1
00:00:11,850 --> 00:00:14,110
Tonight on Secrets Declassified.

2
00:00:14,890 --> 00:00:19,610
Experiments considered so wild,
dangerous, or deadly, they have to be

3
00:00:19,610 --> 00:00:20,610
from the public.

4
00:00:21,230 --> 00:00:25,290
From building an aircraft carrier made
of ice to defeat Nazi U -boats.

5
00:00:25,730 --> 00:00:29,630
This thing will be the largest naval
vessel ever constructed.

6
00:00:29,910 --> 00:00:32,670
To a manned mission to Mars that never
leaves Earth.

7
00:00:33,360 --> 00:00:38,340
These men are subjected to every form of
stress that their Soviet overlords can

8
00:00:38,340 --> 00:00:42,560
think of. Or even to Stalin's obsession
with understanding his rivals.

9
00:00:43,640 --> 00:00:47,400
They want to profile Mao by analyzing
his poo.

10
00:00:48,140 --> 00:00:52,440
These are the astonishing and sometimes
terrible things done by governments and

11
00:00:52,440 --> 00:00:53,720
the people who work for them.

12
00:00:54,300 --> 00:00:56,060
It's time to bring them to light.

13
00:01:05,069 --> 00:01:06,130
It's World War II.

14
00:01:06,510 --> 00:01:10,470
In the Atlantic, Hitler's U -boats are
hunting British ships relentlessly.

15
00:01:10,950 --> 00:01:13,570
So Britain gambles on a daring
experiment.

16
00:01:14,170 --> 00:01:19,510
Build an unthinkable ship, not from
steel, but from ice.

17
00:01:23,590 --> 00:01:26,450
By 1942, Britain feels like it's against
the ropes.

18
00:01:27,010 --> 00:01:33,350
U -boats hunting in the mid -Atlantic
are sinking 650 ,000 tons of shipping

19
00:01:33,350 --> 00:01:34,350
every month.

20
00:01:34,960 --> 00:01:39,800
The killing zone is called U -Boat
Alley. It's a stretch of the Mid

21
00:01:39,800 --> 00:01:41,700
where Allied ships are unprotected.

22
00:01:42,020 --> 00:01:46,500
Air Force planes can't reach that far
from land bases, and the British can't

23
00:01:46,500 --> 00:01:49,900
send aircraft carriers to help because
they would be sunk by the U -Boats, too.

24
00:01:50,560 --> 00:01:54,220
What they need is an aircraft carrier
that can't be sunk.

25
00:01:55,600 --> 00:02:01,440
Enter Jeffrey Pike, an eccentric
adventurer and inventor now working for

26
00:02:01,440 --> 00:02:02,440
HQ.

27
00:02:03,150 --> 00:02:08,810
Jeffrey Pike comes up with the
realization that nature already produces

28
00:02:08,889 --> 00:02:13,110
unthinkable platforms in the ocean.
They're called icebergs.

29
00:02:13,530 --> 00:02:19,550
So he comes up with the idea that you
could flatten one and tow it wherever

30
00:02:19,550 --> 00:02:24,750
wanted it to be. You can use it as an
unthinkable aircraft carrier, and it can

31
00:02:24,750 --> 00:02:26,090
close the mid -Atlantic gap.

32
00:02:26,830 --> 00:02:30,550
But Pike soon realizes icebergs won't
work.

33
00:02:32,370 --> 00:02:36,210
nasty tendency to flip, which would put
your aircraft and your crew in the cold

34
00:02:36,210 --> 00:02:39,410
Atlantic water. So, no, not a good
solution.

35
00:02:40,670 --> 00:02:42,950
Pike won't be stopped so easily.

36
00:02:43,250 --> 00:02:46,810
He begins to design an artificial
iceberg.

37
00:02:47,990 --> 00:02:53,650
Pike's idea is to create a giant
aircraft carrier, not from steel, but

38
00:02:53,650 --> 00:02:55,110
blocks of carved ice.

39
00:02:55,790 --> 00:03:00,370
He can have a system of cooling pipes
throughout the ice to keep it frozen.

40
00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:04,420
and also use diesel engines to propel it
forward.

41
00:03:05,040 --> 00:03:10,380
At a secret lab, hidden in a
refrigerated storage unit at London's

42
00:03:10,380 --> 00:03:13,600
Meat Market, Pike's team starts
experimenting.

43
00:03:15,080 --> 00:03:19,400
There's one big shortcoming with ice. It
is extremely brittle.

44
00:03:19,880 --> 00:03:23,360
If it came under enemy attack, it will
fracture.

45
00:03:24,200 --> 00:03:28,440
So as Pike considers this problem, he
takes some inspiration from reinforced

46
00:03:28,440 --> 00:03:32,780
concrete, and the idea that... Perhaps
combining water with another element

47
00:03:32,780 --> 00:03:34,760
would produce a harder ice product.

48
00:03:36,780 --> 00:03:41,380
Pike's team begins to experiment with
additives to increase the durability of

49
00:03:41,380 --> 00:03:46,300
ice. They find a research paper from
scientists in Brooklyn, New York,

50
00:03:46,300 --> 00:03:50,860
cotton as a reinforcer. But this makes a
slushy, uneven ice block.

51
00:03:52,020 --> 00:03:56,480
Finally, after lots of experimentation,
they come up with just the right recipe.

52
00:03:57,210 --> 00:04:03,410
and that is 4 % wood pulp and 96 %
water. This combination creates an

53
00:04:03,410 --> 00:04:04,670
durable block of ice.

54
00:04:05,510 --> 00:04:08,550
Pike's new ice behaves like nothing else
on Earth.

55
00:04:09,030 --> 00:04:15,310
It's strong as concrete and almost
bulletproof, but can be cast like metal

56
00:04:15,310 --> 00:04:16,310
cut like wood.

57
00:04:18,510 --> 00:04:22,890
They named this new miracle material
Pikerete after its inventor.

58
00:04:24,099 --> 00:04:28,180
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill
is the kind of guy who likes unusual,

59
00:04:28,460 --> 00:04:31,800
bold, daring ideas. So he says, yeah,
let's do this.

60
00:04:32,220 --> 00:04:35,540
Pike's project is given the code name
Habakkuk.

61
00:04:37,060 --> 00:04:41,820
Habakkuk is an Old Testament prophet who
records God's promise to the doubtful.

62
00:04:43,060 --> 00:04:47,260
I'm going to do something in your days
that you would not believe, even if you

63
00:04:47,260 --> 00:04:48,260
were told.

64
00:04:48,360 --> 00:04:52,160
Pike chooses the name to fit his
impossibly ambitious ice ship.

65
00:04:52,620 --> 00:04:54,740
Now he needs to construct a prototype.

66
00:04:55,000 --> 00:04:57,460
But Britain is too warm to build it.

67
00:04:57,720 --> 00:05:00,380
So the entire project moves to Canada.

68
00:05:01,720 --> 00:05:07,260
They turn the frozen surface of Patricia
Lake into a giant laboratory and build

69
00:05:07,260 --> 00:05:10,960
a 1 ,000 -ton, 60 -foot -long scale
model.

70
00:05:12,400 --> 00:05:14,600
The Habakkuk team starts experimenting.

71
00:05:15,290 --> 00:05:20,970
And they find that in order to keep the
ice stable, the ship's refrigerators

72
00:05:20,970 --> 00:05:23,730
need to keep it at a frosty 5 degrees.

