All language subtitles for The UnXplained S01E13 Extreme Weather Mysteries 1080p AMZN WEB-DL DDP2 0 H 264-NTb_track4_[eng]

af Afrikaans
ak Akan
sq Albanian
am Amharic
ar Arabic
hy Armenian
az Azerbaijani
eu Basque
be Belarusian
bem Bemba
bn Bengali
bh Bihari
bs Bosnian
br Breton
bg Bulgarian
km Cambodian
ca Catalan
ceb Cebuano
chr Cherokee
ny Chichewa
zh-CN Chinese (Simplified)
zh-TW Chinese (Traditional)
co Corsican
hr Croatian
cs Czech
da Danish
nl Dutch
eo Esperanto
et Estonian
ee Ewe
fo Faroese
tl Filipino
fi Finnish
fr French
fy Frisian
gaa Ga
gl Galician
ka Georgian
de German
gn Guarani
gu Gujarati
ht Haitian Creole
ha Hausa
haw Hawaiian
iw Hebrew
hi Hindi
hmn Hmong
hu Hungarian
is Icelandic
ig Igbo
id Indonesian
ia Interlingua
ga Irish
it Italian
ja Japanese
jw Javanese
kn Kannada
kk Kazakh
rw Kinyarwanda
rn Kirundi
kg Kongo
ko Korean
kri Krio (Sierra Leone)
ku Kurdish
ckb Kurdish (Soranรฎ)
ky Kyrgyz
lo Laothian
la Latin
lv Latvian
ln Lingala
lt Lithuanian
loz Lozi
lg Luganda
ach Luo
lb Luxembourgish
mk Macedonian
mg Malagasy
ms Malay
ml Malayalam
mt Maltese
mi Maori
mr Marathi
mfe Mauritian Creole
mo Moldavian
mn Mongolian
my Myanmar (Burmese)
sr-ME Montenegrin
ne Nepali
pcm Nigerian Pidgin
nso Northern Sotho
no Norwegian
nn Norwegian (Nynorsk)
oc Occitan
or Oriya
om Oromo
ps Pashto
fa Persian
pl Polish
pt-BR Portuguese (Brazil)
pt Portuguese (Portugal)
pa Punjabi
qu Quechua
ro Romanian
rm Romansh
nyn Runyakitara
ru Russian
sm Samoan
gd Scots Gaelic
sr Serbian
sh Serbo-Croatian
st Sesotho
tn Setswana
crs Seychellois Creole
sn Shona
sd Sindhi
si Sinhalese
sk Slovak
sl Slovenian
so Somali
es Spanish
es-419 Spanish (Latin American)
su Sundanese
sw Swahili
sv Swedish
tg Tajik
ta Tamil
tt Tatar
te Telugu
th Thai
ti Tigrinya
to Tonga
lua Tshiluba
tum Tumbuka
tr Turkish
tk Turkmen
tw Twi
ug Uighur
uk Ukrainian
ur Urdu
uz Uzbek
vi Vietnamese
cy Welsh
wo Wolof
xh Xhosa
yi Yiddish
yo Yoruba
zu Zulu
Would you like to inspect the original subtitles? These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:05,379 --> 00:00:08,206 Lightning that follows you into your home... 2 00:00:08,310 --> 00:00:10,379 rain that falls like blood... 3 00:00:12,068 --> 00:00:15,413 ...and a single house spared total destruction. 4 00:00:18,206 --> 00:00:23,965 History is filled with tales of strange weather phenomena. 5 00:00:24,068 --> 00:00:27,275 Frogs falling from the sky. 6 00:00:27,379 --> 00:00:33,000 Hail so large that it can crush an automobile. 7 00:00:33,103 --> 00:00:38,448 And storms so savage they erase all traces of mankind. 8 00:00:38,551 --> 00:00:41,689 Can science help us to find out why these things happen? 9 00:00:41,793 --> 00:00:45,000 Or could unseen forces be at work, 10 00:00:45,103 --> 00:00:48,448 and if so, could we possibly harness these forces 11 00:00:48,551 --> 00:00:50,689 to serve our own needs? 12 00:00:50,793 --> 00:00:54,862 Well, that is what we will try and find out. 13 00:00:54,965 --> 00:00:56,896 โ™ช 14 00:01:13,793 --> 00:01:16,586 Scientists at Florida State University publish the results 15 00:01:16,689 --> 00:01:20,344 of a study on the destructive power of tornadoes. 16 00:01:20,448 --> 00:01:23,758 Their conclusion: tornadoes, which are already 17 00:01:23,862 --> 00:01:26,482 capable of generating 200-miles-per-hour winds 18 00:01:26,586 --> 00:01:30,068 are getting five percent more powerful every year. 19 00:01:30,172 --> 00:01:33,241 And there doesn't appear to be a limit as to how strong 20 00:01:33,344 --> 00:01:35,551 they will become in the future. 21 00:01:37,310 --> 00:01:39,620 Tornadoes have so much energy in them. 22 00:01:39,724 --> 00:01:42,137 The-the energy in a... in a large tornado, 23 00:01:42,241 --> 00:01:44,896 like an EF4 or 5, is more energy 24 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:46,896 than is in a nuclear weapon. 25 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:49,689 The base of these things are sometimes a mile wide, 26 00:01:49,793 --> 00:01:52,965 and they go all the way up to 30, 40, 50,000 feet high. 27 00:01:53,068 --> 00:01:54,793 This is a very large structure. 28 00:01:54,896 --> 00:01:59,551 A skyscraper is teeny-tiny in comparison to a tornado. 29 00:02:01,413 --> 00:02:02,827 SHATNER: If scientists are correct, 30 00:02:02,931 --> 00:02:04,896 and tornadoes are getting even stronger, 31 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:08,034 how are we supposed to keep ourselves safe 32 00:02:08,137 --> 00:02:09,862 from their awesome power? 33 00:02:09,965 --> 00:02:14,827 Especially considering we still have no idea 34 00:02:14,931 --> 00:02:19,000 how to predict when and where they'll appear. 35 00:02:20,620 --> 00:02:23,482 The thing that's hardest to explain about tornadoes is 36 00:02:23,586 --> 00:02:25,413 why the tornado forms, 37 00:02:25,517 --> 00:02:27,379 and when is it triggered to come to the surface? 38 00:02:27,482 --> 00:02:31,586 The problem with tracking tornadoes is they're only 39 00:02:31,689 --> 00:02:33,517 for just a very few minutes. 40 00:02:33,620 --> 00:02:37,137 They form, a warning goes out. 41 00:02:37,241 --> 00:02:38,758 Only 13 minutes elapses 42 00:02:38,862 --> 00:02:41,689 before, most times, the tornado is on the ground. 43 00:02:43,448 --> 00:02:45,620 So, we don't have a whole lot of research 44 00:02:45,724 --> 00:02:47,413 as far as looking at those. 45 00:02:49,793 --> 00:02:52,862 There is almost an infinite number of moving parts 46 00:02:52,965 --> 00:02:54,517 in a tornado. 47 00:02:54,620 --> 00:02:57,896 There's atmospheric turbulence, there's moisture, 48 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:00,655 there's pressure changes. 49 00:03:00,758 --> 00:03:02,482 There's electromagnetic discharges 50 00:03:02,586 --> 00:03:04,620 and charging going on. 51 00:03:04,724 --> 00:03:07,482 There's so many phenomena that you can't even 52 00:03:07,586 --> 00:03:09,068 make the list complete. 53 00:03:12,034 --> 00:03:13,413 MICHIO KAKU: When we think of the laws of physics, 54 00:03:13,517 --> 00:03:15,000 we think of firing a bullet. 55 00:03:16,827 --> 00:03:19,896 Moves in a straight line, never deviates. 56 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:23,551 But the weather, what a headache for a physicist. 57 00:03:23,655 --> 00:03:25,827 Remember the butterfly effect? 58 00:03:25,931 --> 00:03:28,931 That is, even the flapping of the wings of a butterfly 59 00:03:29,034 --> 00:03:32,413 can cause a ripple effect, which could lead to a tipping point 60 00:03:32,517 --> 00:03:34,862 initiating a thunderstorm. 61 00:03:34,965 --> 00:03:38,000 So even small vibrations here can cause 62 00:03:38,103 --> 00:03:40,758 massive distortions of the weather over there. 63 00:03:40,862 --> 00:03:44,000 That's why predicting the path of a tornado 64 00:03:44,103 --> 00:03:46,241 is virtually impossible. 65 00:03:53,758 --> 00:03:55,482 SHATNER: After a long, hard week, 66 00:03:55,586 --> 00:03:57,758 the Coffelt family is looking forward to spending 67 00:03:57,862 --> 00:04:01,034 a Sunday relaxing in the comfort of their home. 68 00:04:01,137 --> 00:04:05,241 But it isn't long before they realize their plans 69 00:04:05,344 --> 00:04:08,275 are going to be interrupted. 70 00:04:08,379 --> 00:04:10,413 - [alarm chiming] - COREY COFFELT: We, uh, started getting 71 00:04:10,517 --> 00:04:11,655 all these notifications on our phones. 72 00:04:11,758 --> 00:04:13,241 Like, "Tornado Warning." 73 00:04:13,344 --> 00:04:16,758 And then we started getting a little bit concerned. 74 00:04:16,862 --> 00:04:19,034 All right. And we looked outside. 75 00:04:19,137 --> 00:04:22,620 - The weather's getting kind of bad. - [thunder crashing] 76 00:04:24,172 --> 00:04:25,724 It was, like, dark clouds. 