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(dramatic orchestral music)

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Science served as a virtual time machine,

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peering into the past to deliver remarkable revelations,

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while also advancing amazing projections about the future,

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changes which will impact human lives

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and all life on the planet.

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Now, as this year on Earth comes to a close,

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a new inquiry, which could yield clues

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to the origins of our solar system,

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is just getting underway.

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(dramatic orchestral music)

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November 26, 2018.

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The NASA probe InSight barrels into the atmosphere of Mars

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at more than 14,000 miles an hour.

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Controllers back at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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have been monitoring the spacecraft for six long months.

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Now, they can only sit, watch,

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and hope that their creation survives

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as it endures six minutes of hell

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on its perilous descent to the Martian surface.

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InSight should now be experiencing the peak heating rates.

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Portions of the heat shield may reach

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nearly 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit

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as it protects the lander from the heating environment.

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(dramatic music)

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InSight has passed through peak deceleration.

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Standing by for parachute deploy.

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Telemetry shows parachute deployment.

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Radar powered on.

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(applause)

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Heat shield separation commanded.

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(dramatic music)

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Lander separation commanded.

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Altitude 600 meters.

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200 meters.

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50 meters.

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Constant velocity.

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17 meters.

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Standing by for touch down.

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Touch down confirmed!

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(cheering)

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Fabulous, fabulous.

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A big hand to the Marco team there.

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The next step: waiting for InSight's

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solar arrays to open and provide power to the probe.

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Finally, the proof arrives from across space:

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a dust-speckled image of the landing sight,

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as well as an image of the craft,

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safely on the Martian surface.

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In this first couple of pictures

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of a place no human has ever seen before,

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also remind us that, in order to do science,

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we have to be bold, and we have to be explorers.

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For over 50 years, we've visited Mars

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with an increasingly powerful array

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of orbiters, landers, and rovers.

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But these missions largely just scratch the surface.

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To really understand the Red Planet,

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we need to somehow look inside it.

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The basic idea of InSight is to map out

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the deep structure of Mars for the very first time.

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We're gonna map out the thickness of the crust,

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the size of the core, sort of get

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the first map of the inside of Mars.

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InSight will peer deep into the Martian crust

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to uncover tectonic activity, and reveal the process

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that helped shape the rocky planets of our solar system.

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The first major science experiment to deploy

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will be a seismometer that can measure faint vibrations

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throughout the crust caused by Mars quakes.

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We'll be able to use the signals they produce

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that travel throughout the entire body of the planet

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to probe the interior of Mars,

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to look at the size of the core,

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to understand that molten versus solid structure.

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Mars is a record of an earlier geologic era.

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Mars cooled faster, so that it never had

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plate tectonics as far as we can see,

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and it no longer has a magnetic field.

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It preserved what it looked like early on when it formed,

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and therefore have a record of what

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the solar system and the rocky bodies might have looked like

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about four billion years ago,

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when they actually were created.

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A second instrument aboard InSight, HP3,

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will go even further, burrowing deep

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into the planet's surface to take its temperature.

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So inside this part of HP3 is a mole.

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It's like a self-hammering nail.

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So it will hammer down into the surface of Mars

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to a depth of five meters.

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The probe will periodically measure

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the properties of the soil as it burrows into the planet.

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Embedded on a trailing tower are 14 sensors

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that will monitor the temperature

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at various depths beneath the surface.

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The results could provide scientists with stunning

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new insight about the earliest days of our universe.

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It's amazing.

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We're gonna be the first mission

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to actually look at the inside of Mars

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and probe the unseen interior,

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which we can not only apply to Earth

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but also formation of rocky planet formation

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across the universe.

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As one Mars mission begins,

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another comes to a close.

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One of Mars' pioneering explorers

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may have just completed its record-setting expedition.

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Initially slated for a 90-day mission,

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the Opportunity rover shocked engineers back on Earth

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as it soldiered on for nearly 15 more years.

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Opportunity has spent more operational days

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on the surface of the Red Planet than any other craft,

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beaming back images of the Martian landscape

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and increasing our understanding of our neighbor,

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until June 10th of this year.

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We haven't head from Opportunity since.

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10 days earlier, the MRO satellite saw a dust storm brewing.

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It would engulf the planet, making it

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one of the most extensive Martian storms on record

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and concealing Opportunity's solar panels in dust,

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cutting off its power.

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The JPL team at NASA has been sending frequent commands

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to the rover ever since, sometimes multiple commands daily.

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They hope that the heavy winds

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that normally sweep across Mars from November to January

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will help dust off the rover's energy source,

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breathing life into it once more.

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NASA will continue to signal Opportunity

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until January 1st of 2019.

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If Opportunity remains silent,

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the team will decide then what to do next.

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But elsewhere in our solar system,

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other planetary missions remain well underway

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and continue to unlock mysteries,

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like NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter,

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which was recently extended until July, 2021,

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already revealing Earth-sized storms, a magnetosphere

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much more powerful than originally predicted,

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and a first look at Jupiter's poles.

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Instead of having just one polar vortex,

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like we have here on Earth, the Juno spacecraft

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has spotted as many as eight swirls

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here on Jupiter's north pole,

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and five on its southern pole.

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The craft will continue to peer deep into the planet,

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including the red spot, to better understand the gas giant.

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While space exploration demands advanced technical wizardry,

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living on our liquid planet can demand

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advanced engineering as well.

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On October 28th, 2018, pictures of the high tide

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in Venice go viral around the world.

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This is nothing new for the Venetians, who are used to it.

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But the intensity caught everyone off guard.

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It had been 10 years since a hight a tide

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had exceeded the threshold of 1.5 meters above sea level.

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On October 28th at 2:00 pm, 75% of the city was under water.

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The usual solutions, such as walkways, pumps,

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and barriers were not enough this time.

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Inevitably, restaurant goers were forced to eat their pizza

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with their feet in the standing water.

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Only a system of floodgates at the four lagoon entrances

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can protect the city from flooding.

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This solution, called MOSE, is based on an idea

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that is as simple as it is innovative.

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It consists of 78 flap gates like these.

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They each weight nearly 330 tons

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and will lie at the bottom of the lagoon.

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When needed, the flap gates will be pumped with air

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until the rise in a straight line,

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blocking the flow of the tide coming in.

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Despite its simplicity, MOSE is the most ambitious

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and complex hydraulic engineering project

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ever attempted in the world.

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It took years to assemble the concrete platform

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on the seafloor.

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The individual components that make up the platform

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have been built here, in this site on the mainland.

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The engineers call them caissons.

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They may look like simple, four-story buildings

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under construction, but each and every detail is special.

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From the concrete to the steel,

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all elements must endure the salt water.

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Each caisson weights 24,000 tons

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and requires a special trolley

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fitted with pistons capable of raising them gently,

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moving them to the launch pontoon.

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Then, once it's semi-submerged like an iceberg,

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the caisson is dragged by the tugboats

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until it reaches its final home.

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This is the most delicate phase.

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The caisson needs to be lowered slowly,

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until it rests on the ballast

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that's been prepared for it on the seafloor.

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It needs to be aligned with the previous one

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in such a way that the trimming between one caisson

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to the next is completely watertight.

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The platform has been designed

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to contain an underwater tunnel

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that crosses the entire stretch of sea.

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Here, the technicians can go down

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and fix the hinges of the flap gates.

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(anxious music)

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Back on the surface, the flap gate

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is now ready to be installed.

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It's time for the last flap gate of this inlet

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to be mounted, but the operation on number 19

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gets off to a bad start.

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(foreign language)

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The divers swim underwater to prepare the slots

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that will host the hinges.

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(foreign language)

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Now for the most sensitive phase of the descent:

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the hooking of the hinges.

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(foreign language)

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The cables gradually lower the flap gate.

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That allows the hinges to perfectly slide

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into the fitted slots.

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(foreign language)

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Video cameras film the decisive moment.

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The technicians have to constantly make small adjustments

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to compensate for all external interference.

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The technicians know the hinges are the heart of the system.

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All electronic connections with the flap gate

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pass through them.

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(foreign language)

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It's touch down.

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So far so good, but it's not over yet.

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The technicians in the sea tunnel

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must now complete the hooking by rotating it 90 degrees

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and securing it to the platform.

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A message arrives from underwater:

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it's perfectly watertight.

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Operation over.

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(foreign language)

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(applause)

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All 19 flap gates are in place.

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By the end of the year, all mobile barriers

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are scheduled to be in place.

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The first tests on those already installed have started.

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But it'll take months of tuning and testing

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before MOSE is operative.

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Only then will the world discover

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if this colossal mega-structure

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can save Venice and its ancient beauty.

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Elsewhere, though, we now know all that falls

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below history's waterline may not be lost forever.

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Near the Marshall Islands, in an isolated area

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of the South Pacific, a team of underwater archeologists

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and divers is hoping to preserve an important relic

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of the 20th century's last great conflict.

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The plane is a Douglas TBD-1 Devastator.

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It was the U.S. Navy's frontline torpedo bomber

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in the opening days of World War II.

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This one was lost in a raid on Jaluit Atoll

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in February of 1942.

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The weather was extremely poor on the day of the mission.

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They ultimately had to jettison their bombs in the ocean

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and tried to return to the ship but got lost

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and had to turn around and ditch in the lagoon at Jaluit.

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Miraculously, the entire crew

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survived the ordeal, leaving behind a reminder

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of their mission, 120 feet under the sea.

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As of today, there are no examples

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of this type of aircraft preserved

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in any collection or museum anywhere in the world.

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It's really something of a miracle

269
00:16:06,880 --> 00:16:09,020
that the airplane has survived to this day

270
00:16:09,020 --> 00:16:13,030
in the shape that it's in, but that won't last forever.

271
00:16:13,030 --> 00:16:16,210
The forces of nature are already taking hold.

272
00:16:16,210 --> 00:16:17,403
It will go away.

273
00:16:19,800 --> 00:16:21,530
The team is in a race against time

274
00:16:21,530 --> 00:16:24,683
to preserve the plane in its entirety for the world to see.

275
00:16:25,740 --> 00:16:29,320
But first, they'll use the latest in photogrammetry,

276
00:16:29,320 --> 00:16:33,540
virtual reality, and LIDAR laser scanning technology

277
00:16:33,540 --> 00:16:36,823
to create a model with sub-millimeter accuracy.

278
00:16:39,880 --> 00:16:44,240
As far as we're aware, this particular technology

279
00:16:44,240 --> 00:16:47,670
hasn't been employed to any great extent

280
00:16:47,670 --> 00:16:49,670
in underwater archeological sites.

281
00:16:49,670 --> 00:16:52,380
By employing this technology in this way,

282
00:16:52,380 --> 00:16:57,270
we're able to create a hyper-accurate version of this site

283
00:16:57,270 --> 00:17:00,490
in the space of a few hours of dive time.

284
00:17:00,490 --> 00:17:03,300
The 3-D photogrammetry involves a diver

285
00:17:03,300 --> 00:17:05,750
with a still camera rig swimming around

286
00:17:05,750 --> 00:17:08,610
and around the wreck, taking thousands

287
00:17:08,610 --> 00:17:10,683
of photographs in a single dive.

288
00:17:14,279 --> 00:17:15,370
The LIDAR scanning is a bit more involved.

289
00:17:15,370 --> 00:17:17,780
You have to place the scanning head

290
00:17:17,780 --> 00:17:20,073
at several positions around the wreck.

291
00:17:22,690 --> 00:17:25,270
The LIDAR point cloud itself is comprised

292
00:17:25,270 --> 00:17:29,030
of 92 million individual points

293
00:17:29,030 --> 00:17:31,373
that were collected in a space of a few hours.

294
00:17:32,870 --> 00:17:35,520
In less than a week, we accomplished more,

295
00:17:35,520 --> 00:17:38,530
and with greater accuracy, than we have managed

296
00:17:38,530 --> 00:17:41,083
in five previous expeditions to this airplane.

297
00:17:42,550 --> 00:17:43,770
The results?

298
00:17:43,770 --> 00:17:45,650
One of the most accurate models

299
00:17:45,650 --> 00:17:48,733
of a World War II airplane ever to be created.

300
00:17:49,950 --> 00:17:52,000
By employing this technology in this way,

301
00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:55,643
we've taken a step forward, or a step into the 21st century.

302
00:17:58,750 --> 00:18:01,670
And it gave us the ability to create a site map

303
00:18:01,670 --> 00:18:04,193
with sub-millimeter accuracy,

304
00:18:05,510 --> 00:18:08,573
something that we'll be able to consult time and again.

305
00:18:09,600 --> 00:18:11,680
The ultimate goal is to see this airplane recovered,

306
00:18:11,680 --> 00:18:14,570
conserved, and placed on public exhibition.

307
00:18:14,570 --> 00:18:18,350
This is really our last, best chance to see

308
00:18:18,350 --> 00:18:21,363
one of these airplanes saved for future generations.

309
00:18:25,300 --> 00:18:28,440
2018 saw innovations illuminate discoveries

310
00:18:28,440 --> 00:18:32,713
from the depths of the sea, and across the tide of time.

311
00:18:36,780 --> 00:18:38,850
Seven decades after the initial discovery

312
00:18:38,850 --> 00:18:41,240
of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a cigar box

313
00:18:41,240 --> 00:18:43,860
of dark and damaged fragments was located

314
00:18:43,860 --> 00:18:47,253
in a storage drawer by researcher Oren Ableman.

315
00:18:48,950 --> 00:18:52,860
These missing puzzle pieces, unexamined since the 1950s,

316
00:18:52,860 --> 00:18:55,820
included text which fit neatly into the scripts

317
00:18:55,820 --> 00:18:58,713
of the Temple Scroll and the Great Psalm Scroll.

