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(whimsical music)

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Did you know that a surprising number of objects

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that you use every day are thanks to accidents?

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(bike crashing)

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(glass shattering)

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Let me show you what I mean.

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On this episode, we discover how a failed super glue

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leads to a more organized world.

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In a sense, it was really one of the first

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truly viral successes.

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Find out how a scheme to trademark wine

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has brought relief to millions.

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Break constipation, or it will break you.

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And learn about the dumpster dive

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that's shaping our future.

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Literally, in this case,

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one man's trash was another man's treasure.

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(explosion)

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Oops, I changed the world.

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Okay, am I famous?

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Yes.

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Okay.

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Am I dead?

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This won't age well.

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No, you're not dead right now.

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Am I Elvis Presley?

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No!

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You do know Elvis is dead, right?

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Is he though?

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That's not really the story here, Natasha.

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This is about the tale of the humble Post-it Note

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and how it took two men and 12 years

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to change the way we prank our friends

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and organize our lives.

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So I'm not Elvis then.

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Who am I?

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I thought you said I was somebody famous.

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Unbelievable.

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This story begins

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with the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company.

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It's a bit of a mouthful, isn't it?

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You'd think they'd come up with something snappier,

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like MMM, M Cubed, Three Cube.

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Oh, 3M.

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We got there in the end.

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3M starts out as a mining company back in 1902.

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But after the rocks they mine

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turn out to contain nothing at all of value,

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they ditch digging around in the dirt and decide to focus

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solely on the manufacturing side of things.

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The industrial revolution

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has got a full head of steam behind it.

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Mass production is finding its feet, and we scientists

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finally understand enough about how the natural world works

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to start messing around and making entirely new materials.

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And that's where the fabulously named

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Spencer Ferguson Silver III comes in.

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What a name, what a guy.

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So Silver started working for 3M when he was just 25,

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right after earning his first doctorate

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in organic chemistry.

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In 1968, just two years after he joined the company,

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he was working as a senior scientist

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tasked with developing new kinds of adhesives.

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In 1968, Spencer Silver is working on

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a pressure-sensitive, super-strong adhesive

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to hold airline parts together.

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We've all seen things that are glued together come apart.

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And I think if you're going to glue an airplane together,

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you'd better make sure it's pretty strong.

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Spencer mixes together a cocktail of chemicals

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in what he believes will be a winning combination.

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Now, this isn't your usual kitchen chemistry.

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The cocktail is pressurized with nitrogen

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just to get it to combine.

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Then he puts this new glue to the test.

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It's a complete disaster.

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It's weaker even than a child's school glue.

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That's definitely not something that you would want

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to assemble planes with.

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(airplane crumpling)

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(horn playing disappointed sound)

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But before he returns to the drawing board,

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Silver decides to look at his failed creation

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under the microscope to try and figure out

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what's gone wrong.

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Normal glues are what's called a viscoelastic liquids.

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They're basically a rubbery, part-solid, part-liquid

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that can flow into the bumps and cracks

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of an irregular surface and then set hard,

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holding itself in place like pieces of a jigsaw.

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But Silver saw something completely different.

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Instead of an amorphous mass of stuff,

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he sees these tiny spheres.

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He describes them as beautifully bright crystalline spheres,

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like little glass balls.

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They're not like solid glass,

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but rather soft and rubbery.

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Hmm, so a bit like bubble in bubble tea.

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(Natasha slurping)

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Silver had inadvertently made a collection

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of acrylate-copolymer microspheres.

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We've all done it.

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The name is a bit of a mouthful,

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but their behavior is fascinating.

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When they're spread on a surface,

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the microspheres form a single layer

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on top of that surface.

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So you end up with this bumpy, pebbley surface,

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kind of like a rubbery skin on a basketball.

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With millions of these tiny contacts,

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the microspheres in Silver's glue

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can stick onto a surface well enough,

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but just a little force is enough to break the contact

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and unstick the glue.

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Silver finds that these microspheres

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mean that his failed super glue has an interesting property.

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The glue can be stuck and unstuck countless times.

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The only thing that reduces stickiness is the glue surface

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getting clogged up with dust and dirt.

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Spencer Silver has never seen

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anything like this before.

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He gets a sense that it could be useful.

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He just doesn't know how.

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For five years Silver goes around promoting this glue,

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his solution without a problem.

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He talks about it at industry seminars.

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He chats about it to colleagues at 3M,

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but nobody can think of a use for this glue.

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I mean, it's not hard to see

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why people had a hard time with it.

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Here was Spencer.

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He's in the business of creating adhesives

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which are designed to stick.

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And this is an adhesive that doesn't really stick at all.

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Silver somehow manages to patent the adhesive

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in 1972, despite not having a valid use for it.

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This patent bit's a bit dull, isn't it?

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Let's get rid of that.

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(whooshing)

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Ooh, who's this guy?

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Art Fry is a new product developer at 3M.

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And he's always had something of a flair

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for inventing things.

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I mean, even as a kid in his Minnesota home,

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he put together toboggans from bits of wood lying around.

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But Art is also a regular attendant

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at his local choir practice.

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Wednesday night was church choir practice night

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for Art Fry, and he'd have various bookmarks

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in his hymn book to mark out

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the songs they'd have to sing in a few days' time.

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The problem was the bookmarks would fall out,

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and he'd forget which page

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he was supposed to be singing from.

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(dinging)

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And he has a sudden Eureka light bulb moment.

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What if I had a temporary bookmark

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that would stick to the page I need,

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but then could be moved week by week,

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sticking to the next page?

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Having heard Spencer Silver

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tout his not-very-gluey glue around 3M,

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Art Fry suddenly has the problem

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for which this could be the solution.

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Back at the 3M labs,

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Fry wastes no time in testing out his idea,

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and gets hold of some of Spencer's low-tack glue.

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Fry applied a strip of glue across the top of the paper

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and then stuck it into a book,

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and experimented with tipping it this way and that,

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and it didn't fall out.

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And he was able to remove it, and repeat it again.

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Hey, presto, he'd invented what he needed.

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(dinging)

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At last, Spencer's non-gluey glue

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has a purpose in life.

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You know, something to live for.

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But don't go anywhere just yet.

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This story doesn't end here.

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When they're developing the sticky notes,

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they beg the lab next door

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for whatever scrap paper they could spare.

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Like Coldplay, all they have is yellow.

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So yellow it is.

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These sticky bits of paper were immediately popular

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with colleagues, and as they were used,

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people realized that they really extended way beyond

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just being bookmarks.

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Colleagues would leave notes for each other

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and annotations without actually changing the document.

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With these notes, the 3M employees

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had discovered a new way to organize and communicate.

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People love them.

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But further up the chain, senior management just can't get

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what this trivial little item is all about,

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and how it can be commercially viable.

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They went for a limited launch in four cities,

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calling them Press 'n Peel, but for whatever reason,

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the public just didn't warm to them

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and sales were negligible.

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So they try a new marketing strategy.

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The new plan is to simply give the sticky notes away

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to the businesses of Boise, Idaho.

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They call it the Boise Blitz.

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This ended up being extremely effective.

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Among companies that were given samples,

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90% ended up reordering them.

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Finally, they have proof that there is demand

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for Art and Spencer's creation.

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In 1980, after a roller coaster ride of development,

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the sticky notes are finally released to the world.

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They called them Post-its

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because you could literally post them anywhere.

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I mean, you'd think that after 12 years

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they'd come up with something a bit more creative,

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but hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

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They're even using the same yellow-colored paper

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that they borrowed from the lab on the first day.

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In its first year, the product earned 3M

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more than $2 million.

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That left the sales and marketing department gasping.

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In a sense, it was really one of the first,

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truly viral successes.

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They were self advertising.

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People would put the notes on documents,

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and the recipients would see this little slip of paper,

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peel it off, play with it, stick it back down,

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and then go out and buy some for themselves.

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Post-its were the kind of product

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you didn't know you needed until you had it.

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You think you know how to run an office?

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Wrong.

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You need Post-its in your life.

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As a bookmark, as a reminder, an annotation, a label.

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Whatever you can think of, Post-its can help.

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Not an ad.

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This message was not paid for or endorsed

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by 3M Corporation.

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It's meant for educational purposes.

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Batteries on included.

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Not for human consumption.

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One side fits all.

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Colors may fade over time.

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We just think Post-its are great, seriously.

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They're so useful.

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By 1998, the little yellow notes

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are worth about a billion dollars annually.

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These days, I defy you to find a work environment

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that doesn't have Post-it Notes.

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They're sold in over 150 countries.

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It's one of the top five

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best-selling office products of all time.

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Of course you can now get Post-its

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to serve every conceivable need.

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They come in a range of colors, sizes, and shapes.

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There are stickier versions, and waterproof versions

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that stay attached in some of the most extreme conditions.

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And this is still not an ad.

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I don't have to read the disclaimer again, do I?

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They've become so iconic to the office environment

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that you can even get digital versions

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that hang around on your desktop.

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In the year 2000, 3M ran a charity auction

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to celebrate 20 years of the Post-it Note.

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And they encouraged artists to create a three-inch square

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artwork on a Post-it Note, which they then sold off.

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One pastel and charcoal piece by artist RB Kitaj

269
00:11:21,500 --> 00:11:23,440
entitled "After Rembrandt"

270
00:11:23,440 --> 00:11:26,510
sells for a record-breaking 640 pounds.

271
00:11:26,510 --> 00:11:27,570
(gavel rapping)

272
00:11:27,570 --> 00:11:29,580
That's more than $900.

273
00:11:29,580 --> 00:11:32,920
I myself have also created an artwork on a Post-it,

274
00:11:32,920 --> 00:11:36,880
which I intend to auction for a huge amount of money

275
00:11:36,880 --> 00:11:39,440
if there's any interest parties out there.

276
00:11:39,440 --> 00:11:41,240
(crickets chirping)

277
00:11:41,240 --> 00:11:42,850
Well, this is awkward.

278
00:11:44,280 --> 00:11:47,010
Even in the digital age, Post-it Note sales

279
00:11:47,010 --> 00:11:49,270
have shown no signs of slowing.

280
00:11:49,270 --> 00:11:50,860
The market for Post-it Notes

281
00:11:50,860 --> 00:11:55,670
was worth about 2.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2019.

282
00:11:55,670 --> 00:11:59,900
Now it's estimated that it will rise to about $2.3 billion

283
00:11:59,900 --> 00:12:02,770
by the year 2024.

284
00:12:02,770 --> 00:12:05,420
And it will grow by about 1% a year.

