Walt Disney World
Season 2, Episode 1 TV-14
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Journey underground and backstage at the technological marvel that is Walt Disney World. Enter a make-believe world spanning some 27,000 acres, brought to life by cutting-edge technology. What was once Florida swampland now boasts the world's largest theme park. The ride technology ranges from space-age centrifuges to enhanced motion vehicles powered by 3,000 PSI of hydraulic pressure. And hundreds of audio animatronics brought to life through the power of pneumatics, hydraulics, and electrical systems. Walt Disney World is made up of four separate theme parks, each with its own innovations: the 107-acre Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney-MGM Studios, and Disney's Animal Kingdom. The four parks are all part of a megaplex of a resort. Twice the size of Manhattan, it was the final vision and crowning achievement of a man who spent more than 40 years pushing the limits of technology to create entertainment magic: Walt Disney.
Superhighways
Season 2, Episode 2 TV-14
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On this episode of Modern Marvels we'll construct, and deconstruct, the roundabout ribbons that comprise the world's Superhighways. Our road trip starts in Houston, Texas where a multi-billion dollar expansion project is widening a stretch of superhighway to a spacious 20 lanes. Then we're off to China's 28,000-mile National Trunk Highway System. We'll take a ride atop the High-Five, a 12 story, five level interchange that's become the latest Dallas tourist attraction. We'll go to MIT and discover how a single distracted driver can cause a major traffic jam. We'll take a ride along two of the most stunning superhighways in the world, I-70 through Glenwood Canyon and H-3 on the island of Oahu, and learn why building them was anything but paradise. Finally, we'll play a cutting edge video game that's training emergency personnel how to unclog a clogged superhighway.
Gadgets 3
Season 2, Episode 3 TV-14
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Explore the hottest trends in gadgets, how they've evolved and where they're going. See how the latest miniaturized, mobile gadgetry can fit all the technology that once filled an entire office into a single briefcase. Visit Brookstone, the ultimate gadget store. We'll meet a gadget collector who's turned his home into a gadget museum. And we'll visit basement inventors who have developed everything from an iron you slip over your hand to smart appliances that talk back. Revisit some of the original gadgets like the corkscrew and zipper and see how some gadgets evolve into new forms. Discover which gadget inventors may hold tomorrow's hottest new trends and learn why some gadgets succeed while others crash and burn.
Locomotives
Season 2, Episode 4 TV-14
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Zip through the French countryside at nearly 300 MPH on the TGV--the fastest locomotive in the world. Ride on the little engines that could as they guide giant ships through the Panama Canal. Watch two locomotives crash head-on as the federal government monitors safety. Descend 700 feet below the earth's surface where mining locomotives move miners through a maze of tunnels. Then, it's a "jiffy lube" for locomotives inside America's largest maintenance shop. Finally, glide into the future with a locomotive that levitates on a cushion of air.
Bread
Season 2, Episode 5 TV-14
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It's the basic source of nourishment for half the world--bread. Bake it, roast it, slice it, toast it--it's a wonder that three simple ingredients, flour, water and salt, can be transformed into so many different shapes and tastes. From baguettes to pita, from corn bread to flour tortillas, every culture finds a way to make it and bake it.
Strange Weapons
Season 2, Episode 6 TV-14
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Modern arsenals have become much more sophisticated than bullets and bombs. Discover microwave-like rays that make the enemy flee when they feel the heat and laser weapons, mounted on trucks and airplanes that can blow missiles out of the sky. Some of the newest non-lethal weapons include a B.B. machine gun that can fire 150 pain-causing pellets a second and a flashing device nicknamed "the pukelight" that may make you lose your lunch. Finally examine ancient weapons that include a cutlery set containing hidden pistols and Ninja hand claws that would put the X-Men's Wolverine to shame.
World's Strongest III
Season 2, Episode 7 TV-14
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Witness some mind-blowing feats of strength starting with the world's most powerful elevators--one lifts fighter jets, the other lifts a giant stage filled with acrobats. Discover the world's strongest tire and the monster mine machine it rolls with. Take a 35-foot drop on the world's strongest mountain bike. See the world's strongest land transport vehicle that carries the Space Shuttle. Finally mix some drinks or chop a telephone into dust with the biggest and strongest home blender you've ever seen.
90's Tech
Season 2, Episode 8 TV-14
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The dot com decade opened up the information superhighway and for the first time, people could shop, search, and surf online with the click of a mouse. Take a trip back to the end of the 20th century and the beginning of today's trendy technologies and see how the gadgets we can't live without all started in the 90s. Learn about the science of creating an Internet search engine and explore how virtual pet toys were born.
Milk
Season 2, Episode 9 TV-14
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On Modern Marvels: Milk, we'll visit a farm with a milking parlor for 80 cows that looks more like a bovine merry-go-round. At the Driftwood Dairy processing plant, we'll find out what's so hot about pasteurization. Later, we'll see how a specialty foods manufacturer in Wisconsin converts thousands of gallons of raw milk into tanker loads of sweetened condensed milk, by boiling off about 85% of its water in an enormous three-story evaporator. At Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, we'll tip a glass with one of the top dairy tasting teams in the country, as they sip, swish, and spit out various milks. We'll peek inside one of the world's largest butter churns, located at the Darigold Creamery in Issaquah, Washington, and we'll visit one of Dannon's busy plants to see what's so active about yogurt. We'll even milk a yak with an artisan cheese-maker outside of Seattle, Washington. Get ready to meet more breeds of dairy cows than you knew existed, and to find out if milk really does the body good.
