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WERNER HERZOG: These images taken
under the ice of the Ross Sea in Antarctica
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were the reason
I wanted to go to this continent.
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The pictures were taken by a friend of mine,
one of these expert divers.
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00:02:33,061 --> 00:02:37,088
The best connection is on
military planes out of New Zealand,
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loaded with chained-down parts
of polar stations.
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Most of the passengers had tucked
into their laptops and their books,
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and many of them were sleeping.
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Who were the people I was going to meet
in Antarctica at the end of the world?
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What were their dreams?
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We flew into the unknown,
a seemingly endless void.
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I was surprised that
I was even on this plane.
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The NationaI Science Foundation
had invited me to Antarctica,
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even though I left no doubt
that I would not come up
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with another film about penguins.
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My questions about nature,
I let them know, were different.
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I told them I kept wondering
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why is it that human beings put on
masks or feathers to conceaI their identity?
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And why do they saddle horses
and feeI the urge to chase the bad guy?
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Hi-yo, Silver!
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And why is it that certain species
of ants keep flocks of plant lice as slaves
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to milk them for droplets of sugar?
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I asked them why is it
that a sophisticated animaI like a chimp
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does not utilize inferior creatures?
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He could straddle a goat
and ride off into the sunset.
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Despite my odd questions, I found myself
landing on the ice runway at McMurdo.
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For most of the austraI spring and summer,
which lasts from October through February,
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planes can land on
the 8-foot thick ice of the Ross Sea.
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00:05:03,945 --> 00:05:07,608
In the distance,
the mountains of the Transantarctic range.
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McMurdo itself is situated on an island.
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The Ross Sea is the largest bay
in the continent.
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This bay alone covers the size
of the state of Texas.
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On this very same frozen ocean,
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the early explorer's ship
got wedged into moving ice flows.
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Here, Shackleton's expedition
evacuates their vesseI,
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which would later come to ruin,
leaving them stranded there.
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Everything in this expedition was doomed,
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including the first ancestor
of the snowmobile.
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The idea was too big for
the technicaI possibilities 100 years ago.
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At that time,
every step meant incredible hardship.
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The first thing that caught my eye
upon landing
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was the humongous bus and its driver.
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- We're clearing the apron now, thank you.
- Hey, you're welcome.
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This is Ivan the Terra Bus.
It's one of seven in the world,
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weighs 67,000 pounds
and is the largest vehicle on the continent.
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What do you do when you are
back home? Are you a taxi driver?
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I am not a taxi driver at home.
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00:07:22,283 --> 00:07:25,878
Before I came to Antarctica,
I was actually a banker in Colorado.
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And after two years there,
I changed my pace a little bit
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and decided to help
the people of Guatemala,
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00:07:32,460 --> 00:07:37,864
so I joined the Peace Corps, and there
I worked in small business development.
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Just realized that the world's
not all about money.
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Where I lived in Guatemala
was in the northern part.
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It's a Kekchi Mayan village, 99% Mayan,
and therefore nobody spoke Spanish.
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I had to learn the Mayan dialect, Kekchi.
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When I first moved to Chisec, I was just out
on a normaI walk, and before I knew it
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I had six people with machetes
chasing me down, wanting to talk to me.
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Turns out the little brother
told them I was there to steal children.
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I was, however, not there to steal children.
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They took me back to my:. My judge
and jury was the 14-year-old boy in the town
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who could speak both Spanish and Kekchi.
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Luckily, they let me go,
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and we ended up being
great friends over the two years.
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The jury acquitted you.
- I was acquitted. I made it out of there.
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But it could have been dangerous.
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It is, it is.
And, you know, a story not too long ago is,
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00:08:35,723 --> 00:08:37,782
a lady was just taking a picture of a child,
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you know, the same type of group of people
with machetes, and she wasn't so fortunate.
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- She didn't make it out.
- What happened to her?
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She was killed, by a machete.
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00:08:51,339 --> 00:08:55,571
Approaching McMurdo Station,
the largest American base,
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in fact the largest settlement in Antarctica.
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Right there is Captain Scott's hut,
built in 1902.
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During the austraI summer,
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00:09:06,221 --> 00:09:10,590
about 1,000 people live here
experiencing a strange state,
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00:09:11,726 --> 00:09:14,092
five months of no nighttime.
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00:09:17,232 --> 00:09:20,030
McMurdo serves as a logisticaI hub
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and provides fixed laboratory facilities
for research.
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00:09:25,506 --> 00:09:28,304
All the decisions about scientific projects
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00:09:28,409 --> 00:09:32,243
are the domain of my host,
the NationaI Science Foundation.
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00:09:33,748 --> 00:09:37,707
Day to day logistics
are run by a defense contractor.
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00:09:39,187 --> 00:09:42,884
I had been told by some
disgruntled former inhabitants
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that they ran things
in the spirit of a correctionaI facility.
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Actually, they were decent people,
just too concerned for my personaI safety.
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Of course, I did not expect
pristine landscapes
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00:10:02,844 --> 00:10:07,008
and men living in blissfuI harmony
with fluffy penguins,
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00:10:07,148 --> 00:10:12,347
but I was still surprised to find McMurdo
looking like an ugly mining town
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00:10:12,487 --> 00:10:16,480
filled with Caterpillars
and noisy construction sites.
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00:10:52,827 --> 00:10:55,955
Who are the people
who drive the heavy machinery,
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00:10:56,130 --> 00:10:58,758
and what brought them to Antarctica?
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00:11:00,134 --> 00:11:06,903
It's a long story.
I've explored many different
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lands of the mind and many worlds of ideas,
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00:11:14,148 --> 00:11:17,879
and I started before I even knew
how to read and write.
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00:11:17,985 --> 00:11:21,352
My grandmother was reading
The Odyssey and The lliad to me,
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00:11:21,489 --> 00:11:25,823
so I started my journey in my fantasy,
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00:11:25,927 --> 00:11:28,794
before I even knew the means
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00:11:28,896 --> 00:11:32,764
of accomplishing it, but my mind
and my psyche was ready for it.
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00:11:32,900 --> 00:11:37,667
I was already traveling with Odysseus
and with the Argonauts
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00:11:37,805 --> 00:11:42,708
and to those strange and amazing lands,
and that always stayed with me,
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00:11:42,810 --> 00:11:47,679
that fascination of the world,
and that I fell in love with the world.
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00:11:47,815 --> 00:11:53,412
And it's been very powerful
and has been with me this whole time.
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00:11:54,589 --> 00:11:58,184
And how does it happen that
we are encountering each other here
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at the end of the world?
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I think that it's a logical place to find
each other because this place works
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00:12:05,867 --> 00:12:10,463
almost as a natural selection for people that
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have this intention to jump
off the margin of the map,
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00:12:14,509 --> 00:12:18,411
and we all meet here where
all the lines of the map converge.
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00:12:19,614 --> 00:12:23,141
There is no point that is
south of the South Pole.
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00:12:25,553 --> 00:12:29,751
And I think there is a fair amount
of the population here
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00:12:29,857 --> 00:12:34,226
which are full-time travelers
and part-time workers.
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00:12:34,328 --> 00:12:36,159
So yes, those are the professional dreamers.
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00:12:36,264 --> 00:12:40,633
They dream all the time,
and, I think, through them
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00:12:41,402 --> 00:12:45,463
the great cosmic dreams come into fruition,
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00:12:45,573 --> 00:12:49,441
because the universe dreams
through our dreams,
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00:12:49,544 --> 00:12:53,810
and I think that there is
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00:12:53,915 --> 00:12:56,713
many different ways for the reality
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00:12:56,818 --> 00:13:01,084
to bring itself forward, and dreaming
is definitely one of those ways.
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00:14:00,414 --> 00:14:03,281
As banaI as McMurdo appears,
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00:14:03,384 --> 00:14:07,047
it turns out it is filled
with these professionaI dreamers.
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00:14:09,557 --> 00:14:12,720
At night, I was laying
in my bed here in McMurdo.
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00:14:13,294 --> 00:14:18,698
I am again walking across the top of B-15.
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00:14:18,799 --> 00:14:21,324
Might as well be
on a piece of the South Pole,
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00:14:21,435 --> 00:14:24,336
but yet I'm actually adrift in the ocean,
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00:14:25,306 --> 00:14:29,902
a vagabond floating in the ocean,
and below my feet
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00:14:30,011 --> 00:14:32,707
I can feel the rumble of the iceberg.
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00:14:32,813 --> 00:14:36,271
I can feel the change, the cry of the iceberg
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00:14:36,384 --> 00:14:39,911
as it's screeching
and as it's bouncing off the seabed,
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00:14:40,021 --> 00:14:43,957
as it's steering the ocean currents,
as it's beginning to move north.
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00:14:44,058 --> 00:14:48,893
I can feel that sound coming up
through the bottoms of my feet
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00:14:48,996 --> 00:14:53,490
and telling me that this iceberg
is coming north. That's my dream.
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00:15:06,414 --> 00:15:11,875
So here I'm sitting in this lovely warm lab
and just outside is the environment
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00:15:11,986 --> 00:15:16,218
that Scott and Shackleton first faced
when they came here about 100 years ago.
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00:15:17,258 --> 00:15:22,753
Unlike Scott and Shackleton, who viewed
the ice as this sort of static monster
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00:15:22,863 --> 00:15:25,832
that had to be crossed
to get to the South Pole,
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00:15:26,000 --> 00:15:30,767
we scientists now are able to
see the ice as a dynamic living entity
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00:15:30,871 --> 00:15:35,331
that is sort of producing change,
like the icebergs that I study.
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00:15:37,211 --> 00:15:39,372
For me, it's been a wild ride.
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00:15:39,480 --> 00:15:43,883
First of all, I found out that the iceberg
that I came down to study
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00:15:43,985 --> 00:15:48,012
not only was larger than the iceberg
that sank the Titanic,
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00:15:48,255 --> 00:15:51,691
it was not only larger than the Titanic itself,
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00:15:51,792 --> 00:15:55,284
but it was larger than the country
that built the Titanic.
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00:15:55,396 --> 00:15:56,454
That's pretty big.
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00:15:57,598 --> 00:16:04,333
This is B-15. So what we see here
is the white cliff. It's about 150 feet tall,
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00:16:04,438 --> 00:16:09,705
so that means that there's over
1,000 feet of ice below the water line.
