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The Earth,
home to millions of species.
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00:00:34,640 --> 00:00:37,880
But what might live... beyond?
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00:00:45,160 --> 00:00:48,480
There are countless planets
throughout the universe.
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00:00:53,920 --> 00:00:57,360
If life exists on only a fraction of them,
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00:00:58,520 --> 00:01:03,200
then the universe must be... alive.
6
00:01:12,960 --> 00:01:16,640
All living things have the same needs.
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00:01:19,440 --> 00:01:20,640
To feed...
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00:01:27,320 --> 00:01:28,600
reproduce...
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00:01:33,280 --> 00:01:34,280
and evolve.
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00:01:38,120 --> 00:01:40,760
By applying the laws of life on Earth
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00:01:41,320 --> 00:01:43,080
to the rest of the universe...
12
00:01:45,120 --> 00:01:46,920
it's possible to imagine
13
00:01:47,400 --> 00:01:48,880
what could live...
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00:01:50,320 --> 00:01:52,480
on alien worlds.
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00:02:15,720 --> 00:02:19,040
All life forms need a planet to live on.
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00:02:20,640 --> 00:02:23,760
But how many planets
are there in the universe?
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00:02:28,920 --> 00:02:30,480
Think about our star,
18
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the Sun,
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00:02:33,360 --> 00:02:36,760
with Earth, Mars, Jupiter orbiting it.
20
00:02:41,520 --> 00:02:42,880
For centuries,
21
00:02:42,960 --> 00:02:46,040
people have asked themselves,
"What about the other stars?
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00:02:46,120 --> 00:02:48,200
Uh, do they have planets as well?"
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00:02:52,120 --> 00:02:53,760
And 24 years ago,
24
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I found one!
25
00:03:02,880 --> 00:03:06,440
Didier Queloz
is a superstar astrophysicist.
26
00:03:09,120 --> 00:03:12,840
He has won the Nobel Prize
for discovering the first planet
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beyond our solar system.
28
00:03:18,520 --> 00:03:21,480
I was 28 years old
when I found the planet.
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00:03:22,240 --> 00:03:24,560
I was about to finish my PhD,
30
00:03:24,640 --> 00:03:28,080
and my PhD adviser
gave me the key of the equipment.
31
00:03:28,680 --> 00:03:32,400
And after observing a couple of times,
the star 51 Peg,
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00:03:32,480 --> 00:03:35,080
I realized that something was going on
on that star.
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And frankly, I just panicked at that time.
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I thought something was really wrong
with my equipment.
35
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And the more I wanted to understand this,
the less it made sense.
36
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Until the point I got convinced
it must be a planet.
37
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That's likely to be a planet over there.
38
00:04:02,440 --> 00:04:03,920
Could be Jupiter over there.
39
00:04:04,480 --> 00:04:05,720
It's pretty cool.
40
00:04:12,040 --> 00:04:15,280
Distant planets are invisible
to telescopes
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because they don't emit any light.
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00:04:21,120 --> 00:04:23,800
But if a planet passes in front of a star,
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it casts a tiny shadow,
44
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and there's a minuscule dimming
of the star's brightness.
45
00:04:32,920 --> 00:04:35,960
When astronomers detect
this dip in light level,
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they have found a new planet.
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Hello, guys.
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Uh... Oh, hey.
Here is what the telescope is looking at.
49
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This is a picture
of the telescope right now.
50
00:04:49,240 --> 00:04:52,640
Uh, in the middle, you have the...
the target we're observing.
51
00:04:52,720 --> 00:04:56,680
So, you analyze this whole field,
you process the data,
52
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and, um, if you're lucky enough,
you detect this.
53
00:05:00,560 --> 00:05:03,200
There's a little bit of a decrease
of the flux,
54
00:05:03,280 --> 00:05:06,560
and this tells me
that there is a planet orbiting that star.
55
00:05:10,960 --> 00:05:14,560
We know there are a huge number
of planets in the universe.
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There must be a zillion kinds
of different life.
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Let's imagine
that this is the Earth, here...
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Right?
59
00:05:28,120 --> 00:05:33,760
So, imagine that one meter
is 20 light-years.
60
00:05:33,840 --> 00:05:37,040
So, I've made two meters
as 40 light-years.
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This is where you have 51 Peg,
where the first planet was detected.
