January - December 2000
Tales from the Hive
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NOVA chronicles a year in the life of a bee colony with stunning images that take viewers
inside the innermost secrets of the hive. The documentary team spent a year developing
special macro lenses and a bee studio to deliver the film's astonishing sequences.
These include the "wedding flight" of the colony's virgin queen as it mates in
mid-air with a drone; the life-and-death battle between two rival queens for
the colony's throne; and the defeat and death of a thieving wasp at the entrance
to the hive. The show also explores such mysteries as the famous "waggle dance"
with which scout bees signal the exact direction and distance of nectar sources
to the rest of the hive. A vivid picture emerges of the bee's highly organized
social life, revolving around the disciplined sharing of construction tasks, the
collection of nectar, and warding off enemies. "Tales From the Hive" pushes the
boundaries of wildlife filmmaking and opens up an unforgettable window on a
strange and complex insect world.
Original broadcast date: 01/04/2000
Topic: animal biology/behavior
Lost on Everest
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On June 8, 1924, near the summit of the highest peak on earth, British climber
George Leigh Mallory vanished into the clouds and instantly became a legendary
figure. Did Mallory and his companion Andrew Irvine actually make it to the
top of Everest 29 years before Hillary and Tensing? Could they possibly have
survived the ferocious conditions of the summit, clad only in layers of cotton
and tweed and wearing hob-nailed boots? For over half a century, climbing
aficionados could only speculate. Then, in May 1999, a NOVA expedition located
Mallory's body on a rock-strewn precipice, creating an international news
sensation. What light does the new discovery throw on mountaineering's most
haunting mystery? NOVA presents the exclusive footage of the final of
Mallory's body and the new clues to his final hours on the world's most
forbidding mountain.
Original broadcast date: 01/18/2000
Topic: archeology
Secrets of Lost Empires: Medieval Siege
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Our image of warfare in the Middle Ages is of bold knights, gleaming armor, and
the clash of steel. In reality, battles were the exception and long drawn-out,
withering sieges were the rule. The only sure route to conquest was to starve
the defenders of a castle into submission - until the advent of the trebuchet.
The trebuchet was a fearsome, gravity-powered catapult that flung stone missiles
with great speed, accuracy and destructive power. It was the first large-scale
mechanized weapon, and it transformed warfare 300 years before the age of
gunpowder. If ammunition ran low, trebuchets could serve as instruments of
terror. Among the projectiles mentioned in medieval chronicles are wagonloads
of manure, hives of angry bees, spurned ambassadors, plague-infected corpses
and an early form of napalm known as Greek Fire. All these were hurled at high
speed over castle walls at the luckless defenders.
Despite its central role in siege warfare, most aspects of trebuchet design and
operation remain a mystery. Were these crude contraptions of a type that any
mischievous adolescent might concoct? Or did the need for high-power, precise
artillery give birth to a genuine science of trebuchet design?
NOVA set two teams of timber framers, engineers, and historians the challenge of
building precise replicas of this ultimate thirteenth century deterrent. Armed
only with traditional tools, the teams began work in a swampy field beside Loch
Ness in northern Scotland, beset by constant drizzle. Finally, the moment of
truth arrived as the giant wooden catapults stood poised to fling 250 pound
stones high into the air. In thrilling footage of these risky firing
experiments, NOVA recaptures all the suspense, violence, and ingenuity that
characterized the medieval siege.
Original broadcast date: 02/01/2000
Topic: anthropology/ancient, archeology, technology/engineering
Diamond Deception
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Today science is closing in on an impossible dream: the ability to manufacture
gem-quality diamonds in a few days, instead of the billions of years required
by nature. These synthetic diamonds are such good copies of the real thing that
they not only have the identical atomic structure but can even replicate their
flaws. Even the most sophisticated machines can scarcely distinguish the
difference. More important, these diamonds can be made and sold at a handsome
profit.
In "Diamond Deception," NOVA dramatizes the breakneck battle in the 1950s
as a team at General Electric beat its rivals to synthesize the first
industrial diamonds. Then the show explores today's race to produce the first
artificial gem-quality stones. Surprisingly, crucial breakthroughs have been
made with primitive-looking equipment in makeshift labs in Russia and China.
