Shtetl

PBS' premier science series helps viewers of all ages explore the science behind the headlines. Along the way, NOVA demystifies science and technology, and highlights the people involved in scientific pursuits.

Polish director, his wife and children are leaving Siberia for Argentina. For their little son, this trip will not only be an encounter with an unknown language. Influenced by their Argentinian friend, Janek enters the fascinating world of imagination, and is introduced to the bitterness of childhood prematurely contaminated by the problems of grown-ups.

US federal investigators are called in to determine the cause of a mysterious jetliner crash in Panama. Nothing about the accident makes sense, until a key clue emerges.

Frontline correspondent Hedrick Smith, the award-winning host of “Inside Gorbachev’s USSR,” revisits the former Soviet Union to investigate how the institutions and people he filmed for his 1990 series are dealing with the challenge of change. Smith finds a nation enjoying new freedoms of speech and conscience but on the brink of economic and political disaster.