1 00:00:08,384 --> 00:00:10,853 Once there was a man 2 00:00:10,887 --> 00:00:14,223 who went searching for the true age of the earth. 3 00:00:17,294 --> 00:00:19,595 In his struggles to discover it, 4 00:00:19,629 --> 00:00:22,464 he stumbled on a grave threat. 5 00:00:25,902 --> 00:00:28,804 Beautiful spring day, Pasadena, California. 6 00:00:28,839 --> 00:00:30,706 1966. 7 00:00:30,740 --> 00:00:33,843 Business is booming, life's good. 8 00:00:35,178 --> 00:00:37,279 Except for one man, 9 00:00:37,314 --> 00:00:39,915 a geochemist named Clair Patterson, 10 00:00:39,950 --> 00:00:41,450 known as Pat. 11 00:00:41,484 --> 00:00:44,220 He knows that everyone he sees 12 00:00:44,254 --> 00:00:48,257 is in danger from an invisible menace. 13 00:00:52,762 --> 00:00:54,730 And he's determined to put a stop to it, 14 00:00:54,764 --> 00:00:56,832 no matter what the cost. 15 00:02:32,841 --> 00:02:34,341 "The Clean Room" 16 00:02:39,269 --> 00:02:42,171 You can't really tell Pat Patterson's story 17 00:02:42,205 --> 00:02:44,173 without going all the way back 18 00:02:44,207 --> 00:02:46,575 to the time long before the earth, 19 00:02:46,610 --> 00:02:48,844 our home, was built, 20 00:02:48,879 --> 00:02:52,882 when the stars brought forth its substance. 21 00:02:54,150 --> 00:02:55,551 Iron. 22 00:02:55,585 --> 00:02:59,054 For the planet's molten core. 23 00:02:59,089 --> 00:03:00,623 Oxygen. 24 00:03:00,657 --> 00:03:04,293 For the rocks and the water and the air. 25 00:03:04,327 --> 00:03:05,895 Carbon. 26 00:03:05,929 --> 00:03:08,931 For diamonds. And life. 27 00:03:36,193 --> 00:03:39,161 A star is born, 28 00:03:39,196 --> 00:03:42,164 ours. 29 00:03:42,199 --> 00:03:46,168 For the first few million years, things ran smoothly 30 00:03:46,203 --> 00:03:50,539 as dust grains snowballed into progressively larger objects. 31 00:03:54,811 --> 00:03:57,179 But once these objects grew massive enough 32 00:03:57,214 --> 00:03:59,215 to have sufficient gravity, 33 00:04:07,157 --> 00:04:11,126 they began pulling each other into crossing orbits. 34 00:04:17,334 --> 00:04:19,635 This is how our world looked 35 00:04:19,669 --> 00:04:22,638 when it was new. 36 00:04:22,672 --> 00:04:25,641 No part of the earth's surface could survive intact 37 00:04:25,675 --> 00:04:27,977 from that time to the present. 38 00:04:31,848 --> 00:04:35,484 So, with all its birth and early childhood records erased, 39 00:04:35,519 --> 00:04:38,888 how could we ever hope to know with any certainty 40 00:04:38,922 --> 00:04:41,323 the age of our world? 41 00:04:41,358 --> 00:04:45,361 People have been wondering about this since antiquity. 42 00:04:47,831 --> 00:04:51,200 In 1650 archbishop James Ussher of Ireland 43 00:04:51,234 --> 00:04:55,037 made a calculation that seemed to settle the question. 44 00:04:55,071 --> 00:04:58,474 Like almost everyone else of his time and his world, 45 00:04:58,508 --> 00:05:02,244 he accepted the biblical account of creation as authoritative. 46 00:05:02,279 --> 00:05:04,580 But the Bible does not give exact years, 47 00:05:04,614 --> 00:05:07,249 so Ussher searched for an event in the Old Testament 48 00:05:07,284 --> 00:05:09,685 that corresponded to a known historical date. 49 00:05:09,719 --> 00:05:13,355 He found it in the second book of kings, 50 00:05:13,390 --> 00:05:16,358 the death of the Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar 51 00:05:16,393 --> 00:05:18,761 in 562 B.C. 52 00:05:18,795 --> 00:05:21,530 Usher added up the generations of the prophets 53 00:05:21,565 --> 00:05:23,098 and the Patriarchs, 54 00:05:23,133 --> 00:05:26,535 the 139 "Begats" of the Old Testament, 55 00:05:26,570 --> 00:05:29,705 between Adam and the time of Nebuchadnezzar, 56 00:05:29,739 --> 00:05:31,106 and discovered 57 00:05:31,141 --> 00:05:33,209 that the world began on October 22 58 00:05:33,243 --> 00:05:36,212 in the year 4004 B.C. 59 00:05:36,246 --> 00:05:38,614 At 6:00 P.M. 60 00:05:38,648 --> 00:05:40,616 It was a Saturday. 61 00:05:40,650 --> 00:05:43,452 Archbishop Ussher's chronology was taken as gospel 62 00:05:43,487 --> 00:05:45,287 in the Western world. 63 00:05:45,322 --> 00:05:48,724 Until we turned to another book to find the age of the earth, 64 00:05:48,758 --> 00:05:51,560 the one that was written in the rocks themselves. 65 00:05:51,595 --> 00:05:54,730 Most of the rock layers in the walls of the Grand Canyon 66 00:05:54,764 --> 00:05:57,733 are made of sediments, deposited as fine grains 67 00:05:57,767 --> 00:06:01,770 in a time when this part of the world was a sea. 68 00:06:07,677 --> 00:06:10,746 Over eons, the sediments were compressed into rock 69 00:06:10,780 --> 00:06:12,748 under the weight of succeeding layers, 70 00:06:12,782 --> 00:06:15,150 with the oldest ones at the bottom. 71 00:06:22,526 --> 00:06:24,860 Pick a layer, any layer. 72 00:06:32,802 --> 00:06:34,270 How about that one? 73 00:06:39,776 --> 00:06:43,212 Once upon a time, there must have been shallow water here. 74 00:06:44,381 --> 00:06:46,348 Back in the Precambrian period, 75 00:06:46,383 --> 00:06:48,117 about a billion years ago, 76 00:06:48,151 --> 00:06:51,153 there was only one kind of life. 77 00:06:53,223 --> 00:06:56,625 These blue-green bacteria were busy harvesting sunlight 78 00:06:56,660 --> 00:06:58,294 and making oxygen. 79 00:06:58,328 --> 00:07:00,296 For them, it was just a waste product, 80 00:07:00,330 --> 00:07:03,299 but for the animals who evolved later, including us, 81 00:07:03,333 --> 00:07:06,335 it was the breath of life. 82 00:07:09,039 --> 00:07:11,774 Okay. Pick another layer. 83 00:07:11,808 --> 00:07:13,209 How about that one? 84 00:07:14,911 --> 00:07:17,980 This layer is known as the bright angel shale. 85 00:07:18,014 --> 00:07:22,017 It formed about 530 million years ago. 86 00:07:23,720 --> 00:07:27,556 These tracks were left 260 million years ago. 87 00:07:27,591 --> 00:07:30,025 So you want to know the age of the earth? 