NOVA
Season 41 Episode 18 - Inside Animal Minds: Dogs & Super Senses
What is it like to be a dog, a shark, or a bird? Long the subject of human daydreams, this question is now getting serious attention from scientists who study animal senses. The senses define our experience of the world—they shape our minds, and help make us what we are. Humans rely on smell, sight, taste, touch, and sound, but other animals have super-powered versions of these senses, and a few, like electrically-sensitive sharks, even have extra senses we don’t have at all. From a dog who seems to use smell to tell time, to a dolphin who can "see" with his ears, we will discover how animals use their senses in ways we humans can barely imagine. But it’s not just the senses that are remarkable—it's the brains that process them. How does a swallow’s tiny, one-gram brain take in the flood of visual information that enables the bird to whiz within inches of buildings while flying at 40 miles per hour? How does a dog’s mind turn the sight of a hand signal into the happy anticipation of a treat? How has the evolution of the dog—from its wolf ancestors–reshaped its brain? NOVA goes into the minds of animals to “see” the world in an entirely new way.
Episodes in Season 41
Ground Zero Supertower
55 min
Megastorm Aftermath
55 min
Making Stuff Faster
55 min
Making Stuff Wilder
55 min
Making Stuff Colder
55 min
Making Stuff Safer
55 min
Cold Case JFK
55 min
At the Edge of Space
55 min
Asteroid: Doomsday or Payday?
55 min
Alien Planets Revealed
55 min
Zeppelin Terror Attack
55 min
Killer Typhoon
55 min
Ghosts of Murdered Kings
55 min
Roman Catacomb Mystery
55 min
Great Cathedral Mystery
55 min
Wild Predator Invasion
55 min
Inside Animal Minds: Bird Genius
55 min
Inside Animal Minds: Dogs & Super Senses
55 min
Inside Animal Minds: Who's the Smartest?
55 min
Why Sharks Attack
55 min
Escape From Nazi Alcatraz
55 min
D-Day's Sunken Secrets
55 min
