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Τα Πιο Παράξενα Αντικείμενα (Strangest Things)
2021 | Επ. 02.02 | HD
Καταχωνιασμένα μέσα σε μουσεία, εργαστήρια και αποθήκες ανά την υφήλιο βρίσκονται τα πιο αξιοσημείωτα και μυστηριώδη αντικείμενα στον κόσμο. Σήμερα, αξιοποιώντας νέες έρευνες και τεχνολογικά μέσα, μπορούμε να τα μελετήσουμε πιο διεξοδικά από ποτέ.
Πώς ένα τραυματισμένο κρανίο άλλαξε την άποψη για τη νευροεπιστήμη. Μπορούσε μια νυχτερίδα να κερδίσει τον Β΄ Παγκόσμιο; Κατασκεύαζαν οι άνθρωποι πριν 14.000 χρόνια πολύπλοκα εργαλεία πολλών χρήσεων;
2021 | Επ. 02.02 | HD
Καταχωνιασμένα μέσα σε μουσεία, εργαστήρια και αποθήκες ανά την υφήλιο βρίσκονται τα πιο αξιοσημείωτα και μυστηριώδη αντικείμενα στον κόσμο. Σήμερα, αξιοποιώντας νέες έρευνες και τεχνολογικά μέσα, μπορούμε να τα μελετήσουμε πιο διεξοδικά από ποτέ.
Πώς ένα τραυματισμένο κρανίο άλλαξε την άποψη για τη νευροεπιστήμη. Μπορούσε μια νυχτερίδα να κερδίσει τον Β΄ Παγκόσμιο; Κατασκεύαζαν οι άνθρωποι πριν 14.000 χρόνια πολύπλοκα εργαλεία πολλών χρήσεων;
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00:00Υπότιτλοι AUTHORWAVE
00:30Υπότιτλοι AUTHORWAVE
01:00Υπότιτλοι AUTHORWAVE
01:29The display case at Harvard University's Warren Anatomical Museum is one of the most astonishing objects in medical science.
01:37This is the shattered skull of a 19th century American railway worker.
01:42When you look closely, you can clearly see that something truly catastrophic has happened here.
01:49Now, using state-of-the-art 3D modeling, we can investigate this strange relic like never before.
01:55This is Gage's skull. It shows evidence of a truly traumatic injury.
02:04There are two sections of the skull missing.
02:11There are also cracks sprawling from those lesions.
02:16There's also damage behind the left eye socket and in the cheekbone.
02:20When we see such a wound in a forensic context, we can almost certainly be sure that this is nothing that a person can survive.
02:30Incredibly, Phineas Gage does survive, but he is a completely different person.
02:39It is a revelation.
02:40The bizarre case of Phineas Gage taught us something fundamental about the way that the human brain works.
02:47For the first time, you see that relationship between who we are and that meaty thing inside our skulls.
02:54How does this injury happen?
02:59Why doesn't such traumatic skull damage kill Gage?
03:03Can the skull explain his dramatic personality change?
03:07And why is it such a game-changer for neuroscience?
03:17September 13, 1848.
03:20Vermont, USA.
03:24This is a time of rapid railroad expansion in America.
03:30In Vermont, construction is underway of what is to be the Rutland-Burlington Railway.
03:36Phineas Gage's job is to prep explosives to clear the rocky landscape.
03:42He uses a metal tamping iron to compress the gunpowder into drill holes.
03:47So Phineas is tamping down the gunpowder as is normal, and he turns to speak to some men behind him,
03:57which brings his head directly above the hole full of gunpowder.
04:01The tamping iron strikes a spark on the rock, detonating that gunpowder.
04:12The tamping iron becomes a lethal projectile.
04:16And it fires the tamping rod right up into his skull.
04:23The rather grisly path that this tamping iron took was up behind his left eye,
04:28then out the top of his head, where it just continued off up and behind him.
04:33The bloodied iron rod lands over 20 meters away.
04:39Gage is thrown to the ground, a gaping hole in his head.
04:45It's reported that his arms and legs spasmed for a while,
04:48but after a few minutes, he's sitting up and talking.
04:52And eventually, they're able to load him into a cart and take him back to his hotel.
04:57It's pretty remarkable for someone who has a 13-pound iron rod
05:02driven all the way through their skull.
05:05Thirty minutes later, Gage is visited by physician Edward H. Williams.
05:11Phineas begins to vomit.
05:14The effort of throwing up apparently dislodges a piece of brain tissue
05:18which has pushed out the hole at the top of his head and lands at the feet of the physician.
05:23Gage's case is taken over by local doctor John Harlow.
05:29He was able to put one finger through the top of his skull
05:33and a second finger through the hole in his cheek and make them touch in the middle.
05:38He had to remove part of the brain that was just attached with a tiny tissue bridge
05:43and at least he could bring some parts of the skin
05:46and put a bandage and wrap it around the head.
05:50Gage slips in and out of consciousness.
05:53He had a fungal growth on his exposed brain tissue
05:57and the pus was forming in the wound, even dripping into Phineas' mouth.
06:03Gage is not expected to survive.
