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00:00:00Two, one, say goodbye to 2020.
00:00:05365 days marked by stark warnings about the planet's future
00:00:10and technological triumphs illuminating new potential paths forward.
00:00:17During this journey around the sun, science continued to reveal stories of our past
00:00:23and also provide promise that we can overcome the obstacles in our way.
00:00:30Some far ahead, and others more immediate.
00:00:37Like the novel coronavirus, which made 2020 a year like no other in recent memory.
00:00:44The virus, now known as SARS-CoV-2, and the disease it causes, COVID-19,
00:00:51first appeared in China in late 2019.
00:00:54But its impact quickly weighed heavily on the entire world shortly after the turn of the year.
00:01:02The Chinese government limited travel during the traditional New Year holiday,
00:01:06hoping to stem the tide of the disease,
00:01:09locking down 60 million people in Hubei province,
00:01:13including 11 million in the city of Wuhan,
00:01:16the first epicenter of the public health crisis.
00:01:19The bustling megacity quickly turned into a ghost town.
00:01:25The virus most likely originated in bats
00:01:28and migrated into the human population in what is known as a spillover event.
00:01:35Yet, despite our technological prowess and medical know-how,
00:01:40the newness of this coronavirus presented health professionals and scientists
00:01:44with a steep learning curve.
00:01:47How do you treat something for which we don't have pharmaceutical interventions?
00:01:51On March 11th, the World Health Organization officially declared a pandemic
00:01:56after repeatedly stressing the serious nature of the situation.
00:02:00As the virus spread, governments around the world would enact their own restrictions,
00:02:25school closings, business suspensions, and local curfews.
00:02:29And with economic activity in dramatic decline, livelihoods were lost as well.
00:02:37The staggering statistics continued to climb.
00:02:40By December 1st, 2020, confirmed cases exceeded 63 million globally,
00:02:45causing more than 1.4 million deaths,
00:02:48nearly a fifth of which, over 268,000, occurred in the United States.
00:02:52Those most at risk, older people or patients with underlying ailments.
00:03:00But no one really is safe from the infection.
00:03:05Some coronaviruses, like those that cause the common cold,
00:03:08attack the upper airways of the respiratory system,
00:03:12wildly replicating, as viruses do.
00:03:14But just like the MERS and SARS epidemics earlier this century,
00:03:21a more penetrating point of attack makes the COVID-19 virus much more dangerous.
00:03:27It's in a more vulnerable part of our body,
00:03:31in the lower airways, deep in the lungs and the alveoli.
00:03:36They go in, take over the cell machinery, start making new virus.
00:03:41They prompt the immune response.
00:03:42So when that immune response kicks in,
00:03:44now we're down into the lungs themselves.
00:03:46Early symptoms include headache, body aches, fever, and cough.
00:03:55Those are the big four,
00:03:56and most people that get sick have several of those.
00:04:00It's once they start feeling like they're short of breath,
00:04:03and if they go into the emergency room at the doctor's office,
00:04:06and their oxygen level is low,
00:04:09then that's where we need to keep a close eye on.
00:04:12And what we found is that a small number of the folks
00:04:17just all of a sudden then get sick very quickly.
00:04:22The virus primarily spreads person to person
00:04:26through the air in respiratory droplets,
00:04:29like those contained in a cough or a sneeze.
00:04:33Studies also suggest singing and even talking
00:04:36can also disperse large amounts of virus-laden droplets into the air.
00:04:41Many researchers also believe the virus can become aerosolized
00:04:46and more easily float through the air and ventilation systems.
00:04:52Close contact with infected individuals
00:04:54continues to be the main driver of transmission.
00:04:57The COVID-19 virus moves quickly and quietly,
00:05:04and it's believed infected individuals are most contagious
00:05:08one or two days before symptoms appear.
00:05:12We do know that those individuals
00:05:16who might not be actually experiencing any symptoms of illness
00:05:19have the capacity to spread it,
00:05:20which means that public health responses need to figure out ways
00:05:25to even monitor the health and potential transmission rates
00:05:30amongst people who appear by all understandings to be healthy.
00:05:35And so, officials soon advised social distancing guidelines
00:05:40of at least six feet,
00:05:42restrictions on large indoor activities and public gatherings,
00:05:47frequent and vigorous handwashing,
00:05:49and, most importantly, the use of facial masks,
00:05:53not only to protect the wearer,
00:05:55but, more importantly, those around them.
00:05:57When it comes to COVID-19,
00:06:00it's not just your health you need to worry about,
00:06:02it's the health of those around you
00:06:04and who you might infect
00:06:05even if you're not necessarily feeling so bad yourself.
00:06:09Because once the virus establishes itself in a population,
00:06:13passing person to person,
00:06:15it's much harder to contain.
00:06:18So early on, back in March,
00:06:21American health officials recognized the crisis would grow.
00:06:24I can say we will see more cases
00:06:27and things will get worse than they are right now.
00:06:31And they did.
00:06:33Despite mitigation efforts to lower the epidemiological curve,
00:06:37although some countries fared better than others,
00:06:40differences attributed largely to testing
00:06:42and contact tracing of those infected with the virus.
00:06:47In the United States, New York was hardest hit at first.
00:06:51Hospital emergency rooms, intensive care units,
00:06:55and morgues filled beyond capacity.
00:06:58The bodies of the deceased,
00:07:00sometimes kept in cold storage trucks.
00:07:03A big part of what I think is killing people
00:07:06is the sort of what we call multi-organ failure
00:07:10as a result of the lungs going first,
00:07:12and then other organs start to fail.
00:07:16But what exactly causes this damage?
00:07:22The answer, ARDS,
00:07:24or acute respiratory distress syndrome.
00:07:28Inflammation in COVID-19 cases
00:07:30brought about by our own immune systems,
00:07:33stuck in overdrive.
00:07:35So it's our own immune system
00:07:38creating some of the damage,
00:07:40in particular at target organs,
00:07:42in response to that virus.
00:07:43And so it's like turning on the heat.
00:07:49But if it's too much,
00:07:50then you start hurting the tissues around it.
00:07:54It starts to create a barrier
00:07:56between where the alveoli are,
00:07:59where oxygen's coming in,
00:08:01and the capillaries right next to it
00:08:03that are picking up that oxygen
00:08:04to take it to the body.
00:08:06And there's a little thin membrane,
00:08:07an interstitium there,
00:08:09which has very little space in it.
00:08:12But certain kinds of interstitial pneumonias
00:08:15can start to put fluid and inflammation in that
00:08:18and thicken it
00:08:19so that the oxygen exchange is then compromised.
00:08:23However, so much remains unknown
00:08:26about SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19.
00:08:29Despite the extraordinary efforts
00:08:31to develop potential treatments,
00:08:33drug therapies, and vaccines.
00:08:35And even while more than 40 million have recovered,
00:08:40doctors worry about potential long-term effects
00:08:42of the illness.
00:08:44And so the pandemic continues to grow
00:08:47as new waves hit Europe and North America,
00:08:50especially hard,
00:08:51leaving behind a path of death
00:08:53and disruption in its wake,
00:08:55and diverting much of the world's scientific resources
00:08:58in the search for a solution.
00:09:01A critical mission indeed,
00:09:03but just one of many medical research endeavors
00:09:06hoping to break new ground,
00:09:08including one trial focused on restoring eyesight
00:09:11and apt ambition for the year 2020.
00:09:16Thanks to CRISPR,
00:09:17a tool that allows easy and precise editing of our DNA,
00:09:22the genetic blueprint held inside every one of our cells.
00:09:25It's been called game-changing,
00:09:28a breakthrough co-invented by Jennifer Doudna
00:09:31at the University of California, Berkeley.
00:09:35I think the CRISPR technology is just, you know,
00:09:38it's very exciting because it's going to enable
00:09:41a lot of science to be done
00:09:43that was impossible to do in the past.
00:09:47Originally discovered in bacteria,
00:09:49CRISPR are short bits of DNA
00:09:51that make up part of its natural defense system.
00:09:55And along with the DNA-cutting protein,
00:09:58Cas9,
00:09:59enable the genetic equivalent of cut and paste
00:10:02in word processing.
00:10:05Editing out a genetic mutation
00:10:06that can cause cancer, for example,
00:10:09replacing it with healthy DNA.
