Mathematics: Data Analysis

Antarctica: A Challenging Work Day
What happens when the ground under your feet is ice and it's moving? This video segment adapted from NOVA features some of the dangers faced by scientists conducting research in Antarctica.

Antarctic Ice Movement: Part I
This video segment adapted from NOVA explains why ice sheets move. To find out how fast they move, scientists carve a tunnel through a glacier.

Are We Alone?
This video segment adapted from NOVA features a variety of scientific perspectives on the age old question, "Are we alone in the universe?" Animations make vivid the improbability that we could intercept a radio wave signaling extra terrestrial intelligence.

Caves: Extreme Conditions for Life
This video segment adapted from NOVA raises the provocative idea that if life can exist in the most extreme environments on Earth — such as in dark, toxic caves — then perhaps living things can also survive in harsh environments on other planets.

Climate Change
This video segment adapted from NOVA explains the difference between weather and climate and features groundbreaking analysis revealing that Earth's climate has changed much faster than previously believed.

Dating Lava Flows on Mauna Loa Volcano, Hawaiʻi
In this video segment adapted from NOVA, scientists search for carbonized remains of plants preserved in lava flows to find out how long it has taken rain forests on Hawaiʻi to regenerate after a volcanic eruption.

Earthquake Prediction
This video segment adapted from NOVA tells the tragic story of two Japanese seismologists who disagreed about the threat of earthquakes in the early twentieth century. Today, seismologists in California offer residents a probability of risk that an earthquake might occur.

Earthquakes: The Prehistoric Record
In this video segment adapted from NOVA, a geologist digs a trench along the San Andreas Fault to reveal three thousand years of earthquake history. Information from the layers of sediment may help geologists to predict earthquakes.

Everest: Test Your Brain
This interactive feature from the NOVA "Everest" Web site lets you take the same brain quizzes that researchers used to test the brain function of climbers on Mount Everest.

Explore a Stretch of Code
Try your hand at reading a segment of genetic code in this interactive feature from the NOVA "Cracking the Code of Life" Web site.

Finding Disease Genes
This video segment from NOVA: "Cracking the Code of Life" explains the process of finding genes that cause disease.

Genetic Variation
This video segment from NOVA: "Cracking the Code of Life" explores the genetic similarities and differences among organisms.

Global Warming: Graphs Tell the Story
Examine these graphs from the NOVA/ FRONTLINE Web site to see dramatic increases in the temperature of Earth's surface and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Gravity and the Expanding Universe
This video segment, adapted from NOVA, traces the evolving history of theories about gravity and a force that may oppose it, along with our understanding of the impact of both of these forces on our expanding universe.

How Do Tornadoes Form?
In this video segment adapted from NOVA, scientists use computer simulations to explore the question of how supercell thunderstorms produce tornadoes.

Human Genome Project
This video segment from NOVA: "Cracking the Code of Life" looks at the meaning and significance of the effort to decode the human genome.

Imaging with Radar
This interactive activity from NOVA features synthetic aperture radar (SAR), which uses radio waves to create high-quality images. Examine SAR images of Washington, D.C., and learn about this technology's unique advantages.

Journey into DNA
Travel deep into the human body to see exactly where your DNA resides. From the NOVA: "Cracking the Code of Life" Web site.

Lightning Hunters
Find out how scientists and engineers use rockets to attract lightning in this video segment adapted from NOVA.

Mount Pinatubo: Predicting a Volcanic Eruption
This video segment adapted from NOVA relates the dramatic story of vulcanologists trying to predict the timing of the cataclysmic eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines.

Oil Spill: Exxon Valdez, 1989
This video segment adapted from NOVA follows the clean-up effort after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off the coast of Alaska. Also featured is a marsh where an oil spill occurred 20 years earlier; analysis suggests that environmental damage may last for decades.

The Origin of the Moon
This video segment adapted from NOVA follows the Apollo 15 astronauts as they collect samples of ancient rock from the Moon's crust, whose discovery helps lead to a radical new theory about the Moon's origin.

Robot Race
In this video segment adapted from NOVA, cars drive themselves. Teams of designers using different technologies compete for a two-million-dollar prize to see which unmanned vehicle will make it to the finish line first.

The Sequencing Race Begins
This video segment from NOVA: "Cracking the Code of Life" looks at one of the key players in the race to decode the human genome.

Sound Waves Underwater: The Loch Ness Monster
This video segment, adapted from NOVA follows a team of enthusiasts and scientists who attempt to find a trace of the Loch Ness monster by scouring the lake with sonar.

A Strange New Planet
This video segment adapted from NOVA features the first planet to be discovered outside our solar system. Its surprisingly large size and short orbit sent scientists back to their data and led them to discover similar planets.

Synthesizing an Alkaloid
In this video segment, adapted from NOVA, learn how chemist Percy Julian revolutionized chemistry by synthesizing the alkaloid physostigmine from scratch—the first total synthesis of a chemical compound.

When Did the First Americans Arrive?
In this video segment adapted from NOVA, recent archeological evidence leads scientists to revise existing theories about human migrations into the Americas around the time of the last ice age.