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Each of these tiny lights
represents a star
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where a planet has been found.
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Over the next few years,
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planets were turning up everywhere.
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♪ Planets, planets everywhere ♪
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It looks pretty cool right now.
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A horizon of stars and planets...
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all around.
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00:06:16,920 --> 00:06:21,560
Planets beyond our solar system
are called exoplanets.
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00:06:26,520 --> 00:06:29,920
Astronomers have found
over 4,000 of them.
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And they keep finding more.
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They now believe there's at least
one planet for every star in the universe.
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That means over
a million, billion, trillion exoplanets.
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00:07:00,040 --> 00:07:03,600
More than all
the grains of sand on Earth.
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A vast canvas for the evolution of life.
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The distances are mind-boggling.
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00:07:22,720 --> 00:07:26,560
The nearest exoplanets
are trillions of miles from us.
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00:07:29,720 --> 00:07:34,640
But they're all subject to the same force
that holds the Earth in place.
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Gravity.
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Imagine a world double the size of Earth,
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with twice as much gravity.
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This is Atlas.
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How would life adapt on such a world?
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Gravity pulls vegetation
to the planet's surface.
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And yet, seeds can float in the sky.
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That's because gravity here is so strong.
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Air molecules are
densely packed together...
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00:08:38,280 --> 00:08:42,840
creating a thick, buoyant atmosphere
for seeds to drift through.
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And where there are seeds...
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there are sky grazers.
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Giant herbivores with six wings
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to ride on the dense pillow of air.
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00:09:21,200 --> 00:09:22,800
Because of the extra gravity,
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they weigh twice as much
as they would on Earth.
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But they don't fall from the sky.
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The atmosphere is thick enough
to keep them airborne.
98
00:09:43,720 --> 00:09:46,000
Whether on Atlas or on Earth,
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00:09:46,680 --> 00:09:50,800
flying is always a battle
to overcome gravity.
100
00:09:59,320 --> 00:10:02,920
You might say I have a pretty
complicated relationship with gravity.
101
00:10:04,640 --> 00:10:07,280
And you can really feel that gravity
is a force pulling you down
102
00:10:07,360 --> 00:10:08,800
as you struggle your way up.
103
00:10:11,920 --> 00:10:15,280
But ultimately, my dream
has always been to be able to fly.
104
00:10:18,560 --> 00:10:21,520
Whoo-hoo-hoo!
105
00:10:23,480 --> 00:10:27,960
The thing I love most about paragliding
is that it's so simple and intuitive.
106
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It's just you and the air.
107
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Like the sky grazers on Atlas,
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00:10:35,120 --> 00:10:38,400
paragliders use their wings
to generate lift.
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00:10:42,120 --> 00:10:44,680
But the atmosphere
is less dense on Earth...
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00:10:46,640 --> 00:10:49,680
so it takes more effort
to stay airborne.
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00:10:54,120 --> 00:10:56,480
Most people
don't see air as a substance.
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00:10:58,520 --> 00:11:00,120
But for me, when I'm flying,
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I really see it as a fluid
that's moving up and down the valleys
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and along the ridges.
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It would be really weird
to fly in a very dense atmosphere.
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You could just be gliding around
the whole time, effortlessly.
117
00:11:20,120 --> 00:11:24,160
The best way to gain altitude
is to find an updraft,
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known as a "thermal."
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When you hit the thermal,
it's very similar
120
00:11:31,240 --> 00:11:33,440
to when you're in an elevator
and it starts.
121
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You feel a push upwards.
122
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Yeah, there we go!
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Just the power of nature
to pull me up.
124
00:11:50,040 --> 00:11:52,840
When I'm flying
and I see a bird circling up,
125
00:11:52,920 --> 00:11:54,880
it means there must be a thermal there.
126
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So we're always
constantly looking at them.
127
00:12:02,400 --> 00:12:06,000
You can really feel the balance
between the gravity pulling you down
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00:12:06,080 --> 00:12:07,640
and the air lifting you up.
129
00:12:08,320 --> 00:12:11,760
You can then use your bodyweight
to gain speed,
130
00:12:11,840 --> 00:12:13,840
and use that speed
to generate more energy
131
00:12:14,440 --> 00:12:16,240
and feel that you're moving
through the air.
132
00:12:34,680 --> 00:12:38,320
Gravity may be weaker
on Earth than on Atlas...
