The Search for Solutions
tv show

9 total episodes
-
1 seasons
First Aired June 10, 1980
Genres:
Overview
A nine part television series, produced by J.C. Crimmins for PBS. Music composed, arranged and performed by Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays. The stated purpose of “The Search for Solutions” is to stimulate interest in science and technology, primarily among the young. The film comprises nine 18-minute sections touching on various aspects of scientific inquiry that its makers say can be shown as a whole, as it is in this engagement, or in any combination of its parts.

Trial and Error
Season 1 - Episode 4 - 0h 0m
Air Date
June 17, 1980
Overview
An interview with David Gordon Wilson of M.I.T. who talks of trial and error as a focused learning process; an interview with Paul MacCready, designer of a flying bicycle called the "Gossamer Condor," relates the process by which the final structure of the Condor was determined; Vincent J. Schaefer recounts his accidental discovery, in 1946, of a way to eliminate the supercooling of clouds which caused airplane wings to ice; a look at the Tour de France, where cyclists and designers continually experiment with ways to increase speed; a discussion of the work of German immunologist Paul Ehrlich, who, in 1901 discovered a cure for syphilis; a scientist who looks in the ocean for organisms, avoided by others, which may contain chemicals that fight disease; and another visit to the Human Powered Championship, including interviews with designers of unusual vehicles.