We're surrounded by a world we take for granted. HowStuffWorks, the TV version of the popular Web site www.HowStuffWorks.com, showcases the extreme lengths people go to in order to extract ingredients from the Earth, such as rubber and cotton, iron and gold, corn and wheat, water and salt. But the real stories are about how these seemingly basic commodities are reengineered into fascinating and unexpected outcomes. Did you know that 99 percent of the world's corn harvest is inedible? That water can cut through steel? That the sides of a beer can are thinner than a human hair? Or that as people search for sustainable energy, salt may one day power our cars and trucks?

Launching on Thursday, November 13 at 8PM ET/PT, the Discovery Channel world premiere original series, HowStuffWorks, furthers organic integration with its flagship digital property HowStuffWorks.com. The weekly series delivers on both companies' core missions of providing knowledge and satisfying consumer curiosity across all platforms.

In addition to the weekly series, HowStuffWorks.com and discovery.com will be launching robust fan sites to support the series, which will include feature articles, sneak peeks of upcoming episodes and podcasts. Each ingredient -- aluminum, lead, water, salt, wheat, corn, rubber, timber, coffee, turkey, beer and iron -- will be part of the interactive and often very surprising quizzes that were created to highlight the multiple uses of these everyday items. To learn more, go to www.discovery.com and www.HowStuffWorks.com; become a HowStuffWorks.com fan on Facebook and MySpace; and follow HowStuffWorks.com on Twitter.

Toughest Race On Eartyh: Iitarod - Ninety-six mushers and their sled dogs gathered in Anchorage, Alaska for the start of the 2008 Iditarod race - a trek that takes the teams across rugged and often inhospitable terrain across the state to Nome. Before the race even began, returning champion Lance Mackey had to deal with fighting among is canine teammates - an issue that follows them into the race and hampers their progress. And mushing pioneer DeeDee Jonrowe had to deal with every competitor's worst fear - she temporarily lost her dog team outside the Finger Lake checkpoint.

Ever wondered how exactly a face contorts when punched? Or how someone is able to juggle things like chainsaws without injury? Discovery Channel's new series Time Warp makes the invisible become visible. Premiering back-to-back at 8 and 8:30 PM ET/PT on Wednesday, October 15, the first two episodes of Time Warp will reveal the visual spectacle of extreme slow motion as a martial artist breaks a stone slab, an industrial-strength blender obliterates a video camera, and an acrobatic dog catches a Frisbee mid-air.

Time Warp's host, MIT scientist and teacher Jeff Lieberman, uses the latest in high-speed photo technology to capture and examine ordinary -- and extraordinary -- life on super slow-motion cameras. This new Discovery Channel series captures everything from everyday events like a cat licking its paw or a cork being popped out of a champagne bottle, to not-so-ordinary events like a water balloon hitting someone's face or a raw piece of chicken exploding -- at up to 10,000 frames per second.

Time Warp viewers will be able to see and appreciate things that are normally beyond human senses because they happen much too quickly. John Ford, president and general manager, Discovery Channel, says "Time Warp is the perfect marriage of IQ and eye glue. The breathtaking images the series delivers are unforgettable and the behind-the-scenes science is remarkable."

Ron Pitts, an eight-year veteran of the NFL and FOX Sports broadcaster, transitions from the world of high-impact collisions with 300 pound linebackers to the world's most shocking and explosive catastrophes caught on tape, when he hosts Discovery Channel's Destroyed In Seconds. In each half-hour episode airing Thursdays from 9-9:30 PM ET/PT, Pitts introduces incredible stories of courage and fortitude as people are confronted with split-second life and death decisions on land, sea and air.

With FOX Sports since 1994, Pitts has also served as reporter during Super Bowl XXXI, XXXIII and XXXVI as a member of the legendary NFL broadcast team of Pat Summerall and John Madden. Before joining the network, Pitts served as a game analyst for regional college football broadcasts on ABC Sports, was a correspondent for Black Entertainment Television (BET), and covered the NCAA Final Four for Los Angeles-based sports cable network Prime Ticket.

Pitts is the son of the late Elijah Pitts, the former Green Bay Packers star who also served as assistant head coach for the Buffalo Bills. He followed in his father's NFL footsteps and was Buffalo's seventh-round draft pick in 1985, playing defensive back until 1987. He joined the Green Bay Packers as a free agent in 1988 and played there until his retirement after the 1991 season.

Wreckreation Nation - Dave Mordal (of NBC's Last Comic Standing) is a man who takes his job very seriously - even when that job is playing Bigfoot paintball. He immerses himself in unique and often highly competitive situations, daring to take on the local experts, be it in swamp buggy racing or cowboy action shooting. He is unmatched in his commitment to shotgun bowling and pumpkin boat regattas. In Werckreation Nation, a 13-part world premiere series airing January 2009, Mordal seeks out ingenious, dangerous and dubious ways Americans find to kill time.

