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(playful music)

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Did you know

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that a surprising number of objects that you use every day

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are thanks to accidents?

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Let me show you what I mean.

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In this episode,

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we discover how a broken thermometer leads to revolution.

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Something very interesting started to happen.

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Find out how a failed experiment

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gives rise to the world's greatest crime-fighting tool.

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So something that was totally an accident

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ended up impacting every single one of our lives.

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And learn how a cut finger

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leads to the age of plastics.

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He has discovered, through a series of accidents,

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a new material.

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"Oops I Changed The World!"

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There aren't many items of clothing you can wear,

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whether you're a rockstar, a construction worker, a cowboy,

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a pianist, supermodel, a toddler, or in your 80s.

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But the chances are, you have a pair of blue jeans.

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I've got about five to six jeans in my wardrobe.

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Three at any time.

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Over 10 pairs of jeans.

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I have day jeans, evening jeans, black jeans, blue jeans,

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jeans for all occasions.

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Given how popular they are, it's perhaps no surprise

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that the worldwide value of the jeans market today

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is over $110,000,000,000.

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I can't really imagine how much that is.

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That's either one Jeff Bezos or Morocco's entire GDP.

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Ah, thanks.

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But there was once a time when blue clothing

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was a rare sight.

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Historically, dyes are made from natural products,

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plants, shells, bugs.

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Kula wood, which has a rich, warm brown tone.

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Even foods.

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Blue clothes were dyed with a pigment known as indigo

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from the plant Indigofera.

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In the ancient times of the Roman Empire,

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it was actually traded along the Silk Road

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and it was right up there with silk and gold in its value.

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In fact, people actually called it blue gold.

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Indigo is so expensive

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that it was only worn by aristocrats or royalty.

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Most people were wearing browns and greens,

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very earthy colors.

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So to be parading around in blue

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was a really obvious sign of wealth and of power.

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The reason why indigo is so expensive

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is because it comes from hot climates like India.

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In fact,

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the name indigo comes from the ancient Greek for Indian.

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It's also very labor intensive.

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You need 200 pounds of leaves just to make one pound of dye.

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The leaves are covered in water

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and left to ferment into a muddy green pulp,

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which contains a substance called indoxyl.

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But it's not until oxygen gets into the mix

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that the color blue develops.

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Here they are trying something now

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that seems to do the trick.

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The mixture is stirred and that introduces air.

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The oxygen in the air cause the indoxyl molecules

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to combine together

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and they precipitate out as a solid

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and settle on the bottom.

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And once it's all done,

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it can be brought together and formed into a brick.

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Given these bricks' value,

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it's perhaps not surprising

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that when the British colonize India in the 19th century,

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they see money.

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(coins rattling)

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The British increase production of indigo

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and export this blue gold

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back to the mills of Northern England.

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But the profits come at a huge ethical cost.

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When the British came in,

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they employed people to be landlords

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known locally as zamindars,

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and their job was to ensure that local farmers

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dedicated at least 15% of their land

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to the growing of indigo.

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If any farmer refused to grow indigo,

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they could actually be fined.

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So the British Empire and the zamindars

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are doing very well by this,

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they're making loads of money,

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but of course the farmers are left in poverty.

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The conditions under which these farmers work are brutal

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and some even say

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that not a single chest of indigo made its way to Britain

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without being stained in blood.

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The British now have an almost total monopoly

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on global indigo dye sales

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and European demand for blue clothing

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is at an all time high.

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Other nations are looking for an opportunity

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to break into the market.

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And, ironically,

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it's a British discovery that shows them the way.

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In the mid 1800s,

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William Henry Perkin is trying to make quinine

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for the treatment of malaria,

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when the whole thing turns mauve

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and he invents the first synthetic dye.

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It's purple, not the coveted blue,

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but the world sees the potential

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and the race is on to find a cheaper alternative

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to natural indigo.

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Speed forward to the 1890s

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and a German chemist called Karl Heumann

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is working on the problem.

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Karl's working for a German company

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that's investing heavily in finding this elusive blue dye.

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They come close quite a few times,

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but the problem is that compared to creating it naturally,

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the synthetic dyes just aren't quite cheap enough

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to be competitive.

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Karl's working with aniline,

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a chemical derived from coal tar.

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The good news is,

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he's had some success in turning it into indigo.

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Unfortunately, it was only a little bit less expensive

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than making it naturally.

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They needed something that would really shake this up.

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Karl goes on to develop a better method

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using something called anthranilic acid.

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The trouble is the process of making this acid is slow

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and has low yields.

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Enter Eugen Sapper, a colleague of Karl's.

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Not much is known about this guy.

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In one history book he's even referred to

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as an insignificant worker.

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(gasping)

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Well, that's bit of a blow to the ego, isn't it?

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But his blunder

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has a more than significant effect on the company

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and on the world.

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Eugen is there working in his lab at BASF,

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and he's making some of Karl's recipe

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for the synthetic indigo.

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Now, there are differing accounts

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as to what happened next.

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Some people say

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that he was trying to measure the temperature,

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some people say he needed something to stir it with,

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but in any case,

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Eugen reaches for a thermometer

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and puts it into his mixture

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as he's making the synthetic indigo.

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(glass breaking)
(screaming)

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The thermometer breaks.

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Now at this stage, he's probably thinking

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oh great, another batch gone.

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The thing is, this time,

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something very interesting started to happen.

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The mercury from the thermometer

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reacts with the sulfuric acid in the mixture,

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to form mercury sulfate.

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Mercury sulfate, it turns out,

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is the perfect catalyst for this reaction.

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That just means that it makes the reaction go much quicker

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and also gives you more product.

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It's like you're mixing the ingredients for one cake,

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but it gives you four.

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(jaunty music)

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Oh, cheers Greg.

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Chocolate, my favorite.

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Mm, can you make another one?

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Thanks to Eugen's blunder,

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synthetic indigo can now be made for a fraction of the cost

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of natural indigo.

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(crowd cheering)

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Production begins in 1897.

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Perfect timing, as blue jeans have just been invented.

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First pair of jeans

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was patented by a couple of guys from Bavaria.

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You might have heard of one of them.

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His name was Levi Strauss.

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Levi's friend was a tailor called Jacob

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and one day a lady approached Jacob with a problem.

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She wanted him to create the perfect

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almost indestructible pair of work trousers.

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Jacob came up with the idea of introducing rivets

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into the seams of the jeans,

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to make them virtually indestructible,

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(explosion)

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hence the jeans we know today were born.

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So these new pants take off.

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No, not like that!

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They're used

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by all the people that do hard labor,

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the cowboys, the miners.

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But all that is about to change.

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When James Dean famously wears a pair of blue jeans

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in "Rebel Without a Cause",

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suddenly every teenager in the land

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needs to have a pair for themselves.

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(mid tempo rock and roll music)

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This new invention of the jeans stands the test of time.

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Here it is 150 years later

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and they've yet to go out of style.

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I think my jeans feel very boring now,

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I gotta go get my Bedazzler out.

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Blue clothes are now everywhere,

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thanks to the easy access to synthetic dye.

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But this shift from natural to manmade dyeing

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has a huge impact on British-ruled India.

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2,700 square miles,

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an area larger than the entire state of Delaware,

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is dedicated to growing indigo.

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But Eugen's new synthetic alternative

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is driving down demand,

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and Indian indigo production slumps.

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In 1895, Indian exports of natural indigo

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had totaled nearly nine and a half thousand tons.

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Just 10 years later, it was little over a quarter of that.

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With the demand for indigo dropping so much,

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the farmers in India are really suffering

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because they're still beholden to these zamindars,

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to dedicate at least 15% of their land

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to the growing of indigo.

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And they're not making any money on this now.

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And it becomes a full-blown humanitarian crisis.

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Unable to pay the rent,

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many farmers and their families

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become trapped in a cycle of debt.

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And so they revolt.

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Now, it's at this time that Gandhi is returning to India

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from South Africa.

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Mahatma Gandhi.

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A frail man with an iron-strong moral compass.

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He has continued to preach his doctrines

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of nonviolence and passive resistance.

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And he receives a letter from an indigo farmer

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in the Champaran region,

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in the northeast part of the country,

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who says, "Can you please help us?"

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And that is exactly what Gandhi does,

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he fights the cause of the indigo farmers.

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The British in the region become very nervous,

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because they know that a lot of people listen to Gandhi.

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So when he gets there,

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they arrest him for inciting civil disobedience.

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Well, this enrages the farmers

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and they do just that, engage in civil disobedience

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and start really causing some trouble.

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After Gandhi's release

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he organizes his first satyagraha,

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which is his method of instilling change

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through nonviolence.

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It was kind of like a ripple effect

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and before we knew it,

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we could see the whole of India uniting

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to oppose the British rule.

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(mid tempo music)

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What started out as a disagreement over indigo

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has exploded,

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the pressure on the British intensifies

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to the point that, in 1947, India gains its independence.

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And, since then, the country has never looked back.

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(upbeat music)

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In the last 50 years, India has completely transformed.

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The literacy rate has gone from 34% to 74%.

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India now has one of the biggest economies,

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with millions of people now being pulled out of poverty.

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It has its own space program

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and it's on its way to becoming a global superpower.

272
00:12:36,110 --> 00:12:37,990
So Eugen Sapper

273
00:12:37,990 --> 00:12:41,080
accidentally breaking a thermometer in a German lab,

274
00:12:41,080 --> 00:12:42,920
sets in motion a chain of events

275
00:12:42,920 --> 00:12:45,460
that frees India from the yoke of colonialism.

276
00:12:47,490 --> 00:12:49,870
To think that this all started

277
00:12:49,870 --> 00:12:54,220
from someone spilling mercury, is utterly mind-blowing.

278
00:13:00,960 --> 00:13:03,630
(playful music)

279
00:13:04,660 --> 00:13:06,410
Still to come,

280
00:13:06,410 --> 00:13:08,540
the problem with exploding balls.

281
00:13:08,540 --> 00:13:10,010
This is the Wild Wild West.

282
00:13:10,010 --> 00:13:12,570
When one of these balls explodes,

283
00:13:12,570 --> 00:13:14,690
everyone pulls out their guns.

