All language subtitles for BBC.Richard.Hammonds.Miracles.of.Nature.1of3.Super.Bodies.PDTV.XviD.AC3.MVGroup.org.eng

Humans are always trying to be
better, brighter, faster, stronger,

tougher. It is one of the things
that makes us human.

But Nature has spent
3.5 billion years producing

ingenious answers
to life's questions.

So a lot of the problems
we're trying to solve

have already been solved
by evolution.

Meaning the animal kingdom
is teeming with bright ideas.

'Like how to survive
a fall from space...'

Yes, it's gone!

'..avoid ever getting wet...'

I am staggered!

'..or withstand an impact of 1200G.'

Oh, that feels pretty harsh!

'In this programme, we'll reveal
some amazing animal abilities.'

That's astonishing! 'I'll discover
how those same animals have inspired

'a series of human inventions
at the very frontiers of science.'

Yeah, it's driving itself.
It's brilliant!

'We'll have to go around the world

'and into some pretty
unlikely situations.'

Oh! Oh, my God!

'Because you never quite know
what surprises the animal kingdom

'has in store for you.'

It's the waiting that gets you.

It's all part
of the miracle of nature.

If you're going to look
to nature for inspiration,

and we have ever since cavemen first
used warfare and used bone tools

as substitute teeth and claws,

then you're always going to come
up against one big, ultimate dream

that happens in the natural world.

Flying.

In 1485,

Leonardo da Vinci designed
a flying machine by studying birds.

It's the obvious thing to do, to
look to the skies for inspiration

and to admire creatures
like these Greylag geese,

who do so gracefully what we can't.

You would think that by now,

more than 100 years after
we first invented aircraft,

after airliners and jet fighters
and spacecraft,

there wouldn't be much left
we could learn from birds

about flying...but you'd be wrong.

And it's all about their bodies
and the way they're built.

In general, the bigger the bird,

the bigger the wings it needs
to get it up into the air.

It all makes perfect sense.

Until you get to this guy...

..whose big body and relatively
small wings make him look

about as capable as graceful
flight as I am.

But this bird's unique
characteristics have helped

inspire a revolutionary new form
of human transport...

..that might just transform the way
we explore our planet.

This is Cody,
and he is a cape vulture.

And these are not being worn
for fashion reasons.

That's a really big beak

and eyes are kind of tempting,
apparently.

'But to find out what makes
cape vultures like Cody

'so special,
I'm going to need to get higher.

'Quite a lot higher.'

It's about 500 metres down there.

And shortly,
I shall be jumping off the edge

with nothing but the contents
of that man's rucksack.

between me and certain doom.

That's assuming he's brought
the right rucksack

and we don't jump off the edge
with his flask and some sandwiches.

'Walter Nesser is a vulture expert.

'Unfortunately for me, he also
happens to be an expert paraglider.'

Oh, now I feel secure.

That's it. That's it? Yeah.

For the take-off, what I want you to
do is cross your arms over your chest

onto these straps here,
so you just... Yeah, that's it.

Is everything attached?
Yeah, everything.

That's connecting you to this.
That's connecting me to this.

Is the first bit the worst and then

suddenly it's all kind of sedate
and beautiful?

Yeah, the anticipation
is really the scary part.

Yeah, it is pretty bad.
Especially when it looks like this.

I mean, this isn't your average
paragliding site, is it?

I don't want to wait too long,
Walter, I really don't.

Just don't... I just want to... Oof!

All right, the wind is really good,
are you ready? No.

Let's go.

Oh! My God!

Whoa!

Wow!

All right, now you can sit back
in the harness.
Oh, sitting back in the harness?

Quite close to this rocky
cliff sides! Look at the drop!

Ah-ha! I don't want to be a vulture!

You doing all right?
I'm scared...on an Olympic scale.

All right,
have a look up to your left.

Whoa!

There's millions!

How do we get in amongst them?
We really need a thermal.

'A thermal is
a column of warm rising air,

'created as ground heats up
unevenly in the sun.

'Which sounds kind of gentle.

'It's not.'

Wow!

Whoa!

Oh, I love it when it does that.

I love that, Walter, that's nice.
Oh, that's nice!

Do you mind if I get changed?

I didn't bring any spare jeans
with me!

