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Did you know

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that a surprising number

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of objects you use every day are

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thanks to accidents?

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Let me show you what I mean.

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On this episode, we discover the lengths

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people will go to

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for a sweet treat.

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People were risking jail time

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for a sugar substitute.

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Learn how renegade

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scientists saved the planet.

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They even threatened to fire him.

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And find out the way

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that mold juice protects humanity.

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Mold juice?

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"Oops I Changed the World."

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Sweet treats,

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chocolate,

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Gobstoppers,

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cookies,

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donuts,

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pie,

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sugar, sugar, sugar.

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We humans can't get

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enough of the good stuff.

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Chocolate ice cream, you know,

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a tub of chocolate ice cream.

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New York cheesecake, ah, man,

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it's like love on a plate.

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We know too much is unhealthy

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but sugar is in almost everything we eat.

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A 2013 survey revealed

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that some 74% of food products

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in the U.S. contain added sugar

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and it's being added in for good reason.

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When sugar hits your tongue,

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it sends a telephone message

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up to your brain which releases dopamine,

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which says I'm happy.

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So we love sugar

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but sugar's bad for us.

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That sounds like a problem

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for which we need a solution.

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We may already have one, Suze.

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The answer comes from a small Maryland laboratory

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more than a hundred years ago

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with the accidental discovery of the world's

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first artificial sweetener, saccharin.

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The first artificial sweetener is

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over a century old.

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How come we're still drowning in sugar?

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Good question.

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The story of saccharin

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and its impact on us is

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one of highs and lows.

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Influenced by taxation, dodgy scientific opinion,

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smugglers, and the all powerful sugar barons.

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But let's start at the beginning

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when the sugar cane migrated

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from New Guinea up to India.

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India first refined sugar

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thousands of years ago,

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and it makes a long,

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slow journey towards Europe,

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addicting people along the way.

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The Romans use it for medicinal purposes.

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And then...

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We can thank the Knight's Templar

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for bringing it into the heart

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of Europe as a new addiction.

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To begin with,

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it's only the rich

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that can eat this new delight.

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And the poor are so envious

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and wanting to be in on the act

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that they'll even blacken their teeth

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to pretend that they've been eating sugar.

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Such is the allure of sugar

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that there's some serious money to be made.

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Expeditions are sent out

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to the new world

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to create new sugar plantations.

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Sugar is seen as white gold.

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British colonies produce over a million tons

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which sells for a premium back home

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where the high society laps it up.

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While the rich get their sweet treats,

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it's the vulnerable who pay the price.

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Sugar production drives the slave trade.

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The European trans-Atlantic slave trade transports

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as many as 12 million enslaved Africans

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just to maintain these enterprises.

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The Caribbean much as South America

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and the Southern United States are

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all shaped by sugar cane plantations.

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The slaves were the

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absolute property of their masters.

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The next seismic shift

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in the sugar story happens

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in the 19th century.

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The center of it was

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this diminutive Frenchman, Napoleon,

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who was terrorizing the whole of Europe.

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Now the problem for him was

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that he wasn't able

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to get sugar supplies

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out of the Caribbean

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while he was fighting Britain,

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Russia, and everybody else.

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So what he started to do was

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to grow a crop called sugar beet.

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It's a root vegetable like a turnip.

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It grows in the ground.

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It doesn't need tropical conditions.

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It doesn't look very appetizing

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but it's surprisingly sweet.

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And what Napoleon was able

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to do was effectively flood the market

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with this new homegrown sugar.

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And it meant that working class people

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and the peasantry were able

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to enjoy sugary treats

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for the first time.

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And so it's

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against this sugary background

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that a young Russian scientist,

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Constantin Fahlberg, is about to change

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everything all over again.

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In Baltimore, a shipment of 712 sacks

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of sugar has just been impounded

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by the U.S. government

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over questions of purity.

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The U.S. government thought

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that the Demerara sugar was

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actually higher in quality

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than they had actually disclosed.

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So the company gets

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a German chemist involved, Constantin Fahlberg.

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Which is how Fahlberg finds

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himself sharing a lab

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with another chemist, Professor Ira Remsen.

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The two become fascinated

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by coal tar derivatives.

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Coal tar, it sounds pretty disgusting

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and it kind of is.

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It's this like dark black liquid

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remnants from processing coal.

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But who among us can truly say

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that they aren't fascinated

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by coal tar derivatives, eh?

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All right, please yourselves.

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It's actually got a lot of medicinal properties,

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antifungal, anti-inflammatory, antiparasitic.

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It's even listed as an essential medicine

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by the World Health Organization.

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This weird mixture of chemicals

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fascinates Remsen and Fahlberg.

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Together they work on a specific derivative

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called O-toluenesulfonic acid.

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One of the key things

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that chemists do is react and change molecules.

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It's kind of like Lego

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and swapping bits and pieces around.

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He adds ammonia to the reaction

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and that's where things get interesting.

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Fahlberg is so absorbed

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in his work tinkering around with chemicals

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that one evening he nearly misses dinner.

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But he dashes back

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after a cursory wash of his hands

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and he's eating bread at the table

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when he thinks, gosh,

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this is really sweet.

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Has my housekeeper, you know,

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put sugar in the bread or something?

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It just tastes very odd.

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And he accuses her

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of putting sugar into his food.

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When she denies it,

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there's only one logical explanation.

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He starts thinking that the unexpected taste

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must have come from one

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of the experiments that he was running.

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So what does he do?

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He does what any good scientists would do,

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gather data.

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He goes back to the lab

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and tastes every single substance

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that was out in a beaker.

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That's definitely not

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what every good scientist would do.

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Kids, don't try this at home.

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This isn't just reckless.

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It's desperate.

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Fahlberg needs to know

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where the sweet taste has come from.

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He figures out that the reaction

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with the O-toluenesulfonic acid is

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what's created this taste.

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Fahlberg realizes that

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this new compound is incredibly sweet.

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It's 500 times sweeter than sugar.

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So it seems appropriate when Fahlberg decides

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to take the Latin word for sugar

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to name the new product, saccharin.

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Fahlberg decides he needs

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to test this new saccharin scientifically.

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So he takes about 1/3

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of an ounce himself.

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That's the taste equivalent

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of 11 pounds of sugar.

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Which was probably a bit too sweet

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but there's some very good news.

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He discovers that it

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all passes through his body unchanged.

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He was able to collect it from his urine.

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This is really important

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because if the body doesn't metabolize it

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then it's probably safe to eat.

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Which means of course,

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that it doesn't have any calorific value.

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Saccharine literally shoves through you

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giving you all the pleasure of sugar

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and none of the guilt.

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Fahlberg knows he's onto something

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because the applications are vast,

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helping diabetics, making bitter medicines more palatable,

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the food packing and preservation industry,

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making sugary food healthy,

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and losing weight.

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By 1879, Fahlberg is almost ready

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to bring the new wonder product to market.

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Saccharin is a co-discovery

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between Remsen and Fahlberg.

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And nobody doubts that.

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But Fahlberg is, shall we say the

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more entrepreneurial of the two gentlemen.

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And he goes and registers patents

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in the United States and Europe.

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And somehow he neglects

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to mention this to Remsen who finds out

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and is absolutely hopping mad.

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I'm hopping mad.

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Remsen calls Fahlberg a scoundrel.

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The two never make up

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but Fahlberg is making

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too much money to care.

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Saccharin goes into mass production

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and it's a big success.

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While saccharin's more expensive

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to produce than sugar,

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it's 500 times sweeter

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so you need a lot less of it

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to get the same effect.

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This makes it hugely profitable

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which doesn't go down well

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with the sugar barons.

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Sugar producers are in a great spot.

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They control a valuable commodity

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that has a huge market.

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The last thing they want is a new product

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like saccharin coming in

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and disrupting their trade

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and taking away their customers.

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So they lobby governments hard

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first of all, to get it restricted

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to purely medicinal purposes

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sold through pharmacies.

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And then when that doesn't seem to work,

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they just go for an outright ban.

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Governments bend

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to the demands of big sugar.

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Saccharin becomes almost impossible

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to manufacture and trade.

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And even though governments

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all over Europe are moving against saccharin,

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Europeans, the public want it.

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And we all know that

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if you ban something the public wants,

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the public finds a way.

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Huge smuggling operations find ingenious means

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of concealing the sweet white gold.

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as it passes through Customs.

285
00:11:34,230 --> 00:11:35,530
They find a way

286
00:11:35,530 --> 00:11:38,970
of incorporating saccharin into holy candles

287
00:11:38,970 --> 00:11:42,160
which are duly consecrated by priests,

288
00:11:42,160 --> 00:11:43,720
taken out of the country

289
00:11:43,720 --> 00:11:46,250
past border guards who suspect nothing.

290
00:11:46,250 --> 00:11:48,870
And then those candles are melted down

291
00:11:48,870 --> 00:11:51,380
and the saccharine extracted for sale.

292
00:11:53,690 --> 00:11:54,970
I mean, it sounds ridiculous.

293
00:11:54,970 --> 00:11:57,360
People were risking jail time

294
00:11:57,360 --> 00:11:59,870
for a sugar substitute.

295
00:12:04,050 --> 00:12:05,360
And over in America,

296
00:12:05,360 --> 00:12:07,990
things aren't going much better for saccharin.

297
00:12:07,990 --> 00:12:09,950
There's growing concern in the United States

298
00:12:09,950 --> 00:12:13,190
in the early 20th century over food adulteration

299
00:12:13,190 --> 00:12:15,230
and it leads to legislation,

300
00:12:15,230 --> 00:12:18,950
the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.

301
00:12:18,950 --> 00:12:21,930
And there's a government chemist, Harvey Wiley,

302
00:12:21,930 --> 00:12:26,430
and he really takes against saccharin.

303
00:12:26,430 --> 00:12:28,280
Wiley believes that anything derived

304
00:12:28,280 --> 00:12:30,610
from coal tar just can't be good

305
00:12:30,610 --> 00:12:33,120
especially if it has no nutritional value

306
00:12:33,120 --> 00:12:35,570
which saccharin of course doesn't.

307
00:12:35,570 --> 00:12:37,410
But the food processing industry

308
00:12:37,410 --> 00:12:38,530
loves saccharin.

309
00:12:38,530 --> 00:12:40,470
It allows them to enhance flavor

310
00:12:40,470 --> 00:12:42,440
in their tin products on the cheap.

311
00:12:44,380 --> 00:12:45,660
Wiley and the food industry

312
00:12:45,660 --> 00:12:48,150
then are completely at loggerheads

313
00:12:48,150 --> 00:12:50,250
and they take their argument

314
00:12:50,250 --> 00:12:52,700
to the president to Theodore

315
00:12:52,700 --> 00:12:56,210
or Teddy Roosevelt who is not a slim man

316
00:12:56,210 --> 00:12:57,990
by any stretch of the imagination.

