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From the simplest stuff,
rock, sand and clay,

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we've created vast cities that have
changed the face of the planet.

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By manipulating metals
we've conquered land, sea and air.

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But I think the material that's
perhaps our greatest achievement

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is something entirely artificial,
invented by us,

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and created in the lab.

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Plastic.

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It's not just technologically
marvellous stuff.

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It's fundamentally changed
how we live.

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It's allowed us to be modern.

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My name is Mark Miodownik

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and I'm fascinated by the stuff
that makes our modern world.

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Woah! Yeah. Wow!

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In this programme, I'm going to
explore how we turned our backs

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on the raw materials of nature and
began to design and create our own.

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Plastic - better, cheaper,
and entirely man-made.

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We've created more new
materials in the last 100 years

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than in the rest of history, and
what's really exciting about that

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is that it's just the beginning.

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We're on the verge of creating
a new generation of materials

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more ambitious than ever before.

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And that's
because we are coming full circle

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and making new materials
that are completely artificial,

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but which take their inspiration
from the natural world.

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This is bio-degradable polymer.
It's a plastic.

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And in the future,

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most of us will have some of it
implanted in our bodies.

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It's designed to help the
human body rebuild itself,

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allowing us to heal
faster and better.

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And when its job is done, the
plastic dissolves and disappears.

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You're looking at the future,

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where material science meets
medical science.

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And plastics are at the heart
of that research.

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This shows how far we've
come with plastic,

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this designer material
that we created.

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So how did we get here?

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Well, this most artificial of
substances began life

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in the industrial revolution when
man's progress seemed unstoppable,

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and we looked at
nature's materials and thought,

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"Hmm. We can do better."

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The story began in 1834,
in a prison in Philadelphia

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with one inmate who
saw the potential

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of a newly imported
natural material.

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His name was Charles Goodyear,

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and he'd been locked up for
not paying his debts.

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But Goodyear wasn't
making his supper,

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he was cooking up something
entirely different.

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Goodyear was obsessed with
this stuff, natural rubber.

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It was the miracle substance
of the early 19th century

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because it had some very
strange properties.

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It was stretchy
but it was also waterproof.

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And this meant that it seemed to
have huge potential to make things

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like raincoats, tyres and wellies.

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If, however,
it wasn't for one thing.

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This is a ball of natural rubber

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and you can see that
at room temperature

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it's pretty lively stuff.

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But if you change the temperature,

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well then, the material
changes its behaviour.

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So look, I've got some different
types of temperature here.

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I've got a ball that's been
cooled down.

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And here it is.

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And let's see how that behaves.

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It's quite ridiculously dead, inert.

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None of that springiness.
None of that liveliness is left.

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And what about the hot one?

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It's funny, you only have to heat
it up a little bit

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and it becomes really pongy
and also sticky.

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Almost disgusting. It's a very
unpleasant material to be around.

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In Goodyear's day,
people noticed this

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and products made out of
natural rubber

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were pretty hopeless
in the hot or the cold weather.

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Shops that sold them, well,
they were inundated with complaints.

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So this is the problem that
Goodyear was trying to solve.

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Goodyear was determined to find
the magic ingredients

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that would improve rubber and
transform it into a material

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that didn't melt in the heat
or go hard in the cold.

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He tried mixing rubber with the most
bizarre substances imaginable,

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from black ink to witch hazel
to chicken soup!

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But nothing seemed to work.

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But his luck was to change.

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In 1839, having been bailed
out of debtor's prison,

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Goodyear found himself at a small
rubber company in Massachusetts.

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Dr Stuart Cook is
director of research

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at the Malaysian Rubber Board's
UK research centre

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and is going to help us
recreate what Goodyear did.

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That counts as one of the weirdest
things I've ever seen.

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Goodyear was still trying anything
he could lay his hands on.

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And this time,

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he tried adding two substances
to the natural rubber,

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yellow sulphur and white lead,

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which was commonly used
as a pigment.

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Using the factory's mill, these were
ground into the natural rubber

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until they were both
thoroughly mixed in.

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So you can see now the
rubber compound

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has changed quite dramatically.

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Yes. It's looking extremely
voluptuous, actually.

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It's got this creaminess
about it. Yes.

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So far, there were no signs that
Goodyear was any closer

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to reaching his goal of
improving on natural rubber.

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The rubber compound that came
out of the mill

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appeared no better than
previous attempts.

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Stuart, I have to say it is sticky.

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I mean, he must have been
pretty disappointed

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because he's trying to solve the
stickiness problem, and it's sticky.

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The crucial thing is what
happened next.

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Whether by mistake or not,

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Goodyear left the rubber compound
lying on a hot stove.

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Natural rubber would have
melted into a gooey mess,

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but Goodyear's rubber compound
didn't do this.

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The combination of sulphur,
white lead and heat

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had transformed the rubber
into a very different material.

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That is absolutely extraordinary.
What an amazing material.

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So Goodyear, when he
referred to this,

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said it had the appearance
of looking charred.

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It's better than charred, I think
he was under-estimating that!

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And it's not sticky.

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Cured, as Goodyear said.

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This is what the surface of
natural rubber looks like

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magnified over 10,000 times.

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It's an irregular structure
with stretched-out fibres

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interspersed with tiny air pockets.

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By a process which became
known as vulcanisation,

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Goodyear had transformed this
to make it useful to man.

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The key to that change is what
happens inside the rubber.

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Natural rubber is
made up of lots of long strands.

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Each one, a single molecule
made of atoms.

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During vulcanisation, the sulphur
creates links between the molecules.

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This is what makes rubber tougher

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and able to withstand
hot or cold temperatures.

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So he must have been
a very happy man?

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I think he realised the importance
of this chance discovery.

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But it took him then many years to
convince the rest of the world.

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But this was really the start of
the rubber industry as we know it.

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Goodyear's breakthrough led to
an explosion in rubber products.

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Wellies, tyres, waterproofs,

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which worked whatever the weather.

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Across the world, production
rocketed by more than a hundredfold.

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And everywhere, consumers bought
rubber, in its new vulcanised form.

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The significance of Goodyear's
discovery went far beyond rubber.

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What he showed was the power
of chemistry

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to transform raw materials
into something new.

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What he'd discovered was
still called rubber

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but it didn't occur naturally.

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It was man-made.

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Now our ambitions
became even greater.

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As the Industrial Revolution
swept across the globe,

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it brought an insatiable
demand for new materials.

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Building on our success with rubber,

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now wherever nature
was found wanting,

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we began to attempt to better it

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by creating new artificial
substances of our own design.

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That quest would be taken up

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in the smoky drinking saloons
of 19th century America,

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with a competition announced
in a newspaper.

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On offer was a reward of $10,000

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to the person who could find
a replacement material

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for the expensive ivory
used in making billiard balls.

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It was 1865.

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The American Civil War was over

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and there was renewed
interest in this game.

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Billiards was getting more
and more popular.

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And so ivory was getting
more and more expensive.

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The race was on to find
something to replace ivory.

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After the newspaper ad,
suggestions came flooding in

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about using glass, porcelain,
metal, even rubber!

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But nothing worked.

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The truth is that ivory is a
really good fit for billiards.

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It's hard so it doesn't scratch

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and it's elastic
so it bounces off other balls.

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It can be coloured

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and also it can be machined
into a perfectly round ball.

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Nothing else was up to the job.

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So it seemed that the
replacement for ivory

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would have to be something
completely new.

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The big bucks reward caught
the attention of John Wesley Hyatt.

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Hyatt fancied himself as a bit
of an inventor,

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and reckoned he could make an
artificial billiard ball

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as good as ivory.

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Little did he realise,

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this would lead him to create
something far more significant,

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the world's first
commercial plastic.

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But the truth is that Hyatt
would have gotten nowhere

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if it hadn't been for a lucky find.

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Hyatt noticed a spilt bottle of this
stuff, collodion, in his cupboard.

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Now, Hyatt was a printer and he used
collodion to protect his hands

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from the heat
of the printing press.

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But where it had spilt, he noticed
it had created a hard, thin film

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and it was transparent and it
felt a little bit like ivory.

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Had he found what he'd
been looking for?

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Hyatt's idea was to use collodion
that he'd in made different colours

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as an outer coating for
wooden billiard balls

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to give them an ivory finish.

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I'm going to have a go at making

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Hyatt's collodion-coated
billiard balls

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00:13:08,600 --> 00:13:11,440
with the help of Steve Rannard,

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Professor of Chemistry at the
University of Liverpool.

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00:13:15,080 --> 00:13:21,600
..and then it's a simple process
of just taking the dyed collodion

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and dip so it goes completely
under the surface.

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That is really pleasing.

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00:13:30,120 --> 00:13:35,200
That's like one of the nicest
toffee apples I've ever made,

202
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although it's clearly
a billiard ball.

203
00:13:37,840 --> 00:13:40,680
Well, the idea that Hyatt
had, of course,

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was to use a core of something
that you could readily form,

205
00:13:44,720 --> 00:13:46,760
that you could make very easily,

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00:13:46,760 --> 00:13:50,440
and then slowly build up layers and
layers of collodion

207
00:13:50,440 --> 00:13:53,680
to make it ivory-like on the outside

208
00:13:53,680 --> 00:13:55,920
and hopefully give all
the properties of ivory

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00:13:55,920 --> 00:13:59,640
that you'd get from a
billiard ball of the time.