73
00:05:24,210 --> 00:05:29,410
They also discover that to stop a
torpedo, the hull has to be at least 30

74
00:05:29,410 --> 00:05:30,410
thick.

75
00:05:31,090 --> 00:05:35,310
When they complete their design, it is
an absolute behemoth.

76
00:05:36,190 --> 00:05:41,290
Pike wanted an ice ship with a runway 2
,000 feet long and 300 feet wide.

77
00:05:41,630 --> 00:05:48,550
It has 40 -foot thick walls, and it can
carry over 150 bombers at one time.

78
00:05:48,950 --> 00:05:51,810
This will be the largest naval vessel
ever built.

79
00:05:54,630 --> 00:05:59,810
Project Habakkuk is now becoming hugely
expensive, so it needs American backing.

80
00:06:01,110 --> 00:06:07,190
In August 1943, at the Allied Conference
in Quebec, the Brits make their pitch.

81
00:06:08,490 --> 00:06:13,070
To prove the properties of Picrete to
the Americans, one of the U .K.'s top

82
00:06:13,070 --> 00:06:15,650
commanders, Lord Mountbatten, stages a
demo.

83
00:06:17,070 --> 00:06:21,490
Mountbatten gives U .S. General Hap
Arnold an axe and asks him to smash a

84
00:06:21,490 --> 00:06:26,290
of Picrete. Arnold swings at the Picrete
with all his might. The axe bounces

85
00:06:26,290 --> 00:06:30,790
off. Then Mountbatten draws his pistol
and fires it at the Picrete.

86
00:06:32,350 --> 00:06:36,810
The bullet ricochets off, sending the
generals diving for cover. The room

87
00:06:36,810 --> 00:06:41,380
erupts. But the point is made. The
Americans are on board for Habakkuk.

88
00:06:43,020 --> 00:06:47,020
Before production can begin, the tides
turn in the Atlantic.

89
00:06:47,700 --> 00:06:53,520
Long -range aircraft and new anti
-submarine tactics blunt the U -boat

90
00:06:54,380 --> 00:06:58,520
With the crisis over, the ice ship is no
longer needed.

91
00:07:01,840 --> 00:07:05,580
In January 1944, Project Habakkuk is
canceled.

92
00:07:05,900 --> 00:07:09,700
The prototype ship they'd built on
Patricia Lake is allowed to melt away.

93
00:07:10,140 --> 00:07:12,640
Soon, the war comes to an end.

94
00:07:13,080 --> 00:07:18,480
But the British military keeps details
of Pike Creek on ice for the next 30

95
00:07:18,480 --> 00:07:23,200
years. We only learn the full details
through declassified documents that were

96
00:07:23,200 --> 00:07:24,260
discovered in 1973.

97
00:07:24,600 --> 00:07:27,260
They speak to an hour of desperation.

98
00:07:28,160 --> 00:07:32,180
when England faced an existential threat
as a result of the U -boat.

99
00:07:34,200 --> 00:07:38,200
Winston Churchill isn't the only leader
to greenlight an audacious experiment.

100
00:07:38,880 --> 00:07:43,800
When the Soviets decide to beat the U
.S. to Mars, three cosmonauts are locked

101
00:07:43,800 --> 00:07:46,320
in a test chamber for a year -long
study.

102
00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:50,700
They learn that it's not the equipment
that fails, it's the crew.

103
00:07:54,350 --> 00:07:58,910
In Moscow, leaders are convinced that
getting to Mars will definitively win

104
00:07:58,910 --> 00:08:03,650
space race. For the Soviets, putting a
man on Mars would be a massive prestige

105
00:08:03,650 --> 00:08:04,650
win.

106
00:08:06,250 --> 00:08:09,150
But a round trip to Mars would take a
full year.

107
00:08:09,890 --> 00:08:14,190
At the time, no one knows whether humans
can survive that long in space.

108
00:08:16,230 --> 00:08:20,750
Moscow's Institute of Biomedical
Problems hatches a bold experiment.

109
00:08:21,520 --> 00:08:25,160
They call it a year in a spaceship, but
they run it at their labs in Moscow.

110
00:08:25,440 --> 00:08:32,240
The plan is to lock up a cosmonaut test
crew for 365 days inside a cramped metal

111
00:08:32,240 --> 00:08:36,780
box. They want to find out if the team
can endure such a long space flight and

112
00:08:36,780 --> 00:08:38,580
what the scientists need to do to make
it work.

113
00:08:39,679 --> 00:08:42,840
Soviet leadership signs off on the Space
Chamber plan.

114
00:08:43,900 --> 00:08:48,480
On November 5, 1967, the top secret
experiment begins.

115
00:08:49,200 --> 00:08:53,440
In order for this experiment to provide
any meaningful results, the three

116
00:08:53,440 --> 00:08:58,280
cosmonauts are going to have to be
actually isolated. The only contact that

117
00:08:58,280 --> 00:09:03,120
will have with the outside world will be
through a radio channel, and everything

118
00:09:03,120 --> 00:09:05,400
will be documented on film.

119
00:09:05,940 --> 00:09:10,680
So the men locked inside, the chamber
feels more like a prison cell than a

120
00:09:10,680 --> 00:09:16,280
starship. There is no privacy. The
living quarters are just 10 by 13 feet

121
00:09:16,280 --> 00:09:17,460
not built for comfort.

122
00:09:18,190 --> 00:09:23,950
The crew has a table, a stove, some
medical gear, and three flimsy fold -out

123
00:09:23,950 --> 00:09:24,950
bunks.

124
00:09:26,150 --> 00:09:31,350
Soon, the conditions begin to take a
toll on the cosmonauts, and the space

125
00:09:31,350 --> 00:09:33,930
chamber becomes a psychological pressure
cooker.

126
00:09:34,270 --> 00:09:39,150
Within a few weeks, all of them are
showing signs of psychological stress.

127
00:09:39,230 --> 00:09:43,570
They're no longer enjoying any
collective activities together. They

128
00:09:43,570 --> 00:09:45,450
almost at each other's throats all the
time.

129
00:09:45,810 --> 00:09:49,860
Within two months, The crewmen are not
speaking to one another. If they're

130
00:09:49,860 --> 00:09:54,140
holding these churlish grudges against
one another, they're not a cohesive

131
00:09:54,200 --> 00:09:55,220
They're not an effective team.

132
00:09:56,300 --> 00:09:59,740
With the experiment at risk, the
scientists take action.

133
00:10:00,840 --> 00:10:06,020
They build a 200 -square -foot
greenhouse and dock it with a simulated

134
00:10:07,480 --> 00:10:11,460
The greenhouse gives them a little bit
of dignity to get away from one another.

135
00:10:12,430 --> 00:10:16,170
It gives them something positive and
constructive to do with their time. And

136
00:10:16,170 --> 00:10:20,510
suddenly, rather than being at each
other's throats constantly, they're back

137
00:10:20,510 --> 00:10:22,450
being a cohesive team again.

138
00:10:23,730 --> 00:10:28,710
With the experiment back on track, the
scientists decide to stress test the

139
00:10:28,710 --> 00:10:33,230
crew. They simulate a failure of the
chamber's life support systems.

140
00:10:34,850 --> 00:10:39,770
The Soviet lab administrators massively
raised the concentration of carbon

141
00:10:39,770 --> 00:10:41,250
dioxide in the capsule.

