All language subtitles for Strange.Evidence.S07E02.Suburban.Fireworks.Blowout.1080p.MAX.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BETHELL_track3_[eng]

[narrator] Worldwide,
45 billion cameras
record our daily lives.

In our hands,
in our cars,
and in our homes.

They capture things
that defy explanations.

What the hell
are we looking at right now?

[man 1] Check this, uh...

[narrator] Experts carry out
forensic analysis
of these unusual events.

Wow. Now that's a cracker.

[man 2] Oh!

[woman 1 screams]

This doesn't make any sense.

There has to be
another explanation.

So, what could it be?

[narrator] Coming up...

How did a family home
become a house of horror?

Oh, my goodness.
I mean, this sound...

[Craig Gottlieb]
Whenever you see an explosion
in a quiet California suburb,

one thing come to mind.
Meth lab.

Big meth lab.

[narrator] A man
with an iron skull...

Now he's getting up from that.
How's he okay?

That was a massive impact.

[narrator]
And are robot clouds...

[woman] Oh, my God.

[narrator]
...about to unleash
a reign of terror?

It's constantly
changing shape.

It's malleable, it's moving,
it's in motion.

It's probably based
on technology
that the public

has no idea even exists yet.

[narrator] Bizarre phenomenon.

[gasps] Oh, my God.

[narrator]
Mysteries caught on camera.

This is just mind boggling.

[narrator]
What's the truth behind this?

Strange Evidence.

Ontario,
a family-friendly suburb,

east of Los Angeles,
California.

March 16th, 2021.

Just after mid-day,
local residents hear
a small explosion.

One of them starts to film.

So, it looks like
we're in some type
of residential street.

I think there maybe
some things on fire.
There's a little bit of smoke.

We have a lady
who's just standing
and she's watching.

There's some smoke.

[narrator] Then...

[explosions]

Oh, my goodness.
I mean, this sound...

This explosion
is just intense.

It's... It's deafening.
This is incredible.

[narrator] Panicked onlookers
run for their lives...

-[continuous explosions]
-...as the ground shakes
beneath them.

Then, sounds like
machine gunfire burst out.

[woman] Oh my god...

[narrator] Followed by
a massive mushroom cloud
towering into the sky.

-[car alarm beeping]
- [Nick Householder]
That is a giant explosion.

Man, I can hear a car alarm
going off.

Which means that
the pressure wave
from the explosion

was enough to jostle
the vehicle and set it off.

This must have been
incredibly intense.

I mean, what just happened?

You know, how does life
go from being completely
normal and mundane

to boom, all of a sudden
you're in the middle
of a war zone?

[narrator] California based
historian, Craig Gottlieb

thinks this is evidence
that someone in this
respectable neighborhood

has just broken bad.

Whenever you see an explosion
in a quiet California suburb,

one thing come to mind.
Meth lab. Big meth lab.

What's scary is that
because the materials used

to make meth can be
bought over the counter,

there can be a meth lab
right next door to your house.

The US is in the grips
of a drug epidemic.

There are narcotics
and illegal fentanyl

sweeping through the country
at alarming speeds.

[narrator] In the TV show
Breaking Bad,

chemistry teacher Walter White
makes over $80 million

in a single year,
cooking meth.

West Coast cops say
that's a realistic figure.

So it's no wonder
copycats could be
tempted to cash in.

The problem with
methamphetamines is that

they're incredible easy
to make, and can be made
almost anywhere.

[narrator] But the ingredients
are incredible dangerous.

There are a number
of volatile chemicals involved

in the production
of methamphetamine.

And one of them is something
that you probably
have in your own home.

It's acetone, commonly used
as a paint thinner.

It's incredible explosive
and highly flammable.

And if they're in
an uncontrolled environment,
with unstable people,

-you have a recipe
for an explosion.
- [explosion]

[narrator] Perth,
Western Australia.

September 11, 2021.

A suburban family home
is destroyed

as a makeshift meth lab
violently explodes,
badly burning one man.

Everybody knows
meth isn't good for you,

But making meth
is a really, really
dangerous proposition.

