We often think of modern medicine as only really beginning at the Renaissance - but we're wrong. The Edwin Smith Papyrus is an ancient textbook on surgery that dates back to about 1600 BC. It is full of details on the examination, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of numerous ailments. This film looks into the grisly but brilliant surgeries of the great ancient physicians to witness three procedures common at the time but which would not be attempted...

January 17, 1995: a massive earthquake hits Kobe, Japan, trapping thousands in collapsed buildings. Conventional search-and-rescue operations prove inadequate, and in the months and years that follow, a new wave of research and development in automated crisis-response technology occurs. But the robotics craze that sweeps Japan as it enters the 21st century springs from more than just the tragic quake. It also reflects the rich culture of manga comics...

For almost a century, Hollywood has been warning of a future during which human beings become enslaved by the machines they have created. Has the time come to take the seemingly outlandish imagination of science fiction seriously? Drawing disturbing conclusions about our possible mechanical domination, this documentary investigates the parallels between movie fantasy and science reality. Over the years innovations in artificial intelligence and biotechnology...

Are children being hurt by the technology revolution? This ABC News report looks at children using iPads and smart phones and finds that although hours of screen time might not damage eyesight, it is associated with behavioral problems. Other studies find that children learn better when using interactive apps. There is no irrefutable evidence that these devices harm children, but as with everything else, experts advise moderation and supervision.

Fueled by the fastest and most pervasive Internet connections on Earth, online gaming is now a national obsession in South Korea. But while millions of people are engrossed in virtual warfare, their computers have also become very real battlegrounds, with North Korea launching Web-based assaults that disable banking, transport, and Internet portals in the south. After a discussion of gaming addiction in South Korea, this program talks with key defectors...

Whether Google, Inc. expanded into China because of the country's vast consumer market or out of a sincere desire to make information available may be up for debate. The company is known for its idealistic corporate culture, but the controversy regarding Google China's censorship policy became so fierce that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton felt compelled to make a worldwide call for Internet freedom. This program examines Google, Inc.'s operation...

Just as raw materials buried in the Earth yield the occasional gem, raw data can also be mined for value. And as the amount of information available for analysis grows with every bar-code scan and Facebook post, the world of Big Data represents a seemingly endless wellspring of opportunity. But what does data mining involve, exactly? How are the findings used, and why? This program explores the methods, processes, and key functions of data analysis...

Decades ago few people worried about cholesterol, but thanks to medical research high LDL levels are now seen as a major health problem. And due to related pharmaceutical studies, statin reducers are among the most widely used drugs today. But did a medical challenge really spark those advances, or did Big Pharma realize that cholesterol could boost profits? How urgent is the health issue behind every new pill and treatment? This film examines what's...

An exhibition about consciousness and the human brain at University College London inspired the making of Just Trial and Error, in which cognitive neuroscientist Brian Butterworth, perceptual neuroscientist Beau Lotto, sculptor Antony Gormley, and Twain Luu, an Internet entrepreneur well-known for her study of the "global brain," explore the meaning of consciousness as it is understood in their respective fields. Over the course of the film, they...

It was the era of McCarthyism, the Korean War, and nightmares of nuclear oblivion-but, as this documentary illustrates, the 1950s also witnessed a surge of optimism and confidence in America that figured prominently in the period's science fiction cinema. Interweaving clips from over thirty classic movies, the film describes the emergence of a distinctly 20th-century archetype, the Modern Scientist, which emboldened an uncertain nation to face new...