Curiosity (TV series)

The development of "Curiosity: The Questions of Our Life", was announced in September 2009.{{cite web|url=http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news.aspx?id=20090910discovery01|title=Breaking News - Discovery Communications Launches Landmark Original Series: "Curiosity: The Questions of Our Life"|work=TheFutonCritic.com|date=September 10, 2009|access-date=March 1, 2012}} It was to answer questions and mysteries in fields like space, biology, geology, medicine, physics, technology, nature, archaeology, history, and the human mind. It was considered as a groundbreaking series for Discovery like the BBC's Planet Earth and Life. Originally, this series was to be a monthly show airing 12 one-hour episodes each year for 5 years beginning in January 2011. Dan Riskin was initially slated to host.{{cite web|url=http://press.discovery.com/emea/discovery-corporate/press-releases/2010/dan-riskin-named-host-discovery-channels-multi-yea|title=Dan Riskin Named Host Of Discovery Channel's Multi-Year Event Curiosity: The Questions Of Life : Discovery Press Web|work=Press.discovery.com|date=April 12, 2010|access-date=March 1, 2012}}

The website was opened in June 2011. It was to be an expert Q&A site, where experts and scholars tried to answer some of life's most profound questions. The 32 topics in site ranges from biodiversity to nanotechnology. So far 12,000 questions have been answered.{{cite web|url=http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2011/06/20/discovery-launches-curiosity-com-expert-qa-site|title=Discovery Launches Curiosity.com Expert Q&A Site|work=Dmwmedia.com|date=June 20, 2011|access-date=March 1, 2012}} On November 11, 2014, Curiosity.com became independent{{Cite web|url = https://corporate.discovery.com/discovery-newsroom/learning-focused-digital-destination-curiositycom/|title = LEARNING-FOCUSED DIGITAL DESTINATION CURIOSITY.COM ANNOUNCES OWNERSHIP CHANGE AND SERIES A FUNDING LED BY DISCOVERY COMMUNICATIONS AND PRITZKER GROUP}} of Discovery Communications.

File:Curiosity (TV series) logo.svg

John Hendricks, founder of the Discovery Channel and creator of the original Curiosity brand,{{cite web|last1=Crupi|first1=Anthony|title=Hendricks to Satisfy Discovery's 'Curiosity'|url=http://www.adweek.com/news/television/hendricks-satisfy-discoverys-curiosity-113420|website=Ad Week|publisher=Ad Week|access-date=19 June 2015}} launched CuriosityStream on March 18, 2015. An ad-free subscription video on demand platform for science and history documentaries, CuriosityStream is a continuation of Hendricks' vision for the original Curiosity TV series. The service exclusively features documentaries and series in the areas of Science, Technology, Civilization and the Human Spirit as well as offers mobile viewing applications on iOS and Android devices.{{cite web|last1=Davies|first1=Alex|title=Discovery's Hendricks plans CuriosityStream SVoD service|url=http://www.rethinkresearch.biz/articles/discoverys-hendricks-plans-curiositystream-svod-service/|website=Rethink Research|access-date=19 June 2015}}{{cite web|title=CuriosityStream Deploys Infotrend Storage to Satisfy its high speed SVOD platform requirements|url=http://www.infortrend.com/th/news/20150408/255|publisher=Infotrend|access-date=19 June 2015}}

{{Series overview

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| episodes1 = 16

| start1 = {{start date|2011|8|7}}

| end1 = {{end date|2011|11|20}}

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| episodes2 = 13

| start2 = {{start date|2012|10|7}}

| end2 = {{end date|2013|01|27}}

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{{Episode table

|total_width =

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|season = 5

|title = 26

|aux1 = 28

|airdate = 20

|aux1T = Narrated / presented by

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{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 1

|EpisodeNumber2 = 1

|Title = Did God Create the Universe?

|RTitle =

|Aux1 = Stephen Hawking / Benedict Cumberbatch

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2011|8|7}}

|ShortSummary = Stephen Hawking says that his 2010 book The Grand Design upset some people. He says that it is valid for him to ask whether one creator god single-handedly created the living and non-living things. He wants to know "what or who created and controls the universe."

