
Back to Show
Watch Preview
NOVA
NOVA Wonders Can We Make Life?
Season 45
Episode 105
"It's alive!" Since Dr. Frankenstein spoke those famous words, we've been alternately enthralled and terrified by the idea of creating life in the lab. Now, a revolution in genetic engineering and thrilling innovations in synthetic biology are bringing that dream—or nightmare, as the case may be—closer to reality. New tools allow researchers to use cells to create their own DNA.
Sign up now for inspiring and thought-provoking media delivered straight to your inbox.

Unlock with PBS Passport
53:31
Who created the Nazca lines and why? New clues to one of the greatest ancient enigmas.

Unlock with PBS Passport
53:32
Meet one of the ocean’s most beautiful and destructive species: Lionfish.

53:47
Psychedelics are unlocking new ways to treat conditions like addiction and depression.

53:30
Is artificial intelligence making policing and courts fairer, or is it increasing bias?

Unlock with PBS Passport
53:43
A team tackles the restoration of iconic Notre Dame Cathedral.

Unlock with PBS Passport
53:31
Can innovative engineering projects save Venice?

53:33
Can innovative drugs and therapies finally end HIV?

53:33
Discover how NASA engineers built and launched the most ambitious telescope of all time.

53:43
Ancient footprints provide new evidence of humans and extinct giant beasts of the Ice Age.

Unlock with PBS Passport
53:20
How could a single ship cause a major supply chain crisis around the globe?

53:16
Sir David Attenborough explores a site with traces of ancient mammoths and Neanderthals.

53:30
In the Arctic, enormous releases of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, threaten the climate