284
00:13:14,690 --> 00:13:17,700
(gun firing)

285
00:13:17,700 --> 00:13:20,280
And the curse of the killer sausage poison.

286
00:13:20,280 --> 00:13:22,330
This toxin is the most dangerous chemical

287
00:13:22,330 --> 00:13:23,940
known to humankind.

288
00:13:23,940 --> 00:13:25,530
But before that.

289
00:13:25,530 --> 00:13:28,470
(gavel banging)

290
00:13:28,470 --> 00:13:30,730
Did you know that there've been courts of law

291
00:13:30,730 --> 00:13:33,310
for over 4,000 years?

292
00:13:33,310 --> 00:13:34,640
But for most of that time,

293
00:13:34,640 --> 00:13:37,740
convicting a criminal involved more courtroom drama

294
00:13:37,740 --> 00:13:39,140
than solid evidence.

295
00:13:39,140 --> 00:13:40,250
A few hundred years ago,

296
00:13:40,250 --> 00:13:42,580
forensic science wasn't even a science.

297
00:13:42,580 --> 00:13:44,950
I mean, people would find a body by a river

298
00:13:44,950 --> 00:13:47,110
and just assume that they had drowned.

299
00:13:47,110 --> 00:13:48,980
Even if they found a mark on the head,

300
00:13:48,980 --> 00:13:50,630
they might just say, well, maybe they bumped their head

301
00:13:50,630 --> 00:13:51,540
on a rock or something.

302
00:13:51,540 --> 00:13:54,280
You really didn't have the idea of processing evidence

303
00:13:54,280 --> 00:13:55,950
in a seriously analytic way,

304
00:13:55,950 --> 00:13:58,630
that would allow you to make serious conclusions

305
00:13:58,630 --> 00:14:00,080
about a case.

306
00:14:00,080 --> 00:14:02,520
One minute, his eyes were a little like that.

307
00:14:02,520 --> 00:14:05,020
He had a patch over one eye when he came into my dive.

308
00:14:05,020 --> 00:14:07,570
Well, the guy that stuck me up had on horn-rimmed glasses.

309
00:14:07,570 --> 00:14:09,510
He was wearing a Band-Aid across his nose

310
00:14:09,510 --> 00:14:10,710
when he knocked me over.

311
00:14:12,020 --> 00:14:13,820
One of the first major developments

312
00:14:13,820 --> 00:14:17,340
in the world of forensic science is fingerprint matching.

313
00:14:18,960 --> 00:14:21,840
When we look at our hands, we have these fingerprints,

314
00:14:21,840 --> 00:14:24,110
we have these lines,

315
00:14:24,110 --> 00:14:25,190
but not many people realized

316
00:14:25,190 --> 00:14:27,590
that these were unique to individuals.

317
00:14:29,210 --> 00:14:31,050
It isn't until the 1870s,

318
00:14:31,050 --> 00:14:34,360
that the potential of fingerprints as a crime-fighting tool

319
00:14:34,360 --> 00:14:36,230
occurs to anyone,

320
00:14:36,230 --> 00:14:40,270
and that person is a Scottish doctor called Henry Faulds,

321
00:14:41,860 --> 00:14:43,660
who's on a medical mission in Japan.

322
00:14:44,620 --> 00:14:46,710
One day, he decides to go on an archeological dig

323
00:14:46,710 --> 00:14:47,840
with his friend.

324
00:14:47,840 --> 00:14:48,760
Whilst he's on the dig,

325
00:14:48,760 --> 00:14:52,760
they discover this beautiful bit of pottery.

326
00:14:52,760 --> 00:14:55,420
He noticed on one of the clay pots,

327
00:14:55,420 --> 00:14:57,520
a well-preserved fingerprint

328
00:14:57,520 --> 00:14:59,480
and he got really intrigued by this.

329
00:14:59,480 --> 00:15:02,000
Henry gets so inspired by that pottery

330
00:15:02,000 --> 00:15:02,890
with the fingerprints,

331
00:15:02,890 --> 00:15:05,310
that he starts to play with some ink.

332
00:15:05,310 --> 00:15:08,170
And he actually takes fingerprints of all his colleagues

333
00:15:08,170 --> 00:15:09,890
and himself,

334
00:15:09,890 --> 00:15:12,070
just to see the different variations.

335
00:15:13,040 --> 00:15:14,440
What fascinates Henry

336
00:15:14,440 --> 00:15:18,710
is how each person's fingerprint is totally unique.

337
00:15:18,710 --> 00:15:21,610
So he's analyzing each one

338
00:15:21,610 --> 00:15:24,090
and sort of looking at the differences.

339
00:15:24,090 --> 00:15:27,300
Can't imagine being one of the first people

340
00:15:27,300 --> 00:15:29,750
to really start to look at this scientifically.

341
00:15:31,280 --> 00:15:33,080
Fingerprints are formed in the womb

342
00:15:33,080 --> 00:15:36,740
as the embryo's hands touch their surroundings,

343
00:15:36,740 --> 00:15:38,730
causing friction ridges.

344
00:15:38,730 --> 00:15:42,120
So, even in identical twins, prints will be different

345
00:15:42,120 --> 00:15:45,790
and these patterns remain the same throughout our lives.

346
00:15:47,560 --> 00:15:49,240
Henry Faulds' collection of prints

347
00:15:49,240 --> 00:15:51,600
comes in handy almost immediately,

348
00:15:51,600 --> 00:15:53,220
when there's a theft at work.

349
00:15:54,250 --> 00:15:57,290
When a bottle of alcohol went missing from the hospital,

350
00:15:57,290 --> 00:16:00,230
some people accused Faulds' friend of taking it.

351
00:16:00,230 --> 00:16:02,680
This is most unusual.

352
00:16:02,680 --> 00:16:06,440
He finds a fingerprint on one of the beakers

353
00:16:06,440 --> 00:16:09,080
and is able to prove that it wasn't his friend,

354
00:16:09,080 --> 00:16:10,710
so his friend gets off the hook,

355
00:16:10,710 --> 00:16:13,940
and they end up identifying who the criminal is

356
00:16:13,940 --> 00:16:15,310
by his fingerprint.

357
00:16:15,310 --> 00:16:18,480
(slow dramatic music)

358
00:16:19,720 --> 00:16:21,650
After Faulds' initial success,

359
00:16:21,650 --> 00:16:23,570
he's convinced that fingerprints

360
00:16:23,570 --> 00:16:25,670
are a useful crime-fighting tool

361
00:16:25,670 --> 00:16:28,220
and he offers his new insights to Scotland Yard,

362
00:16:31,400 --> 00:16:33,470
who completely ignore them.

363
00:16:36,570 --> 00:16:38,610
It isn't until two years later,

364
00:16:38,610 --> 00:16:40,800
when a civil servant working in India

365
00:16:40,800 --> 00:16:44,120
introduces the idea again, that it finally takes off.

366
00:16:45,370 --> 00:16:46,510
Charles Darwin's cousin

367
00:16:46,510 --> 00:16:48,460
actually did quite a lot of research on this

368
00:16:48,460 --> 00:16:52,090
and found that the chance of getting it wrong

369
00:16:52,980 --> 00:16:56,670
is like one in 64,000,000,000.

370
00:16:57,970 --> 00:16:58,830
Given that there's fewer

371
00:16:58,830 --> 00:17:01,270
than 8,000,000,000 people alive today,

372
00:17:01,270 --> 00:17:02,350
that's pretty good odds.

373
00:17:02,350 --> 00:17:05,010
(playful music)

374
00:17:08,220 --> 00:17:10,460
It remained one of the best technologies

375
00:17:10,460 --> 00:17:13,790
for identification for 100 years.

376
00:17:14,770 --> 00:17:16,150
But what happens

377
00:17:16,150 --> 00:17:18,460
when a crime scene has no fingerprints?

378
00:17:19,710 --> 00:17:24,710
Fast forward to 1984, Ronald Reagan's in the White House,

379
00:17:24,740 --> 00:17:27,310
Gorbachev's about to become Soviet leader,

380
00:17:27,310 --> 00:17:28,610
and Cabbage Patch dolls

381
00:17:28,610 --> 00:17:31,180
are flying off the shelves everywhere.

382
00:17:31,180 --> 00:17:32,160
In England,

383
00:17:32,160 --> 00:17:35,030
Alec Jeffreys is experimenting with a molecule

384
00:17:35,030 --> 00:17:36,900
that's now a household name

385
00:17:36,900 --> 00:17:38,930
but wasn't well known at the time,

386
00:17:38,930 --> 00:17:43,210
deoxyribonucleic acid, AKA DNA.

387
00:17:43,210 --> 00:17:45,220
At this time, very little is known

388
00:17:45,220 --> 00:17:49,010
about just how much information you can get from DNA.

389
00:17:49,010 --> 00:17:50,870
Most research at the time

390
00:17:50,870 --> 00:17:53,510
was into how DNA stores information,

391
00:17:54,570 --> 00:17:56,810
but Jeffreys is more interested

392
00:17:56,810 --> 00:17:59,690
in how it differs between relatives.

393
00:17:59,690 --> 00:18:02,140
So he takes DNA from his technician,

394
00:18:02,140 --> 00:18:05,760
that technician's parents, a monkey, a cow, and a plant.

395
00:18:06,660 --> 00:18:07,570
If this sounds

396
00:18:07,570 --> 00:18:10,440
like some horrific Frankenstein experiment,

397
00:18:10,440 --> 00:18:12,920
(creature shouts)
(woman screaming)

398
00:18:12,920 --> 00:18:13,750
it isn't.

399
00:18:13,750 --> 00:18:14,890
He wants to compare DNA,

400
00:18:14,890 --> 00:18:18,050
but DNA is not visible to the naked eye.

401
00:18:18,050 --> 00:18:20,830
So he puts radioactive probes on it

402
00:18:20,830 --> 00:18:24,580
and then puts that material on a photographic plate,

403
00:18:24,580 --> 00:18:27,700
and leaves it there to see what it will reveal.

