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The Best Episodes of NOVA Season 4

Every episode of NOVA Season 4 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of NOVA Season 4!

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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 4 Episode 1 - Hitler's Secret Weapon
    7.9/10(13 votes)

    #1 - Hitler's Secret Weapon

    S4:E1

    NOVA traces the development of Hitler's V-2 rocket through rare footage obtained from the National Archives—some never broadcast before on television.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  2. NOVA Season 4 Episode 2 - The Hot Blooded Dinosaurs
    8.1/10(14 votes)

    #2 - The Hot Blooded Dinosaurs

    S4:E2

    If you were a dinosaur scientist, what would you do with a pile of fossil bones? How would you even start to put the giant jigsaw puzzle together, never mind discover anything about how these dinosaurs lived? NOVA explores the incredible world of the dinosaur scientist.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  3. NOVA Season 4 Episode 3 - What Price Coal?
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #3 - What Price Coal?

    S4:E3

    What is the price we are prepared to pay for coal? NOVA looks at the environmental and health safety issues raised by the government, industry, and the victims.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  4. NOVA Season 4 Episode 4 - The Sunspot Mystery
    7.6/10(14 votes)

    #4 - The Sunspot Mystery

    S4:E4

    NOVA explores the research on the 1976 drought in the western United States which led some solar scientists to discover the link between weather patterns and the 11 year sunspot mystery.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  5. NOVA Season 4 Episode 5 - The Plastic Prison
    7.2/10(9 votes)

    #5 - The Plastic Prison

    S4:E5

    NOVA follows the lives of three boys who have combined immuned deficiency—a disease that leaves its victims with no immune system.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. NOVA Season 4 Episode 6 - Incident at Brown's Ferry
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #6 - Incident at Brown's Ferry

    S4:E6

    NOVA recreates March 1975 at Brown's Ferry, an Alabama nuclear power plant—the largest in the world—that suffered a seven-hour fire which came very close to developing into a major public disaster.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  8. NOVA Season 4 Episode 7 - Bye Bye Blackbird
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #7 - Bye Bye Blackbird

    S4:E7

    NOVA looks at blackbirds, their winter habit of nesting in the millions, and the destruction they do to crops.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  9. NOVA Season 4 Episode 8 - The Pill for the People
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #8 - The Pill for the People

    S4:E8

    NOVA profiles chemist Russell Marker who made the birth control pill possible by discovering a synthetic substitute for the hormone progesterone.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  10. NOVA Season 4 Episode 9 - The Gene Engineers
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #9 - The Gene Engineers

    S4:E9

    NOVA explores the history of genetic engineering and the possible risks and benefits of this area of research

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. NOVA Season 4 Episode 10 - The Human Animal
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #10 - The Human Animal

    S4:E10

    NOVA investigates the controversial theory of Harvard University biologist E.O. Wilson, that many aspects of human behavior are genetically determined.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  12. NOVA Season 4 Episode 11 - The Wolf Equation
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #11 - The Wolf Equation

    S4:E11

    In the winter of 1976-77, 80 percent of the wolf population in Northwest Alaska was the target of aerial hunts. Although the area is roamed by the Western Arctic caribou herds—a natural predator of the wolf—the caribou population has been steadily decreasing in number. NOVA examines how the Dept. of Fish and Game is handling the the problem of wolf control.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  13. NOVA Season 4 Episode 12 - The Dawn of the Solar Age
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #12 - The Dawn of the Solar Age

    S4:E12

    Solar energy is increasingly popular as a home heating source. But only recently has it been seriously considered as a source of industrial power. NOVA looks at this new industrial approach, such as the use of a huge windmill in Ohio, giant machines that may generate electricity from the heat of the tropical seas or from the motion of waves, and an orbiting solar power station able to beam microwaves to earth.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  14. NOVA Season 4 Episode 13 - The Business of Extinction
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #13 - The Business of Extinction

    S4:E13

    NOVA explores the huge international illegal trade in animals, penetrates the thriving underworld of smugglers and assesses the effects on vanishing wildlife.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  15. NOVA Season 4 Episode 14 - The Red Planet
    7.7/10(10 votes)

    #14 - The Red Planet

    S4:E14

    NOVA traces 300 years of speculation, investigation and discovery that have centered on Mars—particularly the theory that the planet could support life. Questions raised by NASA's 1976 Viking mariner missions about how the vast canyons were formed are also explored.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  16. NOVA Season 4 Episode 15 - Tongues of Men (1)
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #15 - Tongues of Men (1)

    S4:E15

    In part one of this two-part exploration of the diversity of world languages, NOVA examines how and why the bewildering confusion of languages came about.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  17. NOVA Season 4 Episode 16 - Tongues of Men (2)
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #16 - Tongues of Men (2)

    S4:E16

    In part two of this two-part series on the diversity of language, NOVA explores how man has coped with the confusion of language and asks if the growing acceptance of English is the answer.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  18. NOVA Season 4 Episode 17 - Linus Pauling: Crusading Scientist
    8.0/10(9 votes)

    #17 - Linus Pauling: Crusading Scientist

    S4:E17

    NOVA profiles Linus Pauling—the only person to have received two unshared Nobel Prizes for his work in nuclear weapons.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  19. NOVA Season 4 Episode 18 - Across the Silent Barrier
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #18 - Across the Silent Barrier

    S4:E18

    NOVA explores the different means by which hearing-impaired people have learned to penetrate the world of the hearing by visiting with Kitty O'Neil—a woman record-holding speed car racer; Frances Parsons, an advocate of hearing-impaired persons' rights; and workers at Silent Industries—a factory in Los Angeles founded by a deaf man.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  20. NOVA Season 4 Episode 19 - The New Healers
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #19 - The New Healers

    S4:E19

    NOVA explores the delibitating diseases that are often caused by poverty and follows two paths to health care in Tanzania and the United States.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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Season 4 Ratings Summary

"Hitler's Secret Weapon" is the best rated episode of "NOVA" season 4. It scored 7.9/10 based on 13 votes. Directed by Unknown and written by Unknown, it aired on 1/5/1977. This episode is rated 0.2 points higher than the second-best, "The Hot Blooded Dinosaurs".