00:10:12It affords incredible opportunities,
00:10:15not just to do basic research,
00:10:17but great potential for new cures
00:10:19in new ways that were not possible before.
00:10:21Scientists around the world
00:10:23are also looking at ways of using CRISPR
00:10:25to eliminate malaria and Zika,
00:10:28to produce drought-resistant crops,
00:10:31and to exterminate invasive species
00:10:33like the Asian carp
00:10:35in North America's lakes and rivers.
00:10:37The technology is so versatile,
00:10:40it's estimated that most genetic engineering labs
00:10:42in the world are now using CRISPR,
00:10:45including the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based
00:10:48Editas Medicine,
00:10:50the lead company in the Brilliance Clinical Trial.
00:10:54Their goal,
00:10:55to develop a medicine now known as EDIT-101
00:10:58to treat Leber Congenital Amorosis 10,
00:11:02an early-onset form of inherited blindness.
00:11:05In early 2020,
00:11:09the first patient in the trial
00:11:10was administered EDIT-101
00:11:12via a subretinal injection,
00:11:15a procedure designed to deliver
00:11:17the gene-editing machinery
00:11:18directly to the photoreceptor cells.
00:11:22This marked the first time
00:11:23a CRISPR medicine was used in vivo,
00:11:26or inside the human body,
00:11:28instead of on extracted cells.
00:11:30After a three-month follow-up evaluation,
00:11:35Editas reported the patient
00:11:36and their vision remained stable
00:11:38and noted no safety issues.
00:11:41If the Brilliance trial completes
00:11:43all its trial phases
00:11:45and proves successful,
00:11:47it could transform not only patients' lives,
00:11:50but perhaps also the way medicine is practiced.
00:11:53From our most basic biological building blocks
00:11:57to outer space,
00:11:58far beyond the Earth's atmosphere,
00:12:01science breaks down boundaries
00:12:03and grows knowledge.
00:12:05Achievements build on one another
00:12:07and provide stepping stones to the future.
00:12:11Since the space shuttle was retired
00:12:13nearly a decade ago,
00:12:15several aerospace companies
00:12:17sought to be NASA's choice
00:12:18to carry humans and cargo to space.
00:12:21And on May 30th, 2020,
00:12:27Elon Musk's SpaceX made history
00:12:30with its revolutionary Crew Dragon spaceship
00:12:32and Falcon 9 rocket.
00:12:35For the first time,
00:12:36NASA astronauts launched from America
00:12:38in a commercial spacecraft
00:12:40to the International Space Station.
00:12:43I'm really quite overcome
00:12:44with emotion on this day.
00:12:47It's been 18 years working towards this goal,
00:12:49so it's hard to believe that it's happened.
00:12:53Without the space shuttle,
00:12:55the United States depended on Russia
00:12:57to keep an American presence on the ISS.
00:13:01For the last nine years,
00:13:03we have been purchasing rides
00:13:05on Russian Soyuz rockets,
00:13:07and those costs have gone up significantly.
00:13:10Costs of nearly $4 billion.
00:13:12But SpaceX has been hauling cargo
00:13:18on Dragon to ISS since 2012.
00:13:21We've flown Dragon
00:13:23to and from the space station successfully,
00:13:2620 times for cargo mission.
00:13:28They successfully completed
00:13:30the first test run
00:13:31of the all-new Crew Dragon
00:13:32to the ISS in 2019.
00:13:35Last year,
00:13:36we had our Demonstration 1 mission,
00:13:39which was the Crew Dragon,
00:13:41without any crew on board.
00:13:43Went to the space station,
00:13:44they opened up the hatch,
00:13:45and then came back home.
00:13:47Demo 1 marked the first time in history
00:13:50a spacecraft docked automatically,
00:13:53without help from the mothership.
00:13:58Who was in the driver's seat?
00:13:59A test dummy.
00:14:06This new mission,
00:14:08known as NASA's SpaceX Demo 2,
00:14:10is the final major test
00:14:12to certify SpaceX's revolutionary
00:14:14crew transportation system
00:14:16for long-duration missions to ISS.
00:14:20Most importantly,
00:14:21that Dragon can safely transport passengers.
00:14:26Crew Dragon is a free-flying spacecraft.
00:14:30It gets its lift into space
00:14:31atop a rocket,
00:14:33like the Apollo missions.
00:14:36The 23-story-tall,
00:14:39SpaceX original Falcon 9 rocket
00:14:41delivers nearly 2 million pounds of thrust.
00:14:44Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon!
00:14:46Go NASA!
00:14:47Go SpaceX!
00:14:48And while this mission
00:14:49marks a new era in human spaceflight,
00:14:52the two astronauts are veterans.
00:14:55Both Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley
00:14:58flew on NASA's space shuttle.
00:15:02Hurley was on the very last shuttle flight
00:15:04in 2011.
00:15:07Now, they've made history once more.
00:15:11Both Dragon and the Falcon 9 rocket
00:15:13it travels on
00:15:14are designed to be reused.
00:15:17SpaceX believes
00:15:18a reusable spaceflight system
00:15:20is the pivotal breakthrough needed
00:15:22to reduce the cost of space access.
00:15:26Falcon stage separation confirmed.
00:15:30Falcon 2 off of it.
00:15:33After launch,
00:15:35the rocket's first stage
00:15:36made an extraordinary
00:15:37return-to-Earth dive
00:15:39and a pinpoint landing
00:15:41on this ocean platform.
00:15:44Falcon 9 has landed.
00:15:46The rocket's second stage
00:15:48delivered Crew Dragon to orbit
00:15:50after a 12-minute ride.
00:15:54Today, we accomplished
00:15:55the first flight off the Florida coast
00:15:57in quite some time,
00:15:58and Doug and I were really proud
00:16:00to have an opportunity
00:16:00to be a part of that.
00:16:02The crew spent a day
00:16:03in Earth's orbit
00:16:04flying Crew Dragon manually
00:16:06to test their control capability
00:16:08before their historic docking
00:16:10with the ISS.
00:16:16We have docking
00:16:18at 7.16 a.m. Pacific time.
00:16:23Bob and Doug,
00:16:24welcome to the
00:16:24International Space Station.
00:16:26You've completed
00:16:27a historic ride to the ISS.
00:16:31Benken and Hurley
00:16:32spent two months
00:16:34aboard ISS,
00:16:35assisting the international crew
00:16:37with science experiments,
00:16:39performing maintenance
00:16:40on the station,
00:16:41and monitoring the health
00:16:43of their Dragon spacecraft.
00:16:45But eventually,
00:16:47it was time to go.
00:16:49Please confirm
00:16:49your visors are down
00:16:51and that you are ready
00:16:52for undock and departure.
00:16:54Soon, they braced
00:16:56for a dramatic re-entry to Earth.
00:16:59Probably the riskiest
00:17:01part of the mission,
00:17:02traveling at nearly
00:17:0417,500 miles per hour.
00:17:12During the re-entry phase,
00:17:14the spacecraft is engulfed
00:17:15in a plasma bubble
00:17:16of hot gases
00:17:18with temperatures
00:17:19that can reach
00:17:203,500 degrees Fahrenheit.
00:17:22And then those parachutes
00:17:34are going to kick in.
00:17:41Two sets of drone parachutes
00:17:43deployed
00:17:43to slow Crew Dragon down
00:17:46for the splashdown.
00:17:47For the SpaceX and NASA teams,
00:17:51welcome back to Planet Earth
00:17:52and thanks for flying SpaceX.
00:17:57Mission accomplished.
00:17:59This is something that the whole world
00:18:01can take some pleasure in
00:18:03and can really look at this
00:18:04as an achievement of humanity.
00:18:07You know,
00:18:07these are difficult times
00:18:09when, you know,
00:18:10there's not that much good news.
00:18:12And I think this is one of those,
00:18:13this is one of those things
00:18:15that is universally good
00:18:16no matter where you are
00:18:18on Planet Earth.
00:18:19This is a good thing.
00:18:20And I hope it brightens your day.
00:18:23With testing
00:18:24in the rearview mirror,
00:18:26SpaceX successfully completed
00:18:28its first operational
00:18:29manned mission
00:18:30in mid-November,
00:18:32delivering four astronauts
00:18:33to the ISS.
00:18:35Of course,
00:18:37orbital spaceflight
00:18:38is just the beginning.
00:18:40Both NASA and SpaceX
00:18:41have their sights set
00:18:43next on a return to the Moon.