77 00:04:25,827 --> 00:04:27,517 It's-it's hard to describe because it was just, like, 78 00:04:27,620 --> 00:04:30,034 coming toward the house. 79 00:04:30,137 --> 00:04:32,551 It was-- It was getting really dark. 80 00:04:32,655 --> 00:04:35,379 COREY: I started walking towards the door, 81 00:04:35,482 --> 00:04:37,862 and it just almost went pitch black. 82 00:04:37,965 --> 00:04:39,034 [wind whooshing] 83 00:04:41,827 --> 00:04:43,965 My wife yelled, "Go to the bathroom, go to the bathroom!" 84 00:04:44,068 --> 00:04:46,586 All of us-- my wife and two daughters-- 85 00:04:46,689 --> 00:04:48,310 went in the bathroom. 86 00:04:50,586 --> 00:04:52,413 A minute or two went by, 87 00:04:52,517 --> 00:04:54,586 and you heard the tornado coming in. 88 00:04:54,689 --> 00:04:55,620 - [house creaking] - [wind whistling] 89 00:04:55,724 --> 00:04:58,034 It started with a small whistle, 90 00:04:58,137 --> 00:05:00,137 and then it got louder and louder. 91 00:05:00,241 --> 00:05:02,103 And then it just kind of sounded like a train coming in. 92 00:05:02,206 --> 00:05:05,034 Like a... [whistles] 93 00:05:05,137 --> 00:05:07,965 And it just, boom, hit the house. 94 00:05:10,241 --> 00:05:13,068 When we were in there, it was so confusing 95 00:05:13,172 --> 00:05:15,068 because-because you didn't know what was going to happen. 96 00:05:15,172 --> 00:05:18,379 Especially when we start hearing stuff happen around us. 97 00:05:18,482 --> 00:05:21,758 And, you know, we're all just in that tight space. 98 00:05:21,862 --> 00:05:23,034 And I was screaming. 99 00:05:23,137 --> 00:05:24,931 [screaming] 100 00:05:25,034 --> 00:05:27,310 Everything just started shaking, 101 00:05:27,413 --> 00:05:30,620 - and you could hear the little snaps going on outside. - [window shatters] 102 00:05:30,724 --> 00:05:33,379 And then it stopped. 103 00:05:33,482 --> 00:05:35,137 [Corey panting] 104 00:05:36,931 --> 00:05:38,827 And then it happened again. 105 00:05:38,931 --> 00:05:41,000 - [glass shattering] - [house rumbling] 106 00:05:41,103 --> 00:05:43,137 SHATNER: When the violent shaking finally subsides, 107 00:05:43,241 --> 00:05:45,551 the frightened family cautiously leaves 108 00:05:45,655 --> 00:05:47,827 the safety of the bathroom 109 00:05:47,931 --> 00:05:50,655 to assess the damage to their house. 110 00:05:50,758 --> 00:05:54,689 But to their shock and disbelief, 111 00:05:54,793 --> 00:05:57,103 there's none. 112 00:05:57,206 --> 00:05:59,551 We came out, we walked out the front door 113 00:05:59,655 --> 00:06:02,758 and, uh, looked, saw everything. 114 00:06:02,862 --> 00:06:04,689 Heh, it was just overwhelming. 115 00:06:09,827 --> 00:06:14,068 COREY: An F4 tornado comes across and destroys everything around you, 116 00:06:14,172 --> 00:06:16,413 except for your house, and you and your family 117 00:06:16,517 --> 00:06:18,034 still, still standing. 118 00:06:18,137 --> 00:06:19,517 We were just completely overwhelmed. 119 00:06:19,620 --> 00:06:22,137 We could barely breathe, and just 120 00:06:22,241 --> 00:06:24,551 couldn't believe the destruction that was out there. 121 00:06:24,655 --> 00:06:26,482 It was just breathtaking. 122 00:06:26,586 --> 00:06:28,586 It can't be explained. 123 00:06:28,689 --> 00:06:32,862 The emotions and the feelings that go through, really just, 124 00:06:32,965 --> 00:06:36,965 uh, it's mind-blowing. 125 00:06:38,724 --> 00:06:42,172 SHATNER: Despite sitting directly in the tornado's savage path, 126 00:06:42,275 --> 00:06:44,344 the Coffelt house was somehow spared 127 00:06:44,448 --> 00:06:47,413 when nearly everything else in sight was leveled. 128 00:06:49,310 --> 00:06:51,827 Aside from some minor superficial damage, 129 00:06:51,931 --> 00:06:54,862 barely a shingle had been knocked out of place. 130 00:06:54,965 --> 00:06:57,689 But how? 131 00:06:59,344 --> 00:07:01,758 TAYLOR: There are so many variables with a tornado 132 00:07:01,862 --> 00:07:04,413 and why it hits this house and not that one, 133 00:07:04,517 --> 00:07:06,068 it's really hard to say. 134 00:07:06,172 --> 00:07:08,206 There could be little pockets of pressure, 135 00:07:08,310 --> 00:07:10,862 little pockets of temperature, little pockets of moisture. 136 00:07:10,965 --> 00:07:12,620 Who knows what it is? 137 00:07:12,724 --> 00:07:17,965 But it could be little pockets that change the statistics 138 00:07:18,068 --> 00:07:22,413 of the debris field such that it just happens to miss that spot. 139 00:07:25,241 --> 00:07:28,068 MICHAEL DENNIN: Tornadoes never travel in very straight, regular paths. 140 00:07:28,172 --> 00:07:31,275 When you picture the video, it's an interesting path 141 00:07:31,379 --> 00:07:32,724 to avoid the house. 142 00:07:32,827 --> 00:07:34,620 But you could imagine 143 00:07:34,724 --> 00:07:36,655 a tornado circling back on itself. 144 00:07:36,758 --> 00:07:39,103 That is not inconceivable. 145 00:07:39,206 --> 00:07:41,103 This house could have been lucky to have the tornado 146 00:07:41,206 --> 00:07:43,586 come down the right side, turn around, 147 00:07:43,689 --> 00:07:45,551 destroy the forest on the other side, 148 00:07:45,655 --> 00:07:48,000 turn around again and then go off. 149 00:07:50,551 --> 00:07:53,413 SHATNER: Could it be that the Coffelts and their house 150 00:07:53,517 --> 00:07:56,241 survived simply because of luck? 151 00:07:56,344 --> 00:07:59,344 Or was it the result of some kind of 152 00:07:59,448 --> 00:08:01,068 deliberate intervention? 153 00:08:01,172 --> 00:08:04,310 After all, from Zeus, the Greek god of thunder, 154 00:08:04,413 --> 00:08:07,275 to Set, the Egyptian god of storms, 155 00:08:07,379 --> 00:08:10,517 ancient cultures believed weather was not 156 00:08:10,620 --> 00:08:13,000 a random force of nature, 157 00:08:13,103 --> 00:08:16,068 but a power wielded by the gods. 158 00:08:17,965 --> 00:08:22,482 Major ancient cultures saw the Earth itself as a god. 159 00:08:22,586 --> 00:08:24,586 More accurately, a goddess. 160 00:08:24,689 --> 00:08:27,862 The Greeks had a name, Gaia. 161 00:08:27,965 --> 00:08:30,758 The ancient Hindu tradition also saw the planet 162 00:08:30,862 --> 00:08:32,827 as a feminine divinity. 163 00:08:32,931 --> 00:08:36,206 So we are in relationship with the planet. 164 00:08:36,310 --> 00:08:38,724 There are weather patterns that are caused 165 00:08:38,827 --> 00:08:41,379 by planetary energies. 166 00:08:41,482 --> 00:08:45,068 And this is a living relationship which can help 167 00:08:45,172 --> 00:08:47,758 our way of looking at our relationship 168 00:08:47,862 --> 00:08:49,517 to the ground we live on. 169 00:08:49,620 --> 00:08:53,827 All stemming back to some of the most ancient cultures 170 00:08:53,931 --> 00:08:55,655 and religious practices that have been 171 00:08:55,758 --> 00:08:57,586 with us on this planet. 172 00:08:59,275 --> 00:09:02,172 SHATNER: A living, conscious planet. 173 00:09:02,275 --> 00:09:05,896 If this is true, does it mean that the Coffelts' house was 174 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:09,896 deliberately spared by some act of divine mercy? 175 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:13,206 Or was it left standing to serve as a warning 176 00:09:13,310 --> 00:09:15,965 that nature must be respected? 177 00:09:16,068 --> 00:09:18,413 As far as the Coffelts are concerned, 178 00:09:18,517 --> 00:09:21,137 the answers hardly matter. 179 00:09:21,241 --> 00:09:24,689 If there is some miracle about all this... 180 00:09:24,793 --> 00:09:26,275 because it's not a miracle. 181 00:09:26,379 --> 00:09:29,448 'Cause getting hit by a tornado, that... that sucks. 182 00:09:29,551 --> 00:09:33,344 You know, I probably shouldn't be sitting here today. 183 00:09:36,655 --> 00:09:39,172 I definitely do have a new respect for the weather. 