The spacecraft has to be extremely clean. The entire spacecraft—that includes the rover, the heat shield, the descent stage, and back shell—must contain less than 500,000 bacterial endospores, or spores. Just to give you an idea, a teaspoon of seawater has ten times more bacteria.

Get a guided tour of the first Mars rover landing captured on video from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer Ian Clark.

NOVA Producer Alex Clark traces misinformation on mask-wearing from internet circles, to social media influencers, and back to the CDC in the NOVA Education video series.

Neuroscience is beginning to demystify such feelings. Our agency and decisions, it turns out, can be measurably influenced by events that evade the conscious part of our brains. We’ll see three groundbreaking experiments that illustrate that influences we are unaware of in our waking life, during dreamless sleep, or even in our dreams can impact our memory and behavior.

In the days of proto-life, less-stable membranes built out of simple molecules, like those in soap, may have been an advantage.

Without the chemistry of photosynthesis, ozone, and a molecule called Rubisco, none of us would be here. So how did we get so lucky? To find out, host David Pogue investigates the surprising molecules that allowed life on Earth to begin, and ultimately thrive. Along the way, he finds out what we’re all made of—literally.

RUBISCO, which helps make photosynthesis happen, is the most plentiful enzyme on the planet. But it's not the most efficient. Can a team of researchers give it a boost?

Learn the science behind misinformation–how it’s shared, why it's believed, and what we can do to address it.

Glass so strong you can jump on it, rubber so tough it protects a clay pot dropped from 50 feet, endless varieties of plastic. Scientists and engineers have created virtually indestructible versions of common materials by manipulating the chains of interlocking atoms that give them strength—but have they made them too tough? Host David Pogue explores the fantastic chemistry behind the everyday.

Through a series of lab experiments, "Beyond the Elements" host David Pogue learns that there are tens of thousands of grades of plastics, each tailored for a specific purpose. What do we do with them when their job is finished?

Discover how new coronavirus variants formed around the world, and whether personal protective equipment and the new vaccines will successfully work against them.

The number of COVID long-haulers is unknown, but experts estimate that millions of Americans could be affected by lingering symptoms of the disease.

How does a chili pepper make your mouth feel like its on fire? When you eat peppers, capsaicin molecules fit into the heat pain receptors of your mouth, sending a false signal to your brain that's identical to the one it would receive if you ate something literally burning hot.

Just about every solid, liquid, or gas in the world as we know it begins with reactions between individual atoms and molecules. Host David Pogue dives into the transformative world of chemical reactions, from the complex formula that produces cement to the single reaction that’s allowed farmers to feed a global population by the billions—a reaction that when reversed, unleashes high explosives.

When you eat peppers, the chemical capsaicin fits into the heat pain receptors in your mouth, sending a false signal that’s identical to the one your brain would receive if you ate something literally burning hot.

Scientists explore how the powerful peptides found in marine cone snail venom can be used for medicinal and therapeutic purposes.

One out of 50 COVID-19 tests in the U.S. are processed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Here's how its researchers are tracking the spread of the coronavirus on campus, and how the University became a model of testing for other flagship universities.

The coronavirus pandemic may have been the biggest science news story of 2020, but it wasn't the only story. Learn more about three space developments of the year: the discovery of phosphine in Venus’s atmosphere, the collapse of Puerto Rico’s Arecibo’s Observatory, and OSIRIS-REx’s sampling of an asteroid’s surface.

Some 30 million Americans have sent their DNA to be analyzed by companies like 23andMe and AncestryDNA. But what happens once the sample is in the hands of testing companies, and how accurate are their results? NOVA explores the power of genetic data to reveal family connections, ancestry, and health risks—and even solve criminal cold cases.

Half-sisters share their unlikely story of finding one another through genetic testing, and what they learned about their family history along the way.