FIREWORKS! - Join NOVA and travel to Italy, England, and Pennsylvania to discover the chemical secrets that put the bang in the rocket and the fizz in the Roman candle. Meet the Zambelli family, the "First family of fireworks," and see the spectacular results of secrets passed down through generations. Watch master pyrotechnicians show how intricate fireworks displays are created. Discover how elaborate computer controls turn a celebration at Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Stadium into amazing split-second science. And enjoy some of the world's most astounding public fireworks displays, including the record-setting millennial celebration at the Eiffel Tower.

KABOOM! - Follow an explosive trail through the ages, starting in ninth-century China, where alchemists stir up a concoction meant to provide eternal life. Instead, the strange mix blows up in their faces- and the first pyrotechnics are born. Intrigued by the magical formula, Roger Bacon makes a bigger bang by confining the black powder inside a tube. "When the flame of powder catcheth the soul of man," notes a medieval friar, "it burneth exceedingly deep." The way is now paved for high explosives, and nineteenth-century industrialist Alfred Nobel- known variously as the 'merchant of death' and the founder of the Nobel Peace Prize- in turn pushed nitroglycerin to its dynamite potential. Carrying on this legacy, physicist Robert Oppenheimer will unleash the terrible beauty of the atomic bomb, ironically hoping its awesome power might render war obsolete. What will be our next experiment in search of the ultimate explosion? This program includes material that may not be appropriate for younger viewers. Viewer discretion is advised.

ISBN: 978-1-59375-734-2 120 minutes on TWO (2) DVDs