06:05His family prepare a coffin for him.
06:10Phineas is a very lucky man because his physician applies silver nitrate,
06:14which is a substance that had just recently been introduced,
06:17to try to halt the infection.
06:19And it actually works.
06:20After a few days, Phineas starts to recover.
06:23By the middle of the following year, 1849,
06:27Gage is strong enough to return to work.
06:31This massive injury should have been lethal.
06:35Does this skull hold the secret to his miraculous survival?
06:38In 2012, neuroimaging experts recreate Gage's brain
06:49by combining CT scans of the broken skull
06:52with MRI scans of typical male brains.
06:57It shows the hole in the top of Gage's skull is astonishingly neat,
07:02considering the force pushing the iron bar out.
07:04Maybe that's because his bar is unique.
07:07Phineas has a custom-made tamping iron.
07:11He's had a local blacksmith put it together.
07:14It weighs over 13 pounds
07:16and it tapers to a narrow point at one end.
07:21It's a bit like a javelin.
07:23What that meant was this tiny point
07:24was able to push the brain and the skull smoothly out of the way,
07:27making a smaller, smoother hole.
07:29So there was less smash damage.
07:35But the recent analysis of Gage's skull
07:37reveals something even more miraculous about his survival.
07:41There are these huge blood vessels
07:43on the left and on the right of your head.
07:45So since this giant needle entered laterally on the side,
07:49it's just a matter of a hundredth of an inch
07:52that these blood vessels were not disrupted and disturbed.
07:56That was plain luck.
07:57In my whole life,
07:59I've probably seen maybe five of those cases
08:03that were actually survived by the patients.
08:06But following his incredible survival,
08:09friends claim Gage has become, quite literally, a different man.
08:14Is the explanation for this bizarre transformation
08:17also hidden inside this fractured skull?
08:20After his miraculous recovery,
08:29Phineas Gage attempts to return to his old job on the railroad.
08:32But he is turned away.
08:34It's reported that the balance between his intellectual faculties
08:40and his animal propensities seems to have been destroyed.
08:44He is fitful, irreverent, and indulging at times in the grossest profanity.
08:50There were changes that made him essentially a worse person,
08:54someone who was less in control of his impulses and less pleasant to be around.
08:59The dependable, easygoing Gage has been wiped out.
09:03He has been transformed into someone very different.
09:07Stubborn, temperamental, insolent.
09:09His friends and acquaintances say he is no longer Gage.
09:14For centuries, there had been a debate about whether our bodies were all there was to us
09:18or if we had this immortal soul that was somehow separate
09:20and encapsulated our personality.
09:23For people back then, it must have been really quite a shock
09:25to realize that you could change a personality.
09:28This supposedly invisible, intangible thing can be changed
09:32by knocking out a piece of something physical.
09:34The analysis of Gage's skull reveals the precise location of the damage to his brain.
09:43The part of Phineas' brain that has been damaged is the left side of the prefrontal cortex
09:48and the part of the brain known as the frontal lobe.
09:51This part of the brain is not fully developed and connected in little kids and small children
09:57and this is why their behavior and their consciousness is different from that of an adult person.
10:04Generally, it's accepted that the prefrontal cortex, that bit at the front that poor Phineas Gage
10:10was unfortunate enough to have, you know, a chunk of it knocked out of his head,
10:13that this is generally regarded as the area that's in charge of our higher level thinking
10:18and of impulse control.
10:22And if you think about it, that's really what makes us pleasant to be around
10:26and capable of functioning in society with other people.
10:29This is supported by some questionable and unethical experiments directly influenced
10:37by this bizarre accident.
10:41One scientist in particular called David Ferrier was inspired by the case of Gage
10:45to perform some rather gruesome experiments on monkeys.
10:48He'd remove entirely their prefrontal lobe, the same part of the brain that Gage had lost,
10:53but he did so surgically.
10:54And what he observed was that these monkeys were able to still perform most of the tasks
10:59that a full-brained monkey was able to do, but their personality, their temperament changed dramatically.
11:08Which explains the change in Gage's behavior.
11:10Losing the prefrontal cortex would also have had a huge effect on his decision-making and social functions.
11:17Losing the vital connections that this part of the brain has would also have caused issues
11:21with much wider functions, including memory, impulse control, and problem solving.
11:30But there's another unexpected twist to the story of Phineas Gage.
11:34He later holds down a number of jobs, some of which require significant focus and patience.
11:41Exactly the skills that are apparently erased when the iron bar rips through his prefrontal cortex.
11:49So is the story of his radical personality change even true?
11:53In the immediate aftermath of the accident, the changes to Phineas Gage's personality
12:01and his ability to focus on work, basically, caused him to lose his job.
12:05But just a few years later, he was holding down gainful employment.
12:08He eventually got a job as a stagecoach driver.
12:12And this is a job that requires a pretty extensive skill set.
12:17The task of driving a stagecoach requires incredible motor control, incredible cognitive function.
12:22You have to have pretty good judgment.
12:26You have to have agility.
12:27You have to have the ability to care for and understand animals.