88 00:07:30,027 --> 00:07:33,028 Just figure out how long it took to deposit each layer 89 00:07:33,030 --> 00:07:35,397 and then, instead of counting the "Begats," 90 00:07:35,432 --> 00:07:37,233 add up all the layers. 91 00:07:37,267 --> 00:07:39,235 Easy, right? 92 00:07:39,269 --> 00:07:42,671 We know from observing this process, 93 00:07:42,706 --> 00:07:44,306 because it still happens today 94 00:07:44,341 --> 00:07:46,208 in oceans and lakes around the world. 95 00:07:46,243 --> 00:07:49,845 That sediments can be laid down at widely different rates. 96 00:07:49,880 --> 00:07:52,248 It usually happens very slowly, 97 00:07:52,282 --> 00:07:55,351 say a foot of sediment per 1,000 years. 98 00:07:55,385 --> 00:07:57,353 But when the's a rare catastrophic flood, 99 00:07:57,387 --> 00:07:59,088 it can happen much faster, 100 00:07:59,122 --> 00:08:02,424 as much as a foot in just a few days. 101 00:08:12,903 --> 00:08:14,937 Many geologists tried this method 102 00:08:14,971 --> 00:08:16,605 to calculate the age of the earth. 103 00:08:16,640 --> 00:08:18,207 They used the Grand Canyon 104 00:08:18,241 --> 00:08:20,609 and other sedimentary sequences around the planet. 105 00:08:20,644 --> 00:08:23,612 But their answers ranged too widely to be of much use, 106 00:08:23,647 --> 00:08:27,483 anywhere between three million years and 15 billion. 107 00:08:32,956 --> 00:08:34,523 And there were other problems with this method: 108 00:08:34,558 --> 00:08:36,425 Even the deepest layers of rock 109 00:08:36,459 --> 00:08:38,694 are not the oldest things on earth. 110 00:08:38,728 --> 00:08:41,096 Why? Because not even rocks could survive 111 00:08:41,131 --> 00:08:42,898 the earth's violent infancy. 112 00:08:45,201 --> 00:08:48,504 In space it's another story. 113 00:09:06,338 --> 00:09:08,940 Are there any mementos from when the earth was born, 114 00:09:08,974 --> 00:09:12,343 objects that could possibly tell us its true age? 115 00:09:12,378 --> 00:09:16,347 I know a place where the unused bricks and mortar left over 116 00:09:16,382 --> 00:09:19,784 from the creation of our solar system can be found. 117 00:09:19,819 --> 00:09:23,521 It lies between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars. 118 00:09:23,556 --> 00:09:26,858 Here is the stuff of the newborn earth, 119 00:09:26,892 --> 00:09:29,460 adrift in cold storage, unchanged 120 00:09:29,495 --> 00:09:32,263 ever since that time. 121 00:09:32,298 --> 00:09:34,265 A million or so years ago, 122 00:09:34,300 --> 00:09:39,003 a large asteroid happened to jostle a much smaller one, 123 00:09:39,038 --> 00:09:41,439 sending it on a new trajectory, 124 00:09:41,474 --> 00:09:43,708 a collision course that ended one night 125 00:09:43,742 --> 00:09:47,178 some 50,000 years ago. 126 00:10:09,101 --> 00:10:12,470 It must have shattered the peace of the Grand Canyon 127 00:10:12,505 --> 00:10:14,439 as it sailed overhead... 128 00:10:19,945 --> 00:10:23,515 to blast out this crater 129 00:10:23,549 --> 00:10:27,452 in what would one day be known as Arizona. 130 00:10:37,863 --> 00:10:40,932 Fragments of the iron asteroid that made this crater 131 00:10:40,966 --> 00:10:43,668 have survived intact. 132 00:10:43,702 --> 00:10:46,538 If we just knew how long ago that iron was forged, 133 00:10:46,572 --> 00:10:48,273 we'd know the age of the solar system. 134 00:10:48,307 --> 00:10:49,741 Including the earth. 135 00:10:49,775 --> 00:10:51,609 But how could we know that? 136 00:10:51,644 --> 00:10:53,244 Pick a rock. 137 00:10:53,279 --> 00:10:55,480 Any rock. 138 00:10:58,417 --> 00:10:59,484 How about that one? 139 00:11:01,420 --> 00:11:04,055 Some atoms in this rock could be radioactive, 140 00:11:04,089 --> 00:11:06,424 which means they spontaneously disintegrate 141 00:11:06,459 --> 00:11:08,126 and become other elements. 142 00:11:08,160 --> 00:11:11,896 A uranium atom first becomes a thorium atom. 143 00:11:11,931 --> 00:11:15,233 On average, it takes a few billion years. 144 00:11:15,267 --> 00:11:17,402 The thorium is much more unstable. 145 00:11:17,436 --> 00:11:20,271 In less than a month it turns into protactinium. 146 00:11:20,306 --> 00:11:24,609 A minute later, protactinium becomes something else. 147 00:11:24,643 --> 00:11:28,446 The atom undergoes ten more nuclear transmutations... 148 00:11:28,481 --> 00:11:31,783 Until it reaches the last stop on the decay chain: 149 00:11:31,817 --> 00:11:35,753 A stable atom of lead. 150 00:11:35,788 --> 00:11:38,990 And lead it will remain... 151 00:11:39,024 --> 00:11:41,025 For eternity. 152 00:11:43,629 --> 00:11:46,965 In the 20th century there was a huge effort, lasting decades, 153 00:11:46,999 --> 00:11:49,734 to measure the time it takes for each radioactive element 154 00:11:49,768 --> 00:11:51,836 to transmute into another element. 155 00:11:51,871 --> 00:11:55,807 Physicists discovered that the atoms of each unstable element 156 00:11:55,841 --> 00:11:57,809 decay at a constant rate. 157 00:11:57,843 --> 00:12:02,013 The nucleus of an atom is a kind of sanctuary, 158 00:12:02,047 --> 00:12:06,518 immune to the shocks and upheavals of its environment. 159 00:12:06,552 --> 00:12:08,520 Hit it with a hammer. 160 00:12:13,526 --> 00:12:15,527 Boil it in oil. 161 00:12:20,566 --> 00:12:24,002 Vaporize it. 162 00:12:24,036 --> 00:12:26,538 The nuclear clock goes on ticking, 163 00:12:26,572 --> 00:12:28,807 keeping an absolute standard of time 164 00:12:28,841 --> 00:12:31,876 that does not look to the sun and the stars. 165 00:12:31,911 --> 00:12:34,679 What better way to find the true age of the earth 166 00:12:34,713 --> 00:12:37,182 than with the uranium atom? 167 00:12:37,216 --> 00:12:39,384 If you knew what fraction of the uranium in a rock 168 00:12:39,418 --> 00:12:41,152 had turned into lead, 169 00:12:41,187 --> 00:12:43,455 you could calculate how much time had passed 170 00:12:43,489 --> 00:12:45,523 since the rock was formed. 