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It's 10 degrees below zero...
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and a silent killer that has stalked
mankind for thousands of years...
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is about to strike again.
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Cold is one of the most
surprising forces in nature-
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both a dealer of death...
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and the key to life...
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in ways only revealed
by big history.
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We think of history as a timeline...
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a series of events stretching
a few thousand years into the past.
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It's time to think bigger.
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Instead of a line,
imagine a web of infinite connections...
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interacting over billions of years...
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linked together to create
everything we've ever known-
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our universe, our planet...
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and us.
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When we consider our most epic moments
though the lens of science...
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we unleash
a revolutionary new idea.
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The movement of atoms
steered the movements of men...
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civilizations, galaxies.
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History as we know it
is about to get big.
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French emperor Napoléon Bonaparte's
invasion of Russia...
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has ended in disaster.
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Six hundred thousand
French troops went in.
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Six months later,
more than 60% of them are dead.
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But the killer
isn't the Russian army.
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It's the subzero temperatures.
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Traditional history tells us that Napoleon
was defeated by the Russian cold.
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But big history shows
that the root of his downfall...
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is hidden within us.
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Big history reveals that humans
have been at grips with cold...
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from the beginning of our history.
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Cold impacted us in a great way...
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simply because we had to adapt to it.
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If we don't adapt...
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we die.
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Humans are not built for extremes.
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As our core temperature drops...
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organs like the liver
begin shutting down. -.
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To preserve heat for the brain.
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If our core drops below
86 degrees Fahrenheit...
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for more than a few minutes...
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we die.
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00:03:09,315 --> 00:03:12,902
To understand why our bodies
shut down in the cold...
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big history connects back
to a time before humans-
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250 million years ago.
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All the animals on Earth
are cold-blooded.
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They're sluggish and helpless...
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until the sun's energy warms them
and speeds up their metabolism.
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But now
a tiny, mammal-like creature...
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evolves the ability to generate heat
within its own body.
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No longer dependent on the sun
to warm it...
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this creature can be active
at any time of the day or night.
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Warm-blooded creatures
are always ready to move.
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So warm-bloodedness
does really have some advantages.
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It's a survival edge that
passes to all warm-blooded descendants...
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including us.
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But this advantage
can also be a limitation.
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In nature, heat moves
from hot to cold.
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So our bodies' warmth
is always escaping...
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radiating out
through our breath and our skin.
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As humans spread across the planet
to cold climates...
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they'll need to figure out ways
to hold in that heat.
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These humans have left tropical Africa,
where they evolved...
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and headed north...
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into the grip of a brutal ice age.
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This is the Mediterranean.
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But it's as frigid as the Arctic Circle.
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To survive the cold...
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these humans invent one of humanity's
most momentous tools-
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the humble needle.
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They had to have had the ability
to make finely-tailored clothing...
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because there's simply no way
you could survive in ice-age Europe...
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without having those technologies.
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Clothing gives humans a thicker skin...
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that insulates us against the cold.
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But clothing also changes who we are...
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because this thicker skin blocks
something all humans need-
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the sun hitting our skin.
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And covering up,
they weren't getting enough sunlight...
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so they didn't create
as much vitamin D as they needed.
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Our bodies create vitamin D...
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when exposed to
the sun's U. V. radiation.
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Back in Africa, our dark skin alone
blocked most of the sun...
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letting in just enough
to create the vitamin D we need.
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But now, in the colder north...
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the combination of dark skin
and head-to-toe clothes...
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blocks the sun far too much.
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One way of dealing with that
is to evolve lighter skin...
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that didn't block
the rays of the sun as much.
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So cold and clothes...
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00:07:08,012 --> 00:07:10,014
lead to lighter skin...
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and a fundamental division
we think of today as race.
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Just as cold changes people...
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it' also has a power
over the elements.
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Big history links forward
to Napoleon's battlefield...
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where his soldiers are defeated...
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by the chemistry of cold.
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Some French soldiers
use tin buttons on their coats.
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Bu! in subzero weather,
tin has a fatal flaw.
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Cold can change the properties
of certain elements...