Holy...!

'But the rewards are worth it.'

Look at them now,
they're coming to join us!

We are circling with them,
it's astonishing!

We're in the same thermal
that they are.

Ah, this is incredible.

This site is home to a third of all
the world's cape vultures,

and right now it seems like
every last one of them

is flying alongside me.

I wouldn't have believed
that those birds I saw

flapping about on the ground
so inelegantly

were capable of circling
with such grace.

And yet, here they are doing it -
elegantly, beautifully.

It sounds impossible,
but they make it look easy.

And up here,
I suddenly realise something -

that's why we're used to seeing
vultures circling in the movies -

it's because they're in a thermal.

So, this is all about being able
to exploit the exact same thermals

that we're exploiting now.

Yeah.
They've got these reduced spans,

but still with good performance.

And you need to be
really manoeuvrable.

So, you need to be able to turn
inside this tight bubble of air.

And that could be
why their wings are so small -

so they can turn quickly enough to
stay inside the column of warm air.

By locking their wings in position,
and using the thermal's lift,

they can fly with next
to no effort at all.

And by hopping from one thermal
to another, the vultures' short,

rigid wings can carry them more than
100 miles in a single flight.

And it's those astonishing abilities

that have inspired an entirely
new form of human transport.

This is the Super Aviator.

But it's not what you think.

Despite the name
and the aerodynamic appearance,

this is a plane that will never
leave the ground.

Got my head in a fruit bowl,
that's nice.

Because it's not designed
for the skies.

It's built to go underwater.

The Aviator's owner, John Jo Lewis,

has offered to take me for my first
flight beneath the waves.

Forward thrust.

Commencing our dive.

We just dived under the sea! Woo!

So, Rabbit. I have to
call you Rabbit, yeah?
We've got handles and everything.

Yeah, that's right.
We try and pick a two syllable word,

and I've been Rabbit
for quite a while. OK, Rabbit.

What am I? You're Hamster now. Nice.

Thanks. Actually,
you've always been Hamster.

Yeah, OK. That's familiar.
All right, so we are now...

Let me get this right - flying

even though we are under water.
Exactly right.

And literally,
our wings are on upside down,

it's as simple as that.

That's right. Rather than keeping us
up like an airplane,

it keeps us down...
like a flying submarine.

'And down is where we're going.

'Down to the bottom
of the Pacific Ocean.'

You've put us in a descent
down into a valley.

'Which is a little bit
nerve-wracking.'

I've just had a drip of water

on my left arm, Rabbit,
should I be worried?

No, that's just condensation.
I knew that.

I've got a special towel here,

my submariner's
anti-condensation towel,

because every time it drips on my
left arm, I have an urge to scream.

'Luckily, I soon get side-tracked.'

Oh, look, there's a big
ray off to our rear right.

You're kidding! No, it's beautiful.

Wow!

'But we're not here
to chase wildlife,

'because Rabbit is taking me down

'to a shipwreck
on an artificial reef -

'a sort of sunken playground

'where he can really put the Aviator
through its paces.'

And there we go.

This is magnificent!

'Impressive, but it's still
not obvious what this submarine

'has to do with a vulture.'

So, what we are is an upside
down vulture under the sea.

And the reason we're like a vulture
is we have quite a large body

in proportion to which,
quite small, stubby wings.

Yeah. They're short which keeps us
manoeuvrable and allows us to go

into tight places,
manoeuvre around wrecks

and not bump into anything.

In the same way that a vulture
needs to have short wings

so it can be manoeuvrable and turn
and stay inside those thermals.

You couldn't do this with long
wings on your flying submarine.

That's right. That really is what
allows us to have

the manoeuvrability that we do

and be able to exploit the wings
to their fullest capability.

We've swapped the lift of a thermal
for the buoyancy of water.

It's a mirror image
of what happens in the air.

Like the vulture, the Aviator needs
quite a lot of energy to get

it away from the surface.

But once it's down there,
that vulture technology

enables it to simply glide.

And now a big old climb starts.

Steep ride back.

Oh! That feels pretty harsh.

100 feet.

Oh, yeah.

80 feet.

That's a pretty a extreme feeling

when you see the top, the surface
of the sea getting closer

and closer. 50 feet. It's like
driving into a wall. 20 feet.

