The BEST episodes of Modern Marvels season 12
Every episode of Modern Marvels season 12, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Modern Marvels season 12!
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.
#1 - Desert Tech
Season 12 - Episode 9 - Aired 2/23/2005
It's hot, dry, deadly, and hard to ignore with close to 40% of Earth classified as desert. But in this scorching hour, the desert turns from barren wasteland into an environment rich with hope. In the Middle East, desalination of seawater now fills water needs. Americans have created booming desert communities like Las Vegas, where the Hoover Dam produces hydroelectric power and manmade Lake Mead supplies water. Native Americans farmed the desert on a small scale, but 20th-century technology begot greater opportunity. Once desolate areas of California and Mexico now grow agriculture due to irrigation, and the desert's abundant sunshine allows solar-energy and wind-power production. And in the future, desert technology may enable colonization of planets like Mars. We also take a look at how refrigeration and air conditioning have made life in desert communities tolerable, and examine the latest in survival gear and equipment.
Watch Now:Amazon
#2 - Walt Disney World
Season 12 - Episode 57 - Aired 12/25/2005
It is a magical place, full of animated storybook characters, majestic castles, thrilling rides, and colorful parades. For over thirty-five years, Walt Disney World has been welcoming and entertaining kids of all ages, cultures, and backgrounds. The world-famous Orlando theme park is not only the most visited in the world, it’s also the most technologically advanced. From a network of underground tunnels connecting various regions of the park, to the space-age propulsion technology of linear synchronous motors, the Disney dynasty has been on the leading edge of theme park innovation since the opening of Disneyland, its first park, in 1955. With soaring castles, sleek monorails, and lifelike animatronics, THE HISTORY CHANNEL takes a behind-the-scenes look at the ingenious industry and incredible engineering feats that went into building the renowned 27,000 acre Disney World complex.
#3 - Sub Zero Tech
Season 12 - Episode 10 - Aired 2/23/2005
Come in from the cold while we explore some of Earth's most frigid places and examine how man copes with sub-zero climates. With the advance of technology, our boundaries have expanded--from the North and South Poles, to the depths beneath the Arctic and Antarctic sea ice, to the Moon, Mars, and outward to Saturn. Enter these forbidding territories, guided by a special breed of experts as we inspect the new U.S. South Pole Station, try on the latest Polartec fashions with anti-microbial fibers, ride on the newest snowmobiles and Sno-Cats, sail through glacial waters on ice-breaking ships, and fly on an LC-130 transport plane. And we'll see what NASA has on the planning board for deep-space exploration, including a beach-ball robot explorer, and learn from scientists studying fish in the waters off Antarctica to understand glycoproteins, which may keep frozen tissue healthy longer for transplantation.
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#4 - Deadliest Weapons
Season 12 - Episode 13 - Aired 3/16/2005
In this fiery hour, we profile five of the world's deadliest weapons, focusing on the inventors, battles, and dark technology behind their lethality. Beginning with the deadliest bomb ever created, the Tsar Bomba--a 50-megaton nuclear bomb--we move on to the deadliest weapons ever used on people, the atomic bombs exploded over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. During WWI, the machine gun led to the deaths of over 8-million, and in WWII, the use of incendiary bombs killed hundreds of thousands of people. Another deadly invention of WWII was the proximity fuse, or VT fuse, that allowed artillery to detonate within a predetermined range of an enemy target. Finally, we examine VX nerve gas--a deadly chemical agent used twice by Saddam Hussein with devastating results--and visit Edgewood Chemical BioCenter, where suspicious items in the current war in Iraq are examined for traces of VX.
Watch Now:Amazon#5 - Edison Tech
Season 12 - Episode 29 - Aired 6/28/2005
He was the father of the future...electric lights, power systems, motion pictures, recorded sound--even the tattoo pen. Life as we know it would be inconceivable without the prodigious output of the Wizard of Menlo Park, Thomas Alva Edison. His intense focus on his work came with a hefty personal price, but his reward was a world forever changed by his genius. Years after his death, Edison's effect is seen, heard, and felt everywhere. We follow descendants of his motion-picture camera to the tops of Earth's highest mountains, to the bottoms of its deepest oceans, and even into outer space. We track his innovations in recorded sound to CDs, iPods, sophisticated movie sound, and satellite radio. And we illuminate his world of electric light, powering the world and turning night into day. Along the way, we discover a little Edison in corners of modern life less well-known and even look at his failures. From the Internet to the stock market to pay-per-view; the Wizard is everywhere.