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in some cases adversely.
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For example, shiny metallic tin...
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under cold conditions,
can change form...
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and then even turn into
a powdery substance.
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Coming from a Warm climate...
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the French don't realize
their buttons will fail.
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That loss
may have doomed thousands.
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But the Russians
have the home advantage...
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and they're well prepared
for the cold.
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They knew how to dress.
They knew exactly how to build shelter.
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And they knew how to live with it.
It was just that simple.
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And big history reveals...
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that this frigid defeat...
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is a key to understanding
a deeper story.
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Cold divides the planet
into opposing tribes...
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and is the secret force behind
the longest-running battle in history.
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Big history is a new way to see the world.
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It reveals how our battle
against the cold...
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turns us warm-blooded...
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divides us into races...
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and turns the tide of war.
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But cold ls also at the heart
of a global struggle...
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a 5, 000-year war
that can only be revealed...
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on big history.
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00:10:11,028 --> 00:10:15,783
On planet Earth,
warm climates produce farming...
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cities, civilization.
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But further north, in places
like the frozen steps of Asia...
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it's too cold for anything to grow...
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except endless grass.
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Grazing animals,
like cattle and horses, thrive here.
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People adapt.
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They become herders. ..
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00:10:46,981 --> 00:10:50,151
And the world's first horsemen-
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experts at raiding and plundering.
135
00:10:56,240 --> 00:10:58,993
Horse-based warrior cultures...
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are going to be
the optimal mode of existence.
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Created by the cold...
138
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these fighters from the frozen north,
where resources are scarce...
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will wage war against
their rich neighbors to the south.
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00:11:26,187 --> 00:11:28,939
It's a pattern repeated
around the world.
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00:11:31,108 --> 00:11:35,613
Where it's cold, people become
fierce nomadic warriors.
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00:11:36,989 --> 00:11:40,993
Where it's warm,
people build vast civilizations.
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00:11:42,578 --> 00:11:46,207
Then the warriors of the cold
charge in on horseback...
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to take what they can.
145
00:11:49,168 --> 00:11:52,630
From the tribes that swarm
over China's great wall...
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00:11:53,631 --> 00:11:57,551
to the Goths and Vandals
who destroyed the Roman Empire...
147
00:11:58,135 --> 00:12:01,305
to the Mongols who conquer
most of the known world...
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00:12:03,182 --> 00:12:06,727
an epic raid by people of the cold...
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that lasts 5,000 years.
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From the perspective of big history,
we see this division...
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will be sort of a critical dynamic
in human history.
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Cold has such a power over us...
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because humans
are not designed for extremes.
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We must adapt or die.
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00:12:30,209 --> 00:12:34,505
Bu! what' if man could figure out
how to control cold?
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An American businessman,
Frederic Tudor...
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is one of the first to try.
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He had a crazy entrepreneurial idea...
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00:12:55,693 --> 00:13:00,114
which was to cut large blocks of
frozen New England ponds in January...
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00:13:01,532 --> 00:13:04,702
and sell them to the tropics
as a form of ice.
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Tudor is trying to
solve an ancient problem.
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In Earth's oxygen-rich atmosphere...
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it's easy to create fire.
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As far back as a million years ago...
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our ancestors learned
how to harness portable heat.
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00:13:34,106 --> 00:13:36,942
But it's trickier to master cold.
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It's a law of the universe...
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that heat likes to flow
from hot to cold.
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00:13:46,827 --> 00:13:49,997
So it's easier to warm up
something cold...
170
00:13:50,080 --> 00:13:52,374
than to cool something hot.
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Ice is concentrated cold...
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00:13:56,921 --> 00:13:58,923
and a possible solution...
173
00:13:59,840 --> 00:14:02,092
but it can't exist everywhere...
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because in order to cool things down,
ice has to melt.
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00:14:09,141 --> 00:14:12,061
So when you plop an ice cube
into a drink...
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it's not that it's radiating coldness
out into the drink to keep it cold.
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What it's actually doing
is drawing energy...
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away from the liquid around it...
