The solid form of life's precious elixir has played a key role in fashioning our history and is making its mark as an unusual tool of technology. We'll explore how Earth's ice originated and recount how ice age glaciers sculpted North America. Our cameras take an inside look at Colorado's National Ice Core Repository to see how ice drilled from Antarctica and Greenland is an invaluable archive of past climate, and at a Canadian research lab experts demonstrate the dynamics and dangers of icebergs. We'll see how Greenland's massive ice sheet may be sliding faster than ever toward the sea. Take a look at how scientists are using Antarctica's ice as a gigantic lens to probe the secrets of the universe, and ride aboard everyone's favorite ice resurfacing machine, the Zamboni machine. Other highlights include the search for extraterrestrial ice and a trip inside the studio of a chainsaw-wielding artist as he sculpts a masterpiece.

Watertight compartments and a steel-plated hull rendered The Titanic all but unsinkable. Nearly every technological breakthrough of the previous 50 years was employed onboard, providing comfort and safety for passengers and crew. But none of this mattered as the ship bore down on an iceberg on her maiden voyage, sinking within hours with more than 1,500 lives lost. Learn the details of her construction and how the achievements of technology may have masked vulnerabilities.

Take a journey into the world of super sized, super strong, super unique ships. The Scripps Institution of Oceanography takes viewers out to sea to see how their FLIP research vessel flips a full 90 degrees, sinking over three quarters of its 355-foot length. In Miami, go behind the scenes of one of the largest cruise ships in the world. In California, step onboard the Navy's newest, most advanced transport ship, and take a spin in one of America's strongest and greenest tugboats. In Boston, venture into the frigid world of an LNG carrier, transporting enough natural gas to power a million homes for an entire week. In Maine, hop on "the Cat," the fastest car ferry in North America--it's a huge twin-hulled catamaran. Finally, learn how a ship that looks like an enormous spider on water may someday save lives.

With technological advances, our ancient struggle against the sea has turned into a luxurious holiday. Come aboard for a peek at the elegant life on these floating resorts.

Shipyards are waterside construction sites where the extraordinary takes shape and where some of the largest tools built by humans help create the biggest machines on earth. But shipyards and ships of today bear little resemblance to those of antiquity. From ancient days to the 18th-century Industrial Revolution to the epic effort performed at Pearl Harbor, we examine the shipyard, and look to its future. Will the craftsmanship and practical knowledge of how to build ships disappear in the 21st century?

When the men and women aboard a modern submarine hear the command to dive, they can take a measure of comfort in the fact that no U.S. sub has been lost in nearly 40 years, though it's been said that the sea is a more hostile environment than space. The tragedies of former disasters have not been forgotten or squandered, and the Navy has been extremely motivated to find ever more effective ways to prevent them. We'll examine sub disasters to discover what caused them and what they've taught us. And as we explore the early history of the submarine--including a sub used in the American Revolution and one used in the Civil War--we follow a modern crew using submarine simulators to train for disasters, study subs in the nuclear age, and explore state-of-the-art rescue technology.

Driven by the need for deep sea rescue and salvage capabilities, the U.S. Navy Diving and Salvage Programs have gathered together a highly skilled team of divers, scientists, and engineers, who have been involved in some of the most exciting and dangerous salvage operations ever undertaken. Ride aboard the U.S.S. Salvor, which is equipped with underwater remote-operated robots, and see how they were put to use following the crash of TWA Flight 800. We'll examine the bomb-locating mini-sub Alvin and learn about "Saturation Diving" which allows divers to stay below for days at a time.

From collapsing floodwalls in New Orleans to high-tech mechanical storm surge barriers in Europe, we'll explore the 2,500-year history of keeping rivers and tides at bay by erecting levees. To get a lesson on how levees are built and why they fail, we'll climb atop Sacramento, California's crumbling river levees to see evidence of erosion that portends a New Orleans-level disaster. In stark contrast are the ingeniously engineered levees and dikes holding back tidal waters in the Netherlands. Their success inspired other mechanized flood barriers on both the River Thames outside London and one currently under construction near the sinking city of Venice, Italy. We'll also take a look at the hard lessons learned when levees are breached. In New Orleans, we'll see what the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is doing to protect the Crescent City from future hurricane seasons.

