Nova-Making Stuff (2011)

Editor's Note As originally broadcast on the PBS science series [#NOVA, the four documentary programs in this box set investigate an unusual pattern belying many modern technological advances, whereby scientists are combining nature's most incredible creations - such as spider silk and geckos' sticky feet - with man-made technology, to foster a cutting-edge new world. New York Times technology correspondent David Pogue emcees. In each instance, he showcases some of the most "extreme" materials that have emerged from this fusion of the natural and the unnatural. The programs then repeatedly carry viewers to a "nano-level" to witness the atomic manipulations that make these broader technological shifts happen.