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Humankind's understanding of the universe is advancing at an unprecedented rate. This docu-series examines new breakthroughs, new technology and new ways of looking at the world.
2021
Pollution levels around the world today seem astronomical, but in New York City, they used to be deadly. How did this happen and when did it change?
The damaged Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant still holds 200 tons of nuclear fuel, and if it were to leak into the atmosphere, the consequences would be catastrophic. So the world came together to find a way to seal the radiation.
It took over 30 years to create the perfect apple. Find out how scientists designed the Honeycrisp to be the best.
After years of trial and error, NASA figured out how to successfully grow salad in space. So, what does this breakthrough mean? Are we one step closer to colonizing other planets?
Virtual reality technology is now being applied to medical training. Doctors can teleport inside the human heart and practice surgery over and over again, and this training could revolutionize the future of health care.
The US detonated over 200 nuclear weapons to gather scientific data about their potential. That data was gospel for years, until a weapons physicist decades later found out the figures were off by huge margins.
College students built a hyperloop pod that could revolutionize the way we travel. And while some people think the concept is mostly just hype, others think it's genius.
Forget the big red button, this is how we would actually conduct nuclear war. Missiles are still controlled by floppy disks.
Over 60 years ago, Albert Einstein's brain was stolen, dissected and sent in pieces all around the world. Who was behind this theft for science?
Greenland loses close to 100 million Olympic-size swimming pools of water per year. We know that statistic thanks to this critical NASA mission.
Can you catch a wave and collect data at the same time? Find out how these scientists are transforming ocean research and surfers are using Smartfins to help scientists gather data.
Looking for a new home beyond Earth? Icy moons could be a hot contender.
There's wisdom in crowds, and scientists are applying artificial intelligence and machine learning to better predict global crises and outbreaks.
We go inside NASA's art department, where galaxies, star systems and black holes are visualized.
NASA is using origami to build a giant star blocker, in hopes of imaging distant worlds.
2021
By 2050, two-thirds of the population will be living in cities, so architects are taking inspiration from nature to build more sustainable skylines.
There is an international hunt for something called the ghost particle. This mega-science experiment wants to solve one of the biggest mysteries in science today: what happened after the Big Bang?
This customizable bionic arm turns disabilities into superpowers. A robotics company created the world's first medically certifiable and customizable 3D-printed arm.
Quantum computers are just on the horizon as both tech giants and startups are working to kick-start the next computing revolution.
NASA just sent a robotic probe on a mission to Mars! It'll explore what the interior of the planet is like and how it was formed.
Earth can be a really loud place for those searching for an extraterrestrial signal. So how does SETI sift through all the cosmic noise to hunt for alien signals?
The Insight Garden Program explores if meditation and gardening can break the cycle of prison recidivism.
SpaceX just sent algae to the ISS that could power missions to Mars. The company has taken over refueling missions to the ISS, and they're bringing some exciting new experiments along the way.
This special lab houses an impressive collection of over 60,000 different animal eyes, where disease and morphology are studied in great detail.
Never-before-seen footage uncovers Antarctica's first scientific missions. During the Cold War, Antarctica was primed for conquest, but became an international science laboratory.
2021
A dedicated team of eye doctors are on a mission to rid the world of preventable blindness, one incision at a time.
Astrobiologists study the protocol for first contact as they try to determine how they go about speaking with alien races.
Time may be a human construct, but that hasn't stopped these physicists from perfecting it.
Using photography, one man opens up a hidden world of motion in everything from every day objects to the unique physics happening inside a nuclear bomb.
The MIT Haystack Observatory reveals where the Event Horizon Telescope is at with the world's first photo of a black hole.
Scientists and engineers investigate tons of nuclear waste from a secret military operation hiding underneath Greenland's ice sheet.
In the middle of a billion-dollar telescope-building boom, new ground-based observatories are racing to see first light in the 2020s.
The X3, a new type of propulsion engine that's smashing records, is made possible thanks to a collaboration among NASA, Aerojet Rocketdyne, the Caltech Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of Michigan.
Microscopic bits can hitch a ride on your clothes, find their way into your body and impact your personal health. They're part of your exposome, and everyone has one.
Seaweed is on the menu! This superfood plucked from the ocean is being fed to lucky cows in California to curb their methane production, and the resulting research could save the planet.
Marijuana is causing a buzz over its therapeutic potential, but scientists are still struggling to study it.
From returning to the Moon to establishing outposts on Mars, NASA has the need for more power than ever before. Nuclear fission could just be the solution they've been searching for.
Declassified Vietnam War files show researchers the unpredictable nature of the Sun and help them work towards predicting the next big solar storm.
Two intrepid astronomers embark on a scientific quest to photograph a solar eclipse and turned Albert Einstein into an international celebrity.
An international team of scientists embark on a continent-hopping expedition to build a future climate ice vault before the world's glaciers vanish forever.
2021
NASA invited engineers and architects from around the world to design future habitats for Mars. Here's what they came up with.
In this DNA factory, organism engineers are using robots and automation to build completely new forms of life.
Engineered bioweapons are the new security threat.
The amount of carbon-14 doubled in our atmosphere between 1955 and 1963, a time when nuclear bomb tests were popping off in the desert. Bomb carbon is still everywhere: in our tissues, in the environment, and even in the deepest parts of the ocean.
The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) will measure dark energy's effect on the expansion of the universe. We dive into the mysteries of dark energy, the engineering behind DESI and what it may discover about the force that governs our universe.
At Columbia's Creative Machines Laboratory, Hod Lipson and his students are building consciousness from the ground up. Starting with the most basic definition of what it means to be self-aware, they're building robots that can "imagine themselves."
Since launching in 1977, the Voyager space probes have traveled farther from Earth than any other man-made object. They've observed planets, swept past the Sun, and have left our solar system for a new great beyond for mankind: the interstellar medium.
Moore's Law is the golden rule in computing: the number of transistors on a microchip doubles every two years, while the cost halves. We've hit a physical limit on how small these transistors can get, but a few chipmakers are betting big on something new.
We've been slowly filling out the periodic table since the late 1800s. But as we push the periodic table farther and farther into the unknown, its familiar columns and rows are threatening to crumble under the weight of bizarre superheavy elements.
There's a revolution happening in the field of biology thanks to a wave of new imaging techniques. One of the newly invented microscopes can capture 3D images and videos of cells inside living organisms to a scale never seen before.
Atomic physicists have built a cold-atom laboratory that can probe the strange and curious quantum world up close.
Since 2017, deepfakes have taken the internet by storm, rising to a point where politicians are worried that these altered videos could sway elections and even pose a national security threat.
Since 1997, the record for the world's fastest car has been held by Thrust SSC, which‚ travelling at 763 mph‚ became the very first car to break the sound barrier. Now, 22 years later, the same engineering team is looking to beat their own record.
Long the stuff of science fiction, mining for resources on the Moon is starting to come into focus. We meet a team of engineers who are figuring out how to turn the Moon's billion-year-old water into rocket fuel and breathable oxygen for astronauts.
When it comes to dark matter, it might be time to leave WIMPS behind, as there's a new candidate that's been pulling ahead of its competitors in recent months: axions. Welcome to the new era of dark matter hunting.
