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Explore the remarkable discoveries of a hidden Maya city deep in the jungle and learn how a single pen reshaped the course of human history. Join us as we delve into the connections between ancient civilizations and groundbreaking inventions that continue to influence our world today.
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00:00You are lost deep within the jungle in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.
00:05There are strange noises all around you, and to make it worse, the sun is setting.
00:11Soon, you'll be alone in the middle of an unknown rainforest.
00:15Guess it was a pretty bad idea to come looking for El Dorado on your own, wasn't it?
00:20You keep walking as fast as you can, when suddenly, wait!
00:23What's this you're seeing?
00:25It looks like large stairways made out of stone.
00:28This definitely doesn't look natural, so you take a picture.
00:33Maybe you didn't strike gold, but you might have just found something relevant.
00:39Congratulations! You found Occamtoon, a long-lost Mayan city, hidden 37 miles into the jungle.
00:46The name literally translates to Stone Column.
00:50Stone was probably in at the time, so these guys used a lot of it to build their pyramids, houses,
00:56and even ball courts.
00:58If you ever thought that Europeans invented ballgames, think twice.
01:02Mayans love to play ballgames for recreational purposes.
01:07Occamtoon is part of a series of other long-lost Mayan cities that are being discovered with the help of
01:13new technology nowadays.
01:15We'll talk more about the other ones in a jiffy.
01:17Perhaps the biggest surprise of this one is that it was surrounded by wetlands, which is why the city was
01:24built on high ground.
01:25The city was monumental, covering an area of over 120 acres.
01:32That would be as big as 90 football fields right next to each other.
01:36Scientists have found proof that Occamtoon had pyramids of up to 49 feet high,
01:42and that it was likely an important social hub between 250 and 1,000 CE.
01:49This is definitely a game-changer.
01:52But lost Mayan cities began to be unearthed in the 19th century.
01:56Modern technologies, such as LiDAR imaging, help archaeologists see through dense canopies of the forests.
02:03This means that people don't really have to risk getting lost in the tropical jungle like you did at the
02:08beginning of this video.
02:10LiDAR works sort of like an X-ray.
02:12It sends out laser beams that can detect any signs of ruins or ancient constructions.
02:19According to space archaeologist Sarah Parczyk,
02:22satellite imagery has been a key player in discovering ancient cities in South America, Egypt, and other places.
02:29Sarah herself spends most of her days scouring images for any signs of where there could have been cities long
02:36ago.
02:37She says that more often than not, what happens is that ruins are covered by vegetation, soil, or sand,
02:43which makes them super tricky to find.
02:46But thanks to these awesome tools, scientists also made the huge discovery of ancient Mayan causeways,
02:52which spread throughout old Mayan territories.
02:56I mean, take a look at these roadways.
02:59You'd expect to see ruins like this in places such as Portugal, England, or the United States.
03:05I'm talking about 130 feet wide roads painted white to help travelers journey through the nighttime.
03:12Scientists recently unearthed a 110-mile network of roads such as these.
03:17These roadways, which sometimes ran over the swampy ground and were even elevated at times,
03:23are being called the world's first superhighways.
03:26Even if there is no registry of animal-powered vehicles,
03:29it's believed that the Maya used them to travel around a network of possible 964 settlements.
03:36They were built like a huge spiderweb.
03:39And from what archaeologists have gathered,
03:41this huge system of roads worked to connect a big system of economic and social interactions between Mayan cities.
03:49This completely debunks the traditional idea that the Mayan pre-classic period,
03:54which dates back to 2000 BCE, was made of small, tribal settlements.
03:59Imagine the manpower and engineering ability you need to muster to build something close to these white highways.
04:05Scientists believe that these causeways were built pretty much the same way as the Mayans built their pyramids,
04:12with a mixture of mud and quarry stone.
04:15Oh, and using several layers of limestone to make them white.
04:20That's pretty cool, right?
04:21But let's take a few steps back for a moment to get some context.
04:26The Mayans were one of the biggest pre-Columbian civilizations living in the Americas.
04:30Until now, experts believed that at its apex, the Mayan civilization consisted of over 40 cities,
04:38with a population of millions of people.
04:40That's a lot of folks.
04:42Their civilization spanned Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, Guatemala, and Belize.
04:47And they survived mainly on agriculture.
04:50The thing is, the Yucatan Peninsula was an extremely difficult place to grow crops.
04:55So the Mayans had to develop a complex irrigation system in most of their cities.
05:01They built a series of ceremonial buildings, pyramids, and plazas.
05:05The Mayans might have been keen pyramid builders, but they also developed an advanced astronomical system.
05:12With whatever ancient technology they had, they were able to predict the exact location of planets,
05:17such as Venus and Mars, as well as the exact dates of eclipses.
05:23If you've ever seen examples of ancient Mayan cities, this is Tikal.
05:28Located at the heart of the Guatemalan jungle, Tikal is believed to have been the capital of the ancient Mayan
05:33conquest state.
05:35At its height, it was comparable in importance to cities such as London or New York in today's world.
05:40It's composed of a series of complex monuments.
05:43The North Acropolis is one of Tikal's most ancient complexes of monuments.
