Modern Marvels

In antiquity, a hollow reed served as an underwater link to oxygen. As in days of old, humans still need self-contained breathing equipment for a variety of reasons–food-gathering, commercial, recreational, military, and scientific. Dive with the best as we test scuba diving’s past, and look to a future of mechanical gills.

Dynamite blasts out the natural resources that have built our modern world.

Drilling offshore is to drilling onshore what Ginger Rodgers was to Fred Astaire, she did everything he did except she did it backwards and in high heels. Offshore drilling is one of the greaest technological dances mankind has ever attempted

Much of New York City’s history can be viewed via its bridges–all 18 that connect Manhattan Island to its neighbors. Join us for a look at these architectural masterpieces from the age of iron and steel; and, see how they have changed destinies, linking some to opportunity, others to ruin.

Delve into the secretive, but hugely important, multi-billion-dollar industry of product testing where wrinkles get ironed out and goods are stripped of the marketing and hype to see if they actually work.

The idea of floating to earth from great heights dates back centuries, and from the beginning parachutes combined entertainment with life-saving utility. The parachute has also played a vital role in modern warfare since WWI. We’ll see how parachute technology has made the world safer, and more fun!

Discover why the Germans created the Atlantic Wall during the war and learn exactly how they used this fortification to fight and protect themselves from the allied air campaign that was targeting them.

Emergency room medicine has only been a recognized specialty since 1989, and it took close to two millennia to get to this point. We’ll examine advances that led to the modern emergency room–from the Byzantine’s establishment of the first hospitals around 1050 A.D. to today’s telemedicine. The prognosis for its future looks good.

The history of civilization could easily be measured in terms of our ability to make, use, and improve tools–an activity that is at least 4 million years old! At the tip of our toolmaking timeline are power tools. We’ll examine today’s power tool industry, which is booming thanks to more powerful, lighter, and quieter cordless tools.