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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:11,350 --> 00:00:15,287 It's been 200,000 years since humans first emerged 2 00:00:15,287 --> 00:00:18,730 in the Rift Valley of East Africa. 3 00:00:18,730 --> 00:00:21,907 Since then, we've learnt to think, 4 00:00:21,907 --> 00:00:24,860 to dream, to work together. 5 00:00:29,330 --> 00:00:34,086 And today our human civilisation spans the globe... 6 00:00:34,086 --> 00:00:35,083 and beyond. 7 00:00:39,920 --> 00:00:45,302 But our planet is a tiny fragile speck of life in a vast, 8 00:00:45,302 --> 00:00:46,362 uncaring universe. 9 00:00:49,640 --> 00:00:53,042 So what next for the apes who went to space? 10 00:01:11,680 --> 00:01:14,217 LOW VOICES SPEAK THEIR LANGUAGE 11 00:01:28,920 --> 00:01:32,254 This cave mouth in northern Spain has been inhabited 12 00:01:32,254 --> 00:01:34,572 for 150,000 years. 13 00:01:39,560 --> 00:01:42,860 There's basic shelter here and safety. 14 00:01:45,800 --> 00:01:48,223 But from time to time, 15 00:01:48,223 --> 00:01:53,353 they left the light behind and headed into the dark. 16 00:02:24,890 --> 00:02:28,793 In these caves you see the transition from just surviving 17 00:02:28,793 --> 00:02:32,934 to living, to observing the world, to enjoying it. 18 00:02:48,130 --> 00:02:53,660 There were gatherings here, people coming together to make art 19 00:02:53,660 --> 00:02:58,339 and not just any old art, but specific representations 20 00:02:58,339 --> 00:03:02,143 of particular animals and particular symbols. 21 00:03:02,143 --> 00:03:06,886 So in these caves we see the beginnings of superstition, 22 00:03:06,886 --> 00:03:10,886 the beginnings of an appreciation that there's not just a present 23 00:03:10,886 --> 00:03:14,295 but there's a past and there's a future. 24 00:03:21,920 --> 00:03:26,244 These early artists were leaving messages to future generations. 25 00:03:29,510 --> 00:03:34,528 And the one that speaks loudest lies far deeper into the darkness. 26 00:03:50,161 --> 00:03:55,861 This handprint was made by a child at least 35,000 years ago 27 00:03:55,861 --> 00:03:58,502 and it's thought it was made by a little girl. 28 00:03:58,502 --> 00:04:02,132 She'd have done the painting by taking paint and blowing it through 29 00:04:02,132 --> 00:04:03,167 her hand... 30 00:04:04,840 --> 00:04:06,501 ...onto the wall of the cave. 31 00:04:09,291 --> 00:04:13,467 Now, she would have had a basic understanding of her future, 32 00:04:13,467 --> 00:04:15,862 she'd have known that the seasons pass 33 00:04:15,862 --> 00:04:19,707 and maybe she even looked forward to coming back to this cave one day. 34 00:04:23,360 --> 00:04:27,593 Leaving her mark upon the wall suggests she had started down 35 00:04:27,593 --> 00:04:31,427 the road of understanding time and how it stretched out 36 00:04:31,427 --> 00:04:32,742 into the future. 37 00:04:40,570 --> 00:04:44,541 In 40,000 years, we've learned to see further ahead than 38 00:04:44,541 --> 00:04:46,352 she could possibly have imagined. 39 00:04:50,800 --> 00:04:53,713 We've walked out into a wider world 40 00:04:53,713 --> 00:04:55,306 and made it our own. 41 00:05:01,340 --> 00:05:04,458 And right now we are at a crossroads. 42 00:05:04,458 --> 00:05:08,616 Our civilisation holds the power to shape the future 43 00:05:08,616 --> 00:05:09,988 of the whole planet. 44 00:05:14,840 --> 00:05:18,071 I think we pay far too little attention to the future 45 00:05:18,071 --> 00:05:22,965 and the ability to illuminate it, to predict it is unique to us 46 00:05:22,965 --> 00:05:26,454 and our prosperity, and our very survival 47 00:05:26,454 --> 00:05:30,616 depend very much on what we glimpse out there in the dark. 48 00:05:30,616 --> 00:05:35,572 Science and reason are the flames and in this film I want to convince 49 00:05:35,572 --> 00:05:38,871 you that we must use them to make the darkness visible. 50 00:05:50,411 --> 00:05:53,233 THEY CHAT QUIETLY 51 00:06:01,161 --> 00:06:04,313 In late June, Earth's most northerly community are preparing 52 00:06:04,313 --> 00:06:07,431 to celebrate an important turning point of their year. 53 00:06:28,560 --> 00:06:32,497 It's midsummer in the Arctic, and the people of Svalbard 54 00:06:32,497 --> 00:06:36,508 are approaching the moment when the sun rides highest in the sky, 55 00:06:36,508 --> 00:06:38,094 the summer solstice. 56 00:06:39,360 --> 00:06:42,785 If I were in Manchester I'd say this was the longest day, 57 00:06:42,785 --> 00:06:46,900 but that kind of language doesn't make sense here, 78 degrees north 58 00:06:46,900 --> 00:06:50,510 and midway between northern Norway and the Arctic Circle 59 00:06:50,510 --> 00:06:55,303 cos this day, summer's day, began on April the 20th 60 00:06:55,303 --> 00:06:58,101 and it will end on August the 23rd. 61 00:07:01,690 --> 00:07:06,014 We can predict exactly the moment that the solstice arrives. 62 00:07:09,130 --> 00:07:12,942 So as strange as this long day feels, there is no mystery 63 00:07:12,942 --> 00:07:14,796 as to why it takes place. 64 00:07:17,060 --> 00:07:19,620 THEY SING 65 00:07:31,080 --> 00:07:35,745 The reason for that long polar night and the months of midnight sun 66 00:07:35,745 --> 00:07:38,256 is the geometry of the solar system. 67 00:07:38,256 --> 00:07:42,894 Svalbard is quite literally on top of the world and you feel it 68 00:07:42,894 --> 00:07:44,587 when you're here, it's obvious. 69 00:07:44,587 --> 00:07:48,871 The sun doesn't set, it's somewhere over there at the moment 70 00:07:48,871 --> 00:07:53,435 and throughout the course of the day it just moves along the horizon 71 00:07:53,435 --> 00:07:59,303 right round, 360 degrees as the Earth rotates with the North Pole 72 00:07:59,303 --> 00:08:02,591 pointing directly towards the sun. 73 00:08:02,591 --> 00:08:06,689 And when this place was discovered back in the 1590s, 74 00:08:06,689 --> 00:08:09,685 people didn't know that, or at least it wasn't agreed upon, 75 00:08:09,685 --> 00:08:13,504 it was still possible and indeed argued, back down there towards 76 00:08:13,504 --> 00:08:18,212 the equator in Italy, that the Earth was at the centre of the universe. 77 00:08:18,212 --> 00:08:20,510 It's obvious that it isn't when you come up here. 78 00:08:20,510 --> 00:08:25,223 I wonder what would have happened if Galileo and Copernicus and Bruno 79 00:08:25,223 --> 00:08:28,703 and others had visited Svalbard. I think that everything would have 80 00:08:28,703 --> 00:08:30,226 got worked out much earlier. 81 00:08:33,890 --> 00:08:36,313 After thousands of years of observation, 82 00:08:36,313 --> 00:08:40,228 our inquisitive minds began to develop models of the universe. 