318
00:19:00,110 --> 00:19:05,100
2,000-year-old treasures conserved, curated, and cataloged

319
00:19:05,100 --> 00:19:07,063
but the Israeli Antiquities Authority.

320
00:19:08,050 --> 00:19:10,870
Infrared imaging and careful analysis

321
00:19:10,870 --> 00:19:13,323
revealed previously undetected writing.

322
00:19:14,340 --> 00:19:18,430
They used a system that we developed for them and ...

323
00:19:18,430 --> 00:19:22,350
took some stuff again that no one thought had anything on it

324
00:19:22,350 --> 00:19:24,483
or believed that it was anything useful.

325
00:19:25,720 --> 00:19:27,480
American Greg Bearman,

326
00:19:27,480 --> 00:19:30,890
a retired physicist from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,

327
00:19:30,890 --> 00:19:33,370
collaborated with a team from MegaVision,

328
00:19:33,370 --> 00:19:36,240
a digital imaging company, to create the platform

329
00:19:36,240 --> 00:19:38,970
used by the Israeli Antiquities Authority,

330
00:19:38,970 --> 00:19:41,280
not only to preserve the scrolls for posterity

331
00:19:42,180 --> 00:19:43,363
but to see the unseen.

332
00:19:44,360 --> 00:19:46,550
So the technology in general is what's called

333
00:19:46,550 --> 00:19:51,550
imaging spectroscopy, and it combines digital imaging,

334
00:19:51,770 --> 00:19:54,830
which gives you an image, with spectroscopy,

335
00:19:54,830 --> 00:19:58,870
which is what, it's the standard physicist tool

336
00:19:58,870 --> 00:20:00,970
to understand what things are made out of.

337
00:20:05,010 --> 00:20:07,590
Pnina Shor leads the Dead Sea Scrolls project

338
00:20:07,590 --> 00:20:08,683
for the IAA.

339
00:20:10,240 --> 00:20:12,890
Beginning in 2011, she and her team set out

340
00:20:12,890 --> 00:20:15,290
to use multi-spectral technology to image

341
00:20:15,290 --> 00:20:17,240
every single piece in their possession,

342
00:20:18,920 --> 00:20:22,563
digitizing the results, and positing online for all to see.

343
00:20:24,000 --> 00:20:25,730
It's a massive undertaking,

344
00:20:25,730 --> 00:20:27,730
which will still take years to complete.

345
00:20:29,010 --> 00:20:31,392
We're talking about a world heritage,

346
00:20:31,392 --> 00:20:34,910
and it's part of our mission to bring this heritage

347
00:20:34,910 --> 00:20:37,480
and to share it with the world.

348
00:20:37,480 --> 00:20:40,880
And these conservation efforts can, from time to time,

349
00:20:40,880 --> 00:20:44,090
reveal hidden texts, like the characters

350
00:20:44,090 --> 00:20:46,370
on those recently discovered fragments,

351
00:20:46,370 --> 00:20:48,293
literally hiding in plain sight.

352
00:20:49,240 --> 00:20:52,230
Bearman compares his multi-spectral technology

353
00:20:52,230 --> 00:20:54,750
to the difference between a black and white photo

354
00:20:54,750 --> 00:20:56,053
and a color image.

355
00:20:57,160 --> 00:21:00,223
More light information offers more detail.

356
00:21:01,390 --> 00:21:04,430
The reason that we don't see this faded text

357
00:21:04,430 --> 00:21:06,920
is what happened is, in that part of the spectrum,

358
00:21:06,920 --> 00:21:11,110
what's visible, is the parchment has gotten dark,

359
00:21:11,110 --> 00:21:12,370
and the ink is naturally dark,

360
00:21:12,370 --> 00:21:14,110
so there's very little contrast between the two,

361
00:21:14,110 --> 00:21:15,930
so you don't see it.

362
00:21:15,930 --> 00:21:19,020
And it turns out, for reasons that actually no one knows,

363
00:21:19,020 --> 00:21:21,400
that as you go further in the infrared

364
00:21:21,400 --> 00:21:23,570
the parchment gets brighter.

365
00:21:23,570 --> 00:21:25,200
So as the parchment gets brighter

366
00:21:25,200 --> 00:21:27,150
and the ink stays relatively the same,

367
00:21:27,150 --> 00:21:29,800
you begin to get contrast, so that's what's going on.

368
00:21:32,950 --> 00:21:35,210
The visible spectrum seen by the human eye

369
00:21:35,210 --> 00:21:38,763
ranges between about 400 to 700 nanometers.

370
00:21:39,800 --> 00:21:43,480
Bearman first experimented with this method 25 years ago

371
00:21:43,480 --> 00:21:45,590
by dialing a filter to allow his camera

372
00:21:45,590 --> 00:21:49,343
to register longer wavelengths, and struck gold.

373
00:21:50,280 --> 00:21:52,560
And as we, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing,

374
00:21:52,560 --> 00:21:54,990
we got to like 800, a little bit of text,

375
00:21:54,990 --> 00:21:58,340
850, a little, got to 900, 950, it was just

376
00:21:58,340 --> 00:22:01,403
nice, dark text on a white background.

377
00:22:08,100 --> 00:22:10,910
And Bearman has gone one step further,

378
00:22:10,910 --> 00:22:14,183
recording images at 12 different bands of light.

379
00:22:15,220 --> 00:22:16,810
It's a monochrome camera, which is to say

380
00:22:16,810 --> 00:22:19,530
it doesn't have the color filters on it.

381
00:22:19,530 --> 00:22:21,560
So what we're doing with the multi-spectral imager

382
00:22:21,560 --> 00:22:26,440
is that we provide the illumination in each wavelength.

383
00:22:26,440 --> 00:22:30,490
Most of the text that's illegible is made legible

384
00:22:30,490 --> 00:22:32,800
when you go out to 940 nanometer.

385
00:22:32,800 --> 00:22:37,510
We have a 940 nanometer LED, and we take a single image,

386
00:22:37,510 --> 00:22:41,603
and that's the one that the text scholars are interested in.

387
00:22:45,600 --> 00:22:47,680
So while archeologists continue to scour

388
00:22:47,680 --> 00:22:51,043
desert caves on the hunt for additional cultural treasures,

389
00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:55,433
and new technologies emerge to study what's already in hand,

390
00:22:56,950 --> 00:23:01,420
sometimes uncovering pieces of the past is accomplished

391
00:23:01,420 --> 00:23:04,513
simply by revealing what's been hiding in plain sight.

392
00:23:05,950 --> 00:23:09,470
Understanding these complexities required mental clarity.

393
00:23:09,470 --> 00:23:12,670
But unfortunately, for a growing number of people,

394
00:23:12,670 --> 00:23:14,710
illness affecting brain function

395
00:23:14,710 --> 00:23:17,293
steals their most basic cognitive ability.

396
00:23:18,440 --> 00:23:21,580
In the United States alone, more than five million people

397
00:23:21,580 --> 00:23:25,350
live with Alzheimer's disease, a number that's expected

398
00:23:25,350 --> 00:23:28,233
to more than triple by the year 2050.

399
00:23:30,150 --> 00:23:32,270
But some Alzheimer's researchers,

400
00:23:32,270 --> 00:23:34,110
including professor Christian Holscher,

401
00:23:34,110 --> 00:23:36,390
at England's Lancaster University,

402
00:23:36,390 --> 00:23:38,130
believe the foundation for treatment,

403
00:23:38,130 --> 00:23:39,940
and perhaps even a cure,

404
00:23:39,940 --> 00:23:42,683
may lie in our existing inventory of drugs.

405
00:23:44,220 --> 00:23:45,830
So we thought maybe the drugs

406
00:23:45,830 --> 00:23:48,860
that are already on the market to treat diabetes,

407
00:23:48,860 --> 00:23:51,890
perhaps they could be helpful to avoid

408
00:23:51,890 --> 00:23:55,463
this development happening the in the first place.

409
00:23:56,560 --> 00:23:58,350
Recent studies had already shown

410
00:23:58,350 --> 00:24:01,660
positive results of some diabetes drugs to combat ailments

411
00:24:01,660 --> 00:24:05,870
of the brain, like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

412
00:24:05,870 --> 00:24:08,620
So Holscher too the next step: developing

413
00:24:08,620 --> 00:24:12,880
a next-generation drug that targets multiple mechanisms.

414
00:24:12,880 --> 00:24:17,000
So this new drug that we are testing actually activates

415
00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:21,636
three different types of receptors and signaling pathways.

416
00:24:21,636 --> 00:24:26,636
And it looks like this means that the protective effect

417
00:24:27,310 --> 00:24:29,063
is better, is larger.

418
00:24:31,680 --> 00:24:33,530
In Holscher's experiment,

419
00:24:33,530 --> 00:24:37,140
conclusions were reached thanks to three groups of test mice

420
00:24:37,140 --> 00:24:39,933
and their varying abilities to learn and remember.

421
00:24:41,490 --> 00:24:45,080
The wild type, ordinary mice are very quick,

422
00:24:45,080 --> 00:24:49,460
but the transgenic mouse, which expresses human genes

423
00:24:49,460 --> 00:24:53,740
that produce these amyloid plaques, they're not great.

424
00:24:53,740 --> 00:24:56,350
They're slow.

425
00:24:56,350 --> 00:24:59,380
But if you then treat this Alzheimer mouse with the drug,

426
00:24:59,380 --> 00:25:03,810
you can see that the speed at which they learn

427
00:25:03,810 --> 00:25:08,030
is just as fast as that of a normal mouse.

428
00:25:08,030 --> 00:25:10,260
So this demonstrates that this drug

429
00:25:10,260 --> 00:25:14,253
can protect learning and memory formation.

430
00:25:15,580 --> 00:25:17,940
Additional analysis shows increased

431
00:25:17,940 --> 00:25:21,053
synaptic activity in the brains of the treated mice,

432
00:25:22,070 --> 00:25:25,210
a reduced rate of amyloid tangles and plaques,

433
00:25:25,210 --> 00:25:30,003
and diminished tau buildup as well: all encouraging signs.

434
00:25:30,950 --> 00:25:33,580
The fact that we can improve all these

435
00:25:33,580 --> 00:25:36,190
important parameters in the brain

436
00:25:36,190 --> 00:25:40,820
which drive the disease gives us the hope that this drug

437
00:25:40,820 --> 00:25:44,693
can actually stop the disease in the human brain,

438
00:25:45,580 --> 00:25:49,560
and it can even repair some of the neurons,

439
00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:52,640
bring them back to a functional state

440
00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:57,100
and hopefully can bring back some of the impairments

441
00:25:57,100 --> 00:25:59,513
that we see in the patients.

442
00:26:00,540 --> 00:26:02,490
To prove successful, this new

443
00:26:02,490 --> 00:26:04,930
and still unnamed drug must move

444
00:26:04,930 --> 00:26:07,923
from mouse models to human clinical trials.

445
00:26:08,920 --> 00:26:11,060
Will Holscher's triple receptor treatment

446
00:26:11,060 --> 00:26:13,530
work on people the same way?

447
00:26:13,530 --> 00:26:16,383
The answer requires more testing and time.

448
00:26:17,850 --> 00:26:20,890
Of course, protecting and restoring sound minds

449
00:26:20,890 --> 00:26:23,330
also requires maintaining healthy bodies,

450
00:26:23,330 --> 00:26:26,563
and at times that can be a difficult habit to stick to.

451
00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:31,700
Food, glorious food.

452
00:26:31,700 --> 00:26:34,070
No doubt many consider eating

453
00:26:34,070 --> 00:26:36,033
to be one of life's greatest joys.

454
00:26:36,920 --> 00:26:39,910
But big appetites, coupled with poor nutrition,

455
00:26:39,910 --> 00:26:42,183
can lead to devastating consequences.

456
00:26:44,430 --> 00:26:49,070
Nearly 40% of adults in America, that's 93 million people,

457
00:26:49,070 --> 00:26:52,260
are obese, and therefore at greater risk

458
00:26:52,260 --> 00:26:55,933
for Type 2 Diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.

459
00:26:57,190 --> 00:27:00,420
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention,

460
00:27:00,420 --> 00:27:04,310
obesity costs the county $147 billion

461
00:27:04,310 --> 00:27:05,883
in medical bills annually.

462
00:27:08,080 --> 00:27:11,490
But researchers at the University of Texas medical branch

463
00:27:11,490 --> 00:27:13,330
think they have a scientific solution

464
00:27:13,330 --> 00:27:14,673
to this weighty problem.

465
00:27:16,890 --> 00:27:19,590
Physiologically speaking, obesity is caused

466
00:27:19,590 --> 00:27:21,023
by more than overeating.

467
00:27:22,070 --> 00:27:26,010
Proteins in fat cells act as a metabolic break

468
00:27:26,010 --> 00:27:28,203
and slow the burning of excess fat.

469
00:27:29,360 --> 00:27:31,560
This, in essence, makes it harder

470
00:27:31,560 --> 00:27:34,580
for obese people to lose weight

471
00:27:34,580 --> 00:27:36,560
when they undertake diet and exercise.

472
00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:38,170
The body is effectively fighting

473
00:27:38,170 --> 00:27:39,733
their attempts to lose weight.

474
00:27:40,980 --> 00:27:42,930
However, the researchers in Texas

475
00:27:42,930 --> 00:27:46,240
developed a molecular key to deactivate these proteins

476
00:27:46,240 --> 00:27:48,303
and maintain a normal metabolism.

477
00:27:49,180 --> 00:27:51,300
Their first test subjects?

478
00:27:51,300 --> 00:27:56,273
Diet-induced obese mice, or, simply put, fat mice.

479
00:27:57,450 --> 00:28:00,570
When we added our compound to the diet,

480
00:28:00,570 --> 00:28:04,670
the treated animals didn't change their eating habits;

481
00:28:04,670 --> 00:28:06,910
they ate the same as the control animals.