12:31You also have to have the ability to deal well socially with passengers
12:35on trips that often last hundreds of miles.
12:40This reads like a list of the skills apparently erased from Gage's personality by the accident.
12:46So is the story of Gage's radical personality transformation just a tall tale?
12:52The brain is not only an incredibly complex bit of machinery inside of us,
12:59but it's also a very flexible bit of machinery.
13:01And that if parts of it are damaged, parts of it are removed,
13:04it can reorganize, rearrange itself,
13:06and some bits can take over functions that other bits used to do.
13:11Psychologist Malcolm McMillan has written extensively about Gage's story,
13:15and he argues that his brain must have regained a lot of that social and cognitive function.
13:22Recent research in 2019 suggests Gage's recovery can be explained
13:26by the way the brain automatically reorganizes itself.
13:30What's really astonishing about this is the regenerative capacity of the brain.
13:35It can rewire itself to pick up many of the functions of the missing parts of the brain.
13:39And people with even quite substantial amounts of physical brain lost
13:43can go on to live relatively normal lives.
13:46And 3D imaging also reveals that most of the damage seems to be to the white matter of Gage's brain
13:52rather than the gray matter.
13:55This could be key to explaining his miraculous psychological recovery.
14:00Gray matter doesn't grow back well, but white matter can regenerate.
14:05It's this combination of Gage's incredible good fortune
14:09in terms of the trajectory of that tamping iron
14:11and the brain's incredible regenerative ability
14:14that seems to have combined to allow him a few years later
14:17to go back not just to surviving, but to thriving,
14:20to having a relatively normal life, to holding down a job,
14:23to performing almost normally in society
14:26in spite of this very, very nearly completely fatal accident.
14:31It's recently been suggested that Gage's personality change
14:35may only last for two or three years.
14:38Despite that, the accident does kill him.
14:41It just takes 11 years to do it.
14:45In 1860, following a series of severe epileptic seizures
14:49likely resulting from the accident,
14:51Phineas Gage dies.
14:54He is just 36 years old.
14:58But he changes the world.
15:00The case is still in every neuroanatomical textbook
15:07and medical students would certainly learn about the case.
15:11The Phineas Gage case is taught
15:14to all first-year undergraduate psychology students.
15:17It's taught as the beginning of the understanding
15:18of the relationship between brain structures
15:21and personality and who we are.
15:23This one skull and its unfortunate owner
15:27has literally transformed our insight
15:29into the human soul
15:31and the nature of humanity.
15:43Once locked away by the U.S. military
15:45and now lost
15:46is one of the strangest weapons ever made.
15:49The destructive power of this device
15:53could destroy the city.
15:55But how it does this is completely bizarre.
16:00Now, using state-of-the-art digital imaging,
16:03we can reveal every detail
16:06of this remarkable device.
16:10Code-named Project X-Ray,
16:12it is quite literally born in the fires of World War II.
16:15There has never been a weapon like it before or since,
16:19and there's a very good reason for that.
16:22Around a meter and a half in length,
16:24the giveaway is that its cylindrical body
16:27is perforated with tiny air holes
16:29for its tiny passengers.
16:31The deadly power of this device
16:33comes not from radioactive material
16:35or from high explosives.
16:39It comes from bats.
16:41This is the bat bomb.
16:47This has to number
16:48among the weirdest inventions
16:50of the Second World War.
16:52Who comes up with it?
16:54Why bats?
16:56How is this bizarre device
16:58supposed to function?
17:00And does it really work?
17:05By the end of 1941,
17:07America is at war with Japan.
17:09The bat bomb is designed
17:12to help America strike back
17:14after Pearl Harbor.
17:16The shell looks like any other bomb,
17:18but inside it,
17:19there are lots of tiny trays.
17:22Within one of these trays,
17:23there are up to 40 bats.
17:25In the whole of the bomb,
17:27there are 1,000 bats.
17:29And on each bat,
17:30there is a tiny, deadly device.
17:33These devices are the secret
17:35to the bomb's potential
17:36because they don't use high explosives.
17:39A bunch of tiny explosives,
17:41even thousands carried by a bat,
17:42really isn't going to do much damage.
17:44The goal is not to blow things up.
17:47It's to start fires.
17:54The bat bomb targets
17:55a specific weakness
17:56of Japanese cities.
17:58Most houses were made of wood
18:00and they were densely packed together.
18:02If you were to start a fire
18:04in just a few houses,
18:06the whole city could go up in flames.
18:09The bombs will be dropped
18:10from an aircraft high above the target city.
18:13It will be loaded with sleeping bats,
18:16each armed with a tiny incendiary device.
18:19At 300 meters, parachutes deploy
18:22and the outer casing falls away.
18:25Once the parachute opens,
18:28the trays space out
18:30and they hang in a column
18:33about eight and a half feet long.
18:35Exposed to the warmer air,
18:37the bats start to wake.
18:39As soon as they were flying out,
18:41they were ripping the safety pin off
18:43and it set off a time delay fuse.
18:46The designer calculates
18:49that with a 30-minute delay,
18:51the bats can cover an area
18:52over 60 kilometers in diameter.