171 00:12:45,558 --> 00:12:47,525 But there's a problem. 172 00:12:47,560 --> 00:12:49,794 The rocks in the earth that were present when it was formed 173 00:12:49,829 --> 00:12:51,896 are no more. 174 00:12:51,931 --> 00:12:58,036 They've all been crushed, melted, remade. 175 00:12:58,070 --> 00:13:00,004 There is a way to calculate the amount of lead 176 00:13:00,039 --> 00:13:01,639 that was present from the beginning. 177 00:13:01,674 --> 00:13:03,141 It's a gift from the heavens: 178 00:13:03,175 --> 00:13:04,976 Meteorites. 179 00:13:05,010 --> 00:13:08,413 This one... A fragment of the one 180 00:13:08,447 --> 00:13:11,216 that made this giant crater... Was ideal. 181 00:13:11,250 --> 00:13:13,418 The amount of lead deep inside this meteorite 182 00:13:13,452 --> 00:13:16,254 is exactly the same as when earth formed. 183 00:13:16,288 --> 00:13:19,691 Since you know the constant rate of uranium decay, 184 00:13:19,725 --> 00:13:22,093 that should give you the age of the meteorite, 185 00:13:22,128 --> 00:13:25,396 which was made at the same time as the earth. 186 00:13:25,431 --> 00:13:27,065 All you had to do was measure 187 00:13:27,099 --> 00:13:29,901 the amount of lead in meteorites. 188 00:13:29,935 --> 00:13:32,737 Easy, right? 189 00:13:38,277 --> 00:13:40,445 A scientist named Harrison Brown, 190 00:13:40,479 --> 00:13:41,913 at the University of Chicago, 191 00:13:41,947 --> 00:13:45,617 first understood this in 1947. 192 00:13:45,651 --> 00:13:49,888 He chose a young graduate student, Clair Patterson, to do the work. 193 00:13:51,790 --> 00:13:55,627 Patterson couldn't possibly know how this assignment 194 00:13:55,661 --> 00:13:58,096 would alter the course of his life... 195 00:13:58,130 --> 00:14:00,932 And ours. 196 00:14:13,479 --> 00:14:17,015 What seemed like pure scientific research 197 00:14:17,049 --> 00:14:19,284 turned out to be so much more. 198 00:14:42,365 --> 00:14:46,201 Clair Patterson, son of a letter carrier from Iowa, 199 00:14:46,235 --> 00:14:50,238 was rebellious by nature and not very good in school. 200 00:14:50,273 --> 00:14:52,707 But he was a natural born scientist. 201 00:14:52,742 --> 00:14:56,144 A geologist named Harrison Brown 202 00:14:56,178 --> 00:14:59,047 gave Patterson what seemed like a straightforward 203 00:14:59,081 --> 00:15:01,049 scientific assignment. 204 00:15:01,083 --> 00:15:02,350 First off, Pat... 205 00:15:02,385 --> 00:15:03,952 You mind if I call you Pat? 206 00:15:05,388 --> 00:15:07,222 Now, I know you're no geologist... 207 00:15:07,256 --> 00:15:09,891 probably couldn't tell granite from feldspar... 208 00:15:09,926 --> 00:15:11,660 but I hear you really know your way 209 00:15:11,694 --> 00:15:13,795 around a mass spectrometer, Pat. 210 00:15:14,931 --> 00:15:16,398 Good. You married, Pat? 211 00:15:16,432 --> 00:15:19,601 Yeah, Laurie. Yeah, she-she's a chemist, too. 212 00:15:19,635 --> 00:15:21,603 Uh, we worked on the Manhattan Project together, 213 00:15:21,637 --> 00:15:23,271 at Oak Ridge. 214 00:15:23,306 --> 00:15:26,207 Good. Okay, well, first thing you need to know: 215 00:15:26,242 --> 00:15:29,010 There are these tiny crystals called zircons. 216 00:15:29,045 --> 00:15:32,614 Real small, size of a pinhead, tight as a drum and tough. 217 00:15:32,648 --> 00:15:34,616 Nothing gets in or out of 'em. 218 00:15:34,650 --> 00:15:37,252 And I'm talking for billions of years. 219 00:15:37,286 --> 00:15:40,021 We know how old these grains are because we've already 220 00:15:40,056 --> 00:15:42,257 dated the rocks they came from. 221 00:15:42,291 --> 00:15:45,427 Each little zircon has only a few parts per million 222 00:15:45,461 --> 00:15:48,697 of uranium inside, and that uranium is decaying 223 00:15:48,731 --> 00:15:51,700 to even tinier amounts of lead. 224 00:15:51,734 --> 00:15:53,868 Now, you figure out how to measure that lead, 225 00:15:53,903 --> 00:15:56,571 and you'll know how to do it for a meteorite. 226 00:15:56,606 --> 00:15:58,773 You think you can do that, Pat? 227 00:15:58,808 --> 00:16:01,376 Yeah. Yeah, I... I don't see why not. 228 00:16:01,410 --> 00:16:04,112 Good, because when you do, you'll be the first man 229 00:16:04,146 --> 00:16:05,914 to know the age of the earth. 230 00:16:05,948 --> 00:16:07,449 And you'll be famous. 231 00:16:09,852 --> 00:16:12,420 It'll be easy. 232 00:16:12,455 --> 00:16:14,456 Duck soup. 233 00:16:34,377 --> 00:16:37,012 While Patterson tried to measure 234 00:16:37,046 --> 00:16:39,648 the trace amounts of lead in the zircon grains, 235 00:16:39,682 --> 00:16:42,017 another grad student, George Tilton, 236 00:16:42,051 --> 00:16:45,186 was measuring the amount of uranium in the same grains. 237 00:16:45,221 --> 00:16:47,455 All Patterson had to do 238 00:16:47,490 --> 00:16:51,660 was measure the amount of lead with equal accuracy. 239 00:16:51,694 --> 00:16:53,028 She's all yours, Pat. 240 00:16:53,062 --> 00:16:55,196 Measured it six times. Same result: 241 00:16:55,231 --> 00:16:56,798 3.2 parts per million. 242 00:16:56,832 --> 00:16:58,833 Yeah, nice going, George, thanks. 243 00:17:03,739 --> 00:17:06,107 Tilton's results were always the same. 244 00:17:06,142 --> 00:17:10,845 But Patterson's results on the lead content of the same grains 245 00:17:10,880 --> 00:17:13,181 were wildly inconsistent. 246 00:17:13,216 --> 00:17:15,217 This made no sense. 247 00:17:28,164 --> 00:17:30,198 Could the lab have been contaminated 248 00:17:30,233 --> 00:17:33,401 by previous experiments with lead? 249 00:17:33,436 --> 00:17:35,403 Maybe it was the naturally high amounts 250 00:17:35,438 --> 00:17:39,174 of lead in the environment that were messing up his results. 251 00:17:44,380 --> 00:17:46,047 Patterson did everything he could 252 00:17:46,082 --> 00:17:49,269 to cleanse the lab of any lead. 253 00:17:59,080 --> 00:18:02,716 There was still 100 times too much lead. 254 00:18:02,750 --> 00:18:05,686 He had been at it for more than two years. 