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They're the meat in our sandwiches and slices of American pop culture; take a look behind the deli counter to reveal the secret ingredients in baloney; watch a master sausage maker craft salami, and pile it on at Carnegie Deli.

Modern Marvels

Cold Cuts

It strikes without warning and kills in an instant; we fear its might even as we use it to save a life; explore the electric shock in its numerous forms.

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Geological history from the Stone Age to the Space Age; moon rocks provide clues to how planets were formed; quarrying marble and granite; blasting at a sand-and-gravel pit.

Rocks

Some say pigs are as smart as 3-year-old humans; turning pigs into bacon, ham, ribs and sausage; boar semen collection; the use of pig organs in medicine.

The Pig

Corn is the largest agricultural crop in the world, and it is used in more than 3,000 diverse items, ranging from food to the plastic wrap for packaging it.

Corn

Inventions for holding off a global warming meltdown include giant solar energy towers, a rooftop wind turbine, a car that runs on air and a kite that tows a cargo ship.

Environmental Tech II

Celebrate the ingenuity and imagination found in the world around us. 24/7 episodes of Modern Marvels, television's most innovative series.

A steam pipe explosion rocks New Yorkers on a summer day in Midtown Manhattan; Boston's Big Dig highway project suffers a major setback when sections of a tunnel ceiling fall onto the roadway.

Engineering Disasters 21

It's time to slice and dice; take a cutting-edge look at the most amazing blades in the world, from the legendary sword of the samurai warrior with an edge sharp enough to sever a man's arm in a single swipe.

World's Sharpest

A look at the many uses of acid; the military harnesses acid to make explosives; at a sulfuric acid plant, acid takes the stain out of stainless steel and dissolves precious metals; the Heinz vinegar plant; acid-loving bacteria.

Acid

Freezer unit filled with 135 million pounds of ice cream; Alcor, where researchers keep cadavers on ice in hopes of future revival.

Deep Freeze

Take a supersonic flight through a world of flying machines that are redefining our skies; pull serious G's in the U.S. military's latest fighter jet: the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

Extreme Aircraft II

Mixtures of metals and caustic chemicals that make our tech, tools and toys surge with energy; visit the world's most powerful battery in Fairbanks, Alaska--13,760 hulking cells humming with 5,000 volts, ready to help the city survive power outages.

Batteries

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A visit to a rolling mill where aluminum skins for jets are made; aluminum is used to make reflective mirrors for telescopes at NASA; the process of making aluminum foil; why aluminum baseball bats are better than wood.

S13 E21 | Aluminum