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00:12:39,120 --> 00:12:42,680
but the thinner atmosphere
means there's less buoyancy.
134
00:12:45,240 --> 00:12:48,400
So, eventually, everything falls.
135
00:13:10,720 --> 00:13:14,520
On Atlas, the sky grazers
never need to land.
136
00:13:18,720 --> 00:13:22,280
Their front and back wings
are for direction and thrust.
137
00:13:25,520 --> 00:13:28,280
Their long middle wings
are for catching thermals.
138
00:13:32,080 --> 00:13:33,720
Despite their weight,
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the air is thick enough
for them to live a life
140
00:13:38,800 --> 00:13:40,080
in the sky.
141
00:13:45,120 --> 00:13:48,080
But it's not always a peaceful life.
142
00:13:50,640 --> 00:13:54,760
As on Earth, grazers attract predators.
143
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Using hydrogen-producing bacteria
to inflate their air sacs,
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they take to the skies.
145
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Alone, they're no match for their prey...
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00:14:20,440 --> 00:14:22,320
so they hunt in a pack...
147
00:14:24,400 --> 00:14:27,800
waiting for a sky grazer
to stray from the group.
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00:14:38,480 --> 00:14:41,920
Target sighted, they expel their gas...
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and attack from above.
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The fastest predator on Earth
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uses the same tactic.
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My interest in flying falcons is...
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their predatory instinct
coupled with the speed factor...
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and how they use that speed
to their advantage.
155
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But just watching
a top predator do its thing...
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is perfection.
157
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I probably have 30-some birds
at this moment.
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Each bird is a different personality.
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What I love about falcons
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is how evolution has made
the most perfect specimen.
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I do have a relationship with these guys.
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Certainly from my end, I do.
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I don't think the falcons
see it that way,
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but they certainly see me
as part of the team.
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Vahe Alaverdian trains
captive-bred falcons how to hunt.
166
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These birds are
genetically programmed
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to be the top-notch
avian predators that they are.
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What we do as falconers
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is try to awaken
that predatorial nature in the bird.
170
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Lure training is the very first step.
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Come on, buddy! Hup, hup, hup, hup, hup!
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I want to put that lure
in front of the bird,
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and get the falcon
to coordinate eye to foot...
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Hup, hup!
175
00:17:00,921 --> 00:17:03,041
...and throw its feet out
as if it's gonna grab it.
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As that happens,
I try to pull that away from the falcon
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to get it to shoot up in the air
and repeat this process again.
178
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I wanna see that bird drop down
as vertical as it can.
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That's something that they later on
will apply to hunting game.
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00:17:30,440 --> 00:17:35,000
When the falcons are ready,
Vahe introduces a prey target...
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a racing pigeon.
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The falcon can't keep up with the pigeon
in a chase,
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so its best bet is to drop on it...
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using gravity.
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00:17:55,840 --> 00:17:58,720
When the bird thinks
that he's got the advantage,
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that's when the wings will get tucked in.
187
00:18:04,640 --> 00:18:07,400
They stoop into a little teardrop shape...
188
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coming down from the heavens.
189
00:18:12,440 --> 00:18:14,880
The kinetic energy
of a falcon hitting a pigeon
190
00:18:16,120 --> 00:18:19,560
would be as if you were hit
by a cannonball.
191
00:18:27,440 --> 00:18:30,480
In training,
the pigeon invariably gets away,
192
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because the falcon is made to stoop
from less than a thousand feet.
193
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When hunting for real,
194
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it'll drop from a greater height...
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to lethal effect.
196
00:19:06,440 --> 00:19:08,680
The predators make their move.
197
00:19:23,840 --> 00:19:25,600
They deploy their wings
198
00:19:25,680 --> 00:19:27,040
to create drag...
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00:19:28,960 --> 00:19:31,200
destabilizing the sky grazer
200
00:19:31,280 --> 00:19:33,680
to devour it on the ground.
201
00:19:42,720 --> 00:19:46,600
But this pack is too small to take down
such a large beast.
202
00:19:53,640 --> 00:19:55,480
Today, they'll go hungry.
203
00:20:07,920 --> 00:20:10,880
The sky grazer climbs to a safe height...
204
00:20:12,520 --> 00:20:13,680
to recuperate.
205
00:20:19,440 --> 00:20:21,200
But as a fertile female,
206
00:20:21,920 --> 00:20:23,240
she has company.