In the ancient times, even the Vikings believed that "gods made everything." The narrator [Benedict Cumberbatch] states that multiple gods controlled different phenomena for the Vikings. He cites the example that Ægir "caused stormy seas." According to the narrator, Sköll was a "wolf god" who caused solar eclipses.

In ancient Greece, Aristarchus of Samos was fascinated by eclipses. Aristarchus wanted to know if solar and lunar eclipses were caused by the Greek gods.

A few months before his death in 1277, Pope John XXI declared the laws of nature a heresy.

In 1600s, Galileo Galilei found that "some object do not orbit the Earth." Galileo had discovered the four moons of Jupiter.

Hawking believed in his childhood that "you never get something for nothing", but now he thinks "you can get a whole universe for free!"

Cumberbatch narrates that space is a "vast store of negative energy."

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{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 2

|EpisodeNumber2 = 2

|Title = Alien Invasion: Are We Ready?

|RTitle =

|Aux1 = Michelle Rodriguez

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2011|8|14}}

|ShortSummary = There are 100,000,000,000 (100 billion) stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. In addition, Michio Kaku says, "Our telescopes can see perhaps a 100 billion galaxies out there." As a result, there are 10²² stars!

Kaku says that an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) "short-circuits your electronics."

• Interviewed experts: Hakeem M. Oluseyi, Lynn J. Rothschild, Gibor Basri, Michio Kaku, Jacob Haqq-Misra, Jean-Marc Perelmuter, Seth Baum, Seth Shostak, Doug Beason, Christopher Weuve, Charles E. Gannon, David Bartell (sci-fi author), Matt Davis (known around the Dominican University of California as "Disasterman"), Anne Simon.

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{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 3

|EpisodeNumber2 = 3

|Title = Why is Sex Fun?

|RTitle =

|Aux1 = Maggie Gyllenhaal

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2011|8|21}}

|ShortSummary = Maggie Gyllenhaal says, "We [women] don't need an orgasm to get pregnant." She visits the Museum of Sex in New York City.

Researchers have invented the orgasmatron.

• Interviewed experts: Barry Komisaruk, Beverly Whipple, Sarah Ford, Mary Roach, Elisabeth Lloyd, Odile Buisson, Emmanuele A. Jannini at the University of L'Aquila, Ludwig Wildt at the University of Innsbruck, David Puts, Stephanie Ortigue, T. Stuart Meloy.

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{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 4

|EpisodeNumber2 = 4

|Title = What Sank Titanic?

|RTitle =

|Aux1 = Bill Paxton

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2011|8|28}}

|ShortSummary =

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{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 5

|EpisodeNumber2 = 5

|Title = Parallel Universes - Are They Real?

|RTitle =

|Aux1 = Morgan Freeman

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2011|9|4}}

|ShortSummary =

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{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 6

|EpisodeNumber2 = 6

|Title = What's Beneath America?

|RTitle =

|Aux1 = Martin Sheen

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2011|9|11}}

|ShortSummary = Martin Sheen says that 150 million years ago, the North American Plate and Pacific Plate collided; this collision gave rise to the Sierra Nevada. The California Gold Rush in the 1850s founded the Hearst (George Hearst) and Stanford dynasties.

The Powder River Basin (in Wyoming) of the Rocky Mountains contains coal that can power electricity.

Dead trees and plants turn into peat; over millions of years, the peat turns into coal. In contrast, the raw material for crude oil is "dead animals."

The Bakken oil fields of North Dakota contain thousands of wells.

"America the Beautiful" is a song about America's farmland in the Midwest.

The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is rich in iron.

• Interviewed experts: Todd Bracken (jeweler).

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{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 7

|EpisodeNumber2 = 7

|Title = How Will the World End?

|RTitle =

|Aux1 = Samuel L. Jackson

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2011|9|18}}

|ShortSummary = The 2012 phenomenon predicted by Mayan priests turned out to be false! Samuel Jackson says that 5 cataclysmic events can destroy our world:

1. An ARkStorm
2. An asteroid impact
3. A mega-quake
4. A mega-tsunami
5. A super volcano.

Jackson discusses seismic activity near Reelfoot Lake in Tennessee. He spends considerable time talking about Tiptonville, Tennessee.

