User Reviews

This episode is VERY light on actual science, and very disappointing. Though the topics are great, they all could have had MUCH more detail. Why was there no voice over narration? And WHY was what Italian narration there was, NOT translated?

The Tower of Pisa segment could have used a voice over of what was being shown. They showed video of several possible methods of fighting the lean from underneath but with no narration this was more frustrating than informative.

The species conservation segment could have used a LOT more detail and it was troubling to see the one subject that apparently died as a result of the move.

Now in 2020 remote surgery has greatly advanced. watching this segment was actually painful.

I know a bit about octopus and I recognized some of the experiments being shown in the video but I'm willing to bet that folks who've not seen this elsewhere had no idea what the experiments were about. It was particularly frustrating to watch the video segment centered on the squid attempting to "solve" the jar problem where we see the Italian scientist explaining the experiment (We hear music but nothing else but we see the guy's hand is moving) This was video making on the cheap and it was disappointing.

I've seen third rate documentaries about Pompeii and Vesuvius that had more detail than this episode. WHY were they dumping trash in the volcano? When was the lava flow they were showing? Unnarated graphics? The 10 minutes devoted to watching this segment would have been much more productive if I'd used it to read the wiki page and maybe make a sandwich.

They mention a magnetic monopole but don't define it or explain in any way what they're talking about. Though they go to this lab inside a mountain they NEVER mention neutrinos by name though we do hear a conversation where they are are clearly being discussed. (The speakers just call them "they")

This episode makes me question whether it's worthwhile watching any more of these.

The other review posted here, which flames this episode, is based on a version of this episode posted on YouTube that, for some reason, lost all of its voiceovers. The original version of this episode featured extensive details and is absolutely fascinating.

Alan Alda leads us through different parts of Italy and different areas of then-cutting edge scientific endeavors underway. We begin in Pisa, with the story of the Leaning Tower and the efforts being done (at that time) to prevent it from falling over. We then go to Abruzzo to learn about conservation efforts for the native brown bear of that region. From there we move to Rome and watch what was then the early days of remote robotic surgery, as a surgeon in Rome performs a procedure on a mannequin in Milan. My personal favorite segment looks at Pompeii, and the contemporary efforts to protect the population around the Bay of Naples from the threat of a future eruption of Vesuvius, drawing on experiences in dealing with the eruption of Mt. Etna in Sicily in the early 1990s. The final segment includes some great history for anyone who's ever visited Florence, looking at the story of the machines that Filippo Brunelleschi developed to help him build the famous dome of the Florence Cathedral.