One tactic is to insert a challenge that had to be overcome, the conflicts that arose in the solution and then the final resolution. This is standard fare in N

One tactic is to insert a challenge that had to be overcome, the conflicts that arose in the solution and then the final resolution. This is standard fare in Nova documentaries where the topic can often be fairly dull. eg: documentary is about dinosaurs, they find a dinosaur fossil, extract it from the surrounding rock and take it back for cleaning and research. Pretty dull stuff. But if you blow up some minor crisis: Scientists are extracting the large fossil but oh my, the plaster-cast looks like it may break (crisis). What can they do ? They gather in a room to decide, there are conflicting opinions (conflict). Finally one person makes a decision - they will wrap the plaster-cast in a wooden cage and use a fork lift. But will it work !? (drama). Tension builds as the forklift truck raises the plaster-cast - and, sigh of relief, it works. The fossil is safe (resolution). The above scene is completely unnecessary for the documentary but inserting it grabs the viewers attention. This formula works when giving fairly dull presentations - find something that blocked you in your research, explain the options you had and the choices you had to make and how you finally overcame that minor crisis. Knowing this formula will, unfortunately, ruin your Nova viewing experience since they use this technique every time.