1 00:00:36,856 --> 00:00:39,586 This program is like a theme park water ride: 2 00:00:39,726 --> 00:00:42,524 Thrills and spills all the way. 3 00:01:02,749 --> 00:01:03,909 How does the ride end? 4 00:01:04,050 --> 00:01:05,608 You'll find out when we: 5 00:01:11,224 --> 00:01:13,249 Awesome, this piece of metal, right? 6 00:01:13,393 --> 00:01:15,224 One of these Tornado fighter bombers 7 00:01:15,361 --> 00:01:19,320 can put a bomb through the keyhole and really spoil your day. 8 00:01:22,201 --> 00:01:24,101 And is this plain clever: 9 00:01:24,237 --> 00:01:25,295 Smart bombs, 10 00:01:25,438 --> 00:01:26,735 smart missiles, 11 00:01:26,873 --> 00:01:28,500 smart navigation, 12 00:01:28,641 --> 00:01:31,166 and very smart pilots. 13 00:01:35,782 --> 00:01:38,842 One of the lethal things this warplane can drop on the enemy 14 00:01:38,985 --> 00:01:42,386 is something that changed the face of war over 50 years ago 15 00:01:42,522 --> 00:01:44,387 with a rubber shortage... 16 00:01:44,524 --> 00:01:49,257 rubber they used to use in World War II mixed with gasoline 17 00:01:49,395 --> 00:01:51,829 so it would burn slowly when you dropped it on something: 18 00:01:51,964 --> 00:01:54,159 An incendiary bomb. 19 00:01:58,638 --> 00:02:02,631 In 1942, the Japanese captured the Allied rubber plantations. 20 00:02:02,775 --> 00:02:05,209 The solution to this crisis produces 21 00:02:05,344 --> 00:02:08,711 one of the most controversial weapons of all time. 22 00:02:10,016 --> 00:02:12,314 What these early '50s flights are testing 23 00:02:12,452 --> 00:02:15,285 is a kind of gel that does this: 24 00:02:24,597 --> 00:02:29,557 But its most controversial use still lies a decade ahead, in the 1960s. 25 00:02:29,702 --> 00:02:32,034 Meanwhile, what is this stuff? 26 00:02:35,708 --> 00:02:37,300 The raw material looks like this: 27 00:02:37,443 --> 00:02:39,604 An extremely fine powder. 28 00:02:39,745 --> 00:02:42,407 All you do is stir it into the gasoline, 29 00:02:42,548 --> 00:02:46,484 leave it overnight, after which, it looks like this. 30 00:02:46,619 --> 00:02:47,745 Oh, excuse me. 31 00:02:59,765 --> 00:03:00,732 Sorry about that. 32 00:03:00,867 --> 00:03:03,097 Okay, by the 1960s, 33 00:03:03,236 --> 00:03:07,036 this stuff is being loaded into streamlined drop tanks 34 00:03:07,173 --> 00:03:09,266 and released all over South Vietnam, 35 00:03:09,408 --> 00:03:11,808 getting the serious attention of those below. 36 00:03:11,944 --> 00:03:13,571 Napalm is the name. 37 00:03:13,713 --> 00:03:15,613 Interdiction is the game. 38 00:03:15,748 --> 00:03:18,114 The really effective thing about napalm is 39 00:03:18,251 --> 00:03:21,448 that when they stick it to you, they really stick it to you. 40 00:03:21,587 --> 00:03:23,316 When a 100-gallon drop tank 41 00:03:23,456 --> 00:03:25,515 filled with sticky napalm hits the ground, 42 00:03:25,658 --> 00:03:31,563 within an area 30 by 90 yards, everything is toast. 43 00:03:47,613 --> 00:03:51,276 It's ironic, that toasting effect that napalm has, 44 00:03:51,417 --> 00:03:53,180 considering where it all starts: 45 00:03:53,319 --> 00:03:55,014 On toast, 46 00:03:55,154 --> 00:03:57,054 with this stuff, 47 00:03:57,190 --> 00:03:59,590 invented by an obscure Frenchman named Mége 48 00:03:59,725 --> 00:04:03,491 to solve a crucial problem facing France at the time: 49 00:04:03,629 --> 00:04:06,120 A rapidly rising population 50 00:04:06,265 --> 00:04:08,756 of people too poor to have breakfast. 51 00:04:08,901 --> 00:04:12,496 What little food they can afford is a lousy diet, anyway... 52 00:04:14,440 --> 00:04:16,203 when it comes to energy-giving food 53 00:04:16,342 --> 00:04:19,106 that'll keep you going all day long in some factory or other. 54 00:04:19,245 --> 00:04:23,614 And as for meat, that's something poor people never see. 55 00:04:23,749 --> 00:04:26,809 Now, butter would give you enough energy for the factory shift, 56 00:04:26,953 --> 00:04:28,853 but the only people who can afford butter 57 00:04:28,988 --> 00:04:30,979 don't do factory shifts. 58 00:04:32,925 --> 00:04:37,362 So Mége comes up with a mixture of beef suet and milk that will spread 59 00:04:37,496 --> 00:04:42,661 and is cheap enough for all those poor, starving factory workers to afford. 60 00:04:42,802 --> 00:04:46,761 And for reasons that mystify me, he sells the pattern to a Dutchman, 61 00:04:46,906 --> 00:04:52,071 and the world gets margarine and likes it so much, 62 00:04:52,211 --> 00:04:54,509 there isn't enough beef suet to go around, 63 00:04:54,647 --> 00:04:59,084 which, you might say, changes the name of the game. 64 00:05:06,892 --> 00:05:09,417 This is where they find the substitute for beef suet: 65 00:05:09,562 --> 00:05:11,325 Here in Sri Lanka 66 00:05:11,464 --> 00:05:14,433 and other places that grow these palm oil trees. 67 00:05:14,567 --> 00:05:17,695 Palm oil is better and cheaper than suet. 68 00:05:17,837 --> 00:05:20,567 Oh, and incidentally, it's the key ingredient in napalm. 69 00:05:20,706 --> 00:05:23,038 But back in the late 19th century, 70 00:05:23,175 --> 00:05:24,472 palm oil is the reason 71 00:05:24,610 --> 00:05:27,374 there's margarine on your supermarket shelves today, 72 00:05:27,513 --> 00:05:29,413 and it's so easy to get. 73 00:05:29,548 --> 00:05:31,516 You just reach up 74 00:05:31,651 --> 00:05:32,777 and cut... 75 00:05:37,089 --> 00:05:39,614 and then squeeze the oil out of the fruit. 76 00:05:39,759 --> 00:05:42,227 Course, it's not as straightforward as I've made out, 77 00:05:42,361 --> 00:05:46,058 especially that bit about palm oil being used in margarine. 78 00:05:46,198 --> 00:05:47,165 Here's why: 79 00:05:47,300 --> 00:05:49,530 When you process the palm oil fruit, 80 00:05:49,669 --> 00:05:52,900 what you get is this. 81 00:05:53,039 --> 00:05:56,304 You will note that, being oil, it runs, right? 82 00:05:56,442 --> 00:05:58,535 And margarine doesn't. 83 00:05:58,678 --> 00:06:00,407 So what's the trick? 84 00:06:00,546 --> 00:06:03,242 Well, about 20 years after Mége does his thing, 85 00:06:03,382 --> 00:06:06,613 they find a way to harden up the vegetable oils in margarine 86 00:06:06,752 --> 00:06:08,617 so it'll spread on the bread. 87 00:06:08,754 --> 00:06:11,052 Now, to be perfectly fair, 88 00:06:11,190 --> 00:06:14,648 the way they do this is extremely boring, 89 00:06:14,794 --> 00:06:16,921 but I'll be extremely quick. 90 00:06:19,398 --> 00:06:22,162 Okay, here are your palm oil molecules, 91 00:06:22,301 --> 00:06:25,099 and here are some hydrogen molecules, 92 00:06:25,237 --> 00:06:27,330 which don't normally belong together 93 00:06:27,473 --> 00:06:31,500 until you introduce stuff called kieselguhr, a fine powder, 94 00:06:31,644 --> 00:06:33,703 onto which you deposit a little nickel, 95 00:06:33,846 --> 00:06:35,973 and what the nickel on the kieselguhr does 96 00:06:36,115 --> 00:06:37,946 is act like a catalyst. 97 00:06:38,084 --> 00:06:40,279 All you have to do is get the whole lot well mixed up, 98 00:06:40,419 --> 00:06:43,286 and bingo, the hydrogen molecules 99 00:06:43,422 --> 00:06:47,085 stick themselves into the palm oil molecules. 100 00:06:47,226 --> 00:06:49,285 Because it's getting hydrogen into the oil, 101 00:06:49,428 --> 00:06:51,623 the process is called hydrogenation, 102 00:06:51,764 --> 00:06:56,064 and it makes the oil stiff enough so it'll spread on your toast. 103 00:06:56,202 --> 00:06:58,033 And the kieselguhr-nickel catalyst 104 00:06:58,170 --> 00:07:00,638 will do that hardening trick to most oils, 105 00:07:00,773 --> 00:07:05,073 including, ironically, fish oils. 106 00:07:12,084 --> 00:07:15,076 Because that stuff with the funny name, kieselguhr, 107 00:07:15,221 --> 00:07:17,155 is why the fish are where they are to be fished 108 00:07:17,289 --> 00:07:18,779 in the first place. 