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00:16:09,810 --> 00:16:14,008
This iceberg is so big
that the water that it contains
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would run the flow of
the river Jordan for 1,000 years.
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00:16:19,687 --> 00:16:25,785
It's so big that the water that is inside of it
would run the river Nile for 75 years.
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00:16:30,131 --> 00:16:32,156
MacAYEAL: This is a little bit
of video that we shot
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when we were flying up to the iceberg.
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00:16:34,602 --> 00:16:38,231
It looks big and it looms above us,
even if we're on an aircraft
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00:16:38,339 --> 00:16:42,571
flying above the iceberg,
the iceberg is always above us.
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00:16:42,677 --> 00:16:46,477
It's above us because it's a mystery
that we don't understand.
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00:16:47,715 --> 00:16:52,118
Here's a picture of what it looked like once
we had arrived in the center of the iceberg.
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00:16:52,219 --> 00:16:53,948
We put out our instruments.
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00:16:54,055 --> 00:16:58,617
Now we're gonna have an opportunity
to monitor how the iceberg drifts north.
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00:16:59,760 --> 00:17:03,252
They're so big, there's an element of fear.
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00:17:03,364 --> 00:17:05,662
We don't know, really,
what's going to come ahead
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00:17:05,800 --> 00:17:09,827
when they eventually begin to melt
in the ocean beyond Antarctica.
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00:17:12,073 --> 00:17:17,511
What we're seeing now here
is a time-lapse sort of animation
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00:17:17,611 --> 00:17:22,048
of satellite imagery of the sea ice
and of the continent of Antarctica.
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00:17:22,183 --> 00:17:24,777
And what you see are three shades of gray.
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00:17:24,885 --> 00:17:27,854
This sort of lighter shade of gray
is the sea ice,
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00:17:27,988 --> 00:17:32,118
and these little bits and pieces here,
these are titanic icebergs.
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00:17:32,693 --> 00:17:37,596
This little fellow right here, he's not a very
big iceberg compared to these other ones,
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00:17:37,832 --> 00:17:42,963
but that guy there might be the size of
the island of Sicily in the Mediterranean.
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00:17:43,070 --> 00:17:46,631
It's like a little tiny bumblebee
zipping around in a circle,
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happy to be in the warm waters
as it's drifting north.
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00:17:51,779 --> 00:17:58,116
I'd be happy to see Antarctica as a static,
monolithic environment,
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00:17:58,219 --> 00:18:03,782
a cold monolith of ice, sort of the way
the people back in the past used to see it,
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00:18:03,891 --> 00:18:08,385
but now our comfortable thought
about Antarctica is over.
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00:18:08,496 --> 00:18:12,057
Now we're seeing it as
a living being that's dynamic,
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that's producing change, change that
it's broadcasting to the rest of the world,
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00:18:18,305 --> 00:18:23,333
possibly in response to what the world
is broadcasting down to Antarctica.
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00:18:23,444 --> 00:18:27,175
Certainly on a gut level
it's going to be frightening
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00:18:27,281 --> 00:18:30,910
to watch what happens
to these babies once they get north.
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00:18:44,165 --> 00:18:48,465
What environment would the men
of Shackleton's expedition encounter
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00:18:48,569 --> 00:18:50,969
if they returned in a next life?
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00:18:55,543 --> 00:18:59,377
Shackleton, seen here,
would finally make it to the Pole,
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00:18:59,480 --> 00:19:03,143
a quest he had to abandon
a mere 100 miles short of it.
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00:19:05,586 --> 00:19:08,146
Would there be any ice left?
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00:19:08,255 --> 00:19:12,453
Would he have to construct
an artificiaI Antarctica in a studio
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00:19:12,560 --> 00:19:16,360
and try to find his route through
papier-mache icebergs?
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00:19:27,474 --> 00:19:32,241
Would our only modern recourse
be to create ice with machines?
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00:19:33,113 --> 00:19:35,775
This is Frosty Boy, here in McMurdo.
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00:19:35,883 --> 00:19:39,512
It's the equivalent of ice cream in the States,
and it's a really big hit.
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00:19:39,620 --> 00:19:44,717
Everybody loves it. It's what they go for
three or four times a day.
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00:19:44,825 --> 00:19:48,625
And it has the texture of ice cream,
but it's not quite ice cream.
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00:19:49,930 --> 00:19:54,663
There's a lot of crises that happen
in McMurdo when the Frosty Boy runs out.
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00:19:56,337 --> 00:19:57,599
It's bad news.
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00:19:57,705 --> 00:20:03,974
Words circulate everywhere throughout
McMurdo when Frosty Boy goes down.
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00:20:04,078 --> 00:20:05,943
It's really good stuff.
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00:20:07,715 --> 00:20:11,776
From the very first day,
we just wanted to get out of this place.
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00:20:13,554 --> 00:20:19,254
McMurdo has climate-controlled housing
facilities, its own radio station,
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00:20:19,360 --> 00:20:26,163
a bowling alley and abominations
such as an aerobic studio and yoga classes.
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00:20:27,835 --> 00:20:29,894
It even has an ATM machine.
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00:20:32,139 --> 00:20:37,702
For all these reasons, I wanted to get out
into the field as soon as possible.
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00:20:41,882 --> 00:20:47,013
But before we could do that, it is mandatory
that every inhabitant of McMurdo
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00:20:47,121 --> 00:20:51,353
attend survivaI schooI
before being allowed to leave.
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00:20:56,163 --> 00:20:59,929
This two-day exercise
is called Happy Camper.
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00:21:10,511 --> 00:21:15,312
Students learn to build
survivaI trenches and igloos.
200
00:21:15,416 --> 00:21:20,376
The bad news is, that night
you have to sleep in your own construction.
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00:21:20,554 --> 00:21:24,547
As long as I end up with 10 fingers
and 10 toes at the end, it's all good.
202
00:21:39,273 --> 00:21:40,740
Oh, God, sorry!
203
00:21:40,841 --> 00:21:43,833
We just need to break ourselves
into two different groups now.
204
00:21:44,044 --> 00:21:49,505
We're gonna brief this group over here
for the burning vehicle scenario first,
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00:21:49,616 --> 00:21:52,244
then we're gonna come back over
and we're gonna brief
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00:21:52,353 --> 00:21:55,754
the bucket head white-out scenario
for everybody else.
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00:21:55,856 --> 00:22:00,555
Essentially, we're trying to create conditions
where we wouldn't be able to see.
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00:22:00,661 --> 00:22:06,156
The wind is so severe, the snow is blowing
so severely. Very, very cold.
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00:22:06,266 --> 00:22:11,499
Exposed skin might actually
create frostbite instantaneously.
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00:22:11,605 --> 00:22:15,268
The winds are so severe
you could be blown off of your stance
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00:22:15,376 --> 00:22:20,075
of just simply standing out,
and visibility is pretty much none.
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00:22:20,280 --> 00:22:21,838
You can't see flag to flag.
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00:22:21,949 --> 00:22:25,385
You might not be able to see your hand
in front of your own face.
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00:22:25,486 --> 00:22:29,115
Therefore,
what we're gonna do as a simulator
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00:22:29,223 --> 00:22:34,991
is incorporate a bucket to simulate
a white-out condition
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00:22:35,095 --> 00:22:38,258
to a point where I can barely hear myself.
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00:22:38,365 --> 00:22:44,702
You can't necessarily even hear me, and
I certainly can't see any of you right now.
218
00:22:47,674 --> 00:22:49,869
So that's the whole idea
behind the bucket head
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00:22:49,977 --> 00:22:54,311
is to actually be a white-out simulator,
and it works really quite well.
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00:22:55,449 --> 00:22:58,680
So, some of the parameters
for this are gonna be,
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00:22:58,786 --> 00:23:01,220
we're gonna start inside the sea-ice hut.
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00:23:01,321 --> 00:23:03,380
I said I was gonna go to the bathroom,
and in fact I did.
223
00:23:03,490 --> 00:23:07,085
I needed to go to the bathroom, right.
So, I've gone out.
224
00:23:07,194 --> 00:23:09,526
I've been gone for
quite some time now though,
225
00:23:09,630 --> 00:23:13,327
you know, like 10, 15.
All of a sudden 20 minutes, you're like,
226
00:23:13,434 --> 00:23:16,631
"First off, where's the chocolate,
second off, where's Kevin?"
227
00:23:17,204 --> 00:23:19,434
Are you with us, Number One?
- Number One is out.
228
00:23:20,207 --> 00:23:25,144
The goaI is clear,
to find the instructor next to the outhouse.
229
00:23:25,245 --> 00:23:27,611
Number Two is out.
230
00:23:27,714 --> 00:23:30,581
Number Three out. Number Three out.
231
00:23:30,684 --> 00:23:33,847
All right, Number One, you're
gonna have to walk in one simple direction,
232
00:23:33,954 --> 00:23:36,650
and I'm gonna keep the:.
Pull on one rope for me.
233
00:23:36,757 --> 00:23:37,985
Four out.
234
00:23:38,492 --> 00:23:42,690
It looks pretty good: They seem
to be heading in the right direction.
235
00:23:42,896 --> 00:23:44,056
Five out.
236
00:23:44,932 --> 00:23:46,126
Six out.
237
00:23:46,667 --> 00:23:52,196
But very soon the front man veers
off-course, pulling everyone else with him.
238
00:24:14,661 --> 00:24:17,528
- Pull the rope, somebody:.
Hey, anybody out there?
239
00:24:17,631 --> 00:24:19,258
Out here. Number Three is here.
240
00:24:21,635 --> 00:24:24,604
- Where you at, Number Two?
- Find him?
241
00:24:55,102 --> 00:24:58,162
- Did we find the guy?
- No.
242
00:25:03,377 --> 00:25:04,503
Okay, I think we're gonna go this way.
243
00:25:04,611 --> 00:25:07,842
Follow me this way, guys. This way, guys.
244
00:25:09,349 --> 00:25:11,317
Hold on, hold on.
245
00:25:12,452 --> 00:25:15,046
So part of what we want to do here
as an educational opportunity
246
00:25:15,155 --> 00:25:17,248
is see if they realize what they've done,
247
00:25:17,357 --> 00:25:20,019
come back to a hut
and come up with a new game plan,
248
00:25:20,127 --> 00:25:24,257
or if they just keep going down
that cascading error phenomenon,
249
00:25:24,364 --> 00:25:26,423
where one mistake
leads into another mistake
250
00:25:26,533 --> 00:25:29,195
which leads into a third,
and it just gets really bad.
