Special features of this DVD: widescreen presentation ; materials and activities for educators ; Nova ScienceNOW web link ; Dolby Digital ; scene selection.

Executive editor, Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Neil deGrasse Tyson, host.

Investigate some of today's most exciting advances in scientific research.

Marathon mouse: After studying mice his team managed to genetically alter for heightened endurance, Ron Evans has found two drugs that have the same effect as gene modification. Now that both drugs have been approved by the FDA for other uses, will their promise, helping those with little to no muscle mass, such as kids with muscular dystrophy or the frail elderly, to build strength and endurance, be overshadowed by potential athlete abuse?

Dinosaur plague: Renowned paleontologist George Poinar, whose study of extinct creatures exquisitely preserved in amber partly inspired Jurassic Park, has announced his discovery of multiple clues to parasitic pandemics that could have been just as instrumental in wiping out the dinosaurs as the hypothesized asteroid impact.

Profile: Franklin Chang-Díaz: The son of a Spanish Costa Rican mother and a Chinese and Costa Rican father, Chang-Díaz became the first naturalized American astronaut. He also holds the record for the most space flights, and he's designed a revolutionary new rocket that just might power a new generation of space explorers.

Space storms: What causes the northern lights? The most energetic displays are associated with violent space weather, the energetic interaction of radiation, magnetic fields, and charged particles from the sun, which could catastrophically disrupt the space-based technologies on which we increasingly rely. And now there's a storm brewing, marking the peak in the Sun's 11-year-cycle of maximum activity.

Not rated.

DVD.

Closed captioned for the hearing impaired.