00:18:46And then,
00:18:47our next-door neighbor,
00:18:48the Red Planet,
00:18:50Mars,
00:18:51where one day,
00:18:52humans will hopefully follow
00:18:54in the tracks
00:18:54of a series of advanced scouts,
00:18:57a long line
00:18:58of robotic probes,
00:19:00including Perseverance,
00:19:02which began its journey
00:19:03on July 30, 2020.
00:19:06Go Atlas!
00:19:07Go Mars 2020!
00:19:13Perseverance is the fifth rover
00:19:14to join NASA's family
00:19:16of rovers on Mars.
00:19:17And its mission
00:19:19is not possible
00:19:20without the work
00:19:22of its earlier predecessors,
00:19:24like Spirit and Opportunity,
00:19:27which discovered minerals
00:19:28suggesting Mars
00:19:29was once a very different place
00:19:31than it is today,
00:19:32as planetary geologist
00:19:34Bethany Elman explains.
00:19:35If we look back in the past,
00:19:39Mars was once warmer,
00:19:41wetter,
00:19:41and even had lakes and rivers
00:19:43like we would recognize
00:19:44on the surface of Earth today.
00:19:47The revelation about Martian water
00:19:49gives new credibility
00:19:51to age-old questions.
00:19:52Perseverance is there life on Mars
00:19:54or has there ever been life on Mars?
00:19:58And Perseverance may just help
00:20:00answer that question.
00:20:02But first, where to land?
00:20:05Mission planners want the best place
00:20:07to find signs of life.
00:20:09This means water must have been there long ago.
00:20:11We have picked the landing site
00:20:15to be right here,
00:20:18a place called Jezero Crater,
00:20:21which once,
00:20:23when Mars was warmer and wetter,
00:20:24hosted a lake,
00:20:26an environment very different
00:20:27from what we're going to see
00:20:28when we land today.
00:20:29On Earth,
00:20:34lakes are filled
00:20:35with living creatures.
00:20:37Evidence of that life
00:20:38is preserved in the mud and sand
00:20:40deposited on the bottom of the lake.
00:20:43Could the same be true for Mars?
00:20:46The rover's instruments
00:20:47will closely examine
00:20:48the ancient rocks
00:20:49of the bygone lake.
00:20:53But first,
00:20:54after its seven-month passage
00:20:56to the Red Planet,
00:20:57Perseverance will need
00:20:58to successfully navigate
00:21:00its descent
00:21:01through the thin Martian atmosphere
00:21:03using parachutes
00:21:05and a device
00:21:06called a sky crane.
00:21:15When contact is sensed
00:21:17with the ground,
00:21:19that tether is cut,
00:21:20that descent stage flies away
00:21:22and the rover falls
00:21:23what should be no more
00:21:24than a meter
00:21:25to hit the surface
00:21:26but gently.
00:21:28Perseverance is now ready
00:21:33for its mission
00:21:34as the expression goes
00:21:36to seek out life
00:21:37and boldly go
00:21:39where no one has gone before.
00:21:42The rover will identify
00:21:44chemical elements
00:21:45on the Martian soil
00:21:46as well as organics
00:21:48and minerals
00:21:48that may be signs
00:21:50of past microbial life.
00:21:51The latest in camera technology
00:21:56can resolve features
00:21:57as small
00:21:58as a grain of salt.
00:22:03If something ever lived here,
00:22:05Perseverance can find
00:22:07evidence of it.
00:22:12The drill
00:22:13bores holes
00:22:14and extracts core samples
00:22:16of a half-inch wide
00:22:17and 2.4 inches long.
00:22:24This is a system
00:22:25that allows us
00:22:26to take core samples
00:22:28of rocky material
00:22:29on the surface of Mars,
00:22:31carefully seal them
00:22:32in very sterile,
00:22:34clean vessels
00:22:35for eventual return
00:22:38to Earth.
00:22:40That's right,
00:22:42returned to Earth.
00:22:43Up to 47
00:22:45hermetically sealed tubes
00:22:46will be stored
00:22:47and eventually left
00:22:48for pickup
00:22:49by an as of yet
00:22:51unplanned future mission.
00:22:55Perseverance also features
00:22:57many other advanced
00:22:58and innovative technologies,
00:23:00including
00:23:01the stereoscopic eyes
00:23:03of Mastcam-Z.
00:23:05We're trying to come up
00:23:06and do Mastcam.
00:23:10And the Mars Oxygen
00:23:12is an in-situ resource
00:23:13utilization experiment,
00:23:16also known as MOXIE.
00:23:18MOXIE will synthesize oxygen
00:23:20out of the Martian atmosphere
00:23:23to create a gas
00:23:24that would be breathable
00:23:25by future humans
00:23:26on the surface,
00:23:27and MOXIE is a demonstration
00:23:29of this technology.
00:23:31And that's not all.
00:23:32Within 30 days of landing,
00:23:34the rover will deploy
00:23:36an experimental new craft,
00:23:39a helicopter.
00:23:39The helicopter has a camera,
00:23:45has two rotors,
00:23:46and we're hoping
00:23:47to prove out
00:23:48this new technology
00:23:49that we can fly
00:23:50other spacecraft on Mars,
00:23:52that we can do
00:23:55drone-based exploration
00:23:57aerially on Mars,
00:23:59collecting pictures
00:24:00from above.
00:24:01Its name is Ingenuity,
00:24:04and if it works,
00:24:06Mars will be the second world
00:24:07to see a first flight.
00:24:13Specially engineered
00:24:14for the Martian environment.
00:24:17Ingenuity has rotors
00:24:18about four feet long,
00:24:20which spin between
00:24:21two and three thousand
00:24:23times a minute.
00:24:25Most of our flights
00:24:26will be at the three
00:24:27to five meter height.
00:24:28We will be going horizontally
00:24:29again at a few meters
00:24:30per second.
00:24:32So our priority will be
00:24:33to get back engineering,
00:24:34telemetry,
00:24:35and not so much images.
00:24:36But I'm sure we'll return
00:24:37a few, you know,
00:24:38because they'll always
00:24:39look cool.
00:24:40If all goes according
00:24:41to plan,
00:24:42Perseverance will greatly
00:24:44expand our knowledge
00:24:45of Mars.
00:24:46But maybe,
00:24:47just maybe,
00:24:48the search for
00:24:48extraterrestrial life
00:24:50has largely overlooked
00:24:51another nearby site.
00:24:53What about Earth's neighbor
00:24:55on the other side,
00:24:56the second planet
00:24:57in our solar system,
00:24:58Venus?
00:25:00The surface of the planet
00:25:02may be a dusty,
00:25:04hellish volcanic cauldron
00:25:05with temperatures reaching
00:25:07880 degrees Fahrenheit.
00:25:10Inhospitable to life,
00:25:12most scientists imagine
00:25:13feasible.
00:25:15Which is why Jane Greaves
00:25:17from Cardiff University
00:25:19set her sights high
00:25:20above the rocky terrain
00:25:21in the thick,
00:25:22cloudy atmosphere.
00:25:24It's been suggested
00:25:26that there are possible
00:25:27habitats in the cloud
00:25:28decks of Venus,
00:25:29so somewhere where
00:25:31little life forms could live.
00:25:33And in those high clouds,
00:25:35although it is very acidic,
00:25:37it's also reasonably warm,
00:25:38maybe about 20 degrees centigrade,
00:25:40and it also has pressure
00:25:41that's about like the one bar
00:25:43pressure at the surface
00:25:44of the Earth.
00:25:45So that's why we think of it
00:25:46as a possible habitat.
00:25:48Greaves and an international
00:25:49team of collaborators
00:25:50use large and powerful
00:25:52radio telescopes
00:25:53to zero in on their target.
00:25:55First, the James Clerk Maxwell
00:25:58Telescope in Hawaii,
00:25:59and then the Atacama
00:26:02Large Millimeter Array.
00:26:05What's amazing about
00:26:07these instruments
00:26:08in the submillimeter
00:26:09is they work kind of like
00:26:10the radio in your car.
00:26:12And we tune them
00:26:14to a very, very precise frequency.
00:26:16When we tune to that frequency,
00:26:18we know exactly what molecule
00:26:21that must be emitted from.
00:26:23Just like when you tuned
00:26:24your favorite radio station,
00:26:26you know you've got
00:26:26the radio station that you like.
