Handlung

The Brain Eater This fine collaborative effort between NOVA and the BBC is a fascinating, authoritative hour on the potential dangers of the deadly infection "mad cow disease," formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). At its best, the program humanizes the subject by focusing on what is believed to be a related form of the disease in humans, at one point using rare footage of tribal customs in New Guinea. More importantly, this NOVA program uses the series' hallmark technique -- building the story of science around the natural suspense of pure and applied research.—Kim Brockway

Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (B.S.E.), nicknamed "Mad Cow Disease" was as unanticipated as AIDS, and is arguably as insidious. It arose from centuries of relative obscurity in sheep to sweep through British cattle herds with staggering speed. It is caused by an infectious agent whose precise identity is still in dispute. It seems to be unusually adept at breaking through the biochemical barriers that usually make it impossible for disease-causing organisms to jump from one species to another. It has already caused the deaths of at least 20 humans, most of them young. And it may be incubating within an unknown number of people who have consumed British beef products over the last decade. These gruesome facts alone make the story worth telling.—Joseph S. Levine