251
00:25:29,903 --> 00:25:31,666
Who's pulling on this line?
252
00:25:31,772 --> 00:25:33,103
- Me.
- Number One.
253
00:25:33,207 --> 00:25:36,233
Number One, don't pull on that.
That's the line going back to the hut.
254
00:25:36,343 --> 00:25:38,971
- I got the end.
- Okay, back to the hut?
255
00:25:39,146 --> 00:25:40,613
- Back to the hut.
- Back to the hut.
256
00:25:40,714 --> 00:25:42,204
Back to the hut.
257
00:25:43,584 --> 00:25:46,144
But rather than
pulling everyone in,
258
00:25:46,253 --> 00:25:48,414
last man first along the rope,
259
00:25:48,555 --> 00:25:51,456
they drift completely off-course.
260
00:25:52,092 --> 00:25:55,721
- Number Two is here. Is Number Three here?
- Number Three is here.
261
00:25:55,829 --> 00:25:57,091
Number Four?
262
00:25:58,465 --> 00:26:01,957
- Towards the sun.
- No, not towards the sun.
263
00:26:02,236 --> 00:26:04,170
- Left.
- We need to go left.
264
00:26:04,404 --> 00:26:06,269
Left, stay left.
265
00:26:06,373 --> 00:26:09,433
We don't know where he's standing though,
so left might be different for him.
266
00:26:10,177 --> 00:26:11,474
- Correct.
- Number Two.
267
00:26:11,912 --> 00:26:13,812
- Okay, Number One.
- I'm here.
268
00:26:13,914 --> 00:26:18,908
For most of our time here,
we had postcard-pretty weather conditions.
269
00:26:20,621 --> 00:26:26,218
This was frustrating because I loathe
the sun both on my celluloid and my skin.
270
00:26:29,129 --> 00:26:35,193
So it almost came as a relief when a few
days later, the weather suddenly changed.
271
00:26:47,981 --> 00:26:53,419
The storm soon broke and we were allowed
to venture out of McMurdo for the first time.
272
00:26:56,490 --> 00:27:02,451
We set out on snowmobiles, in front of us
miles and miles of frozen ocean.
273
00:27:04,765 --> 00:27:09,498
We were heading toward a field camp
of scientists who study seals.
274
00:27:13,674 --> 00:27:15,608
It was amazing to consider
275
00:27:15,709 --> 00:27:20,146
that a mere six feet under us
was the expanse of the Ross Sea.
276
00:28:17,904 --> 00:28:21,396
These scientists here
are particularly interested
277
00:28:21,508 --> 00:28:24,306
in the feeding cycle of the Weddell seaI.
278
00:28:25,278 --> 00:28:27,269
In just a few short weeks,
279
00:28:27,514 --> 00:28:32,713
pups grow rapidly, while mothers lose
some 40% of their body weight.
280
00:28:45,399 --> 00:28:52,271
Bagging the seaI's head keeps the animaI
calm as the scientists extract a milk sample.
281
00:29:07,020 --> 00:29:10,512
Well, this really is quite
a wonderfuI group of animals to work on.
282
00:29:10,791 --> 00:29:13,954
Weddell seals in particular,
you can see they're very big.
283
00:29:14,060 --> 00:29:17,587
They're very strong,
and yet they allow us to work with them.
284
00:29:17,697 --> 00:29:20,632
They're not very aggressive,
nor are they very timid.
285
00:29:20,734 --> 00:29:25,137
Even though they struggle somewhat
when you have them in a bag or in a net,
286
00:29:25,238 --> 00:29:27,331
when you release them, they lie down.
287
00:29:27,441 --> 00:29:30,342
There's the mother behind us
who we just worked on,
288
00:29:30,444 --> 00:29:32,139
and she's just lying quietly with her pup.
289
00:29:32,245 --> 00:29:35,180
We've had pups start to nurse within
a couple of minutes of releasing them.
290
00:29:35,315 --> 00:29:40,275
So even though they are a bit perturbed
at being handled,
291
00:29:40,387 --> 00:29:43,982
they recover very quickly from it
and seem to behave normally after that,
292
00:29:44,090 --> 00:29:49,289
and really that's the ideal for us is to have
an animal species that we can work on
293
00:29:49,396 --> 00:29:54,163
that will not be so disturbed by the work
that's being done on them
294
00:29:54,267 --> 00:29:55,461
that they behave abnormally,
295
00:29:55,569 --> 00:30:00,063
'cause we want to know how these
animals survive, under these conditions.
296
00:30:03,910 --> 00:30:07,437
In a field laboratory
adjacent to the colony,
297
00:30:07,547 --> 00:30:09,640
they prepare the milk samples
298
00:30:09,749 --> 00:30:13,913
that may ultimately provide insight
into human weight loss.
299
00:30:14,087 --> 00:30:18,615
This was just collected. It's still warm
from the animal. So if you see that:.
300
00:30:19,526 --> 00:30:21,494
See, it's like, you know,
it's almost like pouring wax.
301
00:30:21,595 --> 00:30:26,726
It's really something else. And if I let this
cool down, it would get pretty pasty.
302
00:30:26,833 --> 00:30:30,826
I wouldn't be able to pour it like that at all.
It's at body temperature right now.
303
00:30:32,205 --> 00:30:35,470
The milk of the Weddell seal
is about 45%fat.
304
00:30:35,575 --> 00:30:40,774
It's about 60% dry matter, 65% dry matter.
305
00:30:40,881 --> 00:30:42,075
It's very, very high in protein.
306
00:30:42,215 --> 00:30:45,946
It's about 10 to 12% protein
and contains no lactose at all,
307
00:30:46,186 --> 00:30:47,346
which is very unusual.
308
00:30:48,588 --> 00:30:50,920
And there's many things
about this place that are very unusual,
309
00:30:51,024 --> 00:30:56,519
and one of the things that I find
very fascinating is how quiet it gets.
310
00:30:56,630 --> 00:30:57,824
It's the quietest place.
311
00:30:57,931 --> 00:31:00,798
When the wind is down,
when there's no wind,
312
00:31:00,901 --> 00:31:03,426
it wakes you up in the middle of the night
because there's no wind,
313
00:31:03,537 --> 00:31:04,868
and there's no sound at all,
314
00:31:04,971 --> 00:31:07,838
and if you walk out on the ice,
you can hear your own heartbeat,
315
00:31:07,941 --> 00:31:08,965
that's how still it is.
316
00:31:09,075 --> 00:31:11,543
And you can hear the:.
You can hear the ice crack,
317
00:31:11,645 --> 00:31:14,739
and it sounds like there's somebody walking
behind you, but it's just the ice.
318
00:31:14,848 --> 00:31:18,579
It's sort of, you know,
these little stress cracks moving all the time,
319
00:31:18,752 --> 00:31:20,652
because we're actually,
right here we're on ocean.
320
00:31:20,754 --> 00:31:24,918
We're not on solid ground, so:.
And you can hear the seals.
321
00:31:25,025 --> 00:31:27,619
You can hear the seals call,
and it's the most amazing sound.
322
00:31:27,761 --> 00:31:30,321
They make these really inorganic sounds.
323
00:31:32,766 --> 00:31:35,257
They sound like,
I don't know, Pink Floyd or something.
324
00:31:35,368 --> 00:31:38,428
They don't sound like mammals,
and they definitely don't sound like animals.
325
00:31:39,906 --> 00:31:42,875
It's really out of this world, I can say that.
326
00:31:51,284 --> 00:31:53,514
You get used to
a surface being solid,
327
00:31:53,620 --> 00:31:57,317
and you sort of think in your mind
that you're on land, and then all of a sudden
328
00:31:57,424 --> 00:31:59,415
you'll hear the sound
coming up through the floor.
329
00:31:59,526 --> 00:32:03,155
- You'll hear the chucks and the whistles:.
- And the booms.
330
00:32:03,263 --> 00:32:04,787
And the booms that come which are the:.
331
00:32:04,898 --> 00:32:07,458
You realize there's
a whole world underneath you,
332
00:32:07,567 --> 00:32:11,367
that seals are moving and competing
and fighting beneath you under the ice
333
00:32:11,471 --> 00:32:15,305
while you're here sleeping in a tent
or working in a lab hut.
334
00:33:28,948 --> 00:33:33,442
We soon returned to
the prosaic world of today's McMurdo.
335
00:33:35,021 --> 00:33:40,288
David Pacheco works in maintenance
and construction as a journeyman plumber.
336
00:33:41,161 --> 00:33:43,789
He prides himself on his heritage.
337
00:33:43,897 --> 00:33:48,095
He is part Apache
but has claims to yet another lineage.
338
00:33:48,835 --> 00:33:55,365
It's funny, but I'm revealing my hands
and they are very distinct,
339
00:33:56,976 --> 00:33:59,809
and I was told by my doctor
who operated me that
340
00:33:59,913 --> 00:34:04,247
it is from the Aztec
and the Inca's royal family.
341
00:34:04,350 --> 00:34:10,755
An anthropologist told me that,
and one of our daughters is very similar,
342
00:34:10,857 --> 00:34:13,155
but everywhere I go,
I try to find somebody. See?
343
00:34:13,259 --> 00:34:15,659
And I can turn it around too,
if you wanna see it this way.
344
00:34:15,762 --> 00:34:18,890
It's very distinct, the line here,
345
00:34:18,998 --> 00:34:25,198
and I was at awe when they told me
it was from the royal family of the Indians.
346
00:34:25,305 --> 00:34:30,333
When you work, with which fingers
do you work best or point best?
347
00:34:30,443 --> 00:34:32,138
I don't know if I should say this. It's funny,
348
00:34:32,245 --> 00:34:36,341
but in school I used to not reach
the chalkboard with this,
349
00:34:36,449 --> 00:34:39,418
so I used to point with this,
and they called my father in
350
00:34:39,519 --> 00:34:40,918
and said that I was being a bad boy,
351
00:34:41,020 --> 00:34:43,648
but I still have the habit
of pointing like that.
352
00:34:43,790 --> 00:34:46,987
I have a long ribcage.
He could not find the gallbladder.