109 00:07:18,924 --> 00:07:20,721 See, kieselguhr starts life 110 00:07:20,860 --> 00:07:24,318 as shells on the world's smallest seafood, 111 00:07:24,463 --> 00:07:29,093 otherwise known as plankton, aka lunch for teeny-weeny shrimps, 112 00:07:29,235 --> 00:07:31,499 which get eaten by bigger fish, 113 00:07:31,637 --> 00:07:35,232 then eaten by bigger fish that you get to eat. 114 00:07:37,009 --> 00:07:38,943 It's called a food chain. 115 00:07:40,279 --> 00:07:43,942 Now, when the tiny plankton die, their tiny shells sink 116 00:07:44,083 --> 00:07:46,950 and zillions of years later have become 117 00:07:47,086 --> 00:07:50,487 sedimentary layers you grind up into kieselguhr powder. 118 00:07:53,092 --> 00:07:56,255 And we know this because of a fellow named Victor Hensen, 119 00:07:56,395 --> 00:07:58,386 who in 1888 is trying to make more money 120 00:07:58,531 --> 00:08:00,260 for the German fishing fleet. 121 00:08:01,801 --> 00:08:04,326 Hensen designed special nets to catch plankton. 122 00:08:04,470 --> 00:08:08,600 There's some in this jar, about 100 million. 123 00:08:08,741 --> 00:08:10,333 Take a look from a satellite, 124 00:08:10,476 --> 00:08:12,341 and you can see what Hensen discovers. 125 00:08:15,815 --> 00:08:19,717 Here's some time-lapse satellite shots, taken once every month. 126 00:08:19,852 --> 00:08:23,413 Okay, watch the green bits... that's living plankton... 127 00:08:23,556 --> 00:08:27,356 and you can see plankton don't much like the tropics, do they? 128 00:08:27,493 --> 00:08:29,017 Up north and down south, 129 00:08:29,161 --> 00:08:30,560 where the gales churn up the ocean, 130 00:08:30,696 --> 00:08:33,187 if the plankton eat up all the surface food, 131 00:08:33,332 --> 00:08:36,233 there's always more being brought up from down below, 132 00:08:36,368 --> 00:08:37,858 so there's always plenty to eat. 133 00:08:38,003 --> 00:08:40,369 Doesn't happen in the windless tropics. 134 00:08:40,506 --> 00:08:43,669 North and south, with pretty constant strong winds 135 00:08:43,809 --> 00:08:47,006 drawing cold, food-rich currents up from the depths, 136 00:08:47,146 --> 00:08:49,614 plankton thrive. 137 00:08:51,350 --> 00:08:55,047 And what that does is explain why you get all those anchovies and tuna 138 00:08:55,187 --> 00:08:58,122 off the coast of Peru at certain times of the year. 139 00:08:59,859 --> 00:09:02,919 See that plankton growth up the coast of Peru? 140 00:09:03,062 --> 00:09:06,361 The cold Humboldt Current runs up that coast, 141 00:09:06,499 --> 00:09:08,694 driven by the winds coming in over the Pacific 142 00:09:08,834 --> 00:09:12,634 and pulling food for the plankton up from the deep ocean. 143 00:09:14,173 --> 00:09:16,733 So the anchovies that live on the plankton have a feast, 144 00:09:16,876 --> 00:09:19,242 and then the tuna that live on the anchovies have a feast, 145 00:09:19,378 --> 00:09:21,903 and then we have a feast. 146 00:09:22,047 --> 00:09:24,242 And the reason that current happens at all 147 00:09:24,383 --> 00:09:26,510 is discovered by a Dutchman called Ballot. 148 00:09:26,652 --> 00:09:28,882 One last satellite shot. 149 00:09:31,957 --> 00:09:34,858 Ballot discovers that Humboldt Current exists 150 00:09:34,994 --> 00:09:38,361 because of that west-to-east South Pacific weather you can see 151 00:09:38,497 --> 00:09:41,398 that happens because of the way the earth rotates. 152 00:09:41,534 --> 00:09:46,528 Those west-to-east winds pull the Humboldt Current in their train. 153 00:09:46,672 --> 00:09:48,299 And I make that bad joke 154 00:09:48,440 --> 00:09:52,638 because of another Ballot experiment he does in 1845. 155 00:09:52,778 --> 00:09:56,111 Here's Professor Ballot, and here's his experiment. 156 00:10:01,587 --> 00:10:04,681 And here are Ballot's experimental subjects. 157 00:10:08,127 --> 00:10:10,721 Now, I know this looks goofy, 158 00:10:10,863 --> 00:10:13,024 but please try to remember that back then, 159 00:10:13,165 --> 00:10:16,464 this is rocket-science stuff. 160 00:10:20,873 --> 00:10:22,670 Okay, here they go. 161 00:10:22,808 --> 00:10:24,935 And they're off. 162 00:10:31,283 --> 00:10:35,242 Meanwhile, down the line, the waiting research assistants. 163 00:10:35,387 --> 00:10:37,981 Their job: To record with exact precision 164 00:10:38,123 --> 00:10:40,648 what they and you are about to hear: 165 00:10:40,793 --> 00:10:43,660 The note played by the traveling trumpeters. 166 00:10:43,796 --> 00:10:45,491 And here they come. 167 00:10:51,036 --> 00:10:52,196 And here is their note. 168 00:10:56,041 --> 00:10:59,442 But please note how the research assistants hear the note 169 00:10:59,578 --> 00:11:00,840 as the train approaches. 170 00:11:11,090 --> 00:11:13,183 The pitch of the note rises, 171 00:11:13,325 --> 00:11:16,021 proving to Ballot what some guy in Prague has said, 172 00:11:16,161 --> 00:11:18,527 that pitch rises as a sound approaches you 173 00:11:18,664 --> 00:11:21,098 and falls as it departs. 174 00:11:31,143 --> 00:11:32,269 Thank you, gentlemen. 175 00:11:32,411 --> 00:11:36,404 Now, that guy in Prague I mentioned, Christian Doppler... 176 00:11:36,548 --> 00:11:40,279 well, as well as sound waves, he's also talking about light waves. 177 00:11:40,419 --> 00:11:42,580 Here's what he means by that bit of it. 178 00:11:44,623 --> 00:11:47,353 If this were a light approaching at a zillion miles an hour, 179 00:11:47,493 --> 00:11:50,360 its light waves would get to you increasingly frequently. 180 00:11:50,496 --> 00:11:52,157 Higher frequency light is bluer, 181 00:11:52,297 --> 00:11:55,164 so the approaching light source should look bluer. 182 00:11:59,571 --> 00:12:00,731 If the light is departing, 183 00:12:00,873 --> 00:12:03,307 light waves from it hit you less frequently. 184 00:12:03,442 --> 00:12:04,966 Low-frequency light's redder, 185 00:12:05,110 --> 00:12:08,204 so Doppler reckons the red stars astronomers see 186 00:12:08,347 --> 00:12:10,212 must be stars moving away from us 187 00:12:10,349 --> 00:12:13,318 and the blue stars, coming towards us. 188 00:12:15,287 --> 00:12:17,221 Six years later in France, 189 00:12:17,356 --> 00:12:20,848 a guy called Armand Fizeau comes up with the same idea, 190 00:12:20,993 --> 00:12:22,790 only he takes it a bit further. 191 00:12:22,928 --> 00:12:26,159 "Look," he says, "if the speed of light is constant, 192 00:12:26,298 --> 00:12:28,129 "this red-blue thing means 193 00:12:28,267 --> 00:12:30,599 "you can work out the speed the stars are actually going at 194 00:12:30,736 --> 00:12:32,431 "in order to make that color change happen, 195 00:12:32,571 --> 00:12:35,199 if you knew the speed of light, right?" 196 00:12:35,340 --> 00:12:38,605 And he works that out with a cogwheel. 197 00:12:40,512 --> 00:12:43,379 The cogwheel has 712 teeth. 198 00:12:43,515 --> 00:12:45,608 Fizeau shines a light from a precise distance 199 00:12:45,751 --> 00:12:47,810 through the spinning teeth. 200 00:12:47,953 --> 00:12:51,616 When the wheel is going at exactly 12.6 revolutions a second, 201 00:12:51,757 --> 00:12:53,520 the teeth... watch the bottom... 202 00:12:53,659 --> 00:12:56,992 pass at exactly the same time as the light wave crests 203 00:12:57,129 --> 00:12:58,824 and block the light. 204 00:12:58,964 --> 00:13:00,022 Fizeau does the math... 205 00:13:00,165 --> 00:13:02,429 wheel spin rate, light wave frequency, 206 00:13:02,568 --> 00:13:03,899 distance to the light... 207 00:13:04,036 --> 00:13:08,234 and announces light speed's 190,000 miles a second. 208 00:13:08,373 --> 00:13:10,034 Everybody's delighted. 209 00:13:10,175 --> 00:13:12,939 Bouquets all round. 