210
00:13:59,640 --> 00:14:02,000
So you can see with this one,

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00:14:02,000 --> 00:14:06,240
it could do with just another
dip to give that shiny outer coat.

212
00:14:08,640 --> 00:14:11,120
I must say, it's slightly addictive.

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00:14:11,120 --> 00:14:14,600
Although I'm doing
nothing of skill at all.

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00:14:14,600 --> 00:14:18,000
The interesting thing is what Hyatt
must have felt at this point,

215
00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:20,680
because the outer shine of the ball

216
00:14:20,680 --> 00:14:23,720
is just like the object
he was trying to make.

217
00:14:23,720 --> 00:14:27,440
It's almost like an ivory
coating on the outside of the ball.

218
00:14:27,440 --> 00:14:29,760
And there you have it,

219
00:14:29,760 --> 00:14:36,720
your artificial billiard ball coated
with collodion and ready for action!

220
00:14:38,720 --> 00:14:42,120
Hyatt thought he'd cracked it,

221
00:14:42,120 --> 00:14:45,880
a new material to
replace natural ivory.

222
00:14:45,880 --> 00:14:48,840
But when he sent his billiard
balls off for testing,

223
00:14:48,840 --> 00:14:51,080
he was in for a nasty shock.

224
00:14:52,560 --> 00:14:54,800
They're nice looking balls
you've made, Steve.

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I have to say, they look the part.

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They do.

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00:14:59,240 --> 00:15:03,120
But they do feel a bit light and
they haven't got the right sound.

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00:15:03,120 --> 00:15:06,480
They feel a bit dull, don't they?

229
00:15:06,480 --> 00:15:08,600
But there was a much more
serious issue.

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Oh, wow.

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00:15:16,560 --> 00:15:20,440
That is not what you want
a billiard ball to do!

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00:15:20,440 --> 00:15:23,080
The collodion was highly flammable.

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00:15:23,080 --> 00:15:26,560
One saloon keeper wrote to Hyatt
complaining that

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00:15:26,560 --> 00:15:31,760
during lively games of billiards,
the balls actually exploded,

235
00:15:31,760 --> 00:15:34,240
prompting everybody to
draw their guns.

236
00:15:35,640 --> 00:15:39,720
Hyatt's billiard balls had been
a complete disaster.

237
00:15:39,720 --> 00:15:42,520
It was a salutary lesson on how
difficult it was going to be

238
00:15:42,520 --> 00:15:44,720
to improve on nature.

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00:15:48,040 --> 00:15:52,280
But Hyatt hadn't given up hope
and continued his efforts

240
00:15:52,280 --> 00:15:54,920
to make a viable man-made
replacement for ivory.

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00:15:54,920 --> 00:15:58,600
He had no idea that
his work would ultimately have

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00:15:58,600 --> 00:16:03,680
much wider ramifications
and bring luxury to the masses.

243
00:16:03,680 --> 00:16:09,360
This time, he tried adding a
different ingredient to collodion,

244
00:16:09,360 --> 00:16:11,080
something called camphor.

245
00:16:14,640 --> 00:16:16,440
Oh! That is very...

246
00:16:16,440 --> 00:16:18,680
It's got a distinctive smell.

247
00:16:18,680 --> 00:16:22,160
If anybody's got a grandmother who
used to store clothes in mothballs,

248
00:16:22,160 --> 00:16:25,360
they'll know exactly what that
smell is. Of course. All right.

249
00:16:27,680 --> 00:16:29,520
Adding camphor to collodion

250
00:16:29,520 --> 00:16:33,120
was to prove to be
Hyatt's master stroke.

251
00:16:33,120 --> 00:16:35,760
When he dried out his solution,

252
00:16:35,760 --> 00:16:39,160
he found he'd created a
white substance.

253
00:16:39,160 --> 00:16:40,800
He named it celluloid.

254
00:16:40,800 --> 00:16:44,120
And it would turn out to be
the world's first practical plastic.

255
00:16:45,520 --> 00:16:50,000
It's really hard. Described by Hyatt
as almost feeling like bone.

256
00:16:50,000 --> 00:16:54,080
And what Hyatt found was that
if you add it into hot water,

257
00:16:54,080 --> 00:16:59,240
once it came out of the heat it
was really mouldable,

258
00:16:59,240 --> 00:17:02,160
really flexible and he could
shape into different shapes.

259
00:17:02,160 --> 00:17:05,320
Yes, wow. That's a completely
different material!

260
00:17:07,640 --> 00:17:11,240
And it was the presence of camphor
that allowed him to do that.

261
00:17:11,240 --> 00:17:14,040
Hyatt wasted no
time in experimenting

262
00:17:14,040 --> 00:17:16,400
with his newly-created celluloid.

263
00:17:16,400 --> 00:17:20,040
Some of the first objects
he attempted to make were dentures,

264
00:17:20,040 --> 00:17:22,680
which at that time were
extremely pricey.

265
00:17:26,200 --> 00:17:30,000
While the material is in the
mould, it'll cool down,

266
00:17:30,000 --> 00:17:33,680
and hopefully it'll adopt
the shape of the teeth.

267
00:17:33,680 --> 00:17:36,880
So if we just undo them
and take the mould out.

268
00:17:36,880 --> 00:17:40,920
It's all a matter of
removing the top.

269
00:17:40,920 --> 00:17:42,520
Drum roll!

270
00:17:42,520 --> 00:17:46,040
And if we pull those out.
There we have...

271
00:17:46,040 --> 00:17:48,640
Wow. That is impressive!

272
00:17:48,640 --> 00:17:52,000
Not the best teeth in the world.
But they're recognisable teeth.

273
00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:54,520
I think if you don't have teeth,
these teeth are going to do!

274
00:17:55,960 --> 00:17:58,480
It was the first time that a plastic

275
00:17:58,480 --> 00:18:01,440
had been successfully
moulded into a recognisable shape.

276
00:18:03,200 --> 00:18:05,960
Hyatt had chosen to make dentures,

277
00:18:05,960 --> 00:18:08,360
but celluloid could be
made into anything.

278
00:18:14,880 --> 00:18:17,920
This is what the surface
of celluloid looks like,

279
00:18:17,920 --> 00:18:20,000
magnified over 10,000 times.

280
00:18:22,840 --> 00:18:26,960
At this scale, you can see lines
that are cracks on the surface,

281
00:18:26,960 --> 00:18:29,200
and craters that are air bubbles.

282
00:18:32,280 --> 00:18:35,000
But why celluloid behaves
as it does

283
00:18:35,000 --> 00:18:37,400
can only be seen by exploring
its inner world.

284
00:18:39,880 --> 00:18:44,120
Celluloid's molecules resemble
strands of tangled-up string.

285
00:18:47,640 --> 00:18:50,960
At normal temperature,
they're tightly packed together

286
00:18:50,960 --> 00:18:55,480
and can't budge,
so the shape is fixed.

287
00:18:59,760 --> 00:19:02,720
But when it's heated above
70 degrees Celsius,

288
00:19:02,720 --> 00:19:06,840
the strands become much looser
and are able to be moved around.

289
00:19:08,360 --> 00:19:11,920
That's what allows celluloid to be
moulded into different shapes.

290
00:19:18,240 --> 00:19:21,480
Objects that had been crafted out of
expensive natural materials

291
00:19:21,480 --> 00:19:24,920
could now be made
more cheaply with celluloid.

292
00:19:27,400 --> 00:19:31,080
These are some of the earliest
objects made from celluloid.

293
00:19:31,080 --> 00:19:35,320
This is a bust of Victoria
and it's imitating ivory,

294
00:19:35,320 --> 00:19:38,560
and here are some salad spoons,
again, imitating ivory,

295
00:19:38,560 --> 00:19:42,240
although you can hear that they're
not quite right acoustically.

296
00:19:42,240 --> 00:19:44,560
But I think this is my favourite
piece,

297
00:19:44,560 --> 00:19:47,480
it's a notepad and this cover,

298
00:19:47,480 --> 00:19:50,720
it looks a bit like tortoise
shell but it's actually celluloid.

299
00:19:50,720 --> 00:19:52,520
It's a lovely piece this,

300
00:19:52,520 --> 00:19:55,240
you can imagine an early
Victorian detective

301
00:19:55,240 --> 00:19:57,080
getting it out of their pocket.

302
00:19:57,080 --> 00:20:00,120
And that's the odd
thing about celluloid

303
00:20:00,120 --> 00:20:03,720
is that although it's this wonder
plastic that comes along,

304
00:20:03,720 --> 00:20:06,960
it spends most of its life
imitating other materials.

305
00:20:10,480 --> 00:20:15,360
But 20 years after Hyatt first
created celluloid,

306
00:20:15,360 --> 00:20:17,760
it found another use that
ensured its place

307
00:20:17,760 --> 00:20:19,440
in popular culture for ever.

