NOVA backdrop
NOVA poster
Documentary

The Best Episodes of NOVA Season 20

Every episode of NOVA Season 20 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of NOVA Season 20!

The Best Episodes of NOVA Season 20

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...
  1. Background image for The Hunt for Saddam's Secret Weapons
    NaN/10(0 votes)

    #1 - The Hunt for Saddam's Secret Weapons

    S20:E1

    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.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  2. Background image for Can Bombing Win a War?
    NaN/10(0 votes)

    #2 - Can Bombing Win a War?

    S20:E2

    The Gulf War was fought in 38 days of non-stop bombing and four days of swift ground action. Did bombing win it? NOVA looks at the history of strategic bombing and asks whether bombing has now achieved preeminence in warfare.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  3. Background image for The Deadly Deception
    8.2/10(16 votes)

    #3 - The Deadly Deception

    S20:E3

    For four decades, 400 African American men from Macon, Alabama were unwitting participants in a government study of untreated syphilis. NOVA tells the story of this notorious human experiment. George Strait, ABC News Medical Correspondent, hosts.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  4. Background image for Nazis and the Russian Bomb
    NaN/10(0 votes)

    #4 - Nazis and the Russian Bomb

    S20:E4

    NOVA tells the story of the German scientists abducted to the Soviet Union after World War II to help build an atomic bomb. The success of the crash program in 1949, with the explosion of the first Soviet nuclear weapon, shocked the world.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  5. Background image for In the Path of a Killer Volcano
    8.0/10(19 votes)

    #5 - In the Path of a Killer Volcano

    S20:E5

    NOVA covers scientists on the brink of a sputtering, shaking, impatient volcano, trying to forecast when it will go off. When it does, Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines goes big time, producing the largest volcanic eruption in 80 years.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  6. Background image for Can Science Build a Champion Athlete?
    NaN/10(0 votes)

    #6 - Can Science Build a Champion Athlete?

    S20:E6

    Athletes are training smarter, running faster, jumping higher and generally outperforming their predecessors—thanks to high technology. NOVA covers the record-setting trend for improving sports performance with science.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  7. Trending NowTRENDING NOW

    The 20 BEST Episodes of NOVA

    READ
  8. Background image for Diving for Pirate Gold
    NaN/10(0 votes)

    #7 - Diving for Pirate Gold

    S20:E7

    These days, piracy on the high seas often involves sonar, magnometers, metal detectors and other high-tech equipment for finding and plundering sunken ships. NOVA explores the swashbuckling seafaring pirates of old and their present-day successors.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  9. Background image for Murder, Rape and DNA
    NaN/10(0 votes)

    #8 - Murder, Rape and DNA

    S20:E8

    Wherever we shed our body cells, we leave an indisputable identity card: our DNA. NOVA investigates the new science of DNA typing which is putting increasing numbers of murderers and rapists behind bars.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  10. Background image for The Lost Tribe
    NaN/10(0 votes)

    #9 - The Lost Tribe

    S20:E9

    NOVA covers both sides of the stormy controversy over the Tasaday tribe. When these isolated cave dwellers were discovered in the Philippines in 1971, they were hailed as a Stone Age relic. Now, many anthropologists denounce them as fakes.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  11. Background image for The NOVA Quiz
    NaN/10(0 votes)

    #10 - The NOVA Quiz

    S20:E10

    NOVA fans from around the country match wits in a fast-paced contest of general science knowledge celebrating NOVA's 20th anniversary. Famous guests pose questions for the viewers at home. Marc Summers hosts.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  12. Background image for Wanted: Butch and Sundance
    8.2/10(7 votes)

    #11 - Wanted: Butch and Sundance

    S20:E11

    Forensic sleuth Clyde Snow and a posse of experts travel to Bolivia in search of the remains of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. They find Hollywood and legend got a few things wrong.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  13. Background image for Secrets of the Psychics
    8.2/10(83 votes)

    #12 - Secrets of the Psychics

    S20:E12

    Secrets of the Psychics was a PBS NOVA episode following James Randi's work. Also appearing in stock footage are Peter Popoff, Uri Geller, and many others. In the program, "Randi argues that successful psychics depend on the willingness of their audiences to believe that what they see is the result of psychic powers." This program is not to be confused with a later UK documentary Secrets of the Psychics, which was transmitted under this title as well as Secrets of the Super Psychics.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  14. Background image for Dying to Breathe
    NaN/10(0 votes)

    #13 - Dying to Breathe

    S20:E13

    NOVA covers the tense vigil of three people with terminal lung disease as they await the most complex of all organ transplants—a new lung. Months of waiting end in a few frenzied hours of intricate surgery.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  15. Background image for Shadow of the Condor
    NaN/10(0 votes)

    #14 - Shadow of the Condor

    S20:E14

    NOVA soars with the condor, an extraordinary bird that lives a tenuous existence in the California mountains and the Andes of South America. Footage includes never-before-photographed nesting sites in the cliffs of Patagonia.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  16. Background image for The Real Jurassic Park
    8.4/10(12 votes)

    #15 - The Real Jurassic Park

    S20:E15

    With help from director Steven Spielberg, author Michael Crichton and a host of scientific experts , NOVA investigates what it would take to recreate the dinosaur theme park in Jurassic Park. It won't be as easy as it was for Hollywood.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  17. Background image for Roller Coaster!
    NaN/10(0 votes)

    #16 - Roller Coaster!

    S20:E16

    NOVA takes viewers on the ride of their lives as it explores the science of roller coasters, where physics and psychology meet. New rides of the future may take place entirely in the mind—with virtual reality.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  18. Background image for Mysterious Crash of Flight 201
    7.9/10(13 votes)

    #17 - Mysterious Crash of Flight 201

    S20:E17

    US federal investigators are called in to determine the cause of a mysterious jetliner crash in Panama. Nothing about the accident makes sense, until a key clue emerges.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Writer:Unknown
  19. Background image for Great Moments from NOVA
    NaN/10(0 votes)

    #18 - Great Moments from NOVA

    S20:E18

    Bill Cosby guides viewers through the most exciting footage from two decades of NOVA in a 20th anniversary salute. Real-life action, adventure, mystery, drama and non-stop discovery fill this 90-minute special.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  20. Background image for The Best Mind Since Einstein
    8.0/10(16 votes)

    #19 - The Best Mind Since Einstein

    S20:E19

    A profile of the late Richard Feynman—atomic bomb pioneer, Nobel prize-winning physicist, acclaimed teacher and all-around eccentric, who helped solve the mystery of the space shuttle Challenger explosion.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  21. Background image for Stranger in the Mirror
    NaN/10(0 votes)

    #20 - Stranger in the Mirror

    S20:E20

    NOVA explores the nature of human perception through the puzzling condition called visual agnosia, the inability to recognize faces and familiar objects, made famous in Oliver Sacks' book, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

Season 20 Ratings Summary

"The Hunt for Saddam's Secret Weapons" is the best rated episode of "NOVA" season 20. It scored /10 based on 0 votes. Directed by Unknown and written by Unknown, it aired on 1/5/1993. This episode is rated 0.0 points higher than the second-best, "Can Bombing Win a War?".