La Palma in the Atlantic Ocean near Africa is the tip of an undersea volcano.

• Interviewed experts: Brian A. Skiff, Roy Van Arsdale.

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{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 8

|EpisodeNumber2 = 8

|Title = Atlantis Uncovered

|RTitle =

|Aux1 = Terry O'Quinn

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2011|9|25}}

|ShortSummary =

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{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 9

|EpisodeNumber2 = 9

|Title = I, Caveman

|RTitle =

|Aux1 = Morgan Spurlock

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2011|10|2}}

|ShortSummary = After hunting failures, the participants of the experiment receive an atlatl and a dart.

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{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 10

|EpisodeNumber2 = 10

|Title = Egypt: What Lies Beneath?

|RTitle =

|Aux1 = Brendan Fraser

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2011|10|9}}

|ShortSummary =

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{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 11

|EpisodeNumber2 = 11

|Title = Can You Live Forever?

|RTitle =

|Aux1 = Adam Savage

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2011|10|16}}

|ShortSummary = In an imaginary story, the life of Adam Savage is saved by 3D bioprinting.

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{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 12

|EpisodeNumber2 = 12

|Title = World's Dirtiest Man

|RTitle =

|Aux1 = Mike Rowe

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2011|10|23}}

|ShortSummary =

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{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 13

|EpisodeNumber2 = 13

|Title = How Evil are You?

|RTitle =

|Aux1 = Eli Roth

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2011|10|30}}

|ShortSummary =

• Interviewed experts: James H. Fallon, Jerry M. Burger.

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{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 14

|EpisodeNumber2 = 14

|Title = Life Before Birth

|RTitle =

|Aux1 = Courteney Cox

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2011|11|6}}

|ShortSummary =

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{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 15

|EpisodeNumber2 = 15

|Title = What's America Worth?

|RTitle =

|Aux1 = Donald Trump

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2011|11|13}}

|ShortSummary = Donald Trump says,"We have the highest number of millionaires in the world." Trump goes on to state that the total value of our "black gold" reserves is $768,000,000,000 ({{Inflation|US|768000000000|2011|r=-6|fmt=eq}}). Next, he says that the gold mines in Elko, Nevada hide $75,000,000,000 ({{Inflation|US|75000000000|2011|r=-6|fmt=eq}}) in gold.

Trump says, "Americans own more cars per capita than any other nation on Earth." He says that the American power grid is worth $1,700,000,000,000 ({{Inflation|US|1700000000000|2011|r=-9|fmt=eq}}).

Trump concludes that the total value of America is $31,000,000,000,000 ({{Inflation|US|31000000000000|2011|r=-9|fmt=eq}}).

• Interviewed experts: Craig C. Barto (co-founder of Signal Hill Petroleum, Inc.).

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{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 16

|EpisodeNumber2 = 16

|Title = Your Body on Drugs

|RTitle =

|Aux1 = Robin Williams

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2011|11|20}}

|ShortSummary = Robin Williams and medical crew observe drug addicts. Under psychological pressure,

• marijuana induces "a lack of urgency" along with impaired memory
• methamphetamine causes confusion and crash
• cocaine causes violence and delusion
• heroin induces panic.

Robin Williams states that although cocaine increases the physical strength of the subject in the experiment, it is physiologically dangerous because the heart rate increases substantially.

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{{Episode table

|total_width =

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|overall = 5

|season = 5

|title = 26

|aux1 = 28

|airdate = 20

|aux1T = Narrated by

|episodes =

{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 17

|EpisodeNumber2 = 1

|Title = Plane Crash

|RTitle = {{cite web|url=http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/season-2-episodes.htm|title=Plane Crash|access-date=October 30, 2012}}

|Aux1 = Josh Charles

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2012|10|7}}

|ShortSummary = After years of planning, a Boeing 727 airplane is intentionally crashed in the Mexican desert in April 2012. The precedent for this 2012 crash was the NASA airplane test crash in 1984.