I'm prepared to broach.

And there is the surface!
That's... Ah!

It feels pretty good.

A submarine based on the way
a vulture flies.

Not the most obvious of links,
I'll grant you,

but inspirations from the natural
world are often unexpected.

Sometimes it's just like
a light bulb going on.

Because evolution has given us
all of this for inspiration.

10,000 species of bird,

close to 30,000 species of fish,

8,000 species of reptile...

..over a million species
of insect...

..and at least 4,500 species
of mammal.

Bodies of all shapes and sizes.

Some of these bodies
are truly remarkable,

not just for how they look,
but for what they can do.

Bodies that could help us humans
accomplish things that previously

were just plain impossible.

With the aid of technology,
we're now able to propel

our bodies through the air
with incredible speed and agility.

But we're still limited by one
critical problem - gravity.

Because as pilots throw their planes
through ever more violent twists

and turns, it's as if the force
of gravity becomes magnified.

Magnified to such an extent
that it pulls all the blood

away from their head
and they lose consciousness.

And that's not good.

Jet fighters have, of course,
continued to advance

and become capable
of ever more extreme manoeuvres.

Apart from one part of them -

the pilot, the human element,
because the human body, well,

that's stayed pretty much the same.

And who'd have thought that
when scientists turned to nature

for inspiration, the one creature
that could help us withstand

this high-tech, high speed,
dynamic, dangerous environment

would be...the giraffe.

The giraffe has to be
one of the most recognisable
animals on Earth.

There's no mistaking
that distinctive long neck.

But giraffes hold a secret
that might just be the key

to the pilot's
life-or-death problem.

And it's a secret that's
hidden in that long neck.

Because, by rights, when the giraffe
lowers its head down to take

a drink, the consequences
should be catastrophic.

There is a critical issue here -
pressure.

As I shall now demonstrate
with this giraffe.

Don't worry, it's not a real one,
it's actually a model built

to roughly the scale
of a small giraffe.

The important thing is,
this represents the heart.

There is actually a pump in there

that is going to pump this,
representing the blood,

along these arteries all the way up
to the giraffe's head there.

In other words, the same way blood
works in the human body.

But the giraffe's head is so high,

it takes far more pressure
to get it up there.

That was a human's blood pressure.
Straight past that.

In fact, the giraffe has roughly
twice our blood pressure.

It's the highest blood pressure
of any living thing.

But that high blood pressure
is only down by the heart,

where the pump is working furiously.

Up at the head, the pressure
is much the same as ours.

And that is how it stays.

Until it decides to
lower its head to have a drink,

then everything changes.
This is the right place to do this

because giraffes actually do
come here to drink.

So, let's give it a go.

As I turn the handle,

all that blood starts going down
towards the ground -

just like with the jet pilots.

Straightaway, watching my metre
on the blood pressure,

it's rising back up again.

Quite quickly. And now it is rising
more because now the head

is getting lower than the heart,

and suddenly,
everything has changed.

It's not pumping all the way up
there any more, gravity is helping

and it's flooding down to the head.

That blood pressure
is going way past

what it should be, and now it's into
the danger zone for our giraffe.

And things are looking bad.
Very bad.

Obviously,
its head doesn't really fly off.

In reality, as the blood pressure
rises, the head comes down

and gravity steps in,
a giraffe's head would...

Well, it would explode.

But they don't explode every time
they come to drink, otherwise

this place who be littered
with bits of them.

So, what's happening?

Well,
there's only one way to find out -

by attempting to measure
the blood pressure,

not of a model giraffe

but of a real one.

This team of vets and surgeons
from a Danish university

are already doing just that.

And they hope that what
they find out might just help

the millions of us
who suffer from high blood pressure.

First, they open up the neck.

Inside,
is part of the giraffe's secret.

Its arteries actually
contract to cope.

And valves in the neck stop the
blood being dragged down by gravity.

To assess just how effective this
system is, the Danish team

are aiming to measure the giraffe's
blood flow just the same way

I did on my model -

by putting pressure sensors
at both the head and the heart.

Safely recovered from the operation,
the giraffe is released...

..undamaged, but now Wi-Fi enabled.