05:49Built solely by human hands around 350 BCE, it served as the resting place of kings and chiefs.
05:57Its monuments are up to 200 feet high.
06:00Back in the day, the Steppe Pyramid temples were painted a beautiful red.
06:05Mayans loved that color.
06:07Today, of course, you'll only see the limestone.
06:11Then, there's Chichen Itza.
06:13It's got one of the best preserved pyramids on Earth to date.
06:18Located in Mexico's Yucatan state, this Mayan city is well over 1,500 years old.
06:25At its peak, it was home to 35,000 people.
06:28The site covers four square miles of land.
06:31The highlight is El Castillo, a tremendous steppe-like temple standing 80 feet above ground.
06:39Its most peculiar feature is that it has 91 steps up each of its four sides, including the upper platform,
06:46which makes for 365 steps, the same number of days as the solar year.
06:54You can see that these folks were a pretty big deal, huh?
06:58That's why nobody can really understand what happened to them.
07:02There's a big lack of evidence on the decline of this almighty empire.
07:06What could have been the cause of their demise?
07:09Was it a drought?
07:10New research in 2017 did bring some new discoveries into the mix.
07:16Using data from a site at Ceibal, located at southwest of Tikal, scientists analyzed radiocarbon data from ceramics and archaeological
07:26excavations to extract new information about the unexpected demise of this great civilization.
07:33The information shows that instead of a sudden collapse, the Mayans most likely fell in waves of social instability and
07:40political crises.
07:41These events are believed to have deteriorated Mayan city centers and began causing the dispersion of the Mayan population.
07:50It's hard to pinpoint the exact causes, though.
07:54But hey, recent discoveries are shedding a big light on humanity's past.
07:58Not only about the Mayan Empire, but about other long-lost civilizations of South America.
08:04A major recent discovery in Brazil was done using satellite imaging technology and is also shocking scientists.
08:12Some images from near the Xingu River, also in the Amazon, suggest that cities of millions of people might have
08:19existed inside the jungle, way before our modern civilization ever existed.
08:25I mean, if this doesn't shock you, I don't know what will.
08:30Satellite imagery also detected a network of trenches, dating back to 200 and 1,200 CE, in the Bolivian Amazon
08:39forest.
08:40These proofs suggest settlements that could have supported around 60,000 people right in the middle of the Amazon forest.
08:47When researchers from the University of Flora went on ground to check the satellite information, they were shocked to find
08:54several mounds that were accompanied by ditches and geoglyphs.
08:58Archaeologists also found remnants of carefully designed walls centered around plazas, much like the type of construction done by the
09:05ancient Mayans.
09:09Not so long ago, in the 1950s, the average literacy rate in the world was 35%, meaning that in a
09:18group of 10, 6 people didn't know how to read and write.
09:22However, 50 years later, the literacy rate went to 90%, leaving only one person in a group of 10 without
09:30reading and writing skills.
09:33The key to this lightning speed growth can be found basically in every house.
09:38Nope, it's not the internet.
09:39The internet, on the contrary, can reportedly make us dumber in no time.
09:44The key to worldwide literacy is this Bic pen you've definitely held in your hands at least once in your
09:50life.
09:52Fun fact, this trusty pen has been outselling iconic items like the Rubik's Cube and even the iPhone since the
09:581950s.
10:00Each second, 57 Bic pens are sold, while it's 590 iPhones a minute, meaning it's just around 10 devices a
10:09second.
10:09Every single day, Bic sells 14 million of their nifty pens.
10:14Despite its popularity, it's often overlooked.
10:17It hasn't become a generic term like Xerox or Kleenex.
10:21When you flick a Bic, you're actually using a lighter, not just another writing utensil.
10:27Back in the day, people used feathers and ink to write.
10:30Fountain pens were a game-changer, but they were pricey and prone to leaking.
10:34Thanks to American inventor John Loud, the first ballpoint pen was born in 1888.
10:42However, it wasn't until Hungarian creator Laszlo Biro stepped in with oil-based ink that the ballpoint pen we know
10:50and love today really took off.
10:52He came up with a genius design that would smoothly pull ink onto the ball without any fancy moving parts.
10:59That pen could consistently give you a nice, clean line on paper.
11:04But his pens were crazy expensive, like $190 in today's money kind of expensive.
11:10No wonder they weren't flying off the shelves.
11:13See, back then, only about a third of people could even read and write, so pens were more of a
11:18luxury item than a necessity.
11:20And even though Biro had a great design, he couldn't crack the mass market.
11:25French businessman Marcel Bic saw the potential in Biro's pen and bought the rights, leading to the birth of the
11:32iconic Bic Crystal in 1950.
11:35With precision steel balls and affordable pricing, the Bic Crystal became a must-have for writers everywhere.
11:42But even so, despite Bic Pen's defeating illiteracy and stuff, there's another simple invention that may have been even more
11:50significant.
11:51Surprisingly, it's the shipping container.
11:54You may not have heard of Malcolm McLean, but this guy invented a standardized steel container that could be stacked
12:00on ships, trains, and trucks.
12:04In 1937, McLean had this genius idea, but it took until 1966 for international container shipping to really take off.