255 00:18:05,720 --> 00:18:08,422 Duck soup, my ass. 256 00:18:18,600 --> 00:18:21,401 Patterson realized he would have to boil his containers 257 00:18:21,436 --> 00:18:24,504 and tools in acid and purify all his chemicals 258 00:18:24,539 --> 00:18:26,607 to further reduce the lead in his lab. 259 00:18:27,909 --> 00:18:29,376 Hey, you... Oh, I... 260 00:18:29,410 --> 00:18:30,611 No! I'm new here. 261 00:18:30,645 --> 00:18:31,845 Uh, where's the men's room? 262 00:18:31,879 --> 00:18:34,581 Ugh, damn it. 263 00:18:34,616 --> 00:18:39,253 All of Patterson's obsessive scouring and sterilizing 264 00:18:39,287 --> 00:18:41,788 had still not solved the problem. 265 00:18:41,823 --> 00:18:44,958 He would need to design his own lab and build it from scratch. 266 00:18:44,993 --> 00:18:48,328 The opportunity arose when Harrison Brown moved 267 00:18:48,363 --> 00:18:51,465 to the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena 268 00:18:51,499 --> 00:18:54,601 and invited Patterson to join him. 269 00:19:07,282 --> 00:19:08,715 Okay, Tom, that's enough. 270 00:19:08,750 --> 00:19:11,451 We can move through the interlock, now. 271 00:19:11,486 --> 00:19:15,088 Patterson had now been at it for six years, 272 00:19:15,123 --> 00:19:16,957 doggedly tracking down and eliminating 273 00:19:16,991 --> 00:19:18,458 the many sources of lead 274 00:19:18,493 --> 00:19:20,928 that were compromising his instruments. 275 00:19:20,962 --> 00:19:25,098 He had built the world's first ultra-clean room. 276 00:19:25,133 --> 00:19:27,434 He was finally able to measure how much lead 277 00:19:27,468 --> 00:19:29,436 was actually in the rock. 278 00:19:29,470 --> 00:19:32,272 One whose age had already been established. 279 00:19:32,307 --> 00:19:35,676 Now, at last, Patterson was ready 280 00:19:35,710 --> 00:19:38,378 to tackle the iron meteorite, 281 00:19:38,413 --> 00:19:43,283 to find the true age of the earth. 282 00:19:43,318 --> 00:19:45,085 He brought his meteorite specimen 283 00:19:45,119 --> 00:19:48,655 back to the Argonne National Laboratory... 284 00:19:48,690 --> 00:19:51,425 Where the world's most accurate mass spectrometer 285 00:19:51,459 --> 00:19:53,360 had just become operational. 286 00:19:56,231 --> 00:19:58,966 Doc, this can't wait till tomorrow? 287 00:20:15,917 --> 00:20:20,487 Okay, little buddy, we're gonna have to vaporize you. 288 00:20:30,365 --> 00:20:33,834 A mass spectrometer uses magnets 289 00:20:33,868 --> 00:20:36,203 to separate the elements contained in a sample, 290 00:20:36,237 --> 00:20:39,506 so that the amounts of each element can be quantified. 291 00:20:39,540 --> 00:20:42,209 This would provide the last missing piece 292 00:20:42,243 --> 00:20:44,711 in the puzzle of the earth's true age. 293 00:20:48,950 --> 00:20:52,686 Now I'm gonna ionize you, yeah. 294 00:20:52,720 --> 00:20:54,855 Sounds worse than it is. 295 00:20:54,889 --> 00:20:57,224 What's an electron between friends? 296 00:20:57,258 --> 00:21:02,396 Having isolated the sample from any outside lead contamination, 297 00:21:02,430 --> 00:21:05,832 Patterson was, at last, ready to measure the amount 298 00:21:05,867 --> 00:21:08,535 of lead and uranium in the sample 299 00:21:08,570 --> 00:21:12,606 and calculate how many years before it had formed. 300 00:21:12,640 --> 00:21:15,175 The true age of the earth. 301 00:21:15,210 --> 00:21:20,514 Thank you to all the scientists who came before. 302 00:21:20,548 --> 00:21:24,284 Thank you, geologists. 303 00:21:24,319 --> 00:21:27,788 Thank you, Charles Lyell. 304 00:21:30,091 --> 00:21:32,459 Thank you, Michael Faraday. 305 00:21:39,267 --> 00:21:41,635 J.J. Thomson. 306 00:21:47,642 --> 00:21:49,776 Ernest Rutherford. 307 00:21:58,152 --> 00:22:01,922 Thank you, Harrison Brown. 308 00:22:07,662 --> 00:22:13,467 The world is four and a half billion years old. 309 00:22:13,501 --> 00:22:17,004 We did it. 310 00:22:27,482 --> 00:22:29,416 Mom? 311 00:22:29,450 --> 00:22:31,251 Mom. 312 00:22:31,286 --> 00:22:32,953 Patterson wanted his mother to be 313 00:22:32,987 --> 00:22:34,821 the first person to know what he had struggled 314 00:22:37,859 --> 00:22:40,360 The true age of the earth. 315 00:22:43,731 --> 00:22:45,666 His reward for this discovery? 316 00:22:45,700 --> 00:22:47,768 A world of trouble. 317 00:22:47,802 --> 00:22:51,438 He didn't know it, but he was on a collision course 318 00:22:51,472 --> 00:22:55,509 with some of the most powerful people on the planet. 319 00:23:22,060 --> 00:23:24,428 To the ancient Romans, 320 00:23:24,463 --> 00:23:27,431 the majestic ringed planet Saturn was not a real place, 321 00:23:27,466 --> 00:23:30,267 not a world, but a God King, 322 00:23:30,302 --> 00:23:33,270 a son of the marriage of heaven and earth, 323 00:23:33,305 --> 00:23:37,575 the God of lead. 324 00:23:37,609 --> 00:23:40,945 These columns are all that remain 325 00:23:40,979 --> 00:23:43,381 of this oldest temple in the Roman forum, 326 00:23:43,415 --> 00:23:46,951 first consecrated to Saturn 2,500 years ago. 327 00:23:46,985 --> 00:23:49,620 It also served as Rome's treasury 328 00:23:49,654 --> 00:23:52,123 and its bureau of weights and measures. 329 00:23:54,559 --> 00:23:57,561 Tonight is Saturnalia, 330 00:23:57,596 --> 00:23:59,964 the wild December holiday in Saturn's honor. 331 00:23:59,998 --> 00:24:02,400 And everyday life will be turned upside down. 332 00:24:02,434 --> 00:24:04,735 The masters will serve the slaves, 333 00:24:04,770 --> 00:24:07,204 no wars or executions will be allowed, 334 00:24:07,239 --> 00:24:09,106 and gifts will be exchanged. 