285
00:12:05,420 --> 00:12:07,680
That's not bad for a product

286
00:12:07,680 --> 00:12:11,320
that senior management didn't believe in at the start.

287
00:12:11,320 --> 00:12:14,240
(musical flourish)

288
00:12:15,860 --> 00:12:17,140
Still to come,

289
00:12:17,140 --> 00:12:18,620
How messing around in the lab

290
00:12:18,620 --> 00:12:21,400
gives rise to a futuristic wonder material.

291
00:12:21,400 --> 00:12:23,840
His next experiment was to put a frog

292
00:12:23,840 --> 00:12:27,620
in the center of the magnet, and that also levitated.

293
00:12:27,620 --> 00:12:28,820
And the walk in the snow

294
00:12:28,820 --> 00:12:31,280
that almost ends the world.

295
00:12:31,280 --> 00:12:32,500
(bomb exploding)

296
00:12:32,500 --> 00:12:34,640
We are living in the nuclear age.

297
00:12:34,640 --> 00:12:37,290
In fact, you can pinpoint it down to the very second.

298
00:12:40,590 --> 00:12:43,380
This is the University of Nebraska.

299
00:12:43,380 --> 00:12:46,530
Scientists here are studying the mummified remains of a man

300
00:12:46,530 --> 00:12:50,010
buried in a shallow rock shelter over a thousand years ago.

301
00:12:51,610 --> 00:12:54,710
And they've just made a shocking discovery.

302
00:12:54,710 --> 00:12:58,620
This poor guy has suffered a terrible, miserable death.

303
00:13:00,190 --> 00:13:03,450
Scientists determine his guts stopped functioning properly

304
00:13:03,450 --> 00:13:04,840
months before his death.

305
00:13:06,550 --> 00:13:09,810
He's died from an extreme case of constipation.

306
00:13:12,720 --> 00:13:14,870
It's what's called a megacolon.

307
00:13:16,360 --> 00:13:18,870
Not being able to go is a, well,

308
00:13:18,870 --> 00:13:20,830
that's a pretty terrible way to go.

309
00:13:20,830 --> 00:13:23,320
This is the story about the discovery of something

310
00:13:23,320 --> 00:13:26,640
that will keep things moving: ex-lax.

311
00:13:29,690 --> 00:13:31,760
Doctors throughout history have always stressed

312
00:13:31,760 --> 00:13:34,470
the importance of a good bowel movement.

313
00:13:35,640 --> 00:13:38,130
Now you might think about the worst job you could have

314
00:13:38,130 --> 00:13:42,070
in Tudor England would be to be the groom of the stool

315
00:13:42,070 --> 00:13:43,080
to Henry VIII.

316
00:13:44,320 --> 00:13:45,800
The groom of the stool's job

317
00:13:45,800 --> 00:13:49,710
was to help Henry basically go to the toilet.

318
00:13:49,710 --> 00:13:52,920
Courtiers tripped over themselves to have this role.

319
00:13:52,920 --> 00:13:53,750
Why?

320
00:13:53,750 --> 00:13:56,670
Because they wanted to be close to the king,

321
00:13:56,670 --> 00:13:58,690
to wipe the King's bottom.

322
00:13:58,690 --> 00:14:00,870
That was the best way to get to his ear.

323
00:14:02,060 --> 00:14:04,700
I wonder if the groom had a deputy?

324
00:14:04,700 --> 00:14:06,160
His number two?

325
00:14:06,160 --> 00:14:07,120
(spoon slapping)

326
00:14:07,120 --> 00:14:10,130
These grooms relied on the old tried and tested methods

327
00:14:10,130 --> 00:14:12,340
for easing the royal passage to the throne.

328
00:14:13,850 --> 00:14:17,230
It turns out King Henry VIII is also prescribed enemas

329
00:14:17,230 --> 00:14:20,340
infused with dock leaves to help get that bowel moving.

330
00:14:22,750 --> 00:14:25,660
Get that wrong, and you'd be the enema of the state.

331
00:14:25,660 --> 00:14:28,410
(bulb squeaking)

332
00:14:29,650 --> 00:14:33,610
Unfortunately, not all kings have an ass-istant.

333
00:14:33,610 --> 00:14:34,720
Sorry about that.

334
00:14:34,720 --> 00:14:37,410
Down at Graceland in 1977,

335
00:14:37,410 --> 00:14:42,410
a hugely overweight Elvis Presley was reaching the end,

336
00:14:42,640 --> 00:14:45,740
and also reaching for the toilet paper.

337
00:14:45,740 --> 00:14:46,870
Rock and roll?

338
00:14:46,870 --> 00:14:50,230
Doctors find that he's suffered chronic constipation,

339
00:14:50,230 --> 00:14:52,840
likely brought on from the cocktail of drugs

340
00:14:52,840 --> 00:14:54,250
he's been prescribed.

341
00:14:54,250 --> 00:14:55,720
I take vitamin E.

342
00:14:55,720 --> 00:14:56,870
(audience laughing)

343
00:14:56,870 --> 00:14:58,020
He's already in a bad state.

344
00:14:58,020 --> 00:15:00,340
He's overweight, he's taking painkillers,

345
00:15:00,340 --> 00:15:03,030
but straining to push one out on a toilet

346
00:15:03,030 --> 00:15:05,920
might have been what triggered a fatal heart attack.

347
00:15:05,920 --> 00:15:07,660
He'll live on forever.

348
00:15:07,660 --> 00:15:10,910
Even though he's passed on, the memory is still here.

349
00:15:13,680 --> 00:15:17,110
From Cleopatra's asp to Elvis's pelvis,

350
00:15:17,110 --> 00:15:19,390
plugged up people throughout history

351
00:15:19,390 --> 00:15:20,800
have been crying out for relief.

352
00:15:20,800 --> 00:15:22,300
(woman groaning)

353
00:15:22,300 --> 00:15:25,820
To rid the world of catastrophic constipation,

354
00:15:25,820 --> 00:15:28,410
we need a potent poop producer,

355
00:15:28,410 --> 00:15:30,670
something that will really get things moving.

356
00:15:32,940 --> 00:15:34,590
Luckily, there's a solution

357
00:15:34,590 --> 00:15:36,940
that comes from the most unlikely of places.

358
00:15:38,510 --> 00:15:41,590
Buckle up, as we head to 1900s Europe.

359
00:15:43,310 --> 00:15:46,950
Hungary produces a wine that's the toast of Europe,

360
00:15:46,950 --> 00:15:49,290
the Tokaji white wine of Hungary.

361
00:15:49,290 --> 00:15:51,430
It's like a sweet dessert wine.

362
00:15:51,430 --> 00:15:53,260
Absolutely beautiful.

363
00:15:53,260 --> 00:15:55,100
It may well be delicious, Tony,

364
00:15:55,100 --> 00:15:56,730
but it's also threatened.

365
00:15:56,730 --> 00:15:58,920
A disease called grape phylloxera

366
00:15:58,920 --> 00:16:01,350
is devastating European vineyards.

367
00:16:01,350 --> 00:16:04,870
It's caused by a small mite that attacks the roots.

368
00:16:04,870 --> 00:16:07,730
Hungary's wine output is severely impacted,

369
00:16:07,730 --> 00:16:10,410
and merchants have to import inferior wine

370
00:16:10,410 --> 00:16:11,550
from other places.

371
00:16:11,550 --> 00:16:14,670
With the country awash with substandard plonk,

372
00:16:14,670 --> 00:16:16,730
the producers of Tokaji want to demonstrate

373
00:16:16,730 --> 00:16:19,020
that their wine is the real thing.

374
00:16:19,960 --> 00:16:22,720
So they're looking to a way of marking the wine,

375
00:16:22,720 --> 00:16:26,090
of guaranteeing that people know that's Tokaji wine.

376
00:16:28,560 --> 00:16:30,160
Chemists think that a special

377
00:16:30,160 --> 00:16:33,440
color-changing indicator will do the trick.

378
00:16:33,440 --> 00:16:35,770
It's a compound called phenolphthalein

379
00:16:35,770 --> 00:16:39,500
invented in 1871 by German chemist, Adolf von Baeyer.

380
00:16:39,500 --> 00:16:41,040
The clever thing about phenolphthalein

381
00:16:41,040 --> 00:16:43,330
is that it's a pH indicator.

382
00:16:43,330 --> 00:16:46,980
In acidic environments, it's colorless, it's transparent.

383
00:16:46,980 --> 00:16:49,840
Whereas if it's in alkaline or basic environments,

384
00:16:49,840 --> 00:16:51,140
it turns pink.

385
00:16:52,050 --> 00:16:54,360
To test the authenticity of your wine sample, then,

386
00:16:54,360 --> 00:16:56,390
you add an alkaline to it,

387
00:16:56,390 --> 00:16:58,560
which would turn the phenolphthalein pink.

388
00:16:59,460 --> 00:17:02,710
The details on exactly what happened next vary.

389
00:17:02,710 --> 00:17:05,030
Hungarian chemist, Zoltan Vamossy,

390
00:17:05,030 --> 00:17:08,980
is testing phenolphthalein on animals

391
00:17:08,980 --> 00:17:10,370
to see if it's safe to use.

392
00:17:10,370 --> 00:17:13,480
And it seems to be, so what's the natural next step?

393
00:17:13,480 --> 00:17:15,120
Use it on himself.

394
00:17:15,120 --> 00:17:16,850
Of course he does.

395
00:17:16,850 --> 00:17:20,000
Phenolphthalein interacts with the wall of the colon

396
00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:21,920
causing the muscles to contract.

397
00:17:21,920 --> 00:17:25,100
And additionally also gets more water into the colon.

398
00:17:25,100 --> 00:17:27,180
Muscle movement plus water

399
00:17:27,180 --> 00:17:29,840
equals some explosive results.

400
00:17:29,840 --> 00:17:33,040
So, as he dashes to the bowl, he declares to the world

401
00:17:33,040 --> 00:17:36,240
that he's found a laxative of great merit.

402
00:17:36,240 --> 00:17:39,800
(farting, groaning)

403
00:17:39,800 --> 00:17:42,250
(explosion)

404
00:17:42,250 --> 00:17:43,100
Very much what you'd call

405
00:17:43,100 --> 00:17:45,740
a win-some, lose-some situation there.

406
00:17:46,630 --> 00:17:48,750
Now all this may well be true,

407
00:17:48,750 --> 00:17:51,780
but there is an alternative theory to be considered.

408
00:17:51,780 --> 00:17:53,210
There's another version of this story

409
00:17:53,210 --> 00:17:55,510
where they actually skip at this round of testing

410
00:17:55,510 --> 00:17:57,240
and put it straight into the wine,

411
00:17:57,240 --> 00:18:00,380
which leads to a mass outbreak of the runs.