404
00:18:27,700 --> 00:18:29,080
Quite frankly, I never expected it would work

405
00:18:29,080 --> 00:18:30,430
in 1,000,000 years.

406
00:18:30,430 --> 00:18:32,430
Well that's not very hopeful!

407
00:18:32,430 --> 00:18:36,350
But when he returns after the weekend to develop the plates.

408
00:18:36,350 --> 00:18:37,920
He sees all these splotches

409
00:18:39,020 --> 00:18:41,650
and he's like, oh no, I've messed it up.

410
00:18:41,650 --> 00:18:44,550
It looks like his experiment is a disaster,

411
00:18:46,380 --> 00:18:49,860
but a few minutes later, the penny drops.

412
00:18:49,860 --> 00:18:52,910
He realizes that actually there are patterns in there

413
00:18:52,910 --> 00:18:55,900
and what he can surmise is that the plant's DNA

414
00:18:55,900 --> 00:18:58,100
is quite different from those of the animals.

415
00:18:58,100 --> 00:18:59,550
But most importantly,

416
00:18:59,550 --> 00:19:01,190
the technician's DNA

417
00:19:01,190 --> 00:19:04,170
is quite similar to those of her parents.

418
00:19:04,170 --> 00:19:05,250
And, as a matter of fact,

419
00:19:05,250 --> 00:19:07,670
he can see that it's a combination.

420
00:19:10,680 --> 00:19:12,050
Quite unexpectedly,

421
00:19:12,050 --> 00:19:13,310
the image clearly shows

422
00:19:13,310 --> 00:19:15,840
that not only does the DNA of each species

423
00:19:15,840 --> 00:19:17,580
have its own particular pattern,

424
00:19:17,580 --> 00:19:19,560
but so does each person,

425
00:19:19,560 --> 00:19:23,290
and its unique like a personal barcode.

426
00:19:23,290 --> 00:19:25,750
Obviously, this wasn't just a matter

427
00:19:25,750 --> 00:19:27,760
of individual identification

428
00:19:27,760 --> 00:19:29,390
made possible with these patterns,

429
00:19:29,390 --> 00:19:31,890
but also establishing family relationships.

430
00:19:31,890 --> 00:19:34,030
And I think, having seen that,

431
00:19:34,030 --> 00:19:36,690
I mean, everything then happened very, very quickly.

432
00:19:36,690 --> 00:19:38,260
And it was that sort of eureka moment

433
00:19:38,260 --> 00:19:41,190
that he realized just how significant and unique

434
00:19:41,190 --> 00:19:42,960
everybody's DNA was.

435
00:19:42,960 --> 00:19:43,790
Alec Jeffreys

436
00:19:43,790 --> 00:19:46,220
had discovered how to produce simple patterns

437
00:19:46,220 --> 00:19:48,330
of the genetic material DNA,

438
00:19:48,330 --> 00:19:51,380
as characteristic and invariable as fingerprints.

439
00:19:51,380 --> 00:19:52,680
And it's been hidden

440
00:19:52,680 --> 00:19:55,220
inside every cell in our bodies

441
00:19:55,220 --> 00:19:56,820
since the beginning of time.

442
00:19:59,740 --> 00:20:02,580
You're probably wondering how does it work?

443
00:20:02,580 --> 00:20:04,970
"Elementary, my dear Watson."

444
00:20:04,970 --> 00:20:05,800
Well, it's really not,

445
00:20:05,800 --> 00:20:09,390
it's actually quite complicated, but I love your enthusiasm.

446
00:20:09,390 --> 00:20:12,550
DNA is only composed of four subunits

447
00:20:12,550 --> 00:20:15,330
and we give these subunits letters to name them,

448
00:20:15,330 --> 00:20:17,530
G, C, A, and T.

449
00:20:17,530 --> 00:20:19,870
Now, the order in which these appear

450
00:20:19,870 --> 00:20:21,840
are what make your genes unique.

451
00:20:21,840 --> 00:20:23,370
This is like letters and words

452
00:20:23,370 --> 00:20:25,060
that then compose a whole book.

453
00:20:25,060 --> 00:20:26,970
You're only using a limited number of letters,

454
00:20:26,970 --> 00:20:29,160
but the possibilities are endless.

455
00:20:29,160 --> 00:20:31,800
So DNA is responsible for making different proteins,

456
00:20:31,800 --> 00:20:34,140
which then make up different genes,

457
00:20:34,140 --> 00:20:37,370
which will identify, say, someone's characteristics,

458
00:20:37,370 --> 00:20:38,870
brown hair, blonde hair,

459
00:20:38,870 --> 00:20:41,120
blue eyes, brown eyes, et cetera.

460
00:20:41,120 --> 00:20:42,690
Then there's other parts of the DNA

461
00:20:42,690 --> 00:20:46,040
that were thought once as being junk DNA,

462
00:20:46,040 --> 00:20:47,750
but turns out they're actually very useful

463
00:20:47,750 --> 00:20:49,480
in identifying humans.

464
00:20:49,480 --> 00:20:50,920
These junk areas

465
00:20:50,920 --> 00:20:53,140
differ hugely between individuals.

466
00:20:54,070 --> 00:20:56,200
So mine might be very different than yours.

467
00:20:56,200 --> 00:20:59,330
So you can have often very repeating patterns

468
00:20:59,330 --> 00:21:02,850
like GCA, GCA, GCA, and it just keeps on going.

469
00:21:02,850 --> 00:21:04,990
And I might have 10 of those in a row,

470
00:21:04,990 --> 00:21:06,780
where someone else might have 30.

471
00:21:06,780 --> 00:21:08,810
By comparing these repeating patterns

472
00:21:08,810 --> 00:21:10,350
in the junk DNA,

473
00:21:10,350 --> 00:21:12,960
scientists can determine whose belongs to who

474
00:21:12,960 --> 00:21:14,620
with startling accuracy.

475
00:21:16,740 --> 00:21:21,550
The chance of any two people having the exact same DNA

476
00:21:21,550 --> 00:21:23,990
is astronomically small.

477
00:21:23,990 --> 00:21:27,580
One in 575,000,000,000,000.

478
00:21:28,640 --> 00:21:29,470
And there's only been

479
00:21:29,470 --> 00:21:33,180
around 107,000,000,000 people that have ever lived,

480
00:21:34,350 --> 00:21:38,030
so your DNA won't just not match anyone's alive now,

481
00:21:38,030 --> 00:21:39,940
it won't match anyone's ever.

482
00:21:42,220 --> 00:21:43,260
One night over dinner,

483
00:21:43,260 --> 00:21:46,550
Alec and his wife Susan were discussing his discoveries.

484
00:21:46,550 --> 00:21:49,390
I would've loved to be a fly on wall in that conversation.

485
00:21:49,390 --> 00:21:51,880
Honey, I'm home, I've just invented DNA fingerprinting.

486
00:21:51,880 --> 00:21:55,170
It was then that Susan made an interesting point,

487
00:21:55,170 --> 00:21:56,880
what if DNA fingerprinting

488
00:21:56,880 --> 00:21:59,380
could help resolve immigration cases

489
00:21:59,380 --> 00:22:01,710
and especially those family disputes?

490
00:22:01,710 --> 00:22:02,540
Sure enough,

491
00:22:02,540 --> 00:22:04,510
the following March, Alec has his first chance

492
00:22:04,510 --> 00:22:07,050
to put his new discovery to the test.

493
00:22:07,050 --> 00:22:08,580
A young boy called Andrew

494
00:22:08,580 --> 00:22:10,430
has been stopped coming into Britain.

495
00:22:10,430 --> 00:22:11,870
Now, he's a British citizen

496
00:22:11,870 --> 00:22:14,500
and his mother is standing right next to him,

497
00:22:14,500 --> 00:22:17,400
but Andrew refers to his mother as auntie,

498
00:22:17,400 --> 00:22:19,580
which in their culture is normal.

499
00:22:19,580 --> 00:22:22,970
However, border control think that his passport is fake

500
00:22:22,970 --> 00:22:25,310
and they want to deport him back to Ghana.

501
00:22:26,290 --> 00:22:31,170
Alec ends up comparing the DNA fingerprint of Andrew,

502
00:22:31,170 --> 00:22:34,340
his mom, and of his siblings.

503
00:22:34,340 --> 00:22:37,100
And I think you can immediately see the first band

504
00:22:37,100 --> 00:22:38,870
or genetic character in Andrew,

505
00:22:38,870 --> 00:22:40,630
this clearly comes from his mother.

506
00:22:40,630 --> 00:22:43,070
Here's another character which comes from his mother.

507
00:22:43,070 --> 00:22:46,500
The son is who he says he is, who the family says he is,

508
00:22:46,500 --> 00:22:48,300
and it's a smashing success.

509
00:22:49,410 --> 00:22:51,200
So this ends up all over the news,

510
00:22:51,200 --> 00:22:52,700
the newspapers, the media,

511
00:22:52,700 --> 00:22:54,310
everyone is so excited

512
00:22:54,310 --> 00:22:57,660
about this newfound way of identifying ourselves.

513
00:22:57,660 --> 00:22:59,690
I think it was just the look on that woman's face

514
00:22:59,690 --> 00:23:01,340
that, more than anything else,

515
00:23:01,340 --> 00:23:02,840
gave me enormous satisfaction.

516
00:23:04,200 --> 00:23:05,030
And it wasn't long

517
00:23:05,030 --> 00:23:06,940
before police came knocking on his door,

518
00:23:06,940 --> 00:23:09,590
asking for help in resolving some crimes.

519
00:23:11,530 --> 00:23:13,300
There's a horrific case

520
00:23:13,300 --> 00:23:15,780
where a schoolgirl has been murdered.

521
00:23:15,780 --> 00:23:17,860
It's believed to be linked to another death

522
00:23:17,860 --> 00:23:20,030
three years previously.

523
00:23:20,030 --> 00:23:22,430
The police are confident that they have their killer

524
00:23:22,430 --> 00:23:25,450
and want Alec to prove his guilt.

525
00:23:25,450 --> 00:23:28,750
Their suspect is a 17 year-old boy

526
00:23:28,750 --> 00:23:30,440
who has a learning disability

527
00:23:30,440 --> 00:23:32,480
and they, for sure, think that it's him.

