The BEST episodes of Modern Marvels

Every episode of Modern Marvels ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Modern Marvels!

Celebrating ingenuity, invention and imagination brought to life on a grand scale, MODERN MARVELS tells the fascinating stories of the doers, dreamers and sometime-schemers who created everyday items, technological breakthroughs and man-made wonders.

Last Updated: 5/19/2023Network:History
Share:
Carbon
star
9.00
4 votes

#1 - Carbon

Season 15 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/14/2008

Carbon is the chemical basis of all known life and yet this simple element is also the foundation of modern technology. Carbon burns hotter, cuts deeper, insulates more thoroughly and absorbs more fully than any other material. See why carbon is the key both in heavy-duty industries, as well as in tools like the graphite pencil, the charcoal water filter, and the diamond saw blade.

Watch Now:Amazon
Rocks
star
8.67
3 votes

#2 - Rocks

Season 14 - Episode 41 - Aired 12/3/2007

From the Stone Age, to the Space Age, we've built our world from rocks. With moon rocks located at NASA's Johnson Space Center.

Watch Now:Amazon
World's Strongest (3)
star
8.60
5 votes

#3 - World's Strongest (3)

Season 15 - Episode 5 - Aired 3/6/2008

Witness some mind-blowing feats of strength starting with the world's most powerful elevators. Discover the world's strongest tire, the strongest mountain bike, the world's strongest land transport vehicle that carries the Space Shuttle & strongest home blender.

Watch Now:Amazon
Tower Bridge
star
8.50
4 votes

#4 - Tower Bridge

Season 7 - Episode 13 - Aired 5/25/2000

A look at London's Tower Bridge, a fine example of Victorian engineering and architecture that has attracted tourists since its inauguration on June 30, 1894, by Edward, the Prince of Wales.

Watch Now:Amazon
Oakland Bay Bridge
star
8.50
4 votes

#5 - Oakland Bay Bridge

Season 6 - Episode 27 - Aired 7/20/1999

The great bridge of San Francisco, not the Golden Gate, this one: The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Over 500 feet above the water, more than 8 miles long. One of the Seven Engineering Wonders of the modern world.

Winter Tech
star
8.50
4 votes

#6 - Winter Tech

Season 16 - Episode 5 - Aired 2/11/2010

From building cutting-edge competition venues to the latest sports science training, winter sports use more technology than ever. This episode takes you behind the scenes of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter games. Olympic organizers race against the clock to build venues, expand transportation and security, and add futuristic touches to the ultimate Olympic icon--the Olympic torch. Meanwhile, US Olympic hopefuls use high-tech training tools to gain a competitive edge. Take in breathtaking views from the world's highest unsupported gondola and rocket down a bobsled track at 80 miles per hour, as we show you winter sports like you've never seen them before.

Watch Now:Amazon
Steam
star
8.50
4 votes

#7 - Steam

Season 16 - Episode 16 - Aired 5/27/2010

It's full steam ahead when we drop in at Jay Leno's garage as Jay fires up two of his classic steam cars and takes viewers for a couple of rides. Jay also shows off his 11-ton steam engine built in 1860, back when pigs had to be slaughtered to keep it lubricated. In northern Nevada, fire up a coal burning boiler and get a 100-year-old steam locomotive chugging across the rugged landscape. In New Orleans, board an authentic paddlewheel steamboat. Trek to the Southern California desert where geothermal steam rushes up from the ground and drives electricity producing turbines, powering over 300,000 homes. In New York City, find out why manmade steam surges into some of the world's most famous skyscrapers. Steam clean some very dirty machines, and do a little laundry, too. And ride a steam-driven carousel and play with some strange, steam-powered robots that are part of a movement called--what else--"steampunk."