412
00:18:00,380 --> 00:18:03,060
(farting)

413
00:18:03,060 --> 00:18:04,430
Whichever story is right,

414
00:18:04,430 --> 00:18:07,010
an effective laxative has been accidentally discovered,

415
00:18:07,010 --> 00:18:08,410
(bell dinging)

416
00:18:08,410 --> 00:18:10,850
and the timing couldn't be any better.

417
00:18:12,400 --> 00:18:14,420
A new ghastly medical science

418
00:18:14,420 --> 00:18:18,710
is stirring the public's concern and driving laxative sales.

419
00:18:19,990 --> 00:18:22,290
A bowel movement, if you like.

420
00:18:22,290 --> 00:18:25,270
It becomes very fashionable in the late 19th century

421
00:18:25,270 --> 00:18:28,280
among doctors to believe that all diseases

422
00:18:28,280 --> 00:18:31,150
are linked to the gut.

423
00:18:31,150 --> 00:18:33,690
Scientists call this theory autointoxication,

424
00:18:33,690 --> 00:18:37,590
which is basically the idea that your own festering waste

425
00:18:37,590 --> 00:18:39,820
is poisoning you from the inside.

426
00:18:39,820 --> 00:18:41,240
Doctors use it as a catchall

427
00:18:41,240 --> 00:18:44,690
to diagnose all kinds of sicknesses like headaches,

428
00:18:44,690 --> 00:18:48,930
indigestion, impotence, and even heart disease and cancer.

429
00:18:48,930 --> 00:18:50,640
And there's only one surefire way

430
00:18:50,640 --> 00:18:51,830
to clean out the bowel

431
00:18:51,830 --> 00:18:54,590
and banish the demon of autointoxication.

432
00:18:55,560 --> 00:18:56,390
Laxatives.

433
00:18:56,390 --> 00:18:59,890
(exciting music)

434
00:18:59,890 --> 00:19:02,140
The world goes potty for laxatives.

435
00:19:05,670 --> 00:19:09,060
The science of autointoxication reaches America.

436
00:19:09,060 --> 00:19:12,270
Suddenly, everyone's worrying about their bowel movements.

437
00:19:12,270 --> 00:19:15,000
It's considered the mother of all diseases.

438
00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:17,430
By the 1930s, the nation is whipped up

439
00:19:17,430 --> 00:19:20,550
into a constipation craze with slogans like-

440
00:19:20,550 --> 00:19:23,570
Constipation: the monarch of all diseases.

441
00:19:23,570 --> 00:19:26,570
A clean colon is more important than a clean face.

442
00:19:26,570 --> 00:19:29,330
Break constipation, or it will break you.

443
00:19:29,330 --> 00:19:32,350
Do I have to have a bowel movement every day?

444
00:19:32,350 --> 00:19:36,040
Not necessarily, though most people normally do.

445
00:19:36,040 --> 00:19:38,030
According to the experts at the time,

446
00:19:38,030 --> 00:19:42,090
the cure for civilization is civilized laxatives.

447
00:19:42,090 --> 00:19:45,450
For doting mothers, it's a major obstruction.

448
00:19:45,450 --> 00:19:47,400
Moms are completely fed up

449
00:19:47,400 --> 00:19:50,880
with trying to feed castor oil to their children.

450
00:19:50,880 --> 00:19:52,440
Phenolphthalein is tasteless.

451
00:19:52,440 --> 00:19:55,610
That puts it at a distinct advantage to castor oil.

452
00:19:55,610 --> 00:19:58,650
In 1906 news of phenolphthalein's success in Europe

453
00:19:58,650 --> 00:20:01,520
reaches a Hungarian pharmacist living in New York City.

454
00:20:01,520 --> 00:20:03,460
His name is Max Kiss.

455
00:20:03,460 --> 00:20:06,990
Kiss teams up with this Lithuanian named Israel Matz.

456
00:20:06,990 --> 00:20:09,940
They experiment with phenolphthalein and figure out a way

457
00:20:09,940 --> 00:20:12,150
to make it appealing to children.

458
00:20:12,150 --> 00:20:14,660
(table scraping)

459
00:20:14,660 --> 00:20:15,660
Chocolate!

460
00:20:17,290 --> 00:20:18,240
(liquid tinkling)

461
00:20:18,240 --> 00:20:20,380
Now all they need is a killer name,

462
00:20:20,380 --> 00:20:21,900
something that'll stand out

463
00:20:21,900 --> 00:20:24,530
against all the other laxative brands on the market.

464
00:20:26,210 --> 00:20:29,360
(man groaning)

465
00:20:29,360 --> 00:20:31,830
The product is originally called Bobo's,

466
00:20:31,830 --> 00:20:36,320
but then Kiss becomes inspired by the Hungarian term ex-lax,

467
00:20:36,320 --> 00:20:39,020
which is short for when the government reaches a stalemate

468
00:20:39,020 --> 00:20:40,510
and no longer functions.

469
00:20:40,510 --> 00:20:43,150
Political blockage, biological blockage.

470
00:20:43,150 --> 00:20:46,740
It also sounds a bit like excellent laxative.

471
00:20:46,740 --> 00:20:49,310
A colon-conquering legend is born.

472
00:20:51,080 --> 00:20:54,440
In 1906 Kiss and Matz found Ex-Lax Co

473
00:20:54,440 --> 00:20:56,270
right in the heart of Brooklyn,

474
00:20:56,270 --> 00:20:58,640
and go to work cornering the market.

475
00:20:58,640 --> 00:20:59,890
It's not going to be easy.

476
00:20:59,890 --> 00:21:03,240
The choice of laxatives is overwhelming.

477
00:21:03,240 --> 00:21:08,240
There's Lax Cracks, Naturalax, Nature's Law Lax, Gerolax.

478
00:21:08,350 --> 00:21:11,270
But ex-lax's success comes from how it's presented.

479
00:21:11,270 --> 00:21:16,270
It's now a common practice to give children laxatives daily.

480
00:21:16,520 --> 00:21:18,530
In fact, it's become so common

481
00:21:18,530 --> 00:21:22,360
that one physician observes that it's rare to find a child

482
00:21:22,360 --> 00:21:24,330
with bowels that function normally.

483
00:21:24,330 --> 00:21:26,390
Oh no, not soup.

484
00:21:26,390 --> 00:21:28,360
A great big frown, too?

485
00:21:28,360 --> 00:21:30,420
Sure, but that was yesterday.

486
00:21:30,420 --> 00:21:31,620
Today, she's fine.

487
00:21:31,620 --> 00:21:33,120
The smile is back.

488
00:21:33,120 --> 00:21:35,840
Phenolphthalein proves to be a huge hit

489
00:21:35,840 --> 00:21:37,790
with the colon-conscious consumer.

490
00:21:37,790 --> 00:21:41,020
And it all feeds into ex-lax's success.

491
00:21:41,020 --> 00:21:44,750
They lead on ex-lax's lovely, chocolatey taste.

492
00:21:44,750 --> 00:21:47,950
As the adverts claim, kids can't get enough of it.

493
00:21:49,790 --> 00:21:53,960
So in 1933, half a million pounds of phenolphthalein

494
00:21:54,880 --> 00:21:57,220
is consumed by the American public.

495
00:21:57,220 --> 00:21:58,960
I mean, they are literally

496
00:21:58,960 --> 00:22:01,230
the most purged people on the planet.

497
00:22:04,810 --> 00:22:06,970
(door clanks)

498
00:22:06,970 --> 00:22:09,170
But all this craze for colon cleaning

499
00:22:09,170 --> 00:22:12,400
is raising concern with some medical experts.

500
00:22:12,400 --> 00:22:14,530
Ironically, overuse of laxatives

501
00:22:14,530 --> 00:22:18,430
actually weakens the bowel, leading to constipation.

502
00:22:18,430 --> 00:22:19,770
And it's a vicious cycle.

503
00:22:19,770 --> 00:22:21,820
You end up with colonic cripples

504
00:22:21,820 --> 00:22:24,870
who are lifelong slaves to these pills.

505
00:22:24,870 --> 00:22:26,700
And targeting children with medicine

506
00:22:26,700 --> 00:22:29,800
presented as candy bars is particularly troubling.

507
00:22:31,280 --> 00:22:33,040
It was a disaster waiting to happen.

508
00:22:33,040 --> 00:22:34,370
(siren wailing)

509
00:22:34,370 --> 00:22:36,740
And in 1932, it did.

510
00:22:38,160 --> 00:22:40,640
In California, a 10-year-old boy

511
00:22:40,640 --> 00:22:44,940
eats an entire box of ex-lax candy, and he dies.

512
00:22:44,940 --> 00:22:48,630
He experienced violent diarrhea, raised temperature,

513
00:22:48,630 --> 00:22:51,670
and rapid pulse followed by skin eruptions,

514
00:22:51,670 --> 00:22:53,940
delirium, and coma.

515
00:22:53,940 --> 00:22:56,480
The American Medical Association warned physicians

516
00:22:56,480 --> 00:22:58,280
and the general public about the potential

517
00:22:58,280 --> 00:23:00,340
of phenolphthalein poison.

518
00:23:02,020 --> 00:23:04,360
While the overwhelming evidence of the time

519
00:23:04,360 --> 00:23:06,990
indicates that phenolphthalein is safe,

520
00:23:06,990 --> 00:23:08,820
it doesn't stop questions persisting.

521
00:23:08,820 --> 00:23:10,640
(stamper clicks)

522
00:23:10,640 --> 00:23:14,120
Gordon, you tell your father not to take this all at once

523
00:23:14,120 --> 00:23:15,700
like he did before.

524
00:23:16,570 --> 00:23:20,270
Then, after 60 years of ex-lax lining the shelves

525
00:23:20,270 --> 00:23:25,270
of pharmacies, in 1997, the proverbial poop hits the fan.

526
00:23:25,570 --> 00:23:27,660
At a cost of about $10 million,

527
00:23:27,660 --> 00:23:30,570
most ex-lax products have been pulled off shelves

528
00:23:30,570 --> 00:23:32,770
at the urging of the Food and Drug Administration.

529
00:23:32,770 --> 00:23:34,720
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration

530
00:23:34,720 --> 00:23:37,080
released the findings of a new animal study

531
00:23:37,080 --> 00:23:38,450
on phenolphthalein.

532
00:23:38,450 --> 00:23:42,460
Mice were given 30 times the recommended dose for six months

533
00:23:42,460 --> 00:23:43,910
and developed cancer.