These unlikely pioneers are now closing in on their goal of producing bigger
stones with fewer flaws and perfect coloration. Their efforts threaten the
centuries-old monopoly of De Beers and may transform the marketing of the
world's most desirable gem.
Original broadcast date: 02/01/2000
Topic: geology, technology/engineering
Secrets of Lost Empires: Pharaoh's Obelisk
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For over 3,000 years, slender, giant needles of granite have towered over the
ruins of Egypt's temples. Kings, popes and presidents have gone to
extraordinary lengths to fetch these monoliths from Egypt. "Cleopatra's Needle"
required 15 months to complete its journey to New York's Central Park in 1881.
Moving the mighty stone shaft proved an enormous challenge to engineers
equipped with capstans, steel towers, hydraulic jacks, and steam engines. How,
then, were ancient Egyptians able to erect obelisks with only ropes and sand,
sticks and stones, levers and inclined planes?
In 1994, a NOVA team successfully reproduced many of the original techniques
involved in quarrying and transporting these massive monoliths. However, the
final riddle of how to erect a replica 40-ton stone defied the expertise of our
team. The first NOVA obelisk lies abandoned today in an Egyptian quarry at a
40-degree angle.
Now NOVA returns to Egypt take on this ultimate engineering challenge of the
ancient world. The stars of THIS OLD PYRAMID and the first obelisk show,
Egyptologist Mark Lehner and stone mason Roger Hopkins, tackle the problem with
a fresh approach. They explore the wood and rope boat technology that was
incorporated in such amazing vessels as the intricately fitted Khufu boat, over
100 feet long, discovered almost intact in a pit beside the Great Pyramid. The
boats inspire our team to design an ingenious apparatus for pivoting a new
40-ton replica obelisk into position. Hopes are raised until, yet again, an
unexpected disaster looms....
This time, Lehner, Hopkins, and the rest of the team will ultimately prevail
over the 40-ton monster. But it will take a twist worthy of Agatha Christie to
deliver the final solution of this daunting challenge from the past.
Original broadcast date: 02/08/2000
Topic: anthropology/ancient, archeology, technology/engineering
Trillion Dollar Bet
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In 1973, three brilliant economists, Fischer Black, Myron Scholes, and Robert Merton,
discovered a mathematical Holy Grail that revolutionized modern finance. The
elegant formula they unleashed upon the world was sparse and deceptively simple,
yet it led to the creation of a multi-trillion dollar industry. Their bold ideas
earned Scholes and Merton a Nobel Prize (Black died before the prize was awarded)
and attracted the elite of Wall Street.
In 1993, Scholes and Merton joined forces with John Meriweather, the legendary bond
trader of Salomon Brothers. With 13 other partners, they launched a new hedge fund,
Long Term Capital Management, which promised to use mathematical models to make investors
tremendous amounts of money. Their money machines reaped fantastic profits, until
their theories collided with reality, and sent the company spiraling out of control.
The crisis threatened to bring markets around the world to the brink of collapse.
Join NOVA in the quest to turn finance into a science. Plus, trace the little-known
history of predicting financial markets and go to work with some successful modern
traders who rely on intuition as well as mathematical models.
Original broadcast date: 02/08/2000
Topic: mathematics, social sciences/miscellaneous
Secrets of Lost Empires: Easter Island
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The giant statues of Easter Island are one of archaeology's greatest enigmas.
Nearly 1,000 of the massive, haunting human sculptures rise from the windswept
grasslands of this tiny volcanic island, almost 1500 miles from the nearest
inhabited land. How and why did the ancient islanders transport the statues -
some weighing 80 tons - across miles of rugged terrain and then erect them on
ceremonial platforms?
Countless ingenious theories have been proposed. Thor Heyerdahl, the famous
Norwegian explorer, attempted to "walk" a statue along by rocking it from side
to side in an upright position. Geologist Charles Love fastened a replica to a
wooden sledge and tried pulling it on rollers. But neither met with much
success: Love's statue came crashing to the ground while Heyerdahl's broke in
transit.