184 00:09:39,275 --> 00:09:43,827 It-it really can-- It can take everything away from you 185 00:09:43,931 --> 00:09:45,000 in the blink of an eye. 186 00:09:47,517 --> 00:09:50,000 KAKU: Predicting the path, the precise path 187 00:09:50,103 --> 00:09:53,551 of a tornado is beyond our computational ability. 188 00:09:53,655 --> 00:09:56,931 So when I look at these videotapes of a tornado 189 00:09:57,034 --> 00:10:00,275 where a houses basically dodges the bullet, 190 00:10:00,379 --> 00:10:02,931 I say to myself, "What's happening here? 191 00:10:03,034 --> 00:10:04,689 Was it an act of God?" 192 00:10:04,793 --> 00:10:06,896 I don't know. I'm a physicist. 193 00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:10,620 I say it's the non-linearity of the laws of physics 194 00:10:10,724 --> 00:10:12,137 applied to the weather. 195 00:10:14,655 --> 00:10:17,275 SHATNER: Are tornadoes and other forms of extreme weather 196 00:10:17,379 --> 00:10:21,448 not scientific problems to be solved, 197 00:10:21,551 --> 00:10:26,137 but rather messages sent to us by Mother Nature herself? 198 00:10:26,241 --> 00:10:28,931 - It's an intriguing notion. - [loud thunder] 199 00:10:29,034 --> 00:10:31,137 Perhaps if we can learn to decipher these messages, 200 00:10:31,241 --> 00:10:33,551 we'll be able to understand lots of other 201 00:10:33,655 --> 00:10:36,000 bizarre weather phenomena, 202 00:10:36,103 --> 00:10:40,275 like the one known as ball lightning. 203 00:10:45,862 --> 00:10:49,551 Lightning is one of nature's most powerful 204 00:10:49,655 --> 00:10:52,034 and incomprehensible forces. 205 00:10:52,137 --> 00:10:55,655 There are places in the world, like Lake Maracaibo, 206 00:10:55,758 --> 00:10:58,000 that are constantly being struck 207 00:10:58,103 --> 00:11:01,103 in what seems to be a never-ending storm. 208 00:11:01,206 --> 00:11:05,655 But there's another type, called ball lightning, 209 00:11:05,758 --> 00:11:08,172 and nobody seems to know what it is 210 00:11:08,275 --> 00:11:10,896 or why it happens. 211 00:11:16,724 --> 00:11:19,034 While out for an afternoon stroll, 212 00:11:19,137 --> 00:11:23,034 a local student spots something that stops him in his tracks. 213 00:11:25,103 --> 00:11:28,068 SHATNER: Pulling out his cell phone, he captures incredible footage 214 00:11:28,172 --> 00:11:31,379 of an eerie ball of what looks like pure energy, 215 00:11:31,482 --> 00:11:36,172 floating and bobbing, as if alive. 216 00:11:36,275 --> 00:11:39,758 Later analysis reveals that the video may be evidence 217 00:11:39,862 --> 00:11:44,413 of one of the most mysterious weather anomalies in the world: 218 00:11:44,517 --> 00:11:46,689 ball lightning. 219 00:11:46,793 --> 00:11:48,689 DENNIN: Any video of ball lightning is exciting 220 00:11:48,793 --> 00:11:50,724 and interesting to me because they're rare. 221 00:11:50,827 --> 00:11:52,344 I-It's hard to see it. 222 00:11:52,448 --> 00:11:56,275 And it does confirm the idea that what you're really trying 223 00:11:56,379 --> 00:12:01,172 to look at is some sort of contained plasma-like object. 224 00:12:01,275 --> 00:12:03,344 TAYLOR: Looking at this video, what's happening 225 00:12:03,448 --> 00:12:05,724 is this ball lightning is probably traveling along 226 00:12:05,827 --> 00:12:09,000 the electromagnetic field line of the power lines. 227 00:12:09,103 --> 00:12:11,310 And then when it hits the, uh, transformer, 228 00:12:11,413 --> 00:12:13,310 it's just too much power for the transformer to handle 229 00:12:13,413 --> 00:12:14,724 and it explodes. 230 00:12:14,827 --> 00:12:17,827 And you can see that in the video. 231 00:12:17,931 --> 00:12:20,620 SHATNER: Unlike normal lightning, 232 00:12:20,724 --> 00:12:22,758 which follows well-defined laws of physics, 233 00:12:22,862 --> 00:12:27,448 ball lightning is much more erratic in its behavior. 234 00:12:27,551 --> 00:12:29,620 Even after centuries of research, 235 00:12:29,724 --> 00:12:32,620 scientists still don't really know what causes it. 236 00:12:32,724 --> 00:12:38,103 Or where this incredible energy comes from. 237 00:12:38,206 --> 00:12:40,310 When we think of a lightning bolt, we think of electricity 238 00:12:40,413 --> 00:12:44,000 shooting from the heavens, just crackling with energy... 239 00:12:46,931 --> 00:12:50,172 ...which is totally different than ball lightning. 240 00:12:50,275 --> 00:12:53,275 Ball lightning is basically a sphere a few feet across 241 00:12:53,379 --> 00:12:57,620 that seems to hover slowly and then dissipates. 242 00:12:57,724 --> 00:12:59,862 So how can that be? 243 00:13:02,344 --> 00:13:05,482 Ball lightning is essentially lightning in a bottle, 244 00:13:05,586 --> 00:13:06,793 but there's no glass bottle, 245 00:13:06,896 --> 00:13:08,862 there's an electromagnetic bottle. 246 00:13:08,965 --> 00:13:11,862 So you get these electromagnetic field lines that form 247 00:13:11,965 --> 00:13:16,965 the shape of a sphere and it traps the lightning inside. 248 00:13:18,137 --> 00:13:21,034 It can range in size from pea size to dime size, 249 00:13:21,137 --> 00:13:23,758 baseball size, grapefruit size. 250 00:13:25,482 --> 00:13:28,206 And the uniqueness of ball lightning is it lasts 251 00:13:28,310 --> 00:13:30,034 from 20 to 30 seconds, 252 00:13:30,137 --> 00:13:31,724 unlike a regular bolt of lightning, 253 00:13:31,827 --> 00:13:34,379 which is just a flash. 254 00:13:34,482 --> 00:13:37,000 Ball lightning has been mysterious for so long 255 00:13:37,103 --> 00:13:39,551 because it's hard to capture. 256 00:13:39,655 --> 00:13:41,206 'Cause when it happens, 257 00:13:41,310 --> 00:13:42,827 the ball is skittering and moves around crazy. 258 00:13:42,931 --> 00:13:44,689 It doesn't just sit there in one spot, 259 00:13:44,793 --> 00:13:46,689 so you can't walk up to it and look at it. 260 00:13:47,896 --> 00:13:49,827 SHATNER: Is it possible that sightings 261 00:13:49,931 --> 00:13:53,448 of ball lightning are just a trick of the eye? 262 00:13:53,551 --> 00:13:56,241 An optical illusion? 263 00:13:56,344 --> 00:13:59,758 Or could ball lightning be responsible for everything 264 00:13:59,862 --> 00:14:04,413 from mysterious UFO sightings to strange accounts 265 00:14:04,517 --> 00:14:08,896 of phenomena known as spontaneous combustion? 266 00:14:09,000 --> 00:14:10,586 EVANS: Ball lightning was first discovered 267 00:14:10,689 --> 00:14:14,068 in the 1600s in a European church when the ball lightning 268 00:14:14,172 --> 00:14:17,068 came right through the window and into the sanctuary. 269 00:14:17,172 --> 00:14:20,793 KAKU: There are many documented eyewitness accounts-- 270 00:14:20,896 --> 00:14:22,896 not just one but scores of them through history-- 271 00:14:23,000 --> 00:14:26,241 of ball lightning entering people's homes 272 00:14:26,344 --> 00:14:30,896 and being cited by reputable witnesses. 273 00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:33,413 The most famous sighting was done in Russia, 274 00:14:33,517 --> 00:14:35,620 by Czar Nicholas II. 275 00:14:35,724 --> 00:14:40,241 He had an eyewitness right in front of the royal family. 276 00:14:40,344 --> 00:14:45,137 A ball lightning went whizzing right by and he wrote about it. 277 00:14:45,241 --> 00:14:47,896 People just say, "Oh, no, I was standing there 278 00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:50,413 "after this thunderstorm in my living room, 279 00:14:50,517 --> 00:14:53,103 "and this ball of light came across the field, 280 00:14:53,206 --> 00:14:55,620 "right through the picture window, into my room, 281 00:14:55,724 --> 00:14:59,862 and touched the steam radiator and popped like a firecracker." 282 00:14:59,965 --> 00:15:04,551 And I have not read an explanation for that behavior 283 00:15:04,655 --> 00:15:06,758 that I consider plausible. 