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The Scientific American Frontiers series offers several segments per show on various developments in science. This episode looks at new flight technology, starting with the solar-powered Pathfinder, which resembles a 100-foot flying wing, undergoing tests in the Mojave Desert. In Scientific American Frontiers: Flying High, host Alan Alda then visits a biology professor at Penn State who studies insect flight. Alda tries his hand at a flight simulator. Ken Dial discusses lessons learned from the flight of birds, and college students compete in a race of flying robots.