This is the first time a giraffe
has ever had its blood pressure

monitored in this way.

But what will happen to the readings

when the giraffe
bends down to drink?

As soon as the head lowers,

the giraffe's arteries
constrict automatically.

And though the pressure continues
to rise, the giraffe's blood

doesn't suddenly rush to the head
but stays where it's needed...

..leaving the patient
completely unharmed.

Which takes us back to jets.

Now, don't get me wrong,
I'm not suggesting for one moment

that giraffes would make good
fighter pilots.

But they are, as we have seen,
very good at controlling

blood pressure and distribution
of blood around the body,

and that's very important in here.

Because this capsule is designed
to recreate the forces

that a fighter pilot experiences
whilst flying.

And those forces are immense.

The faster they accelerate,
brake or turn,

the greater the effect
of G-force on the body.

At 2G, you feel you weigh
twice as much as normal,

and breathing is twice as hard.

At 3G, the effects are tripled,

and blood starts to struggle
to get to your brain.

Go further,

and you lose
your peripheral vision,

then all sense of colour.

Finally, around 4 or 5G,
your vision disappears entirely

and you lose consciousness.

Today, in here, using technology
that mirrors very closely

what happens in a giraffe's neck,
we're hoping to see 9G.

Five seconds of that is enough to go
through all of those stages

to unconsciousness.

And I'm not doing it.

I'm getting out.

The German Air Force,
who run this place,

require three months
of rigorous medical testing

before they'll approve a pilot.

And this man, Ralph,
is the lucky winner.

Ralph has been chosen as the guinea
pig for a completely

new form of flying suit.

It's called the G-raff.

A series of valves and chambers
stop the blood

pooling by compressing the body,

just like the constrictions
in the giraffe's neck.

And the result...

Well, it looks
pretty damn impressive.

What?

Oh, this? Yeah, you noticed.

Andreas, I'll be honest, no offence,
this is your invention, I know,

I feel a bit silly right now.

But this is the first
incarnation of your G-raff suit.

What have I and a giraffe
got in common right now?

It starts with some muscles here.

There are fluid muscles to contract
the fabric if they are blowed up.

Then we are creating a tension
to compress the body.

I've actually got a little thing
here, I can inflate myself.

Oh! I can now feel that
squeezing down here.

There are various pockets
where air gathers,

that then tensions
the material, yeah?

Absolutely. And it starts on the feet

and then we bring down...
up the blood

back to the right place, to your
heart, and especially to your brain.

So, this would be squeezing me
like a giant tube of toothpaste.

That's true.

It's like a...I would say,

it's opposite milking,
that's what you're doing.

In Switzerland, to milk,
it's more or less the same thing

but the opposite way.

Luckily for our pilot,
the new version of the G-raff suit

all those tubes and chambers
are hidden discreetly away.

They are now so small that a tiny
amount of air should be enough

to activate them and stop the blood
draining from the pilot's head.

But will giraffe technology
be enough

to stop Ralph losing consciousness?

This is the world's largest
and most powerful centrifuge.

That arm is capable of spinning that
capsule around this cavernous room

37 times in a minute.

Which works out roughly that the
capsule itself is travelling

at the best part of 90 miles
an hour that way.

But it's not that speed
that's important.

It's what that speed generates
in this direction, G-force.

And that G-force will pull
the pilot's blood downwards,

just as gravity did to the giraffe.

What I've been told is, Ralph,

who's in the pod, is going to fly
himself with a joystick.

And he'll subject himself to 9G.

Ralph has monitors
taped all over him.

So, just like with
the South African giraffe,

they can monitor the blood pressure
at both his heart and his head.

Are you ready? 'Yes, I am.'

It will be fine.

I'm glad he's confident,

because he's launching himself
into unknown territory.

Three, two, one... Go.

Right now, as he slowly increases
and tightens the turn,

the blood is going to have
a harder and harder time

getting up to Ralph's head.

And from here on in,
it's only going to get worse.

Now I'm going up. 4G.

A little bit more. Just to 5G.

Six.

Now we have seven.

8G.

Now go up to 9G.

9G.

He just did 9, whilst chatting.

But the test isn't over.

With Ralph still at 9G,
Andreas takes the controls.

And decides to push it
just that little bit further.