210 00:13:15,180 --> 00:13:17,580 Meanwhile, time for a quick catch-up. 211 00:13:19,418 --> 00:13:23,514 On our way to hitting the water, palm oil is hardened for margarine 212 00:13:23,655 --> 00:13:26,783 with a process using that stuff called kieselguhr, 213 00:13:26,925 --> 00:13:28,825 made from shells of dead plankton 214 00:13:28,961 --> 00:13:31,486 that live in currents identified by Ballot, 215 00:13:31,630 --> 00:13:33,621 who also tests the Doppler effect 216 00:13:33,766 --> 00:13:36,394 that happens with moving sound and moving stars, 217 00:13:36,535 --> 00:13:39,971 so Fizeau works out the speed of light. 218 00:13:43,208 --> 00:13:45,233 Fizeau marries the daughter 219 00:13:45,377 --> 00:13:48,346 of a spectacularly boring French flower freak 220 00:13:48,480 --> 00:13:50,573 about whom virtually nothing has been written, 221 00:13:50,716 --> 00:13:51,808 you'll be happy to hear, 222 00:13:51,950 --> 00:13:54,851 not even by his best pal, 223 00:13:54,987 --> 00:13:58,650 who lives here in Paris and writes a lot. 224 00:13:58,791 --> 00:14:00,986 The scribbling friend is 225 00:14:01,126 --> 00:14:04,027 the greatest French romantic novelist nobody's ever heard of, 226 00:14:04,163 --> 00:14:06,631 named Prosper Merimee. 227 00:14:06,765 --> 00:14:08,665 Here's his greatest work, 228 00:14:08,801 --> 00:14:12,328 "The Chronicle of the Reign of Charles IX." 229 00:14:12,471 --> 00:14:14,769 I had to read it at school. 230 00:14:14,907 --> 00:14:15,931 Try it. 231 00:14:16,074 --> 00:14:17,701 It'll cure your insomnia. 232 00:14:17,843 --> 00:14:21,335 Thing is, I bet you know Prosper Merimee 233 00:14:21,480 --> 00:14:23,380 but didn't know you did, on account of the fact 234 00:14:23,515 --> 00:14:26,484 that somebody more famous stole one of his stories 235 00:14:26,618 --> 00:14:28,950 and turned it into something more famous: 236 00:14:29,087 --> 00:14:32,318 A tale of flowering passion. 237 00:14:40,666 --> 00:14:44,261 Merimee's story is better known in the musical version, "Carmen," 238 00:14:44,403 --> 00:14:48,271 the story of a gypsy girl who stabs her lover in a jealous rage. 239 00:14:48,407 --> 00:14:51,706 Mind you, the idea isn't Merimee's in the first place. 240 00:14:51,844 --> 00:14:55,712 He gets told the story when he's traveling in Spain 241 00:14:55,848 --> 00:14:59,011 and bumps into an aristocratic Spanish family 242 00:14:59,151 --> 00:15:05,215 and becomes a good pal of them all, and especially the little daughter. 243 00:15:15,801 --> 00:15:18,326 That friendship with the little girl turns out to be 244 00:15:18,470 --> 00:15:20,665 one of the best things that ever happens to Merimee. 245 00:15:20,806 --> 00:15:23,400 Years later, when he's back in Paris, 246 00:15:23,542 --> 00:15:28,104 so is she, grown up and empress of France. 247 00:15:55,674 --> 00:16:00,441 Okay, we fast-forward to 1834, when Merimee's back here in Paris 248 00:16:00,579 --> 00:16:02,069 and his little pal is empress, 249 00:16:02,214 --> 00:16:06,446 and Merimee gets to be the great savior of Notre Dame Cathedral 250 00:16:06,585 --> 00:16:09,986 because the empress gets him the job of inspector general of monuments, 251 00:16:10,122 --> 00:16:12,022 most of which are falling down, 252 00:16:12,157 --> 00:16:16,651 and he saves about 4,000 of them, including Notre Dame. 253 00:16:16,795 --> 00:16:19,491 You enjoy the architectural treasures of France? 254 00:16:19,631 --> 00:16:21,360 Thank Merimee. 255 00:16:23,468 --> 00:16:26,232 Of course, sometimes they replace a bit, 256 00:16:26,371 --> 00:16:29,966 so some of what you're admiring as Gothic isn't, 257 00:16:30,108 --> 00:16:31,666 like this bit 258 00:16:31,810 --> 00:16:33,437 or this bit... 259 00:16:34,446 --> 00:16:35,606 or these bits... 260 00:16:37,115 --> 00:16:39,140 or this bit. 261 00:16:39,284 --> 00:16:41,252 Mind you, most people are fooled. 262 00:16:42,321 --> 00:16:44,721 And speaking of getting away with it, 263 00:16:44,856 --> 00:16:47,654 at one point, Merimee gets mixed up 264 00:16:47,793 --> 00:16:49,784 with a criminal Italian type named Libri, 265 00:16:49,928 --> 00:16:51,657 who's living in France 266 00:16:51,797 --> 00:16:55,164 and is inspector general of French libraries. 267 00:16:57,636 --> 00:16:59,228 Well, he is until they start noticing 268 00:16:59,371 --> 00:17:04,104 that every time he inspects a library, valuable books kind of go missing. 269 00:17:04,242 --> 00:17:07,905 Chased by the cops, he escapes to England... 270 00:17:09,748 --> 00:17:12,979 where another Italian book lover offers him a job. 271 00:17:13,118 --> 00:17:15,985 No danger of Libri stealing this guy's books. 272 00:17:16,121 --> 00:17:17,179 I know. 273 00:17:17,322 --> 00:17:19,620 I've spent most of my life waiting for days 274 00:17:19,758 --> 00:17:21,055 just to get my hands on one... 275 00:17:24,730 --> 00:17:27,631 here at the British Museum library. 276 00:17:30,802 --> 00:17:36,570 Libri's pal, Antonio Panizzi, becomes the head librarian in 1856, 277 00:17:36,708 --> 00:17:39,108 and he's the guy who designs the great main reading room 278 00:17:39,244 --> 00:17:42,577 beloved of readers and snoozers the world over. 279 00:17:42,714 --> 00:17:46,707 It's Panizzi who turns the library into a major institution. 280 00:17:46,852 --> 00:17:50,344 The library has the greatest collection of rare volumes in the world today, 281 00:17:50,489 --> 00:17:54,050 thanks to bookworm Antonio Panizzi. 282 00:17:57,095 --> 00:17:59,256 You can imagine him, can't you, in retirement, 283 00:17:59,398 --> 00:18:04,631 settling down in the evening over a nice cup of hot chocolate 284 00:18:04,770 --> 00:18:07,432 and thanking the fellow who made it all possible: 285 00:18:07,572 --> 00:18:12,202 The guy who invented hot chocolate, Dr. Hans Sloane, 286 00:18:12,344 --> 00:18:14,141 fortunately for Panizzi, 287 00:18:14,279 --> 00:18:17,510 the guy who got the British Museum built in the first place. 288 00:18:19,718 --> 00:18:22,710 So let's hear it for doctors who invent hot chocolate drinks 289 00:18:22,854 --> 00:18:25,823 and help to cure beautiful women. 290 00:18:25,957 --> 00:18:28,084 Well, she was beautiful, 291 00:18:28,226 --> 00:18:30,558 until the unfortunate event. 292 00:18:33,732 --> 00:18:35,393 The unfortunate event occurs 293 00:18:35,534 --> 00:18:38,094 not long before the aristocratic lady in question 294 00:18:38,236 --> 00:18:41,899 sets off in 1715 for Turkey. 295 00:18:44,076 --> 00:18:47,045 What that doctor, Hans Sloane, has done back in London 296 00:18:47,179 --> 00:18:50,580 is save the life of Lady Mary Wortley Montague 297 00:18:50,715 --> 00:18:53,115 from a disease that nearly always kills 298 00:18:53,251 --> 00:18:57,017 and always disfigures: Smallpox. 299 00:19:00,559 --> 00:19:03,392 Lady Mary heads straight for Turkish high society... 300 00:19:03,528 --> 00:19:05,496 places like the sultan's harem, 301 00:19:05,630 --> 00:19:07,598 where she meets the wives and concubines 302 00:19:07,732 --> 00:19:11,759 and gets to know all about life and love in Istanbul. 303 00:19:21,546 --> 00:19:23,605 One day, on one of her visits, 304 00:19:23,748 --> 00:19:26,876 Lady Mary gets the word about something the Turks are up to 305 00:19:27,018 --> 00:19:31,352 that interests her a lot more than the art and architecture stuff. 306 00:19:31,490 --> 00:19:33,924 She discovers that smallpox in Turkey 307 00:19:34,059 --> 00:19:36,323 isn't the killer disease it is back in England. 308 00:19:36,461 --> 00:19:39,055 So she takes a closer look, 309 00:19:39,197 --> 00:19:42,963 and what she discovers puts her in the medical history books. 310 00:19:43,101 --> 00:19:45,467 Turns out the Turks are taking 311 00:19:45,604 --> 00:19:48,300 the liquid from the pustules of people with smallpox 312 00:19:48,440 --> 00:19:52,672 and inoculating healthy children with it, 313 00:19:52,811 --> 00:19:55,336 who then never catch smallpox. 