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Extreme time lapses condense tediously slow processes
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00:11Speed characterises our times.
00:16Driven by the fear that we might be missing something,
00:19we are constantly crossing new boundaries.
00:28What remains is a yearning for the magical.
00:36In the hustle of everyday life,
00:39we long to bring time to a standstill
00:41and dream as we did when we were children.
00:53Let us leap into the world of super slow motion.
01:06Let us jump into a world of wonders
01:09that cannot be seen with the naked eye.
01:17New camera technology reveals a new dimension of time.
01:29Join us on our journey through a fantastic parallel universe,
01:34at the centre of which stands the human being.
01:55Adventure on the high seas.
01:57With our high-speed camera,
01:58we are on the trail of the legendary sailfish.
02:06Looking for clues in a particle accelerator.
02:10Who would have thought that sponges could walk?
02:17One thousand pictures a second reveal
02:19the phenomenal marksmanship of the archerfish.
02:25The world's first video from a scanning electron microscope
02:29shows a butterfly as it has never been seen before.
02:37Get off to a flying start in the high-speed world
02:41of super sprinter Heinrich Popov.
02:57Our first expedition takes us into the mysterious world of the night.
03:03As the stars move across the heavens,
03:05millions of animals on Earth that have,
03:08in the course of their evolution,
03:10adapted to living in complete darkness, awake.
03:14We are going to step into the invisible world of bats.
03:26The damp labyrinth of a North German cave
03:29is where 22,000 bats spend the winter,
03:33one of the biggest colonies in Central Europe.
03:36The animals shouldn't be disturbed during their hibernation,
03:40so we're visiting them during the swarming nights
03:42at the end of the summer,
03:44when the first bats explore their quarters.
03:47We're hoping to use new high-speed night-vision technology
03:51to film the animals in pitch darkness.
04:07Here, what's needed is experience and intuition.
04:12The camera registers only the light of the infrared lamps,
04:16which are invisible to the human eye.
04:20This will work.
04:23And action.
04:32The mysterious creatures are only visible
04:34through the lens of the camera,
04:36in blackest night.
04:46The first visitors are young Dorbentons bats.
04:50For hours, they fly around the labyrinthine cave,
04:54checking out the best places to sleep.
04:57At the moment, biologists know next to nothing
05:00about the animals' social interaction.
05:02Our new camera technology allows astonishing insights
05:06into their behaviour.
05:13It was very interesting to see these tandem flights
05:17and a little bit surprising that we saw that so many times.
05:22And maybe this has something to do with mating
05:27or that mother and young bats inspecting this cave system together.
05:37Using an ultra-sensitive thermal imaging camera,
05:41we filmed the Dorbentons bat waking up.
05:44It takes about 20 minutes for its body to reach a temperature
05:48that allows it to switch from sleep to flight mode.
06:02There's not much activity around the entrance to the cave.
06:06We want to see if we can find these nocturnal hunters anywhere else.
06:19At a nearby lake, we want to film the bats' hunting behaviour.
06:23Their presence in the darkness is signalled by a detector
06:27that turns the animal's ultrasonic calls
06:30into sounds audible to the human ear.
06:44At up to 140 decibels, bats are among the loudest animals on Earth,
06:50louder than a jet aircraft.
06:52It's a blessing that our ears can't pick up ultrasound.
07:02To find their prey, bats use an echo-sounding system.
07:06They see with their ears
07:09and even use it to catch insects in extreme slow motion
07:13at 2,000 pictures per second.
07:21This spider is a bit too big for the bat,
07:24which, after locating it perfectly,
07:27is unable to fish it out of the water.
07:39The super slow-mo also shows us
07:42how the bat transmits calls during its approach.
07:46Up to 200 times a second
07:48when it's chasing insects in a zigzag.
07:54This time the catch works.
07:56The animal grabs the prey in its mouth in mid-flight.
08:04Only now have scientists found out
08:07how the animals generate their cause.
08:10An ultra-fast muscle in the larynx
08:13makes the high frequency possible.
08:17It works 20 times faster than the fastest muscle in the human body,
08:22which controls our eye movements.
08:31Bats have their ultrasound sonar system
08:36and they can detect the environment
08:38and the flying insects very good
08:41and so they have no problems to see things in the darkness.
08:48At the end of our visit,
08:50one animal performs a manoeuvre
08:52that even the bat expert has never seen before.
08:56After a crash landing,
08:58a Dorbenton's bat takes off from the water,
09:01demonstrating how much power its wings can develop.
