Upcoming science, nature and technology programs in KNME Public Television. All programs are on the regular channel 5 unless otherwise stated.

NOVA: Arctic Dinosaurs

Ch. 9.1 — 7 p.m. today

Ch. 5.1 — 11 a.m. Sunday

How is it that dinosaurs managed to survive and even thrive in the gloom of the dark and frigid polar regions? This is one of today's most intriguing, little-known enigmas in paleontology. Now, a unique field expedition, covered exclusively by NOVA, will set out for Alaska's North Slope to defrost a jackpot of new fossil clues. With the help of stunning CGI, NOVA will breathe life into the polar dinosaurs' lives and environment in vivid detail. The team of researchers will combine extreme engineering and perilous fossil hunting, including digging a tunnel into the permafrost in order to collect the dinosaur bones. With Alaska's spectacular wilderness as a backdrop, this program will reveal a prehistoric lost world for the first time on television.

Nature: The Good, the Bad, and the Grizzly

Ch. 9.1 — 8 p.m. today

Ch. 5.1 — 10 a.m. Sunday

Once on the edge of extinction, grizzlies have made a remarkable recovery. But this fierce predator is no longer content foraging in the back country. Today, bears are everywhere. And everyone has something to say about it. This program documents the return of the grizzly as a conservation success story that comes with a price.

Wild!: Lions and Hyenas

Ch. 9.1 — 9 p.m. today

Ch. 5.1 — 9 a.m. Sunday

A male lion cub and a female hyena pup, each born at the same time help to reveal the truth about the constantly changing balance of power between these two species.

DragonflyTV: Hawaii

8 a.m. Sunday

Starting at the Kilauea Visitor Center, Julia and Briana investigate lava flow on the Big Island at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Zach and Devin assess the readiness of baby sea turtles for release into the wild at the Maui Ocean Center. And the formation the youngest Hawaiian islands is explained in the Science Secret.

Savage Planet: Volcanic Killers

6 p.m. Sunday

The hidden dangers of volcanoes, crater lakes and lahars (mudflows) are revealed. The immediate dangers of active volcanoes are well-known — the deadly eruption of boiling rock and lava that can swiftly envelop entire communities. But there are hidden dangers as well. The fatal combination of volcano and water poses other kinds of threats.

Nature: Violent Hawaii

Ch. 5.1 — 7 p.m. Sunday and 10 a.m. Sept. 27

Ch. 9.1 — 8 p.m. today

Hawaii's breathtaking beauty was forged in fire, created by the awesome power of volcanoes on land and in the sea, by earthquakes, and tsunamis, natural wonders that continue to shape the islands today. Shot in high definition by a team of award-winning filmmakers who live on the islands, this spectacular film features volcanic eruptions, rivers of molten lava, monster waves, humpback whales, and perhaps most surprising of all, snow.

PBS Previews: The National Parks, America's Best Idea

10:30 p.m. Sunday

PBS presents a preview of the new Ken Burns film, beginning Sept. 27. The 12 1/2-hour, six-part documentary series, directed by Burns and co-produced with his longtime colleague, Dayton Duncan, who also wrote the script, is the story of an idea as uniquely American as the Declaration of Independence and just as radical: that the most special places in the nation should be preserved, not for royalty or the rich, but for everyone.

NOVA: The Ghost in Your Genes

Ch. 5.1 — 8 p.m. Tuesday, 9 p.m. Thursday and 11 a.m. Sept. 27

Ch. 9.1 — 8 p.m. Wednesday and 7 p.m. Sept. 26

In a provocative report from the frontiers of biology, NOVA explores new findings that call into question the long-held belief that all inherited traits are passed on by our genes. The fast-growing field of epigenetics investigates hidden influences that could affect not only our health today but that of our descendants far into the future. It now seems that our environment makes small chemical changes to our DNA without affecting the gene's overall makeup. To put it another way, epigenetics adds to our DNA another layer that acts as a control system of "switches." Experiential factors such as nutrition or stress may trigger these switches and turn genes on or off. These subtle changes can then be "remembered" and passed on from generation to generation, altering inherited traits. This means the lives of our grandparents — the air they breathed, the food they ate, even the things they saw — could have directly affected us, and that what we do could, in turn, affect our grandchildren. NOVA explores this fascinating new idea, interviewing top scientists in the field and following what could be a paradigm shift in the way we think about inheritance and genes.

Killer Stress: A National Geographic Special

9 p.m. Tuesday

Stress. It's always been there to save our lives. It's what made us run from predators and enabled us to take down prey. But today, humans are turning on that same stress response to deal with 30-year mortgages, difficult bosses, teenagers and traffic jams. Some of us are wallowing in corrosive hormones; for the first time, scientists can reveal just how measurable and dangerous that exposure can be. MacArthur "Genius Grant" recipient and Stanford University neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky and National Geographic search for answers to why stress seems to be killing us.

Wild River: The Colorado

7 p.m. Wednesday

Follow the Colorado River from its headwaters in Rocky Mountain National Park through Utah's Westwater Canyon; the national parks of Canyonlands, Arches, Capitol Reef and Zion; the fragile beauty and rapids of the Grand Canyon; and into Mexico. The film is set to classical music by some of the world's greatest composers and is narrated by Joseph Campanella.

Mystery Of Chaco Canyon

8 p.m. Wednesday and 6 p.m. Sept. 27

Chaco Canyon, located in northwest New Mexico, is perhaps the only site in the world constructed in an elaborate pattern that mirrors the yearly cycle of the sun and the 19-year cycle of the moon. How did an ancient civilization, with no known written language, arrange its buildings into a virtual celestial calendar, spanning an area roughly the size of Ireland? Why did this society, ancestors of today's Pueblo Indians, choose to establish the center of their world in the middle of such an arid, barren land? And why, after constructing buildings the size of the Roman Coliseum, did these same people deliberately seal them and abruptly leave? These enigmas have puzzled archaeologists for centuries. This program presents substantial evidence that the Chacoan people expressed a complex solar and lunar cosmology in their magnificent architecture. The discoveries documented in the film have transformed scientific understanding of this site — one of the most elaborate and mysterious of ancient Native-American ruins — and are revolutionizing perceptions of the Chacoan civilization. Robert Redford narrates.

New Mexico in Focus: New Mexico Health Care

7 p.m. Thursday

Nearly one in five of us are still without health care insurance here in New Mexico. So, any national health care reforms will likely have a huge impact on our state. In conjunction with a PBS Special Report on Health Care Reform, New Mexico in Focus will take an in depth look at the state of New Mexico's health care system. Hosts David Alire Garcia and Gene Grant will also investigate what impact national reforms might have on our state, as well as our health outlook moving forward.