E-MAIL: NOVA scienceNOW will be broadcast

[L. Coyote]

Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2007 12:16:31 -0400
Subject: NOVA scienceNOW, July 31 2007


NOVA is excited to partner with organizations that share our passion for scientific discovery. On
Tuesday, July 31 we invite you to join us for a rebroadcast of NOVA scienceNOW, our magazine-style
sister show hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson. You are receiving this email because we think that at
least one of next week's segments lines up with the work that your organization does. So check out
the descriptions below, see what sparks your interest, and we hope you'll help us spread the word
about the show to friends, family, and colleagues who might want to tune in!

NOVA scienceNOW will be broadcast Tuesday, July 31 on most PBS stations. Check your local listings
to confirm when it will be broadcast near you:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/schedule-local.html

In this episode:

MASS EXTINCTION: Long before the dinosaurs, something triggered Earth's most profound mass
extinction and reset the nature of life on this planet. Scientists believe that volcanoes may have set a
deadly cycle in motion, spewing greenhouse gases that changed the chemistry of our ancient oceans
and poisoned life under water as well as on land. Host Neil Tyson unravels a fascinating whodunit
that could serve as a cautionary tale on modern-day global warming.

1918 FLU: Almost 90 years ago, a simple flu virus turned into one of the deadliest pathogens in
human history, killing as many as 50 million people. To make sure that avian flu never takes the
same deadly toll, a CDC researcher is reconstructing the lethal 1918 virus and combining it with
modern bird flu. His goal is to create an avian flu virus with the ability to infect from human to
human---exactly the virus scientists are trying to prevent. Could a lethal virus from the past
helping to prevent another one in the future?

PAPYRUS: Excavated from the municipal dump of an ancient city in Roman-ruled Egypt, a half-million
fragile, 2,000-year-old papyri fragments now sit packed away in a vault at Oxford University.
NOVA scienceNOW joins teams of top scholars and papyrologists as they face a frustrating and
tantalizing mystery: how to decipher the thousands of charred, stained, and unreadable texts from our past
before they turn to dust and are lost forever. Could the same multispectral imaging technology
that astronomers use to "see through" clouds of gas in space help papyrologists see into an obscure
and fascinating past?

CYNTHIA BREAZEAL: "If you look at the field of robotics today, you can say robots have been in the
deepest oceans, to Mars, to all of these places, but they're just now starting to come to your
living room---the final frontier for robots," claims plucky young roboticist Cynthia Breazeal, the
foremost expert in the development of "sociable robots"---machines that are not just smart but that
can communicate and interact the way people do. As LG Career Development Professor of Media Arts
and Sciences at the MIT Media Laboratory, Breazeal is developing robots that will be more than
just technological tools--they will become, Breazeal hopes, our partners.

Thanks, and enjoy the show!

--NOVA

To receive our weekly behind-the-scenes newsletter "NOVA This Week," email kathryn_becker aatt wgbh.org

--
Kate Becker
NOVA Promotion
www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova

[L. Coyote]

1. NOVA THIS WEEK: JULY 25, 2007

Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2007 16:28:01 -0400
Subject: NOVA This Week: July 25, 2007

NOVA THIS WEEK: JULY 25, 2007

Death, destruction, and 2,000-year-old taxes
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You know the old saying about death and taxes. In this week's NOVA scienceNOW rebroadcast, get
some historical perspective on that chestnut with a trip back more than 250 million years, when a
mysterious mass extinction killed off the majority of life on this planet and wiped the slate clean
for evolutionary newcomers--like dinosaurs. Then, in a more contemporary look at death and
destruction, meet the CDC researcher who is engineering a blend of modern bird flu and the lethal 1918 flu
pathogen--an experiment that, he hopes, will prevent bird flu from taking the 1918 flu's deadly
toll.

Next, meet the scholars who are deciphering 2,000-year-old tax declarations--along with bits of
the New Testament, lost works of Sophocles and Euripides, and everyday ephemera--excavated from the
municipal dump of an ancient city in Roman-ruled Egypt. Could multispectral imaging technology
reveal text obscured on these ancient papyri?

Finally, step into the future with MIT's Cynthia Breazeal, the foremost expert in the development
of "sociable robots," machines that are not just smart but that can communicate and interact the
way people do. Breazeal and her cutting-edge research have landed on the cover of Discover and U.S.
News & World Report.

This episode of NOVA scienceNOW will air Tuesday, July 31 on most PBS stations. For your local
broadcast schedule, visit http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/schedule-local.html


Codebreaking Challenge
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Tuesday night, NOVA scienceNOW introduced you to the codebreakers trying to decipher Kryptos, a
coded sculpture at CIA headquarters. In that spirit, we've coded up our own secret message. Want to
try your hand? Check it out here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/


Neil deGrasse Tyson featured on Comedy Central's Daily Show
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Neil deGrasse Tyson joined Jon Stewart at The Daily Show news desk Monday night. Tyson talked up
the awe-inspiring immensity of the universe, pondered the beginning of life on Earth, and offered
tips for speed-cooking pizzas on Venus. The cosmic moral? "So many among us have such huge egos,"
said Tyson. But "you look out into the universe and you can't possibly sustain such
self-importance." Find the video clip at
http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_daily_show/videos/most_recent/index.jhtml.


28th Annual News and Doc Emmys
****************************************************************
Last week, NOVA was honored with three News and Documentary Emmy Award nominations. The nominees:

* Arctic Passage: Historical Programming, Long Form (Paula Apsell, Melanie Wallace, Louise Osmond,
Chris Schmidt)
* The Mummy Who Would Be King: Writing (Gail Willumsen)
* Monster of the Milky Way: Editing (Tony Breur, Daniel McCabe)

The awards will be presented September 24 in New York City.



--
Kate Becker
NOVA Promotion
www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova

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