The failure of these experiments inspired Jo Anne Van Tilburg, a leading
authority on Easter Island, to seek her own solution to the riddle. Drawing on
her painstaking inventory of the statues, she built a computer model of Easter
Island's terrain, created a digital statue, and experimented with different
transportation and erection techniques in cyberspace. This led her to a
solution that seemed flawless. But would it work outside the computer?
To test her theory, NOVA casts a 15-ton concrete replica of a typical Easter
Island statue. With the help of 70 Easter Islanders, the statue is then hauled
across over a mile of the ancestral terrain, and the challenge of erecting it
begins. What seemed so straightforward in the computer now reveals hidden
complications that plunge the team into rival theories and disagreement. As
the mystery of the builders' methods deepens, NOVA explores the profounder
challenges that Easter Island has always posed: Who were the ancient islanders?
Where did they come from? And what went wrong with their unique and exotic
civilization?
Original broadcast date: 02/15/2000
Topic: anthropology/ancient, archeology, technology/engineering
Mystery of the First Americans
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In 1996, near Kennewick, Washington, a suspected murder victim is identified by forensic
anthropologists as Caucasian - but turns out to be almost 10,000 years old. For fifty years our
picture of prehistoric America has rested on the premise that the earliest inhabitants of the
Americas were east Asians of mongoloid stock, the ancestors of today's Native Americans.
But the discovery of the Kennewick Man, along with several other startling finds in recent years,
has thrown that once widely accepted idea into question and revolutionized the science of
paleo-anthropology. It has also embroiled scientists in a bitter conflict with Native American
groups who want the scientific study of early Americans halted. Who and what do Kennewick Man and
others represent? NOVA is following the efforts of paleo-anthropologists work to decode the
story in the bones of people who died 10,000 years ago.
Original broadcast date: 02/15/2000
Topic: anthropology/ancient, medicine/forensic
Secrets of Lost Empires: Roman Bath
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Two thousand years ago, the Roman Empire was the most powerful civilization on
Earth, stretching from North Africa and Asia Minor across Europe to the British
Isles. The Romans unified these diverse lands by military might, their unique
culture and language, and, not least, their mastery of engineering.
Many of Rome's engineering secrets originated in one of its most important
institutions: the Roman bath. A vital focus for leisure and social
interaction, the public bathhouse incorporated intricate systems for plumbing
and heating, sophisticated vaulted ceilings, and a revolutionary new building
material we now call concrete. These buildings represented a new concept of
luxury and sophistication in an age more often marked by violence and squalor.
Indeed, the bathhouse was one of Rome's most effective tools for converting its
conquered subjects to the Roman way of life. Supported by generous state
subsidies, the bath functioned as pleasure palace, public health facility and
community center in every town under Roman rule.
Surprisingly, despite the cultural and architectural importance of the Roman
bath, many of its workings are still poorly understood. Just what recipe of
sand, lime, water and rubble did the Roman builders use to make their
watertight concrete? How did they design and cast the domes and vaults that
resulted in such graceful, airy interior spaces? And how did they create the
ingenious plumbing and heating that accounted for the baths' legendary
comfort?
Perhaps the most intriguing feature is the hypocaust, or underfloor heating
system. One of the Roman engineers' most revolutionary advances, it made
possible a clean, dry, efficient form of heating without the problems of smoke
and gas by-products. How were the Romans able to eliminate indoor pollution and
achieve such fine temperature control?
In Sardis, Turkey, NOVA sets out to recreate a working Roman bath, complete with
hot tubs, cold plunges, and underfloor heating, all designed with a meticulous
eye for authenticity. As well as academic experts, the team will rely on local
Turkish artisans proficient in the ancient techniques of terra cotta tilemaking
and metal working—skills still in demand in Turkey because of the country's
continuing tradition of community bathing. As with any complex building
project, the team encounters glitches and tempers fray. But the builders have
a unique reward for their labors: a finished building that enables them to
experience at first-hand the vanished sensual pleasures of ancient Rome.