534
00:23:47,480 --> 00:23:49,480
It doesn't seem like a real world comparison,

535
00:23:49,480 --> 00:23:51,790
but given the habitual use of laxatives,

536
00:23:51,790 --> 00:23:54,830
the risk from long-term exposure cannot be ignored.

537
00:23:54,830 --> 00:23:56,180
But the loss of phenolphthalein

538
00:23:56,180 --> 00:23:57,820
is a blow to the industry.

539
00:23:57,820 --> 00:24:00,670
It still works better than any other laxative ingredient.

540
00:24:03,560 --> 00:24:06,630
Ex-lax turned to an alternative natural laxative

541
00:24:06,630 --> 00:24:10,730
as their active ingredient, and phenolphthalein's golden era

542
00:24:10,730 --> 00:24:13,160
as the king of the throne is over.

543
00:24:13,160 --> 00:24:15,710
And the science of the bowel moves on as well.

544
00:24:17,970 --> 00:24:20,760
We now know that there are good bacteria in the gut

545
00:24:20,760 --> 00:24:24,590
and that contributes to health in all kinds of ways,

546
00:24:24,590 --> 00:24:28,750
from digestion, to cardiac health, even mental health.

547
00:24:28,750 --> 00:24:31,640
So poo's actually good for you.

548
00:24:31,640 --> 00:24:34,280
But that doesn't mean there isn't still a need

549
00:24:34,280 --> 00:24:35,760
for a trusty laxative.

550
00:24:35,760 --> 00:24:38,770
City living gives rise to sedentary lifestyles.

551
00:24:38,770 --> 00:24:42,800
People are eating poorer, less well-balanced diets

552
00:24:42,800 --> 00:24:44,670
with more processed foods.

553
00:24:44,670 --> 00:24:47,460
And you combine that with the anxiety of modern life

554
00:24:47,460 --> 00:24:50,970
and being too busy to go to the toilet when you need to,

555
00:24:50,970 --> 00:24:54,600
it all leads to more and more cases of constipation.

556
00:24:54,600 --> 00:24:57,080
So the global laxative market keeps growing and growing

557
00:24:57,080 --> 00:25:02,080
and it's expected to hit over $10 billion by 2030.

558
00:25:02,450 --> 00:25:05,060
So phenolphthalein's unexpected story

559
00:25:05,060 --> 00:25:07,570
at the center of America's laxative lunacy

560
00:25:07,570 --> 00:25:09,730
is all thanks to some dodgy wine,

561
00:25:09,730 --> 00:25:11,840
entrepreneurial immigrants,

562
00:25:11,840 --> 00:25:14,410
and an advertising-fueled constipation craze.

563
00:25:15,280 --> 00:25:17,880
It may not have phenolphthalein in it today,

564
00:25:17,880 --> 00:25:22,880
but ex-lax is still with us, carrying on its valuable work.

565
00:25:23,070 --> 00:25:25,990
(musical flourish)

566
00:25:27,870 --> 00:25:30,990
Still to come, how a Jewish refugee

567
00:25:30,990 --> 00:25:33,270
unwittingly inspired a brand new weapon

568
00:25:33,270 --> 00:25:35,550
and saved the free world.

569
00:25:35,550 --> 00:25:37,730
It was, of course, the Manhattan Project.

570
00:25:37,730 --> 00:25:38,560
(explosion)

571
00:25:38,560 --> 00:25:40,170
But first,

572
00:25:40,170 --> 00:25:41,370
(whooshing)

573
00:25:41,370 --> 00:25:45,940
science can often feel like a slow, painstaking process

574
00:25:45,940 --> 00:25:49,060
with minute advances made over many years.

575
00:25:50,230 --> 00:25:51,290
But it wasn't like that

576
00:25:51,290 --> 00:25:53,780
back in the good old days of the 17th century.

577
00:25:55,670 --> 00:25:58,310
Now called the scientific revolution,

578
00:25:58,310 --> 00:25:59,760
this was basically a time when there were

579
00:25:59,760 --> 00:26:01,490
a lot of gentleman scholars,

580
00:26:01,490 --> 00:26:03,380
they weren't called scientists yet,

581
00:26:03,380 --> 00:26:06,440
would apply what we would now call the scientific method.

582
00:26:06,440 --> 00:26:08,960
Back then, it was very much a time of, well,

583
00:26:08,960 --> 00:26:10,980
messing around and finding out.

584
00:26:10,980 --> 00:26:12,850
And because this was relatively early

585
00:26:12,850 --> 00:26:15,580
in the history of science, there was a lot to find out.

586
00:26:15,580 --> 00:26:17,140
Now in the 20th century,

587
00:26:17,140 --> 00:26:19,780
we've been at it for a few hundred years.

588
00:26:19,780 --> 00:26:22,060
And if we hope to make any breakthroughs,

589
00:26:22,060 --> 00:26:25,000
it takes a careful, experimental approach

590
00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:28,380
and many years of really intensive study

591
00:26:28,380 --> 00:26:30,810
if we hope to discover anything new.

592
00:26:30,810 --> 00:26:33,130
Even then, when you have made a breakthrough,

593
00:26:33,130 --> 00:26:36,350
it's often so specialized and so technical

594
00:26:36,350 --> 00:26:38,990
that most people will not understand what you have done

595
00:26:38,990 --> 00:26:41,050
or why you have done it.

596
00:26:41,050 --> 00:26:41,880
And believe me, I know.

597
00:26:41,880 --> 00:26:43,350
I've done a PhD.

598
00:26:43,350 --> 00:26:46,810
But for a Russian-born physicist, Andre Geim,

599
00:26:46,810 --> 00:26:49,250
the wild west of scientific revolution

600
00:26:49,250 --> 00:26:51,580
is still very much alive to this day.

601
00:26:52,660 --> 00:26:55,270
It's Geim's dedication to experimentation

602
00:26:55,270 --> 00:26:57,900
that will lead us to the accidental discovery

603
00:26:57,900 --> 00:27:01,280
of a new material that could change the world: graphene.

604
00:27:02,520 --> 00:27:04,110
And if you don't know what that is,

605
00:27:04,110 --> 00:27:06,620
then this story's just for you.

606
00:27:06,620 --> 00:27:08,350
And if you do know what that is, great.

607
00:27:08,350 --> 00:27:09,650
This story's for you, too.

608
00:27:11,190 --> 00:27:14,080
Geim is pretty much your typical Russian genius.

609
00:27:14,080 --> 00:27:16,770
The Russians set a lot of store by hard subjects

610
00:27:16,770 --> 00:27:18,670
like maths and physics, which is why

611
00:27:18,670 --> 00:27:20,810
they're such formidable chess opponents.

612
00:27:20,810 --> 00:27:22,000
And Geim excelled at pretty much

613
00:27:22,000 --> 00:27:23,500
everything he set his mind to.

614
00:27:24,850 --> 00:27:27,420
Geim is working as a university professor

615
00:27:27,420 --> 00:27:29,680
in Manchester, England.

616
00:27:29,680 --> 00:27:33,630
One day he and student Kostya Novoselov start performing

617
00:27:33,630 --> 00:27:36,030
regular experimental science sessions

618
00:27:36,030 --> 00:27:39,000
that they name The Friday Night Experiments.

619
00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:40,750
The Friday night experiments were a chance

620
00:27:40,750 --> 00:27:42,900
to ask a question and try to answer it

621
00:27:42,900 --> 00:27:44,520
with the minimum effort.

622
00:27:44,520 --> 00:27:45,870
When the week's work was done,

623
00:27:45,870 --> 00:27:48,190
these highly-qualified physicists would tap into

624
00:27:48,190 --> 00:27:50,400
their scientific revolution roots and mess around

625
00:27:50,400 --> 00:27:52,720
until they discovered something new.

626
00:27:52,720 --> 00:27:54,450
Wrench.

627
00:27:54,450 --> 00:27:56,030
File.

628
00:27:56,030 --> 00:27:57,540
Calipers.

629
00:27:57,540 --> 00:28:00,550
The things they'd try were random, simple, unorthodox,

630
00:28:00,550 --> 00:28:02,950
and sometimes plain ridiculous.

631
00:28:02,950 --> 00:28:05,500
Over the years, Geim's unorthodox research

632
00:28:05,500 --> 00:28:09,770
has led to some surprising discoveries and innovations.

633
00:28:09,770 --> 00:28:13,980
One of these was Gecko Tape inspired by the feet of geckos

634
00:28:13,980 --> 00:28:16,910
and how they allow the animals to stick to surfaces.

635
00:28:17,860 --> 00:28:19,190
Another Friday night experiment

636
00:28:19,190 --> 00:28:22,220
teaches a frog to fly, sort of.

637
00:28:22,220 --> 00:28:25,650
Geim has access to some incredibly strong,

638
00:28:25,650 --> 00:28:27,650
donut-shaped magnets.

639
00:28:27,650 --> 00:28:29,960
One Friday night, he pours water down

640
00:28:29,960 --> 00:28:32,190
through the center of the ring

641
00:28:32,190 --> 00:28:34,070
just to see what would happen.

642
00:28:34,070 --> 00:28:37,800
And he was amazed to see that it stayed there

643
00:28:37,800 --> 00:28:40,380
rather than spill all over the floor.

644
00:28:40,380 --> 00:28:42,830
Geim must have had a flair for the theatric,

645
00:28:42,830 --> 00:28:45,950
because his next experiment was to put a frog,

646
00:28:45,950 --> 00:28:48,870
mostly made of water, in the center of the magnet.

647
00:28:48,870 --> 00:28:51,220
And that also levitated.

648
00:28:51,220 --> 00:28:55,290
Technically we can do it with you without any problems.

649
00:28:55,290 --> 00:28:57,440
Uh, no thanks, Andre.

650
00:28:57,440 --> 00:28:59,340
It's these Friday night experiments

651
00:28:59,340 --> 00:29:02,320
that would change the field of materials science forever.

652
00:29:02,320 --> 00:29:05,370
And no, I'm not talking about levitating a platypus,

653
00:29:05,370 --> 00:29:07,530
although that would be cool.

654
00:29:07,530 --> 00:29:10,300
In the lab is a special high-tech instrument

655
00:29:10,300 --> 00:29:13,040
called a scanning tunneling microscope.

656
00:29:14,110 --> 00:29:16,940
To use this microscope, you first have to calibrate it.

657
00:29:16,940 --> 00:29:19,860
And the way you do that is by putting a piece of graphite

658
00:29:19,860 --> 00:29:22,200
underneath with a fresh surface.

659
00:29:22,200 --> 00:29:23,810
The way the lab technicians would achieve this

660
00:29:23,810 --> 00:29:26,660
was by putting a piece of sticky tape on the top of graphite

661
00:29:26,660 --> 00:29:27,880
and then ripping it off.