In this all-new series, host Dave Mordal travels the nation in search of bizarre hometown traditions, unusual competitions and downright peculiar pastimes that make this country unique. Each episode highlights the adventurous attitudes and fanatical dedication of people across the country - and the lengths they will go in order to have a little fun!

To date, Mordal has taken part in an Iowa/Illinois tug of war across the Mississippi River; raced a 25 mph lawn mower in Delaware, Ohio; sparred with barbarians, Romans, elves and samurai in Somerset, Pennsylvania; paddled a boat made out of cardboard in Heber Springs, Arkansas; set off fireworks with self-described pyro enthusiasts in Gillette, Wyoming; and attended alligator wrestling school in Mosca, Colorado. Just to name a few.

Man VS. Wild returns this winter with all-new episodes that push adventurer Bear Grylls to the limit, as he navigates through some of the most extreme and challenging conditions he's faced yet. Shot entirely in high-definition, the new episodes take Grylls to Transylvania, Turkey, Belize, the Yukon Peninsula, and through the Dominican Republic during hurricane season, before heading to the Bandlands of Oregon. The ultimate adventure expert, Grylls uses his vast knowledge and survival expertise - which are tried and tested throughout these episodes - to show viewers how to get out of each location alive. The new episodes premiere in late January and continue the hit Discovery Channel series' third season, which began last August.

"The new episodes of Man VS. Wild give viewers the opportunity to venture into some of the most extreme conditions this immense world has to offer, with the ultimate survival trainer - Bear Grylls - leading the way," said John Ford, president and general manager of Discovery Channel. "Bear goes to unprecedented heights as he faces some of the most difficult challenges of his career all along the way."

These latest expeditions bring Grylls face-to-face with a killer bear, a deadly scorpion, a nine-foot boa constrictor and countless other dangers. He's forced to scale hundred-foot waterfalls, feast on bear excretions (among other less-than-gourmet delicacies), and tackle some of the worst mosquito-infested swamps he's seen, all in the name of survival. The invaluable survival techniques that Grylls portrays on Man VS. Wild have been credited with saving various lives.

An ex-Special Forces soldier, Bear Grylls was trained as a survival expert in the British army, has a black belt in karate and is an experienced high-altitude mountaineer. Grylls has channeled his daring spirit into feats such as the highest-ever dinner party at a table suspended below a hot air balloon at 24,500 feet, and the first unassisted crossing of the frozen North Atlantic Ocean in an open rigid inflatable boat.

In addition, in 1998 at age 23, Bear became the youngest British climber to ever complete a summit and descent of Mount Everest. Last year, Bear returned to the Himalayas to conquer a new dream - attempting to fly a powered paraglider higher than Everest. Through this expedition, Bear and his team donated over $2.5 million to charities, including $600,000 to the Global Angels Foundation, a charity that supports long-term projects for underprivileged children worldwide.

One of Bear's upcoming expeditions will involve leading a team through remote areas of Antarctica to promote alternative energy and biofuels as a sustainable resource for the future, which will benefit the Global Angels Foundation.

It's a dirty job, but somebody's gotta do it. The Emmy®-nominated series Dirty Jobs continues its fourth season with 11 world premiere episodes that provide an unflinching look at the unsung American worker and spotlight the dignity of a hard day's work. With strong convictions and an even stronger stomach, Dirty Jobs' host and creator Mike Rowe serves as apprentice to hardworking men and women whose daily jobs - from collecting garbage to plugging abandoned mine shafts - help keep our society clean, civilized and working smoothly.

Deadliest Catch
Discovery Channel's Emmy®-nominated series Deadliest Catch for a fourth season of life-or-death adventures on the high seas.

Deadliest Catch, broadcast in high definition this season for the first time, follows the now legendary captains and crews of five crab-fishing vessels on the Bering Sea doing one of the deadliest - and most lucrative - jobs in the world.The brave men endure subzero arctic weather, 60-mph winds and turbulent seas with waves the size of four-story buildings, all on three to four hours of sleep each night - if they're lucky.

This year, injuries dominate the crab-fishing season. And a fisherman is forced to end his fishing season early after a situation quickly turns life-threatening. Viewers can get ready for the new season by watching the two-hour Best of Season.

Mythbusters
Adam Savage, Jamie Hyneman, and their team set out to either prove certain myths exist, or debunk those that do not. Instead of merely explaining their theories, they put these myths to the test to find out what we really should be aware of.

Bear Grylls is a experienced explorer who served with the Special Air Service, a special forces unit of the British army, where he was trained as a survival expert. His experiences include climbing Mount Everest, crossing the freezing North Atlantic Ocean in a small, open boat and climbing a Himalayan peak described by Sir Edmund Hillary as 'unclimbable'. He has survived places and done things that would defeat most ordinary people. But now, he is up against something completely different.

In each episode of Man VS. Wild Bear strands himself in popular wilderness destinations where tourists often find themselves lost or threatened. As he finds his way back to civilization, he demonstrates local survival techniques, including escaping quicksand in the Moab Desert, navigating hazardous jungle rivers in Costa Rica, crossing ravines in the Alps and surviving sharks off Hawaii.