83 00:08:44,320 --> 00:08:47,426 The full explanation for the clockwork of the solar system 84 00:08:47,426 --> 00:08:50,893 came in the 1680s, with Isaac Newton and his universal law 85 00:08:50,893 --> 00:08:55,977 of gravitation, which is the first modern law of nature. 86 00:08:55,977 --> 00:09:00,818 What Newton's laws allow you to do is to predict the future 87 00:09:00,818 --> 00:09:02,711 given a knowledge of the present. 88 00:09:08,130 --> 00:09:10,827 Newton's laws describe a clockwork universe. 89 00:09:13,421 --> 00:09:16,231 Planets orbiting stars, 90 00:09:16,231 --> 00:09:18,975 stars orbiting galaxies. 91 00:09:18,975 --> 00:09:22,749 And galaxies falling through a possibly infinite space. 92 00:09:28,520 --> 00:09:32,457 One day, in our own sky, we'll see the galaxy Andromeda 93 00:09:32,457 --> 00:09:33,692 heading our way. 94 00:09:39,730 --> 00:09:44,179 In four billion years' time, it will collide with The Milky Way. 95 00:09:52,890 --> 00:09:57,464 For a billion years, our sky will be filled with cosmic choreography. 96 00:10:10,600 --> 00:10:13,615 And we know that because we can predict the future. 97 00:10:18,890 --> 00:10:23,418 So the laws of physics, in that sense, are little time machines. 98 00:10:23,418 --> 00:10:27,348 They allow you to predict with precision what will happen 99 00:10:27,348 --> 00:10:30,868 in the distant future given a knowledge of the present. 100 00:10:37,500 --> 00:10:42,666 We even see the sun ends its days as it swells into a red giant, 101 00:10:42,666 --> 00:10:45,187 some five billion years from now. 102 00:10:55,600 --> 00:11:00,583 So we can be sure that we, along with all other life on Earth, 103 00:11:00,583 --> 00:11:03,471 will not survive into the far future. 104 00:11:09,680 --> 00:11:14,311 Extinction is a necessary part of the evolution of life on Earth. 105 00:11:14,311 --> 00:11:19,092 99.9% of species that have ever existed have become extinct 106 00:11:19,092 --> 00:11:20,332 and that's a good thing, 107 00:11:20,332 --> 00:11:24,871 because when a species goes, there's a niche available in the ecosystem 108 00:11:24,871 --> 00:11:28,707 for other species to colonise - that's how evolution works. 109 00:11:28,707 --> 00:11:31,318 You know, if the dinosaurs hadn't become extinct, 110 00:11:31,318 --> 00:11:33,827 it's very likely that we wouldn't exist. 111 00:11:48,291 --> 00:11:52,376 So when considering the ultimate destiny of our species 112 00:11:52,376 --> 00:11:56,627 the answer seems obvious - extinction. 113 00:12:00,330 --> 00:12:03,550 But I'd argue this doesn't have to be the case. 114 00:12:08,970 --> 00:12:13,191 We are different to the other species on this planet because we're 115 00:12:13,191 --> 00:12:18,314 intelligent. Intelligence matters and it's extremely rare, in fact 116 00:12:18,314 --> 00:12:23,752 you can argue that intelligence may be extremely rare in the universe. 117 00:12:23,752 --> 00:12:28,110 It is possible that we're the only intelligent species in the Milky Way 118 00:12:28,110 --> 00:12:33,335 galaxy amongst 400 billion suns and countless billions of worlds. 119 00:12:33,335 --> 00:12:38,224 And that makes us extremely valuable and worth protecting. 120 00:12:46,760 --> 00:12:51,550 I think the way to keep this light alive is for humans to continue 121 00:12:51,550 --> 00:12:52,782 to venture out. 122 00:12:56,291 --> 00:12:57,827 And explore. 123 00:13:04,090 --> 00:13:08,323 To this end, we've built a ship large enough for six astronauts 124 00:13:08,323 --> 00:13:09,314 to train in. 125 00:13:34,940 --> 00:13:40,151 This is Aquarius, which is used by NASA as Nemo, 126 00:13:40,151 --> 00:13:42,952 the Nemo missions. And the reason this place is extreme, 127 00:13:42,952 --> 00:13:44,500 if you look here... 128 00:13:44,500 --> 00:13:46,756 is because... 129 00:13:46,756 --> 00:13:48,105 we're below the ocean. 130 00:13:49,940 --> 00:13:53,752 The pressure in here is two and half to three times 131 00:13:53,752 --> 00:13:57,030 atmospheric pressure, which is why I sound like a Munchkin. 132 00:13:58,730 --> 00:14:02,542 50 metres below the surface, Aquarius offers a unique 133 00:14:02,542 --> 00:14:05,340 training facility for deep space exploration. 134 00:14:07,890 --> 00:14:11,758 This is, er, this is brilliant cos you can play at being an astronaut, 135 00:14:11,758 --> 00:14:14,710 I mean, you'd have six astronauts in here. The reason that 136 00:14:14,710 --> 00:14:17,864 they use this as a mission simulator 137 00:14:17,864 --> 00:14:20,592 is because the environment is as close as you can get 138 00:14:20,592 --> 00:14:23,242 to space on Earth, you have to live here for weeks. 139 00:14:23,242 --> 00:14:25,336 And if you stay here for more than one hour - 140 00:14:25,336 --> 00:14:28,836 so we've got one hour - you have to stay here for a further 17 hours 141 00:14:28,836 --> 00:14:30,822 to decompress, so you can't just run away 142 00:14:30,822 --> 00:14:33,632 if you, you know, psychologically feel a bit claustrophobic 143 00:14:33,632 --> 00:14:35,952 and you think "I don't like it," you can't just leave, 144 00:14:35,952 --> 00:14:39,467 it's one of the few places on Earth where that would be the case. 145 00:14:39,467 --> 00:14:42,784 CHATTER OVER RADIO 146 00:14:47,770 --> 00:14:51,547 In recent months, Nemo has been tasked with a very specific type 147 00:14:51,547 --> 00:14:53,191 of deep space exploration. 148 00:14:58,010 --> 00:15:01,992 They're developing methods to space walk onto asteroids, 149 00:15:01,992 --> 00:15:05,632 where gravity will be a fraction of that experienced on the moon. 150 00:15:07,940 --> 00:15:11,069 Whilst at times dreaming of an asteroid encounter is 151 00:15:11,069 --> 00:15:15,602 a lot of fun, the motive behind the mission is deadly serious. 152 00:15:18,200 --> 00:15:20,134 MAN SPEAKS ON RADIO 153 00:15:30,400 --> 00:15:34,962 In 2013, on a wintry morning in Russia, 154 00:15:34,962 --> 00:15:37,760 a massive fireball cut the sky. 155 00:15:37,760 --> 00:15:40,983 RUMBLING 156 00:15:40,983 --> 00:15:42,597 TYRES SKID 157 00:15:42,597 --> 00:15:46,869 Seconds later, it exploded, with 20 to 30 times 158 00:15:46,869 --> 00:15:51,265 more energy than the atomic bomb detonated at Hiroshima. 159 00:15:51,265 --> 00:15:53,423 EXPLOSION 160 00:15:55,530 --> 00:15:57,771 COMMOTION 161 00:15:59,690 --> 00:16:03,854 Earth had been hit by the largest asteroid in more than a century. 162 00:16:06,380 --> 00:16:08,303 And no-one had seen it coming. 163 00:16:10,130 --> 00:16:13,122 It seems our powers of prediction failed us 164 00:16:13,122 --> 00:16:16,354 and that's because, in reality, nature can be chaotic. 165 00:16:18,410 --> 00:16:21,277 I can demonstrate that with a simple experiment. 