09:16free running in the centre of London.
09:19Spectacular motion on unforgiving asphalt.
09:23Too fast for our eyes to register.
09:30Ashley and Jan aren't just interested
09:32in getting over and around obstacles
09:35as artistically as possible
09:36and keeping their bodies in great shape.
09:40They're also discovering their environment
09:42from a new perspective.
09:45For the two Britons,
09:46free running is both a philosophy
09:48and a form of freedom.
09:50This morning we woke up at 5am in London
09:52when it was raining
09:53and now it's the middle of the afternoon in Germany
09:56and we're jumping off crates.
09:58You know, so I don't want to give it up yet
10:01when I can still do it,
10:02but when it comes to an age
10:03when I have to think of something new,
10:04I'll find it.
10:06But at the moment,
10:06I just want to do free running,
10:07travel the world,
10:09see new trails,
10:10have fun.
10:22In Hamburg Harbour,
10:24we are studying Ashley and Jan
10:25with the help of a high-speed camera.
10:32five-metre jumps are no problem for the free runners,
10:36yet at the same time,
10:37place a tremendous strain on their tendons and joints.
10:41In theory, the Achilles tendon can take up to a ton in weight.
10:56The high-speed camera shows their movements in a new dimension.
11:00The naked eye can register no more than 25 frames per second.
11:05In super slow motion at 1,000 pictures a second,
11:10we receive 40 times more visual information.
11:13This is why we perceive time as being stretched.
11:27Some of the free runners' tricks seem to have been copied from the animal world.
11:39How do children learn to walk?
11:42For Lewis, his first steps are akin to conquering the world.
11:46But at 14 months, walking upright is anything but a matter of course.
11:52And if he wants to be a good footballer, he'll have to practice for years.
12:00It's a constant fight against losing your balance.
12:06To keep his balance,
12:08Lewis has to position his feet pointing outwards.
12:11But the surface area he has at his disposal
12:14to balance his body and heavy head is fairly small.
12:20You can, of course, ask why it takes so long,
12:23about a year, to learn to walk.
12:25It's actually a question of first having to learn to stand upright.
12:29We are in fact born with a kind of step reflex.
12:32If you hold a child out in front of you with its feet on the floor,
12:36it will try and do something like take a first step.
12:39But it doesn't yet have the strength.
12:40Its brain is not yet developed enough to be able to control the movements.
12:50Lewis displays great patience during the experiment in the motion laboratory
12:55and tolerates our sticking reflecting markers on him.
12:59These will be registered by the infrared cameras
13:02and assembled by computer into a three-dimensional film.
13:08It's time for his first sprint on film.
13:22It's time for his first sprint on film.
13:27which allows it to absorb impacts and makes movement more elastic.
13:36The results show the pelvis swinging to the right and left.
13:40This is because the trunk muscles are not yet sufficiently developed.
13:44The centre of gravity is also still too far forward.
13:55If you wanted to describe the movements of a two-year-old,
13:58you'd call them awkward or clumsy.
14:00In reality, the child isn't yet strong enough to start the movements.
14:05It stands relatively splay-footed
14:07and waves its arms around in an attempt to find its balance.
14:12It looks down at the floor and then, over time,
14:16these movements become more efficient and flexible.
14:26At five, everything looks a lot more efficient.
14:32Running now functions as a matter of teamwork.
14:36The arms swing inversely to the legs and support the forward movement.
14:45At 12, we're really in go mode.
14:48Pushing off with the feet ensures speed
14:51and the greater body weight enables efficient, flexible running.
15:01The comparison shows walking upright is a very complex matter.
15:06A whole decade passes until we can balance our centre of gravity
15:11exactly over the middle of our bodies.
15:23This is Otto.
15:24At five, already a star of the skater scene.
15:28It all began with Otto lying flat on his tummy on the board.
15:32That was when he was two
15:33and the other kids were still trying to walk upright.
15:37Today, he and his stunts feature in international competitions.
15:48Otto is living proof of the fact
15:50that how well we learn acrobatic motion
15:52has nothing to do with age or size
15:55but more with the opportunities we have.
15:58Only those who get the chance to try them out
16:01can become real stars.
16:12The shimmering diversity of the sea
16:15is full of strange and rare creatures.
16:18Fish as colourful as harlequins
16:20or anemones like angel hair
16:23that are half plant, half animal.
16:30In this universe, or rather in giant aquariums,
16:34zoologist Michael Nickel searches for neither the most spectacular
16:39nor the biggest creatures in the underwater world.