317
00:12:59,850 --> 00:13:01,180
What Wiley doesn't know is

318
00:13:01,180 --> 00:13:02,970
that Roosevelt has been prescribed saccharin

319
00:13:02,970 --> 00:13:04,430
by his doctor to help

320
00:13:04,430 --> 00:13:06,210
with his expanding waistline.

321
00:13:08,690 --> 00:13:11,170
And when he's presented with the arguments,

322
00:13:11,170 --> 00:13:12,920
Roosevelt rounds at Wiley

323
00:13:12,920 --> 00:13:17,880
and says anybody who opposes saccharine is an idiot.

324
00:13:17,880 --> 00:13:19,230
That told him.

325
00:13:23,420 --> 00:13:24,550
During World War I,

326
00:13:24,550 --> 00:13:26,530
the farmers had to switch their crops

327
00:13:26,530 --> 00:13:29,650
from sugar beets to wheat and potatoes.

328
00:13:31,910 --> 00:13:33,920
With war comes rationing.

329
00:13:33,920 --> 00:13:35,690
This business of ration stamps

330
00:13:35,690 --> 00:13:38,240
and price ceilings is no cinch for him.

331
00:13:38,240 --> 00:13:39,070
And a cheap,

332
00:13:39,070 --> 00:13:40,880
easy to produce sweetener is

333
00:13:40,880 --> 00:13:42,890
seen as a candle in the dark.

334
00:13:43,730 --> 00:13:45,150
So from vilifying saccharine,

335
00:13:45,150 --> 00:13:47,930
politicians now endorse its production

336
00:13:47,930 --> 00:13:48,900
and it goes from

337
00:13:49,830 --> 00:13:52,510
practically 0 to 250 tons.

338
00:13:52,510 --> 00:13:53,630
And the same happens

339
00:13:53,630 --> 00:13:55,400
again in World War II.

340
00:13:55,400 --> 00:13:57,350
It's saccharine to the rescue.

341
00:13:59,160 --> 00:14:01,470
From the 1950s onwards,

342
00:14:01,470 --> 00:14:03,390
America grows rich.

343
00:14:03,390 --> 00:14:05,980
Access to sugary foods is suddenly easy

344
00:14:05,980 --> 00:14:06,860
and most people have

345
00:14:06,860 --> 00:14:08,790
to do less hard physical labor.

346
00:14:10,220 --> 00:14:13,370
Served in good generous slices.

347
00:14:13,370 --> 00:14:14,300
The masses start

348
00:14:14,300 --> 00:14:16,700
to grow quite literally

349
00:14:16,700 --> 00:14:17,650
and it's saccharine

350
00:14:17,650 --> 00:14:19,690
to the rescue yet again.

351
00:14:19,690 --> 00:14:22,460
In 1963, Weight Watchers is founded

352
00:14:22,460 --> 00:14:24,770
and sees immediate and rapid growth.

353
00:14:24,770 --> 00:14:25,670
Within two years,

354
00:14:25,670 --> 00:14:28,330
the owner Jean Nidetch is a millionaire.

355
00:14:28,330 --> 00:14:29,430
I thought fat men were

356
00:14:29,430 --> 00:14:30,840
supposed to be jolly.

357
00:14:30,840 --> 00:14:33,250
They are jolly, they're jolly on the outside.

358
00:14:33,250 --> 00:14:35,200
For once, I took a picture

359
00:14:35,200 --> 00:14:36,860
of what I really felt like.

360
00:14:39,820 --> 00:14:42,330
Now over 140 years

361
00:14:42,330 --> 00:14:44,960
after Fahlberg's accidental discovery,

362
00:14:44,960 --> 00:14:46,290
saccharin remains one of the

363
00:14:46,290 --> 00:14:49,070
most popular artificial sweeteners on the planet.

364
00:14:50,120 --> 00:14:51,040
You'll find it in those

365
00:14:51,040 --> 00:14:52,930
little Sweet 'N Low single serve packets

366
00:14:52,930 --> 00:14:54,990
in cafes and restaurants.

367
00:14:54,990 --> 00:14:56,830
Over 500 billion packets have

368
00:14:56,830 --> 00:14:57,930
been produced to date.

369
00:15:06,200 --> 00:15:08,300
Coming up the plan

370
00:15:08,300 --> 00:15:10,290
to take over the planet.

371
00:15:10,290 --> 00:15:12,130
If we can create a laser,

372
00:15:12,130 --> 00:15:14,060
we could fire Soviet nukes

373
00:15:14,060 --> 00:15:15,050
out of the sky.

374
00:15:16,280 --> 00:15:19,440
And the world's worst sales tactic.

375
00:15:19,440 --> 00:15:22,020
He aims the gun at his stomach

376
00:15:22,020 --> 00:15:23,120
and pulls the trigger.

377
00:15:27,580 --> 00:15:29,080
But first this,

378
00:15:29,080 --> 00:15:31,610
planet Earth from all the way out here,

379
00:15:31,610 --> 00:15:33,780
it's hard to see the humans' impact

380
00:15:33,780 --> 00:15:35,940
on this pale blue dot in space.

381
00:15:37,460 --> 00:15:40,550
But as the sun dips below the horizon,

382
00:15:40,550 --> 00:15:43,170
billions of pinpoints of light switch on

383
00:15:43,170 --> 00:15:45,810
revealing our modern illuminated world.

384
00:15:48,930 --> 00:15:51,460
This planet is covered with intelligent life

385
00:15:51,460 --> 00:15:53,160
that has harnessed electricity

386
00:15:53,160 --> 00:15:55,240
and used it to power the world.

387
00:15:57,070 --> 00:15:59,120
From the bright city centers of New York,

388
00:16:00,120 --> 00:16:01,520
to the nighttime fishing

389
00:16:01,520 --> 00:16:03,710
in the South China Sea.

390
00:16:03,710 --> 00:16:04,920
It's almost like a map

391
00:16:04,920 --> 00:16:06,780
of technological progress.

392
00:16:06,780 --> 00:16:08,440
You can see cities,

393
00:16:08,440 --> 00:16:11,350
you can see civilizations clustering together

394
00:16:11,350 --> 00:16:13,100
in places like the Eastern seaboard in America

395
00:16:13,100 --> 00:16:14,570
and in Western Europe.

396
00:16:14,570 --> 00:16:16,090
You can see where humanity

397
00:16:16,090 --> 00:16:17,540
butts up against geography

398
00:16:17,540 --> 00:16:19,590
like in the foothills of the Himalayas.

399
00:16:21,410 --> 00:16:23,550
You can see in an image like this,

400
00:16:23,550 --> 00:16:25,280
that there's no doubt about it.

401
00:16:25,280 --> 00:16:26,690
We love light.

402
00:16:29,030 --> 00:16:30,640
The spread of artificial light

403
00:16:30,640 --> 00:16:31,980
across the globe is possible

404
00:16:31,980 --> 00:16:33,950
because of a brilliant new technology

405
00:16:33,950 --> 00:16:36,570
that revolutionizes how we make light,

406
00:16:36,570 --> 00:16:38,560
the light emitting diode.

407
00:16:38,560 --> 00:16:39,390
That's also known

408
00:16:39,390 --> 00:16:42,230
as the LED to you and me.

409
00:16:42,230 --> 00:16:43,260
Now, we all know that

410
00:16:43,260 --> 00:16:45,450
there were electronic lights before LEDs.

411
00:16:46,470 --> 00:16:48,540
You've probably heard of their inventor,

412
00:16:48,540 --> 00:16:50,410
a gentleman called Thomas Edison.

413
00:16:53,480 --> 00:16:55,540
There were light bulbs before Edison,

414
00:16:55,540 --> 00:16:57,220
but his genius was the fact

415
00:16:57,220 --> 00:16:59,290
that he made it commercially viable.

416
00:16:59,290 --> 00:17:00,120
And he did this

417
00:17:00,120 --> 00:17:01,420
with a year of hard work.

418
00:17:01,420 --> 00:17:04,230
He went through 6,000 different materials

419
00:17:04,230 --> 00:17:05,580
for the filament of the bulb

420
00:17:05,580 --> 00:17:06,410
before he found one

421
00:17:06,410 --> 00:17:07,240
that he could sell

422
00:17:07,240 --> 00:17:09,460
at a reasonable price.

423
00:17:10,960 --> 00:17:13,130
Edison's inventions spread light

424
00:17:13,130 --> 00:17:15,610
and electricity across the world.

425
00:17:15,610 --> 00:17:18,050
It may seem like a small thing

426
00:17:18,050 --> 00:17:18,880
but the light bulb

427
00:17:18,880 --> 00:17:20,670
changed the course of humanity.

428
00:17:21,980 --> 00:17:24,300
They have made us independent of the seasons.

429
00:17:24,300 --> 00:17:25,460
We now don't go to bed

430
00:17:25,460 --> 00:17:26,610
when the sun goes down.

431
00:17:27,480 --> 00:17:28,820
We go to bed when we want

432
00:17:28,820 --> 00:17:31,570
and facilitated the electrical revolution.

433
00:17:31,570 --> 00:17:32,650
Because when you run wires

434
00:17:32,650 --> 00:17:34,450
in for electricity for lighting,

435
00:17:34,450 --> 00:17:35,890
that means there's electricity available

436
00:17:35,890 --> 00:17:39,030
for all manner of gadgets and gizmos.

437
00:17:39,030 --> 00:17:40,340
Say there sport,

438
00:17:40,340 --> 00:17:42,010
what are you gonna do with all of it?

439
00:17:42,010 --> 00:17:43,140
Do with it?

440
00:17:43,140 --> 00:17:44,380
Honey, there's no limit.

441
00:17:46,120 --> 00:17:47,710
The incandescent light bulb

442
00:17:47,710 --> 00:17:49,400
remains the dominant light source

443
00:17:49,400 --> 00:17:51,180
for the rest of the century.

444
00:17:51,180 --> 00:17:52,440
I really admire the way you

445
00:17:52,440 --> 00:17:53,970
never cast harsh shadows.

446
00:17:55,190 --> 00:17:57,730
But light bulbs are far from perfect.

447
00:17:59,050 --> 00:18:00,540
An electrical current is passed

448
00:18:00,540 --> 00:18:01,910
through a very thin wire

449
00:18:01,910 --> 00:18:03,580
known as a filament.

450
00:18:03,580 --> 00:18:04,810
The filament heats up

451
00:18:04,810 --> 00:18:08,320
glowing bright white, lighting up a room.

452
00:18:08,320 --> 00:18:10,570
A pound and 1/2 of tungsten

453
00:18:10,570 --> 00:18:12,550
in this lamp would make filaments

454
00:18:12,550 --> 00:18:15,390
for 21 million grain of wheat lamps.