166 00:16:21,277 --> 00:16:25,754 These are magnets, so let's say that this is an asteroid, then watch 167 00:16:25,754 --> 00:16:31,281 what happens when I set the pendulum off, let's say from this point here. 168 00:16:31,281 --> 00:16:33,866 So I'm going to release it, I've got a laser there. 169 00:16:33,866 --> 00:16:36,763 From exactly that point, I'm just going to let it go. 170 00:16:39,410 --> 00:16:43,836 We see the laser tracing out the path on this photo paper, 171 00:16:43,836 --> 00:16:48,678 this is asteroid orbiting the solar system, gravitationally interacting 172 00:16:48,678 --> 00:16:50,708 with the Earth, the sun of course, 173 00:16:50,708 --> 00:16:53,591 let's say a massive planet like Jupiter. 174 00:16:53,591 --> 00:16:56,107 There you go, it's collided with the yellow one, the sun. 175 00:16:56,107 --> 00:16:58,673 I can do it again and what I'm going to try 176 00:16:58,673 --> 00:17:03,120 and do is line it up in exactly the same way and let it go. 177 00:17:03,120 --> 00:17:07,276 In this case it's radically different, that's because 178 00:17:07,276 --> 00:17:10,036 this is what is known as a chaotic system, there you go, 179 00:17:10,036 --> 00:17:13,263 and it's hit the Earth, so that will be the end of civilisation 180 00:17:13,263 --> 00:17:14,672 as we know it. 181 00:17:14,672 --> 00:17:19,757 The point is that the orbit is critically dependent on what 182 00:17:19,757 --> 00:17:22,949 we call, what physicists call, the initial conditions. 183 00:17:22,949 --> 00:17:28,074 That's how precisely did I line this up, how precisely did I release it, 184 00:17:28,074 --> 00:17:31,783 what precisely happens as it sets off on its path 185 00:17:31,783 --> 00:17:33,135 through the solar system? 186 00:17:33,135 --> 00:17:35,464 In here are the little air currents that deflect it 187 00:17:35,464 --> 00:17:40,195 a little bit, all those infinitesimally small changes 188 00:17:40,195 --> 00:17:43,754 can be amplified in a complicated system such as this. 189 00:17:43,754 --> 00:17:48,519 And that's why it's not good enough to just discover the asteroids 190 00:17:48,519 --> 00:17:51,276 that come near to the Earth, it's not good enough 191 00:17:51,276 --> 00:17:54,582 because one of those tiny nudges could take something that you 192 00:17:54,582 --> 00:17:58,677 might think was safe, just using Newton's laws very naively, 193 00:17:58,677 --> 00:18:02,278 and in fact nudging it onto a collision course with the Earth. 194 00:18:07,490 --> 00:18:11,063 This fundamental feature of nature means that we may get little 195 00:18:11,063 --> 00:18:13,396 warning when the next one comes our way. 196 00:18:17,340 --> 00:18:21,208 So we must continue to track threatening asteroids... 197 00:18:25,850 --> 00:18:30,276 ...and develop technologies that will get us out to them at short notice. 198 00:18:43,740 --> 00:18:48,632 In January 2014, the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft 199 00:18:48,632 --> 00:18:52,262 awoke from a 31-month period of hibernation. 200 00:18:55,210 --> 00:18:58,840 It had travelled four billion miles to intercept a comet. 201 00:19:02,051 --> 00:19:04,634 Throughout August and September, 202 00:19:04,634 --> 00:19:07,351 the tiny spaceship made a careful approach, 203 00:19:07,351 --> 00:19:10,038 scanning the comet for a place to land. 204 00:19:16,410 --> 00:19:20,347 And next week, it will deploy a probe to attach itself 205 00:19:20,347 --> 00:19:21,627 to the surface. 206 00:19:25,560 --> 00:19:29,121 Rosetta will greatly increase our understanding of comets 207 00:19:29,121 --> 00:19:30,670 and the early solar system. 208 00:19:32,380 --> 00:19:36,999 It also tests our ability to mount a manned mission to an asteroid 209 00:19:36,999 --> 00:19:39,119 if the need arises. 210 00:19:39,119 --> 00:19:43,150 The problem is that even with a sophisticated rocket system, 211 00:19:43,150 --> 00:19:46,782 it took Rosetta ten years to reach its target. 212 00:19:59,140 --> 00:20:03,646 To send astronauts that deep into space will require 213 00:20:03,646 --> 00:20:06,850 a great leap in our technical ability 214 00:20:06,850 --> 00:20:08,002 and our ambition. 215 00:20:14,490 --> 00:20:16,310 I had an ambition to be an astronaut 216 00:20:16,310 --> 00:20:18,634 from, you know, as early as I can remember. 217 00:20:20,620 --> 00:20:23,146 I can't remember thinking anything else. 218 00:20:30,490 --> 00:20:34,393 The excitement of, you know, just going way away from Earth. 219 00:20:44,051 --> 00:20:46,554 For the first time in a generation, 220 00:20:46,554 --> 00:20:50,306 new designs of manned spacecraft are being tested. 221 00:20:57,220 --> 00:20:59,552 Commercial companies are now developing crafts 222 00:20:59,552 --> 00:21:00,996 to get us into space. 223 00:21:05,700 --> 00:21:08,283 The endeavour is never without risk. 224 00:21:10,460 --> 00:21:14,146 It's not an easy thing to do, to escape the Earth's gravity 225 00:21:14,146 --> 00:21:17,156 even for a few minutes takes a lot of energy. 226 00:21:19,100 --> 00:21:21,956 Three, two, one. 227 00:21:21,956 --> 00:21:24,876 Release, release. Quick release. 228 00:21:24,876 --> 00:21:27,568 INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER 229 00:21:39,340 --> 00:21:42,787 The future of human space exploration faces enormous 230 00:21:42,787 --> 00:21:46,752 challenges and depends on the bravery of test pilots like 231 00:21:46,752 --> 00:21:51,450 David Mackay, Peter Siebold and their colleague, Mike Alsbury, 232 00:21:51,450 --> 00:21:54,434 who lost his life last week in the pursuit of a dream. 233 00:22:01,270 --> 00:22:05,594 A dream that many of us grew up with as children and never lost. 234 00:22:10,010 --> 00:22:14,356 When I was growing up in the 1970s, this was one of my favourite books. 235 00:22:14,356 --> 00:22:20,086 I got it, I think it was 1979, it was about the same time as my first 236 00:22:20,086 --> 00:22:21,323 ABBA album. 237 00:22:21,323 --> 00:22:25,487 And I just read it for years and years and years. 238 00:22:25,487 --> 00:22:28,212 It's a sort of fictional history 239 00:22:28,212 --> 00:22:32,435 of spacecraft, 2000 to 2100 AD. 240 00:22:32,435 --> 00:22:36,800 It's got things like, "2005 - work starts on the lunar station." 241 00:22:36,800 --> 00:22:41,434 Then this is one of my favourite spacecraft, I used to try and build 242 00:22:41,434 --> 00:22:45,948 these out of Lego, it's called the Martian Queen and it says, "Early in 243 00:22:45,948 --> 00:22:49,333 "2015, fare-paying passengers stepped aboard 244 00:22:49,333 --> 00:22:53,202 "the first purpose-built interplanetary spaceliner." 245 00:22:53,202 --> 00:22:58,312 So they imagined that by 2015, by next year, we'd have spaceliners 246 00:22:58,312 --> 00:23:01,520 taking people to the Martian colonies. 