Black History Month Educator Webinar on Black History and Bioethics:
Join GBH Education and NOVA for a professional development webinar highlighting science and history PBS LearningMedia resources for Black History Month.
Producers of NOVA’s 'When Machines Prescribe' win 2025 AAAS Kavli Gold Award:
The filmmakers behind When Machines Prescribe are recipients of the 2025 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Gold Award in the Video Spot News/Feature Reporting category.
Particles of Thought: A New Video Podcast:
A new video podcast from the producers of NOVA, hosted by Hakeem Oluseyi.
Critical Condition Outreach and Events:
A Critical Moment for Public Media:
Science is for everyone. The stories we tell are too.
New NOVA Resource Collection for Teachers!:
This year, we are excited to announce the launch of the updated NOVA PBS LearningMedia collection — with over 1,000 resources from NOVA films, digital series, apps, and more!
NOVA Science Trivia Night Schedule:
Every month NOVA hosts a science trivia night at the GBH Studio at the Boston Public Library!
How Do Wind Turbines Work?:
How wind turbines convert wind power into clean, usable electricity.
How Do Hurricanes Form?:
Warm ocean waters fuel some of the most violent storms on Earth.
Building Stuff: 7 NOVA Documentaries on Feats of Engineering:
Dive into the stories of engineering accomplishments throughout history.
5 Fun Ideas to Discuss at Your Thanksgiving Table:
For moments when you may need to change the subject.
Why the Sky Changes Colors at Sunset:
What causes those beautiful reds, oranges, and pinks at sunset?
How Was the Great Pyramid Built?:
Records show how the Egyptians built the Great Pyramid more than 4500 years ago.
Prepare for National Engineers Week with NOVA:
Explore the Building Stuff outreach toolkit, youth engineering activities, and virtual field trips!
What Does 5G Really Mean?:
The next generation of wireless communication technology is much more advanced, but it requires a lot of new infrastructure.
Removing CO2 from the Atmosphere: Where Does It Go?:
To combat climate change, scientists are working to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
What Your Earwax Says About You:
Earwax reveals more than you might realize, from ancestry to underlying medical conditions.
Why Do Dogs Eat Poop?:
It’s surprisingly common for dogs to eat poop, a habit called coprophagia.
Is Fear Contagious?:
How pheromones and emotional contagion can make fear spread through a group–for better or worse.
What Causes Addiction?:
How addiction works in the brain, and why opioids are so dangerously addictive.
STAFF PICKS: Favorite NOVA Documentaries:
Enjoy these NOVA staff favorites.
How to Protect Your Data Online:
Practical tips for creating a strong password and keeping your data safe online.
Who was Ötzi the Iceman?:
Meet Europe’s five-thousand-year-old murder victim.
How Old Is Earth?:
How did our solar system form? And when did Earth come to be?
Who Were the Ancient Maya?:
Ancient Maya had a rich history and complex culture that is only now being fully appreciated.
Sleepwalking: What Happens in the Brain?:
Why sleepwalkers can paint, eat, or even drive when part of their brain is asleep.
How Earth Became a Water World:
The ancient history of Earth’s deep blue sea.
9 NOVA Documentaries on Human Genius:
Stories of brilliant innovations and inventions by the world’s greatest minds.
7 NOVA Documentaries on Iconic Landmarks:
Learn how some of the great structures of the world—the Eiffel Tower, the Great Pyramids, and more—were built.
5 Little-Known Facts About the Eiffel Tower:
The Eiffel Tower is an engineering icon that changed the face of the modern world.
NOVA Science Studio Alumni (2023-2024):
Meet the 2023 – 2024 NOVA Science Studio student-producers who covered a wide variety of big data science stories
NOVA Science Studio 2024 Student Videos:
Introducing the 2024 NOVA Science Studio student producers who reported on local data-related impacts and solutions
Data Privacy Tips from Secrets in Your Data:
Here are some tips and tricks pulled from Secrets in Your Data to help you stay safe online.
Secrets in Your Data Outreach Toolkit and Events:
Use the Secrets in Your Data Outreach Toolkit to organize screenings and events in your community about personal data privacy and security online.
5 NOVA Documentaries for Earth Day:
Celebrate Earth Day with NOVA films about animals, nature, and the wonders of our planet.
How This Stingray May Have Gotten Pregnant Without a Mate:
No sex? No problem. At least not for Charlotte the stingray.
2024 Eclipse Resources and Events:
Find everything you need for the April 8 total solar eclipse here, including eclipse glasses, event registration links, and educational resources.
The History of Earth in Five Epic Chapters:
The evolution of planet Earth over 4.5 billion years.