16:49His passion is for obscure microcosms,
16:53some of the earliest life forms on Earth.
16:56Sponges.
16:57A passion that has led him to discover an incredible phenomenon.
17:07A sponge that he named Tetia Wilhelma, a minute roly-poly dot.
17:14A Cinderella of the sea.
17:16A sponge that can walk.
17:22There have been rumours about these mobile sponges.
17:26But when I first encountered them myself,
17:29I was obviously, for good reasons, very amazed.
17:33And I was even more surprised when we found out that it was a new species.
17:43The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle reported on the inability of these primeval creatures to keep still.
17:512,000 years later, Nickel provides the proof.
18:00To make visible what the naked eye cannot see
18:04takes enormous patience and an armada of automatic digital cameras.
18:14As the moving sponge is also extremely delicate,
18:18the zoologist needs all the sensitivity he can muster.
18:32Over a period of weeks,
18:34he's photographed the newly discovered wonder sponge every few minutes.
18:39The pictures are assembled to make astonishing time-lapse sequences.
18:48Two millimetres per hour.
18:51That makes Tetia the fastest sponge in the world
18:54and presents the scientists with a conundrum.
18:58For instead of being muscular,
19:00the fat little sprinter is completely free of muscles and nerves.
19:06If you want to watch a race between a human sprinter,
19:10let's say 100 metres,
19:12and the sponge,
19:14you will have to wait for five years,
19:16or even longer than five years,
19:18to see the sponge reaching the finish line.
19:26Tetia isn't the only sponge that can move.
19:29Using pulsing contractions and tentacles,
19:33the alien-like beings creep infinitely slowly along the ocean floor.
19:43What purpose the movements serve remains unclear.
19:56The reasons why sponges move are not really well understood.
20:01However, there might be some very simple reasons,
20:05and that is a movement because of a change in environment.
20:12The particle accelerator DAISY
20:14is just about big enough to solve the mystery of Tetia Wilhelma.
20:19Here, Michael Nicol is subjecting his sponge
20:22to the best light source of its kind in the world.
20:26A brilliant X-ray beam.
20:35Mounted on a swivelling hold-off,
20:37the tiniest samples can be analysed
20:40with the help of the high-energy beam.
20:47Sponges are real surface wonders.
20:50However, you don't see it from the outside.
20:52The real miracle is in the inside.
20:55They possess a very complex inner structure kennel system,
20:59which they use for feeding activity.
21:02And if you want to understand this system,
21:05you have to look inside,
21:07which is possible if you use X-rays.
21:09And we can get those X-rays in a very brilliant way at DAISY.
21:13Interlock search.
21:16Please leave the area.
21:17An alarm system makes sure there's no-one in the lab
21:20when the extremely powerful X-ray is switched on.
21:24Interlock search.
21:26Please leave the area.
21:30Microtomography is the name of the process
21:32that could revolutionise biology.
21:34Soon it will be possible to watch
21:37as we pass through individual cells.
21:45Checha Wilhelma gives us the first insight
21:48into this as-yet unexplored microcosm.
21:52Using the data enables a reconstruction
21:55of the sponge's three-dimensional structure.
22:00What we see is an ultra-fine network
22:03that makes even the pores in the human lung look large.
22:07In a process similar to inhalation,
22:10water is forced through the structures
22:12and the nutrition filtered out.
22:15One day the scientists may be able to unravel
22:18the mechanisms of the sponge's movement.
22:34Children love splashing through puddles and getting wet.
22:38But what do drops of water look like
22:41when filmed at 1,000 pictures a second?
22:51In super slow motion, water appears to be an elastic medium.
22:56Not just for children, for scientists too.
23:00Rain is full of riddles.
23:16What's the best way to stay as dry as possible?
23:20Walking slowly or making a dash for it?
23:24Mathematicians have tried to find a formula
23:26to answer this question.
23:28If we walk slowly, more water hits us from above,
23:32but less from the side.
23:40When we run, fewer drops come from above,
23:43but more from ahead of us.
23:45The first projection shows that, when running,
23:48we stay a little way ahead of the rain,
23:50but only if the wind is from behind us.
23:59The whole thing is more complicated than at first thought,
24:03especially when we see the running human
24:05as more than just a simple cuboid.
24:08Most scientists use such simplifications
24:11to limit the amount of computation required.
24:16Even the size of the raindrops
24:18has an effect on the outcome.
24:23The best solution is still to take an umbrella.
24:31Or just let your skin enjoy a cool shower
24:34as the droplets bounce off your nose.
