are fierce, lives an extraordinary spectrum of life, found nowhere else in Japan. Here among the coastal lowlands, grizzly bears plunge into icy streams for salmon, Japanese cranes perform balletic courtship dances to one another, the rare and enormous Blakistons fish owl swoops on flying squirrels, and white-tailed eagles scan the rugged ocean cliffs for unsuspecting seabirds. HIgh on the mountains Asiatic pikas, arctic hares and Siberian chipmunks gather food, ever-watchful for the predatory sable. We think of Japan as a highly-populated, ultra modern society, and yet it remains a highly spiritual place where wildlife is treasured and carefully protected. Weaving Ainu legend with fascinating natural behavior, this film will follow the lives of Hokkaido's special creatures through the seasons, to capture the true essence and beauty of this other-worldly place.
Nov 2, 1999
Season 27Episode 5120 min
Decoding Nazi Secrets
Most historians agree that by enabling Allied commanders to eavesdrop on German plans, Station X shortened the war by 2 or 3 years. Its decoded messages played a vital role in defeating the U-boat menace, cutting off Rommel's supplies in North Africa, and launching the D-Day landings. Now, for the first time on television, a 2-hour NOVA Special tells the full story of Station X, drawing on vivid interviews with many of the colorful geniuses and eccentrics who attacked the Enigma. Wartime survivors recall such vivid episodes as the British capture of the German submarine U-110; one of its officers describes how he saved a book of love poems inscribed to his sweetheart but failed to destroy vital Enigma documents on board. "Decoding Nazi Secrets" also features meticulous period reenactments shot inside the original buildings at Station X, including recreations of the world's first computing devices that aided codebreakers with their breakthroughs. Station X not only helped reverse the onslaught of the Third Reich, but also laid the groundwork for the invention of the digital computer that continues to transform all our lives.
Nov 9, 1999
Season 27Episode 660 min
Voyage of Doom
Buried in mud beneath the shallow waters of Matagorda Bay in Texas, lay a glorious remnant of one of the most ill-fated voyages of the Age of Discovery. After years of searching the area, nautical archaeologists doing a magnetometer survey honed in on a promising site. And on the first day of diving, they were astounded to feel the distinctive outlines of a cannon, and sense the massive size of the wreck. When the cannon was hauled from the water, their hunch was confirmed: This ship, called La Belle, belonged to the 17th Century French explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle. NOVA follows the building of a coffer dam and subsequent complete excavation of this remarkable site. Preserved were not only armaments and trade beads, but also a wealth of organic material—the wooden hull, leather shoes, and even a skeleton—that brings the voyage to life.
Nov 23, 1999
Season 27Episode 760 min
Electric Heart
The program tells the story of a handful of brilliant, obsessed surgeons and researchers who have pursued the target of a practical artificial heart for decades.
Dec 21, 1999
Season 27Episode 860 min
Tales from the Hive
Our cinematographer films inside a hive and follows bees in flight to capture honeybee behavior.
Jan 4, 2000
Season 27Episode 960 min
Lost on Everest
The program chronicles a successful 1999 NOVA expedition to investigate the mysterious disappearance of George Mallory and Andrew Irvine high on Everest in 1924. During this expedition, which included a NOVA/PBS Online Adventure, Mallory's body was found, though the mystery only deepened.
Jan 18, 2000
Season 27Episode 1060 min
Secrets of Lost Empires: Medieval Siege
Two teams set out to build precise replicas of a fearsome medieval weapon—the trebuchet.
Feb 1, 2000
Season 27Episode 1160 min
Diamond Deception
Makeshift labs in China and Russia are turning out synthetic gemstones that rival natural diamonds.
Feb 1, 2000
Season 27Episode 1260 min
Secrets of Lost Empires: Pharaoh's Obelisk
Experts take on the challenge of raising a 40-ton obelisk without using modern technology.
Feb 8, 2000
Season 27Episode 1360 min
Trillion Dollar Bet
An elegant mathematical formula attracts Wall Street's attention and spawns a multi-trillion-dollar industry.
Feb 8, 2000
Season 27Episode 1460 min
Secrets of Lost Empires: Easter Island
How did the ancient Easter Islanders move and erect giant stone statues? Our team tests one theory.
Feb 15, 2000
Season 27Episode 1560 min
Mystery of the First Americans
The discovery of a 9,000-year-old skeleton embroils scientists in a debate over North America's first inhabitants.
Feb 15, 2000
Season 27Episode 1660 min
Secrets of Lost Empires: Roman Bath
NOVA sets out to create a working Roman bath, complete with hot tubs and underfloor heating.
Feb 22, 2000
Season 27Episode 1760 min
Lost Tribes of Israel
An anthropologist looks for the lost city of Africa's Lemba tribe, and investigates their claim to an ancient Jewish heritage.
Feb 22, 2000
Season 27Episode 1860 min
Secrets of Lost Empires: China Bridge
Two teams working from opposite sides of a turbulent river attempt to build a 12th-century Chinese bridge.
Feb 29, 2000
Season 27Episode 1960 min
What's Up with the Weather?
FRONTLINE and NOVA take on a complex and critical phenomenon—global warming.
Apr 18, 2000
Season 27Episode 2060 min
Stationed in the Stars
NOVA examines the International Space Station, the largest construction project ever undertaken in orbit.
Apr 25, 2000
Season 27Episode 2160 min
The Vikings
Recent discoveries paint a complex portrait of the Vikings and their boat journeys to places as far-flung as Istanbul.
May 9, 2000
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