482
00:28:06,910 --> 00:28:10,580
But they lost about 30% of their fat mass.

483
00:28:10,580 --> 00:28:12,380
And over the course of 10 days,

484
00:28:12,380 --> 00:28:15,740
their total body mass went down by about 8%,

485
00:28:15,740 --> 00:28:18,733
but most of that loss was concentrated in the fat tissues.

486
00:28:19,950 --> 00:28:22,100
That's right, the mice lost weight

487
00:28:22,100 --> 00:28:24,073
without changing their eating habits.

488
00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:27,270
Researchers are waiting on approval

489
00:28:27,270 --> 00:28:28,950
from the Federal Drug Administration

490
00:28:28,950 --> 00:28:32,003
to begin testing with humans in about two years.

491
00:28:33,130 --> 00:28:35,290
Success, however, won't mean an end

492
00:28:35,290 --> 00:28:37,440
to exercise and healthy diets.

493
00:28:37,440 --> 00:28:39,893
Weight loss will still require some work.

494
00:28:40,870 --> 00:28:42,890
While some advances in medical technology

495
00:28:42,890 --> 00:28:45,820
help us improve our quality of life,

496
00:28:45,820 --> 00:28:49,523
others uncover deadly disease and extend our lives.

497
00:28:51,100 --> 00:28:54,140
Tests today can detect specific cancers.

498
00:28:54,140 --> 00:28:56,710
Each year, millions undergo mammograms,

499
00:28:56,710 --> 00:28:59,750
colonoscopies, and lung scans.

500
00:28:59,750 --> 00:29:02,930
Most of these procedures involve dedicated office visits

501
00:29:02,930 --> 00:29:04,523
and big, expensive equipment.

502
00:29:05,620 --> 00:29:08,690
But in early 2018, researchers at Johns Hopkins

503
00:29:08,690 --> 00:29:10,800
Kimmel Cancer Center unveiled

504
00:29:10,800 --> 00:29:14,030
how they hope to simplify the diagnostic process,

505
00:29:14,030 --> 00:29:16,690
making cancer tests cheaper, less invasive,

506
00:29:16,690 --> 00:29:18,340
and more efficient and effective.

507
00:29:20,010 --> 00:29:22,700
Dr. Nickolas Papadopoulos and his colleagues

508
00:29:22,700 --> 00:29:25,500
have developed a single blood test they call CancerSEEK.

509
00:29:26,850 --> 00:29:28,910
It is a pan-cancer test.

510
00:29:28,910 --> 00:29:32,660
You don't have to have a test only for pancreatic cancer

511
00:29:32,660 --> 00:29:35,180
or only for colorectal cancer, but you have a test

512
00:29:35,180 --> 00:29:38,110
for cancer, and that is what is really needed

513
00:29:38,110 --> 00:29:41,853
for a screening test for asymptomatic individuals.

514
00:29:42,930 --> 00:29:45,340
By identifying and measuring certain proteins

515
00:29:45,340 --> 00:29:47,730
and gene mutations released into the bloodstream

516
00:29:47,730 --> 00:29:51,120
by malignant tumors, tests show CancerSEEK

517
00:29:51,120 --> 00:29:54,010
can screen for eight different types of cancer

518
00:29:54,010 --> 00:29:57,253
and help narrow down their location in the body.

519
00:29:58,370 --> 00:29:59,670
It's hunting for cancer;

520
00:29:59,670 --> 00:30:01,580
that's why we called it CancerSEEK.

521
00:30:01,580 --> 00:30:05,560
We look for circulating tumor DNA.

522
00:30:05,560 --> 00:30:08,800
So those are pieces of our genetic material

523
00:30:08,800 --> 00:30:11,940
that have specifically come from the cancer cells.

524
00:30:11,940 --> 00:30:15,870
And in addition to that, we look at different biomarker,

525
00:30:15,870 --> 00:30:19,650
proteins that are expressed at high levels

526
00:30:19,650 --> 00:30:21,960
from cancer cells, and again, they find

527
00:30:21,960 --> 00:30:24,313
their way into our bloodstream.

528
00:30:26,120 --> 00:30:28,640
The blood sample serves as a liquid biopsy,

529
00:30:28,640 --> 00:30:31,490
providing biomarkers used to highlight cancers

530
00:30:31,490 --> 00:30:33,973
of the colon, lung, and breast,

531
00:30:34,850 --> 00:30:38,400
and five others for which no screening currently exists,

532
00:30:38,400 --> 00:30:41,420
such as ovarian cancer, cancer of the liver,

533
00:30:41,420 --> 00:30:43,853
stomach, pancreas, and esophagus.

534
00:30:45,710 --> 00:30:47,760
All totaled, these diseases account

535
00:30:47,760 --> 00:30:50,623
for 60% of all the cancer deaths in America.

536
00:30:51,790 --> 00:30:55,270
If you look, the statistics here in the United States

537
00:30:55,270 --> 00:30:58,960
and around the world, the number of cancers

538
00:30:58,960 --> 00:31:01,020
that they've been identified are usually

539
00:31:01,020 --> 00:31:03,733
stage four, most of them.

540
00:31:04,680 --> 00:31:06,800
That means that we missed stage three.

541
00:31:06,800 --> 00:31:09,580
That means that we missed it when it was stage two.

542
00:31:09,580 --> 00:31:12,650
That means that probably we could have saved somebody's life

543
00:31:12,650 --> 00:31:14,443
if we had detected it earlier.

544
00:31:15,670 --> 00:31:17,570
Administered during general exams

545
00:31:17,570 --> 00:31:21,610
and costing only $500, Dr. Papadopoulos and his colleagues

546
00:31:21,610 --> 00:31:24,200
expect CancerSEEK to be transformative,

547
00:31:24,200 --> 00:31:27,193
changing both cancer diagnosis and treatments.

548
00:31:28,400 --> 00:31:32,040
You have to tell some person who has no symptoms

549
00:31:32,040 --> 00:31:35,367
and is healthy that, "Hey, you know,

550
00:31:35,367 --> 00:31:38,167
"there is some cancer growing inside you.

551
00:31:38,167 --> 00:31:41,900
"However, that's good news, because we caught it early."

552
00:31:41,900 --> 00:31:43,440
It sounds simplistic, but really

553
00:31:43,440 --> 00:31:45,493
that's what it kind of boils down to.

554
00:31:46,770 --> 00:31:48,830
And while improving cancer survival rates

555
00:31:48,830 --> 00:31:51,580
will lead to changes in how people die,

556
00:31:51,580 --> 00:31:53,740
scientists in Asia seek to usher in

557
00:31:53,740 --> 00:31:56,463
dramatic new shifts in how life begins.

558
00:31:59,090 --> 00:32:02,540
Earlier this year, professor Mitinori Saitou

559
00:32:02,540 --> 00:32:05,280
and his team at Kyoto University in Japan

560
00:32:05,280 --> 00:32:07,240
demonstrated that they could deprogram

561
00:32:07,240 --> 00:32:10,793
specialized and full differentiated human blood cells,

562
00:32:11,680 --> 00:32:15,130
then coax them into becoming the kinds of cells

563
00:32:15,130 --> 00:32:18,360
that could eventually produce eggs and sperm.

564
00:32:18,360 --> 00:32:21,253
And it's that last step that could be the breakthrough.

565
00:32:22,730 --> 00:32:25,760
For over a decade, it's been known that mature cells

566
00:32:25,760 --> 00:32:29,350
could be deprogrammed back into becoming stem cells.

567
00:32:29,350 --> 00:32:31,560
And they can be reprogrammed to become

568
00:32:31,560 --> 00:32:34,623
almost any one of over 200 cell types in the body,

569
00:32:35,820 --> 00:32:40,083
from brain cells to heart cells to bone cells.

570
00:32:41,230 --> 00:32:44,550
In principal, these induced pluripotent cells

571
00:32:44,550 --> 00:32:47,540
also ought to be capable of becoming germ cells,

572
00:32:47,540 --> 00:32:50,803
or gametes: eggs and sperm.

573
00:32:52,080 --> 00:32:53,920
And creating them in the laboratory

574
00:32:53,920 --> 00:32:57,260
has been fraught with difficulties and setbacks.

575
00:32:57,260 --> 00:33:00,380
This year, however, professor Saitou's team

576
00:33:00,380 --> 00:33:04,480
demonstrated that induced human pluripotent stem cells

577
00:33:04,480 --> 00:33:06,790
could become capable of being triggered

578
00:33:06,790 --> 00:33:10,310
into producing primordial germ cells.

579
00:33:10,310 --> 00:33:12,680
From these they were able to create

580
00:33:12,680 --> 00:33:16,210
a type of cell known as an oogonium.

581
00:33:16,210 --> 00:33:19,100
These oogonia are the cells that lie dormant

582
00:33:19,100 --> 00:33:22,300
in a woman's ovaries for decades, until monthly

583
00:33:22,300 --> 00:33:25,653
hormonal signals direct them to produce functional eggs.

584
00:33:27,080 --> 00:33:30,213
The next step will be to create human sperm.

585
00:33:31,200 --> 00:33:34,620
Today, no one denies that in vitro male and female

586
00:33:34,620 --> 00:33:38,150
human germ cell production using reprogrammed cells

587
00:33:38,150 --> 00:33:41,370
taken from almost any part of a man or a woman's body

588
00:33:41,370 --> 00:33:44,173
will be achievable in the not-too-distant future.

589
00:33:46,470 --> 00:33:49,220
The question of course is how such a capability

590
00:33:49,220 --> 00:33:50,740
could be handled.

591
00:33:50,740 --> 00:33:53,670
The clinical, therapeutic, and medical benefits

592
00:33:53,670 --> 00:33:55,920
of induced pluripotent stem cells

593
00:33:55,920 --> 00:33:58,623
are already proving to be almost unlimited,

594
00:33:59,520 --> 00:34:02,140
ranging from rejection-free tissue growth

595
00:34:02,140 --> 00:34:04,653
and even whole organ transplantation,

596
00:34:05,610 --> 00:34:08,280
to personalized drug regime testing

597
00:34:08,280 --> 00:34:10,363
and genetic disease diagnosis.

598
00:34:11,690 --> 00:34:13,850
But making babies is a different matter.

599
00:34:13,850 --> 00:34:17,070
And beyond the science, there are profound ethical

600
00:34:17,070 --> 00:34:20,750
and legal issues that also need to be addressed.

601
00:34:20,750 --> 00:34:23,800
Changing the basic requirements for human reproduction

602
00:34:23,800 --> 00:34:25,630
could dramatically alter who can be

603
00:34:25,630 --> 00:34:28,183
a mother or father, and when.

604
00:34:29,930 --> 00:34:32,490
Grief-stricken widows and widowers

605
00:34:32,490 --> 00:34:34,920
could have children with their deceased spouse,

606
00:34:34,920 --> 00:34:37,493
made possible by a strand of hair, perhaps.

607
00:34:38,580 --> 00:34:40,840
Older people, especially women,

608
00:34:40,840 --> 00:34:43,780
no longer bound by their biological clock,

609
00:34:43,780 --> 00:34:46,190
could remain career-focused longer

610
00:34:46,190 --> 00:34:47,853
and delay starting a family.

611
00:34:49,000 --> 00:34:53,460
Same-sex couple could create embryos with blended genetics,

612
00:34:53,460 --> 00:34:56,463
true biological offspring of both partners.

613
00:34:58,130 --> 00:35:00,640
The social consequences of this new capability

614
00:35:00,640 --> 00:35:02,570
could be enormous.

615
00:35:02,570 --> 00:35:05,210
And within days of conception, each of those embryos

616
00:35:05,210 --> 00:35:08,300
could be vetted by a process known as pre-implantation

617
00:35:08,300 --> 00:35:11,790
genetic diagnosis, to enable a choice to be made

618
00:35:11,790 --> 00:35:15,033
about what characteristics the resulting child should have.

619
00:35:18,410 --> 00:35:21,500
Some commentators believe that in another 40 years from now,

620
00:35:21,500 --> 00:35:24,750
traditional baby making may have become the exception

621
00:35:24,750 --> 00:35:27,310
rather than the norm, and that many,

622
00:35:27,310 --> 00:35:29,100
if not most of our descendants,

623
00:35:29,100 --> 00:35:32,443
will begin life in a dish under a microscope.

624
00:35:36,140 --> 00:35:39,890
While some fear a homogenized world of designer babies,

625
00:35:39,890 --> 00:35:42,060
where parents choose their child's traits

626
00:35:42,060 --> 00:35:43,603
as if shopping in a catalog,

627
00:35:45,070 --> 00:35:47,370
others are convinced it's a future

628
00:35:47,370 --> 00:35:49,450
which will be better for everyone.

629
00:35:49,450 --> 00:35:52,240
Inherited diseases could be averted,

630
00:35:52,240 --> 00:35:56,173
vulnerabilities in later life identified and treated early,

631
00:35:57,180 --> 00:35:59,973
and positive health traits could be reinforced.

632
00:36:00,870 --> 00:36:02,630
Others worry that such a capability

633
00:36:02,630 --> 00:36:04,830
will further discriminate between those

634
00:36:04,830 --> 00:36:08,660
that have access to such a technology and can afford it,

635
00:36:08,660 --> 00:36:10,883
and those that don't or can't.

636
00:36:12,230 --> 00:36:14,340
It's a call that society will have to make

637
00:36:14,340 --> 00:36:16,880
in the not-so-distant future.

638
00:36:16,880 --> 00:36:20,310
No doubt, our world will witness major transformations

639
00:36:20,310 --> 00:36:21,993
of all sorts as time moves on.

640
00:36:23,340 --> 00:36:26,273
And some undoubtedly are already underway.