Carbon
Season 2, Episode 10 TV-14
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All life forms, including us, are built upon atoms of carbon. But modern technology is also built on a foundation of carbon. On Modern Marvels: Carbon, you'll find out just how versatile this simple element can be. We'll see why carbon is the key both in heavy-duty industries, like Pennsylvania's steel mills and North Dakota's coal-fired power plants, and in amazingly useful tools like the graphite pencil, the charcoal water filter, and the diamond saw blade. We'll also watch how carbon fiber, a material stronger than steel and lighter than fiberglass, is made into the chassis of a California racecar and the fuselage of Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner. Carbon burns hotter, cuts deeper, dies harder, insulates more thoroughly, and absorbs more fully than any other material. You'll see how one powerful hydrocarbon fuel, cellulose-based ethanol, is replacing another petroleum. You'll learn why "activated charcoal" is the material of choice for absorbing everything from toxic heavy metals in your drinking water to funky odors in your shoes. And you'll see how NASA will launch into space a collector made of carbon aerogel, the lightest, most insulating substance in the world, to search for clues about, you guessed it, carbon-based life forms.
Corn
Season 2, Episode 11 TV-14
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CORN is a chameleon that has found its way into over 3,000 different items. Discover how hundreds of tons of sweet corn make it from the field to a sealed can within mere hours at Lakeside Foods in Wisconsin...how corn is transformed into clear plastic packaging (ironically to hold food) at NatureWorks in Nebraska ...how corn is converted into a fuel of the future at VeraSun Energy in Iowa ... Find out exactly what High Fructose Corn Syrup is and why it gets such a bad wrap. Corn sustained ancient civilizations and today is the largest agricultural crop in the world. Next time you bite into some corn on the cob stop a minute and remember how amazing Maize really is.
Engineering Disasters 21
Season 2, Episode 12 TV-14
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A steam pipe explosion rocks New Yorkers on a summer day in Midtown Manhattan. Boston's Big Dig highway project suffers a major setback when sections of a tunnel ceiling fall onto the roadway. Rush hour in Minnesota turns deadly, as a bridge plunges into the Mississippi River. An air show in Mannheim, Germany comes to a tragic end when a Chinook helicopter crashes along the Autobahn killing 46 people. A tanker truck explodes on an Oakland freeway overpass, causing the structure to collapse. And a mud volcano near a natural gas drilling site erupts in Indonesia, leaving villages buried 16 feet deep. We'll explore what caused these catastrophes--in this latest installment of "Engineering Disasters" on Modern Marvels.
The Pig
Season 2, Episode 13 TV-14
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It is said that the pig is as smart as a three-year-old human. The pancreas, heart valve and intestines of the pig have been transplanted into human bodies, yet the primary use of the pig is for food. Watch the pig transform into bacon, ham, ribs and sausage, using a high tech water knife, at Burger's Smokehouse in Missouri. Then Chef Chris Cosentino re-creates old world dishes from pig parts and culinary artisans attempt to duplicate long-vanished pork specialties like prosciutto and acorn-fed pigs.
Cold Cuts
Season 2, Episode 14 TV-14
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They're the meat in our sandwiches and slices of American pop culture. Modern Marvels: Cold Cuts will take you behind the deli counter to reveal the secret ingredients in boloney. Watch a master sausage maker craft salami, and pile it on at Carnegie Deli with their famous mile-high pastrami sandwich. We'll construct exotic cold cuts made of pig head parts and livers, make the cut with the best meat slicers, past and present and see how to make turkey out of tofu. And don't forget that olive loaf for the holidays. Served cold and cut with precision. Pureed, pounded, and poured, it's time for a taste of cold cuts.
Environmental Tech
Season 2, Episode 15 TV-14
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From the prairies of Saskatchewan to a Manhattan skyscraper we'll see the 21st Century's cutting-edge "green" technologies in action. New technologies such as carbon sequestration and bioremediation take on our most daunting environmental crises, from global warming and deforestation to nuclear waste and resource scarcity. See how blue-green algae are converted into automotive biofuel and methane from decomposing garbage is turned into clean-burning natural gas. Finally, we'll see how trees and other natural environments can be used as engineering materials to control flooding and rejuvenate dying rivers.
Most Shocking
Season 2, Episode 16 TV-14
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Be Afraid. The dangers associated with Electric Shock are 100% real. It kills and injures thousands each year. Yet in the last 100 years we've corralled its power to create marvelous devices. In this episode we'll explore the stunning ways that electric shocks occur - from lethal prison fences to the slippery shock of an Electric Eel. We'll watch as daring electric linesmen climb onto 500,000 volt power lines 200 feet above the air; then a lightning survivor recounts what it's like to take a million volt blast; while the CEO of Taser International actually volunteers to take a hit to demo the latest wave in crime-fighting technology.
Rocks
Season 2, Episode 17 TV-14
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From the Stone Age, to the Space Age, we've built our world from rocks. Modern Marvels travels to America's horde of moon rocks located at NASA's Johnson Space Center. These rocks give us clues as to how the planets were formed, and how old the solar system is. Then it's off to see how marble and granite are extracted, cut, polished, and readied for use. We will learn how color, pattern, and surface finish are major considerations in the selection of any stone. We'll do some blasting at a sand and gravel pit, then see how sizes are graded. We'll mine iron ore, and watch it turned into steel. Finally we visit The Geysers in Northern California and see how they harness heat from rocks deep in the earth to create energy for nearly 850,000 homes.
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