528
00:23:32,480 --> 00:23:35,780
So they gather all the data and send it over to Alec.

529
00:23:36,800 --> 00:23:38,070
Jeffreys and his team

530
00:23:38,070 --> 00:23:42,270
were give samples taken from both crime scenes.

531
00:23:42,270 --> 00:23:47,040
The entire case would rest on this groundbreaking work.

532
00:23:48,020 --> 00:23:49,260
The police are right

533
00:23:49,260 --> 00:23:52,100
and the DNA samples taken from the two murder scenes

534
00:23:52,100 --> 00:23:53,820
do match,

535
00:23:53,820 --> 00:23:56,210
but Jeffreys' test proves these crimes

536
00:23:56,210 --> 00:23:58,820
weren't committed by the teenage suspect.

537
00:23:59,980 --> 00:24:02,760
His DNA fingerprint is completely different.

538
00:24:03,990 --> 00:24:05,110
The police didn't believe it.

539
00:24:05,110 --> 00:24:08,040
They actually asked for these tests to be run several times

540
00:24:08,040 --> 00:24:11,280
and each time it came up negative for him.

541
00:24:11,280 --> 00:24:12,720
The evidence doesn't lie here.

542
00:24:12,720 --> 00:24:15,680
The teenage boy is the first person in history

543
00:24:15,680 --> 00:24:18,060
to be exonerated by DNA.

544
00:24:18,060 --> 00:24:20,640
(upbeat music)

545
00:24:21,710 --> 00:24:24,700
In the 35 years since its discovery,

546
00:24:24,700 --> 00:24:28,800
DNA fingerprinting has been used in many surprising ways.

547
00:24:28,800 --> 00:24:31,980
It can authenticate caviar, fine wine.

548
00:24:31,980 --> 00:24:34,390
It's even used in wildlife forensics,

549
00:24:34,390 --> 00:24:36,520
where we can see if certain materials

550
00:24:36,520 --> 00:24:40,400
are taken from illegal or unreputable sources.

551
00:24:40,400 --> 00:24:42,280
One use of DNA fingerprinting

552
00:24:42,280 --> 00:24:44,460
that Jeffreys couldn't have foreseen,

553
00:24:44,460 --> 00:24:46,370
is to clean up a London borough,

554
00:24:46,370 --> 00:24:48,620
not of crime, but of dog poop.

555
00:24:49,580 --> 00:24:51,090
There's literally facilities

556
00:24:51,090 --> 00:24:54,520
where you have to send in the DNA of your pet to them,

557
00:24:54,520 --> 00:24:57,340
so that if you end up not cleaning up after your dog,

558
00:24:57,340 --> 00:24:59,530
they can identify who you are.

559
00:24:59,530 --> 00:25:02,400
In the UK they've got a mandate to microchip

560
00:25:02,400 --> 00:25:05,150
and so adding DNA registration to that requirement

561
00:25:05,150 --> 00:25:08,530
that's already in motion, is a natural next step.

562
00:25:08,530 --> 00:25:11,320
In motion, you have a way with words, sir.

563
00:25:12,340 --> 00:25:14,650
And it doesn't take a brain the size of Alec's

564
00:25:14,650 --> 00:25:16,400
to work out where this is being done.

565
00:25:16,400 --> 00:25:19,400
(atmospheric music)

566
00:25:21,700 --> 00:25:24,300
So something that was totally an accident

567
00:25:24,300 --> 00:25:27,580
ended up impacting every single one of our lives.

568
00:25:27,580 --> 00:25:32,310
This is so important for, not just our immediate future,

569
00:25:32,310 --> 00:25:36,760
but our long-term future as we evolve more as a species.

570
00:25:40,680 --> 00:25:43,350
(playful music)

571
00:25:44,640 --> 00:25:45,480
Coming up,

572
00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:48,500
does poison make camels more attractive?

573
00:25:48,500 --> 00:25:51,250
I don't know, I'm not an expert on camel beauty.

574
00:25:51,250 --> 00:25:52,990
I'll leave it for you to decide.

575
00:25:54,770 --> 00:25:56,260
But first, this.

576
00:25:58,490 --> 00:26:01,030
We now live in a plastic age,

577
00:26:01,030 --> 00:26:03,280
but did you know that this adaptable material

578
00:26:03,280 --> 00:26:04,690
was discovered by accident?

579
00:26:05,980 --> 00:26:08,880
The story starts back in the 1860s.

580
00:26:10,700 --> 00:26:13,280
(jaunty music)

581
00:26:15,260 --> 00:26:17,690
Michael Phelan is a superstar,

582
00:26:17,690 --> 00:26:19,480
a professional billiards player,

583
00:26:19,480 --> 00:26:22,100
and a passionate promoter of the game.

584
00:26:22,100 --> 00:26:24,250
But he's also a man with a problem,

585
00:26:24,250 --> 00:26:27,590
he needs to find a new material for his balls.

586
00:26:27,590 --> 00:26:28,860
He doesn't like what's going on

587
00:26:28,860 --> 00:26:30,700
with the slaughter of elephants,

588
00:26:32,790 --> 00:26:34,830
so he offers a prize

589
00:26:34,830 --> 00:26:37,240
for anyone who can come up with a replacement

590
00:26:37,240 --> 00:26:40,340
for the ivory billiard balls, of $10,000.

591
00:26:40,340 --> 00:26:43,500
Which is a quarter of million dollars in today's money.

592
00:26:43,500 --> 00:26:44,330
That's a lot.

593
00:26:44,330 --> 00:26:46,480
Hang on, hang on, just go back a bit.

594
00:26:47,410 --> 00:26:49,350
What did you say these balls were made of?

595
00:26:49,350 --> 00:26:52,660
Ivory, and that's made from elephant tusks

596
00:26:52,660 --> 00:26:55,490
and these are pretty much just giant overgrown teeth.

597
00:26:55,490 --> 00:26:58,180
And when I say giant, I mean giant.

598
00:26:59,380 --> 00:27:02,290
They can be as big as 80 kilograms,

599
00:27:02,290 --> 00:27:05,520
which translates to 176 pounds.

600
00:27:05,520 --> 00:27:07,770
That's as heavy as a full-grown kangaroo.

601
00:27:09,600 --> 00:27:10,900
But as we all know,

602
00:27:10,900 --> 00:27:13,630
there's nothing in nature that's truly perfect.

603
00:27:15,130 --> 00:27:16,970
Nope, not even you.

604
00:27:16,970 --> 00:27:20,270
Because ivory is essentially an animal product,

605
00:27:21,220 --> 00:27:24,600
each ball is a slightly different consistency.

606
00:27:26,350 --> 00:27:28,520
Another issue with using an elephant tusk

607
00:27:28,520 --> 00:27:31,150
is just like the human tooth has a channel

608
00:27:31,150 --> 00:27:32,560
with nerves and pulp,

609
00:27:32,560 --> 00:27:33,980
so do the tusks.

610
00:27:35,060 --> 00:27:37,100
Now, when they formed a billard ball,

611
00:27:37,100 --> 00:27:38,930
they would have a channel through them,

612
00:27:38,930 --> 00:27:41,720
so they would fill it with ebony wood

613
00:27:41,720 --> 00:27:43,580
and that's why certain billiard balls

614
00:27:43,580 --> 00:27:44,940
have that little spot on it.

615
00:27:44,940 --> 00:27:46,790
That's where it came from.

616
00:27:46,790 --> 00:27:49,460
(bugle fanfare)

617
00:27:53,380 --> 00:27:55,440
Nowadays, it's hard to imagine

618
00:27:55,440 --> 00:27:58,480
quite how popular billiards was at the time.

619
00:27:58,480 --> 00:28:00,490
This is during the Civil War

620
00:28:00,490 --> 00:28:02,740
and yet the game receives more press coverage

621
00:28:02,740 --> 00:28:04,080
than some of the battles.

622
00:28:07,780 --> 00:28:10,000
It's one of the most popular amusements

623
00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:11,660
in the Western world.

624
00:28:11,660 --> 00:28:15,800
Chicago alone has 830 pool halls,

625
00:28:15,800 --> 00:28:18,300
but all those pool tables need balls

626
00:28:18,300 --> 00:28:20,430
and the elephant population is dwindling.

627
00:28:21,880 --> 00:28:23,030
Each elephant tusk

628
00:28:23,030 --> 00:28:25,840
makes about three to 5 billard balls,

629
00:28:25,840 --> 00:28:28,750
so just to service the British market,

630
00:28:28,750 --> 00:28:30,790
something like 12,000 elephants

631
00:28:30,790 --> 00:28:33,400
are being slaughtered every year.

632
00:28:33,400 --> 00:28:37,280
Then add to that the American market, the European market,

633
00:28:37,280 --> 00:28:41,180
this is a species that's just being wiped out.

634
00:28:41,180 --> 00:28:43,160
The world's largest land animal

635
00:28:43,160 --> 00:28:45,320
is heading towards extinction,

636
00:28:45,320 --> 00:28:47,910
a new material is needed.

637
00:28:47,910 --> 00:28:50,160
Finding a replacement for the ivory

638
00:28:50,160 --> 00:28:51,820
meant that you had to find something

639
00:28:51,820 --> 00:28:53,640
that was similar in properties,

640
00:28:53,640 --> 00:28:56,530
in particular, it needs to have the same density.

641
00:28:56,530 --> 00:28:59,150
So, that way, when it's the exact same size,

642
00:28:59,150 --> 00:29:00,670
it'll have the same weight.

643
00:29:00,670 --> 00:29:02,190
The average billiard ball at the time

644
00:29:02,190 --> 00:29:03,700
was around seven ounces,

645
00:29:03,700 --> 00:29:05,650
which is about the weight of a hamster.

646
00:29:06,830 --> 00:29:09,760
Why do you keep measuring things in animals?

647
00:29:09,760 --> 00:29:12,860
Anyway, remember our billiard superstar, Michael Phelan?

