Washoe County Library System

When Columbus stepped ashore in 1492, millions of people were already living in America. It wasn't exactly a 'New World,' but an old one whose inhabitants had built a vast infrastructure of cities, orchards, canals, and causeways. But after Columbus set foot in the Americas, an endless wave of explorers, conquistadors, and settlers arrived, and with each of their ships came a Noah's Ark of plants, animals, and disease. Here is an exploration into...

"NOVA presents a provocative mix of scientists, economists, and ordinary citizens who are all pushing the envelope of solar power's untapped potential"--Container.

On October 4, 1957, the space age dawned with the red hue of the Communist flag when the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite. Sputnik stunned the world and spurred the U.S. into massive spending on science education and innovation. Fierce political and personal rivalries collided over how and when the U.S. should enter space. President Eisenhower wanted a satellite to spy on the Russians but feared their response to an overtly military...

A biography of Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th president of the United States, serving between 1963 and 1969.

From producer Mark Davis, is the story of two talented scientists, O.C. Marsh and Edward Cope, whose once professional rivalry soured into a bitter personal feud. Together, Marsh and Cope were responsible for identifying more than 142 different species and for introducing dinosaurs into the American imagination, but their legacy would be forever marred by two decades of ruthless infighting, espionage, and sabotage.

How far would you go to sustain the life of someone you love or your own? When the moment comes, and you're confronted with the prospect of 'pulling the plug', do you know how you'll respond? Unfounded rumors of federal 'death panels' grabbed headlines last summer, but the real decisions of how we die, the questions that most of us prefer to put off, are being made quietly behind closed doors, increasingly on the floors of America's intensive care...

In the era before antibiotics, tens of thousands of immigrant patients were separated from family, detained in the hospital on Ellis Island, and healed from illness before becoming citizens. 350 babies were born, and ten times that many immigrants died on Ellis Island and were buried in pauper's graves around New York City.

John Brown, considered the father of American terrorism, was an inspiration to the Civil Rights movement. He was a farmer, a warrior, a family man and an avenging angel. More than 150 years after his execution, questions swirl around John Brown: was he a madman or a martyr? A bloodthirsty fanatic or a great American hero? Dramatic reenactments trace John Brown's obsessive battle against human bondage.

One summer afternoon in 1922, a petite, elegant woman faced a packed arena on Long Island for what would be her last big shooting exhibition. Even at age 62, Annie Oakley never missed. She was one of the greatest sharpshooters of all time, thrilling crowds across America and Europe, feted by princes and presidents -- the first American woman ever to become a superstar. Oakley's beginnings were more than humble--her childhood horrific--but she had...

Four years after one of history's worst nuclear accidents, NOVA reveals the minute-by-minute story of the Fukushima nuclear crisis and its ongoing aftermath, told by the brave workers who stayed behind as an earthquake and tsunami crippled the plant.