[narrator] And when
you're a Walter White style
meth maker,

it isn't just the chemicals
that are dangerous.

One of the interesting things
about this clip is that
it's not just

a massive explosion
which sends this,

you know, mushroom cloud
into the sky.

But it's also pop, pop, pop,
that sounds like
gunfire going on.

[narrator] Destroying
a rival's meth lab

would be normal
for some of the most
ruthless criminals

who fight for control
of the USA's $150 billion
illegal drug trade.

[Liberty Vittert]
Where this video is filmed,
in Ontario, California,

is not exempt
from this problem.

It's hit just as hard
as anywhere else
in the United States.

[narrator] Hollywood
pyrotechnics expert
Matt Kutcher

has 35 years' experience
with big bangs.

He has a different theory.

The clip reminds him
of a disastrous event
from 2012.

So, the city of San Diego,
2012,

gonna do a 4th of July
fireworks display.

Except for an 18 minute event,
they had an accident.
And it went off in 15 seconds.

[narrator] A breach
in the computer programming

causes 7,000 pounds
of fireworks
to ignite simultaneously.

It's like a gate to hell
opened over San Diego Bay.

[woman screams]

[Matt] Look at all the flashes
and all the noise.
Plenty of smoke.

But this looks like
it's in a residential house.

Aren't rockets and fireworks
illegal in California?

[Matt] They are.
I wonder if somebody
was storing these illegally,

maybe inside of
one of these houses.

So, the question is,
would illegal fireworks
set off indoors

cause an explosion
that looks like this?

[man] Possible.

Let's go get some fireworks
to see if we can do that.

[narrator]
At a secure location,
Matt and his team get to work.

So, I think the key to this
is gonna be

getting all of fireworks
to go off at the same time.
Right?

[narrator] Kutcher adds
extra-long fuses to over
50 pounds of fireworks

to allow him to synchronize
their detonation

and recreate
the Ontario disaster.

[Matt]
Put 'em all together.

[narrator] With the fireworks
in position,
the team create a master fuse.

All right, son, go ahead
and pour the accelerant.

Nice stream. Just bring it
all the way over
to the left side.

Nice.

And then
you're gonna light it.

'Cause you run faster
than I do.

All right, that's good there.
Get ready to light it.

All right, guys,
we're gonna go on go.

Stand by. Go ahead
and light it, son.

Guys, let's go, let's go.
Get back here, quick.
Matthew, come on.

[narrator] Coming up...

Was a family home
destroyed by fireworks...

Went well... over.

Now, that is
a fireworks display.

[narrator] And...

That looks like
somebody in the tunnel.

[narrator] Is this footage
proof of an ancient
Egyptian curse

that stalks
the London Underground?

[Karen] The story goes
that the priestess
wanders the tunnels

of this disused tube station,
haunting it.

[narrator]
Ontario, California.

A mystery blast
tears apart a family home.

By watching this footage
over and over,

we can tell that
there's two separate
phases going on here.

In the beginning, it's quiet
and really smoky.

And afterwards comes
hundreds of explosions.

-Yeah, definitely. The big
pops in the air, right?
-Yeah.

[narrator] Pyrotechnics expert
Matt Kutcher suspects

the explosion was caused
by a huge cache
of illegal fireworks

igniting and exploding.

He set up an experiment
to recreate the blast
and prove his theory.

These experiments
are done with 35 years
of professional experience.

Don't try 'em at home.

All right, guys,
we're gonna go on go.

Stand by. Go ahead
and light it, son.

Guys, let's go, let's go.
Get back here, quick.
Matthew, come on.

[narrator] The fuses
all light simultaneously.

Then...

When will it be over?

Now, that is
a fireworks display.

[narrator]
In a matter of seconds,
50 pounds of fireworks

cause chaos
in the 100-foot high
and 120-foot wide warehouse.

The same explosion
in a confined residential home
would be deadly.

Well, so that's crazy.
That's the video.
That's what we saw.

Sadly, some kind
of illegal stash of fireworks.

[narrator] Illegal fireworks
smuggling in California

is a tempting
multimillion dollar business.

