Any animal, be it a blue whale, botfly, or human, starts out as a single, fertilized cell. In this NOVA interactive, try to match a series of embryos to their adult forms, and then watch each creature develop during a portion of its early growth.

This video excerpt from NOVA: “Japan’s Killer Quake” describes how an earthquake on the ocean floor can cause an enormous wave—a tsunami—on the ocean’s surface.

Researchers caught, tagged, and released crows to see if they can recognize the face of a person who’s a threat. They discovered the crows were warning each other that the person in the mask was dangerous — even generations after it the initial capture.

Learn about the evolution of whales and the discovery of an ancestral whale fossil with traits that indicate that it could live both on land and in water with this video from NOVA: When Whales Could Walk.

What is the evolutionary purpose of fat? Learn how fat provides the human species with physiological advantages in these videos from NOVA: The Truth About Fat.

In 1912, Albert Einstein had a revolutionary idea: what if gravity wasn’t a force at all, but the result of warped space and time? To understand gravity, Einstein had to rethink space and time as a single connected fabric.

Ever wonder what makes planets seem like perfect spheres? Explore how gravity and rotation influence the shapes of objects in space with this video from NOVA Solar System: Strange Worlds.

Learn about the cognitive abilities of dolphins in this video excerpt from NOVA scienceNOW: "How Smart Are Animals?" In one experiment, dolphins display the ability to think and plan ahead to get a fish out of a box more efficiently.

Meet bionic innovator Hugh Herr in this profile from NOVA’s The Secret Life of Scientists & Engineers. As a teenager, Hugh was a climbing prodigy; however, at the age of 17, an accident left him without legs. Today, Hugh designs bionic limbs for amputees.

Equipped with an 8.4-meter mirror and a 3.2-billion-pixel camera—the largest digital camera ever built for astronomy—the Rubin Observatory is poised to revolutionize how we see the cosmos.

Sit back and relax to the sound of the ocean and discover the science behind sunsets with this digital short from NOVA.

What could you possibly have in common with a mushroom, or a dinosaur, or even a bacterium? More than you might think. Create phylogenetic trees and explore genetic relationships between species with NOVA's Evolution Lab.

Learn about the mites, bacteria, and fungi that make cheese delicious, in this episode of Gross Science from NOVA.

Learn about optogenetics, a revolutionary technique to map and manipulate memories, in this video from NOVA: Memory Hackers. In this clip, a neuroscientist demonstrates how they can trigger pleasant memories in a mouse's brain to create a feeling of safety.

Learn how artificial intelligence tools can improve patient care by looking for patterns in body scans to predict the probability of cancer with this video excerpt from NOVA: A.I. Revolution.

Paleontologists analyze concretions—hard orbs of minerals that can collect around material like bone—and discover fossils of mammals that lived on Earth just after an asteroid killed the dinosaurs.

Human botflies, also called Dermatobia hominis, are insects from Central and South America that feast on animal flesh 🤢 Learn how doctors use bacon therapy to remove botflies, in this episode of Gross Science from NOVA.

Learn why studying asteroids provides scientists with clues about Earth’s formation and early history, in this video from NOVA: Touching the Asteroid.

At Corral Bluffs, Colorado, paleontologist Tyler Lyson discovers rare mammal fossils that paint a picture of the first million years after an asteroid killed the dinosaurs.

Not every scoop of ice cream can be described as “fateful.” But a batch of ice cream Erasto Mpemba made as a teenager in Tanzania in 1963 made waves in physics that are still being felt nearly 60 years later.