00:26:29The data contained
00:26:30a surprising shock,
00:26:32one they can't fully account for,
00:26:34the molecule phosphine.
00:26:37When you're looking at a wavelength
00:26:39of about one millimeter,
00:26:40Venus essentially acts
00:26:42like a giant light bulb
00:26:43in the sky.
00:26:44But if you look
00:26:45at a very specific wavelength,
00:26:46a little bit of that light
00:26:47is missing
00:26:48because the phosphine molecules
00:26:49have absorbed it.
00:26:51A potential biomarker,
00:26:53phosphine is produced
00:26:54by bacterial microbes
00:26:56on Earth
00:26:57in oxygen-free environments.
00:27:00It's also a toxic gas,
00:27:02industrially manufactured
00:27:03for agricultural fumigation.
00:27:06And an otherwise rare
00:27:08natural compound,
00:27:09says Massachusetts Institute
00:27:11of Technology professor
00:27:12Sarah Seeger,
00:27:14one of six MIT co-authors
00:27:16of the team's study.
00:27:17Phosphine is an extremely
00:27:20difficult molecule to make.
00:27:22It is only spontaneously
00:27:23made in extreme environments
00:27:25such as what you find
00:27:26in the hellish depths
00:27:28of Jupiter and Saturn.
00:27:30Seeger and her MIT colleagues,
00:27:32including researcher
00:27:33Janice Petkowski,
00:27:35examined the evidence
00:27:36of phosphine
00:27:37in the Venusian atmosphere,
00:27:39looking for an explanation.
00:27:41And we concluded
00:27:44that there is no known
00:27:45chemical and physical process
00:27:48that could conceivably
00:27:49produce phosphine.
00:27:50So this adds
00:27:51to the mystery
00:27:52of Venus.
00:27:53And then
00:27:54this opens
00:27:55a very rather bold
00:27:56possibility
00:27:57that there might be
00:27:58something living
00:27:59in the clouds
00:28:00of Venus.
00:28:01It's believed
00:28:03that once
00:28:04long ago,
00:28:06Venus was more
00:28:07Earth-like
00:28:08with vast oceans.
00:28:10But conditions
00:28:11on the planet changed,
00:28:13perhaps as recently
00:28:14as 700 million years ago.
00:28:16The oceans disappeared
00:28:18and that thick
00:28:19carbon dioxide atmosphere
00:28:20engulfed the planet.
00:28:23But could life
00:28:24somehow have evolved
00:28:25and migrated
00:28:26to the upper decks
00:28:27of the clouds,
00:28:28an environment
00:28:30overloaded
00:28:31with sulfuric acid?
00:28:33The idea
00:28:33has been around
00:28:34for a while, actually.
00:28:36The late Carl Sagan
00:28:37wrote of the possibilities
00:28:39in 1967.
00:28:41And MIT's Seeger
00:28:43recently theorized
00:28:44potential life cycles
00:28:46for Venusian
00:28:47cloud-dwelling
00:28:47microbial life.
00:28:50Could phosphine
00:28:50be a biosignature
00:28:52confirming
00:28:53extraterrestrial life?
00:28:55We don't have
00:28:56that answer yet.
00:28:58If we have indeed
00:29:00found life outside the Earth,
00:29:02it puts our own existence
00:29:03into perspective.
00:29:05But it also tells us
00:29:06that life may be
00:29:07much more common
00:29:08than we first imagined.
00:29:10And there's a huge array
00:29:12of possibilities
00:29:13out there in the galaxy
00:29:14of life
00:29:15with different biochemistries
00:29:17and desires.
00:29:19And of course,
00:29:19if we had found life
00:29:20right next door
00:29:21in our planetary neighbor,
00:29:23that would be so cool.
00:29:25No doubt,
00:29:26this phosphine discovery
00:29:27has renewed interest
00:29:29in Venus.
00:29:30Greaves and her team
00:29:31plan to continue
00:29:32their observations
00:29:33and research.
00:29:34But she realizes
00:29:35it may take a new visit
00:29:37to find an answer,
00:29:38something NASA
00:29:39and others
00:29:40already had
00:29:41on their drawing boards.
00:29:44So is there really
00:29:44life on Venus?
00:29:45I really hope so,
00:29:47but we can't absolutely
00:29:48tell with the results
00:29:49we've got so far.
00:29:51So it may be that
00:29:51the only thing to do
00:29:52is to send a spacecraft
00:29:53that can really sample
00:29:54and see if there are
00:29:56life forms there.
00:29:59People have gazed upon
00:30:00the planets and stars
00:30:02for millennia,
00:30:03eyes only at first.
00:30:05And then Galileo
00:30:06pointed his telescope
00:30:07skyward in 1609.
00:30:10Observing the phases
00:30:11of Venus a year later,
00:30:13driving astronomy's
00:30:14technological march forward.
00:30:17Progress which continues today,
00:30:19eliminating new images
00:30:21and ideas
00:30:21about our universe.
00:30:23And liftoff of Osiris-Rex.
00:30:26A quest for knowledge
00:30:28that saw NASA's
00:30:29Osiris-Rex space probe
00:30:31settle into orbit
00:30:32around a 4.5 billion-year-old
00:30:34asteroid Bennu,
00:30:3670 million miles away
00:30:38from Earth
00:30:38in December of 2018.
00:30:42The goal of the mission,
00:30:45to study and explore
00:30:46the rocky body,
00:30:48about the size
00:30:48of the Empire State Building,
00:30:50hit its high point
00:30:51on October 20, 2020,
00:30:54when the spacecraft's
00:30:55robotic arm
00:30:56tagged the surface of Bennu
00:30:58during a stunning
00:30:59six-second touch-and-go maneuver,
00:31:02stirring up
00:31:03and collected debris
00:31:04to be stowed
00:31:05and returned to Earth
00:31:06for further analysis.
00:31:15In December 2020,
00:31:17the Japanese space agency's
00:31:19Hayabusa 2 mission
00:31:20returned samples collected
00:31:22about a year earlier
00:31:23from another asteroid,
00:31:261621-73 Ryugu.
00:31:32Scientists hope learning
00:31:34about the makeup
00:31:34of these ancient asteroids
00:31:36will offer clues
00:31:37about the origins
00:31:38of the solar system
00:31:39and maybe even life itself.
00:31:43NASA's Bennu sample
00:31:44is scheduled
00:31:45for Earth arrival
00:31:46in 2023.
00:31:49While these missions
00:31:50ventured millions of miles
00:31:51to seek their quarry,
00:31:54asteroids often come
00:31:55much closer to Earth.
00:31:56NASA's Planetary Defense
00:32:01Coordination Office
00:32:02scans the sky closer to home
00:32:05to locate, identify,
00:32:07and track near-Earth objects
00:32:09like asteroids
00:32:10and provide a warning
00:32:11in advance of any
00:32:13potentially catastrophic collisions.
00:32:16Still, some missed detection
00:32:17until after they pass,
00:32:19like the asteroid 2020 VT4.
00:32:23About the size of a small house,
00:32:25it passed by a mere 238 miles
00:32:27above the Earth's surface
00:32:28on Friday, November 13, 2020,
00:32:32becoming the closest recorded flyby
00:32:34without impact.
00:32:37While there may be few present-day options
00:32:40to protect the planet
00:32:41from any future catastrophic collision,
00:32:43many have long argued
00:32:46the most pressing dangers
00:32:48to Earth and its environment,
00:32:49including human-induced climate change,
00:32:52are already taking their toll.
00:32:59Shifting precipitation patterns
00:33:01and increased heat
00:33:02continue to leave forests
00:33:04of the American West
00:33:05dangerously dry.
00:33:08Tinder boxes, which again,
00:33:09ignited into wildfires
00:33:11during the summer of 2020,
00:33:14leveling communities
00:33:15and killing more than 40 people.
00:33:18They're saying it's coming
00:33:20all the way from Oregon,
00:33:22which is hundreds of miles away,
00:33:24and it looks like
00:33:25the apocalypse right now.
00:33:2811.15 in the morning,
00:33:29and it's like the middle
00:33:31of the night almost, so...
00:33:35Parts of California
00:33:36looked like a Marscape
00:33:38due to the smoke,
00:33:39and orange glow from the flames.