662
00:29:27,880 --> 00:29:29,110
You remove the top layer

663
00:29:29,110 --> 00:29:30,740
and you're left with a fresh bit of graphite.

664
00:29:30,740 --> 00:29:33,300
Then the piece of tape's just thrown in the bin.

665
00:29:33,300 --> 00:29:36,050
But for this particular Friday night experiment,

666
00:29:36,050 --> 00:29:38,560
Novoselov turns his back on the microscope

667
00:29:38,560 --> 00:29:39,850
and heads for the dust bin.

668
00:29:39,850 --> 00:29:41,670
He picks the tape out of the trash

669
00:29:41,670 --> 00:29:44,880
and he sees there's a very fine layer of graphite.

670
00:29:44,880 --> 00:29:47,720
Suddenly a spark of realization hits him.

671
00:29:47,720 --> 00:29:52,170
This could be the answer to making ultra-thin carbon layers.

672
00:29:53,720 --> 00:29:56,070
"What's so great about ultra-thin carbon layers?"

673
00:29:56,070 --> 00:29:56,900
I hear you say.

674
00:29:56,900 --> 00:29:58,710
Well, we're gonna tell you.

675
00:29:58,710 --> 00:30:00,290
Just wait a bit.

676
00:30:00,290 --> 00:30:01,970
When he puts it under the microscope,

677
00:30:01,970 --> 00:30:04,550
he sees that it's incredibly thin.

678
00:30:04,550 --> 00:30:06,730
He estimates it to be around

679
00:30:06,730 --> 00:30:09,580
10 to 20 nanometers in thickness.

680
00:30:09,580 --> 00:30:10,830
Literally in this case,

681
00:30:10,830 --> 00:30:14,510
one man's trash was another man's treasure.

682
00:30:14,510 --> 00:30:16,840
So Novoselov and Geim begin working

683
00:30:16,840 --> 00:30:19,410
to make the graphite layers as thin as possible.

684
00:30:20,350 --> 00:30:24,670
They took a piece of graphite and then applied tape to it,

685
00:30:24,670 --> 00:30:28,560
adhering it, and then pulling it back to reveal a fresh,

686
00:30:28,560 --> 00:30:31,320
really thin layer of graphite.

687
00:30:31,320 --> 00:30:34,920
Then what they did was take another piece of tape

688
00:30:34,920 --> 00:30:38,960
and adhere that to your initial piece of tape.

689
00:30:40,450 --> 00:30:44,290
And then separated these two.

690
00:30:46,420 --> 00:30:50,730
Doing this, they were left with an even thinner

691
00:30:50,730 --> 00:30:52,660
piece of graphite.

692
00:30:52,660 --> 00:30:54,330
So far, this advanced physics

693
00:30:54,330 --> 00:30:56,070
doesn't look that hard.

694
00:30:56,070 --> 00:30:58,670
Repeat this process several times and you're able to get

695
00:30:58,670 --> 00:31:00,480
some incredibly thin layers of graphite.

696
00:31:00,480 --> 00:31:02,760
Putting it under the microscope, they estimated some of them

697
00:31:02,760 --> 00:31:05,270
to be just a few nanometers thick.

698
00:31:05,270 --> 00:31:06,220
(tape ripping)

699
00:31:06,220 --> 00:31:07,050
Ow!

700
00:31:08,900 --> 00:31:10,820
These microscopic flakes of graphite

701
00:31:10,820 --> 00:31:13,520
begin to show some surprising properties.

702
00:31:14,650 --> 00:31:16,480
Graphite is one of the few non-metals

703
00:31:16,480 --> 00:31:19,690
that will conduct electricity because its unique structure

704
00:31:19,690 --> 00:31:23,680
allows electrons to move, to carry the charge.

705
00:31:23,680 --> 00:31:26,370
But these ultra-thin layers were giving off electrons

706
00:31:26,370 --> 00:31:28,090
like there was no tomorrow.

707
00:31:28,090 --> 00:31:30,630
That's something you just don't see in other materials.

708
00:31:30,630 --> 00:31:34,040
At this, Novoselov and Geim realized that they'd achieved

709
00:31:34,040 --> 00:31:37,120
something that most people wouldn't have thought possible:

710
00:31:37,120 --> 00:31:41,620
a way to make a material that was just a single atom thick.

711
00:31:41,620 --> 00:31:44,410
The single, one atom thick honeycomb layers

712
00:31:44,410 --> 00:31:47,880
of graphite become known as graphene.

713
00:31:47,880 --> 00:31:50,210
And the way to make graphene had been right there

714
00:31:50,210 --> 00:31:52,000
under their noses all along,

715
00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:54,470
just sitting discarded in the bin.

716
00:31:54,470 --> 00:31:56,000
Okay, now we're gonna tell you

717
00:31:56,000 --> 00:31:58,600
what's so special about ultra-thin layers of carbon.

718
00:31:59,560 --> 00:32:03,040
Not only is graphene the thinnest material ever made,

719
00:32:03,040 --> 00:32:04,770
it's also one of the strongest.

720
00:32:04,770 --> 00:32:07,620
It's more than 200 times stronger than steel

721
00:32:07,620 --> 00:32:09,110
when you try to pull it apart.

722
00:32:09,110 --> 00:32:11,270
That is quite tricky to imagine.

723
00:32:11,270 --> 00:32:13,530
Have you got a simple everyday example?

724
00:32:13,530 --> 00:32:16,030
A square meter made into a hammock

725
00:32:16,030 --> 00:32:19,780
would be strong enough to support a four kilogram cat,

726
00:32:19,780 --> 00:32:22,530
but would weigh less than one of its whiskers.

727
00:32:22,530 --> 00:32:23,360
(cat purring)

728
00:32:23,360 --> 00:32:24,810
Thanks.

729
00:32:24,810 --> 00:32:27,790
Unlike steel, graphene is also elastic.

730
00:32:27,790 --> 00:32:28,900
It's not rigid.

731
00:32:28,900 --> 00:32:31,160
So that means that it can absorb a great deal of force

732
00:32:31,160 --> 00:32:33,910
before it eventually breaks.

733
00:32:33,910 --> 00:32:36,660
Graphene is also an incredible conductor

734
00:32:36,660 --> 00:32:38,950
of both heat and electricity.

735
00:32:38,950 --> 00:32:40,960
Electrons are able to move through graphene

736
00:32:40,960 --> 00:32:43,990
hundreds of times faster than in most metals.

737
00:32:43,990 --> 00:32:46,960
But at the same time, it's an incredibly effective barrier

738
00:32:46,960 --> 00:32:49,280
to all physical substances.

739
00:32:49,280 --> 00:32:51,870
The honeycomb structure is so dense

740
00:32:51,870 --> 00:32:55,750
that it stops even the smallest atoms from passing through.

741
00:32:55,750 --> 00:32:58,720
Strong, light, bendy and conductive.

742
00:32:58,720 --> 00:33:01,550
These wondrous properties have opened up a whole new world

743
00:33:01,550 --> 00:33:04,310
of possibilities for materials science.

744
00:33:04,310 --> 00:33:06,430
For the past 15 years now,

745
00:33:06,430 --> 00:33:09,660
researchers have been investigating these unique properties

746
00:33:09,660 --> 00:33:11,460
and trying to find uses for graphene

747
00:33:11,460 --> 00:33:14,780
in basically every application you can think of,

748
00:33:14,780 --> 00:33:17,100
There's basically no area of materials

749
00:33:17,100 --> 00:33:19,390
or engineering science that hasn't tried to use

750
00:33:19,390 --> 00:33:21,580
this new wonder material.

751
00:33:21,580 --> 00:33:23,650
Using graphene in the composite materials

752
00:33:23,650 --> 00:33:26,680
we make planes with dramatically reduces their weight.

753
00:33:26,680 --> 00:33:28,740
That increases fuel efficiency and range.

754
00:33:28,740 --> 00:33:32,640
Within the wing there is currently a layer of copper mesh.

755
00:33:32,640 --> 00:33:34,440
So if lightning strikes your aircraft,

756
00:33:34,440 --> 00:33:37,430
you need to dissipate that energy around the aircraft.

757
00:33:37,430 --> 00:33:39,000
If I had graphene in there,

758
00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:41,000
I could potentially could dissipate that energy.

759
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:44,210
So again, the plane could be stronger, lighter,

760
00:33:44,210 --> 00:33:47,250
and be able to fly much further than it can today.

761
00:33:47,250 --> 00:33:48,930
In the future, it could even be used

762
00:33:48,930 --> 00:33:51,430
for ambitious massive engineering projects

763
00:33:51,430 --> 00:33:53,800
like space elevators.

764
00:33:53,800 --> 00:33:56,800
This is a proposed mega structure that directly connects

765
00:33:56,800 --> 00:33:59,450
the Earth's surface to low earth orbit,

766
00:33:59,450 --> 00:34:02,620
where you have a ribbon or a tower that will take a vehicle

767
00:34:02,620 --> 00:34:06,110
or a carriage away from the surface and up to orbit

768
00:34:06,110 --> 00:34:07,790
where you could have a waiting space station,

769
00:34:07,790 --> 00:34:09,680
or you could use it as a jumping-off point

770
00:34:09,680 --> 00:34:12,850
to getting things further out of the Earth's system.

771
00:34:12,850 --> 00:34:13,880
And back on earth,

772
00:34:13,880 --> 00:34:17,120
incorporating graphene particles and flakes into coatings

773
00:34:17,120 --> 00:34:21,930
and paints helps objects to repel reactive gases and water.

774
00:34:21,930 --> 00:34:24,440
These coatings would be impermeable to anything

775
00:34:24,440 --> 00:34:27,720
that would cause a substance underneath to rust or decay.

776
00:34:27,720 --> 00:34:29,930
So rusting ships would be a thing of the past,

777
00:34:29,930 --> 00:34:32,570
as would rotting house fronts.

778
00:34:32,570 --> 00:34:34,450
Some of the most exciting applications

779
00:34:34,450 --> 00:34:37,870
for graphene technologies are in the medical industry

780
00:34:37,870 --> 00:34:40,320
where engineers are tapping into the material's unique

781
00:34:40,320 --> 00:34:43,550
electrical and thermal conductivity.

782
00:34:43,550 --> 00:34:44,710
The researchers here imagine

783
00:34:44,710 --> 00:34:45,860
painting onto a wall

784
00:34:45,860 --> 00:34:48,600
to produce invisible low power radiators.