The solid form of life's precious elixir has played a key role in fashioning our history and is making its mark as an unusual tool of technology. We'll explore how Earth's ice originated and recount how ice age glaciers sculpted North America. Our cameras take an inside look at Colorado's National Ice Core Repository to see how ice drilled from Antarctica and Greenland is an invaluable archive of past climate, and at a Canadian research lab experts demonstrate the dynamics and dangers of icebergs. We'll see how Greenland's massive ice sheet may be sliding faster than ever toward the sea. Take a look at how scientists are using Antarctica's ice as a gigantic lens to probe the secrets of the universe, and ride aboard everyone's favorite ice resurfacing machine, the Zamboni machine. Other highlights include the search for extraterrestrial ice and a trip inside the studio of a chainsaw-wielding artist as he sculpts a masterpiece.

Watertight compartments and a steel-plated hull rendered The Titanic all but unsinkable. Nearly every technological breakthrough of the previous 50 years was employed onboard, providing comfort and safety for passengers and crew. But none of this mattered as the ship bore down on an iceberg on her maiden voyage, sinking within hours with more than 1,500 lives lost. Learn the details of her construction and how the achievements of technology may have masked vulnerabilities.

Take a journey into the world of super sized, super strong, super unique ships. The Scripps Institution of Oceanography takes viewers out to sea to see how their FLIP research vessel flips a full 90 degrees, sinking over three quarters of its 355-foot length. In Miami, go behind the scenes of one of the largest cruise ships in the world. In California, step onboard the Navy's newest, most advanced transport ship, and take a spin in one of America's strongest and greenest tugboats. In Boston, venture into the frigid world of an LNG carrier, transporting enough natural gas to power a million homes for an entire week. In Maine, hop on "the Cat," the fastest car ferry in North America--it's a huge twin-hulled catamaran. Finally, learn how a ship that looks like an enormous spider on water may someday save lives.

With technological advances, our ancient struggle against the sea has turned into a luxurious holiday. Come aboard for a peek at the elegant life on these floating resorts.

Shipyards are waterside construction sites where the extraordinary takes shape and where some of the largest tools built by humans help create the biggest machines on earth. But shipyards and ships of today bear little resemblance to those of antiquity. From ancient days to the 18th-century Industrial Revolution to the epic effort performed at Pearl Harbor, we examine the shipyard, and look to its future. Will the craftsmanship and practical knowledge of how to build ships disappear in the 21st century?

When the men and women aboard a modern submarine hear the command to dive, they can take a measure of comfort in the fact that no U.S. sub has been lost in nearly 40 years, though it's been said that the sea is a more hostile environment than space. The tragedies of former disasters have not been forgotten or squandered, and the Navy has been extremely motivated to find ever more effective ways to prevent them. We'll examine sub disasters to discover what caused them and what they've taught us. And as we explore the early history of the submarine--including a sub used in the American Revolution and one used in the Civil War--we follow a modern crew using submarine simulators to train for disasters, study subs in the nuclear age, and explore state-of-the-art rescue technology.

Driven by the need for deep sea rescue and salvage capabilities, the U.S. Navy Diving and Salvage Programs have gathered together a highly skilled team of divers, scientists, and engineers, who have been involved in some of the most exciting and dangerous salvage operations ever undertaken. Ride aboard the U.S.S. Salvor, which is equipped with underwater remote-operated robots, and see how they were put to use following the crash of TWA Flight 800. We'll examine the bomb-locating mini-sub Alvin and learn about "Saturation Diving" which allows divers to stay below for days at a time.

From collapsing floodwalls in New Orleans to high-tech mechanical storm surge barriers in Europe, we'll explore the 2,500-year history of keeping rivers and tides at bay by erecting levees. To get a lesson on how levees are built and why they fail, we'll climb atop Sacramento, California's crumbling river levees to see evidence of erosion that portends a New Orleans-level disaster. In stark contrast are the ingeniously engineered levees and dikes holding back tidal waters in the Netherlands. Their success inspired other mechanized flood barriers on both the River Thames outside London and one currently under construction near the sinking city of Venice, Italy. We'll also take a look at the hard lessons learned when levees are breached. In New Orleans, we'll see what the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is doing to protect the Crescent City from future hurricane seasons.

