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Science Nation

Science Nation

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Sponsored by the National Science Foundation. This series take an engaging look at the breakthroughs and possibilities of new scientific discoveries about our planet, universe, and ourselves.

Computer screens with color-shaded images of a spiral shaped storm. Caption: study hurricanes, tornadoes, and blizzards from the inside.
Science Nation
Episode 1
3 minutes 14 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Person filling a glass from a faucet. Caption: our risk of contracting some form of cancer would go up.
Science Nation
Episode 2
3 minutes 9 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Green landscape with a hillside in the background. A small industrial installation is present. Caption: They don't know where to get information they can trust.
Science Nation
Episode 3
3 minutes 7 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Robotic arms manipulating a small ball. Caption: is pushing the world of robotics and prosthetics
Science Nation
Episode 4
3 minutes 47 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Bolt of lightning arcing from cloud to ground. Caption: we all want up-to-the-minute information.
Science Nation
Episode 5
3 minutes 9 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Cluster of nerve fibers. Caption: that can image deep into biological tissue,
Science Nation
Episode 6
3 minutes 6 seconds
Grade Level: 9 - 12
Dirty water with bubbles and PVC pipes. Caption: and reused again and again in a sustainable loop.
Science Nation
Episode 7
3 minutes 4 seconds
Grade Level: 9 - 12
Person with a fabric cap strapped to their head. The cap has metal rivets and wires attached. Captions: (female) it feels maybe like a mild itchy or tingling sensation.
Science Nation
Episode 8
3 minutes 3 seconds
Grade Level: 9 - 12
Microscopic image showing web-like structures and C shaped tubular organisms. Caption: (narrator) The soil itself is home to a vast number of tiny microbes,
Science Nation
Episode 9
3 minutes 35 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
White glowing orb against a black grid. Caption: Weakly Interacting Massive Particle
Science Nation
Episode 10
3 minutes 19 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Closeup of a circuit board. Caption: The same platform can be used to monitor the environment.
Science Nation
Episode 11
3 minutes 8 seconds
Grade Level: 9 - 12
Computer screen showing the cross section of a human brain. Caption: through active areas of the brain in real-time.
Science Nation
Episode 12
3 minutes 8 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Robotic arm working on an object. Caption: (narrator) The goal is not for robots to replace people altogether.
Science Nation
Episode 13
3 minutes 22 seconds
Grade Level: 9 - 12
Young girl in front of an aquarium. Caption: (narrator) The SciGirls are working together as citizen scientists,
Science Nation
Episode 14
3 minutes 21 seconds
Grade Level: 6 - 9
A large warehouse with a sloping roof. Caption: (narrator) At the Center for Aerosol Impacts
Science Nation
Episode 15
3 minutes 7 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Small furry animal perched on two legs in woody scrub with no leaves. Caption: This is the Arctic ground squirrel.
Science Nation
Episode 16
3 minutes 40 seconds
Grade Level: 9 - 12
Teenage girl sits at a desk and looks at an open laptop while a woman standing beside her looks down at the laptop screen.
Science Nation
Episode 17
3 minutes 3 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Computer screen showing a cross section of the human brain. Caption: and it's a fundamentally new way to see the brain.
Science Nation
Episode 18
3 minutes 8 seconds
Grade Level: 9 - 12
Green, rolling grasses. Caption: marshes like this one seem fated to shrink.
Science Nation
Episode 19
3 minutes 14 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Person holding a smartphone displaying "Galaxy Cluster - The universe is filled with galaxies. 2 billion light years". Caption: It was easier to read than a paper or a book.
Science Nation
Episode 20
3 minutes 8 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Person with a control box in their hands standing next to a short, wide robot with legs. Caption: (narrator) Palmer sees broad applications for these smart legs:
Science Nation
Episode 21
3 minutes 6 seconds
Grade Level: 9 - 12
Map with areas shaded in different colors and patterns. Some locations are identified with text and others have lines of various patters indicating potential behavior of the fire. Caption: Their software will generate behavior models of the fire,
Science Nation
Episode 22
3 minutes 13 seconds
Grade Level: 9 - 12
Person handling a partially ripe strawberry still on the vine. Caption: "What can we plant? What's the rotation strategy?"
Science Nation
Episode 23
2 minutes 50 seconds
Grade Level: 9 - 10
Three researchers in parkas with equipment on a sheet of ice. Caption: and a team are here to study algae,
Science Nation
Episode 24
3 minutes 44 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Computer screen showing the closeup of a human eye with crosshairs over the pupil. Caption: and nearly impossible to fool or spoof.
Science Nation
Episode 25
3 minutes 17 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Computer screen showing a line graph of multiple measurements taken at different times. Caption: to add the ultra-fine layers of semiconducting materials