455
00:18:15,390 --> 00:18:18,780
It's unfortunately 97% of the energy

456
00:18:18,780 --> 00:18:21,270
that goes through the wire is converted to heat

457
00:18:21,270 --> 00:18:23,690
with only 3% left for light.

458
00:18:23,690 --> 00:18:25,530
This is incredibly inefficient.

459
00:18:30,290 --> 00:18:31,750
The more light bulbs we use,

460
00:18:31,750 --> 00:18:34,040
the more energy we waste.

461
00:18:34,040 --> 00:18:36,470
It's a pretty big deal to work out

462
00:18:36,470 --> 00:18:38,220
if we can do this more efficiently.

463
00:18:40,500 --> 00:18:42,160
And that is where tie hating,

464
00:18:42,160 --> 00:18:44,380
Nick Holonyak comes into our story.

465
00:18:45,450 --> 00:18:48,300
Holonyak's born in 1928

466
00:18:48,300 --> 00:18:51,000
in Southern Illinois in a small community.

467
00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:54,030
His parents have emigrated to the U.S.

468
00:18:54,030 --> 00:18:55,630
from what's now the Ukraine.

469
00:18:55,630 --> 00:18:56,530
His father's working

470
00:18:56,530 --> 00:18:58,120
in the mining industry.

471
00:18:58,120 --> 00:19:00,150
It's a typical blue-collar story

472
00:19:00,150 --> 00:19:02,750
where he could have very easily ended up

473
00:19:02,750 --> 00:19:03,580
in the same job

474
00:19:03,580 --> 00:19:05,710
going underground and mining

475
00:19:05,710 --> 00:19:07,460
instead of which he sets

476
00:19:07,460 --> 00:19:09,610
his sites much, much higher.

477
00:19:12,900 --> 00:19:14,870
At the end of World War II,

478
00:19:14,870 --> 00:19:18,400
universities across the U.S. start rapidly growing.

479
00:19:18,400 --> 00:19:19,480
It's the opportunity

480
00:19:19,480 --> 00:19:21,240
that Holonyak's been waiting for.

481
00:19:22,170 --> 00:19:23,520
Holonyak studies electrical engineering

482
00:19:23,520 --> 00:19:24,880
at the University of Illinois,

483
00:19:24,880 --> 00:19:25,710
and ends up working

484
00:19:25,710 --> 00:19:27,300
with none other than John Bardeen,

485
00:19:27,300 --> 00:19:29,880
the co-inventor of the semiconductor transistor

486
00:19:29,880 --> 00:19:31,220
and the winner of not one

487
00:19:31,220 --> 00:19:33,060
but two Nobel Prizes.

488
00:19:34,020 --> 00:19:36,140
Two, that's just showing off.

489
00:19:38,010 --> 00:19:40,700
Anyway, Holonyak graduates, gets a job,

490
00:19:40,700 --> 00:19:42,970
joins the military, and eventually finds

491
00:19:42,970 --> 00:19:45,860
himself working for General Electric.

492
00:19:45,860 --> 00:19:48,560
Onto General Electric progress land.

493
00:19:53,280 --> 00:19:55,720
This is the era of the Cold War.

494
00:19:55,720 --> 00:19:57,190
It's when the United States

495
00:19:57,190 --> 00:19:58,690
and the Soviet Union are

496
00:19:58,690 --> 00:19:59,940
matching up to each other,

497
00:19:59,940 --> 00:20:04,120
the Cuban Missile Crisis, huge paranoia.

498
00:20:04,120 --> 00:20:05,540
People are starting to think, well,

499
00:20:05,540 --> 00:20:07,470
if we can create a laser,

500
00:20:07,470 --> 00:20:09,400
we could fire Soviet nukes

501
00:20:09,400 --> 00:20:10,350
out of the sky.

502
00:20:12,580 --> 00:20:13,910
Holonyak's colleagues are experimenting

503
00:20:13,910 --> 00:20:15,660
with semiconductor diodes

504
00:20:15,660 --> 00:20:17,740
to create a miniaturized laser.

505
00:20:20,390 --> 00:20:22,870
A laser is really the secret ray

506
00:20:22,870 --> 00:20:25,020
of science fiction come true.

507
00:20:25,020 --> 00:20:26,610
It's an invisible beam

508
00:20:26,610 --> 00:20:28,950
of very high energy.

509
00:20:28,950 --> 00:20:30,120
The problem is the team

510
00:20:30,120 --> 00:20:31,840
are producing lasers that emit

511
00:20:31,840 --> 00:20:33,930
only infrared wavelengths of light,

512
00:20:33,930 --> 00:20:34,890
which is longer than the wavelengths of light

513
00:20:34,890 --> 00:20:37,560
that we can see with our eyes

514
00:20:37,560 --> 00:20:39,700
whereas Holonyak wants to make a laser

515
00:20:39,700 --> 00:20:41,720
that produces visible light.

516
00:20:41,720 --> 00:20:43,490
Holonyak thinks that his best bet

517
00:20:43,490 --> 00:20:45,640
for making a visible laser lies

518
00:20:45,640 --> 00:20:46,480
in the research of

519
00:20:46,480 --> 00:20:48,930
another group at General Electric.

520
00:20:48,930 --> 00:20:50,260
They're working with compounds

521
00:20:50,260 --> 00:20:51,650
that can give off red light,

522
00:20:51,650 --> 00:20:54,340
crystals made from gallium and arsenide.

523
00:20:57,000 --> 00:20:58,700
His bosses try and persuade him

524
00:20:58,700 --> 00:21:01,050
to stick to the classic silicon

525
00:21:01,050 --> 00:21:04,050
rather than his obsession with gallium crystals.

526
00:21:04,050 --> 00:21:06,290
They even threaten to fire him.

527
00:21:06,290 --> 00:21:07,890
But Holonyak ignores this.

528
00:21:07,890 --> 00:21:09,620
He's convinced that he's on to something

529
00:21:09,620 --> 00:21:10,980
and eventually becomes the first person

530
00:21:10,980 --> 00:21:13,060
in the world to grow crystals

531
00:21:13,060 --> 00:21:14,510
mixing gallium, arsenide,

532
00:21:14,510 --> 00:21:15,700
and gallium phosphide.

533
00:21:16,710 --> 00:21:17,970
Holonyak uses

534
00:21:17,970 --> 00:21:19,990
his new crystals in a laser.

535
00:21:19,990 --> 00:21:22,210
He's expecting a powerful red beam

536
00:21:22,210 --> 00:21:23,940
to blast out of his experiment.

537
00:21:25,820 --> 00:21:27,920
And it works, kind of.

538
00:21:29,070 --> 00:21:30,920
It's not the powerful, coherent light

539
00:21:30,920 --> 00:21:32,520
that you would get from a laser

540
00:21:32,520 --> 00:21:33,910
but instead, well kind

541
00:21:33,910 --> 00:21:35,640
of more regular light.

542
00:21:35,640 --> 00:21:38,490
In fact, what Holonyak's made is

543
00:21:38,490 --> 00:21:40,120
accidentally the world's first

544
00:21:40,120 --> 00:21:41,840
commercially viable red LED.

545
00:21:44,490 --> 00:21:45,320
Okay,

546
00:21:45,320 --> 00:21:47,120
it's not the laser he was expecting,

547
00:21:47,120 --> 00:21:48,730
but this is a totally

548
00:21:48,730 --> 00:21:50,570
new way of making light.

549
00:21:50,570 --> 00:21:51,690
And it's all down

550
00:21:51,690 --> 00:21:54,350
to how diodes are constructed.

551
00:21:54,350 --> 00:21:57,110
Strap yourselves in for some exciting science.

552
00:22:03,200 --> 00:22:04,380
So you have two materials,

553
00:22:04,380 --> 00:22:05,830
the N and the P,

554
00:22:05,830 --> 00:22:07,130
the N is what's referred

555
00:22:07,130 --> 00:22:08,640
to as negatively charged.

556
00:22:08,640 --> 00:22:10,880
It has an excess of electrons.

557
00:22:11,780 --> 00:22:14,310
The P side has a dearth of electrons.

558
00:22:14,310 --> 00:22:15,650
It doesn't have enough of them.

559
00:22:15,650 --> 00:22:17,600
Okay, it's not really

560
00:22:17,600 --> 00:22:19,440
as exciting as we hoped,

561
00:22:19,440 --> 00:22:22,440
but if you zap the diode with some volts,

562
00:22:22,440 --> 00:22:24,660
the electrons travel from the N material

563
00:22:24,660 --> 00:22:26,850
to the P material, releasing energy.

564
00:22:28,340 --> 00:22:29,190
This energy is released

565
00:22:29,190 --> 00:22:30,580
in the form of a photon

566
00:22:30,580 --> 00:22:32,370
or a little bit of light.

567
00:22:32,370 --> 00:22:35,540
This process is incredibly efficient,

568
00:22:35,540 --> 00:22:39,110
just a small amount of electricity makes lots of light.

569
00:22:39,110 --> 00:22:40,880
And that's not the only thing.

570
00:22:40,880 --> 00:22:43,570
Due to their solid state structure,

571
00:22:43,570 --> 00:22:45,580
LEDs last about 25 times longer

572
00:22:45,580 --> 00:22:47,260
than incandescent bulbs.

573
00:22:47,260 --> 00:22:49,480
Like the divine creator,

574
00:22:49,480 --> 00:22:52,240
Thomas Edison said, let there be light.

575
00:22:52,240 --> 00:22:54,280
And there was light.

576
00:22:54,280 --> 00:22:57,420
The trouble was, it was energy inefficient.

577
00:22:57,420 --> 00:22:59,790
Holonyak comes along and he says,

578
00:22:59,790 --> 00:23:00,660
let there be light.

579
00:23:00,660 --> 00:23:04,410
but this time it's energy efficient.

580
00:23:04,410 --> 00:23:07,190
Doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

581
00:23:07,190 --> 00:23:09,710
Anyway, General Electric immediately sees

582
00:23:09,710 --> 00:23:11,670
the potential of Holonyak's red LED

583
00:23:13,320 --> 00:23:15,900
calling his experiment, the magic one.

584
00:23:15,900 --> 00:23:18,720
And within a year, it's on the market.

585
00:23:18,720 --> 00:23:21,000
Trouble is it's a tiny little light

586
00:23:22,140 --> 00:23:24,470
that costs $260.

587
00:23:24,470 --> 00:23:25,790
Now in today's money,

588
00:23:25,790 --> 00:23:29,250
that's over $2,000 and there's not a lot

589
00:23:29,250 --> 00:23:31,580
of demand for a little light

590
00:23:31,580 --> 00:23:33,380
that costs that amount of money.

591
00:23:34,840 --> 00:23:35,890
But over the next few years,

592
00:23:35,890 --> 00:23:38,470
that cost comes tumbling down.

