NOVA Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Memorial Day Programs Honor Veterans, Look Back 70 Years to D-Day

West Virginia PBS presents a lineup of programming for Memorial Day 2014, as well as the 70-year anniversary of D-Day. The centerpiece of PBS’ salute to veterans is the twenty-fifth installment of the live broadcast of the National Memorial Day Concert, co-hosted for the ninth consecutive year by Joe Mantegna and Gary Sinise. PBS also pays tribute to veterans and their families with Coming Back With Wes Moore. Moore’s search for answers to some of the most difficult questions facing returning vets.

Honoring the anniversary of one of the greatest invasions in history, new special D-DAY 360 uses cutting-edge technology to bring the battlefield to life as never before. Science series NOVA will present “D-Day’s Sunken Secrets,” which follows the collaboration among military historians, archaeologists and specialist divers to survey the underwater wreck sites bordering the D-Day beachheads.

Special programs and limited series include:

Coming Back With Wes Moore

Tuesdays, May 13-27 at 8 p.m.

Coming Back With Wes Moore, a new three-episode series executive produced by best-selling author and U.S. army veteran Wes Moore, tells the story of his search for answers to some of the most difficult questions facing vets returning from war. Moore’s journey, spurred by the suicide of one of his oldest friends and a fellow officer, takes him into the personal lives of different soldiers as they attempt to reintegrate into society, establish new identities and — for many — find a new mission. Each episode focuses on a different stage of coming home: “Coming Back” (May 13), “Fitting In” (May 20) and “Moving Forward” (May 27).

NATIONAL MEMORIAL DAY CONCERT (2014)

Sunday, May 25 at 8 p.m., repeating 9:30 p.m.

http://video.wvpublic.org/video/2365231383/

Joe Mantegna and Gary Sinise co-host the 25^th anniversary broadcast of this night of remembrance honoring the service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform, their families at home and all those who have given their lives for our country. They will be joined by Colin L. Powell, Dianne Wiest, Danielle Bradbery, Megan Hilty, Jackie Evancho and Anthony Kearns in performance with the National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of top pops conductor Jack Everly. Featuring a unique blend of uplifting musical performances and dramatic readings, the multi- award-winning program airs from the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol before a concert audience of hundreds of thousands, millions more at home, as well as to our troops serving around the world on the American Forces Network. Mantegna and Sinise are co-hosting for the ninth consecutive year.

D-DAY 360

Tuesday, May 27 at 9 p.m.

D-Day was a logistical effort on a scale never seen before or since. On the day itself, 3,000 planes dropped 23,000 airborne troops behind German lines, and 7,000 ships delivered around 20,000 military vehicles and 130,000 soldiers onto the beaches. Once on the shore, the troops had to negotiate two million mines buried in the sand, 46,000 fearsome beach obstacles and hundreds of miles of barbed wire, while dodging the shells and bullets fired by 40,000 German defenders. This film takes advantage of LiDAR technology to re-create the landscape and allow viewers to switch effortlessly between the macro and the micro — pulling back for the big picture and zooming in to a close-up of a single soldier on the battlefield.

NOVA: “D-Day’s Sunken Secrets”

Wednesday, May 28 at 9 p.m.

On June 6, 1944, the Allies launched the D-Day invasion against the heavily defended Normandy beaches to liberate Europe from the Nazis. Throughout the operation, hundreds of ships sank while running the gauntlet of mines and bunkers, creating one of the world’s largest underwater archaeological sites. Now, 70 years later, teams of historians, archaeologists and specialist use submersibles, underwater robots and the latest 3D mapping tools to discover, identify and plot the relics on the sea floor. “D-Day’s Sunken Secrets” also highlights the story of an often neglected group of heroes essential to the success of the D-Day invasion and to winning the war: the engineers.

Other military themed programs airing this month include Nazi Mega Weapons, a three-part series that uncovers the engineering secrets of iconic megastructures, on Wednesdays, April 30-May 14 at 10 p.m. NOVA premieres “Escape From Nazi Alcatraz,” May 14 at 9 p.m. and rebroadcasts “Bombing Hitler’s Dams” on May 21 at 9 p.m. On May 20 at 9 p.m. PBS will premiere Escape From A Nazi Death Camp, which explores the most successful prison revolt of the war.

Live With Mule Deer, Go Inside Animal Minds on #pbsThinkday

Learn what it’s like to live among wild mule deer, dig into the remarkable senses of dogs, sharks, and birds, and then uncover what we’ve inherited from our reptilian ancestors on Think Wednesday, April 16 beginning at 8 p.m. on West Virginia PBS!