247 00:23:01,520 --> 00:23:04,947 And what's interesting is my little boy loves the book as well, 248 00:23:04,947 --> 00:23:10,483 he's got it now, and some of this stuff is in his past. 249 00:23:10,483 --> 00:23:14,304 This is a list of things that didn't happen, whereas for me, 250 00:23:14,304 --> 00:23:18,750 back in the '70s, it was a list of things that I thought would happen. 251 00:23:24,290 --> 00:23:29,308 Breaking free from Earth's bonds is so difficult that there are only 252 00:23:29,308 --> 00:23:33,750 eight people alive that know what it's like to walk on another world. 253 00:23:35,600 --> 00:23:37,432 Hi. Charlie. 254 00:23:41,710 --> 00:23:45,385 What's your name? Charlie. Believe it or not, I'm the other half 255 00:23:45,385 --> 00:23:46,678 of Judy. 256 00:23:46,678 --> 00:23:49,368 Hello, Charlie. How you doing? Nice to meet you. 257 00:23:49,368 --> 00:23:51,432 Wonderful to meet you. Pleasure to meet you. 258 00:23:51,432 --> 00:23:53,479 Good to be here with you. Have a seat. 259 00:23:55,470 --> 00:23:58,280 INDISTINCT CHATTER 260 00:24:01,620 --> 00:24:05,682 Charlie Duke was Lunar Module pilot for Apollo 16 261 00:24:05,682 --> 00:24:09,083 and the youngest person ever to walk on the moon. 262 00:24:09,083 --> 00:24:12,678 How about an extension, you guys? We're feeling good. 263 00:24:16,340 --> 00:24:21,232 Mission objective - to bring back samples from the lunar highlands 264 00:24:21,232 --> 00:24:23,803 and test drive new technologies. 265 00:24:27,550 --> 00:24:33,023 And here we go. We are really going up a hill, I'll tell you. 266 00:24:33,023 --> 00:24:37,641 When I was just becoming aware of Apollo, I thought that 267 00:24:37,641 --> 00:24:41,318 I would be able to go into... at least into Earth orbit myself. 268 00:24:41,318 --> 00:24:45,806 Yeah, really, my dad was born in 1907 and so he was just 269 00:24:45,806 --> 00:24:50,569 right after the Wright brothers and, er, and he could barely believe 270 00:24:50,569 --> 00:24:52,223 that his son went to the moon. 271 00:24:52,223 --> 00:24:57,319 And yet at the time my five-year-old, Tom, he didn't think it was any 272 00:24:57,319 --> 00:25:00,292 big deal! You know, that everybody in the neighbourhood 273 00:25:00,292 --> 00:25:02,034 was going to the moon. 274 00:25:02,034 --> 00:25:04,512 Neil Armstrong was a next door neighbour, 275 00:25:04,512 --> 00:25:07,242 Tom Stafford was in the neighbourhood, Frank Borman 276 00:25:07,242 --> 00:25:11,032 was in the neighbourhood, the whole neighbourhood was either NASA engineers 277 00:25:11,032 --> 00:25:13,443 or astronauts, so everybody's... it's natural, 278 00:25:13,443 --> 00:25:16,081 "Let's go to the moon, Dad, when you going to do it?" 279 00:25:17,260 --> 00:25:21,083 Hey, John, this is perfect, with the LM, and the rover, and you, 280 00:25:21,083 --> 00:25:25,157 and Stone Mountain, and the old flag. 281 00:25:25,157 --> 00:25:27,552 Come on out here and give me a salute. 282 00:25:27,552 --> 00:25:29,360 Big Navy salute. 283 00:25:29,360 --> 00:25:31,160 Off the ground a bit more. 284 00:25:32,490 --> 00:25:33,844 There we go. 285 00:25:33,844 --> 00:25:37,835 You're most famous probably for the most famous photograph 286 00:25:37,835 --> 00:25:39,515 involving you, it's not you, 287 00:25:39,515 --> 00:25:42,288 it's the photograph of your family that you left on the moon. 288 00:25:42,288 --> 00:25:44,796 I asked the boys, they were five and seven, 289 00:25:44,796 --> 00:25:47,522 I said, "Would you guys like to be with your dad on the moon?" 290 00:25:47,522 --> 00:25:49,889 They said "Oh, yeah, that'd be great, Dad." 291 00:25:49,889 --> 00:25:52,282 So on the back of that picture we had written, 292 00:25:52,282 --> 00:25:54,978 "This is the family of astronaut Charlie Duke, 293 00:25:54,978 --> 00:26:00,763 "from planet Earth who landed on the moon in April 1972" 294 00:26:00,763 --> 00:26:05,473 and we all signed it and then I dropped the picture on the moon. 295 00:26:05,473 --> 00:26:09,317 It sort of shows the human side of space flight and, you know, 296 00:26:09,317 --> 00:26:12,759 we were family men, we were dads, husbands, 297 00:26:12,759 --> 00:26:15,323 and so wanted my family to be a part of it. 298 00:26:15,323 --> 00:26:20,670 They'll sit there for millions of years, won't they, they won't go anywhere. 299 00:26:20,670 --> 00:26:24,928 And if you look back to those days, so less than a year from the first 300 00:26:24,928 --> 00:26:28,005 test flight, first manned test flight to landing on the moon. Yeah. 301 00:26:28,005 --> 00:26:31,392 Would that be possible now? No. Why? 302 00:26:31,392 --> 00:26:34,395 We don't have the, er, the schedule, 303 00:26:34,395 --> 00:26:37,304 the money to build spacecraft that quickly. 304 00:26:37,304 --> 00:26:42,353 We don't have the, er, the manpower to do it. 305 00:26:42,353 --> 00:26:47,323 I mean, 400,000 people and unlimited budget, you can do a lot, you know. 306 00:26:47,323 --> 00:26:48,562 Yeah. 307 00:26:48,562 --> 00:26:51,531 Yeah! And that's what we had. 308 00:27:12,140 --> 00:27:17,078 After Charlie left, only two men have ever gone back 309 00:27:17,078 --> 00:27:18,927 and there's good reason for that. 310 00:27:18,927 --> 00:27:24,292 The energy required to break free from Earth's gravitational embrace 311 00:27:24,292 --> 00:27:25,510 is staggering. 312 00:27:31,790 --> 00:27:35,112 This is the spacecraft that took John Young, Ken Mattingly 313 00:27:35,112 --> 00:27:37,034 and Charlie Duke to the moon. 314 00:27:37,034 --> 00:27:39,443 There's the Service Module and the Command Module, 315 00:27:39,443 --> 00:27:42,240 that's the engine that fired to bring them back from the moon 316 00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:46,521 to the Earth, the Lunar Lander sat inside there 317 00:27:46,521 --> 00:27:49,947 and this piece is essentially a single rocket motor 318 00:27:49,947 --> 00:27:54,107 that fired to take them from Earth orbit to the moon. 319 00:27:54,107 --> 00:27:59,290 So this is the 120 tonne moon spacecraft, if you like. 320 00:27:59,290 --> 00:28:02,444 But from a physics perspective, the difficulty is getting that 321 00:28:02,444 --> 00:28:08,153 into orbit, and on Saturn V that was done in two bits 322 00:28:08,153 --> 00:28:14,193 and this is stage two and that is the stage two fuel tank. 323 00:28:14,193 --> 00:28:18,970 Inside there are 450 tonnes of rocket fuel. 324 00:28:18,970 --> 00:28:23,513 And this burnt through those 450 tonnes in about 6 minutes, 325 00:28:23,513 --> 00:28:27,642 taking the spacecraft from an altitude of 200,000 feet, 326 00:28:27,642 --> 00:28:34,388 about 38 miles, up to 114 and a half miles, that's virtually in orbit. 327 00:28:34,388 --> 00:28:39,103 And it did that by burning the fuel in five engines. 