284 00:15:06,862 --> 00:15:08,103 EVANS: It's believed that glass 285 00:15:08,206 --> 00:15:10,931 actually enhances ball lightning. 286 00:15:11,034 --> 00:15:13,379 The trace elements in glass, including lead, 287 00:15:13,482 --> 00:15:17,034 is very attractive and a conductor of lightning. 288 00:15:17,137 --> 00:15:20,517 And we always say stay away from water and glass windows 289 00:15:20,620 --> 00:15:22,655 when there's lightning, because those are conductors. 290 00:15:22,758 --> 00:15:25,758 And it seems that ball lightning is very attracted to glass 291 00:15:25,862 --> 00:15:27,896 and will actually pass through it 292 00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:32,068 and then can create a lot of damage. 293 00:15:32,172 --> 00:15:34,068 Ball lightning can be very dangerous. 294 00:15:34,172 --> 00:15:38,206 It's started fires, it has put buildings on fire. 295 00:15:38,310 --> 00:15:41,000 It has caused a lot of destruction 296 00:15:41,103 --> 00:15:43,896 just in and of itself. 297 00:15:46,655 --> 00:15:51,068 SHATNER: If it sounds impossible for a primal force of nature 298 00:15:51,172 --> 00:15:55,000 to be contained indoors, well, you'd be wrong. 299 00:15:55,103 --> 00:15:59,965 Because, as it turns out, scientists have done just that. 300 00:16:03,034 --> 00:16:07,000 In 2006, Professor Eli Jerby 301 00:16:07,103 --> 00:16:09,310 and researchers at Tel Aviv University 302 00:16:09,413 --> 00:16:13,758 used powerful microwave beams to generate a tiny sphere 303 00:16:13,862 --> 00:16:16,448 of plasma for fractions of a second. 304 00:16:16,551 --> 00:16:20,896 It was the first time anything resembling ball lightning 305 00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:24,724 was reproduced in a laboratory. 306 00:16:24,827 --> 00:16:27,896 TAYLOR: It took scientists a long time to reproduce ball lightning 307 00:16:28,000 --> 00:16:29,379 in the laboratory. 308 00:16:29,482 --> 00:16:31,724 Ball lightning needs a lot of energy. 309 00:16:31,827 --> 00:16:33,724 And the way you would create that 310 00:16:33,827 --> 00:16:37,689 is you have really strange high electromagnetic fields 311 00:16:37,793 --> 00:16:41,620 that are wrapped around each other that traps and squeezes 312 00:16:41,724 --> 00:16:45,172 the air molecules until they're so hot that they become ionized 313 00:16:45,275 --> 00:16:48,000 and literally are like a big ball of plasma, 314 00:16:48,103 --> 00:16:51,517 like a little mini-star. 315 00:16:51,620 --> 00:16:57,206 SHATNER: Could ball lightning actually be some kind of miniature star, 316 00:16:57,310 --> 00:17:00,586 one that exists here on Earth? 317 00:17:00,689 --> 00:17:02,206 According to some scientists, 318 00:17:02,310 --> 00:17:05,241 the notion is not as far-fetched as it sounds. 319 00:17:05,344 --> 00:17:09,551 Which could also mean that ball lightning has the potential 320 00:17:09,655 --> 00:17:11,862 to develop into one of the most destructive forces 321 00:17:11,965 --> 00:17:14,068 in the known universe. 322 00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:17,517 TAYLOR: Some people suggest 323 00:17:17,620 --> 00:17:22,172 that ball lightning could be primordial black holes. 324 00:17:22,275 --> 00:17:25,896 Primordial black holes are very small microscopic black holes 325 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:27,862 that, uh, would have formed 326 00:17:27,965 --> 00:17:31,344 at the beginning of the big bang or just after. 327 00:17:31,448 --> 00:17:34,551 And it's possible there's still some of them-- 328 00:17:34,655 --> 00:17:38,620 remnants of the big bang-- floating around in the universe. 329 00:17:39,862 --> 00:17:41,517 [thunder crashes] 330 00:17:41,620 --> 00:17:43,862 DENNIN: When I look at ball lightning, it just seems such a clear 331 00:17:43,965 --> 00:17:47,172 ion electromagnetic effect 332 00:17:47,275 --> 00:17:50,172 that it's probably not even necessary or likely 333 00:17:50,275 --> 00:17:53,344 to be connected to something like micro black holes. 334 00:17:53,448 --> 00:17:55,586 But it-- there's nothing necessarily in physics 335 00:17:55,689 --> 00:17:59,310 that tells you it's impossible to have it happen. 336 00:17:59,413 --> 00:18:02,965 SHATNER: Could ball lightning really be 337 00:18:03,068 --> 00:18:06,551 some type of black hole in disguise? 338 00:18:06,655 --> 00:18:09,655 If so, it's probably best to study something like it 339 00:18:09,758 --> 00:18:11,275 from a comfortable distance. 340 00:18:12,965 --> 00:18:15,000 Not unlike another weather phenomenon 341 00:18:15,103 --> 00:18:18,137 that has made people run inside to avoid it 342 00:18:18,241 --> 00:18:20,000 for thousands of years... 343 00:18:21,103 --> 00:18:23,551 ...blood rain. 344 00:18:32,482 --> 00:18:35,482 SHATNER: In the skies above this forested region of rolling hills 345 00:18:35,586 --> 00:18:37,965 in the southwestern state of Kerala, 346 00:18:38,068 --> 00:18:40,896 storm clouds begin to gather. 347 00:18:42,241 --> 00:18:45,379 Not so unusual in this part of the country. 348 00:18:45,482 --> 00:18:47,206 [thunder cracks] 349 00:18:47,310 --> 00:18:49,068 But when the rain starts, 350 00:18:49,172 --> 00:18:52,758 no one is prepared for what falls from the sky. 351 00:18:52,862 --> 00:18:57,827 Something that appears to be blood. 352 00:18:57,931 --> 00:19:02,379 And it lasts not for hours or days or even weeks, 353 00:19:02,482 --> 00:19:05,068 but for months. 354 00:19:06,689 --> 00:19:08,827 If I put myself in the shoes of these people 355 00:19:08,931 --> 00:19:11,862 that experienced this blood rain coming from the sky, 356 00:19:11,965 --> 00:19:14,586 I can only imagine how terrifying that must be 357 00:19:14,689 --> 00:19:17,689 and how that must make those people question 358 00:19:17,793 --> 00:19:19,896 their own existence and question the forces of nature 359 00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:21,965 that are at work in the world. 360 00:19:22,068 --> 00:19:25,448 That must be earth-shattering for these people. 361 00:19:27,551 --> 00:19:30,689 You have to think that that's sent from the heavens. 362 00:19:30,793 --> 00:19:33,241 For some reason, some mystical reason, 363 00:19:33,344 --> 00:19:36,034 this happened because it's sent from the gods. 364 00:19:36,137 --> 00:19:39,793 It's sending out a signal or a message for some reason. 365 00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:44,758 SHATNER: After months of wondering whether the apocalypse 366 00:19:44,862 --> 00:19:48,620 was at hand, residents sighed in relief as, suddenly, 367 00:19:48,724 --> 00:19:51,896 the scarlet deluge stopped. 368 00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:56,172 And just like every other time this strange phenomenon 369 00:19:56,275 --> 00:20:00,931 happened throughout history, the skies returned to normal. 370 00:20:01,034 --> 00:20:03,172 CHANDRA WICKRAMASINGHE: Similar stories of red rain 371 00:20:03,275 --> 00:20:08,413 have essentially spanned history over thousands of years. 372 00:20:08,517 --> 00:20:12,620 It's been repeatedly reported, first in mythology 373 00:20:12,724 --> 00:20:14,724 and then in historical accounts. 374 00:20:14,827 --> 00:20:18,931 It goes back maybe to the sixth century BC. 375 00:20:19,034 --> 00:20:21,931 TAYLOR: We have stories in our theology and mythologies 376 00:20:22,034 --> 00:20:24,034 that see this phenomena happening, 377 00:20:24,137 --> 00:20:27,068 so it must be one of the signs of the coming apocalypse. 378 00:20:27,172 --> 00:20:30,551 But it's a phenomena that occurs in weather 379 00:20:30,655 --> 00:20:32,896 around the planet all the time. 380 00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:35,827 EVANS: You never know where red rain is going to occur. 