NOVA
Extreme Animal Weapons Preview
Show title: NOVA
Video title: Extreme Animal Weapons Preview
Video duration: 0m 30sVideo description: From lobster claws and dog teeth to bee stings and snake fangs, every creature depends on a weapon. But some are armed to extremes that make no practical sense—whether it’s bull elks with giant 40-pound antler racks or tiny rhinoceros beetles with horns bigger than their body. What explains giant tusks, horns, and claws that can slow an animal down and even impair health and nutrition?
North American Gold
When the Earth formed, most of the gold sunk to its core—but some remained trapped inside Earth’s mantle.
Using Artificial Intelligence to Diagnose Melanoma
Dr. Roberto Novoa of Stanford Medical School used a database of nearly 130,000 images from the internet to train a deep learning algorithm to identify skin cancers as accurately as his fellow dermatologists.
Ethics and Self-Driving Cars
How do we program moral decision-making into autonomous vehicles?
Black Hole Information Paradox
Do black holes delete information forever? Or could information somehow escape them?
Choose Your Own Adventure into a Black Hole
The Next Quest for New Worlds
There are worlds beyond our own. A new explorer just left Earth to hunt for them.
Profile: Rana el Kaliouby
Rana el Kaliouby is on a mission to humanize technology with artificial emotional intelligence.
Profile: Kevin Esvelt
Kevin Esvelt is on a mission to eradicate Lyme disease on Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.
How the Universe Will End
Dark energy is spreading the universe apart—what’s it mean for astronomy in the future?
Physics Is a Never-Ending Puzzle
Physics rarely yields finite answers, but that doesn’t deter scientists.
Profile: Priya Natarajan
Theoretical Astrophysicist Priya Natarajan has loved atlases and maps since she was a little girl.
How Scientists Discovered Dark Matter
What kind of clues led to the discovery of Dark Matter and its place in the universe?
Can We Make Life? Preview
"It's alive!" Since Dr. Frankenstein spoke those famous words, we've been alternately enthralled and terrified by the idea of creating life in the lab. Now, a revolution in genetic engineering and thrilling innovations in synthetic biology are bringing that dream—or nightmare, as the case may be—closer to reality. New tools allow researchers to use cells to create their own DNA.
How does CRISPR work?
CRISPR makes gene editing faster, cheaper, and easier than ever before. Here's how.