12:13There were many crucial events, and the need for quick and efficient transportation of supplies skyrocketed.
12:19By the end of the 1960s, McLean had made $160 million from his container empire.
12:26This invention didn't just save money, it saved time and labor, too.
12:31Before containers, everything had to be loaded and unloaded by hand.
12:36Now, thanks to McLean's invention, it's all seamless and automated.
12:41According to specialists, the impact of containers on our lives is huge.
12:46They made the world smaller and economies bigger.
12:49Thanks to them, you pay less for everyday products.
12:52Let's say you're in the U.S. and you need something imported from Italy.
12:56Air shipping is still ridiculously expensive, so we don't even take it into consideration.
13:02Now, imagine a ship can only transport five containers, each of them having 20 products inside.
13:08In total, 100 products.
13:11Let's say such shipping would cost $100, which would add at least $1 to the final price of your product,
13:19depending on how greedy the distributors are.
13:21But if you can stack the containers, you can add a second and even a third row of them, which
13:27will reduce the price.
13:29You still pay for the ship.
13:30It's the same $100, but you transport 200 or even 300 products if you can stack.
13:37Now, this is an imaginary and a bit far-fetched example, but you get the drift.
13:43Why are the containers so significant?
13:45Well, those famous Bic pens that defeated illiteracy were supposed to be delivered all over the world somehow, weren't they?
13:52And it's not only about the pens.
13:54Since we live in the era of globalization, we heavily rely on fast and affordable transportation for food, clothing, and
14:02even sponges.
14:05Meet Aaron Krauss, the genius behind the smiley-faced wonder that is Scrub Daddy, the kitchen sponge that went viral
14:12on TikTok.
14:13Aaron went from polishing cars with a fancy buffing pad to creating a revolutionary cleaning sponge.
14:20His parents, both doctors, weren't too thrilled when he ditched the idea of a car washing business to pursue his
14:26sponge dreams.
14:28So, one day, Aaron was cleaning cars, and he ended up damaging the outside.
14:33But instead of crying over spilled milk, he created a line of buffing and polishing pads.
14:393M thought it was so cool that they bought his company in August 2008.
14:43But they didn't want the sponges Aaron had made, so those were just collecting dust in his factory.
14:50Five years later, Aaron was scrubbing his dishes with those leftover sponges.
14:55Suddenly, a lightbulb went off in his head.
14:58He had a million-dollar idea in his hands.
15:01And just like that, Scrub Daddy Inc. was born in 2012, with some grassroots marketing.
15:08Then, on an episode of Shark Tank in October 2012, not everyone believed in his idea.
15:14But Lori Greiner swooped in and made a deal with Aaron for a 20% stake in his company for
15:20$200,000.
15:21The next day, they sold a whopping 42,000 sponges in under 7 minutes on QVC.
15:28By the way, this beats Bic records of 57 pens per second.
15:33That day, Scrub Daddies were sold at a speed of 100 sponges a second.
15:39Aaron definitely sells heaps of sponges, but in terms of quantity, it's hard to compete with humble batteries.
15:45Just in the U.S. alone, people buy around 3 billion of them each year.
15:51By the way, they've been around for longer than you may think.
15:55The very first example of a battery, if you let me say so, was found somewhere around Mesopotamia, and scientists
16:02call it the Baghdad Battery.
16:04It was a terracotta pot, about 6 inches tall, with a 1.5-inch opening.
16:10Inside, there was a copper cylinder holding an iron rod, all snug as a bug in a rug.
16:15The top of the rod was separated from the copper with some bitumen and stoppers, so no accidental mixing could
16:22happen there.
16:23No one knows exactly what it was for, but there are numerous ideas about its purpose.
16:28From electroplating, meaning putting a layer of one metal like gold onto the surface of another, to storing sacred manuscripts,
16:36or even pickling veggies.
16:38But the real deal started in 1749, when the legendary Benjamin Franklin started experimenting with electricity and called his set
16:46of capacitors a battery, because they worked together like a military unit.
16:52Half a century later, in 1800, Italian physicist Alessandro Volta came up with the first electrochemical battery known as the
17:00Voltaic Pile.
17:02This stack of copper and zinc plates would produce a steady current, although Volta thought it was an endless source
17:09of energy.
17:10Spoiler alert, it wasn't.
17:12Those batteries couldn't be used to power anything, but thanks to them, we got on the road to portable power.
17:18However, Alessandro Volta's battery was like the hot new gadget that totally revolutionized the way scientists worked with electricity.
17:26By the mid-1800s, the first rechargeable batteries were born, and a dry cell with liquid electrolyte was invented to
17:34make batteries more practical.
17:36Nowadays, we've got rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, powering everything from players and toys to smartwatches.
17:43So, why are they some of the most successful inventions of all time?
17:48Well, they're the reason we have electric motors in e-vehicles and machines.
17:53Thanks to batteries, we have lighting all around us.
17:56And can you imagine not having battery storage for our telecommunication devices?
18:01It would be a whole different world.
18:03And can you imagine if we're out of the amount of equipment that we need to know if we can
18:04help us from getting training anisc Trojanала?
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