207
00:20:25,680 --> 00:20:29,360
Male grazers,
competing to be chosen as a mate.
208
00:20:36,640 --> 00:20:39,680
Their oversized tails are a handicap,
209
00:20:40,720 --> 00:20:42,200
making it harder to fly.
210
00:20:43,640 --> 00:20:47,440
But to the female,
they're a sign of vitality.
211
00:20:51,600 --> 00:20:53,880
The first to reach her gets to mate
212
00:20:54,720 --> 00:20:57,000
and pass on his genes.
213
00:21:04,720 --> 00:21:07,560
The same principle applies on Earth,
214
00:21:08,760 --> 00:21:10,560
whether up in the sky
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00:21:11,280 --> 00:21:12,800
or down in the dirt.
216
00:21:15,920 --> 00:21:18,600
Males compete for the right to mate.
217
00:21:20,600 --> 00:21:22,760
And running, set...
218
00:21:24,160 --> 00:21:27,600
I think when people sit at home
watching insects on television,
219
00:21:27,680 --> 00:21:30,200
they imagine the cameraman
sitting in the jungle,
220
00:21:30,760 --> 00:21:32,480
in a river or in a hedge,
221
00:21:33,120 --> 00:21:35,880
waiting for this beetle to come across
222
00:21:35,960 --> 00:21:39,440
and reproduce or have a fight
in front of the camera.
223
00:21:42,120 --> 00:21:43,440
It doesn't work that way.
224
00:21:48,880 --> 00:21:53,200
This is a ramshackle old shed
which is attached to my parents' place,
225
00:21:53,320 --> 00:21:54,520
which is just there.
226
00:21:55,640 --> 00:21:58,680
Huge advantages to having a place
attached to your mum and dad's.
227
00:21:58,760 --> 00:22:02,880
You get good dinners in the evening
and, uh, teas arriving during the day.
228
00:22:03,920 --> 00:22:05,720
- Have a look and see what we're doing.
- Oh!
229
00:22:06,360 --> 00:22:07,600
Oh, gosh.
230
00:22:08,560 --> 00:22:10,240
Oh! What on Earth are they?
231
00:22:10,320 --> 00:22:12,400
They are rhinoceros beetles.
232
00:22:13,720 --> 00:22:15,280
The male's got these big horns.
233
00:22:15,360 --> 00:22:18,600
The female doesn't.
It's a form of sexual selection,
234
00:22:18,680 --> 00:22:22,720
because the females like males
with big horns.
235
00:22:24,320 --> 00:22:25,600
So every time they mate,
236
00:22:25,680 --> 00:22:28,960
they'll mate with a beetle
that has a slightly bigger horn
237
00:22:29,040 --> 00:22:30,816
- than the one they've last seen before.
- Oh!
238
00:22:30,840 --> 00:22:33,600
And, therefore,
that male passes its genes on.
239
00:22:34,320 --> 00:22:37,400
So, over generations,
the horns will get bigger.
240
00:22:39,280 --> 00:22:41,536
- Anywhere particular?
- Um, just on the...
241
00:22:41,560 --> 00:22:43,520
on the log facing the other male.
242
00:22:44,400 --> 00:22:46,360
Here they go.
They're going straight away.
243
00:22:49,920 --> 00:22:52,160
The horns of a male rhinoceros beetle
244
00:22:52,240 --> 00:22:54,800
are like the tail of a male sky grazer.
245
00:22:57,840 --> 00:23:00,280
They've evolved for sexual competition.
246
00:23:20,640 --> 00:23:22,840
- Ha-ha!
- That dominant one's done it again.
247
00:23:28,360 --> 00:23:30,240
That's a good shot.
The shot we wanted.
248
00:23:30,280 --> 00:23:32,160
- Yeah.
- Going into her, yeah.
249
00:23:35,640 --> 00:23:36,760
One, two, three.
250
00:23:37,960 --> 00:23:39,120
- That right?
- Yeah.
251
00:23:39,760 --> 00:23:41,120
- Yep.
- That's it.
252
00:23:41,200 --> 00:23:42,680
- Can I... Yes.
- You putting that in?
253
00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:51,760
Male insects don't always fight
to snare a mate.
254
00:23:53,240 --> 00:23:57,320
Sometimes it's enough just to show off
their physical prowess.