785
00:34:48,600 --> 00:34:52,000
They're already in discussions with leading car makers

786
00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:56,030
about using their material to remove heat from engines,

787
00:34:56,030 --> 00:34:59,950
or warm seats without adding weight or using more power.

788
00:35:00,790 --> 00:35:02,890
Graphene's remarkable unreactivity

789
00:35:02,890 --> 00:35:05,970
also makes it compatible with biological systems.

790
00:35:05,970 --> 00:35:07,690
So it makes sense to start building things

791
00:35:07,690 --> 00:35:09,260
like implants out of it.

792
00:35:09,260 --> 00:35:11,710
Because it conducts electricity so well,

793
00:35:11,710 --> 00:35:14,180
scientists are also thinking of using graphene

794
00:35:14,180 --> 00:35:16,540
to replace damaged nerve cells.

795
00:35:16,540 --> 00:35:18,110
And in combination with rubber,

796
00:35:18,110 --> 00:35:20,210
replacing damaged muscle tissue.

797
00:35:20,210 --> 00:35:22,780
It can even be used to help treat cancer.

798
00:35:22,780 --> 00:35:25,760
The idea is that you inject graphene particles

799
00:35:25,760 --> 00:35:27,570
near the cancer cells.

800
00:35:27,570 --> 00:35:31,150
These are especially good at absorbing infrared radiation.

801
00:35:31,150 --> 00:35:33,510
So radiotherapy can be more targeted

802
00:35:33,510 --> 00:35:35,330
into the malignant cells,

803
00:35:35,330 --> 00:35:37,980
making the treatment more effective.

804
00:35:37,980 --> 00:35:40,250
Electrons in graphene are more mobile

805
00:35:40,250 --> 00:35:42,710
than in any other material in the world

806
00:35:42,710 --> 00:35:45,880
offering exciting opportunities for electronics.

807
00:35:47,150 --> 00:35:49,550
The first device that the team made using graphene

808
00:35:49,550 --> 00:35:52,190
was a transistor, the electrical component

809
00:35:52,190 --> 00:35:55,090
that is basically how all of our computers work,

810
00:35:55,090 --> 00:35:55,920
and the limiting factor

811
00:35:55,920 --> 00:35:58,420
of how fast our computers currently are is

812
00:35:58,420 --> 00:36:01,630
how many transistors you can fit onto a chip.

813
00:36:01,630 --> 00:36:04,140
But with graphene, researchers think that they can make

814
00:36:04,140 --> 00:36:07,680
smaller, more efficient transistors that are stronger

815
00:36:07,680 --> 00:36:09,360
and can handle higher voltages.

816
00:36:09,360 --> 00:36:12,880
Eventually graphene electronics could completely replace

817
00:36:12,880 --> 00:36:15,830
all existing technology for computer chips

818
00:36:15,830 --> 00:36:18,330
and other electronic components.

819
00:36:18,330 --> 00:36:20,410
The flexibility and strength of this stuff

820
00:36:20,410 --> 00:36:22,960
could allow for flexible touch screens,

821
00:36:22,960 --> 00:36:26,560
and tablets that you can just roll up like a newspaper.

822
00:36:26,560 --> 00:36:29,070
Although it's early days for this wonder material,

823
00:36:29,070 --> 00:36:30,820
the future looks bright.

824
00:36:30,820 --> 00:36:33,030
The global market for graphene was valued

825
00:36:33,030 --> 00:36:37,460
at $87.5 million in 2019, but that's predicted to rise

826
00:36:37,460 --> 00:36:40,760
to $870 million by 2027.

827
00:36:40,760 --> 00:36:41,880
Right now we're still looking

828
00:36:41,880 --> 00:36:43,910
at the dirty and first applications

829
00:36:43,910 --> 00:36:47,330
that just scratching the surface of graphene's potential.

830
00:36:47,330 --> 00:36:49,020
This Friday night discovery has not only

831
00:36:49,020 --> 00:36:51,080
paved the way for a whole new generation

832
00:36:51,080 --> 00:36:52,570
of materials science.

833
00:36:53,420 --> 00:36:55,080
Physicists have now discovered

834
00:36:55,080 --> 00:36:57,080
other two-dimensional materials.

835
00:36:57,080 --> 00:36:59,380
You can think of them kind of as graphene's

836
00:36:59,380 --> 00:37:00,820
brothers and sisters.

837
00:37:00,820 --> 00:37:04,250
Making them and combining them is breathing new life

838
00:37:04,250 --> 00:37:06,440
into synthetic materials science.

839
00:37:08,480 --> 00:37:10,270
Given how useful all this could be,

840
00:37:10,270 --> 00:37:14,170
perhaps it's no surprise that it's earned Geim and Novoselov

841
00:37:14,170 --> 00:37:17,610
the Nobel prize in physics, a knighthood,

842
00:37:17,610 --> 00:37:19,710
and the Freedom of the City of Manchester.

843
00:37:21,660 --> 00:37:24,620
Hmm, I wonder which they're more proud of.

844
00:37:24,620 --> 00:37:26,400
Winning Nobel prize is not an achievement.

845
00:37:26,400 --> 00:37:29,620
The achievement is doing proper experiment.

846
00:37:29,620 --> 00:37:31,050
I think it says a lot about the importance

847
00:37:31,050 --> 00:37:34,290
of curiosity and playfulness in modern science.

848
00:37:34,290 --> 00:37:36,850
Too often we get bogged down in the minute details

849
00:37:36,850 --> 00:37:39,700
of some obscure corner of lofty research,

850
00:37:39,700 --> 00:37:41,780
But by letting our minds wander aimlessly,

851
00:37:41,780 --> 00:37:44,410
or throwing water in an expensive magnet.

852
00:37:44,410 --> 00:37:46,790
Yeah, probably don't do that.

853
00:37:46,790 --> 00:37:49,990
Or pulling something out of the bin

854
00:37:49,990 --> 00:37:52,220
and who knows what you'll find, but you can be pretty sure

855
00:37:52,220 --> 00:37:53,410
that you're gonna learn something.

856
00:37:53,410 --> 00:37:55,170
And you may get lucky

857
00:37:55,170 --> 00:37:57,630
and end up winning the Nobel Prize lottery.

858
00:37:57,630 --> 00:38:00,550
(musical flourish)

859
00:38:01,960 --> 00:38:04,020
What do you think of when you hear the words

860
00:38:04,020 --> 00:38:05,620
nuclear fission?

861
00:38:05,620 --> 00:38:07,210
It's the splitting apart of a large

862
00:38:07,210 --> 00:38:09,210
and potentially unstable nucleus

863
00:38:09,210 --> 00:38:11,220
into two smaller daughter nuclei

864
00:38:11,220 --> 00:38:13,960
also emitting several hundred megaelectron volts of energy

865
00:38:13,960 --> 00:38:17,200
and several thermal neutrons that cause further reaction.

866
00:38:17,200 --> 00:38:18,110
Well, obviously.

867
00:38:18,110 --> 00:38:19,910
But apart from that?

868
00:38:19,910 --> 00:38:21,080
Kaboom!

869
00:38:21,080 --> 00:38:21,910
Yes!

870
00:38:21,910 --> 00:38:22,740
(explosion booming)

871
00:38:22,740 --> 00:38:23,660
Kaboom indeed.

872
00:38:23,660 --> 00:38:24,660
Bombs.

873
00:38:25,510 --> 00:38:28,910
For most of us, the word nuclear can be a little bit scary.

874
00:38:29,810 --> 00:38:32,760
But that is what we're talking about today:

875
00:38:32,760 --> 00:38:35,870
the accident that led to the first nuclear bomb.

876
00:38:35,870 --> 00:38:38,040
We are living in the nuclear age.

877
00:38:38,040 --> 00:38:41,390
In fact, you can pinpoint it down to the very second.

878
00:38:41,390 --> 00:38:45,730
And that second is at 05:29 and 45 seconds

879
00:38:45,730 --> 00:38:49,080
on July the 16th, 1945.

880
00:38:49,080 --> 00:38:50,590
(explosion booming)

881
00:38:50,590 --> 00:38:53,230
A flash of blinding light and a mushroom cloud

882
00:38:53,230 --> 00:38:56,050
herald the arrival of the nuclear age.

883
00:38:56,050 --> 00:38:59,090
This was the first-ever detonation of a nuclear weapon.

884
00:38:59,090 --> 00:39:00,860
Now known as the Trinity Test,

885
00:39:00,860 --> 00:39:03,990
the scientists detonated a prototype nuclear bomb

886
00:39:03,990 --> 00:39:07,200
whilst they watched from a safe, five-mile distance.

887
00:39:07,200 --> 00:39:09,560
Some scientists considered the possibility

888
00:39:09,560 --> 00:39:13,890
that the explosion would ignite the entire atmosphere,

889
00:39:13,890 --> 00:39:16,010
but they went ahead with it anyway.

890
00:39:16,010 --> 00:39:17,950
Atmosphere still intact,

891
00:39:17,950 --> 00:39:20,120
the desert was not so lucky.

892
00:39:20,120 --> 00:39:23,330
As the dust settled, sand was found melted to glass

893
00:39:23,330 --> 00:39:26,350
from the intense heat of an explosion so powerful

894
00:39:26,350 --> 00:39:28,730
it could be felt over a hundred miles away.

895
00:39:30,180 --> 00:39:33,370
The test is considered a success.

896
00:39:33,370 --> 00:39:36,590
From that moment on, the raw potential of nuclear devices

897
00:39:36,590 --> 00:39:38,070
has been apparent to us all.

898
00:39:38,070 --> 00:39:39,720
(alarming music)

899
00:39:39,720 --> 00:39:41,330
A large-scale nuclear attack

900
00:39:41,330 --> 00:39:44,770
on the United States could produce a patchwork pattern

901
00:39:44,770 --> 00:39:48,120
of fallout covering two thirds of the nation.

902
00:39:48,120 --> 00:39:50,880
More than 2 million square miles in a single day.

903
00:39:53,800 --> 00:39:57,830
The nuclear revelation has transformed our world for good

904
00:39:57,830 --> 00:40:00,730
and bad, and it may seem incredible,

905
00:40:00,730 --> 00:40:03,460
but we can trace the origins of this back

906
00:40:03,460 --> 00:40:07,370
to the oppressive regime of Nazi Germany.

907
00:40:07,370 --> 00:40:08,200
Actually, Tony,

908
00:40:08,200 --> 00:40:10,580
to tell the story of nuclear fission properly,

909
00:40:10,580 --> 00:40:13,140
we need to go back slightly further than that

910
00:40:13,140 --> 00:40:16,940
to the late 19th century when scientists begin to hone in

911
00:40:16,940 --> 00:40:19,590
on the true structure of the atom.