328 00:28:47,460 --> 00:28:51,488 Now, at the time, that was one of the most powerful rockets 329 00:28:51,488 --> 00:28:56,408 ever built, but not the most powerful - that was this, 330 00:28:56,408 --> 00:28:58,643 Stage One of the Saturn V. 331 00:29:05,270 --> 00:29:09,798 There are 2,200 tons of fuel in here, 332 00:29:09,798 --> 00:29:15,651 and stage one burnt through that in about two and a half minutes. 333 00:29:15,651 --> 00:29:21,569 To do that they add fuel pumps that were more powerful than a 747 334 00:29:21,569 --> 00:29:28,092 at lift off to pump 15 tonnes of fuel a second into these... 335 00:29:30,150 --> 00:29:32,448 ...the F1 engines. 336 00:29:48,450 --> 00:29:51,727 Every statistic about these engines is ridiculous. 337 00:29:51,727 --> 00:29:55,248 In those two and half minutes when this spacecraft was lifting off 338 00:29:55,248 --> 00:29:59,372 the power generated was more than the peak electrical power generation 339 00:29:59,372 --> 00:30:03,321 capacity of the United Kingdom. 340 00:30:32,790 --> 00:30:35,248 Building a vehicle powerful enough 341 00:30:35,248 --> 00:30:37,904 to accelerate three men to escape velocity 342 00:30:37,904 --> 00:30:40,473 was a triumph of human ingenuity. 343 00:30:43,100 --> 00:30:46,161 But the technology at the heart of any rocket 344 00:30:46,161 --> 00:30:48,689 is essentially ancient technology, 345 00:30:48,689 --> 00:30:51,196 the release of energy by combustion. 346 00:31:01,590 --> 00:31:04,673 We used fire to release energy from the Sun 347 00:31:04,673 --> 00:31:06,765 stored in the wood from trees. 348 00:31:16,310 --> 00:31:19,803 Then we discovered better things to burn. 349 00:31:19,803 --> 00:31:23,556 Energy-packed ancient sunlight buried underground. 350 00:31:23,556 --> 00:31:26,919 Burning that has set us free. 351 00:31:37,310 --> 00:31:41,167 But fire has surely taken us as far as it can. 352 00:31:52,350 --> 00:31:57,686 The reason we aren't flying to other planets is the same reason 353 00:31:57,686 --> 00:31:59,115 we're endangering this one. 354 00:32:12,620 --> 00:32:15,112 Every day we burn the equivalent of 355 00:32:15,112 --> 00:32:18,479 all the plants growing on this planet over a year 356 00:32:18,479 --> 00:32:19,916 to meet our energy needs. 357 00:32:23,941 --> 00:32:28,083 But that's not to say that energy use is of itself 358 00:32:28,083 --> 00:32:30,119 necessarily a bad thing. 359 00:32:30,119 --> 00:32:34,367 Indeed by many measures it's an extremely good thing indeed. 360 00:32:38,910 --> 00:32:43,370 In every country where the per capita energy use is greater than 361 00:32:43,370 --> 00:32:45,375 about half the European average 362 00:32:45,375 --> 00:32:49,649 then adult life expectancy is greater than 70 years, 363 00:32:49,649 --> 00:32:52,406 literacy rates are greater than 90%, 364 00:32:52,406 --> 00:32:55,121 infant mortality rates are low 365 00:32:55,121 --> 00:33:00,083 and more than one in five of the population are in higher education. 366 00:33:00,083 --> 00:33:04,281 So the story of energy use is a complicated one. 367 00:33:04,281 --> 00:33:09,676 On the one hand, obviously, energy use is important and to be valued, 368 00:33:09,676 --> 00:33:12,846 it's the foundation of our modern civilisation, 369 00:33:12,846 --> 00:33:14,162 and on the other hand, 370 00:33:14,162 --> 00:33:17,324 if we generate our energy mainly by burning fossil fuels 371 00:33:17,324 --> 00:33:19,005 then it can be a bad thing. 372 00:33:22,100 --> 00:33:25,752 Now in the short-term of course... 373 00:33:25,752 --> 00:33:29,404 we can increase the efficiency of our energy usage. 374 00:33:33,260 --> 00:33:35,410 But in the long-term, 375 00:33:35,410 --> 00:33:39,088 if we aspire to continue to advance as a civilisation, 376 00:33:39,088 --> 00:33:42,974 if we want to give every citizen of the world a quality of life 377 00:33:42,974 --> 00:33:46,319 that is as good as or even better than mine, 378 00:33:46,319 --> 00:33:50,407 and if ultimately we want to build a space-faring generation 379 00:33:50,407 --> 00:33:54,361 and journey to the stars then we have to find a better way. 380 00:33:58,230 --> 00:34:02,326 In the short-term, we can move to cleaner electric motors, 381 00:34:02,326 --> 00:34:05,530 but because we burn fossil fuels in power stations, 382 00:34:05,530 --> 00:34:09,037 that simply moves the problem upstream. 383 00:34:09,037 --> 00:34:12,809 So what we face is not an energy crisis 384 00:34:12,809 --> 00:34:14,804 but an energy conversion crisis. 385 00:34:16,951 --> 00:34:20,034 Renewable energy might be part of the solution, 386 00:34:20,034 --> 00:34:23,809 but I believe there's a far more promising long-term alternative. 387 00:34:33,826 --> 00:34:35,590 If you could do one thing, 388 00:34:35,590 --> 00:34:38,159 if you could wave a magic wand and do one thing, what would you do? 389 00:34:40,836 --> 00:34:45,069 If you could produce abundant clean energy, it would solve many problems. 390 00:34:46,787 --> 00:34:48,881 It's a grand challenge of our time, 391 00:34:48,881 --> 00:34:51,403 and I truly am committed and proud to be part of it. 392 00:34:53,626 --> 00:34:56,709 Can we for the first time bring a star to Earth? 393 00:35:05,116 --> 00:35:08,370 Here at the National Ignition Facility in California 394 00:35:08,370 --> 00:35:10,927 they're trying to create man-made stars. 395 00:35:12,626 --> 00:35:14,230 It's a big laser. 396 00:35:14,230 --> 00:35:16,674 It's the biggest in the world by probably a factor of 50, 397 00:35:16,674 --> 00:35:19,843 or maybe even 100, so in size and in energy. 398 00:35:19,843 --> 00:35:21,316 How much power's in there? 399 00:35:21,316 --> 00:35:24,482 If you look at all the electricity that's produced in the United States, 400 00:35:24,482 --> 00:35:27,549 this is about a thousand times more power than that. 401 00:35:29,476 --> 00:35:31,717 But of course only for a fraction of a second, 402 00:35:31,717 --> 00:35:33,242 a few billionths of a second. 403 00:35:41,787 --> 00:35:46,281 In a star, fusion begins when the gas cloud that forms the star 404 00:35:46,281 --> 00:35:48,280 collapses under its own gravity, 405 00:35:48,280 --> 00:35:51,440 heating the core to many millions of degrees. 406 00:35:54,907 --> 00:36:00,073 Here at NIF, it's coaxed into life in the laser's target chamber 407 00:36:00,073 --> 00:36:02,935 encased in two metre thick walls 408 00:36:02,935 --> 00:36:06,035 and 47 of the biggest glass doors I've ever seen. 409 00:36:06,035 --> 00:36:07,438 Ah, yeah. 410 00:36:07,438 --> 00:36:09,884 So this is the sharp end of the whole system, if you like, 411 00:36:09,884 --> 00:36:11,721 this is where the lasers come down 412 00:36:11,721 --> 00:36:14,289 and start to get focused into the chamber. 