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(upbeat music)

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Did you know

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that a surprising number of objects

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that you use every day

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are thanks to accidents?

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(metal crashing)

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(glass breaking)

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Let me show you what I mean.

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On this episode,

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we discover how today's household staple

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started life as something quite different.

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And their million dollar idea is...

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Plastic wallpaper?

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Learn how a failed painkiller

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led to rave culture.

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I suppose the fact that it didn't kill him is a bonus.

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And find out how a kitchen spill...

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Whoops, someone's in trouble.

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Has explosive consequences.

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(large explosion)

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Whoosh!

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"Oops, I Changed the World".

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(slow carefree music)
Do you ever feel like

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you've got the world on your shoulders?

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Like, if you don't get a break

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you're gonna explode?

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When all you wanna do is just...

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(fast-paced drumline)
(woman laughing)

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Pop some Bubble Wrap.

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Yay.

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(bubbles popping)

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Oh sorry, did you need this or something?

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(child giggling)
(upbeat music)

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This versatile packing material

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was never meant to be a stress relieving play thing.

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But then, it was never meant to pack things either.

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Would you believe that Bubble Wrap

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was originally

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a plan for wallpaper?

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('50s music)

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You heard that right.

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The story begins in the 1950's

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in the bustling town of Hawthorne, New Jersey.

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Tucked away in the industrial quarter of the town,

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engineer Alfred Fielding has his modest workshop.

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And he meets all kinds of people in his job every day,

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but one day he meets somebody

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that will help him change the world.

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That man is Swiss inventor, and snappy dresser,

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Marc Chavannes.

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The pair immediately hit it off.

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Chavannes' creative mind is a good match

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for Fielding's engineering skill,

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and the two decide to begin working together.

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(dramatic music)

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So in 1957,

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they set about trying to invent a new product

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that they hope will bring in a little extra cash.

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And their million dollar idea is,

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drum roll, please,

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wallpaper.

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But we already have wallpaper.

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Not just any wallpaper though,

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a brand new kind of plasticized textured wallpaper

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that would appeal to the up and coming beat generation.

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(smooth jazz music)

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At this time, the so-called beat culture

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was developing all over America,

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but was particularly centered

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on the Bohemian artist's community

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of San Francisco's North Beach,

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Los Angeles, Venice West, and New York's Greenwich Village.

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They came up with the term beat

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as they would be beat tired with society's norms.

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The beat generation took psychedelic drugs,

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experimented sexually,

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but for the large part they rejected material wealth.

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It seems like a foolproof plan.

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What better way to make your millions

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than by creating a product targeted at a subculture

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that specifically rejects materialism.

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Cool cats reject materialism, baby.

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(fingers clicking)

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Nevertheless, Fielding and Chavannes

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persist with their plastic wallpaper.

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Plastic wallpaper?

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Yeah, plastic wallpaper.

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Well, certainly goes against the conventional.

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(bouncy funky music)

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Starting with two plastic shower curtains,

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they ran them through the machine,

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which heated them and sealed them together.

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But things don't go exactly to plan.

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All this specially developed machine accomplished

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was creating a slightly thicker piece of plastic

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with lots of air bubbles trapped in the middle.

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It's not actually clear whether this was something

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that the pair intended to do.

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After all they were going for the textured look,

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and maybe they thought the rogue air bubbles

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would be the kind of texture

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those Bohemian beats would like.

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You've probably already guessed this,

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but it turns out no amount of liberation's enough

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to make you want plastic air bubbles on your walls.

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As a wallpaper, this new material was a flop.

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Who could have predicted it?

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Oh I don't know, maybe everyone?

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But strangely, they don't seem put off.

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Never one to miss an opportunity,

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Fielding and Chavannes still got themselves several patents

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for the equipment and the process used

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to make this unsightly stuff.

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And then they set about trying to think for a use for it.

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(dramatic music)

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They brainstorm

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more than 400 potential applications.

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I wonder what they considered?

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Bubble plastic clothing?

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bubble plastic bedding?

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Bubble plastic houses?

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Actually that last one isn't that far off the mark.

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The one idea that the pair really ended up pursuing

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was using the new substance as insulation in greenhouses.

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When there is no sun,

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a greenhouse will lose its heat quite rapidly.

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So by installing insulation,

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you can slow the rate of heat loss.

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Well there you go,

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maybe there is a use for their failed wallpaper after all.

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Unfortunately when the pair

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tried to use Bubble Wrap for this,

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it didn't work at all.

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It was another flop.

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(Narrator sighs)

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(energetic rock music)
Undeterred,

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but with absolute and frankly irrational faith

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in this seemingly useless product,

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the pair call in the help of marketing.

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They've heard a little company called IBM

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is about to ship out their latest product.

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The Model T of the computing world.

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You know what I'm talking about,

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we all had posters of it on our walls growing up.

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The 1401 decimal computer.

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This wasn't a computer as we would recognize it today.

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It was about the size of two refrigerators.

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They're big and cumbersome,

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and yet also delicate and incredibly expensive.

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Sort of like a jewel-encrusted ostrich egg.

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The computers were bought by large organizations like NASA

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to crunch huge amounts of data.

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And companies weren't even buying these computers,

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they were just renting them.

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It was $2,500 a month in 1960.

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That's about $22,000 a month in modern money.

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If you're spending that much money on a device,

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you want to make sure that it's arriving

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at your office intact.

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Fielding and Chavannes think

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that they failed wallpaper could provide a solution.

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And so in 1960,

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the Sealed Air Corporation is born.

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And they end up trademarking the name Bubble Wrap.

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(single guitar string)

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(single bubble pop)

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(upbeat music)
Up to this point,

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protection for shipped goods

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has been a lot more rudimentary.

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Sawdust, balled up newspaper, and horse hair

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were common packaging materials in the past.

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Bubble Wrap was the packaging protection for the future.

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It turns out that lots of self-contained bubbles of air

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are ideal for absorbing the energy from impacts.

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(package crashing)

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Didn't hear a crack?

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(ukulele music)
Maybe not,

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but if you throw eggs in the studio again,

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I'll have to get HR involved.

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Anyway in 1960,

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IBM would take their oversized decimal computers

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and wrap them up in lots of Bubble Wrap.

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It was the big break, or the pop,

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that Bubble Wrap needed.

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(banjo music)

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Once the computing giant had endorsed their product,

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other manufacturers started to follow suit.

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The plastic sheet quickly becomes a shipping sensation.

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With Bubble Wrap reaching the homes and hands

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of thousands around the world,

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something starts to happen.

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(bubbles popping)

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(slow tinkering music)
The first person

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to pop Bubble Wrap was Fielding's five year old son.

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He remembers being able to feel all of these air bubbles

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and not being able to resist the urge

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to just pop them all.

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And he's not the only one.

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Let's be honest,

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popping Bubble Wrap is one of life's greatest pleasures.

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In 2012, a poll sponsored by Bubble Wrap itself

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found that one minute of popping

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could provide stress relief

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equivalent to a 33 minute massage.

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(man groaning)

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Which is nice, but also weirdly specific.

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Like, 33 minutes?

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Yeah, I'll take the bubbles,

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but if it's 34,

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well, you can oil me right up.

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Well now HR definitely are involved.

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Inappropriate.

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Some researchers say

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that it goes back to our ape ancestors.

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What the sensation was like

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when crushing ticks and other bugs

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that would get in the fur.

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(apes howling)

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(ape screaming)
(upbeat music)

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Bubble wrap captures the fidgeting hands

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of people around the world.

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So much so,

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there's even a Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day,

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which I'm sure you don't need me to tell you,

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is the last Monday in January.

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So when it's still cold, and dark, and wet,

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with no sign of the end of winter,

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we can all collectively go and pop some bubbles

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to make ourselves feel better.

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(single bubble pops)

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(disco music)
Today,

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in the UK alone,

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enough Bubble Wrap's made each year

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to wrap around the earth 10 times.

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And the manufacturer has moved on a bit

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from sticking two shower curtains together.

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Bubble Wrap starts life as tiny resin beads,

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which are melted at 450 degrees Celsius,

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or 840 degrees Fahrenheit,

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to form a thin resin sheet.

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That sheet is then flattened to the required thickness

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and fed through rollers that have holes

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and air is blown through the holes to form the bubbles,

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and then the air is sealed

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by applying a second sheet behind the Bubble Wrap.

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Oh, I always wondered how they did it.

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(upbeat music)

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The sound of popping Bubble Wrap

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booms around Denver in 2015,

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when the Guinness World Record

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for the most people popping Bubble Wrap is attempted.

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2,681 Boy Scouts all got together from around Denver

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to pop the Bubble Wrap simultaneously.

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Each was given their own section of Bubble Wrap,

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and when the whistle blew

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they used their hands and feet

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to pop the bubbles for two minutes.

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At the end of the time the record was theirs,

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more than doubling the previous record

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set a year earlier.

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(slow piano music)
Now Bubble Wrap is available

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in a wide range of different shapes,

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sizes, strengths, and thicknesses.

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You can get big and little bubbles,

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wide and short sheets,

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and large and small roles.

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Sealed Air is a Fortune 500 company.

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From their humble beginnings in the '60s,

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they employ 15,000 people

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and serve customers in 122 different countries.

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But Bubble Wrap's success

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is not such good news for the environment.

273
00:10:35,070 --> 00:10:36,000
And we have to remember

274
00:10:36,000 --> 00:10:37,860
that that's not gonna degrade over time,

275
00:10:37,860 --> 00:10:39,510
and an awful lot of that is gonna end up

276
00:10:39,510 --> 00:10:40,950
in the natural environments,

277
00:10:40,950 --> 00:10:42,730
like in the oceans.

278
00:10:42,730 --> 00:10:45,080
The company's worth has actually dropped a little

279
00:10:45,080 --> 00:10:48,290
from its peak net worth of $11 billion in 2015.

280
00:10:49,760 --> 00:10:51,610
Perhaps that could be a result of the world

281
00:10:51,610 --> 00:10:54,500
gradually moving away from plastics in packaging.

282
00:10:54,500 --> 00:10:55,610
Nevertheless,

283
00:10:55,610 --> 00:10:57,750
Bubble Wrap has been a shipping institution

284
00:10:57,750 --> 00:11:00,110
for the last 60 years,

285
00:11:00,110 --> 00:11:01,250
and it's helped give birth

286
00:11:01,250 --> 00:11:04,060
to an entirely new era of human consumption

287
00:11:04,060 --> 00:11:07,560
that's reshaping our town centers: E-commerce.

288
00:11:07,560 --> 00:11:08,980
(rhythmic music)

289
00:11:08,980 --> 00:11:12,180
E-commerce is really a phenomenon of the last 25 years.

290
00:11:12,180 --> 00:11:14,840
Shops no longer need to have a physical presence in towns

291
00:11:14,840 --> 00:11:17,040
if they can ship their goods all over the country.

292
00:11:17,040 --> 00:11:19,140
With the launch of Amazon and eBay,

293
00:11:19,140 --> 00:11:21,660
you suddenly have an explosion of products

294
00:11:21,660 --> 00:11:24,550
that have to be packaged and shipped individually

295
00:11:24,550 --> 00:11:27,170
rather than in bulk on a pallet.

296
00:11:27,170 --> 00:11:29,870
And the perfect thing to protect those packages?

297
00:11:29,870 --> 00:11:31,310
Bubble Wrap.

298
00:11:31,310 --> 00:11:33,980
Jeff Bezos for example, the founder of Amazon,

299
00:11:33,980 --> 00:11:36,350
who prepared the shipments in his early days,

300
00:11:36,350 --> 00:11:39,430
he'd definitely have popped some bubbles here and there.