593
00:23:38,470 --> 00:23:41,540
This red light LED technology soon

594
00:23:41,540 --> 00:23:43,720
becomes an incredible way

595
00:23:43,720 --> 00:23:46,510
to display numerical data

596
00:23:46,510 --> 00:23:49,850
wherever numbers have to be displayed.

597
00:23:49,850 --> 00:23:51,460
And what uses numbers?

598
00:23:51,460 --> 00:23:53,640
Calculators and watches.

599
00:23:53,640 --> 00:23:55,100
And why wouldn't you wanna have a watch

600
00:23:55,100 --> 00:23:55,930
that has LEDs?

601
00:23:56,890 --> 00:23:58,750
The technology is amazing,

602
00:23:58,750 --> 00:24:00,320
but if it's going to be practically

603
00:24:00,320 --> 00:24:01,640
used in everyday life

604
00:24:01,640 --> 00:24:03,220
then red isn't enough.

605
00:24:03,220 --> 00:24:05,080
If you wanna replace the incandescent light bulb,

606
00:24:05,080 --> 00:24:07,550
we need white light.

607
00:24:07,550 --> 00:24:09,290
It takes another 20 years

608
00:24:09,290 --> 00:24:10,990
for Japanese scientists to find the

609
00:24:10,990 --> 00:24:12,740
right combination of crystals

610
00:24:12,740 --> 00:24:14,860
to emit that elusive blue light.

611
00:24:15,790 --> 00:24:19,410
They've cracked the holy grail of LED lights.

612
00:24:24,410 --> 00:24:26,310
So we now have small red lights

613
00:24:26,310 --> 00:24:28,260
and small blue lights.

614
00:24:28,260 --> 00:24:29,220
While they're examining

615
00:24:29,220 --> 00:24:31,170
their new invention more closely,

616
00:24:31,170 --> 00:24:33,020
something unexpected happens.

617
00:24:34,260 --> 00:24:36,270
The team wants to take a closer look

618
00:24:36,270 --> 00:24:37,100
at their LED.

619
00:24:37,100 --> 00:24:39,510
And so they use an electron microscope,

620
00:24:39,510 --> 00:24:42,740
which is a highly powerful microscope to examine it.

621
00:24:43,600 --> 00:24:45,260
The LED suddenly starts

622
00:24:45,260 --> 00:24:48,070
to shine even more brightly.

623
00:24:48,070 --> 00:24:50,050
Of course, when you're making an LED

624
00:24:50,050 --> 00:24:51,630
that's exactly what you want.

625
00:24:51,630 --> 00:24:53,340
The problem is the team

626
00:24:53,340 --> 00:24:55,920
have no idea why it happened.

627
00:24:58,890 --> 00:25:00,120
The team from the east

628
00:25:00,120 --> 00:25:01,580
look west for their answer,

629
00:25:02,460 --> 00:25:03,990
but just 150 miles west

630
00:25:03,990 --> 00:25:07,030
to Shikoku Island where a scientist

631
00:25:07,030 --> 00:25:09,900
called Shuji Nakamura tackles the problem.

632
00:25:11,820 --> 00:25:13,960
Nakamura realized that the electron microscope

633
00:25:13,960 --> 00:25:16,020
was making the LED shine much brighter

634
00:25:16,020 --> 00:25:17,850
by removing hydrogen atoms

635
00:25:17,850 --> 00:25:20,420
from the top of the P time crystal.

636
00:25:20,420 --> 00:25:21,290
I'm not really sure

637
00:25:21,290 --> 00:25:22,890
what that means either,

638
00:25:22,890 --> 00:25:23,740
but I do know

639
00:25:23,740 --> 00:25:25,920
that when he fine tunes the process,

640
00:25:25,920 --> 00:25:27,410
Nakamura manages to make

641
00:25:27,410 --> 00:25:30,940
the blue LED 100 times brighter.

642
00:25:30,940 --> 00:25:33,560
So finally, we can produce white light

643
00:25:33,560 --> 00:25:36,070
and replace incandescent bulbs.

644
00:25:36,070 --> 00:25:38,270
It only took 30 years of development.

645
00:25:39,920 --> 00:25:41,680
But hang on there, Simon.

646
00:25:41,680 --> 00:25:43,080
This is still a huge moment

647
00:25:43,080 --> 00:25:44,680
that stems from an accident.

648
00:25:45,930 --> 00:25:47,880
LED screens are rapidly developed

649
00:25:47,880 --> 00:25:51,240
and adopted in all kinds of everyday technology.

650
00:25:54,080 --> 00:25:55,880
We take for granted, you know,

651
00:25:55,880 --> 00:25:58,050
video and amazing images

652
00:25:58,050 --> 00:26:00,830
on our smartphones, on our laptops,

653
00:26:00,830 --> 00:26:01,960
on our tablets.

654
00:26:01,960 --> 00:26:04,460
But you know, only just 10 years ago,

655
00:26:04,460 --> 00:26:06,760
15 years ago, that wasn't possible.

656
00:26:07,970 --> 00:26:10,270
Edison's light bulb lit the 20th century

657
00:26:10,270 --> 00:26:13,360
but LED light bulbs are dominating the 21st.

658
00:26:15,710 --> 00:26:17,680
In 2019, about half

659
00:26:17,680 --> 00:26:19,720
of all light sources were LED.

660
00:26:19,720 --> 00:26:22,700
Now by 2030, it's predicted

661
00:26:22,700 --> 00:26:25,160
that will be 85%.

662
00:26:25,160 --> 00:26:27,570
That's absolutely staggering

663
00:26:27,570 --> 00:26:29,560
for a technology that's relatively new.

664
00:26:30,710 --> 00:26:31,900
And that's

665
00:26:31,900 --> 00:26:33,110
how an immigrant's son

666
00:26:33,110 --> 00:26:35,330
from Illinois lit up the world.

667
00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:38,430
I guess this story proves

668
00:26:38,430 --> 00:26:41,280
that no matter how humble your beginnings,

669
00:26:41,280 --> 00:26:43,340
if you're truly dedicated,

670
00:26:43,340 --> 00:26:46,380
you can affect real technological change

671
00:26:46,380 --> 00:26:47,930
by using this thing up here.

672
00:26:47,930 --> 00:26:49,860
And that's what Holonyak did.

673
00:26:49,860 --> 00:26:52,560
He really changed the world.

674
00:27:01,560 --> 00:27:02,850
Still to come.

675
00:27:02,850 --> 00:27:04,880
How a hard-nosed pizza shop owner

676
00:27:04,880 --> 00:27:07,210
helped save thousands of lives.

677
00:27:08,520 --> 00:27:09,910
This time he goes packing a piece.

678
00:27:11,440 --> 00:27:12,440
But first,

679
00:27:12,440 --> 00:27:13,270
let's take a moment

680
00:27:13,270 --> 00:27:14,470
to consider that ever

681
00:27:14,470 --> 00:27:16,720
since humans have walked the earth,

682
00:27:16,720 --> 00:27:18,430
we've waged a deadly war

683
00:27:18,430 --> 00:27:19,750
against a formidable foe.

684
00:27:22,040 --> 00:27:23,340
Natural disasters?

685
00:27:24,260 --> 00:27:25,460
No.

686
00:27:25,460 --> 00:27:27,270
Is it wooly mammoths?

687
00:27:27,270 --> 00:27:28,110
Nope.

688
00:27:28,110 --> 00:27:29,590
What about hunger?

689
00:27:29,590 --> 00:27:30,420
Good guess.

690
00:27:30,420 --> 00:27:32,700
But I'm talking about bacteria.

691
00:27:35,160 --> 00:27:35,990
Ew.

692
00:27:37,830 --> 00:27:40,480
When these microscopic invaders get inside,

693
00:27:40,480 --> 00:27:42,460
they take hold of your body

694
00:27:42,460 --> 00:27:43,710
and multiply...

695
00:27:44,920 --> 00:27:46,000
and multiply,

696
00:27:47,410 --> 00:27:49,530
sending your immune system haywire

697
00:27:51,270 --> 00:27:54,480
until finally you turn into a zombie.

698
00:27:57,660 --> 00:27:59,540
Actually you'd most likely just die.

699
00:28:02,920 --> 00:28:04,950
Probably couldn't name one bacteria,

700
00:28:04,950 --> 00:28:05,900
but what you could name are

701
00:28:05,900 --> 00:28:08,310
all of the diseases that bacteria causes

702
00:28:08,310 --> 00:28:09,990
things like the bubonic plague.

703
00:28:12,500 --> 00:28:13,940
You get tetanus, cholera,

704
00:28:13,940 --> 00:28:15,870
things that have ravaged humanity

705
00:28:15,870 --> 00:28:17,870
for thousands of years.

706
00:28:17,870 --> 00:28:18,830
And over the years,

707
00:28:18,830 --> 00:28:19,910
humans have come up with

708
00:28:19,910 --> 00:28:22,750
some pretty gruesome ways to fight infection.

709
00:28:25,060 --> 00:28:26,670
In ancient Egypt,

710
00:28:26,670 --> 00:28:28,190
doctors believe that bloodletting's

711
00:28:28,190 --> 00:28:30,730
the magic weapon against bacterial infection,

712
00:28:31,740 --> 00:28:35,590
a practice lasting into the 20th century.

713
00:28:35,590 --> 00:28:36,440
So back in the day,

714
00:28:36,440 --> 00:28:37,970
doctors thought that if we were sick,

715
00:28:37,970 --> 00:28:39,630
our humors were out of balance.

716
00:28:39,630 --> 00:28:41,640
There were these four humors,

717
00:28:41,640 --> 00:28:45,710
blood, black bile, yellow bile, and phlegm.

718
00:28:45,710 --> 00:28:47,440
What was needed was a doctor,

719
00:28:47,440 --> 00:28:48,960
a physician to come along,

720
00:28:48,960 --> 00:28:51,510
make an incision and bleed you

721
00:28:51,510 --> 00:28:53,650
to get your humors rebalanced.

722
00:28:57,280 --> 00:28:59,310
Fast forward to the 1920s

723
00:28:59,310 --> 00:29:01,780
and humans still have no suitable treatment

724
00:29:01,780 --> 00:29:03,590
in their fight against bacteria.

725
00:29:05,870 --> 00:29:07,200
Each year the lung infection,

726
00:29:07,200 --> 00:29:10,620
tuberculosis, devastates populations.

727
00:29:10,620 --> 00:29:11,980
Millions are killed.

728
00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:14,590
Just gone.

729
00:29:16,400 --> 00:29:17,660
The treatment for TB

730
00:29:17,660 --> 00:29:20,100
at the time was fresh air.

731
00:29:20,100 --> 00:29:21,030
Fresh air?

732
00:29:21,030 --> 00:29:23,770
I mean, seriously, you don't stand a chance.