381 00:20:35,931 --> 00:20:38,275 It's all depending on weather systems. 382 00:20:38,379 --> 00:20:40,206 All over the world there's been rain like this, 383 00:20:40,310 --> 00:20:41,896 even in the United States. 384 00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:45,758 Even in the Ukraine and Russia, this has taken place. 385 00:20:49,655 --> 00:20:53,241 SHATNER: It's not surprising that ancient people regarded blood 386 00:20:53,344 --> 00:20:57,517 falling from the sky as a sign of impending doom. 387 00:20:57,620 --> 00:20:59,931 But today we tend not to believe 388 00:21:00,034 --> 00:21:02,310 in such far-fetched nonsense. 389 00:21:02,413 --> 00:21:05,896 Especially because, as I'm sure you'll be relieved to know, 390 00:21:06,000 --> 00:21:10,379 blood rain isn't actually made of blood. 391 00:21:12,275 --> 00:21:16,034 Scientists did analysis of this red rain and did not find things 392 00:21:16,137 --> 00:21:19,620 like copper or iron, things that we think of as red 393 00:21:19,724 --> 00:21:22,137 that would cause this water to be red. 394 00:21:22,241 --> 00:21:24,137 So why was it red? 395 00:21:24,241 --> 00:21:26,310 What else could have been in the water 396 00:21:26,413 --> 00:21:28,068 that made a blood-red rain? 397 00:21:29,586 --> 00:21:30,620 EVANS: What scientists thought 398 00:21:30,724 --> 00:21:33,793 is that it is caused by spores 399 00:21:33,896 --> 00:21:37,758 that are on trees, grassy areas, rocks, 400 00:21:37,862 --> 00:21:39,827 all over the terrain there in India. 401 00:21:39,931 --> 00:21:44,172 And those spores blast all of that into the atmosphere. 402 00:21:44,275 --> 00:21:45,689 And that's carried up into the clouds 403 00:21:45,793 --> 00:21:47,689 and it kind of hangs there. 404 00:21:47,793 --> 00:21:49,689 Oftentimes spores are produced prolifically. 405 00:21:49,793 --> 00:21:51,448 You know, billions of millions of spores, right, 406 00:21:51,551 --> 00:21:53,068 go all over the place. 407 00:21:53,172 --> 00:21:55,068 And so you can imagine that it would be transported 408 00:21:55,172 --> 00:21:57,655 up in the atmosphere, associate with rain, 409 00:21:57,758 --> 00:22:01,586 and then come down as-as a red color as well. 410 00:22:01,689 --> 00:22:07,000 SHATNER: The theory that red algae spores can and do create red rain 411 00:22:07,103 --> 00:22:10,241 is believed by most scientists to be a sound one. 412 00:22:10,344 --> 00:22:14,551 But, believe it or not, there's another theory. 413 00:22:14,655 --> 00:22:17,206 One which proposes that blood rain 414 00:22:17,310 --> 00:22:22,344 is caused by something extraterrestrial. 415 00:22:22,448 --> 00:22:25,689 If you look at the red rain under the microscope, 416 00:22:25,793 --> 00:22:28,241 what we found was absolutely staggering, 417 00:22:28,344 --> 00:22:32,344 because we found that there were red living cells 418 00:22:32,448 --> 00:22:34,379 dispersed in the rain. 419 00:22:34,482 --> 00:22:37,413 That was the cause of the red color in the rain. 420 00:22:37,517 --> 00:22:42,206 And these cells were in the process of actually reproducing. 421 00:22:43,931 --> 00:22:47,827 And when examined under the highest magnification, 422 00:22:47,931 --> 00:22:50,034 these cells didn't look like anything 423 00:22:50,137 --> 00:22:52,482 that we had seen on the Earth. 424 00:22:55,793 --> 00:22:58,413 SHATNER: Life unlike any on Earth? 425 00:22:58,517 --> 00:23:01,896 Could it be that the real cause of blood rain 426 00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:05,241 is far more profound than previously thought? 427 00:23:07,793 --> 00:23:09,172 WHITEHEAD: Coincidentally, 428 00:23:09,275 --> 00:23:11,517 there was also a meteor explosion in the area. 429 00:23:11,620 --> 00:23:15,344 So the question is: could those two events be linked? 430 00:23:15,448 --> 00:23:18,689 WICKRAMASINGHE: What I think happened was that a fragment 431 00:23:18,793 --> 00:23:21,724 of a comet exploded... 432 00:23:21,827 --> 00:23:25,310 in the high stratosphere, 433 00:23:25,413 --> 00:23:28,137 and this comet had living entities, alien life, 434 00:23:28,241 --> 00:23:30,068 in the form of these red cells. 435 00:23:30,172 --> 00:23:35,137 And they became the seeds, the nuclei of raindrops. 436 00:23:35,241 --> 00:23:39,103 TAYLOR: We've found plankton organisms 437 00:23:39,206 --> 00:23:42,241 on the solar panels of the International Space Station. 438 00:23:42,344 --> 00:23:46,137 So it's possible that this meteor that exploded over India 439 00:23:46,241 --> 00:23:48,827 had some sort of red organic material in it 440 00:23:48,931 --> 00:23:51,413 that came from space. 441 00:23:51,517 --> 00:23:56,586 SHATNER: If the source of blood rain is, in fact, extraterrestrial, 442 00:23:56,689 --> 00:23:58,241 might it help explain how life 443 00:23:58,344 --> 00:24:02,172 could have started here on Earth? 444 00:24:04,241 --> 00:24:05,965 TAYLOR: One theory 445 00:24:06,068 --> 00:24:08,517 of how life can propagate from one planet to another 446 00:24:08,620 --> 00:24:11,413 and even one star system to another is panspermia. 447 00:24:13,137 --> 00:24:15,103 KAKU: Panspermia is the idea 448 00:24:15,206 --> 00:24:19,275 that life on the Earth started in outer space. 449 00:24:19,379 --> 00:24:23,103 And, sure enough, when we look at meteorites on the Earth, 450 00:24:23,206 --> 00:24:27,172 we find some from Mars, some from the Moon, 451 00:24:27,275 --> 00:24:29,517 and maybe even some from Venus. 452 00:24:29,620 --> 00:24:34,482 And so, if meteors can go back and forth, why not DNA? 453 00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:38,482 WHITEHEAD: We tend to think of ourselves 454 00:24:38,586 --> 00:24:41,551 as something that grew out of some primordial soup 455 00:24:41,655 --> 00:24:44,482 from a random one-time accident that took place on this planet 456 00:24:44,586 --> 00:24:46,379 millions and millions of years ago. 457 00:24:46,482 --> 00:24:50,793 But could it be that we actually, us humans, 458 00:24:50,896 --> 00:24:53,758 are the aliens on this planet? 459 00:24:53,862 --> 00:24:55,965 SHATNER: Blood rain. 460 00:24:56,068 --> 00:24:59,827 A weather phenomenon so strange and so unexplained 461 00:24:59,931 --> 00:25:03,862 that it calls into question everything we think we know 462 00:25:03,965 --> 00:25:05,827 about who we are and where we come from. 463 00:25:05,931 --> 00:25:08,689 Not unlike another type of rain. 464 00:25:09,896 --> 00:25:11,517 One that carries life 465 00:25:11,620 --> 00:25:14,137 of a very different kind. 466 00:25:26,793 --> 00:25:29,034 Residents awake to a flash of lightning 467 00:25:29,137 --> 00:25:33,482 and what sounds like hail falling from the sky. 468 00:25:33,586 --> 00:25:37,793 But, surprisingly, what is really raining down on the city 469 00:25:37,896 --> 00:25:42,827 is not hail but fish. 470 00:25:42,931 --> 00:25:45,931 EVANS: The images are so bizarre, when you first see them, 471 00:25:46,034 --> 00:25:49,137 you think this must be some kind of a hoax. 472 00:25:49,241 --> 00:25:52,482 Fish falling from the sky. And they're everywhere. 473 00:25:52,586 --> 00:25:54,931 TOK THOMPSON: If you're out in the middle of a small village 474 00:25:55,034 --> 00:25:57,620 and all of a sudden it's raining fish on you, 475 00:25:57,724 --> 00:26:00,172 most people will wonder, you know, why? 476 00:26:00,275 --> 00:26:01,413 What does this mean? 477 00:26:10,137 --> 00:26:12,724 SHATNER: I'm sure you're all familiar with ancient stories 478 00:26:12,827 --> 00:26:16,448 that tell of frogs raining from the sky. 479 00:26:16,551 --> 00:26:18,172 Most consider them myths. 480 00:26:18,275 --> 00:26:20,413 But in actuality, 481 00:26:20,517 --> 00:26:25,068 the phenomenon of live creatures showering down from the heavens 482 00:26:25,172 --> 00:26:27,862 is all too real. 483 00:26:27,965 --> 00:26:30,931 When you think about it, it's really mysterious. 