301
00:11:39,430 --> 00:11:42,600
What started in 1960 with a five ton computer

302
00:11:42,600 --> 00:11:45,200
is now repeated in millions of homes every day.

303
00:11:45,200 --> 00:11:46,930
Clothes, furniture, tools,

304
00:11:46,930 --> 00:11:48,380
anything that you can think of,

305
00:11:48,380 --> 00:11:51,210
all delivered from the great merchant in the sky.

306
00:11:51,210 --> 00:11:52,140
(energetic rock music)

307
00:11:52,140 --> 00:11:53,490
And all those packages

308
00:11:53,490 --> 00:11:55,470
have helped make a handful of companies

309
00:11:55,470 --> 00:11:57,630
very, very rich.

310
00:11:57,630 --> 00:12:00,830
This is private enterprise on a vast scale.

311
00:12:00,830 --> 00:12:03,860
The profits from Amazon being funneled into other

312
00:12:03,860 --> 00:12:07,540
sometimes quite esoteric enterprises.

313
00:12:07,540 --> 00:12:08,830
(techno music)
Most notably

314
00:12:08,830 --> 00:12:11,280
the Blue Origins private space flights,

315
00:12:11,280 --> 00:12:13,040
that offer to take normal people,

316
00:12:13,040 --> 00:12:16,260
who just happen to be worth millions, into space.

317
00:12:16,260 --> 00:12:18,800
So if Amazon's E-commerce empire

318
00:12:18,800 --> 00:12:21,200
owes its success to the shipping institution

319
00:12:21,200 --> 00:12:22,560
that is Bubble Wrap,

320
00:12:22,560 --> 00:12:24,310
then in a way it's Bubble Wrap

321
00:12:24,310 --> 00:12:26,680
that's taking us to the stars.

322
00:12:26,680 --> 00:12:28,180
That's a bit of a stretch,

323
00:12:28,180 --> 00:12:29,800
but let's run with it.

324
00:12:29,800 --> 00:12:30,820
While you're sitting on your

325
00:12:30,820 --> 00:12:32,810
private space flight to the moon,

326
00:12:32,810 --> 00:12:34,870
maybe they'll give you some Bubble Wrap

327
00:12:34,870 --> 00:12:36,460
to help calm your nerves.

328
00:12:37,520 --> 00:12:40,770
(cheerful theme music)

329
00:12:42,090 --> 00:12:43,080
(whimsical instrumental)
Coming up,

330
00:12:43,080 --> 00:12:46,170
the story of the kids who help beat Hitler.

331
00:12:46,170 --> 00:12:48,290
Explosives don't get much more homegrown

332
00:12:48,290 --> 00:12:50,130
than guncotton from wood pulp,

333
00:12:50,130 --> 00:12:52,330
and acetone from conkers.

334
00:12:52,330 --> 00:12:54,300
And how searching the cosmos

335
00:12:54,300 --> 00:12:55,830
becomes a lifesaver.

336
00:12:55,830 --> 00:12:57,550
This was huge.

337
00:12:57,550 --> 00:13:00,770
The new technique was life-changingly better.

338
00:13:00,770 --> 00:13:02,510
But first this.

339
00:13:02,510 --> 00:13:04,340
(fast-paced dance music)
Nightlife.

340
00:13:04,340 --> 00:13:07,230
A place where you can lose all of your inhibitions,

341
00:13:07,230 --> 00:13:09,870
often aided by a drug of choice.

342
00:13:09,870 --> 00:13:11,380
Be it alcohol,

343
00:13:11,380 --> 00:13:14,140
or perhaps something a little stronger.

344
00:13:14,140 --> 00:13:17,520
And while this scene can feel new and exciting,

345
00:13:17,520 --> 00:13:18,630
well, it isn't.

346
00:13:18,630 --> 00:13:20,570
(whimsical instrumental)
Humans have been taking

347
00:13:20,570 --> 00:13:23,690
mind-altering drugs for thousands of years.

348
00:13:24,960 --> 00:13:26,770
Incredibly, the first recorded use

349
00:13:26,770 --> 00:13:28,240
of psychoactive substances

350
00:13:28,240 --> 00:13:30,060
was found in cave paintings

351
00:13:30,060 --> 00:13:31,140
that probably date to

352
00:13:31,140 --> 00:13:33,450
around 4,000 BC.

353
00:13:33,450 --> 00:13:36,490
That was psilocybin, or magic mushrooms.

354
00:13:36,490 --> 00:13:39,010
Which means the drug taking predates

355
00:13:39,010 --> 00:13:42,570
tattoos, writing, and even the wheel.

356
00:13:42,570 --> 00:13:44,530
And we believe that the indigenous cultures

357
00:13:44,530 --> 00:13:46,290
of North and South America

358
00:13:46,290 --> 00:13:48,790
were using the psychoactive peyote cactus

359
00:13:48,790 --> 00:13:49,890
around this time, too.

360
00:13:50,850 --> 00:13:53,280
Spanish Conquistadors found the Aztecs

361
00:13:53,280 --> 00:13:56,830
taking magic mushrooms and having the resulting trips.

362
00:13:56,830 --> 00:14:00,180
The Aztecs call this the flesh of the gods.

363
00:14:01,640 --> 00:14:04,240
As for peyote, when that got to Europe,

364
00:14:04,240 --> 00:14:06,560
it was considered as witchcraft.

365
00:14:06,560 --> 00:14:08,220
(Irish flute music)

366
00:14:08,220 --> 00:14:10,210
Which is a bit of fun backstory,

367
00:14:10,210 --> 00:14:12,140
but let's return to those nightclubs.

368
00:14:12,140 --> 00:14:13,560
(record pausing)

369
00:14:13,560 --> 00:14:14,890
(record rewinding)
Because this

370
00:14:14,890 --> 00:14:15,730
(dance club music)
is a story about

371
00:14:15,730 --> 00:14:18,250
the drug of choice for many ravers,

372
00:14:18,250 --> 00:14:19,460
ecstasy.

373
00:14:19,460 --> 00:14:20,810
Sorry everyone,
(record pausing)

374
00:14:20,810 --> 00:14:23,000
we just need to stop for a bit of a disclaimer.

375
00:14:23,000 --> 00:14:24,910
This is a stock shot.

376
00:14:24,910 --> 00:14:26,570
This person's probably eating a mint

377
00:14:26,570 --> 00:14:28,110
or something equally benign.

378
00:14:28,110 --> 00:14:29,890
There are other stock shots in this film

379
00:14:29,890 --> 00:14:31,830
over us talking about ecstasy.

380
00:14:31,830 --> 00:14:33,670
We're not saying they're drug users.

381
00:14:33,670 --> 00:14:35,510
They may well be drug users,

382
00:14:35,510 --> 00:14:36,740
but we don't know that.

383
00:14:36,740 --> 00:14:39,150
And you should make no assumptions either way.

384
00:14:39,150 --> 00:14:41,780
Okay, on with the show.
(dance club music resumes)

385
00:14:41,780 --> 00:14:42,950
Ecstasy's origin story

386
00:14:42,950 --> 00:14:45,070
has become something of a legend.

387
00:14:45,070 --> 00:14:47,430
The story goes that the German company Merck

388
00:14:47,430 --> 00:14:50,150
synthesized a drug back in 1912,

389
00:14:50,150 --> 00:14:51,490
with the intention of developing

390
00:14:51,490 --> 00:14:54,260
an appetite suppressant for German soldiers.

391
00:14:54,260 --> 00:14:57,070
We can only speculate on why they wanted to do this.

392
00:14:57,070 --> 00:14:58,380
Perhaps they wanted a way to make

393
00:14:58,380 --> 00:15:00,430
Army food rations stretch further,

394
00:15:00,430 --> 00:15:02,000
but appetite suppressant or not,

395
00:15:02,000 --> 00:15:04,400
soldiers do still need to eat.

396
00:15:04,400 --> 00:15:05,430
In fact,

397
00:15:05,430 --> 00:15:07,700
the Army famously marches on it's stomach.

398
00:15:09,250 --> 00:15:11,150
But something strange begins to happen

399
00:15:11,150 --> 00:15:12,830
to the first soldiers who try

400
00:15:12,830 --> 00:15:14,380
this appetite suppressant.
(whistle blowing)

401
00:15:14,380 --> 00:15:16,450
The soldiers whipped off their shirts

402
00:15:16,450 --> 00:15:19,970
and started dancing to the marching band.

403
00:15:19,970 --> 00:15:21,220
To be fair to them,

404
00:15:21,220 --> 00:15:23,260
who amongst us hasn't whipped off their shirt

405
00:15:23,260 --> 00:15:25,080
for a marching band?

406
00:15:25,080 --> 00:15:26,580
Rousing stuff.

407
00:15:26,580 --> 00:15:30,370
Apparently the soldiers who took the drug became too calm,

408
00:15:30,370 --> 00:15:34,020
which is presumably not a good thing on the battlefield.

409
00:15:34,020 --> 00:15:35,830
What a great story.

410
00:15:35,830 --> 00:15:37,590
Shame is a load of rubbish.

411
00:15:37,590 --> 00:15:39,500
(upbeat music)
In the early 2000's,

412
00:15:39,500 --> 00:15:41,010
in true German fashion,

413
00:15:41,010 --> 00:15:44,600
Merck go to great efforts to set the record straight.

414
00:15:44,600 --> 00:15:46,030
They go through lab reports,

415
00:15:46,030 --> 00:15:48,480
annual reports, patents, letters,

416
00:15:48,480 --> 00:15:50,560
interview records, and memoirs

417
00:15:50,560 --> 00:15:52,990
in search of any and all mentions

418
00:15:52,990 --> 00:15:55,160
of the contentious chemical.

419
00:15:55,160 --> 00:15:57,040
That chemical is of course

420
00:15:57,040 --> 00:15:59,350
3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine.

421
00:16:00,780 --> 00:16:02,580
Try to say that three times quickly.

422
00:16:02,580 --> 00:16:05,480
I mean if only there was a handy acronym for this.

423
00:16:05,480 --> 00:16:07,380
Oh yes, there is.

424
00:16:07,380 --> 00:16:08,740
MDMA.

425
00:16:08,740 --> 00:16:09,680
(slow piano music)

426
00:16:09,680 --> 00:16:10,580
The historical review

427
00:16:10,580 --> 00:16:12,710
reveals the true origins of MDMA.

428
00:16:12,710 --> 00:16:15,750
And that's the story we're gonna tell you now.

429
00:16:15,750 --> 00:16:19,090
The first mention of MDMA did come in 1912,

430
00:16:19,090 --> 00:16:21,040
but not as an appetite suppressant.

431
00:16:21,040 --> 00:16:22,230
Merck were trying to get around

432
00:16:22,230 --> 00:16:24,350
an existing blood clotting patent,

433
00:16:24,350 --> 00:16:26,150
owned by medical giant Bayer.

434
00:16:26,150 --> 00:16:28,320
So they found out a way to synthesize a new chemical

435
00:16:28,320 --> 00:16:31,170
that was different enough to warrant a patent of its own.

436
00:16:32,340 --> 00:16:33,560
So Merck made their

437
00:16:33,560 --> 00:16:36,060
slightly different blood clotting drug,

438
00:16:36,060 --> 00:16:37,940
and patent both the new chemical

439
00:16:37,940 --> 00:16:40,330
and the various ways they found to make it.

440
00:16:41,530 --> 00:16:43,170
One of the intermediate compounds,

441
00:16:43,170 --> 00:16:44,700
the chemicals you need to make

442
00:16:44,700 --> 00:16:46,530
on your way to the final compound,

443
00:16:46,530 --> 00:16:49,850
was methylenedioxymethamphetamine.