142
00:10:41,800 --> 00:10:45,840
They crank the temperature up to 86
degrees. They push the humidity to a

143
00:10:45,840 --> 00:10:50,540
tropical 90%. All of the subjects are
suffering from headaches and exhaustion.

144
00:10:51,080 --> 00:10:52,740
It feels like hell in space.

145
00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:57,240
The extreme conditions force the crew to
cooperate.

146
00:11:00,220 --> 00:11:06,860
On November 5, 1968, after a full year
inside the space chamber, the experiment

147
00:11:06,860 --> 00:11:08,240
comes to an end.

148
00:11:11,050 --> 00:11:16,930
The most important lesson learned is
that claustrophobia and monotony are two

149
00:11:16,930 --> 00:11:20,010
the biggest challenges a cosmonaut crew
will face on the way to Mars.

150
00:11:22,150 --> 00:11:27,750
For years, the full details of the
secret space chamber experiment remain

151
00:11:27,750 --> 00:11:29,370
deep in Kremlin files.

152
00:11:30,690 --> 00:11:36,990
It's not until 1975 that they're finally
revealed to the world, when cosmonaut

153
00:11:36,990 --> 00:11:39,790
Andrei Bozhko publishes his memoir.

154
00:11:42,510 --> 00:11:46,730
He actually described the feelings that
he and his fellow participants had

155
00:11:46,730 --> 00:11:49,290
living inside this tiny capsule for a
year.

156
00:11:49,810 --> 00:11:54,750
Although the cosmonauts never actually
leave Moscow, the lessons learned from

157
00:11:54,750 --> 00:11:58,270
the experiment prove useful for planning
future space missions.

158
00:12:00,270 --> 00:12:03,830
If we're going to send somebody to Mars,
you can't just simply put them in a

159
00:12:03,830 --> 00:12:07,890
capsule and expect them to endure a 34
million mile voyage.

160
00:12:08,440 --> 00:12:12,500
You have to provide more space for them.
Otherwise, the mission is going to fail

161
00:12:12,500 --> 00:12:14,520
because the individuals are going to
fail.

162
00:12:17,400 --> 00:12:21,700
At the start of the Cold War, the U .S.
wants to know more about biological

163
00:12:21,700 --> 00:12:26,120
weapons, how to protect against them, or
how to use them.

164
00:12:26,520 --> 00:12:30,040
To learn more, the Pentagon comes up
with a top -secret experiment.

165
00:12:30,700 --> 00:12:31,700
The target?

166
00:12:33,280 --> 00:12:34,580
Unsuspecting American cities.

167
00:12:38,250 --> 00:12:43,430
At the beginning of the 1950s, the
Pentagon is terrified that the Soviets

168
00:12:43,430 --> 00:12:46,410
launch a biological attack against the
United States.

169
00:12:46,930 --> 00:12:52,330
In the event that such an attack was
released on the U .S., what would

170
00:12:52,390 --> 00:12:55,370
Everything is, at this point, an unknown
quantity.

171
00:12:56,110 --> 00:12:59,630
The Army Chemical Corps is tasked to
investigate.

172
00:13:00,590 --> 00:13:02,790
The Chemical Corps consider several
options.

173
00:13:02,990 --> 00:13:07,050
The first one they come up with is using
a wind tunnel to see how it disperses,

174
00:13:07,050 --> 00:13:09,230
but that's nothing like real -world
conditions.

175
00:13:09,590 --> 00:13:15,170
The second option they consider is
building a city in the desert. However,

176
00:13:15,170 --> 00:13:16,610
turns out to be too expensive.

177
00:13:16,930 --> 00:13:22,530
And the third option is to do live
testing in real U .S. cities, but

178
00:13:22,530 --> 00:13:25,650
using a real biological agent, use a
stand -in.

179
00:13:26,670 --> 00:13:30,510
They start by looking for a safe
substitute for deadly germ weapons.

180
00:13:31,510 --> 00:13:36,090
Chemical core scientists find this
apparently ideal candidate. It's a

181
00:13:36,090 --> 00:13:40,370
fluorescent powder used in TV screens
called zinc cadmium sulfide.

182
00:13:40,970 --> 00:13:45,910
What makes this powder so ideal is that
the individual grain sizes are very

183
00:13:45,910 --> 00:13:50,670
similar to the sizes of the known
biological agents that an adversarial

184
00:13:50,670 --> 00:13:51,569
may use.

185
00:13:51,570 --> 00:13:55,270
The other thing about them is that they
fluoresce under ultraviolet light.

186
00:13:55,580 --> 00:13:58,140
So it's easy to track them wherever they
go.

187
00:13:59,420 --> 00:14:03,420
Initially, at least, the Army thinks
that the substance is harmless.

188
00:14:03,920 --> 00:14:09,840
What they didn't know then, but we do
know now, is that cadmium is a top -tier

189
00:14:09,840 --> 00:14:14,240
carcinogen. It causes lung cancer and
kidney cancer.

190
00:14:15,680 --> 00:14:19,880
In January 1953, the experiment is ready
to begin.

191
00:14:20,590 --> 00:14:25,310
The Army wants to study how a biological
agent would spread to an entire city.

192
00:14:25,730 --> 00:14:28,150
The question is, what city?

193
00:14:29,890 --> 00:14:34,150
The Army needs cities in the United
States to be an approximate match for

194
00:14:34,150 --> 00:14:36,130
corresponding Soviet cities.

195
00:14:36,630 --> 00:14:41,050
In the event that one day the U .S.
wants to carry out some sort of chemical

196
00:14:41,050 --> 00:14:43,670
biological attack against a Soviet city.

197
00:14:45,230 --> 00:14:48,870
First up is a viable proxy for brutally
cold Leningrad.

198
00:14:49,230 --> 00:14:50,590
Minneapolis in Minnesota.

199
00:14:51,230 --> 00:14:56,430
Here, they want to find out how a
biological weapon might get inside

200
00:14:56,430 --> 00:15:00,590
types of buildings. To cover up what
they're doing and reassure the public,

201
00:15:00,590 --> 00:15:04,970
come up with the story that they're
testing a smoke screen to protect the

202
00:15:04,970 --> 00:15:06,110
from Soviet missiles.

203
00:15:06,330 --> 00:15:09,410
Local authorities are eager to help, so
they sign on.

204
00:15:10,130 --> 00:15:16,650
The Army selects a range of testing
locations, factories, office buildings,

205
00:15:16,650 --> 00:15:17,950
one site stands out.

206
00:15:19,790 --> 00:15:21,510
Clinton Elementary School.

207
00:15:23,250 --> 00:15:29,130
They mount sprayers on the roof and
release clouds of zinc cadmium sulfide

208
00:15:29,130 --> 00:15:31,030
the surrounding building and the
playground.

209
00:15:32,910 --> 00:15:37,730
Inside the school, they put detectors to
measure how much zinc cadmium sulfide

210
00:15:37,730 --> 00:15:39,130
is seeping in.

211
00:15:40,250 --> 00:15:44,230
What the Army learns from all of this is
that even during the winter, when

212
00:15:44,230 --> 00:15:47,270
everyone's largely sealed up in interior
spaces,

213
00:15:49,100 --> 00:15:51,860
The pathogen is still going to find its
way into those spaces.

214
00:15:52,220 --> 00:15:56,460
That means there is nowhere to hide from
a biological attack of this sort.