Nature kicks off the night with Touching the Wild, the story of Joe Hutto who has dedicated seven years of his life to becoming a wild mule deer. Ordinarily, the deer herd would run from any human, but these keenly intelligent animals come to regard this stranger as one of their own. As he crosses the species divide, Hutto taps into a new understanding of these elusive animals. His joy in his new family is infectious, but this human predator also learns to see the world from the point of view of prey — and it’s an experience that will rock him to his core; sharing their world so personally takes a toll that sends him back to his own kind.

Next, Inside Animal Minds: Dogs & Super Senses begins at 9 p.m. NOVA asks, “What is it like to be a dog, a shark or a bird?” This question is now getting serious attention from scientists who study animal senses. Humans rely on smell, sight, taste, touch and sound; other animals have super-powered versions of these senses, and a few have extra senses we don’t have at all. From a dog that seems to use smell to tell time to a dolphin that can “see” with its ears, discover how animals use their senses in ways we humans can barely imagine. But it’s not just the senses that are remarkable — it’s the brains that process them. NOVA goes into the minds of animals to “see” the world in an entirely new way.

Finally, Your Inner Fish explores Your Inner Reptile. A key moment in our evolutionary saga occurred 200 million years ago, when the ferocious reptile-like animals that roamed the Earth were in the process of evolving into shrew-like mammals. But our reptilian ancestors left their mark on many parts of the human body, including our skin, teeth and ears.

Find it all on #pbsTHINKday!

Wednesday is #pbsTHINKday

Join West Virginia PBS every week for “Think Wednesdays,” a primetime line-up of nature, science and technology programs.

http://youtu.be/srPcsbvXdtk

“Think Wednesday” launches at 8 p.m. on April 9 with PBS’ long-running series Nature, presenting the best in original, natural history filmmaking. New episodes highlight animal prosthetics, Japanese snow monkeys and wild mule deer.

At 9 p.m., NOVA, the highest-rated science series on television and the most-watched documentary series on public television, premieres the three-part “Inside Animal Minds,” which explores breakthroughs in the revolutionary science of animal cognition, focusing on three iconic creatures — birds, dogs and dolphins.

At 10 p.m., see the premiere of the new three-part series Your Inner Fish and discover how the human body became the complicated, quirky and amazing machine it is today. Hosted and based on the best-selling book by paleobiologist Neil Shubin.

#pbsTHINKday

Fifty years later, NOVA investigates the assassination of John F. Kennedy

NOVA: Cold Case JFK premieres Wednesday, November 13 at 9 p.m. on West Virginia PBS

In Cold Case JFK, NOVA follows a unique group of experts trying to unravel the lingering mysteries of the Kennedy assassination. What should have been a homicide investigator’s best-case scenario—a crime that occurred in broad daylight in front of hundreds of witnesses—instead became a forensics nightmare in a case plagued by a mishandled crime scene, a controversial autopsy, and a prime suspect gunned down while in police custody.

NOVA combines cutting edge technology and contemporary scientific techniques with archival footage and expert interviews to recreate the crime and the Warren Commission’s investigation–examining the shooting, the assassination scene, the medical information and wounds, and the evidence found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository.

The film features several exclusive elements: For the first time since the original investigation by the FBI laboratory, forensic scientists trained and experienced in both firearms identification and shooting scene reconstruction review and evaluate the ballistics evidence in the JFK assassination. These experts apply new technology, not available until recently, to this historic crime.

http://video.wvpubcast.org/video/2365105347/

Renowned JFK assassination expert and professor John McAdams weighs in on the findings of the original Warren Commission, the deficiencies of the medical and autopsy evidence, and the lack of understanding on the part of the Kennedy camp on the need for a forensic autopsy at the time.

Veteran investigator Josiah Thompson also studies the most famous “eye witness” account of that day: the 8mm Zapruder film—perhaps the best known “home movie” in history–which captures the shooting and wounds sustained by both the president and the Texas governor as their motorcade rides through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas.

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy was a defining moment in our nation’s history and one that continues to perplex us. It was also the murder of a man. A half-century later, the shooting remains controversial to a majority of the public that doubts the Warren Commission findings that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. In Cold Case JFK, NOVA shows viewers the importance of re-examining the evidence of prior eras using the technology and tools of today to try to unlock the secrets of the past and yield important new insights.