444
00:16:49,850 --> 00:16:51,630
So MDMA a was never meant

445
00:16:51,630 --> 00:16:53,300
to be an appetite suppressant,

446
00:16:53,300 --> 00:16:56,280
and it was never trialed on German soldiers.

447
00:16:56,280 --> 00:16:59,610
It was just a stepping stone in another process.

448
00:16:59,610 --> 00:17:00,970
Nobody really cares about it

449
00:17:00,970 --> 00:17:03,760
beyond how it can be used to make something else.

450
00:17:04,880 --> 00:17:07,000
So how did MDMA

451
00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:08,580
go from a step in making a,

452
00:17:08,580 --> 00:17:11,520
let's be honest, fairly dull blood clotting agent,

453
00:17:11,520 --> 00:17:14,100
to being every ravers favorite nightclub stimulant?

454
00:17:15,550 --> 00:17:16,630
(old country music)
Enter a man

455
00:17:16,630 --> 00:17:20,020
who will later be known as the godfather of ecstasy,

456
00:17:20,020 --> 00:17:22,190
Dr. Alexander Shulgin.

457
00:17:22,190 --> 00:17:25,190
Alexander has an insatiable interest in chemistry.

458
00:17:25,190 --> 00:17:27,190
When he was just seven years old,

459
00:17:27,190 --> 00:17:30,370
he would ride his bicycle to the local chemical supply

460
00:17:30,370 --> 00:17:31,780
and ask for chemicals like

461
00:17:31,780 --> 00:17:35,250
sodium bicarbonate or magnesium sulfate.

462
00:17:35,250 --> 00:17:37,830
The druggists would put the chemicals in the paper bag

463
00:17:37,830 --> 00:17:39,800
and give them to the curious child,

464
00:17:39,800 --> 00:17:41,130
free of charge.

465
00:17:41,130 --> 00:17:42,580
That's definitely not something

466
00:17:42,580 --> 00:17:44,040
you'd be allowed to do these days.

467
00:17:44,040 --> 00:17:45,100
(upbeat music)

468
00:17:45,100 --> 00:17:47,170
After a failed attempt at Harvard,

469
00:17:47,170 --> 00:17:48,460
a spell in the Navy,

470
00:17:48,460 --> 00:17:51,320
and a successful stint at UC Berkeley,

471
00:17:51,320 --> 00:17:54,640
Shulgin ends up at Dow Chemical.

472
00:17:54,640 --> 00:17:56,510
Shulgin meets with ready success

473
00:17:56,510 --> 00:17:58,670
in the industrial chemistry world.

474
00:17:58,670 --> 00:18:00,170
He invents Zectran,

475
00:18:00,170 --> 00:18:03,790
which is the world's first biodegradable insecticide.

476
00:18:03,790 --> 00:18:05,300
This becomes one of the

477
00:18:05,300 --> 00:18:08,490
go-to insecticides of the 1960's.

478
00:18:08,490 --> 00:18:10,650
It makes the company millions

479
00:18:10,650 --> 00:18:13,260
and it makes Shulgin indispensable.

480
00:18:14,480 --> 00:18:16,650
But Shulgin is really interested

481
00:18:16,650 --> 00:18:18,640
in a different kind of drug.

482
00:18:18,640 --> 00:18:22,020
The kind that alters your perception of reality.

483
00:18:22,020 --> 00:18:24,320
While he was in the Navy during World War II,

484
00:18:24,320 --> 00:18:27,800
Shulgin was injured and he was treated with morphine.

485
00:18:27,800 --> 00:18:31,470
Now he said it didn't actually take away the pain,

486
00:18:31,470 --> 00:18:34,370
it just made him very, very indifferent to it.

487
00:18:34,370 --> 00:18:36,220
(slow pop music)

488
00:18:36,220 --> 00:18:38,190
So Shulgin takes every opportunity

489
00:18:38,190 --> 00:18:41,260
to tinker with the molecular structures of existing drugs,

490
00:18:41,260 --> 00:18:43,660
often making new ones in the process.

491
00:18:44,730 --> 00:18:47,380
You can imagine Dow Chemical isn't too happy

492
00:18:47,380 --> 00:18:48,950
with this strand of research,

493
00:18:48,950 --> 00:18:51,910
but given how successful Zectran has been

494
00:18:51,910 --> 00:18:53,810
they grudgingly grant him time

495
00:18:53,810 --> 00:18:56,660
to work on his own psychedelic projects from home.

496
00:18:56,660 --> 00:19:00,540
Dow apparently said, "Do as you wish."

497
00:19:00,540 --> 00:19:01,690
They probably should have

498
00:19:01,690 --> 00:19:03,820
worded that more carefully.

499
00:19:03,820 --> 00:19:06,090
So Shulgin did as he wished.

500
00:19:06,090 --> 00:19:07,920
He did psychedelics.

501
00:19:07,920 --> 00:19:08,750
(somber piano music)

502
00:19:08,750 --> 00:19:11,280
In September, 1976,

503
00:19:11,280 --> 00:19:13,440
Shulgin's tipped off by an undergraduate

504
00:19:13,440 --> 00:19:15,600
that a little heard of chemical compound

505
00:19:15,600 --> 00:19:17,780
could be worth his expert attention.

506
00:19:18,750 --> 00:19:22,490
At this time methylenedioxyamphetamine, or MDA,

507
00:19:22,490 --> 00:19:25,450
was a pretty popular drug on the psychedelic scene.

508
00:19:25,450 --> 00:19:28,240
It was nicknamed a mellow drug of America.

509
00:19:28,240 --> 00:19:29,730
The student mentioned to Shulgin

510
00:19:29,730 --> 00:19:33,020
that they had heard of a methylated version of MDA,

511
00:19:33,020 --> 00:19:35,640
although nobody knew for sure what it did.

512
00:19:35,640 --> 00:19:36,770
(rhythmic strings music)

513
00:19:36,770 --> 00:19:39,940
Alexander Shulgin goes home and experiments,

514
00:19:39,940 --> 00:19:44,940
synthesizing his own methylated version of MDA, making MDMA.

515
00:19:45,900 --> 00:19:48,520
And then he took it.

516
00:19:48,520 --> 00:19:49,490
Of course he did.

517
00:19:49,490 --> 00:19:52,770
First he tried swallowing a 16 milligram dose,

518
00:19:52,770 --> 00:19:54,140
but it has no effect.

519
00:19:54,140 --> 00:19:56,880
I suppose the fact that it didn't kill him is a bonus.

520
00:19:56,880 --> 00:19:57,880
And what do you do

521
00:19:57,880 --> 00:20:00,270
if you have an unknown psychoactive drug

522
00:20:00,270 --> 00:20:02,630
that doesn't seem to be having any effect?

523
00:20:02,630 --> 00:20:04,040
Well if you're Shulgin,

524
00:20:04,040 --> 00:20:06,690
you take increasingly higher doses of it.

525
00:20:06,690 --> 00:20:09,350
Brave or stupid, it's hard to tell.

526
00:20:10,600 --> 00:20:13,100
But eventually at 81 milligrams,

527
00:20:13,100 --> 00:20:15,430
Shulgin gets his eureka moment.

528
00:20:15,430 --> 00:20:16,740
After 35 minutes,

529
00:20:16,740 --> 00:20:19,530
he reports a smooth and nice feeling.

530
00:20:20,430 --> 00:20:21,400
At 45 minutes,

531
00:20:21,400 --> 00:20:23,580
he says the effects are still developing,

532
00:20:23,580 --> 00:20:25,170
but easy to assimilate.

533
00:20:25,170 --> 00:20:28,250
And at 50 minutes he found himself getting quite deep,

534
00:20:28,250 --> 00:20:29,960
but still keeping pace.

535
00:20:29,960 --> 00:20:31,240
(slow instrumental music)

536
00:20:31,240 --> 00:20:34,080
I'm not really sure what that means,

537
00:20:34,080 --> 00:20:35,970
but I do know that we know all this

538
00:20:35,970 --> 00:20:38,860
as Shulgin's wife, Ann, would take notes,

539
00:20:38,860 --> 00:20:40,630
as well as participating herself

540
00:20:40,630 --> 00:20:42,230
in his experimental drug taking.

541
00:20:43,410 --> 00:20:44,330
You know what they say,

542
00:20:44,330 --> 00:20:46,900
couples who take together stay together.

543
00:20:46,900 --> 00:20:48,260
Okay, wait. No, they don't say that.

544
00:20:48,260 --> 00:20:50,240
That's a terrible principle to live by.

545
00:20:50,240 --> 00:20:52,240
Kids don't do drugs.

546
00:20:52,240 --> 00:20:55,030
That's unusually good advice.

547
00:20:55,030 --> 00:20:56,640
Alexander introduces the drug

548
00:20:56,640 --> 00:20:59,140
to a psychologist friend, Leo Zeff.

549
00:20:59,140 --> 00:21:02,840
And that's when things really start to pick up for MDMA.

550
00:21:02,840 --> 00:21:05,490
Zeff commonly guided his patients through therapy

551
00:21:05,490 --> 00:21:07,800
while they were high on various drugs.

552
00:21:07,800 --> 00:21:10,300
He saw them as a path to enlightenment.

553
00:21:10,300 --> 00:21:12,780
Follow the path to enlightenment.

554
00:21:12,780 --> 00:21:14,200
By the mid 1980's,

555
00:21:14,200 --> 00:21:18,600
MDMA is being used widely in experimental therapy.

556
00:21:18,600 --> 00:21:19,970
(energetic dance music)
But elsewhere,

557
00:21:19,970 --> 00:21:23,370
a very different use for this drug is emerging.

558
00:21:23,370 --> 00:21:26,330
People start to realize that the euphoric effect of MDMA

559
00:21:26,330 --> 00:21:27,470
could be a lot more fun

560
00:21:27,470 --> 00:21:29,980
if they weren't lying on a therapist's couch.

561
00:21:29,980 --> 00:21:33,290
It's given the much catchier name ecstasy by a drug dealer

562
00:21:33,290 --> 00:21:35,640
who's keen to cash in on its potential.

563
00:21:35,640 --> 00:21:39,100
Before long MDMA is being sold at nightclubs,

564
00:21:39,100 --> 00:21:41,220
right alongside the beers and spirits.

565
00:21:42,090 --> 00:21:44,570
Remember, this is still totally legal

566
00:21:44,570 --> 00:21:46,440
and very popular.

567
00:21:46,440 --> 00:21:48,240
Clubbers in Dallas, Texas

568
00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:52,180
consume 30,000 hits of ecstasy a month.

569
00:21:52,180 --> 00:21:53,630
(dance music stops)
And a misuse of the drug

570
00:21:53,630 --> 00:21:55,480
has killed at least five people.

571
00:21:55,480 --> 00:21:57,140
(siren wails)

572
00:21:57,140 --> 00:21:58,730
In April, 1985,

573
00:21:58,730 --> 00:22:00,690
the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency

574
00:22:00,690 --> 00:22:03,680
moves to make ecstasy a Schedule One drug.

575
00:22:05,040 --> 00:22:05,880
(rave music)

576
00:22:05,880 --> 00:22:06,940
But making it illegal

577
00:22:06,940 --> 00:22:08,590
doesn't seem to make much difference

578
00:22:08,590 --> 00:22:10,330
to its growth and popularity.

579
00:22:11,560 --> 00:22:15,510
It becomes the drug of choice in the emerging rave scene.

580
00:22:15,510 --> 00:22:16,820
(electronic dance music)

581
00:22:16,820 --> 00:22:19,380
It's electronic dance music,

582
00:22:19,380 --> 00:22:21,760
it's flashing lights.