353
00:34:47,093 --> 00:34:52,827
I have a long ribcage like the Aztecs
used to have, I guess, and:.
354
00:34:55,034 --> 00:35:01,598
If you can come to Antarctica, please do.
Plus, be aware of global warming. It's real.
355
00:35:01,708 --> 00:35:08,443
I'm a green person. I'm as green as I can be.
I build adobe homes, solar homes.
356
00:35:08,548 --> 00:35:15,511
I'm a contractor back home, too, but it's
so hard for a small minority to make it, but:.
357
00:35:57,096 --> 00:36:00,463
Spirit, the fire of my ancestors.
358
00:36:15,248 --> 00:36:19,810
Our next journey took us
85 kilometers over frozen ocean.
359
00:36:26,960 --> 00:36:31,294
We were heading from Ross Island
in the direction of mainland Antarctica.
360
00:36:33,233 --> 00:36:36,168
The empty interior beyond these mountains
361
00:36:36,269 --> 00:36:40,069
is larger in size than
continentaI North America.
362
00:36:41,241 --> 00:36:46,941
The vast majority of it is
covered in a layer of ice 9,000 feet thick.
363
00:36:48,948 --> 00:36:50,745
We were heading for New Harbor,
364
00:36:50,850 --> 00:36:55,878
a diving camp
which lies on the coastline of the ocean.
365
00:36:55,989 --> 00:36:58,981
To the right is the frozen sea
where they dive.
366
00:36:59,125 --> 00:37:02,185
The camp itself is built on firm ground.
367
00:37:10,970 --> 00:37:16,169
We were welcomed by my friend
Henry Kaiser, a musician and expert diver,
368
00:37:16,276 --> 00:37:20,440
whose underwater footage
it was that brought me to this place.
369
00:37:21,781 --> 00:37:25,945
We had arrived at an opportune time
and went straight to this shelter
370
00:37:26,052 --> 00:37:30,489
which protects a primary diving hole
next to New Harbor camp.
371
00:37:32,692 --> 00:37:36,890
Sam Bowser is the head
of the scientific field team.
372
00:37:37,530 --> 00:37:40,226
We found him in a pensive mood.
373
00:37:40,333 --> 00:37:43,131
Sam Bowser,
this is a special day for you?
374
00:37:46,239 --> 00:37:48,400
Well, I think:.
375
00:37:48,508 --> 00:37:52,035
I think everyone should stop
when they've reached a point
376
00:37:52,145 --> 00:37:55,546
where they've done
what they've wanted to do,
377
00:37:55,648 --> 00:37:59,015
and today is probably gonna be
my last Antarctic dive, I think.
378
00:37:59,118 --> 00:38:00,210
I think we've accomplished what:.
379
00:38:00,320 --> 00:38:03,949
At least, I've accomplished
what I've set out to do here,
380
00:38:04,057 --> 00:38:09,859
and it's time to pass the ball off to
the next generation of biologists, I think.
381
00:38:09,963 --> 00:38:12,124
So, it is a bit of a special day.
382
00:38:13,266 --> 00:38:17,066
I had heard that he was also
a great science fiction fan.
383
00:38:17,170 --> 00:38:20,731
The creatures that are down there
that are like science-fiction creatures,
384
00:38:20,840 --> 00:38:26,142
they range in the way that they would
gobble you up from slime-type blobs,
385
00:38:27,046 --> 00:38:30,675
but creepier than classic
science-fiction blobs.
386
00:38:30,783 --> 00:38:32,876
These would have long tendrils
that would ensnare you,
387
00:38:32,986 --> 00:38:35,216
and as you tried to get away from them
388
00:38:35,321 --> 00:38:38,688
you'd just become more and more ensnared
by your own actions.
389
00:38:38,791 --> 00:38:42,420
And then after you would be frustrated
and exhausted,
390
00:38:42,862 --> 00:38:47,322
then this creature would start to move in
and take you apart.
391
00:38:47,433 --> 00:38:49,367
So that's one example
of one of the creatures.
392
00:38:49,469 --> 00:38:52,961
Then there are other types of worm-type
things with horrible mandibles
393
00:38:53,706 --> 00:38:57,540
and jaws and just bits to rend your flesh.
394
00:38:58,678 --> 00:39:03,115
It really is a violent,
horribly violent world that
395
00:39:03,216 --> 00:39:07,983
is obscure to us
because we're encased in neoprene,
396
00:39:08,087 --> 00:39:10,612
you know,
and we're much larger than that world.
397
00:39:10,857 --> 00:39:13,519
So it doesn't really affect us,
but if you were to shrink down,
398
00:39:13,626 --> 00:39:18,222
miniaturize into that world,
it'd be a horrible place to be. Just horrible.
399
00:39:18,831 --> 00:39:21,425
And this is a world
earlier than human beings.
400
00:39:21,534 --> 00:39:25,163
Do you think that the human race
and other mammals
401
00:39:25,271 --> 00:39:30,538
fled in panic from the oceans
and crawled on solid land to get out of this?
402
00:39:30,643 --> 00:39:34,170
Yeah, I think undoubtedly
that's exactly the driving force
403
00:39:34,280 --> 00:39:37,215
that caused us to leave the horrors behind.
404
00:39:37,383 --> 00:39:40,648
To grow and evolve into larger creatures
to escape
405
00:39:40,787 --> 00:39:44,883
what's horribly violent
at the miniature scale, miniaturized scale.
406
00:39:47,593 --> 00:39:48,685
Yeah.
407
00:39:55,968 --> 00:39:59,870
The water under the ice is
minus 2 degrees Celsius.
408
00:40:03,709 --> 00:40:07,076
That keeps us insulated from the cold.
409
00:40:17,356 --> 00:40:18,380
Want me to open it up?
410
00:40:18,491 --> 00:40:19,890
- Yeah. Ready?
- Yeah.
411
00:40:37,076 --> 00:40:40,136
Dive operation. Time right now is:.
412
00:40:41,147 --> 00:40:44,048
I'll give you a call back at about 2:30.
413
00:40:53,259 --> 00:40:58,094
To me, the divers look like astronauts
floating in space.
414
00:40:59,265 --> 00:41:02,792
But their work is extremely dangerous.
415
00:41:02,935 --> 00:41:06,803
They are diving without tethers
to give them more free range.
416
00:41:09,442 --> 00:41:11,876
But here you can't trust a compass.
417
00:41:11,978 --> 00:41:17,348
So close to the magnetic pole, the needle
would point straight up or straight down.
418
00:41:19,352 --> 00:41:23,789
Somehow you have to find
your way back to the exit hole
419
00:41:23,890 --> 00:41:26,791
or you are trapped under the ceiling of ice.
420
00:43:39,025 --> 00:43:42,961
So I selected some areas
that have the tree foraminifera,
421
00:43:43,062 --> 00:43:46,862
and they're the ones we're interested in
right now, to find out if they're carnivores,
422
00:43:46,966 --> 00:43:51,369
whether or not they eat shrimp-like
creatures, multi-cellular creatures.
423
00:43:51,971 --> 00:43:56,271
And also I found a few of the urchins
that have, I think,
424
00:43:56,375 --> 00:44:00,675
they're the ones that have
a parasitic worm that lives in their anus.
425
00:44:00,813 --> 00:44:03,475
It's a pretty beautiful scarlet worm,
426
00:44:03,582 --> 00:44:07,279
but it must be a horrible way to make a life,
I would think.
427
00:44:13,359 --> 00:44:15,827
I tell you, gentlemen,
science has agreed
428
00:44:15,928 --> 00:44:18,624
that unless something is done,
and done quickly,
429
00:44:18,731 --> 00:44:24,033
man as the dominant species of life on Earth
will be extinct within a year.
430
00:44:26,872 --> 00:44:28,897
Sam Bowser likes to show
431
00:44:29,008 --> 00:44:32,637
doomsday science fiction films
to the researchers.
432
00:44:34,680 --> 00:44:40,312
Many of them express grave doubts about
our long-ranging presence on this planet.
433
00:44:41,687 --> 00:44:45,145
Nature, they predict, will regulate us.
434
00:44:45,257 --> 00:44:49,057
Stay in your homes.
I repeat, stay in your homes.
435
00:44:49,161 --> 00:44:51,459
Your personaI safety,
the safety of the entire city
436
00:44:51,564 --> 00:44:55,933
depends upon your full cooperation
with the military authorities.
437
00:44:56,035 --> 00:45:01,974
Yes! Cities, nations, even civilization itself
threatened with annihilation.
438
00:45:02,575 --> 00:45:05,203
Because in one moment of
history-making violence,
439
00:45:05,911 --> 00:45:10,007
nature, mad, rampant,
wrought its most awesome creation.
440
00:45:10,116 --> 00:45:13,176
For born in that swirling inferno of
radioactive dust
441
00:45:13,452 --> 00:45:18,480
were things so horrible,
so terrifying, so hideous
442
00:45:18,691 --> 00:45:21,888
there is no word to describe them.
443
00:45:28,801 --> 00:45:32,259
We may be witnesses to
a biblicaI prophecy come true.
444
00:45:32,438 --> 00:45:35,965
And there shall be destruction
and darkness come upon creation,
445
00:45:36,475 --> 00:45:39,239
and the beasts shall reign over the Earth.
446
00:45:39,345 --> 00:45:41,711
Yes, the Earth,
infested by swarms:.
447
00:45:41,814 --> 00:45:45,773
This is just the flower part.
The body is somewhere in the dirt over there.
448
00:45:45,885 --> 00:45:49,377
All that the divers had brought
back from the ocean floor
449
00:45:49,488 --> 00:45:54,983
were a few spoonfuls of sand containing
the strange single-celled creatures
450
00:45:55,094 --> 00:45:57,460
the scientists are studying here.
451
00:45:58,731 --> 00:46:04,101
They are known as tree foraminifera,
primordiaI single-celled organisms.
452
00:46:05,538 --> 00:46:08,666
They branch out in the shape of trees.
453
00:46:08,774 --> 00:46:13,302
The branches give off pseudopodia,
microscopic false feet
454
00:46:13,412 --> 00:46:19,146
that gather and assemble grains of sand
into a protective shell around the twigs.
455
00:46:21,554 --> 00:46:25,149
These are the pseudopodia
that are secreted by foraminifera.
456
00:46:25,257 --> 00:46:28,658
They're long, thin, tendril-like projections.