733
00:29:26,990 --> 00:29:28,990
You have this ancient war

734
00:29:28,990 --> 00:29:31,240
between bacteria and humanity,

735
00:29:31,240 --> 00:29:33,850
and frankly, bacteria was winning

736
00:29:33,850 --> 00:29:35,010
for most of history.

737
00:29:35,010 --> 00:29:36,560
It was something of a massacre.

738
00:29:42,480 --> 00:29:43,370
But all that

739
00:29:43,370 --> 00:29:44,470
is about to change

740
00:29:44,470 --> 00:29:46,190
with an untidy scientist,

741
00:29:47,030 --> 00:29:48,790
a watermelon obsessed woman,

742
00:29:49,850 --> 00:29:51,780
and some lucky guinea pigs.

743
00:29:51,780 --> 00:29:53,960
No, your ears aren't deceiving you.

744
00:29:53,960 --> 00:29:55,980
Stay with me on this one.

745
00:29:55,980 --> 00:29:59,830
Story starts in 1922, London, England

746
00:29:59,830 --> 00:30:02,380
and with this guy, Alexander Fleming.

747
00:30:02,380 --> 00:30:03,920
For Alexander Fleming

748
00:30:03,920 --> 00:30:05,010
of St. Mary's Hospital, London,

749
00:30:05,010 --> 00:30:06,880
a miracle out of mold.

750
00:30:06,880 --> 00:30:08,150
Born in Scotland,

751
00:30:08,150 --> 00:30:10,280
Fleming moves south to study medicine

752
00:30:10,280 --> 00:30:11,980
at St. Mary's Hospital

753
00:30:11,980 --> 00:30:13,540
where he soon becomes fascinated

754
00:30:13,540 --> 00:30:17,390
with the emerging field of bacteriology.

755
00:30:17,390 --> 00:30:19,250
That's the study of bacteria.

756
00:30:19,250 --> 00:30:21,430
Yeah, they knew that one.

757
00:30:21,430 --> 00:30:24,230
He's looking for new ways to kill bacteria.

758
00:30:24,230 --> 00:30:26,040
And he's basically adding anything

759
00:30:26,040 --> 00:30:28,700
that he can to bacterial cultures.

760
00:30:29,650 --> 00:30:31,050
The story goes that he has

761
00:30:31,050 --> 00:30:34,140
an absolutely rotten cold.

762
00:30:34,140 --> 00:30:37,620
He accidentally sneezes on a Petri dish

763
00:30:37,620 --> 00:30:40,170
not exactly scientific, you would think.

764
00:30:40,170 --> 00:30:42,870
But what he observes is really interesting.

765
00:30:42,870 --> 00:30:44,790
Hmm, interesting.

766
00:30:44,790 --> 00:30:46,600
Because where the mucus has landed,

767
00:30:46,600 --> 00:30:48,080
the bacteria die.

768
00:30:49,950 --> 00:30:51,330
Fleming realizes that it's

769
00:30:51,330 --> 00:30:53,640
an enzyme in saliva called lysozyme

770
00:30:53,640 --> 00:30:55,510
that's killing the bacteria

771
00:30:55,510 --> 00:30:57,480
which sounds great but

772
00:30:57,480 --> 00:30:59,690
while it works in a Petri dish,

773
00:30:59,690 --> 00:31:01,730
it doesn't work as well inside the body.

774
00:31:02,660 --> 00:31:05,920
Despite six more years of promising research,

775
00:31:05,920 --> 00:31:07,220
Fleming hits a wall.

776
00:31:08,350 --> 00:31:10,590
He decides it's time for a vacation.

777
00:31:14,620 --> 00:31:15,890
Returning two weeks later,

778
00:31:15,890 --> 00:31:18,660
rested and ready to work again.

779
00:31:18,660 --> 00:31:19,950
And when he comes back,

780
00:31:19,950 --> 00:31:21,550
he notices something weird

781
00:31:21,550 --> 00:31:22,780
growing in his lab.

782
00:31:23,790 --> 00:31:24,690
On one of the plates,

783
00:31:24,690 --> 00:31:25,740
there's a big blob

784
00:31:25,740 --> 00:31:27,590
of a mysterious fungus.

785
00:31:28,760 --> 00:31:32,510
Fleming's lab it seems was a bit of a mess.

786
00:31:32,510 --> 00:31:34,260
It's mold basically,

787
00:31:34,260 --> 00:31:36,560
disgusting mold from his dirty lab.

788
00:31:40,330 --> 00:31:42,520
Normally, if you're doing an experiment

789
00:31:42,520 --> 00:31:44,350
and it becomes contaminated with fungus,

790
00:31:44,350 --> 00:31:45,420
you would throw it away.

791
00:31:45,420 --> 00:31:48,450
But Fleming ever the curious scientist

792
00:31:48,450 --> 00:31:51,460
sees something funny that's really quite small

793
00:31:51,460 --> 00:31:54,510
and subtle where the fungus meets bacteria.

794
00:31:59,840 --> 00:32:01,240
That's funny.

795
00:32:02,510 --> 00:32:06,030
What he notices will change the world forever.

796
00:32:06,030 --> 00:32:09,980
The bacteria around the fungus are all dead.

797
00:32:09,980 --> 00:32:13,700
Now, given that staphylococcus is a deadly bacteria,

798
00:32:13,700 --> 00:32:15,640
whatever this mold is producing

799
00:32:15,640 --> 00:32:17,000
has managed to kill it.

800
00:32:17,970 --> 00:32:20,080
This is a huge discovery.

801
00:32:21,590 --> 00:32:23,270
Fleming immediately sets

802
00:32:23,270 --> 00:32:25,130
to work isolating the fungus

803
00:32:25,130 --> 00:32:27,430
and producing samples of mold juice,

804
00:32:27,430 --> 00:32:28,730
Mold juice?

805
00:32:28,730 --> 00:32:30,410
Yes, mold juice.

806
00:32:30,410 --> 00:32:31,240
It's not the white layer

807
00:32:31,240 --> 00:32:32,570
you see on the top,

808
00:32:32,570 --> 00:32:33,870
but the liquid beneath it.

809
00:32:35,440 --> 00:32:36,810
And it turns out this isn't

810
00:32:36,810 --> 00:32:38,560
any old mold juice.

811
00:32:38,560 --> 00:32:40,320
Mold juice?

812
00:32:40,320 --> 00:32:43,330
Yes, Tony, but this is mighty mold juice.

813
00:32:45,440 --> 00:32:48,160
Not only does it kill staphylococcus,

814
00:32:48,160 --> 00:32:48,990
but it's effective

815
00:32:48,990 --> 00:32:51,390
against other harmful bacteria,

816
00:32:51,390 --> 00:32:55,730
including meningococcus and diptheria bacillus.

817
00:32:55,730 --> 00:32:56,830
As you can see here,

818
00:32:56,830 --> 00:32:59,660
see quite well with the naked eye

819
00:32:59,660 --> 00:33:01,330
here are some of them.

820
00:33:01,330 --> 00:33:04,330
Fleming names, the active ingredient penicillin.

821
00:33:04,330 --> 00:33:05,680
He needs to extract it

822
00:33:05,680 --> 00:33:07,840
and to purify it before he can test it

823
00:33:07,840 --> 00:33:09,240
in animals and humans

824
00:33:09,240 --> 00:33:11,020
to see whether it works.

825
00:33:12,390 --> 00:33:14,960
So it turns out isolating the penicillin

826
00:33:14,960 --> 00:33:17,250
from this moldy broth is

827
00:33:17,250 --> 00:33:19,340
easier said than done.

828
00:33:19,340 --> 00:33:21,050
Despite their best efforts,

829
00:33:21,050 --> 00:33:22,030
Fleming and his team

830
00:33:22,030 --> 00:33:24,620
could extract barely any penicillin

831
00:33:24,620 --> 00:33:26,150
and abandon their work.

832
00:33:26,150 --> 00:33:28,900
It's so frustrating because Fleming

833
00:33:28,900 --> 00:33:31,160
knows penicillin's in there

834
00:33:31,160 --> 00:33:33,300
but he just can't get his hands on it.

835
00:33:39,210 --> 00:33:41,960
And so nothing happens for another decade.

836
00:33:44,060 --> 00:33:45,830
It's 1939 and there's

837
00:33:45,830 --> 00:33:47,850
a war on don't you know?

838
00:33:54,280 --> 00:33:55,780
Pathologist, Howard Florey,

839
00:33:55,780 --> 00:33:57,920
and biochemist, Ernst Chain

840
00:33:57,920 --> 00:33:59,430
are in Oxford University

841
00:33:59,430 --> 00:34:02,180
searching for antibacterial substances.

842
00:34:03,060 --> 00:34:05,620
Chain stumbles onto Fleming's work

843
00:34:05,620 --> 00:34:07,410
and immediately they start

844
00:34:07,410 --> 00:34:10,520
to try to extract this penicillin substance.

845
00:34:11,520 --> 00:34:12,970
By May 1940,

846
00:34:12,970 --> 00:34:15,380
after months of hard graft,

847
00:34:15,380 --> 00:34:17,440
they've managed what Fleming couldn't

848
00:34:17,440 --> 00:34:21,110
and extracted a small amount of brown powder.

849
00:34:21,110 --> 00:34:24,650
That brown powder contains the active ingredient.

850
00:34:24,650 --> 00:34:26,880
This is the first successful attempt

851
00:34:26,880 --> 00:34:28,650
at extracting the penicillin.

852
00:34:28,650 --> 00:34:29,480
Now, of course, you can't

853
00:34:29,480 --> 00:34:30,490
take this new drug

854
00:34:30,490 --> 00:34:32,250
and just start injecting it into humans.

855
00:34:32,250 --> 00:34:33,080
You gotta test it

856
00:34:33,080 --> 00:34:36,240
on some other organism.

857
00:34:36,240 --> 00:34:37,240
And what better animal

858
00:34:37,240 --> 00:34:38,430
to use as a guinea pig

859
00:34:38,430 --> 00:34:40,180
than a guinea pig.

860
00:34:41,300 --> 00:34:44,280
However, they have such a tiny amount

861
00:34:44,280 --> 00:34:46,140
that they decide to use a proportionally

862
00:34:46,140 --> 00:34:48,250
smaller test subject, mice.

863
00:34:48,250 --> 00:34:50,170
Oh, okay, then mice.

864
00:34:51,630 --> 00:34:54,180
They inoculate eight mice

865
00:34:54,180 --> 00:34:56,510
with a lethal dose to streptococci bacteria

866
00:34:56,510 --> 00:34:59,460
and then inject four of them with penicillin.

867
00:34:59,460 --> 00:35:02,650
Twenty four hours later, the results are astonishing.

868
00:35:02,650 --> 00:35:05,240
There's only four mice who are alive

869
00:35:05,240 --> 00:35:07,480
and they all had penicillin.

870
00:35:07,480 --> 00:35:10,980
That is a 100% success rate.

