A Science Odyssey

President McKinley, stricken by a would-be assassin, lay on the operating table in the early evening of September 6, 1901, while surgeons feverishly worked in the failing light. Wearing neither gloves nor masks, the surgeons anesthetized the President with highly flammable ether (which meant the gas lights had to be turned off). Using mirrors to deflect the light from the setting sun into the room, the doctors probed McKinley's abdomen for the next hour and a half without finding the bullet. McKinley died eight days later from gangrene. It was, as host and narrator Charles Osgood puts it, "an ominous beginning for medicine in the 20th century." Subtitled "The Journey of a Century," A Science Odyssey offers a fascinating 12-hour exploration of the tremendous strides humankind has made in both the natural and life sciences, touching on medicine, cosmology, anthropology, technology, geology, biochemistry, psychology, and more. In the opener, Matters of Life and Death, viewers will follow the intriguing stories of the discovery of penicillin and insulin, as well as such breakthroughs as solving the mysteries of bubonic plague and pellagra and the rocky road to the success of life-saving organ transplants. Mixing great historical footage, insightful interviews, and contemporary on-location scenes, A Science Odyssey is not simply a barrage of names, places, dates and achievements; on the contrary, it reminds us that the practice of "pure science" is as fraught with human foible, pettiness, generosity and, perhaps above all, serendipitous discoveries, as any other human endeavor. The other titles in the series are: In Search of Ourselves, Origins, Mysteries of the Universe and Bigger, Better, Faster. Highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (R. Pitman)