GBH Openvault

NOVA ScienceNow; How Does the Brain Work

12/09/2010

Packaged Green Label Master

License Clip

This program cannot be made available on Open Vault.

More material may be available from this program at the GBH Archives. If you would like research access to the collection at GBH, please email archive_requests@wgbh.org.

Series

NOVA ScienceNow

Program

How Does the Brain Work

Program Number

503

Series Description

Premiered January 2005 NOVA scienceNOW is a new series produced by NOVA. For more than three decades, NOVA has been unrivaled in bringing authoritative, innovative, and entertaining science documentaries to television. Now the same award-winning producers have teamed up with veteran reporter Robert Krulwich to cover the timeliest developments and intriguing personalities in science and technology today. Presenting multiple stories in a magazine format hosted by Krulwich and reported by a diverse team of correspondents in the field, NOVA scienceNOW will air five times a year in the NOVA time slot.

NOVA scienceNOW has named Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, respected scientist, author, and director of the Hayden Planetarium in the Rose Center For Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History, to host the science magazine series with the launch of its second season in the Fall of 2006. Series release date: 1/25/2005

Program Description

This episode of NOVA scienceNOW delves into some pretty heady stuff, examining magic and the brain, artificial intelligence, magnetic mind control, and the work of neuroscientist and synesthesia researcher David Eagleman. Can we really believe our own eyes? Will machines one day think like us? Can magnetic wands effectively control brain functions and treat depression? Explore this and more.

Magic and the Brain: Are the secrets behind the world's greatest magic tricks actually wired into the human brain? Eccentric magicians Penn and Teller and Las Vegas trickster Apollo Robbins team up with neuroscientists to reveal how our brains process visual information. Can you really believe your own eyes?

Magnetic Mind Control: Obi-Wan Kenobi used it to get his droids past policing stormtroopers in Star Wars. But now the thrilling, terrifying prospect of controlling another's mind using invisible forces is stepping out of the movies and into the lab, as scientists "hack" into the human brain using targeted magnetic fields. Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, or TMS, is now being used not only to explore brain functions but also to treat mental depression, with surprisingly powerful results.

Profile: David Eagleman: How does the brain construct reality using the information it takes in? Neuroscientist David Eagleman is using a unique brand of "guerilla science" to study time perception—dropping people 100 feet into a net—and synesthesia, a bizarre crossing of the senses in the brain.

Can Machines Think Like Us: Can we make a robot that really thinks, learns, and acts like us? Replicating the human brain is a lot tougher than it looks; the promise of walking, talking "androids" is still just a fantasy. But scientists are edging closer with machines like Watson, an IBM computer which is gearing up for a first-of-its-kind challenge: taking on human contestants on the game show Jeopardy.

Duration

00:56:40

Asset Type

Broadcast program

Media Type

Video

Genres

Magazine

Topics

Science

Creators

Linde, Olicker (Series Producer)

Citation

Chicago: “NOVA ScienceNow; How Does the Brain Work,” 12/09/2010, GBH Archives, accessed July 26, 2024, http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_6BEED5F7306C4CEA8773BB0F81C6A568.

MLA: “NOVA ScienceNow; How Does the Brain Work.” 12/09/2010. GBH Archives. Web. July 26, 2024. <http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_6BEED5F7306C4CEA8773BB0F81C6A568>.

APA: NOVA ScienceNow; How Does the Brain Work. Boston, MA: GBH Archives. Retrieved from http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_6BEED5F7306C4CEA8773BB0F81C6A568