871
00:35:10,980 --> 00:35:12,270
It's another stroke of luck

872
00:35:12,270 --> 00:35:13,830
that they tested it on mice.

873
00:35:13,830 --> 00:35:16,120
As later it's discovered that penicillin

874
00:35:16,120 --> 00:35:18,440
is toxic to guinea pigs.

875
00:35:18,440 --> 00:35:19,700
If they had tested on guinea pigs

876
00:35:19,700 --> 00:35:21,640
and they had dropped dead so quickly,

877
00:35:21,640 --> 00:35:23,240
the entire project probably

878
00:35:23,240 --> 00:35:24,390
would have been halted.

879
00:35:25,990 --> 00:35:27,250
Good for guinea pigs

880
00:35:27,250 --> 00:35:29,590
and good for the future of mankind.

881
00:35:29,590 --> 00:35:32,470
The next step is to test it in humans.

882
00:35:32,470 --> 00:35:33,770
But there's a problem.

883
00:35:33,770 --> 00:35:35,730
So far, the team have barely managed

884
00:35:35,730 --> 00:35:38,040
to purify enough to test on mice.

885
00:35:39,200 --> 00:35:41,430
Florey and Chain end up using

886
00:35:41,430 --> 00:35:43,780
anything to hand to grow mold in.

887
00:35:43,780 --> 00:35:45,590
And that might be the bath

888
00:35:45,590 --> 00:35:47,800
or a bed pan or a jam jar

889
00:35:47,800 --> 00:35:50,540
or any vessel that they can get.

890
00:35:50,540 --> 00:35:52,000
And it's all looked after

891
00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:53,230
by this group of women

892
00:35:53,230 --> 00:35:56,050
who are called the "penicillin girls."

893
00:35:56,050 --> 00:35:56,940
They're filling bottles

894
00:35:56,940 --> 00:35:58,510
with the medium in which we'll

895
00:35:58,510 --> 00:36:00,370
grow the mold that produces penicillin.

896
00:36:03,070 --> 00:36:04,660
Eventually they think they have

897
00:36:04,660 --> 00:36:07,330
enough to test on a human subject.

898
00:36:07,330 --> 00:36:09,020
So they're a little bit nervous

899
00:36:09,020 --> 00:36:10,730
about whether or not this is going

900
00:36:10,730 --> 00:36:14,020
to be poisonous to people.

901
00:36:14,020 --> 00:36:15,010
They pick a patient

902
00:36:15,010 --> 00:36:16,430
who's in such a bad way

903
00:36:16,430 --> 00:36:18,920
that penicillin is their only hope.

904
00:36:18,920 --> 00:36:20,790
Police constable, Albert Alexander's

905
00:36:20,790 --> 00:36:23,830
been severely wounded in an air raid

906
00:36:23,830 --> 00:36:24,870
by the Luftwaffe.

907
00:36:24,870 --> 00:36:27,800
And basically there's swelling in his head.

908
00:36:27,800 --> 00:36:29,450
He's already lost one eye.

909
00:36:29,450 --> 00:36:30,690
The other one has been lanced

910
00:36:30,690 --> 00:36:32,290
so he's pretty much blind

911
00:36:32,290 --> 00:36:34,490
but he's in terrible agony,

912
00:36:34,490 --> 00:36:37,120
desperate for some kind of cure.

913
00:36:37,120 --> 00:36:38,680
They administer the penicillin.

914
00:36:38,680 --> 00:36:41,710
Within 24 hours, there's a dramatic improvement.

915
00:36:41,710 --> 00:36:43,380
The swelling has gone down.

916
00:36:43,380 --> 00:36:44,690
They're making great headway

917
00:36:44,690 --> 00:36:46,080
treating the police officer,

918
00:36:46,080 --> 00:36:48,130
but the problem is they don't have

919
00:36:48,130 --> 00:36:50,320
enough penicillin to finish the course

920
00:36:52,160 --> 00:36:53,960
and sadly he passes away.

921
00:36:55,630 --> 00:36:58,890
So if one entire laboratory can't make

922
00:36:58,890 --> 00:37:01,760
enough penicillin to treat just one patient,

923
00:37:01,760 --> 00:37:02,980
how are we going

924
00:37:02,980 --> 00:37:05,520
to treat the whole world?

925
00:37:05,520 --> 00:37:06,760
Well, Suze with

926
00:37:06,760 --> 00:37:09,110
a little something called teamwork.

927
00:37:09,110 --> 00:37:10,690
Florey comes to America

928
00:37:10,690 --> 00:37:13,910
to petition four big pharmaceutical companies

929
00:37:13,910 --> 00:37:15,450
to pool their resources

930
00:37:15,450 --> 00:37:17,880
and to help manufacture penicillin.

931
00:37:18,940 --> 00:37:20,770
But even the combined

932
00:37:20,770 --> 00:37:22,290
might of Big Pharma

933
00:37:22,290 --> 00:37:24,650
find penicillin hard to produce.

934
00:37:27,070 --> 00:37:28,150
One of the lead scientists

935
00:37:28,150 --> 00:37:31,120
in the United States is completely exasperated.

936
00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:34,360
He has a big outburst.

937
00:37:34,360 --> 00:37:36,120
He just says the mold is

938
00:37:36,120 --> 00:37:38,600
as temperamental as an opera singer.

939
00:37:38,600 --> 00:37:40,890
So it takes over 400 gallons

940
00:37:40,890 --> 00:37:41,920
of culture medium to make

941
00:37:41,920 --> 00:37:45,240
enough penicillin to treat just one patient.

942
00:37:45,240 --> 00:37:47,930
That's over five bath tubs full.

943
00:37:47,930 --> 00:37:49,470
So what they actually need

944
00:37:49,470 --> 00:37:51,670
is a different strain that likes

945
00:37:51,670 --> 00:37:53,930
growing submerged in these baths.

946
00:37:55,740 --> 00:37:57,360
Enter Mary Hunt,

947
00:37:57,360 --> 00:37:58,910
a woman with the unenviable

948
00:37:58,910 --> 00:38:02,070
nickname of "moldy Mary."

949
00:38:02,070 --> 00:38:03,360
With an eagle eye

950
00:38:03,360 --> 00:38:05,780
for spotting novel fungi in the wild,

951
00:38:05,780 --> 00:38:07,010
she's tasked with finding a

952
00:38:07,010 --> 00:38:09,330
more productive strain of penicillium.

953
00:38:12,460 --> 00:38:14,550
On her travels, Moldy Mary comes

954
00:38:14,550 --> 00:38:16,840
across a fruit and vegetable store.

955
00:38:23,850 --> 00:38:25,310
She spies a cantaloupe melon

956
00:38:25,310 --> 00:38:26,630
which has a particularly

957
00:38:26,630 --> 00:38:27,850
virulent mold on it

958
00:38:27,850 --> 00:38:29,950
with a kind of goldy tinge.

959
00:38:33,670 --> 00:38:35,230
The shop owner doesn't

960
00:38:35,230 --> 00:38:37,070
want to give up this moldy melon

961
00:38:37,070 --> 00:38:38,980
because they might get a reputation

962
00:38:38,980 --> 00:38:40,510
for selling bad food.

963
00:38:40,510 --> 00:38:43,190
But moldy Mary in the end gets her way.

964
00:38:43,190 --> 00:38:44,830
The golden mold proves

965
00:38:44,830 --> 00:38:46,770
to be the golden ticket.

966
00:38:46,770 --> 00:38:48,560
It produces 1,000 times

967
00:38:48,560 --> 00:38:51,200
more penicillin than Fleming's original strain.

968
00:38:52,580 --> 00:38:54,460
And it's not a moment too soon.

969
00:38:55,450 --> 00:38:57,220
The Allied forces are gathering

970
00:38:57,220 --> 00:39:00,140
for the invasion and recapture of Europe.

971
00:39:00,140 --> 00:39:02,630
Over 150,000 troops are about

972
00:39:02,630 --> 00:39:03,460
to put their lives

973
00:39:03,460 --> 00:39:05,210
on the line for D-Day.

974
00:39:05,210 --> 00:39:07,870
The Allies are expecting huge casualties

975
00:39:07,870 --> 00:39:10,020
so this is the first real big test

976
00:39:10,020 --> 00:39:11,250
for this new drug.

977
00:39:11,250 --> 00:39:13,950
They produce 2 million doses

978
00:39:13,950 --> 00:39:16,370
and it's shipped to the front line.

979
00:39:16,370 --> 00:39:18,010
All penicillin produced is used

980
00:39:18,010 --> 00:39:20,140
by the Allied fighting forces.

981
00:39:20,140 --> 00:39:22,030
The liquid now charged with penicillin is

982
00:39:22,030 --> 00:39:23,460
poured from the bottles,

983
00:39:23,460 --> 00:39:24,870
turned into a powder.

984
00:39:24,870 --> 00:39:25,870
It is ready for use.

985
00:39:30,810 --> 00:39:32,790
The rollout of penicillin

986
00:39:32,790 --> 00:39:35,630
into the battlefield is a huge success.

987
00:39:35,630 --> 00:39:37,540
Thousands of lives are saved.

988
00:39:37,540 --> 00:39:39,920
You will see some of the men

989
00:39:39,920 --> 00:39:42,540
who've been meeting the enemy direct,

990
00:39:42,540 --> 00:39:44,450
this fighter pilot, for instance.

991
00:39:44,450 --> 00:39:46,390
So much so it gives medics a

992
00:39:46,390 --> 00:39:47,890
new problem to solve.

993
00:39:49,590 --> 00:39:50,500
Soldiers who would've

994
00:39:50,500 --> 00:39:53,520
previously, basically died of their injuries

995
00:39:53,520 --> 00:39:55,150
are now surviving.

996
00:39:55,150 --> 00:39:58,080
But for doctors that presents a new challenge,

997
00:39:58,080 --> 00:40:00,560
how to effectively rebuild them,

998
00:40:00,560 --> 00:40:02,010
you know, with the terrible injuries

999
00:40:02,010 --> 00:40:03,220
that they've suffered.

1000
00:40:03,220 --> 00:40:06,510
Now is the advent of plastic surgery.

1001
00:40:11,170 --> 00:40:12,000
After the war,

1002
00:40:12,000 --> 00:40:15,010
penicillin manufacture is expanded further,

1003
00:40:15,010 --> 00:40:15,970
driving down the cost

1004
00:40:15,970 --> 00:40:18,740
from $20 per 100,000 units

1005
00:40:18,740 --> 00:40:19,930
to less than 10 cents.

1006
00:40:21,450 --> 00:40:23,610
Everybody wants penicillin because

1007
00:40:23,610 --> 00:40:25,420
now a bacterial infection

1008
00:40:25,420 --> 00:40:26,890
that could have meant death

1009
00:40:26,890 --> 00:40:29,070
could lead to a miracle recovery.