308
00:20:25,880 --> 00:20:28,040
Celluloid could do what
neither ivory

309
00:20:28,040 --> 00:20:29,760
nor any other material could do.

310
00:20:29,760 --> 00:20:33,640
It could be made extremely flexible
and sensitive to light.

311
00:20:39,520 --> 00:20:43,640
The invention of celluloid
brought about the dawn of cinema.

312
00:20:43,640 --> 00:20:46,640
Just as it immortalised
the film stars of the past,

313
00:20:46,640 --> 00:20:51,520
so celluloid ensured
its own place in history.

314
00:20:51,520 --> 00:20:54,920
But as a material
to make everyday objects,

315
00:20:54,920 --> 00:20:58,160
celluloid had one big flaw.

316
00:20:59,600 --> 00:21:01,080
Celluloid is called a plastic

317
00:21:01,080 --> 00:21:03,280
because it can be
moulded into shape.

318
00:21:03,280 --> 00:21:05,680
But there are good
reasons why very few objects

319
00:21:05,680 --> 00:21:07,720
are made of celluloid today.

320
00:21:07,720 --> 00:21:09,720
Firstly, it's flammable.

321
00:21:09,720 --> 00:21:11,640
Secondly, it does this.

322
00:21:19,520 --> 00:21:22,640
It loses its shape when
it gets heated up.

323
00:21:22,640 --> 00:21:25,360
Not ideal
if you have celluloid dentures

324
00:21:25,360 --> 00:21:26,800
and you like a hot cup of tea!

325
00:21:31,320 --> 00:21:35,120
But celluloid had hinted at the
brave new world that lay ahead.

326
00:21:36,560 --> 00:21:38,920
We had improved on nature,

327
00:21:38,920 --> 00:21:42,120
and we were convinced
we could do even better

328
00:21:42,120 --> 00:21:45,120
with our own, man-made materials.

329
00:21:45,120 --> 00:21:48,560
Our new world would be
made of plastic,

330
00:21:48,560 --> 00:21:53,840
conceived in the laboratory and
mass-produced in vast factories.

331
00:22:01,120 --> 00:22:04,200
No-one was more aware of the
potential of plastic

332
00:22:04,200 --> 00:22:06,240
than Doctor Leo Baekeland.

333
00:22:12,120 --> 00:22:15,400
With new inventions
such as the radio, the telephone

334
00:22:15,400 --> 00:22:19,440
and Baekeland's
personal favourite, the automobile,

335
00:22:19,440 --> 00:22:22,280
he foresaw a myriad of
new uses for plastics.

336
00:22:25,960 --> 00:22:29,400
Baekeland was a chemist
and a businessman.

337
00:22:29,400 --> 00:22:32,640
Combining the two had already
made him extremely rich,

338
00:22:32,640 --> 00:22:34,640
and now he spotted a
new opportunity.

339
00:22:39,640 --> 00:22:44,080
In his mansion in the suburbs
of New York, he set to work.

340
00:22:47,480 --> 00:22:50,480
He'd set his sights on
replacing shellac

341
00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:52,960
which is the material
that old records were made out of.

342
00:22:52,960 --> 00:22:56,800
Shellac is a resin that's
excreted by the Indian lac beetle,

343
00:22:56,800 --> 00:22:58,240
and it looks like this!

344
00:22:58,240 --> 00:23:00,400
And as the demand for
shellac increased,

345
00:23:00,400 --> 00:23:02,360
the lac beetle just
couldn't keep up.

346
00:23:02,360 --> 00:23:05,160
And Baekeland thought that he
could solve this problem

347
00:23:05,160 --> 00:23:07,800
by creating a new plastic.

348
00:23:11,520 --> 00:23:15,320
In the grounds of his estate,
Baekeland had built a chemistry lab

349
00:23:15,320 --> 00:23:18,440
equipped with
everything he would need.

350
00:23:27,280 --> 00:23:28,920
Baekeland's starting point

351
00:23:28,920 --> 00:23:31,680
was to investigate a mysterious
chemical reaction.

352
00:23:31,680 --> 00:23:36,600
It involves mixing two chemicals,
phenol and formaldehyde.

353
00:23:38,280 --> 00:23:42,880
Dr Sara Ronca is a chemist
at Loughborough University

354
00:23:42,880 --> 00:23:45,960
and is an expert in plastics.

355
00:23:45,960 --> 00:23:48,120
This is quite a pongy reaction
you've got here.

356
00:23:48,120 --> 00:23:49,400
It's a very smelly one!

357
00:23:51,560 --> 00:23:56,160
This is the reaction
that interested Baekeland.

358
00:23:56,160 --> 00:23:58,880
It takes a few minutes
before anything happens...

359
00:24:00,200 --> 00:24:03,000
He must have been a patient man,
Baekeland?

360
00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:05,040
You really need a lot of patience.

361
00:24:06,280 --> 00:24:09,840
..but then,
something rather spectacular occurs.

362
00:24:11,560 --> 00:24:15,040
Oh! Woah. Yeah.

363
00:24:15,040 --> 00:24:17,480
The reaction creates a
plastic-y substance

364
00:24:17,480 --> 00:24:19,760
that moulds to
the shape of the beaker,

365
00:24:19,760 --> 00:24:21,600
and turns pink.

366
00:24:21,600 --> 00:24:24,360
Nobody had yet found a use for it.

367
00:24:24,360 --> 00:24:27,640
But it caught
the attention of Baekeland.

368
00:24:27,640 --> 00:24:30,880
Look it, though.
It's pretty cool stuff!

369
00:24:30,880 --> 00:24:34,320
It does look promising,
I can see why he's interested in it.

370
00:24:34,320 --> 00:24:37,200
It's sort of plasticy,
but it falls apart.

371
00:24:37,200 --> 00:24:40,560
It falls apart and it's porous,
so you cannot really use it.

372
00:24:42,440 --> 00:24:45,680
Baekeland understood that
if he managed to get

373
00:24:45,680 --> 00:24:49,720
a better version of this material,
this could have some potential.

374
00:24:51,560 --> 00:24:54,600
Baekeland believed
he could find a way

375
00:24:54,600 --> 00:24:56,680
to modify the chemical reaction

376
00:24:56,680 --> 00:25:01,800
so that it would give him a better,
stronger, more useful plastic.

377
00:25:01,800 --> 00:25:05,880
Day after day, he tried
everything he could think of.

378
00:25:05,880 --> 00:25:10,480
After five years
of painstaking work,

379
00:25:10,480 --> 00:25:15,400
he finally found that by controlling
the speed of the reaction

380
00:25:15,400 --> 00:25:19,160
with chemicals and heat, he could
produce something different and new.

381
00:25:20,440 --> 00:25:24,680
This time, there was no
pink solid produced.

382
00:25:24,680 --> 00:25:29,920
Instead, inside the flask an
orange resin was slowly forming.

383
00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:34,400
Let's have a look. It looks...

384
00:25:34,400 --> 00:25:36,080
It's like honey.

385
00:25:36,080 --> 00:25:38,480
It's very very viscous.
Exactly like honey.

386
00:25:40,360 --> 00:25:44,360
Baekeland's next step was to pour
the liquid resin into a mould.

387
00:25:47,200 --> 00:25:49,040
With pressure and heat,

388
00:25:49,040 --> 00:25:51,640
he hoped it would
turn into a solid plastic shape.

389
00:25:55,160 --> 00:25:58,600
In our case, we're trying
to make a plastic cup.

390
00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:03,360
So either this is going to be
a soggy mess or...

391
00:26:03,360 --> 00:26:05,480
Let's see what
we managed to achieve.

392
00:26:07,320 --> 00:26:09,600
Oh. Aw.

393
00:26:09,600 --> 00:26:12,600
Well, I don't think this is quite
what we were expecting to produce!

394
00:26:12,600 --> 00:26:14,560
What do you think went wrong?

395
00:26:14,560 --> 00:26:17,680
I guess we didn't wait long enough.

396
00:26:17,680 --> 00:26:22,560
We still have some bubbles in it.

397
00:26:22,560 --> 00:26:24,240
But you can see the shape.

398
00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:28,200
Can you imagine how many times
Baekeland had to repeat this

399
00:26:28,200 --> 00:26:30,320
to get something nice?

400
00:26:30,320 --> 00:26:33,680
I think for me,
you see modern plastic objects

401
00:26:33,680 --> 00:26:36,400
in their perfect thousands,
millions of them.

402
00:26:36,400 --> 00:26:39,400
When you actually try
to make one yourself,

403
00:26:39,400 --> 00:26:41,880
you realise
it's really tricky stuff.

404
00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:45,280
Baekeland persisted

405
00:26:45,280 --> 00:26:50,600
until he had perfected the process
to make hard, solid plastic objects.

406
00:26:50,600 --> 00:26:54,240
And he named his new
plastic Bakelite.

407
00:26:55,920 --> 00:27:00,120
As a liquid resin, Bakelite is
made up of stringy chains

408
00:27:00,120 --> 00:27:04,640
that can move around,
so it can be moulded.

409
00:27:04,640 --> 00:27:07,600
But when heat
and pressure are applied,

410
00:27:07,600 --> 00:27:11,720
the chains grow in length,
links form between them,

411
00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:13,320
locking Bakelite into shape.