255
00:24:00,160 --> 00:24:02,520
Right, I'm gonna bring the male
in front of you.
256
00:24:02,600 --> 00:24:03,840
He's coming in from your right.
257
00:24:06,480 --> 00:24:08,080
Now, uh... He's flown off.
258
00:24:09,200 --> 00:24:11,560
These are stalk-eyed flies.
259
00:24:14,760 --> 00:24:17,440
Stalk-eyed fly
is an amazing little thing.
260
00:24:17,520 --> 00:24:21,280
It looks a little bit like an ant
with massive eyes on the ends of stalks.
261
00:24:22,680 --> 00:24:26,600
Both the male and the female
have eyes on the end of stalks,
262
00:24:26,680 --> 00:24:29,360
but the male has much longer eye stalks
than the female.
263
00:24:32,040 --> 00:24:36,200
The males with the long stalks
will come up to one another,
264
00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:38,480
and they will, kind of,
have a little dance.
265
00:24:44,640 --> 00:24:46,000
And they will try and judge
266
00:24:46,080 --> 00:24:48,920
which of the two of them
has the bigger stalks.
267
00:24:51,080 --> 00:24:53,000
There they are. That's the standoff!
268
00:24:57,560 --> 00:25:01,280
The winner of that will remain where they
are and the loser will then toddle off.
269
00:25:03,280 --> 00:25:05,960
That winner then will gain access
to the female,
270
00:25:06,040 --> 00:25:08,200
and be able to reproduce with her,
271
00:25:08,280 --> 00:25:11,000
and that way can pass on
the genetics that he has,
272
00:25:11,080 --> 00:25:14,080
which will include
that of a longer eye stalk.
273
00:25:15,600 --> 00:25:17,760
- Yes! Got it.
- Are... are you on it?
274
00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:19,400
Oh, It's fantastic.
275
00:25:25,160 --> 00:25:28,280
Normally, it's a second and they're gone.
This is fantastic.
276
00:25:34,920 --> 00:25:36,960
Why would the male stalk-eyed fly
go to the effort
277
00:25:37,040 --> 00:25:38,880
of having these enormous eye stalks?
278
00:25:39,440 --> 00:25:43,000
Well, the idea is that you are
conspicuously signaling to the female
279
00:25:43,080 --> 00:25:48,000
that you can have this incredible
investment of energy into this resource
280
00:25:48,080 --> 00:25:49,520
that is completely needless.
281
00:25:51,720 --> 00:25:53,440
And if you can still survive,
282
00:25:53,520 --> 00:25:57,080
if you can carry on flying and living
and not getting predated upon,
283
00:25:57,160 --> 00:26:01,840
and still have this... wasteful
extravagance coming out of your head,
284
00:26:01,920 --> 00:26:04,880
then you're gonna be a pretty good bet
to reproduce with.
285
00:26:19,040 --> 00:26:20,280
On Atlas,
286
00:26:20,360 --> 00:26:26,080
the long tail of the male sky grazer
shows he's an ideal choice...
287
00:26:28,200 --> 00:26:30,880
to father the next generation.
288
00:26:37,720 --> 00:26:41,040
But the mother can't lay her eggs
in the sky.
289
00:26:46,960 --> 00:26:48,800
So she's come down to land.
290
00:26:53,120 --> 00:26:58,280
Because of the gravity, she's too heavy
to launch herself back into the sky.
291
00:27:04,200 --> 00:27:08,080
To create new life,
she must surrender her own.
292
00:27:22,120 --> 00:27:25,760
The babies grow up close
to where their mothers die.
293
00:27:29,320 --> 00:27:33,080
Now they need to get off the ground
and into the air.
294
00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:44,160
But scavengers lie in wait.
295
00:27:45,760 --> 00:27:47,360
Boneless creatures
296
00:27:47,480 --> 00:27:50,360
with no skeleton to give them form.
297
00:27:55,920 --> 00:28:00,200
They kill by enveloping
and dissolving their prey.
298
00:28:10,920 --> 00:28:17,240
The sky grazers have only just hatched,
but already they're in grave danger.
299
00:28:20,840 --> 00:28:24,000
And now, there's no going back.
300
00:28:48,200 --> 00:28:49,640
Every day on Earth,
301
00:28:49,720 --> 00:28:53,000
young animals have to overcome
terrible odds,
302
00:28:53,560 --> 00:28:55,000
if they're to survive.
