WORTH NOTING ON TV

* WEDNESDAY

The New Explorers (PBS, 8-9 p.m.): People have been exploring it - or trying to - for 100 years now, but Antarctica is one of the few places on Earth that retains most of its sense of challenge and adventure. The research being done there today is cutting-edge.

"The Crystal Laboratory" looks at this impressive work and the unique conditions that make it possible. At the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, around-the-clock experiments take place - in a pollution-less, high-altitude, dry climate - on cosmic radiation, the atmosphere, environmental pollution, and the ozone layer.

One section of the show follows the work of 18-year-old Elizabeth Felton as she helps a team of astronomers operate advanced telescopes. Felton hosted the South Pole's first live videoconference from the South Pole in January, when scientists repositioned a copper indicator that marks the earth's exact geographic pole.

Bill Kurtis is host.

NBA final (NBC, 9-11:30 p.m., EDT): The Houston Rockets, the defending champions, face the Orlando Magic in Game 1 of the the pro basketball championship in Orlando.

* THURSDAY

Anne Frank Remembered (The Disney Channel, 9-11 p.m.): Here's a new look at a tragically familiar subject - the girl who hid from the Nazis in an Amsterdam attic during World War II, but was eventually discovered and later died at Auschwitz. Her work "The Diary of a Young Girl" made her a world symbol of hope amid horror. This program - narrated by Kenneth Branagh - uses new film footage, first-person accounts, and other sources to reconstruct the terrible yet inspiring story.

Filmmaker Jon Blair was not only granted film access to the secret annex where Anne and seven others hid, but was also allowed to restore it to something close to what it had been at the time.

Please check local listings for these programs.