413 00:36:14,289 --> 00:36:17,520 And each one of them has to be synchronised to a few trillionths 414 00:36:17,520 --> 00:36:19,929 of a second to arrive at exactly the same time 415 00:36:19,929 --> 00:36:22,638 and of course in exactly the right spot. 416 00:36:22,638 --> 00:36:26,358 It's worth sort of stepping back and realising what's happening here 417 00:36:26,358 --> 00:36:30,214 cos you said 192 of these laser beams, which are not small. Indeed. 418 00:36:30,214 --> 00:36:33,018 In the middle of that which is definitely not small. Absolutely. 419 00:36:33,018 --> 00:36:34,737 What's the target? It's about that big. 420 00:36:34,737 --> 00:36:36,559 It's about a millimetre wide. 421 00:36:36,559 --> 00:36:40,449 But it's the level of precision and power that you're able to achieve. 422 00:36:40,449 --> 00:36:43,851 And if you can do it uniformly then you can create a little star. 423 00:36:56,866 --> 00:37:01,030 It reminds me a little bit of Apollo in a sense cos you just think, 424 00:37:01,030 --> 00:37:03,519 you know, look what we can do if we try. 425 00:37:14,336 --> 00:37:16,998 So you see there, there's a gold cylinder 426 00:37:16,998 --> 00:37:22,208 and in the middle a little red ball, that's the fusion fuel. 427 00:37:22,208 --> 00:37:24,164 One of those pellets, 428 00:37:24,164 --> 00:37:27,161 when all of the fusion happens just right, 429 00:37:27,161 --> 00:37:30,138 could power my house for a day. 430 00:37:30,138 --> 00:37:32,640 So you imagine having a little bag of those pellets, 431 00:37:32,640 --> 00:37:34,890 let's say you three or four hundred of them, 432 00:37:34,890 --> 00:37:36,799 you could fit them in your pocket, 433 00:37:36,799 --> 00:37:39,848 then that would power your life for a year. 434 00:37:40,946 --> 00:37:43,131 Thousands of these little pellets 435 00:37:43,131 --> 00:37:46,006 could power a spacecraft to the Moon. 436 00:37:46,006 --> 00:37:49,354 Hundreds of thousands could power a spacecraft out to the edge of 437 00:37:49,354 --> 00:37:52,158 the solar system or perhaps outward to the stars. 438 00:37:52,158 --> 00:37:55,559 And one of the interesting things about fusion technology is 439 00:37:55,559 --> 00:37:58,004 that there's no waste, right? 440 00:37:58,004 --> 00:38:01,638 What happens when you release all the energy in that pellet of fuel 441 00:38:01,638 --> 00:38:06,097 is you produce helium, so you get your electricity 442 00:38:06,097 --> 00:38:09,080 and you get your party balloons, and that's pretty much it. 443 00:38:09,080 --> 00:38:15,847 So it's an inherently clean, safe and extremely efficient technology. 444 00:38:15,847 --> 00:38:18,648 ALARM BLARES 445 00:38:18,648 --> 00:38:20,867 TANNOY: May I have your attention. 446 00:38:20,867 --> 00:38:25,089 Preparations for shot operations in laser bay two are under way. 447 00:38:25,089 --> 00:38:28,377 Leave laser bay two now. 448 00:38:28,377 --> 00:38:31,405 I repeat. Leave laser bay two now. 449 00:38:36,146 --> 00:38:40,526 This is the NIF control room, this is the heart of all operations, 450 00:38:40,526 --> 00:38:42,372 and the reason I have to be quiet is 451 00:38:42,372 --> 00:38:44,108 because they're getting ready for a shot. 452 00:38:45,346 --> 00:38:49,112 Main laser operation will begin in approximately one minute. 453 00:38:57,626 --> 00:39:00,766 It's a bit like charging a flash gun. 454 00:39:00,766 --> 00:39:05,650 Banks and the capacitors store electric charge, 455 00:39:05,650 --> 00:39:09,925 getting ready to discharge all this energy into the lasers. 456 00:39:09,925 --> 00:39:11,602 Amplify, amplify, amplify, bang. 457 00:39:11,602 --> 00:39:13,725 WOMAN: It looks like it just turned green. 458 00:39:13,725 --> 00:39:16,164 Are you comfortable with us going forward? 459 00:39:16,164 --> 00:39:17,568 I don't see a problem. 460 00:39:17,568 --> 00:39:20,298 OK. We're ready to proceed if you're OK with it. 461 00:39:24,106 --> 00:39:25,688 There's the countdown. 462 00:39:25,688 --> 00:39:27,294 Start sequence on my mark. 463 00:39:27,294 --> 00:39:29,244 COUNTDOWN BEGINS 464 00:39:33,596 --> 00:39:35,246 255 seconds. 465 00:39:35,246 --> 00:39:37,593 In 255 seconds time, 466 00:39:37,593 --> 00:39:40,648 a thousand times the power generating capacity of 467 00:39:40,648 --> 00:39:43,207 the United States of America 468 00:39:43,207 --> 00:39:49,284 is going to be fired down into something a few millimetres across. 469 00:39:49,284 --> 00:39:50,574 It's cool. 470 00:39:51,986 --> 00:39:54,728 Brilliant that we can do this, isn't it? 471 00:39:54,728 --> 00:39:55,923 By "we" I mean them. 472 00:39:59,386 --> 00:40:01,855 Yeah, "we", it's our civilisation. 473 00:40:28,356 --> 00:40:33,760 Five, four, three, two, one, shot. 474 00:40:45,506 --> 00:40:47,088 That's a bang... 475 00:40:49,677 --> 00:40:51,167 ...and that's the future. 476 00:41:00,276 --> 00:41:03,758 Commercial fusion power stations are still a long way off, 477 00:41:03,758 --> 00:41:07,535 but NIF has proved that it can be done in principle. 478 00:41:10,826 --> 00:41:14,126 If fusion can be made economically viable, 479 00:41:14,126 --> 00:41:17,724 it would end the days of fire 480 00:41:17,724 --> 00:41:21,210 and it would do much more than power our cars and cities, 481 00:41:21,210 --> 00:41:25,042 it would provide a new foundation for our civilisation, 482 00:41:25,042 --> 00:41:27,336 it would even open up the road to the stars. 483 00:41:31,236 --> 00:41:34,604 I think we expect, in fact, we demand that 484 00:41:34,604 --> 00:41:37,408 the future is going to be better than the past, 485 00:41:37,408 --> 00:41:41,095 but it seems to me that we're not prepared to pay for it. 486 00:41:41,095 --> 00:41:43,192 So how might things change? 487 00:41:43,192 --> 00:41:46,294 Well, we're fortunate enough to live in democracies, 488 00:41:46,294 --> 00:41:48,347 and in democracies things change 489 00:41:48,347 --> 00:41:50,897 when people have access to knowledge, 490 00:41:50,897 --> 00:41:52,935 when they understand facts 491 00:41:52,935 --> 00:41:56,171 and when they can make informed decisions. 492 00:41:56,171 --> 00:41:57,840 Did you know, for example, 493 00:41:57,840 --> 00:42:03,094 that Americans spend ten times more money each year on pet grooming 494 00:42:03,094 --> 00:42:05,682 than they do on nuclear fusion? 495 00:42:05,682 --> 00:42:08,807 Now I think that if you said to someone, 496 00:42:08,807 --> 00:42:11,449 "Well, actually, why don't you brush your own cat, 497 00:42:11,449 --> 00:42:15,168 "and take the money you were going to spend having somebody else brush it 498 00:42:15,168 --> 00:42:17,888 "and give it to those people who are trying to find a way 499 00:42:17,888 --> 00:42:22,131 "of generating unlimited access to clean energy?" 500 00:42:22,131 --> 00:42:26,019 Then people would say, "Well, yeah, that's a good deal." 501 00:42:26,019 --> 00:42:30,376 See, in democracies things change when people like you and me 502 00:42:30,376 --> 00:42:31,767 want them to change. 