912
00:40:19,590 --> 00:40:23,040
The question of what is the indivisible fundamental

913
00:40:23,040 --> 00:40:26,730
structure of matter is something that's occupied scientists

914
00:40:26,730 --> 00:40:28,990
and natural philosophers for millennia.

915
00:40:28,990 --> 00:40:30,980
If you take anything and grind it to dust,

916
00:40:30,980 --> 00:40:33,710
and then grind the dust into even finer dust,

917
00:40:33,710 --> 00:40:35,640
what is the fundamental building block

918
00:40:35,640 --> 00:40:37,100
that you cannot break down?

919
00:40:37,100 --> 00:40:40,620
Ancient Greek philosophers named these fundamental particles

920
00:40:40,620 --> 00:40:44,740
atoms after atomos, meaning uncuttable.

921
00:40:44,740 --> 00:40:49,370
By the late 1800s, scientists discover these atoms

922
00:40:49,370 --> 00:40:51,640
are in fact made up of other particles.

923
00:40:51,640 --> 00:40:54,090
Those white dots orbiting the red nucleus,

924
00:40:54,090 --> 00:40:55,190
they're electrons.

925
00:40:55,190 --> 00:40:58,660
Then in the nucleus, you've got protons and neutrons.

926
00:40:58,660 --> 00:41:00,150
They're the yellow ones.

927
00:41:00,150 --> 00:41:02,490
And those neutrons hanging out in the middle

928
00:41:02,490 --> 00:41:04,980
have some very interesting properties.

929
00:41:04,980 --> 00:41:07,610
Because the neutron has no electric charge,

930
00:41:07,610 --> 00:41:10,660
it isn't repelled by the positively-charged protons

931
00:41:10,660 --> 00:41:11,810
in the nucleus.

932
00:41:11,810 --> 00:41:13,410
So scientists seize on this fact

933
00:41:13,410 --> 00:41:16,710
and start bombarding atomic nuclei with neutrons

934
00:41:16,710 --> 00:41:17,800
just to see what happens.

935
00:41:17,800 --> 00:41:20,710
And that is where the hero of our story,

936
00:41:20,710 --> 00:41:22,690
Lise Meitner comes in.

937
00:41:22,690 --> 00:41:25,190
Lise Meitner was a gifted young woman.

938
00:41:25,190 --> 00:41:28,070
She was born to an intellectual family in Vienna,

939
00:41:28,070 --> 00:41:30,040
in Austria, and she in particular

940
00:41:30,040 --> 00:41:32,120
was very interested in physics.

941
00:41:32,120 --> 00:41:35,110
She earns her doctorate in physics from the university there

942
00:41:35,110 --> 00:41:39,280
in 1906, but the only position available to her in Vienna

943
00:41:39,280 --> 00:41:41,670
then was as a school teacher.

944
00:41:41,670 --> 00:41:43,420
Oh, this old story.

945
00:41:44,430 --> 00:41:46,290
So she moves to Prussia,

946
00:41:46,290 --> 00:41:48,550
which we all know is Germany these days,

947
00:41:48,550 --> 00:41:52,220
in the hopes of finding better academic prospects.

948
00:41:52,220 --> 00:41:56,690
Lise Meitner meets a German chemist called Otto Hahn,

949
00:41:56,690 --> 00:41:58,390
but there's still a problem.

950
00:41:58,390 --> 00:42:01,170
Hahn's facility, the Chemical Institute of Berlin,

951
00:42:01,170 --> 00:42:03,420
doesn't admit women.

952
00:42:03,420 --> 00:42:05,450
Apparently the director was worried

953
00:42:05,450 --> 00:42:09,090
that women's hair would catch fire.

954
00:42:09,090 --> 00:42:11,550
The same director had a very impressive beard,

955
00:42:11,550 --> 00:42:14,360
which was presumably non-flammable.

956
00:42:14,360 --> 00:42:16,110
Oh, good grief.

957
00:42:16,110 --> 00:42:17,220
Hahn appeals,

958
00:42:17,220 --> 00:42:19,710
and the director eventually lets Meitner in.

959
00:42:20,680 --> 00:42:23,840
She makes the most of it and pursues her research goals

960
00:42:23,840 --> 00:42:28,060
and ultimately becomes one of the foremost known researchers

961
00:42:28,060 --> 00:42:30,350
in Germany in nuclear physics.

962
00:42:30,350 --> 00:42:31,180
(record scratching)

963
00:42:31,180 --> 00:42:33,450
(Hitler speaking foreign language)

964
00:42:33,450 --> 00:42:36,090
It's now March, 1938.

965
00:42:36,090 --> 00:42:38,390
While Meitner's working away in Berlin,

966
00:42:38,390 --> 00:42:40,850
the Nazis annex Austria.

967
00:42:40,850 --> 00:42:44,220
And Hitler rode in triumph into Vienna.

968
00:42:45,600 --> 00:42:47,220
As an Austrian Jew,

969
00:42:47,220 --> 00:42:50,940
Meitner's very presence in Germany becomes perilous.

970
00:42:50,940 --> 00:42:53,800
It's a really ugly period of history.

971
00:42:53,800 --> 00:42:58,020
We see Jews being intimidated, beaten in the streets,

972
00:42:58,020 --> 00:43:01,180
turned out of their homes, robbed, murdered,

973
00:43:01,180 --> 00:43:04,210
and of course there are Nazi sympathizers

974
00:43:04,210 --> 00:43:05,970
spying on you everywhere.

975
00:43:06,920 --> 00:43:09,570
Hahn, who lobbied so hard for Meitner to be admitted

976
00:43:09,570 --> 00:43:11,990
to university now wants her fired.

977
00:43:12,990 --> 00:43:14,940
Under this political pressure,

978
00:43:14,940 --> 00:43:18,320
Otto Hahn eventually asks Meitner to leave the university.

979
00:43:18,320 --> 00:43:19,680
She takes this really hard.

980
00:43:19,680 --> 00:43:22,870
In fact, it feels like as if he just completely

981
00:43:22,870 --> 00:43:25,340
turned his back on her, someone she had trusted.

982
00:43:25,340 --> 00:43:26,670
And it's written in her diary

983
00:43:26,670 --> 00:43:29,150
that this is the essence of her being thrown out.

984
00:43:30,170 --> 00:43:32,840
Meitner flees Berlin and Germany.

985
00:43:32,840 --> 00:43:35,750
She's lucky to find a new position in the relative safety

986
00:43:35,750 --> 00:43:37,960
of the University of Stockholm.

987
00:43:37,960 --> 00:43:42,290
She's isolated and alone with few resources to work with.

988
00:43:42,290 --> 00:43:45,760
It's a massive fall from grace.

989
00:43:45,760 --> 00:43:48,490
Back in Berlin, Otto Hahn's team

990
00:43:48,490 --> 00:43:50,800
continues to experiment with neutrons.

991
00:43:50,800 --> 00:43:55,800
So they're using neutrons to bombard nuclei of uranium,

992
00:43:55,870 --> 00:43:58,590
which is a naturally occurring, very heavy element.

993
00:43:58,590 --> 00:44:00,790
Has an atomic mass of 238.

994
00:44:01,700 --> 00:44:03,300
I don't really know what that means,

995
00:44:03,300 --> 00:44:06,150
but here's Athena with the important bit.

996
00:44:06,150 --> 00:44:07,530
During this experimentation,

997
00:44:07,530 --> 00:44:10,810
they're expecting to maybe make a heavier uranium atom,

998
00:44:10,810 --> 00:44:14,010
but instead they end up finding traces of barium,

999
00:44:14,010 --> 00:44:16,920
which has anatomic mass of 137.

1000
00:44:16,920 --> 00:44:18,550
Hahn is confused.

1001
00:44:18,550 --> 00:44:22,030
How can adding neutrons to an element make it lighter?

1002
00:44:23,650 --> 00:44:25,800
Hahn decides to write to Meitner,

1003
00:44:25,800 --> 00:44:27,950
hoping that she can come up with an answer.

1004
00:44:30,140 --> 00:44:32,110
It arrives at Christmas.

1005
00:44:32,110 --> 00:44:36,670
Meitner is visited by her nephew, a scientist called Frisch.

1006
00:44:36,670 --> 00:44:38,970
Together they take a walk in the snow.

1007
00:44:38,970 --> 00:44:40,560
It's an idyllic scene.

1008
00:44:40,560 --> 00:44:44,730
Frisch on skis, Meitner following behind on foot,

1009
00:44:44,730 --> 00:44:48,410
both deep in conversation about the kind of physics

1010
00:44:48,410 --> 00:44:50,170
that would melt our brains.

1011
00:44:50,170 --> 00:44:53,030
As they walk, they talk about Hahn's problems

1012
00:44:53,030 --> 00:44:55,370
and run a thought experiment.

1013
00:44:55,370 --> 00:44:56,930
Maybe the nucleus of the atom

1014
00:44:56,930 --> 00:44:59,120
is more like a water droplet.

1015
00:44:59,120 --> 00:45:02,080
And what happens is, as it comes in contact,

1016
00:45:02,080 --> 00:45:04,780
or a neutron collides with it,

1017
00:45:04,780 --> 00:45:07,580
it starts to become pinched in the middle

1018
00:45:07,580 --> 00:45:12,240
where eventually, as it becomes more and more elongated,

1019
00:45:12,240 --> 00:45:14,920
eventually that center part will break,

1020
00:45:14,920 --> 00:45:18,060
separating into two pieces.

1021
00:45:19,490 --> 00:45:21,270
So then you have two nuclei,

1022
00:45:21,270 --> 00:45:24,480
each with a lower atomic weight that confused Hahn.

1023
00:45:25,860 --> 00:45:28,170
But since they're both positively charged,

1024
00:45:28,170 --> 00:45:29,970
they violently repulse each other.

1025
00:45:31,080 --> 00:45:32,450
Small amounts of mass

1026
00:45:32,450 --> 00:45:35,360
are converted into huge amounts of energy.

1027
00:45:35,360 --> 00:45:37,790
Right there in the snow, Meitner and Frisch,

1028
00:45:37,790 --> 00:45:40,220
with nothing but each other as a sounding board,

1029
00:45:40,220 --> 00:45:43,990
had cracked what Otto Hahn had failed to achieve

1030
00:45:43,990 --> 00:45:46,720
with an entire laboratory to his disposal.

1031
00:45:48,380 --> 00:45:49,210
Meitner and Frisch

1032
00:45:49,210 --> 00:45:51,410
call this process nuclear fission.