484 00:26:31,034 --> 00:26:34,482 How could it possibly be raining fish? 485 00:26:34,586 --> 00:26:36,275 Since the tenth century, 486 00:26:36,379 --> 00:26:39,517 there's been records of fish falls from the sky. 487 00:26:39,620 --> 00:26:43,896 Small fish from all over the world have fallen from the sky. 488 00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:45,965 I know a-a story my dad tells me. 489 00:26:46,068 --> 00:26:48,241 When he was a kid, about ten years old, 490 00:26:48,344 --> 00:26:50,620 that it rained so many fish in his front yard 491 00:26:50,724 --> 00:26:52,413 that they picked them up in wheelbarrow loads 492 00:26:52,517 --> 00:26:54,068 and had a big fish fry. 493 00:27:03,724 --> 00:27:06,482 KAKU: When you look at anecdotal data, 494 00:27:06,586 --> 00:27:10,275 there are many instances in the past where it's raining fish, 495 00:27:10,379 --> 00:27:12,793 and you say to yourself, how can that be? 496 00:27:12,896 --> 00:27:14,827 That seems to violate everything we know 497 00:27:14,931 --> 00:27:16,965 about storms and common sense. 498 00:27:17,068 --> 00:27:21,034 DENNIN: The reality is, tornadoes are regularly taking stuff 499 00:27:21,137 --> 00:27:25,482 from one place and dropping them somewhere else. 500 00:27:25,586 --> 00:27:27,931 But they're over land and they're definitely moving things 501 00:27:28,034 --> 00:27:30,896 that are typically land-based, so obviously they're not gonna 502 00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:33,000 drop fish 'cause they're over land. 503 00:27:33,103 --> 00:27:36,896 But, basically, a waterspout or a tornado over water 504 00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:40,482 is conceivably gonna have the same effect. 505 00:27:40,586 --> 00:27:42,724 It can suck things out of the water. 506 00:27:42,827 --> 00:27:44,517 And then, as that object continues to move, 507 00:27:44,620 --> 00:27:46,103 it moves across land. 508 00:27:46,206 --> 00:27:49,827 At some point those will fall back out of the tornado 509 00:27:49,931 --> 00:27:52,068 and it will look like raining frogs or fish. 510 00:27:52,172 --> 00:27:54,068 FISHER: It's not implausible. 511 00:27:54,172 --> 00:27:56,896 I don't think it's a coincidence that most of the animal rains 512 00:27:57,000 --> 00:27:59,931 that we experience are-are aquatic animals, right? 513 00:28:00,034 --> 00:28:02,517 'Cause those are probably the ones that are easiest to suck up 514 00:28:02,620 --> 00:28:05,068 in a waterspout and then deposit on the Earth. 515 00:28:05,172 --> 00:28:07,689 SHATNER: The notion that a waterspout 516 00:28:07,793 --> 00:28:10,172 could siphon tons of fish from the sea 517 00:28:10,275 --> 00:28:12,206 before raining them down miles away 518 00:28:12,310 --> 00:28:15,413 is one that is supported by many scientists. 519 00:28:15,517 --> 00:28:21,103 But if it sounds far-fetched to you, you're not the only one. 520 00:28:21,206 --> 00:28:24,827 People have watched waterspouts over lots of places, 521 00:28:24,931 --> 00:28:28,655 but they never seem to see anything being scooped up 522 00:28:28,758 --> 00:28:30,344 out of the ocean by waterspouts 523 00:28:30,448 --> 00:28:33,827 that we've actually watched for a long time. 524 00:28:33,931 --> 00:28:38,344 These occurrences are random and they're out of place 525 00:28:38,448 --> 00:28:39,896 and they make no sense 526 00:28:40,000 --> 00:28:42,413 and there's really no good explanation for them. 527 00:28:42,517 --> 00:28:46,103 How does that school of fish, which are far heavier than air, 528 00:28:46,206 --> 00:28:49,931 traverse hundreds of miles, in some cases, to be distributed, 529 00:28:50,034 --> 00:28:53,517 deposited over land and on top of people? 530 00:28:53,620 --> 00:28:56,689 Whatever this phenomena is, it happened very quickly. 531 00:28:56,793 --> 00:29:00,689 You take a fish out of water, it is fighting for breath. 532 00:29:00,793 --> 00:29:02,517 It's going to, uh, suffocate, 533 00:29:02,620 --> 00:29:04,965 and that suggests that-- is there some other thing at play? 534 00:29:05,068 --> 00:29:06,448 Like, could there be 535 00:29:06,551 --> 00:29:09,413 some strange physics we don't know yet? 536 00:29:09,517 --> 00:29:12,344 EVANS: What's really strange about the fish fall in Yoro 537 00:29:12,448 --> 00:29:15,551 is that it happens about the same time every year. 538 00:29:15,655 --> 00:29:20,000 It happens so often, they have a name for it: lluvia de peces, 539 00:29:20,103 --> 00:29:22,724 which means "raining of fish." 540 00:29:22,827 --> 00:29:25,275 So it couldn't be a waterspout. 541 00:29:25,379 --> 00:29:27,655 It has to be something more to it. 542 00:29:27,758 --> 00:29:33,448 NARRATOR: If lluvia de peces can't be explained by random waterspouts, 543 00:29:33,551 --> 00:29:34,965 then what could it be? 544 00:29:35,068 --> 00:29:36,931 According to some scientists, 545 00:29:37,034 --> 00:29:40,620 the answer could be even stranger than, well, 546 00:29:40,724 --> 00:29:44,068 fish falling out of a clear blue sky. 547 00:29:44,172 --> 00:29:47,724 BARA: There are places on Earth, like the Bermuda Triangle 548 00:29:47,827 --> 00:29:50,034 in the Caribbean, where you do have 549 00:29:50,137 --> 00:29:52,896 these very, very strange occurrences that happen. 550 00:29:53,000 --> 00:29:55,689 People talk about flying into these electronic fogs. 551 00:29:55,793 --> 00:30:01,137 BRANDENBURG: I think you have to have some new physics involved 552 00:30:01,241 --> 00:30:03,137 besides just a waterspout. 553 00:30:03,241 --> 00:30:06,482 Matter is inherently electromagnetic. 554 00:30:06,586 --> 00:30:10,482 And so, if you have a bunch of moving gas o-or liquid, 555 00:30:10,586 --> 00:30:15,310 then you are actually creating a flow of electromagnetism, 556 00:30:15,413 --> 00:30:17,758 which could create a vortex disturbance 557 00:30:17,862 --> 00:30:21,206 that may have allowed this phenomenon. 558 00:30:21,310 --> 00:30:24,379 It's as if you can create some kind of space-time portal 559 00:30:24,482 --> 00:30:27,620 that, uh, transports these fish or frogs. 560 00:30:27,724 --> 00:30:33,068 Just the waterspout explanation seems barely plausible to me. 561 00:30:33,172 --> 00:30:37,275 SHATNER: Could interdimensional portals be what causes fish 562 00:30:37,379 --> 00:30:40,310 to suddenly appear in Yoro every year? 563 00:30:40,413 --> 00:30:42,068 Perhaps. 564 00:30:42,172 --> 00:30:44,793 But for the people of Yoro, the question is academic. 565 00:30:44,896 --> 00:30:48,275 As far as they're concerned, the fish are a welcome sight, 566 00:30:48,379 --> 00:30:51,758 no matter what brings about their arrival. 567 00:30:51,862 --> 00:30:54,206 If you look at the people of Yoro, 568 00:30:54,310 --> 00:30:56,517 they go outside and they pick up all this fish for dinner. 569 00:30:56,620 --> 00:30:58,517 They put it into buckets. 570 00:30:58,620 --> 00:31:00,586 It's a positive thing. 571 00:31:00,689 --> 00:31:03,551 So if we look at it like this, we take something 572 00:31:03,655 --> 00:31:07,620 that's out of our sphere of knowledge and we deal with it. 573 00:31:20,896 --> 00:31:26,344 EVANS: In ages past, fish falling from the sky was the wrath of God. 574 00:31:26,448 --> 00:31:28,310 I don't think we're afraid anymore. 575 00:31:28,413 --> 00:31:31,068 But I also think that there are some things about weather 576 00:31:31,172 --> 00:31:34,586 that we may not understand, we may never understand. 577 00:31:34,689 --> 00:31:36,275 But that's okay. 578 00:31:36,379 --> 00:31:39,379 SHATNER: Until we're able to verify whether animal rain 579 00:31:39,482 --> 00:31:44,137 is due to waterspouts, or something more exotic, 580 00:31:44,241 --> 00:31:47,310 it seems all we can do is either keep searching for answers 581 00:31:47,413 --> 00:31:49,931 or grab a bucket. 