Watch Now:Amazon#6 - The World's Fastest
Season 12 - Episode 38 - Aired 8/24/2005
Perhaps no field has experienced this revolution in velocity more acutely than transportation. We look at five blazingly fast technological marvels that have pushed the speed limits to the very edge, each with its own unique and dramatic history: the world's fastest production car (Sweden's Koenigsegg CCR); the world's fastest train (the Maglev in Shanghai); the world's fastest boat (The Spirit of Australia); the world's fastest roller coaster (the Kingda Ka) and the fastest thing on earth (the Holloman High Speed Test Track), used to test highly sensitive equipment for many branches of the government and commercial clients.
#7 - The B-2 Stealth Bomber
Season 12 - Episode 39 - Aired 8/26/2005
In any battle, the key to victory is the ability to strike the enemy without them knowing what hit them. Within the US arsenal one such weapon can go into harm's way, deliver 40,000 pounds of either conventional or nuclear bombs, and slip away unobserved--the B-2 Stealth Bomber. With its origins in single-wing experimentation in Germany in the 1930s, the B-2 was developed under a cloak of secrecy. But when that cloak was lifted, the world was awed by what stood before them. Able to fly over 6,000 miles without refueling, it can reach whatever target the US military wants to attack and deliver its awesome array of laser-guided weapons with pinpoint accuracy. Using state-of-the-art technology, including over 130 onboard computers, and shrouded by a mantle of stealth, it's undetectable by any radar.
#8 - Wiring America
Season 12 - Episode 41 - Aired 8/31/2005
We begin with electrical linemen perched precariously out a helicopter door, repairing 345,000-volt high-tension power lines. They are part of an army of technicians and scientists we'll ride, climb, and crawl with on this episode. They risk their lives so that we can have the services we take for granted--electric power and 21st century communications. They lay and maintain the wire that connects us one to another, as well as America to the rest of the world. The hardwiring of America is a story that is nearly two centuries old. And though satellites and wireless systems may be challenging the wire, it's not dead. Fiber optic cable, lines that transmit light, became a player in information delivery in the late 1970s. We may be entering a "wireless" age, but the infrastructure of wires laid by visionary scientists and industrialists are still vital to America. Wire technology will be with us, continuing to provide service, well into the next century.
#9 - Engineering Disasters 17
Season 12 - Episode 50 - Aired 11/2/2005
It's another chapter of complex, deadly and controversial engineering failures, using 3-D animation, forensic engineering experts, and footage of the actual disasters to understand what went wrong, and how disaster has led to improvement. In Sun Valley, California, weeks of record rain turn a crack in the middle of a street into a 200-foot long sinkhole. Months later, rain led to the Laguna Beach, California landslide, which destroyed 11 homes and caused millions in damage. On May 23, 2004, four people were killed when the roof of the new Terminal 2E at Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris collapses. Other disasters: the 1931 crash of Fokker F-10 passenger airplane with coach Knute Rockne aboard; the sinking of the coal ship Marine Electric off the coast of Virginia; and the blinding reflection of the new Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.
#10 - Cereal: History in a Bowl
Season 12 - Episode 44 - Aired 9/14/2005
Move over pancakes, step aside bacon! Cereal is arguably the true breakfast king, a $9-billion industry with an indisputable place in pop-culture history. Full of surprise, nostalgia, and fascinating facts, our special celebrates the colorful--and crunchy--saga of a distinctly American breakfast. We see how a Presbyterian minister-turned-health-food-fanatic--Sylvester Graham, of "Graham cracker" fame--turned his countrymen from fried pork breakfasts to grain- and bran-heavy diets in 1824. We reveal the rivalries, tricks, and accidents that turned cereal into a breakfast sensation. And we examine the amazing feats of marketing used to promote the product--from creating iconic characters for packaging, to ingenious prizes that drove consumers to the shelves in droves.
#11 - Cowboy Tech
Season 12 - Episode 32 - Aired 7/20/2005
Today's cowboy plants one boot firmly in the traditions of the Old West and the other in the world of modern technology. Beginning in the 19th century, the era in which the American cattle industry boomed, we examine cowboy technology. Learn how North American cowboys converted saddles, ropes, spurs, and other equipment originally developed by the Spanish, into tools of the trade perfectly suited for the developing cattle industry. And see how the invention of barbed wire revolutionized the cowboy's world. Step into the 21st century with today's cowboys who use computer chips, retinal scans, DNA evidence to round up cattle rustlers, and high-tech digital-imaging devices to aid in shoeing horses...and ride ATVs as often as their horses. In the world of rodeo, witness today's cowboys as they utilize advanced theories of genetics and artificial insemination in an attempt to breed the perfect bucking bull.