583
00:22:21,760 --> 00:22:25,410
It's MDMA. It's the ultimate escapism.

584
00:22:26,450 --> 00:22:28,440
And as Dow's accidental stimulant

585
00:22:28,440 --> 00:22:31,100
becomes the drug of choice for this emerging scene,

586
00:22:31,100 --> 00:22:34,490
it becomes known by a whole host about other names.

587
00:22:34,490 --> 00:22:38,030
E, Eve, Molly for the powdered stuff,

588
00:22:38,030 --> 00:22:41,710
Hug Drug, Beans, Biscuit.

589
00:22:41,710 --> 00:22:42,730
I'm fairly sure

590
00:22:42,730 --> 00:22:45,200
you're making Beans and Biscuit up.

591
00:22:45,200 --> 00:22:49,920
Peace, X, Disco Biscuit, Clarity.

592
00:22:49,920 --> 00:22:51,380
(slow techno music)

593
00:22:51,380 --> 00:22:52,440
Whatever it's called

594
00:22:52,440 --> 00:22:53,960
or however it's taken,

595
00:22:53,960 --> 00:22:55,770
MDMA has the same effects

596
00:22:55,770 --> 00:22:58,240
on the way it messes around with our brains.

597
00:22:59,320 --> 00:23:01,350
MDMA causes a sudden release

598
00:23:01,350 --> 00:23:04,230
of three specific neurotransmitters in the brain.

599
00:23:04,230 --> 00:23:07,950
The neurotransmitters targeted by ecstasy are serotonin,

600
00:23:07,950 --> 00:23:11,580
and to a lesser extent, dopamine and norepinephrine.

601
00:23:11,580 --> 00:23:14,730
They play an important role in regulating our mood,

602
00:23:14,730 --> 00:23:18,060
pain levels, sleep, and appetite.

603
00:23:18,060 --> 00:23:20,900
The release of huge amounts of serotonin in the brain

604
00:23:20,900 --> 00:23:23,350
leads to widespread mood elevation,

605
00:23:23,350 --> 00:23:25,950
euphoria, ecstasy if you will.

606
00:23:27,170 --> 00:23:28,250
(somber piano music)
But what goes up,

607
00:23:28,250 --> 00:23:29,650
must come down.

608
00:23:29,650 --> 00:23:32,590
And the come downs from E can be crushing.

609
00:23:32,590 --> 00:23:35,670
Lots of serotonin makes for happy users,

610
00:23:35,670 --> 00:23:38,120
but the problem is there's no serotonin

611
00:23:38,120 --> 00:23:39,990
left over for the day after.

612
00:23:39,990 --> 00:23:43,600
And people often would refer to suicide Tuesday,

613
00:23:43,600 --> 00:23:46,460
you know, as the come down got really vicious

614
00:23:46,460 --> 00:23:49,810
in the days after a weekend spent taking a lot of E.

615
00:23:51,330 --> 00:23:52,550
And if that isn't enough

616
00:23:52,550 --> 00:23:54,440
to put you off taking a handful of pills

617
00:23:54,440 --> 00:23:56,750
and dancing the weekend away,

618
00:23:56,750 --> 00:23:58,000
then maybe this will be.

619
00:23:59,640 --> 00:24:02,040
There's evidence that prolonged use of ecstasy

620
00:24:02,040 --> 00:24:03,360
can damage the brain.

621
00:24:04,280 --> 00:24:05,960
Studies in primates and rodents

622
00:24:05,960 --> 00:24:08,810
show that the long-term binging of MDMA

623
00:24:08,810 --> 00:24:11,870
ends up damaging the nerve cells that contain serotonin.

624
00:24:11,870 --> 00:24:15,030
And that nerve damage persists for many years.

625
00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:17,190
Which is interesting,

626
00:24:17,190 --> 00:24:18,690
and a little worrying.

627
00:24:18,690 --> 00:24:21,160
But it does prompt an obvious question:

628
00:24:21,160 --> 00:24:23,960
who is it giving drugs to monkeys?

629
00:24:23,960 --> 00:24:25,070
(slow techno music)
The answer of course,

630
00:24:25,070 --> 00:24:26,960
is scientists.

631
00:24:26,960 --> 00:24:29,240
And after years in the medical wilderness,

632
00:24:29,240 --> 00:24:32,840
MDMA is finding its way back into the treatment rooms, too.

633
00:24:33,700 --> 00:24:35,600
In recent years there's been renewed interest

634
00:24:35,600 --> 00:24:37,170
in trying to use psychedelic drugs

635
00:24:37,170 --> 00:24:39,500
to treat certain mental disorders.

636
00:24:39,500 --> 00:24:40,840
This is intended to speed up

637
00:24:40,840 --> 00:24:43,810
the development and review of promising new treatments.

638
00:24:43,810 --> 00:24:46,110
This is a treatment for particularly intractable

639
00:24:46,110 --> 00:24:48,530
and unpleasant forms of PTSD.

640
00:24:48,530 --> 00:24:50,540
The kind that might be suffered by soldiers

641
00:24:50,540 --> 00:24:52,000
on a bloody battlefield.

642
00:24:53,020 --> 00:24:55,050
As the drug opens the patient's mind,

643
00:24:55,050 --> 00:24:56,660
two therapists guide them through

644
00:24:56,660 --> 00:24:58,980
an eight hour therapy session.

645
00:24:58,980 --> 00:25:01,030
More than half of the patients treated this way

646
00:25:01,030 --> 00:25:02,070
improve to the point

647
00:25:02,070 --> 00:25:05,160
that they no longer fit a PTSD diagnosis.

648
00:25:05,160 --> 00:25:08,920
And the beneficial effects continue to increase over time.

649
00:25:08,920 --> 00:25:09,770
A year later,

650
00:25:09,770 --> 00:25:12,510
the number of people who no longer had PTSD

651
00:25:12,510 --> 00:25:15,970
had risen to 68%.

652
00:25:15,970 --> 00:25:17,480
(heavy bass dance music)
So there you go.

653
00:25:17,480 --> 00:25:18,400
That's the story of

654
00:25:18,400 --> 00:25:20,650
how the precursor to a blood clotting agent

655
00:25:20,650 --> 00:25:22,660
accidentally became a party drug,

656
00:25:22,660 --> 00:25:24,260
and then a potential wonder cure

657
00:25:24,260 --> 00:25:26,980
for diseases like depression and alcohol addiction.

658
00:25:28,490 --> 00:25:32,170
It's been a tumultuous hundred year history for MDMA.

659
00:25:32,170 --> 00:25:34,610
It's been full of urban legends,

660
00:25:34,610 --> 00:25:38,280
half-truths, and questionable medical ethics.

661
00:25:38,280 --> 00:25:41,180
So who knows where the journey for ecstasy

662
00:25:41,180 --> 00:25:42,320
is going to go next.

663
00:25:42,320 --> 00:25:44,970
(whistle blowing)

664
00:25:44,970 --> 00:25:48,220
(cheerful theme music)

665
00:25:49,590 --> 00:25:51,250
(upbeat music)
Still to come,

666
00:25:51,250 --> 00:25:53,080
an astronomical era...

667
00:25:53,080 --> 00:25:55,050
The press jumped on this straight away,

668
00:25:55,050 --> 00:25:59,260
branding the Hubble the $1.5 billion blunder.

669
00:25:59,260 --> 00:26:00,690
But first this.

670
00:26:02,840 --> 00:26:06,930
The story of explosives is one full of danger and accidents.

671
00:26:06,930 --> 00:26:08,190
But did you know

672
00:26:08,190 --> 00:26:11,230
that a whole bunch of other materials have been created

673
00:26:11,230 --> 00:26:13,580
in the pursuit of trying to blow things up?

674
00:26:15,120 --> 00:26:16,080
Let me set you on a journey

675
00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:18,340
that's a real blast.
(large explosion)

676
00:26:18,340 --> 00:26:20,270
Sorry, couldn't resist.

677
00:26:20,270 --> 00:26:22,160
(horse neighing)
(dramatic battle music)

678
00:26:22,160 --> 00:26:25,410
We are in 13th century Mongolia,

679
00:26:25,410 --> 00:26:26,740
and the sons of Genghis Khan

680
00:26:26,740 --> 00:26:29,170
have really taken to the family business.

681
00:26:31,350 --> 00:26:35,320
His children have led the Mongolian armies on horseback

682
00:26:35,320 --> 00:26:38,100
all the way from the east coast of Russia

683
00:26:38,100 --> 00:26:39,680
right through to Poland,

684
00:26:39,680 --> 00:26:41,400
and nothing stood in their way.

685
00:26:41,400 --> 00:26:44,400
Historians think that up to 40 million people

686
00:26:44,400 --> 00:26:47,510
may have been killed during these campaigns.

687
00:26:47,510 --> 00:26:49,190
As they turn their sights east

688
00:26:49,190 --> 00:26:51,650
to the Song Dynasty in China,

689
00:26:51,650 --> 00:26:55,200
they face a fight like none they've ever seen before.

690
00:26:55,200 --> 00:26:57,730
(gunpowder crackles)

691
00:26:57,730 --> 00:27:00,270
All because of an accidental discovery

692
00:27:00,270 --> 00:27:04,900
made 400 years earlier in the 9th century: gunpowder.

693
00:27:04,900 --> 00:27:06,570
Chinese alchemists had figured out

694
00:27:06,570 --> 00:27:10,490
that if they mixed charcoal, sulfur, and saltpetre,

695
00:27:10,490 --> 00:27:14,060
a compound that we know of as potassium nitrate,

696
00:27:14,060 --> 00:27:17,960
they could create a deadly powder that burned unstoppably.

697
00:27:18,870 --> 00:27:21,470
This powder's burning, and we can't stop it.

698
00:27:23,170 --> 00:27:25,470
Don't ask me, but somehow Chinese monks

699
00:27:25,470 --> 00:27:29,150
discovered gunpowder while looking for the elixir of life.

700
00:27:29,150 --> 00:27:32,420
So somehow while looking for the secret of eternal life,

701
00:27:32,420 --> 00:27:35,600
they actually found out how to kill a lot of people.

702
00:27:35,600 --> 00:27:37,760
(weapons firing)
(man screaming)

703
00:27:37,760 --> 00:27:41,000
So when the Mongols take up arms against the Song,

704
00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:44,280
the Song returned the favor with fire.

705
00:27:44,280 --> 00:27:47,830
They had all kinds of weapons that made use of gunpowder.

706
00:27:47,830 --> 00:27:49,170
There were fire arrows,

707
00:27:49,170 --> 00:27:51,510
and fire lancers that propelled themselves,

708
00:27:51,510 --> 00:27:53,790
burning across enemy lines.

709
00:27:53,790 --> 00:27:55,380
The Chinese had developed a method

710
00:27:55,380 --> 00:27:58,930
of lowering these kind of deadly iron bombs

711
00:27:58,930 --> 00:28:01,660
into the Mongolian trenches from above.

712
00:28:01,660 --> 00:28:04,040
And these were loaded with gunpowder.

713
00:28:04,040 --> 00:28:05,690
When they exploded,
(large explosion)

714
00:28:05,690 --> 00:28:08,110
it was absolutely horrific.

715
00:28:08,110 --> 00:28:09,820
(man screaming)

716
00:28:09,820 --> 00:28:12,040
The immovable force of gunpowder

717
00:28:12,040 --> 00:28:16,250
held back the unstoppable might of the Khans for 40 years,

718
00:28:16,250 --> 00:28:19,010
before finally the lines broke.

