NOVA

As global temperatures rise, scientists are exploring solutions from planting trees to sucking carbon out of the air to geoengineering. But would they work? And what are the risks of engineering Earth's climate?

In October 2020, a NASA spacecraft called OSIRIS-REx attempts to reach out and grab a piece of an asteroid named Bennu to bring it back to Earth. The OSIRIS-REx team has just three chances to extend its spacecraft’s specialized arm, touch down for five seconds, and collect material from the surface of Bennu.

The last remaining master animal-skin parchment maker in the world demonstrates how paper was made in medieval Europe (and why it wasn’t for vegetarians).

The European printing revolution began in Germany in 1448 when goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg began casting letters in metal.

Just as handwritten records changed how societies work, the printing press transformed the spread of information, igniting the Industrial Revolution. How did technologies–from pen to paper to printing press—make it all possible?

Almost all the letters of the Latin alphabet are derived from the hieroglyphs that the Canaanites of Serabit chose to represent the sounds of their tongue.

For tens of thousands of years, Aboriginal culture has been handed down orally through song and poetry without the need to write anything down.

Writing shaped our world and the rise of human knowledge, from the trading of goods to tales of ancient goddesses and kings. Follow the evolution of the written word, from 4,000-year-old carvings in an Egyptian turquoise mine to modern-day alphabets.

When presented with a buffet of custards with varying ratios of protein to sugar, slime mold selects its optimal food source.

Meet the charismatic slime mold Physarum—which can learn, make decisions, and go through mazes without a brain—and the researchers studying it.

Scientists investigate the bizarre “intelligence” of slime molds, which appear to learn and make decisions—without a brain. These cunning, single-celled blobs can navigate mazes and create efficient networks. Can they also redefine cognition?

With an extraordinary new technology called CRISPR, we can now edit DNA—including human DNA. But how far should we go? Gene-editing promises to eliminate certain genetic disorders like sickle cell disease. But the applications quickly raise ethical questions. Is it wrong to engineer soldiers to feel no pain, or to resurrect an extinct species?

Discover how it works in bacterial cells and how it can be applied to other forms of life—including humans.

Bacteria use CRISPR to defend themselves from viruses. Here's how researchers have used it to benefit yogurt cultures since 2007.

Gene-edited babies could be free of sickle cell anemia. David Sanchez, a teen with the disease, shares his thoughts on living with sickle cell—and a possible future without it.

With an extraordinary new technology called CRISPR, we can now edit DNA—including human DNA. But how far should we go? Gene-editing promises to eliminate certain genetic disorders like sickle cell disease. But the applications quickly raise ethical questions. Is it wrong to engineer soldiers to feel no pain, or to resurrect an extinct species?

For animals in Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park, the normal balance of competition and predation was upended when a war wiped out the top predators. The remaining animals didn’t simply grow in numbers—they began behaving in unusual ways, veering outside their typical territories and feeding patterns.

Our producer gets her own blood tested and investigates what exactly these “magic” molecules are, why public health professionals are eager to roll out antibody testing, and just what antibody tests can—and can’t—tell us.

Anyone entering or leaving a building or public space in Wuhan is required to scan special location-marking codes with their phone.

There are more viruses than stars in the universe, and luckily, most are harmless to us. But danger can come when we're exposed to a virus we’ve never encountered before.