582 00:31:50,034 --> 00:31:52,172 But imagine how differently we might feel 583 00:31:52,275 --> 00:31:54,862 if we had the power to actually harness 584 00:31:54,965 --> 00:31:56,862 the forces of nature 585 00:31:56,965 --> 00:31:59,586 and control the weather. 586 00:32:04,758 --> 00:32:07,068 Beautiful, isn't it? 587 00:32:07,172 --> 00:32:09,172 But what if I told you that the St. Louis Arch 588 00:32:09,275 --> 00:32:12,517 is more than just an impressive monument 589 00:32:12,620 --> 00:32:15,103 or a tourist attraction? 590 00:32:15,206 --> 00:32:19,448 What if I told you that there are people who actually believe 591 00:32:19,551 --> 00:32:21,620 it can control the weather? 592 00:32:21,724 --> 00:32:23,310 [thunder crashes] 593 00:32:23,413 --> 00:32:24,655 Sounds preposterous, huh? 594 00:32:24,758 --> 00:32:27,620 Well, we shall see. 595 00:32:27,724 --> 00:32:30,000 [thunder crashes] 596 00:32:32,689 --> 00:32:38,620 Standing 630 feet tall and 630 feet wide, 597 00:32:38,724 --> 00:32:40,655 the St. Louis Arch is the world's tallest 598 00:32:40,758 --> 00:32:42,793 freestanding arch. 599 00:32:42,896 --> 00:32:45,931 Memorializing Thomas Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, 600 00:32:46,034 --> 00:32:49,275 and other great pioneers, the arch has been nicknamed 601 00:32:49,379 --> 00:32:51,620 "the Gateway to the West." 602 00:32:51,724 --> 00:32:55,758 Each leg of the arch is sunk in almost 603 00:32:55,862 --> 00:33:00,103 24,000 tons of concrete, 60 feet deep, 604 00:33:00,206 --> 00:33:03,586 enough to withstand earthquakes and winds as strong as 605 00:33:03,689 --> 00:33:05,413 150 miles an hour. 606 00:33:05,517 --> 00:33:11,241 The exterior is comprised of 2,000 tons of stainless steel. 607 00:33:11,344 --> 00:33:14,931 The most ever used for any single project in history. 608 00:33:15,034 --> 00:33:19,413 It is, in short, a modern engineering marvel. 609 00:33:19,517 --> 00:33:23,068 But that's not even the most incredible thing about it. 610 00:33:25,551 --> 00:33:29,000 Heavy, dark, dangerous thunderstorms have been known, 611 00:33:29,103 --> 00:33:32,517 on many occasions, to head directly for the city 612 00:33:32,620 --> 00:33:34,275 of St. Louis. 613 00:33:34,379 --> 00:33:36,137 And as they get closer, they seem to split 614 00:33:36,241 --> 00:33:39,551 right down the middle, go out and around the city, 615 00:33:39,655 --> 00:33:43,241 and reconnect after they've passed the city of St. Louis. 616 00:33:43,344 --> 00:33:45,827 People have said for years and years and years 617 00:33:45,931 --> 00:33:48,724 that it has to do with the St. Louis Arch. 618 00:33:48,827 --> 00:33:50,551 BRANDENBURG: It's very strange, 619 00:33:50,655 --> 00:33:52,862 but there does seem to be an effect 620 00:33:52,965 --> 00:33:56,896 where thunderstorms tend to kind of break apart 621 00:33:57,000 --> 00:33:59,551 when they get near this thing, and they reform afterwards. 622 00:33:59,655 --> 00:34:02,586 It doesn't mean that St. Louis doesn't have thunderstorms. 623 00:34:02,689 --> 00:34:04,103 It does. 624 00:34:04,206 --> 00:34:06,965 But it doesn't seem to have as many thunderstorms 625 00:34:07,068 --> 00:34:08,896 in the area of that arch. 626 00:34:11,034 --> 00:34:14,000 SHATNER: The St. Louis Arch's alleged power 627 00:34:14,103 --> 00:34:16,034 to redirect thunderstorms has led some 628 00:34:16,137 --> 00:34:20,379 to give this phenomenon a name: the arch effect. 629 00:34:24,758 --> 00:34:26,137 Some people believe that the St. Louis Arch 630 00:34:26,241 --> 00:34:27,931 is changing the flow of the air 631 00:34:28,034 --> 00:34:31,034 that's causing weather patterns to occur or not. 632 00:34:31,137 --> 00:34:37,344 But a storm cloud top is 10,000 to 50,000 feet high. 633 00:34:37,448 --> 00:34:40,758 The arch is only gonna be a few hundred feet high at best. 634 00:34:40,862 --> 00:34:42,862 So how is this affecting something 635 00:34:42,965 --> 00:34:46,000 that is so much larger? 636 00:34:46,103 --> 00:34:48,034 DENNIN: I think we all are well aware 637 00:34:48,137 --> 00:34:51,344 of the way structures certainly impact airflow, 638 00:34:51,448 --> 00:34:52,965 air currents and winds. 639 00:34:53,068 --> 00:34:56,068 And the arch is certainly very large and very geometric, 640 00:34:56,172 --> 00:34:58,413 and I think it does have what we might call 641 00:34:58,517 --> 00:34:59,931 local micro effects. 642 00:35:00,034 --> 00:35:02,896 But what kind of influences could that have 643 00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:05,413 on sort of larger weather systems, particularly storms, 644 00:35:05,517 --> 00:35:08,896 either attracting or not attracting thunderstorms? 645 00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:11,965 That's harder to kind of really wrap your head around. 646 00:35:14,206 --> 00:35:16,931 SHATNER: If the shape of the St. Louis Arch isn't the reason 647 00:35:17,034 --> 00:35:18,793 it's capable of affecting the weather, 648 00:35:18,896 --> 00:35:20,172 then what is? 649 00:35:20,275 --> 00:35:22,551 According to some scientists, 650 00:35:22,655 --> 00:35:25,482 it's not how the arch was designed 651 00:35:25,586 --> 00:35:27,724 but what it's made of. 652 00:35:27,827 --> 00:35:31,172 Now, as you look at the design of this thing, 653 00:35:31,275 --> 00:35:32,689 it's a stainless steel structure. 654 00:35:32,793 --> 00:35:34,344 It's completely unique architecturally. 655 00:35:34,448 --> 00:35:37,586 It's basically a ring made of metal. 656 00:35:37,689 --> 00:35:39,137 Metal is a conductor. 657 00:35:39,241 --> 00:35:41,517 The various stainless steels and other metals that are in it 658 00:35:41,620 --> 00:35:44,068 conduct electromagnetic energy. 659 00:35:44,172 --> 00:35:46,379 You could, you know, connect a battery 660 00:35:46,482 --> 00:35:49,586 to one side of the arch and light a flashlight 661 00:35:49,689 --> 00:35:50,620 on the other side of it. 662 00:35:50,724 --> 00:35:52,931 And that's-that's fairly unique. 663 00:35:53,034 --> 00:35:55,103 You can't do that with most skyscrapers. 664 00:35:55,206 --> 00:35:59,172 So, one mechanism where it could affect the local weather 665 00:35:59,275 --> 00:36:04,517 is to short out the Earth's electric field in that vicinity. 666 00:36:04,620 --> 00:36:06,275 [thunder crashing] 667 00:36:06,379 --> 00:36:09,793 In a weird way, it's kind of an oddly shaped big lightning rod. 668 00:36:09,896 --> 00:36:11,344 And normally we think of lightning rods 669 00:36:11,448 --> 00:36:13,586 as being sharp and pointed, and there's a clear 670 00:36:13,689 --> 00:36:15,965 ion electromagnetic effect. 671 00:36:16,068 --> 00:36:18,482 [thunder crashes] 672 00:36:18,586 --> 00:36:22,310 It has been proven by Nikola Tesla and other scientists 673 00:36:22,413 --> 00:36:24,827 that you can use electromagnetic fields 674 00:36:24,931 --> 00:36:26,931 to create holes in the atmosphere 675 00:36:27,034 --> 00:36:28,827 to manipulate the weather. 676 00:36:28,931 --> 00:36:33,655 SHATNER: Could generating a powerful enough electromagnetic field 677 00:36:33,758 --> 00:36:36,862 actually make it possible to manipulate something as vast 678 00:36:36,965 --> 00:36:40,310 and unpredictable as weather? 679 00:36:40,413 --> 00:36:43,620 It's an intriguing and somewhat unnerving notion. 680 00:36:43,724 --> 00:36:46,034 But believe it or not, in 1990, 681 00:36:46,137 --> 00:36:49,000 the United States military conducted a series 682 00:36:49,103 --> 00:36:52,965 of experiments designed to do just that. 683 00:36:55,103 --> 00:36:58,758 There was a secret program by the military called HAARP, 684 00:36:58,862 --> 00:37:03,931 which was instituted to try to understand the ionosphere. 