335 00:24:09,141 --> 00:24:10,808 A couple of hundred years from now, 336 00:24:10,842 --> 00:24:13,044 when the early church fathers look for a way 337 00:24:13,078 --> 00:24:14,745 to attract more pagans, 338 00:24:14,780 --> 00:24:17,782 they'll decide to turn Saturnalia into Christmas, 339 00:24:17,816 --> 00:24:19,817 making it the latest in a long line 340 00:24:19,851 --> 00:24:21,986 of winter solstice holidays to be re-purposed. 341 00:24:29,961 --> 00:24:33,631 This towering statue of Saturn may have look something like this 342 00:24:33,665 --> 00:24:37,468 on the night of saturnalia. 343 00:24:37,502 --> 00:24:42,339 But in ancient Rome, this God had another, darker side. 344 00:24:42,374 --> 00:24:47,445 That other Saturn is a cold and sullen, sluggish ghoul, 345 00:24:47,479 --> 00:24:50,514 given to irrational bouts of rage. 346 00:24:50,549 --> 00:24:54,618 He committed an unspeakable act of violence against his father, 347 00:24:54,653 --> 00:24:57,154 and devoured his own children. 348 00:24:57,189 --> 00:24:59,023 Of all the planets visible 349 00:24:59,057 --> 00:25:01,359 to the unaided eyes of the ancients, 350 00:25:01,393 --> 00:25:03,828 Saturn is the slowest, 351 00:25:03,862 --> 00:25:06,030 which could explain why it's named 352 00:25:06,064 --> 00:25:08,065 after the God of lead. 353 00:25:10,702 --> 00:25:12,370 But there's no denying 354 00:25:12,404 --> 00:25:14,672 that the more negative aspects of Saturn's personality 355 00:25:14,506 --> 00:25:18,476 reflect the age-old knowledge of the symptoms of lead poisoning. 356 00:25:18,510 --> 00:25:19,977 Funny thing about the Romans. 357 00:25:20,012 --> 00:25:21,612 Even though they knew 358 00:25:21,647 --> 00:25:24,115 that contact with lead inevitably poisoned people, 359 00:25:24,149 --> 00:25:26,517 rendered them sterile and drove them mad, 360 00:25:26,552 --> 00:25:28,686 what metal did they use to make the pipes 361 00:25:28,720 --> 00:25:31,255 that carried the water through their legendary aqueducts? 362 00:25:31,290 --> 00:25:33,257 I'll give you a hint. 363 00:25:33,292 --> 00:25:35,059 The word "plumbing" comes 364 00:25:35,093 --> 00:25:38,996 from the Latin word for lead, "plumbum." 365 00:25:49,908 --> 00:25:53,477 What metal did they use to line their famous baths? 366 00:25:53,512 --> 00:25:57,482 And how did they sweeten their wines when they were too sour? 367 00:25:57,516 --> 00:26:01,018 What did they use to line their vats and cooking pots? 368 00:26:01,053 --> 00:26:03,154 There are some historians who believe 369 00:26:03,188 --> 00:26:06,524 that the widespread use of lead was a major cause 370 00:26:06,558 --> 00:26:09,327 in the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. 371 00:26:09,361 --> 00:26:11,729 Why did they continue to use lead 372 00:26:11,763 --> 00:26:13,998 long after they knew it was toxic? 373 00:26:15,601 --> 00:26:20,004 It was cheap, very malleable, easy to work with, 374 00:26:20,038 --> 00:26:23,074 and the ones who were exposed to it at its most lethal levels... 375 00:26:23,108 --> 00:26:25,476 the miners and workers who processed the lead... 376 00:26:25,511 --> 00:26:27,512 were considered expendable. 377 00:26:27,546 --> 00:26:29,514 Their lives didn't matter. 378 00:26:29,548 --> 00:26:31,382 They were slaves. 379 00:26:31,416 --> 00:26:34,352 Most of the earth's lead started off at a safe distance 380 00:26:34,386 --> 00:26:36,988 from living things, down below the surface, 381 00:26:37,022 --> 00:26:39,357 but about 8,500 years ago, 382 00:26:39,391 --> 00:26:42,493 humans began figuring out how to dig into the earth 383 00:26:42,528 --> 00:26:44,095 and extract metals from rock. 384 00:26:44,129 --> 00:26:46,264 By the time this villa was new, 385 00:26:46,298 --> 00:26:48,566 just a couple of thousand years ago, 386 00:26:48,600 --> 00:26:53,004 the romans were producing 80,000 tons of lead a year. 387 00:26:53,038 --> 00:26:57,842 Why is lead so poisonous to us? 388 00:26:57,876 --> 00:27:00,511 Because when it gets into our bodies, 389 00:27:00,546 --> 00:27:04,215 lead mimics other metals, like zinc and iron, 390 00:27:04,249 --> 00:27:08,119 the ones our cells actually need to grow and flourish. 391 00:27:10,823 --> 00:27:13,858 Enzymes in the cell are fooled by the lead's masquerade, 392 00:27:13,892 --> 00:27:16,194 and they begin to dance. 393 00:27:16,228 --> 00:27:19,730 But it's a dance of death, because the lead is an imposter 394 00:27:19,765 --> 00:27:22,466 that can't fulfill the cell's vital needs. 395 00:27:22,501 --> 00:27:26,137 Lead also blocks neurotransmitters, 396 00:27:26,171 --> 00:27:29,140 the communication network between the cells. 397 00:27:31,343 --> 00:27:33,778 It interferes with the molecular receptors 398 00:27:33,812 --> 00:27:35,913 that are vital to memory and learning. 399 00:27:35,948 --> 00:27:38,883 This is especially damaging to children, 400 00:27:38,917 --> 00:27:42,453 but lead poisoning spares no one. 401 00:27:42,488 --> 00:27:45,823 Starting at the turn of the 20th century, 402 00:27:45,858 --> 00:27:48,559 the makers of leaded paint hired the fledgling 403 00:27:48,594 --> 00:27:51,429 advertising industry to persuade the consumer 404 00:27:51,463 --> 00:27:53,965 that lead was child-friendly. 405 00:27:53,999 --> 00:27:57,134 A little toy lead soldier once to the Dutch boy said, 406 00:27:57,169 --> 00:28:00,137 "we have some fine relations who all contain some lead." 407 00:28:00,172 --> 00:28:03,341 "Why don't you give a party so folks can meet and see 408 00:28:03,375 --> 00:28:06,077 the other happy members of the great lead family?" 409 00:28:06,111 --> 00:28:08,913 The first one at the party was gay electric light. 410 00:28:08,947 --> 00:28:10,748 "He said, " I'm very brilliant." 411 00:28:10,782 --> 00:28:12,583 "I always shine at night." 