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NOVA

Einstein's Big Idea

Season 32 Episode 13

Over 100 years ago, Albert Einstein grappled with the implications of his revolutionary special theory of relativity and came to a startling conclusion: mass and energy are one, related by the formula E = mc2. In "Einstein's Big Idea," NOVA dramatizes the remarkable story behind this equation. E = mc2 was just one of several extraordinary breakthroughs that Einstein made in 1905.

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Explore the promise and perils of new A.I. technologies.
NOVA Season 51
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53:10
Follow the quest to recover DNA millions of years old for the very first time.
Building the Eiffel Tower
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53:29
Explore the engineering behind Paris’s iconic landmark, the tallest structure of its time.
Easter Island Origins
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53:17
New evidence reveals the real story of Easter Island and the builders of its stone heads.
When Whales Could Walk
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53:31
Giant fossils uncovered in the Sahara Desert reveal new secrets of how whales evolved.
Lee and Liza's Family Tree
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53:31
A family turns to science in their struggle to rediscover a history obscured by slavery.
The Battle to Beat Malaria
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Follow the quest to create a lifesaving malaria vaccine.
Inside China's Tech Boom
53:19
The inside story of China’s meteoric rise to the forefront of global innovation.
Ancient Earth: Humans
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53:15
How did Earth give rise to humans? See what made our species' existence possible.
Ancient Earth: Inferno
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53:45
How did life bounce back after a cataclysmic extinction wiped out some 90% of all species?
Ancient Earth: Life Rising
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53:47
See how life made the leap to land, turning a barren landscape into a lush, green world.
Ancient Earth: Frozen
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53:46
How did life survive on a planet covered in ice from pole to pole?
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