457
00:46:30,196 --> 00:46:31,823
What the foram does is it wakes up,
458
00:46:31,931 --> 00:46:35,697
sends out the pseudopods and then just
grabs every particle in its environment
459
00:46:35,801 --> 00:46:38,201
and pulls them in toward its body.
460
00:46:39,605 --> 00:46:43,097
There's a certain pattern to the way
that they sort the particles.
461
00:46:43,242 --> 00:46:46,336
They can select particular grains
out of everything in the environment
462
00:46:46,445 --> 00:46:50,006
and just end up with them.
They're beautiful masons.
463
00:46:50,716 --> 00:46:54,243
Could that be
a very early appearance of intelligence?
464
00:46:54,386 --> 00:46:58,049
- I say it with great care.
- Yeah, I have to say it with great care, too,
465
00:46:58,157 --> 00:47:01,490
because there are stories about
466
00:47:01,594 --> 00:47:05,121
how these particular organisms
have fit into that debate.
467
00:47:05,264 --> 00:47:07,391
Turn of the last century, for example,
468
00:47:07,500 --> 00:47:11,129
there was a scientist,
a British scientist named Heron-Allen
469
00:47:11,237 --> 00:47:14,673
who, apparently, during one of the debates
470
00:47:14,773 --> 00:47:17,503
in one of the British societies was
471
00:47:17,610 --> 00:47:20,943
pointing out the fact that
every definition of intelligence
472
00:47:21,046 --> 00:47:26,074
that was being formulated could be
fulfilled by these single-celled creatures.
473
00:47:28,153 --> 00:47:31,850
Borderline intelligence,
yeah, at the single-celled leveI.
474
00:47:32,057 --> 00:47:35,618
I mean, it is a manifestation
of the best of our abilities, really,
475
00:47:35,794 --> 00:47:39,628
the way that they build their shells.
It's almost art.
476
00:49:26,505 --> 00:49:31,204
I noticed that the divers,
in their routine, were not speaking at all.
477
00:49:34,847 --> 00:49:38,442
To me,
they were like priests preparing for mass.
478
00:50:02,941 --> 00:50:08,072
Under the ice, the divers find themselves
in a separate reality,
479
00:50:08,447 --> 00:50:13,282
where space and time
acquire a strange new dimension.
480
00:50:13,419 --> 00:50:17,685
Those few who have experienced the world
under the frozen sky
481
00:50:18,190 --> 00:50:21,751
often speak of it as
going down into the cathedraI.
482
00:54:45,324 --> 00:54:50,591
Back from the strange world
underwater, scientists study the samples.
483
00:54:51,964 --> 00:54:56,833
One of the foremost scholars in the world
in his field, Dr: Pawlowski,
484
00:54:56,935 --> 00:55:00,769
studies the DNA sequences of foraminifera.
485
00:55:00,872 --> 00:55:07,004
What looks esoteric is in fact one of the
fundamentaI questions about life on Earth.
486
00:55:08,880 --> 00:55:13,510
In the same way that cosmologists search
for the origins of the universe,
487
00:55:13,852 --> 00:55:20,121
the scientists here are tracing back
the evolution of life to its earliest stages.
488
00:55:23,628 --> 00:55:28,122
Sometimes the building blocks
of the sequences all seem to fit.
489
00:55:30,802 --> 00:55:34,829
Jan, what have you found today so far
on the sample that we found?
490
00:55:34,940 --> 00:55:36,805
- Three new species.
- Three new species.
491
00:55:36,908 --> 00:55:39,399
Three new species on the dish.
That's fantastic.
492
00:55:39,511 --> 00:55:43,470
- This is from the ROMEO site.
- Yeah, from the ROMEO site.
493
00:55:43,582 --> 00:55:49,043
It's one small silver and two elongated ones.
I don't know what it is.
494
00:55:49,154 --> 00:55:51,088
We have to do the DNA, too.
We don't know:.
495
00:55:51,189 --> 00:55:53,350
Is this a great moment?
496
00:55:54,126 --> 00:55:57,118
- Yeah, yeah, this is.
- Yeah, any time you increase
497
00:55:57,229 --> 00:56:00,687
the known diversity of these types
of creatures, it's pretty exciting.
498
00:56:00,799 --> 00:56:03,768
Yeah. That is very special.
499
00:56:12,744 --> 00:56:15,406
Apologies to rock musicians everywhere.
500
00:56:18,650 --> 00:56:22,108
Once the importance
of the discovery has sunk in,
501
00:56:22,220 --> 00:56:27,419
Sam Bowser and his group plan to celebrate
the event in their own way.
502
00:56:30,595 --> 00:56:34,395
They are rehearsing for
a late-night outdoor concert.
503
00:57:31,590 --> 00:57:36,391
After the helicopter had dropped us off
back at McMurdo,
504
00:57:36,862 --> 00:57:43,461
nobody was around: The sundiaI showed
that it was close to 1:00 a:m.
505
00:57:58,383 --> 00:58:03,514
It did not feeI like night,
so we had a look around.
506
00:58:03,622 --> 00:58:09,424
This unobtrusive building
had raised my curiosity for quite a while.
507
00:58:46,498 --> 00:58:51,492
Here amongst unripe tomatoes,
we ran into this young man.
508
00:58:52,237 --> 00:58:54,535
How did he end up in this place?
509
00:58:54,839 --> 00:58:58,172
Oh, yeah, well, you know, I like to say,
510
00:58:58,276 --> 00:59:01,040
if you take everybody who's not tied down,
they all sort of
511
00:59:01,146 --> 00:59:03,273
fall down to the bottom of the planet, so,
512
00:59:03,381 --> 00:59:06,350
you know, I haven't been:.
That's how we got here, you know.
513
00:59:06,451 --> 00:59:08,681
We're all at loose ends
and here we are together.
514
00:59:08,787 --> 00:59:11,278
I remember
when I first got down here I sort of
515
00:59:11,389 --> 00:59:14,552
enjoyed the sensation of recognizing people
with my tribal markings.
516
00:59:14,659 --> 00:59:17,753
You know, I was like,
"Hey, these are my people:"
517
00:59:17,862 --> 00:59:23,494
PhDs washing dishes and, you know,
linguists on a continent with no languages
518
00:59:23,602 --> 00:59:25,627
and that sort of thing, yeah. It's great.
519
00:59:25,737 --> 00:59:29,264
Yeah, specifically I was in
a graduate program, and we had lined up
520
00:59:29,374 --> 00:59:33,868
to do some work with
one of the people who was
521
00:59:33,979 --> 00:59:38,211
identified as a native speaker
and a competent native speaker of
522
00:59:38,316 --> 00:59:41,285
one of the languages
of the Winnebago people, the Ho-Chunk,
523
00:59:41,386 --> 00:59:43,377
I think is how they pronounced it, and:.
524
00:59:43,822 --> 00:59:46,382
To make a complicated story short,
525
00:59:46,491 --> 00:59:52,487
he ran into New Age ideologues who made
insipid claims about black and white magic
526
00:59:52,597 --> 00:59:54,963
embedded in the grammar of this language.
527
00:59:55,066 --> 00:59:57,261
Some of the oral tradition
that had been passed along:.
528
00:59:57,369 --> 01:00:00,463
Hence, in this stupid trend of academia,
529
01:00:00,572 --> 01:00:03,803
it would be better to let the language die
than preserve it.
530
01:00:03,908 --> 01:00:05,535
:.you know, I could document a language:.
531
01:00:05,644 --> 01:00:08,943
He had to destroy his entire PhD research.
532
01:00:09,447 --> 01:00:12,814
So just imagine, you know, 90%
533
01:00:12,917 --> 01:00:16,216
of languages will be extinct
probably in my lifetime.
534
01:00:16,388 --> 01:00:18,253
It's a catastrophic impact
535
01:00:18,623 --> 01:00:21,922
to an ecosystem to talk
about that kind of extinction.
536
01:00:22,027 --> 01:00:25,190
Culturally, we're talking
about the same thing. I mean,
537
01:00:25,297 --> 01:00:28,460
you know, what if you lost all of
538
01:00:28,700 --> 01:00:32,261
Russian literature, or something like that,
or Russian, you know? If you took all of the
539
01:00:32,370 --> 01:00:36,739
Slavic languages and just they went
away, you know, and no more Tolstoy.
540
01:00:37,809 --> 01:00:42,007
It occurred to me that in the time
we spent with him in the greenhouse,
541
01:00:42,113 --> 01:00:45,378
possibly three or four languages had died.
542
01:00:46,651 --> 01:00:50,109
In our efforts to preserve
endangered species,
543
01:00:50,221 --> 01:00:53,213
we seem to overlook something
equally important.
544
01:00:54,993 --> 01:00:59,259
To me,
it is a sign of a deeply disturbed civilization
545
01:00:59,364 --> 01:01:04,324
where tree huggers and whale huggers
in their weirdness are acceptable,
546
01:01:04,436 --> 01:01:08,202
while no one embraces
the last speakers of a language.
547
01:01:17,215 --> 01:01:21,208
McMurdo is full of characters
like our linguist.
548
01:01:21,786 --> 01:01:26,120
The bleak MoteI 6-drabness of
the corridors is misleading.
549
01:01:27,926 --> 01:01:32,863
Behind every door there is someone
with a speciaI story to tell.
550
01:01:36,234 --> 01:01:42,366
Back in the '80s, I took a garbage
truck across Africa from London to Nairobi.
551
01:01:42,841 --> 01:01:46,607
That was a trip: Four months in
a garbage truck: It was horrible.
552
01:01:46,711 --> 01:01:51,011
On numerous occasions we came pretty
close to, I don't know about dying,
553
01:01:51,116 --> 01:01:53,243
but pretty close
to being in some straits where
554
01:01:53,351 --> 01:01:56,752
we didn't know if we were gonna get back
out of it, you know.
555
01:01:56,855 --> 01:01:59,824
We got taken over by the military in Uganda,
556
01:01:59,924 --> 01:02:03,655
and we were kidnapped, basically.
Truck was turned around
557
01:02:03,762 --> 01:02:07,254
and we were going back to Entebbe.
We got out of that one.
558
01:02:07,365 --> 01:02:13,031
We were trying to wait for
this ferry in Wadi Halfa,
559
01:02:13,438 --> 01:02:16,032
the one that blew up and 800 people died.