412
00:27:15,240 --> 00:27:18,440
Bakelite was a major breakthrough.

413
00:27:18,440 --> 00:27:22,560
Unlike celluloid, once set hard,
it kept its shape for ever.

414
00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:31,000
When Bakelite hit the shops
in the 1920s, it caused a sensation.

415
00:27:32,720 --> 00:27:35,480
This was not plastic
imitating nature,

416
00:27:35,480 --> 00:27:37,320
but a material in its own right.

417
00:27:38,760 --> 00:27:41,760
Bakelite looked as if
it came from the future,

418
00:27:41,760 --> 00:27:44,640
it felt new, fresh and modern.

419
00:27:44,640 --> 00:27:48,760
And many of our most
hi-tech products

420
00:27:48,760 --> 00:27:50,720
used Bakelite as their outer shell.

421
00:27:53,400 --> 00:27:59,040
Patrick Cook is curator
of the Bakelite Museum in Somerset.

422
00:27:59,040 --> 00:28:01,680
He's amassed one of the largest
collections of Bakelite

423
00:28:01,680 --> 00:28:03,520
in the world.

424
00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:05,760
This is the birth of the modern
world as we know it!

425
00:28:05,760 --> 00:28:10,000
It is, when you think,
what could we have done without it?

426
00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:13,280
No! Is that a Bakelite
hot water bottle?

427
00:28:13,280 --> 00:28:16,240
It is, looking like a traditional
rubber hot water bottle.

428
00:28:16,240 --> 00:28:18,320
That's fantastic. It's electric.
It just heats up.

429
00:28:18,320 --> 00:28:20,000
Don't get distracted. Come this way!

430
00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:23,200
There's a whole
variety of different things here.

431
00:28:23,200 --> 00:28:25,040
Look at this, toys. What is this?

432
00:28:25,040 --> 00:28:27,280
Well, you push that along
and find out!

433
00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:29,720
Pull it to the back.

434
00:28:29,720 --> 00:28:31,720
My god! Is it a toy?

435
00:28:31,720 --> 00:28:32,960
No, it's a tie.

436
00:28:32,960 --> 00:28:35,040
No, it's what you should be wearing!

437
00:28:35,040 --> 00:28:39,240
I haven't got a tie on.
My mum would really approve.

438
00:28:39,240 --> 00:28:40,480
Thanks, Patrick.

439
00:28:40,480 --> 00:28:42,560
Oh, wow.

440
00:28:42,560 --> 00:28:46,440
Now these are the things I really
recognise as Bakelite objects.

441
00:28:46,440 --> 00:28:49,880
The art deco era starts coming
through this material.

442
00:28:49,880 --> 00:28:52,000
It's amazing to me that
radio comes along

443
00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:53,720
and you need a new material

444
00:28:53,720 --> 00:28:58,280
to embody this era of
electronics and this wireless sound.

445
00:28:58,280 --> 00:29:01,440
And then, television comes along and
Bakelite steps up there too.

446
00:29:01,440 --> 00:29:04,840
I can see that you've got some very
extraordinary early television sets.

447
00:29:04,840 --> 00:29:07,720
Well, these are almost the Morris
Minor of the television world.

448
00:29:07,720 --> 00:29:10,560
When you look at these screens
and how small they are,

449
00:29:10,560 --> 00:29:12,280
however they did get round this

450
00:29:12,280 --> 00:29:16,360
with this rather
wonderful gadget here. Brilliant!

451
00:29:16,360 --> 00:29:19,320
So you've got a small screen but you
just put this massive lens over it.

452
00:29:19,320 --> 00:29:21,600
Absolutely! You may not be able to
see the picture

453
00:29:21,600 --> 00:29:24,800
but you do have a 12-inch-screen.

454
00:29:24,800 --> 00:29:27,720
Because it was mouldable, people
could start having fun with

455
00:29:27,720 --> 00:29:31,080
this new hi-tech gadgetry that was
coming into people's houses.

456
00:29:31,080 --> 00:29:34,680
It was living the dream,
this modern dream, being modern.

457
00:29:34,680 --> 00:29:38,040
It conveyed modernity. This was not
only the material of the moment,

458
00:29:38,040 --> 00:29:39,760
but the material of the future.

459
00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:43,480
Is there one object in this
marvellous collection

460
00:29:43,480 --> 00:29:47,600
that you think Leo Baekeland
would be most delighted to see

461
00:29:47,600 --> 00:29:49,800
if he was to
rise from his grave again?

462
00:29:49,800 --> 00:29:52,640
I think the fact that it
affected communication

463
00:29:52,640 --> 00:29:57,000
and obviously the telephone is
the perfect example.

464
00:29:57,000 --> 00:29:58,640
When you think,

465
00:29:58,640 --> 00:30:02,880
this product actually had a 40 or
even a 50 year life...

466
00:30:02,880 --> 00:30:04,800
So this is a Bakelite telephone,

467
00:30:04,800 --> 00:30:08,960
just when the telephone was starting
to become part of everybody's life.

468
00:30:08,960 --> 00:30:12,120
Oh, yes. This is a beautiful
object, isn't it?

469
00:30:12,120 --> 00:30:18,120
Hello? Is that... Ah, Mr Baekeland,
we're on one of your telephones...

470
00:30:20,240 --> 00:30:25,320
By the end of 1930s, over
200,000 tonnes of Bakelite

471
00:30:25,320 --> 00:30:29,840
had been made into a fantastic
variety of household objects.

472
00:30:31,400 --> 00:30:36,280
But as successful as it was,
even Bakelite had its limits.

473
00:30:38,680 --> 00:30:40,960
What strikes you looking around
this wonderful museum

474
00:30:40,960 --> 00:30:43,400
is not just what's here,
but what's missing.

475
00:30:43,400 --> 00:30:46,800
There are no plastic bags,
there are no water bottles,

476
00:30:46,800 --> 00:30:48,560
there are no trainers,

477
00:30:48,560 --> 00:30:52,120
these objects that form such
a large part of our lives.

478
00:30:52,120 --> 00:30:55,200
And that's because Bakelite is just
not up to making those things.

479
00:30:55,200 --> 00:30:57,720
It's too hard and brittle.
It's inflexible.

480
00:30:58,840 --> 00:31:02,320
And so Bakelite,
this material of a thousand uses,

481
00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:05,720
never became as ubiquitous
as the plastics we use today.

482
00:31:11,200 --> 00:31:14,040
But that was about to change.

483
00:31:14,040 --> 00:31:18,040
Factories would soon be churning out
countless new plastics

484
00:31:18,040 --> 00:31:19,520
that would transform our lives.

485
00:31:21,800 --> 00:31:24,480
They weren't invented by chance
or trial and error,

486
00:31:24,480 --> 00:31:25,920
but for the first time

487
00:31:25,920 --> 00:31:29,480
through an understanding of the
inner structure of plastics.

488
00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:37,840
Plastics are polymers
and that's Greek for many parts.

489
00:31:37,840 --> 00:31:41,280
So they're a bit like this
chain of paperclips.

490
00:31:41,280 --> 00:31:44,160
They're individual components
linked together.

491
00:31:46,680 --> 00:31:50,240
Although in the case of plastics,
the individual components

492
00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:53,040
are molecules containing
mostly carbon and hydrogen.

493
00:31:54,280 --> 00:31:58,560
And the key thing is that they can
join together to form long chains.

494
00:32:00,560 --> 00:32:02,880
Now in the 1920s,
when scientists realised

495
00:32:02,880 --> 00:32:05,560
this is what plastics looked like,

496
00:32:05,560 --> 00:32:09,320
it opened up new
possibilities for making plastics.

497
00:32:09,320 --> 00:32:10,960
Because before then, well,

498
00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:14,400
the chemical reactions they were
using were a bit of a mystery.

499
00:32:14,400 --> 00:32:17,640
But then they realised that they
only had to find molecules

500
00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:19,280
that would link together

501
00:32:19,280 --> 00:32:21,920
and they could create
loads of new plastics.

502
00:32:24,960 --> 00:32:27,200
And in one of those great
moments in history

503
00:32:27,200 --> 00:32:30,520
where knowledge and
opportunity coincide,

504
00:32:30,520 --> 00:32:33,920
scientists realised that a
vast source of raw ingredients

505
00:32:33,920 --> 00:32:37,400
for these new plastics
had already been discovered.

506
00:32:39,040 --> 00:32:41,800
With the proliferation
of the motorcar

507
00:32:41,800 --> 00:32:44,240
and expansion of
industry and cities,

508
00:32:44,240 --> 00:32:47,680
enormous quantities of oil and gas
were being pumped out of the ground

509
00:32:47,680 --> 00:32:50,560
and processed into fuel.

510
00:32:50,560 --> 00:32:54,320
And the products of oil
and gas refineries

511
00:32:54,320 --> 00:32:58,040
were hydrocarbons, containing
exactly the kind of molecules

512
00:32:58,040 --> 00:33:01,120
that could join up to make plastics.