314 00:19:55,480 --> 00:19:58,847 This turns Lady Mary on so much, eventually, back in England, 315 00:19:58,984 --> 00:20:01,578 she persuades the medical profession to start inoculating. 316 00:20:02,754 --> 00:20:04,016 The other thing she does here 317 00:20:04,156 --> 00:20:07,216 is write flowery letters home about her experiences, 318 00:20:07,359 --> 00:20:09,987 including how Turkey is coveting tulips. 319 00:20:10,128 --> 00:20:14,724 At the time, there's a tulip craze among the Turkish aristocracy, 320 00:20:14,866 --> 00:20:20,202 so they're worth a fortune, and there are 1,300 varieties. 321 00:20:27,779 --> 00:20:31,215 Tulips have been a rarity in the West since the 1560s, 322 00:20:31,349 --> 00:20:33,749 when Europeans get their first glimpse of them 323 00:20:33,885 --> 00:20:37,548 in a book by a Swiss guy, Conrad Gesner, 324 00:20:37,689 --> 00:20:39,657 who's also the first person to classify plants 325 00:20:39,791 --> 00:20:42,658 by their structures and seeds. 326 00:20:44,863 --> 00:20:46,558 But Gesner's real claim to fame 327 00:20:46,698 --> 00:20:49,929 is a modest work he comes up with in 1555, 328 00:20:50,068 --> 00:20:53,367 entitled "The Universal Collection of Books." 329 00:20:53,505 --> 00:20:56,599 Every author since the printing press 100 years before 330 00:20:56,741 --> 00:21:00,575 and dictionaries, encyclopedias, grammar books, 331 00:21:00,712 --> 00:21:03,306 and the Lord's Prayer in 22 languages, 332 00:21:03,448 --> 00:21:04,813 and something complicated 333 00:21:04,950 --> 00:21:08,181 on how to analyze the real meaning of ancient texts. 334 00:21:09,754 --> 00:21:12,985 That last thing endears him to his godfather, 335 00:21:13,124 --> 00:21:15,991 who's keen on that kind of approach to the Bible 336 00:21:16,127 --> 00:21:18,618 and partial to sausages. 337 00:21:25,604 --> 00:21:29,233 What happens next is a rare case of history being changed, 338 00:21:29,374 --> 00:21:31,365 thanks to Conrad Gesner's godfather, 339 00:21:31,509 --> 00:21:33,568 by somebody's eating habits. 340 00:21:35,947 --> 00:21:40,145 Point is, Gesner's godfather is a Swiss, sausage-eating Catholic priest 341 00:21:40,285 --> 00:21:41,684 about to turn Protestant 342 00:21:41,820 --> 00:21:44,220 and persuade many other Swiss Catholics to do the same, 343 00:21:44,356 --> 00:21:47,883 so we're talking the theological importance of sausages, 344 00:21:48,026 --> 00:21:51,689 because if you were about to lead a Protestant revolt against Rome, 345 00:21:51,830 --> 00:21:56,767 one way to rally others to your cause could be with sausages. 346 00:21:56,901 --> 00:22:01,304 Thing is, Gesner's godfather is one Ulrich Swingli, 347 00:22:01,439 --> 00:22:06,968 and he eats the sausage in question in 1522 in zurich in Lent, 348 00:22:07,112 --> 00:22:11,105 Lent being a time when Catholics aren't supposed to eat meat, 349 00:22:11,249 --> 00:22:14,980 which is bad enough, except Swingli's a priest 350 00:22:15,120 --> 00:22:17,486 at zurich's biggest church. 351 00:22:17,622 --> 00:22:19,021 And it gets worse. 352 00:22:19,157 --> 00:22:21,625 He's also secretly married. 353 00:22:21,760 --> 00:22:25,856 And worse again: He's a fan of Martin Luther, 354 00:22:25,997 --> 00:22:29,626 the guy just recently excommunicated by Rome. 355 00:22:31,736 --> 00:22:33,363 And then Swingli goes totally ape. 356 00:22:33,505 --> 00:22:35,939 I mean, he gets up in the pulpit... 357 00:22:38,543 --> 00:22:42,206 He gets up in the pulpit and lets the pope have it. 358 00:22:43,548 --> 00:22:46,312 "Down," he says, "with celibacy for priests. 359 00:22:48,153 --> 00:22:49,177 "Down with the Mass... 360 00:22:50,188 --> 00:22:51,348 "holy images... 361 00:22:52,557 --> 00:22:53,649 "music... 362 00:22:55,727 --> 00:22:56,694 "Latin... 363 00:22:59,731 --> 00:23:01,096 "clerical clothing... 364 00:23:03,568 --> 00:23:04,796 "church taxes... 365 00:23:06,638 --> 00:23:08,003 and baptism." 366 00:23:10,742 --> 00:23:13,176 The zurich town council love it. 367 00:23:13,311 --> 00:23:17,213 By 1525, Swingli is flavor of the month. 368 00:23:17,349 --> 00:23:20,011 Anything he says goes. 369 00:23:22,320 --> 00:23:25,312 So when he says, "turn Protestant," they all do 370 00:23:25,457 --> 00:23:27,755 and go for a new Puritan lifestyle. 371 00:23:27,892 --> 00:23:29,917 No more late nights or boozing. 372 00:23:30,061 --> 00:23:34,259 As their spiritual leader, Swingli comes on pretty strong. 373 00:23:34,399 --> 00:23:36,594 But when he says, "Roll up the sidewalks," 374 00:23:36,735 --> 00:23:39,260 they roll them up, and anything else he asks. 375 00:23:39,404 --> 00:23:43,204 He says, "For two centuries, our biggest export has been mercenaries 376 00:23:43,341 --> 00:23:45,605 fighting for Catholic countries like France. 377 00:23:45,744 --> 00:23:48,611 Now we're Protestant; forget it." 378 00:23:48,747 --> 00:23:51,614 Okay, time for a quick catch-up. 379 00:23:55,720 --> 00:23:57,278 You remember Merimee, 380 00:23:57,422 --> 00:23:59,481 who writes the original story of "Carmen," 381 00:23:59,624 --> 00:24:02,218 and his pal who works in the British Museum, 382 00:24:02,360 --> 00:24:05,796 first opened to house the collection of Dr. Hans Sloane, 383 00:24:05,930 --> 00:24:09,366 who treats Lady Mary Wortley Montague for her smallpox 384 00:24:09,501 --> 00:24:11,025 before she heads off for Turkey, 385 00:24:11,169 --> 00:24:14,229 land of tulips, first drawn by Gesner, 386 00:24:14,372 --> 00:24:17,773 whose sausage-eating godfather Swingli cancels a contract 387 00:24:17,909 --> 00:24:19,672 to supply mercenaries to the French, 388 00:24:19,811 --> 00:24:21,369 who couldn't care less 389 00:24:21,513 --> 00:24:23,913 because they've just got a radical new idea: 390 00:24:24,048 --> 00:24:26,414 Establishing a permanent professional army 391 00:24:26,551 --> 00:24:27,882 from people like these: 392 00:24:28,019 --> 00:24:31,511 The oldest English regiment, the Coldstream Guards, 393 00:24:31,656 --> 00:24:35,752 who move with precision in battle with this new trick. 394 00:24:44,836 --> 00:24:47,270 The new idea of maneuvering on the battlefield 395 00:24:47,405 --> 00:24:48,895 in close ranks like this 396 00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:52,203 means they also drop big hats and wide cloaks 397 00:24:52,343 --> 00:24:55,437 in favor of combat outfits. 398 00:24:55,580 --> 00:24:59,949 The French also pick up on ideas like the new flintlock weapons; 399 00:25:00,084 --> 00:25:01,210 providing their soldiers 400 00:25:01,352 --> 00:25:03,843 with pensions, hospitals, and retirement homes; 401 00:25:03,988 --> 00:25:05,751 the whole system of ranks; 402 00:25:05,890 --> 00:25:07,915 and organizing their new professional army 403 00:25:08,059 --> 00:25:09,822 into different regiments, 404 00:25:09,961 --> 00:25:13,158 each with their own uniforms and traditions. 405 00:25:16,901 --> 00:25:18,732 And then, in the 1660s, 406 00:25:18,870 --> 00:25:21,100 the French come up with an idea of their own 407 00:25:21,239 --> 00:25:22,797 that everybody else copies: 408 00:25:22,941 --> 00:25:26,843 The idea of doing all this stuff to music. 409 00:25:55,006 --> 00:25:57,167 The guy who introduces marching bands 410 00:25:57,308 --> 00:25:59,742 also goes on to put music and movement together 411 00:25:59,878 --> 00:26:00,469 in a very different way. 412 00:26:01,613 --> 00:26:02,773 His name is Lully, 413 00:26:02,914 --> 00:26:06,782 and by 1673, he's master of music for Louis XIV, 414 00:26:06,918 --> 00:26:12,049 and he's putting on some of the very first versions of this: Ballet. 415 00:26:12,190 --> 00:26:16,854 Lully writes ballets starring the king himself. 416 00:26:16,995 --> 00:26:18,860 No fool, he. 417 00:26:18,997 --> 00:26:23,297 And then, in 1681, he does the unthinkable: This. 418 00:26:24,736 --> 00:26:26,863 He includes women dancers on the stage. 