It feels fine.

Not only is Ralph not struggling,
he appears to be enjoying it.

Wow! Whoa! Nice!

So much so, that he
has a little surprise for us.

SPEECH MUFFLED BY NOISE

His face might be ending up
stretched over his knees

but he's managing to do
a Rubik's cube at 9G.

I can't do those at 1G.

Thank you. It's finished.

THEY LAUGH

I mean, giraffes don't do this.

But it is linked directly
to how giraffes' necks work.

HE SPEAKS GERMAN

Who knew? Who'd have thought?

If the G-raff suit passes
the rest of its testing process

so convincingly then,
thanks to the giraffe,

G-force might be one less thing
for fighter pilots to worry about.

It goes without saying,

for a species to survive it needs to
be able to protect itself.

Turtles do it by retracting
into a shell.

Bighorn sheep do it by having
specially reinforced skulls.

Because when they fight,
it's more like a car crash.

Which is appropriate

because the only time a human being
is likely to encounter

that sort of impact is if they are
unlucky enough to be in a crash.

Anyone who rides a bike
or races a car,

their best hope of protection
is a helmet.

I should know, I owe my life
to that one right there.

This is a state-of-the-art
crash helmet,

the sort worn by Formula One drivers

Michael Schumacher
and Fernando Alonso.

Like all helmets,
it's made of two layers,

a flexible lightweight shell,
and a soft inner foam.

To insure it meets safety
regulations,

each helmet is subjected
to a drop test.

And not just any old drop.

A drop from the top of the highest
helmet drop tower in Britain -

50 feet straight down onto
a solid steel pipe.

It's like hitting
a lamppost at 60 miles per hour.

And amazingly, the helmet survives.

But is that good enough?

Somewhere in the natural world,

there might just be a
better solution.

TAPPING NOISE

And there it is.

It is a great spotted woodpecker.

And it's the biggest
head banger on the planet.

It drills a hole up to four inches
deep through solid wood

to get at the larvae of
wood-boring beetles.

Which puts its head, and its brain,
through an astonishing pounding.

The thing is, and this is
an incredible figure,

every time the woodpecker's beak
strikes the tree,

its head is subject to 1,200G.

Which is enormous.

In a crash, a human could only
survive a fraction of that,

even with a helmet.

So how come it's able to do this
without its brain turning to mush?

Unlike the crash helmet that has two
layers to protect against shock,

the woodpecker has four.

The first is this hard

but flexible beak that absorbs
some of the initial impact.

The second is a springy layer that
starts at the base of the tongue

and extends right around the skull.

Then the skull itself provides
a second rigid layer.

Finally, this filling of spongy
bone between the skull and brain.

These four elements combined
allow the woodpecker

to withstand impacts that would
more than likely leave us dead.

So how can we adapt the
woodpecker's astonishing ability?

Engineer John Powell is attempting
to recreate those

shock absorbing elements into an
innovative new man-made system.

John, I'll be honest,
it looks nothing like a woodpecker.

It doesn't look like a woodpecker
but we have replicated the entire

woodpecker brain support system
in our little cylinder here.

OK. Essentially, we've got this
outer carbon fibre layer.

That's the beak that'll flex
when it's impacted.

Hopefully not
transferring loads through

this isolating layer of cotton wool.

That hopefully is keeping everything
away from being transferred

to this inner layer.
This is our woodpecker skull.

This is fibreglass, so yet another
fibrous material like bone,

but it's more rigid so any impacts
that come into the side

are transferred to the centre
like the woodpecker brain case,

where they have the outer shell

that doesn't allow anything
to transfer to the inside.

So if anything reaches that,
this doesn't flex.

This is a bit more rigid.
Right, that's the barrier.

What's after that?

We use the beads, replicating that
inner bone that the woodpecker has.

That sort of spongy bone stuff? Yes.
Where did these come from?

These actually
come from airport pillows.

You know those U-shaped pillows
you put around your neck? Yeah.

That's what in them.

So now all we need to do is organise
some sort of drop test.

To find out just how good
this container is,

we are going to drop it with
something delicate inside it.

Something like this.

Not this.

This.

A bulb. Now that IS delicate.

We've got glass, thin glass,
and the filament inside.