So, there's no federal law
against fireworks,

which means that
state to state laws
are different.

So, they may be
illegal in California,

but they might not be illegal
in a state like Arizona.

So, what happens is,
people cross the border,

they buy fireworks,
they bring 'em back
and sell 'em.

But before they can sell them,
they gotta store 'em.

And there are no regulations,
so this is a very
dangerous situation.

[narrator]
Police reports following
the Ontario explosion

disclose the death
of two people
inside the house.

And over $3 million
worth of damage
to the surrounding properties.

It was caused by what
the fire department described

as a large amount
of commercial grade
fireworks.

There's a reason
why we regulate
the sale of fireworks.

It's explosives.

And having an amount
this large in one place is
just a recipe for a disaster

if you don't have proper
safety measures in place.

What's really scary is that
on any residential street,

there can be a house
just waiting to explode.

And what was originally
a way to make a quick buck

very soon becomes a big bang.

[narrator] Now,
London, England.

Knightsbridge
underground station.

Almost directly beneath
world famous Harrods store.

June, 2016.

A shopper films
an empty subway platform
while waiting for a train.

So, what we're seeing
in this clip is part
of the London underground,

which is basically the subway
underneath the city of London.

[narrator] It seems
like an unremarkable clip.

But when the passenger
plays it back,

they notice something
inexplicable moving
in the darkness.

That looks like somebody
in the tunnel.

[narrator]
In the blink of an eye,

a strange shadowy form
appears to jump
from behind the safety barrier

into the darkness beyond.

Former NYPD image analyst
Conor McCourt,

scans the frames to check
if this is a camera fault

or a trick of the light.

There's just a few images
of the actual subject
in question.

But what I was able to do...
if we just back it up here.

I think right here we can see
what is probably a head,

probably an arm extended

and then as we go further,
we can see
what appears to be a leg.

This appears
to be some kind of human form.

[narrator] Coming up,

is this
the London underground's
legendary murderous mummy,

said to prey
on late night passengers?

Witnesses claim to have heard
a strange ghostly wailing

at the time
that the woman disappeared.

[narrator] And a man
with a head for danger.

Is it possible
that he has superhuman bones?

[narrator]
On a London subway platform,

a passenger seems to capture
a mysterious apparition
on their camera phone.

There's a shadowy figure,
you can see what looks
as though it can be a head

and some shoulders,
hunched over shoulders.

The ghoulish figure
reminds historian Tony McMahon

of a bizarre legend
about the subways
under London.

If you're travelling
between Holborn
and Tottenham Court Road,

on the central line
and you look out
through the glass,

you'll see
the ghostly platform
of British Museum station,

which has been closed
for decades.

[narrator] It was shut down
in 1933,

following the expansion
of Holborn station,

situated just 400 feet
to the east.

[Karen] This station
has been abandoned

but the legend continues
that there's a secret
passageway

from that abandoned platform

directly
to the Egyptian gallery
of the British museum.

[narrator] The famous
British Museum has
over eight million artifacts

from around the world
in its collection.

And in the Egyptian gallery
is its most notorious
ancient object,

known as the Unlucky Mummy.

It's believed
that the Unlucky Mummy

is a 3,000-year-old
sarcophagus

that was made to house
the body of a priestess

of the cult of Amun-Ra.

[narrator] Amun-Ra
was a hybrid of two separate
Egyptian gods.

Amun created the universe,

Ra was the God
of Sun and light.

His priestess's coffin
was acquired
by the British Museum in 1889

and with it
seemed to come a curse.

Not long after,
the sarcophagus,

so called Unlucky Mummy
arrived at the British museum,

there was a series of bizarre
and really quite disturbing
incidents at the museum.

[narrator] Curators
and cleaners report sobbing,

wailing and hammering
coming from the priestess'
sarcophagus

and an overwhelming
feeling of terror
when in its presence.

And this priestly poltergeist
is said to have used
the secret passageway

to flee the museum.

The story goes
that the priestess escaped

the Egyptian rooms
in the museum

and now wanders the tunnels
of this disused tube station,
haunting it.

