NaN/100 votes#1 - The Hunt for Saddam's Secret Weapons
Season 20 Episode 1 - Aired 1/5/1993
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: N/A
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votes#2 - Can Bombing Win a War?
Season 20 Episode 2 - Aired 1/19/1993
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.2/1015 votes#3 - The Deadly Deception
Season 20 Episode 3 - Aired 1/26/1993
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#4 - Nazis and the Russian Bomb
Season 20 Episode 4 - Aired 2/2/1993
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.4/1015 votes
#5 - In the Path of a Killer Volcano
Season 20 Episode 5 - Aired 2/9/1993
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#6 - Can Science Build a Champion Athlete?
Season 20 Episode 6 - Aired 2/16/1993
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#7 - Diving for Pirate Gold
Season 20 Episode 7 - Aired 2/23/1993
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#8 - Murder, Rape and DNA
Season 20 Episode 8 - Aired 3/2/1993
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#9 - The Lost Tribe
Season 20 Episode 9 - Aired 3/30/1993
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#10 - The NOVA Quiz
Season 20 Episode 10 - Aired 10/5/1993
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.2/107 votes
#11 - Wanted: Butch and Sundance
Season 20 Episode 11 - Aired 10/12/1993
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.2/1082 votes
#12 - Secrets of the Psychics
Season 20 Episode 12 - Aired 10/19/1993
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#13 - Dying to Breathe
Season 20 Episode 13 - Aired 10/26/1993
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#14 - Shadow of the Condor
Season 20 Episode 14 - Aired 11/2/1993
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.3/1010 votes
#15 - The Real Jurassic Park
Season 20 Episode 15 - Aired 11/9/1993
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votes#16 - Roller Coaster!
Season 20 Episode 16 - Aired 11/16/1993
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.0/1012 votes
#17 - Mysterious Crash of Flight 201
Season 20 Episode 17 - Aired 11/30/1993
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.
Director: Marian Marzynski
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#18 - Great Moments from NOVA
Season 20 Episode 18 - Aired 12/7/1993
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.0/1016 votes
#19 - The Best Mind Since Einstein
Season 20 Episode 19 - Aired 12/21/1993
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#20 - Stranger in the Mirror
Season 20 Episode 20 - Aired 12/28/1993
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
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!
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...
Genre:Documentary
Network:PBS
Season 20 Ratings Summary
"The Hunt for Saddam's Secret Weapons" is the best rated episode of "NOVA" season 20. It scored N/A/10 based on 0 votes. Directed by N/A and written by N/A, it aired on 1/5/1993. This episode is rated NaN points higher than the second-best, "Can Bombing Win a War?".