I can't get these things home from
the store without breaking them.

I wouldn't expect this to survive
a fall from a kitchen work surface

but, today, we are going to
drop it from space.

Here is the precious cargo.

John, I mean, this... It's not a
specially prepared bulb or anything.

No, this is a regular light bulb
we bought from the hardware store.

It's just off a shelf? Yes.

I've delivered it to you safely,
we've got that on record.

We are just going to wrap it
in a little piece of excelsior here.

Right.

Then it goes in its
little home there.

John, all this other stuff that
you've put in with it,

the GPS stuff and this unit,

isn't that going to be
the equivalent

of putting a light bulb
in a tumble dryer full of bricks?

Yes. Right. Which makes it even
more challenging. Yes.

The real trick is to get
everything not to move.

Everything takes a lot of shock
if it can't move.

Then it can't come over
towards the light bulb.

How confident are you at this stage?

I'm completely confident that the
bulb is going to survive. OK.

The extra added bit,
the glory that we're shooting for,

is will the filament in the bulb.
I believe it will.

The filament is the most delicate
part. It's just a small thin wire.

They can break in your shopping bag!

And often do. Oh, yeah! Hopeful,
that's a good word for this mission.

Ambitious and hopeful.

John isn't just in charge
of our canister,

he runs this whole space mission.

And he wants to see if woodpecker
technology can help him

protect the vital components
he attaches to his command modules.

But we can't blame him for this
whole crazy light bulb thing.

That was our idea.

OK, so here is how
it's going to work.

Still can't quite believe
I'm saying this.

Our canister containing
the light bulb will be suspended
underneath the module.

That in turn will be suspended
underneath that weather balloon,

which is filled with helium,
which is lighter than air

so that will take the whole lot up.

And up. And up.

Right beyond the edge of the Earth's
atmosphere and, well, into space.

I know it sounds silly when you say
it, but that's where it's going.

When it's there, down here
on the ground in mission control,

which is that van over there,

they will press a button that will
release our module

and it will fall all the way back
down to Earth with our light bulb.

And then, well,
we'll just see what happens.

It's equipped with GPS so they can
find it. We'll have a look.

We're going into space.
HE GIGGLES

'Commencing launch procedure.

'Ten...nine...

'..eight...seven...

'..six...five...

'..four...three...

'..two...one.'

It's up. It's going that way.

It's climbing.

Bye-bye, light bulb.

Good luck on the way back down.

The balloon carrying
our woodpecker canister

rises astonishingly quickly -

around 1,000 feet a minute -

and it's already out of sight
from the ground.

Time to get myself
to mission control.

Look at that shot. There it is.

Is that curvature of the Earth I'm
seeing or is that an optical effect?

That is curvature of the Earth.
That IS curvature of the Earth?
There it is there. Yes.

So this light bulb that we
bought off the shelf in a store...

It was just there
next to all the other light bulbs.

That one was chosen.

That one is now experiencing space.

It's the ultimate light bulb
adventure. It is.

CLATTERING
Oh, the awning...

Er, I think our E-Z UP
just flew away.

Down, down, upside down...

Is anybody going to say,
"Houston, we have a problem"?

Everybody OK out there?
I'm not sure my nerves can stand it.

This is the most tense thing
I've ever been involved in.

I'm in the middle of a space mission
here and we've got problems!

You all know where that goes!

Everybody OK out here?
Yeah, we're fine.

Just 2,000 feet to go
till our designated drop point

and then our canister containing
our precious light bulb cargo

begins its Mach 1 journey
back towards Earth...

and a substantial crash landing,
which, hopefully, it will survive,

thanks to a technology derived
from that of a woodpecker's head.

If you've just joined us,
that's what's happening.

If this works, we'll see the
cylinder break away and begin its...

You just say, "Go," and I'll try it.

There it is. Go.

Yes! Yes! There it goes! It's gone!

Within seconds, the canister
is going fast enough

to break the sound barrier.

If there WAS any sound in space,
that is.

Yet even at 700-odd miles an hour,

the descent is going
to take a remarkable 15 minutes -

now THAT is what I call
a drop test.

With the canister now out of sight,

the team remotely detonate
the weather balloon.

A parachute launches automatically,

floating the transmitters and
cameras safely back down to Earth.

