Original subtitles

[narrator] On this episode of How Tech Works.

This armored van can stop pretty much any weapon

that comes at it.

And its bulletproof windows let you return fire

from inside the vehicle!

And this slab of ice

just might contain proof of alien life on earth!

[intro music]

Hello, and welcome to How Tech Works.

My name is I’m Basil Singer,

and you won’t want to be anywhere but right here

as we explore the latest in science,

technology and eye-popping vehicles.

[narrator] What I’m talking about is a motor bike

that is kitted out for some jaw-dropping stunts.

and I’m talking about the world’s largest

man-made floating island.

But first, when it comes to bulletproof vehicles,

an armored car known as The Rhino

is on top of the game.

Rhinos are perfectly suited for the military, secret service,

and for journalists in war-torn countries.

And as you’re about to see,

Rhinos have added yet another trick to their repertoire.

[narrator] They're considered some of the toughest vehicles

in the world. Not very pretty, but very effective.

They carry some of the highest-ranking government

officials in the world through the deadliest combat zones.

The Rhino Rider vehicle in particular

has been subject to fire from rifles high caliber rifles,

has been attacked by bomb laden trucks, bomb laden cars,

have been attacked by improvised explosive devices,

by mines and by just about every weapon

the enemy has thrown at us.

[narrator] Getting out in one piece is number one goal.

I know from firsthand experience

why armored protection is critical,

because I've been there.

I’m Charlie Massy and I’m a marine in multiple tours

in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[narrator] These days Charlie's traded his fatigues for civvies

and he works closely with Marty Miller and the army group.

Sending the latest of of high tech armored trucks

into the line of fire he knows so well.

That was great. I felt safe.

[narrator] Marty's seen action too,

and he knows that civilians

can sometimes get caught in the cross fire.

We’re producing armored kits for a commercial client

in South East Asia

because the terrorists are shooting their drivers

as they transport workers.

Homeland security to patrol the border with Mexico,

courthouses.

[narrator] In scary and very real scenarios like that,

staying alive requires more than just bulletproof steal.

The key is to blend in.

We camouflage the Armor for two reasons.

We keep the population from being unjustly concerned.

And also we tend not to attract enemy fire.

Right now we're in our typical passenger van

that we are going to install our Armor in.

And by the time it's done,

you won't be able to tell it's Armor plated.

It will look like your regular passenger van.

We can give you 360 degrees of protection.

What that means is the ceiling, the walls,

and the floor boards as well as the front windshield,

all the glass all the way around.

[narrator] But this glass is special.

It doesn't just stop bullets.

Set it in place.

Never before has the strength of the glass equaled

the strength of the armor and exceeded it in capability.

Because you can't shoot out through armor,

and you can shoot out through our glass.

[narrator] It's called one-way reverse fire bulletproof glass.

It's a major advancement in that it gets,

it turns a victim into someone who can protect themselves.

That's never happened with ballistic glass before.

[narrator] Meaning if you're on the inside this glass

you're protected from gunfire.

But you can shoot back.

Okay this right here is an AK 47.

this is the most commonly used weapon

around the world right now.

[narrator] Today they’re putting it to the test

at a shooting range using AK 47s,

the gun of choice for bad guys.

There are more of these in the hands of our enemies

than any other firearm.

Whether it’s an enemy, or drug dealer whatever.

[narrator] Jeff Dixon is a seven times

Florida State champion marksman.

I've heard of it before,

but I’ve actually never seen the one way glass before,

but it sounds awesome.

[narrator] From a typical shooting distance of 15 meters,

Jeff's going to fire at the glass

and then flip it over to shoot the other side

that is if it's still intact.

[glass shattering]

So far, we've shot two shots in there with the AK 47.

And we're getting ready to shoot a 3rd shot into it.

[narrator] Three shots later

and surprisingly it's still pretty smooth.

What makes our glass so unique, is we use a cold,

rather than a hot process,

to join acrylic, a very hard substance with poly carbonate,

a more flexible substance that contracts.

[narrator] It’s that cold process

that prevents the glass from deteriorating and yellowing.