560
01:02:16,141 --> 01:02:18,837
Well, we didn't get on that one.
We took off across a desert,
561
01:02:18,943 --> 01:02:22,709
and we got stuck. We got stuck for five days
562
01:02:23,148 --> 01:02:29,815
of absolute agony, of clawing
this truck with:. We were using plates,
563
01:02:29,921 --> 01:02:34,290
just the dinner plates that we were using
for dinner, clawing at the tires.
564
01:02:34,926 --> 01:02:38,760
We had no water.
He had used all the water tanks for gasoline,
565
01:02:38,863 --> 01:02:42,026
so basically we had a cup of water a day
or two cups.
566
01:02:42,300 --> 01:02:44,928
Her story goes on forever.
567
01:02:45,036 --> 01:02:47,436
She dealt with a bout of malaria,
568
01:02:47,605 --> 01:02:53,237
with a herd of angry elephants pursuing her
through tsetse fly-invested swamps.
569
01:02:53,344 --> 01:02:57,644
Got caught in a civiI war,
spent a night in a bombed-out airport,
570
01:02:57,749 --> 01:03:00,718
with rebels fighting and shooting
in a barroom brawI,
571
01:03:00,819 --> 01:03:04,186
and was finally rescued
by drunk Russian pilots,
572
01:03:04,289 --> 01:03:07,315
slaloming around crater holes
in the runway.
573
01:03:07,525 --> 01:03:11,291
This is how you get yourself
to any place in Antarctica.
574
01:03:13,331 --> 01:03:17,961
At the so-called Freak Train event
at one of McMurdo's bars,
575
01:03:18,336 --> 01:03:23,569
Karen is, not surprisingly,
one of the most popular performers.
576
01:03:26,578 --> 01:03:30,412
This is her famous
"TraveI as hand luggage" act.
577
01:03:35,453 --> 01:03:37,318
Yeah, take her home.
578
01:03:47,799 --> 01:03:49,323
- Thought of another one.
- Yeah.
579
01:03:49,434 --> 01:03:53,700
I traveled from Ecuador to Lima, Peru
in a sewer pipe.
580
01:03:55,807 --> 01:04:00,642
Forgot to mention that.
I hitchhiked once from Denver to Bolivia
581
01:04:00,979 --> 01:04:05,143
and back up,
and we got a ride from a truck in:.
582
01:04:05,250 --> 01:04:10,984
It was a flatbed truck with three huge sewer
pipes on the back, so I spent:. It was days
583
01:04:11,422 --> 01:04:16,553
in the back of this truck, in a sewer pipe,
watching the world go by just like that.
584
01:04:16,661 --> 01:04:19,061
That's all you could see.
585
01:04:21,199 --> 01:04:25,329
TraveI for those who have been
deprived of freedom means even more.
586
01:04:26,104 --> 01:04:29,437
These are the ones you'll find in Antarctica.
587
01:04:29,541 --> 01:04:32,908
Libor Zicha works as a utility mechanic.
588
01:04:33,011 --> 01:04:36,174
He lived like a prisoner
behind the Iron Curtain.
589
01:04:36,414 --> 01:04:39,144
You escaped.
And how big a drama was that?
590
01:04:39,250 --> 01:04:44,711
Oh, it was, wasn't a drama, but:.
591
01:04:44,822 --> 01:04:49,054
The tragic events surrounding his escape
haunt him to this day.
592
01:04:49,494 --> 01:04:51,758
If we can:.
593
01:04:54,365 --> 01:04:58,062
- You do not have to talk about it.
- Okay. Thank you.
594
01:04:59,037 --> 01:05:03,804
For me, the best description of
hunger is a description of bread.
595
01:05:04,943 --> 01:05:07,878
A poet said that once, I think,
596
01:05:09,280 --> 01:05:12,943
and for me the best description of freedom
is what you have in front of you.
597
01:05:13,051 --> 01:05:14,382
You are traveling a lot.
598
01:05:14,485 --> 01:05:15,645
- That's right, yeah.
- Show us.
599
01:05:15,787 --> 01:05:20,690
That's my freedom,
and I will be glad to show you.
600
01:05:23,428 --> 01:05:27,956
He keeps a rucksack packed
and ready to go at all times.
601
01:05:28,066 --> 01:05:33,333
Inside is everything he needs
to set out in a moment's notice.
602
01:05:33,438 --> 01:05:39,502
a sleeping bag, a tent, clothes,
cooking utensils.
603
01:05:42,246 --> 01:05:43,941
How much weight is this all?
604
01:05:44,048 --> 01:05:49,782
It's:. I usually don't go over 20 kilos.
That's my limit,
605
01:05:49,887 --> 01:05:53,084
and it's a limit also for airlines.
606
01:05:57,495 --> 01:06:01,829
Some of the contents of his backpack
are quite surprising.
607
01:06:17,348 --> 01:06:20,215
That's about the size of the raft.
608
01:06:20,318 --> 01:06:23,685
- How quickly can you leave?
- Oh, I am always ready.
609
01:06:23,821 --> 01:06:30,693
My bag is always prepared,
and I am always ready for adventure
610
01:06:32,096 --> 01:06:34,564
and exploring new horizons.
611
01:06:41,539 --> 01:06:44,770
Back in the days of Amundsen,
Scott and Shackleton,
612
01:06:45,076 --> 01:06:48,637
scientific exploration of Antarctica began,
613
01:06:48,746 --> 01:06:53,445
and this opening of the unknown continent
is their great achievement.
614
01:06:56,487 --> 01:07:01,015
But one thing about the early explorers
does not feeI right.
615
01:07:03,127 --> 01:07:07,689
The obsession to be the first one
to set his foot on the South Pole.
616
01:07:10,601 --> 01:07:14,628
It was for personaI fame
and the glory of the British Empire.
617
01:07:16,240 --> 01:07:21,644
This is Shackleton's originaI hut,
preserved unchanged for 100 years.
618
01:07:26,017 --> 01:07:28,815
But, in a way, from the South Pole onwards
619
01:07:28,920 --> 01:07:31,718
there was no further expansion possible,
620
01:07:31,823 --> 01:07:36,556
and the Empire started to fade
into the abyss of history.
621
01:07:38,996 --> 01:07:42,762
It all looks now like an extinct supermarket.
622
01:07:50,975 --> 01:07:54,604
On a culturaI leveI,
it meant the end of adventure.
623
01:07:56,247 --> 01:08:01,116
Exposing the last unknown spots
of this Earth was irreversible,
624
01:08:01,519 --> 01:08:05,580
but it feels sad
that the South Pole or Mount Everest
625
01:08:05,690 --> 01:08:08,750
were not left in peace in their dignity.
626
01:08:12,430 --> 01:08:16,890
It may be a futile wish
to keep a few white spots on our maps,
627
01:08:17,135 --> 01:08:22,072
but human adventure, in its originaI sense,
lost its meaning,
628
01:08:22,173 --> 01:08:26,075
became an issue for the
Guinness Book of World Records.
629
01:08:30,748 --> 01:08:34,844
Scott and Amundsen
were clearly early protagonists,
630
01:08:35,186 --> 01:08:39,384
and from there on
it degenerated into absurd quests.
631
01:08:39,891 --> 01:08:44,885
A Frenchman crossed the Sahara Desert
in his car set in reverse gear,
632
01:08:45,363 --> 01:08:49,595
and I am waiting for the first barefoot runner
on the summit of Everest
633
01:08:49,700 --> 01:08:54,262
or the first one hopping into the South Pole
on a pogo stick.
634
01:08:56,040 --> 01:09:01,171
Well, I had this idea of breaking
a Guinness record in every continent,
635
01:09:01,846 --> 01:09:03,473
and Antarctica would be the sixth,
636
01:09:03,948 --> 01:09:07,714
so, now I'm trying to think of a way
to get to Antarctica.
637
01:09:07,819 --> 01:09:11,311
Ashrita Furman did not want
to traveI this way,
638
01:09:11,422 --> 01:09:15,415
because he already holds a
Guinness record in this discipline.
639
01:09:16,460 --> 01:09:18,223
And also in this one.
640
01:09:18,329 --> 01:09:23,357
So, he decided upon the more prosaic
approach and took an airplane.
641
01:09:23,668 --> 01:09:25,260
We flew down to Antarctica.
642
01:09:25,369 --> 01:09:27,462
Anyway, it was thrilling
because I'm in Antarctica,
643
01:09:27,572 --> 01:09:29,472
and I'm trying to break a Guinness record.
644
01:09:29,574 --> 01:09:31,906
Being in Antarctica
is like being on the moon.
645
01:09:32,009 --> 01:09:36,105
It's so:. I mean, it's so peaceful.
It's so pure.
646
01:09:36,214 --> 01:09:39,672
It's so desolate.
I mean, it's just a great place.
647
01:09:44,856 --> 01:09:49,589
Antarctica is not the moon,
even though sometimes it feels like it.
648
01:09:51,963 --> 01:09:53,487
Yet, on this planet,
649
01:09:53,598 --> 01:09:58,558
McMurdo comes closest to what
a future space settlement would look like.
650
01:10:08,646 --> 01:10:12,776
We left McMurdo for the penguin colony
at Cape Royds.
651
01:10:13,284 --> 01:10:15,809
Everyone spoke about penguins,
652
01:10:15,920 --> 01:10:20,823
however, the questions I had
were not so easily answered.
653
01:10:23,361 --> 01:10:26,262
I was referred to a penguin expert out there
654
01:10:26,564 --> 01:10:29,328
who had studied them for almost 20 years.
655
01:10:31,302 --> 01:10:34,169
I was told that he was a taciturn man,
656
01:10:34,272 --> 01:10:39,574
who, in his solitude, was not much into
conversation with humans anymore.
657
01:10:40,244 --> 01:10:43,771
But Dr: Ainley gave his best effort.
658
01:10:43,881 --> 01:10:46,441
Well, here we are at Cape Royds.
659
01:10:47,551 --> 01:10:52,784
This is 2006,
and it's just about the 100th anniversary
660
01:10:52,890 --> 01:10:57,156
of the first penguin study
that was ever done,
661
01:10:57,428 --> 01:11:00,329
which was done here at Cape Royds by
662
01:11:00,431 --> 01:11:03,400
a person that was part
of the Shackleton expedition.
663
01:11:07,004 --> 01:11:10,963
They all had a good winter,
and they're very fat.