#12 - Sugar
Season 12 - Episode 43 - Aired 9/14/2005
The sugar industry came of age on the backs of slaves toiling in Caribbean fields, and British desire to control production of sugar and its byproduct, rum. Sugar also played a surprisingly critical part in America's battle for independence. Tour a sugar plantation on Maui, Hawaii to get an inside look at how cane sugar is produced today and learn how the sugar stalks are put through an extensive process of extraction and purification--and how a ton of harvested cane results in 200 pounds of raw sugar. Learn the technology behind creating the sweetener in all of its permutations, including corn syrup, brown sugar, powdered sugar and cube sugar, and how it's used in candies, soda and sauces as well as more exotic uses such as in pipe tobacco and processed meat.
#13 - Coffee
Season 12 - Episode 42 - Aired 9/14/2005
Traces the origins of this tasty drink from Ethiopia over 1,000 years ago to the espresso-fueled explosion of specialty coffee stores like Starbucks today. Along the way, we'll see how American companies like Hills Brothers, Maxwell House, Folgers and MJB grew to be giants. Discover how billions of coffee beans make their journey from coffee farms and plantations, and are processed in gigantic roasting and packaging plants before showing up in coffee cups all over the world. Details the invention and production of instant coffee, decaffeinated coffee and freeze-dried coffee, and the espresso machine. Also, we explain how coffee made shift work in factories possible, while coffeehouses provided a creative cauldron that brewed political and artistic progress in the 18th and 19th centuries. And, we also provide tips on how to make a better cup at home!
#14 - High Risk: Helicopter Linemen
Season 12 - Episode 40 - Aired 8/31/2005
The remarkable story of the men who maintain and repair live high-voltage power lines--an elite team of pilot and lineman that looks for damage and makes critical repairs without turning the power off! "Barehanding" involves a helicopter flying up to live power lines, stretching a metal wand out to the line and energizing the helicopter and lineman to the full strength of the power line. The lineman, wearing a special metal fiber suit, then works on the wire by sitting on the helicopter skid or climbing onto the bare line. This technique makes the lineman, chopper, and pilot all part of the electrical circuit with 345,000 volts running through both men and machine. For two days, we follow members of the USA Airmobile team in Wisconsin as they risk their lives to inspect and repair critical power lines that were struck by a tornado. And we trace the development of this high-risk work, conceived of in 1979 by Mike Kurtgis, our guide through its electric history.
#15 - Route 66
Season 12 - Episode 31 - Aired 7/6/2005
Route 66, encompassing eight states from Illinois to California and 2,400 miles, represented an American myth--that something better lay over the rainbow. Route 66 began in the early 20th century when a confluence of technologies--automotive, steel construction, and concrete paving--merged with population explosion, westward migration, and prosperity after WWI. The federal government responded with highway bills that converted existing roadways into an interstate called Route 66. Later, WWII highlighted the need for a strategic system similar to Germany's Autobahn--wider, safer, and more advanced. As federal and state governments worked on a superhighway, millions sought "their kicks on Route 66." By 1985, the abandoned roadway no longer "officially" existed, yet, it remains a destination for nostalgic travelers wishing to recapture a simpler, more adventurous era.
#16 - Lube Job
Season 12 - Episode 37 - Aired 8/10/2005
From chariot wheels of ancient Egypt to hard disks in a computer to the wheels on a Mars rover, machinery can't function without lubricants. And in today's technology, there are a mind-boggling number of friction points that must be lubed, and a staggering number of lubricants-- petroleum motor oils that keep car engines from burning up, synthetic greases that stay put in the zero gravity of space, and solid coatings that prevent eggs from sticking to a pan. We'll see how this marvel of chemistry works and how it's used. Peering into the future, we'll behold a power generator that employs air as a lubricant, trains using magnetic levitation, which eliminates any need for lubrication, and bio-engineered vegetable oils that promise to take humanity back to one of its very first lubricants. From helping medieval windmills spin, to allowing robotic arms on planetary rovers to move, lubricants are crucial to the advance of technology and literally keep the wheels of progress turning.
#17 - Dredging
Season 12 - Episode 36 - Aired 8/3/2005
They dig, scoop, suck, and spew an ocean of silt and sediment. Dredgers are the mechanical beasts that fuel the world's economic engine by clearing and deepening ports for mega-container ships. The roots of dredging go back as far as the Egyptians, who used their hands to open channels on the Nile to keep crops watered. The Romans, who used harbor dredging to keep a tight fist on Europe, pioneered the "spoon and bag" dredge to speed up the process. Steam power brought about the first large-scale dredges and helped create the Panama Canal. We'll go aboard two of the largest US dredgers and see how they keep waters moving. And in Holland, we meet the biggest players on the dredging world and witness the launching of the largest dredge ever built. From there, we head to Dubai in the Middle East, where 90 square miles of new islands was dredged from the sea and will now create a pleasure world for the rich and powerful.
