Naked Science

The traditional thinking said that as the sun aged and its gravitation pull weakened, the Earth would gradually slip away and meet its end. Using cutting edge models, experts in climatology, biology, geology and astronomy are able to project millions, perhaps billions, of years into the future. They conjecture that supercontinents will form and then splinter, the oceans will float into space, and all life will become extinct from the planet.

Solar storms, disruptions of the complex magnetic fields on the Sun, cause serious problems on Earth. One storm approximately 150 years ago fried telegraph lines around the world. Another in 1989 resulted in a massive power blackout in Canada. Implementing a Japanese satellite trained on the Sun's surface, scientists are hoping they can predict when and where the next big one will erupt.

The hardest known substance on Earth is known for its value and beauty. Scientists believe diamonds could also hold incredible possibilities for the future. Their incredible durability and their unique properties could revolutionize everything from computer chips to space explorations. All diamonds, however, contain minor flaws. What science must do is create a perfect "super diamond"

When the Earth was being formed, it was too hot to include water in the mix. Scientists came to believe that the liquid covering most of our planet's surface was brought here via comets. Recent research reveals that the moisture held by comets varies somewhat from the liquid that now fills our oceans, so where else could the water have come from? New theories incorporating different sources have been proposed.

The Ice Age came to a sudden end some 18,000 years ago. Ice caps melted, driving up ocean levels and glaciers receded, sculpting the land and forming the features we recognize today. There was a major extinction of species that could not adapt to the rapid change in environment. With the planet heating up again, scientists hope to learn about the past to help us cope with future changes.

The Galileo probe was the first craft to orbit an outer planet, making incredible discoveries about the liquid and gas Jupiter that's 90,000 miles across. It found evidence of liquid water on Europa, one of the planet's 63 moons, and intriguing motions underneath Jupiter's surface raised speculation of possible life under the sueface. This episode looks below the clouds to discover what is happening on the giant planet.

New evidence about the star Mira shows a brief but important moment in the death of a star. At some point, our sun will reach the same milestone and it has grave implications for life on Earth.

Astronomers continue to study black holes to understand what role they play in the universe. Scientists understand that their incredible pull can swallow nearby stars and entire galaxies and that they warp time and space. Investigators use the equations of Einstein and theories of Hawking to figure out what the inside of a black hole looks like and what time, place, or dimension lies on the other side.

As the glaciers retreated some 14,000 years ago at the end of the Ice Age, the Great Lakes were revealed and began to fill. Scientists still debate about the formation of the world's largest bodies of fresh water. Perhaps they were carved out by those massive glaciers or maybe they were caused by an ancient comet that exploded in that area.

The Earth is built to last. It is 4.5 billion years old. It has taken more devastating asteroid hits in its lifetime than you've had hot dinners, and it still orbits happily around the sun. But physics is a curious thing and it can harness devastating power -- enough even to destroy the world. Naked Science will analyze antimatter, black holes and even more amazing means of destruction -- and the havoc they could wreak on a planet. So strap in, buckle up, and enjoy the ride to doomsday.

An imaginary vehicle circling the planet is used to highlight the surprises that exist beneath the Earth's crust. Life is discovered in the crust deep in a South African gold mine; a huge gun is fired to determine how crust reacts to an asteroid. Another scientist proposes a new theory to explain how diamonds move from the Earth's mantle to the surface.

With the power of a nuclear bomb, hurricanes cause incredible damages in several ways: the storm surge, the winds themselves, and the massive flooding which causes the most causalities. This episode examines the forces at work inside the monster storms that result in such power and destruction.

Super Tuesday (2/5/2008) saw an unprecedented outbreak of 87 tornadoes in five states. What was most shocking was where many of them happened: in Kentucky, outside of the traditional "tornado alley". Storms have been growing stronger in recent years, clocking wind speeds of 300 mph. Scientists examine factors involved in the changes,including global warming and the northward movement of the jet stream.

Venus and Earth are roughly the same size but have gone on different paths over billions of years. On its hostile surface, it rains battery acid and temperatures reach 900 degrees. The Venus Express spacecraft in 2006 detects lightening, leading scientists to wonder if chemicals supporting life are possible. Organisms could not survive on the surface but in the clouds its much cooler and water vapor exists.

Focusing on Zambelli Internationale of New Castle, Pennsylvania, the U.S. leaders in fireworks displays, the episode examines the closely guarded recipes and techniques used to stage spectacular shows. The behind-the-scenes work required to make one of the Zambelli displays go off without a hitch is revealed. Rocket scientists from Los Alamos, New Mexico also are interviewed.

Many scientists, including those at NASA, believe that large meteors plow into the Earth rarely, only every 50 to 100 thousand years. A group of scientists headed by Dr. Ted Bryant believe it's much more often than that. They've found evidence that a huge meteor hit a mere 500 years ago, causing a devastating tsunami that struck Australia. The scientists search coastlines and oceans floors for evidence of previous impacts.

Both catastrophic and gradual forces have been at work to form the American West's most famous landscapes. This episode looks at the greatest volcanic eruption in history that occurred near the San Juan Range of the Rocky Mountains, the staggering flood of 500 cubic miles of water that carved out the Washington Scablands, and the slow effects of wind erosion that has resulted in Monument Valley.

NASA plans to establish an outpost for humans on the moon by 2020. There are many new developments that need to take place beforehand, like developing a rover that can travel long distances and a system for finding frozen water at the poles.

Stephen Hawkings has helped our understanding of the Universe in so many ways and he is still determined to find out more. See what some of his theories and discoveries have helped him discover.

No one knows where the asteroid came from that hit the Earth 65 million years ago and wiped out the dinosaurs. They aren't even sure how it wiped out the species. New evidence suggests that dinosaurs' days were already numbered some 100 million years before the catastrophic collision. Scientists tell how it happened and predict what would happen if another 8-mile-wide asteroid were to hit our planet today.

Weekly earthquakes began rattling Reno, Nevada in 2008. Soon, several tremors strong enough to be felt were happening each day. The frequency soon escalated until hundred had been recorded. Seismologists have been monitoring the swarm and wondering if this is all building up to one major quake and the destruction of the city.

This episode examines the effects of a hypothetical radiological attack from a car bomb on a major U.S. city. The purpose is to give useful information in the event that such an event should occur. The stories of several characters are told to dramatize the effects on various types of people: those responding in the "hot zone", a person near to the blast whose symptoms develop over time, a pregnant woman who must evacuate, and investigators who comb through debris to determine who set the blast.

In 2008, and for the first time in history, scientists were able to track an asteroid on a collision course with Earth. It hit in the desert in Sudan, very close to where experts predicted. Scientists believe we should be much more concerned about these smaller asteroids and the possibility of them impacting a populated area. They believe emergency management programs should be planning for such an event, just as they would a hurricane or earthquake. This episode looks at what could happen if an area like San Francisco should need to be evacuated because of an impending collision.

Overlooking the picturesque city of Napels, Italy is the active volcano Vesuvius. Its history includes hundreds of eruptions, the most well-known being the eruption in 79 A.D. that wiped Pomeii off of the map. Scientists have no doubt it will erupt again and will cause even more death and destruction as the area's population continues to grow. Their job now is to try and predict when the inevitable will happen.

France's Lascaux region is home to the famous caves decorated with drawings by prehistoric man. Scientists and historians have long though they represented the simple concerns of the people of that time: hunting and gathering, for example. Now, some scientists believe the drawings represent much more than that; they believe they show an advanced knowledge of the night skies and of the stars which moved through the skies.