215
00:15:57,640 --> 00:16:02,320
By February 1953, the Army decides to
scale up the experiment.

216
00:16:03,340 --> 00:16:08,120
How would a bioweapon spread across a
bigger city, like Moscow?

217
00:16:10,080 --> 00:16:13,020
They set their sights on St. Louis,
Missouri.

218
00:16:13,440 --> 00:16:17,420
The Chemical Corps focuses their
experiments on the Pruitt -Igoe housing

219
00:16:17,420 --> 00:16:22,200
project. They put sprayers on the
rooftops of all 33 towers to start

220
00:16:22,200 --> 00:16:26,580
zinc cadmium sulfide. Other sprayers are
mounted inside vehicles, and those

221
00:16:26,580 --> 00:16:29,160
squirt out toxic powder while they drive
around.

222
00:16:29,420 --> 00:16:33,980
Over two years, the chemical core sprays
more than 2 ,000 pounds of zinc cadmium

223
00:16:33,980 --> 00:16:36,700
sulfide over just 10 square miles of St.
Louis.

224
00:16:37,540 --> 00:16:39,740
The results are disturbing.

225
00:16:40,180 --> 00:16:45,320
In urban canyons between tall buildings,
wind turbulence disperses the particles

226
00:16:45,320 --> 00:16:46,320
vertically.

227
00:16:46,590 --> 00:16:50,350
But in open spaces like parks, they
linger at ground level.

228
00:16:51,330 --> 00:16:56,670
In an attack, some places are going to
be largely spared, while others are

229
00:16:56,670 --> 00:16:57,670
to be devastated.

230
00:16:58,290 --> 00:17:02,570
Next, the Army wants to understand the
spread over multiple states.

231
00:17:03,230 --> 00:17:09,970
So it launches its biggest experiment
yet, called Operation LAC, Large

232
00:17:09,970 --> 00:17:11,349
Area Coverage.

233
00:17:11,730 --> 00:17:14,329
An aircraft is loaded with zinc cadmium
sulfide.

234
00:17:14,990 --> 00:17:18,349
and it sprays it during a flight from
South Dakota to Minneapolis.

235
00:17:18,810 --> 00:17:20,829
The results are alarming.

236
00:17:21,310 --> 00:17:26,430
That's because they detect particles
from that flight 1 ,200 miles away.

237
00:17:27,050 --> 00:17:33,310
It proves that even with a small
quantity of a pathogen distributed in

238
00:17:33,370 --> 00:17:36,050
it can reach a much broader geographical
area.

239
00:17:36,840 --> 00:17:40,760
Over the next 10 years, the U .S. Army
Chemical Corps conducts 200 experiments

240
00:17:40,760 --> 00:17:44,640
with zinc -cadmium sulfide in a
geographical region stretching from the

241
00:17:44,640 --> 00:17:49,040
Mountains to the Atlantic coast,
affecting 40 different states.

242
00:17:49,540 --> 00:17:55,140
The Chemical Corps learns that a single
tank of weaponized biological agents can

243
00:17:55,140 --> 00:17:59,720
spread disease to an area three times
the size of New York City.

244
00:18:01,660 --> 00:18:07,570
By the end of the 1960s, The Army has
the information it needs. The

245
00:18:07,570 --> 00:18:12,030
are wrapped up and the details are
buried under top -secret classification.

246
00:18:13,750 --> 00:18:17,110
The Army keeps the experiments hidden
for decades.

247
00:18:18,730 --> 00:18:22,310
Then, in 1994, the truth is revealed.

248
00:18:25,350 --> 00:18:29,070
When journalists publish their findings,
the public is...

249
00:18:29,280 --> 00:18:33,100
Outraged, and rightly so. These were
experiments done on unwitting Americans,

250
00:18:33,380 --> 00:18:35,620
and the experiments could potentially
have been deadly.

251
00:18:36,200 --> 00:18:41,980
The Army maintains that, yeah, cadmium
may be a dangerous chemical, but the

252
00:18:41,980 --> 00:18:45,680
amounts of exposure were so low, they
were non -toxic.

253
00:18:47,160 --> 00:18:53,060
This entire operation suggests the
mindset during that era of the Cold War.

254
00:18:53,060 --> 00:18:57,180
you're talking about the survivability
of the country in a biological,

255
00:18:57,300 --> 00:19:01,400
or nuclear attack, There's very little
that the U .S. government was unwilling

256
00:19:01,400 --> 00:19:02,400
to do.

257
00:19:03,740 --> 00:19:07,980
At the end of the 1940s, the Soviet
Union and China begin talks over

258
00:19:07,980 --> 00:19:13,660
alliance. Stalin wants a deeper
understanding of Chairman Mao, so he

259
00:19:13,660 --> 00:19:15,160
scientist into Mao's bathroom.

260
00:19:19,480 --> 00:19:24,540
Communist China's leader, Chairman Mao
Zedong, rolls into Moscow aiming to

261
00:19:24,540 --> 00:19:26,820
an alliance with Soviet Premier Joseph
Stalin.

262
00:19:27,390 --> 00:19:31,470
Stalin sees Mao as something less than
him, and he has no problem keeping him

263
00:19:31,470 --> 00:19:34,390
waiting. In fact, he keeps him waiting
for days.

264
00:19:34,690 --> 00:19:39,290
This insult is a deliberate ploy. The
issue is that Stalin, as is often the

265
00:19:39,290 --> 00:19:40,970
with Stalin, doesn't trust Mao.

266
00:19:41,470 --> 00:19:45,430
And he's letting him wait for days on
end because he wants to get into Mao's

267
00:19:45,430 --> 00:19:47,630
head. He wants to figure out what makes
the man tick.

268
00:19:48,850 --> 00:19:52,750
While Mao waits in Moscow, Stalin turns
to his secret police.

269
00:19:53,400 --> 00:19:58,900
He orders the NKVD to conduct a bizarre
experiment, which will remain secret for

270
00:19:58,900 --> 00:19:59,900
over six decades.

271
00:20:00,340 --> 00:20:04,840
He wants them to build a complete
psychological profile of the Chinese

272
00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:07,860
starting in a very unusual place.

273
00:20:09,460 --> 00:20:14,480
It sounds insane, but one of the ways
that they plan to do this is by

274
00:20:14,480 --> 00:20:17,620
who he is, getting a piece of him, if
you will.

275
00:20:18,120 --> 00:20:19,700
They're going to analyze his poo.

276
00:20:21,830 --> 00:20:26,270
For years, the NKVD labs have been
running a bizarre and top -secret

277
00:20:26,270 --> 00:20:29,250
experimental program in scatological
research.

278
00:20:29,530 --> 00:20:32,730
That's the study of excrement to gain
intelligence.

279
00:20:33,470 --> 00:20:35,030
The theory is simple.

280
00:20:35,430 --> 00:20:39,970
Soviet scientists believe a person's
waist can provide insights into their

281
00:20:39,970 --> 00:20:40,970
psyche.

282
00:20:41,190 --> 00:20:45,010
Stalin's team is under the impression
that high levels of the amino acid

283
00:20:45,010 --> 00:20:50,020
tryptophan in the poo indicate a calm
and approachable personality.

284
00:20:50,340 --> 00:20:53,840
The deficiency in potassium could be an
indication of a nervous and

285
00:20:53,840 --> 00:20:54,860
unpredictable person.