664
01:11:11,876 --> 01:11:13,309
They've
665
01:11:14,478 --> 01:11:19,142
claimed their territories and eggs have
been laid and females have left,
666
01:11:19,250 --> 01:11:23,482
and now there's just males
that are sitting on eggs,
667
01:11:24,689 --> 01:11:28,921
using their fat reserves
and waiting for females to return
668
01:11:29,026 --> 01:11:31,893
to relieve them and then go to sea.
669
01:11:34,265 --> 01:11:37,063
I tried to keep the conversation going.
670
01:11:37,535 --> 01:11:41,995
Dr. Ainley, I read somewhere
that there are gay penguins.
671
01:11:42,573 --> 01:11:44,564
What are your observations?
672
01:11:48,846 --> 01:11:50,780
I've never:.
673
01:11:52,249 --> 01:11:55,309
Or strange sexual behavior.
Can you talk about:.
674
01:11:55,453 --> 01:12:00,891
Yeah, there has been:. I've seen
triangular relationships where there's
675
01:12:01,993 --> 01:12:06,396
one female and two males,
and the female lays the egg,
676
01:12:07,898 --> 01:12:13,063
or eggs, and the males and the female
trade off over the season.
677
01:12:15,806 --> 01:12:22,678
There are mis-identities, initially,
of the sex of penguins.
678
01:12:25,116 --> 01:12:29,382
Somebody recently described
what they call prostitution where
679
01:12:30,855 --> 01:12:35,724
a female, who is out
collecting rocks for her nest,
680
01:12:35,826 --> 01:12:38,192
and, of course, some penguins are:.
681
01:12:38,295 --> 01:12:40,729
The only way they collect rocks
is to steaI them from others.
682
01:12:40,831 --> 01:12:43,959
So, in order to do that,
they have to be very submissive
683
01:12:44,301 --> 01:12:49,364
in order to get close to a male,
who's maybe advertising for a mate,
684
01:12:49,473 --> 01:12:56,106
and so she'll come in, sit in his nest,
and sometimes they'll copulate.
685
01:12:56,380 --> 01:12:59,543
But, really, her idea is to get a rock,
686
01:12:59,650 --> 01:13:03,416
and so, as soon as she can,
she escapes with a rock.
687
01:13:06,690 --> 01:13:12,424
Dr. Ainley, is there such thing
as insanity among penguins?
688
01:13:13,264 --> 01:13:17,360
I try to avoid the definition of insanity
or derangement.
689
01:13:17,468 --> 01:13:22,804
I don't mean that a penguin
might believe he or she is Lenin
690
01:13:22,907 --> 01:13:27,367
or Napoleon Bonaparte,
but could they just go crazy
691
01:13:27,478 --> 01:13:30,572
because they've had enough of
their colony?
692
01:13:34,852 --> 01:13:39,050
Well, I've never seen a penguin
bashing its head against a rock.
693
01:13:40,858 --> 01:13:43,691
They do get disoriented.
694
01:13:43,794 --> 01:13:48,026
They end up in places they shouldn't be,
a long way from the ocean.
695
01:13:52,636 --> 01:13:57,335
These penguins are all heading
to the open water to the right.
696
01:14:01,579 --> 01:14:05,675
But one of them caught our eye,
the one in the center.
697
01:14:06,884 --> 01:14:11,378
He would neither go towards the feeding
grounds at the edge of the ice,
698
01:14:11,489 --> 01:14:13,753
nor return to the colony.
699
01:14:15,759 --> 01:14:20,458
Shortly afterwards, we saw him heading
straight towards the mountains,
700
01:14:20,564 --> 01:14:22,589
some 70 kilometers away.
701
01:14:25,369 --> 01:14:29,066
Dr: Ainley explained
that even if he caught him
702
01:14:29,173 --> 01:14:31,334
and brought him back to the colony,
703
01:14:31,442 --> 01:14:35,606
he would immediately head right back
for the mountains.
704
01:14:38,015 --> 01:14:39,414
But why?
705
01:14:50,327 --> 01:14:53,990
One of these disoriented,
or deranged, penguins
706
01:14:54,331 --> 01:14:57,061
showed up at the New Harbor diving camp,
707
01:14:57,168 --> 01:15:00,934
already some 80 kilometers away
from where it should be.
708
01:15:05,776 --> 01:15:10,713
The rules for the humans
are do not disturb or hold up the penguin.
709
01:15:10,814 --> 01:15:14,750
Stand still and let him go on his way.
710
01:15:18,322 --> 01:15:23,385
And here, he's heading off into the interior
of the vast continent.
711
01:15:24,428 --> 01:15:29,695
With 5,000 kilometers ahead of him,
he's heading towards certain death.
712
01:15:42,179 --> 01:15:46,240
The last field camp we visited
was at Mount Erebus.
713
01:15:47,351 --> 01:15:51,253
This active volcano is 12,500 feet high.
714
01:15:52,556 --> 01:15:57,994
It is of particular importance, as inside
the crater the magma of the inner earth
715
01:15:58,195 --> 01:16:00,220
is directly exposed.
716
01:16:01,932 --> 01:16:05,231
There are only two other such volcanoes
in the world,
717
01:16:05,703 --> 01:16:09,662
one in the Congo and the other in Ethiopia.
718
01:16:10,241 --> 01:16:13,267
Because of politicaI strife in those places,
719
01:16:13,377 --> 01:16:18,178
it is actually easier to conduct field studies
here in Antarctica.
720
01:16:20,084 --> 01:16:25,078
First thing, we were instructed in
the etiquette of dealing with this volcano.
721
01:16:26,023 --> 01:16:30,119
One very important thing to keep in mind
when you're on the crater
722
01:16:30,227 --> 01:16:34,527
is that the lava lake
could explode at any time,
723
01:16:34,632 --> 01:16:40,434
and if it does, it's vital to keep
your attention faced toward the lava lake
724
01:16:41,005 --> 01:16:44,805
and watch for bombs
that are tracking up into the air
725
01:16:44,942 --> 01:16:50,005
and try to pick out the ones that might be
coming toward you and step out of the way.
726
01:16:50,648 --> 01:16:55,915
The last thing you wanna do is turn away
from the crater or run or crouch down.
727
01:16:56,053 --> 01:17:00,513
Keep your attention toward the lava lake,
look up and move out of the way.
728
01:17:02,459 --> 01:17:07,453
We were fortunate that the lava
lake was not enshrouded in mist this day.
729
01:17:08,832 --> 01:17:11,824
This here is the new observation camera.
730
01:17:13,470 --> 01:17:17,873
William Mclntosh is the leader
of the team of volcanologists here.
731
01:17:18,976 --> 01:17:22,969
This camera is designed for prison riots
or to be explosion proof,
732
01:17:23,447 --> 01:17:26,974
and it's coated with this thick
Teflon housing.
733
01:17:27,651 --> 01:17:31,087
Here's the lens here. This is a camera.
734
01:17:31,522 --> 01:17:37,222
The camera inside is made by a small
company in Canada, Extreme CCTV.
735
01:17:37,695 --> 01:17:41,028
The inside housing is specifically
designed for explosion:.
736
01:17:42,466 --> 01:17:43,455
:.to be explosion-proof.
737
01:17:43,567 --> 01:17:47,697
There's a bang from the lava lake
right now. No bombs, though.
738
01:17:55,579 --> 01:17:58,878
This is the magma lake
filmed 30 years ago.
739
01:18:01,819 --> 01:18:06,415
At that time, there was a bold attempt
to descend into the crater.
740
01:18:15,699 --> 01:18:18,395
Halfway down there is a plateau.
741
01:18:18,702 --> 01:18:23,002
From there, it is a gaping hole straight down
into the magma.
742
01:18:43,293 --> 01:18:46,091
They were in for near disaster.
743
01:18:56,273 --> 01:19:02,610
The magma exploded, striking one of the
climbers, who got away with minor injuries.
744
01:19:10,821 --> 01:19:15,520
Today, the lava is monitored
by Dr: Mclntosh's camera.
745
01:19:47,624 --> 01:19:52,561
Dr: Clive Oppenheimer, a true Englishman
from Cambridge University,
746
01:19:52,663 --> 01:19:58,499
surprised us with his tweed outfit, which
he wears as a tribute to the explorers of old.
747
01:19:59,636 --> 01:20:04,130
He analyzes gas emissions
from volcanoes all over the world.
748
01:20:04,741 --> 01:20:07,801
If this were one of those active
volcanoes in Indonesia,
749
01:20:07,911 --> 01:20:11,312
I'd be far more circumspect
about standing on the crater rim.
750
01:20:11,415 --> 01:20:14,316
This is a very benign form of volcanism,
751
01:20:14,685 --> 01:20:20,487
and even the eruptions we've seen in the
historic period are relatively minor affairs.
752
01:20:20,958 --> 01:20:23,722
If we go back into the geological record,
753
01:20:23,827 --> 01:20:25,590
we see that there are huge
754
01:20:26,763 --> 01:20:30,824
volcanic eruptions,
massive, explosive eruptions that produced
755
01:20:31,368 --> 01:20:33,336
thousands of cubic miles of pumice,
756
01:20:33,437 --> 01:20:37,237
showering large parts of the Earth
with fine ash,
757
01:20:37,708 --> 01:20:41,701
and these have been demonstrated
to have had a strong impact on climate,
758
01:20:42,179 --> 01:20:45,671
and one of the biggest of these events,
74,000 years ago,
759
01:20:46,083 --> 01:20:49,177
has been argued even to have affected
our human ancestors
760
01:20:49,286 --> 01:20:51,186
and may have played an important role in
761
01:20:51,555 --> 01:20:54,991
the origins and dispersaI of early humans.
762
01:20:58,328 --> 01:21:02,526
So these events will recur, and I think
the more we understand about them,
763
01:21:02,633 --> 01:21:07,161
the better we can prepare for
their eventuality.
764
01:21:12,075 --> 01:21:17,069
For this and many other reasons,
our presence on this planet
765
01:21:17,314 --> 01:21:20,147
does not seem to be sustainable.
766
01:21:20,250 --> 01:21:25,244
Our technologicaI civilization makes us
particularly vulnerable.
767
01:21:26,723 --> 01:21:31,251
There is talk all over the scientific
community about climate change.