Watch Now:Amazon
Power Plants
star
8.33
3 votes

#8 - Power Plants

Season 7 - Episode 38 - Aired 12/5/2000

Mankind controls the environment in a variety of ways, whether by capturing the force of a river, harnessing the power in coal or oil, controlling a nuclear reaction, or transforming the light of the sun into electricity. From Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla to Enrico Fermi and Albert Einstein, the world's greatest minds have enabled us to acquire our light, heat, and power with a simple flip of the switch. Join us for an electrifying hour as we review the foundation for all of this--power plants.

Writer: Sean Dash
Watch Now:Amazon
Tennessee Valley Authority
star
8.33
6 votes

#9 - Tennessee Valley Authority

Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 9/2/1996

During the depths of the Great Depression, it was FDR's greatest triumph: A massive public works project that took a 40,000 square mile, disaster-prone river basin, and turned it into a model of industrial progress.

Eiffel Tower
star
8.33
6 votes

#10 - Eiffel Tower

Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/22/1995

This episode of Modern Marvels provides an historical tour of Paris's Eiffel Tower. Completed in 1889, the Eiffel Tower remains a symbolic icon of France's history and the industrial age. Modern Marvels takes you on a tour of this world famous monument from its inception to the present day.

Watch Now:Amazon
Emergency Room
star
8.33
3 votes

#11 - Emergency Room

Season 6 - Episode 35 - Aired 10/25/1999

Emergency room medicine has only been a recognized specialty since 1989, and it took close to two millennia to get to this point. Advancements that led to the modern emergency rooms are highlighted as well as emergency/trauma medicine.

Watch Now:Amazon
Inventions of War
star
8.25
4 votes

#12 - Inventions of War

Season 7 - Episode 39 - Aired 12/12/2000

Arising from the horrible carnage, deprivation, and suffering caused by war is a countless array of everyday items--from hairbrushes to microwaves--that directly descend from wartime innovations. Wartime research and development have revolutionized communication, transportation, and medicine. From Spam to nuclear power to hairspray and cell phones, life as we know it ironically owes a lot to war. We'll follow the day-to-day life of an ordinary woman and see the influence of war on her life.

Watch Now:Amazon
Mad Electricity
star
8.17
6 votes

#13 - Mad Electricity

Season 15 - Episode 13 - Aired 5/14/2008

Nikola Tesla's bizarre vision of the future brought him failure, but his genius electrified the world.

Watch Now:Amazon
Locomotives Plus
star
8.17
6 votes

#14 - Locomotives Plus

Season 23 - Episode 8 - Aired 7/18/2022

All aboard! Modern Marvels takes a ride on the fastest and most powerful locomotives from around the globe. From France’s 300 MPH speed train to future trains that glide on cushions of air to mining locomotives that traverse tunnels 700 feet underground, we’ll catch a ride on the little-and big-engines that can.

Watch Now:Amazon
Tech Treasures
star
8.11
9 votes

#15 - Tech Treasures

Season 23 - Episode 11 - Aired 8/1/2022

Better be kind and rewind because we're diving into some blasts from technology's past! From unwieldy television sets and vintage record-making to evolving Mustang motors, join Modern Marvels as we rediscover some of the most beloved retro devices that built the tech-driven world we live in today.

Watch Now:Amazon
The Future of Food
star
8.08
12 votes

#16 - The Future of Food

Season 20 - Episode 6 - Aired 3/28/2021

Adam Richman travels through time to uncover: the Future of Food! With special security clearance to a U.S. Army lab we get a glimpse into the cutting-edge food research that's taking a quantum leap into the future. At Impossible Foods, we make a delicious discovery and learn why it's not impossible for plants to look, taste and even bleed like meat. Plus, science fiction becomes fact when we see food grilled and served by robots, food made to last for years, and food made to be eaten in Earth's upper atmosphere. The future of food is here and it's tasty!

Watch Now:Amazon
Ocean Liners
star
8.00
2 votes

#17 - Ocean Liners

Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 12/16/1994

Luxurious ocean liners rival world-class land resorts.