00:33:46And in Australia,
00:33:47the Black Summer Bushfires
00:33:49blazed as the new year began,
00:33:52eventually burning
00:33:53an estimated 18.6 million hectares,
00:33:56or about 72,000 square miles.
00:34:00The extent of the damage
00:34:02can be seen
00:34:02seen in these stunning satellite photos.
00:34:06The fires killed
00:34:07at least 34 people directly,
00:34:10but the hundreds more deaths
00:34:11have been linked
00:34:12to smoke inhalation
00:34:13and poor air quality.
00:34:16Residents are doing all they can
00:34:18to stop this.
00:34:18There are helicopters coming in
00:34:20and planes dropping water
00:34:21every few minutes,
00:34:22but things are looking pretty grim here
00:34:24and in so many other places
00:34:26we've been today.
00:34:27Perhaps even more stunning,
00:34:29a study commissioned
00:34:30by the World Wildlife Fund
00:34:32estimates nearly 3 billion animals
00:34:35were killed
00:34:35or displaced by the fires,
00:34:38which burned in places
00:34:39until March 2020.
00:34:41The figure breaks down
00:34:44to include nearly
00:34:45two and a half billion reptiles,
00:34:47180 million birds,
00:34:50143 million mammals,
00:34:52and 51 million frogs.
00:34:55Once you lose
00:34:56that number of animals,
00:34:57all of the ecological functions
00:34:59that they perform
00:34:59are likely to disappear as well.
00:35:02And these are important functions too.
00:35:04They include species
00:35:06that move pollen
00:35:07from flower to flower
00:35:08to allow seed set.
00:35:11They include species
00:35:12that move fungal spores around.
00:35:15And fungi are really important
00:35:16from the point of view
00:35:17of allowing green plants
00:35:19to grow vigorously
00:35:21and to re-establish post-fire.
00:35:25Many of Australia's
00:35:26most iconic animals
00:35:28succumb to the flames,
00:35:30including kangaroos,
00:35:32wombats,
00:35:32and thousands
00:35:33of already vulnerable koalas.
00:35:41of course,
00:35:43climate change manifests itself
00:35:45in other ominous ways as well.
00:35:48NASA's Ice, Cloud,
00:35:49and Land Satellite 2,
00:35:51aka IceSat 2,
00:35:53uses lasers
00:35:54to record elevation measurements
00:35:56around the world.
00:35:58Comparing its most recent data
00:35:59with figures from its predecessor,
00:36:01IceSat 1,
00:36:03scientists documented 16 years
00:36:05of massive ice sheet loss.
00:36:08200 gigatons a year
00:36:10in Greenland,
00:36:11plus 118 gigatons
00:36:13in Antarctica.
00:36:15A gigaton of ice
00:36:16equals about 400,000
00:36:18Olympic-sized swimming pools.
00:36:21All totaled,
00:36:23this ice loss resulted
00:36:24in about 14 millimeters
00:36:26of sea level rise
00:36:28over 16 years.
00:36:29What we expect
00:36:32by the end of the century
00:36:33is, you know,
00:36:34on the order of
00:36:35two, three,
00:36:36maybe four feet
00:36:37of sea level rise.
00:36:39But what exactly lies
00:36:41beneath Antarctica's ice?
00:36:44New analysis
00:36:45of core samples
00:36:46pulled from deep
00:36:47beneath the seafloor
00:36:48near West Antarctica
00:36:50unearthed part
00:36:51of the answer.
00:36:53The remnants
00:36:54of a prehistoric rainforest
00:36:55about 600 miles
00:36:57from the South Pole.
00:36:59The X-ray CT scans
00:37:03of the samples
00:37:04revealed plant pollen
00:37:05and spores,
00:37:07as well as a network
00:37:08of fossilized roots
00:37:09from 90 million years ago.
00:37:12A much warmer time period
00:37:15for the planet,
00:37:16when the average mean
00:37:17temperature of Antarctica
00:37:18was similar
00:37:19to northern Italy today,
00:37:21researchers say.
00:37:23Comfortable by most standards.
00:37:26Of course,
00:37:27there's warm,
00:37:28and then there's
00:37:29just plain hot.
00:37:32On August 16th, 2020,
00:37:34the temperature spiked
00:37:35to 130 degrees Fahrenheit
00:37:37at Furnace Creek,
00:37:39a remote location
00:37:40in California's Death Valley.
00:37:43If verified by the World
00:37:45Meteorological Organization,
00:37:46it would go down
00:37:48as the third hottest temperature
00:37:50in recorded history,
00:37:51and the hottest
00:37:52since 1931.
00:37:53Earth's Southern Hemisphere
00:37:54wasn't immune to extreme heat either,
00:38:01and it took a devastating toll
00:38:03on one of the seven natural wonders
00:38:05of the world,
00:38:06Australia's coral network,
00:38:08known as the Great Barrier Reef.
00:38:10And the summer of 2020 in Australia
00:38:14was literally the summer from hell.
00:38:18Terry Hughes is a professor
00:38:19of marine biology
00:38:20at James Cook University
00:38:22and the director
00:38:23of the ARC Center of Excellence
00:38:25for Coral Reef Studies.
00:38:26So we knew it was record-breaking temperatures
00:38:30in February.
00:38:31We were getting more and more reports
00:38:33from divers,
00:38:34from scientists,
00:38:35from the tourism industry
00:38:36that the corals were starting
00:38:38to turn pale,
00:38:40and increasingly,
00:38:41more and more of them
00:38:42were white.
00:38:44Changes in environmental conditions
00:38:46like excessive heat
00:38:48can stress corals,
00:38:50causing them to expel
00:38:51the algae that lives
00:38:52in their tissues,
00:38:53leaving the corals ghostly white
00:38:55or bleached.
00:38:57And the whiteness
00:38:59is actually the skeleton,
00:39:01the carbonic skeleton
00:39:02underlying the coral tissue
00:39:04that you can then see
00:39:06when the algae die back.
00:39:092020 witnessed
00:39:10the Great Barrier Reef's
00:39:12fifth major bleaching
00:39:13in 22 years,
00:39:15and they're happening
00:39:16with increasing frequency,
00:39:18three in the last five years.
00:39:22Due to Australia's
00:39:23coronavirus shutdown,
00:39:25this time,
00:39:26Hughes and his team
00:39:27had to quickly coordinate
00:39:28their aerial surveys.
00:39:31Eleven flights in nine days.
00:39:33Over more than 1,000
00:39:35individual reefs.
00:39:37About a third
00:39:38of the entire
00:39:38Great Barrier Reef.
00:39:40What they witnessed
00:39:41was unnerving.
00:39:45The heat was
00:39:47relatively uniform.
00:39:49So this time around,
00:39:50the most extensive bleaching
00:39:51we saw
00:39:52was with relatively
00:39:54naive corals
00:39:55in the south,
00:39:56which hadn't been exposed
00:39:57to severe heat stress
00:39:58in the two earlier events.
00:40:01We're very worried
00:40:02about the gap
00:40:03between one bleaching event
00:40:04and the next
00:40:05because it's shrinking.
00:40:07The gap is really important
00:40:09because that is
00:40:10the window of opportunity
00:40:11for the depleted corals
00:40:13to recover,
00:40:14for them to rebuild
00:40:15their populations.
00:40:18Sometimes,
00:40:19corals can survive
00:40:20and recover their color
00:40:22in a few weeks
00:40:23or months.
00:40:24But when severe
00:40:25and widespread,
00:40:27bleaching often leads
00:40:28to dead coral
00:40:29and altered seascapes.
00:40:33I think the Great Barrier Reef
00:40:35in 20 years' time
00:40:37is going to look
00:40:37very, very different
00:40:38from what it looks like now.
00:40:40The mix of species
00:40:41will continue to change.
00:40:43However,
00:40:44if we don't control
00:40:45greenhouse gas emissions,
00:40:47if the world warms
00:40:48by three or four degrees centigrade,
00:40:50then I don't think
00:40:51we will have
00:40:52a recognizable
00:40:53coral reef ecosystem.
00:40:56And that would be
00:40:57a devastating loss
00:40:58for Australia
00:40:59and the world.
00:41:02Healthy reefs
00:41:03not only support
00:41:04a vast array
00:41:05of colorful sea life,
00:41:07they also provide
00:41:08critical services
00:41:09for people,
00:41:10serving as spawning grounds
00:41:11for fish
00:41:12that feed billions,
00:41:14boosting incomes
00:41:15and economic development
00:41:16through tourism
00:41:17and even hold the key
00:41:20to new medical drugs
00:41:21and treatments.