24:51This frog's got the right idea.
24:53Instead of taking cover of the first sign of rain,
24:56it just stays where it is until it's ready to submerge
25:00in spectacular fashion.
25:09Frog's ability to take such giant leaps
25:11comes from their fantastic muscles,
25:14whose power builds up during the movement
25:17and then catapults them forwards.
25:24For a pond skater, a raindrop is another matter entirely.
25:29And yet, should it come to a collision, very little happens.
25:33The secret of the skater's survival lies in the fact
25:37that the insects are so lightweight
25:39that hardly any power transference takes place.
25:43A quick clean and impregnation, then it's off across the pond.
25:48It's no exaggeration to say that, in exploiting the surface tension,
25:53the agile skater really can walk on water.
26:03As its name implies, this back swimmer prefers to do backstroke.
26:08This strange position comes from the buoyancy of an air bubble on its stomach,
26:13which supplies the swimmer with oxygen.
26:15fan-like paddles of microscopically fine hair on its back legs provide the necessary speed.
26:28Even in a veritable tsunami of water drops, the pirate spider is safe.
26:33It can elegantly cross the elastic surface of the water on its eight legs
26:38without getting its feet wet.
26:44We filmed the spider for three days until it finally felt like performing.
26:50And then it wouldn't stop.
26:52Shots like this in super slow-mo are sometimes just a matter of luck.
27:11Connection via motion.
27:13That's the dream of Yukino and Maurus.
27:25A dream they're realising in the German National Youth Ballet.
27:29A company with the goal of turning new young dancers into artists.
27:40They come from different countries but all speak the same language.
27:45Dance.
27:56Dance, for me, is to connect with something.
28:01For example, we dance with music, so we connect with the music.
28:07And if we dance with somebody, we connect with the other person.
28:13And then I think we always need to feel some connection.
28:20Because if not, we always feel alone.
28:32Ballet dancers fascinate with the perfection of their movements.
28:36Attained by a combination of hard work and something which is otherwise taboo.
28:42Copying and imitating their masters.
28:56Once a dancer of international renown, Kevin Hagen now leads the German National Youth Ballet in Hamburg.
29:03When he joins in, he provides immediate and enormous inspiration for his young charges.
29:15All rise to the hands of the dance and the dance moves.
29:17An astonishing phenomenon which we'd like to know more about.
29:22One contributory factor is the fact that dance connects people.
29:35The super slow-mo makes visible the rapid learning effect in the form of virtuoso jumps and emotionality.
30:03Using 64 cameras, we want to show the dancers' motion in snapshots that our eyes cannot register.
30:11The cameras are set up in a semicircle and triggered simultaneously.
30:16The pictures are assembled in the computer to make a film.
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30:35Using an effect called time-morph, we can circle around a movement frozen in time.
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30:53In learning and perfecting movements, the brain functions in a similar way to this technology, which makes every detail visible
31:01in stages.
31:03It stores a kind of copy of the practised pattern of motion in the cerebral cortex.
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31:51When we look at how other people move, a so-called mirror neuron system is activated that has
31:57the function of a kind of imitative network.
32:00Areas in the motor cortex of the brain are activated that are also used when we want
32:06to carry out a similar movement ourselves.
32:14Mirror neurons also contribute to our ability to empathize with other people and recognize
32:20emotions.
32:22The language of motion functions entirely without words.
32:32In ballet dancers, mirror neurons do not only become active when watching movements that
32:37have long been practiced and perfected.
32:49Scientists examined the dancers' brains while they watched videos of the Brazilian martial
32:54art dance capoeira.
32:56In contrast to amateurs, activity in the motor areas of the brain increased.
33:05We'd like to know whether Yukino and Maugus' brains are also primed for capoeira.
33:17When the ballet and capoeira dancers met for the first time, you could see how dance or movement
33:23really are a kind of language.
33:25Observing each other, imitating, demonstrating, even when the others laughed, you could really
33:31see that was communication, that was language.
33:44This prima ballerina needs no special effects to be able to hang suspended in the air.
33:50When performing their aerobatics, the wings of hoverflies beat at up to 300 times a second.
33:59At 2,000 pictures a second, their graceful artistry becomes visible.
34:17The insects' bodies are equipped with fantastic tools that can't be seen with the naked eye.
34:24To be able to enter the world at the microscopically small, we've spent months preparing a world
34:30premiere.
34:46The scent scales of a butterfly.
34:50The surface of miniscule eggs, photographed with the aid of a scanning electron microscope.
