The Best Episodes of NOVA Season 29
Every episode of NOVA Season 29 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of NOVA Season 29!
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.
Season 29 Ratings Summary
The best episode of "NOVA" season 29 is "Search for a Safe Cigarette", rated 7.1/10 from 22 user votes. It was directed by Carl Charlson and written by Carl Charlson. "Search for a Safe Cigarette" aired on 10/2/2001 and is rated 0.6 point(s) higher than the second highest rated, "18 Ways to Make a Baby".
7.1/10 22 votes#1 - Search for a Safe Cigarette
Season 29 Episode 1 - Aired 10/2/2001
The program chronicles the tobacco industry's decades long effort to create a "safer" cigarette.
Director: Carl Charlson
Writer: Carl Charlson
7.7/10 15 votes#2 - 18 Ways to Make a Baby
Season 29 Episode 2 - Aired 10/9/2001
The program investigates the brave new world of assisted reproduction.
Director: Peter Williams, Sarah Holt
Writer: Sarah Holt
6.2/10 8 votes#3 - Secrets of the Mind
Season 29 Episode 3 - Aired 10/23/2001
This NOVA program delves into the mind-tingling efforts of neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran to discover how the brain works.
Director: Christopher Rawlence
Writer: Christopher Rawlence
7.3/10 12 votes#4 - Sex: Unknown
Season 29 Episode 4 - Aired 10/30/2001
The film investigates the complicated world of gender identity.
Director: Andrew Cohen, Stephen Sweigart
Writer: N/A
7.6/10 9 votes#5 - Russia's Nuclear Warriors
Season 29 Episode 5 - Aired 11/6/2001
NOVA takes an intimate look at the men who are in control of Russia's nuclear missiles, standing just a heartbeat from the top Russian politicians and Armageddon. Hosted by Vladimir Pozner, Russia's top television journalist, this startling film shows that despite low pay and the tedious existence that these soldiers and their families live with, these men are motivated by a strong sense of patriotic duty and responsibility for the ultimate powers of destruction at their fingertips, in a job that requires complete perfection.
Director: Leslie Woodhead
Writer: N/A
8.5/10 40 votes#6 - Bioterror
Season 29 Episode 6 - Aired 11/13/2001
The film follows three New York Times reporters as they delve into the murky past of bioweapons research and grapple with the current threat of anthrax and other attacks.
Director: Kirk Wolfinger
Writer: Matthew Collins
7.5/10 124 votes#7 - Life's Greatest Miracle
Season 29 Episode 7 - Aired 11/20/2001
A sequel to the most popular NOVA of all time, "Miracle of Life," the program once again uses the extraordinary microimagery of Swedish photographer Lennart Nilsson to track human development from embryo to newborn.
Director: N/A
Writer: Julia Cort
7.8/10 16 votes#8 - Methuselah Tree
Season 29 Episode 8 - Aired 12/11/2001
Marked by striking imagery and a poetic style, the film dramatizes the life cycle of the world's oldest living thing, the bristlecone pine of California's White Mountains.
Director: Ian Duncan
Writer: N/A
8.2/10 9 votes#9 - Flying Casanovas
Season 29 Episode 9 - Aired 12/25/2001
The program, with Sir David Attenborough narrating, celebrates the extraordinary antics male bowerbirds get up to when courting a female.
Director: Stephen Sweigart, Paul Reddish
Writer: David Attenborough
6.2/10 14 votes#10 - Death Star
Season 29 Episode 10 - Aired 1/8/2002
The program probes the deep mysteries of gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful celestial explosions since the big bang.
Director: David McNab
Writer: N/A
8.1/10 14 votes#11 - Neanderthals on Trial
Season 29 Episode 11 - Aired 1/22/2002
The film probes the enigma of our Neanderthal cousins and the roots of our own ancestry.
Director: Mark Davis
Writer: Mark Davis
7.3/10 56 votes#12 - Fireworks
Season 29 Episode 12 - Aired 1/29/2002
No description available
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.6/10 8 votes#13 - Secrets, Lies, and Atomic Spies
Season 29 Episode 13 - Aired 2/5/2002
The program chronicles the lives and covert activities of the so-called "atom spies" in the 1940's, including the big one that got away, Theodore Alvin Hall.
Director: Tug Yourgrau
Writer: N/A
7.3/10 17 votes#14 - The Missing Link
Season 29 Episode 14 - Aired 2/26/2002
A paleontological tour-de-force and suspenseful scientific detective story, the program documents the search for the ancestor of all four-limbed animals, including humans.
Director: Matthew Barrett, David Espar
Writer: N/A
7.2/10 7 votes#15 - Shackleton's Voyage of Endurance
Season 29 Episode 15 - Aired 3/26/2002
In October and November 1999, NOVA journeyed into ice-choked Antarctic waters and onto the shores of rugged Elephant and South Georgia Islands as we followed in the footsteps of Sir Ernest Shackleton. This legendary explorer's 1914-1916 Endurance expedition is one of the greatest survival stories of all time. Then, in April 2000, we returned to document Shackleton's final trial -- the crossing of South Georgia -- by three of the world's most distinguished mountaineers, Reinhold Messner, Conrad Anker and Stephen Venables. Follow the expeditions as they unfolded in real-time on this Web site, and also watch for a NOVA Giant Screen Film Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure, as well as a NOVA program, "Shackleton's Voyage of Endurance," which originally aired on March 26, 2002.
Director: Kelly Tyler, Sarah Holt
Writer: Kelly Tyler, Sarah Holt
NaN/10 0 votes#16 - Why the Towers Fell
Season 29 Episode 16 - Aired 4/30/2002
Can lessons learned from the Twin Towers' collapse make new buildings safer?
Director: Garfield Kennedy, Larry Klein
Writer: N/A
NaN/10 0 votes#17 - Fire Wars
Season 29 Episode 17 - Aired 5/7/2002
In the program, NOVA accompanies the men and women of a wildland firefighting crew known as the Arrowhead Hotshots as they battle one of the most destructive wildfire seasons ever, the summer of 2000.
Director: Kirk Wolfinger
Writer: Judith Vecchione, Rushmore DeNooyer