18:56At the time,
18:57a cluster of six U.S. M69 incendiary bombs
19:01might start 160 fires.
19:04But the same weight of bat bombs
19:05could start almost 4,800 fires.
19:10So the plan is that bats
19:12are going to burn Japanese cities down
19:15and this is going to be the decisive blow
19:17in the war for the Pacific.
19:20Who comes up with the crazy idea
19:23of using a bat as a war machine?
19:29One of the strangest things about this
19:31is that unlike many other weapons,
19:34it's not devised
19:35in some kind of special military laboratory.
19:38It's dreamt up instead by a dentist.
19:41His name is Lytle S. Adams.
19:43In 1941,
19:45he makes a trip to Carlsbad Caverns
19:47in the U.S.
19:48and he reports being fascinated
19:51by these swarms of bats
19:53that came streaming out of the caverns
19:55at sundown.
19:57When Adams is driving back,
19:58he hears about Pearl Harbor on the radio.
20:01Having just seen the bats,
20:02he thinks to himself,
20:04what if each of those bats
20:05had a tiny incendiary device?
20:07You could really devastate
20:08the enemy cities in Japan.
20:10Adams already has a track record
20:14in odd creations.
20:16Adams had spent much of his life
20:17tinkering around
20:18with different inventions.
20:19One of the more bizarre ideas he had
20:21was the Adams Air Express.
20:23This was designed to be an airplane
20:25with a giant hook
20:27that dangled down
20:28to pick up mailbags
20:29without the inconvenience
20:30of having to land.
20:34Unfortunately,
20:35it never takes off.
20:38But pushing the project
20:39in West Virginia,
20:41an impoverished state
20:42close to the heart
20:43of Eleanor Roosevelt,
20:44brings Adams to the attention
20:45of the U.S. First Lady.
20:47It proves an invaluable connection.
20:50One of the first things
20:51that Adams does
20:52when he comes up
20:52with the idea of the bat bomb
20:54is to write to
20:55Eleanor Roosevelt herself
20:56to explain
20:57what a brilliant idea it is.
21:00The First Lady
21:01sends the bat bomb proposal
21:03straight to the president.
21:05This ends up on the desk
21:06of her husband, FDR.
21:09He rubber stamps it
21:10after consulting with his aides
21:11with this famous line.
21:12This man is not a nut.
21:14It sounds like
21:15a perfectly wild idea,
21:16but it's worth looking into.
21:20It does sound crazy,
21:22but in the desperate
21:23circumstances of war,
21:25the military are prepared
21:26to try almost anything
21:27that can give them an edge,
21:29no matter how weird.
21:31The Second World War
21:32is littered with these outlandish
21:34and exotic ideas
21:36about weapons.
21:38One of the most outrageous
21:39appears in 1943.
21:42The British Directorate
21:43of Miscellaneous Weapons Development
21:45is asked to dream up a way
21:47to penetrate the concrete
21:48coastal defenses
21:49of the Nazis' Atlantic Wall.
21:52What they come up with
21:54is a self-propelled bomb,
21:56the Panjandrum.
21:58The Panjandrum
21:59is a very freakish-looking device,
22:02but it's a pretty basic concept.
22:03You just put rockets
22:05on the edges of the wheels,
22:07like a Catherine wheel,
22:08and you light the rockets,
22:10and it sort of fires itself
22:11towards the enemy,
22:12creating a breach in their lines.
22:14Despite the top-secret nature
22:15of the project,
22:16the beach chosen as a test site
22:18turns out to be
22:19a popular destination
22:20for holidaymakers.
22:21So these top-secret tests
22:24end up happening
22:25to an audience
22:26of holiday-goers.
22:29They light the rockets
22:30in the Panjandrum,
22:31and everything goes wrong
22:34almost from the get-go.
22:35The rockets start
22:36to dislodge themselves,
22:38flying off
22:38in different directions.
22:40Meanwhile,
22:40while the device itself
22:41just careens
22:42across the beach.
22:44Unsurprisingly,
22:45the Panjandrum
22:46never sees battle,
22:48but the military
22:49probably thought
22:49it was worth a try.
22:52The problem is
22:53the military can't afford
22:54to ignore these ideas
22:56just because they seem
22:57outlandish at first glance.
22:59At some point,
23:00one of these
23:01is going to work.
23:03One of the most
23:04extraordinary
23:05is a weapon designed
23:06to destroy
23:07hydroelectric dams.
23:09It's based on the idea
23:11of skimming stones.
23:14The bouncing bomb.
23:17The idea is that
23:17you fly your bombers down
23:19at a precise speed
23:21and a precise height,
23:22usually quite low,
23:23and you release a bomb
23:25that immediately starts
23:26to spin opposite
23:28of the direction
23:28that the plane is traveling.
23:30So when it hits the water,
23:32instead of sinking,
23:34it bounces,
23:35and it skips
23:36quite a considerable distance.
23:37And if you drop it
23:38at just the right place
23:39at just the right speed,
23:41it'll skip, skip, skip,
23:43and then crash
23:46into the face
23:47of the dam.