648
00:29:12,860 --> 00:29:16,670
Well in 1863, he puts an advert in the papers,

649
00:29:16,670 --> 00:29:18,060
offering a handsome fortune

650
00:29:18,060 --> 00:29:21,030
to anyone who can come up with a suitable replacement

651
00:29:21,030 --> 00:29:22,550
for ivory balls.

652
00:29:22,550 --> 00:29:24,940
So there's a chap called John Hyatt.

653
00:29:24,940 --> 00:29:26,960
He's a printer, he's not even a chemist

654
00:29:26,960 --> 00:29:29,800
or a scientist of any description.

655
00:29:29,800 --> 00:29:33,440
But he sees the announcement with a big reward attached

656
00:29:33,440 --> 00:29:34,940
and thinks, hm,

657
00:29:34,940 --> 00:29:37,180
maybe I can come up with a solution to this.

658
00:29:39,550 --> 00:29:40,910
John tries experimenting

659
00:29:40,910 --> 00:29:44,230
by gluing paper and sawdust together.

660
00:29:44,230 --> 00:29:46,390
It's not hugely successful

661
00:29:46,390 --> 00:29:47,340
(groaning in pain)

662
00:29:47,340 --> 00:29:49,670
and one day he manages to cut himself.

663
00:29:49,670 --> 00:29:50,750
He goes to the cabinet

664
00:29:50,750 --> 00:29:53,530
and he gets this antiseptic called collodion.

665
00:29:53,530 --> 00:29:55,610
It's used at the time, but not now.

666
00:29:56,590 --> 00:29:59,030
While he's treating his cut finger,

667
00:29:59,030 --> 00:30:03,460
he accidentally spills the collodion and it's a big mess.

668
00:30:05,550 --> 00:30:08,460
Everything seems to be going wrong for poor old John,

669
00:30:08,460 --> 00:30:13,460
until he notices that the antiseptic has hardened.

670
00:30:13,730 --> 00:30:15,020
Now, why is that?

671
00:30:15,020 --> 00:30:18,220
Well, collodion is essentially cellulose nitrate

672
00:30:18,220 --> 00:30:21,680
mixed with ether and alcohol to turn it into a liquid.

673
00:30:21,680 --> 00:30:24,740
But when the ether and alcohol evaporate,

674
00:30:24,740 --> 00:30:27,560
it just leaves that hardened substance.

675
00:30:27,560 --> 00:30:29,710
This is his eureka moment.

676
00:30:29,710 --> 00:30:32,580
He realizes that he has discovered,

677
00:30:32,580 --> 00:30:35,940
through a series of accidents, a new material.

678
00:30:35,940 --> 00:30:37,190
This material

679
00:30:37,190 --> 00:30:40,050
could hold the key to the billiard ball problem.

680
00:30:40,050 --> 00:30:42,810
Hyatt's new material has potential,

681
00:30:42,810 --> 00:30:45,200
but he finds that it can't really be shaped

682
00:30:46,110 --> 00:30:48,600
and, without that, it's pretty useless.

683
00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:53,770
Driven by the huge prize money,

684
00:30:53,770 --> 00:30:56,600
John is spurred on to keep investigating.

685
00:30:56,600 --> 00:30:59,320
He spends seven years experimenting

686
00:30:59,320 --> 00:31:02,320
and working out what may modify this material

687
00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:04,150
to make it moldable.

688
00:31:04,150 --> 00:31:07,160
John throws everything into this project.

689
00:31:08,700 --> 00:31:10,120
What he's looking for

690
00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:13,210
is something that he can add to this hardened material,

691
00:31:13,210 --> 00:31:16,100
that would allow him to shape it into a billiard ball

692
00:31:16,100 --> 00:31:18,650
and eventually he comes across camphor,

693
00:31:18,650 --> 00:31:19,700
from the camphor tree.

694
00:31:19,700 --> 00:31:22,390
Camphor is an ingredient used in ointments

695
00:31:22,390 --> 00:31:24,250
and mothballs,

696
00:31:24,250 --> 00:31:26,330
no wonder his search took so long!

697
00:31:26,330 --> 00:31:30,040
Luckily, he didn't mothball the entire project.

698
00:31:30,040 --> 00:31:33,610
Anyway, camphor allows the cellulose nitrate molecules

699
00:31:33,610 --> 00:31:35,450
to be separated.

700
00:31:35,450 --> 00:31:38,460
Just think of spaghetti that's cooled off,

701
00:31:38,460 --> 00:31:41,210
they kind of all stick together and clump together,

702
00:31:41,210 --> 00:31:42,710
but if you add oil,

703
00:31:42,710 --> 00:31:46,510
then they can like slide around and the spaghetti loosens.

704
00:31:46,510 --> 00:31:49,600
The camphor breaks down some of the linkages

705
00:31:49,600 --> 00:31:53,460
in the cellulose nitrate, turning it from a quite hard resin

706
00:31:53,460 --> 00:31:56,500
into a material that can be molded and shaped.

707
00:31:57,910 --> 00:31:59,740
Adding some heat and pressure,

708
00:31:59,740 --> 00:32:02,340
he's able to create the perfect size,

709
00:32:02,340 --> 00:32:04,630
perfect weighted billard ball.

710
00:32:04,630 --> 00:32:06,830
He calls this material celluloid,

711
00:32:06,830 --> 00:32:10,420
which is the granddaddy of all plastics that we know today.

712
00:32:11,620 --> 00:32:15,030
But while celluloid solves the ivory shortage

713
00:32:15,030 --> 00:32:17,110
and probably helps save the elephants,

714
00:32:18,370 --> 00:32:20,160
it isn't perfect.

715
00:32:22,040 --> 00:32:25,520
Unfortunately, when the new balls hit each other.

716
00:32:25,520 --> 00:32:27,850
Which is kind of the point of the game.

717
00:32:27,850 --> 00:32:30,340
Every so often, there's an explosion.

718
00:32:32,690 --> 00:32:34,550
The nature of the cellulose nitrate

719
00:32:34,550 --> 00:32:36,920
is similar to that of TNT,

720
00:32:36,920 --> 00:32:39,420
where the N stands for nitrate.

721
00:32:39,420 --> 00:32:43,340
These nitrates were very flammable and unstable

722
00:32:43,340 --> 00:32:46,180
and so you get this exothermic reaction

723
00:32:46,180 --> 00:32:47,290
when they collided.

724
00:32:47,290 --> 00:32:48,770
Unsurprisingly,

725
00:32:48,770 --> 00:32:51,580
this quirky habit of exploding balls

726
00:32:51,580 --> 00:32:53,050
put a few people on edge.

727
00:32:53,050 --> 00:32:55,280
One day, John receives a letter

728
00:32:55,280 --> 00:32:58,460
from a guy who owns a billiards saloon in Colorado.

729
00:32:58,460 --> 00:33:01,330
There's a little problem with these balls exploding.

730
00:33:01,330 --> 00:33:03,660
(explosion)

731
00:33:04,900 --> 00:33:08,210
No, no, no, it's not the explosion of the balls themselves,

732
00:33:08,210 --> 00:33:10,290
but this is the Wild Wild West.

733
00:33:11,630 --> 00:33:13,830
When one of these balls explodes,

734
00:33:13,830 --> 00:33:15,280
everyone pulls out their guns

735
00:33:17,590 --> 00:33:19,940
and, next thing you know, you're in a standoff.

736
00:33:23,170 --> 00:33:25,580
(gun firing)

737
00:33:29,200 --> 00:33:31,280
This problem is eventually solved

738
00:33:31,280 --> 00:33:34,220
37 years later in 1907,

739
00:33:34,220 --> 00:33:37,360
with the invention of the resin balls we still use today.

740
00:33:39,280 --> 00:33:43,310
History isn't clear whether John ever receives his reward,

741
00:33:43,310 --> 00:33:44,760
but it doesn't really matter,

742
00:33:45,600 --> 00:33:49,210
he's just created the first commercial plastic.

743
00:33:49,210 --> 00:33:52,020
The accidental discovery of this celluloid plastic

744
00:33:52,020 --> 00:33:55,020
was totally mind-blowing for manufacturing.

745
00:33:55,020 --> 00:33:57,530
It really opened up new opportunities

746
00:33:57,530 --> 00:34:00,030
for creating all kinds of products.

747
00:34:00,030 --> 00:34:03,550
Combs, jewelry, hand mirrors, knife handles,

748
00:34:03,550 --> 00:34:06,880
ornaments, collars, cuffs, dice, toys.

749
00:34:06,880 --> 00:34:08,160
Cast in lead molds

750
00:34:08,160 --> 00:34:10,870
and converted into consumer products by machining.

751
00:34:10,870 --> 00:34:12,760
Celluloid is a polymer,

752
00:34:12,760 --> 00:34:17,370
the first ever manufactured, and its impact is immeasurable.

753
00:34:17,370 --> 00:34:20,070
Many scientists can see its huge potential

754
00:34:20,070 --> 00:34:22,500
and begin tweaking the recipe.

755
00:34:22,500 --> 00:34:25,960
(mid tempo music)

756
00:34:25,960 --> 00:34:27,590
Polymers are really long molecules

757
00:34:27,590 --> 00:34:30,230
that are made up of a repeating unit,

758
00:34:30,230 --> 00:34:32,650
a little bit like the links in a chain.

759
00:34:32,650 --> 00:34:36,970
These can be modified chemically to be softer or harder,

760
00:34:36,970 --> 00:34:38,760
stronger or lighter,

761
00:34:38,760 --> 00:34:41,860
depending on what you need to use them for.

762
00:34:41,860 --> 00:34:42,760
These properties

763
00:34:42,760 --> 00:34:45,560
are what makes this wonder material so useful

764
00:34:45,560 --> 00:34:48,610
for so many things, filling the world around us.

765
00:34:50,290 --> 00:34:52,570
Plastics are everywhere.

766
00:34:52,570 --> 00:34:54,220
Let's take a typical day.

767
00:34:54,220 --> 00:34:57,570
You wake up, you unplug your phone from its charger,

768
00:34:57,570 --> 00:35:00,480
you get up, you squeeze your toothpaste out of the tube.

769
00:35:00,480 --> 00:35:02,020
You brush your teeth.