Original broadcast date: 02/22/2000
Topic: anthropology/ancient, archeology, technology/engineering
Lost Tribes of Israel
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At the heart of Jewish tradition lies the haunting mystery of the Lost Tribes of
Israel. Ever since their defeat and banishment by the Assyrians in 722 BC., the
Lost Tribes fate has inspired countless claims to Jewish ancestry by groups
scattered on every continent. But now, surprisingly, new advances in genetics
are dispelling myth and fantasy, and raising a curtain on the forgotten reality
of the dispersal that happened so many centuries ago. This story will follow
the first attempt to use the new tests to investigate a seemingly improbable
African candidate for a Lost Tribe. It will dramatize a scientific quest that
leads from the gene labs of London to the remote bush country of Zimbabwe and
the lunar-like desert wilderness of southern Yemen.
Original broadcast date: 02/22/2000
Topic: human biology/behavior, anthropology/ancient
Secrets of Lost Empires: China Bridge
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Countless items that we take for granted in modern life originated in ancient
China, from paper—printing, and silk to gunpowder, kites, mechanized oil
wells and sophisticated medical surgery. Nowhere did the Chinese exhibit more
skill and ingenuity than in the creation of tens of thousands of bridges that
were vital in unifying their diverse land. Two thousand years ago, their
architects developed iron suspension bridges and daring arch designs that had
no rivals in the west until the coming of the industrial age. Whether spanning
a yawning gorge or crossing a placid canal, they were masters at integrating
function and aesthetics in their bridge construction.
In China Bridge, NOVA explores the unexpected wealth of China's bridge
heritage. The show's experiments will focus on an ancient design that baffles
engineers and scholars—the Rainbow Bridge. Its blueprint derives from a
renowned 12th century Chinese scroll painting that depicts life in the Song
Dynasty capital of Kaifeng around 1000 A.D. It is a panorama that teems with
more than a thousand tiny figures bustling about their daily life and involved
in weddings, funerals, and war games. At the center of all this activity is
the Rainbow Bridge. Lined with shops on both sides, the bridge is an avenue
for food hawkers, fortunetellers and street peddlers.
One Song Dynasty historian wrote, "the bridge has no piers, but giant timbers
spanning the void, decorated with red paint and curved like a rainbow." The
design is neither an arch nor a beam, but rather a delicate hybrid of the two;
a series of interlocking horizontal and cantilever beams form a graceful arc.
It was a style never attempted in the Western world.
How could such a daring and intricate structure have been assembled above a
river? Retired engineer Tang Huan Cheng says he knows the answers. He has
carefully studied the Rainbow Bridge for nearly fifty years; now NOVA helps him
fulfill his long-cherished dream of reconstructing it. Starting from scratch,
Professor Tang is joined by a team of experts who devise a plan for the bridge
based on scant historical information and a close analysis of the painting.
Working in a lively village in the picturesque Yellow Mountains of central
China's Anhui Province, the two teams work from opposing banks, each with a
different set of challenges. Their final act is to join the middle section of
the bridge together, above the turbulent water. This drama forms the climax of
one of NOVA's most evocative shows, which will open a window on the vanished
wonders of ancient China.
Original broadcast date: 02/29/2000
Topic: anthropology/ancient, archeology, technology/engineering
What's Up with the Weather?
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Does the release of greenhouse gases threaten the future of human life on our
planet? According to many politicians and scientists, the answer is yes; we
are already experiencing the first portents of a potential global catastrophe.
But is the evidence really so clear? And does it demand drastic changes in the
lifestyle of developed countries and in the way their industries operate?
The Clinton administration is one of the strongest advocates of a treaty—the
Kyoto Protocol—that would radically alter the way we produce and use energy.
The social and financial consequences are potentially enormous, enough to
transform the economic landscape of the 21st century. But will the proposed
measures work? Can we hope to put a brake on the accelerating amounts of
greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, that are escaping into the
atmosphere?
In this special two-hour program, WGBH's flagship series' FRONTLINE and NOVA
take on one of the most complex and important challenges facing the world
today. With searching analysis and probing interviews, this program will
explain the science, investigate what is known and unknown, and dissect the
acrimonious policy debate. It will take viewers on a dramatic journey—from
the Greenland ice cap where scientists can read 10,000 years of climate
history, to the equatorial Maldives Islands threatened by rising sea levels;
from the corridors of power in Washington to the rapidly growing industrial
cities of China and India—a journey to find out how the Earth's climate
system works and what the future may hold in store.