23:49On the 16th of May, 1943,
23:5219 Lancaster bombers
23:54take off
23:55to bomb three German dams.
23:57It's a costly operation,
24:03but it's a very successful one.
24:06Two out of the three dams
24:07attacked
24:07are completely destroyed.
24:13In 1942,
24:15the Bat Bomb is born.
24:16Its code name
24:17is Project X-Ray.
24:20Will it turn out
24:21to be as successful
24:22as the bouncing bomb,
24:23or as disastrous
24:25as the Panjian drum?
24:28Why does Adams believe
24:29bats can make the difference?
24:34In World War II,
24:36the safest time to bomb
24:37is at night
24:38to avoid enemy fighters
24:40and guns.
24:41Gravity bombing
24:42is inaccurate at best,
24:44especially if you do it
24:46at night,
24:46which is when the U.S. Air Force
24:47likes to operate
24:48because you have less chance
24:49of getting shot down.
24:50It's hard for bombers
24:52to hit anything
24:53because humans
24:54can't see in the dark,
24:56but bats can.
24:58Bats can orient
24:59during nighttime
25:00because they send
25:01off sound waves
25:02and those sound waves
25:03come back
25:03and they can interpret
25:04the pattern
25:05of what is in front of them.
25:08Bats use their
25:09night sound vision system
25:11to go back and forth
25:13from roosting sites,
25:14but also to hunt
25:16mostly insects,
25:17moths, etc.
25:17and where they like to rest
25:20is another advantage
25:21for a bat bomb.
25:23The idea is that
25:23they drop it
25:24just before dawn
25:25so that the bats
25:26immediately want to find
25:27somewhere to nestle,
25:29somewhere just like
25:29the eaves of a house.
25:33So the fire would spread
25:34before anybody knows
25:36and cause a lot of damage.
25:39So they're a living,
25:42breathing, agile,
25:43almost undetectable weapon
25:45that's going to go
25:45exactly where you want
25:47to go to achieve
25:48the effect you want
25:49to achieve.
25:55Adam's team select
25:57the tiny Mexican
25:57free-tailed bat
25:59as their flying
26:00rodent of choice.
26:02They're a good choice
26:03because you can fit
26:04a lot of them
26:05into one of these bombs.
26:07It was estimated
26:07that 10 planes
26:09could carry as many
26:10as 2 million bats
26:12in these bombs.
26:13And these bats
26:14have one final advantage.
26:16when it gets cold,
26:17they enter a state
26:18known as torpor.
26:20In torpor,
26:21they're just very sleepy,
26:22they're not moving much,
26:24their body temperature
26:24is low,
26:25and they're just living
26:26on their body fat.
26:28This is perfect
26:30for Adam's plan
26:31because sleepy bats
26:32are easy to handle,
26:33arm,
26:34and load into
26:34the bomb casing.
26:36And they even set up
26:37a refrigerated truck
26:39to keep the bats
26:40in this hibernating state
26:41until they need
26:42to be deployed.
26:42But Adams doesn't
26:44just need
26:45his tiny mission specialists.
26:47He needs
26:48a deadly payload
26:49for them.
26:50By chance,
26:52almost at exactly
26:53the same time,
26:54American chemist
26:55Louis Fieser
26:56invented
26:57a new substance
26:58which was highly
26:59flammable
26:59called napalm.
27:01One of the things
27:02that makes napalm
27:02a really good fire starter
27:04is that it's
27:05a jelly-like substance.
27:06Once it's on fire,
27:09it starts to run
27:10and it flows down
27:11the surfaces of buildings
27:12and it gets into
27:13all of the nooks
27:14and crannies
27:14and it really
27:15spreads the fire.
27:18Adams and Fieser
27:19come up with a payload
27:20for the napalm
27:21containing a time-delay fuse
27:22that can be stuck
27:23to the bats
27:24with adhesive.
27:26The biology
27:27and technology
27:28seem to marry up
27:29perfectly.
27:31But will it
27:31actually work?
27:32In 1943,
27:38bat bomb testing
27:39takes place
27:40in Carlsbad,
27:41New Mexico.
27:42They get a real
27:43prime spot,
27:44the newly constructed
27:45Carlsbad Air Force Base.
27:48Now, it's completely empty.
27:49It's not operational yet.
27:51So, it's got everything.
27:52It's got hangars,
27:53control towers,
27:54barracks.
27:55But since they're
27:56a top-secret operation,
27:58the bat bomb project
27:59gets the whole base
28:00to themselves.
28:02Initial tests
28:03using dummy bombs
28:05are a success.
28:06It works like a charm.
28:08They spend hours
28:09trying to find
28:10the bats they've released
28:11and most of them
28:11end up in eaves
28:13under the buildings
28:14and barns and stuff
28:15all around the base,
28:16which is exactly
28:16what they wanted
28:17the bats to do.
28:18It's going so well,
28:19they decide to produce
28:20a training film
28:21for the air crews
28:22that will actually
28:23drop the bat bombs.
28:24For the first time,
28:26they arm the bats
28:26with live incendiaries.