286
00:20:55,580 --> 00:21:02,060
To run their tests, the NKVD needs one
key thing, a sample from the chairman

287
00:21:02,060 --> 00:21:03,060
himself.

288
00:21:03,580 --> 00:21:08,780
Mao gets invited to the Kremlin to have
talks with Stalin, but the NKVD makes

289
00:21:08,780 --> 00:21:12,900
sure that those talks get delayed day
after day after day.

290
00:21:13,140 --> 00:21:14,760
While Mao is waiting...

291
00:21:15,040 --> 00:21:19,180
The Kremlin staff serve up a series of
elaborate banquets for him and his team.

292
00:21:19,960 --> 00:21:22,860
Huge feasts piled high with delicacies.

293
00:21:23,640 --> 00:21:26,740
But this lavish hospitality is a trap.

294
00:21:27,540 --> 00:21:31,260
Really, they're just looking to ensure
that the man has to have a bowel

295
00:21:31,260 --> 00:21:35,740
there in the Kremlin. And they have a
specially rigged toilet that they want

296
00:21:35,740 --> 00:21:36,639
to use.

297
00:21:36,640 --> 00:21:40,100
NKVD agents install special collection
toilets.

298
00:21:40,920 --> 00:21:43,020
These don't connect to the sewers.

299
00:21:43,800 --> 00:21:46,940
Instead, they funnel the waste into
special containers.

300
00:21:47,920 --> 00:21:49,200
It's a dirty trick.

301
00:21:49,460 --> 00:21:54,760
Eventually, the NKVD succeeds in
collecting some of Mao's products.

302
00:21:58,040 --> 00:22:03,240
Once collected, the samples are rushed
to a classified lab where a team of

303
00:22:03,240 --> 00:22:06,380
dedicated scientists meticulously
analyze them.

304
00:22:08,360 --> 00:22:12,240
They test for tryptophan, potassium, and
other chemicals.

305
00:22:12,910 --> 00:22:16,250
things that they ultimately think are
going to be indicative of Mao's mood.

306
00:22:17,250 --> 00:22:24,150
The excrement experiment is reportedly a
success. The NKVD team sends a detailed

307
00:22:24,150 --> 00:22:29,390
scatological, psychological portrait of
Mao directly to Stalin.

308
00:22:29,650 --> 00:22:35,430
The report about Mao sent to Stalin has
never been found, so the details inside

309
00:22:35,430 --> 00:22:37,050
it are lost to history.

310
00:22:37,570 --> 00:22:43,400
What we do know is that after reviewing
the scatological profile, Stalin is said

311
00:22:43,400 --> 00:22:46,040
to be scathing about Mao's communist
credentials.

312
00:22:46,660 --> 00:22:49,420
This man is a radish, he declares.

313
00:22:49,660 --> 00:22:53,580
He's only red on the outside, but his
insides are white.

314
00:22:54,180 --> 00:22:59,340
This makes Stalin very wary of engaging
in any significant partnerships.

315
00:22:59,720 --> 00:23:04,220
The Chinese leader leaves Moscow with a
watered -down treaty and none of the

316
00:23:04,220 --> 00:23:05,780
financial support he's been hoping for.

317
00:23:06,440 --> 00:23:11,680
Stalin's scatological lab doesn't last
much longer. After he died in 1953, his

318
00:23:11,680 --> 00:23:16,620
successors didn't have the same
predilection about analyzing the

319
00:23:16,620 --> 00:23:17,620
humans.

320
00:23:17,840 --> 00:23:21,920
The experiment remains classified for
the next six decades.

321
00:23:22,400 --> 00:23:28,980
Then in 2016, former Russian agent Igor
Adamanenko reveals Stalin's

322
00:23:28,980 --> 00:23:29,980
obsessions.

323
00:23:31,080 --> 00:23:35,020
He reports that he's found the details
of this poop research in a declassified

324
00:23:35,020 --> 00:23:36,880
file within Soviet archives.

325
00:23:38,780 --> 00:23:41,080
Revelation makes headlines worldwide.

326
00:23:42,680 --> 00:23:47,920
As one of the Cold War's most bizarre
experiments is finally brought to light.

327
00:23:52,020 --> 00:23:56,860
As World War II comes to an end,
millions across Europe are on the brink

328
00:23:56,860 --> 00:23:57,860
famine.

329
00:23:58,120 --> 00:24:01,520
To maintain order, the U .S. must figure
out how to help them.

330
00:24:02,120 --> 00:24:07,360
So, far from the front lines, the War
Department begins an extraordinary

331
00:24:07,360 --> 00:24:12,260
experiment, intentionally starving
healthy American volunteers.

332
00:24:15,860 --> 00:24:22,180
By 1944, Allied forces are ashore in
Normandy. They're driving the enemy, and

333
00:24:22,180 --> 00:24:24,180
they will soon be in Germany itself.

334
00:24:24,910 --> 00:24:27,430
Allied leaders are about to face a new
challenge.

335
00:24:27,710 --> 00:24:31,850
Millions of civilians across the war
zone are on the edge of starvation, and

336
00:24:31,850 --> 00:24:35,030
it's going to be the job of the victors
to feed them back to health.

337
00:24:35,490 --> 00:24:40,150
To be prepared, they need to understand
how people's metabolism changes as they

338
00:24:40,150 --> 00:24:42,890
experience malnutrition, and that has
never been studied properly.

339
00:24:43,810 --> 00:24:44,810
Enter Dr.

340
00:24:44,950 --> 00:24:51,510
Ansel Keys, a physiologist at the
University of Minnesota and special

341
00:24:51,510 --> 00:24:54,010
assistant to the U .S. Secretary of War.

342
00:24:55,210 --> 00:24:59,450
To solve the famine problem, Keyes
proposes a dangerous and controversial

343
00:24:59,450 --> 00:25:05,110
experiment. He wants to do a controlled
study under lab conditions of human

344
00:25:05,110 --> 00:25:08,190
starvation and recovery from starvation.

345
00:25:09,110 --> 00:25:12,630
The War Department likes the plan and
gives Keyes its backing.

346
00:25:13,090 --> 00:25:17,890
Now he needs volunteers who are willing
to starve for their country.

347
00:25:18,230 --> 00:25:22,790
To get useful results, Keyes wants to
use healthy young men for the

348
00:25:22,930 --> 00:25:26,930
but... Most of those are off fighting in
the war, but not all of them.

349
00:25:27,370 --> 00:25:31,830
Keys identifies an untapped pool of
healthy young men who are still in the U

350
00:25:31,830 --> 00:25:34,490
.S., conscientious objectors.

351
00:25:35,590 --> 00:25:39,370
Keys recruits using a brochure signed
off on by the War Department.

352
00:25:39,630 --> 00:25:44,250
On the cover is a picture of starving
children, with the text reading, Will

353
00:25:44,250 --> 00:25:48,130
starve that they be better fed? It's an
emotional appeal, but it works.

354
00:25:48,750 --> 00:25:50,790
More than 200 men volunteer.

355
00:25:51,050 --> 00:25:55,910
Keys picks... 36th of the healthiest and
most psychologically stable candidates

356
00:25:55,910 --> 00:25:57,090
to be his guinea pigs.

357
00:25:57,310 --> 00:26:01,610
He sets up a facility literally
underneath the bleachers at the

358
00:26:01,610 --> 00:26:04,890
Minnesota so that the men are away from
prying eyes.