The canister isn't so lucky.

As it hits the atmosphere,

the on-board camera is forced
back in its housing.

No woodpecker has ever travelled
at 700 miles per hour.

No woodpecker has ever plummeted
85,000 feet.

But right now, we're relying
on the way a woodpecker

protects its brain
to keep that light bulb intact.

CRASH

With the canister down, we head out
as quickly as we can to retrieve it.

Unfortunately, those same winds
that blew our awning over

have taken the canister
way off course.

And when we finally get there,

we find the radio signals
seem to make no sense.

As night falls, we're still
no closer to finding our canister.

So let me tell you where we are.

The guys are pretty sure that
the canister landed in a canyon.

That's good. Less good -

the GPS on board has broken,
which is a worry.

It does have a radio beacon - that's
great. And they've found a signal.

The problem is, the signal is
bouncing around, they think,

off the walls of the canyon.

When I was with them,
we went to try and find it,

we were going one way
and the next way.

The signal is coming in everywhere.
So here's the solution.

They think what we've got to do now

is wait for the battery in the radio
beacon to run down a little bit,

so it's a weaker signal -
it won't bounce off the walls.

They'll be able to zone in
and find it.

But that could take
five or six days.

I haven't got time.
We've got to move on.

So they're going to look for it
and if, WHEN they find it,

they'll mail it on to me,
wherever we've ended up.

It's not all over yet.

Now, you might be thinking,

"It's all very well
you talking about submarines
and jet fighters and space,

"but what has any of that
got to do with me?"

Well, more than you might imagine

because quite often
these exotic ideas

end up having applications
much, much closer to home.

Can we be frank just for a minute?
Because this is important.

We need to address
an embarrassing social problem.

Has this ever happened to you?

An amazing 19% of us admit
to having, at one time or another,

dropped our mobile phone
down the loo.

Actually, it's worse than that,
because only 40% of us overall

admit to taking our phone in with us
in the first place.

So if 19% drop it down...

That's half of everybody who
takes their phone into the loo

drops it down there.

I'm afraid to say it seems
to be predominantly women.

Must be the whole, you know,
sitting-down thing. Whatever!

Anyway, ultimately it leads...
well, to this.

Yeah.
Telecommunications and toilets.

Not something with which
you'd imagine the genius of nature

could really help.

But it can.

And the answer can be found

deep in the heart
of the South American rainforest.

This Morpho butterfly
is a master of repelling water.

And with good cause.

If just one of those heavy raindrops
was to settle on its wing,

it would become so unbalanced,
it would fall out of the sky.

And if just a fraction of a drop
was absorbed,

it could damage the wing
permanently.

Lucky then, that the water
just beads up and runs off...

..allowing the butterfly
to find safety and shelter.

Despite the shiny appearance
of the wing,

this is not some sort
of rubberised coating.

It's something far cleverer
than that.

But to find out what,
we need to look closer.

A thousand times closer.

Because although the wing
looks totally smooth,

it's actually covered in millions
of tiny waffle-shaped ridges.

This model represents
that distinctive pattern,

and this balloon represents
a water droplet.

If it lands on the wing,
only the tiniest part of it

would ever come into contact
with the actual surface

because it balances on these ridges.

In fact, less than one percent
of any raindrop

ever even touches
the butterfly's wing.

They call this property
"hydrophobia" -

literally "water hating" -

and it's a property so impressive

and so potentially useful,

that it's no surprise
we've tried to copy it.

This laboratory in Oxfordshire
thinks it's succeeded.

They've worked out a way to spray
an artificial hydrophobic coating

onto, well, just about everything.

And if you don't believe me,
just watch.

We've put together a machine to
explore this hydrophobic quality

and all it needs to get it started
is a couple of drops of water.

We've created this machine

out of things we thought might
benefit from being hydrophobic.

A newspaper that never gets soggy.

An egg carton
that never gets sticky.

A teapot that never dribbles.

Kitchen utensils, spatulas,
spoons and mixing bowls

that never get dirty.

Gloves that stay dry

whether you're gardening
or snowballing.

And summer blockbusters
that you can read by the pool.

And, finally,
the piece de resistance...

..hydrophobic clothes.