770
00:35:03,510 --> 00:35:06,000
Yeah, I think we get the picture.

771
00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:07,770
Get home, you cook dinner.

772
00:35:07,770 --> 00:35:09,710
Ah, she's still going.

773
00:35:09,710 --> 00:35:13,900
You go to bed, you turn your light off, so much plastic

774
00:35:13,900 --> 00:35:15,590
all day, every day.

775
00:35:19,130 --> 00:35:21,670
Nowadays, there's even stealthy plastics

776
00:35:21,670 --> 00:35:23,010
that you don't even know are there.

777
00:35:23,010 --> 00:35:28,010
They're in sponges, chewing gum, baby wipes,

778
00:35:28,010 --> 00:35:29,490
coffee cups.

779
00:35:29,490 --> 00:35:32,380
I mean they're ubiquitous, they're everywhere.

780
00:35:32,380 --> 00:35:35,000
Plastics have not just entered our homes,

781
00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:38,720
they've also revolutionized the medical world.

782
00:35:38,720 --> 00:35:41,770
It's created heart valves that are safe to use,

783
00:35:41,770 --> 00:35:44,590
prosthetics that fit exactly,

784
00:35:44,590 --> 00:35:47,130
and even things like gloves and syringes

785
00:35:47,130 --> 00:35:50,960
used by doctors and nurses, are all made of plastic.

786
00:35:51,900 --> 00:35:53,500
Ignition, liftoff.

787
00:35:55,870 --> 00:35:58,500
Plastics are so versatile and flexible,

788
00:35:58,500 --> 00:36:02,190
they've enabled mankind to venture into space.

789
00:36:02,190 --> 00:36:04,400
We have a liftoff.

790
00:36:04,400 --> 00:36:06,410
In fact, without plastics,

791
00:36:06,410 --> 00:36:08,130
Neil Armstrong wouldn't have been able

792
00:36:08,130 --> 00:36:09,410
to set foot on the moon.

793
00:36:09,410 --> 00:36:12,390
That's one small step for man,

794
00:36:12,390 --> 00:36:14,640
one giant leap for mankind.

795
00:36:15,900 --> 00:36:18,720
They're incorporated into the visors of their helmets

796
00:36:18,720 --> 00:36:20,250
and other parts of their helmets,

797
00:36:20,250 --> 00:36:22,680
their space suits have tubing throughout it

798
00:36:22,680 --> 00:36:24,840
to keep them at a safe temperature.

799
00:36:24,840 --> 00:36:29,110
So plastics are literally above our heads,

800
00:36:29,110 --> 00:36:30,280
orbiting the earth.

801
00:36:36,400 --> 00:36:37,300
One of the reasons

802
00:36:37,300 --> 00:36:39,200
that plastics are so brilliant

803
00:36:39,200 --> 00:36:41,010
is that they're incredibly durable

804
00:36:41,010 --> 00:36:43,290
and virtually indestructible,

805
00:36:43,290 --> 00:36:44,950
but that's also their downfall.

806
00:36:46,010 --> 00:36:48,040
Plastics are so hard to break down,

807
00:36:48,040 --> 00:36:50,970
it is thought that any plastic that's ever been made

808
00:36:50,970 --> 00:36:52,800
still persist to this day.

809
00:36:54,790 --> 00:36:57,830
It's been estimated that, up to 2015,

810
00:36:57,830 --> 00:37:02,720
we've made something like 9,000,000,000 tons of plastics.

811
00:37:04,830 --> 00:37:07,010
I mean, it's just such an awful concept

812
00:37:07,010 --> 00:37:09,480
because it's gonna stick around, you know,

813
00:37:09,480 --> 00:37:13,460
in the soil, in the oceans, in the landfill,

814
00:37:13,460 --> 00:37:16,300
it's not going away.

815
00:37:16,300 --> 00:37:17,140
But that's okay

816
00:37:17,140 --> 00:37:19,390
'cause we'll just recycle it, right?

817
00:37:20,310 --> 00:37:21,470
'Cause they've got those little arrows

818
00:37:21,470 --> 00:37:23,320
on the triangle on the bottom, right?

819
00:37:25,440 --> 00:37:29,470
Actually, in reality, the process is complicated,

820
00:37:29,470 --> 00:37:33,660
it's really expensive, the end product is inferior,

821
00:37:33,660 --> 00:37:36,310
and in fact it just doesn't happen.

822
00:37:36,310 --> 00:37:40,100
91% of plastic isn't recycled.

823
00:37:41,010 --> 00:37:44,350
So the cruel irony is that we've barely saved the elephants

824
00:37:44,350 --> 00:37:46,980
and the wondrous substance that was created

825
00:37:46,980 --> 00:37:48,380
in order to do that though,

826
00:37:48,380 --> 00:37:50,280
is basically destroying the planet.

827
00:37:51,860 --> 00:37:53,580
But there is hope,

828
00:37:53,580 --> 00:37:55,710
researchers are working furiously

829
00:37:55,710 --> 00:37:59,890
to come up with a solution to tackle the plastic problem.

830
00:37:59,890 --> 00:38:02,290
Thankfully, science is always coming up

831
00:38:02,290 --> 00:38:04,070
with innovative solutions

832
00:38:04,070 --> 00:38:07,810
and in 2017, some Pakistani scientists found a mushroom

833
00:38:07,810 --> 00:38:11,680
that's actually able to break down plastics.

834
00:38:11,680 --> 00:38:12,870
And since then,

835
00:38:12,870 --> 00:38:15,860
it seems there are about 50 types of mushrooms

836
00:38:15,860 --> 00:38:18,240
that have a craving for plastic.

837
00:38:18,240 --> 00:38:19,540
So here we are today,

838
00:38:19,540 --> 00:38:22,670
we have this super invention that transforms our lives.

839
00:38:22,670 --> 00:38:24,490
There may be a big problem with it,

840
00:38:24,490 --> 00:38:26,070
but now, through innovation,

841
00:38:26,070 --> 00:38:29,540
we now have solutions for mitigating that problem.

842
00:38:29,540 --> 00:38:32,690
We're not there yet, we still have a long way to go,

843
00:38:32,690 --> 00:38:35,210
but I'm confident that we'll get there.

844
00:38:40,890 --> 00:38:43,560
(playful music)

845
00:38:44,610 --> 00:38:47,190
This story begins with sausages.

846
00:38:47,190 --> 00:38:48,320
Yummy.

847
00:38:48,320 --> 00:38:49,870
German sausages.

848
00:38:49,870 --> 00:38:50,930
Do you mean wieners?

849
00:38:50,930 --> 00:38:52,010
That's right!

850
00:38:52,010 --> 00:38:53,570
It's the late 18th century

851
00:38:53,570 --> 00:38:57,250
and we're in the southwestern kingdom of Württemberg.

852
00:38:57,250 --> 00:39:02,130
Imagine the scene, beauty spots, powdered wigs.

853
00:39:02,130 --> 00:39:04,450
But there's a strange affliction

854
00:39:04,450 --> 00:39:05,670
stalking the land

855
00:39:05,670 --> 00:39:07,420
that's slowly killing people,

856
00:39:11,590 --> 00:39:15,280
and it seems to be connected with their diet.

857
00:39:16,500 --> 00:39:18,250
Now, you don't normally associate sausages

858
00:39:18,250 --> 00:39:22,180
with difficulties in breathing and swallowing,

859
00:39:22,180 --> 00:39:25,020
double vision, and death,

860
00:39:25,020 --> 00:39:27,170
but that's exactly what's happening.

861
00:39:27,170 --> 00:39:30,700
These sausages are more Frankenstein than frankfurter.

862
00:39:32,350 --> 00:39:33,210
Into the picture

863
00:39:33,210 --> 00:39:37,690
steps the region's chief medical officer, Justinus Kerner.

864
00:39:37,690 --> 00:39:40,450
Kerner comes and starts looking at these people

865
00:39:40,450 --> 00:39:43,100
and realizes that, unlike other poisonings,

866
00:39:43,100 --> 00:39:45,960
it is a problem of muscle control,

867
00:39:45,960 --> 00:39:48,740
in that their muscles stop working.

868
00:39:48,740 --> 00:39:51,210
Kerner manages to identify the toxin

869
00:39:51,210 --> 00:39:53,210
that's causing this paralysis.

870
00:39:53,210 --> 00:39:57,830
He names it botulus, after the Latin word for sausage.

871
00:39:57,830 --> 00:40:01,050
But the more he studies it, the more he wonders.

872
00:40:02,810 --> 00:40:05,290
Dr Kerner's mind works a little bit differently

873
00:40:05,290 --> 00:40:06,250
to you and me.

874
00:40:06,250 --> 00:40:09,170
We'd be thinking, oh my God, avoid those sausages,

875
00:40:09,170 --> 00:40:12,080
but he's thinking, hm, that's interesting,

876
00:40:12,080 --> 00:40:13,970
maybe there's something in the sausages

877
00:40:13,970 --> 00:40:16,820
that could be made to work to our benefit.

878
00:40:16,820 --> 00:40:17,650
For years,

879
00:40:17,650 --> 00:40:20,830
Kerner searches for a medical use for this poison,

880
00:40:20,830 --> 00:40:21,830
but it's in vain.

881
00:40:22,760 --> 00:40:24,290
It's another seven decades

882
00:40:24,290 --> 00:40:26,770
before the bacteria that produces the neurotoxin

883
00:40:26,770 --> 00:40:28,280
is properly identified.

884
00:40:30,750 --> 00:40:32,550
It was Clostridium botulinum,

885
00:40:32,550 --> 00:40:36,440
which makes the most deadly toxin known to humans.

886
00:40:37,310 --> 00:40:40,330
So it turns out that this bacteria survives

887
00:40:40,330 --> 00:40:42,490
and actually thrives within soil,

888
00:40:42,490 --> 00:40:45,030
which is where a lot of our food grows.

889
00:40:46,380 --> 00:40:50,110
But it needs a lack of oxygen to do its deadly work.

890
00:40:50,110 --> 00:40:51,310
Here's one example.