The producers of this episode purchase the Boeing 727 for the "bargain price of $450,000." ({{Inflation|US|450000|2012|r=-3|fmt=eq}}). The pilot must jump out of the plane moments before it crashes.

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{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 18

|EpisodeNumber2 = 2

|Title = The Devil's Triangle

|RTitle = {{cite web|url=http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/season-2-episodes1.htm|title=The Devil's Triangle|access-date=October 30, 2012}}

|Aux1 = Josh Charles

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2012|10|14}}

|ShortSummary = The Bermuda Triangle has a history of underwater landslides which trigger a violent release of methane. Bubbles reduce the density of water with deadly consequences for floating boats. The experiments done for this television episode fail to sink a boat with massive release of air bubbles underwater!

Rogue waves can also sink boats. Rogue waves can form during hurricanes.

Extreme forms of lightning can destroy an airplane.

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{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 19

|EpisodeNumber2 = 3

|Title = I Was Mummified

|RTitle = {{cite web|url=http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/season-2-episodes2.htm|title=I Was Mummified|access-date=October 30, 2012}}

|Aux1 = Josh Charles

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2012|10|21}}

|ShortSummary = The body farm in Knoxville, Tennessee is where bodies are donated for research. A lung cancer patient named Alan Billis in Britain gives consent to be mummified for this television episode. Later, in 2011, he dies.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-devon-15342140|title = Devon taxi driver Alan Billis's body in mummy test|work = BBC News|date = October 18, 2011}}

The ancient Egyptians used a type of salt called natron to mummify humans. The experts go to the KV35 tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. There, they are given access to the mummy of Queen Tiye.

The commentators believe that mummification reached its peak in the 18th Dynasty of Egypt.

• Interviewed experts: William M. Bass, Steven Wilhelm at the University of Tennessee, Stephen Buckley.{{Cite web|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/alan-billis-mummy-_n_1961820|title = WATCH: Cab Driver's Unique Journey After Death|date = October 15, 2012}}

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{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 20

|EpisodeNumber2 = 4

|Title = Brainwashed

|RTitle = {{cite web|url=http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/season-2-episodes3.htm|title=Brainwashed|access-date=October 30, 2012}}

|Aux1 = Josh Charles

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2012|10|28}}

|ShortSummary = In 1972, Patty Hearst is kidnapped and brainwashed to commit crimes with her abductors.

For this television episode, the producers use an airsoft gun.

• Interviewed experts: Tom Silver (hypnosis expert).

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{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 21

|EpisodeNumber2 = 5

|Title = Battlefield Cell

|RTitle = {{cite web|url=http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/season-2-episodes4.htm|title=Battlefield Cell|access-date=November 11, 2012}}

|Aux1 = Josh Charles

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2012|11|4}}

|ShortSummary =

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{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 22

|EpisodeNumber2 = 6

|Title = Sex in America

|RTitle = {{cite web|url=http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/season-2-episodes5.htm|title=Sex in America|access-date=November 11, 2012}}

|Aux1 = Josh Charles

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2012|11|11}}

|ShortSummary = Alfred Kinsey and his research team interviewed thousands of Americans in the late 1940s to inquire about their sexual behavior.

The Sinclair Institute has been "teaching couples how to make love for decades."

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{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 23

|EpisodeNumber2 = 7

|Title = Megastorm

|RTitle = {{cite web|url=http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/season-2-episodes6.htm|title=Megastorm|access-date=November 26, 2012}}

|Aux1 = Josh Charles

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2012|11|18}}

|ShortSummary = Superstorm Sandy slammed into the Eastern U.S. seaboard a month before the airing of this episode in 2012.

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{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 24

|EpisodeNumber2 = 8

|Title = Mankind Rising

|RTitle = {{cite web|url=http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/season-2-episodes7.htm|title=Mankind Rising|access-date=November 26, 2012}}

|Aux1 = Josh Charles

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2012|11|25}}

|ShortSummary = The first water worm came into being on Earth about 550 million years ago.

Myllokunmingia were fish-like creatures under threat from Anomalocaris.

Ichthyostega can breathe air or water. The land-dwelling Casineria produce eggs with soft shells.