419 00:26:27,005 --> 00:26:28,267 What they do there 420 00:26:28,406 --> 00:26:30,966 is the business of the king's superintendent of dance, 421 00:26:31,109 --> 00:26:34,601 one Pierre Beauchamps, who invents choreography, 422 00:26:34,746 --> 00:26:37,510 which is taught by this ingenious method. 423 00:26:37,649 --> 00:26:39,207 The idea really catches on, 424 00:26:39,350 --> 00:26:43,616 and soon, dancers are, so to speak, toeing Beauchamps' line. 425 00:26:54,599 --> 00:26:56,794 The technique is called track notation 426 00:26:56,935 --> 00:27:00,496 from the line you follow to the different positions of the feet. 427 00:27:03,575 --> 00:27:06,601 So using these notations, here for the first time 428 00:27:06,744 --> 00:27:09,577 is what early ballet must have looked like 429 00:27:09,714 --> 00:27:13,480 when they put it on stage in London in 1717... 430 00:27:13,618 --> 00:27:16,086 something like this. 431 00:27:36,641 --> 00:27:40,372 You see how much more limited the movements are than in ballet today? 432 00:27:49,287 --> 00:27:52,381 The first time ballet and drama are put together, 433 00:27:52,523 --> 00:27:55,048 it's a smash hit called the " Beggar's Opera" 434 00:27:55,193 --> 00:27:57,058 by a guy named John Gay, 435 00:27:57,195 --> 00:28:01,689 who does most of his scribbling behind closed doors. 436 00:28:06,871 --> 00:28:08,498 Whom does he dream of? 437 00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:09,834 Himself. 438 00:28:09,974 --> 00:28:11,407 Whom is he ogling at yonder? 439 00:28:11,542 --> 00:28:13,772 Why, himself in his looking glass. 440 00:28:13,911 --> 00:28:17,677 John Gay is a minor writer nobody ever hears from again. 441 00:28:17,815 --> 00:28:20,079 But for a few months back in 1714, 442 00:28:20,218 --> 00:28:23,949 he's secretary to a club of literary biggies. 443 00:28:28,726 --> 00:28:29,920 The name of the game is 444 00:28:30,061 --> 00:28:32,655 to publish anonymous articles attacking public figures 445 00:28:32,797 --> 00:28:34,287 without getting caught. 446 00:28:35,299 --> 00:28:40,293 What divides good Christians but the words transubstantiation, 447 00:28:40,438 --> 00:28:44,431 consubstantiation, and no substantiation? 448 00:28:48,713 --> 00:28:51,511 Of course, none of this makes any sense today, 449 00:28:51,649 --> 00:28:55,210 but back then, these guys really dipped their pens in vitriol, 450 00:28:55,353 --> 00:28:57,287 aided and abetted by the only one among them 451 00:28:57,422 --> 00:28:59,788 who can afford to wine and dine everybody 452 00:28:59,924 --> 00:29:04,486 because he's the queen's doctor, John Arbuthnot. 453 00:29:04,629 --> 00:29:07,757 Okay, get ready to be bored out of your skull. 454 00:29:07,899 --> 00:29:10,595 Arbuthnot is crazy for statistics, 455 00:29:10,735 --> 00:29:13,863 and he does an analysis of the register of births and deaths 456 00:29:14,005 --> 00:29:17,338 and finds out that over a period of 82 years... 457 00:29:17,475 --> 00:29:18,533 are you still awake? 458 00:29:18,676 --> 00:29:20,871 More boys are born than girls. 459 00:29:21,012 --> 00:29:23,378 Divine providence, he calls it. 460 00:29:23,514 --> 00:29:25,641 Sounds dull and uneventful to you? 461 00:29:25,783 --> 00:29:27,444 Music to the ears 462 00:29:27,585 --> 00:29:32,249 of a dull and uneventful young mathematician in Holland. 463 00:29:35,760 --> 00:29:38,024 And that's all I want to say about him, 464 00:29:38,162 --> 00:29:41,154 except to say his name is Willem s'Gravesande, 465 00:29:41,299 --> 00:29:44,700 and he's writing an analysis of Isaac Newton's work. 466 00:29:44,836 --> 00:29:47,168 Fortunately, Willem's not the only one 467 00:29:47,305 --> 00:29:48,795 doing a version of Newton. 468 00:29:48,940 --> 00:29:50,373 Everybody and his dog is. 469 00:29:50,508 --> 00:29:53,636 But in this case, one of these guys visits Willem in Holland 470 00:29:53,778 --> 00:29:55,075 to get his opinion... 471 00:29:55,213 --> 00:29:58,239 this, however, well before the Frenchman in question 472 00:29:58,382 --> 00:30:00,577 becomes a famous hotshot philosopher, 473 00:30:00,718 --> 00:30:04,245 international scientist, and literary lover. 474 00:30:14,932 --> 00:30:16,263 Here we are in France, 475 00:30:16,400 --> 00:30:19,164 where the literary lover does his literary loving. 476 00:30:20,705 --> 00:30:22,798 I'll get to the "literary" in a minute. 477 00:30:22,940 --> 00:30:27,343 First, the loving, about which it's difficult to be precise. 478 00:30:29,547 --> 00:30:33,574 Rough count, apart from too many casual dalliances to name: 479 00:30:33,718 --> 00:30:36,414 Oh, about 14 different amorous affairs 480 00:30:36,554 --> 00:30:39,148 with everybody from embassy secretaries 481 00:30:39,290 --> 00:30:42,225 to Ionely aristocratic wives to his own niece. 482 00:30:45,797 --> 00:30:48,391 The only affair that matters happens here, 483 00:30:48,533 --> 00:30:51,627 at the Chateau de Cirey in eastern France. 484 00:30:55,072 --> 00:30:58,166 This is where our lover, name of Voltaire, 485 00:30:58,309 --> 00:31:01,073 ends up spending several years of unwedded bliss 486 00:31:01,212 --> 00:31:02,702 with the lady of the house... 487 00:31:04,415 --> 00:31:06,474 the beautiful Emily du Chatelet, 488 00:31:06,617 --> 00:31:10,576 whose husband is in the military and permanently somewhere else. 489 00:31:12,723 --> 00:31:15,419 Now for the literary bit. 490 00:31:15,560 --> 00:31:19,257 Most men think Emily is beautiful and brilliant, 491 00:31:19,397 --> 00:31:22,025 which is what most women think Voltaire is, 492 00:31:22,166 --> 00:31:23,963 so they're made for each other, 493 00:31:24,101 --> 00:31:28,367 besides which they're both doing the same thing at the same time: 494 00:31:28,506 --> 00:31:30,633 Different translations 495 00:31:30,775 --> 00:31:34,336 of Newton's new blockbuster bestseller. 496 00:31:35,613 --> 00:31:37,308 Voltaire is doing the Reader's Digest version 497 00:31:37,448 --> 00:31:38,745 for general readers, 498 00:31:38,883 --> 00:31:41,443 and Emily's tackling the math for the propeller heads. 499 00:31:41,586 --> 00:31:44,350 I guess the best way to describe this amorous couple 500 00:31:44,488 --> 00:31:46,718 is compulsive workaholics 501 00:31:46,858 --> 00:31:48,883 and, I suppose... 502 00:31:49,927 --> 00:31:51,360 control freaks, 503 00:31:51,495 --> 00:31:53,725 because when you come here to visit these two, 504 00:31:53,865 --> 00:31:57,028 which I suppose half of European brainpower does, 505 00:31:57,168 --> 00:31:58,658 it doesn't matter 506 00:31:58,803 --> 00:32:01,738 what kind of intellectual big cheese you might be back home, 507 00:32:01,873 --> 00:32:04,137 here you live by the bell. 508 00:32:05,176 --> 00:32:06,200 Excuse me. 509 00:32:08,346 --> 00:32:11,213 Time for the next bit... 510 00:32:15,887 --> 00:32:19,118 which might be being woken up at 4:00 in the morning 511 00:32:19,257 --> 00:32:20,554 for a poetry reading... 512 00:32:21,659 --> 00:32:25,789 or at 6:00 for a little philosophy; 513 00:32:25,930 --> 00:32:28,091 at 10:00, 514 00:32:28,232 --> 00:32:31,497 being woken up for a political discussion group. 515 00:32:34,572 --> 00:32:38,303 Now and again, you might get to go on a picnic. 516 00:32:42,613 --> 00:32:44,581 Naturally, you take the books with you. 517 00:32:44,715 --> 00:32:49,743 Voltaire and Emily wouldn't want to waste time at a picnic just eating. 518 00:32:57,628 --> 00:33:00,290 Mind you, in spite of all the egghead intensity, 519 00:33:00,431 --> 00:33:01,955 life in the country is pretty relaxing, 520 00:33:02,099 --> 00:33:05,091 so Voltaire and Emily have a constant stream of guests. 