359
00:26:05,450 --> 00:26:10,990
In February 1945, the starvation phase
of the experiment begins.

360
00:26:12,090 --> 00:26:16,690
To start, he splashes the men's daily
calorie intake in half.

361
00:26:17,420 --> 00:26:22,400
Keys wants to impose a reduced calorie
intake, but also make the subjects burn

362
00:26:22,400 --> 00:26:23,840
more energy by exercising.

363
00:26:24,140 --> 00:26:27,480
So he puts them through the Harvard
Fitness Test, which is a series of

364
00:26:27,480 --> 00:26:30,520
that are designed to push people to the
limits of their endurance.

365
00:26:31,080 --> 00:26:34,340
The effects of starvation are swift and
shocking.

366
00:26:35,200 --> 00:26:41,260
The subjects drop around 20 % of their
body weight in the first 12 weeks.

367
00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:45,680
Their ribs are sticking out. They've got
no energy. They're just...

368
00:26:46,010 --> 00:26:50,930
Wilting. One subject gets himself
trapped in the department store's

369
00:26:50,930 --> 00:26:53,730
door. He's just too weak to push himself
through.

370
00:26:54,490 --> 00:26:58,470
And it's not just physical. As the weeks
go by, the starving subjects are

371
00:26:58,470 --> 00:27:01,850
getting irritable, they're getting
depressed, and not surprisingly, they

372
00:27:01,850 --> 00:27:04,270
totally obsessed with food.

373
00:27:04,990 --> 00:27:10,690
Two men get into a physical brawl in a
canteen line over a scrap of pasta.

374
00:27:10,950 --> 00:27:12,770
That's how complete this...

375
00:27:13,660 --> 00:27:17,000
Session with food becomes for them.
They're fighting even over a couple of

376
00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:18,000
scraps.

377
00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:24,220
One individual starts having visions of
cannibalism. He's fantasizing about

378
00:27:24,220 --> 00:27:28,160
food, and he reaches the limits of his
mental endurance.

379
00:27:28,480 --> 00:27:31,260
Look at that generous helping of rich,
juicy barbecue.

380
00:27:31,500 --> 00:27:36,680
He actually sneaks out of the study,
goes into town, and engages in a massive

381
00:27:36,680 --> 00:27:40,340
caloric binge in the form of milkshakes
and ice cream sundaes.

382
00:27:41,100 --> 00:27:44,800
After six months, the starvation phase
finally ends.

383
00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:48,000
Next comes the refeeding.

384
00:27:48,620 --> 00:27:53,160
He's believed that by gradually
increasing the subject's calorie intake,

385
00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:56,960
safely feed them back to health without
triggering any negative reaction.

386
00:27:57,420 --> 00:28:00,820
He splits the subjects into four groups,
and the different groups get different

387
00:28:00,820 --> 00:28:02,400
amounts of extra food.

388
00:28:02,860 --> 00:28:08,300
Some groups are also given extra protein
and vitamins, while others just get the

389
00:28:08,300 --> 00:28:09,480
base amount of carbohydrates.

390
00:28:10,760 --> 00:28:13,700
Now a new and dangerous problem arises.

391
00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:19,240
Their body weight continues to plummet,
even though they're re -nourishing these

392
00:28:19,240 --> 00:28:20,240
test subjects.

393
00:28:20,500 --> 00:28:24,960
Keyes discovers that the men are
shedding retained edema fluid that's

394
00:28:24,960 --> 00:28:28,800
masking just how much weight they've
lost. This is a potential disaster for

395
00:28:28,800 --> 00:28:35,260
study. To get the experiment back on
track, Keyes decides to supersize his

396
00:28:35,260 --> 00:28:36,260
portions.

397
00:28:37,530 --> 00:28:41,850
Doubles the calories for the group. And
to the relief of the scientific team, it

398
00:28:41,850 --> 00:28:44,210
worked. The men finally began to
recover.

399
00:28:44,530 --> 00:28:48,870
Keyes realized that in refeeding a
starving population, vitamins and

400
00:28:48,870 --> 00:28:53,050
were really a luxury. It was the
calories that mattered. They needed at

401
00:28:53,050 --> 00:28:54,610
,000 calories a day.

402
00:28:55,250 --> 00:28:59,030
Keyes passes that information on to the
War Department, who immediately put it

403
00:28:59,030 --> 00:29:01,350
to practical use in post -World War II
Europe.

404
00:29:02,350 --> 00:29:05,690
Keyes wraps up the experiment in October
1945.

405
00:29:06,890 --> 00:29:09,270
But his complete findings remain hidden.

406
00:29:09,950 --> 00:29:14,230
It's not until five years later that he
finally reveals the data in his

407
00:29:14,230 --> 00:29:17,130
masterwork, The Biology of Human
Starvation.

408
00:29:18,390 --> 00:29:23,450
The results of the starvation experiment
are used worldwide in famine relief.

409
00:29:25,870 --> 00:29:31,450
In 1979, Soviet scientists are secretly
experimenting with deadly bacteria.

410
00:29:31,730 --> 00:29:34,310
And when a lab technician makes a simple
mistake,

411
00:29:35,240 --> 00:29:37,020
An entire city will pay the price.

412
00:29:40,460 --> 00:29:44,360
The U .S. and the Soviets have signed a
treaty banning biological weapons

413
00:29:44,360 --> 00:29:48,900
research. The Soviets are looking to get
an edge and have no problem cheating.

414
00:29:49,200 --> 00:29:53,320
They're continuing research to create
even more dangerous weaponized diseases.

415
00:29:54,540 --> 00:30:00,340
In the city of Sverdlovsk, laboratories
at Compound 19 are running three shifts

416
00:30:00,340 --> 00:30:04,080
a day, working to develop a killer
weapon using anthrax.

417
00:30:05,690 --> 00:30:10,610
Anthrax is a deadly disease caused by
the bacteria Bacillus anthracis.

418
00:30:11,130 --> 00:30:17,650
If inhaled, its fatality rate is up to
90%. Even a fraction of a milligram

419
00:30:17,650 --> 00:30:18,650
can kill.

420
00:30:18,870 --> 00:30:23,430
It's perfect for a weapon because the
spores are tough enough to be delivered

421
00:30:23,430 --> 00:30:29,270
a bomb and small enough to disperse
after the explosion as an invisible

422
00:30:29,270 --> 00:30:30,270
mist.

423
00:30:30,690 --> 00:30:33,610
Compound 19's goals are absolutely
terrifying.

424
00:30:34,650 --> 00:30:39,670
Inside airtight chambers, scientists are
testing new anthrax strains in aerosol

425
00:30:39,670 --> 00:30:44,230
form on monkeys hoping to create a
deadly super weapon.

426
00:30:44,690 --> 00:30:49,710
They're attempting to create a new
strain that does not respond to

427
00:30:50,410 --> 00:30:55,630
This work is incredibly dangerous, not
just for the workers, but also for the

428
00:30:55,630 --> 00:30:57,310
citizens in the surrounding city.

429
00:30:57,930 --> 00:31:03,310
Compound 19 uses a complex system of
filters to purify the contaminated air

430
00:31:03,310 --> 00:31:05,990
before it gets vented into the
atmosphere outside.

431
00:31:06,350 --> 00:31:11,730
The lab's safety system seems foolproof,
but its chain of protection is only as

432
00:31:11,730 --> 00:31:13,130
strong as the weakest link.