412 00:28:12,618 --> 00:28:15,653 "No little of my brilliance is due to my glass head," 413 00:28:15,687 --> 00:28:17,188 which gives a light much brighter 414 00:28:17,222 --> 00:28:19,257 "because it's made with lead." 415 00:28:19,291 --> 00:28:22,293 A pair or rubbers entered and took the Dutch boy's arm. 416 00:28:22,327 --> 00:28:25,997 "They said, " we are protectors who keep you dry and warm. 417 00:28:26,031 --> 00:28:28,933 "You knew when we were molded, the man who made us said," 418 00:28:28,967 --> 00:28:30,668 we're strong and tough and lively 419 00:28:30,702 --> 00:28:33,104 "because in us, there's lead." 420 00:28:33,138 --> 00:28:36,274 But lead production didn't really shift into high gear 421 00:28:36,308 --> 00:28:38,509 until the early 1920's 422 00:28:38,544 --> 00:28:40,878 when chemist Thomas Midgley and inventor. 423 00:28:40,913 --> 00:28:42,947 Charles Kettering of General Motors 424 00:28:42,981 --> 00:28:45,683 found that tetraethyl lead could be marketed 425 00:28:45,717 --> 00:28:49,387 as an anti-knock additive to gasoline. 426 00:28:51,356 --> 00:28:54,992 They formed a new company called the Ethyl Corporation. 427 00:28:55,027 --> 00:28:57,795 It had once been considered for use 428 00:28:57,830 --> 00:29:01,232 as a poison gas by the U.S. war department. 429 00:29:01,266 --> 00:29:05,069 Unlike the lead in paint, tetraethyl lead was fat soluble. 430 00:29:05,103 --> 00:29:08,206 A half a cup of it on your skin could kill you. 431 00:29:08,240 --> 00:29:10,308 The manufacturers calculated 432 00:29:10,342 --> 00:29:13,311 that they could sell 60 million tons of it a year. 433 00:29:13,345 --> 00:29:15,580 Only problem was, 434 00:29:15,614 --> 00:29:17,715 some of the workers who processed the stuff 435 00:29:17,749 --> 00:29:22,520 in factories in Delaware and New Jersey were going insane, 436 00:29:22,554 --> 00:29:26,257 hallucinating, jumping out of windows. 437 00:29:26,291 --> 00:29:28,159 They died screaming. 438 00:29:30,028 --> 00:29:32,897 This was a selling job that would require a lot more 439 00:29:32,931 --> 00:29:34,398 than dancing light bulbs. 440 00:29:41,106 --> 00:29:45,209 What was needed was a man of science 441 00:29:45,244 --> 00:29:49,213 to calm the public's fears and improve lead's image. 442 00:29:49,248 --> 00:29:52,350 They found the right man for the job. 443 00:29:52,384 --> 00:29:54,886 This was one of the first times 444 00:29:54,920 --> 00:29:57,054 that the authority of science was used 445 00:29:57,089 --> 00:30:00,091 to cloak a threat to public health and the environment. 446 00:30:00,125 --> 00:30:03,261 Robert Kehoe, a young doctor from Cincinnati, 447 00:30:03,295 --> 00:30:05,263 was hired by GM. 448 00:30:05,297 --> 00:30:08,132 He raised scientific doubts in the public mind 449 00:30:08,167 --> 00:30:10,968 about the dangers of lead. 450 00:30:11,003 --> 00:30:14,438 Lead was naturally occurring in the environment, he said. 451 00:30:14,473 --> 00:30:16,874 Yes, there might be occupational hazards 452 00:30:16,909 --> 00:30:19,777 for the people who worked with lead, but 453 00:30:19,812 --> 00:30:23,447 that could be best handled by industry self-regulation. 454 00:30:23,482 --> 00:30:25,716 And there was no evidence to suggest 455 00:30:25,751 --> 00:30:28,953 that lead posed any threat to the consumer. 456 00:30:28,987 --> 00:30:32,890 For decades no one challenged him... 457 00:30:32,925 --> 00:30:36,961 Until Clair Patterson went searching 458 00:30:36,995 --> 00:30:40,364 for the age of the earth. 459 00:30:44,722 --> 00:30:47,190 Claire Patterson's research on the age of the earth 460 00:30:47,224 --> 00:30:48,992 had made him the world's leading expert 461 00:30:49,026 --> 00:30:50,794 on measuring trace amounts of lead. 462 00:30:50,828 --> 00:30:52,729 And like everyone else at the time, 463 00:30:52,763 --> 00:30:55,965 he assumed the prevalence of lead occurred naturally. 464 00:30:59,003 --> 00:31:02,238 True scientist that he was, he set out 465 00:31:02,273 --> 00:31:04,040 to discover everything he could 466 00:31:04,075 --> 00:31:07,877 about how lead circulates through the environment. 467 00:31:07,912 --> 00:31:10,280 On a grant from the American Petroleum Institute, 468 00:31:10,314 --> 00:31:13,216 he carefully measured the concentrations of lead 469 00:31:13,250 --> 00:31:15,285 in deep and shallow seawater. 470 00:31:15,319 --> 00:31:17,787 Once again, Patterson found 471 00:31:17,822 --> 00:31:19,923 that his initial data made no sense. 472 00:31:19,957 --> 00:31:22,725 There were only minuscule concentrations of lead 473 00:31:22,760 --> 00:31:24,394 in the deep ocean water. 474 00:31:24,428 --> 00:31:26,930 But in shallow waters and at the surface, 475 00:31:26,964 --> 00:31:30,667 the concentrations of lead were hundreds of times greater. 476 00:31:30,701 --> 00:31:33,136 In any ocean, it takes a few hundred years 477 00:31:33,170 --> 00:31:35,138 for the shallow waters to mix with the deep. 478 00:31:35,172 --> 00:31:38,241 This told Patterson that the large amount of lead 479 00:31:38,275 --> 00:31:41,344 in the surface waters had arrived recently. 480 00:31:41,378 --> 00:31:44,314 Otherwise it would have been more evenly distributed. 481 00:31:44,348 --> 00:31:46,783 Knowing the quantity of lead in the shallow seas 482 00:31:46,817 --> 00:31:49,753 and the time needed to mix it into the deeper layers, 483 00:31:49,787 --> 00:31:54,791 he was able to estimate the rate of lead contamination at the surface. 484 00:31:54,825 --> 00:31:57,660 Patterson asked himself 485 00:31:57,695 --> 00:32:02,899 what could possibly supply lead to the world's oceans at such a rate. 486 00:32:23,104 --> 00:32:25,939 Where's all that lead coming from? 487 00:32:25,974 --> 00:32:27,808 I think I know, Harrison. 488 00:32:27,842 --> 00:32:30,978 It's from leaded gasoline. 489 00:32:31,012 --> 00:32:33,881 Well, then we've got a problem, Pat, 490 00:32:33,915 --> 00:32:38,118 because that's the same place the money comes from. 491 00:32:38,459 --> 00:32:42,128 But Patterson would not give in. 492 00:32:42,162 --> 00:32:45,198 He went right to work on publishing the scientific paper 493 00:32:45,232 --> 00:32:49,135 that would make the case against leaded gasoline. 