''Science in Action'' was a weekly half-hour television program devoted to science. The program was produced by the

California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, that is among the largest List of natural history museums, museums of natural history in the world, housing over ...

, and was broadcast from 1950 to 1966. It was thus among the first live science television program in the United States; ''The Johns Hopkins Science Review'' was broadcast from 1948 to 1955, and is apparently the very first such program. In all, 566 programs were produced. Dr. Tom Groody hosted the program for its first two years; he was succeeded by Dr. Earl S. Herald, who was the host for the following fourteen years until production ceased in 1966. Marcel LaFollette has written, "Production approaches that are now standard practice on ''

NOVA A nova ( novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. All observed novae involve white ...

'' and the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

derive, in fact, from experimentation by television pioneers like

Lynn Poole Lynn D. Poole (August 11, 1910 – April 14, 1969) was the creator and host of an early U.S. science television program, ''The Johns Hopkins Science Review'' (1948–1955), and the author of more than 20 popular science books. In 2002, Patrick L ...

and Don Herbert and such programs as ''

Adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

'', ''

Zoo Parade ''Zoo Parade'' is an American television program broadcast from 1950 to 1957 that featured animals from the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. Presented by Marlin Perkins, the show was broadcast on Sunday afternoons on NBC. History The show was first ...

'', ''Science in Action'', and the Bell Telephone System’s science specials. These early efforts were also influenced by television’s love of the dramatic, refined during its first decade and continuing to shape news and public affairs programming, as well as fiction and fantasy, today." No free online access. LaFollette included the program in her 2008 overview of early broadcasting devoted to science popularization.

References

External links

''Science in Action'' film clips
at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Science in Action Science education television series American educational television series 1950 American television series debuts 1966 American television series endings 1950s American documentary television series 1960s American documentary television series Documentary films about science California Academy of Sciences Science and technology in the San Francisco Bay Area Science and technology in the United States