513
00:33:01,120 --> 00:33:03,160
Cheap and abundant,

514
00:33:03,160 --> 00:33:06,360
everything was now in place
for the plastics explosion.

515
00:33:08,160 --> 00:33:11,840
Nylon, PVC,

516
00:33:11,840 --> 00:33:16,120
polystyrene, polyester.

517
00:33:17,120 --> 00:33:20,560
All destined to become
household names.

518
00:33:23,600 --> 00:33:26,400
Plastics were taking
over our material world.

519
00:33:26,400 --> 00:33:30,280
Everything from toys and tools to
footwear and furniture

520
00:33:30,280 --> 00:33:32,400
could now be
made with plastics.

521
00:33:32,400 --> 00:33:34,240
In every aspect of our lives,

522
00:33:34,240 --> 00:33:36,960
they were replacing more
traditional materials

523
00:33:36,960 --> 00:33:40,320
like metals and woods,
ceramics and leather.

524
00:33:40,320 --> 00:33:43,360
But there was one area which
they couldn't compete,

525
00:33:43,360 --> 00:33:45,360
and that's where strength
was required.

526
00:33:47,400 --> 00:33:49,800
The modern age demanded
strong materials.

527
00:33:51,440 --> 00:33:53,480
And when we needed strength,

528
00:33:53,480 --> 00:33:56,640
we looked not to plastics
but to metals.

529
00:33:58,600 --> 00:34:01,200
On their own,
plastics were too weak,

530
00:34:01,200 --> 00:34:03,200
too bendy to make a car or a plane.

531
00:34:05,320 --> 00:34:08,760
But plastics had one big advantage,
they were light,

532
00:34:08,760 --> 00:34:11,680
an essential quality for
speed and flight.

533
00:34:11,680 --> 00:34:16,800
So scientists set out on a quest to
create plastics as strong as metals.

534
00:34:20,080 --> 00:34:24,680
In 1963, engineers
at the Royal Aircraft Establishment

535
00:34:24,680 --> 00:34:27,400
in Farnborough made a breakthrough.

536
00:34:27,400 --> 00:34:31,160
They managed to strengthen
plastic so effectively,

537
00:34:31,160 --> 00:34:34,320
it looked as though it might give
metal a run for its money.

538
00:34:37,240 --> 00:34:39,240
This is carbon fibre.

539
00:34:39,240 --> 00:34:42,760
It's extremely strong,
light and stiff.

540
00:34:42,760 --> 00:34:45,520
Scientists found that when
they combined it with plastic

541
00:34:45,520 --> 00:34:47,920
they created a new material
that was much better

542
00:34:47,920 --> 00:34:49,680
than the sum of its parts.

543
00:34:51,040 --> 00:34:53,440
Some people called it black plastic,

544
00:34:53,440 --> 00:34:55,840
but today we know
it as carbon fibre composite.

545
00:34:57,720 --> 00:35:02,200
Here, a carbon fibre composite is
being made from sheets

546
00:35:02,200 --> 00:35:04,720
that contain
carbon fibres and plastic.

547
00:35:06,520 --> 00:35:09,840
It's built up layer by layer,

548
00:35:09,840 --> 00:35:12,600
on moulds that can take any
shape you need.

549
00:35:12,600 --> 00:35:18,040
And then cooked in an oven,
to make the plastic set hard.

550
00:35:18,040 --> 00:35:22,480
The end result is a material with a
unique combination of properties,

551
00:35:22,480 --> 00:35:25,760
strong, stiff and light.

552
00:35:25,760 --> 00:35:30,800
Ideal for making one of the
fastest machines on the planet.

553
00:35:35,680 --> 00:35:37,320
Since the 1980s,

554
00:35:37,320 --> 00:35:41,160
Formula One teams stopped using
metal for their car bodies,

555
00:35:41,160 --> 00:35:43,600
and changed to
using carbon fibre composite

556
00:35:43,600 --> 00:35:46,280
because of its winning combination

557
00:35:46,280 --> 00:35:49,080
of lightness, stiffness
and strength.

558
00:35:50,080 --> 00:35:52,720
Brian O'Rourke is the chief
composites engineer

559
00:35:52,720 --> 00:35:55,120
for the Williams team

560
00:35:55,120 --> 00:35:59,040
and was involved in building
their first composite car in 1984.

561
00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:04,920
What we're looking at is an awful
lot of composite materials.

562
00:36:04,920 --> 00:36:06,760
How much of this is composite then?

563
00:36:06,760 --> 00:36:08,960
Everything that you can see
from the outside,

564
00:36:08,960 --> 00:36:11,440
apart from the wheels and tyres.

565
00:36:11,440 --> 00:36:13,640
So, the whole of the fuselage
is composite,

566
00:36:13,640 --> 00:36:15,720
the whole of the underneath? Yes.

567
00:36:15,720 --> 00:36:21,440
Suspension elements. This is about
structural composite materials.

568
00:36:21,440 --> 00:36:26,720
We have been using these
on F1 cars since 1981

569
00:36:26,720 --> 00:36:28,720
in the industry generally

570
00:36:28,720 --> 00:36:32,800
and they replaced metallic
materials that went before them.

571
00:36:37,520 --> 00:36:40,480
That's because carbon fibre
composites

572
00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:43,560
can offer the benefits of metals
for a lot less weight.

573
00:36:45,440 --> 00:36:49,840
So, to compare the two, Brian has
set-up a simple experiment for me

574
00:36:49,840 --> 00:36:54,920
with two beams, one steel,
one carbon fibre composite.

575
00:36:54,920 --> 00:37:00,000
One critical property is the
stiffness, how much give it has.

576
00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:02,600
I'm going to test
this by standing on them,

577
00:37:02,600 --> 00:37:05,360
to see how much they bend.

578
00:37:05,360 --> 00:37:07,360
Do Formula One drivers have
to do this test?

579
00:37:07,360 --> 00:37:10,160
Am I treading on the toes
of Schumacher or... No.

580
00:37:10,160 --> 00:37:12,360
But I think
they would be interested in it,

581
00:37:12,360 --> 00:37:14,440
if it was going to make
the car go faster.

582
00:37:14,440 --> 00:37:16,520
OK. So if you stand right
in the middle.

583
00:37:16,520 --> 00:37:19,040
It's taking my weight no
problem at all.

584
00:37:19,040 --> 00:37:20,920
It feels very safe.

585
00:37:20,920 --> 00:37:24,120
Although, let's see how
heavy this is...

586
00:37:24,120 --> 00:37:28,200
I've been going down the gym,
but yes, it is heavy!

587
00:37:28,200 --> 00:37:29,600
All right, let's try this one.

588
00:37:29,600 --> 00:37:31,520
This is the composite.

589
00:37:31,520 --> 00:37:33,720
No problem at all! One handed!

590
00:37:33,720 --> 00:37:38,320
So this weighs a lot less, but does
that mean it will bend a lot more?

591
00:37:38,320 --> 00:37:40,560
Wow. So they've got
the same stiffness.

592
00:37:40,560 --> 00:37:42,440
They're able to resist my weight

593
00:37:42,440 --> 00:37:46,320
but this one is three
and a bit times lighter? Yes.

594
00:37:46,320 --> 00:37:49,240
That's what's really
the interest for us in this material

595
00:37:49,240 --> 00:37:52,080
because it's providing the same
stiffness as steel would

596
00:37:52,080 --> 00:37:55,560
but for less than
a third of the weight.

597
00:37:55,560 --> 00:37:59,280
So the carbon fibre composite is
a great advantage over metallics.

598
00:38:03,520 --> 00:38:06,000
And there's another advantage

599
00:38:06,000 --> 00:38:08,640
that carbon fibre composites
have over metals.

600
00:38:13,120 --> 00:38:18,760
In a crash, the front section of the
car explodes into tiny fragments.

601
00:38:18,760 --> 00:38:21,000
Although this looks dramatic,

602
00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:25,200
this actually disperses the energy
of the impact away from the driver.

603
00:38:26,480 --> 00:38:31,160
In contrast, the driver's cockpit is
designed to be strong and rigid.

604
00:38:33,040 --> 00:38:36,040
Together, this means that
the driver is protected

605
00:38:36,040 --> 00:38:38,760
as much as possible from the impact.

606
00:38:39,920 --> 00:38:43,840
It's made driving a Formula One car
far safer than it used to be.

607
00:38:46,720 --> 00:38:49,480
Until carbon fibre
composites can be mass-produced,

608
00:38:49,480 --> 00:38:51,760
they'll stay in the hands
of specialists,

609
00:38:51,760 --> 00:38:54,560
but where they can be used,
they give huge advantages.

610
00:38:57,280 --> 00:39:00,360
Because of its light weight,

611
00:39:00,360 --> 00:39:02,360
carbon fibre composite isn't just
being used

612
00:39:02,360 --> 00:39:03,920
by Formula One racing teams,

613
00:39:03,920 --> 00:39:07,320
it's increasingly being used
by the aerospace industry.

614
00:39:12,440 --> 00:39:16,400
The Boeing Dreamliner is
exactly half composite.

615
00:39:16,400 --> 00:39:20,360
And in the future,
more and more aircraft

616
00:39:20,360 --> 00:39:23,360
will essentially be made
from plastic and carbon fibre.