494 00:32:49,169 --> 00:32:52,305 When he sent the paper to the prestigious scientific journal 495 00:32:52,339 --> 00:32:55,308 Nature, Patterson put his own name second. 496 00:32:55,342 --> 00:32:57,310 He often did that with his students 497 00:32:57,344 --> 00:32:59,279 to advance their reputations. 498 00:32:59,313 --> 00:33:02,482 He made a lifelong point of shunning the limelight 499 00:33:02,516 --> 00:33:04,817 and the privileges that come with it. 500 00:33:07,855 --> 00:33:10,156 Only three days after publication... 501 00:33:12,359 --> 00:33:14,827 the push-back began. 502 00:33:24,318 --> 00:33:26,819 - Hello, Dr. Patterson. - Pleasure to meet you. 503 00:33:26,854 --> 00:33:28,421 Very impressed by your work. 504 00:33:28,455 --> 00:33:31,157 Your work is of great interest 505 00:33:31,191 --> 00:33:34,327 to us in the petroleum and chemical industries. 506 00:33:34,361 --> 00:33:37,497 Well, it wouldn't have been possible without your funding. 507 00:33:37,531 --> 00:33:41,501 Precisely. And there's so much more we'd like to do for you. 508 00:33:41,535 --> 00:33:45,505 Well, I've been thinking about measuring lead in polar ice 509 00:33:45,539 --> 00:33:49,008 to see if it shows the same kind of pattern as the oceans. 510 00:33:49,043 --> 00:33:51,678 Lead? But you've already done that. 511 00:33:51,712 --> 00:33:55,682 We're thinking it's time you move on to other trace elements. 512 00:33:55,716 --> 00:33:58,017 In fact, Dr. Patterson, 513 00:33:58,052 --> 00:34:02,188 our ability to fund you in any other line of research is... 514 00:34:02,222 --> 00:34:03,957 Virtually limitless. 515 00:34:04,992 --> 00:34:07,694 Lead is a neurotoxin. 516 00:34:07,728 --> 00:34:11,431 When you ship your tetraethyl lead from the factory... 517 00:34:11,465 --> 00:34:13,333 before you add it to the gasoline... 518 00:34:13,367 --> 00:34:15,335 it's handled just like a chemical weapon. 519 00:34:15,369 --> 00:34:16,803 There's a reason for that. 520 00:34:16,837 --> 00:34:19,339 Where do you suppose all that lead goes 521 00:34:19,373 --> 00:34:21,808 after it leaves the tailpipe? 522 00:34:21,842 --> 00:34:25,645 Think about what it might be doing to us and our kids. 523 00:34:25,679 --> 00:34:29,282 Dr. Kehoe has shown that the level of lead 524 00:34:29,316 --> 00:34:33,620 in the environment is as natural as snow in December. 525 00:34:33,654 --> 00:34:37,357 Then why doesn't it show up in the deep water? Here, 526 00:34:37,391 --> 00:34:39,659 let me just show you. 527 00:34:39,693 --> 00:34:42,128 Thanks for your time. 528 00:34:42,162 --> 00:34:44,197 Wait, you're just gonna keep on putting 529 00:34:44,231 --> 00:34:47,033 millions of tons of poison into the air we breathe? 530 00:34:47,067 --> 00:34:50,370 If my research doesn't put you out of business, 531 00:34:50,404 --> 00:34:52,071 some future scientist will. 532 00:34:52,106 --> 00:34:54,641 Patterson's funding from the oil industry 533 00:34:54,675 --> 00:34:56,209 vanished overnight. 534 00:34:56,243 --> 00:34:59,212 In fact, they tried to get him fired. 535 00:34:59,246 --> 00:35:03,683 But the U.S. government... The Army, the Navy, 536 00:35:03,717 --> 00:35:07,186 the atomic energy commission, the public health service, 537 00:35:07,221 --> 00:35:10,390 and the National Science Foundation... Stood by him, 538 00:35:10,424 --> 00:35:12,892 supporting his research on lead pollution. 539 00:35:12,927 --> 00:35:17,030 His investigations took him from Greenland in the far north 540 00:35:17,064 --> 00:35:19,032 to Antarctica in the far south, 541 00:35:19,066 --> 00:35:23,102 and to rivers, mountains and valleys in between. 542 00:35:25,606 --> 00:35:27,607 In even the most hostile conditions, 543 00:35:27,641 --> 00:35:30,176 Patterson and his team worked to replicate 544 00:35:30,210 --> 00:35:33,012 the immaculate environment of the clean room. 545 00:35:33,047 --> 00:35:35,848 Their plastic suits were replaced daily. 546 00:35:35,883 --> 00:35:39,686 Working ten-to 12-hour days in subzero weather, 547 00:35:39,720 --> 00:35:41,854 they dug a 200-foot-long shaft 548 00:35:41,889 --> 00:35:44,390 into the ice of Antarctica. 549 00:35:44,425 --> 00:35:46,392 It was a form of time travel, 550 00:35:46,427 --> 00:35:49,596 to recover snow that had fallen three centuries ago, 551 00:35:49,630 --> 00:35:52,765 before the start of the Industrial Revolution. 552 00:35:53,801 --> 00:35:55,568 Nose! 553 00:35:55,603 --> 00:35:57,704 Wipe your nose, damn it! 554 00:35:57,738 --> 00:35:59,806 There's a thousand times more lead in you 555 00:35:59,840 --> 00:36:01,240 than in this ice! 556 00:36:01,275 --> 00:36:04,277 You want to contaminate the whole damn sample?! 557 00:36:07,948 --> 00:36:10,817 After four grueling weeks 558 00:36:10,851 --> 00:36:12,819 of painstaking sample collection, 559 00:36:12,853 --> 00:36:15,755 Patterson was ready to go back to the lab. 560 00:36:17,458 --> 00:36:21,327 As with the oceans, he found that the amount of lead 561 00:36:21,362 --> 00:36:25,131 was much lower in the snow of a few hundred years before. 562 00:36:25,165 --> 00:36:27,433 No matter where he searched on earth, 563 00:36:27,468 --> 00:36:30,269 no matter how far he traveled back in time, 564 00:36:30,304 --> 00:36:33,239 the results always told the same story: 565 00:36:33,273 --> 00:36:36,976 The naturally occurring levels in the air and water in the past, 566 00:36:37,011 --> 00:36:39,445 were far lower. 567 00:36:43,350 --> 00:36:46,119 For thousands of years, lead had been known 568 00:36:46,153 --> 00:36:49,289 to cause brain damage, developmental impairment, 569 00:36:49,323 --> 00:36:52,825 violent behavior, and even death. 570 00:36:52,860 --> 00:36:54,827 In searching for the age of the earth, 571 00:36:54,862 --> 00:36:56,663 Patterson had stumbled on the evidence 572 00:36:56,697 --> 00:37:00,533 for a mass poisoning on an unprecedented scale. 