NOVA Science Studio launches new cohort with big data themes:
Why Is the Sky Blue?:
The familiar sky we see today wasn’t always blue.
How iron-air batteries could fill gaps in renewable energy:
Rust Belt cities could be the perfect place to develop this renewable energy solution.
NOVA Science Studio 2023-2024 Program Registration:
Engage your students with science journalism about issues in their communities with the NOVA Science Studio program!
Visit Ancient Civilizations in These 9 NOVA Documentaries:
From Petra to the Amazon to ancient China, NOVA has you covered.
8 wild nature documentaries to watch now on NOVA:
Check out some of NOVA’s best nature documentaries available for streaming.
NOVA Science Studio Alumni (2022-2023):
Meet the 2022—2023 NOVA Science Studio student-producers who covered a wide variety of science stories including invasive species and sea level rise, as well as how farm to table restaurants may reduce carbon emissions.
NOVA Science Studio 2023 Student Videos:
Introducing the 2023 NOVA Science Studio student producers who reported on local climate change impacts and solutions
How to create local climate change projects with your students:
Three STEM educators share best practices for tackling climate change in the classroom through project-based learning.
4 major effects of climate change in America:
Warming temperatures are causing extreme weather patterns across the country. But communities are pushing back with solutions old and new.
Why cities are so hot (and how we can fix it):
Even the Romans noticed that cities are engineered to be heat islands. But that means we can do something about it.
How Native American traditions control wildfires:
As wildfires escalate in Western states, authorities are embracing once-outlawed burning practices.
Weathering the Future Outreach Toolkit:
Use this toolkit to organize community screenings which educate the public, provide a space to discuss local impacts, and brainstorm community solutions.
8 Mind-Blowing Space Documentaries to Watch Now on NOVA:
Check out some of NOVA’s best space documentaries available for streaming.
How do induction stoves work?:
Here’s how a magnetic field can heat up your pans.
How NASA makes those spectacular space images:
The James Webb Space Telescope only captures infrared light, but imaging developers can convert the invisible into something both beautiful and scientifically accurate.
Teaching Resources: Local climate change solutions:
Bolster learning for middle and high school students about the myriad ways our weather is changing, how communities are being impacted, and innovative solutions.
When wild dolphins help humans fish, both benefit:
A new study shows just what dolphins get out of cooperating with fishers in Brazil (besides lunch).
Why it's so hard to make salt water drinkable:
Seawater might seem like an obvious solution to water scarcity, but it comes at a cost.
Ice Age cave paintings decoded by amateur researcher:
Patterns of lines and dots associated with specific animal species in cave art may point to an early writing system.
Students tell local climate stories in NOVA filmmaking program:
Students across the country are participating in NOVA's film production program to make videos about climate change solutions in their local communities.
NOVA’s most popular science documentaries of 2022:
Explore the cosmos, delve into ancient history, and follow an extreme rescue with NOVA’s most-watched documentaries released in 2022.
The top science stories of 2022:
NASA nudges an asteroid, weird things emerge from water, and scientists tackle a new epidemic.
2-million-year-old DNA reveals surprising Arctic ecosystem:
The oldest DNA ever retrieved, preserved in sediments in northern Greenland, reveals that Arctic and temperate species once commingled in an ecosystem unlike anything that exists today.
Teaching resources: How ancient cultures shaped mathematics:
From the ancient origins of zero to the paradox of motion, NOVA’s teaching resources immerse students in the wonder of math.
4 mind-bending math experiments that explain infinity:
Can one infinity be bigger than another?
5 reasons why humans are going back to the Moon:
Earth’s natural satellite could be a jumping-off point for future space exploration.
NASA’s Artemis I moon rocket finally launches:
NASA’s massive SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft kick off a series of missions to put humans back on the Moon.
PHOTOS: Huge, ancient animals carved into Peru’s hills:
These are just a few of the geoglyphs in southern Peru, known as the Nazca lines, thought to be at least 2,000 years old.
What to do with an invasive fish? Make leather:
Venomous lionfish are taking over the Caribbean and the Mediterranean Sea, eating everything in their paths. One solution: handbags and belts.
How do psychedelics work? This brain region may explain their effects:
The claustrum seems to act as a switchboard, telling different parts of the brain when to turn on and off. But what happens when the switchboard operator steps away?
NOVA Science Studio Alumni (2020—2021):
We are proud to introduce the 2020—2021 NOVA Science Studio student-producers who covered a wide variety of science stories including fast fashion and sneaker sustainability, as well as the effects of food insecurity and its outsized impact on youth.
How a select few people have been cured of HIV:
Scientists have cured a handful of people of HIV by piggybacking on treatments they received for blood cancer. But does that bring a widespread cure any closer?