891
00:40:51,310 --> 00:40:54,190
If the bacterium gets in something like a tin can,

892
00:40:54,190 --> 00:40:56,270
it's got plenty of nutrients to eat

893
00:40:56,270 --> 00:40:57,580
and of course it's anaerobic,

894
00:40:57,580 --> 00:40:59,570
and these are the perfect conditions for it.

895
00:40:59,570 --> 00:41:01,290
I remember my grandmother telling me

896
00:41:01,290 --> 00:41:02,480
whenever she would open a can,

897
00:41:02,480 --> 00:41:04,370
she would check to see if it had bulged

898
00:41:04,370 --> 00:41:07,180
and she would tap it to hear if it had a hollow sound.

899
00:41:07,180 --> 00:41:08,440
And it's because when she grew up,

900
00:41:08,440 --> 00:41:10,170
it wasn't terribly uncommon

901
00:41:10,170 --> 00:41:12,870
to hear of somebody getting botulism poisoning

902
00:41:12,870 --> 00:41:14,700
from canned food.

903
00:41:14,700 --> 00:41:17,000
Create appetizing new additions.

904
00:41:18,340 --> 00:41:20,910
If you are unlucky enough to eat tainted food,

905
00:41:20,910 --> 00:41:22,090
it's bad news,

906
00:41:22,090 --> 00:41:26,180
because the botulism toxin attacks the nerves and muscles,

907
00:41:26,180 --> 00:41:28,100
stopping them from working properly.

908
00:41:29,280 --> 00:41:32,250
Now, we have about 600 muscles in our body

909
00:41:32,250 --> 00:41:36,160
and many of these rely on signal from our brain,

910
00:41:36,160 --> 00:41:40,130
sending messages down and talking to the muscles

911
00:41:40,130 --> 00:41:42,040
at the neuromuscular junction.

912
00:41:43,680 --> 00:41:46,040
And if you interfere with these molecules

913
00:41:46,040 --> 00:41:48,330
drifting over and landing on the muscle,

914
00:41:48,330 --> 00:41:51,230
the muscle won't know that it's supposed to become active.

915
00:41:52,620 --> 00:41:55,440
If the muscle can't contract, it causes paralysis.

916
00:41:55,440 --> 00:41:57,400
And if enough toxin gets into your body,

917
00:41:57,400 --> 00:42:00,440
it can cause bigger muscle groups to also become paralyzed,

918
00:42:00,440 --> 00:42:01,790
such as the lungs

919
00:42:03,370 --> 00:42:05,830
and this, inevitably, can be fatal.

920
00:42:05,830 --> 00:42:07,940
The toxin is so deadly

921
00:42:07,940 --> 00:42:11,340
that less than a microgram can kill a human adult,

922
00:42:11,340 --> 00:42:13,980
that's a millionth of a gram.

923
00:42:15,230 --> 00:42:17,240
Just one kilogram.

924
00:42:17,240 --> 00:42:18,680
Killergram,

925
00:42:18,680 --> 00:42:19,860
I see what you did there, Suze.

926
00:42:19,860 --> 00:42:22,220
Which is about the size of this bag of sugar,

927
00:42:22,220 --> 00:42:24,500
could kill every human on the planet.

928
00:42:27,340 --> 00:42:29,420
This toxin is the most dangerous chemical

929
00:42:29,420 --> 00:42:30,670
known to humankind.

930
00:42:31,680 --> 00:42:33,690
So perhaps it should be no surprise

931
00:42:33,690 --> 00:42:37,100
that armies try out botulism as a biological weapon.

932
00:42:39,390 --> 00:42:41,570
There were some crazy ideas in WWII

933
00:42:41,570 --> 00:42:44,970
and the Americans came up with a real humdinger,

934
00:42:44,970 --> 00:42:48,270
and this was to get Chinese prostitutes

935
00:42:48,270 --> 00:42:52,000
to have tiny, tiny, tiny capsules of this toxin

936
00:42:52,000 --> 00:42:54,030
in their hair pins,

937
00:42:54,030 --> 00:42:56,720
which they then administer into drinks

938
00:42:56,720 --> 00:42:59,920
and serve up to Japanese army clients,

939
00:42:59,920 --> 00:43:02,730
thereby bumping off Japanese officers.

940
00:43:04,740 --> 00:43:06,800
And given the high rates of botulism

941
00:43:06,800 --> 00:43:10,100
in the area at the time, it was the perfect crime.

942
00:43:11,010 --> 00:43:14,360
It sounds like a foolproof plan,

943
00:43:14,360 --> 00:43:18,260
but before they can put it into action, they hit a problem.

944
00:43:18,260 --> 00:43:19,950
So some batches of the toxin

945
00:43:19,950 --> 00:43:22,090
were sent over to the US Navy

946
00:43:22,090 --> 00:43:24,110
just off the shore of China,

947
00:43:24,110 --> 00:43:27,830
and they tested it out on stray donkeys.

948
00:43:27,830 --> 00:43:29,610
Now, the donkeys refused to die,

949
00:43:29,610 --> 00:43:33,120
in fact, they showed no signs of damage whatsoever.

950
00:43:33,120 --> 00:43:35,140
And because the donkeys survive,

951
00:43:35,140 --> 00:43:37,110
the operation is abandoned.

952
00:43:37,110 --> 00:43:39,090
It isn't until much later on

953
00:43:39,090 --> 00:43:41,880
that a critical bit of information comes to light.

954
00:43:41,880 --> 00:43:43,130
It is thought that donkeys

955
00:43:43,130 --> 00:43:46,760
may be one of the few animals that are immune to botulism.

956
00:43:46,760 --> 00:43:48,950
What a pain in the ass!

957
00:43:48,950 --> 00:43:50,090
Or not.

958
00:43:50,090 --> 00:43:53,360
(donkey honking)

959
00:43:53,360 --> 00:43:55,870
Fast forward to 1977,

960
00:43:55,870 --> 00:43:58,850
two American researchers are experimenting

961
00:43:58,850 --> 00:44:00,930
with medical uses for botulism.

962
00:44:01,870 --> 00:44:04,650
They paralyzed the face muscles of a cross-eyed chimp

963
00:44:04,650 --> 00:44:08,370
with an injection of the poison and it cures him,

964
00:44:09,740 --> 00:44:12,190
finally confirming Kerner's hunch

965
00:44:12,190 --> 00:44:13,670
that there was something to be gained

966
00:44:13,670 --> 00:44:16,120
from the killer sausage toxin.

967
00:44:16,120 --> 00:44:17,660
Took about 150 years,

968
00:44:17,660 --> 00:44:21,610
but the assumptions from Justinus turned out to be right.

969
00:44:21,610 --> 00:44:24,080
(crowd clapping)

970
00:44:24,080 --> 00:44:25,410
A decade later,

971
00:44:25,410 --> 00:44:28,900
botulism is approved for medical use on humans.

972
00:44:29,990 --> 00:44:33,350
So eye spasms is a really debilitating condition

973
00:44:33,350 --> 00:44:36,350
(atmospheric music)

974
00:44:37,720 --> 00:44:40,290
and it affects about 4% of Americans,

975
00:44:40,290 --> 00:44:43,280
so that's more than the population of New York.

976
00:44:43,280 --> 00:44:45,270
Scale that up to worldwide

977
00:44:45,270 --> 00:44:47,650
and the number of people who can be cured

978
00:44:47,650 --> 00:44:51,710
probably stretches into the hundreds of millions.

979
00:44:51,710 --> 00:44:52,700
Now that we have a cure

980
00:44:52,700 --> 00:44:55,050
that can alleviate a lot of those symptoms,

981
00:44:55,050 --> 00:44:57,350
this is a really big deal for a lot of people.

982
00:44:58,560 --> 00:45:01,390
One of the people administering this new technique

983
00:45:01,390 --> 00:45:04,630
to stop muscle spasms and misalignment in the eye,

984
00:45:04,630 --> 00:45:07,490
is Jean Carruthers, based in Vancouver.

985
00:45:07,490 --> 00:45:09,400
She's the last of the Jeans in this show,

986
00:45:09,400 --> 00:45:10,770
I promise.

987
00:45:10,770 --> 00:45:14,140
Jean is using teeny tiny amounts of this toxin

988
00:45:14,140 --> 00:45:15,980
to stop the muscles around the eye

989
00:45:15,980 --> 00:45:17,900
from spasming or misaligning.

990
00:45:17,900 --> 00:45:21,240
So Jean's treating people who have blepharospasm,

991
00:45:21,240 --> 00:45:24,310
that's a kind of involuntary spasm of the eyelids

992
00:45:24,310 --> 00:45:26,500
and, you know, it can be so bad

993
00:45:26,500 --> 00:45:29,400
that people are basically, effectively blind.

994
00:45:29,400 --> 00:45:31,960
I mean, they even have to be led in by their partners,

995
00:45:31,960 --> 00:45:33,390
into the surgery.

996
00:45:33,390 --> 00:45:37,640
It's something incredibly life-compromising.

997
00:45:37,640 --> 00:45:40,540
One day, she's treating a patient who points out

998
00:45:40,540 --> 00:45:44,290
that she hasn't had the middle of her forehead injected.

999
00:45:44,290 --> 00:45:46,190
She said, "You didn't treat me here.

1000
00:45:46,190 --> 00:45:48,060
I know I'm not spasming there,

1001
00:45:48,060 --> 00:45:50,270
but every time you treat me there,

1002
00:45:50,270 --> 00:45:52,960
I get this beautiful untroubled expression."

1003
00:45:53,880 --> 00:45:55,630
This chance exchange

1004
00:45:55,630 --> 00:45:57,960
leads Jean to a bright new idea,

1005
00:45:57,960 --> 00:46:01,510
that will go on to change the face of Hollywood, literally.

1006
00:46:05,820 --> 00:46:07,470
Now, by a happy coincidence,

1007
00:46:07,470 --> 00:46:11,390
Jean's husband just so happens to be a dermatologist

1008
00:46:11,390 --> 00:46:12,800
and he's treating people

1009
00:46:12,800 --> 00:46:15,850
who complain about having deep frown lines

1010
00:46:15,850 --> 00:46:17,780
that are prematurely aging them.