719
00:28:19,010 --> 00:28:19,850
(horse whinnying)

720
00:28:19,850 --> 00:28:20,680
Despite everything,

721
00:28:20,680 --> 00:28:23,660
the Song Dynasty did eventually fall to the Mongols.

722
00:28:23,660 --> 00:28:26,390
(fire crackling)

723
00:28:26,390 --> 00:28:28,960
The Mongols took gunpowder to India,

724
00:28:28,960 --> 00:28:31,970
and from there it burned a trail to the Middle East,

725
00:28:31,970 --> 00:28:34,670
just in time for The Crusades.

726
00:28:34,670 --> 00:28:37,690
Gunpowder really democratizes warfare

727
00:28:37,690 --> 00:28:39,770
because before gunpowder,

728
00:28:39,770 --> 00:28:43,350
wars were all about aristocratic knights on horseback

729
00:28:43,350 --> 00:28:46,410
being the most powerful people on the battlefield.

730
00:28:46,410 --> 00:28:48,870
Now anybody with a bit of gunpowder,

731
00:28:48,870 --> 00:28:50,610
a gunpowder-fired weapon,

732
00:28:50,610 --> 00:28:53,210
could basically bring them down in seconds.

733
00:28:53,210 --> 00:28:57,930
(gunshot)
(armor crashing)

734
00:28:57,930 --> 00:29:00,340
(smoke whooshes)
(slow dramatic music)

735
00:29:00,340 --> 00:29:02,480
But for all its destructive wonder,

736
00:29:02,480 --> 00:29:05,850
black gunpowder isn't without its drawbacks.

737
00:29:05,850 --> 00:29:08,170
Gunpowder's revolutionizing warfare,

738
00:29:08,170 --> 00:29:10,530
but of course there has to be a downside.

739
00:29:10,530 --> 00:29:12,080
And the thing about gunpowder is

740
00:29:12,080 --> 00:29:14,540
it leaves lots of smoke everywhere.

741
00:29:14,540 --> 00:29:17,110
Hello? Anybody there?

742
00:29:17,110 --> 00:29:19,290
Hello? Anyone?

743
00:29:19,290 --> 00:29:20,170
(cannon booms)

744
00:29:20,170 --> 00:29:23,050
This causes a whole host of issues,

745
00:29:23,050 --> 00:29:24,860
from not being able to see the enemy,

746
00:29:24,860 --> 00:29:27,240
to difficulties in giving orders.

747
00:29:27,240 --> 00:29:30,510
And gun powder is notoriously temperamental.

748
00:29:30,510 --> 00:29:32,070
If the ingredients aren't mixed

749
00:29:32,070 --> 00:29:33,950
in exactly the right ratios,

750
00:29:33,950 --> 00:29:35,980
you'll end up with something that won't burn.

751
00:29:35,980 --> 00:29:37,660
(trumpet wah-wah)

752
00:29:37,660 --> 00:29:40,000
Despite trying to improve the recipe,

753
00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:41,840
warring nations continued to grapple

754
00:29:41,840 --> 00:29:45,060
with the black powder for 500 years.

755
00:29:45,060 --> 00:29:48,020
And then in 1845 in Switzerland...

756
00:29:48,020 --> 00:29:50,610
(man yodeling)

757
00:29:51,890 --> 00:29:53,190
Very nice.

758
00:29:53,190 --> 00:29:55,280
(banjo music)
A new and improved explosive

759
00:29:55,280 --> 00:29:57,330
that revolutionizes the battlefield

760
00:29:57,330 --> 00:29:59,640
is accidentally discovered.

761
00:29:59,640 --> 00:30:01,200
It's name? Guncotton.

762
00:30:02,230 --> 00:30:04,260
All through the early 19th century

763
00:30:04,260 --> 00:30:07,880
you've got a new generation of experimental chemists

764
00:30:07,880 --> 00:30:10,660
that are trying all kinds of stuff out for the first time.

765
00:30:10,660 --> 00:30:12,540
They're combining new chemicals,

766
00:30:12,540 --> 00:30:14,320
they're making new substances.

767
00:30:15,230 --> 00:30:16,430
One of those scientists,

768
00:30:16,430 --> 00:30:18,310
a certain Christian Schonbine,

769
00:30:18,310 --> 00:30:21,450
is knocking a little something up in the kitchen.

770
00:30:21,450 --> 00:30:23,020
Making a delicious meal?

771
00:30:23,020 --> 00:30:24,070
Not unless you consider

772
00:30:24,070 --> 00:30:26,760
nitric and sulfuric acid a delicious meal.

773
00:30:26,760 --> 00:30:27,600
Ah.

774
00:30:27,600 --> 00:30:29,770
So dear old Christian is boiling up

775
00:30:29,770 --> 00:30:33,000
a heady cocktail of nitric and sulfuric acid

776
00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:34,350
on the stove when...

777
00:30:34,350 --> 00:30:36,010
(glass shattering)

778
00:30:36,010 --> 00:30:36,840
(peaceful music)
Whoops,

779
00:30:36,840 --> 00:30:38,300
someone's in trouble.

780
00:30:38,300 --> 00:30:40,310
That's not something you want in a lab,

781
00:30:40,310 --> 00:30:42,390
let alone in a kitchen.

782
00:30:42,390 --> 00:30:44,180
Not wishing to anger his wife,

783
00:30:44,180 --> 00:30:47,330
Schonbine quickly mops up his mess.

784
00:30:47,330 --> 00:30:49,940
He grabs the nearest thing to mop up the spill

785
00:30:49,940 --> 00:30:52,470
which happens to be his wife's cotton apron.

786
00:30:52,470 --> 00:30:54,670
And the fabric soaks up the acid,

787
00:30:54,670 --> 00:30:57,740
and Christian just hangs it by the stove through dry.

788
00:30:57,740 --> 00:30:59,260
Good as new. She'll never know.

789
00:30:59,260 --> 00:31:01,600
Yeah, house and safety manual here.

790
00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:03,470
Now I can't see anything about

791
00:31:03,470 --> 00:31:06,230
mopping up cocktails of acid with your clothing.

792
00:31:06,230 --> 00:31:08,540
Oh, I think you're looking at the new edition.

793
00:31:08,540 --> 00:31:11,500
I'm sure it used to be on page 36.

794
00:31:11,500 --> 00:31:13,800
Well either way, Christian Schonbine

795
00:31:13,800 --> 00:31:17,110
is relieved that a domestic crisis has been averted.

796
00:31:17,110 --> 00:31:20,340
His relief is very short lived.

797
00:31:20,340 --> 00:31:22,100
(fire roars)

798
00:31:22,100 --> 00:31:22,950
Whoosh.

799
00:31:22,950 --> 00:31:24,110
Without warning,

800
00:31:24,110 --> 00:31:27,750
the apron actually explodes in a sudden flash.

801
00:31:27,750 --> 00:31:29,050
(fire roars)
Wow.

802
00:31:29,050 --> 00:31:31,180
That is gonna be tricky to explain.

803
00:31:31,180 --> 00:31:33,960
Domestic crisis not averted.

804
00:31:33,960 --> 00:31:36,930
With his quick but shoddy cleanup efforts,

805
00:31:36,930 --> 00:31:40,230
Schonbine has accidentally created a brand new material,

806
00:31:40,230 --> 00:31:43,010
which today we know is nitrocellulose.

807
00:31:43,010 --> 00:31:43,850
(upbeat music)

808
00:31:43,850 --> 00:31:44,890
The cotton in the apron

809
00:31:44,890 --> 00:31:47,630
is a natural fiber made from cellulose.

810
00:31:47,630 --> 00:31:50,770
Now cellulose is sometimes known as a biopolymer,

811
00:31:50,770 --> 00:31:52,760
because it's a really long molecule

812
00:31:52,760 --> 00:31:57,020
made up of chains of more than 10,000 glucose molecules

813
00:31:57,020 --> 00:31:59,200
all joined together.

814
00:31:59,200 --> 00:32:00,870
All plants make cellulose.

815
00:32:00,870 --> 00:32:04,020
It's to strengthen the walls of their individual cells.

816
00:32:04,020 --> 00:32:07,550
And it's estimated that at least a hundred billion tons

817
00:32:07,550 --> 00:32:10,910
of the stuff are made by plants every year.

818
00:32:10,910 --> 00:32:12,560
So when Schonbine uses

819
00:32:12,560 --> 00:32:15,200
the cellulose-rich cotton of his wife's apron

820
00:32:15,200 --> 00:32:17,330
to mop up those spilled acids,

821
00:32:17,330 --> 00:32:19,030
something special happens.

822
00:32:19,030 --> 00:32:22,100
When the cellulose is exposed to hot nitric acid,

823
00:32:22,100 --> 00:32:23,950
the highly reactive nitrate groups

824
00:32:23,950 --> 00:32:27,140
attach themselves along the cellulose chain

825
00:32:27,140 --> 00:32:31,860
to make a reactive, but stable, compound: nitrocellulose.

826
00:32:31,860 --> 00:32:34,050
Christian had accidentally discovered

827
00:32:34,050 --> 00:32:37,430
the perfect formula for producing a highly flammable,

828
00:32:37,430 --> 00:32:39,880
but otherwise inert material.

829
00:32:39,880 --> 00:32:42,500
Christian Schonbine may be clumsy,

830
00:32:42,500 --> 00:32:43,830
but he's no fool.

831
00:32:43,830 --> 00:32:47,030
He realizes the potential of his accidental discovery

832
00:32:47,030 --> 00:32:49,560
and sends samples to his colleagues,

833
00:32:49,560 --> 00:32:52,830
boasting of how he's found a way to transform cotton

834
00:32:52,830 --> 00:32:54,340
into a powerful explosive.

835
00:32:54,340 --> 00:32:57,120
I wouldn't wanna be the mailman carrying that parcel.

836
00:32:58,910 --> 00:33:00,790
Schonbine carries on experimenting,

837
00:33:00,790 --> 00:33:03,370
refining the formula and the technique

838
00:33:03,370 --> 00:33:06,420
so it no longer needs spills or aprons.

839
00:33:06,420 --> 00:33:09,240
So what you get at the end of the manufacturing process

840
00:33:09,240 --> 00:33:11,730
is something that looks a lot like cotton wool,

841
00:33:11,730 --> 00:33:14,330
but is way more dangerous.

842
00:33:15,230 --> 00:33:16,760
(fire roars)

843
00:33:16,760 --> 00:33:18,180
Schonbine's deadly cotton wool

844
00:33:18,180 --> 00:33:20,300
is more powerful than gun powder,

845
00:33:20,300 --> 00:33:23,300
but it also has another benefit.

846
00:33:23,300 --> 00:33:24,860
(somber music)

847
00:33:24,860 --> 00:33:25,860
(cannon blasting)

848
00:33:25,860 --> 00:33:27,240
It's smokeless,

849
00:33:27,240 --> 00:33:29,610
which is quite handy when you're trying to stay hidden.

850
00:33:29,610 --> 00:33:31,740
(cannons blasting)

851
00:33:31,740 --> 00:33:33,850
Warmongers everywhere seize

852
00:33:33,850 --> 00:33:36,100
Christian's invention with gusto,

853
00:33:36,100 --> 00:33:38,680
and they call it guncotton.

854
00:33:38,680 --> 00:33:41,070
It is an immediate success.

855
00:33:41,070 --> 00:33:42,570
Within a year there are factories

856
00:33:42,570 --> 00:33:45,760
making gun cotton for artillery shells across Europe,

857
00:33:45,760 --> 00:33:47,540
including this one in England.

858
00:33:47,540 --> 00:33:50,120
Unfortunately in 1847,

859
00:33:50,120 --> 00:33:53,140
less than a year into the new guncotton venture,

860
00:33:53,140 --> 00:33:55,090
the factory explodes,
(large explosion)

861
00:33:55,090 --> 00:33:58,620
destroying two buildings and killing 21 people.