Jeff’s moved within three meters of the target

using another powerful weapon.

This you would find in the hills of Afghanistan right now.

This is a counter sniper rifle.

That we are currently using to defend ourselves.

[narrator] If this glass sprays on impact,

it's going to come straight at him.

That is unbelievable, I got nothing back at me whatsoever.

No glass, I didn't feel anything.

Exactly, we totally destroyed the target behind it.

[narrator] As innovative as it is,

experience has taught Marty one thing,

threats are constantly changing.

As the threats become,

we're going to have to stay on top of it,

and continue to be one step ahead.

I would remind you that nothing on a battlefield

hasn’t been destroyed at some point

including unsinkable battleships during World War Two

that are at the bottom of the sea.

The trick is to stay ahead of them.

For our next story I want to introduce you

to a group of researchers

on the cutting edge of polar science.

Polar science, that's right.

These guys are studying slabs of ice from the coldest,

most remote corners of our planet.

But it's not the ice itself they're interested in.

They want to know what's living inside.

[narrator] Behind this door lies the proof

that alien life can exist.

Chunks of polar ice sheets recovered from thousands

of meters below the surface

some over a million years old

and all teaming with microbes.

[John] We can take a piece of ice that’s 800,000 years old,

and melt it,

and micro-organisms are just doing their thing right away.

[narrator] John Priscu is a micro-biologist

who thrives on the study of extreme frigid environments.

For 30 years he’s been trekking to Antarctica for his research

in all in he’s spent more than five years of his life there.

I can still remember my first time I ever went

I remember flying down and I looked out

and as far as you could see it was just this ocean of ice.

[narrator] Before Priscu, this was considered to be

a barren, lifeless landscape.

But in '98, he and his team proved otherwise.

[John] We saw these micro-organisms in, in the ice!

They don’t just exist there.

We find they’re thriving in it.

But we realized that this is when the task really began,

to prove it to the world, and other skeptical scientists

that, there’s life, under 2.5 miles of ice.

[narrator] When an ice core arrives for examination

at Priscu’s sub-zero lab, this is the first place it goes.

[John] We have a special clean room.

And we work all garbed up in Tyvex suits.

We are looking for micro-organisms so

we don’t want to introduce organisms from our body

you know I mean we’re dirty.

[narrator] Inside this core a small clump of sediment

is being uncovered.

Exactly the kind that first peaked Priscu’s curiosity.

[John] I found right where the dirt was,

had this big peak of biological gases.

So we extracted DNA, over about a two year period,

we were able to find a whole ecosystem

that lives below the surface of the ice.

[narrator] Under the microscope, that ecosystem comes to life.

What we’re looking at here is a microbial consortia,

that was living in the ice.

The red is a micro-alga

and bacteria fluoresce is yellow-green.

So this phytoplankton that can photosynthesize

is excreting organic matter,

and all these bacteria are just like attacking it,

you know going like "give me some food".

They group up and this is a lifestyle

in an extreme environment.

[narrator] Without doubt

Antarctica is extreme in every way.

But what Priscu’s found

is that life is much easier under the ice.

And a recent discovery by his team

could change the way we look at ice forever.

[John] Ice isn’t really just totally solid,

it’s a bunch of crystals and between crystals there’re veins.

They’re Crystal boundaries.

And in those boundaries, there’s liquid.

Now we’re really zooming in on this habitat

where these organisms live.

We’re looking at two ice crystals.

And in between there’s a crystal boundary, right here.

And these are bacteria moving up through the boundary.

This is the habitat for life.

[narrator] By Priscu’s calculations,

across the entire Antarctic ice sheet,

this liquid vein network

could span hundreds of thousands of kilometers

forming a massive microbial superhighway.

[John] We’re starting to come up with this picture

where bacteria are just swimming all around through the ice.

[narrator] With findings like this,

it’s no surprise that Priscu’s work attracts attention.

But recently one group in particular has come knocking,

NASA.

[John] There’s five times more habitable space beyond Earth,

in our Solar System then there is on Earth.

narrator] Ice has already been found on the surface of Mars,

and further afield entire icy worlds have been discovered.