In 1935,

two years after British Museum
station had closed,

two woman disappeared
mysteriously
at Holborn station

which is the next
station along.

Witnesses claim to have heard
a strange ghostly wailing

at the time
that the women disappeared,

and later
there were strange symbols
found on the wall.

This lead to speculation
that the priestess
might have been responsible

somehow, for these women
going missing.

[narrator]
The cellphone footage captured
in Knightsbridge

is just five stops
from the abandoned
Museum station.

But anthropologist
Deborah Hyde

finds rumors
of other unsolved murders

on the London underground
in the 1960s.

These were reportedly
committed by a group
of workmen,

driven mad
after becoming trapped
in the tunnels.

Rumor began to spread
of a society
of subterranean troglodytes

who lived
in the underground network.

The story was that
these underground workers

were confined underground,
unable to face
the light of day.

And they'd taken
to cannibalism,
they would kidnap commuters,

grab them and eat them.

The police had no leads,

until, a group of repairmen
in the tunnels

were attacked
by what they described
as a wild bearded man.

[Brian] This man
actually came out of a tunnel
like a wild man

gnashing his teeth.

But the workmen
were able to beat him
back with hatchets.

[narrator] The man ran back
into the train tunnels
and was never seen again.

[narrator] It seems bizarre
that humans

would choose to live
in the London underground

which is 192 feet
below the surface
at its deepest level.

But Tony McMahon
finds this is exactly
what happened in America,

after the New York subway
was built in 1904.

People in New York
started moving underground
during The Great Depression,

to escape
from the cold winters.

When I was a kid,
growing up in New York City,
there was a train tunnel

that had a tent city in it,
we used to see the tents
erected inside.

[narrator] It was known
as Freedom Tunnel

and the inhabitants
were dubbed 'The Mole People'.

If there were underground
communities,

these tent cities in New York
when I was growing up,

it's totally possible
that the tent cities
and the communities

are here,
down in those tunnels,

right there in London.

This video
can be the first crucial
bit of evidence

that somebody
is living down there.

[narrator] There are more than
11,000 homeless people
living in London,

where winter temperatures
can plunge to just 23 degrees.

But seeking shelter
in the underground

could be more dangerous
than the icy streets above.

One thing
that is definitely clear

is no one should
ever be on those tracks

or ever be in those tunnels.

[narrator] Now,
Long An province, Vietnam.

December, 2019.

CCTV records
the evenings traffic.

So, we've got what looks
like a relatively busy
intersection,

because I can a lot of bikes,
both on the road
and off the roads.

[narrator] Then...

Oh, my goodness.
Wow. That motorcyclist...

their head
just went up against
that window

and it was just...
It was hard.

And they are just out.
They're out for the count.

[narrator]
The motorcycle rider
lies motionless.

on the hard pavement,

when suddenly...

Now, he's getting up
from that. How is he okay?
That was a massive impact.

He's not even wearing
a helmet.

[narrator] Stumbling
just once,

unbelievably,
the man climbs back
onto his battered bike

and starts the engine.

The driver of the van
comes out 'cause he's thinking

he must've been thinking
'Now I got this dead guy
I got to clean up now'.

And instead, he gets up,
comes around the vehicle

and as he does so,
the guy that just hit him,
drives off into the sunset.

[narrator] Worried members
of the public watch on

as the seemingly unharmed man
speeds away.

No one believes
what they've just witnessed.

He's like wearing
a t-shirt, shorts, flip-flops
and that's it.

No safety gear of any kind.

[Martin] If that had been me,
every bone in my body
would have broken.

And I'd be lying there
bleeding out.

I'm seeing it happen,
but I don't believe it.

[bike crashes]

It's like a zombie movie
where, you know, they die,

and they are out cold
and they pop right back up.

[narrator] Coming up,
Engineer Nick Householder

tries to get inside
this guy's head.

[Nick] What I have here
is a simulated human head.

Good luck, my friend.

[thuds]

[narrator]
And in South Carolina,

a mother and daughter film
an unexplained blob shooting
through the sky.

-[kid] Is it a ship?
-[mom] Look.

