Modern Marvels

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.

They were trying to do what no one had ever done before, to surpass a barrier that many experts had felt was impenetrable not long before. The test pilots who made history recall one of the great challenges of aviation, risking their lives BREAKING THE SOUND BARRIER.

In 1877, for the first time, voices, music, the barking of dogs–and all sorts of other sounds could be recorded, played back, and preserved for posterity. All through the marvel of the phonograph. Surprisingly the man who created the phonograph, Thomas Alva Edison, had no theoretical background in acoustics, and only a few months of formal schooling. And ironically, he was half deaf.

Engineering disasters profiled in this episode include flaws in the Patriot Missle system, the Cocoanut Grove night club fire, a failed building demolition, the collapse of World Trade Center Building 7, and a toxic waste dump in Love Canal, NY.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.