1010
00:40:30,300 --> 00:40:32,940
Penicillin kicks off a medical revolution

1011
00:40:32,940 --> 00:40:35,130
that completely transforms the fortunes

1012
00:40:35,130 --> 00:40:36,480
of the human race.

1013
00:40:36,480 --> 00:40:37,580
Scientists across the globe are

1014
00:40:37,580 --> 00:40:39,420
now racing to find

1015
00:40:39,420 --> 00:40:42,310
all kinds of new antibiotics.

1016
00:40:42,310 --> 00:40:45,670
The period between the 1950s and 1970s is

1017
00:40:45,670 --> 00:40:48,840
like the golden era of antibiotic discoveries.

1018
00:40:50,590 --> 00:40:53,430
The tide is turning against bacteria.

1019
00:40:53,430 --> 00:40:56,810
These deadly diseases like tuberculosis

1020
00:40:56,810 --> 00:40:58,110
can now be cured

1021
00:40:58,110 --> 00:41:00,620
and we're saving millions of lives.

1022
00:41:02,430 --> 00:41:05,030
Humans finally have a super weapon

1023
00:41:05,030 --> 00:41:07,250
in their fight against bacteria,

1024
00:41:07,250 --> 00:41:09,130
but like in any arm's race,

1025
00:41:09,130 --> 00:41:11,090
the opposition is fighting back.

1026
00:41:13,650 --> 00:41:16,190
It's up to us to carry that torch

1027
00:41:16,190 --> 00:41:19,140
that Fleming and Florey and Chain lit

1028
00:41:19,140 --> 00:41:21,740
all those years ago and carry the legacy

1029
00:41:21,740 --> 00:41:24,070
of antibiotics into the future.

1030
00:41:34,050 --> 00:41:36,460
July 20th, 1969,

1031
00:41:39,180 --> 00:41:41,100
Neil Armstrong is the first person

1032
00:41:41,100 --> 00:41:43,750
to set foot on the surface of the moon.

1033
00:41:43,750 --> 00:41:45,100
Roger, the EVA

1034
00:41:45,100 --> 00:41:47,740
is progressing beautifully.

1035
00:41:47,740 --> 00:41:48,670
I guess you're about

1036
00:41:48,670 --> 00:41:49,630
the only person around

1037
00:41:49,630 --> 00:41:51,930
that doesn't have TV coverage of the scene.

1038
00:41:51,930 --> 00:41:54,490
It's such an iconic moment in human history,

1039
00:41:54,490 --> 00:41:56,690
a triumph of human ingenuity.

1040
00:41:57,810 --> 00:41:59,480
It's taken hundreds of innovations

1041
00:41:59,480 --> 00:42:00,960
to make this moment possible.

1042
00:42:03,010 --> 00:42:04,740
Advances in rocket engineering,

1043
00:42:07,880 --> 00:42:12,240
planetary physics, and one chance discovery

1044
00:42:12,240 --> 00:42:14,320
that's literally woven into the fabric

1045
00:42:14,320 --> 00:42:16,520
of Armstrong's space suit.

1046
00:42:16,520 --> 00:42:17,840
The Apollo space suits

1047
00:42:17,840 --> 00:42:19,840
much like today's space suits are

1048
00:42:19,840 --> 00:42:20,770
made of more than

1049
00:42:20,770 --> 00:42:23,880
20 layers of different materials.

1050
00:42:23,880 --> 00:42:27,110
They create a protective shell for the astronauts.

1051
00:42:27,110 --> 00:42:28,690
An incredibly reliable,

1052
00:42:28,690 --> 00:42:32,080
custom-tailored, hand-assembled life support system.

1053
00:42:33,540 --> 00:42:35,370
NASA engineers need to make sure

1054
00:42:35,370 --> 00:42:37,590
these space suits are impregnable,

1055
00:42:37,590 --> 00:42:40,690
unbreakable, and completely puncture proof.

1056
00:42:40,690 --> 00:42:43,090
The material they turn to is Kevlar.

1057
00:42:43,090 --> 00:42:44,410
Wait a minute.

1058
00:42:44,410 --> 00:42:46,770
You mean to say Kevlar was an accident?

1059
00:42:46,770 --> 00:42:47,930
Yes, but the story

1060
00:42:47,930 --> 00:42:50,480
of Kevlar isn't a straightforward one.

1061
00:42:53,260 --> 00:42:55,360
This indestructible material was

1062
00:42:55,360 --> 00:42:57,840
accidentally created while scientists were trying

1063
00:42:57,840 --> 00:42:59,460
to make lighter road tires.

1064
00:43:02,260 --> 00:43:03,710
Let's start at the beginning.

1065
00:43:05,040 --> 00:43:06,850
It's the middle of the 1960s

1066
00:43:06,850 --> 00:43:09,130
and Lyndon Johnson is president.

1067
00:43:09,130 --> 00:43:11,700
"Mary Poppins" is smashing the box office.

1068
00:43:13,040 --> 00:43:15,620
And Pontiac has just released the GTO,

1069
00:43:16,620 --> 00:43:19,910
America's first commercially available muscle car.

1070
00:43:19,910 --> 00:43:21,210
You can just imagine the roar

1071
00:43:21,210 --> 00:43:22,860
of the V8 engines.

1072
00:43:22,860 --> 00:43:24,530
It kind of was like the soundtrack

1073
00:43:24,530 --> 00:43:25,990
of America in that time.

1074
00:43:27,730 --> 00:43:29,030
The muscle car embodies

1075
00:43:29,030 --> 00:43:32,110
that sense of American freedom and power.

1076
00:43:32,110 --> 00:43:33,290
The problem is that cars

1077
00:43:33,290 --> 00:43:36,100
around this time are gas guzzlers,

1078
00:43:36,100 --> 00:43:38,260
averaging just 10 miles per gallon.

1079
00:43:41,100 --> 00:43:42,550
And America's use of gas

1080
00:43:42,550 --> 00:43:44,320
is climbing year-on-year.

1081
00:43:46,010 --> 00:43:48,620
From 1950 to 1970,

1082
00:43:48,620 --> 00:43:51,830
U.S. gasoline consumption more than doubles

1083
00:43:51,830 --> 00:43:54,930
from 40 billion gallons to nearly 90.

1084
00:43:58,180 --> 00:44:00,770
So to try and make cars more efficient,

1085
00:44:00,770 --> 00:44:02,630
Du Pont set themselves the task,

1086
00:44:02,630 --> 00:44:05,480
of replacing the wire inside tires

1087
00:44:05,480 --> 00:44:07,120
with a synthetic fiber

1088
00:44:07,120 --> 00:44:08,830
that will make cars lighter

1089
00:44:08,830 --> 00:44:11,230
and therefore use less fuel.

1090
00:44:11,230 --> 00:44:12,930
At the heart of the team is

1091
00:44:12,930 --> 00:44:15,890
an amazing chemist named Stephanie Kwolek.

1092
00:44:15,890 --> 00:44:18,270
It was a fraternity of excellence.

1093
00:44:19,140 --> 00:44:21,200
Which is how Kwolek finds herself

1094
00:44:21,200 --> 00:44:24,270
looking for new synthetic fibers made from polymers.

1095
00:44:25,370 --> 00:44:27,980
To turn your polymer into a fiber,

1096
00:44:27,980 --> 00:44:28,960
you push it through

1097
00:44:28,960 --> 00:44:30,230
a series of tiny tubes,

1098
00:44:30,230 --> 00:44:31,130
less than a thousandth

1099
00:44:31,130 --> 00:44:32,930
of an inch across called spinnerets.

1100
00:44:34,000 --> 00:44:35,310
Once you've done that,

1101
00:44:35,310 --> 00:44:38,140
you can then collect those onto bobbins

1102
00:44:38,140 --> 00:44:39,600
and that collects them into threads

1103
00:44:39,600 --> 00:44:41,620
which can be woven into a fabric.

1104
00:44:44,190 --> 00:44:45,680
Kwolek's busy dissolving

1105
00:44:45,680 --> 00:44:47,280
the chemical ingredients of a brand

1106
00:44:47,280 --> 00:44:48,720
new polymer in solvent

1107
00:44:49,600 --> 00:44:51,670
when something unexpected happens.

1108
00:44:52,510 --> 00:44:55,210
Typically speaking, polymerization products are

1109
00:44:55,210 --> 00:44:58,670
usually clear and a little bit gloopy.

1110
00:44:58,670 --> 00:45:01,660
But what Kwolek has created is opaque,

1111
00:45:01,660 --> 00:45:05,180
milky, and actually really quite runny.

1112
00:45:05,180 --> 00:45:07,060
You'd expect that a solution

1113
00:45:07,060 --> 00:45:09,670
like this would be thrown out immediately

1114
00:45:09,670 --> 00:45:11,180
because it looks like a reaction

1115
00:45:11,180 --> 00:45:13,440
that has gone quite wrong.

1116
00:45:13,440 --> 00:45:16,130
But while it looks wrong,

1117
00:45:16,130 --> 00:45:18,460
Kwolek is sure her chemistry's solid.

1118
00:45:21,690 --> 00:45:23,660
She was determined to try

1119
00:45:23,660 --> 00:45:24,750
and put her new substance

1120
00:45:24,750 --> 00:45:25,700
through the spinnerets and see

1121
00:45:25,700 --> 00:45:27,180
if she could make something.

1122
00:45:27,180 --> 00:45:28,850
But the spinneret technicians

1123
00:45:28,850 --> 00:45:30,160
don't want to risk running

1124
00:45:30,160 --> 00:45:31,890
such a wrong looking solution

1125
00:45:31,890 --> 00:45:34,160
through their precision machinery.

1126
00:45:34,160 --> 00:45:37,490
Nevertheless, Kwolek eventually gets her way.

1127
00:45:37,490 --> 00:45:39,910
Please, please?

1128
00:45:44,150 --> 00:45:46,420
They load it up into the machine,

1129
00:45:46,420 --> 00:45:47,870
get the machine spinning

1130
00:45:47,870 --> 00:45:49,890
and low and behold strong,

1131
00:45:49,890 --> 00:45:53,010
stiff fibers start to get released.

1132
00:45:53,010 --> 00:45:54,410
It's a surprise

1133
00:45:54,410 --> 00:45:56,450
that it makes a material at all,

1134
00:45:56,450 --> 00:45:58,700
but there's even better news.

1135
00:45:58,700 --> 00:46:00,690
And this isn't any fiber.

1136
00:46:00,690 --> 00:46:02,910
Tests show that it is the strongest fiber

1137
00:46:02,910 --> 00:46:04,130
they've ever seen,

1138
00:46:04,130 --> 00:46:06,330
five times stronger than steel.

1139
00:46:08,920 --> 00:46:10,570
But it's not just strong,

1140
00:46:10,570 --> 00:46:13,170
it's light and it's highly heat resistant.