28:28So, the bats are cooled
28:31and they're supposed
28:32to be in this
28:32torporous state
28:33until they can raise
28:34the temperature
28:35and they wake up.
28:36But here's the problem.
28:38They're at an air base
28:39in New Mexico,
28:41which is a very hot climate.
28:43Six of the armed bats
28:44wake up
28:46and they do exactly
28:47what they're supposed to do.
28:48They fly off
28:49looking for a place
28:50to roost.
28:51And where else to roost
28:52but under the eaves
28:53of this brand new,
28:55otherwise abandoned,
28:56air base.
28:57Everything works
28:58according to plan,
28:59which is a pity
29:00because they're not
29:01in Tokyo.
29:02They're in New Mexico.
29:04In a strange way,
29:05it works exactly
29:06as expected.
29:08The bats fly off,
29:09they roost under
29:10the eaves of the air base,
29:11the incendiary devices
29:12go off.
29:17And it burns
29:17the entire base
29:18to the ground.
29:20Due to the top secret
29:22nature of the experiment,
29:23they're not even allowed
29:24to bring in fire crews
29:25to put the fire out.
29:26They lose everything.
29:27safe to say,
29:30the trials have not
29:31gone to plan.
29:33So is this the end
29:34of the bat bomb?
29:37Not quite.
29:40In 1943,
29:42the Army passed
29:43the project
29:43to the Marines.
29:45The bat bomb concept
29:47clearly works
29:47and it only costs them
29:48one new air base
29:49to prove it.
29:50They decide to go ahead
29:52with the full-scale
29:53testing of the project
29:54and then unexpectedly
29:55in 1944,
29:57the whole thing
29:58gets shut down.
30:00By this point,
30:01the project
30:01has already burned
30:02through one brand new
30:03air base
30:04and $2 million.
30:06But is it actually
30:07cost that cans
30:09the bat bomb?
30:12The real reason
30:13is what on paper
30:15looks like an even
30:16more outlandish concept
30:18than the bat bomb.
30:19Harnessing the energy
30:21of the sun
30:22in a small bomb
30:24to devastating effect.
30:25And we're talking here,
30:26of course,
30:26about the Manhattan Project.
30:30In 1944,
30:32despite the fact
30:33that it actually works,
30:35the bat bomb is canned.
30:37Which probably comes
30:38as a big relief
30:39to the Mexican
30:40free-tailed bats.
30:41In a small glass cabinet
30:53at the British Museum
30:54in London
30:55is a curious object
30:56made from reindeer antler.
30:58It was crafted
30:59during the last
31:00Great Ice Age.
31:02It is truly ancient.
31:06This object
31:07dates back
31:08almost 10,000 years
31:09before the pyramids
31:11of dynastic Egypt.
31:13Now,
31:14using cutting-edge technology,
31:16we can bring it
31:17into the light.
31:22It measures roughly
31:2416 and a half centimeters long
31:25by 5 and a half centimeters wide.
31:28On the front
31:29is the unmistakable image
31:30of a galloping horse.
31:33There are signs
31:33of use and wear
31:34both across the surfaces
31:36and inside the hole.
31:37We see scratches
31:39and chips
31:40and evidence
31:42that there is an object
31:43that was actively
31:44and repetitively used.
31:46But the question
31:47then becomes,
31:48how was it used?
31:50What was its function?
31:52Who made it?
31:54What secrets
31:55does it hold
31:55about our distant past?
31:57Is it a piece of art?
31:58A symbol of power?
32:00Or something else entirely?
32:021863.
32:10France.
32:13On the edge
32:14of the Vézère River,
32:15paleontologist
32:16Édouard L'Arte
32:17and Englishman
32:18Henry Christie
32:19stumble across a cave.
32:22The site,
32:24known as
32:24Abri de la Madeleine,
32:25turns out to be
32:26a unique window
32:27into Stone Age life.
32:29In the courseway
32:30of that time,
32:31hacking about
32:31with shovels
32:33and pigs,
32:34they made some
32:34remarkable discoveries.
32:37They uncover
32:38flint blades,
32:39spear points,
32:40and numerous
32:40bone artifacts.
32:43And this
32:44strange thing.
32:45The object
32:46was remarkable
32:47for its form,
32:49which was unusual,
32:50with its large
32:51central perforation.
32:52But also because
32:54of the very naturalistic
32:55rendering of a horse
32:56engraved onto the object.
32:59finds like this
33:01and others in the cave
33:02are unlike
33:03any other
33:03ancient human artifacts
33:05discovered before.
33:07This site represented
33:09a whole new,
33:10previously unknown culture,
33:12the Magdalenian.
33:15The Magdalenian peoples
33:16lived during
33:17the last Great Ice Age,
33:18between 17,000
33:20and 11,000 years ago.
33:22The strange carved antler
33:24dates to around
33:2514,000 years ago.
33:26to work out
33:28what this is,
33:29we need to understand
33:30the people
33:31who created it.
33:33Who are
33:33the Magdalenians?
33:39The Stone Age world
33:40is often depicted
33:41as crude
33:42and simplistic.
33:43But in the case
33:44of the Magdalenians,
33:46nothing could be
33:46further from the truth.