433
00:31:13,930 --> 00:31:17,290
On Friday, March 30th, that link
snapped.

434
00:31:18,950 --> 00:31:23,810
A technician is finishing up the
afternoon shift on an anthrax production

435
00:31:23,950 --> 00:31:27,430
and he shuts down as normal before the
next shift comes on duty.

436
00:31:27,920 --> 00:31:32,260
He notices that there's a filter that's
clogged. He takes it out, and he leaves

437
00:31:32,260 --> 00:31:36,520
a note letting the next shift know that,
hey, I've taken it out. This needs

438
00:31:36,520 --> 00:31:37,479
attention.

439
00:31:37,480 --> 00:31:40,500
Now, this is where the safety protocols
break down.

440
00:31:40,800 --> 00:31:45,280
The officer in charge fails to make a
note in his logbook, and the

441
00:31:45,280 --> 00:31:46,280
note gets lost.

442
00:31:46,300 --> 00:31:50,180
The next shift comes on, and the anthrax
production line gets going again.

443
00:31:51,660 --> 00:31:54,040
The machinery is switched back on.

444
00:31:54,890 --> 00:31:59,150
What the scientists don't realize is
that the critical filter is still

445
00:32:01,670 --> 00:32:07,030
When the plant is restarted without the
filter in place, it begins to pump out

446
00:32:07,030 --> 00:32:10,110
anthrax aerosol into the cold night air.

447
00:32:10,910 --> 00:32:15,690
A steady wind carries this invisible
cloud of deadly spores right over the

448
00:32:15,690 --> 00:32:17,230
sleeping city of Sverdlov.

449
00:32:18,450 --> 00:32:22,570
It seeps into buildings, getting inhaled
by unknowing citizens.

450
00:32:23,580 --> 00:32:27,460
No one realizes for hours that this has
happened.

451
00:32:28,380 --> 00:32:34,300
When a technician at Compound 19 finally
fought the error, they shut down the

452
00:32:34,300 --> 00:32:36,840
line and replaced the filter. But it's
too late.

453
00:32:38,240 --> 00:32:41,460
It doesn't take long for the anthrax to
take effect.

454
00:32:41,780 --> 00:32:45,160
The first victims have no idea what's
hit them.

455
00:32:45,710 --> 00:32:50,590
32 -year -old Riza Shmirnova is working
at a nearby ceramics factory when a co

456
00:32:50,590 --> 00:32:52,670
-worker notices her hands are turning
blue.

457
00:32:53,890 --> 00:32:55,230
She's rushed to the hospital.

458
00:32:55,510 --> 00:32:59,230
She's feverish, struggling to breathe,
and slips into a coma.

459
00:32:59,870 --> 00:33:04,670
Over the next few days, more people fall
sick with mysterious flu -like symptoms

460
00:33:04,670 --> 00:33:10,670
that progress to respiratory failure and
then to a horrible, choking death.

461
00:33:11,250 --> 00:33:14,050
Soon, the hospitals of spread love...

462
00:33:14,320 --> 00:33:21,040
are overwhelmed with victim at least 64
people die local doctors

463
00:33:21,040 --> 00:33:26,700
are baffled the symptoms are indicative
of inhalation anthrax but that almost

464
00:33:26,700 --> 00:33:33,620
never happens in nature when that starts
to really sink in terror seizes

465
00:33:33,620 --> 00:33:40,460
the city kremlin officials realize that
compound 19 secrets are about to be

466
00:33:40,460 --> 00:33:41,460
exposed

467
00:33:42,570 --> 00:33:45,870
So they dispatch agents to contain the
fallout.

468
00:33:47,410 --> 00:33:51,390
The KGB comes in and enforces a citywide
cover -up.

469
00:33:51,950 --> 00:33:54,150
They confiscate patient files.

470
00:33:54,390 --> 00:33:59,690
They take autopsy reports. They even
bring in trucks that spray down the town

471
00:33:59,690 --> 00:34:02,850
with chlorine bleach that turns the
trees yellow.

472
00:34:03,910 --> 00:34:08,690
News of that many deaths is bound to
leak out within the Soviet Union and to

473
00:34:08,690 --> 00:34:11,510
West. So the Soviet authorities create a
cover story.

474
00:34:11,920 --> 00:34:16,460
They say the deaths are caused by
gastrointestinal anthrax, which is

475
00:34:16,460 --> 00:34:21,900
explainable by citizens eating
contaminated meat that they bought on

476
00:34:21,900 --> 00:34:22,900
market.

477
00:34:23,440 --> 00:34:27,020
Moscow keeps the deadly lab leak hidden
for more than a decade.

478
00:34:28,020 --> 00:34:32,040
Then, in 1991, the Soviet Union
collapses.

479
00:34:32,820 --> 00:34:38,300
A new Russian president, Boris Yeltsin,
comes to power and soon reveals the

480
00:34:38,300 --> 00:34:40,679
truth about the Sverdlovsk incident.

481
00:34:42,950 --> 00:34:47,630
Yeltsin spills the beans. He's trying to
be a good partner and demonstrate to

482
00:34:47,630 --> 00:34:52,190
the West that he's trustworthy, and he
lets it be known that, no, it had

483
00:34:52,190 --> 00:34:53,330
to do with black market meat.

484
00:34:53,730 --> 00:34:58,110
Harvard bioweapons expert Matthew
Meselson gets permission to investigate

485
00:34:58,110 --> 00:35:03,510
further. He travels to Sverdlovsk, he
tracks down survivors, and he talks to

486
00:35:03,510 --> 00:35:04,650
families of the dead.

487
00:35:05,150 --> 00:35:11,090
He confirms exactly what Yeltsin's
admitted to. This was caused by military

488
00:35:11,090 --> 00:35:12,090
development.

489
00:35:14,250 --> 00:35:19,150
In 1994, Meselson finally publishes his
research paper, and it conclusively

490
00:35:19,150 --> 00:35:25,170
reveals that the Sverdlovsk incident was
caused by weapons research at Compound

491
00:35:25,170 --> 00:35:26,170
19.

492
00:35:26,870 --> 00:35:33,190
That accident caused the deadliest
recorded anthrax outbreak in human

493
00:35:34,830 --> 00:35:39,510
After the U .S. dropped two nuclear
bombs on Japan, World War II is over.

494
00:35:40,270 --> 00:35:44,630
But the plutonium core of a third bomb
is ready and waiting at the Los Alamos

495
00:35:44,630 --> 00:35:45,630
National Laboratory.

496
00:35:46,610 --> 00:35:51,890
Scientists put it to use there in
experiments that are so dangerous, they

497
00:35:51,890 --> 00:35:53,310
it the Demon Core.

498
00:35:58,310 --> 00:36:04,210
The war is won, and America's atomic
whiz kids are now working to master the

499
00:36:04,210 --> 00:36:05,950
apocalyptic power they've unleashed.

500
00:36:07,020 --> 00:36:11,500
Louis Floten is a 35 -year -old physics
prodigy working at Los Alamos Lab.

501
00:36:11,720 --> 00:36:16,740
He has a pretty impressive resume. He's
a veteran of the Manhattan Project, and

502
00:36:16,740 --> 00:36:22,900
he's also known as a bit of a cowboy,
both in his style of dress as well as

503
00:36:22,900 --> 00:36:24,320
fearless approach to science.