00:41:23But new findings
00:41:25from Global Finprint,
00:41:26a five-year study
00:41:28funded by the
00:41:28Paul G. Allen Foundation,
00:41:30again suggests
00:41:31all is not well.
00:41:34In too many places,
00:41:36sharks,
00:41:37the ocean's apex predator,
00:41:39and vital reef denizen
00:41:41have gone missing.
00:41:45After working
00:41:46in 58 nations,
00:41:49what we can say
00:41:49is that sharks
00:41:50are functionally extinct
00:41:52on probably 20%
00:41:53of the reefs out there.
00:41:54That means
00:41:55they're not filling
00:41:56the ecological roles
00:41:57they do
00:41:57when we have
00:41:58healthy ecosystems.
00:42:00Dr. Mike Heithaus
00:42:01and his team
00:42:02from Florida
00:42:03International University
00:42:04arrived at their conclusion
00:42:06after analyzing
00:42:0715,000 hours
00:42:08of recordings
00:42:09from their baited cameras.
00:42:12During 800 hours
00:42:14of footage
00:42:14in waters
00:42:15around six nations
00:42:17and territories,
00:42:18including the Dominican Republic,
00:42:20Kenya,
00:42:20and Vietnam,
00:42:21only three sharks
00:42:23were spotted.
00:42:25Perhaps not surprising
00:42:27when considering
00:42:28every year
00:42:29about 100 million sharks
00:42:31are killed by humans,
00:42:33victims of illegal
00:42:35fishing practices,
00:42:36and the insatiable appetite
00:42:38for shark fin soup.
00:42:41But the other takeaway
00:42:42is that they're reservoirs
00:42:43of hope.
00:42:44They're places
00:42:45where sharks are doing well,
00:42:46that if we protect
00:42:47these areas that are in trouble,
00:42:48they can repopulate them.
00:42:49And we now know
00:42:50which levers we can pull
00:42:52to help make that happen.
00:42:53And so FinPrint uses its numbers
00:42:58to advocate for changes
00:42:59to improve the conditions
00:43:01for shark and people alike,
00:43:03says study co-lead
00:43:04Dr. Damien Chapman.
00:43:07In Belize, for example,
00:43:08we took that data
00:43:09to the government.
00:43:11We showed that sharks
00:43:12were quite depleted
00:43:13in many areas in Belize,
00:43:15and the government
00:43:15took action
00:43:16to actually reverse that.
00:43:18They put in some new policies,
00:43:20and even more than that,
00:43:22we were able to go
00:43:22into the fishing communities
00:43:23that they identified
00:43:24and hire the guys
00:43:26that fish for sharks
00:43:28to actually work with us
00:43:29to do surveys.
00:43:31And that actually provided
00:43:32an alternative livelihood
00:43:33other than fishing
00:43:35that was good for the people
00:43:37and the sharks.
00:43:38And that's really
00:43:38what we need more of.
00:43:40After all,
00:43:41stories of recovery
00:43:42can float the idea.
00:43:45All is not lost.
00:43:46Off the coast of California,
00:43:51urchins have taken over.
00:43:53Humans have overhunted
00:43:54their predators,
00:43:56and in areas there are
00:43:5735 times more urchins
00:43:59than there should be.
00:44:03With nothing to fear,
00:44:05they eat all the kelp,
00:44:07essentially clear-cutting
00:44:08this underwater forest.
00:44:13In Los Angeles, however,
00:44:15an answer has been found.
00:44:18The solution to this problem
00:44:19is putting people back
00:44:21into the system
00:44:21to get the balance back.
00:44:24So, the Bay Foundation
00:44:25enlisted former urchin divers
00:44:27to help turn back time.
00:44:30Leaving these urchin barrens
00:44:32means we just leave
00:44:32the ocean dead.
00:44:34So when we encountered this,
00:44:35we knew we had to do something.
00:44:38And when the predators
00:44:38are in place,
00:44:40things stay in balance.
00:44:42So we did what the predators
00:44:43would do, get rid of the urchins.
00:44:48Contrary to its name,
00:44:50giant kelp starts out small,
00:44:52using tiny holdfasts
00:44:53to attach itself to the rocks.
00:44:56Once rooted, however,
00:44:58the kelp begins to grow quickly.
00:44:59And as the kelp forest comes back,
00:45:02so does the life it supports,
00:45:06including giant sea bass,
00:45:09the apex predators
00:45:10of this ecosystem.
00:45:12Their return really does signify
00:45:14the full rebirth
00:45:15of this kelp forest.
00:45:16The magic in this is
00:45:20you can take this kelp forest,
00:45:23turn it back into something
00:45:24that it looked like historically.
00:45:26You know, the world is right here
00:45:27at our feet.
00:45:29Los Angeles has extreme pressures
00:45:31from a large population
00:45:32and a highly developed coastline.
00:45:35For us to find space for nature here
00:45:38means that we can find space for nature
00:45:40anywhere on this planet.
00:45:42True underwater.
00:45:43And above ground as well.
00:45:47Welcome to Isle Royale,
00:45:50a U.S. national park
00:45:5120 miles off the northwest coastline
00:45:53of Lake Superior,
00:45:55opposite Thunder Bay, Ontario.
00:45:5845 miles long,
00:46:009 miles wide.
00:46:02It's difficult to find
00:46:03a wilder, more isolated place.
00:46:06It's also the site
00:46:07of the oldest predator-prey study
00:46:08in the world.
00:46:11There was a healthy population
00:46:12of wolves here
00:46:13for almost 60 years.
00:46:15But now,
00:46:16only two wolves
00:46:17remain on the island.
00:46:20As a result,
00:46:21the moose population
00:46:22has ballooned to 2,000.
00:46:25Beaver lodge numbers
00:46:26are over 540.
00:46:29Both species
00:46:30are changing the landscape
00:46:31and the ecosystem.
00:46:34And so,
00:46:35the park service
00:46:36decided to act,
00:46:38introducing wolves
00:46:39for the good of the entire ecosystem
00:46:42on Isle Royale.
00:46:44The reason we're bringing wolves out
00:46:46is to be that apex predator.
00:46:49And the reason we want
00:46:50an apex predator
00:46:50in the ecosystem
00:46:52is that we want
00:46:53to have all the pieces.
00:46:54we want to make sure
00:46:56the forest
00:46:57can continue on
00:46:59as it should.
00:47:02Winter ice bridges
00:47:03are important
00:47:04to the genetic refreshment
00:47:05of the wolf population.
00:47:07But as winters warm,
00:47:09the ice bridges
00:47:10become less reliable.
00:47:12So today,
00:47:17the new bridge
00:47:18to Isle Royale
00:47:19is by air
00:47:20and boat.
00:47:21And these mainland wolves
00:47:22are the founders
00:47:23of a whole new population
00:47:24on Isle Royale.
00:47:34Over the next few years,
00:47:39the U.S. National Park Service
00:47:40and its collaborators
00:47:41intend to capture wolves,
00:47:43males and females,
00:47:44and move them out
00:47:45to Isle Royale
00:47:46to grow the population
00:47:48and refresh the gene pool.
00:47:52He's thin.
00:47:53He's thin, yeah,
00:47:53but I thought he'd be
00:47:54really thin.
00:47:56So far,
00:47:5819 of 30 wolves
00:47:59have been relocated
00:48:00to the island.
00:48:03Lynette Potvin
00:48:04is an ecologist
00:48:05at Isle Royale National Park.
00:48:07Her specialty?
00:48:09The connection
00:48:09between the plant community
00:48:10on the island
00:48:11and the moose.
00:48:14What we're expecting
00:48:15to see
00:48:15is a cascading effect
00:48:17of wolves regulating
00:48:19the population of moose
00:48:20and in turn,
00:48:21the moose will be
00:48:22more limited
00:48:23in their browse
00:48:24across the island.
00:48:26So we'll see more
00:48:27balsam fir
00:48:28on the west end,
00:48:30and on the east end
00:48:30we'll see more
00:48:31recruitment of aspen,
00:48:33one of the important species
00:48:34on the other side
00:48:35of the island
00:48:36and sugar maples.
00:48:40In short,
00:48:41more biodiversity.
