Naked Science

The moon's effect on Earth has been considerable. It's gravitational pull may have made life on our planet possible. In more modern times, some think it affects our behavior. Still others think it causes earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Naked Science investigates the perplexing science behind human sexual attraction. To solve the mystery of sexuality Naked Science explores all aspects of attraction such as the beating pulse, sweaty palms, hormone extravaganza, and nervousness.

It generates heat and sustains life on our planet. But like humans, the sun has a limited lifespan. As our star ages, it will become hotter and expand, evaporating all of our oceans and killing all life on planet Earth. Don't panic yet--we have a few billion years before this happens.

As odd as sounds, global warming may be rushing the planet into the next ice-age. The Big Freeze could come with no warning, resulting in a massive extinction of species and changing life on Earth. Is the next cold snap nearer than we think?

Before you label it "modern technology", you might want to check your history books. 2000 years ago the Romans developed much of what makes modern urban life possible and comfortable. Their achievemnts range from flowing clean water to the bikini.

In over 200 years of study, scientists are still unsure of what stimulates a lightning strike. One current theory suggests that cosmic rays could be the trigger. The odd phenomenon of ball lightning is examined, as well as recently discovered sprites that emanate upward from clouds and into the middle atmosphere.

The last great unexplored territory on Earth lies in the depths of the planet's oceans. The bottom of the sea is home to explosive volcanoes and massive earthquakes generating tsunamis that cause massive destruction along the coasts. These extreme depths are inhabited by large and long-lived creatures, many still unknown to science.

Explosives have gone from gunpowder to the A-bomb in relatively short order. The future may lie in the stuff of science-fiction: anti-matter. Scientists are currently at work on this even more powerful and deadly explosive force.

In the space of 500 years, eighteen of these huge monuments were built. Focusing more on the "who" than the "how" of their construction, forensic anthropology learns that it wasn't slaves that built the pyramids, as originally thought. The facilities that housed the workers have been unearthed, giving a clearer picture of the mammoth project that was pyramid building.

All of the Earth's landmasses were once clumped together, forming one giant "supercontinent" known as Pangea. Slowly, it was torn apart, broken up into the modern day continents. Those same forces are still at work beneath the planet's surface, moving the continents and constantly reshaping our planet as they collide, buckle, and rise up to form new mountain ranges. Looking ahead hundreds of millions of years, the Earth will look nothing like the one we know today, the continents having reshaped the surface completely.

This episode attepmts to answer the question, "Where did everything in space and on our planet come from?" Travel back to the very beginning of the universe when it all started. Also, astronomer Edwin Hubble offers his thoughts that the universe used to be much smaller than it is now.

Some dearly departed have had their bodies put into a deep freeze, hoping one day medicine will have a cure for what ailed them. Critics consider the use of cryonics to bring back the dead a fool-hearty idea. It's an unproven science that faces many obstacles to success, especially in the formation of ice crystals that damage the body's cells. Cameras follow cryonicists to document the processes they employ in prepping a body for freezing. On the more practical side, scientists are making real progress in preserving individual organs for later transplantation into sick individuals.

Since the advent of DNA analysis, many of the traditional forensic techniques have been shown to have a questionable scientific basis. This episode examines several long-trusted methods, including fire and firearm investigations, and tests to see how they hold up.

Incredible heat was needed to turn sand in an Egypt desert into yellow-green glass. Searching for clues as to what could generate such heat, scientists first looked at the 1908 Tunguska event in Siberia; the wide-spread destruction is believed to have been caused by an exploding asteroid. Viewing the 1994 collision of a comet with Jupiter provided scientists with answers. The huge fireball that it generated was validation of their theory that an asteriod impact some 30,000 ago could easily have turned an Earth desert into glass.

Dominant life forms have been wiped out before as our planet has a history of mass extinctions. A huge asteroid impact is credited with the passing of the dinosaurs, but what caused the others? This hour examines three of the major extinctions in the Earth's history and the possibily of another occurring.

Earthlings may one day develop the technology to visit other planets, but could we survive their hostile environments? This hour examines the extreme surface conditions of the planets within our solar system, as well as some that lie beyond.

For well over a century, critics have charged that Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species can't possibly explain the development of life on our planet. They counter with the belief in "Intelligent Design". This hour seeks to put science to the test to see how wrong, or right, Darwin was.