Upcoming science, nature and technology programs on KNME Public Television

America's Heartland

8 a.m. Sunday

Citrus growers in Florida face devastation due to a spreading plant disease called "citrus greening." We round up some Texas longhorns — not in the Lone Star State — but in Ohio. We visit a school in Massachusetts, where families go to learn how to farm. An Arkansas couple finds success with one of the largest sweet potato operations in the South.

Wild! "Wateringhole: The Drinker's Dilemma"

9 a.m. Sunday

The classic two-pronged conflict which affects the life of almost every animal using waterholes in Africa quench your thirst and risk being eaten by a predator, or stay safely away from the waterhole and risk dying of thirst.

Nature "Wild Balkans"

Ch. 5.1 - 10 a.m. Sunday , Ch. 9.1 - 8 p.m. today

Thick forests, vast wetlands, deep chasms — this is a wild, inaccessible place that belongs more to myth than reality. The landscape looks as if it was taken straight form Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. But here there are neither orcs nor elves; rather, bears and wolves. This is not Middle Earth; rather it is middle Europe — the Balkans. Through the centuries this land has burned its way into the soul and spirit of its people. The jagged contours have thrown long dark shadows over the history of the peninsula, always in the middle, between forces of the East and the West. It's as if the bloody history of the Balkans conspired to conceal its natural wonders. The landscape is still untouched and in it are wild animals that have all but vanished from the rest of Europe.

NOVA "Ghosts of Machu Picchu"

Ch. 5.1 - 11 a.m. Sunday , Ch. 9.1 - 7 p.m. today

Perched atop a mountain crest, mysteriously abandoned more than four centuries ago, Machu Picchu is the most famous archeological ruin in the Western hemisphere and an iconic symbol of the power and engineering prowess of the Inca. In the years since Machu Picchu was discovered by Hiram Bingham in 1911, there have been countless theories about this "lost city of the Incas," yet it remains an enigma. Why did the Incas build it on such an inaccessible site, clinging to the steep face of a mountain? Who lived among its stone buildings, farmed its emerald green terraces, and drank from its sophisticated aqueduct system? NOVA joins a new generation of archeologists as they probe areas of Machu Picchu that haven't been touched since the time of the Incas and unearth burials of the people who built the sacred site. This program explores the extraordinary trail of clues that began on that fateful day in 1911 and continues to the present.

"Brain In Love" with Daniel Amen

12 p.m. Sunday

Award winning psychiatrist, brain imaging researcher, and multiple bestselling author Daniel Amen presents an exciting special with a fresh and compelling twist on brain health: How to use your brain to bring and keep more love in your life. Research clearly tells us that being in a healthy, loving, affectionate relationship helps you be happier, live longer and even have a better memory. One of the most fascinating things Amen has learned from looking at more than 50,000 brain scans is that when we improve how your brain functions, even if it is troubled, you become more thoughtful, more loving and more effective in all of your relationships.

Dr. Zein Obagi: Fight Aging, Fight Hard

2 p.m. Sunday

In this revolutionary look at how to take care of our skin, Dr. Obagi shows us how the skin works and how, like our brain and our muscles, our skin needs to be exercised to make it stronger and look younger. There are three stages in our skin life cycle: active skin, transitional skin up to around 30 years old and inactive skin after 30. To look younger and healthier, we need to wake up our skin and that means not using some of the products we are overusing and misusing now. In fact, Dr. Obagi notes that most of us are doing exactly the wrong thing to keep our skin looking young and healthy. The answers are easier than you think.

You: Inner and Outer Beauty with Dr. Michael Roizen

3:30 p.m. Sunday

Beauty is always on the mind. You think about it — consciously or not-every time you step in the shower or in front of the mirror. It influences how you feel about yourself and ultimately how you feel in life. Forget about beauty being in the eye of the beholder. Beauty in the way it's going to be defined in this program is in the eyes, the skin, the hair, the face, the heart, the brain and in the soul of you. According to Dr. Michael Roizen, beauty — the inner and outer kind — advertises our health and our potential as a mate and a parent, and ultimately contributes to our overall feelings of happiness and satisfaction in life.