641
00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:32,500
On April 30th, the ongoing eruption of Kilauea volcano

642
00:36:32,500 --> 00:36:35,670
ramps up dramatically on the Big Island, Hawaii,

643
00:36:35,670 --> 00:36:37,563
triggering hundreds of earthquakes.

644
00:36:39,920 --> 00:36:42,390
But the new eruption takes an unexpected turn

645
00:36:42,390 --> 00:36:45,053
when Kilauea's two craters begin to collapse,

646
00:36:46,140 --> 00:36:49,443
and a string of new fissures open along her eastern flank.

647
00:36:53,286 --> 00:36:55,140
Lava flows from the fissures ravages

648
00:36:55,140 --> 00:36:58,470
the residential community of Leilani Estates,

649
00:36:58,470 --> 00:37:01,740
destroying hundreds of homes and burying roughly

650
00:37:01,740 --> 00:37:05,903
14 square miles of the Big Island beneath 80 feet of lava.

651
00:37:09,970 --> 00:37:12,680
The eruption continues for more than three months,

652
00:37:12,680 --> 00:37:15,120
allowing scientists to peer into the inner workings

653
00:37:15,120 --> 00:37:17,023
of our planet like never before.

654
00:37:20,374 --> 00:37:22,370
One of the fabulous opportunities we have right now,

655
00:37:22,370 --> 00:37:24,660
because of the ongoing simultaneous eruption

656
00:37:24,660 --> 00:37:27,320
along Kilauea's east rift zone and the summit,

657
00:37:27,320 --> 00:37:29,750
is to look at this connection between the summit

658
00:37:29,750 --> 00:37:32,473
and east rift zone, the magmatic plumbing connection.

659
00:37:34,330 --> 00:37:35,960
Scientists have already revealed

660
00:37:35,960 --> 00:37:38,010
several important insights about Kilauea.

661
00:37:39,660 --> 00:37:41,630
Around the clock monitoring of lava lakes

662
00:37:41,630 --> 00:37:45,930
in her summit crater and the smaller east rift crater

663
00:37:45,930 --> 00:37:47,920
confirm both systems are being fueled

664
00:37:47,920 --> 00:37:50,493
by the same massive magma chamber below.

665
00:37:54,070 --> 00:37:55,790
Part of the uniqueness of the network

666
00:37:55,790 --> 00:37:57,330
we have monitoring that leak

667
00:37:57,330 --> 00:38:01,533
is that it's so close in proximity to the observatory.

668
00:38:02,580 --> 00:38:07,310
That allows us to have really high bandwidth radio links.

669
00:38:07,310 --> 00:38:10,870
That means that we can afford to do things like

670
00:38:10,870 --> 00:38:15,870
stream HD video from the vent back here to HVO.

671
00:38:18,239 --> 00:38:19,260
One of the greatest mysteries

672
00:38:19,260 --> 00:38:21,850
geologists faced was identifying the source

673
00:38:21,850 --> 00:38:24,470
of several explosions that rocked Kilauea,

674
00:38:24,470 --> 00:38:27,503
ejecting plumes of ash up to 30,000 feet.

675
00:38:29,960 --> 00:38:32,250
For decades, many volcanologists

676
00:38:32,250 --> 00:38:34,380
thought these massive explosions were caused

677
00:38:34,380 --> 00:38:36,760
by the sudden interaction of ground water

678
00:38:36,760 --> 00:38:38,773
with hot rock or magma.

679
00:38:40,520 --> 00:38:41,353
There was a debate.

680
00:38:41,353 --> 00:38:43,100
There were actually several theories proposed.

681
00:38:43,100 --> 00:38:44,380
What we were able to determine,

682
00:38:44,380 --> 00:38:48,810
based on geologic observations and also installing

683
00:38:48,810 --> 00:38:51,840
high-res cameras around the vent to look in the vent,

684
00:38:51,840 --> 00:38:54,480
we were able to determine that these explosions

685
00:38:54,480 --> 00:38:57,410
from the lake were actually triggered by large collapses

686
00:38:57,410 --> 00:39:01,810
of rock from the crater walls that were impacting the lake.

687
00:39:01,810 --> 00:39:04,790
And the lake is very gas-rich, so it's very frothy.

688
00:39:04,790 --> 00:39:06,310
And when the rocks impacted the lake,

689
00:39:06,310 --> 00:39:08,283
then they triggered these explosions.

690
00:39:10,780 --> 00:39:12,400
The lava flows from Kilauea

691
00:39:12,400 --> 00:39:14,470
eventually reached the sea,

692
00:39:14,470 --> 00:39:16,720
creating nearly a thousand acres of new land.

693
00:39:19,810 --> 00:39:22,820
In August, the eruption slowed dramatically.

694
00:39:22,820 --> 00:39:24,540
But scientists will continue to analyze

695
00:39:24,540 --> 00:39:26,390
the enormous amounts of data they gathered

696
00:39:26,390 --> 00:39:27,683
for decades to come.

697
00:39:33,396 --> 00:39:36,146
(waves crashing)

698
00:39:40,500 --> 00:39:43,270
A far more devastating geological event unfolded

699
00:39:43,270 --> 00:39:46,173
just a month later, in Sulawesi, Indonesia.

700
00:39:48,270 --> 00:39:51,740
On September 28th, a 7.5 magnitude earthquake

701
00:39:51,740 --> 00:39:55,790
struck the island, triggering a tsunami

702
00:39:55,790 --> 00:39:58,390
that inundated the provincial capital of Palu.

703
00:40:00,570 --> 00:40:03,830
The combined tragedies killed at least 2,00 people

704
00:40:03,830 --> 00:40:05,453
and wounded 10,000 more.

705
00:40:09,240 --> 00:40:11,280
Increasing threats from natural disasters

706
00:40:11,280 --> 00:40:13,573
became a major focus throughout 2018.

707
00:40:15,410 --> 00:40:17,470
A growing body of evidence indicates

708
00:40:17,470 --> 00:40:20,470
human-induced climate change isn't just contributing

709
00:40:20,470 --> 00:40:23,933
to more frequent disasters; it's also making them worse.

710
00:40:26,360 --> 00:40:28,540
In the U.S., an unprecedented report

711
00:40:28,540 --> 00:40:30,770
released by 13 federal agencies

712
00:40:30,770 --> 00:40:32,910
warned that if major steps aren't taken

713
00:40:32,910 --> 00:40:34,810
to reign in global warming soon,

714
00:40:34,810 --> 00:40:36,960
the damage could knock at least 10%

715
00:40:36,960 --> 00:40:39,783
off the American economy in this century alone,

716
00:40:40,800 --> 00:40:43,523
more than double the losses form the Great Recession.

717
00:40:44,940 --> 00:40:47,510
Understanding the global impact of climate change

718
00:40:47,510 --> 00:40:50,550
on society and the environment often means

719
00:40:50,550 --> 00:40:53,453
a more daunting and perhaps frightening forecast.

720
00:40:55,460 --> 00:40:59,790
In October, 2018, climate change experts met in South Korea

721
00:40:59,790 --> 00:41:02,110
to answer a question that may seem like bureaucratic

722
00:41:02,110 --> 00:41:06,510
hair-splitting, but which is far, far from it.

723
00:41:06,510 --> 00:41:08,763
It's literally a matter of life and death.

724
00:41:10,740 --> 00:41:13,750
The question was simple: what would be the consequences

725
00:41:13,750 --> 00:41:15,740
for life on Earth if global warming

726
00:41:15,740 --> 00:41:19,470
reached two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels,

727
00:41:19,470 --> 00:41:22,003
rather than 1.5 degrees Celsius?

728
00:41:23,760 --> 00:41:26,550
The answer is complicated, says the IPCC,

729
00:41:26,550 --> 00:41:29,540
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,

730
00:41:29,540 --> 00:41:31,330
who were asked to study this question

731
00:41:31,330 --> 00:41:34,263
after the Paris Agreement was signed in 2016.

732
00:41:35,490 --> 00:41:37,500
Globally, we've already exceeded those

733
00:41:37,500 --> 00:41:40,193
pre-industrial temperatures by about one degree.

734
00:41:41,700 --> 00:41:43,900
90% of that extra heat energy

735
00:41:43,900 --> 00:41:45,763
has been absorbed by our oceans.

736
00:41:48,040 --> 00:41:51,360
And one of the most obvious effects is sea level rise,

737
00:41:51,360 --> 00:41:53,683
produced by melting ice from glaciers.

738
00:41:55,250 --> 00:42:00,003
It's early May now, and the snow is starting to melt.

739
00:42:00,003 --> 00:42:02,043
It's an amazing theory out there

740
00:42:02,043 --> 00:42:04,420
that the water gets to the base of the ice sheet

741
00:42:04,420 --> 00:42:07,310
and kind of pressurizes and hydraulically

742
00:42:07,310 --> 00:42:09,330
lifts the ice sheet up.

743
00:42:09,330 --> 00:42:12,500
But the largest factor is thermal expansion.

744
00:42:12,500 --> 00:42:15,283
As the water warms, so too does sea level.

745
00:42:16,630 --> 00:42:19,900
The IPCC report predicted that even if the global

746
00:42:19,900 --> 00:42:24,230
average temperature only increases by 1.5 degrees Celsius,

747
00:42:24,230 --> 00:42:26,000
sea levels are expected to rise

748
00:42:26,000 --> 00:42:28,833
by at least half a meter, about two feet.

749
00:42:30,020 --> 00:42:34,533
60 million people will suffer flooding every year by 2100.

750
00:42:36,350 --> 00:42:39,310
But if the temperature increases by two degrees Celsius,

751
00:42:39,310 --> 00:42:40,790
that rise is projected to be

752
00:42:40,790 --> 00:42:43,563
almost a meter, about three feet.

753
00:42:44,730 --> 00:42:46,940
At two degrees Celsius, that figure

754
00:42:46,940 --> 00:42:49,763
climbs to 72 millions people per year.

755
00:42:54,170 --> 00:42:55,820
And that's not counting the people living

756
00:42:55,820 --> 00:42:58,340
on the small island states around the world.

757
00:42:58,340 --> 00:43:01,203
Five of the Solomon Islands have already disappeared.

758
00:43:04,230 --> 00:43:06,400
Changes in ocean temperatures also affect

759
00:43:06,400 --> 00:43:08,540
the creatures that live in it.

760
00:43:08,540 --> 00:43:10,740
Many of the tiny, single-celled organisms

761
00:43:10,740 --> 00:43:13,100
that form the basis of the marine food chain,

762
00:43:13,100 --> 00:43:15,770
and are therefore crucial to maintaining fish stocks,

763
00:43:15,770 --> 00:43:18,930
don't like warm, deoxygenated water.

764
00:43:18,930 --> 00:43:22,000
So phytoplankton and fish are already migrating

765
00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:25,043
toward the cooler waters further north and south.

766
00:43:26,890 --> 00:43:30,300
Inevitably, the world's fishing industries are suffering,

767
00:43:30,300 --> 00:43:33,420
and the maximum catch potentials are projected to decrease

768
00:43:33,420 --> 00:43:37,090
by up to 25% in some of the hottest regions,

769
00:43:37,090 --> 00:43:38,493
such as the Tropics.

770
00:43:40,180 --> 00:43:43,170
Marine organisms that can't migrate, such as coral,

771
00:43:43,170 --> 00:43:45,530
are now disappearing at an alarming rate

772
00:43:45,530 --> 00:43:46,923
due to warm water stress.

773
00:43:50,020 --> 00:43:53,320
By the end of the century, at two degrees Celsius,

774
00:43:53,320 --> 00:43:58,223
99%, effectively all of the world's coral, will have died.

775
00:44:01,090 --> 00:44:03,270
As the corals disappear, so too

776
00:44:03,270 --> 00:44:05,210
do the already precarious livelihoods

777
00:44:05,210 --> 00:44:07,030
of the thousands of coastal communities

778
00:44:07,030 --> 00:44:11,113
which rely on the oceans for food, export, and tourism.

779
00:44:15,730 --> 00:44:18,483
One of the most important greenhouse gases is methane,

780
00:44:19,670 --> 00:44:22,593
21 times more portent than carbon dioxide.

781
00:44:24,010 --> 00:44:25,780
And vast quantities of it have been locked

782
00:44:25,780 --> 00:44:28,523
into the permanently frozen landscape for millennia.

783
00:44:30,163 --> 00:44:32,350
So that permafrost is changing now.

784
00:44:32,350 --> 00:44:34,057
And the changes that are taking place there,

785
00:44:34,057 --> 00:44:35,800
and the methane that's being released,

786
00:44:35,800 --> 00:44:38,350
that will impact the people in the cities.

787
00:44:38,350 --> 00:44:39,950
And yet they don't always realize

788
00:44:39,950 --> 00:44:42,693
just how interconnected and what those feedbacks are.

789
00:44:45,120 --> 00:44:46,940
The IPCC findings conclude

790
00:44:46,940 --> 00:44:49,220
that the arctic temperatures increase,

791
00:44:49,220 --> 00:44:52,630
this permafrost will fall, releasing that methane

792
00:44:52,630 --> 00:44:55,803
and amplifying both local and global warming.

793
00:44:57,040 --> 00:45:01,210
Over 30% of the 15 million square kilometers of permafrost

794
00:45:01,210 --> 00:45:03,840
are expected to thaw in the 1.5 degree

795
00:45:03,840 --> 00:45:05,683
global temperature rise scenario.

796
00:45:07,000 --> 00:45:10,943
At two degrees, that figure climbs to 44%.

797
00:45:12,390 --> 00:45:15,000
Mountainous regions will see less snow,

798
00:45:15,000 --> 00:45:16,713
causing water shortages.

799
00:45:18,160 --> 00:45:20,240
And up to 271 million people

800
00:45:20,240 --> 00:45:22,343
will be exposed to water scarcity.

