Mass.) WGBH (Television station : Boston

Reappraises Grant's career, from his pre-civil war days as a failed soldier, to his transformation into the greatest Union hero of the Civil War, to his presidency, rocked by scandal and economic depression, and to his last days, when he raced to finish his war memoirs as he was dying of cancer.

Astrophysicist Mario Livio, along with a colorful cast of mathematicians, physicists, and engineers, follow math from Pythagoras to Einstein and beyond, all leading to the ultimate riddle: Is math an invention or a discovery? Humankind₂s clever trick, or the language of the universe? Join Nova for a mathematical mystery tour, a provocative exploration of math₂s astonishing power across the centuries.

The medical procedure, lobotomy, was considered a groundbreaking procedure that promised hope to the most distressed mentally ill patients and their families. What began as an operation of last resort was soon being performed at some fifty state asylums, often with devastating results. The neurologist, Walter Freeman, in little more than a decade after his rise to fame, was decried as a moral monster, and that the lobotomy was one of the most barbaric...

Examines the "persuasion industries" of advertising and public relations. Shows how marketers have developed new ways of integrating their message into the fabric of our lives. Explores how the culture of marketing has come to shape the way Americans understand the world and themselves and how the techniques of the persuasion industries have migrated to politics.

Archaeological experts and others challenge the theory that the first Americans arrived in America around 13,500 years ago and suggest possibilites that they could have arrived even sooner.

In the United States, ten percent of people who wish to have children struggle with infertility. NOVA explores barriers to fertility, from the social to the biological, and the state of assisted reproductive technologies. Follow the journeys of people navigating challenges from structural inequalities and racism to falling sperm counts, egg freezing, and IVF.

"NOVA presents a provocative mix of scientists, economists, and ordinary citizens who are all pushing the envelope of solar power's untapped potential"--Container.

Some five centuries ago, a major revolution overturned traditional ship designs. In just a few years, ships were transformed from small coastal-bound transports into massive ocean-going vessels capable of long-distance exploration. These designs were crucial to launching Europe's age of imperial expansion and colonial exploitation, toppling the indigenous civilizations of the New World and spreading pandemics.

What if the Doomsday Preppers were right all along? Hacking into urban infrastructures isn't science fiction anymore, it's in the news every day. A 90-minute docudrama reveals in gritty detail the impact of what happens when a cyber attack on the United States takes down the power grid. The question is: when the lights go out, what do we do next?

Where do nature's building blocks, called the elements, come from? They're the hidden ingredients of everything in our world, from the carbon in our bodies to the metals in our smartphones. Watch as David Pogue unlocks their secrets.