573 00:37:04,505 --> 00:37:06,472 But Kehoe and the other scientists 574 00:37:06,507 --> 00:37:08,675 employed by the lead industry 575 00:37:08,709 --> 00:37:15,183 persuaded the public they had nothing to worry about. 576 00:37:15,217 --> 00:37:18,853 Until one man started to pay attention. 577 00:37:25,344 --> 00:37:28,046 Patterson went public with his discoveries 578 00:37:28,081 --> 00:37:29,714 about lead in a big way. 579 00:37:29,749 --> 00:37:31,149 He published his findings 580 00:37:31,184 --> 00:37:33,051 in a major environmental health journal 581 00:37:33,086 --> 00:37:35,387 and sent copies to various government leaders, 582 00:37:35,421 --> 00:37:39,057 including one highly influential senator. 583 00:37:43,463 --> 00:37:46,732 Edmund Muskie of Maine was the chairman 584 00:37:46,766 --> 00:37:50,168 of the senate subcommittee on air and water pollution. 585 00:37:50,203 --> 00:37:54,239 In 1966 he held hearings on the lead question. 586 00:37:54,273 --> 00:37:56,174 The first witness 587 00:37:56,209 --> 00:38:00,078 was Dr. Robert Kehoe, longtime scientific advocate 588 00:38:00,113 --> 00:38:02,214 for leaded gasoline. 589 00:38:02,248 --> 00:38:05,417 Is it, uh, your conclusion that, in 1937 590 00:38:05,451 --> 00:38:07,786 to the present time, there has been 591 00:38:07,820 --> 00:38:10,255 no increase in the amount of lead 592 00:38:10,289 --> 00:38:14,126 taken in from the atmosphere by the average traffic policeman, 593 00:38:14,160 --> 00:38:17,496 service station attendant, or... Or motorist? 594 00:38:17,530 --> 00:38:19,364 There is not the slightest evidence 595 00:38:19,399 --> 00:38:22,067 that there has been a change in this picture 596 00:38:22,101 --> 00:38:24,069 during this period of time. 597 00:38:24,103 --> 00:38:26,405 Not the slightest. 598 00:38:26,439 --> 00:38:28,339 The hearings were scheduled to take place, 599 00:38:28,351 --> 00:38:33,205 when the fiercest critic, Claire Patterson was off in Antarctica. 600 00:38:34,187 --> 00:38:36,222 But he unexpectedly appeared 601 00:38:36,256 --> 00:38:39,792 on the fifth day of testimony. 602 00:38:39,826 --> 00:38:41,994 Uh, looks like there seems to be an increase 603 00:38:42,029 --> 00:38:44,997 in the concentration of lead in people 604 00:38:45,032 --> 00:38:47,433 as a result of exposure to the environment. 605 00:38:47,467 --> 00:38:49,135 Is that correct? 606 00:38:49,169 --> 00:38:50,936 That is correct. 607 00:38:50,971 --> 00:38:53,606 In identifying typical lead levels, 608 00:38:53,640 --> 00:38:58,177 you use actual measurements you've taken in the field? 609 00:38:58,211 --> 00:38:59,645 Yes. 610 00:38:59,680 --> 00:39:02,181 Are these observations different 611 00:39:02,215 --> 00:39:05,651 from the ones we've been hearing about from other witnesses? 612 00:39:05,686 --> 00:39:09,655 No, th... They're the same observations. 613 00:39:09,690 --> 00:39:12,792 You... You've testified that there has been 614 00:39:12,826 --> 00:39:15,795 no change in natural lead levels, is that correct? 615 00:39:15,829 --> 00:39:17,029 That is correct. 616 00:39:17,064 --> 00:39:18,764 You're sure about that? 617 00:39:18,799 --> 00:39:20,433 Absolutely. 618 00:39:20,467 --> 00:39:23,302 The levels we see in people today may be typical. 619 00:39:23,337 --> 00:39:25,838 But they are not by any means natural. 620 00:39:25,872 --> 00:39:29,508 So you don't disagree with Dr. Kehoe's numbers? 621 00:39:29,543 --> 00:39:31,010 Uh, no, no. 622 00:39:31,044 --> 00:39:32,979 You're saying that the same numbers 623 00:39:33,013 --> 00:39:35,514 are leading to different conclusions? 624 00:39:35,549 --> 00:39:36,983 Yes. 625 00:39:37,017 --> 00:39:39,485 You know, this is the kind of thing 626 00:39:39,519 --> 00:39:43,823 we expect to hear from lawyers, not scientists. 627 00:39:45,492 --> 00:39:48,194 I would agree with that, yes. 628 00:39:48,228 --> 00:39:51,664 You seem to be very sure of your conclusions, Dr. Kehoe. 629 00:39:51,698 --> 00:39:55,201 It so happens that I have more experience in this field 630 00:39:55,235 --> 00:39:57,403 than anyone else alive. 631 00:39:57,437 --> 00:40:01,874 At these levels, lead is a severe chronic insult 632 00:40:01,908 --> 00:40:03,809 to the human body. 633 00:40:03,844 --> 00:40:06,812 There is no medical evidence that lead has introduced 634 00:40:06,847 --> 00:40:09,148 a danger to public health. 635 00:40:09,182 --> 00:40:12,652 It's irresponsible to mine millions of tons 636 00:40:12,686 --> 00:40:15,855 of toxic material and disperse it into the environment! 637 00:40:15,889 --> 00:40:19,158 If there was proof of harm, we would have found it. 638 00:40:19,192 --> 00:40:21,560 Not if your purpose is to sell lead. 639 00:40:21,595 --> 00:40:26,065 Patterson fought the industry for another 20 years 640 00:40:26,099 --> 00:40:29,936 before lead was finally banned in U.S. consumer products. 641 00:40:29,970 --> 00:40:32,405 The man who figured out the age of the earth 642 00:40:32,439 --> 00:40:34,407 was also responsible for one 643 00:40:34,441 --> 00:40:38,244 of the greatest public health victories of the 20th century. 644 00:40:38,278 --> 00:40:41,480 In just a few years, average lead levels 645 00:40:41,482 --> 00:40:45,284 in the blood of children plummeted by some 75%. 646 00:40:45,286 --> 00:40:48,454 Today, the medical consensus is unanimous... 647 00:40:48,456 --> 00:40:51,490 there's no such thing as a nontoxic level 648 00:40:51,492 --> 00:40:54,794 of lead in humans, however small. 649 00:40:54,796 --> 00:40:56,429 Today, scientists sound the alarm 650 00:40:56,431 --> 00:40:58,631 on other environmental dangers. 651 00:40:58,633 --> 00:41:00,933 Vested interests still hire their own scientists 652 00:41:00,935 --> 00:41:02,969 to confuse the issue. 653 00:41:02,971 --> 00:41:04,904 But in the end, 654 00:41:04,906 --> 00:41:07,673 nature will not be fooled.