Original broadcast date: 04/18/2000
Topic: environment/ecology
Stationed in the Stars
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On December 2nd 1998, the space shuttle Endeavour blasted off from Cape Kennedy
carrying the first stage of the world's most ambitious and expensive
engineering venture of all time. If all goes as planned, by 2004 the US and
its 14 international partners will have launched 460 tons of hardware into
orbit 220 miles above earth. These components will be assembled in a space
station as big as two football fields and weighing a million pounds. The
station will offer at least eight interior spaces for living, storage, or lab
research. Its solar panels - among the largest structures ever placed in orbit
- will generate 45 kilowatts of power. The bill will come to at least $50
billion.
The International Space Station got off to a shaky start in the early 1980s,
when its design was constantly at the whim of fluctuating budgets and
successive NASA engineers. In the era of glasnost, the project got a new lease
of life when it was perceived as an effective way of reaching out to the
beleaguered Russian space agency. Fraught with funding issues and political
tensions, the collaboration highlighted the different styles of its engineers.
NASA engineers tend to think on a big—sometimes too ambitious—scale,
while the Russians have concentrated on low-cost, improvised solutions to such
problems as long-term life support for the astronauts on board.
NOVA's profile of the ISS will focus on a crucial turning point in the project
as the Russians finally deliver the vital Service Module, which they've been
constructing for almost 15 years. NOVA will take viewers inside the excitement
and risks of the shuttle mission that will place this third key component of
ISS in orbit. Assuming the mission succeeds, NASA hopes that ISS will begin to
silence its many critics and start to realize its scientific potential. Our
show will paint a vivid picture of the third mission, the risks and hazards of
long-term operations in space, and the vision and audacity that lie behind this
extraordinary project.
Original broadcast date: 04/25/2000
Topic: astronomy/space exploration
The Vikings
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On 8 June 793 AD, a boat full of Scandinavian raiders landed at the undefended
island monastery of Lindisfarne in northeast England. They savagely attacked
the monks and pillaged one of Christendom's holiest shrines, sending shock waves
through Europe; many believed God had sent the Northmen as an act of divine
judgment. For the next century, Europe's kingdoms were locked in a life-and-death
struggle against massive onslaughts by Viking fleets and armies. In this bitter
fight for survival, the first stirrings of national identity in England, France,
and Russia were born.
But who were their aggressors? In this two-hour special, NOVA presents a dramatic
investigation of a people who were much more than axe-wielding pirates. It features
stunning camerawork in Scandinavia and the far-flung countries that the Vikings
penetrated, while historians and archaeologists present us with an image of the
Vikings that goes far deeper than their savage stereotype. The latest research
shows that they were canny merchants, expert shipbuilders, superb artisans, and
bold colonizers of lands that lay beyond the edge of the known world.
The special retraces Viking voyages in faithful replicas of their magnificent ships,
probing such questions as how they were able to navigate so far beyond the sight of
land in the stormy north Atlantic. NOVA searches for traces of Leif Eriksson's
legendary exploits in North America and the poignant extinction of Erik the Red's
colony in Greenland. Less familiar is the story of the extraordinary Viking
journeys along Russian rivers that led them ultimately to Istanbul and Baghdad.
The Scandinavian contribution to the formation of Russia—the very name comes
from Rus, meaning Swede or Scandinavian—is one of the liveliest Viking
controversies investigated by NOVA.
With state-of-the-art computer animation and fresh archaeological discoveries,
NOVA breathes life into the towns the Vikings founded, from Dublin to Novgorod.
"The Vikings" strips away the myth of savagery to reveal a compelling portrait of a
people who brought fear, prosperity, and new horizons to the world of medieval Europe.
Original broadcast date: 05/09/2000
Topic: anthropology/ancient
Lincoln's Secret Weapon
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This is the story of an armored combat vessel that opened up an entirely new chapter
in naval warfare. At a critical moment of the American Civil War in 1861, the Navy
commissioned the USS Monitor to test a daring idea—that a mechanical
fighting machine could inflict a crushing defeat on Confederate forces. Not long
after its legendary confrontation with the ironclad Merrimack, the Monitor
sank in stormy seas off Cape Hatteras. Almost a century and a half after these stirring
events, NOVA's cameras follow the Navy's risky efforts to salvage the secrets of the
Monitor as it lies rusting on the ocean bottom.
