Modern Marvels

For 2,000 years, the ancient Egyptian tradition of mummifying the dead has engaged imaginations and stumped scientists. How did the civilization develop this preservation technique? This entry in the Modern Marvels series looks all the way back to the days of King Tut to understand how and why mummies were created, and even exposes present-day attempts to re-create one of these wrapped wonders.

All aboard the nostalgia express as we take a trip through the past to enjoy toys of our youth–the ones we can't forget and those that some of use never gave up! This is the real toy story! We take a look at five categories of boys' toys and see what relationship they have had on the development of young minds; talk with collectors of antique and specialty toys; and visit companies that make electric trains, Matchbox Cars, GI Joe action figures, and LEGO Bricks, among others.

This episode takes a look at the petroleum industry and the many products derived from oil used in the United States.
Imagine it: Rubber, plastic, nylon, aerosols, resins, solvents, & lubricants; none can exist without oil, still hailed as Black Gold. Even if we stopped driving our cars tomorrow, America would still need 5 million barrels of oil a day - more than all of Southern Europe combined. From the shirt on your back to the waxy sheen of a beautiful apple, the first secret of oil is that it's everywhere you look. Oil is used to lubricate machines, weapons, and even skin. It provides the chemical building blocks for plastics, rubber, synthetic fibers and pharmaceuticals.

In his quest to dominate a continent, Adolf Hitler faced a formidable task–defending 3,000 miles of occupied European coastline from an invasion that he knew was coming. To do so, the Nazis erected an incredible string of fortifications that came to be known as the Atlantic Wall. From the North Cape to the Biscay, Hitler's Atlantic Wall stretched over 5,000 kilometers along the west and north coast of Europe. Around 13,000 bunkers and fortresses, especially on the Franco-Belgian Channel coast, were constructed to prevent a sea invasion by the Allies.

Their motto, "Peace is our Profession," belied the fact that they were in charge of weapons with the power to destroy the world many times over. With a staff of a quarter million people, the Strategic Air Command (SAC) was the key cog in America's Cold War military machine, overseeing the nation's entire nuclear arsenal from 1946 to 1992. MODERN MARVELS draws on interviews with past employees and visits to SAC sites to tell the story of this extraordinary system.

The US has become the culture of BIG–just look at the importance of size and how it has been infused into the lifestyle we choose to live, whether it’s our homes, our appliances such as large screen TVs or even eccentric stretch limos. But big has also affected what we eat. This episode explores America’s growing obsession with plus-sized meals and how we cook them! Discover the largest everyday offerings of gargantuan portions–from the biggest stacked burger in the world (at almost 250 pounds), a plus-sized Sicilian pizza that feeds almost 75 people, a 72-ounce steak no real cowboy can resist, and the seven-pound hot dog that’s too big for a bun.

When the men and women aboard a modern submarine hear the command to dive, they can take a measure of comfort in the fact that no U.S. sub has been lost in nearly 40 years, though it's been said that the sea is a more hostile environment than space. But they know that danger is never far away.

A whirlwind tour of 10 engineering feats that made our civilization possible: from the Erie Canal and Eads Bridge, to the Holland Tunnel and Hoover Dam. Find out which 10 modern marvels made the list.

Modern arsenals have become much more sophisticated than bullets and bombs. Discover microwave-like rays that make the enemy flee when they feel the heat and laser weapons, mounted on trucks and airplanes that can blow missiles out of the sky.Some of the newest non-lethal weapons include a B.B. machine gun that can fire 150 pain-causing pellets a second and a flashing device nicknamed "the pukelight" that may make you lose your lunch. Finally examine ancient weapons that include a cutlery set containing hidden pistols and Ninja hand claws that put the X-Men's Wolverine to shame. Produced by Actuality Productions, Inc. for A&E Television Networks

Part of The History Channel's Modern Marvels series, The Manhattan Project documents how scientists were brought together by the American government in order to create what at that time was the most devastating weapon in history - the atomic bomb. The United States wanted to build an atomic explosive to counter the threat posed by the German nuclear development program.