[John] The one we focused on is Europa.

Which is a moon around Jupiter.

It has an ice shell around it, that’s 10s of kilometers thick.

And then it has an ocean under it.

[narrator] With a specialized robotic explorer

called Endurance, NASA and Priscu

are prepping to take their search for icy life

to the final frontier!

[John] We would be in denial to,

believe there’s not life somewhere else,

in our solar system and beyond.

Based on what we know on earth.

[narrator] For a scientist who’s really thinking outside-the-box,

thinking out-of-this-world seems the logical next step.

Coming up on How Tech Works

these islands are engineered to rise and fall

with the mighty Han River.

And this stunt-bike rider makes it look easy.

Maybe a little too easy,

thanks to the tech specs on his customized bike.

[theme music]

Welcome back to How Tech Works. I’m Basil Singer.

And now we’re off to South Korea,

to catch up with reporter Ziya Tong.

Ziya is exploring some amazing islands

in the country’s Han River.

Islands with bragging rights like nowhere else.

You see, not only are they the world’s largest

artificial islands, but they’re also floating.

Ah, we all dream of having our own private island.

Well, here on the banks of the Han River in Seoul South Korea,

they’ve built a very modern paradise.

[drums]

[narrator] A series of bridges connect three massive structures

to form the world’s largest man-made floating island.

Each island floats on a giant buoy that weighs around 2,000T.

The buoys and framework of the buildings

were constructed on land then air bags were used to lift

and roll the structures into the river.

It’s one thing to float an island

but keeping it in place on a river notorious for flooding

during Korea’s monsoon season is a whole different story.

Getting three islands to float in place at the same time

was the most difficult challenge so we use a GPS system.

[narrator] Antennas capture GPS signals

to simultaneously control the position

of the three floating islands.

The signals give location coordinates

for islands one, two, and three.

The system then uses winch cables on each island

to automatically adjust their position.

This is the first time this has been done anywhere in the world.

Because of recent heavy rains

the islands have moved from their original position.

When the river floods after a storm

the bridges are disconnected for safety and electricity is cut.

No electricity means no GPS today,

so they’ll have to move these islands back into place

in a more traditional way.

They’ll have to roll up their sleeves

and move these huge islands by hand.

Today Viva is out of position

1.64 meters to the South and 0.45 meters to the North,

so it’s time to reel her in.

As an extra safety precaution,

a diver goes in to check the status of the cables

and mooring chains.

Each island is attached with heavy chains

to 500 ton concrete blocks at the bottom of the river bed.

Although they don’t want the islands to move,

there are some exceptions.

In extreme weather the tension on the winch cables

is released to allow the islands to float on their mooring chains

like a boat on an anchor.

Things are a lot easier when mother nature plays nice

and the GPS can do all the work.

The GPS system works this way,

when the water level rises, the winches let out cable.

When the water level goes down the winches reel in cable,

keeping tension to stay on station.

The island is not supposed to move

left or right or forwards or backwards.

It almost never happens.

[narrator] They’ve got the islands are back in place

but the ultimate test is about to come

as Seoul experiences the heaviest rains in over a century

the river rises from 2.7 meters to 11 meters.

The islands go into survival mode.

Bridges are dismantled, winch cables released

and the islands are free to float and weather out the storm.

Before the flood we were expecting the floating islands

would move five to six meters.

It turned out they moved just three or four meters.

We succeeded and the floating islands were safe.

Here at How Tech Works

we like to wrap up with stories that are a bit wild,

or a bit weird, or just a bit whacky.

And sometimes all three.

Which brings me to the guy featured next.

Not only is Aaron Colton a ridiculously talented,

prize-winning stunt-bike rider who customizes his own bikes,

he’s also still a teenager.

[engine blaring]

[upbeat music]

Hi I’m Aaron Colton. "Streetbike Freestyler".

I turn and burn for a living.

They call me "The Kid".

[narrator] Kid Colton came screeching onto the scene

at the age of 15.

His fearless stunts gained him fame,

at the XDL streetbike free-styling championship.

I'm all about going fast, making noise,

excitement, and having fun!