617
00:39:27,440 --> 00:39:31,520
But strength and stiffness aren't
all we demand from our materials.

618
00:39:32,440 --> 00:39:35,800
In recent years,
one new material with exotic

619
00:39:35,800 --> 00:39:39,040
but incredibly useful properties
has come out of the lab.

620
00:39:40,640 --> 00:39:43,880
At the heart of every
plastic we've ever made

621
00:39:43,880 --> 00:39:46,360
is one key element, carbon.

622
00:39:46,360 --> 00:39:49,400
We're more familiar with it
in its pure state

623
00:39:49,400 --> 00:39:53,640
as the graphite in your pencil,
or if you can afford it, diamonds!

624
00:39:58,520 --> 00:40:01,120
But one of the greatest discoveries
of the last decade

625
00:40:01,120 --> 00:40:03,160
was a new form of carbon.

626
00:40:10,720 --> 00:40:15,240
It's called graphene, and I can
only describe it in superlatives.

627
00:40:15,240 --> 00:40:19,400
It's super-thin,
super-strong, super stiff.

628
00:40:19,400 --> 00:40:22,040
It's even a superstar
of the electronic world.

629
00:40:24,120 --> 00:40:28,840
Graphene's extraordinary properties
were discovered in 2004

630
00:40:28,840 --> 00:40:31,000
at the University of Manchester

631
00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:35,040
by Professors Andre Geim
and Konstantin Novoselov.

632
00:40:35,040 --> 00:40:36,880
This is who I've come to see.

633
00:40:36,880 --> 00:40:39,440
And it won them the Nobel Prize.

634
00:40:39,440 --> 00:40:42,360
Andre. Mark Miodownik.

635
00:40:42,360 --> 00:40:43,920
Hi, Mark. Nice to meet you.

636
00:40:43,920 --> 00:40:47,280
Andre is going to show me
how they first made graphene

637
00:40:47,280 --> 00:40:50,440
in a way that surprised
them by its simplicity.

638
00:40:50,440 --> 00:40:53,400
So these are just
flakes of graphite?

639
00:40:53,400 --> 00:40:58,840
So it's flakes of graphite
which we use in our lab.

640
00:40:58,840 --> 00:41:02,320
Andre calls this the
Scotch Tape method.

641
00:41:02,320 --> 00:41:05,240
It was inspired by a colleague
showing him some sticky tape

642
00:41:05,240 --> 00:41:09,200
that had been used
to clean-up a graphite sample.

643
00:41:09,200 --> 00:41:13,000
On the tape, Andre found incredibly
thin flakes of graphite.

644
00:41:15,120 --> 00:41:18,560
Is this some sort of advanced
form of Scotch Tape?

645
00:41:18,560 --> 00:41:24,720
No, it's just the same Scotch Tape
you can find anywhere.

646
00:41:24,720 --> 00:41:28,520
What you do, you just
split it into two,

647
00:41:28,520 --> 00:41:32,360
then split it again into two

648
00:41:32,360 --> 00:41:35,000
and continue this way.

649
00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:39,440
The idea was to split the graphite
into thinner and thinner layers,

650
00:41:39,440 --> 00:41:42,640
until it was just one atom thick.

651
00:41:42,640 --> 00:41:45,720
This is how Andre
first made Graphene.

652
00:41:46,920 --> 00:41:49,240
It's a beautifully elegant
experiment

653
00:41:49,240 --> 00:41:52,160
and what makes it even more
beautiful is that for me

654
00:41:52,160 --> 00:41:54,280
is that anyone can do
it in their house.

655
00:41:54,280 --> 00:41:56,560
They could get down to an atomic
layer of graphene

656
00:41:56,560 --> 00:42:01,200
just by taking their pencil or
perhaps a purer form of graphite.

657
00:42:01,200 --> 00:42:02,400
Exactly.

658
00:42:02,400 --> 00:42:04,720
You need a little bit of experience

659
00:42:04,720 --> 00:42:08,920
to find out individual atomic
layers, OK, or graphene.

660
00:42:08,920 --> 00:42:10,960
But don't make a mistake.

661
00:42:10,960 --> 00:42:15,720
Nobel prizes are not
given for kitchen-run experiments.

662
00:42:15,720 --> 00:42:21,480
It was not the point that we managed
to find the very thin flakes.

663
00:42:21,480 --> 00:42:25,560
What we did, we studied
properties of these thin layers

664
00:42:25,560 --> 00:42:29,640
and found out that this material
is out of our world.

665
00:42:29,640 --> 00:42:33,240
It shows so many beautiful
and interesting phenomena.

666
00:42:33,240 --> 00:42:35,720
That was an important step.

667
00:42:41,040 --> 00:42:44,880
This is how they first
identified graphene.

668
00:42:44,880 --> 00:42:49,560
The different colours represent
different thicknesses of graphite.

669
00:42:49,560 --> 00:42:52,560
The yellow is
hundreds of atoms thick.

670
00:42:52,560 --> 00:42:56,320
But the fragment that is faint
blue, almost transparent,

671
00:42:56,320 --> 00:42:58,880
is just one single atomic layer.

672
00:42:58,880 --> 00:43:02,120
You can't go thinner than this.

673
00:43:02,120 --> 00:43:04,000
And this is graphene.

674
00:43:05,760 --> 00:43:08,640
It's the strongest material we know.

675
00:43:08,640 --> 00:43:12,320
200 times stronger than steel.

676
00:43:12,320 --> 00:43:14,880
And in this
two dimensional material,

677
00:43:14,880 --> 00:43:19,800
electricity travels at an amazing
one million metres per second.

678
00:43:21,440 --> 00:43:24,920
Graphene stands out because it shows

679
00:43:24,920 --> 00:43:27,960
so many remarkable properties,
especially conductivity.

680
00:43:27,960 --> 00:43:31,400
Think about it,
this is only one atom thick

681
00:43:31,400 --> 00:43:34,200
and when you make films
thinner and thinner,

682
00:43:34,200 --> 00:43:36,880
usually properties deteriorate,

683
00:43:36,880 --> 00:43:39,520
but in this,
you are in the ultimate limit.

684
00:43:41,760 --> 00:43:44,800
Magnified 20 million times,

685
00:43:44,800 --> 00:43:48,160
this is what graphene looks
like at the atomic scale.

686
00:43:50,720 --> 00:43:55,760
Each blurry white spot is
an individual carbon atom

687
00:43:55,760 --> 00:44:01,320
and you can just make out how they
are arranged in a hexagonal pattern.

688
00:44:01,320 --> 00:44:03,920
Graphene is two dimensional

689
00:44:03,920 --> 00:44:06,760
and that's what gives
it its unique properties.

690
00:44:08,480 --> 00:44:12,360
This material,
despite being one atom thick,

691
00:44:12,360 --> 00:44:16,920
it's already conducting
and that was sort of eureka moment

692
00:44:16,920 --> 00:44:21,320
when I first realised that this
material is worth studying.

693
00:44:25,440 --> 00:44:29,280
In the hi-tech, dust-free clean
labs at Manchester,

694
00:44:29,280 --> 00:44:33,160
Andre's team are developing
transistors made from graphene.

695
00:44:34,560 --> 00:44:38,640
Graphene could ultimately
replace silicon chips,

696
00:44:38,640 --> 00:44:42,080
creating the next generation of
super-fast computers,

697
00:44:42,080 --> 00:44:45,960
up to 100 times faster
than today's.

698
00:44:45,960 --> 00:44:49,840
And we're only just beginning to
imagine the vast possibilities

699
00:44:49,840 --> 00:44:54,280
graphene opens up in other
fields of science.

700
00:44:54,280 --> 00:44:57,320
There's a sense in which
anything is possible,

701
00:44:57,320 --> 00:45:00,680
that only our imaginations will
limit what we can create.

702
00:45:07,600 --> 00:45:11,240
Our modern world is shaped by
stuff we've made ourselves.

703
00:45:12,360 --> 00:45:17,000
Built of steel,
concrete and glass,

704
00:45:17,000 --> 00:45:19,280
and at its heart,

705
00:45:19,280 --> 00:45:23,120
the plastics that
dominate our lives.

706
00:45:23,120 --> 00:45:27,960
The apparent triumph of the
man-made over the natural world.

707
00:45:34,480 --> 00:45:36,160
There's no doubt that

708
00:45:36,160 --> 00:45:39,440
laboratory designed materials
have been impressive.

709
00:45:39,440 --> 00:45:42,440
And so it's tempting to think
they'll dominate the future.

710
00:45:42,440 --> 00:45:45,640
But there's an intriguing new
way of designing materials

711
00:45:45,640 --> 00:45:47,920
that promises something different.

712
00:45:47,920 --> 00:45:50,560
And it involves going
back to nature.

713
00:45:53,200 --> 00:45:56,840
It's easy to forget that
artificial plastics

714
00:45:56,840 --> 00:46:00,920
were first inspired
by the raw materials of nature.

