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.

Context
Season 1 - Episode 5 - 0h 0m
Air Date
June 17, 1980
Overview
An interview with a scientist who studies the songs of the humpback whale; an interview with an archaeologist who collected and painstakingly documented tiny button-like ancient clay objects -- regarded with disinterest by other scientists, who assumed they were toys or gambling pieces -- which ultimately revealed the origins of writing fifty centuries earlier than previously assumed; the work of German physicist W.C. Roentgen, whose experiments with cathode ray tubes led to the development of the X-Ray; an interview with a scientist whose work yielded an answer to the problem of why sound dies out faster in sea water than in fresh water; Dr. Ralph Nelson and colleague Nancy Bagley discuss their study of the metabolism of hibernating bears, leading Nelson to suggest that an overweight astronaut would be the most logical choice for a long space expedition; designers Ray Merry and Andrew Jones discuss their wind-inflated kite sculptures.