34:58The hairy compound eye of a butterfly.
35:02We want to make the hidden beauty of nature visible, using a completely new method.
35:07and dive into the fascinating world of butterfly.
35:17With their transparent wings, glass-winged butterflies are among the most beautiful insects in the
35:23world.
35:24Their microstructures are full of surprises.
35:34Stefan Diller's great passion is the scanning electron microscope.
35:38Here, surfaces can be scanned with an electron beam and transformed into ultra-high definition pictures.
35:49His pioneering project is on glass-winged butterflies.
35:55First, the insect has to be painstakingly prepared.
35:59Alcohol baths remove the water so that the sensitive structures are better preserved.
36:10Alcohol baths remove the water.
36:10Scanning with the electron beam takes place in a high vacuum.
36:15Water would evaporate and cause the specimen to shrivel.
36:22With infinite patience, Diller affixes the sensitive insect to a sample holder.
36:28In a special apparatus, he steams an ultra-thin film of platinum onto it to create a conductive
36:35surface.
36:36The metal interacts with the electron beam.
36:44The real innovation is the sample holder, which can be moved in three planes, thus allowing
36:51the specimen to be viewed from many different perspectives.
36:55Hitherto there had been only microscopic photos.
36:59Now special software that Stefan Diller has spent years developing allows thousands of pictures
37:05to be assembled to form a camera fly-past.
37:12These are the first videos worldwide from a scanning electron microscope.
37:20A butterfly, as it has never been seen before.
37:24Not every hare is in fact a hare.
37:27The insect's head is equipped with delicate sensors for taste and smell.
37:31Pictures like these make the mysterious structures easier to understand.
37:36What looks like a primeval beast is in reality a fragile glass-wing butterfly.
37:50The proboscis consists of two halves held together by something like a zip.
37:56In between is a tube through which the insect sucks up nectar.
38:06The delicate creature's foot is more reminiscent of a monster's claw.
38:12It also functions as a sensorial organ and is equipped with spiky taste hairs, allowing the
38:19butterfly to prick a plant and taste its sap.
38:22This way the insect can find out whether the plant is suitable for feeding to its young.
38:35Wings like soft cloth.
38:38They no longer appear transparent because of the platinum coating from the preparation.
38:47It's astonishing that the transparent parts of the wings also have ultra-fine hairs.
38:54We can't wait to see what other discoveries in the microcosm of life this new method will reveal.
39:11A vision not only for sci-fi writers.
39:15One day running could be perfected by a mixture of human and machine.
39:31Heinrich Popov is a gold medal winner of the Paralympics 100 meters.
39:37His record, 12.4 seconds.
39:50He can no longer remember what it's like to run on two legs.
39:54At nine he was diagnosed with cancer and doctors had to amputate his leg above the knee.
40:02His biggest worry was not being able to play football, but he fought and fought and achieved much more.
40:21World champion long jumper, super sprinter, 24 Paralympic medals, a high-tech prosthetic leg changed his life forever.
40:36World champion
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41:05does the secret of his success really line his artificial leg the sprinter
41:12with the spring who generates his performance and takeoff power with the
41:16aid of a technical precision instrument our high-speed camera and emotion
41:22analysis should tell us more the thigh muscle of the good leg is extremely
41:30strong a real power pack the challenge when running is that the control of the
41:36prosthetic limb is purely mechanical because it contains no nerves a long
41:42practiced balance act
41:47he put his at the prosthetic limb has no motor it can only be moved passively the
41:53acceleration the power of high speeds comes from the strong thigh muscles of
41:57his good leg the motion analysis reveals the absolute harmony in the running
42:05pattern
42:08this I'm a bank both licks and go equally fast there has to be a harmonic
42:13movement to develop performance I always compare it to a rowing eight what if the
42:18left side rose faster than the right they go round in circles it's the same with me
42:23a hundred meter sprint goes straight on also gets the biggest challenge for a
42:28handicapped sprinter is the start this can mean the difference between victory and
42:34defeat
42:38the first step out of the blocks is with the prosthetic limb but it's very hard for
42:44pop off to push off with the prosthesis and build up speed he only really gets
42:50going after around 20 meters
42:55the power vectors show that pop off has to counterbalance his first few steps with
43:00his body the process that does not occur automatically because he can't feel his
43:06body via the prosthesis
43:14this much is certain copying nature is no easy matter
43:24one can ask whether he'd be quicker with two good legs and say quite clearly yes he won't he would
43:32have twice the muscle power he could reach higher speeds and he would run faster
43:37with two good legs and buy advice and say adventure calls
