Technology

Building the Sun The 250 Million Degree Problem

2017 Technology

Scientists investigate the way the Sun builds its power -- through fusion -- hoping to find a way to use fusion as a less dangerous and less radioactive waste-producing path to energy than fission. But there are some major difficulties along the way. Fusion really is the perfect way to make energy. We have millions of years worth of fuel. It ...produces no long-lived radioactive waste. If we can solve the engineering challenges, energy will become cheaper, more available for everybody. Show More

Series: Catalyst

Can We Build a Brain

2018 Technology HD

Artificially intelligent machines are taking over. They’re influencing our everyday lives in profound and often invisible ways. They can read handwriting, interpret emotions, play games, and even act as personal assistants. They are in our phones, our cars, our doctors’ offices, our banks, our web searches... the list goes on and is rapidly g ...rowing ever longer. But how does today’s A.I. actually work—and is it truly intelligent? And for that matter, what is intelligence?
The world’s brightest computer programmers are trying to build brighter machines by reverse-engineering the brain and by inventing completely new kinds of computers, with exponentially greater speed and processing power. The documentary looks at how far we’ve come and where machines are headed as their software becomes ever more... cerebral. How close are we from a world in which computers take over—from diagnosing cancer to driving our cars to targeting weapons? If we place more and more of our lives under the control of these artificial brains, what are we putting at risk? Show More

Series: Nova Wonders

Can We Hack the Planet

2017 Technology

Humanity is under threat - from storms that seem to get ever fiercer, earthquakes that seem ever more deadly, and killer viruses that are engulfing the globe. Some scientists think it's time for us to fight back. Can we - should we -hack the planet?

Series: Through the Wormhole Season 8

Can We Make a Star on Earth

2009 Technology

Could nuclear fusion hold the answers to the energy crisis? It is the process that has forged all matter in the universe. It lights the stars and it is what transformed the lighter atoms that formed in the Big Bang into heavier atoms. In Can We Make a Star on Earth?, Brian Cox peers beyond the glare of our Sun to reveal the hidden forces that ... provide its power. He discovers how this fusion energy has kept our closest star burning for five billion years. Brian believes humanity must build a star on Earth to ensure survival. Will scientists be able to harness fusion power and achieve abundant, cheap, clean energy? Show More

Catching the Sun

2016 Technology

The film captures the global challenge to lead the clean energy future by profiling U.S. and Chinese workers and business leaders who are racing to make crucial breakthroughs in the field. Catching the Sun debunks a false dilemma that clean energy requires sacrificing economic prosperity.
Through the stories of an unemployed American wor ...ker, a Tea Party activist, and a Chinese solar entrepreneur, we will explore the global energy transition from the perspective of workers and entrepreneurs building solutions to income inequality and climate change with their own hands. Their successes and failures speak to one of the biggest questions of our time: will the countries actually be able to build a clean energy economy? Show More

Changing Work Changing Workers

2021 Technology

As the landscape of work shifts, do we need a drastic rethinking of social safety nets? Do businesses need offices? Is a 9-to-5 workday valid? Does the nation need a drastic rethinking of the social safety nets? Does America face a 'post-work' era, or will there be increased inequities in how we make our livings? ... Show More

Series: Future of Work

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