504
00:36:24,880 --> 00:36:29,620
He's doing experiments to understand how
to make the plutonium bomb more

505
00:36:29,620 --> 00:36:33,240
efficient. He is a physicist who is
absolutely brilliant.

506
00:36:33,770 --> 00:36:36,890
But he certainly is someone who's
willing to bend the rules if it helps to

507
00:36:36,890 --> 00:36:40,470
enhance his persona as a risk taker.

508
00:36:40,890 --> 00:36:46,450
In May 1946, just weeks before he's set
to leave Los Alamos for a teaching job,

509
00:36:46,970 --> 00:36:50,790
Slotin heads into the lab to show his
replacement how to do his signature

510
00:36:50,790 --> 00:36:55,710
experiment, working directly on the
leftover plutonium bomb core.

511
00:36:56,670 --> 00:37:02,490
The core is a softball -sized sphere of
weaponized plutonium alloy.

512
00:37:03,120 --> 00:37:08,140
It's so radioactive that it's warm to
the touch. It's so dangerous that it's

513
00:37:08,140 --> 00:37:10,200
given the nickname the Demon Core.

514
00:37:10,500 --> 00:37:15,040
The Demon Core is constantly emitting
subatomic particles called neutrons. If

515
00:37:15,040 --> 00:37:17,820
those neutrons can escape freely, the
core remains stable.

516
00:37:18,040 --> 00:37:22,820
But if those neutrons are somehow
trapped in the core and build up, it'll

517
00:37:22,820 --> 00:37:25,060
unstable and effectively become a bomb.

518
00:37:25,880 --> 00:37:30,860
His mentor, the nuclear pioneer Enrico
Fermi, warns him about the experiment.

519
00:37:31,290 --> 00:37:35,370
If you keep doing it, you'll be dead
within the year. But he keeps on doing

520
00:37:35,530 --> 00:37:39,270
The audience is transfixed as Slotin
gets to work on the demon core.

521
00:37:39,510 --> 00:37:44,810
To get his data, Slotin must
intentionally edge the demon core toward

522
00:37:44,810 --> 00:37:49,150
explosion while trying to stop just
short of triggering one.

523
00:37:49,890 --> 00:37:55,470
He lowers a neutron -reflecting
beryllium shell over the demon core and

524
00:37:55,470 --> 00:37:58,090
how many neutrons start building up
inside it.

525
00:37:58,870 --> 00:38:00,410
This is incredibly useful.

526
00:38:00,990 --> 00:38:02,970
for the scientists, but also incredibly
dangerous.

527
00:38:03,950 --> 00:38:08,990
The closer the shell gets to the core,
the closer the core comes to a

528
00:38:08,990 --> 00:38:09,990
supercritical state.

529
00:38:10,150 --> 00:38:14,590
If the beryllium shell closes completely
over the demon core, the energy inside

530
00:38:14,590 --> 00:38:19,590
will build up to supercriticality in a
catastrophic instant. And that means

531
00:38:19,590 --> 00:38:23,510
either a burst of radiation or an all
-out explosion.

532
00:38:24,910 --> 00:38:26,930
Los Alamos has rules for everything.

533
00:38:27,470 --> 00:38:30,450
You need to, right? You're dealing with
some of the most dangerous substances on

534
00:38:30,450 --> 00:38:36,390
Earth. And the regulations Los Alamos
puts in place is to use wooden spacers

535
00:38:36,390 --> 00:38:39,550
keep the two hemispheres of these shells
apart.

536
00:38:40,170 --> 00:38:44,450
Slotin, however, as the cowboy, decides
to do it his own way. Instead of wooden

537
00:38:44,450 --> 00:38:50,650
spacers, he uses a flathead screwdriver
to wedge open these two shells just

538
00:38:50,650 --> 00:38:52,290
enough to keep it from going critical.

539
00:38:53,710 --> 00:38:55,810
It's a reckless method, but it works.

540
00:38:56,350 --> 00:38:59,670
In his left hand, he holds the shell of
the core. In the right hand, a

541
00:38:59,670 --> 00:39:03,110
screwdriver with a flat tip just between
the two halves of the hemisphere.

542
00:39:05,050 --> 00:39:08,810
After tempting fate, Slotin's luck
finally runs out.

543
00:39:09,210 --> 00:39:12,550
The screwdriver slips, and the gap snaps
shut.

544
00:39:13,610 --> 00:39:18,530
There's a silent, blinding flash of blue
light.

545
00:39:19,490 --> 00:39:23,290
And then a wave of heat sweeps across
the room.

546
00:39:24,600 --> 00:39:26,780
Radiation is expanded in every
direction.

547
00:39:27,240 --> 00:39:30,920
Slotin knows it's too late for him to
run. He immediately lunges forward and

548
00:39:30,920 --> 00:39:32,920
rips the beryllium shell off with his
bare hands.

549
00:39:34,520 --> 00:39:38,140
This quick decision breaks the chain
reaction and puts the demon core back to

550
00:39:38,140 --> 00:39:41,780
sleep. He saves the lives of the other
men in the room, but it's too late for

551
00:39:41,780 --> 00:39:47,760
him. Being so close to the demon core,
Slotin's absorbed a massive dose of

552
00:39:47,760 --> 00:39:48,760
radiation.

553
00:39:49,600 --> 00:39:52,000
Slotin's left hand feels like it's on
fire.

554
00:39:52,880 --> 00:39:55,380
A sour metallic taste fills his mouth.

555
00:39:56,040 --> 00:39:59,780
As he leaves the room, he begins to
vomit uncontrollably.

556
00:40:01,540 --> 00:40:06,060
On the way to the hospital, Slotin turns
to one of the observers and he

557
00:40:06,060 --> 00:40:11,620
apologizes. I'm sorry I got you into
this, but I have less than a 50 % chance

558
00:40:11,620 --> 00:40:14,200
living. And even that was optimistic.

559
00:40:16,280 --> 00:40:18,460
Over the next nine days.

560
00:40:19,250 --> 00:40:24,550
Slotin's body slowly disintegrates. He
has what's known as three -dimensional

561
00:40:24,550 --> 00:40:30,210
burns, which is essentially a sunburn
inside of his body. He also has gangrene

562
00:40:30,210 --> 00:40:32,050
and massive organ failure.

563
00:40:32,410 --> 00:40:37,830
On May 30th, he dies in agony, a victim
of the Demon Corps.

564
00:40:41,330 --> 00:40:46,490
Although Slotin's death makes the
papers, for decades the full details of

565
00:40:46,490 --> 00:40:52,530
fatal Demon Corps experiment are buried
under top -secret classification, hidden

566
00:40:52,530 --> 00:40:54,550
for over a quarter of a century.

567
00:40:56,130 --> 00:41:02,470
Finally, in 1989, the New York Times
publishes the full story and reveal

568
00:41:02,470 --> 00:41:07,910
the true horror of the Demon Core
experiments to an unsuspecting public.

569
00:41:09,510 --> 00:41:15,350
From toxic tests in black -site labs to
bold ideas that push back the boundaries

570
00:41:15,350 --> 00:41:20,240
of human knowledge, Governments have
long conducted extraordinary experiments

571
00:41:20,240 --> 00:41:25,760
secret. Though it may take years, the
covert science eventually finds its way

572
00:41:25,760 --> 00:41:27,160
into the light.