503 00:42:56,876 --> 00:42:59,038 I'm optimistic about the future. 504 00:42:59,038 --> 00:43:01,723 No matter how deep we keep digging our hole right now, 505 00:43:01,723 --> 00:43:04,175 I feel like there is hope. 506 00:43:40,076 --> 00:43:43,046 You know, I look at my life and I think, "it's almost over," 507 00:43:43,046 --> 00:43:46,326 when in fact with the advances in healthcare and such 508 00:43:46,326 --> 00:43:47,478 it may not be. 509 00:44:10,436 --> 00:44:13,292 Fundamentally, I think we all want the same thing, 510 00:44:13,292 --> 00:44:17,452 we want our children and their children to have a future. 511 00:44:19,166 --> 00:44:22,010 And that requires us to plan for that future. 512 00:44:41,366 --> 00:44:44,449 Hello. Hello. Nice to meet you. 513 00:44:54,956 --> 00:44:59,268 This place addresses a fundamental human need that we're going to 514 00:44:59,268 --> 00:45:03,251 face in the future, which is how are we going to feed ourselves? 515 00:45:09,547 --> 00:45:14,212 The tunnel itself runs about 130 metres downwards on this 516 00:45:14,212 --> 00:45:18,827 gentle gradient, and by the time we get to the vaults at the end, 517 00:45:18,827 --> 00:45:23,961 it's going to be 160 metres of solid rock up to the surface. 518 00:45:26,547 --> 00:45:30,256 Buried down here is a priceless treasure, 519 00:45:30,256 --> 00:45:33,456 and everything about this building is designed to keep it safe. 520 00:45:35,596 --> 00:45:40,250 This arc that you see, this curve here, is deliberate, 521 00:45:40,250 --> 00:45:42,386 it's in case there's a blast, 522 00:45:42,386 --> 00:45:44,892 some kind of explosion up at the surface. 523 00:45:44,892 --> 00:45:48,198 And this is designed to reflect the blast back. 524 00:45:48,198 --> 00:45:51,577 An extremely precious place... 525 00:45:53,086 --> 00:45:53,928 ...covered in ice. 526 00:45:56,116 --> 00:45:58,460 Then we have to go through this airlock... 527 00:46:06,826 --> 00:46:08,021 ...and into the vault. 528 00:46:10,726 --> 00:46:15,607 The treasure in here is not currency, not gold, not rare jewels 529 00:46:15,607 --> 00:46:20,217 but something important, it's the future of our food. 530 00:46:21,266 --> 00:46:26,249 Here are the seeds, the food crops of virtually every 531 00:46:26,249 --> 00:46:28,045 country in the world. 532 00:46:28,045 --> 00:46:30,609 These are from Mexico. 533 00:46:32,446 --> 00:46:33,538 There are India. 534 00:46:34,716 --> 00:46:40,098 There are Nigerian seeds next to Germany, Australia. 535 00:46:42,876 --> 00:46:48,383 There are over 800,000 different populations of seeds 536 00:46:48,383 --> 00:46:53,452 collected here from virtually every country in the world. 537 00:46:53,452 --> 00:46:55,928 These here are from Syria. 538 00:46:55,928 --> 00:46:59,217 These were taken out just before recent troubles, 539 00:46:59,217 --> 00:47:02,325 so they're out there, they're protected there in case 540 00:47:02,325 --> 00:47:05,298 the Syrian seed vaults are lost. 541 00:47:05,298 --> 00:47:08,416 And then there are some strangest of all countries you wouldn't 542 00:47:08,416 --> 00:47:11,457 believe would cooperate in such an international endeavour. 543 00:47:11,457 --> 00:47:16,374 Look at this here - box number 5DPR of Korea, 544 00:47:16,374 --> 00:47:18,757 these are North Korean seeds. 545 00:47:18,757 --> 00:47:24,015 And just over there are the South Korean seeds next to them. 546 00:47:24,015 --> 00:47:25,691 Canada. 547 00:47:25,691 --> 00:47:26,929 Philippines. 548 00:47:33,036 --> 00:47:37,769 This represents, as a library of life, 549 00:47:37,769 --> 00:47:40,612 just the whole of civilisation 550 00:47:40,612 --> 00:47:44,408 rests with the genetic codes contained in these boxes. 551 00:47:52,677 --> 00:47:55,214 Our future might just rest on these seeds 552 00:47:55,214 --> 00:47:58,928 squirreled away in the Global Seed Vault, 553 00:47:58,928 --> 00:48:00,772 drilled into the top of the world. 554 00:48:04,236 --> 00:48:08,173 The driving force behind its construction was agriculturist, 555 00:48:08,173 --> 00:48:10,568 Dr Cary Fowler. 556 00:48:10,568 --> 00:48:13,061 So why did you decide to take this project on? 557 00:48:13,061 --> 00:48:15,287 Well, I've spent all of my life 558 00:48:15,287 --> 00:48:18,850 working on trying to conserve crop diversity, 559 00:48:18,850 --> 00:48:23,774 and those of us in my field, we live in a world of wounds. 560 00:48:23,774 --> 00:48:29,331 We see the injuries, we see the loss of diversity, the extinction. 561 00:48:29,331 --> 00:48:32,138 And at a certain point, you know, enough is enough, 562 00:48:32,138 --> 00:48:34,005 and you, you try to figure out, 563 00:48:34,005 --> 00:48:36,409 well, what can we do that's not just stopgap? 564 00:48:36,409 --> 00:48:39,969 Cos we know we're going to need this crop diversity in the future, 565 00:48:39,969 --> 00:48:43,199 it's the biological foundation of agriculture. 566 00:48:43,199 --> 00:48:45,814 We're going to need it as long as we need agriculture. 567 00:48:45,814 --> 00:48:48,061 Which is as long as civilisation exists, I suppose? 568 00:48:48,061 --> 00:48:51,129 Exactly, after that we're not worried about it, are we? 569 00:48:58,206 --> 00:49:03,451 Some of the seeds in this vault will still be viable in 20,000 years. 570 00:49:09,756 --> 00:49:14,136 When you look at this achievement, how do you see it? 571 00:49:14,136 --> 00:49:17,177 When I walk in here, I see a history of agriculture, 572 00:49:17,177 --> 00:49:19,409 all the way back to Neolithic days. 573 00:49:19,409 --> 00:49:23,344 So our ancestors, yours and mine, have been saving these seeds 574 00:49:23,344 --> 00:49:27,172 in a successful, unbroken line until today. 575 00:49:27,172 --> 00:49:30,205 They're every option that we're going to have for the future, so any 576 00:49:30,205 --> 00:49:34,419 and everything we want and need - rice and wheat to be in the future 577 00:49:34,419 --> 00:49:38,185 is represented, is made possible by this diversity. 578 00:49:38,185 --> 00:49:40,419 Some people call this The Doomsday Vault. Yeah. 579 00:49:40,419 --> 00:49:44,718 Seems to me to be a rather, er I don't know, grim... Apocalyptic? 580 00:49:44,718 --> 00:49:47,937 Yeah. Yes. Is that a, a reasonable description? 581 00:49:47,937 --> 00:49:53,468 For me, when I walk down here I get this immense feeling of happiness 582 00:49:53,468 --> 00:49:56,347 and frankly, hope that, 583 00:49:56,347 --> 00:50:01,207 OK, here are 800,000 crop varieties 584 00:50:01,207 --> 00:50:04,360 that are not going to become extinct. 585 00:50:04,360 --> 00:50:08,101 So to me, this represents a problem that didn't happen. 