Varanops eat meat. Varanops preyed on the Protorosaurus.

Ecteninion emerged about 220 million years ago.

Batodon came into being 66 million years ago.

About 65 million years ago, an asteroid strikes the American state of Montana. Purgatorius is the "bug-eating ancestor" of humans. Altiatlasius is the ancestor of primates.

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{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 25

|EpisodeNumber2 = 9

|Title = Volcano Time Bomb

|RTitle = {{cite web|url=http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/season-2-episodes8.htm|title=Volcano Time Bomb|access-date=December 18, 2012}}

|Aux1 = Josh Charles

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2012|12|09}}

|ShortSummary = The Ambrym lava lake is a very dangerous volcano in the country of Vanuatu in the South Pacific Ocean.

The Pacific Ring of Fire is known for its volcanic eruptions; it includes the Newberry Volcano in Oregon. At Newberry, volcanic rocks such as obsidian and rhyolite are found.

The 2010 eruptions of Ey-jaf-jall-a-jökull is discussed in this television episode.

The Cascade Range contain numerous active volcanoes.

The Yellowstone Super-volcano is in Wyoming.

The Long Valley Caldera is next to Mammoth Mountain in eastern California.

• Interviewed experts: Geoff Mackley,{{cite web |url=http://www.geoffmackley.com/ |title=Home |website=geoffmackley.com}} Kenneth Sims (geologist), Freysteinn Sigmundsson, Rikke Pedersen.

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{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 26

|EpisodeNumber2 = 10

|Title = What destroyed the Hindenburg?

|RTitle = {{cite web|url=http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/season-2-episodes9.htm|title=What destroyed the Hindenburg?|access-date=December 18, 2012}}

|Aux1 = Josh Charles

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2012|12|16}}

|ShortSummary = The Hindenburg disaster in 1937 "remains unsolved." The Hindenburg was a symbol of Nazi German technology.

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{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 27

|EpisodeNumber2 = 11

|Title = X-Ray Yellowstone

|RTitle =

|Aux1 = Josh Charles

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2012|12|23}}

|ShortSummary =

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{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 28

|EpisodeNumber2 = 12

|Title = Sun Storm

|RTitle =

|Aux1 = Josh Charles

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2012|12|30}}

|ShortSummary = The Sun's powerful energy generates magnetism which governs Sunspots. Sunspots are the "breeding ground of solar storms."

The Carrington Event in 1859 caused major damages.

• Interviewed experts: Phil Plait, William (Bill) Murtagh.

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{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 29

|EpisodeNumber2 = 13

|Title = Monster Squid: The Giant is Real

|RTitle =

|Aux1 = Josh Charles

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2013|01|27}}

|ShortSummary =

|LineColor = c28b6c

}}

}}

{{reflist|refs=

{{cite web|url=http://thefutoncritic.com/showatch/curiosity/listings|title=Shows A-Z - curiosity on discovery|publisher=the Futon Critic|access-date=October 10, 2012}}

}}

{{refbegin}}

;General references

• {{cite web|url=http://thefutoncritic.com/showatch/curiosity/listings|title=Shows A-Z - curiosity on discovery|publisher=the Futon Critic|access-date=October 10, 2012}}
• {{cite web|url=http://tv.msn.com/tv/series-episodes/curiosity|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130129035157/http://tv.msn.com/tv/series-episodes/curiosity|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 29, 2013|title=Curiosity: Episode Guide|publisher=MSN TV|access-date=October 10, 2012}}
• {{cite web|url=http://tvlistings.zap2it.com/tv/curiosity/episode-guide/EP01432936|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130210022623/http://tvlistings.zap2it.com/tv/curiosity/episode-guide/EP01432936|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 10, 2013|title=Curiosity: Episode Guide|publisher=Zap2it|access-date=October 10, 2012}}

{{refend}}

• {{IMDb title|1564623|Curiosity}}
• {{Official website|http://curiosity.discovery.com}}

{{Discovery Channel programming}}

Category:Discovery Channel original programming

Category:2011 American television series debuts

Category:2013 American television series endings