33:47This was a very
33:50sophisticated culture.
33:51They had a range
33:53of specialized tools
33:54based on the types
33:56of activities
33:56that they were undertaking.
33:58Spears, harpoons,
33:59snares.
34:01They were very attuned
34:01to their surroundings
34:02and they hunted
34:03herd animals
34:04like bison,
34:05horses and reindeer.
34:06So it's no surprise
34:08that something
34:08made from reindeer
34:09is a perfect example
34:11of Magdalenian
34:12craftsmanship.
34:12The reindeer
34:17clearly was central
34:18to the life
34:19of the Magdalenians.
34:20It was a food source.
34:22But they made use
34:22of the antlers
34:23as well,
34:24either from those
34:25carcasses
34:26that they hunted
34:27or when the animals
34:29would shed them seasonally.
34:31The first step
34:32in the process
34:33of making this strange thing
34:34is to reduce the antler
34:36to the required size.
34:37A key tool
34:40employed by these
34:41ancient craftsmen
34:42is the burin.
34:44A burin is a type
34:45of stone tool
34:46with very fine edges,
34:48almost like a chisel.
34:49It's used to
34:50either engrave
34:51or gouge holes
34:53into things.
34:54Burins made
34:55from hard local stones
34:56like flint and chert
34:57are used to shape
34:58and cut the baton.
35:00So the way
35:00that we think
35:01this is done
35:01is by using a tool
35:03like a burin
35:04and engraving a line
35:05where you want
35:06to make a break
35:07or separation
35:07before striking a blow
35:09which will crack off
35:10the bit
35:11that you don't want.
35:14The distinctive hole
35:15in the center
35:16uses a different process.
35:20Stone tools
35:21would be used
35:21boring down
35:22from both directions
35:23across the antler
35:25to create a kind
35:26of hourglass cross section
35:27and then once
35:29that hourglass shape
35:30was achieved
35:30it would be scraped
35:32and smoothed out
35:33until you began
35:34to get a more
35:35even perforation
35:37like we see
35:37on this object.
35:39The most difficult
35:40and time consuming
35:41process is likely
35:42the raised engraving
35:44of the horse.
35:45The area
35:45of the body
35:46of the horse
35:47would have been
35:47initially smoothed
35:49to get rid
35:50of the irregularity
35:51of the antler
35:51but then
35:52the central portion
35:53of the body
35:54would have been
35:54left raised
35:55to add to the effect.
35:57The material
35:58from around the horse
35:59is then carefully removed
36:01a painstaking
36:02and laborious job.
36:03This is unusual
36:04because most
36:05of the other
36:06Magdalenian representations
36:07we have of animals
36:09are simply carved
36:10into a surface
36:12rather than using
36:13this more
36:14three-dimensional
36:15approach.
36:17Everything about
36:19the object
36:19suggests it is special.
36:22So what is it for?
36:24The archaeologists
36:31who discover it
36:32certainly think
36:33they know its purpose.
36:35Because of the
36:36decorative element
36:37of this thing
36:38when they first
36:39found it
36:39they interpret it
36:40as some sort of
36:41symbol of authority
36:43like a scepter.
36:44They called it
36:45a baton de commandement.
36:48Examples of similar
36:49objects are present
36:50in many different
36:51cultures from
36:52across the globe.
36:54But there's a major
36:55stumbling block
36:56to this explanation.
36:59As time has gone on
37:01archaeologists have
37:02found more than
37:03400 of these objects.
37:05How can you have
37:06an object
37:08that is meant
37:09for the leader
37:09of a small-scale
37:10hunter-gatherer society
37:12and yet have
37:13400 of them?
37:15This simply
37:16doesn't make sense
37:17and places this object
37:19more within the realm
37:20of everyday
37:21functional items.
37:23So is it some kind
37:25of utility object?
37:26A tool?
37:27If we look at the
37:28wear on this object
37:30we see scratches
37:31and chips
37:33and evidence
37:34that there's an object
37:35that was actively
37:36and repetitively used.
37:38But the question
37:39then becomes
37:40how was it used?
37:42What was its function?
37:44It's tricky
37:45to answer this question
37:46because the ragged
37:47end of the baton
37:48suggests it is broken.
37:50but using 3D imaging
37:54we can rebuild
37:55the damaged section.
37:58This is how
37:59it may have looked
38:00when it was first made
38:0214,000 years ago.
38:05Originally would have been
38:06around 12 inches long
38:08so we are missing
38:10part of its shaft
38:11which might have been lost
38:13in the process of use.
38:15One early thought
38:20was that this object
38:21might be a harness
38:22of some kind
38:23to use with an animal
38:24but there's a real problem
38:26with that
38:27which is that
38:28animals weren't domesticated
38:29for another 10,000 years.
38:31So if not a harness
38:35then what?
38:38Analysis of the holes
38:39in 135 of these batons
38:41reveals strange wear marks
38:43symmetrically opposite
38:44each other.
38:46Asymmetric wear
38:47suggested another use
38:49as a spear straightener.