So I've had THIS made.

It's a suit, but it's been
hydrophobically coated,

which means, technically, I should
be able to spill anything on it.

Coffee.

Red wine.

Mustard - English.

Tomato juice.

Mango juice.

Soy sauce.

You see, it all just flies off.
Brilliant.

Right, hope there's nothing else.

Because the thing we really want
to repel water is our phone.

Back to the lab.

We've put a standard model
into an airtight chamber,

where it's subjected to a vacuum.

Next, it's exposed to plasma rays

to prepare every surface
for the hydrophobic coating,

and I do mean every surface,
both outside and in.

Moving parts, electrical contacts,
circuit boards, processors

all get covered by a thin layer
of textured plastic,

a thousand times thinner
than a human hair.

Which is all very impressive,
but does it work?

Let's start again, shall we?

This is my old phone,
and it's ruined.

I dropped it in the loo,
You saw me do it.

This is my new phone.
It's exactly the same,

but it's been treated with
a special hydrophobic coating.

Not a waterproof cover, remember.
Water will still get in.

It's just it should then run off
every component inside.

Should. That's the theory.

So let's do it again.
And I really hope this does work
because this is getting expensive.

PHONE RINGS

Hello.

Yeah, can you get me
some antibacterial wipes?

Yeah.

No, a lot.

Just imagine if any electrical
device could be waterproof.

No more water-damaged phones.

No more flood-damaged televisions.

And no more coffee-damaged
keyboards.

And all thanks to
the South American rainforest...

and one small butterfly.

It goes to show that sometimes,
most times,

there's an animal out there
somewhere

that can outperform the best
we humans have to offer.

It's not surprising, really.

Evolution has been working on it
for 3.5 billion years.

But that's OK - it just means
there's always more for us

to learn from the natural world.

Like, what DID happen
to that light bulb?

If you remember,
a woodpecker had inspired us

to drop a light bulb from space.

But it had landed...
heaven knows where.

DOORBELL CHIMES

Hello. How's it going? Very well. Do
you have a parcel for Hammond? Yes.

'Well, eventually I get the call
saying they've found the canister

'and delivered it to a courier's
office near where I'm filming.'

Driver's licence. Does that do?

'I rush straight down there.'

Stickers say, "Fragile,
handle with care." It's a bit late!

Right, let's get this open.

It's like the weirdest Christmas
ever.

OK, we're in the box.

There it is.

HE GULPS AND SIGHS

I daren't look.

Ooh.

There's the tray
containing the bundle.

This suddenly is now
the most precious artefact

I shall ever handle.

There it is.

Intact.

From space.

No parachute, no magic.

There is one further test
I could do,

cos I did spot over here...

And this does work.
Yeah, it does work.

Oh!

Do you know,
it might just be intact.

That's not the bulb. That's not been
to space. THIS is our space bulb.

If this works,
I will be staggered

because when the director suggested
using a light bulb, I said no.

Oh...

HE LAUGHS

That is astonishing!

Over there
is a very happy man indeed

because I said, "That's just a step
too far - it can't possibly work."

That light bulb has been
flown up to space and dropped -

85,000 feet, I think, was the exact
height - back down to Earth.

It landed... Well, it landed
on rocks on a mountain.

It took days to find it.

The only thing protecting it
was this whole system,

which was home-made

and modelled on the way
a woodpecker's skull

protects its brain when subjected
to G pecking trees.

This was subjected to G landing
without a parachute from space.

I'm staggered!

Come on, that's worth a round of
applause. They're so relieved!

APPLAUSE

That is amazing!

But those amazing,
shock-absorbing qualities

aren't just for safeguarding
an iconic bird

and a home-made spacecraft.

They might make a difference to
motorcyclists all over the world.

There are already helmet
manufacturers looking at this,

which means, one day,
woodpeckers could be life-savers.

And that, I think you'll agree,
is quite miraculous.

'Next time on Miracles of Nature,

'I'll be looking at how
animals' super-senses

'might change the way
we experience OUR world,

'allowing us to hear
through solid rock...'

EXPLOSION

Hello!

'..to see without using our eyes...'

That's astonishing.

'..and to feel something that
happened 30 seconds earlier.'

This is what we'll all be in.
This is the future.

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