'Sally' leads Science and Technology Documentaries at the News & Doc Emmy Awards

Instead of exploring fiction for today's Sunday entertainment feature, I'm celebrating the best of nonfiction in television by beginning my examination of this year's 47th News & Documentary Emmy® Awards Nominees with the nominees for Outstanding Science and Technology Documentary, as I did last year.

Outstanding Science and Technology Documentary

Critical Condition: Health in Black America
NOVA | GBH [A NOVA Production | Firelight Films]
The Memory of Darkness, Light, and Ice
Metamorph Films, LLC
Operation Space Station
NOVA | GBH [A NOVA Production | Blink Films | France Télévisions]
Sally
Muck Media [Story Syndicate | National Geographic Documentary Films]
Titan: The Oceangate Submersible Disaster
Netflix [Netflix | Diamond Docs | Story Syndicate]

Sally leads this field with three nominations as the preview image shows, Outstanding Science and Technology Documentary, Outstanding Direction: Documentary, and Outstanding Art Direction / Set Decoration / Scenic Design: Documentary. The rest of the nominees for this category have only this one nomination. On this basis, I'm considering Sally to be the favorite for this award. Time to watch the trailers to see if they confirm my impression, staring with SALLY | Official Trailer | National Geographic Documentary Films.

Sally Ride became the first American woman to blast off into space, but beneath her unflappable composure, she carried a secret. Revealing the romance and sacrifices of their 27 years together, Sally’s life partner, Tam O’Shaughnessy, tells the full story of this complicated and iconic astronaut for the first time. From National Geographic Documentary Films, SALLY is directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Cristina Costantini.

That was inspiring. I'm looking forward to announcing any Emmy Awards it wins in June, Pride Month.

I'm going through the rest in alphabetical order by title, beginning with NOVA: Critical Condition-Health in Black America from WLRN Public Television and Radio.

Researchers examine the causes of racial health disparities, and why Black Americans are nearly twice as likely to have chronic diseases than whites.

Why? Poverty and racism. Just because it's obvious doesn't mean it's not worth examining. The details matter.

Next, The Memory of Darkness Light and Ice – Official Trailer - February 2025 by Metamorph Films.

If the ice sheet covering Greenland melts, global sea levels would rise 21 feet, profoundly impacting our planet. How, why, and when could this happen? Scientists have recently found lost sediment from a forgotten secret sub-ice Cold War base in the Arctic that holds clues about a time when the Greenland Ice Sheet had receded. THE MEMORY OF DARKNESS, LIGHT, AND ICE is a 60-minute documentary film about the discovery of this precious sediment core, which holds the key to crucial science around the melting Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) and the future of sea level rise across the globe.

Watching this trailer reminds me that I showed Chasing Ice to my students last week and this is week is Earth Week, making this a good movie to recommend to my students. Welcome to blogging as professional development. It also makes me think that it's the strongest competitor to Sally. Last year, I thought that the "Hunt for the Oldest DNA" episode of NOVA on PBS had the strongest science of all the nominees, but didn't have the best chance of winning. Surprise, it won! That could happen here.

The second nominated episode of NOVA is "Operation Space Station: High-Risk Build." Watch its official promotional video from NOVA PBS Official, How Astronauts Avoided Disaster Building the International Space Station | NOVA | PBS. The field for this category wouldn't be complete without a NOVA episode, and this year's slate has two. Good showing for NOVA!

A dangerous spacewalk, a toxic leak, and a breathtaking view of Earth.

Astronauts faced a life-threatening challenge during construction of the International Space Station.

Sitting in sunlight to evaporate the ammonia serves as a good example of one of Commoner's Laws, "Nature knows best." Environmental content in space!

Like National Geographic and NOVA on PBS, this field wouldn't be complete without a Netflix documentary. This year's entry is TITAN: The OceanGate Submersible Disaster | Official Trailer | Netflix.

The deeper you look, the darker it gets.

Titan: The OceanGate Submersible Disaster examines CEO Stockton Rush’s quest to become the next billionaire innovator and the doomed underwater endeavor that called into question the price of ambition in the depths of the ocean.

The Titan submersible’s ill-fated journey to the ruins of the Titanic dominated headlines in June 2023, yet the shocking decisions that led to the disaster have never been revealed like this before.

This could just as easily have been nominated for business documentary as for science and technology. It's also Sally's chief competition for its journalistic value and public interest; the trailers for both have more than two million views, with Sally slightly ahead. In contrast, the trailers for the rest of the nominees have several thousand views at most. I still think Sally is the favorite, but now I have a better grasp of its chances.

Follow over the jump for Sally's other two nominations and some of the most read entries about the Emmy Awards last year.

Trevor Noah and Stephen Colbert look at official responses to the coronavirus outbreak

When I wrote "On another note, I've been ignoring the coronavirus outbreak on this blog, so I'm glad Dingell mentioned it.  I'll have to make up for that omission later this week" as an aside in Politics, pastries, and Polish culture from Michigan for Paczki Day, I was expecting to post a serious science video.  Then President Trump and Vice President Pence held a press conference about the response to the outbreak yesterday, which meant that the late night comedians were all over it.  As a result, I begin my coverage of the potential pandemic using two clips from The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.   The first one asks Coronavirus: Is This How We Die?

Trump appoints Pence the coronavirus czar as the virus spreads from China to Japan, Iran, the Philippines, and Italy.

Comedy aside, that's a good summary of the state of the outbreak so far.  As for the answer to the question, probably not, which means, as much as I hate to type it, Trump is right.  Just the same, that's not reassuring.

In addition, The Daily Show created a parody of the short informational videos I post here from time to time, Trump Has the Coronavirus Under Control.

Don't worry everyone, Trump has the "Caronavirus" under control.

"Caronavirus" — LOL, that's right up there with cofeve and Global Waming.

Stephen Colbert opened his show last night with one of his cold open skits, Coronavirus Fears Are Reshaping Global Facial Hair Trends.

The president of the American Association of Evil Villains is here with an important message about facial hair in the age of the Coronavirus.

That is a real chart.  Since I have a beard, that means I have facial hair that is incompatible with a mask.  The beard still stays.

I'll try to post something more serious about the outbreak the next time I write about it here.  Stay tuned.