801
00:45:24,610 --> 00:45:27,240
For humans, this change in the biosphere

802
00:45:27,240 --> 00:45:30,070
will impact food supplies, as wheat, maize,

803
00:45:30,070 --> 00:45:31,940
and other cereal crops decline

804
00:45:33,040 --> 00:45:34,740
and livestock grazing habitats

805
00:45:34,740 --> 00:45:37,303
become drought-stricken or unsustainable.

806
00:45:38,270 --> 00:45:40,800
Human health will also suffer,

807
00:45:40,800 --> 00:45:43,620
as disease-bearing species such as mosquitoes,

808
00:45:43,620 --> 00:45:48,283
ticks, worms, and bacteria adapt to new opportunities.

809
00:45:51,230 --> 00:45:52,670
And the economic bottom line

810
00:45:52,670 --> 00:45:55,010
of all these impacts of global warming?

811
00:45:55,010 --> 00:45:58,380
Current estimates suggest that a 1.5 degree increase

812
00:45:58,380 --> 00:46:01,270
in global temperature above pre-industrial levels

813
00:46:01,270 --> 00:46:04,793
will cause an 8% reduction in global GDP.

814
00:46:05,640 --> 00:46:07,190
A two degree increase would mean

815
00:46:07,190 --> 00:46:09,837
a 13% reduction in global GDP.

816
00:46:16,210 --> 00:46:18,520
Wild weather is becoming a regular feature

817
00:46:18,520 --> 00:46:21,340
of our nightly news, and it's a symptom

818
00:46:21,340 --> 00:46:23,520
of the global heat engine at work.

819
00:46:23,520 --> 00:46:28,160
The changes in the severity and the frequency

820
00:46:28,160 --> 00:46:32,400
with which we have major storms, typhoons, and hurricanes,

821
00:46:32,400 --> 00:46:35,730
all of these things ar what the models tell us,

822
00:46:35,730 --> 00:46:37,820
at least qualitatively, will happen

823
00:46:37,820 --> 00:46:40,140
as the Earth's climate system goes

824
00:46:40,140 --> 00:46:42,520
from the relatively stable conditions

825
00:46:42,520 --> 00:46:46,700
that it has been occupying for the last several centuries

826
00:46:46,700 --> 00:46:50,540
and begins to transform into a new state.

827
00:46:50,540 --> 00:46:52,170
Even as the IPCC report

828
00:46:52,170 --> 00:46:55,670
was making its findings public in early October, 2018,

829
00:46:55,670 --> 00:46:59,450
hurricane Michael and its 155 mile per hour winds

830
00:46:59,450 --> 00:47:01,910
were slamming into Mexico Beach, Florida,

831
00:47:01,910 --> 00:47:04,533
with storm surges of up to 19 feet.

832
00:47:05,830 --> 00:47:09,660
80% of all homes were demolished or seriously damaged.

833
00:47:09,660 --> 00:47:11,650
And when the hurricane finally ran out of energy

834
00:47:11,650 --> 00:47:14,420
in mid-October, at least 45 people

835
00:47:14,420 --> 00:47:16,583
across four U.S. states had been killed.

836
00:47:18,000 --> 00:47:21,130
Just two months after Hurricane Michael, terrifying images

837
00:47:21,130 --> 00:47:23,110
of another consequence of global warming

838
00:47:23,110 --> 00:47:24,663
were capturing the headlines.

839
00:47:26,920 --> 00:47:30,120
The deadliest wildfires in American history,

840
00:47:30,120 --> 00:47:33,780
strengthened in their intensity by the warmer, drier air

841
00:47:33,780 --> 00:47:36,990
generated by local clime change, brought hell on earth

842
00:47:36,990 --> 00:47:39,570
to a sleepy town of Paradise, California

843
00:47:39,570 --> 00:47:41,120
and elsewhere across the state.

844
00:47:45,740 --> 00:47:49,170
Over 400 square miles of woodland were scorched,

845
00:47:49,170 --> 00:47:52,033
and at least 86 people lost their lives.

846
00:47:56,490 --> 00:47:59,180
Coming to terms with climate change of any measure

847
00:47:59,180 --> 00:48:01,713
will likely demand adapting to new realities.

848
00:48:03,380 --> 00:48:05,450
As it seems some of Earth's creatures

849
00:48:05,450 --> 00:48:06,893
have already begun to do.

850
00:48:08,960 --> 00:48:11,700
Coral reefs are often compared to cities.

851
00:48:11,700 --> 00:48:15,780
When you look at them from above, you can see roads, alleys,

852
00:48:15,780 --> 00:48:17,930
buildings with fish streaming between them.

853
00:48:20,430 --> 00:48:22,560
But if you move closer, you begin to see

854
00:48:22,560 --> 00:48:27,560
individual coral polyps, and then, moving even closer,

855
00:48:28,210 --> 00:48:30,970
you find the algae that live inside of corals,

856
00:48:30,970 --> 00:48:32,623
known as algal symbionts.

857
00:48:35,380 --> 00:48:38,180
Zoom in more, and you'll find microorganisms

858
00:48:38,180 --> 00:48:40,603
and bacteria thriving within the corals.

859
00:48:42,530 --> 00:48:44,920
This is called the microbiome,

860
00:48:44,920 --> 00:48:46,570
and some scientists believe the key

861
00:48:46,570 --> 00:48:49,720
to truly understanding corals and their survival

862
00:48:49,720 --> 00:48:51,793
lies at this microbial level.

863
00:48:54,500 --> 00:48:57,250
One team of scientists from Oregon State University

864
00:48:57,250 --> 00:48:59,520
is reaching to create a global genetic map

865
00:48:59,520 --> 00:49:01,810
of the microbiology of coral reefs

866
00:49:01,810 --> 00:49:03,583
before many of them disappear.

867
00:49:05,410 --> 00:49:08,330
There doesn't seem to be an evolutionary reason

868
00:49:08,330 --> 00:49:11,130
for why some groups of corals are doing poorly

869
00:49:11,130 --> 00:49:12,720
while others are doing really well.

870
00:49:12,720 --> 00:49:16,280
And so we think that we would learn a lot

871
00:49:16,280 --> 00:49:20,660
about why some corals fair better during climate change

872
00:49:20,660 --> 00:49:23,720
by understanding the sum of all of its parts;

873
00:49:23,720 --> 00:49:26,203
that is, the bacteria and the animal.

874
00:49:27,500 --> 00:49:29,377
The planet has changed before,

875
00:49:29,377 --> 00:49:32,113
and coral reefs evolved to survive those changes.

876
00:49:33,460 --> 00:49:36,223
But the difference now is the pace of that change.

877
00:49:37,890 --> 00:49:40,540
There isn't enough time for corals to adapt,

878
00:49:40,540 --> 00:49:42,390
and so they might need a little help.

879
00:49:43,570 --> 00:49:45,980
One scientist has undertaken the bold project

880
00:49:45,980 --> 00:49:48,590
to jump start the evolutionary process,

881
00:49:48,590 --> 00:49:50,760
with hopes of helping some corals keep up

882
00:49:50,760 --> 00:49:52,303
with unprecedented change.

883
00:49:58,380 --> 00:50:03,380
I am incredibly stimulated by where we are.

884
00:50:03,920 --> 00:50:05,730
The context is really depressing,

885
00:50:05,730 --> 00:50:07,990
but you can either lay down and die

886
00:50:07,990 --> 00:50:10,540
or say this is a challenge that needs to be solved.

887
00:50:11,870 --> 00:50:16,160
Corals have this incredibly complex reproductive biology,

888
00:50:16,160 --> 00:50:18,020
making it a very difficult test subject

889
00:50:18,020 --> 00:50:19,570
to selectively breed.

890
00:50:19,570 --> 00:50:23,740
People are astonishingly creative,

891
00:50:23,740 --> 00:50:28,170
and when they see a change has to happen, they change.

892
00:50:28,170 --> 00:50:32,190
In corals, we've just focused on the attributes

893
00:50:32,190 --> 00:50:34,000
that make them strong, and asked the question

894
00:50:34,000 --> 00:50:37,900
of whether or not we can take that knowledge

895
00:50:37,900 --> 00:50:42,330
and start to harness it to develop solutions

896
00:50:42,330 --> 00:50:45,250
that we can use to mitigate the declines

897
00:50:45,250 --> 00:50:48,203
of coral reefs globally in the face of climate change.

898
00:50:49,450 --> 00:50:51,680
The thing about it is we've never really tried

899
00:50:51,680 --> 00:50:53,890
to do this before in coral reef system,

900
00:50:53,890 --> 00:50:57,490
to take the strongest members and breed them together.

901
00:50:57,490 --> 00:51:01,370
If we do have stronger offspring, can we use those corals

902
00:51:01,370 --> 00:51:05,040
to stabilize coral reefs that have been hit

903
00:51:05,040 --> 00:51:08,170
by, say, a very sever bleaching event,

904
00:51:08,170 --> 00:51:11,713
while we mitigate the larger, driving forces:

905
00:51:12,610 --> 00:51:15,053
fossil fuel burn and climate change?

906
00:51:20,600 --> 00:51:22,430
While analysis of the genetic makeup

907
00:51:22,430 --> 00:51:25,790
of coral samples uses the latest technology,

908
00:51:25,790 --> 00:51:28,223
collecting these samples is manual work.

909
00:51:29,110 --> 00:51:32,040
The Oregon State University researchers on the project

910
00:51:32,040 --> 00:51:35,350
can only do this work by traveling to each location

911
00:51:35,350 --> 00:51:36,600
and getting in the water.

912
00:51:40,520 --> 00:51:43,350
One of the most impactful parts of this process

913
00:51:43,350 --> 00:51:46,400
has been interacting with the people

914
00:51:46,400 --> 00:51:48,350
who are directly impacted by the changes

915
00:51:48,350 --> 00:51:52,340
that are going on on these reefs: local fisherman,

916
00:51:52,340 --> 00:51:55,660
people who are managing scuba diving companies,

917
00:51:55,660 --> 00:51:58,330
people who are involved in trying to save the reefs

918
00:51:58,330 --> 00:52:00,680
directly, the boots on the ground, if you will.

919
00:52:03,240 --> 00:52:05,930
This isn't just about conversation of ecosystems.

920
00:52:05,930 --> 00:52:08,713
This is about the conservation of livelihoods.

921
00:52:12,000 --> 00:52:17,000
I see a world in 10 years where there are hundreds

922
00:52:18,090 --> 00:52:21,460
if not thousands of people selectively breeding corals

923
00:52:21,460 --> 00:52:23,570
in different locations across the world,

924
00:52:23,570 --> 00:52:25,720
working on species that are relevant place.

925
00:52:27,150 --> 00:52:28,033
Is that lofty?

926
00:52:28,930 --> 00:52:30,570
Yes.

927
00:52:30,570 --> 00:52:32,185
Should you have a big dream?

928
00:52:32,185 --> 00:52:33,768
Abso-bloody-lutely!

929
00:52:34,690 --> 00:52:37,273
(upbeat music)

930
00:52:52,770 --> 00:52:54,770
Perhaps changes in human behavior

931
00:52:54,770 --> 00:52:57,370
will be enough to offset the most dire consequences

932
00:52:57,370 --> 00:53:00,720
of climate change, and maybe even lead

933
00:53:00,720 --> 00:53:03,220
to an environmental recovery.

934
00:53:03,220 --> 00:53:05,283
After all, it's happened before.

935
00:53:06,700 --> 00:53:08,810
While most news on the health of our planet

936
00:53:08,810 --> 00:53:12,280
is doom and gloom, a recent report on ozone recovery

937
00:53:12,280 --> 00:53:14,650
highlights the positive impact that's possible

938
00:53:14,650 --> 00:53:16,453
when humanity pulls together.

939
00:53:18,460 --> 00:53:21,720
The ozone layer acts as Earth's protective shield,

940
00:53:21,720 --> 00:53:23,230
safeguarding all living beings

941
00:53:23,230 --> 00:53:25,823
from the sun's harmful ultraviolet radiation.

942
00:53:27,400 --> 00:53:29,940
In the mid-1980s, scientists pinpointed

943
00:53:29,940 --> 00:53:34,010
the use of chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs,

944
00:53:34,010 --> 00:53:36,950
usually found in aerosol and other pollutants,

945
00:53:36,950 --> 00:53:38,670
as the perpetrators responsible

946
00:53:38,670 --> 00:53:40,713
for a large hole in the ozone layer.

947
00:53:42,220 --> 00:53:44,660
The chemicals were so harmful that they were banned

948
00:53:44,660 --> 00:53:48,093
worldwide during the 1987 Montreal protocol.

949
00:53:49,650 --> 00:53:52,350
Those substances have to get up into the stratosphere

950
00:53:52,350 --> 00:53:53,820
before they can destroy ozone.

951
00:53:53,820 --> 00:53:56,860
And they have to break down, high up in the stratosphere.

952
00:53:56,860 --> 00:53:58,700
And the chlorine that gets released

953
00:53:58,700 --> 00:54:00,250
from the chlorofluorocarbons,

954
00:54:00,250 --> 00:54:02,223
that's what actually destroys ozone.

955
00:54:03,480 --> 00:54:06,060
For the first time, evidence linking the ban

956
00:54:06,060 --> 00:54:10,283
of CFCs to recovery of the ozone layer has been made public.

957
00:54:11,800 --> 00:54:14,617
We were able to look at ozone changes

958
00:54:14,617 --> 00:54:17,700
during a period of time in the winter.

959
00:54:17,700 --> 00:54:22,260
So what we've seen is that ozone depletion has declined.

960
00:54:22,260 --> 00:54:24,960
It does very a lot still, but it declines,

961
00:54:24,960 --> 00:54:28,960
and it's declining in-step with the chlorine changes.