586 00:50:08,101 --> 00:50:11,465 Also seems to me, it's an example of genuine long-term thinking, 587 00:50:11,465 --> 00:50:15,178 this transcends political cycles, it transcends lifetimes. 588 00:50:15,178 --> 00:50:19,933 Yeah, when I look at this place, I see about the only structure 589 00:50:19,933 --> 00:50:24,308 in the world that I know of that's built essentially for eternity, 590 00:50:24,308 --> 00:50:28,974 for as long as we can imagine, involving all the countries of the 591 00:50:28,974 --> 00:50:33,541 world in something that's long-term and positive. 592 00:50:33,541 --> 00:50:34,709 That's hopeful, to me. 593 00:50:49,606 --> 00:50:53,725 I came here to tell a story of an uncertain future, 594 00:50:53,725 --> 00:50:58,052 but I found something else under the permafrost of Svalbard... 595 00:50:58,052 --> 00:50:59,413 optimism. 596 00:51:09,246 --> 00:51:13,012 We have the privilege to live in a very special and unique time, 597 00:51:13,012 --> 00:51:16,853 because for the first time in the history of life on Earth, 598 00:51:16,853 --> 00:51:22,639 there's a species that at least in part is masters of its own destiny - 599 00:51:22,639 --> 00:51:25,254 has its survival in its own hands. 600 00:51:27,557 --> 00:51:30,185 It's true to say that because there's an unbroken 601 00:51:30,185 --> 00:51:34,342 line of life stretching back from me to the origin of life on earth 602 00:51:34,342 --> 00:51:39,173 3.8 billion years ago, that at any point in that long history, 603 00:51:39,173 --> 00:51:41,329 something could have happened to wipe us out, 604 00:51:41,329 --> 00:51:45,184 and something could happen tomorrow to wipe us out, 605 00:51:45,184 --> 00:51:49,080 but increasingly, we can see those threats coming. 606 00:51:49,080 --> 00:51:53,048 So, we have a chance, the possibility, 607 00:51:53,048 --> 00:51:57,587 of prolonging our existence into the indefinite future, 608 00:51:57,587 --> 00:52:02,289 if we can just find a way of taking that responsibility seriously. 609 00:52:12,276 --> 00:52:15,928 Today, we are writing our chapter in the human story. 610 00:52:17,196 --> 00:52:19,130 But as we do so, 611 00:52:19,130 --> 00:52:23,064 we must keep in mind the future and learn lessons from the past. 612 00:52:28,846 --> 00:52:31,622 Back in the darkness of the El Castillo caves, 613 00:52:31,622 --> 00:52:36,498 there may be a stark reminder of life's perilous existence. 614 00:52:38,356 --> 00:52:42,145 More accurate dating of the paintings suggests that the 615 00:52:42,145 --> 00:52:46,541 story of our young artist might have a sting in its tail. 616 00:52:52,116 --> 00:52:56,940 If this art is not just around 40,000 years old, 617 00:52:56,940 --> 00:53:00,817 but over 43,000 years old, not much of a difference, 618 00:53:00,817 --> 00:53:04,369 then this is not human. 619 00:53:04,369 --> 00:53:09,226 Because there were no humans in this area of Europe 43,000 years ago. 620 00:53:09,226 --> 00:53:13,495 If that's the case, this art was created by Neanderthals, 621 00:53:13,495 --> 00:53:16,377 a completely different species. 622 00:53:16,377 --> 00:53:17,801 Just think about that. 623 00:53:17,801 --> 00:53:22,781 Neanderthals were pretty much as capable, mentally, as we are. 624 00:53:22,781 --> 00:53:26,020 So if they'd been given enough time, 625 00:53:26,020 --> 00:53:29,465 given the pressures that we humans felt, 626 00:53:29,465 --> 00:53:31,541 then there's no reason why they 627 00:53:31,541 --> 00:53:34,427 couldn't have developed a civilisation. 628 00:53:34,427 --> 00:53:35,908 But they didn't have time. 629 00:53:35,908 --> 00:53:40,369 Instead they disappeared, they became extinct, 630 00:53:40,369 --> 00:53:44,088 leaving perhaps, these signs of the 631 00:53:44,088 --> 00:53:47,330 beginnings of their culture on the roof of a cave. 632 00:53:55,656 --> 00:53:59,627 But our species didn't die out - 633 00:53:59,627 --> 00:54:04,407 we worked together, held on and then flourished. 634 00:54:04,407 --> 00:54:07,297 Should we send these up to Grandad? 635 00:54:07,297 --> 00:54:09,290 Yeah, let's send them up to Grandad. 636 00:54:12,956 --> 00:54:15,186 In the face of adversity, 637 00:54:15,186 --> 00:54:20,138 we adapted and used our brains to develop technologies. 638 00:54:29,996 --> 00:54:33,375 In time, we built mighty civilizations 639 00:54:33,375 --> 00:54:35,586 with science as their foundation. 640 00:54:41,246 --> 00:54:45,171 And then, within the blink of a cosmic eye, 641 00:54:45,171 --> 00:54:47,170 we journeyed to other worlds... 642 00:54:51,616 --> 00:54:55,496 ...and we glimpsed the very nature of reality itself. 643 00:55:04,276 --> 00:55:06,574 Right, let's send these to Grandad. 644 00:55:06,574 --> 00:55:08,651 Going to put them in the envelope. 645 00:55:09,996 --> 00:55:14,160 LOUD RUMBLING 646 00:55:18,046 --> 00:55:22,529 We even have an outpost of our civilisation living beyond Earth. 647 00:55:25,996 --> 00:55:28,215 Science is unreasonably effective, 648 00:55:28,215 --> 00:55:32,144 it's generated knowledge beyond all expectation. 649 00:55:32,144 --> 00:55:34,208 It's also delivered perspective. 650 00:55:34,208 --> 00:55:38,793 Yes, we are an insignificant speck in an infinite universe, 651 00:55:38,793 --> 00:55:41,211 but we're also rare. 652 00:55:41,211 --> 00:55:44,734 And because we're rare, we're valuable. 653 00:55:44,734 --> 00:55:47,572 So what are we to do to secure our future? 654 00:55:47,572 --> 00:55:50,868 Well, we must learn to value the acquisition of knowledge 655 00:55:50,868 --> 00:55:54,339 for its own sake, and not just because it grows our economy 656 00:55:54,339 --> 00:55:56,897 or allows us to build better bombs. 657 00:55:56,897 --> 00:56:00,016 We must also learn to value the human race 658 00:56:00,016 --> 00:56:02,784 and take responsibility for our own survival. 659 00:56:02,784 --> 00:56:05,212 Why? Because there's nobody else out there 660 00:56:05,212 --> 00:56:08,416 to value us or to look after us. 661 00:56:08,416 --> 00:56:12,276 And finally, most important of all, 662 00:56:12,276 --> 00:56:14,623 we must educate the next generation in 663 00:56:14,623 --> 00:56:19,180 the great discoveries of science and we must teach them to use the light 664 00:56:19,180 --> 00:56:21,897 of reason to banish the darkness of superstition, 665 00:56:21,897 --> 00:56:25,779 cos if we do that, then at least there's a chance that 666 00:56:25,779 --> 00:56:28,303 this universe will remain a human one. 667 00:56:50,516 --> 00:56:52,632 There's a card in here. 668 00:56:52,632 --> 00:56:55,369 It's got "Grandad" written on it. 669 00:56:55,369 --> 00:56:57,017 Are you a grandad? I'm not a grandad. 670 00:56:57,017 --> 00:56:58,452 Hey, Alex, you a grandad? 671 00:56:58,452 --> 00:57:00,292 No, not that I know of. I guess it's me. 58239

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