1033
00:45:52,330 --> 00:45:55,290
Meitner lets Hahn know that they've solved his problem,

1034
00:45:55,290 --> 00:45:56,820
(explosion booming)

1035
00:45:56,820 --> 00:45:58,370
which is probably an error.

1036
00:45:59,910 --> 00:46:03,820
Otto Hahn goes and publishes his own experimental results

1037
00:46:03,820 --> 00:46:05,430
on nuclear fission.

1038
00:46:05,430 --> 00:46:08,500
And this results in him getting the Nobel Prize

1039
00:46:08,500 --> 00:46:11,630
for chemistry for nuclear fission, and meanwhile,

1040
00:46:11,630 --> 00:46:14,440
Lise gets absolutely nothing.

1041
00:46:14,440 --> 00:46:18,270
(horn playing disappointed sound)

1042
00:46:18,270 --> 00:46:19,300
World War II breaks out

1043
00:46:19,300 --> 00:46:22,580
less than a year after Meitner's Christmastime discovery.

1044
00:46:22,580 --> 00:46:24,990
Many of the world's best brains join together

1045
00:46:24,990 --> 00:46:27,770
to produce an atomic bomb.

1046
00:46:27,770 --> 00:46:30,540
Meitner wants no part in the work.

1047
00:46:30,540 --> 00:46:32,110
Scientists are quick to realize

1048
00:46:32,110 --> 00:46:35,310
the devastating potential of nuclear fission.

1049
00:46:35,310 --> 00:46:37,080
President Roosevelt authorizes

1050
00:46:37,080 --> 00:46:38,380
a top secret project

1051
00:46:38,380 --> 00:46:41,890
to develop a weapon based on nuclear fission.

1052
00:46:41,890 --> 00:46:44,030
It was, of course, the Manhattan Project.

1053
00:46:44,030 --> 00:46:45,500
(explosion booming)

1054
00:46:45,500 --> 00:46:47,760
Just three weeks after the Trinity Test

1055
00:46:47,760 --> 00:46:50,920
turned sand to glass in the New Mexico desert,

1056
00:46:50,920 --> 00:46:55,140
the U.S. Army unleashed that weapon on the Japanese cities

1057
00:46:55,140 --> 00:46:57,730
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,

1058
00:46:57,730 --> 00:47:00,390
turning people and buildings to ash.

1059
00:47:00,390 --> 00:47:03,640
On August 6th, 1945, the first atomic bomb

1060
00:47:03,640 --> 00:47:05,570
dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima

1061
00:47:05,570 --> 00:47:08,260
on the southwest coast of the island of Honshu,

1062
00:47:08,260 --> 00:47:10,840
virtually ending the conflict in the Pacific.

1063
00:47:10,840 --> 00:47:13,420
The devastation these bombs unleashed

1064
00:47:13,420 --> 00:47:15,210
is just unimaginable.

1065
00:47:15,210 --> 00:47:19,030
To think that all of this carnage came from a single bomb.

1066
00:47:19,870 --> 00:47:21,580
World War II was over,

1067
00:47:21,580 --> 00:47:24,660
but the horror of nuclear war hangs as a shadow

1068
00:47:24,660 --> 00:47:27,560
over international relations to this day.

1069
00:47:27,560 --> 00:47:31,200
This government, as promised, has maintained

1070
00:47:31,200 --> 00:47:34,980
the closest surveillance of the Soviet military buildup

1071
00:47:34,980 --> 00:47:37,350
on the island of Cuba.

1072
00:47:37,350 --> 00:47:41,430
Nuclear fission has brought mutually distrustful nations

1073
00:47:41,430 --> 00:47:44,210
to the brink of nuclear destruction

1074
00:47:44,210 --> 00:47:45,990
on more than one occasion.

1075
00:47:45,990 --> 00:47:48,540
And we've spent the last 60 years trying to figure out

1076
00:47:48,540 --> 00:47:52,960
how not to destroy ourselves with nuclear weapons.

1077
00:47:52,960 --> 00:47:55,340
While Meitner was greatly saddened by the fact

1078
00:47:55,340 --> 00:47:58,810
that her discovery led to such destructive weapons,

1079
00:47:58,810 --> 00:48:00,840
she carried on with her research,

1080
00:48:00,840 --> 00:48:03,800
searching for a peaceful application for fission.

1081
00:48:03,800 --> 00:48:05,620
It wasn't long in coming.

1082
00:48:05,620 --> 00:48:06,560
Since the Industrial Revolution,

1083
00:48:06,560 --> 00:48:09,260
the world has pretty much relied on fossil fuels

1084
00:48:09,260 --> 00:48:10,420
for its power.

1085
00:48:10,420 --> 00:48:12,850
We now know, however, that the use of these fossil fuels

1086
00:48:12,850 --> 00:48:15,540
is pretty much bad news all around.

1087
00:48:15,540 --> 00:48:17,340
Burning them emits greenhouse gases

1088
00:48:17,340 --> 00:48:19,280
that alter our planet's climate.

1089
00:48:19,280 --> 00:48:21,180
Burning them also produces particulates

1090
00:48:21,180 --> 00:48:24,010
that cause a huge number of respiratory illnesses,

1091
00:48:24,010 --> 00:48:27,120
and the extraction of these substances from the earth

1092
00:48:27,120 --> 00:48:29,760
causes a huge amount of environmental devastation

1093
00:48:29,760 --> 00:48:31,720
and political unrest.

1094
00:48:31,720 --> 00:48:33,740
All in all, a bad thing.

1095
00:48:33,740 --> 00:48:36,960
But maybe nuclear power offers a solution.

1096
00:48:36,960 --> 00:48:40,250
Meitner helps to construct Sweden's first nuclear reactor

1097
00:48:40,250 --> 00:48:44,960
using her same discovery, but with some subtle tweaks.

1098
00:48:44,960 --> 00:48:47,080
That's a very delicate process that happens

1099
00:48:47,080 --> 00:48:48,750
at nuclear power plants.

1100
00:48:48,750 --> 00:48:51,090
You're basically wanting to split uranium,

1101
00:48:51,090 --> 00:48:53,480
but allow for it to have a chain reaction.

1102
00:48:53,480 --> 00:48:56,620
Just not all at once, because in technical terms,

1103
00:48:56,620 --> 00:48:58,360
that could be very bad.

1104
00:48:58,360 --> 00:49:00,220
The heat given off by the fission reaction

1105
00:49:00,220 --> 00:49:02,400
is absorbed by nearby water,

1106
00:49:02,400 --> 00:49:05,050
which heats up and turns into steam.

1107
00:49:05,050 --> 00:49:06,680
That steam turns turbines,

1108
00:49:06,680 --> 00:49:09,620
turbines are attached to generators, and boom.

1109
00:49:09,620 --> 00:49:11,020
Boom.

1110
00:49:11,020 --> 00:49:13,270
Only, hopefully not boom.

1111
00:49:13,270 --> 00:49:14,850
Exactly, Natasha.

1112
00:49:14,850 --> 00:49:18,040
Nuclear power plants don't burn their fuel,

1113
00:49:18,040 --> 00:49:20,980
so no damaging gases are released into the atmosphere.

1114
00:49:20,980 --> 00:49:22,960
While you still have to mine for uranium,

1115
00:49:22,960 --> 00:49:27,480
nuclear reactors use about 200 tons of uranium per year

1116
00:49:27,480 --> 00:49:31,960
compared to coal plants that require 14,000 tons of fuel

1117
00:49:31,960 --> 00:49:34,540
every single day.

1118
00:49:35,840 --> 00:49:37,940
But while a lot better than fossil fuels,

1119
00:49:37,940 --> 00:49:38,980
they aren't perfect.

1120
00:49:39,830 --> 00:49:42,510
The downside of this is it produces quite a lot

1121
00:49:42,510 --> 00:49:45,070
of uranium decay waste.

1122
00:49:45,070 --> 00:49:49,050
So even though it's a great way to produce energy and heat,

1123
00:49:49,050 --> 00:49:52,910
we still don't really have a way of disposing of this waste.

1124
00:49:52,910 --> 00:49:55,320
And of course accidents can happen.

1125
00:49:55,320 --> 00:49:58,050
And they've happened on several occasions.

1126
00:49:58,050 --> 00:49:59,890
A wrecked nuclear plant

1127
00:49:59,890 --> 00:50:02,430
that continues to leak contamination.

1128
00:50:02,430 --> 00:50:05,990
For Japan, Fukushima is the curse that won't go away.

1129
00:50:05,990 --> 00:50:07,980
Each of these incidents has eroded public trust

1130
00:50:07,980 --> 00:50:09,810
in nuclear power, but nuclear energy

1131
00:50:09,810 --> 00:50:12,980
is one of the safest forms of energy generation.

1132
00:50:12,980 --> 00:50:15,560
And modern nuclear power plants can even reuse

1133
00:50:15,560 --> 00:50:17,460
some of that old nuclear waste.

1134
00:50:19,250 --> 00:50:22,670
Today between 10 and 15% of the world's energy

1135
00:50:22,670 --> 00:50:24,980
is provided by nuclear power plants.

1136
00:50:24,980 --> 00:50:28,980
In Meitner's adopted Sweden, that figure's 40%.

1137
00:50:28,980 --> 00:50:32,300
It's the second largest source of low carbon electricity

1138
00:50:32,300 --> 00:50:37,300
after hydro power from 440 reactors in 32 countries.

1139
00:50:37,580 --> 00:50:39,610
And nuclear fission is finding uses

1140
00:50:39,610 --> 00:50:41,070
in smaller applications.

1141
00:50:41,930 --> 00:50:45,230
We're splitting atoms for all kinds of tasks these days,

1142
00:50:45,230 --> 00:50:48,670
such as, for example, creating mildly radioactive isotopes

1143
00:50:48,670 --> 00:50:50,350
for use in medical imaging.

1144
00:50:50,350 --> 00:50:52,020
There's even nuclear fission taking place

1145
00:50:52,020 --> 00:50:54,790
on the surface of Mars right now.

1146
00:50:54,790 --> 00:50:57,570
The last two rovers that NASA sent to the red planet

1147
00:50:57,570 --> 00:51:01,520
have been equipped with nuclear thermal reactors.

1148
00:51:01,520 --> 00:51:03,970
As we look to a more permanent presence on Mars,

1149
00:51:03,970 --> 00:51:06,980
space agencies consider nuclear as the most obvious source

1150
00:51:06,980 --> 00:51:08,530
of energy for human colonies.

1151
00:51:08,530 --> 00:51:11,440
(optimistic music)

1152
00:51:18,550 --> 00:51:21,550
(inquisitive music)