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The Best Episodes of NOVA Season 19

Every episode of NOVA Season 19 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of NOVA Season 19!

Binge this in 18h 20m•Peaking at 8.2/10

PBS' premier science series helps viewers of all ages explore the science behind the headlines. Along the way, NOVA demystifies science and technology, and highlights the people involved in scientific pursuits.

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
    NOVA Season 19 Episode 9 - Eclipse of the Century
    8.2/10(11 votes)

    S19:E9

    The spectacular eclipse of 1991 passed over major observatories on the island of Hawaii. NOVA was there for 6 1/2 minutes of frenetic research that revealed new secrets about our sun.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  2. NOVA Season 19 Episode 10 - Animal Olympians II
    8.0/10(8 votes)

    S19:E10

    In a 90-minute special presentation, NOVA reveals the ancient secrets of how the pyramids were built by actually building one. A noted Egyptologist, Mark Lehner, and a professional stonemason, Roger Hopkins (This Old House), join forces in the shadow of the Great Pyramid of Giza to put clever and sometimes bizarre pyramid construction theories to the test.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  3. NOVA Season 19 Episode 12 - Mind of a Serial Killer
    8.0/10(30 votes)

    S19:E12

    NOVA goes behind the scenes to give the real story behind the FBI unit popularized in the Academy Award-winning film, The Silence of the Lambs. Using a detailed psychological profile, the unit helped the Rochester, New York police department catch a notorious serial killer who targeted prostitutes. Actor Patrick Stewart narrates.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  4. NOVA Season 19 Episode 17 - Private Lives of Dolphins
    7.8/10(15 votes)

    S19:E17

    NOVA delves into the deep sea drama of life among the dolphins at research stations in Florida and Australia. Like humans and chimpanzees, dolphins have evolved a sophisticated social system that provides clues about the origins and purpose of big brains and intelligence.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  5. NOVA Season 19 Episode 15 - This Old Pyramid
    7.7/10(15 votes)

    S19:E15

    In a 90-minute special presentation, NOVA reveals the ancient secrets of how the pyramids were built by actually building one. A noted Egyptologist, Mark Lehner, and a professional stonemason, Roger Hopkins (This Old House), join forces in the shadow of the Great Pyramid of Giza to put clever and sometimes bizarre pyramid construction theories to the test.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. NOVA Season 19 Episode 2 - Submarine!
    7.6/10(8 votes)

    S19:E2

    NOVA takes a voyage on the newest of America's doomsday machines—the ballistic missle submarine USS Michigan. The Cold War may be won, but these submerged super arsenals continue to prowl the deep.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  7. NOVA Season 19 Episode 16 - Iceman
    7.6/10(9 votes)

    S19:E16

    Five thousand years ago, a man perished in a mountain storm. In 1991, his frozen body was found along with artifacts of his vanished way of life. NOVA covers the international effort to unlock the secrets of this astonishing discovery.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  8. NOVA Season 19 Episode 5 - Can You Believe TV Ratings?
    7.4/10(8 votes)

    S19:E5

    Rating the audience for TV shows is a classic problem in statistical analysis. NOVA finds that ratings are getting more accurate but still are far from scientific.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  9. NOVA Season 19 Episode 18 - Brain Transplant
    7.4/10(8 votes)

    S19:E18

    Two paralyzed drug addicts travel to Sweden to receive a revolutionary treatment for brain disease that is largely unavailable in the US due to the ban on fetal tissue research. "Brain Transplant" continues the remarkable story of a mysterious malady linked to a bad batch of synthetic heroin that NOVA first covered in the 1986 award-winning film, "The Case of the Frozen Addict."

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  10. NOVA Season 19 Episode 1 - Hell Fighters of Kuwait
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S19:E1

    NOVA covers the fight to put out Saddam Hussein's bonfire of oil wells in Kuwait, which has created the worst manmade pollution event in history. Fire fighting teams from Houston and elsewhere are faced with a Texas-size job.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. NOVA Season 19 Episode 3 - Saddam's War on Wildlife
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S19:E3

    Few people give any thought to wildlife in the midst of a war. During the Gulf War, environmentalist John Walsh did his best to save animals from oil spills, bullets and other dangers.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  12. NOVA Season 19 Episode 4 - What Smells?
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S19:E4

    The nose knows. How much is the subject of NOVA's investigation of the mysterious aromas and hidden messages picked up by our sense of smell. David Suzuki hosts.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  13. NOVA Season 19 Episode 6 - Making a Dishonest Buck
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S19:E6

    Criminals still make money the old-fashioned way—by counterfeiting. NOVA looks at why US currency is so easy to fake and what the government is doing about it.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  14. NOVA Season 19 Episode 7 - Rescuing Baby Whales
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S19:E7

    NOVA examines the mysterious whale strandings along the beaches of Cape Cod Bay, as the puzzling behavior becomes more common.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  15. NOVA Season 19 Episode 8 - An Astronaut's View of the Earth
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S19:E8

    NOVA goes behind the scenes to watch the filming of a big-screen Imax/Omnimax space spectacle. Astronauts operate the cameras on location aboard the Space Shuttle.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  16. NOVA Season 19 Episode 11 - The Genius Behind the Bomb
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S19:E11

    Physicists Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard reenact the signing of the 1939 letter that alerted President Franklin Roosevelt to the feasibility of atomic weapons. Szilard drafted and Einstein signed the famous warning, which led to the building of the first atomic bomb.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  17. NOVA Season 19 Episode 13 - Search for the First Americans
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S19:E13

    NOVA follows the trail of America's first inhabitants. Did they migrate across a Bering Sea land bridge at the end of the last Ice Age, as we all learned in school? Or did they arrive thousands of years earlier, possibly by some different route, as new archaeological evidence increasingly hints?

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  18. NOVA Season 19 Episode 14 - Rafting Through the Grand Canyon
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S19:E14

    NOVA explores Earth's greatest natural wonder by rafting down the river that created it, repeating the spectacular first canyon voyage of the 19th-century explorer John Wesley Powell. The Grand Canyon tells the story of nearly 2 billion years of earth history plus the changes caused by three decades of human intervention.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  19. NOVA Season 19 Episode 19 - Can You Stop People From Drinking?
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S19:E19

    NOVA looks at how Russia and the United States are attacking the intractable problem of alcohol abuse with old and new weapons—including prohibition, hypnotism, imprisonment, surveillance, deception, aversion therapy and group therapy as practiced by Alcoholics Anonymous.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  20. NOVA Season 19 Episode 20 - Sex and the Single Rhino
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S19:E20

    NOVA examines the high-tech efforts to preserve the world's animal diversity. Noah needed only an ark—but today's conservationists need all the tools that biology, ecology, diplomacy and politics can muster if endangered species are to survive beyond the next century.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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Season 19 Ratings Summary

"Eclipse of the Century" is the best rated episode of "NOVA" season 19. It scored 8.2/10 based on 11 votes. Directed by Unknown and written by Unknown, it aired on 3/24/1992. This episode is rated 0.2 points higher than the second-best, "Animal Olympians II".