521 00:33:08,005 --> 00:33:09,768 After the hustle and bustle of Paris 522 00:33:09,907 --> 00:33:12,137 and all those husbands he might run into, 523 00:33:12,276 --> 00:33:14,039 Voltaire settles down here for a few years, 524 00:33:14,178 --> 00:33:15,736 happily, at Cirey. 525 00:33:17,214 --> 00:33:21,617 And for the rest of his life, takes things at a snail's pace. 526 00:33:21,752 --> 00:33:25,620 Small wonder, years later, long after Emily's dead 527 00:33:25,756 --> 00:33:27,246 and Voltaire is still living 528 00:33:27,391 --> 00:33:29,791 at the same snail's pace in Switzerland, 529 00:33:29,927 --> 00:33:33,260 somebody sends him a long and earth-shattering report 530 00:33:33,397 --> 00:33:37,834 on some experiments involving snails. 531 00:33:39,770 --> 00:33:41,635 Okay, time for that bit. 532 00:33:47,611 --> 00:33:50,444 This is the northern Italian city of Avila, 533 00:33:50,581 --> 00:33:53,550 center of the universe for contemporary snail research 534 00:33:53,684 --> 00:33:55,811 by a towering intellect of Italian science 535 00:33:55,953 --> 00:33:59,411 who is also into worms and bugs at the time. 536 00:34:04,462 --> 00:34:05,861 The worm and bug man 537 00:34:05,997 --> 00:34:08,431 works in the hallowed halls of the University of Avila, 538 00:34:08,566 --> 00:34:10,193 where they still remember him, 539 00:34:10,334 --> 00:34:12,928 name of Lazaro Spallanzani, 540 00:34:13,070 --> 00:34:17,473 the man who turns the lowly worm into a science star. 541 00:34:17,608 --> 00:34:19,599 Back in the 1760s, 542 00:34:19,744 --> 00:34:21,541 Spallanzani is putting the knife 543 00:34:21,679 --> 00:34:24,944 into certain very important and pompous science types, 544 00:34:25,082 --> 00:34:26,276 specially one in England, 545 00:34:26,417 --> 00:34:31,445 with what can only be described as cutting remarks, 546 00:34:31,589 --> 00:34:33,420 which I will get to in a moment, 547 00:34:33,557 --> 00:34:35,354 when we will hear about Spallanzani 548 00:34:35,493 --> 00:34:39,896 opening a whole can of worms, life-sciences-wise. 549 00:34:40,031 --> 00:34:42,556 But first, this. 550 00:34:42,700 --> 00:34:47,831 You know, it's a pity so few people know about Spallanzani, 551 00:34:47,972 --> 00:34:52,602 mainly because somebody else got all the credit 552 00:34:52,743 --> 00:34:54,608 nearly 100 years later 553 00:34:54,745 --> 00:34:57,805 for a nifty idea that was really Spallanzani's. 554 00:34:57,948 --> 00:35:02,282 Pasteur is that other guy's name, and I'll bet you've heard of him. 555 00:35:02,420 --> 00:35:03,853 Well, here's what Spallanzani does, 556 00:35:03,988 --> 00:35:07,515 way ahead of Pasteur, and never gets the credit. 557 00:35:09,393 --> 00:35:15,025 Here's a flask full of dirty water full of little whizzer microorganisms 558 00:35:15,166 --> 00:35:18,658 that Spallanzani sees down a microscope like this. 559 00:35:18,803 --> 00:35:20,566 Okay, here we go. 560 00:35:25,709 --> 00:35:27,734 See all the little whizzers? 561 00:35:27,878 --> 00:35:33,214 Okay, here's another little flask, same little whizzers in it. 562 00:35:33,350 --> 00:35:36,717 Spallanzani boils it up to kill all the little whizzers, 563 00:35:36,854 --> 00:35:38,219 seals it shut, 564 00:35:38,355 --> 00:35:39,754 leaves it for a while, 565 00:35:39,890 --> 00:35:41,551 cracks it open, 566 00:35:41,692 --> 00:35:43,717 and takes an instant sample. 567 00:35:46,730 --> 00:35:48,459 Shoves it under the microscope, 568 00:35:48,599 --> 00:35:51,397 and sees that all the boiled whizzers are dead. 569 00:35:51,535 --> 00:35:53,264 Well, he expected that. 570 00:35:53,404 --> 00:35:54,962 But hold it, folks. 571 00:35:55,106 --> 00:35:58,132 Suddenly, new little whizzers appear, 572 00:35:58,275 --> 00:36:02,939 but only after the flask is cracked, 573 00:36:03,080 --> 00:36:08,518 so the microorganisms must be in the air... 574 00:36:10,721 --> 00:36:14,088 which is what Pasteur discovers 100 years later. 575 00:36:14,225 --> 00:36:15,920 Meanwhile, on with the story 576 00:36:16,060 --> 00:36:20,121 and the ticklish religious question of where souls come from. 577 00:36:26,137 --> 00:36:29,868 Okay, remember that jar of worms I was carrying? 578 00:36:30,007 --> 00:36:34,171 Spallanzani solves a theological riddle with worms. 579 00:36:34,311 --> 00:36:36,677 If you cut a worm into two bits, 580 00:36:36,814 --> 00:36:41,444 after a while, both bits become two worms. 581 00:36:41,585 --> 00:36:45,077 Now, if a worm has a soul... and it's supposed to... 582 00:36:45,222 --> 00:36:49,249 but you can't cut a soul in two, where did the other soul come from, 583 00:36:49,393 --> 00:36:51,725 because both worms have got one? 584 00:36:51,862 --> 00:36:54,023 Spallanzani says, "No problem. 585 00:36:54,165 --> 00:36:56,292 It was there all along in an egg of some kind," 586 00:36:56,433 --> 00:36:59,527 and kicks off the whole of modern reproductive physiology, 587 00:36:59,670 --> 00:37:02,833 so let's hear it for worms. 588 00:37:02,973 --> 00:37:05,237 And on that note, where are we? 589 00:37:06,710 --> 00:37:09,577 The French invent military music, written by Lully, 590 00:37:09,713 --> 00:37:13,809 who also writes ballets staged in London by John Gay, 591 00:37:13,951 --> 00:37:15,976 whose pal Arbuthnot does statistics 592 00:37:16,120 --> 00:37:19,317 that impress that Dutchman who meets the great Voltaire, 593 00:37:19,456 --> 00:37:23,051 who gets sent a report about snails from Spallanzani, 594 00:37:23,194 --> 00:37:24,786 who slices up worms. 595 00:37:24,929 --> 00:37:28,296 Spallanzani is the big hero of a German scribbler, 596 00:37:28,432 --> 00:37:30,798 name of Hoffman, who writes a story 597 00:37:30,935 --> 00:37:34,371 where a Spallanzani-type figure is the science wizard 598 00:37:34,505 --> 00:37:38,066 who creates a life-sized living doll, Coppelia, 599 00:37:38,209 --> 00:37:39,870 seen here with her inventor 600 00:37:40,010 --> 00:37:41,739 in the ballet made from Hoffman's tales, 601 00:37:41,879 --> 00:37:44,279 and titled the "Tales of Hoffman." 602 00:37:44,415 --> 00:37:45,712 It's a weird plot. 603 00:37:45,849 --> 00:37:48,010 The doll behaves just like a human being 604 00:37:48,152 --> 00:37:50,586 until young men start messing with her, 605 00:37:50,721 --> 00:37:52,018 when she goes completely haywire 606 00:37:52,156 --> 00:37:53,953 and can't be controlled. 607 00:38:05,302 --> 00:38:07,998 Ernst Hoffman's life goes a bit like Coppelia, 608 00:38:08,138 --> 00:38:09,833 full of fits and starts. 609 00:38:09,974 --> 00:38:12,238 He's a lawyer, then a playwright, 610 00:38:12,376 --> 00:38:15,072 then a theater impresario, then out of work, 611 00:38:15,212 --> 00:38:17,737 and in 1819, a judge 612 00:38:17,881 --> 00:38:21,282 and the author of the first weirdo psychological novels. 613 00:38:21,418 --> 00:38:25,445 As judge, he's investigating a bunch of nationalists, 614 00:38:25,589 --> 00:38:32,085 one of whom, name of Karl Follen, decides he won't get a fair trial. 615 00:38:32,229 --> 00:38:36,063 So in 1820, he runs away, vaulting the border to France, 616 00:38:36,200 --> 00:38:37,963 then vaulting the border to Switzerland, 617 00:38:38,102 --> 00:38:40,730 then vaulting the Atlantic to the U.S. A... 618 00:38:45,743 --> 00:38:49,736 where the other side of his nationalism takes him over every obstacle 619 00:38:49,880 --> 00:38:52,474 because he's also deeply into this stuff. 620 00:39:00,691 --> 00:39:04,821 Modern gymnastics kicks off back in the Germany of 1820 or so. 621 00:39:04,962 --> 00:39:07,089 But back then, it's a political thing, 622 00:39:07,231 --> 00:39:10,098 a symbol of the new Germany the Nationalists want: 623 00:39:10,234 --> 00:39:11,360 Ready for conflict, 624 00:39:11,502 --> 00:39:14,164 united, everybody working in unison; 625 00:39:14,305 --> 00:39:16,773 order is everything, obedient to discipline. 