Science fare Oct. 31, 2009
10/30/2009
NOVA: Family that Walks On All Fours
Ch. 9.1 — 7 p.m. today
Ch. 5.1 — 11 a.m. Sunday
An intense scientific debate has ignited around a quiet but extraordinary family living in rural Turkey — a family with five adults who walk on all fours. Since bipedality has long been considered one of the defining characteristics of modern humans, such a discovery raises fascinating questions about genetics, society and the evolutionary history of our species. Is this the anthropological find of the millennium or simply a unique medical case? In this moving documentary, NOVA sets out to unravel the controversy and meet the individuals who have captured the imagination of scientists around the world.
Nature: Cloud, Challenge of the Stallions
Ch. 9.1 — 8 p.m. today
Ch. 5.1 — 10 a.m. Sunday
The returning saga of Cloud, the wild, white stallion finds us back in the Arrowhead Mountains of Montana. Cloud is now a confident band stallion in his prime. As he rules the mountains, gathering mares and expanding his reign, the story turns to his two sons. Bolder is his by birth — beautiful and golden, the success of his father and grandfather flowing in his veins. Flint, sired by another stallion, is the colt Cloud raised. Now, Bolder has gathered some mares of his own while Flint has joined a group of bachelor stallions, young guns roaming the mountains. Who will rise to challenge the mighty Cloud? Will nature or nurture produce the next great stallion of the Arrowheads?
Wild!: Wildlife Filmmakers: The Most Dangerous Game
9 a.m. Sunday
An exhilarating look at camera teams from all over the world risking life and limb to capture some of the most riveting wildlife scenes ever seen.
Nature: Born Wild, The First Days of Life
Ch. 5.1 — 7 p.m. Sunday, 8 p.m. Thursday and 10 a.m. Nov. 8
Ch. 9.1 — 8 p.m. today
Follows the birth and first day of several species, from marmoset to moose to elephant and gorilla.
Civilian Conservation Corps: American Experience
9 p.m. Monday
In March 1933, within weeks of his inauguration, President Franklin Roosevelt sent legislation to Congress aimed at providing relief for the one out of every four American workers who were unemployed. He proposed the Civilian Conservation Corps to provide jobs in natural resource conservation. Over the next decade, the CCC put more than three million young men to work in the nation's forests and parks, planting trees, building flood barriers, fighting fires and maintaining roads and trails. Corps workers lived in camps under quasi-military discipline, and received a wage of 30 dollars per month, 25 of which they were required to send home to their families. This film tells the story of one of the boldest and most popular New Deal experiments, positioning it as a pivotal moment in the emergence of modern environmentalism and federal unemployment relief.
NOVA "Becoming Human - Part 1"
Ch. 5.1 - 8 p.m. Tuesday and again 9 p.m. Thursday and 11 a.m. Nov. 8
Ch. 9.1 - 8 p.m. Wednesday and again 7 p.m. Nov. 7
NOVA presents a definitive three-part special that investigates explosive new discoveries that are transforming the picture of how we became human. The first program explores fresh clues about our earliest ancestors in Africa, including the stunningly complete fossil nicknamed "Lucy's Child." These three-million-year-old bones from Ethiopia reveal humanity's oldest and most telltale trait, upright walking, rather than a big brain. The second program tackles the mysteries of how our ancestors managed to survive in a savannah teeming with vicious predators, and when and why they first left the African cradle to colonize every corner of the earth. In the final program, NOVA probes a wave of dramatic new evidence, based partly on cutting-edge DNA analysis, that reveals new insights into how we became the creative and "behaviorally modern" humans of today, and what really happened to the enigmatic Neanderthals who faded into extinction.
Frontline "The Medicated Child"
9 p.m. Tuesday
With over four million children now on behavior modifying medications — some starting as young as two years old — Frontline continues its investigation into the controversial practice of medicating kids. Are the drugs safe? How young can you detect mental illness in a child? Is
medication really the answer? As the debate grows more fierce, Frontline confronts psychiatrists, researchers and big pharma about the risks and benefits of prescription drugs for troubled children.
Wild! "The Secret of Cats"
7 p.m. Thursday and again 9 a.m. Nov. 8
An intimate portrait of nature's big cats "told" by an expert on feline behavior, a domestic cat. Secrets of lions, tigers, pumas and more are uncovered, including how they brush their teeth, which actually like to get wet and what similarities there are between housecats and wild cats.
Independent Lens "Power Paths"
10 p.m. Nov. 7
Part of KNME's Native American Heritage Month programming (throughout November)
This program follows the efforts of American Indian tribes as they explore ways to bring renewable energy projects into their communities. From the Sioux tribes of Great Plains in the Midwest to the Navajo and Hopi of the Southwest, tribes are fighting to protect their land, air and water from the harmful impacts of mining and burning coal on their lands. This program documents how young Native leaders formed the Just Transition Coalition and succeeded in a legal battle to close a large dirty coal plant not far from Las Vegas, which sends electricity to California. "Power Paths" follows their efforts to bring training and new jobs in renewable energy, installing solar energy and large wind turbines on their lands. Now for the first time in 60 years, Native Americans may receive some economic justice for the harm caused to their natural resources.
Nature "Black Mamba"
Ch. 5.1 - 7 p.m. Sunday and again 8 p.m. Thursday and 10 a.m. Nov. 15
Ch. 9.1 - 8 p.m. Saturday
The black mamba is one of Africa's most dangerous and feared snakes, known for being very aggressive when disturbed. Rearing up with its head four feet above the ground, it strikes with deadly precision, delivering venom that is packed with three different kinds of toxins and is ten times more deadly than needed to kill an adult human. Without treatment the mortality rate is 100 percent, the highest among all venomous snakes in the world. Until now, little has been known about the black mamba's natural behavior in the wild because in Africa most people kill a black mamba on sight and feel lucky to have done so. But in the tiny country of Swaziland in southern Africa, a team of herpetologists has an entirely different "take" on these creatures and hopes their six-week study will change public perception of what they feel is the world's most misunderstood snake.