862
00:33:58,620 --> 00:33:59,540
That doesn't stop people

863
00:33:59,540 --> 00:34:02,880
trying to make guncotton at a huge scale,

864
00:34:02,880 --> 00:34:05,180
but I'm afraid to say like the first factory,

865
00:34:05,180 --> 00:34:06,220
a lot of them go...

866
00:34:06,220 --> 00:34:09,390
(multiple explosions)

867
00:34:10,860 --> 00:34:12,900
(slow banjo music)

868
00:34:12,900 --> 00:34:14,360
Schonbine's new material

869
00:34:14,360 --> 00:34:16,800
is about to be put to the test.

870
00:34:16,800 --> 00:34:18,950
When the American Civil War erupts,

871
00:34:18,950 --> 00:34:21,700
the Confederate shells are being powered by guncotton.

872
00:34:22,980 --> 00:34:23,910
(slow flute music)

873
00:34:23,910 --> 00:34:27,450
But the Union Army still sees guncotton as too unpredictable

874
00:34:28,430 --> 00:34:31,340
and sticks with the less explosive black powder.

875
00:34:31,340 --> 00:34:33,320
(cannons blasting)

876
00:34:33,320 --> 00:34:36,110
By the time Christian dies in 1868,

877
00:34:36,110 --> 00:34:39,470
gunpowder is still the go-to propellant for firearms.

878
00:34:39,470 --> 00:34:41,980
His invention is still a bit too dangerous.

879
00:34:41,980 --> 00:34:44,280
(large explosion)

880
00:34:44,280 --> 00:34:47,440
An explosive that's too explosive.

881
00:34:47,440 --> 00:34:48,610
Go figure.

882
00:34:48,610 --> 00:34:51,030
It takes 20 years before someone finds a way

883
00:34:51,030 --> 00:34:53,570
to make guncotton less likely to explode

884
00:34:53,570 --> 00:34:56,180
while still maintaining its explosive power.

885
00:34:57,040 --> 00:34:58,020
(upbeat music)
A British duo,

886
00:34:58,020 --> 00:35:01,390
English explosives expert Frederick Abel,

887
00:35:01,390 --> 00:35:03,910
and Scottish scientist James Dewar,

888
00:35:03,910 --> 00:35:07,070
find a way to process guncotton

889
00:35:07,070 --> 00:35:09,350
without it exploding.

890
00:35:09,350 --> 00:35:11,510
Which is great. Problem solved.

891
00:35:11,510 --> 00:35:14,580
But then the guys have an even better idea.

892
00:35:15,490 --> 00:35:16,520
Abel and Dewar figure out

893
00:35:16,520 --> 00:35:20,430
that if they combine guncotton with nitroglycerin

894
00:35:20,430 --> 00:35:22,910
and a little bit of petroleum jelly,

895
00:35:22,910 --> 00:35:24,560
they could make a powerful

896
00:35:24,560 --> 00:35:26,810
and reliable smokeless propellant.

897
00:35:27,720 --> 00:35:29,740
They call it cordite.

898
00:35:29,740 --> 00:35:30,570
But to make it,

899
00:35:30,570 --> 00:35:34,450
this mixture needs one more ingredient: acetone.

900
00:35:34,450 --> 00:35:37,400
That's right, nail polish remover.

901
00:35:37,400 --> 00:35:39,580
Together this gives shells and munitions

902
00:35:39,580 --> 00:35:41,660
all the power of nitroglycerin

903
00:35:41,660 --> 00:35:43,670
combined with the smokeless advantages

904
00:35:43,670 --> 00:35:46,500
of Schonbine's kitchen discovery.

905
00:35:46,500 --> 00:35:49,130
This was the breakthrough the military world needed.

906
00:35:49,130 --> 00:35:52,700
Cordite is quickly adopted by the British Army and the Navy

907
00:35:52,700 --> 00:35:54,200
as their standard propellant.

908
00:35:55,850 --> 00:35:59,200
The discovery of cordite was no accident,

909
00:35:59,200 --> 00:36:00,130
which is a good thing

910
00:36:00,130 --> 00:36:02,460
because those working in the explosives industry

911
00:36:02,460 --> 00:36:05,010
could do with a break from things accidentally exploding.

912
00:36:05,010 --> 00:36:07,750
(large explosion)

913
00:36:07,750 --> 00:36:09,130
Anyway, back to the story.

914
00:36:10,290 --> 00:36:12,980
When the Great War kicks off in 1914,

915
00:36:12,980 --> 00:36:15,740
it's cordite that rules the battlefields.

916
00:36:15,740 --> 00:36:19,880
It's used in guns, and torpedo warheads, and grenades.

917
00:36:19,880 --> 00:36:22,510
And even in blasting explosives

918
00:36:22,510 --> 00:36:25,540
for use with bridges and mines.

919
00:36:25,540 --> 00:36:27,090
(large explosion)

920
00:36:27,090 --> 00:36:28,960
New Naval cordite factories

921
00:36:28,960 --> 00:36:31,510
are opening all over the country.

922
00:36:31,510 --> 00:36:33,900
Remember the nail polish remover?

923
00:36:33,900 --> 00:36:34,940
Well before long,

924
00:36:34,940 --> 00:36:37,770
the raw materials used to make this crucial ingredient

925
00:36:37,770 --> 00:36:39,190
begin to run short.

926
00:36:40,030 --> 00:36:42,210
The British have got plenty of guns,

927
00:36:42,210 --> 00:36:44,390
but they're running out of acetone

928
00:36:44,390 --> 00:36:47,480
which they need in order to fire stuff out of them.

929
00:36:47,480 --> 00:36:50,930
Now acetone comes from fermented wood

930
00:36:50,930 --> 00:36:53,260
and it takes a hundred tons of

931
00:36:53,260 --> 00:36:55,270
birch, beech, or maple

932
00:36:55,270 --> 00:36:58,340
to create one single ton of this stuff.

933
00:36:58,340 --> 00:37:01,260
The problem is they need to get this wood

934
00:37:01,260 --> 00:37:03,120
largely from the United States,

935
00:37:03,120 --> 00:37:04,780
but there's a Naval blockade,

936
00:37:04,780 --> 00:37:06,730
so they can't get the wood.

937
00:37:06,730 --> 00:37:09,060
So they can't create the acetone.

938
00:37:09,060 --> 00:37:11,250
They need a solution and fast.

939
00:37:11,250 --> 00:37:14,890
First, manufacturers try making acetone from maize,

940
00:37:14,890 --> 00:37:18,550
but this crop has a more urgent purpose: to feed people.

941
00:37:19,950 --> 00:37:20,790
(slow piano music)
Feeding people

942
00:37:20,790 --> 00:37:22,960
is more important than killing them after all.

943
00:37:22,960 --> 00:37:26,730
The Army is forced to call in a secret weapon: kids.

944
00:37:28,320 --> 00:37:32,400
Notices appear in classrooms across the United Kingdom,

945
00:37:32,400 --> 00:37:35,300
urging kids to collect acorns and horse chestnuts,

946
00:37:35,300 --> 00:37:37,420
or conkers to us Brits,

947
00:37:37,420 --> 00:37:38,930
which contain acetone.

948
00:37:39,920 --> 00:37:43,240
So they earned seven Shillings and six Pence

949
00:37:43,240 --> 00:37:45,400
for every hundred weight of these

950
00:37:45,400 --> 00:37:47,080
they handed into the War Office.

951
00:37:47,080 --> 00:37:50,170
That works out at about 22 British Pounds

952
00:37:50,170 --> 00:37:55,170
or $30 for every 50 kilos of these they handed in.

953
00:37:55,810 --> 00:37:57,300
(dramatic music)

954
00:37:57,300 --> 00:38:00,350
3000 tons of the nuts are converted to acetone

955
00:38:00,350 --> 00:38:01,580
to mix with the guncotton

956
00:38:01,580 --> 00:38:02,570
to make the cordite

957
00:38:02,570 --> 00:38:04,610
to get the British guns firing again.

958
00:38:06,040 --> 00:38:08,140
Explosives don't get much more homegrown

959
00:38:08,140 --> 00:38:09,980
than guncotton from wood pulp

960
00:38:09,980 --> 00:38:11,900
and acetone from conkers.

961
00:38:13,340 --> 00:38:14,830
The impact of explosives

962
00:38:14,830 --> 00:38:17,330
isn't just seen on the battlefield.

963
00:38:17,330 --> 00:38:18,200
Throughout the years

964
00:38:18,200 --> 00:38:20,760
scientists have tinkered with this accidental explosive

965
00:38:20,760 --> 00:38:22,640
to create new materials,

966
00:38:22,640 --> 00:38:25,420
including plastics and even clothes.

967
00:38:25,420 --> 00:38:28,540
Depending on how much nitrogen is added to the cellulose,

968
00:38:28,540 --> 00:38:31,760
the properties of nitrocellulose can vary a lot.

969
00:38:32,650 --> 00:38:33,990
By mixing guncotton

970
00:38:33,990 --> 00:38:35,750
with ether and alcohol,

971
00:38:35,750 --> 00:38:38,640
you get another new material: collodion.

972
00:38:39,990 --> 00:38:43,500
This collodion is a thick, clearish liquid

973
00:38:43,500 --> 00:38:46,460
that dries to make a flexible, plasticy solid.

974
00:38:46,460 --> 00:38:48,080
This is all happening at the same time

975
00:38:48,080 --> 00:38:50,630
that photography is taking off,

976
00:38:50,630 --> 00:38:54,690
and collodion is seen as a replacement for albumen

977
00:38:54,690 --> 00:38:58,300
in the fixing and development of images.

978
00:38:58,300 --> 00:38:59,130
It worked well,

979
00:38:59,130 --> 00:39:02,260
but there was one minor drawback.

980
00:39:02,260 --> 00:39:04,810
Collodion is still guncotton,

981
00:39:04,810 --> 00:39:08,370
so the photos would be prone to going up in flames.

982
00:39:08,370 --> 00:39:10,330
Whoosh.

983
00:39:10,330 --> 00:39:12,460
This didn't seem to put people off, though.

984
00:39:12,460 --> 00:39:13,960
And when movies were invented,

985
00:39:13,960 --> 00:39:16,800
the film was made from collodion, too.

986
00:39:16,800 --> 00:39:19,740
The collodion film was semi-transparent

987
00:39:19,740 --> 00:39:22,620
and flexible enough to be wound into reels,

988
00:39:22,620 --> 00:39:24,880
but under the heat of the projector lamps

989
00:39:24,880 --> 00:39:28,420
this nitrocellulose plastic did occasionally...

990
00:39:28,420 --> 00:39:29,250
Whoosh.

991
00:39:30,410 --> 00:39:31,870
Yeah.

992
00:39:31,870 --> 00:39:33,100
And it was around this time

993
00:39:33,100 --> 00:39:35,910
that a French Count called Hilaire de Chardonnet

994
00:39:35,910 --> 00:39:38,570
found a way of squeezing the diluted guncotton

995
00:39:38,570 --> 00:39:41,760
through narrow holes to make a silk like thread,

996
00:39:41,760 --> 00:39:45,570
which, perhaps unwisely, he then made into clothes.

997
00:39:45,570 --> 00:39:46,900
Somewhat unoriginally,

998
00:39:46,900 --> 00:39:48,950
it becomes known as Chardonnet silk.

999
00:39:48,950 --> 00:39:50,940
This synthetic silk was actually

1000
00:39:50,940 --> 00:39:52,800
pretty popular for a year or so,

1001
00:39:52,800 --> 00:39:56,060
with cloaks and gowns being made of the fibers.