Science Nation
Episode 26
3 minutes 4 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Person working on a large vertical sheet of ice. Caption: For them, time on the ice is part of the job.
Science Nation
Episode 27
3 minutes 40 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
3D model of the connection of polymers. Caption: the molecules that gave rise to the first polymers of life,
Science Nation
Episode 28
3 minutes 10 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
2 teenage boys sit at a table in a computer lab. They hold a container lid top at the edge of a container to form a ramp for a small robotic vehicle to go down.
Science Nation
Episode 29
3 minutes 6 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Mountain lion in a tree. Caption: They are hard to study.
Science Nation
Episode 30
3 minutes 5 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
The sun seen closely enough to show the light and dark pattern of the surface. Caption: Their mission: put the heat of the sun to work,
Science Nation
Episode 31
3 minutes 10 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Person pumping fuel into a vehicle. Caption: (narrator) And there you have it: synthetic diesel fuel.
Science Nation
Episode 32
3 minutes 18 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Coral with a patch of color and the rest white. Caption: and it can kill multiple species of corals.
Science Nation
Episode 33
3 minutes 5 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Bees in a hive. They have identifying chips glued to their back. One bee is larger than the rest and has bright colored glue affixing the chip. Caption: (male) The queen is well-known, but doesn’t run the show.
Science Nation
Episode 34
3 minutes 8 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Diagram of an orange sphere. Part of the shell of the sphere is removed to show the white interior. On the surface of the sphere are small, brightly colored spots. Caption: help protect against the toxins they make.
Science Nation
Episode 35
3 minutes 1 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Brightly colored tropical fish. Caption: how they work together to execute underwater maneuvers,
Science Nation
Episode 36
3 minutes 2 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Person wearing a cap covered in wires while manipulating controls which guide something on the computer screen in front of them. Caption: how brain circuitry controls how we move.
Science Nation
Episode 37
3 minutes
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Person holding a tubular instrument to their eye. Caption: (narrator) You might say the chemiscope of an agent of change,
Science Nation
Episode 38
3 minutes 1 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Young woman wearing headphones speaks into a microphone and faces away from camera in a darkened foreground. A young man and young woman watch her through a window in the background.
Science Nation
Episode 39
3 minutes 11 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
3D graphic of a mostly cylindrical object with a rotor on top against a backdrop of grass and buildings. Caption: the brain's signal to control the quadcopter.
Science Nation
Episode 40
3 minutes 3 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Complex machinery with a platform. Caption: a treatment or vaccine for a particular patient.
Science Nation
Episode 41
2 minutes 40 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Two people standing next to a large telescope with MEADE on the side. One person looks in the eye piece. Caption: they look way out to the Kuiper Belt,
Science Nation
Episode 42
3 minutes 4 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Gloved hand holding a round plastic object and putting an electronic chip into it. Caption: to incorporate nanotechnologies into the process.
Science Nation
Episode 43
3 minutes 14 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Gloved hand holding two small dark discs. Caption: to bring ultra-high-temperature ceramics to marketplace.
Science Nation
Episode 44
3 minutes 3 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Setting sun as seen through tall wild grasses. Caption: to harness the sun's energy to make renewable fuels.
Science Nation
Episode 45
2 minutes 39 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Close up circuitry. Penny included for scale. Circuitry is smaller than the penny. Caption: at the University of Maryland are building microrobots,
Science Nation
Episode 46
2 minutes 56 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
City with closely placed buildings almost entirely destroyed, very few still standing. Caption: new design standards and building codes.
Science Nation
Episode 47
2 minutes 43 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Test tubes of blood. Caption: use biomarkers: biochemical signatures in blood,
Science Nation
Episode 48
2 minutes 47 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Fish with a suction cup at the mouth area holding on to a nearly vertical surface. Caption: and suction cup that holds to the surface.
Science Nation
Episode 49
3 minutes 8 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Closeup of a green, circular plant with a white center. Caption: have the ability to make diesel-like fuels.
Science Nation
Episode 50
2 minutes 45 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
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Major funding provided by the Department of Education