The BEST episodes of NOVA season 12
Every episode of NOVA season 12, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of NOVA season 12!
Helps viewers of all ages explore the science behind the headlines.
#1 - Global Village
Season 12 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/22/1985
NOVA presents an in-depth look at India's attempt to use satellite technology to leapfrog into the era of space-age communication and whether it brings benefit or blight to India's villages and rural areas.
#2 - The Garden of Inheritance
Season 12 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/8/1985
In this docudrama presentation, NOVA looks at the life, times and work of Gregor Mendel, the 19th cenutry Augustinian friar whose revolutionary scientific experiments in selective breeding have made him the "Father of Genetics."
#3 - Animal Architects
Season 12 - Episode 20 - Aired 12/3/1985
NOVA examines the intricate world of nature's construction industry and presents rare footage of unusual habits.
#4 - The Genetic Gamble
Season 12 - Episode 19 - Aired 11/26/1985
NOVA examines current research and its ethical implications as modern medicine confronts the era of human gene therapy.
#5 - Tornado!
Season 12 - Episode 18 - Aired 11/19/1985
NOVA follows a chase team—a group of scientists who chart deadly tornadoes—in an effort to learn more about predicting nature's most powerful and elusive weather phenomenon.
#6 - Child Survival: The Silent Emergency
Season 12 - Episode 17 - Aired 11/12/1985
NOVA charts the progress of an ambitious worldwide health program established to save the lives of millions of children who continue to die from common but curable diseases.
#7 - The Magic of Special Effects
Season 12 - Episode 16 - Aired 11/5/1985
NOVA cameras go behind-the-scenes to reveal the new art of illusion, Hollywood-style, focusing on three blockbuster films—"Return of the Jedi," "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and "2010: The Year We Made Contact."
#8 - The Robot Revolution?
Season 12 - Episode 15 - Aired 10/29/1985
How are the computer and the robot affecting the way we work? NOVA chronicles the new industrial revolution reshaping the American workplace.
#9 - What Einstein Never Knew
Season 12 - Episode 14 - Aired 10/22/1985
Albert Einstein did not live to find the answer. NOVA follows a new generation of physicists in their search to explain the mystery of the universe.
#10 - Seeds of Tomorrow
Season 12 - Episode 13 - Aired 10/15/1985
NOVA examines worldwide efforts of scientists who employ aggressive agricultual technologies to ensure food for the future.
#11 - The National Science Test II
Season 12 - Episode 12 - Aired 10/8/1985
In NOVA's special sequel to1984's National Science Test, viewers can match wits with celebrity panelists David Attenborough, Michelle Johnson, Edwin Newman and Alvin Poussaint and a live studio audience. Art Fleming hosts.
#12 - Monarch of the Mountains
Season 12 - Episode 11 - Aired 3/19/1985
NOVA explores the breeding, migration and survival patterns of the Rocky Mountain elk in a unique film, made totally under natural conditions. Telephoto lenses were used so as not to disturb the animals; filmmakers spent 18 months tracking the elk through the breathtaking Wyoming Rockies.
#13 - Child's Play: Prodigies and Possibilities
Season 12 - Episode 10 - Aired 3/12/1985
What do Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the painter Raphael and chess champion Bobby Fischer have in common? They were all child prodigies. NOVA explores the current efforts to learn more about the nature of giftedness.
#14 - The Mathematical Mystery Tour
Season 12 - Episode 9 - Aired 3/5/1985
Imagine a bottle with no inside or a number bigger than infinity or parallel lines that meet. Welcome to the world of pure mathematics. NOVA offers a look into a wholly abstract, quirky world of mathematics.
#15 - Baby Talk
Season 12 - Episode 8 - Aired 2/26/1985
It's a mystery just how children acquire language. Does the process begin in the womb? And which comes first, language or thought? NOVA explores the fascinating world of baby talk and reveals the latest theories on this remarkable achievement.
#16 - The Shape of Things
Season 12 - Episode 7 - Aired 2/19/1985
Sea shells, crystals, honeycombs, eggs and seeds: They are shaped the way they are for a reason. NOVA takes viewers on a unique journey of discovery to find out why things are shaped the way they are and why they work so well.
#17 - AIDS: Chapter One
Season 12 - Episode 6 - Aired 2/12/1985
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, or AIDS, is a deadly disease that has struck down some 2,000 people in the four years since its discovery. NOVA examines how modern science has been unraveling the mystery of this baffling ailment.
#18 - In the Land of the Polar Bears
Season 12 - Episode 5 - Aired 2/5/1985
A rare look at the beautiful and desolate Wrangel Island-a Soviet possession 300 miles off the coast of Alaska-as seen through the eyes of Soviet Filmmaker and naturalist Yuri Ledin. Wrangel Island is not only the home to Siberian snow geese, polar foxes and walruses, but serves as the world's largest denning area for polar bears.
#19 - Conquest of the Parasites
Season 12 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/29/1985
NOVA examines the complex world of parasites, parasitic diseases and the exciting work currently being done by a new breed of medical researchers as they meet the challenge of conquering the world's number one medical problem.
#20 - Edgerton and His Incredible Seeing Machines
Season 12 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/15/1985
NOVA explores the fascinating world of Dr. Harold Edgerton, electronics wizard and inventor extraordinaire, whose invention of the electronic strobe, a "magic lamp," has enabled the human eye to see the unseen.
#21 - The Plane that Changed the World
Season 12 - Episode 21 - Aired 12/17/1985
NOVA joins the 50th anniversary celebration of the DC-3—the plane that revolutionized commercial air travel, served gallantly in World War II and is called the most important plane ever built.