NG Channel to Air Expedition Week

I could have skipped my coffee yesterday. When I got on the elevator here at Headquarters, I was jolted awake by a behemoth photo of a great white shark covering the entire back wall. This unexpected elevator companion was there to inform me about Expedition Week–a National Geographic Channel event that “takes you on cutting-edge scientific missions to explore and discover lost treasures and never-before-seen worlds.” Expedition Week begins this Sunday and runs through Saturday, November 21. It will feature a variety of programs about recent research and exploration being done around the world. National Geographic Channel is very enthusiastic about this event because it “is what we are all about–adventure, exploration and the pursuit of knowledge.”  Some of the upcoming episodes include:
Sunday, November 15: “Search for the Amazon Headshrinkers”: Follow Piers Gibbon as he retraces explorer Edmundo Bielawski’s steps deep into the Amazon in search of the tribe that Bielawski videotaped in the 1960s.  National Geographic Channel has exclusive U.S. access to this 45-year-old footage that purportedly is the only of its kind to show the process of an actual–recently deceased–human head being shrunk.

Wednesday, November 18: “Deep Secrets: The Ballard Gallipoli Expeditions”:  In this episode, Explorer-in-Residence Dr. Bob Ballard searches for British and French warships that sank during the Battle of Gallipoli–one of the bloodiest campaigns of WWI.  Ballard’s expedition is the most comprehensive underwater exploration of shipwrecks from this battle ever undertaken.  [For information on the episode that tells the riveting story of Ballard’s search for the Titanic, click here.]

Thursday, November 19: “Mars: Making the New Earth”: This episode tells the story of terraforming–transforming a dry, uninhabitable desert into a living planet–and illustrates a possible future in which Mars is able to sustain human life.

Friday, November 20: “The First Jesus?”: This show tells the compelling story of Simon–a self-proclaimed messiah who died four years before Christ was born.  Scientists analyze a stone tablet from the first century B.C. that mentions an early messiah and his resurrection.  This episode will take you to Jerusalem, Jericho, and every place along the way in order to determine if Simon was in fact real.

Saturday, November 21: “When Crocs Ate Dinosaurs”: National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Dr. Paul Sereno examines fossils and other evidence to tell the story of the ancient crocodiles that once ruled all.

Other Expedition Week shows tell the stories of a hidden city beneath Berlin designed by Hitler, a book thought to be the “Devil’s Bible”, scientists fishing for a great white shark, and the Americas before Christopher Columbus.  For a complete list of shows, click here.

Photo and video courtesy of National Geographic Channel