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00:29Transcription by CastingWords
00:35It's funny, isn't it, how the people who do something that changes the world
00:40all have to be dead before they get a special place in history.
00:47All for doing things like this.
01:28Transcription by CastingWords
01:34Well, just this once, meet somebody who changed the world and is still alive.
01:39In this case, somebody who would have made Sherlock Holmes green with envy.
01:44He does the thing that changes history in 1984.
01:51Here he is.
01:53Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys of Leicester University in England.
01:57Take a good look at him.
02:01Tell you what, take a really close look.
02:05Wait a minute, I've got a better idea.
02:08How about this?
02:10This couldn't be anybody else but Alec Jeffreys.
02:13Well, maybe among 30 billion people, if there were 30 billion people, there might be another
02:19one like this.
02:21Because this is what Alec Jeffreys comes up with in 1984.
02:25The DNA profile.
02:27This one's his pattern.
02:30And you can produce it from any tiny bit of a human being.
02:33Left behind, say, at the scene of a crime.
02:38That's why this thing changes life for detectives.
02:41And maybe paternity suit lawyers.
02:43And maybe dog tag manufacturers.
02:46Because this is the identifier to end all identifiers.
02:53These marks show the position of certain groups of molecules in Alec's DNA.
02:58You can see that in my DNA, molecule groups come in different places.
03:02Like all humans, except for identical twins, Alec Jeffreys and I are two quite separate individuals.
03:09And separate is the first thing you do when you're making a profile like this.
03:15OK, here's your DNA.
03:17Four particular molecules arranged in thousands of different groupings.
03:22One group repeats, but at different points in each person.
03:25Separate these out and identify their position with a radioactive tag like this.
03:30Then wash all the other ones away.
03:33The radioactive groups show up on photographic film like this.
03:38That separating out business is first done by this guy, Swedish chemist Arnie Tizelius,
03:44back in the 1930s.
03:51Tizelius takes proteins floating in a liquid and zaps them with electricity.
03:56The charge makes the proteins move away from it.
03:59The lighter the proteins, the farther they move.
04:01And you can see them grouped according to weight like this, with a kind of photography called Schlieren.
04:08Normally used for this.
04:14Schlieren photography is mostly used in aerodynamic research when you're looking at how air behaves,
04:19because it shows shockwaves as these dark lines.
04:22So you can design planes that go supersonic, like this one.
04:42Now, one of the hot shots in this kind of work is a Hungarian called Theodor von Karman,
04:48who ends up in the US, where he kind of gets the jet propulsion lab off the ground,
04:52and then does much to get other things off the ground.
04:56Things like this.
04:58Ignition.
05:00Lift off.
05:12Von Karman's real obsession is with what happens to air at exciting moments like that.
05:18Or exciting moments like this.
05:25One of the things that turns von Karman on are these wingtip trails you see happening on a damp day.
05:32Vortices, they're called.
05:33Watch how they happen.
05:35When an airflow streams over any surface, it breaks off the back of the surface.
05:40It's called shedding in regular waves that kind of swirl around.
05:46Interesting but academic, right?
05:47Not if you're on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State on November 7th, 1940,
05:53when the bridge starts shedding vortices like this.
05:58The regular swirl of the vortices sets up sympathetic vibrations in the bridge,
06:03and this happens.
06:10And here's an action replay.
06:15So much for interesting but academic matters.
06:20And that's why there are holes in the sides of suspension bridges today,
06:24to stop them shedding vortices.
06:26Or you.
06:28Turns von Karman into a real science big shot.
06:31Speaking of which...
06:38Never tried one of these virtual reality electronic games?
06:41I never hit anything.
06:47But take a look at this game.
06:51The name of the game is to fire but miss your own propeller.
06:58Not easy.
06:59Try again.
07:02In 1915, this is no game.
07:04When you're shooting at the enemy,
07:06shredded propeller is not what you want.
07:17Back in World War I,
07:18that's one of the problems von Karman fails to solve.
07:22But a pal of his called Anthony Fokker succeeds.
07:25At the time, he's making the hottest planes around for the Germans.