[Roland] The little kid who's
seeing it is asking,

Is it a ship? Is it a ship?

And I gotta wonder,
could it be a ship?

[narrator] I n Vietnam,
what looks like a brain
bursting bike crash

is caught on camera.

[Martin] This guy lays there
for a second stunned,

and then sits bolt upright

and gets his motorcycle
up and drives off.

[narrator]
The Vietnamese
vehicular carnage,

reminds engineer
Nick Householder

of a legendary car crash
from 2003.

[Nick] Indy car driver
Kenny Brack,

experienced a car accident
like you'd never experience

in your life.

He was driving 200 miles
an hour, and impacted
a steel beam

A sensor inside of his vehicle
measured 214 Gs
of impact force.

That is the greatest impact
force that we have measured

that a human being
has survived.

[narrator]
Brack broke his sternum

femur, vertebrae
in his spine and both
ankles were smashed.

He survived.

But his racing career
was effectively ended.

Kenny Brack's car was full
of safety equipment

which helped him survive
his impact.

The man in this footage
isn't even wearing a helmet.

I wanna understand how much
force his head experienced

when it bounced
of the side of that van.

[narrator] Nick Householder
builds an experiment
in his workshop.

What I've set up
is a simulated car accident.

What I have here
is a slingshot that
I can use

to accelerate a head
to the speed of
a car accident.

Across the way, I've got
a metal plate, representing
the side of the car

that the man's head
impacted on.

What I have here
is a simulated human head.

It's made of silicon
and full of expanding foam.

So, it's a little bit pliable
and sort of like a human.

But what I need to know

is what kind of force
it's going to experience

when it impacts
my simulated car.

So, what I have for that
is something called
a g-force indicator.

All right, so these
are stickers,

so all I have to do is apply
them to the back of the head.

And they will measure,
how much force it experiences.

I've got the 100G indicator,

and the 50G indicator.

The way these indicators
work is this little white
area inside

has a packet of dye.

And it will only break
and expose a red patch
in the middle

if it exceeds the g-force that
the sticker's designed for.

[narrator] Shock indicator
labels were invented
to protect

and record damage
to postal and
shipping packages.

But Householder's using them
for human cargo instead.

If we break the 50G indicator,
they're definitely hurt.

If we break the 100G,
they're concussed
and possibly dead.

[narrator] Householder
estimates the scooter could
have been traveling

at anywhere between
30 and 40 miles per hour.

So he rigs his slingshot
to replicate the movement

of the rider's head
in the footage.

Now, only thing
to do is fire at that.

Let's go, good luck my friend.

[narrator] Householder
stretches the silicon

to its required depth.

Now, this one should be
around 30 miles an hour.

[thuds]

[narrator] The hurtling head
hits the sheet metal
with a sickening thud.

If you look closely,
you can see that the 50G
impact detector has broken.

That means that the head
experienced over 50 times
earth's gravity in the impact.

But also notice, that the 100G
impact detector hasn't broken.

That means, his head
has probably been
rattled pretty hard.

But he doesn't necessarily
have a concussion.

You could probably get up
and walk away from this.

[narrator] But the movement
of the silicon head

is less violent
than the rider's head
in the footage.

All right, this time,
let's up the speed.

[narrator] Nick stretches
the slingshot back
a further six inches.

This will increase the dummy's
head speed to approximately
40 miles per hour.

[thuds]

The head slams into the plate
with a marked increase
in its velocity,

replicating the Vietnamese
clip to perfection.

Oh, man, that was intense.

Look at this, the 100G
impact detector has broken.

That means that higher
speed impact would have
guaranteed a concussion,

if not a more
severe brain injury.

That's what I think happened
to the man in the footage.

I don't understand
how he was able
to walk away with his life.

[narrator] Military expert
Martin Morgan

believes the rider's
extraordinary recovery

suggests he's no normal man.

The special forces
of the People's Army
of Vietnam,

they undergo extremely
rigorous physical training.

These guys are tough.

They can do things like pour
out of a bunch of broken glass

and then jump from
a height of like five feet
onto it barefoot.

