Two of the most Popular Science-themed TV shows, Cosmos and NOVA, air this fall, bringing big ideas-life, the universe and everything-back to the small screen. Cosmos September 27, the Science Channel "Billions and billions of stars." So goes the old Johnny Carson impression of Cosmos creator and narrator Carl Sagan. And since the show´s debut on PBS 25 years ago, a billion TV viewers have experienced Cosmos´s jaunt through the history of our universe.
It takes Scott Kiser only a split second to name the one city in the U.S., and probably the world, that would sustain the most catastrophic damage from a category-5 hurricane. "New Orleans," says Kiser, a tropical-cyclone program manager for the National Weather Service. "Because the city is below sea level-with the Mississippi River on one side and Lake Pontchartrain on the other-it is a hydrologic nightmare." The worst problem, he explains, would be a storm surge, a phenomenon in which high winds stack up huge waves along a hurricane´s leading edge.
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In our December issue, Popular Science names the 100 best innovations of the year: bombproof wallpaper, self-parking cars, the fastest helicopter, and 97 more. Plus inventor profiles and videos.
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