303
00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:03,760
Sixty percent of meerkats don't make it
to their first birthday.
304
00:29:06,320 --> 00:29:08,920
For a young meerkat,
in their early life,
305
00:29:09,400 --> 00:29:11,840
there's a lot of danger here.
306
00:29:12,680 --> 00:29:16,680
They're vulnerable for many months
after they're born...
307
00:29:19,840 --> 00:29:23,640
but particularly in the first month or two
after they emerge from the burrow.
308
00:29:25,920 --> 00:29:29,520
Predators are everywhere,
and a constant danger.
309
00:29:34,920 --> 00:29:36,360
There are snakes in this area
310
00:29:37,720 --> 00:29:40,000
that will eat a young meerkat.
311
00:30:03,400 --> 00:30:06,280
A young meerkat is safe within a group,
312
00:30:07,240 --> 00:30:10,400
but if it lags behind, it's vulnerable.
313
00:30:15,840 --> 00:30:18,720
Scorpions are a constant threat.
314
00:30:24,560 --> 00:30:27,400
The young are really
completely incompetent,
315
00:30:27,880 --> 00:30:31,120
and totally ignorant when it comes
to dealing with scorpions, initially.
316
00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:36,720
But they can't avoid
this danger forever.
317
00:30:38,640 --> 00:30:42,040
They're going to eventually have to learn
how to neutralize the threat.
318
00:30:49,520 --> 00:30:52,960
The first time that a young meerkat
faces a scorpion
319
00:30:53,040 --> 00:30:54,920
and it has to deal with it itself
320
00:30:56,640 --> 00:30:59,000
is probably a terrifying encounter.
321
00:31:00,720 --> 00:31:03,440
This is a real moment of truth.
322
00:31:28,120 --> 00:31:32,280
It's a real rite of passage, because once
they've managed to do that themselves,
323
00:31:33,280 --> 00:31:36,320
then they really are at a stage where
they can start to forage by themselves
324
00:31:36,400 --> 00:31:39,280
and become independent
and be a useful group member.
325
00:31:41,040 --> 00:31:44,840
So, they've really managed to escape
the vulnerability of being a pup
326
00:31:44,920 --> 00:31:48,400
and made that transition
into being an adult.
327
00:31:57,600 --> 00:32:00,960
It's one step on the road to adulthood,
328
00:32:01,040 --> 00:32:03,720
but it's by no means plain sailing
after that.
329
00:32:05,160 --> 00:32:07,680
There are a lot of threats out there,
330
00:32:07,760 --> 00:32:11,080
and it will have to continue to learn
in order to reach adulthood.
331
00:32:23,240 --> 00:32:25,880
If the young sky grazers are to grow up,
332
00:32:27,320 --> 00:32:28,920
they have no choice.
333
00:32:31,320 --> 00:32:33,040
It's time to fly.
334
00:33:03,440 --> 00:33:06,000
Even in the air, they're still not safe.
335
00:33:14,160 --> 00:33:18,400
On Atlas, survival is a game of chance.
336
00:33:27,040 --> 00:33:31,080
Life goes on
from one generation to the next.
337
00:33:34,640 --> 00:33:36,400
At least for now.
338
00:33:41,640 --> 00:33:46,720
The strong gravity of Atlas
pulls asteroids onto a collision course.
339
00:33:55,120 --> 00:33:57,440
Most burn up in the atmosphere.
340
00:33:59,320 --> 00:34:02,840
But there's a constant threat
something big will get through...
341
00:34:05,160 --> 00:34:08,320
and reset the course of life
on the planet.
342
00:34:18,520 --> 00:34:21,760
Because gravity is weaker
on Earth than Atlas,
343
00:34:21,840 --> 00:34:24,320
asteroid strikes are less frequent.
344
00:34:27,320 --> 00:34:31,240
But when they do occur,
they can be catastrophic.
345
00:34:36,440 --> 00:34:38,640
This is the Yucatán Peninsula.
346
00:34:42,480 --> 00:34:46,200
27,000 square miles of tropical jungle.
347
00:34:49,120 --> 00:34:54,600
But hidden within the jungle
are numerous sinkholes called cenotes.
348
00:35:08,040 --> 00:35:12,280
These are entrances
to vast underground cave systems.