07:34In 1915,
07:35a French plane gets shot down over German territory,
07:38and on board they find this neat little trick.
07:40On the propeller blades,
07:41steel wedges to deflect any bullet
07:44that comes from the machine gun on board, like this.
07:46The ones that miss, of course,
07:47go through and hit the enemy plane.
07:50That's the theory.
07:52Fokker makes it work.
07:54Look.
07:58Fokker puts gearing between the machine gun and the propeller,
08:01so the gun will only fire bullets when the propeller's not there.
08:05So now, all you have to do is point to the plane and pull the trigger.
08:13The new gizmo makes lots of money for comic book publishers.
08:20Fokker's little trick creates one of the greatest comic book heroes of all time.
08:24A real one, though.
08:26A guy known as the Red Baron.
08:37Meet Manfred von Richthofen.
08:39Manfred is a rich German aristocrat and daredevil
08:41who becomes a World War I fighter ace
08:44in his red Fokker plane,
08:46drinks a lot of champagne,
08:48and wins too many medals to wear.
09:00For Manfred, war is just a great gentleman's game,
09:04which he's better at than anybody else.
09:14Now, up in the thick of it,
09:16aerial combat consists of careering around the place
09:19desperately dodging bullets
09:20and desperately wondering where you are.
09:23Mind you, getting lost would be especially embarrassing
09:26for Manfred von Richthofen.
09:28Tell you why, when we've had a quick catch-up.
09:31After this guy crashes.
09:37OK.
09:38Jeffries does the DNA profile
09:40after protein separation with Schlieren photography
09:43that shows vortices to plane makers and bridge builders.
09:46Antony Fokker solves the problem of shredded propeller,
09:49boosting the career of Manfred von Richthofen,
09:52who never gets lost,
09:54because geography runs in his family.
10:10See, Manfred's great-uncle is a great geologist
10:14who kind of puts geography on the map.
10:18To start with, like great-nephew Manfred,
10:21he's pals with royalty,
10:22so he gets what he wants,
10:24which is to spend, oh, about 12 years
10:26on abstruse missions
10:28with oodles of boodle to go and do, well,
10:31whatever he likes, geography-wise.
10:37This includes long tours of the Alps, here,
10:40and China and California.
10:43Then he gets back to his comfortable little university study
10:46and, don't you just know it,
10:48writes yet another one of those giant multi-volume works
10:51they all churn out.
10:53This one's about von Richthofen's new view of...
10:57the view.
10:58I mean, like this view.
11:00A valley, right?
11:03OK.
11:04Here's how you break down the view.
11:06Mountains, trees and grass, and lake.
11:09Now concentrate on one bit of the sea.
11:13Tree.
11:14Foliage.
11:15Trunk.
11:16Roots.
11:18Grass.
11:19Stems.
11:20Soil.
11:21OK, that breakdown trick
11:23von Richthofen calls chorography.
11:26Hard to believe nobody ever thought of this before,
11:28don't you think?
11:29Anyway, then von Richthofen takes
11:31the other stuff you see in the view,
11:33human beings and their effect.
11:35Here's the valley again.
11:38And here's the people effect.
11:40Buildings, roads, garbage, traffic, cows, power lines,
11:47land that's been cleared.
11:48So all this is what humans have done to the place.
11:52And Richthofen calls the people effect thing chorology.
11:59Chorology and chorography.
12:01Ferdinand von Richthofen's contribution
12:03to the sum of human knowledge.
12:04And you heard it first here.
12:05Oh, and you know what I said about it being strange?
12:08Nobody else has the idea before he does?
12:11Well, they do.
12:14Ferdinand snitches the idea
12:15from another geographer called Ritter.
12:17And don't panic,
12:19that's all I'm going to say about him.
12:25Except Ritter does that people thing in reverse.
12:29Places affect people,
12:30making people different
12:31from one place to another.
12:35Or from one time to another.
12:38And, of course,
12:39Ritter's snitched this idea too.
12:40Not from another geographer,
12:42you'll be happy to know.
12:43Bit more romantic than that.
12:45Actually, the guy in question
12:46kind of invents romanticism.
