Funds from this grant support the production of four science- and technology-themed documentaries to be broadcast by The American Experience, the longest running and most successful history series on television. Supported episodes include Nikola Tesla, a two-hour special about the visionary inventor of the alternating current electric supply system and radio control technology who forecast the Internet, solar power, and military drones. The documentary will draw on the recently published Sloan-supported biography by Bernard Carlson, which contains original research about Tesla's technological training and a wealth of detail about his endless inventions, both successes and failures; The Race Underground about the great engineering challenge to build the first subway and transform urban transit told via the competition between brothers Henry and William Whitney, one in New York and one in Boston; and The Aeronauts, a fascinating little-known tale of the Air Force researchers and test pilots who paved the way for the U.S. space program by testing the limits of the human body in the upper reaches of the atmosphere. The topic of the fourth show is yet to be determined. Additional grant funds will support marketing, advertising, and promotion of the episodes, both on air and online; an active social media campaign; and targeted outreach to communities and organizations with a specific interest in these subjects.

This grant provides continued support to the Greater Washington Educational Telecommunications Association, producer of the PBS NewsHour, for the production and broadcast of a recurring series of high-quality segments on economic and financial topics. Funds support the production of 52 segments per year, to be produced by NewsHour reporter Paul Solman and broadcast weekly on a regular schedule.  Additional funds support the creation of supplementary economic materials for the NewsHour website.

This grant provides funds for a new series, to be broadcast on PBS and Bloomberg Television, that will focus on the relationship between brain science and society.  To be hosted by award?winning journalist Charlie Rose and Nobel-winning biologist Eric Kandel, the new series will focus on a wide range of social issues connected with brain science, showing how much or how little the latest advances in neuroscience can help us understand our behavior. Topics will include aggression and the social amplification of violence; gender identity and gender-related differences in cognitive function; psychiatric disorders such as autism, schizophrenia, and eating disorders; the inheritance of acquired traits and the impact of growing up in adverse circumstances; the consequences of sports-induced head trauma; brain science and criminal justice; erasing traumatic memories; aging populations and brain function; and genetic counseling for neurological and psychiatric disorders.  The series will consist of 10, hour-long episodes with each episode featuring a panel of four-to-five experts in roundtable discussion.

Funds from this grant provide partial support for the pilot season of a new series, Science at the Movies, which will review the scientific content and characters of the films, television, and other entertainment media.  To be produced by CUNY TV and co-hosted by a team of one scientist and one journalist, the 13-episode, half-hour series aims to attract the general film?loving audience while casting a fun and friendly light on the scientific and technological content or the scientific implications, violations, or validations of popular entertainment.  Topics will include how the lives and work of real scientists differ from on-screen portrayals on screen, and how elements of science and technology underlie both everyday events and the most dramatic or comedic activities.  The show will air on CUNY TV and be offered for national distribution to PBS affiliates.

This grant provides support for a new two-hour documentary, to be produced and broadcast for the PBS series NOVA, on the science of black holes.  Hosted by Columbia astrophysicist Janna Levin, the film will document how recent improvements in instrumentation have led to significant advances in our understanding of black holes and are shedding light on fundamental questions about the universe.  The show will include state-of-the-art animations as well as a free black hole app for mobile devices. Grant funds will provide production support for the documentary along with funds for app development, animation, and educational outreach campaigns targeting students, teachers, and the lay public.

This grant provides support for the production of a six-hour television series, to be produced by documentarian Ken Burns and broadcast on PBS, on the past, present, and future of cancer science. Based on Siddhartha Mukherjee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller:  The Emperor of All Maladies. The Story of Cancer, the series will offer cinema-veritй style stories about patients and their caregivers and will delve into the latest scientific advances in cancer research, including how the sequencing of the human genome, has transformed  our understanding of the genetic, cellular, and molecular basis of cancer.  The series will focus on three specific types of cancer—leukemia, breast, and lung—in an effort to give a broad overview of the complexity of this disease.

This grant provides two years of continued support for the production and broadcast of high-quality economics, business, and financial reporting on The PBS NewsHour. Led by veteran correspondent Paul Solman, the Newshour team will produce approximately 80 five-to-ten minute video segments on economic and financial topics for broadcast, distributing them through on-air broadcast, the NewsHour website, social media, and various partnerships with partners like the Council for Economic Education and PBS Teachers. Additional original content will be produced and distributed exclusively for Web audiences, including blog posts, multimedia features, and a recurring online Q-and-A with Solman himself.

This grant provides partial support to the for the development and broadcast of a major, fact-based dramatic television series about how the Civil War led to major advances in medical science, including spurring innovations in emergency medicine, surgery, and epidemiology.  The bloodiest armed conflict in U.S. history, the Civil War claimed two lives from infection and disease for every life lost to injury or gunshot wound.  The series will depict historical figures like Dr. Jonathan Letterman, the father of battlefield medicine who developed the ambulance corps and the three stage evacuation system still in use today.  Other characters will include Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross; Dr. W.W. Keen, a celebrated neurosurgeon; and pharmaceutical entrepreneur Edward Squibb.  These figures will provide dramatic examples of how the exigencies created by the need to treat wounded and dying soldiers led to pioneering advances in trauma care, anesthesia, neurosurgery, plastic and reconstructive surgery, and prosthetics.