626 00:39:16,907 --> 00:39:18,898 Heard that stuff somewhere else? 627 00:39:19,043 --> 00:39:23,946 Right; Nazism is the ideology that grows out of German gyms. 628 00:39:27,484 --> 00:39:29,247 Meanwhile, in Harvard, 629 00:39:29,386 --> 00:39:31,820 Karl Follen, the runaway radical... remember... 630 00:39:31,955 --> 00:39:33,149 turns up and gets a job 631 00:39:33,290 --> 00:39:36,259 and opens the first college gym in the U.S. 632 00:39:36,393 --> 00:39:40,159 Gymnastics then gets taken up by the American YMCA, 633 00:39:40,297 --> 00:39:43,528 and in 1852, the first YMCA world conference 634 00:39:43,667 --> 00:39:47,398 is organized by Henry Dunant of Switzerland, 635 00:39:47,538 --> 00:39:51,668 and then things for Dunant take a really nasty turn. 636 00:40:02,486 --> 00:40:04,317 One day in 1859, 637 00:40:04,455 --> 00:40:06,685 the French and the Austrians fight a battle, 638 00:40:06,824 --> 00:40:09,588 naturally enough, neither in France nor Austria 639 00:40:09,727 --> 00:40:16,428 but just outside a small village in northern Italy called Solferino. 640 00:40:16,567 --> 00:40:17,795 The day before the fight, 641 00:40:17,935 --> 00:40:20,062 Henry Dunant, that guy from Switzerland, 642 00:40:20,204 --> 00:40:22,138 turns up at the the village of Solferino 643 00:40:22,272 --> 00:40:25,673 above the battlefield just before they kick off. 644 00:40:32,182 --> 00:40:35,379 What happens next is what you get all over the world 645 00:40:35,519 --> 00:40:37,953 when they have some heroic battle or other 646 00:40:38,088 --> 00:40:39,555 and scads of people die, 647 00:40:39,690 --> 00:40:42,090 and it's all for the glory of some cause or other, 648 00:40:42,226 --> 00:40:45,457 a few years later, long forgotten. 649 00:40:45,596 --> 00:40:48,759 This one is worse than most. 650 00:40:48,899 --> 00:40:50,662 In the fields out there... 651 00:40:50,801 --> 00:40:53,770 today, peaceful and quiet under the Italian sun... 652 00:40:53,904 --> 00:40:58,500 350,000 people hack and shoot and bayonet each other, 653 00:40:58,642 --> 00:41:03,011 and 40,000 of them are seriously wounded or die. 654 00:41:09,820 --> 00:41:12,584 Course, it's all sanitized now, as you can see. 655 00:41:12,723 --> 00:41:14,657 Tourists come here and take pictures. 656 00:41:14,792 --> 00:41:18,125 But on that day, this neat little square 657 00:41:18,262 --> 00:41:20,753 is full of young boys crying for their mothers 658 00:41:20,898 --> 00:41:22,525 as they die. 659 00:41:27,771 --> 00:41:29,500 The wounded crawl away to shelter. 660 00:41:29,640 --> 00:41:31,608 Back then, it takes them all day. 661 00:41:31,742 --> 00:41:34,438 Today you can drive it in ten minutes. 662 00:41:34,578 --> 00:41:40,039 Shelter is the nearby little town of Castiglione delle Stiviere. 663 00:41:43,821 --> 00:41:45,914 It's still a little town today. 664 00:41:49,159 --> 00:41:52,060 And it's still dominated by the cathedral, 665 00:41:52,196 --> 00:41:54,858 where the next bit of the story takes place. 666 00:41:57,301 --> 00:41:59,895 See, Henry Dunant is so appalled 667 00:42:00,037 --> 00:42:02,801 by the unspeakably dreadful things he's seen and heard 668 00:42:02,940 --> 00:42:05,135 that he helps to get as many of the wounded as possible 669 00:42:05,275 --> 00:42:06,867 back to the cathedral, 670 00:42:07,010 --> 00:42:10,138 where they drag as many as they can inside. 671 00:42:14,618 --> 00:42:17,781 And then, together with the priest and the townspeople, 672 00:42:17,921 --> 00:42:20,856 Dunant tries to do something, anything, 673 00:42:20,991 --> 00:42:24,392 for soldiers lying in pools of their own blood. 674 00:42:24,528 --> 00:42:26,553 For three straight days and nights, 675 00:42:26,697 --> 00:42:29,393 everybody works like hell with nothing but water 676 00:42:29,533 --> 00:42:32,161 and strips of cloth for bandages. 677 00:42:33,704 --> 00:42:34,966 And what do you know? 678 00:42:35,105 --> 00:42:36,402 Some of them survive, 679 00:42:36,540 --> 00:42:39,703 lying here, stacked against the walls. 680 00:42:43,080 --> 00:42:44,547 Over the next five years, 681 00:42:44,681 --> 00:42:48,344 Henry bends the ear of anybody who is anybody all over Europe: 682 00:42:48,485 --> 00:42:50,476 Kings, princes, emperors... you name it. 683 00:42:50,621 --> 00:42:54,648 And finally, in 1864, he persuades 15 countries 684 00:42:54,791 --> 00:42:57,624 to get together to set up battlefield medical teams, 685 00:42:57,761 --> 00:43:01,060 cross the lines, help the wounded, go anywhere. 686 00:43:03,400 --> 00:43:06,130 Henry's little meeting, which they have in Geneva, 687 00:43:06,270 --> 00:43:08,204 agrees on a convention. 688 00:43:08,338 --> 00:43:11,034 Today we call it the Geneva Convention. 689 00:43:13,410 --> 00:43:15,139 The convention brings into existence 690 00:43:15,279 --> 00:43:18,737 an organization that takes as its symbol the red cross 691 00:43:18,882 --> 00:43:20,747 for at least a couple of reasons: 692 00:43:20,884 --> 00:43:22,181 You can't really miss it, 693 00:43:22,319 --> 00:43:26,085 and it reminds people of the color of spilt blood, 694 00:43:26,223 --> 00:43:28,157 speaking of which... 695 00:43:33,797 --> 00:43:36,960 World War I and major blood problems. 696 00:43:37,100 --> 00:43:40,035 Some wounded guy is losing blood like crazy. 697 00:43:40,170 --> 00:43:42,536 You join his blood vessel to somebody else's, 698 00:43:42,673 --> 00:43:46,700 a crude transfusion takes place, and the guy dies. 699 00:43:46,843 --> 00:43:48,242 Nobody knows why 700 00:43:48,378 --> 00:43:50,471 till it is discovered that blood contains things 701 00:43:50,614 --> 00:43:53,845 that mean all bloods don't necessarily mix well. 702 00:43:53,984 --> 00:43:58,785 These things turn out to be factors that put blood into identifiable groups: 703 00:43:58,922 --> 00:44:02,915 A, B, AB, and O: Blood types. 704 00:44:03,060 --> 00:44:06,029 You do transfusions between compatible blood groups, 705 00:44:06,163 --> 00:44:08,154 and it's no problem. 706 00:44:08,298 --> 00:44:11,290 The guy who discovers this gets a Nobel Prize for his work 707 00:44:11,435 --> 00:44:16,134 back in 1900 because it makes possible modern surgery. 708 00:44:16,273 --> 00:44:17,763 Well, almost. 709 00:44:17,908 --> 00:44:19,705 There is still that messy business back then 710 00:44:19,843 --> 00:44:23,176 of getting the blood from one person into another. 711 00:44:23,313 --> 00:44:28,216 And at the time, that means joining up blood vessels. 712 00:44:34,858 --> 00:44:37,224 This is the guy, Alexis Carroll, 713 00:44:37,361 --> 00:44:40,091 who gets the blood vessel problem all sewn up 714 00:44:40,230 --> 00:44:44,360 with a new stitching technique he's soon demonstrating to surgical staff. 715 00:44:52,109 --> 00:44:53,474 The technique's simple. 716 00:44:53,610 --> 00:44:55,874 Your assistant holds the blood vessels together 717 00:44:56,013 --> 00:44:57,537 and pulls the edges taut, 718 00:44:57,681 --> 00:44:59,740 and you sew in a straight line. 719 00:44:59,883 --> 00:45:02,716 Then you repeat that trick twice, so temporarily, 720 00:45:02,853 --> 00:45:05,413 you've turned the vessel tube into a triangle shape, 721 00:45:05,555 --> 00:45:07,284 easy enough to sew. 722 00:45:07,424 --> 00:45:09,016 And when you've done the three sides, 723 00:45:09,159 --> 00:45:12,856 the vessel springs back circular and joined all the way round. 724 00:45:18,368 --> 00:45:20,063 Next thing Carroll wants 725 00:45:20,203 --> 00:45:22,933 is to be able to pump replacement blood and nutrients 726 00:45:23,073 --> 00:45:26,907 into organs removed for treatment so they'll survive to go back. 727 00:45:27,044 --> 00:45:30,036 This pump, designed by a pal of his, does that, 728 00:45:30,180 --> 00:45:32,978 so now Carroll can work towards his real goal: 729 00:45:33,116 --> 00:45:35,277 Organ transplants. 