They will also have
like, pointed sticks

pressed into their chest
and then they'll lean
against them

and have somebody else pile
bricks on their back

and then break the bricks
with a sledgehammer.

Maybe this is somebody

who has been trained
to be able to withstand

a high-impact collision
like that.

[narrator] Special forces
around the world

use pain training to toughen
up their recruits.

Pain is the human body's
defense mechanism.

Nerves send signals
to the brain to stop
you doing something

that could be damaging
to your health.

But for a soldier,
being trained to ignore
these natural reactions

and to carry on fighting

could be the difference
between life and death,
victory or defeat.

Maybe this is a guy
that's military.

Maybe he's military
and that's why

he can walk away
from something like this.

Because a normal person
would not just up
and walk away from this.

[narrator] But Journalist
Linda Rodriguez McRobbie

suspects we are witnessing
a primeval survival technique

that lies dormant
in every human on the planet.

What's quite possible
and probably more likely

is that we're seeing
the effects of shock
on the nervous system.

What happens to your body
after you've had
a serious injury

or a serious shock is a rush
of a number of neuro chemicals
including adrenaline.

When someone is flooded
with adrenaline,

the impossible literally
becomes possible.

[narrator] Adrenaline
is a hormone released
by the adrenal glands

and it sparks
the fight or flight response.

Increasing blood flow
to the muscles and dumping
sugars into the blood stream,

adrenaline kick-starts
the body, getting it ready

to fight a bear
or escape a flood.

[Nick] You've heard of stories
of people

lifting 3000 pound cars
well under the influence
of adrenaline.

I don't think it's so strange
to think that's what we're
seeing here.

[narrator]
But when the wonder drug
of adrenaline wears off,

the human body could
rapidly collapse.

Adrenaline can make it
look and feel like
you are totally fine

when actually you may not be.

And eventually that adrenaline
is gonna wear off

and whatever problems
it was hiding before
are gonna come out.

It's entirely possible
that the driver
of this motorcycle

pulled two blocks away

and then collapsed.

Whatever happened
to this man,
I just hope he's okay.

[narrator] Now,
Goose Creek, South Carolina,

June 30, 2021.

Shaneika Joyner and her
six-year-old daughter India

are waiting at a stop light
on highway 52

when they suddenly spot
something strange in the sky.

Shaneika starts filming
on her smartphone.

[Shaneika] Oh, my God.

There's something in there.

I can see.

[Chad] It looks like there's
a small bit of cloud that's

moving of its own accord.

And kind of in the opposite
direction from all
the other clouds.

That's really weird.

[narrator] Shaneika struggles
to film the fast moving cloud.

[India speaking]

[Shaneika speaking]

[narrator] The strange entity
seems to shapeshift
right before their eyes.

I've seen things
like this,

but usually only
in a science fiction movie.

[indistinct conversation]

This thing, whatever it is,

seems to be moving
under its own power.

Doesn't look like
there's any sort of, like,

tail from a jet engine.

There's no propellers on it.

And it's sort of just
gliding through the air.

[narrator] Coming up,
flying military smart dust.

Perilous particles that could
choke us all.

[Sarah] What are we
looking at?

Is it something man-made?
Is it a solid object?

Is it alive?

[narrator] And in China,

a woman with a secret
she keeps under her hat.

She looks fairly aged.

She's got to be north of 80,
I would imagine.

She's going into
a-- Oh! Good grief.

[narrator] Captured on
a smartphone over
Goose Creek, South Carolina,

a weird cloud moving fast
against the prevailing wind.

[Shaneika speaking]

[Sarah] I mean,
my first question is,
what is that thing?

Is it alive?

What are we looking at?
Is it something man made?

Is it a solid object?

Against the blue sky,

we can see that the object
is white in color.

But as it proceeds,

it almost changes color
and becomes dark.

[narrator] Physicist
Michio Kaku maps the area

and finds a large installation
close by this highway
in Goose Creek.

Not too far
there's a military base.

And at military bases,
of course,

they try to look
for experimental devices.

Now Goose Creek
is really close
to Joint Base Charleston.

Now this is a sprawling
US military base,

roughly about 20,000 acres.