962
00:54:28,960 --> 00:54:31,020
And so that's what we're excited about,

963
00:54:31,020 --> 00:54:33,150
is that we see for the very first time

964
00:54:33,150 --> 00:54:35,690
chlorine levels are definitely going down

965
00:54:35,690 --> 00:54:37,773
and ozone levels are responding to it.

966
00:54:39,230 --> 00:54:41,420
If countries continue to follow the guidelines

967
00:54:41,420 --> 00:54:43,520
established by the Montreal Protocol,

968
00:54:43,520 --> 00:54:46,760
a UN report predicts the complete recovery of the ozone

969
00:54:46,760 --> 00:54:48,793
within the next four decades.

970
00:54:51,090 --> 00:54:52,690
Knowing, with a a little push,

971
00:54:52,690 --> 00:54:55,000
nature is capable of healing itself

972
00:54:55,000 --> 00:54:58,200
can motivate scientists to innovate new solutions,

973
00:54:58,200 --> 00:55:00,423
even when battling the longest odds.

974
00:55:02,610 --> 00:55:05,960
Known as Africa's rooftop, the Ethiopian highlands

975
00:55:05,960 --> 00:55:08,053
is a place of uncompromised beauty,

976
00:55:09,090 --> 00:55:11,310
a remote refuge where wildlife lives

977
00:55:11,310 --> 00:55:13,683
largely undisturbed by the outside world.

978
00:55:15,140 --> 00:55:17,640
But lately, cattle herders on search

979
00:55:17,640 --> 00:55:19,800
for available grazing land are breaking

980
00:55:19,800 --> 00:55:23,940
the area's isolation, ushering in a deadly danger

981
00:55:23,940 --> 00:55:27,833
for the region's rarest inhabitant, the Ethiopian wolf.

982
00:55:31,000 --> 00:55:33,460
Rabies and distemper, diseases brought here

983
00:55:33,460 --> 00:55:37,023
by the ranchers' domestic dogs, are decimating the wolves.

984
00:55:38,260 --> 00:55:40,823
Fewer than 500 survive today.

985
00:55:42,240 --> 00:55:45,120
Ethiopian wolves are on the brink of extinction.

986
00:55:45,120 --> 00:55:47,330
Filmmaker Yann Sochaczewski

987
00:55:47,330 --> 00:55:49,110
followed the movements of the wolves

988
00:55:49,110 --> 00:55:52,023
for his project, Africa's Lost Wolves.

989
00:55:52,880 --> 00:55:56,510
During the two years of the production of our film,

990
00:55:56,510 --> 00:55:59,030
we witnessed a disease outbreak

991
00:55:59,030 --> 00:56:03,480
which killed around half of the world population.

992
00:56:03,480 --> 00:56:06,823
Another such event could easily wipe out the whole species.

993
00:56:10,140 --> 00:56:13,020
Sochaczewski captured idyllic scenes

994
00:56:13,020 --> 00:56:15,963
of playful pups and pack dynamics.

995
00:56:17,550 --> 00:56:20,100
But sadly, his primary focus,

996
00:56:20,100 --> 00:56:22,520
an individual wolf named Mageti

997
00:56:22,520 --> 00:56:25,730
contracted distemper, likely the result

998
00:56:25,730 --> 00:56:27,433
of her contact with dogs.

999
00:56:29,290 --> 00:56:32,010
Mageti's slow demise and ultimate death

1000
00:56:32,010 --> 00:56:34,923
tragically played out before Sochaczewski's cameras.

1001
00:56:36,670 --> 00:56:38,990
Spending time with Ethiopian wolves

1002
00:56:38,990 --> 00:56:42,670
was a great privilege, and seeing them suffer

1003
00:56:42,670 --> 00:56:44,280
was heartbreaking.

1004
00:56:44,280 --> 00:56:47,110
But at the same time, it was very important

1005
00:56:47,110 --> 00:56:50,560
to tell Mageti's story, as her fate

1006
00:56:50,560 --> 00:56:53,523
could easily be the fate of her whole species.

1007
00:56:55,530 --> 00:56:57,880
But now there's a reason for new hope,

1008
00:56:57,880 --> 00:57:00,280
thanks to the scientists Sochaczewski worked with

1009
00:57:00,280 --> 00:57:02,123
to track his canine subjects.

1010
00:57:03,770 --> 00:57:06,890
In addition to administering rabies shots for local dogs,

1011
00:57:06,890 --> 00:57:09,300
the Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Program

1012
00:57:09,300 --> 00:57:12,130
successfully launched an oral vaccination campaign

1013
00:57:12,130 --> 00:57:15,940
in 2018 for the wolves, delivering doses of the vaccine

1014
00:57:15,940 --> 00:57:18,233
in chunks of goat meat left in the area.

1015
00:57:19,240 --> 00:57:20,700
If the oral vaccine is working,

1016
00:57:20,700 --> 00:57:25,297
we will save more Ethiopian wolves in their habitat.

1017
00:57:25,297 --> 00:57:27,220
Motion-triggered photos and video

1018
00:57:27,220 --> 00:57:30,490
prove the wolves are eating the baited samples.

1019
00:57:30,490 --> 00:57:33,184
And follow-up tests show that almost 90%

1020
00:57:33,184 --> 00:57:35,903
of the wolves eating the bait developed immunity.

1021
00:57:37,300 --> 00:57:39,850
The implications of success are immense

1022
00:57:39,850 --> 00:57:43,400
and could lead to expanded efforts to use oral vaccinations

1023
00:57:43,400 --> 00:57:47,063
to protect other isolated and endangered animals as well.

1024
00:57:48,250 --> 00:57:50,320
But the story of a species plays out

1025
00:57:50,320 --> 00:57:52,777
in the lives of individuals like Mageti.

1026
00:57:55,030 --> 00:57:57,550
And on the other side of the African continent,

1027
00:57:57,550 --> 00:58:00,460
deep in the rainforest, biologists are struggling

1028
00:58:00,460 --> 00:58:03,323
to crack the mystery surrounding one lonely lion.

1029
00:58:05,580 --> 00:58:07,900
Dr. Philipp Henschel's lifelong obsession

1030
00:58:07,900 --> 00:58:10,720
has led him deep into the rainforests of Gabon,

1031
00:58:10,720 --> 00:58:13,733
to what just might be the big cat story of the decade.

1032
00:58:18,750 --> 00:58:21,120
Three years ago, a camera trap in the realm

1033
00:58:21,120 --> 00:58:24,180
of chimps, gorillas, and forest elephants

1034
00:58:24,180 --> 00:58:26,743
revealed an animal no one had seen here before.

1035
00:58:28,430 --> 00:58:30,240
One image challenged everything

1036
00:58:30,240 --> 00:58:32,040
Philipp thought he knew about lions.

1037
00:58:33,550 --> 00:58:37,363
Well, the nearest known lion population from here is ...

1038
00:58:38,480 --> 00:58:40,690
Yeah, either 2,000 kilometers away

1039
00:58:40,690 --> 00:58:42,230
in that direction, to the north,

1040
00:58:42,230 --> 00:58:45,570
which would be sort of northern Cameroon,

1041
00:58:45,570 --> 00:58:48,870
or abuot 2,00 kilometers in that direction,

1042
00:58:48,870 --> 00:58:52,890
off to the south, which would be southeast Angola.

1043
00:58:52,890 --> 00:58:55,100
These are the two nearest lion populations

1044
00:58:55,100 --> 00:58:56,123
that we know about.

1045
00:58:58,733 --> 00:59:00,430
This is proper rain forest.

1046
00:59:00,430 --> 00:59:02,630
There's chimps in there, forest elephant,

1047
00:59:02,630 --> 00:59:05,194
great river hogs, and one lion.

1048
00:59:05,194 --> 00:59:07,970
It's an interesting mix.

1049
00:59:07,970 --> 00:59:11,093
A few days later, I was here with 20 camera traps.

1050
00:59:14,610 --> 00:59:17,220
So the first area the lion was recorded

1051
00:59:17,220 --> 00:59:19,793
was up in this forest gallery.

1052
00:59:22,140 --> 00:59:24,850
And since then we cast a somewhat wider net

1053
00:59:24,850 --> 00:59:29,380
of camera traps covering now about 500 square kilometers.

1054
00:59:29,380 --> 00:59:31,440
So this one didn't get him.

1055
00:59:31,440 --> 00:59:32,500
This one actually got him,

1056
00:59:32,500 --> 00:59:34,870
so it's sort of on the way between, you know,

1057
00:59:34,870 --> 00:59:36,710
sort of completing that triangle.

1058
00:59:36,710 --> 00:59:40,320
So the detective game basically is still ongoing.

1059
00:59:40,320 --> 00:59:42,400
We know that he uses other parts of the park,

1060
00:59:42,400 --> 00:59:43,693
but we don't know where.

1061
00:59:47,770 --> 00:59:49,600
To find out more about this lion,

1062
00:59:49,600 --> 00:59:51,670
Philipp needed a piece of him,

1063
00:59:51,670 --> 00:59:54,480
so to encourage some very targeted rubbing,

1064
00:59:54,480 --> 00:59:58,970
he sprayed some bottled lioness urine on a tree in his turf.

1065
00:59:58,970 --> 01:00:01,100
I don't know, do you smell this?

1066
01:00:01,100 --> 01:00:04,453
It's really strong, sort of pungent odor.

1067
01:00:05,990 --> 01:00:08,020
Because sometimes where they walk along regularly,

1068
01:00:08,020 --> 01:00:10,550
there are also cheek mark trees,

1069
01:00:10,550 --> 01:00:12,060
so they have scent glands here.

1070
01:00:12,060 --> 01:00:14,950
And so, often for males in particular,

1071
01:00:14,950 --> 01:00:16,730
their long mane hair then gets trapped

1072
01:00:16,730 --> 01:00:20,520
in little crevasses in the bark,

1073
01:00:20,520 --> 01:00:23,224
and so we did actually find lion hair here

1074
01:00:23,224 --> 01:00:26,683
on a tree on that very trail.

1075
01:00:29,020 --> 01:00:33,793
We found some genetic material now from mane hair,

1076
01:00:34,630 --> 01:00:37,920
and we were able to then run the genetics

1077
01:00:37,920 --> 01:00:39,840
and found that he's closely related

1078
01:00:39,840 --> 01:00:42,973
to the ancestral lion population that we had in Bateke.

1079
01:00:43,820 --> 01:00:45,060
Philipp's research has revealed

1080
01:00:45,060 --> 01:00:47,850
that the lone male of Gabon appear to be

1081
01:00:47,850 --> 01:00:50,963
to sole survivor of a now extinct population of lions.

1082
01:00:52,690 --> 01:00:55,040
His DNA could carry unique adaptations

1083
01:00:55,040 --> 01:00:56,960
to the rainforest environment

1084
01:00:56,960 --> 01:00:58,823
that we're not currently aware of.

1085
01:01:00,080 --> 01:01:01,980
But his closest living relatives

1086
01:01:01,980 --> 01:01:05,333
are in the Kalahari desert, half a continent away.

1087
01:01:07,030 --> 01:01:09,340
Well the sad thing about this lion is, I mean,

1088
01:01:09,340 --> 01:01:11,270
we hear him call at night sometimes,

1089
01:01:11,270 --> 01:01:14,880
and he calls a lot, like any lion who wants to make contact

1090
01:01:14,880 --> 01:01:17,740
with pride mates, with just any sort of like mate.

1091
01:01:17,740 --> 01:01:19,160
But he's calling in vain.

1092
01:01:19,160 --> 01:01:22,120
I mean, there's just nobody else around.

1093
01:01:22,120 --> 01:01:27,120
So if we wanted to assist him in his romantic endeavors,

1094
01:01:27,720 --> 01:01:29,820
it just means we have to bring in females.

1095
01:01:32,590 --> 01:01:35,840
An audacious plan to fly two lionesses

1096
01:01:35,840 --> 01:01:40,840
2,000 miles from Botswana to the Bateke Plateau of Gabon

1097
01:01:40,890 --> 01:01:43,010
might just be the beginning of a new Eden

1098
01:01:43,010 --> 01:01:46,730
for Africa's lions, where a new pride of big cats

1099
01:01:46,730 --> 01:01:50,330
might grow, safely sheltered by the forest

1100
01:01:50,330 --> 01:01:51,583
and largely out of view.

1101
01:01:56,230 --> 01:01:58,330
Another discovery dug from the dirt

1102
01:01:58,330 --> 01:01:59,860
is putting the finishing touches

1103
01:01:59,860 --> 01:02:02,233
on the evolutionary map of human history.

1104
01:02:04,340 --> 01:02:08,100
Four little foot bones found by accident in 1994

1105
01:02:08,100 --> 01:02:10,250
have led South African scientists to discover

1106
01:02:10,250 --> 01:02:14,483
the most complete paleo-anthropological find of its kind.

1107
01:02:15,480 --> 01:02:19,180
Since revealed, fossil by fossil, over 20 years,

1108
01:02:19,180 --> 01:02:21,740
the new discover replaces much guesswork

1109
01:02:21,740 --> 01:02:24,693
with real ancestors about our early ancestors.

1110
01:02:26,620 --> 01:02:29,683
She was an older woman, not much over four feet.

1111
01:02:31,320 --> 01:02:33,040
And perhaps in her foraging

1112
01:02:33,040 --> 01:02:34,740
she'd been disturbed by something,

1113
01:02:35,740 --> 01:02:40,063
some predator, a saber tooth or a lion,

1114
01:02:42,670 --> 01:02:44,683
and had hastily tried to get away.

1115
01:02:47,390 --> 01:02:51,610
She fell into a cave, now known as the Sterkfontein,

1116
01:02:51,610 --> 01:02:54,740
and four little foot bones of hers were discovered here,

1117
01:02:54,740 --> 01:02:58,723
quite by accident, 3.7 million years later.