1011
00:46:17,780 --> 00:46:21,150
And he's using a traditional method, fillers,

1012
00:46:21,150 --> 00:46:23,470
which is pretty ugly, painful,

1013
00:46:23,470 --> 00:46:25,720
and ultimately doesn't work that well.

1014
00:46:25,720 --> 00:46:28,470
(playful music)

1015
00:46:28,470 --> 00:46:31,280
Jean thinks that her muscle paralysis toxin

1016
00:46:31,280 --> 00:46:34,840
could be the solution her husband has been looking for.

1017
00:46:34,840 --> 00:46:36,800
So she needs to test this theory on somebody

1018
00:46:36,800 --> 00:46:39,900
and she is one of the first that she gets to do this on.

1019
00:46:39,900 --> 00:46:41,560
She injects herself.

1020
00:46:42,730 --> 00:46:44,510
Just as Jean suspected,

1021
00:46:44,510 --> 00:46:47,830
the botulism toxin paralyzes the wrinkles away.

1022
00:46:51,610 --> 00:46:54,610
So what happens when you smile or you frown,

1023
00:46:54,610 --> 00:46:56,550
you have a contracting and a releasing

1024
00:46:56,550 --> 00:46:57,380
of the muscles in your face,

1025
00:46:57,380 --> 00:47:00,210
that's just how it moves naturally.

1026
00:47:00,210 --> 00:47:03,620
Now the problem is, over time, as we start to age,

1027
00:47:03,620 --> 00:47:06,410
these creases become a little bit more pronounced.

1028
00:47:06,410 --> 00:47:07,970
By using this botulism,

1029
00:47:07,970 --> 00:47:09,790
you paralyze those muscles

1030
00:47:09,790 --> 00:47:11,610
and you can't form those creases.

1031
00:47:11,610 --> 00:47:14,380
And without those creases, you don't get any wrinkles.

1032
00:47:16,210 --> 00:47:17,570
In 2001,

1033
00:47:17,570 --> 00:47:20,590
a name for this treatment is registered as a trademark.

1034
00:47:20,590 --> 00:47:23,220
Botox.
No, it's absolutely true.

1035
00:47:24,620 --> 00:47:27,890
Botox really gained popularity in the early 2000s,

1036
00:47:27,890 --> 00:47:29,690
when personalities in reality shows

1037
00:47:29,690 --> 00:47:31,000
like "The Real Housewives"

1038
00:47:31,000 --> 00:47:33,570
regularly receive Botox injections on camera.

1039
00:47:34,550 --> 00:47:38,170
Botox is now the most popular cosmetic procedure

1040
00:47:38,170 --> 00:47:39,390
across the world.

1041
00:47:39,390 --> 00:47:41,620
You'd be hard-pressed to find somebody in Hollywood

1042
00:47:41,620 --> 00:47:43,390
that hasn't had a treatment.

1043
00:47:45,070 --> 00:47:47,190
It's so popular that, in 2019,

1044
00:47:47,190 --> 00:47:50,450
more than 6,000,000 people got Botox around the world,

1045
00:47:50,450 --> 00:47:51,790
that's a lot of needles.

1046
00:47:51,790 --> 00:47:53,210
By 2027,

1047
00:47:53,210 --> 00:47:58,210
the global industry is set to be worth 7.7 billion dollars.

1048
00:47:59,690 --> 00:48:00,800
But it's not just cosmetics

1049
00:48:00,800 --> 00:48:03,660
that's benefited from the taming of botulism.

1050
00:48:05,300 --> 00:48:06,920
Botox can actually be used

1051
00:48:06,920 --> 00:48:10,120
for treating a lot of different medical conditions.

1052
00:48:10,120 --> 00:48:12,360
Anything from preventing sweaty palms

1053
00:48:12,360 --> 00:48:14,700
to reducing painful muscle spasms

1054
00:48:14,700 --> 00:48:16,380
for those with cerebral palsy,

1055
00:48:16,380 --> 00:48:18,550
and even to reduce migraines.

1056
00:48:21,350 --> 00:48:24,180
Migraines are a horrible condition to suffer from

1057
00:48:24,180 --> 00:48:25,550
and I've seen it in my own personal life,

1058
00:48:25,550 --> 00:48:28,950
since my wife suffers from them on a almost daily basis.

1059
00:48:28,950 --> 00:48:31,070
And it impacts roughly one in eight people

1060
00:48:31,070 --> 00:48:32,510
in the United States today.

1061
00:48:32,510 --> 00:48:34,630
Sufferers are forced to either miss work

1062
00:48:34,630 --> 00:48:36,780
or just leave their careers altogether.

1063
00:48:36,780 --> 00:48:38,770
That costs the US economy a lot of money,

1064
00:48:38,770 --> 00:48:41,270
we're talking about billions of dollars each year.

1065
00:48:43,220 --> 00:48:44,420
There's even research

1066
00:48:44,420 --> 00:48:47,370
to suggest that Botox may help alleviate an illness

1067
00:48:47,370 --> 00:48:51,390
that affects 264,000,000 people worldwide.

1068
00:48:52,440 --> 00:48:55,800
Depression is something, it's like a personal prison.

1069
00:48:57,220 --> 00:49:00,560
It's like being in a cell that you can't get out of.

1070
00:49:01,640 --> 00:49:03,500
People often don't understand

1071
00:49:03,500 --> 00:49:05,210
the torment that people are going through.

1072
00:49:05,210 --> 00:49:08,180
They can't meet friends, they can't go to work,

1073
00:49:08,180 --> 00:49:10,290
they feel anxious.

1074
00:49:10,290 --> 00:49:12,690
So the current treatments for that

1075
00:49:12,690 --> 00:49:16,840
are things like psychotherapy and mood-boosting drugs.

1076
00:49:16,840 --> 00:49:19,140
Now, for some people that might offer a bit of respite,

1077
00:49:19,140 --> 00:49:22,800
but for a lot of people, it just doesn't work.

1078
00:49:26,030 --> 00:49:28,390
Now, nobody set out to do a clinical study

1079
00:49:28,390 --> 00:49:30,310
on Botox and depression,

1080
00:49:30,310 --> 00:49:33,370
but they realized with enough people getting this treatment,

1081
00:49:33,370 --> 00:49:35,950
that they had the data right there to look at.

1082
00:49:35,950 --> 00:49:39,500
So, a group looked at 40,000 people

1083
00:49:39,500 --> 00:49:41,640
who had undergone Botox treatment.

1084
00:49:41,640 --> 00:49:43,350
People that had received Botox

1085
00:49:43,350 --> 00:49:46,540
reported an up to 88% reduction

1086
00:49:46,540 --> 00:49:48,120
in the symptoms of depression,

1087
00:49:48,120 --> 00:49:50,580
which, when you think about it, is incredible.

1088
00:49:50,580 --> 00:49:53,120
♪ Happiness starts with a smile ♪

1089
00:49:53,120 --> 00:49:55,000
A clue to what's happening here

1090
00:49:55,000 --> 00:49:58,540
can be found in the smile experiments of the 1970s.

1091
00:49:58,540 --> 00:50:02,560
♪ Just put one on and your troubles will be gone ♪

1092
00:50:02,560 --> 00:50:04,520
♪ 'Cause happiness starts with a smile ♪

1093
00:50:04,520 --> 00:50:06,790
What they found was that, basically,

1094
00:50:06,790 --> 00:50:08,660
if you smile a lot more,

1095
00:50:08,660 --> 00:50:10,900
believe it or not, you're also happier.

1096
00:50:10,900 --> 00:50:11,950
And with Botox,

1097
00:50:11,950 --> 00:50:14,880
well basically you're prevented from frowning.

1098
00:50:14,880 --> 00:50:17,760
♪ Just take that frown, turn it around ♪

1099
00:50:17,760 --> 00:50:18,910
It's almost like Botox

1100
00:50:18,910 --> 00:50:21,820
that makes people more beautiful on the outside,

1101
00:50:21,820 --> 00:50:25,750
also makes them feel more beautiful on the inside.

1102
00:50:25,750 --> 00:50:28,590
Somebody says, "Oh, Dolly, you always just look so happy",

1103
00:50:28,590 --> 00:50:30,020
I said, "That's the Botox."

1104
00:50:30,020 --> 00:50:33,390
(audience laughing)

1105
00:50:33,390 --> 00:50:34,430
A few years ago,

1106
00:50:34,430 --> 00:50:37,940
the Botox story took another strange turn,

1107
00:50:37,940 --> 00:50:39,500
when its cosmetic properties

1108
00:50:39,500 --> 00:50:42,330
began being used outside the human race.

1109
00:50:42,330 --> 00:50:45,170
(mid tempo music)

1110
00:50:46,040 --> 00:50:47,440
Now, you're not gonna believe this,

1111
00:50:47,440 --> 00:50:50,040
but in Saudi Arabia every year

1112
00:50:50,040 --> 00:50:54,180
there is a beauty contest for camels

1113
00:50:54,180 --> 00:50:56,620
and it's big, big money.

1114
00:50:58,330 --> 00:51:00,880
And, in 2018, there were a few camels

1115
00:51:00,880 --> 00:51:05,860
that actually got disqualified for having Botox done.

1116
00:51:07,200 --> 00:51:10,730
Apparently, Botox makes a camel more beautiful.

1117
00:51:12,240 --> 00:51:14,660
I don't know, I'm not an expert on camel beauty.

1118
00:51:14,660 --> 00:51:16,700
I'll leave it for you to decide.

1119
00:51:17,570 --> 00:51:19,620
So it's thanks to deadly sausages,

1120
00:51:19,620 --> 00:51:20,850
cross-eyed chimps,

1121
00:51:20,850 --> 00:51:23,820
and a chance encounter in a Canadian doctor's office

1122
00:51:23,820 --> 00:51:26,430
that we have such young-looking camels nowadays.

1123
00:51:28,260 --> 00:51:29,990
Is that the lesson here?

1124
00:51:29,990 --> 00:51:32,830
(whimsical music)

1125
00:52:00,710 --> 00:52:03,380
(ambient music)