The solid form of life's precious elixir has played a key role in fashioning our history and is making its mark as an unusual tool of technology. We'll explore how Earth's ice originated and recount how ice age glaciers sculpted North America. Our cameras take an inside look at Colorado's National Ice Core Repository to see how ice drilled from Antarctica and Greenland is an invaluable archive of past climate, and at a Canadian research lab experts demonstrate the dynamics and dangers of icebergs. We'll see how Greenland's massive ice sheet may be sliding faster than ever toward the sea. Take a look at how scientists are using Antarctica's ice as a gigantic lens to probe the secrets of the universe, and ride aboard everyone's favorite ice resurfacing machine, the Zamboni machine. Other highlights include the search for extraterrestrial ice and a trip inside the studio of a chainsaw-wielding artist as he sculpts a masterpiece.

Watertight compartments and a steel-plated hull rendered The Titanic all but unsinkable. Nearly every technological breakthrough of the previous 50 years was employed onboard, providing comfort and safety for passengers and crew. But none of this mattered as the ship bore down on an iceberg on her maiden voyage, sinking within hours with more than 1,500 lives lost. Learn the details of her construction and how the achievements of technology may have masked vulnerabilities.

Take a journey into the world of super sized, super strong, super unique ships. The Scripps Institution of Oceanography takes viewers out to sea to see how their FLIP research vessel flips a full 90 degrees, sinking over three quarters of its 355-foot length. In Miami, go behind the scenes of one of the largest cruise ships in the world. In California, step onboard the Navy's newest, most advanced transport ship, and take a spin in one of America's strongest and greenest tugboats. In Boston, venture into the frigid world of an LNG carrier, transporting enough natural gas to power a million homes for an entire week. In Maine, hop on "the Cat," the fastest car ferry in North America--it's a huge twin-hulled catamaran. Finally, learn how a ship that looks like an enormous spider on water may someday save lives.

With technological advances, our ancient struggle against the sea has turned into a luxurious holiday. Come aboard for a peek at the elegant life on these floating resorts.

Shipyards are waterside construction sites where the extraordinary takes shape and where some of the largest tools built by humans help create the biggest machines on earth. But shipyards and ships of today bear little resemblance to those of antiquity. From ancient days to the 18th-century Industrial Revolution to the epic effort performed at Pearl Harbor, we examine the shipyard, and look to its future. Will the craftsmanship and practical knowledge of how to build ships disappear in the 21st century?

When the men and women aboard a modern submarine hear the command to dive, they can take a measure of comfort in the fact that no U.S. sub has been lost in nearly 40 years, though it's been said that the sea is a more hostile environment than space. The tragedies of former disasters have not been forgotten or squandered, and the Navy has been extremely motivated to find ever more effective ways to prevent them. We'll examine sub disasters to discover what caused them and what they've taught us. And as we explore the early history of the submarine--including a sub used in the American Revolution and one used in the Civil War--we follow a modern crew using submarine simulators to train for disasters, study subs in the nuclear age, and explore state-of-the-art rescue technology.

Driven by the need for deep sea rescue and salvage capabilities, the U.S. Navy Diving and Salvage Programs have gathered together a highly skilled team of divers, scientists, and engineers, who have been involved in some of the most exciting and dangerous salvage operations ever undertaken. Ride aboard the U.S.S. Salvor, which is equipped with underwater remote-operated robots, and see how they were put to use following the crash of TWA Flight 800. We'll examine the bomb-locating mini-sub Alvin and learn about "Saturation Diving" which allows divers to stay below for days at a time.

From collapsing floodwalls in New Orleans to high-tech mechanical storm surge barriers in Europe, we'll explore the 2,500-year history of keeping rivers and tides at bay by erecting levees. To get a lesson on how levees are built and why they fail, we'll climb atop Sacramento, California's crumbling river levees to see evidence of erosion that portends a New Orleans-level disaster. In stark contrast are the ingeniously engineered levees and dikes holding back tidal waters in the Netherlands. Their success inspired other mechanized flood barriers on both the River Thames outside London and one currently under construction near the sinking city of Venice, Italy. We'll also take a look at the hard lessons learned when levees are breached. In New Orleans, we'll see what the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is doing to protect the Crescent City from future hurricane seasons.