1002
00:39:56,060 --> 00:39:57,580
Chardonnet even exhibited it

1003
00:39:57,580 --> 00:40:00,900
at the Paris Exhibition in 1889.

1004
00:40:00,900 --> 00:40:02,450
Clothes made from guncotton?

1005
00:40:02,450 --> 00:40:04,780
I think you can guess where this is going.

1006
00:40:04,780 --> 00:40:05,610
Whoosh.

1007
00:40:06,730 --> 00:40:07,780
Exactly.

1008
00:40:09,050 --> 00:40:10,310
But while these descendants

1009
00:40:10,310 --> 00:40:13,470
of Schonbine's original mixture had their issues,

1010
00:40:14,990 --> 00:40:17,400
they herald in era of chemical discovery

1011
00:40:17,400 --> 00:40:19,620
that would give rise to true plastics

1012
00:40:19,620 --> 00:40:22,150
and synthetic fabrics that...

1013
00:40:22,150 --> 00:40:23,880
(feigns whooshing)

1014
00:40:23,880 --> 00:40:25,600
Don't explode.

1015
00:40:25,600 --> 00:40:27,090
And more than a century on,

1016
00:40:27,090 --> 00:40:29,660
nitrocellulose still has an important place

1017
00:40:29,660 --> 00:40:30,660
in our modern world.

1018
00:40:32,150 --> 00:40:34,340
You find it in inks, adhesives,

1019
00:40:34,340 --> 00:40:36,030
varnishes, and resins.

1020
00:40:36,030 --> 00:40:40,230
So it's even used to make fake pearls and patent leather.

1021
00:40:40,230 --> 00:40:42,510
Have you been in my wardrobe again?

1022
00:40:42,510 --> 00:40:44,360
Without mankind's determination

1023
00:40:44,360 --> 00:40:47,480
to find new and more efficient ways to blow stuff up,

1024
00:40:47,480 --> 00:40:50,340
we'd never have had some of these amazing products.

1025
00:40:50,340 --> 00:40:51,740
But none of this might have come about

1026
00:40:51,740 --> 00:40:54,440
if it hadn't been for a guilty husband

1027
00:40:54,440 --> 00:40:56,520
trying to make amends in the kitchen.

1028
00:40:58,020 --> 00:41:02,020
(cheerful theme music)

1029
00:41:02,020 --> 00:41:04,610
(techno music)

1030
00:41:06,200 --> 00:41:07,800
For the last half-century,

1031
00:41:07,800 --> 00:41:09,980
the American taxpayer has contributed

1032
00:41:09,980 --> 00:41:13,910
around $17 billion a year to NASA.

1033
00:41:13,910 --> 00:41:16,360
So here's a quick question: is it worth it?

1034
00:41:17,920 --> 00:41:19,520
And the short answer is yes,

1035
00:41:19,520 --> 00:41:21,500
for some very good reasons.

1036
00:41:22,910 --> 00:41:24,710
When NASA scientists and engineers

1037
00:41:24,710 --> 00:41:27,470
are creating new hardware for use in space,

1038
00:41:27,470 --> 00:41:29,310
they've always got a part of their brain that's asking,

1039
00:41:29,310 --> 00:41:32,570
"How can we use this here on Earth?"

1040
00:41:32,570 --> 00:41:34,430
If say you pop on your wireless headphones,

1041
00:41:34,430 --> 00:41:35,410
clean your house,

1042
00:41:35,410 --> 00:41:38,330
and then have a quick run on your anti-gravity treadmill,

1043
00:41:38,330 --> 00:41:41,270
then all of these things have started in a NASA lab.

1044
00:41:42,740 --> 00:41:45,560
We can thank the ongoing space program for things like

1045
00:41:45,560 --> 00:41:47,480
cordless tools, memory foam,

1046
00:41:47,480 --> 00:41:49,280
and even cochlear implants.

1047
00:41:49,280 --> 00:41:51,680
(rocket engines roaring)

1048
00:41:51,680 --> 00:41:52,630
But not many people know

1049
00:41:52,630 --> 00:41:54,920
that the technology developed to enable us

1050
00:41:54,920 --> 00:41:57,240
to see into the depths of space

1051
00:41:57,240 --> 00:41:59,920
is now being used in the fight against breast cancer.

1052
00:42:00,880 --> 00:42:03,770
Whoa, that's a bit of a big leap.

1053
00:42:03,770 --> 00:42:05,170
(slide whistle extends)
It is,

1054
00:42:05,170 --> 00:42:07,810
and also it isn't.
(slide whistle retracts)

1055
00:42:07,810 --> 00:42:11,220
The core principle in any form of cancer treatment,

1056
00:42:11,220 --> 00:42:13,110
the fact that the sooner you can

1057
00:42:13,110 --> 00:42:15,340
cotton on to cancer being in the body,

1058
00:42:15,340 --> 00:42:16,700
the faster you can treat it,

1059
00:42:16,700 --> 00:42:17,720
the better.

1060
00:42:17,720 --> 00:42:19,960
(slow soothing music)

1061
00:42:19,960 --> 00:42:22,120
And how does the satellite do that?

1062
00:42:22,990 --> 00:42:26,640
Well it's all down to the technology of imaging.

1063
00:42:26,640 --> 00:42:29,640
In essence, seeing things that you couldn't see before.

1064
00:42:30,550 --> 00:42:33,740
But first, let's understand the treatment of cancer.

1065
00:42:33,740 --> 00:42:35,590
Ancient Egyptian and Greek scholars

1066
00:42:35,590 --> 00:42:37,940
were among the first to describe cancers,

1067
00:42:37,940 --> 00:42:39,790
but they suggested no cure.

1068
00:42:39,790 --> 00:42:42,290
In the Middle East, the Islamic Golden Age

1069
00:42:42,290 --> 00:42:44,540
brings huge developments in all forms of science,

1070
00:42:44,540 --> 00:42:45,390
but in this case,

1071
00:42:45,390 --> 00:42:46,940
anatomy and physiology.

1072
00:42:46,940 --> 00:42:48,950
And in fact, medicine in general.

1073
00:42:50,100 --> 00:42:53,360
By the time the Scientific Revolution happens in the West,

1074
00:42:53,360 --> 00:42:55,860
surgical techniques and our knowledge of the human body

1075
00:42:55,860 --> 00:42:58,720
are far more advanced than they were previously.

1076
00:42:58,720 --> 00:43:01,280
(upbeat music)

1077
00:43:01,280 --> 00:43:02,110
For centuries,

1078
00:43:02,110 --> 00:43:05,380
the best that medicine could offer breast cancer victims

1079
00:43:05,380 --> 00:43:07,430
was digging into their flesh

1080
00:43:07,430 --> 00:43:09,900
and cutting out anything that looked strange.

1081
00:43:13,220 --> 00:43:14,510
By the 1960's

1082
00:43:14,510 --> 00:43:18,330
the first breast cancers were being detected by mammograms.

1083
00:43:18,330 --> 00:43:20,160
Although these only typically show up

1084
00:43:20,160 --> 00:43:23,490
the so-called suspicious masses.

1085
00:43:23,490 --> 00:43:25,020
Which is better,

1086
00:43:25,020 --> 00:43:26,810
but still not digging-free.

1087
00:43:28,020 --> 00:43:29,050
It takes a biopsy,

1088
00:43:29,050 --> 00:43:31,650
a physical sampling of the suspicious tissue,

1089
00:43:31,650 --> 00:43:34,380
to even figure out whether it's cancerous or not.

1090
00:43:35,640 --> 00:43:36,580
What's needed

1091
00:43:36,580 --> 00:43:39,460
is a whole new way of detecting cancer.

1092
00:43:39,460 --> 00:43:43,290
And that brings us neatly back to a very special satellite.

1093
00:43:44,810 --> 00:43:46,830
(techno music)
At 8:33 A.M.

1094
00:43:46,830 --> 00:43:49,170
on April 24th, 1919,

1095
00:43:50,370 --> 00:43:53,200
the Space Shuttle Discovery ascends gracefully

1096
00:43:53,200 --> 00:43:55,790
into the skies above the Kennedy Space Center.

1097
00:43:58,040 --> 00:44:00,750
Space launches always give me the chills.

1098
00:44:00,750 --> 00:44:04,170
I mean just watching these gigantic rockets,

1099
00:44:04,170 --> 00:44:07,910
they weigh something like 2 1/2 thousand tons altogether,

1100
00:44:07,910 --> 00:44:09,320
and they're heading straight up

1101
00:44:09,320 --> 00:44:11,240
almost as if they're floating.

1102
00:44:11,240 --> 00:44:13,920
This is the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope,

1103
00:44:13,920 --> 00:44:16,880
which was the most complicated piece of equipment

1104
00:44:16,880 --> 00:44:19,200
that had ever been launched into space before.

1105
00:44:19,200 --> 00:44:20,830
But it's so small.

1106
00:44:20,830 --> 00:44:21,720
(record pausing)

1107
00:44:21,720 --> 00:44:23,280
Oh, right. That's a model, isn't it?

1108
00:44:23,280 --> 00:44:25,220
Yep. Yeah, I can see that now.

1109
00:44:25,220 --> 00:44:27,120
(techno music resumes)

1110
00:44:27,120 --> 00:44:28,700
Telescopes on the Earth's surface

1111
00:44:28,700 --> 00:44:31,790
are fighting a constant battle with our atmosphere

1112
00:44:31,790 --> 00:44:34,290
because whilst it may look transparent to our eyes,

1113
00:44:34,290 --> 00:44:36,420
it's actually very wibbly wobbly.

1114
00:44:36,420 --> 00:44:37,930
It's like a nobbled glass.

1115
00:44:37,930 --> 00:44:39,140
(lightning striking)

1116
00:44:39,140 --> 00:44:41,750
Even if you can minimize atmospheric distortions,

1117
00:44:41,750 --> 00:44:43,530
you've still got to contend with the weather.

1118
00:44:43,530 --> 00:44:44,960
You've gotta contend with cloud.

1119
00:44:44,960 --> 00:44:46,270
(techno music slows)

1120
00:44:46,270 --> 00:44:48,040
The launch of the Hubble Telescope

1121
00:44:48,040 --> 00:44:50,860
would give NASA astronomers an unobstructed view

1122
00:44:50,860 --> 00:44:53,250
of the cosmos 24 hours a day.

1123
00:44:54,750 --> 00:44:56,120
It's set to orbit the Earth

1124
00:44:56,120 --> 00:44:59,350
at about 540 kilometers above the surface,

1125
00:44:59,350 --> 00:45:02,600
or about 330 miles.

1126
00:45:02,600 --> 00:45:05,860
That puts your average home telescope to shame.

1127
00:45:05,860 --> 00:45:07,190
It's like taking a full scale

1128
00:45:07,190 --> 00:45:08,860
observatory from Earth,
(dramatic music)

1129
00:45:08,860 --> 00:45:11,220
and throwing it up above the atmosphere.

1130
00:45:12,770 --> 00:45:13,650
The telescope,

1131
00:45:13,650 --> 00:45:16,160
named after the astronomer Edwin Hubble,

1132
00:45:16,160 --> 00:45:19,890
is heralded as the next generation in space exploration.

1133
00:45:21,590 --> 00:45:24,900
This was a huge undertaking, even for NASA.