349
00:35:15,040 --> 00:35:18,360
There's no surface rivers or streams
in the peninsula,
350
00:35:19,320 --> 00:35:23,040
so the only source of water
is underground in caves.
351
00:35:30,080 --> 00:35:34,000
But the really interesting thing
is the location of these cenotes.
352
00:35:34,400 --> 00:35:39,440
Although there's probably 10,000
or more cenotes across the peninsula,
353
00:35:39,880 --> 00:35:42,000
in the northwest corner...
354
00:35:45,360 --> 00:35:50,080
they occur in a very well-defined
semicircle.
355
00:35:50,160 --> 00:35:54,440
If we follow that semicircle
out into the Gulf of Mexico...
356
00:35:57,880 --> 00:36:02,800
we now have a complete circle
that marks what one would expect
357
00:36:02,880 --> 00:36:06,000
from the edge
of an asteroid impact crater.
358
00:36:07,800 --> 00:36:10,000
65 million years ago,
359
00:36:10,080 --> 00:36:13,760
gravity pulled an asteroid
into our solar system.
360
00:36:16,560 --> 00:36:18,520
It smashed into our planet,
361
00:36:18,840 --> 00:36:22,720
causing the extinction
of 75 percent of life on Earth.
362
00:36:33,920 --> 00:36:37,320
The asteroid strike generated
enough debris
363
00:36:38,200 --> 00:36:41,080
to block out sunlight for two years.
364
00:36:44,520 --> 00:36:47,480
A world plunged into darkness.
365
00:36:48,680 --> 00:36:50,000
Nothing could grow.
366
00:36:54,320 --> 00:36:56,000
This would happen on Atlas
367
00:36:56,680 --> 00:36:59,280
if a big enough asteroid
hit the planet.
368
00:37:01,160 --> 00:37:04,480
Cenotes
are difficult places to survive...
369
00:37:06,320 --> 00:37:10,000
just like the Earth was
65 million years ago.
370
00:37:12,240 --> 00:37:17,000
What are the characteristics that
a species needs to survive an extinction?
371
00:37:27,720 --> 00:37:29,080
Somebody's in here.
372
00:37:39,640 --> 00:37:42,400
So, crocodiles are very resilient animals.
373
00:37:44,720 --> 00:37:48,000
They live both in the water and on land.
374
00:37:50,320 --> 00:37:54,600
They're generalists.
They don't require a specific diet.
375
00:37:56,400 --> 00:37:58,360
They'll eat almost anything.
376
00:38:00,400 --> 00:38:02,800
Whatever is available is good enough,
377
00:38:03,440 --> 00:38:04,560
they'll take it.
378
00:38:09,720 --> 00:38:11,280
Here in this cenote,
379
00:38:12,240 --> 00:38:15,600
one's fallen in, gotten trapped,
no way out...
380
00:38:17,040 --> 00:38:18,560
Somehow, some way...
381
00:38:19,840 --> 00:38:21,160
he's succeeded.
382
00:38:22,400 --> 00:38:23,840
They're survivors.
383
00:38:26,920 --> 00:38:30,960
In a changing world,
it pays to be a generalist,
384
00:38:31,040 --> 00:38:32,400
not a specialist.
385
00:38:46,400 --> 00:38:49,080
If a big enough asteroid hits Atlas,
386
00:38:49,640 --> 00:38:52,680
the sky grazers and predators
would be doomed.
387
00:38:59,360 --> 00:39:02,640
They're too specialized
to cope with change.
388
00:39:08,040 --> 00:39:11,600
The generalists
are the boneless scavengers.
389
00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:16,240
Like crocodiles, they eat anything...
390
00:39:17,440 --> 00:39:19,200
and live anywhere.
391
00:39:23,640 --> 00:39:26,200
On this imagined high-gravity world,
392
00:39:26,920 --> 00:39:30,120
they could be the great survivors.
393
00:39:43,440 --> 00:39:45,160
How might life adapt
394
00:39:45,240 --> 00:39:47,040
on a different world,
395
00:39:48,320 --> 00:39:49,920
where creatures are trapped
396
00:39:50,560 --> 00:39:52,160
between a searing desert
397
00:39:53,760 --> 00:39:55,680
and a frozen shadowland?
398
00:39:57,720 --> 00:40:00,600
A world of extremes.
33217
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