715
00:46:00,920 --> 00:46:04,360
But now we're returning to this
approach,

716
00:46:04,360 --> 00:46:08,520
this time tapping into the designs
nature has created

717
00:46:08,520 --> 00:46:10,600
from 4 billion years of evolution.

718
00:46:12,880 --> 00:46:15,320
We're learning to examine
the natural world

719
00:46:15,320 --> 00:46:17,840
from the material science
perspective

720
00:46:17,840 --> 00:46:20,320
and as we unlock its secrets,

721
00:46:20,320 --> 00:46:25,080
we're finding the inspiration for a
whole new generation of materials,

722
00:46:25,080 --> 00:46:27,680
superior to anything
we've yet created.

723
00:46:30,760 --> 00:46:32,360
If you know where to look,

724
00:46:32,360 --> 00:46:35,680
you can find creatures that
do very special things.

725
00:46:35,680 --> 00:46:37,680
Have a look at this guy.

726
00:46:37,680 --> 00:46:41,000
He's a little beetle called
a green dock beetle

727
00:46:41,000 --> 00:46:43,800
and he can just hang upside down on
the underside of a leaf

728
00:46:43,800 --> 00:46:45,560
for as long as he likes.

729
00:46:45,560 --> 00:46:49,240
Can walk straight up vertical walls.

730
00:46:49,240 --> 00:46:52,360
Things that we can only
dream of doing as humans.

731
00:46:56,960 --> 00:47:00,920
Professor Stanislav Gorb is a
zoologist at the University of Kiel.

732
00:47:02,800 --> 00:47:06,720
And over the last ten years, he has
been experimenting with beetles

733
00:47:06,720 --> 00:47:09,800
and other insects,
to analyse their ability

734
00:47:09,800 --> 00:47:12,200
to stick to all types of surfaces.

735
00:47:16,200 --> 00:47:20,680
As you see, we bind it
on a human hair

736
00:47:20,680 --> 00:47:23,560
So you've attached it to a hair,
so it won't disappear,

737
00:47:23,560 --> 00:47:26,240
you can go for a walk on this
bit of glass.

738
00:47:26,240 --> 00:47:28,440
OK. Wow. So it's happy upside down?

739
00:47:28,440 --> 00:47:29,680
Absolutely.

740
00:47:29,680 --> 00:47:32,720
Its own weight
is about 11 milligrams

741
00:47:32,720 --> 00:47:35,800
so I put 300 milligrams. 300!

742
00:47:35,800 --> 00:47:39,280
So it's about 30 times heavier
than the beetle. And it's fine.

743
00:47:39,280 --> 00:47:44,000
That's amazing. So have you trained
the beetle to do that?

744
00:47:44,000 --> 00:47:46,320
No. It's trained by nature! OK.

745
00:47:46,320 --> 00:47:48,240
So millions of years of evolution

746
00:47:48,240 --> 00:47:51,000
have allowed it to be able to
walk upside down.

747
00:47:51,000 --> 00:47:52,400
That's right.

748
00:47:54,640 --> 00:47:56,600
Sticking to glass upside down

749
00:47:56,600 --> 00:48:00,720
and supporting 30 times
your own body weight is impressive.

750
00:48:04,320 --> 00:48:06,280
How the beetle does this

751
00:48:06,280 --> 00:48:10,080
is all to do with the microscopic
structures on its feet.

752
00:48:10,080 --> 00:48:13,160
And these are inspiring
Professor Gorb's designs

753
00:48:13,160 --> 00:48:14,760
for a brand new material.

754
00:48:17,400 --> 00:48:21,000
Here you see this zoomed in area
of the foot from here.

755
00:48:21,000 --> 00:48:24,720
And what you see here are the hairs.

756
00:48:24,720 --> 00:48:29,200
Then if you further
zoom in, that is what I do now,

757
00:48:29,200 --> 00:48:33,200
you see that every single hair
is terminated by a little pad.

758
00:48:33,200 --> 00:48:36,520
There's no glue involved,

759
00:48:36,520 --> 00:48:40,200
these pads at the end of the hairs
on the beetle's feet

760
00:48:40,200 --> 00:48:42,600
enable it to make
really good contact

761
00:48:42,600 --> 00:48:45,240
with the surface it
wants to stick to.

762
00:48:45,240 --> 00:48:48,560
And that's giving it what appears to
be this miraculous stickiness,

763
00:48:48,560 --> 00:48:51,080
that it's able to walk
up walls or upside down?

764
00:48:51,080 --> 00:48:53,160
That's absolutely right.

765
00:48:53,160 --> 00:48:58,240
This structure is built to
generate good contact

766
00:48:58,240 --> 00:49:03,080
and contact is the key point to
generate strong stickiness.

767
00:49:04,320 --> 00:49:07,360
Taking the beetle's
feet as his inspiration,

768
00:49:07,360 --> 00:49:10,840
Professor Gorb has worked with
a German technology firm

769
00:49:10,840 --> 00:49:14,120
to design an adhesive tape
made from silicon rubber.

770
00:49:15,400 --> 00:49:19,640
It's an entirely synthetic material,
but designed to stick

771
00:49:19,640 --> 00:49:22,800
just like the beetle's feet, using
microscopic hairs.

772
00:49:24,680 --> 00:49:28,240
So it's got no adhesive on it
at all? It's just hairs.

773
00:49:28,240 --> 00:49:30,200
It's no different chemical.

774
00:49:30,200 --> 00:49:36,320
This is just a material very similar
to normal silicon rubber.

775
00:49:36,320 --> 00:49:39,880
There is nothing special
about the chemistry,

776
00:49:39,880 --> 00:49:43,520
it sticks just because
of the structures.

777
00:49:43,520 --> 00:49:48,160
Actually you can really feel it.
It's quite a strange feeling.

778
00:49:48,160 --> 00:49:50,360
It's a sort of dry stickiness. Yes.

779
00:49:53,120 --> 00:49:55,880
The screen on the left shows
a microscopic image

780
00:49:55,880 --> 00:49:58,160
of the beetle's hairs.

781
00:49:58,160 --> 00:50:00,280
And the screen on the right
shows the tape

782
00:50:00,280 --> 00:50:02,240
that Professor Gorb's team
has developed.

783
00:50:04,040 --> 00:50:08,560
Both have the same essential
design features.

784
00:50:08,560 --> 00:50:11,720
You see very similar
kind of structure.

785
00:50:11,720 --> 00:50:16,000
They're a little bit larger,
compared to the beetle.

786
00:50:16,000 --> 00:50:17,840
On a micro-scale,

787
00:50:17,840 --> 00:50:21,520
you've reproduced the same structure
as on the beetle's legs? Right.

788
00:50:23,560 --> 00:50:27,600
Professor Gorb is very confident
about his beetle-inspired tape...

789
00:50:29,880 --> 00:50:33,680
..and has set-up an experiment to
show me what it can do.

790
00:50:33,680 --> 00:50:37,280
Right, so this is your tape with
the artificial beetle hairs?

791
00:50:37,280 --> 00:50:39,000
That's right.

792
00:50:39,000 --> 00:50:41,280
And I'm going to hang
upside down on the ceiling.

793
00:50:41,280 --> 00:50:43,880
Exactly. I will just assist you.

794
00:50:47,720 --> 00:50:50,400
So you see how the
contacts are formed.

795
00:50:50,400 --> 00:50:53,640
So the little hairs are being
pressed into the glass.

796
00:50:53,640 --> 00:50:56,200
They are your real contact.

797
00:50:58,240 --> 00:51:00,880
I want to make it properly contact.

798
00:51:03,960 --> 00:51:07,880
So you're sure this is going
to work, are you?

799
00:51:07,880 --> 00:51:10,880
I mean, it's one thing to see
tape sticking to table

800
00:51:10,880 --> 00:51:16,160
but it's quite another
risking life and limb.

801
00:51:16,160 --> 00:51:19,120
Although I do very much
want to be a beetle.

802
00:51:21,400 --> 00:51:23,280
So I just hang off this, do I?

803
00:51:23,280 --> 00:51:26,480
Yes. One, two, three!

804
00:51:28,560 --> 00:51:34,200
It works! It works.
You're an absolute genius.

805
00:51:35,360 --> 00:51:39,880
Who would have believed it?
I know how Spiderman feels, finally!

806
00:51:41,760 --> 00:51:45,880
This beetle-inspired sticky tape
shows how designs found in nature

807
00:51:45,880 --> 00:51:50,040
can inspire the creation
of new materials.

808
00:51:53,880 --> 00:51:56,000
But there is a more profound way

809
00:51:56,000 --> 00:52:00,400
in which the relationship between
artificial materials and nature

810
00:52:00,400 --> 00:52:02,160
is being redefined.

811
00:52:07,120 --> 00:52:12,200
In the future, the boundary between
living and non-living materials,

812
00:52:12,200 --> 00:52:15,440
those that we've created,
will become ever more blurred.

813
00:52:17,320 --> 00:52:20,960
The area where this will be most
striking is medicine,

814
00:52:20,960 --> 00:52:24,600
and the materials
we design to be implanted in us.

815
00:52:27,800 --> 00:52:29,680
These are all biomaterials,

816
00:52:29,680 --> 00:52:32,520
man-made materials designed
to go inside the body.