1134
00:45:24,900 --> 00:45:26,850
There weren't gonna be people on the telescope,

1135
00:45:26,850 --> 00:45:29,870
so the telescope itself has to stabilize itself,

1136
00:45:29,870 --> 00:45:30,750
(robotic movements)

1137
00:45:30,750 --> 00:45:32,940
take an image over a long period of time,

1138
00:45:32,940 --> 00:45:33,770
(camera clicking)

1139
00:45:33,770 --> 00:45:35,680
and then transfer that information

1140
00:45:35,680 --> 00:45:37,200
back to Earth for processing.

1141
00:45:39,050 --> 00:45:40,940
Hubble is about the size of a school bus

1142
00:45:40,940 --> 00:45:41,780
(horn honking)

1143
00:45:41,780 --> 00:45:44,280
and it orbits the Earth every 95 minutes.

1144
00:45:44,280 --> 00:45:47,020
(metallic whooshing)

1145
00:45:47,020 --> 00:45:47,850
The project costs

1146
00:45:47,850 --> 00:45:51,090
a whopping $1.5 billion.
(slow techno music)

1147
00:45:51,090 --> 00:45:52,940
Just a few weeks after its launch,

1148
00:45:52,940 --> 00:45:55,040
Hubble begins to send back the pictures

1149
00:45:55,040 --> 00:45:57,690
that everyone's been waiting decades to see.

1150
00:45:57,690 --> 00:45:59,540
(camera clicking)
But there's a problem.

1151
00:45:59,540 --> 00:46:02,070
(trumpet wah-wah)

1152
00:46:02,070 --> 00:46:04,660
The photos are just awful.

1153
00:46:04,660 --> 00:46:06,590
(dramatic music)

1154
00:46:06,590 --> 00:46:08,610
The stars which should have looked to Hubble

1155
00:46:08,610 --> 00:46:10,310
like crisp points of light

1156
00:46:11,280 --> 00:46:13,410
are surrounded by a fuzzy halo.

1157
00:46:14,420 --> 00:46:17,340
Hubble's mirror is one of the most precisely engineered,

1158
00:46:17,340 --> 00:46:20,820
precisely ground mirrors ever created.

1159
00:46:20,820 --> 00:46:22,520
It's so flat

1160
00:46:22,520 --> 00:46:25,230
that if the mirror were the size of the Atlantic Ocean,

1161
00:46:25,230 --> 00:46:28,640
then no wave will be more than three inches tall.

1162
00:46:28,640 --> 00:46:32,420
However, it just wasn't polished to be the right shape.

1163
00:46:32,420 --> 00:46:34,290
In order to get a super sharp image

1164
00:46:34,290 --> 00:46:36,580
it had to have a specific curvature,

1165
00:46:36,580 --> 00:46:40,260
and it was ever so slightly too flat.

1166
00:46:40,260 --> 00:46:42,270
(upbeat music)

1167
00:46:42,270 --> 00:46:46,110
In fact it's just 2,200 nanometers too flat.

1168
00:46:47,840 --> 00:46:51,000
An error just 1/50th the size of a human hair

1169
00:46:51,000 --> 00:46:54,520
threatens the whole $1.5 billion enterprise.

1170
00:46:55,880 --> 00:46:57,260
It was this small mistake

1171
00:46:57,260 --> 00:47:00,150
that put so much of Hubble's science on hold.

1172
00:47:00,150 --> 00:47:01,740
Extra, extra. Read all about it.

1173
00:47:01,740 --> 00:47:03,610
It's little wonder that the press

1174
00:47:03,610 --> 00:47:05,060
jumped on this straight away,

1175
00:47:05,060 --> 00:47:08,760
branding the Hubble the $1.5 billion blunder.

1176
00:47:08,760 --> 00:47:10,660
(metallic whooshing)

1177
00:47:10,660 --> 00:47:13,820
But every cloud has a silver lining,

1178
00:47:13,820 --> 00:47:17,170
and the experts at NASA use this time to improve the design

1179
00:47:17,170 --> 00:47:18,600
of their image sensor.

1180
00:47:18,600 --> 00:47:20,310
(dramatic music)

1181
00:47:20,310 --> 00:47:23,410
So this is now the cutting edge of this technology.

1182
00:47:23,410 --> 00:47:26,320
Thinner, higher resolution that can detect

1183
00:47:26,320 --> 00:47:28,860
all different wavelengths of visible light.

1184
00:47:28,860 --> 00:47:31,000
And it has a really high dynamic range,

1185
00:47:31,000 --> 00:47:32,600
which means that in one image

1186
00:47:32,600 --> 00:47:36,690
it can detect things that are really bright and really dim.

1187
00:47:37,610 --> 00:47:39,990
Now this is the crucial bit,

1188
00:47:39,990 --> 00:47:42,120
because it's this improved image sensor,

1189
00:47:42,980 --> 00:47:45,640
otherwise known as a CCD,

1190
00:47:45,640 --> 00:47:47,900
that revolutionizes breast cancer treatment.

1191
00:47:49,420 --> 00:47:51,180
With this new CCD chip,

1192
00:47:51,180 --> 00:47:53,820
images can be taken at two different angles

1193
00:47:53,820 --> 00:47:56,160
at the same time of the breast,

1194
00:47:56,160 --> 00:47:58,410
which is then fed directly into the computer.

1195
00:47:59,560 --> 00:48:01,070
Using the NASA chips,

1196
00:48:01,070 --> 00:48:03,880
the new technique automatically triangulates the position

1197
00:48:03,880 --> 00:48:06,900
of a suspicious mass in real time.

1198
00:48:08,340 --> 00:48:10,750
With having such a precise location,

1199
00:48:10,750 --> 00:48:12,940
surgeons are able to go in with a needle

1200
00:48:12,940 --> 00:48:15,180
to potentially remove this area of mass,

1201
00:48:15,180 --> 00:48:16,940
rather than having to go in and dig

1202
00:48:16,940 --> 00:48:18,810
and try and find this part.

1203
00:48:18,810 --> 00:48:20,850
This was huge.

1204
00:48:20,850 --> 00:48:22,590
Compared to what they had to do before,

1205
00:48:22,590 --> 00:48:25,770
the new technique was life-changingly better.

1206
00:48:25,770 --> 00:48:28,400
For a start, it can be done in a radiologist's office

1207
00:48:28,400 --> 00:48:30,050
rather than an operating theater.

1208
00:48:31,140 --> 00:48:33,320
What's more, going in with just a needle

1209
00:48:33,320 --> 00:48:35,630
results in a tiny pinprick scar

1210
00:48:35,630 --> 00:48:37,990
rather than a disfiguring scar

1211
00:48:37,990 --> 00:48:39,780
that took place under the previous procedure.

1212
00:48:39,780 --> 00:48:43,490
And it can spot smaller masses in the breast

1213
00:48:43,490 --> 00:48:46,550
allowing potential cancers to be caught earlier,

1214
00:48:46,550 --> 00:48:48,250
significantly earlier.

1215
00:48:48,250 --> 00:48:50,280
It's really hard to overstate

1216
00:48:50,280 --> 00:48:52,670
the impact that this new technology has had

1217
00:48:52,670 --> 00:48:54,700
on breast cancer treatment and diagnoses

1218
00:48:54,700 --> 00:48:56,390
since the late 1990's.

1219
00:48:56,390 --> 00:48:59,320
It's turned what used to be a traumatic and lengthy process

1220
00:48:59,320 --> 00:49:02,500
into a minor procedure with a lot less to worry about.

1221
00:49:02,500 --> 00:49:03,650
(cheerful upbeat music)

1222
00:49:03,650 --> 00:49:05,140
Not only has this technology

1223
00:49:05,140 --> 00:49:07,850
helped the fight against breast cancer,

1224
00:49:07,850 --> 00:49:11,570
Hubble can also finally live up to its promise.

1225
00:49:11,570 --> 00:49:13,540
The images that the Hubble Space Telescope

1226
00:49:13,540 --> 00:49:16,990
has sent back now are absolutely astonishing.

1227
00:49:16,990 --> 00:49:18,160
(camera shutter clicks)

1228
00:49:18,160 --> 00:49:19,660
We've seen galaxies that are about

1229
00:49:19,660 --> 00:49:21,830
10 billion light years away.

1230
00:49:21,830 --> 00:49:22,660
(camera shutter clicks)

1231
00:49:22,660 --> 00:49:25,280
We've seen glorious towers of nebula,

1232
00:49:25,280 --> 00:49:26,110
where there are
(camera shutter clicks)

1233
00:49:26,110 --> 00:49:30,200
newborn stars forming and where old stars have died.

1234
00:49:30,200 --> 00:49:31,360
Hubble has really shown us

1235
00:49:31,360 --> 00:49:34,700
what a beautiful and diverse universe we truly live in.

1236
00:49:36,940 --> 00:49:37,970
The success of this

1237
00:49:37,970 --> 00:49:41,460
accidental medical breakthrough is a revelation to NASA,

1238
00:49:43,360 --> 00:49:45,210
who decide that maybe more of their tech

1239
00:49:45,210 --> 00:49:46,990
could be usefully repurposed.

1240
00:49:48,140 --> 00:49:49,680
NASA now makes a thing about

1241
00:49:49,680 --> 00:49:51,680
offering its technological breakthroughs

1242
00:49:51,680 --> 00:49:54,150
to other industries outside of space travel.

1243
00:49:55,840 --> 00:49:57,930
And they may have found one in an instrument

1244
00:49:57,930 --> 00:50:01,480
designed to detect caves and volcanoes or Mars.

1245
00:50:01,480 --> 00:50:02,700
(metallic whooshing)
(dramatic music)

1246
00:50:02,700 --> 00:50:04,330
This is a really sensitive instrument

1247
00:50:04,330 --> 00:50:06,500
that's able to pick up infrared radiation,

1248
00:50:06,500 --> 00:50:09,010
which we can essentially think of as heat.

1249
00:50:09,010 --> 00:50:11,340
It's so sensitive that it's able to detect

1250
00:50:11,340 --> 00:50:16,140
a temperature variation of about 0.15 degrees Celsius.

1251
00:50:16,140 --> 00:50:18,060
That means that when it's used on the breast,

1252
00:50:18,060 --> 00:50:21,620
it can detect tiny changes in heat throughout the tissue,

1253
00:50:21,620 --> 00:50:24,530
which is caused by changing blood flow.

1254
00:50:24,530 --> 00:50:27,370
It's known that cancer cells emit a specific compound

1255
00:50:27,370 --> 00:50:28,750
that alters blood flow,

1256
00:50:28,750 --> 00:50:31,100
and blood flow usually affects temperature.

1257
00:50:31,100 --> 00:50:34,000
And so if you're able to detect the temperature variations,

1258
00:50:34,000 --> 00:50:36,400
you can probably detect where there might be

1259
00:50:36,400 --> 00:50:37,890
a cancer cell located.

1260
00:50:40,980 --> 00:50:42,130
So in effect,

1261
00:50:42,130 --> 00:50:45,130
NASA's blunder has accidentally invented not one

1262
00:50:45,130 --> 00:50:46,770
but two different technologies

1263
00:50:46,770 --> 00:50:49,030
that are saving lives around the world.

1264
00:50:50,300 --> 00:50:52,510
It's the ultimate feel good story.

1265
00:50:52,510 --> 00:50:55,120
Rather than being the $1.5 billion blunder,

1266
00:50:55,120 --> 00:50:57,080
The Hubble Space Telescope ended up saving

1267
00:50:57,080 --> 00:51:00,600
tens of billions of dollars and millions of lives.

1268
00:51:00,600 --> 00:51:03,520
Now if that doesn't give you the warm fuzzies,

1269
00:51:03,520 --> 00:51:07,380
you must be as cold and dead as space itself.

1270
00:51:07,380 --> 00:51:10,470
(metallic whooshing)

1271
00:51:11,790 --> 00:51:14,380
(upbeat music)