685 00:37:04,034 --> 00:37:06,379 This is a matter of national security. 686 00:37:06,482 --> 00:37:10,517 Communications go through the upper atmosphere 687 00:37:10,620 --> 00:37:13,758 called the ionosphere, and we have to study it. 688 00:37:13,862 --> 00:37:19,000 So HAARP shot radio frequency radiation into the ionosphere 689 00:37:19,103 --> 00:37:23,344 to see how it was distributed around the planet Earth. 690 00:37:23,448 --> 00:37:25,862 If you look, there have been many direct correlations 691 00:37:25,965 --> 00:37:29,241 between major storms and HAARP being active. 692 00:37:29,344 --> 00:37:32,241 It could be that the hurricanes and superstorms 693 00:37:32,344 --> 00:37:35,068 and tornadoes that are created while HAARP is working 694 00:37:35,172 --> 00:37:37,655 are actually just a-a side effect. 695 00:37:37,758 --> 00:37:40,206 But the people that are operating this device 696 00:37:40,310 --> 00:37:42,448 understand and know its potential for use 697 00:37:42,551 --> 00:37:44,344 as a weather weapon. 698 00:37:44,448 --> 00:37:49,034 SHATNER: Is the St. Louis Arch not only an impressive national monument 699 00:37:49,137 --> 00:37:51,482 but also evidence of the United States government's 700 00:37:51,586 --> 00:37:54,517 ongoing attempts to control the weather? 701 00:37:54,620 --> 00:37:57,310 Perhaps the answer lies not by examining 702 00:37:57,413 --> 00:37:59,827 the design of the St. Louis Arch 703 00:37:59,931 --> 00:38:02,965 but by investigating the extraordinary career 704 00:38:03,068 --> 00:38:06,137 of the man who designed it. 705 00:38:14,931 --> 00:38:18,206 SHATNER: As World War II rages across several continents, 706 00:38:18,310 --> 00:38:21,379 acclaimed architect and eventual designer 707 00:38:21,482 --> 00:38:24,620 of the St. Louis Arch, Eero Saarinen, 708 00:38:24,724 --> 00:38:27,103 is secretly enlisted by the United States military 709 00:38:27,206 --> 00:38:30,379 to work for a new clandestine organization. 710 00:38:30,482 --> 00:38:35,482 It's name, the OSS: Office of Strategic Services. 711 00:38:35,586 --> 00:38:40,068 Or, as it is known today, the CIA. 712 00:38:42,862 --> 00:38:45,793 The fact that Eero Saarinen was in the OSS designing 713 00:38:45,896 --> 00:38:48,103 weapons systems during World War II, 714 00:38:48,206 --> 00:38:51,448 and at a time when the OSS was looking into 715 00:38:51,551 --> 00:38:53,413 ways to "weaponize weather," 716 00:38:53,517 --> 00:38:54,758 makes his whole connection 717 00:38:54,862 --> 00:38:56,448 to the design of the St. Louis Arch 718 00:38:56,551 --> 00:38:58,275 extremely interesting. 719 00:38:58,379 --> 00:39:01,689 Now, that isn't to say I believe it can control the weather, 720 00:39:01,793 --> 00:39:03,793 but it does open the door to the idea 721 00:39:03,896 --> 00:39:05,241 that it might have been one of the things 722 00:39:05,344 --> 00:39:06,758 Saarinen was out to achieve. 723 00:39:08,241 --> 00:39:11,068 SHATNER: While at the OSS, Saarinen designed buildings 724 00:39:11,172 --> 00:39:13,344 and weapons systems, many of which were never 725 00:39:13,448 --> 00:39:15,241 completed or built. 726 00:39:15,344 --> 00:39:18,379 Is it possible he later used these secret plans 727 00:39:18,482 --> 00:39:20,689 to engineer the St. Louis Arch, 728 00:39:20,793 --> 00:39:23,931 creating something that can actually control 729 00:39:24,034 --> 00:39:27,896 or perhaps harness the weather? 730 00:39:29,448 --> 00:39:32,241 Controlling the weather is the ultimate superweapon. 731 00:39:32,344 --> 00:39:34,724 It's even more powerful than the atomic bomb. 732 00:39:34,827 --> 00:39:39,172 So, if Eero Saarinen was involved in analyzing 733 00:39:39,275 --> 00:39:41,896 and studying the possibility of weather modification, 734 00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:44,275 and you put all those factors together, 735 00:39:44,379 --> 00:39:46,965 and I think you have a guy that basically conducted 736 00:39:47,068 --> 00:39:50,344 a big, giant weather modification experiment 737 00:39:50,448 --> 00:39:51,758 with the St. Louis Arch. 738 00:39:52,896 --> 00:39:55,137 SHATNER: Weather as a weapon? 739 00:39:55,241 --> 00:39:57,724 There are some who think the idea is not as preposterous 740 00:39:57,827 --> 00:40:00,000 as it seems. 741 00:40:00,103 --> 00:40:03,413 Especially when considering that even today, 742 00:40:03,517 --> 00:40:06,965 many world governments are pouring millions of dollars 743 00:40:07,068 --> 00:40:11,413 into research designed to manipulate weather. 744 00:40:11,517 --> 00:40:14,241 I think weather modification has definitely been 745 00:40:14,344 --> 00:40:18,586 an ongoing endeavor of governments all over the world 746 00:40:18,689 --> 00:40:19,965 for decades. 747 00:40:21,344 --> 00:40:23,206 The St. Louis Arch appears to be an experiment 748 00:40:23,310 --> 00:40:24,586 in weather modification. 749 00:40:24,689 --> 00:40:26,344 The HAARP device appears to be an experiment 750 00:40:26,448 --> 00:40:27,827 in weather modification. 751 00:40:29,413 --> 00:40:31,551 Who knows what the Russians or the Chinese are doing? 752 00:40:31,655 --> 00:40:34,413 There's some sort of technology out there. 753 00:40:34,517 --> 00:40:38,103 There's been lots of work in the field of weather control. 754 00:40:38,206 --> 00:40:42,413 Using silver iodide inside of thunderstorms 755 00:40:42,517 --> 00:40:44,068 to decrease the size of hail. 756 00:40:44,172 --> 00:40:45,655 That goes on in many parts of the world to 757 00:40:45,758 --> 00:40:47,275 alleviate that problem. 758 00:40:47,379 --> 00:40:51,344 They're always firing rockets into the atmosphere in China 759 00:40:51,448 --> 00:40:52,758 to manipulate the weather. 760 00:40:52,862 --> 00:40:54,379 But is this a good idea? 761 00:40:54,482 --> 00:40:57,344 TAYLOR: You wonder, if you could steer a tornado, 762 00:40:57,448 --> 00:41:00,137 what would it take? 763 00:41:00,241 --> 00:41:04,137 Even a nuclear weapon might just nudge it, if even that. 764 00:41:05,379 --> 00:41:06,896 DENNIN: One challenge with that is, 765 00:41:07,000 --> 00:41:09,448 your shockwave is gonna be hard to focus, perhaps, 766 00:41:09,551 --> 00:41:11,000 and it might cause the damage 767 00:41:11,103 --> 00:41:13,103 you were hoping to avoid with the tornado. 768 00:41:13,206 --> 00:41:16,448 I would be looking at how much can I control or change 769 00:41:16,551 --> 00:41:18,310 local pressures in the atmosphere 770 00:41:18,413 --> 00:41:20,103 near and around the tornado. 771 00:41:20,206 --> 00:41:23,758 These are forces at work that could wipe out major cities. 772 00:41:23,862 --> 00:41:26,482 And we're finding out every day new things 773 00:41:26,586 --> 00:41:29,000 that we've never seen before. 774 00:41:29,103 --> 00:41:31,620 So maybe the lesson learned here is: 775 00:41:31,724 --> 00:41:33,620 we shouldn't meddle with forces 776 00:41:33,724 --> 00:41:36,620 that we don't really understand. 777 00:41:36,724 --> 00:41:39,620 Because we may not like the result. 778 00:41:39,724 --> 00:41:42,000 [thunder crashes] 779 00:41:44,758 --> 00:41:49,896 Weather. At its best it can cleanse and renew, 780 00:41:50,000 --> 00:41:54,379 but at its most extreme it can destroy 781 00:41:54,482 --> 00:41:56,620 everything in its path. 782 00:41:56,724 --> 00:41:58,896 No matter how much time and money we spend 783 00:41:59,000 --> 00:42:01,379 trying to control it and predict it, 784 00:42:01,482 --> 00:42:05,137 it remains, as many things in our world, among 785 00:42:05,241 --> 00:42:07,758 the unexplained. 64140

Can't find what you're looking for?
Get subtitles in any language from opensubtitles.com, and translate them here.