THE RACE FOR ABSOLUTE ZERO

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7 @ 6:00PMM & 9:00PM

Air-conditioning, refrigeration, and superconductivity are just some of the ways technology has put cold to use. But what is cold, how do you achieve it, and how cold can it get? NOVA explores these and other facets of the frigid in two one-hour programs.

The two-part special follows the quest for cold from the unlikely father of air-conditioning, the court magician of King James I of England in the 17th century, to today’s scientists pioneering superfast computing in the quantum chill near absolute zero—the ultimate extreme of cold at minus 273.15 C (minus 460 F).
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THE ADIRONDACKS

TUESDAY, MARCH 5 @ 7:00PM & 11:00PM

The Adirondack Park sprawls across six million acres in upstate New York. Bigger than Yellowstone, Yosemite, Glacier and Grand Canyon National Park combined, it is by far the largest park in the lower 48 states. Yet it is the only one on the continent in which large human populations live and whose land is divided almost evenly between protected wilderness and privately owned tracts. This patchwork pattern of land ownership has created an utterly unique place.

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IN PERFORMANCE AT THE WHITE HOUSE

A BROADWAY CELEBRATION

THURSDAY, DECEMBER, 2 @ 8:00PM & 11:00PM

“A Broadway Celebration: In Performance at the White House” will premiere Wednesday, October 20 at 9 p.m. ET on PBS stations nationwide. The sixty-minute television special is emceed by Nathan Lane and includes Idina Menzel, Brian d’Arcy James, Audra McDonald, Chad Kimball, Elaine Stritch, Marvin Hamlisch, Karen Olivo, Tonya Pinkins, Assata Alston and a youth ensemble from the Joy of Motion Dance Center and Duke Ellington School of the Arts, with Danielle Arci and Constantine Rousoul

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NOVEMBER 26 @ 6:30PM & 11:30PM

On this special Thanksgiving edition of Need to Know, we bring you some of our best coverage on soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and the ongoing troubles they face even after they return home.

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SONDHEIM! THE BIRTHDAY CONCERT

SATURDAY, MARCH 17 @ 6:00PM

In a year chock full of star-studded 80th birthday tributes to legendary Broadway composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, the March 15–16 gala evenings with the New York Philharmonic at New York’s Lincoln Center stood tall.

The concert includes songs and orchestral pieces from Sondheim musical theater favorites such as Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, Into the Woods, and Sunday in the Park with George.
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QUEST FOR SOLOMON’S MINES

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 26 @ 11:00PM

Countless treasure-seekers have set off in search of King Solomon’s mines, trekking through burning deserts and scaling the forbidding mountains of Africa and the Levant, inspired by the Bible’s account of splendid temples and palaces adorned in glittering gold and copper. Yet to date, the evidence that has claimed to support the existence of Solomon and other early kings in the Bible has been highly controversial. In fact, so little physical evidence of the kings who ruled Israel and Edom has been found that many contend that they are no more real than King Arthur.

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LENNON NYC

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4 @ 6:00PM & 11:00PM

This fall, as the world remembers John Lennon on what would have been his 70th birthday, and the 30th anniversary of his death, American Masters airs LENNONYC, a new film that takes an intimate look at the time Lennon, Yoko Ono and their son, Sean, spent living in New York City during the 1970s.

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Behind the genius, outspokenness, and mischievous antics of the much-loved “smart Beatle,” John Lennon (Christopher Eccleston, Doctor Who), is an artist whose struggle with childhood abandonment by his father shapes and nearly undermines his every relationship.

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THE DAWN OF DEMOCRACY

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 25 @ 8:00PM & 11:00PM

Against the glorious backdrop of ancient Greece, classical historian Bettany Hughes (The Spartans, Helen of Troy) explores the truth about the “Golden Age” of ancient Athens. Far from an environment of peace and tranquility, democratic Athens was a bloody, tumultuous place of both brilliant ideas and a repressive regime with a darker side.

SECRETS OF STONEHENGE

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20 @ 11:30PM

Dated to the late Stone Age, Stonehenge may be the best-known and most mysterious relic of prehistory. Every year, a million visitors are drawn to England to gaze upon the famous circle of stones, but the monument’s meaning has continued to elude us. Now investigations inside and around Stonehenge have kicked off a dramatic new era of discovery and debate over who built Stonehenge and for what purpose. How did prehistoric people quarry, transport, sculpt, and erect these giant stones? Granted exclusive access to the dig site at Bluestonehenge, a prehistoric stone-circle monument recently discovered about a mile from Stonehenge, NOVA cameras join a new generation of researchers finding important clues to this enduring mystery.

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