Throughout history, tidal waves have drowned us, storm surges have sunk cities, and hurricanes and cyclones--fueled by the ocean--have blown away all in their path. Today, science forecasts that the oceans are getting fiercer, rising up to reshape our coastlines and create untold devastation, social unrest and economic crisis. Track the history and evolution of the ocean's seven deadliest zones--locations that throughout history have been the direct causes of human devastation by floods, tsunamis, hurricanes, whirlpools, ice, underwater volcanoes, and shipping graveyards. Using expedition footage, 3D animation, and commentary from leading oceanographers, we'll depict the awesome cosmic and geological fluctuations that make the oceans deadly over time.

Our fascination with death is universal, but around the world we deal with it in wildly different ways--from the burning corpses that fill the Ganges in India, to the macabre exhibitions of "plastinated" bodies created by German anatomist Gunther von Hagens. In Toraja, Indonesia, dead relatives stay in the house for years, and are worshiped as shrines, and offered food and drink. And in Mexico, witness the ancient Toltec ritual of being buried alive for a night--one that's enjoying a revival as a new-age quest for enlightenment.

The myth of ancient Greece's most feared god, and those mortals who tried to cross his path. This episode takes us behind the veil of the ancient Greek belief in life after death. It is a chilling collection of tales about the god Hades and the underworld bearing his name, with eerie links to real world curses, ghosts, and secret cults.

Informational programming.

Informational programming.

Informational programming.

Informational programming.

Informational programming.

Informational programming.

The story behind the Union and Confederate flags, which were not only symbols of pride and heroism, but also served other important functions during the Civil War.

Discover people who perform seemingly impossible shooting feats with all kinds of firearms. Watch world-class shooters perform amazing shots as well as reenact shots made famous in history. Stories will include the toughest shot in Old West shooting exhibitions (the mirror shot) as well as modern-day Army snipers who hit targets a mile away. Super high-speed cameras will capture a bullet in the air and travel with its trajectory to the target and animation will dissect the technology of the gun, the ammunition, and the technique.

This new special will crank up the intensity of our original Extreme Marksmen with different equipment and challenges. Our experts will use knives, a longbow, a bullwhip as well as rifles, pistols and shotguns. They'll be on tanks and on horses, as we continue to explore the history and/or the legend behind the challenge, and we'll return to the range to see our marksmen succeed or fail at the task. The evolution of each weapon will also be explored through computer imagery; the tricks will be seen through high-speed cameras, and the history will be told through artful animation.

The fate of mankind's machinery of war: a sunken nuclear missile explodes, Pearl Harbor comes under renewed attacks, snow causes urban avalanches, and dairy cows are threatened. Featuring Denver, Hawaii, and a mysterious abandoned island near New York City.

From stars, galaxies and moons to subatomic particles, black holes and invisible phenomena, discover the most bizarre, mysterious and exotic things in our universe. Learn about actual alcohol clouds floating in space that are filled with organic molecules which produce complex compounds like ethyl alcohol, the stuff we drink. Is there a hypothetical planet that exists beyond Neptune and what are pulsar planets? Mini Black Holes are a theoretical idea, but if they were to exist, some theorists speculate that they might have been produced shortly after the "Big Bang." Finally, delve into dark matter, a hypothetical form of matter that is invisible yet it exists everywhere.

Discover people who perform seemingly impossible shooting feats with all kinds of firearms. Watch world-class shooters perform amazing shots as well as reenact shots made famous in history. Stories will include the toughest shot in Old West shooting exhibitions (the mirror shot) as well as modern-day Army snipers who hit targets a mile away. Super high-speed cameras will capture a bullet in the air and travel with its trajectory to the target and animation will dissect the technology of the gun, the ammunition, and the technique.

This new special will crank up the intensity of our original Extreme Marksmen with different equipment and challenges. Our experts will use knives, a longbow, a bullwhip as well as rifles, pistols and shotguns. They'll be on tanks and on horses, as we continue to explore the history and/or the legend behind the challenge, and we'll return to the range to see our marksmen succeed or fail at the task. The evolution of each weapon will also be explored through computer imagery; the tricks will be seen through high-speed cameras, and the history will be told through artful animation.

The fate of mankind's machinery of war: a sunken nuclear missile explodes, Pearl Harbor comes under renewed attacks, snow causes urban avalanches, and dairy cows are threatened. Featuring Denver, Hawaii, and a mysterious abandoned island near New York City.

From stars, galaxies and moons to subatomic particles, black holes and invisible phenomena, discover the most bizarre, mysterious and exotic things in our universe. Learn about actual alcohol clouds floating in space that are filled with organic molecules which produce complex compounds like ethyl alcohol, the stuff we drink. Is there a hypothetical planet that exists beyond Neptune and what are pulsar planets? Mini Black Holes are a theoretical idea, but if they were to exist, some theorists speculate that they might have been produced shortly after the "Big Bang." Finally, delve into dark matter, a hypothetical form of matter that is invisible yet it exists everywhere.

Outer space is already an essential part of America's ability to fight wars. Our military depends on satellites for many things, such as communications, reconnaissance and targeting information. But so far, no country has put weapons into space, although the U.S. and China have both shown they can shoot down satellites with ground-based missiles. If weapons do become a part of space, how will they work, how effective will they be, and what type of damage could they do? From ground-based lasers to telephone-pole sized rods hurtling from space at two miles per second to the far out weapons of the distant future, it's time to "lock and load" for Space Wars.

Warp speed, transporters, wormholes and lasers--they are all staples of science fiction books, movies, and TV shows. But the fantastic world of tomorrow is quickly becoming the futuristic world of today. While you may not be "beaming" to your next appointment any time soon, researchers are preparing for the first tests of a present-day "transporter." And while scientists have long mocked Hollywood's visions of warp speed and faster-than-light travel as prohibited by Einstein's laws, a new generation of physicists continues to rewrite the fundamental rules of the universe. Is there a way around the cosmic speed limit? Maybe... as long as you're prepared to survive a journey through the ultra-high energies of one of the most violent places in the cosmos--the heart of a twisting, swirling vortex that leads either to strange, new worlds... or certain death.

Tsunamis are one of the most terrifying forces of nature, destroying all in their path. The December 26th Tsunami is estimated to have released the energy of 23,000 Hiroshima-type atomic bombs. What are the enormous forces that generate these catastrophic waves deep on the ocean floor? With 50% of the world's population living within a mile of the sea, this episode looks at what could happen in the future. East coast cities from New York to Miami face the threat of a truly colossal wave that could be generated by the collapse of an active volcano off the coast of Africa.

Everyone is familiar with the amazing force field and energy weapons from sci-fi movies like Star Wars and Star Trek, but are we just a few years away from having that technology at our fingertips? We'll investigate new, top-secret military weaponry and recent inventions like a new airplane mounted laser cannons from Northrop Grumman that can shoot down enemy planes and shoot nuclear missiles out of the sky.