730 00:45:40,524 --> 00:45:42,287 The pump takes its designer 731 00:45:42,426 --> 00:45:46,055 many Ionely hours of total concentration, day and night. 732 00:45:46,196 --> 00:45:47,458 But then, he's used to that. 733 00:45:47,597 --> 00:45:49,565 He's Charles Lindbergh, 734 00:45:49,700 --> 00:45:52,863 and he's just done the first solo transatlantic flight. 735 00:45:56,940 --> 00:46:00,034 He's also just flown down to Mexico to get married. 736 00:46:02,979 --> 00:46:06,813 Lindbergh's new father-in-law is an American ambassador, 737 00:46:06,950 --> 00:46:10,681 and in 1930, he's in London at an Allied conference, 738 00:46:10,821 --> 00:46:12,618 trying to get a grip on disarmament, 739 00:46:12,756 --> 00:46:14,348 and the conference decides that 740 00:46:14,491 --> 00:46:17,051 Germany will be limited to three new battleships, 741 00:46:17,194 --> 00:46:19,526 each one at 10,000 tons, 742 00:46:19,663 --> 00:46:22,325 over three times smaller than Allied battleships. 743 00:46:24,167 --> 00:46:27,933 On January 6, 1936, the Germans launch the first. 744 00:46:28,071 --> 00:46:32,770 It's called the "Admiral Graf Spee," and it blows everybody away. 745 00:46:39,716 --> 00:46:43,482 "Graf Spee" is only 10,000 tons, but what a package: 746 00:46:43,620 --> 00:46:47,283 32 guns, special armor, fastest battleship afloat, 747 00:46:47,424 --> 00:46:50,689 and goes 12,000 miles without refueling. 748 00:46:50,827 --> 00:46:52,294 World War II starts, 749 00:46:52,429 --> 00:46:54,897 and in the Atlantic, "Graf Spee" strikes. 750 00:46:59,102 --> 00:47:02,128 "Graf Spee" sinks nine British ships in a few days. 751 00:47:02,272 --> 00:47:04,638 The Brits track her down, there's a battle, 752 00:47:04,775 --> 00:47:06,242 and she gets away to a neutral port, 753 00:47:06,376 --> 00:47:07,968 where the captain scuttles the ship, 754 00:47:08,111 --> 00:47:09,840 and she sinks, 755 00:47:09,980 --> 00:47:13,609 leaving the crews of those nine British ships 756 00:47:13,750 --> 00:47:17,550 prisoners somewhere on the "Graf Spee's" supply vessel. 757 00:47:17,687 --> 00:47:20,952 There's another chase, and in a Norwegian fjord, 758 00:47:21,091 --> 00:47:24,083 the "Altmark," the supply ship, is cornered, 759 00:47:24,227 --> 00:47:26,957 still carrying the 300 prisoners. 760 00:47:27,097 --> 00:47:30,430 There's a brief firefight, and the Brits board "Altmark," 761 00:47:30,567 --> 00:47:34,663 and it's all over, except for Adolf Hitler, 762 00:47:34,805 --> 00:47:38,707 who decides the Brits have come to invade Norway, so he does. 763 00:47:43,747 --> 00:47:46,648 In April 1940, the Germans take Norway, 764 00:47:46,783 --> 00:47:48,944 the final link in the chain of events 765 00:47:49,085 --> 00:47:50,677 I've been following in this program 766 00:47:50,821 --> 00:47:53,915 towards the moment when we hit the water, remember? 767 00:47:55,759 --> 00:48:00,093 The German invasion of Norway takes place in a matter of days. 768 00:48:00,230 --> 00:48:01,720 Three weeks later, 769 00:48:01,865 --> 00:48:04,095 they've got the biggest security ring you've ever seen 770 00:48:04,234 --> 00:48:05,724 round that place down there. 771 00:48:06,770 --> 00:48:08,499 It's a hydroelectric plant, 772 00:48:08,638 --> 00:48:12,096 and it's the most important German invasion target in Norway 773 00:48:12,242 --> 00:48:14,210 because it uses the electricity 774 00:48:14,344 --> 00:48:17,313 generated by water falling from this dam high in the mountains 775 00:48:17,447 --> 00:48:19,574 to make more water, 776 00:48:19,716 --> 00:48:22,583 but it's water of a special kind... 777 00:48:29,526 --> 00:48:30,993 which is why, three years later, 778 00:48:31,127 --> 00:48:33,891 a small team of dedicated Allied commandos 779 00:48:34,030 --> 00:48:35,657 and Norwegian partisans 780 00:48:35,799 --> 00:48:38,962 come in over these mountains and clobber the place... 781 00:48:47,410 --> 00:48:48,434 in spite of the fact that 782 00:48:48,578 --> 00:48:51,479 there's only one suspension bridge across the gorge to the plant, 783 00:48:51,615 --> 00:48:53,549 and there's no other way to get there. 784 00:48:53,683 --> 00:48:57,244 Of course, they could go down, across, and up. 785 00:49:00,156 --> 00:49:04,286 Add searchlights, minefields, and guards mitt machine guns, 786 00:49:04,427 --> 00:49:06,122 and the whole thing's impossible. 787 00:49:06,263 --> 00:49:07,491 Wrong. 788 00:49:09,499 --> 00:49:11,831 The Germans believe the place is so well protected, 789 00:49:11,968 --> 00:49:14,835 they're half asleep, till the explosives go off 790 00:49:14,971 --> 00:49:17,269 after the Allied commandos have gone... 791 00:49:21,044 --> 00:49:24,502 the point of it all being that secret water I mentioned. 792 00:49:29,219 --> 00:49:34,156 Now, all water has tiny amounts of deuterium in it, 793 00:49:34,291 --> 00:49:38,193 and with unlimited electricity from the hydroelectric station, 794 00:49:38,328 --> 00:49:40,592 you can kind of reduce the mix 795 00:49:40,730 --> 00:49:43,290 and end up with water heavy in deuterium, 796 00:49:43,433 --> 00:49:46,095 which is why they call it "heavy water." 797 00:49:46,236 --> 00:49:49,501 Now, if you shoot neutrons through this heavy water, 798 00:49:49,639 --> 00:49:54,303 the deuterium atoms will slow the neutrons down just enough 799 00:49:54,444 --> 00:49:56,708 so that when they hit a bit of uranium on the other side, 800 00:49:56,846 --> 00:49:59,280 they kick off a nuclear chain reaction, 801 00:49:59,416 --> 00:50:00,940 and boom. 802 00:50:01,084 --> 00:50:03,211 Well, not quite yet, 803 00:50:03,353 --> 00:50:05,617 because thanks to napalm, 804 00:50:05,755 --> 00:50:09,020 made with palm oil, also used for margarine, 805 00:50:09,159 --> 00:50:11,525 stiffened with a process using kieselguhr 806 00:50:11,661 --> 00:50:12,958 that comes from plankton 807 00:50:13,096 --> 00:50:14,654 living in currents Ballot studies 808 00:50:14,798 --> 00:50:16,425 before doing the Doppler test 809 00:50:16,566 --> 00:50:18,966 that causes Fizeau to measure light speed. 810 00:50:19,102 --> 00:50:22,799 Fizeau's father-in-law's pal, Merimee, who writes "Carmen"... 811 00:50:22,939 --> 00:50:26,340 his pal, Panizzi, who works at the British Museum, 812 00:50:26,476 --> 00:50:28,910 opened to house the collection of Dr. Sloane, 813 00:50:29,045 --> 00:50:30,808 who treats Lady Montague's smallpox 814 00:50:30,947 --> 00:50:32,744 before she sees Turkish tulips, 815 00:50:32,882 --> 00:50:36,249 first drawn by Gesner, whose godfather eats sausages 816 00:50:36,386 --> 00:50:38,377 and cancels the military contract with France, 817 00:50:38,521 --> 00:50:41,786 where they invent military music and choreography, 818 00:50:41,925 --> 00:50:43,916 used in a London show by John Gay, 819 00:50:44,060 --> 00:50:48,053 whose friend Arbuthnot does statistics that impress the Dutch mathematician 820 00:50:48,198 --> 00:50:49,426 who knows Voltaire, 821 00:50:49,566 --> 00:50:51,830 who hears from the worm-slicing Spallanzani, 822 00:50:51,968 --> 00:50:54,630 who stars in the story by Judge Hoffman, 823 00:50:54,771 --> 00:50:57,501 who tries German nationalists who start gymnastics, 824 00:50:57,640 --> 00:50:59,369 adopted by the YMCA 825 00:50:59,509 --> 00:51:01,409 and the guy who kicks off the Red Cross, 826 00:51:01,544 --> 00:51:04,980 who need blood typing, surgical stitching, 827 00:51:05,115 --> 00:51:08,016 and the transfusion pump invented by Lindbergh, 828 00:51:08,151 --> 00:51:10,346 whose father-in-law's disarmament treaty 829 00:51:10,487 --> 00:51:12,455 leads to "Graf Spee," "Altmark," 830 00:51:12,589 --> 00:51:14,523 and the German invasion of Norway 831 00:51:14,657 --> 00:51:19,321 and the Allied commandos whose mission was to hit the water. 832 00:51:21,865 --> 00:51:26,325 Thanks to all that, Hitler is never able to do this.