Episode 1
Salmon on the Run
55m
NOVA captures the breathtaking power and determination of these amazing creatures and examines how business and technology are changing the fishing industry—and the salmon itself.
Where to watch NOVA
TV series
NOVA
1974TV-PG53 seasons7.0 / 10
PBS' premier science series helps viewers of all ages explore the science behind the headlines. Along the way, NOVA demystifies science and technology, and highlights the people involved in scientific pursuits.
Streaming, rental and purchase options
Where to watch in United States
Checked Sep 1, 2026
NOVA is available to stream on DirecTV On Demand, Hoopla, Prime Video, and YouTube TV in United States. You can also rent or buy it from Google Play, Amazon, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home. Use the direct links below to open the provider.
Synopsis
PBS' premier science series helps viewers of all ages explore the science behind the headlines. Along the way, NOVA demystifies science and technology, and highlights the people involved in scientific pursuits.
Season 9 episodes
Choose an episode, then use the watch options above for the show.
Episode 2
Test-Tube Babies: A Daughter For Judy
55m
NOVA presents a dramatic, exclusive film of the first "test-tube" baby born in America, Elizabeth Jordan Carr. NOVA follows the pregnancy from the start, presenting the only view on American TV of the extraordinary medical procedures used to remove and fertilize the egg, and of the historic birth, 28 December 1981 in Norfolk, VA.
Where to watch NOVAEpisode 3
Field Guide to Roger Tory Peterson
55m
NOVA takes an intimate look at Roger Tory Peterson, the man whose best-selling guide books to ornithology have played a pivotal role in turning birdwatching into a mass sport.
Where to watch NOVAEpisode 4
The Hunt for the Legion Killer
55m
One of the biggest investigations in medical history began when a mysterious killer disease broke out during independence celebrations in Philadelphia in 1976: Legionnaires' disease. NOVA traces the search for a cause and cure—a search bedeviled by false trails, accusations of incompetence and cover-up, and increasing urgency as the death toll mounted.
Where to watch NOVAEpisode 5
Finding a Voice
55m
What is it like not to be able to communicate with others? NOVA explores the severest of speech disabilities with Dick Boydell—born with cerebral palsy, confined to a wheelchair and unable for 30 years to say more than "yes" or "no" and investigates some of the new technology that gives the speechless a "voice."
Where to watch NOVAEpisode 6
The Television Explosion
55m
NOVA explores the past, present, and future of American television including the potential of cable, the Columbus, Ohio, two-way TV experiment, the array of new techniques and their potential social impact. Will the new video technology let people see what they really want, rather than what the networks want?
Where to watch NOVAEpisode 7
Life: Patent Pending
55m
NOVA shows how scientists go about creating new forms of life, and investigates the impact of the gene bonanza on industry, medicine, and the universities themselves. NOVA reveals that other countries are plowing far more resources than the US into the burgeoning industry.
Episode credits
Directed by Robert ZaliskWritten by Robert Zalisk
Episode 8
Palace of Delights
55m
NOVA visits San Francisco's Exploratorium—part laboratory, part school, part three-ring circus—run by an unlikely collection of physicists and high school students.
Where to watch NOVAEpisode 9
Animal Impostors
55m
In this vivid study of mimicry and camouflage NOVA shows dramatically how snakes, butterflies, fish, turtles and many other kinds of animals, both predators and their intended victims, use remarkable forms of deception to achieve their goal: to eat, or avoid being eaten.
Where to watch NOVAEpisode 10
Aging: The Methuselah Syndrome
55m
What is aging? Why does it happen? Can it be stopped? NOVA presents a startling report on research into the processes which make us age and how to control them.
Where to watch NOVAEpisode 11
The Case of the UFOs
55m
For the first time on television a rigorous, scientific investigation into the fact, fiction, and hoax of Unidentified flying objects. With vivid film and accounts from several eyewitnesses including astronauts, NOVA sifts the evidence for and against the existence of UFOs.
Where to watch NOVAEpisode 12
The Fragile Mountain
55m
The Himalayas, highest peaks in the world, are crumbling. People are making them crumble, and people are the victims, as NOVA reveals in this breathtaking documentary.
Episode credits
Guest stars Robin King
Episode 13
Here's Looking At You Kid
55m
Of the 70,000 Americans hospitalized annually for severe Burns, one-third are children. NOVA tells the story of extraordinary personal resilience in an 11-year-old boy's fight to recover from burns suffered over 73 percent of his body.
Where to watch NOVAEpisode 14
Adventures of Teenage Scientists
55m
NOVA introduces some of the winners of the 1982 Westinghouse Science Talent Search: high school students whose interests range from silkworms to solar cells. With education facing a deepening financial crisis, will this year's group of well-trained young scientists be among the last of the best and the brightest?
Where to watch NOVAEpisode 15
The Cobalt Blues
55m
An investigative report on US dependence on foreign sources of strategic minerals, vital to the aerospace and steel industries, which examines and questions Reagan Administration policies toward those international sources.
Where to watch NOVAEpisode 16
Goodbye Louisiana
55m
NOVA reports on the staggering water problems of Southern Louisiana—where the mighty Mississippi is threatening to change its course, and where last year 49 square miles of coastline disappeared into the Gulf of Mexico.
Where to watch NOVAEpisode 17
Whale Watch
55m
NOVA follows the great grey whales along their annual marathon migration from the Arctic to the Mexican coast and reveals little known facts about the mating and feeding habits of the gentle giants.
Where to watch NOVAEpisode 18
Tracking The Supertrains
55m
While America's passenger-train service deteriorates, trains in Japan and Europe are speeding ahead at over 150 miles per hour. NOVA reports that the super-fast trains are finally coming to America.
Where to watch NOVAEpisode 19
The Making of a Natural History Film
55mfinale
To celebrate its 10th broadcast season, NOVA repeats the very first NOVA program every aired, a fascinating and delightful program about how wildlife films are made.
Where to watch NOVAEpisode information updated Sep 2, 2026
More about NOVA
Cast
Corey JohnsonNarrator
Jay O. SandersSelf - Narrator (voice)
Demetri GoritsasNarrator
Richard SmithHost
Lance LewmanNarrator (voice)
Ted MarcouxNarrator
Peter ThomasNarrator
Brian GreeneHostProduction details
- Status
- Returning Series
- Series type
- Documentary
- Episodes
- 1,025
- Original language
- English
Networks & production
PBSUnited States
GBHUnited States
Themes
candiddramaticfactualinspirationalinstructivenature