00:48:44Biodiversity gives ecosystems
00:48:45their strength
00:48:46and resilience
00:48:47in the face of change.
00:48:51The latest colors
00:48:53let researchers track
00:48:54where the wolves go.
00:48:55and an array of more
00:48:59than 150 remote cameras
00:49:00captured some
00:49:02of their behaviors
00:49:02and something else.
00:49:06Pups.
00:49:07First, these two,
00:49:09born to a female
00:49:10which was pregnant
00:49:11when she was translocated.
00:49:14And then this mystery pup
00:49:16on the northeastern side
00:49:17of the island.
00:49:18And on the opposite end
00:49:22of the island,
00:49:23small pup-sized scats
00:49:24indicating a litter
00:49:26may have been born
00:49:27in this den.
00:49:29It'll take more field research
00:49:31to confirm exactly
00:49:32how many pups
00:49:33have been born
00:49:34and how many have survived.
00:49:36But these initial discoveries
00:49:37are a major step
00:49:39in the right direction.
00:49:41I mean, having reproduction
00:49:42at two different ends
00:49:44of the island,
00:49:45suggesting there are
00:49:46at least two packs,
00:49:47you know,
00:49:47we're well on our way
00:49:48to meeting the goals
00:49:50of the project
00:49:50which is, you know,
00:49:52three to four packs,
00:49:53having reproduction
00:49:54on an annual basis,
00:49:56killing moose,
00:49:57killing beavers,
00:49:59you know,
00:49:59doing everything
00:49:59that wolves do.
00:50:00I mean, that's what we want.
00:50:03The future of any pups
00:50:04will depend on whether
00:50:05they can find a mate
00:50:06and a social structure
00:50:08that allows them
00:50:09to flourish
00:50:10in this isolated ecosystem.
00:50:12while groundbreaking studies
00:50:21and innovations
00:50:21may help return balance
00:50:23to struggling ecosystems,
00:50:24can new technologies
00:50:27actually bring back
00:50:28long-lost creatures,
00:50:30some gone from the planet
00:50:32for millions of years?
00:50:34Until now,
00:50:35the oldest known genetic material
00:50:37from a vertebrate
00:50:38came from the tooth
00:50:39of a rhinoceros
00:50:40that lived 1.7 million years ago.
00:50:44But a new discovery
00:50:45announced in January of 2020
00:50:47may show chromosomes
00:50:49that are 75 million years
00:50:51older than that,
00:50:53preserved in the cells
00:50:54of a baby duck-billed dinosaur.
00:50:58Dr. Alita Bailo
00:50:59of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
00:51:01pioneered the investigation.
00:51:03When Alita first viewed slices
00:51:06from the baby dinosaur's skull
00:51:08under the microscope,
00:51:10she found what appeared
00:51:11to be cells
00:51:12that hadn't yet turned to bone.
00:51:14But she noticed something else,
00:51:17something that made her heart race.
00:51:21Time completely froze
00:51:23and I just,
00:51:25I couldn't really believe it.
00:51:29Some of the cells
00:51:31seem to be caught
00:51:32in the process of division.
00:51:35So you could see
00:51:36inside the cells,
00:51:37some of them still had
00:51:39a dark material
00:51:40that looked like
00:51:40fossilized dinosaur nuclei.
00:51:43And there was another cell
00:51:44where you could see
00:51:45little threads,
00:51:46you know,
00:51:46dark threads
00:51:47of a dark material
00:51:50inside the cell
00:51:51which shows
00:51:53all the characteristics
00:51:54of chromosomes.
00:51:56And so chromosomes
00:51:57are made of chromatin.
00:52:00And chromatin
00:52:00is made of DNA.
00:52:02DNA and proteins.
00:52:04Alita then asked
00:52:05Mary Schweitzer,
00:52:06a molecular paleontologist
00:52:08and professor
00:52:08at North Carolina State University
00:52:10to help confirm
00:52:12her remarkable findings.
00:52:15So we did all kinds
00:52:16of chemistry
00:52:16on those cells
00:52:17and had many different lines
00:52:22of evidence
00:52:22that they were really,
00:52:23truly cells
00:52:24that came from the dinosaur
00:52:25and weren't some kind
00:52:27of a weird artifact.
00:52:28They needed to compare
00:52:30the fossilized cells
00:52:31to those in a living creature.
00:52:34And so,
00:52:35because birds descended
00:52:36from dinosaurs,
00:52:37they chose an emu.
00:52:39The primitive birds,
00:52:41ostrich, emu, kiwi,
00:52:42those are very, very primitive birds,
00:52:46basal birds.
00:52:47And so they have more things
00:52:50in common
00:52:50with dinosaurs.
00:52:53Using chemical stains
00:52:54that bind
00:52:55to nuclear materials,
00:52:58the scientists discovered
00:52:59evidence
00:52:59of similar DNA-type proteins
00:53:01on the cellular level
00:53:03in both samples.
00:53:04Then once we did that,
00:53:08we applied some DNA stains
00:53:10to those cells.
00:53:12And we did two stains
00:53:13that are used
00:53:14in, you know,
00:53:15all biological labs
00:53:17around the world.
00:53:18They bind to DNA,
00:53:20to double-stranded DNA,
00:53:22and you need at least,
00:53:23you know,
00:53:24between five to six
00:53:25base pairs to bind.
00:53:27And when you put these cells
00:53:29under a fluorescent light,
00:53:33propidium iodide becomes red
00:53:35and dappy becomes blue.
00:53:37And the two tests
00:53:38were positive
00:53:39in the dinosaur cells.
00:53:42I mean,
00:53:43it was very cool
00:53:44because I could not
00:53:45think of anything
00:53:46naturally occurring
00:53:47in the rock record
00:53:48that would look like
00:53:49chromosomes lined up
00:53:51along a metaphase plate
00:53:52and enacted division.
00:53:53It was pretty spectacular.
00:53:56If 75-million-year-old DNA
00:53:59is still around today,
00:54:01it will be astonishing.
00:54:04But, rest assured,
00:54:06the team's goal
00:54:07isn't to bring a dinosaur
00:54:08back to life,
00:54:09like in Jurassic Park.
00:54:12Right now,
00:54:13the scientific community
00:54:14really accepts
00:54:15that DNA cannot preserve
00:54:16longer than 1 million years.
00:54:18And this fossil
00:54:19is 75 million years old.
00:54:24So, you know,
00:54:25this study is really,
00:54:26you know,
00:54:27changing some ideas
00:54:29about some possibilities
00:54:31about fossilization
00:54:32of DNA and biomolecules.
00:54:36A full dinosaur genome,
00:54:39I don't think that's possible.
00:54:41But if we can get just access
00:54:43to a little bit
00:54:44of the DNA sequences
00:54:46of these really old organisms,
00:54:48it's really going to open
00:54:50a whole new world.
00:54:51OK, using ancient DNA
00:54:55to rebuild
00:54:56and resurrect dinosaurs
00:54:58might not be entirely feasible
00:55:00at the moment.
00:55:01But what about
00:55:02working backwards?
00:55:03At Yale University,
00:55:09Professor Bart Anjan Balar
00:55:11and his team
00:55:12wanted to see
00:55:13if they could reverse evolution
00:55:15and turn a bird
00:55:16back into its dinosaurian ancestor.
00:55:19Even though the depictions
00:55:29of Tyrannosaurus
00:55:30in Jurassic Park
00:55:32were of a more
00:55:33lizard-like animal
00:55:34that's kind of got
00:55:34a long, floppy body,
00:55:36now we're seeing
00:55:38more and more
00:55:38that when these animals
00:55:39are preserved in situ,
00:55:41in their natural orientation,
00:55:43with their natural body form,
00:55:45the bodies of dinosaurs
00:55:46were remarkably bird-like.
00:55:49The torsos were short
00:55:53and very, very deep,
00:55:55heavily muscled
00:55:56and extremely stiff.
00:56:01You want a relative of T-Rex
00:56:03that in body and in act
00:56:05you need look no further
00:56:07than your local farm
00:56:08because chickens
00:56:10are actually very primitive birds
00:56:13and they are
00:56:18predatory dinosaurs.
00:56:19They are
00:56:19theropod dinosaurs
00:56:20just like Tyrannosaurus rex.