#18 - World's Biggest Machines 4
Season 12 - Episode 35 - Aired 8/2/2005
From a giant machine press that stamps out an entire car body to a 125-ton chainsaw that cuts through the world's hardest rock; from a huge telescope that glimpses the ends of the known universe to the world's largest rock crusher. Join us for a workout of the world's largest machines, and take a long look through the lens of the world's biggest optical telescope, the Keck Observatory, atop 13,800-foot Mauna Kea in Hawaii.
#19 - Challenger Tank
Season 12 - Episode 34 - Aired 7/29/2005
When this 60 tons of high-tech military hardware rumbles onto the battlefield at nearly 40 mph, there's nowhere for the enemy to hide. Behind its impenetrable armor lies one of the most effective computerized weapons systems. Its main weapon--an awesome 120mm rifled gun that can take out a football-sized moving target three miles away. Men who serve in this metallic monster claim the hard-hitting warhorse is the world's best battle tank. An underdog during military competitions in the late 1980s, the Challenger proved itself in Operation Desert Storm and was back in action for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Unique archive film, riveting reenactments, extraordinary interviews, and dramatic computer graphics tell the story of this British battlefield heavyweight and the men who have taken it into the heat of battle.
#20 - Sewers
Season 12 - Episode 33 - Aired 7/27/2005
A simple flush and it's forgotten. But haven't you secretly wondered where it all goes when we go? Join us as we explore this less-than-polite topic, and examine the network of underground pipes and tunnels that carries human waste and excess storm water away. From ancient Rome's pristine sewage-conveying systems, through the disease-spreading, out-the-window system of Europe in the Middle Ages, and into the progressive sanitation engineering of the 19th and 20th centuries, we go with the flow of sewage history. And we sift through the flotsam and jetsam of our cities' sewer systems and delve into the sewers of Paris, Boston, and Los Angeles to study waste management's evolution. We meet a sewer diver (and his robotic counterpart) who inspects and ensures the efficient operation of the conduits; decipher the myths about "treasures" and creatures found in the murky depths; and find out exactly where it goes, how it gets there, and how we've learned to use it to our benefit.
#21 - HMS Victory
Season 12 - Episode 23 - Aired 5/26/2005
The HMS Victory would play a crucial role in the foremost naval engagement in 19th century maritime history, the battle of Trafalgar. This victory was so decisive that no fleet challenged Britain's Royal Navy for more than one hundred years. Built with enough wood to cover the Empire State Building one and a half times, propelled by wind and firing solid shots from smooth bored muzzle-loading canons, ships like HMS Victory ruled the waves for over two centuries. Manned by a crew of 850 and capable of firing one and a half tons of iron shot in a single devastating broadside, these eighteenth century floating fortresses were as complex and sophisticated in their day as a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is today. Using color re-enactments and the actual recollections of those who fought on board, this profile goes below the decks of the famous warship.
#22 - German Small Arms of WWII
Season 12 - Episode 46 - Aired 9/24/2005
An evaluation of the evolution of German "small arms" from the end of WWI, when the defeated nation was denied the right to rearm by the Treaty of Versailles, to the end of WWII, after Hitler had again supplied the country with the means to wage war. See how Lugers, P-38s, and Mausers wrote an agonizing chapter in the gun's history.
#23 - The Auto Parts Store
Season 12 - Episode 47 - Aired 10/5/2005
Need a car part or an accessory to give it personality? Since 1903, when Sears dedicated a portion of its catalog, the automotive after-market grew into a billion-dollar juggernaut. We visit Auto Zone, the retail leader, whose largest store carries 25,000 parts. At SO-CAL Speed Shop, a sedan is transformed into a hot rod. Achieving $100-billion in annual sales didn't happen overnight, but largely on the shoulders of three entrepreneurs--cartoon characters Manny, Moe, and Jack, who were real people. In 1921, they opened their first store in Philadelphia--Pep Auto Supplies. By developing brand names, carrying key parts, and providing hands-on service, they set the standard. Finally, we look at odd products sold by auto stores, discover how Armor All transforms dull interiors into brand-new, and how a tire sealant named Slime may replace the spare tire.
#24 - Secret Allied Aircraft of WWII
Season 12 - Episode 48 - Aired 10/14/2005
At WWII's outset, US and UK military aircraft designs were woefully behind Germany's and Japan's technologically superior planes. But the genius and ingenuity of innovators on both sides of the Atlantic closed the gap. For America, it was a handful of visionaries and their teams; for Great Britain, a creative and thoughtful spirit emanated from the top leadership on down. In this hour, we recount the untold stories of their cutting-edge designs and solutions, some of which proved decades ahead of their time.
#25 - Brewing
Season 12 - Episode 51 - Aired 11/16/2005
It's one of the world's oldest and most beloved beverages, revered by Pharaohs and brewed by America's Founding Fathers. Today, brewing the bitter elixir is a multi-billion-dollar global industry.