[narrator] Unfortunately it all came crashing down in 2009.

Aaron suffered a nasty spill.

And he was left with a severely broken leg

and some serious reevaluating of his future.

It was, hands down, the worst experience of my life.

[narrator] Now he’s back in the saddle,

or at least on top of it.

Trying to return to the top of the competitive heap.

Motorcycles have been a part of Aaron’s life since,

well since he can remember.

But his interest really started peaking

when his Dad took him out to streetbike events as a teenager.

At age 13 in June, I hopped on my first streetbike,

which was my dad's bike at the time,

and that's kind of when it all started.

I didn't really think I'd catch on as fast as I did!

Within 45 minutes I was already scraping the rear fender

which is a pretty big milestone

for people who ride and do freestyle.

So the confidence gained quickly.

Turned from slight fear to confidence,

and that's where it all kicked off.

[narrator] And within only two years

he was a streetbike champion.

[Kid] It was pretty crazy, I had this big old 4-grand check,

at you know 15 years old,

I was like "What am I going to do with this?"

I mean I had no idea what was going on.

It was a crazy experience.

[narrator] The freestyle speed bike isn't your typical chopper.

There are some awesome modifications.

If we see a problem,

we don't try to work around it we just change it!

The tank's too tall? You can't sit on top of the tank

you can't grip the tank? You dent it in!

There's no place to put your foot in the back?

You cut a hole!

Instead of just trying to beat around the bush,

they actually just modify it.

[narrator] The foot plane in the back

is probably the most important development.

The leverage point here will give you a ton of balance.

I can be no-hands, and it's going down,

I just push and it just comes right up.

[narrator] That’s part of the physics of riding these things.

Yeah, physics is a class

I probably should've gone to in school.

[narrator] Right now, he’s putting in time

for a big upcoming event in Monterrey.

Today I'll be practicing some of the technical stuff

I've been lacking on, some of the jumping combinations.

Having confidence and being able to go instantly

into some of the harder tricks

like no-handed circles is one of them.

[narrator] He’s also working on another tough new trick,

the “180 Bunny Hop” is a combination of a “Stoppie”

where the bike stops up on the front wheel,

followed by a 180 hop to complete the turn.

I think at Monterrey

I definitely have a chance at a Top five,

and if I ride hard enough I have a chance at a top three.

[narrator] It’s been three years since Aaron

has won a major championship.

On account of his ugly wipe-out in practice in late 2009.

A broken tibia, fibula, and most of the ligaments

torn in his ankle and foot.

The accident really got Aaron thinking.

[Kid] There's a lot of guys that are doing it for a living,

but only a few that are making a living.

If I'm going make the choice not going to college right now,

and actually doing this for a living,

how am I going make that work?

[narrator] Now he stages shows all over the world.

I don't want to be an entertainer for a living.

But I think for right now

it's going to get me to that next level,

where I can do it for a living.

[narrator] The injury in rehab, and the focus on his shows,

has set him back just a bit in the competition arena.

But now it’s off to the next event in the continuing process

of trying to recapture the magic.

The competition is tough in Monterrey.

Aaron’s best event as usual,

are the Wheelie and the Speed & Style Showdown.

“The Kid” takes top spot in each.

But it's the individual freestyle competition

that is the most prestigious of all the events.

And Aaron finishes 6th.

When I'm riding in competition, I'm riding for myself.

I'm not riding for the judges.

I'm not riding for my fellow riders.

I'm riding for myself and the crowd.

[narrator] And while Aaron does his “drifting”,

“no-handies”, and "stoppies" for the crowds,

there’s one place he’d rather not ride his streetbike,

the street. In fact he doesn’t even have a license.

Hey, I have enough fun doing what I'm doing,

that I don't really need to be on the street.

Maybe if I settle down when I get older or something

I'll get a street bike and just trot around,

but for now I'm having a pretty good time without a license,

having fun at what I'm doing.

[engine revving]

That’s it. No more time I’m afraid.

Thank you very much for watching How Tech Works.

I’m Basil Singer and I’ll see you next time.

[ending music]