00:56:24With the lab's
00:56:25powerful 3D equipment,
00:56:27CT scanners
00:56:28and microscopy tools,
00:56:30the researchers documented
00:56:31and virtually dissected
00:56:33every aspect
00:56:34of the chicken embryo's development,
00:56:36muscles, nerves,
00:56:38and skeleton.
00:56:39We're seeing into the secret
00:56:43earliest lives of birds.
00:56:46It's incredibly close to hatching
00:56:48that birds gain many
00:56:50of their avian features
00:56:51and overprint the dinosaurian form
00:56:53that they have.
00:56:56Chickens take about 20 days to hatch.
00:56:58We see a lot of this
00:56:59avian-specific overprinting
00:57:02go on at around day 18 of 20,
00:57:0519 of 20.
00:57:06But they found
00:57:07even though beaks form
00:57:09shortly before hatching,
00:57:11their development results
00:57:13from a whole series
00:57:14of chemical signals
00:57:15and gene activations
00:57:16which begin
00:57:17at an earlier
00:57:18developmental stage.
00:57:20And so,
00:57:21his team of scientists
00:57:22removed the gene-driven
00:57:24bird-specific protein
00:57:26from chickens' faces
00:57:27to replicate
00:57:28the molecular activity
00:57:30of their early ancestors
00:57:32and let those embryos grow.
00:57:37And the results
00:57:38produced a chicken-raptor
00:57:40hybrid skull.
00:57:42When the skeletons
00:57:43did develop,
00:57:45they ended up looking
00:57:46extraordinarily like those
00:57:47of floss raptor,
00:57:49like dinosaurs,
00:57:50and not like birds.
00:57:53They probably
00:57:54would have been viable.
00:57:55We didn't hatch them.
00:57:56There was no reason to.
00:57:57We were doing
00:57:57an evolutionary experiment
00:57:58where we were trying
00:57:59to create a dinosaur.
00:58:00While Bellar's genetic research
00:58:07may have been
00:58:08purely academic,
00:58:11the coronavirus pandemic
00:58:13highlighted critically needed
00:58:15real-world applications
00:58:16for genetic studies.
00:58:19On January 10, 2020,
00:58:22Chinese authorities
00:58:23released the genetic sequencing
00:58:25of this new coronavirus,
00:58:27SARS-CoV-2,
00:58:28the world's scientific community
00:58:31quickly mobilized,
00:58:33including Professor Paul Young
00:58:34and his team
00:58:35at Australia's
00:58:36University of Queensland.
00:58:39As soon as that was done,
00:58:40we began work
00:58:41on developing
00:58:42our vaccine approach to it.
00:58:45For the past six years,
00:58:46they focused their work
00:58:47on broad-based vaccine modeling
00:58:49using mRNA coding,
00:58:52an adaptable methodology
00:58:54able to quickly respond
00:58:55to new viruses
00:58:56as they emerge.
00:58:58A moment
00:58:59just like today's pandemic.
00:59:02We made more than
00:59:03200 different versions
00:59:05before we settled
00:59:06on one particular
00:59:07vaccine candidate.
00:59:10COVID-19's spike-like structures
00:59:12exhibit a specific protein
00:59:15to gain entry
00:59:16into its host cells
00:59:17in order to replicate.
00:59:18One of the prime immune responses
00:59:21is an antibody response
00:59:23that targets
00:59:24that particular protein
00:59:25on the surface of the virus.
00:59:26And that can generate
00:59:28a neutralizing activity
00:59:30or a killing activity
00:59:31that destroys the virus.
00:59:34Young's line of attack
00:59:35aims to unleash
00:59:36the body's defenses
00:59:37by introducing
00:59:39this protein,
00:59:40stabilized
00:59:41or clamped in position,
00:59:43as it would appear
00:59:44on the virus's surface.
00:59:45so that when we
00:59:48vaccinate individuals,
00:59:50their immune response
00:59:51sees this protein
00:59:52as though it was
00:59:53the virus itself.
00:59:55And they will mount
00:59:56an immune response
00:59:57that can then become
00:59:59their memory response
01:00:00if they subsequently
01:00:01encounter the live virus.
01:00:03So we're trying to mimic
01:00:04the outer exterior
01:00:05of the virus
01:00:06by generating
01:00:06this particular protein
01:00:08as the vaccine immunogeny.
01:00:11Disease pandemics
01:00:12litter human history.
01:00:13But vaccination technology
01:00:16is a relatively recent tool
01:00:18in our medical arsenal.
01:00:20Vaccines are very important
01:00:21for producing
01:00:22what we call
01:00:23herd immunity.
01:00:25And herd immunity
01:00:26is really
01:00:27the ways in which
01:00:28we can offset
01:00:29the risk of
01:00:30large spread of disease
01:00:31by immunizing
01:00:33a large portion
01:00:34of the community
01:00:35from it,
01:00:35which means it's much
01:00:36harder for it to spread.
01:00:38And that makes a vaccine
01:00:40a desperately needed tool
01:00:42in the fight against the virus,
01:00:43which causes COVID-19.
01:00:46Of course,
01:00:47a global pandemic
01:00:48demands a collaborative
01:00:49global response.
01:00:51There are multiple vaccine
01:00:53approaches going forward,
01:00:55including our own.
01:00:56And we're all of the belief
01:00:57that we're not racing
01:00:59each other.
01:01:00This is a race
01:01:01against the virus
01:01:01and whoever gets there first
01:01:03in terms of a viable vaccine,
01:01:04we can all cheer for that.
01:01:06And in fact,
01:01:08November saw multiple programs
01:01:09report very promising results
01:01:11from their Phase 3
01:01:12human trials.
01:01:16Still,
01:01:17Australian virologist
01:01:18Paul Young
01:01:18realizes finding a safe vaccine
01:01:21that works
01:01:21is just the start.
01:01:24Perhaps the bigger challenge
01:01:25will be executing
01:01:27on production
01:01:27and deployment.
01:01:29If we're dealing
01:01:30with a viral pathogen
01:01:32that is affecting,
01:01:33essentially,
01:01:34the global community,
01:01:35manufacturing that at scale
01:01:37at single sites
01:01:39is probably not going
01:01:40to be viable.
01:01:41So the real issues
01:01:42of the effectiveness
01:01:43of the vaccine
01:01:44become almost secondary
01:01:46to our ability
01:01:47to deliver it
01:01:48to a broad global population.
01:01:51Young's answer,
01:01:52to essentially proceed
01:01:53on a dual track.
01:01:56If we can ramp up
01:01:58that manufacture
01:01:59at the same time
01:02:01we're determining efficacy,
01:02:02then hopefully
01:02:03we'll be able
01:02:03to deploy a lot earlier
01:02:05than what a traditional pathway
01:02:07of vaccine production
01:02:08would mean.
01:02:10And that's just
01:02:11what they've done.
01:02:12Young's team
01:02:13at the University of Queensland
01:02:14inked an agreement
01:02:16to prepare
01:02:17and manufacture doses
01:02:18before clinical trials
01:02:20finish up.
01:02:22So the manufacturing
01:02:23is beginning now.
01:02:24The processes
01:02:25are being worked up now.
01:02:26So the idea is
01:02:27that there will be
01:02:27vaccine at scale
01:02:29when that regulatory
01:02:30approval is provided.
01:02:31should all go smoothly,
01:02:33they expect 50 million doses
01:02:35available by late 2021
01:02:37or early 2022.
01:02:40The American
01:02:41public-private partnership,
01:02:43Operation Warp Speed,
01:02:44hopes to move
01:02:45even faster
01:02:46with the first doses
01:02:47from drug makers
01:02:48Pfizer and Moderna
01:02:49ready to be deployed
01:02:50immediately
01:02:51after final FDA approval,
01:02:54perhaps as early
01:02:55as December 2020,
01:02:57following shortly
01:02:57after the United Kingdom's
01:02:59December 2nd approval
01:03:00of Pfizer's vaccine.
01:03:04The situation may still
01:03:06get worse
01:03:07before it gets better.
01:03:09While its impact
01:03:10won't be immediate,
01:03:12a safe and effective vaccine
01:03:14will hopefully liberate
01:03:15the world
01:03:16from the virus's
01:03:17vice-like grip
01:03:17and return everyday life
01:03:20to something resembling
01:03:21the recent past.
01:03:23Thanks to science,
01:03:24Always Pushing Forward.
01:03:27Always Pushing Forward.
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