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00:14:25,616 --> 00:14:27,409
in order to melt.
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00:14:29,954 --> 00:14:33,624
Big history connects
the physics of melting ice...
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00:14:33,707 --> 00:14:35,834
to the way the Earth works.
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00:14:37,336 --> 00:14:42,633
Ice forms across nearly a quarter
of the Northern Hemisphere during winter.
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Most of that ice is inaccessible...
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sitting atop mountains...
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or locked in glaciers
in the remote far north.
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Across the world today...
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00:14:56,480 --> 00:15:00,401
five billion of the planet's
seven billion people...
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00:15:00,484 --> 00:15:04,989
live in areas where ice forms rarely
or not at all.
189
00:15:07,825 --> 00:15:10,411
So to truly harness cold...
190
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we have to move ice
from where it occurs naturally...
191
00:15:15,958 --> 00:15:17,626
to where it doesn't...
192
00:15:19,169 --> 00:15:21,797
and keep it from melting too fast...
193
00:15:22,548 --> 00:15:27,177
which is exactly what Frederic Tudor
figures out how to do.
194
00:15:32,141 --> 00:15:36,103
He ships a load of ice 2,000 miles...
195
00:15:36,186 --> 00:15:40,024
from Boston to
the tropical island of Martinique.
196
00:15:41,859 --> 00:15:46,280
For the first time in history,
man controls the cold...
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00:15:46,363 --> 00:15:48,365
by making it portable.
198
00:15:50,618 --> 00:15:55,289
He figured out new ways to pack
the ice in sawdust in the ship's holds...
199
00:15:55,372 --> 00:15:59,043
and then put layers of straw
and apples on top to defray the costs.
200
00:15:59,835 --> 00:16:03,797
Eventually he was able to sell it
at an astronomical profit.
201
00:16:06,133 --> 00:16:08,719
Now the world will no longer be divided...
202
00:16:08,802 --> 00:16:12,723
between places that have cold
and places that need it.
203
00:16:14,183 --> 00:16:17,895
The simple act of spreading cold
across oceans...
204
00:16:19,396 --> 00:16:20,981
and continents...
205
00:16:21,065 --> 00:16:24,735
will remake life on planet Earth.
206
00:16:29,823 --> 00:16:32,368
Big history has revealed that cold...
207
00:16:33,577 --> 00:16:36,246
had a hidden power over our bodies...
208
00:16:40,125 --> 00:16:42,127
and our civilization.
209
00:16:46,048 --> 00:16:50,219
But once we take control over cold
by making it portable...
210
00:16:50,302 --> 00:16:52,763
cold can be anywhere...
211
00:16:52,846 --> 00:16:55,057
and it changes everything.
212
00:16:56,558 --> 00:17:01,355
Cold begins to ignite a revolution
in how we live...
213
00:17:02,773 --> 00:17:05,275
and where we build our cities.
214
00:17:06,276 --> 00:17:08,487
With ice-cooled freight cars...
215
00:17:08,570 --> 00:17:11,949
you can transport the power of cold
overland...
216
00:17:12,908 --> 00:17:16,370
and ship fresh food
across a continent.
217
00:17:16,453 --> 00:17:21,375
Major industries rise up
built entirely on cold.
218
00:17:23,293 --> 00:17:25,379
But once people are hooked on it...
219
00:17:26,630 --> 00:17:31,009
they have a problem
if ice doesn't form in warm winters.
220
00:17:33,137 --> 00:17:36,181
So that spurs innovation...
221
00:17:36,265 --> 00:17:41,061
replacing ice with electric refrigeration
and air conditioning...
222
00:17:43,480 --> 00:17:47,985
that let our cities rise to the skies...
223
00:17:53,198 --> 00:17:58,245
and our deserts
bloom into metropolises.
224
00:18:02,332 --> 00:18:05,252
But as much as
it has shaped civilization...
225
00:18:12,092 --> 00:18:17,181
the big history of cold has also
shaped our entire universe.
226
00:18:23,103 --> 00:18:26,482
13.7 billion years ago...