Original broadcast date: 10/24/2000
Topic: archaeology, technology/weapons and warfare
Holocaust on Trial
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On January 11, 2000, a trial opened in London's High Court that would prove to
be a crucial test of Holocaust "deniers." British author David Irving brought a
libel action against Deborah Lipstadt, author of Denying the Holocaust: The Growing
Assault on Truth and Memory. In her book, Lipstadt characterized Irving as a
"Hitler partisan" who manipulated the historical record to deny the reality of the
Holocaust. In seeking damages, Irving claimed that her book destroyed his reputation.
Interwoven with dramatized sequences that re-create the courtroom testimony and
arguments are documentary segments that explore evidence with the aid of historians
Hugh Trevor-Roper and Robert Harris, and Auschwitz authority Robert Jan van Pelt,
among others.
Original broadcast date: 10/31/2000
Topic: social sciences/miscellaneous, science/methods, ethics & education
Hitler's Lost Sub
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In 1991, professional diver John Chatterton discovered a sunken German U-boat from
World War II, lying undetected only 60 miles off the New Jersey shore, its unexploded
torpedoes and the bodies of its crew still aboard. This two-hour special follows
Chatterton and his dive partners in their dangerous quest to identify the missing U-boat,
a pursuit that takes six years and costs three lives. The U-boat's history involves unusual
coincidences and a startling twist of fate.
Original broadcast date: 11/14/2000
Topic: archaeology, technology/weapons and warfare
Runaway Universe
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NOVA presents the first attempt on television to explore the riddle of quintessence -
a mysterious repulsive force that some scientists believe counteracts gravity.
The program follows the efforts of two rival teams of astronomers as they search
for exploding stars, map out gigantic cosmic patterns of galaxies, and grapple
with the ultimate questions: what is the size and shape of the universe, and
how will it end?
Original broadcast date: 11/21/2000
Topic: astronomy/space exploration
Garden of Eden
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This journey ot the Seychelles, a collection of pristine granite and coral
islands about 1,000 miles east of Kenya, reveals a dramatic landscape of
natural wealth and scientific value. The islands, among the oldest islands
in the world, are home to a dazzling array of exotic plants and animals.
One island, Praslin, boasts rare or unique species of geckos, snails, snakes,
parrots and bats. Aldabra, the largest atoll in the world, harbors in its
lagoon a profusion of wildlife, sharks, frigate birds with seven-foot wingspan,
rare robber crabs, spectacularly-colored parrot fish, mangrove forests,
and the world's largest colony of giant tortoises, numbering some 150,000.
Original broadcast date: 11/28/2000
Topic: geography/oceanography
Dying to be Thin
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An epidemic of eating disorders is spreading through America's youth, a contagion
fanned by the media's obsession with wafer-thin celebrities. For millions of young
Americans, the conflict between real and fashionable images of the body can be a
matter of life or death. Anorexia has the highest death rate of any psychological
illness; over a 10-year period, five percent of all patients will die. Complications
can include low blood pressure, bone loss and damage to the kidneys, liver and heart.
This program takes viewers behind the scenes at laboratories and hospitals where
specialists are experimenting with new approaches to eating disorders.
Original broadcast date: 12/12/2000
Topic: psychology, medicine/disease & research, medicine/health care & surgery, human biology/behavior
Japan's Secret Garden
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For at least 2,000 years, a unique way of life has flourished around the shores of
Japan's largest freshwater lake - Lake Biwa - fed by more than 500 rivers that descend
from the rugged, forested interior of Honshu Island. To exploit the abundant mountain water,
generations of farmers have transformed the foothills surrounding the lake into a maze of
ingeniously engineered terraced fields. The balance between humans and nature is reflected
in the Japanese name for the cultivated areas: satoyama (sato—"village/people" and yama—"mountain/nature"). This high-definition (HDTV) documentary captures the subtle lessons and lush abundance of Satoyama.
Original broadcast date: 12/18/2000
Topic: geography/oceanography