1141
00:46:13,170 --> 00:46:15,300
It doesn't get brittle at low temperatures.

1142
00:46:15,300 --> 00:46:16,410
And it also doesn't melt

1143
00:46:16,410 --> 00:46:18,860
until 800 degrees Fahrenheit.

1144
00:46:18,860 --> 00:46:20,580
It's basically the wonder material

1145
00:46:20,580 --> 00:46:22,250
that they've been looking for.

1146
00:46:22,250 --> 00:46:24,700
It looks like Kwolek's mistake could

1147
00:46:24,700 --> 00:46:27,900
be the perfect material for lighter tires.

1148
00:46:27,900 --> 00:46:28,990
Its chemical name is

1149
00:46:28,990 --> 00:46:31,370
poly-para-phenylene terephthalamide,

1150
00:46:31,370 --> 00:46:32,390
which is a bit of a mouthful

1151
00:46:32,390 --> 00:46:34,290
so they trademark it as Kevlar.

1152
00:46:35,430 --> 00:46:37,340
The secret of why Kevlar's

1153
00:46:37,340 --> 00:46:39,890
so strong is in its molecular makeup.

1154
00:46:41,030 --> 00:46:42,370
The amazing thing about Kevlar is

1155
00:46:42,370 --> 00:46:44,720
that it's made up of these individual polymers,

1156
00:46:44,720 --> 00:46:46,190
that themselves are quite pliable

1157
00:46:46,190 --> 00:46:48,120
and really quite weak.

1158
00:46:48,120 --> 00:46:49,890
But if you take lots of them together,

1159
00:46:49,890 --> 00:46:52,740
combine them, then it becomes very strong.

1160
00:46:55,970 --> 00:46:57,480
Du Pont, starts

1161
00:46:57,480 --> 00:46:59,750
to roll out their Kevlar tires

1162
00:46:59,750 --> 00:47:01,450
but there are bigger things ahead.

1163
00:47:03,240 --> 00:47:04,890
This wonder material is about

1164
00:47:04,890 --> 00:47:06,510
to become a lifesaver.

1165
00:47:12,660 --> 00:47:14,150
It just so happens

1166
00:47:14,150 --> 00:47:15,550
a troubling crime trend

1167
00:47:15,550 --> 00:47:17,210
is spreading across America.

1168
00:47:20,630 --> 00:47:23,430
Take cover, a basic rule

1169
00:47:23,430 --> 00:47:25,860
for survival against hostile fire.

1170
00:47:25,860 --> 00:47:28,800
From 1966 to 1971,

1171
00:47:28,800 --> 00:47:32,260
annual police officer fatalities double

1172
00:47:32,260 --> 00:47:34,010
from 57 to 129.

1173
00:47:37,080 --> 00:47:38,570
The majority of these homicides

1174
00:47:38,570 --> 00:47:40,600
are inflicted by handguns.

1175
00:47:40,600 --> 00:47:42,380
The National Institute of Law Enforcement

1176
00:47:42,380 --> 00:47:44,980
and Criminal Justice initiates a program

1177
00:47:44,980 --> 00:47:46,290
to find a suitable,

1178
00:47:46,290 --> 00:47:48,460
lightweight body armor.

1179
00:47:48,460 --> 00:47:49,820
On the back of this program,

1180
00:47:49,820 --> 00:47:51,650
an entrepreneurial civilian called

1181
00:47:51,650 --> 00:47:53,750
Richard Davis is about to get

1182
00:47:53,750 --> 00:47:55,610
into the bulletproof vest business.

1183
00:47:57,830 --> 00:48:00,000
Davis, a former U.S. Marine,

1184
00:48:00,000 --> 00:48:01,310
owns a pizza shop

1185
00:48:01,310 --> 00:48:03,380
in a dodgy part of Detroit.

1186
00:48:03,380 --> 00:48:04,810
One evening running a delivery,

1187
00:48:04,810 --> 00:48:07,800
he's robbed at gunpoint by three men.

1188
00:48:07,800 --> 00:48:09,330
A week later,

1189
00:48:09,330 --> 00:48:10,460
Davis gets a call

1190
00:48:10,460 --> 00:48:12,690
to deliver to the same address.

1191
00:48:13,620 --> 00:48:16,320
This time he goes packing a piece.

1192
00:48:16,320 --> 00:48:17,620
He was right to.

1193
00:48:17,620 --> 00:48:18,770
The robbers try again

1194
00:48:18,770 --> 00:48:20,310
and a gunfight breaks out.

1195
00:48:24,430 --> 00:48:25,760
He wounds his attackers

1196
00:48:26,800 --> 00:48:27,920
but gets hit himself.

1197
00:48:30,630 --> 00:48:32,380
While recovering from his injuries,

1198
00:48:35,470 --> 00:48:37,320
his pizza shop is burned down.

1199
00:48:39,400 --> 00:48:42,620
Davis only has $70 to his name

1200
00:48:42,620 --> 00:48:45,210
but he's heard of Du Pont's new Kevlar

1201
00:48:45,210 --> 00:48:46,390
and buys enough fabric

1202
00:48:46,390 --> 00:48:49,790
to fashion his own bulletproof vest.

1203
00:48:49,790 --> 00:48:51,860
Davis' challenge is figuring out

1204
00:48:51,860 --> 00:48:54,400
how to market his new product.

1205
00:48:54,400 --> 00:48:56,410
Davis isn't the first person

1206
00:48:56,410 --> 00:48:58,360
to make a bulletproof vest.

1207
00:48:58,360 --> 00:49:00,140
And he certainly isn't an established name

1208
00:49:00,140 --> 00:49:01,130
in the arms trade

1209
00:49:02,840 --> 00:49:03,670
but what he does have

1210
00:49:03,670 --> 00:49:06,190
on his side is a flair for marketing.

1211
00:49:07,030 --> 00:49:08,320
He sets up a demo

1212
00:49:08,320 --> 00:49:10,060
for local police departments,

1213
00:49:10,060 --> 00:49:11,700
his key clientele,

1214
00:49:11,700 --> 00:49:13,720
and starts by shooting his vest

1215
00:49:13,720 --> 00:49:15,090
with various weapons.

1216
00:49:18,060 --> 00:49:18,950
The vest works.

1217
00:49:18,950 --> 00:49:20,410
It captures the bullets.

1218
00:49:20,410 --> 00:49:21,570
Which is fine,

1219
00:49:21,570 --> 00:49:22,630
but Davis is about

1220
00:49:22,630 --> 00:49:24,320
to pull out the show-stopper.

1221
00:49:24,320 --> 00:49:25,870
He puts the vest on

1222
00:49:25,870 --> 00:49:28,620
and he aims the gun at his stomach

1223
00:49:28,620 --> 00:49:29,720
and pulls the trigger.

1224
00:49:31,330 --> 00:49:32,640
Easy as pie, guys.

1225
00:49:32,640 --> 00:49:34,040
Luckily he's okay

1226
00:49:34,040 --> 00:49:35,780
apart from a massive bruise.

1227
00:49:35,780 --> 00:49:37,730
Davis' stunt works.

1228
00:49:37,730 --> 00:49:39,480
He secures lucrative contracts

1229
00:49:39,480 --> 00:49:40,440
to supply his vests

1230
00:49:40,440 --> 00:49:42,160
to the local police departments.

1231
00:49:43,710 --> 00:49:45,530
He goes on the road, selling his vest,

1232
00:49:45,530 --> 00:49:47,830
using the same high risk party trick.

1233
00:49:48,820 --> 00:49:49,650
Davis went on to say

1234
00:49:49,650 --> 00:49:51,220
that the first time he shot himself,

1235
00:49:51,220 --> 00:49:52,480
it was for science,

1236
00:49:52,480 --> 00:49:55,240
subsequent 200 times were just showmanship.

1237
00:49:58,350 --> 00:50:00,520
Today a Kevlar vest is

1238
00:50:00,520 --> 00:50:02,810
standard issue for police officers

1239
00:50:02,810 --> 00:50:05,880
and over 3,000 lives have been saved.

1240
00:50:09,910 --> 00:50:13,120
Over the decades, Kevlar technology has matured

1241
00:50:14,020 --> 00:50:16,010
and found hundreds of different uses.

1242
00:50:17,010 --> 00:50:19,650
The uses of Kevlar now seem limitless

1243
00:50:19,650 --> 00:50:20,970
and it's used in for example,

1244
00:50:20,970 --> 00:50:22,660
competitive sports where people are

1245
00:50:22,660 --> 00:50:24,230
always looking for new materials

1246
00:50:24,230 --> 00:50:25,230
to get a competitive edge.

1247
00:50:25,230 --> 00:50:27,240
Kevlar is used in tennis rackets,

1248
00:50:27,240 --> 00:50:28,470
sailing boat's sails,

1249
00:50:28,470 --> 00:50:30,190
canoes, even running shoes.

1250
00:50:32,120 --> 00:50:33,450
The aerospace industry has also

1251
00:50:33,450 --> 00:50:35,790
enthusiastically taken up Kevlar

1252
00:50:35,790 --> 00:50:38,110
because of its combination of being lightweight

1253
00:50:38,110 --> 00:50:39,750
and incredibly strong.

1254
00:50:39,750 --> 00:50:40,780
As well as being

1255
00:50:40,780 --> 00:50:42,500
used in space suits,

1256
00:50:42,500 --> 00:50:43,720
Kevlar finds its way

1257
00:50:43,720 --> 00:50:45,960
into a whole host of other space tech.

1258
00:50:48,780 --> 00:50:51,900
Bulletproofing the entire international space station

1259
00:50:51,900 --> 00:50:55,130
against tiny, fast moving pieces of debris,

1260
00:50:55,130 --> 00:50:57,590
Kevlar is basically used everywhere.

1261
00:50:58,480 --> 00:51:00,870
In 1986, Stephanie Kwolek

1262
00:51:00,870 --> 00:51:02,940
finally retires from Du Pont

1263
00:51:02,940 --> 00:51:05,330
after 40 years of loyal service.

1264
00:51:07,620 --> 00:51:09,620
Kwolek's no one-trick pony

1265
00:51:09,620 --> 00:51:11,270
because when it comes to fibers,

1266
00:51:11,270 --> 00:51:13,040
she is the queen.

1267
00:51:13,040 --> 00:51:15,500
She's created fire retardant, Nomex,

1268
00:51:15,500 --> 00:51:17,650
and also the super stretchy lycra

1269
00:51:17,650 --> 00:51:20,440
that we all love from yoga to running.

1270
00:51:20,440 --> 00:51:21,270
But it's still her

1271
00:51:21,270 --> 00:51:22,790
accidental invention of Kevlar

1272
00:51:22,790 --> 00:51:25,400
that's had the greatest impact on the world.

1273
00:51:31,240 --> 00:51:34,410
(quirky upbeat music)