EPISODE GUIDE

PLANE CRASH
28 October
In a television first, scientists recreate a groundbreaking experiment (but survivable) 737 passenger jet crash landing into the desert in order to allow experts to study the crashworthiness or the aircraft as well of the impact of crashes on the human body. With an unprecedented number of cameras, crash test dummies and science experiments on board, the world's leading aviation experts attempt to pull off what NASA unsuccessfully tried thirty years ago, capturing a plane crash as it unfolds to uncover ways of improving airline safety. 

THE DEVIL’S TRIANGLE
4 November
Ships disappear without a trace and airplanes vanish into thin air.  Researchers from the nation’s top institutions are turning to science to explain the mysteries surrounding the Bermuda Triangle. Could methane bubbles shooting up from underground sink a ship?  Are rogue waves responsible? Could a rare form of lightening bring down a plane?  Using big, stunt-style experiments, scientists put all of these theories to the ultimate test.

NEFERTITI: MUMMY QUEEN MYSTERY
11 November
Her beauty is legendary. Her power, unprecedented for a woman in the ancient world, but at the height of her rule, Queen Nefertiti literally vanishes from the pages of history. Now, archaeologist Dr. Zahi Hawass is embarking on a new investigation to locate Nefertiti’s missing mummy. Tracking down fragments of ancient carvings and following her bloodline through cutting-edge deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) analysis, Dr. Hawass reveals that nothing in Nefertiti’s history is quite as it seems. It’s a trail that will take his team from tombs deep beneath the Saharan Desert, to state of the art labs in downtown Cairo and right across Europe. Surprising new evidence from the famous Berlin Bust provides new clues about who the great queen really was, while new DNA findings promise to unlock her genetic code and will perhaps lead us, after all these centuries, to gaze once more at the face that launched a thousand myths.

BRAINWASHED
18 November
Are we truly in command of our own minds? Can a word or gesture turn us into puppets for others to control? To find out, a hypnotherapist along with a group of Ivy League neurologists, psychologists and doctors embark on an audacious and unprecedented science experiment to see if ordinary people can be brainwashed and turned into assassins.

MARS LANDING 2012
25 November
This new search for life provides detailed coverage of NASA’s incredible Curiosity rover and its recent landing on the surface of Mars. The mission: to find out whether or not Mars has, or ever had, the chemical building blocks to support life. This one-hour special will focus on the science and the technology involved to bring this project to fruition using a combination of incredible footage, amazing graphics, interviews and informed news updates.

CURIOSITY continues in December with 

BATTLEFIELD CELL
2 December
Every day, each of one of our trillions of cells engages in a life and death struggle with enemy intruders. Based on the latest scientific research combined with new imaging and CGI technologies,CURIOSITY goes inside one human skin cell's 48-hour battle to the death with a killer virus.

MEGASTORM
9 December
From its formation in the Caribbean through its intensification in Cuba to the devastation that it wreaked across the East Coast of the United States, travel back into the eye of the storm as discover what made Hurrican Sandy so powerful. Using on-the-ground expert analysis, computer-generated imaging (CGI) animation and satellite imaging, this episode explores how four distinct phenomena combined to create a storm of such magnitude. Hear the incredible, harrowing stories of those who experienced this traumatic event firsthand and recount what it was like as Sandy engulfed their city.

VOLCANO TIME BOMB
16 December
Millions of people live in the shadow of active volcanoes. Predicting when they will erupt is nearly impossible. But scientists around the world are getting closer to unlocking a volcano’s deadly secrets. Using CGI compositing techniques, the world’s leading experts take us on an expedition into the heart of these monsters to show us how they all work and why they are so difficult to understand. We then go into the lab to see the latest techniques that just might help them predict when the next eruption will occur. 

CAN YOU LIVE FOREVER?
23 December
Will we one day be able to live forever? If so, when? It is the year 2,967 and Adam Savage is 1,000 years old. He looks back on his long life revealing how medical science in the 21st century transformed his body, creating a supercharged cyber-human, allowing him to live forever. Along the way, we’ll learn about brain downloads, self-regenerating organs, and full body transplants; all in the name of becoming the world’s first 1,000 year old man.

X-RAY: YELLOWSTONE
30 December
From trying to predict when the super volcano underground might erupt to why wolves are decimating the elk population, to what triggers deadly avalanches and spreads raging forest fires, to what makes peregrine falcons one of world's most lethal hunters, researchers at this treasured park have many unanswered questions. Featuring scientific firsts and new imaging technologies, scientists expose the hidden wonders of this incredible wilderness.

CURIOSITY fuels inquiry through January with:

THE SUN
6 January
Our star is entering a new phase of violent activity and massive solar storms could devastate our society. But what do we really know about the sun and its inner workings? In a visual first, we create a virtual sun and set the world’s top solar scientists on an expedition through the sun from the nuclear engine at its heart, all the way to its surface and beyond.