43:46with its crystal clear water the highest lake in Austria is the ideal place for a
43:53very special current of camera test cameraman rudolf diesel wants to test his own construction
43:59for an underwater camera housing the trick here is that the weight of the housing corresponds
44:05exactly to the amount of water displaced so that it is practically speaking suspended in the water
44:13in the water
44:20weissensee is an eldorado for cliff divers okay they're not the cliffs at acapulco but for beginners 18
44:28meters is quite a challenge
44:40it's asking a lot just for a camera test even from a height of only 10 meters a diver hits
44:47the water at around 50 kilometers an hour
45:00when he submerges he has to be able to withstand three and a half times his own body weight
45:08not only the first jump is a success the complex underwater housing of the camera has also passed the test
45:15and because it's so spectacular let's have a bit more diving super slow motion
45:34the strong drop in pressure causes the water at the areas of contact between skin and water to evaporate
45:42bubbles are formed as can clearly be seen at 1000 pictures a second
45:55the real adventure however awaits us in the Gulf of Mexico we are looking for phantom hunters of the deep
46:04sailfish
46:10the footage shot in real time is already a rarity
46:14our aim is to be the first to film these extremely quick predators with a high-speed camera
46:29sailfish move twice as fast as killer whales shooting through the water at up to 100
46:35110 kilometers an hour like lightning they pounce with their saber like bills far too fast for the human eye
46:54some specimens cover more than 320,000 kilometers during their lifespan theoretically eight times around the world
47:08Jens krauser brings the high-speed camera on board the biologist is researching the hunting technique of sailfish and the
47:17behavior of the schools
47:23Jens knows he'll find the fish about 90 kilometers off the coast
47:31the trick is to find the shoals of fish being kept at bay by sailfish and that will thus stay
47:38in one place for a while
47:47we keep a lookout for frigate birds on the horizon from the air they hunt schools of sardines which also
47:54targeted by sailfish
48:00our scouts check if the phantoms are anywhere to be seen only then will the cameraman dive
48:10there aren't many experts that can master this high-speed technology underwater the specially made housing is sought after worldwide
48:22to protect themselves against the sailfish the sardines have formed a so-called bait ball a shoal that moves like
48:31a single organism
48:36the first impressions at 1000 pictures a second are in the can but in order to get detailed footage of
48:44the sophisticated hunting technique we need to get closer
48:47in view of the razor-sharp bills being flashed about an exercise not for the faint-hearted
49:02high-speed cameras are important because many interactions between hunter and prey happen so quickly they can't be captured by
49:10a standard camera
49:12it was a fantastic moment when we saw the sailfish attack with this bill because we realized it had various
49:19different attacking techniques
49:27so as to investigate the hunting technique more precisely the scientists have brought along a model of a sailfish head
49:35they want to see how the school reacts in super slow motion their theory is that the sardines see the
49:43sailfish but don't spot its weapon the long bill in time
49:55when it attacks the sailfish pushes his bill into the school and delivers a blow so quick it's faster than
50:02the reaction time of the fish
50:08many photographers are apparently so impressed by the sight of these magnificent hunters that they forget to press the shutter
50:16thankfully our crew keep their wits about them
50:28we also wanted to have a closer look at the acrobatic hunting technique of the arowana
50:34for six weeks we let the shy dragon fish get used to our lights and camera
50:39until we finally got the unique footage we were looking for
50:47the young arowana still have some practicing to do before they can hunt as skillfully
50:53adult arowana can grow up to three meters in length
50:57and the best jumpers can catch insects three meters above the surface
51:12these fish have been surprising their prey for over 60 million years
51:23the ancient creatures have a bony tongue which gives them a better grip
51:27hard to believe that these water dragons also hatch their young in these voracious mouths
51:48archer fish are real marksmen their trick when hunting is to use a kind of water pistol
51:57these submarine snipers can hit the target from up to four meters away
52:02whilst taking the light refraction on the surface of the water into account
52:10thanks to the high speed camera scientists can now reveal the secret of how these little gunslingers
52:16manage to generate such a strong and deadly jet
52:20they squirt out water first slowly then with increasing speed
52:26with the acceleration the last drops actually overtake the first
52:32forming an especially big drop at the front which then hits the prey with full force
52:46of the sea and the sea.
52:54For scientists, high speed footage is a gateway to knowledge
52:59with the enjoyable side effect that you just can't get enough of it.
53:04Thank you very much.