Award Winners

The judges praised the two-hour program, a production of NOVA and Vulcan Productions, Inc., for its careful, balanced presentation on the landmark Dover, Pennsylvania, court case that weighed the merits of discussing “intelligent design” in the science classroom. Through interviews with participants in the 2005 case, use of trial transcripts and reenactments of key courtroom moments, the broadcast captured the community turmoil surrounding the case, described the modern science of evolution, and explained why U.S District Court Judge John E. Jones III ruled that intelligent design is a…

The grandson of Alabama slaves, African-American scientist Percy Julian overcame racial discrimination to become one of the leading chemists of the 20th century. The winning WGBH/NOVA program told his remarkable and largely unknown story. The program describes not only Julian’s early struggles to open doors traditionally closed to blacks but also his keen sense for how to do science. His work with steroids and alkaloids helped bring about a host of affordable and effective treatments for diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and glaucoma. The judges praised the program for its insights into…

Geneticists wanted to make an ordinary purple petunia more purple. Instead they got white flowers. Why? Quite by accident, the researchers found a secret defense system in living cells, a gene-silencing mechanism called RNA interference. It has become one of the hottest topics in biology and was the subject of the recently awarded 2006 Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology. In addition to the RNAi segment, the NOVA scienceNOW program, presented by Robert Krulwich, also featured a humorous description of the chemistry of fuel cells, complete with electrons attached to the posteriors of “Car…

The judges noted the thoroughness and timely production of the hour-long NOVA program that aired within three months of the 26 December 2004 earthquake and devastating Indian Ocean tsunami that struck Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and elsewhere. “A great combination of science and human drama,” said Warren Leary of The New York Times . “A fine documentary done in a very timely manner.” “Beyond the specifics of the scientific explanations, the production makes clear why the public needs to know ‘scientific stuff,’” said Kathy Sawyer, a freelancer formerly with The Washington Post . She called…