Check out Discovery's new series TIME WARP where the invisible become visible. MIT scientist and engineer Jeff Lieberman reveals the world in astonishing and spectacular new ways, by radically changing the lens of time. Time bending and mind blowing, TIME WARP lets viewers see and appreciate things that are normally beyond our senses because they take place much too quickly or slowly. By employing state of the art camera equipment and editing techniques, Lieberman demonstrates what really happens with every crack, fissure and crash. Click on the links below to check it out... A punch to the face, the break of a matchstick-each frame will tell an extraordinary story of what really is happening.

Countless news outlets and websites from around the world have featured images of the tree-like warts covering Dede's body-totally consuming his hands and feet and making him look as much plant as human. Nearly a year in the making, TREEMAN: SEARCH FOR THE CURE provides an exclusive firsthand account of this groundbreaking medical case from both Dede and his American doctor, Dr. Anthony Gaspari.

Fascinated by the Treeman case, Gaspari, chief of dermatology at the University of Maryland Medical Center, travelled to a remote part of Indonesia to meet the legendary Dede. Upon meeting him, Gaspari recognized the most incredible dermatological case he had ever come across, and made it his mission to treat-and hopefully cure-the Treeman.

Marking the 45th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Discovery Channel examines that fateful day in Dallas, methodically employing cutting-edge forensics and Zapruder film archives to definitively prove that the only bullets fired were from the Texas School Book Depository. The investigation is detailed in a world premiere special JFK: INSIDE THE TARGET CAR, premiering Sunday, November 16, 2008, at 9 PM (ET/PT).

Decades after the Warren Commission determined that three shots were fired from the Depository building; theories still linger about additional locations and accomplices. To find the answers once and for all, Discovery Channel assembles a team of experts to set up an array of ballistic tests, trajectory analysis and the latest in forensic artificial body creation.

To ensure the greatest accuracy in testing all possible theories, the producers of the special traveled to Adelaide, Australia to employ Anatomical Surrogates, an engineering company that specializes in creating exact human specimens utilized in military weaponry development. Working with Kennedy's hat size they create a replica - matching the size and density of a human head. A special effects team also built the Presidential limousine passenger area to finite specification.

"JFK: INSIDE THE TARGET CAR is the latest example of using break-through technology to authenticate scientific theories," said John Ford, president and general manager, Discovery Channel. "This special encompasses an intensive forensic investigation that proves the lone gunman theory. It's momentous for the network to help support the science behind this definitive evidence."

The investigation team includes Gary Mack, Curator of The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas and a 25-year veteran of Kennedy investigations; world renowned sharpshooter Michael Yardley; Wesley Fisk, Chief Operating Officer of Anatomical Surrogates; and veteran crime scene and forensic examiners Tom Bevel and Steve Schlieble. A graduate of Britain's Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Yardley has won more than 500 competitions as a civilian marksman.

To further assemble the pieces of the puzzle, the special interviews key players from that November day. Jack McNairy and H.B. McLain are two eyewitnesses who saw the blood-splattered limo before the Secret Service ordered it cleaned and sent back to Washington D.C. Bobby Hargis, a Dallas police officer in 1963 riding directly behind the motorcade, provides crucial information about the effects of gunfire. And finally, in one of her last recorded interviews, the late Nellie Connelly, who, with her husband, Texas Governor John Connelly, was in the car with President and Mrs. Kennedy.

Yardley looks through the scope of a high-powered rifle from four different possible angles focused on a duplicate Presidential limousine. The limo is in the exact spot where Kennedy was fired on and filled with actors the same size as the passengers that day. From vantage points at the south end of the overpass, the north end of the overpass and two different sections of the grass knoll, Yardley determines whether a shot could have come from a second gunman at any of these spots.

After careful analysis of possible shot locations, the forensics team structures, on a California firing range, the exact distances, angles, and even wind speed in Dallas on November 22, 1963. High-speed cameras roll as Yardley takes his best shot at the head replicas, utilizing a Mannlicher Carcano rifle - the same type supposedly used by Lee Harvey Oswald.

The results of these precision ballistics tests provide some clear answers to the events that unfolded in Dealey Plaza. Comparing the splatter patterns from these test angles, with the historical evidence gleaned from eyewitness testimony and Secret Service reports, as well as an exact digitized overlay of the Zapruder film, the forensic team draws the definitive conclusion that the fatal shot could have only come from the sixth floor window of the Book Depository and not anywhere else, just as the Warren Commission determined in 1964.

Discovery TV Shows:
A Haunting
Cash Cab
Deadliest Catch
Destroyed In Seconds
Dirty Jobs
Howstuffworks
Iditarod
Man VS. Wild
Mythbusters
Planet Earth
Prototype This!
Shark Week
Storm Chasers
Survivorman
Time WArp
Wreckreation Nation