NOVA Season 41 Episode 18 Synopsis

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.

NOVA Season 41 Episodes...

• s41e01 - Ground Zero Supertower
• s41e02 - Megastorm Aftermath
• s41e03 - Making Stuff Faster
• s41e04 - Making Stuff Wilder
• s41e05 - Making Stuff Colder
• s41e06 - Making Stuff Safer
• s41e07 - Cold Case JFK
• s41e08 - At the Edge of Space
• s41e09 - Asteroid: Doomsday or Payday?
• s41e10 - Alien Planets Revealed
• s41e11 - Zeppelin Terror Attack
• s41e12 - Killer Typhoon
• s41e13 - Ghosts of Murdered Kings
• s41e14 - Roman Catacomb Mystery
• s41e15 - Great Cathedral Mystery
• s41e16 - Wild Predator Invasion
• s41e17 - Inside Animal Minds: Bird Genius
• s41e18 - Inside Animal Minds: Dogs & Super Senses
• s41e19 - Inside Animal Minds: Who's the Smartest?
• s41e20 - Why Sharks Attack
• s41e21 - Escape From Nazi Alcatraz
• s41e22 - D-Day's Sunken Secrets

NOVA Show Summary

Seen in more than 100 countries, NOVA is the most watched science based television series in the world and the most watched documentary series on PBS. It is also one of television's most acclaimed series, having won many major television awards, most of them many times over.