DART spacecraft slams into asteroid:
The mission is a test to see if NASA could knock an Earth-bound asteroid off its path, should we ever need to.
Koalas have fingerprints almost identical to ours:
Koalas are the only non-primates with fingerprints. How is that possible—and why?
Malaria is outsmarting blood tests. Can a breath test help?:
A parasite that causes the most common form of malaria is evolving to be undetectable by current tests. Some scientists want to zero in on compounds in patients’ breath instead.
The ice cream that changed physics:
Sixty years ago a teenager’s homemade ice cream raised a surprisingly complicated question: Can hot liquids freeze faster than cold ones?
How air fryers work, scientifically speaking:
Here’s how hot air can “fry” food.
What happens when you season a cast iron pan:
Here is how oil and heat can form a durable coating.
The world’s oldest tree has competition:
Will a Patagonian cypress in Chile prove older than California’s most elderly bristlecone pine?
Why you can’t really overcook mushrooms:
Mushrooms are remarkably forgiving. Here’s the science of why.
A new game teaches financial literacy and decision-making:
How can you identify and overcome biases that hurt you financially? NOVA teamed up with Duke University’s Center for Advanced Hindsight to design the NOVA Financial Lab, a game that breaks down the behavioral science behind financial decision-making.
Dazzling first images from James Webb Space Telescope:
Images of five targets include the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date.
The science of fireworks:
And why it’s so hard to make blue ones.
How exercise may help prevent Alzheimer's:
Exercise could be a powerful defense against Alzheimer’s disease. Three dementia researchers explain how it works.
6 stinking cool facts about dog noses:
Dogs can sniff out disease and analyze new odors even as they exhale. But how?
Human tracks may be earliest evidence of people in North America:
Footprints in New Mexico’s White Sands National Park challenge scientists’ timeline of when humans first came to North America.
Scientists capture first-ever image of our galaxy’s supermassive black hole:
The Event Horizon Telescope team has captured the first image of Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the center of the Milky Way.
Daily life on the International Space Station: A Q&A with a space archaeologist:
Archaeologists are working to understand how astronauts really use their space on the ISS—and help improve space habitats of the future.
Adapting national parks for wheelchair hiking:
The trails through our public lands weren’t designed for wheelchairs, but new wheelchairs are designed for those trails. National Park Service accessibility specialist Quinn Brett wants parks to catch up with wheelchair technology, increasing access to American wilderness.
Why light pollution is a solvable environmental crisis:
Excessive outdoor lighting is deadly to animals and takes a toll on human health and wellbeing, too. But when it comes to large-scale environmental problems, this one may be a relatively easy fix.
How African Indigenous knowledge helped shape modern medicine:
In the 1700s, an enslaved man named Onesimus shared a novel way to stave off smallpox during the Boston epidemic. Here’s his little-told story, and how the Atlantic slave trade and Indigenous medicine influenced early modern science.
A day at a Florida manatee hospital:
As Florida’s seagrass beds die off, manatees are starving. Can the seagrass–and the manatees–make a comeback?
Astronomers successfully predict an asteroid impact above Iceland:
Two hours before asteroid 2022 EB5 entered Earth’s atmosphere, scientists knew exactly when and where the space rock would strike.
How magpies outwitted researchers in Australia:
During a recent study, a group of magpies removed their GPS trackers, astounding their observers. But were the birds actually trying to help each other?
A major Atlantic current is at a critical transition point:
New evidence suggests that the larger system the Gulf Stream is part of is approaching a tipping point that could cause dramatic shifts in global weather patterns.
Why Tonga’s volcanic eruption was so destructive:
Explore these NOVA resources to better understand the volcanology behind Tonga’s massive undersea eruption in January.
Epstein-Barr infection found to increase risk of multiple sclerosis:
The underlying cause of multiple sclerosis is not yet known, but Epstein-Barr virus is a possible culprit, Harvard researchers say.
Western monarch populations grew over 100-fold in 2021. Why?:
The beloved butterflies had fallen to critical levels in recent years. Experts weigh in on what might be causing their remarkable return.
OSIRIS-REx is bringing back an asteroid sample. What now?:
The debris NASA’s asteroid-touching spacecraft collected could help us learn about the origins of our solar system. But for that to happen, scientists have to protect it from just about everything.
NOVA's top 5 science stories of 2021:
Scientific advancements helped humans push through both the pandemic and the atmosphere this year, and a long-awaited visit from some underground insects set the country abuzz.
NOVA's top science education stories of 2021:
High school scientists dazzled us with their innovations—while new studies revealed insights about math mastery and how we can prepare young people for real-world challenges.