38:51So if you have a shaft
38:53of a spear with a curve
38:54you would put it
38:54through the hole
38:55and then you could
38:56pull towards yourself
38:58to straighten out
38:59that bend
38:59and creating that
39:00distinctive wear pattern.
39:03This fits with
39:04other archaeological finds
39:05such as the
39:06Murray Springs
39:07shaft wrench
39:08a spear straightener
39:09from the North American
39:10Clovis culture
39:11dating back to around
39:1211,000 BCE.
39:16But this is far
39:17from the only theory.
39:19Another idea
39:20is that this was
39:21a form of spear thrower.
39:23Known in some cultures
39:25as atlats
39:26spear throwers
39:27were used by many peoples
39:28from the Mayans
39:29and Aztecs
39:30to Native Americans
39:31and Australian Aboriginals.
39:33A spear thrower
39:34effectively lengthens
39:36your arm span
39:37and so it gives you
39:39a great deal more leverage
39:41to add speed
39:42and accuracy
39:43to your throw
39:44and that makes
39:45the spear
39:46all the more lethal.
39:48A harness?
39:50A shaft straightener?
39:51A spear thrower?
39:53To date
39:53an incredible
39:5440 different theories
39:55have been proposed
39:56for the purpose
39:57of this strange thing.
39:59Which one is correct?
40:01It's generally
40:02accepted today
40:03that this baton
40:04didn't have one use,
40:05it didn't have two uses,
40:07it had multiple uses.
40:09You could call it
40:10the Swiss army knife
40:11of prehistory.
40:13This is a 14,000 year old
40:15multi-tool.
40:16But if it's simply
40:17a utilitarian tool,
40:19why has so much effort
40:20been poured
40:21into decorating it?
40:28The Magdalenian
40:29is not extraordinary
40:30just for their technologies
40:32and their tools
40:33and weapons.
40:35They created
40:36some of the most
40:37beautiful prehistoric art
40:39that's been discovered
40:40to date
40:40in the form
40:41of beautiful carvings
40:43and wall paintings
40:44of bison
40:45and woolly mammoth.
40:47And these are really
40:48the types of art
40:50that show you
40:51that they weren't
40:51just surviving
40:52in their environment,
40:53they were thriving.
40:56And experts now believe
40:58that when this baton
40:59is first made,
41:00the exquisite horse
41:02carved on its surface
41:03would not have been
41:04the only one.
41:06There may have even been
41:07originally
41:08a second horse
41:09on this object.
41:12Why did these
41:13ancient craftsmen
41:14go to all this effort?
41:15You know,
41:19what is art
41:20doing
41:21on a functional tool?
41:24And why a horse?
41:27Clearly,
41:28the horse
41:28was very important
41:29to these people.
41:31Was it a key source
41:32of food?
41:33Did they venerate it
41:34for some reason
41:35to do with
41:36their religious ideology?
41:39Who knows?
41:41Detailed inspection
41:42suggests one
41:43tantalizing
41:44possible explanation.
41:45Look closely
41:47and you can see
41:48small marks
41:49behind the horse's shoulder,
41:51marks that
41:52shouldn't be there.
41:54There's a small mark
41:55on the horse
41:56that otherwise
41:57is so lifelike,
41:58but this mark
41:59is not anatomically correct.
42:02And it's in just a spot
42:04that makes you wonder,
42:05is it almost a diagram
42:07directing your spear
42:08to hit right there?
42:10And that'll be
42:11the lethal shot.
42:12comparing these notches
42:14against the anatomy
42:15of a horse
42:16reveals they are
42:17directly positioned
42:18over the heart.
42:21And other artifacts
42:22from this period
42:23also appear to display
42:25the same kind of marks
42:26that could indicate
42:27a lethal spear strike.
42:29Whatever the exact purpose
42:31of the intricate carving,
42:32it tells us
42:33something important.
42:35These people
42:36had enough time
42:37on their hands
42:37for decoration.
42:38Clearly,
42:40they're not people
42:40living on the edge
42:41of starvation.
42:43There's time
42:44to devote
42:45to the pursuit
42:46of art.
42:48But quite suddenly,
42:49around 11,000 years ago,
42:51the Magdalenian
42:52vanish from history.
42:54This was the end
42:56of the last ice age
42:57when the climate
42:58changed drastically
42:59and a lot of
43:00the large animals
43:01that they were hunting
43:02became extinct.
43:04These were major changes.
43:07They just weren't able
43:08to adjust to it.
43:11And they disappeared.
43:18When the Magdalenian
43:19vanish,
43:20so does their wonderful
43:21and sophisticated art.
43:24But this astonishing
43:25artifact remains.
43:28One of the oldest
43:29and most beautiful
43:30multi-tools ever found.
43:38is a part of it.
44:04The Magdalenian
44:05is a part of it.
44:06The Magdalenian
44:06is a part of it.
44:08The Magdalenian
44:08has a plan to
44:23the Magdalenia
44:25very unique.
44:26The Magdalenian
44:27is a part of it.
44:27The Magdalenian
44:28is a part of it.
44:29One of the or
44:29the Magdalenian
44:30is two notes
44:30and is a part of it.
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