Upcoming science, nature and technology programs on KNME Public Television

Celebrating North America's Steam Railways

10 a.m. today and again
3:30 p.m. Sunday

Explores the impact it had on North America, visiting 17 of the continent's most historic and scenic steam railroads, from the tundra of Alaska to the vast high desert of Arizona, from New Hampshire and South Dakota, up to Canada.

Easy Yoga for Arthritis with Peggy Cappy

11 a.m. Sunday

This new special by noted Yoga instructor Peggy Cappy is designed to address not only arthritis issues, but all joints which have stiffened with age or become less mobile from injury or inactivity.

History Detectives

9 p.m. Monday

Cherie Cloudt, an anthropologist from New Mexico, believes a famous woman wove her basket. Congress declared Toby Riddle a heroine of the Indian Wars that defined the settlement of the West. Did Toby make this basket? (The name 'Toby' is woven into the design ...)

Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee And The Spirit Of The Rural Studio

10 p.m. Monday

In 1993, the late architect and MacArthur "genius" Samuel Mockbee started the Rural Studio, a design/build program in which students create striking architecture for impoverished communities in rural Alabama. Guided by frank, passionate, never-before-seen interviews with Mockbee, the film shows how students use their creativity, ingenuity and compassion to craft a home for their charismatic, indigent client, Jimmie Lee Matthews, known as "Music Man" for his passion for soul music. The Rural Studio provides students with an experience that inspires them to consider how they can use their skills to better their communities. Interviews with Mockbee's peers and scenes with those he has influenced infuse the film with a larger discussion of architecture's role in issues of poverty, class, race, education, citizenship and social change.

NOVA ScienceNow, 'Season 3, Episode 1'

7 p.m. Tuesday

PBS' fast-paced science magazine series NOVA ScienceNow features provocative stories from the frontlines of science, technology and medicine. Renowned author and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson hosts. In "Dark Matter," Tyson reports from a half-mile underground in an abandoned mine, where scientists are using special detectors to look for evidence of a ghostly substance that they believe makes up most of the matter of the universe — a hypothetical entity called dark matter. In "Alzheimer's/Memory Mice," researchers have found that mice with induced memory loss are able to retrieve memories either by being put into an enriched environment or by being given a drug that promotes beneficial gene activity in their brains. Such new insights may lead to a better understanding of dementia and other memory-impairment disorders, such as Alzheimer's, in humans.

NOVA, 'The Four-Winged Dinosaur'

8 p.m. Tuesday and again 9 p.m.
Thursday and 11 a.m. Aug. 29

Imagine a moment from the age of dinosaurs frozen in time: primitive birds, bees, insects, early mammals, the first known flowering plants and of course, dinosaurs, all exquisitely preserved in fine-grained fossils from China's Liaoning Province. Volcanic eruptions killed and buried victims quickly in this dinosaur Pompeii, capturing soft, fragile features not normally preserved in fossils — notably the feathers on animals that had never been known to have them before. Now, with state-of-the-art animation to bring this lost world to life, NOVA investigates the mysterious feathered dinosaurs that are challenging old ideas about the origin of bird flight. The central character in this drama is a strange little dinosaur with wings on its legs as well as its arms. The pigeon-sized microraptor is the smallest adult dinosaur ever found, perhaps the first known tree dweller. But could it really fly? Is it the key to understanding the origin of flight or merely an evolutionary dead end unrelated to the ancestry of birds?

The Botany of Desire

7 p.m. Wednesday

Featuring Michael Pollan and based on his best-selling book, this special takes viewers on an eye-opening exploration of the human relationship with the plant world — seen from the plants' point of view. Narrated by Frances McDormand, the program shows how four familiar species — the apple, the tulip, marijuana and the potato — evolved to satisfy our yearnings for sweetness, beauty, intoxication and control.

Wild! 'Cats & Eagles: Mountain Rivals'

7 p.m. Thursday and
again 9 a.m. Sunday

In the Drakensberg Mountains of South Africa, the black eagle rules the skies. The solitary caracal lynx is a night hunter and one of the most efficient cats on Earth. This is the story of a pair of black eagles, the first ever known to have bred twice in one season and the first on record to have three chicks in one brood. The dramatic story covers two years and a life and death struggle for prey between the caracal and the eagles.

Nature 'Rhinoceros'

8 p.m. Thursday and
again 10 a.m. Sunday

Millions of rhinos once roamed the Earth. There were hundreds of species of all shapes and sizes. But today, the rhinoceros is one of the planet's rarest animals, with three of its species on the brink of extinction. The program follows a team of experts who are working to protect rhinos from poachers — relocating them to better habitats and breeding them in captivity.

P.O.V. 'The Edge of Dreaming'

10 p.m. Aug. 28

Scottish filmmaker Amy Hardie has built a career making science documentaries that reflect her rational temperament. When she dreamed one night that her horse was dying, only to wake and find the horse dead, she dismissed the incident as coincidental. Then she dreamed she would die at age 48 — the next year. When Hardie does get ill, just as the dream predicted, her search takes her to neuroscience experts and finally a shaman. "The Edge of Dreaming" is an evocative, intimate chronicle of that year and a fascinating investigation into the human subconscious.

America's Heartland

8 a.m. Aug. 29

Host Paul Ryan finds that "pleasant smells" sell at a California Lavender farm. Texas cotton farmers face some challenges from nature in getting in the crop. Reporter Sarah Gardner visits West Virginia where farmers harvest hardwoods on their land.