1118
01:02:59,940 --> 01:03:01,780
Usually, scientists only discover

1119
01:03:01,780 --> 01:03:05,283
small fragments of a skeleton in the deep bedrock of time.

1120
01:03:06,130 --> 01:03:08,670
These give them clues but not many answers

1121
01:03:08,670 --> 01:03:09,963
about our ancestors.

1122
01:03:12,020 --> 01:03:14,253
That has all changed with Little Foot.

1123
01:03:16,150 --> 01:03:18,120
From these first little foot fragments,

1124
01:03:18,120 --> 01:03:23,120
the team of Ron Clarke, Stephen Motsumi and Nkwane Molefe

1125
01:03:23,210 --> 01:03:25,963
set out to find and piece together the rest.

1126
01:03:27,030 --> 01:03:30,730
It was to be a labor of love over decades.

1127
01:03:30,730 --> 01:03:32,290
Their biggest challenge was to remove

1128
01:03:32,290 --> 01:03:36,500
soft fossil bone from breccia, a type of natural concrete,

1129
01:03:36,500 --> 01:03:39,763
while keeping every single fossil fragment undamaged.

1130
01:03:42,060 --> 01:03:43,770
By the time they'd finished,

1131
01:03:43,770 --> 01:03:45,720
this is what they could show the world.

1132
01:03:46,600 --> 01:03:49,690
These are the actual fossils, all assembled

1133
01:03:49,690 --> 01:03:52,730
from one individual who fell into a cave

1134
01:03:52,730 --> 01:03:55,470
3.7 million years ago and left us

1135
01:03:55,470 --> 01:03:57,930
a legacy of knowledge beyond measure.

1136
01:03:57,930 --> 01:04:00,220
The fossils which Little Foot has offered up

1137
01:04:00,220 --> 01:04:02,120
quite literally fill the missing gaps

1138
01:04:02,120 --> 01:04:04,423
in our understanding of our early ancestors.

1139
01:04:05,460 --> 01:04:09,550
This is the only complete skeleton

1140
01:04:09,550 --> 01:04:13,960
of an Australopithecus from anywhere in the world.

1141
01:04:13,960 --> 01:04:17,210
It is the only complete skull,

1142
01:04:17,210 --> 01:04:20,670
and it has a full adult dentition.

1143
01:04:20,670 --> 01:04:23,510
So this alone is a remarkable find.

1144
01:04:23,510 --> 01:04:26,490
We have, for the first time ever,

1145
01:04:26,490 --> 01:04:31,490
a complete arm and a complete leg in one individual.

1146
01:04:32,440 --> 01:04:34,050
The find has changed the study

1147
01:04:34,050 --> 01:04:35,960
of early man forever.

1148
01:04:35,960 --> 01:04:40,960
Little Foot, or Australopithecus Prometheus, stood upright,

1149
01:04:40,970 --> 01:04:44,400
and has not only revealed secrets about her own species,

1150
01:04:44,400 --> 01:04:46,180
but has shown that other species

1151
01:04:46,180 --> 01:04:48,030
lived alongside her at the same time.

1152
01:04:51,650 --> 01:04:53,810
In learning how the planet and its inhabitants

1153
01:04:53,810 --> 01:04:55,950
have changed over time, we wonder about

1154
01:04:55,950 --> 01:04:58,623
the endless possibilities throughout the universe.

1155
01:05:00,130 --> 01:05:02,640
But sadly, we had to say goodbye

1156
01:05:02,640 --> 01:05:04,860
to the prolific planet hunter that opened

1157
01:05:04,860 --> 01:05:08,030
an unprecedented window into the cosmos.

1158
01:05:08,030 --> 01:05:12,150
Kepler, our eyes in the sky, officially ended its mission

1159
01:05:12,150 --> 01:05:14,250
on October 30th of this year,

1160
01:05:14,250 --> 01:05:16,823
six years later than initially planned.

1161
01:05:17,720 --> 01:05:20,010
Kepler observed over a half a million stars

1162
01:05:20,010 --> 01:05:22,410
during its search for a second Earth,

1163
01:05:22,410 --> 01:05:27,123
confirming 2,662 alien worlds in our galaxy alone.

1164
01:05:30,050 --> 01:05:33,040
We found so many fantastic and exciting planet systems

1165
01:05:33,040 --> 01:05:35,040
out there, none of which look

1166
01:05:35,040 --> 01:05:36,640
quite like what we have at home.

1167
01:05:37,620 --> 01:05:39,930
And for me, the most exciting part of all of this

1168
01:05:39,930 --> 01:05:42,340
is not just the sheer number of planets,

1169
01:05:42,340 --> 01:05:46,380
but the fact that we've found so many varied planets.

1170
01:05:46,380 --> 01:05:49,590
We've found massive, puffy, hot Jupiters

1171
01:05:49,590 --> 01:05:52,390
that have orbits shorter than Mercury.

1172
01:05:52,390 --> 01:05:54,690
And we've found mini Neptunes

1173
01:05:54,690 --> 01:05:57,150
where we don't know if they are solid and rocky

1174
01:05:57,150 --> 01:05:59,600
or are they puffy and gassy.

1175
01:05:59,600 --> 01:06:03,513
We've found brand-new forming planets and old planets too.

1176
01:06:04,900 --> 01:06:06,280
Many of these worlds orbit

1177
01:06:06,280 --> 01:06:09,880
their star's habitable zone, the area of their solar system

1178
01:06:09,880 --> 01:06:12,660
where liquid water could remain on the surface,

1179
01:06:12,660 --> 01:06:15,563
providing a potential home for extraterrestrial life.

1180
01:06:16,980 --> 01:06:20,550
It has really catalyzed a third pathway

1181
01:06:20,550 --> 01:06:23,100
for the search for life in the universe.

1182
01:06:23,100 --> 01:06:25,950
Before Kepler, we had SETI searches

1183
01:06:25,950 --> 01:06:29,850
to listen for techno-signatures in the galaxy.

1184
01:06:29,850 --> 01:06:33,601
We had solar system exploration that was searching for life.

1185
01:06:33,601 --> 01:06:36,380
But the third pathway was opened up,

1186
01:06:36,380 --> 01:06:40,210
I think, by this sudden realization

1187
01:06:40,210 --> 01:06:42,610
that the nearest potentially habitable planet

1188
01:06:42,610 --> 01:06:44,600
could just be a stone's throw away,

1189
01:06:44,600 --> 01:06:45,890
that there are ten of billions

1190
01:06:45,890 --> 01:06:47,783
of these planets in our galaxy alone.

1191
01:06:53,920 --> 01:06:55,530
The Trappist-1 system,

1192
01:06:55,530 --> 01:06:58,100
some 39 million light years from Earth,

1193
01:06:58,100 --> 01:07:00,690
became the first confirmed planetary neighborhood

1194
01:07:00,690 --> 01:07:03,423
where multiple planets orbit in the habitable zone.

1195
01:07:05,260 --> 01:07:07,130
Kepler has helped further our understanding

1196
01:07:07,130 --> 01:07:09,870
of what could now become a major candidate

1197
01:07:09,870 --> 01:07:11,923
in the elusive hunt for life in space.

1198
01:07:14,400 --> 01:07:17,050
A study released this year, using data from Kepler

1199
01:07:17,050 --> 01:07:18,950
and the Spitzer Space Telescope,

1200
01:07:18,950 --> 01:07:21,870
show that all seven planets in the Trappist-1 system

1201
01:07:21,870 --> 01:07:25,530
are rocky worlds with a core and an atmosphere,

1202
01:07:25,530 --> 01:07:27,690
and some could even hold up to 5%

1203
01:07:27,690 --> 01:07:30,140
of their total mass in water,

1204
01:07:30,140 --> 01:07:33,453
about 250 times more than the oceans here on Earth.

1205
01:07:35,300 --> 01:07:36,610
While the study doesn't comment

1206
01:07:36,610 --> 01:07:38,400
on the habitability of the planets,

1207
01:07:38,400 --> 01:07:40,530
the Trappist-1 system is just one example

1208
01:07:40,530 --> 01:07:43,550
of the promising new frontiers being explored

1209
01:07:43,550 --> 01:07:46,730
as humanity continues its search for a second Earth

1210
01:07:46,730 --> 01:07:48,123
and extraterrestrial life.

1211
01:07:50,750 --> 01:07:53,330
This is the golden age of exoplanets.

1212
01:07:53,330 --> 01:07:57,160
Kepler has given us this tremendous data set, this gift,

1213
01:07:57,160 --> 01:07:59,590
that we can continue studying for decades.

1214
01:07:59,590 --> 01:08:01,920
And all in the meantime, there are new missions,

1215
01:08:01,920 --> 01:08:05,010
new telescopes and new technologies that are coming along

1216
01:08:05,010 --> 01:08:07,550
which are gonna help us learn even more in different ways

1217
01:08:07,550 --> 01:08:10,280
and go beyond what even Kepler could do.

1218
01:08:10,280 --> 01:08:11,680
Learning about our universe

1219
01:08:11,680 --> 01:08:14,060
isn't just about seeing new things;

1220
01:08:14,060 --> 01:08:15,543
it's also about listening.

1221
01:08:18,870 --> 01:08:21,460
Deep in the Alleghany Mountains of West Virginia,

1222
01:08:21,460 --> 01:08:23,250
a team of astronomers has detected

1223
01:08:23,250 --> 01:08:26,420
a series of devastating, high-energy bursts

1224
01:08:26,420 --> 01:08:29,723
erupting from an unknown source far off in space.

1225
01:08:30,600 --> 01:08:32,230
We've been absolutely confident

1226
01:08:32,230 --> 01:08:35,300
that these are extra-galactic sources.

1227
01:08:35,300 --> 01:08:38,890
All because of this: the Green Bank Telescope,

1228
01:08:38,890 --> 01:08:41,873
one of the largest movable objects on dry earth.

1229
01:08:43,270 --> 01:08:45,920
The structure here stands almost

1230
01:08:45,920 --> 01:08:49,360
485 feet above ground level.

1231
01:08:49,360 --> 01:08:52,423
It's actually taller than the Great Pyramid of Giza.

1232
01:08:54,000 --> 01:08:57,620
We can see more of the celestial sphere here in Green Bank

1233
01:08:57,620 --> 01:08:59,890
than can be seen from any single telescope

1234
01:08:59,890 --> 01:09:01,940
anywhere else in the world.

1235
01:09:01,940 --> 01:09:06,360
We can see 85% of the celestial sphere

1236
01:09:06,360 --> 01:09:08,573
from this point right here.

1237
01:09:10,830 --> 01:09:12,210
Astronomers are now searching

1238
01:09:12,210 --> 01:09:15,653
these same skies for clues to help solve a new mystery:

1239
01:09:16,490 --> 01:09:18,900
the source of a string of unidentified signals

1240
01:09:18,900 --> 01:09:21,103
they call fast radio bursts.

1241
01:09:23,270 --> 01:09:27,233
They will do so by scanning the cosmos for radio waves.

1242
01:09:27,233 --> 01:09:29,983
(dramatic music)

1243
01:09:32,070 --> 01:09:34,440
When fast radio bursts erupt,

1244
01:09:34,440 --> 01:09:37,190
they can unleash as much energy as our sun does

1245
01:09:37,190 --> 01:09:41,163
in an entire year, in a a fraction of a second.

1246
01:09:43,260 --> 01:09:45,950
But by the time that energy reaches Earth,

1247
01:09:45,950 --> 01:09:47,483
it's a mere whisper.

1248
01:09:50,410 --> 01:09:52,290
And while astronomers have now detected

1249
01:09:52,290 --> 01:09:54,920
dozens of different fast radio bursts,

1250
01:09:54,920 --> 01:09:56,810
one of them is different from the rest,

1251
01:09:56,810 --> 01:09:59,260
and they're determined to find out why.

1252
01:09:59,260 --> 01:10:02,523
They call it FRB 121102.

1253
01:10:05,870 --> 01:10:09,290
We don't know when it's going to actually emit a burst.

1254
01:10:09,290 --> 01:10:12,750
And the bursts only last for a fraction of a second,

1255
01:10:12,750 --> 01:10:14,340
only a few milliseconds.

1256
01:10:14,340 --> 01:10:17,500
So we have spent many tens, probably hundreds of hours

1257
01:10:17,500 --> 01:10:20,010
on the GBT over the course of the last few years,

1258
01:10:20,010 --> 01:10:21,730
observing this object, and hundreds of hours

1259
01:10:21,730 --> 01:10:23,040
on other telescopes.

1260
01:10:23,040 --> 01:10:26,000
And we've only detected a few hundred bursts.

1261
01:10:26,000 --> 01:10:28,826
And if you were to add all of those bursts up,

1262
01:10:28,826 --> 01:10:32,200
they would only add up to a few seconds worth of time

1263
01:10:32,200 --> 01:10:34,093
when the source is actually active.

1264
01:10:35,510 --> 01:10:37,790
We knew it was special almost right away,

1265
01:10:37,790 --> 01:10:41,263
because no other FRB event has been seen to repeat.

1266
01:10:42,400 --> 01:10:44,510
As the signal kept reaching Earth,

1267
01:10:44,510 --> 01:10:46,170
they could now track the location

1268
01:10:46,170 --> 01:10:47,963
to the constellation of Auriga.

1269
01:10:49,700 --> 01:10:52,580
Once we were able to localize 121102,

1270
01:10:52,580 --> 01:10:55,763
we realized that this galaxy has never been seen before.

1271
01:10:57,160 --> 01:11:01,180
They now knew where FRB 121102 was coming from,

1272
01:11:01,180 --> 01:11:04,080
but they still didn't know what was generating the signal.

