19-524: Nova (stylized as NOVΛ ) is an American popular science television program produced by WGBH in Boston , Massachusetts , since 1974. It is broadcast on PBS in the United States, and in more than 100 other countries. The program has won many major television awards. Nova often includes interviews with scientists doing research in the subject areas covered and occasionally includes footage of
38-407: A general audience . While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is more broad ranging. It may be written by professional science journalists or by scientists themselves. It is presented in many forms, including books, film and television documentaries, magazine articles, and web pages. Before the modern specialization and professionalization of science, there
57-515: A letter to philosopher William Whewell , he wrote that the general public needed "digests of what is actually known in each particular branch of science... to give a connected view of what has been done, and what remains to be accomplished." Indeed, as the British population became not just increasingly literate but also well-educated, there was growing demand for science titles. Mary Somerville became an early and highly successful science writer of
76-503: A particular discovery. Some episodes have focused on the history of science. Examples of topics covered include the following: Colditz Castle , the Drake equation , elementary particles , the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens , Fermat's Last Theorem , the AIDS epidemic , global warming , moissanite , Project Jennifer , storm chasing , Unterseeboot 869 , Vinland , Tarim mummies , and
95-688: The Associated Press wrote of the episode " The Fabric of the Cosmos ", "Mind-blowing TV." The Futon Critic wrote of the episode "Looking for Life on Mars", "Astounding [and] exhilarating." Nova has been recognized with multiple Peabody Awards and Emmy Awards . The program won a Peabody in 1974, citing it as "an imaginative series of science adventures," with a "versatility rarely found in television." Subsequent Peabodys went to specific episodes: The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (responsible for documentary Emmys) recognized
114-578: The COVID-19 pandemic . The Nova programs have been praised for their pacing, writing, and editing. Websites that accompany the segments have also won awards. Nova was first aired on March 3, 1974. The show was created by Michael Ambrosino, inspired by the BBC 2 television series Horizon , which Ambrosino had seen while working in the UK. In the early years, many Nova episodes were either co-productions with
133-549: The BBC Horizon team, or other documentaries originating outside of the United States, with the narration re-voiced in American English . Of the first 50 programs, only 19 were original WGBH productions, and the first Nova episode, "The Making of a Natural History Film", was originally an episode of Horizon that premiered in 1972. The practice continues to this day. All the producers and associate producers for
152-497: The Origin of Species (1859) by Charles Darwin . Popular science is a bridge between scientific literature as a professional medium of scientific research, and the realms of popular political and cultural discourse. The goal of the genre is often to capture the methods and accuracy of science while making the language more accessible. Many science-related controversies are discussed in popular science books and publications, such as
171-415: The didactic poem " Phenomena " written a century later and commented on by Hipparchus . Explaining science in poetic form was not uncommon, and as recently as 1791, Erasmus Darwin wrote The Botanic Garden , two long poems intended to interest and educate readers in botany. Many Greek and Roman scientific handbooks were written for the lay audience, and this "handbook" tradition continued right through to
190-466: The invention of the printing press, with much later examples including books of secrets such as Giambattista Della Porta 's 1558 " Magia Naturalis " and Isabella Cortese 's 1561 " Secreti ". The 17th century saw the beginnings of the modern scientific revolution and the consequent need for explicit popular science writing. Although works such as Galileo 's 1632 " Il Saggiatore " and Robert Hooke 's 1665 " Micrographia " were read by both scientists and
209-473: The long-running debates over biological determinism and the biological components of intelligence, stirred by popular books such as The Mismeasure of Man and The Bell Curve . The purpose of scientific literature is to inform and persuade peers regarding the validity of observations and conclusions and the forensic efficacy of methods. Popular science attempts to inform and convince scientific outsiders (sometimes along with scientists in other fields) of
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#1732783430504228-542: The nineteenth century. Her On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences (1834), intended for the mass audience, sold quite well. Arguably one of the first books in modern popular science, it contained few diagrams and very little mathematics. Ten editions of the book were published, and it was translated into multiple languages. It was the most popular science title from the publisher John Murray until On
247-488: The original Nova teams came from either England (with experience on the Horizon series), Los Angeles or New York. Ambrosino was succeeded as executive producer by John Angier, John Mansfield, and Paula S. Apsell , acting as senior executive producer. Rob Owen of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote, "Fascinating and gripping." Alex Strachan of Calgary Herald wrote,"TV for people who don't normally watch TV." Lynn Elber of
266-589: The program with awards in 1978, 1981, 1983, and 1989. Julia Cort won an Emmy in 2001 for writing "Life's Greatest Miracle." Emmys were also awarded for the following episodes: In 1998, the National Science Board of the National Science Foundation awarded Nova its first-ever Public Service Award. Popular science Popular science (also called pop-science or popsci ) is an interpretation of science intended for
285-461: The public, Newton's 1687 Principia was incomprehensible for most readers, so popularizations of Newton's ideas soon followed. Popular science writing surged in countries such as France, where books such as Fontenelle 's 1686 Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds were best-sellers. By 1830, astronomer John Herschel had recognized the need for the specific genre of popular science. In
304-666: The results. Statements in the scientific literature are often qualified and tentative, emphasizing that new observations and results are consistent with and similar to established knowledge wherein qualified scientists are assumed to recognize the relevance. By contrast, popular science often emphasizes uniqueness and generality and may have a tone of factual authority absent from the scientific literature. Comparisons between original scientific reports, derivative science journalism, and popular science typically reveals at least some level of distortion and oversimplification . Eudoxus of Cnidus Too Many Requests If you report this error to
323-434: The scientific literature. Some usual features of popular science productions include: The purpose of scientific literature is to inform and persuade peers regarding the validity of observations and conclusions and the forensic efficacy of methods. Popular science attempts to inform and convince scientific outsiders (sometimes along with scientists in other fields) of the significance of data and conclusions and to celebrate
342-431: The significance of data and conclusions and to celebrate the results. Statements in the scientific literature are often qualified and tentative, emphasizing that new observations and results are consistent with and similar to established knowledge wherein qualified scientists are assumed to recognize the relevance. By contrast, popular science emphasizes uniqueness and generality, taking a tone of factual authority absent from
361-442: Was often little distinction between "science" and "popular science", and works intended to share scientific knowledge with a general reader existed as far back as Greek and Roman antiquity. Without these popular works, much of the scientific knowledge of the era might have been lost. For example, none of the original works of the 4th century BC Greek astronomer Eudoxus have survived, but his contributions were largely preserved due to
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