Through My Eyes: The Charlie Kelman Story

10 p.m. Sunday

A one-of-a-kind success story launched at the intersection of failure, fame and fate that gives hope to anyone who has ever harbored a secret dream. Charles Kelman longed for pop music stardom but made his mark on the world in ophthalmology as a medical maverick, reinventing cataract surgery with his groundbreaking phacoemulsification procedure- and spitting in the eye of the establishment with his unconventional actions and flashy style, including a guest spot on the Carson-era Tonight Show. The sax-playing surgeon was both decried as a charlatan and hailed as a genius by his peers, making him one of modern medicine's most compelling narratives.

Blueprint America: Beyond The Motor City

9 p.m. Monday

This program is an investigation of American transportation infrastructure from the past to the future, using Detroit as the narrative base for exploring this national story. Detroit has grown, flourished and fallen in accordance with the infrastructure choices we have made as a nation and, in Detroit's future, we can see a mirror of our national resolve. The expression "As GM goes, so goes the nation," has eerie resonance when what was once the country's largest company has gone bankrupt, but in the even larger realm of our national transportation infrastructure, it may well be that as Detroit goes, so goes our future.

Crown of the Continent — Alaska's Wrangell — St. Elias National Park

10:30 p.m. Monday

Filmmaker John Grabowska explores Alaska's visually spectacular region of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, which includes the continent's largest assemblage of glaciers, the greatest collection of peaks above 16,000 feet, along with a dramatic valleys, wild rivers and a variety of wildlife.

Frontline "Flying Cheap"

9 p.m. Tuesday

One year after the deadliest domestic airline accident in seven years, Frontline investigates the crash of Continental 3407 in Buffalo, NY, and discovers a dramatically changed airline industry, where regional carriers now account for half of the nation's daily departures. The rise of the regionals and arrival of low-cost carriers have been a huge boon to consumers, and the industry insists that the skies remain safe. But many insiders are worried that now, 30 years after airline deregulation, the aviation system is being stretched beyond its capacity to deliver service that is both cheap and safe.

National Parks: America's Best Idea "The Empire of Grandeur (1915-1919)"

8 p.m. Wednesday

In John Muir's absence, a new leader steps forward on behalf of America's remaining pristine places; a new federal agency is created to protect the parks; and in Arizona, a fight breaks out over the fate of the grandest canyon on earth.

Paving The Way: The National Park-To-Park Highway "See America First"

10 p.m. Wednesday

At a time when train travel to the National Parks was only for the wealthy, this program follows the convergence of U.S. Land being set aside for all people, the development of the "autos for the everyman" and the need to escape the drone of WWI and the 1918 flu pandemic. With this need for release, 12 intrepid motorists embark upon the 1920 inaugural tour of the National Park-to-Park Highway. Traveling 5,000 miles over 76 days to promote the need for good roads, these individuals also explore the idea of what it means to 'See America First' while touring in the western United States, instead of visiting their ancestry in war torn Europe.

Nature "The Beauty of Ugly"

Ch. 5.1 - 8 p.m. Thursday and 10 a.m. Feb. 14, Ch. 9.1 - 8 p.m. Saturday

We may think we know what is beautiful and what isn't, but in the natural world, beauty can be many things — including what we might find completely repulsive. Not only can the bizarre be attractive, it can also provide just the edge a creature needs to succeed in a difficult environment. From frogfish and hagfish to naked mole rats and elephant seals, the program shows how and why ugly can be beautiful, even when it isn't pretty.

America's Heartland

8 a.m. Feb. 14

Visit a Colorado cattle ranch and discover a woman who traded her Ivy League education for a saddle. In Arkansas a farm family mixes farming and music as they produce specialty rice for overseas markets. A Wyoming woman's livestock operation spawns a unique interest in art from wool.