817
00:52:32,520 --> 00:52:36,000
This is an artificial hip joint
made of titanium.

818
00:52:36,000 --> 00:52:40,040
This is a really extraordinary
object, a piece of sculpture.

819
00:52:40,040 --> 00:52:44,640
And this is an artificial knee
joint. It's a great object.

820
00:52:44,640 --> 00:52:47,160
And this is an X-ray of dental
fillings.

821
00:52:47,160 --> 00:52:51,240
If you like sweets, you've
definitely got one of these.

822
00:52:51,240 --> 00:52:54,160
Now, one thing these have all
got in common

823
00:52:54,160 --> 00:52:57,120
is that they're designed to be
biologically inert in the body,

824
00:52:57,120 --> 00:52:59,920
so not to interact with
the body at all.

825
00:52:59,920 --> 00:53:02,040
But the next generation of
biomaterials

826
00:53:02,040 --> 00:53:04,160
is going to do the exact opposite.

827
00:53:04,160 --> 00:53:06,840
It's going to interact
with our living cells.

828
00:53:06,840 --> 00:53:09,480
And many of them
are going to be made of plastics.

829
00:53:09,480 --> 00:53:14,160
At the moment, artificial
knee and hip joints

830
00:53:14,160 --> 00:53:16,720
are the best
surgical option for patients

831
00:53:16,720 --> 00:53:18,840
with severely damaged cartilage.

832
00:53:21,800 --> 00:53:24,280
However, that may
be about to change.

833
00:53:26,560 --> 00:53:30,760
Professor Molly Stevens
of Imperial College London

834
00:53:30,760 --> 00:53:33,440
is developing a biomaterial
made of plastic

835
00:53:33,440 --> 00:53:35,880
that could mean that in the future

836
00:53:35,880 --> 00:53:39,360
artificial joints will no
longer be needed.

837
00:53:39,360 --> 00:53:42,000
She's developed a plastic that,

838
00:53:42,000 --> 00:53:45,080
when inserted into
damaged cartilage,

839
00:53:45,080 --> 00:53:48,280
helps it to
regenerate and repair itself.

840
00:53:50,400 --> 00:53:54,400
On the bottom of the screen is
a piece of real cartilage tissue.

841
00:53:54,400 --> 00:53:57,000
And above this is the plastic
biomaterial

842
00:53:57,000 --> 00:53:58,840
that Molly's team has developed.

843
00:54:00,320 --> 00:54:03,400
This is actually an
artificial material,

844
00:54:03,400 --> 00:54:05,760
that we've designed
and that we've made,

845
00:54:05,760 --> 00:54:09,160
so that it can be used to help
damaged cartilage repair itself

846
00:54:09,160 --> 00:54:10,640
inside the body.

847
00:54:10,640 --> 00:54:13,120
This is a bit like a scaffold
structure that you'd have

848
00:54:13,120 --> 00:54:15,080
as you were building up
a building.

849
00:54:15,080 --> 00:54:17,360
It looks quite solid to the eye,

850
00:54:17,360 --> 00:54:22,400
but it's actually made up of many,
many, many small fibres.

851
00:54:22,400 --> 00:54:27,280
A microscope reveals
how the scaffold works.

852
00:54:27,280 --> 00:54:31,560
So essentially, in green what you can
see are these artificial fibres

853
00:54:31,560 --> 00:54:34,880
that we've made and they form
the bulk of the scaffold structure.

854
00:54:34,880 --> 00:54:39,880
And what's really key here is, you
can see in blue we have some cells.

855
00:54:39,880 --> 00:54:43,560
And these cells are really
healthy, and they're alive

856
00:54:43,560 --> 00:54:46,040
and they're able to attach to this
artificial material

857
00:54:46,040 --> 00:54:49,680
and over time they would essentially
grow all over it,

858
00:54:49,680 --> 00:54:54,440
grow right into it and use these
fibres as support for them

859
00:54:54,440 --> 00:54:57,880
to then form healthy,
new cartilage tissue.

860
00:54:57,880 --> 00:55:00,360
So you're creating
a microenvironment

861
00:55:00,360 --> 00:55:01,880
where these cells like to live?

862
00:55:01,880 --> 00:55:03,600
Yes.

863
00:55:03,600 --> 00:55:06,840
So our scaffold structure with these
fibres in the green

864
00:55:06,840 --> 00:55:08,960
is actually a temporary structure.

865
00:55:08,960 --> 00:55:12,960
So this will only be
there as long as we need it to be,

866
00:55:12,960 --> 00:55:15,880
so that the cells can go in,
grow their own new cartilage

867
00:55:15,880 --> 00:55:18,640
and then these fibres will
dissolve away.

868
00:55:18,640 --> 00:55:20,920
So the end result is that,

869
00:55:20,920 --> 00:55:24,400
rather than being left with an
artificial structure in your body,

870
00:55:24,400 --> 00:55:27,600
you're actually left with your own
regenerated cartilage.

871
00:55:30,840 --> 00:55:32,880
But if that's not impressive enough,

872
00:55:32,880 --> 00:55:35,080
Molly's team is also exploring

873
00:55:35,080 --> 00:55:37,880
how materials can actually
control cells.

874
00:55:42,040 --> 00:55:44,120
These cells have been grown on
materials

875
00:55:44,120 --> 00:55:46,720
with different patterned surfaces,

876
00:55:46,720 --> 00:55:49,160
and this is making them
take what, for cells,

877
00:55:49,160 --> 00:55:52,440
are extremely bizarre shapes.

878
00:55:52,440 --> 00:55:57,280
From circles to squares
to even triangles.

879
00:56:02,560 --> 00:56:05,240
This is obviously quite
an unnatural shape.

880
00:56:05,240 --> 00:56:09,480
So a cell will normally stick to
a material and it will spread out.

881
00:56:09,480 --> 00:56:15,560
In this particular case, we've made
some material on the surface

882
00:56:15,560 --> 00:56:19,040
in the shape of a triangle that's
very cell friendly.

883
00:56:19,040 --> 00:56:22,280
So the cell likes this particular
bit of material and sticks to that

884
00:56:22,280 --> 00:56:25,120
and then it essentially just
spreads out and assumes

885
00:56:25,120 --> 00:56:28,720
the exact shape of the friendly
material we've put underneath it.

886
00:56:30,400 --> 00:56:34,280
These are all stem cells, cells
which are able to specialise

887
00:56:34,280 --> 00:56:38,600
into bone or fat or
other types of cells.

888
00:56:38,600 --> 00:56:40,360
And what's fascinating is that

889
00:56:40,360 --> 00:56:43,880
the shape the stem cell is made to
take by the material,

890
00:56:43,880 --> 00:56:46,600
appears to affect what it becomes.

891
00:56:48,480 --> 00:56:50,920
One of the amazing things is that
if we make that shape

892
00:56:50,920 --> 00:56:53,720
the triangle, the square
or the circle

893
00:56:53,720 --> 00:56:56,320
and we keep the exact same area,

894
00:56:56,320 --> 00:56:59,600
and the cell will stick on it and
assume those different shapes,

895
00:56:59,600 --> 00:57:03,680
it will actually influence how the
cell then specialises

896
00:57:03,680 --> 00:57:06,320
or differentiates.

897
00:57:06,320 --> 00:57:09,600
So, for example, this stem
cell that is on a triangle

898
00:57:09,600 --> 00:57:13,480
is more likely to go on and form a
bone-like cell

899
00:57:13,480 --> 00:57:15,680
than a cell on the circle

900
00:57:15,680 --> 00:57:18,400
which is more likely to go on and
form a fat cell.

901
00:57:18,400 --> 00:57:23,360
Why triangular cells should be more
likely to become bone cells,

902
00:57:23,360 --> 00:57:28,840
or circular cells to become fat
cells, is not yet fully understood.

903
00:57:31,120 --> 00:57:34,960
But there's no doubt that on this
frontier of material science

904
00:57:34,960 --> 00:57:38,400
there are groundbreaking
discoveries to be made.

905
00:57:43,080 --> 00:57:45,680
At the heart of our modern world

906
00:57:45,680 --> 00:57:49,160
are the man-made materials that
we've created to fit our needs.

907
00:57:52,240 --> 00:57:56,320
By trying to better nature,
we've developed a whole family

908
00:57:56,320 --> 00:58:01,200
of fantastic plastic materials that
have transformed our lives.

909
00:58:03,640 --> 00:58:07,200
Perhaps now is the turn
of biologists to help bring us

910
00:58:07,200 --> 00:58:08,800
the materials of tomorrow.

911
00:58:10,520 --> 00:58:13,200
Instead of stuff that is static
and lifeless,

912
00:58:13,200 --> 00:58:14,640
the materials of the future

913
00:58:14,640 --> 00:58:17,200
will build themselves
and heal themselves.

914
00:58:17,200 --> 00:58:19,600
They'll adapt to their environment,

915
00:58:19,600 --> 00:58:23,520
will blur the boundary between
what's living and what's man-made,

916
00:58:23,520 --> 00:58:26,760
between what makes us,
and what we make.

917
00:58:34,680 --> 00:58:37,640
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