227
00:18:30,736 --> 00:18:35,365
the big bang is the hottest thing
that ever happens in the cosmos.
228
00:18:37,910 --> 00:18:41,455
But it's cold that turns
that primal energy...
229
00:18:41,538 --> 00:18:45,793
into a universe of atoms,
stars and planets.
230
00:18:47,461 --> 00:18:50,881
Right after the big bang,
things were incredibly hot...
231
00:18:50,964 --> 00:18:56,178
so hot that the very atoms
that we know today didn't exist.
232
00:18:56,261 --> 00:18:59,389
They would have just disintegrated
because it was too warm out.
233
00:19:01,391 --> 00:19:05,145
So, really, it was a process
of cooling down over time...
234
00:19:05,229 --> 00:19:07,648
that gave us the universe we had.
235
00:19:08,565 --> 00:19:10,818
And in a sense
the story of the universe...
236
00:19:10,901 --> 00:19:12,903
is the story of cooling down.
237
00:19:16,156 --> 00:19:18,325
Billions of years later...
238
00:19:20,035 --> 00:19:22,788
when our own solar system
takes shape...
239
00:19:24,790 --> 00:19:27,501
Earth forms in a narrow band...
240
00:19:27,584 --> 00:19:32,172
where the perfect level of coldness
allows liquid water to exist-
241
00:19:33,924 --> 00:19:36,218
the prerequisite for life.
242
00:19:39,304 --> 00:19:41,223
So the idea of coldness itself...
243
00:19:41,306 --> 00:19:43,851
runs right across big history...
244
00:19:43,934 --> 00:19:48,021
from the creation of the universe itself
to the creation of stars...
245
00:19:48,105 --> 00:19:51,024
to the creation of the Earth itself...
246
00:19:51,108 --> 00:19:55,487
which appeared in just the right
degree of coldness for us.
247
00:19:57,072 --> 00:20:01,034
But the cold
that created the physical universe...
248
00:20:01,118 --> 00:20:03,829
will ultimately bring it to an end.
249
00:20:05,581 --> 00:20:07,040
Because the same physics...
250
00:20:07,124 --> 00:20:11,670
that cause a melting ice cube
to draw heat from a glass of water...
251
00:20:11,753 --> 00:20:13,589
exist everywhere.
252
00:20:15,132 --> 00:20:21,013
Stars and galaxies will slowly dissipate
into the cold emptiness of space.
253
00:20:22,306 --> 00:20:25,225
Eventually, stars die...
254
00:20:25,309 --> 00:20:27,144
temperatures drop...
255
00:20:27,227 --> 00:20:29,021
atoms spread out.
256
00:20:30,856 --> 00:20:35,110
In a sense, the story of big history
is the story of starting extremely hot...
257
00:20:36,194 --> 00:20:37,696
in the big bang...
258
00:20:37,779 --> 00:20:39,948
and moving slowly
towards extremely cold.
259
00:20:40,032 --> 00:20:43,035
Because in countless billions
of years in the future...
260
00:20:43,118 --> 00:20:46,622
it's gonna get so cold
that there are no gradients.
261
00:20:46,705 --> 00:20:48,999
There's no difference
between hot and cold.
262
00:20:51,376 --> 00:20:54,922
And in a universe
born in a blaze of heat...
263
00:20:56,632 --> 00:20:59,301
cold will rule forever.
264
00:21:01,511 --> 00:21:04,806
But the story of cold
is just the beginning.
265
00:21:04,890 --> 00:21:07,935
There's a much bigger puzzle
hidden in big history.
266
00:21:08,018 --> 00:21:10,896
Each episode unlocks a clue.
267
00:21:10,979 --> 00:21:13,023
Everyday things like meteors...
268
00:21:14,066 --> 00:21:16,485
secret codes...
269
00:21:16,568 --> 00:21:18,779
and silver hold the key.
270
00:21:20,238 --> 00:21:24,368
Watch them all and you'll see
this grand mystery revealed-
271
00:21:24,451 --> 00:21:28,080
the big history of time, of space.
272
00:21:28,163 --> 00:21:30,666
The big history of us.
22090
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