1273
01:11:05,080 --> 01:11:07,440
But each subsequent flash of energy

1274
01:11:07,440 --> 01:11:10,293
helped them narrow down their list of suspects.

1275
01:11:11,640 --> 01:11:13,870
When fast radio bursts were first discovered,

1276
01:11:13,870 --> 01:11:15,490
they were all one-off events.

1277
01:11:15,490 --> 01:11:16,910
And so a lot of the early theories

1278
01:11:16,910 --> 01:11:20,410
focused on catastrophic events that would destroy

1279
01:11:20,410 --> 01:11:24,630
whatever was actually causing the fast radio bursts.

1280
01:11:24,630 --> 01:11:27,713
That could be things like an exploding star or supernova.

1281
01:11:29,500 --> 01:11:30,630
It was a huge explosion,

1282
01:11:30,630 --> 01:11:32,780
maybe two neutron stars colliding,

1283
01:11:32,780 --> 01:11:34,870
so when we started to see it repeat,

1284
01:11:34,870 --> 01:11:38,370
that changes our whole paradigm of what it could be.

1285
01:11:38,370 --> 01:11:40,100
And it is still the only known

1286
01:11:40,100 --> 01:11:42,810
fast radio burst that repeats,

1287
01:11:42,810 --> 01:11:45,260
and that makes it an especially bigg mystery.

1288
01:11:45,260 --> 01:11:47,280
And you might think to yourself that,

1289
01:11:47,280 --> 01:11:49,030
with all of those bursts, we would be able

1290
01:11:49,030 --> 01:11:50,770
to find some sort of a pattern

1291
01:11:50,770 --> 01:11:53,780
or a regularity in when they're going off.

1292
01:11:53,780 --> 01:11:54,730
But we've worked really hard,

1293
01:11:54,730 --> 01:11:57,880
and we haven't been able to find anything like that yet.

1294
01:11:57,880 --> 01:11:59,430
Because astronomers haven't been able

1295
01:11:59,430 --> 01:12:02,430
to uncover a pattern to 1221102's seemingly random

1296
01:12:02,430 --> 01:12:05,170
burst cycle, they've turned their attention

1297
01:12:05,170 --> 01:12:07,970
to one of the most exotic and violent phenomena

1298
01:12:07,970 --> 01:12:11,253
in the universe: magnetars.

1299
01:12:13,530 --> 01:12:14,960
Magnetars have the strongest

1300
01:12:14,960 --> 01:12:16,570
magnetic fields in the universe.

1301
01:12:16,570 --> 01:12:17,710
If you were to take a magnetar

1302
01:12:17,710 --> 01:12:20,400
and place it at the distance of the moon,

1303
01:12:20,400 --> 01:12:21,550
which would not be a good idea,

1304
01:12:21,550 --> 01:12:22,990
'cause it would destroy the Earth,

1305
01:12:22,990 --> 01:12:24,820
but in the process it would also erase

1306
01:12:24,820 --> 01:12:26,240
all of the computer hard drives

1307
01:12:26,240 --> 01:12:27,280
and credit cards on the Earth

1308
01:12:27,280 --> 01:12:29,513
because of the strength of the magnetic field.

1309
01:12:31,550 --> 01:12:33,330
When a crack forms on a magnetar's

1310
01:12:33,330 --> 01:12:37,700
rigid surface, it can set off a star quake,

1311
01:12:37,700 --> 01:12:40,710
ejecting so much energy that it can be felt

1312
01:12:40,710 --> 01:12:43,063
billions of light years across the universe.

1313
01:12:45,790 --> 01:12:47,290
We saw that they were really twisted up,

1314
01:12:47,290 --> 01:12:48,830
kind of like a corkscrew.

1315
01:12:48,830 --> 01:12:51,140
And the degree of twist is higher

1316
01:12:51,140 --> 01:12:53,750
than in any other source of radio waves

1317
01:12:53,750 --> 01:12:55,800
that we've ever detected.

1318
01:12:55,800 --> 01:13:00,800
So we think that this could be a sign that FRB 121102

1319
01:13:01,110 --> 01:13:03,533
is itself living somewhere near a black hole.

1320
01:13:08,350 --> 01:13:11,640
Decoding FRB 121102 has revealed to us

1321
01:13:11,640 --> 01:13:14,760
a part of the universe we never knew before.

1322
01:13:14,760 --> 01:13:16,380
And it could also help us understand

1323
01:13:16,380 --> 01:13:19,040
the threats that magnetars in our own galaxy

1324
01:13:19,040 --> 01:13:20,523
could pose to our planet.

1325
01:13:23,690 --> 01:13:26,330
The marvels of space appear limitless,

1326
01:13:26,330 --> 01:13:28,600
even now, as human ingenuity tests

1327
01:13:28,600 --> 01:13:30,593
the outer reaches of the solar system.

1328
01:13:36,290 --> 01:13:38,390
Three and a half years after revolutionizing

1329
01:13:38,390 --> 01:13:41,760
our understanding of Pluto, the New Horizon spacecraft

1330
01:13:41,760 --> 01:13:44,003
continues its journey into deep space.

1331
01:13:45,040 --> 01:13:46,670
It's traveled one billion miles

1332
01:13:46,670 --> 01:13:49,160
since cruising past the dwarf planet,

1333
01:13:49,160 --> 01:13:50,790
and the craft will once again provide

1334
01:13:50,790 --> 01:13:54,603
a historic first look at an unknown alien object.

1335
01:13:55,870 --> 01:13:58,350
The piano-sized ship, traveling at speeds

1336
01:13:58,350 --> 01:14:01,170
of almost 10 miles per second, will be a pioneer

1337
01:14:01,170 --> 01:14:02,973
of Kuiper Belt exploration.

1338
01:14:03,840 --> 01:14:06,783
It's target: the asteroid Ultima Thule.

1339
01:14:08,690 --> 01:14:11,190
If you think about it by analogy, New Horizons is going

1340
01:14:11,190 --> 01:14:13,420
to the farthest part of our solar system,

1341
01:14:13,420 --> 01:14:16,010
and it is very cold and dark and barren out there.

1342
01:14:16,010 --> 01:14:18,090
So, unlike an asteroid, which is actually

1343
01:14:18,090 --> 01:14:20,660
just a piece of rock that has melted and changed over

1344
01:14:20,660 --> 01:14:23,200
with some alteration by some internal water,

1345
01:14:23,200 --> 01:14:26,090
Ultima Thule never melted, never differentiated,

1346
01:14:26,090 --> 01:14:28,790
never made a core, like even our planet Earth has a core.

1347
01:14:28,790 --> 01:14:32,330
All that stuff is just as it came from the galaxy, we think,

1348
01:14:32,330 --> 01:14:36,380
and is just a random, loose snowball of created material.

1349
01:14:36,380 --> 01:14:38,130
So we'll see if that's really true.

1350
01:14:39,320 --> 01:14:42,000
And on January 1st, 2019,

1351
01:14:42,000 --> 01:14:43,920
New Horizons will ring in the new year

1352
01:14:43,920 --> 01:14:46,650
by traveling back in time and studying

1353
01:14:46,650 --> 01:14:48,833
the earliest days of our solar system.

1354
01:14:50,300 --> 01:14:53,533
The Kuiper belt is the edge of our very solar system.

1355
01:14:53,533 --> 01:14:55,970
It's the part of the original disc

1356
01:14:55,970 --> 01:14:57,800
that the sun and the planets formed out of

1357
01:14:57,800 --> 01:14:59,383
that's at the very edge before you get to skid

1358
01:14:59,383 --> 01:15:02,280
into the galaxy and the region between the stars.

1359
01:15:02,280 --> 01:15:04,200
And at that very edge of the disc,

1360
01:15:04,200 --> 01:15:06,400
there wasn't enough stuff to make giant planets

1361
01:15:06,400 --> 01:15:09,960
and make big stars like our sun.

1362
01:15:09,960 --> 01:15:11,190
There was just enough stuff to make

1363
01:15:11,190 --> 01:15:13,580
small dwarf planets and snowballs.

1364
01:15:13,580 --> 01:15:15,060
New Horizons will fly past

1365
01:15:15,060 --> 01:15:18,700
the 20-mile-wide asteroid in a split second.

1366
01:15:18,700 --> 01:15:21,470
But the images and data beamed back to Earth

1367
01:15:21,470 --> 01:15:24,453
will provide scientists with a lifetime of information.

1368
01:15:25,800 --> 01:15:29,500
Ultima Thule we know very little about right now.

1369
01:15:29,500 --> 01:15:31,980
But we think it's the most primitive object

1370
01:15:31,980 --> 01:15:33,860
ever visited by a spacecraft,

1371
01:15:33,860 --> 01:15:38,510
because it's been out there four billion miles form the sun,

1372
01:15:38,510 --> 01:15:40,670
kept in the coldest portion of the solar system

1373
01:15:40,670 --> 01:15:42,710
for 4.6 billion years.

1374
01:15:42,710 --> 01:15:46,030
That's preserved what the material was

1375
01:15:46,030 --> 01:15:48,600
at the time of the formation of the solar system.

1376
01:15:48,600 --> 01:15:51,100
It preserves a record of the physics

1377
01:15:51,100 --> 01:15:52,850
and chemistry of what was going on.

1378
01:15:54,640 --> 01:15:55,530
But we don't need to go

1379
01:15:55,530 --> 01:15:57,290
to the frontiers of our solar system

1380
01:15:57,290 --> 01:15:59,713
to undertake groundbreaking space exploration.

1381
01:16:01,670 --> 01:16:03,850
Two recent audacious missions,

1382
01:16:03,850 --> 01:16:08,120
NASA's Osiris-Rex and JAXA's Hayabusa 2,

1383
01:16:08,120 --> 01:16:10,240
are about to descend on two asteroids

1384
01:16:10,240 --> 01:16:13,330
in our inner solar system to mine for souvenirs

1385
01:16:13,330 --> 01:16:14,483
to bring back to Earth.

1386
01:16:17,110 --> 01:16:19,870
After a two-year journey, Hayabusa 2

1387
01:16:19,870 --> 01:16:23,810
arrived at its target, Ryugu, a half-mile-wide asteroid

1388
01:16:23,810 --> 01:16:25,640
that could one day unravel the clues

1389
01:16:25,640 --> 01:16:27,083
of our early solar system.

1390
01:16:28,750 --> 01:16:31,200
Equipped with three rovers and a lander,

1391
01:16:31,200 --> 01:16:32,730
the vehicle became the first ever

1392
01:16:32,730 --> 01:16:34,713
to successfully land on an asteroid.

1393
01:16:37,220 --> 01:16:40,690
Ryugu's low gravity makes driving on the surface impossible.

1394
01:16:40,690 --> 01:16:44,610
So instead, they must hop from location to location,

1395
01:16:44,610 --> 01:16:47,043
floating for up to 15 minutes per bounce.

1396
01:16:49,890 --> 01:16:52,240
The rover's images will help Hiyabusa 2

1397
01:16:52,240 --> 01:16:55,473
scout the best mining sites for its scientific souvenirs.

1398
01:16:57,210 --> 01:17:00,330
Next year, the craft will take two surface samples,

1399
01:17:00,330 --> 01:17:02,310
followed by a subsurface sample

1400
01:17:02,310 --> 01:17:05,243
after a blast reveals Ryugu's inner structure.

1401
01:17:08,840 --> 01:17:12,020
It will then fire up its ion propulsion thrusters

1402
01:17:12,020 --> 01:17:13,873
and begin its journey back to Earth.

1403
01:17:15,300 --> 01:17:17,380
At close proximity, Hiyabusa 2

1404
01:17:17,380 --> 01:17:20,220
will jettison the samples through the atmosphere,

1405
01:17:20,220 --> 01:17:24,900
towards the Australian outback, arriving safely by 2023.

1406
01:17:24,900 --> 01:17:29,400
Likewise, NASA's Osiris-Rex has reached its target, Bennu,

1407
01:17:29,400 --> 01:17:31,720
after its own two-year journey.

1408
01:17:31,720 --> 01:17:33,940
We're interested in the origin of water on the Earth,

1409
01:17:33,940 --> 01:17:36,690
organic molecules that may have led to the origin of life.

1410
01:17:36,690 --> 01:17:38,820
So we want to go to a carbonaceous asteroid

1411
01:17:38,820 --> 01:17:40,781
that's recorded over four and a half billion years

1412
01:17:40,781 --> 01:17:42,781
of solar system history.

1413
01:17:44,160 --> 01:17:46,340
Currently in orbit around the asteroid,

1414
01:17:46,340 --> 01:17:48,423
the science survey will begin next year.

1415
01:17:51,100 --> 01:17:53,100
Throughout 2019, we'll be doing

1416
01:17:53,100 --> 01:17:54,930
global characterization of the asteroid,

1417
01:17:54,930 --> 01:17:58,020
basically making maps of the entire surface.

1418
01:17:58,020 --> 01:18:00,120
We're gonna be looking, most importantly,

1419
01:18:00,120 --> 01:18:02,763
for areas where we can collect a sample.

1420
01:18:05,440 --> 01:18:07,220
If all goes according to plan,

1421
01:18:07,220 --> 01:18:09,660
the collection capsule will zoom towards Utah

1422
01:18:09,660 --> 01:18:13,563
and into the hands of eager scientists in late 2023.

1423
01:18:15,130 --> 01:18:18,980
Scientific investigations like this, in all fields of study,

1424
01:18:18,980 --> 01:18:21,860
build on knowledge gathered in years past.

1425
01:18:21,860 --> 01:18:24,540
If this last year is any indication,

1426
01:18:24,540 --> 01:18:28,090
what lies ahead this next year is bound to astound.

1427
01:18:29,027 --> 01:18:31,777
(intense music)