Now, this is important.

If whatever is seen
in the video

was based out
of Joint Base Charleston,

it's probably based
on technology

that the public has no idea
even exists yet.

Now, there is one cutting-edge
technology that could
possibly explain,

the sort of shape-shifting
nature of the object
seen in the video.

And that's a concept known
as claytronics.

[narrator]
Claytronic scientists
are trying to create catoms,

computer-generated
programmable robot atoms,

that have the potential
to change life on earth
forever.

As Arthur C. Clarke
once said,

any sufficiently
advanced technology

is indistinguishable
from magic.

[narrator] The person
who commands the billions
of robotic catoms

will be like a wizard,
who controls a genie
in a fairy tale.

One simple computer
instruction and they can
create literally anything.

[Chad] So, prototype devices
use magnets on their
outer edges

to pull them together,
make connections,

break those connections,
shift them around

and change their orientation.

Enabling the collection
of these objects to form
different shapes.

Think about this, billions
and billions of microchips,

you simply push a button,
change the electric charge

and all of these microchips
which are microscopic in size

they then can be
programmed to reassemble
into any shape whatsoever.

From hospitals to construction
sites to actually
military applications,

if you had enough
of this materia l,

from a military perspective,
you could make it
into a defensive structure.

[narrator] And the military
also has plans

to take this stuff
into the air

as a lethal weapon of attack.

The US military's premier
research facility,

also known as the Defense
Advanced Research
Projects Agency,

known as DARPA,

has been working
with a concept known
as smart dust.

Now, this takes
the claytronics idea

and makes it sort of airborne.

Smart dust consists
of thousands of particles
of dust

that float in the air
by themselves.

They're made out
of microchips.

And so what you do is,
you simply throw it
over enemy territory.

The wind blows it over
enemy territory,

taking pictures
and giving you reconnaissance.

And unlike a drone,
you cannot shoot them down.

If a dust cloud comes at you,
which is intelligent,

taking pictures of everything
around you,

and you try to shoot it down,
nope it can't be done.

[explosion]

[narrator] And
the possibilities
are even more terrifying.

Claytronic smart dust
could be programmed

to enter the lungs
of enemy soldiers

or even civilian populations

asphyxiating millions
in a single invisible stroke.

[Sarah] Can you just imagine
if this was a swarm
of machines

which had escaped,
perhaps from this
nearby military base,

just how terrifying
that would be.

[narrator] Officially,
this potentially
lethal technology,

is in its infancy and only
created under strictly
controlled conditions.

At the moment,
much of this technology
is actually

resigned to the lab.

It's not something on a scale

large enough to explain
what we're seeing
in this video.

[Conor] Looking at this
object, it's quite eerie.

It's changing shape,
it's moving along
at a fast rate of speed.

It's really unidentified
and it's kind of spooky.

[narrator] Now,
a small village
in Sichuan, southwest China.

August 2015,
a bizarre video emerges.

[Karen] There's an elderly
Chinese women, she's got
her head covered

with what looks
like a shower cap.

[Deborah] She looks
fairly aged.

She's got to be north of 80,
I would imagine.

She's going into
a-- Oh! Good grief.

[narrator] Under
the makeshift hat,

a strange, dark dagger-like
appendage protrudes
from her forehead.

They are something,

I've never seen
anything like it
growing out of her head.

It's what appears
to be a giant horn.

[narrator] The women is named
as 87 year old Liang Xiuzhen,

[Roland] Oh, my God,
that poor woman.

She does not look
very happy about that.

I hope they can remove
that, whatever it is.

[narrator] The horn
is approximately
five inches long

and said to be solid.

[Tony] Poor thing.

How she survives with that.

You just wanna know,
is this something particular
to this poor woman?

Or, could it happen
to any of us?
Is it even contagious?

As a zoologist, I've seen
a lot of weird things,

but this really takes
it to another level.

[narrator] Coming up,

scientists find millions
of humans are suddenly
growing horns.

Is it something in the diet?

Is it something
in the atmosphere?

What is it that's caused this?