768
01:21:32,629 --> 01:21:37,464
Many of them agree the end of human life
on this Earth is assured.
769
01:21:40,537 --> 01:21:44,303
Human life is part of
an endless chain of catastrophes,
770
01:21:44,775 --> 01:21:48,973
the demise of the dinosaurs being just
one of these events.
771
01:21:50,647 --> 01:21:52,877
We seem to be next.
772
01:21:59,022 --> 01:22:04,289
And when we are gone, what will happen
thousands of years from now in the future?
773
01:22:07,731 --> 01:22:11,167
Will there be alien archeologists
from another planet
774
01:22:11,501 --> 01:22:15,733
trying to find out what we were doing
at the South Pole?
775
01:22:18,075 --> 01:22:22,910
They will descend into the tunnels
that we had dug deep under the pole.
776
01:22:25,082 --> 01:22:30,850
It is still minus 70 degrees here,
and that's why this place has outlived
777
01:22:30,988 --> 01:22:33,513
all the large cities in the world.
778
01:22:37,194 --> 01:22:39,094
They walk on and on.
779
01:22:58,782 --> 01:23:00,306
And then this.
780
01:23:00,884 --> 01:23:05,787
As if we had wanted to leave one remnant
of our presence on this planet,
781
01:23:06,390 --> 01:23:10,793
they would find a frozen sturgeon,
mysteriously hidden away
782
01:23:11,294 --> 01:23:15,321
beneath the mathematically precise
true South Pole.
783
01:23:36,219 --> 01:23:41,156
They stash it back away
into its frozen shrine for another eternity.
784
01:23:44,428 --> 01:23:48,524
And then they find more,
memories of a world once green.
785
01:23:52,135 --> 01:23:57,402
As if the human race wanted to preserve
at least some lost beauty of this Earth,
786
01:23:57,874 --> 01:24:02,277
they left this,
framed in a garland of frozen popcorn.
787
01:24:12,656 --> 01:24:15,250
Back at the base camp of Mount Erebus,
788
01:24:20,063 --> 01:24:22,657
due to the considerable altitude,
789
01:24:22,999 --> 01:24:26,901
once in a while the volcanologists
need medicaI care.
790
01:24:31,007 --> 01:24:33,601
But soon we find them back at work.
791
01:25:41,812 --> 01:25:43,803
My face is frozen.
792
01:26:23,486 --> 01:26:25,454
Quite cold up here today.
793
01:26:31,595 --> 01:26:36,430
Just by having that fantastic lava lake
down there with all that energy,
794
01:26:36,700 --> 01:26:41,603
we still have to bring old petrol generators
up to the crater rim.
795
01:26:53,416 --> 01:26:59,116
Man versus Machine, Chapter 53.
Professor Clive Oppenheimer on Erebus.
796
01:27:01,224 --> 01:27:05,422
Hands in pockets,
waiting for it to start spontaneously.
797
01:27:06,830 --> 01:27:09,162
He could be waiting a long time.
798
01:27:10,600 --> 01:27:14,468
Have you ever seen two men kiss
on the top of Erebus before?
799
01:27:16,439 --> 01:27:17,997
Pushing back the frontiers.
800
01:27:18,108 --> 01:27:19,735
It's R-18, okay?
801
01:27:22,312 --> 01:27:24,303
I like working with Harry.
802
01:27:29,419 --> 01:27:31,785
Along the slopes of the volcano
803
01:27:32,022 --> 01:27:38,154
there are vents where steam creates
so-called fumaroles, bizarre chimneys of ice,
804
01:27:38,495 --> 01:27:41,430
sometimes reaching two stories in height.
805
01:27:49,306 --> 01:27:52,366
It is possible to descend into some of them.
806
01:27:54,311 --> 01:27:59,647
You only have to be carefuI
to avoid the ones containing toxic gasses.
807
01:31:11,474 --> 01:31:14,875
At the foot of Erebus, out on the sea ice,
808
01:31:14,978 --> 01:31:18,846
the two tallest buildings on this continent
are located.
809
01:31:19,582 --> 01:31:23,450
In these hangars,
scientific payloads are being readied
810
01:31:23,586 --> 01:31:26,612
for their balloon launch
into the stratosphere.
811
01:31:40,537 --> 01:31:44,268
We were interested in
the neutrino detection project.
812
01:31:44,374 --> 01:31:48,037
Scientists are planning
to lift an observation instrument
813
01:31:48,144 --> 01:31:51,409
40 kilometers up into the stratosphere
814
01:31:51,514 --> 01:31:55,575
in search of almost
undetectable subatomic particles.
815
01:32:02,025 --> 01:32:07,088
As it rises, this small-looking bubble
of helium will expand
816
01:32:07,263 --> 01:32:11,757
to fill the entire skin,
which here still looks like a white rope.
817
01:32:12,802 --> 01:32:18,468
It will eventually form a gigantic globe
more than 300 feet in diameter.
818
01:32:20,677 --> 01:32:22,770
When it reaches the stratosphere,
819
01:32:22,879 --> 01:32:26,872
the detector will scan
thousands of square miles of ice
820
01:32:26,983 --> 01:32:31,750
without encountering electricaI
disturbances from the inhabited world.
821
01:32:32,922 --> 01:32:37,256
Prior to the launch,
we were inside the hangar.
822
01:32:37,360 --> 01:32:42,263
The neutrino project is led by
Dr: Gorham of the University of Hawaii.
823
01:32:42,498 --> 01:32:48,061
So, what we're trying to do
with this instrument is to be the first
824
01:32:48,171 --> 01:32:53,234
scientific group to detect the highest
energy neutrinos in the universe, we hope.
825
01:32:53,743 --> 01:32:57,543
Yeah, but, Dr. Gorham,
what exactly is a neutrino?
826
01:32:58,214 --> 01:33:02,981
The neutrino is:. It's the most ridiculous
particle you could imagine.
827
01:33:03,219 --> 01:33:07,315
A billion neutrinos went through my nose
as we were talking.
828
01:33:07,590 --> 01:33:10,991
A trillion, a trillion of them
went through my nose just now,
829
01:33:11,094 --> 01:33:12,857
and they did nothing to me.
830
01:33:12,962 --> 01:33:16,659
They pass through all of the matter
around us continuously,
831
01:33:16,933 --> 01:33:22,098
in a huge, huge blast of particles
that does nothing at all.
832
01:33:22,405 --> 01:33:26,273
They're like:.
They almost exist in a separate universe,
833
01:33:26,376 --> 01:33:28,469
but we know, as physicists,
we can measure them,
834
01:33:28,578 --> 01:33:32,947
we can make precision predictions
and measurements. They exist,
835
01:33:33,049 --> 01:33:35,711
but we can't get our hands on them,
836
01:33:35,818 --> 01:33:38,651
because they seem to just exist
in another place,
837
01:33:39,088 --> 01:33:44,048
and yet without neutrinos, the beginning
of the universe would not have worked.
838
01:33:44,294 --> 01:33:46,819
We would not have the matter
that we have today,
839
01:33:46,929 --> 01:33:49,864
because you couldn't create
the elements without the neutrinos.
840
01:33:49,966 --> 01:33:53,527
In the very, very earliest few seconds
of the big bang,
841
01:33:53,636 --> 01:33:57,197
the neutrinos were the dominant particle,
and they actually determined
842
01:33:57,307 --> 01:34:01,801
much of the kinetics of the production
of the elements we know.
843
01:34:01,911 --> 01:34:04,937
So, the universe can't exist the way it is
without the neutrinos,
844
01:34:05,081 --> 01:34:08,642
but they seem
to be in their own separate universe,
845
01:34:08,751 --> 01:34:11,720
and we're trying to actually
make contact with that
846
01:34:11,821 --> 01:34:14,415
otherworldly universe of neutrinos.
847
01:34:15,591 --> 01:34:19,083
And as a physicist, even though
848
01:34:20,063 --> 01:34:24,124
I understand it mathematically
and I understand it intellectually,
849
01:34:24,267 --> 01:34:26,360
it still hits me in the gut
850
01:34:26,936 --> 01:34:30,337
that there is something here around
851
01:34:30,440 --> 01:34:34,240
surrounding me almost like
some kind of spirit or god
852
01:34:34,344 --> 01:34:36,175
that I can't touch,
853
01:34:36,512 --> 01:34:39,072
but I can measure it.
854
01:34:39,182 --> 01:34:40,308
I can make a measurement.
855
01:34:40,416 --> 01:34:43,681
It's like measuring the spirit world
or something like that.
856
01:34:43,786 --> 01:34:46,346
You can go out and touch these things.
857
01:34:47,857 --> 01:34:52,351
Not surprisingly, we found
this incantation in Hawaiian language
858
01:34:52,462 --> 01:34:54,396
on the side of his detector.
859
01:34:55,131 --> 01:34:58,464
It was as if spirits had to be invoked.
860
01:35:00,536 --> 01:35:04,472
What would we see if we could film
the impact of a neutrino?
861
01:35:05,475 --> 01:35:10,606
What you would see is, you would see
a lightning bolt about 10 meters long,
862
01:35:10,913 --> 01:35:12,847
about that thick,
863
01:35:12,949 --> 01:35:17,249
and it would blast at the speed of light
over this 10 meter distance,
864
01:35:17,353 --> 01:35:21,153
and you would see the most beautiful
blue light your eyes have ever seen.
865
01:35:21,324 --> 01:35:23,383
It happens in about:.
866
01:35:25,728 --> 01:35:28,492
The entire impulse of radio waves
867
01:35:28,598 --> 01:35:32,159
is up and down in probably
868
01:35:32,268 --> 01:35:35,760
one one-hundred billionth of a second.
869
01:35:36,539 --> 01:35:40,942
It just goes bang and it's gone,
and that's what we're looking for.
870
01:36:09,138 --> 01:36:13,199
There is a beautiful saying by an American,
871
01:36:14,477 --> 01:36:20,382
a philosopher, Alan Watts,
and he used to say that through our eyes,
872
01:36:20,650 --> 01:36:23,084
the universe is perceiving itself,
873
01:36:23,553 --> 01:36:28,183
and through our ears, the universe
is listening to its cosmic harmonies,
874
01:36:28,624 --> 01:36:33,027
and we are the witness
through which the universe
875
01:36:34,096 --> 01:36:37,588
becomes conscious of its glory,
of its magnificence.
85161
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