Watch Now:Amazon
Engineering Disasters of the 70's
star
8.00
4 votes

#18 - Engineering Disasters of the 70's

Season 14 - Episode 19 - Aired 5/30/2007

To error is human, but when it results in the loss of life, it's a disaster. Learn about the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, the Buffalo Creek Dam disaster, and the explosion of a tanker in Los Angeles harbor.

Watch Now:Amazon
Extreme Aircraft (2)
star
8.00
3 votes

#19 - Extreme Aircraft (2)

Season 14 - Episode 33 - Aired 9/20/2007

Take a supersonic flight through a world of flying machines that are redefining our skies. Pull serious G’s in the U.S. military’s latest fighter jet: the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Riding shotgun in the lethal B-1B Lancer, and look close or you’ll miss the swarm of MAV’s (Micro Air Vehicles)–so small they are launched out of a backpack. The “vertical takeoff and landing” capable PAV’s (Personal Aerial Vehicles) may be the answer to the commuting needs of tired travelers. Then, discover how a commercial jetliner has been retrofitted into the biggest flying fire truck the world has ever seen.

Watch Now:Amazon
Traps
star
8.00
3 votes

#20 - Traps

Season 14 - Episode 30 - Aired 8/27/2007

They're designed to capture and often kill, but they don't always harm their prey. Traps are devices as old as humanity itself. We'll trap 400 punds Black Bears with West Virginia Division of Natural Resources biologists.

Watch Now:Amazon
Mold & Fungus
star
8.00
3 votes

#21 - Mold & Fungus

Season 15 - Episode 29 - Aired 9/18/2008

Learn about fungal organisms that live within our bodies, grow beneath our feet, float in the air and help create some of the foods and beverages we consume.

Watch Now:Amazon
Weird Machines
star
8.00
6 votes

#22 - Weird Machines

Season 18 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/28/2011

It has been said that necessity is the mother of all invention--but that is not always the case. Some strange machines are built for sheer spectacle, some a glimpse into the future or even the past, while others are just plain...Weird.

Watch Now:AmazoniTunes
Television: Window to the World
star
8.00
4 votes

#23 - Television: Window to the World

Season 4 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/20/1996

At the 1939 World's Fair, NBC announced the arrival of scheduled, broadcast television, a development the public was initially slow to accept. But in the following years, TV revolutionized entertainment and modern culture. This program charts the history of the small screen, from the early pioneers in the field to today's technological advances. Interviews with media figures offer an insider's insight into the industry that changed the world.

Watch Now:Amazon
Creation of the Computer
star
8.00
4 votes

#24 - Creation of the Computer

Season 4 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/24/1996

They are the machines at the center of the information age. They have revolutionized our lives and our world, making previously unthinkable tasks automatic and linking people together around the planet. Join MODERN MARVELS® for a fascinating look at the history of the computer. See Charles Babbage's Victorian "counting machine," a mechanical computer that produced perfect results for any mathematical problem of six figures or less. Discover how IBM was launched with a punch-card counting machine built to speed the 1890 census. Trace the technological advancements that led to the first true modern "computers" and the rapid progress that saw computers shrink from room-sized monsters to the desktop units that are revolutionizing life in the '90s.

Watch Now:iTunes
Milk
star
8.00
2 votes

#25 - Milk

Season 15 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/7/2008

Got milk? Billions of pounds of milk are consumed worldwide on a daily basis. Milk is the basis for its own food group, and has been around since the dawn of mammals. Visit a farm with a milking parlor that looks more like a cow merry-go-round. Learn what pasteurization is really all about, and even milk a yak. Find out what those active cultures in yogurt are and discover if milk truly makes the body good. Wait until you discover just how many types of cows there truly are.

Watch Now:Amazon

Want to see the rest of the rankings?

Episode Ninja is a small business run by one person.
Pro memberships help fund servers and new feature development!