[narrator] An 87-year-old
lady is filmed

with what appears to be a horn
growing out of her forehead.

Historian Tony McMahon
considers if this could be
part of a magical ritual.

The horn is something almost
sacred in Chinese culture.

[narrator] The Chinese
have a 3500-year-old
oral history

of horned creatures
with supernatural powers.

The Qilin is a unicorn-like
creature whose arrival can
signify imminent death.

Pixiu is a single-horned
dragon associated with
gaining wealth.

Horned animals represent
health, vigor and long life.

[Tony] There's undoubtedly
something in
Chinese mythologies

about horns on heads
equaling power.

The horn of the rhino
in Chinese culture

has enormous status.

[narrator] The horn
of the rhinoceros is believed

to be a cure-all
medicine in China.

It is also highly sought after
as a powerful aphrodisiac

and enhancer
of sexual prowess.

There's no proof of any of it.

But people will still pay
almost anything

for something that they
think is gonna make
them feel better.

[narrator] Chinese citizens'
desire for illegal rhino horn

has driven the animal
to the brink of extinction
in Africa.

Poachers are supplied
by international
criminal gangs

with sophisticated equipment

to track and then
kill the rhinos.

Two pounds of rhino horn
can be worth

more than $60,000
on the black market.

[narrator] In the far east,

it's particularly popular
with older people,

as it's falsely claimed
to ward off cancer, strokes
and even terminal illness.

In terms of the sort of shape
and position

and even the color,
this resembles quite
a bit, a rhino horn.

[narrator] But
in Chinese medicine,

rhino horns are crushed
and eaten or mixed
with water and drunk.

Not worn or stuck
to the forehead.

Biologist Leslie Samuel
discovers

there are accounts of real
horns growing out
of human skulls.

An Australian health scientist
noticed an increasing number
of his patients

had a growth coming out
of their skulls.

[narrator] University
of Sunshine Coast, 2016.

Researchers studying X-rays
of 218 young Australians,

make a shocking discovery.

41% have boney growth forming
at the back of their skulls.

[Leslie] Some of them are over
an inch long.

They're so big you can
actually feel them poking out

of the skin with your
bare hands.

[narrator] Scientists
call them

an enlarged external occipital
protuberance.

Is it something in the diet?

Is it something
in the atmosphere?
What is it that's caused this?

The scientists believe that
these horns are caused by

the rise of modern technology.

I mean, we're hunched over
on our phone so much.

It's starting to reshape
our skulls.

[narrator] The scientists
hypothesized

that leaning the head forward
to stare at screens

caused the tendons and bone
at the back of the skull

to grow due
to the increased load.

It's crazy to think that
the way we use
our technology

and change our body position
can actually affect
our skulls.

[narrator] But historian
Tony McMahon

finds reports of horns growing
on humans go back far beyond
the era of smart phones.

A French woman called,
Madame Dimanche
in the early 19th century,

is reported to have had
the largest horn growing out
of her head ever recorded.

It was something
like 10 inches.

[Karen] This lady's horn,
grew straight out
of her forehead

between her eyes and curved
down and ended at her chin.

I've read about
abnormalities like this.

I think they're very rare,
but it seems like it could
be a cutaneous horn.

[narrator] Reports
of cutaneous horns
are few and far between.

But that doesn't mean,
it couldn't happen to you.

These growths are rare
but they can happen to anyone.

And they can appear anywhere.

A 50-year-old manual laborer
in the UK grew five and a half
inch horn,

over the course of three years
on his back.

[narrator] Modern scientists
still don't know exactly
what causes

a cutaneous horn
like this one to grow.

But they are more common
in the elderly

and can be safely removed
by a doctor as long as they
are not cancerous.

Cutaneous horns are growth
of compacted keratin.

Sometimes they can be
cancerous, sometimes
they are not.

But it's always scary
to be the person that
they're growing on.

[narrator] It is not known
whether Liang Xiuzhen

had the horn
surgically removed.

[Roland] This poor woman
looked pretty annoyed,
and I tell you I would be

also super annoyed
if I had a huge horn
growing out of my head.

It does not look like
a pleasant situation.