12:49Chorologically speaking,
12:50I suppose it might have been
12:51because the place he was in at the time
12:52was a bit romantic.
13:09Now, romanticism, you'll recall,
13:12is all that back-to-nature-personal-feelings stuff.
13:14And it all kicks off here in 1776
13:17in Weimar, Germany,
13:19with a nice guy named Herder,
13:21who the people here in Weimar
13:23really like.
13:25But then he is a nice guy.
13:26And, like all nice guys,
13:28finishes last.
13:29I mean, have you ever heard of him?
13:31Goethe, Wordsworth,
13:32Schubert, Keats.
13:34Yes.
13:35Herder?
13:37That's because all those other famous people
13:39became famous
13:40by snitching Herder's new romantic concept
13:43known as, wait for this,
13:45the balance of forces.
13:51Now, this balancing experience thing happens,
13:55says Herder,
13:57because of the way your physical senses work.
14:00Artistic experiences,
14:02says Herder,
14:04are really physical experiences.
14:14Herder is deeply into touchy-feely flower power,
14:18the late 18th century equivalent of psychobabble,
14:21and I suppose in regard to him and his ideas,
14:24the word that floats to mind is
14:26self-indulgent.
14:33Herder's really big thing
14:35is his new view of history.
14:37To understand the art of the past,
14:39you have to bury yourself in it.
14:41Funny, that word bury.
14:43The guy that Herder snitches the idea from
14:45in the first place
14:46comes up with a concept
14:48thanks to a new craze
14:49sweeping Europe at the time
14:51for digging things up.
15:01In the middle of the 18th century,
15:03an Italian prince is noodling away
15:05down some holes on his property
15:07and discovers the long-lost ancient Roman city of Pompeii,
15:11just outside Naples,
15:13buried for centuries under a tonne of lava
15:15spewed all over it
15:16by the local volcano,
15:18Vesuvius.
15:22Around 1762,
15:23Johann Winckelmann,
15:24the fellow from whom Herder steals his ideas,
15:27visits the new excavations of the ancient city
15:29that everybody down here is raving about,
15:31tells all his pals all over Europe,
15:33and then everybody else starts raving about it.
15:36And guess what?
15:38Yippee, just what we wanted.
15:40Mass tourism is invented.
15:44The thing about Winckelmann is, though,
15:46he's the first person to try and see ancient ruins
15:48the way they were when people lived in them,
15:50like, you know,
15:51out here in the streets doing a bit of shopping,
15:53just like us.
15:55Living in a small country town
15:57with public buildings and markets and squares,
16:00just like we do.
16:02So,
16:04here they are,
16:05living lives like ours,
16:07doing dinner parties,
16:08having elections,
16:09checking on the entertainment guide for What's On,
16:11and limping out in the evening to the theatre for a show.
16:21Winckelmann reckons
16:22the Greeks and Romans are, culturally speaking,
16:25boffo,
16:26the purest forms of theatre,
16:28the best architecture,
16:29the greatest art,
16:31and all this
16:32with a posh lifestyle to match.
16:35Not bad,
16:36this little Roman ruin,
16:37is it?
16:37I mean,
16:38you could imagine
16:39a small, elegant cocktail party here
16:422,000 years ago,
16:43not all that different from something
16:45you might want to go to yourself.
16:50Winckelmann writes all this up,
16:52so Herder can snitch the best bits,
16:54in a thing about Greek and Roman art history.
16:57Well,
16:58he really invents art history.
17:01And,
17:02bingo,
17:02there's the new coffee table craze,
17:04a big book about art.
17:07And everybody goes crazy about the antique
17:10and the classical.
17:19Meanwhile, all this classical stuff takes the world of the East Beat by the Short and Curlies.
17:24In between the time when Winckelmann writes and Herder rewrites,
17:28the discovery of Pompeii kicks off a kind of intermediate style called neoclassical,
17:33imitation Greek and Roman decor for your stately home in England, for instance,
17:38which turns out to be a great career opportunity for the first woman ever in the history of painting
17:43to make it through the glass ceiling.
17:45Well,
17:46she paints them.
17:54In 1766,
17:56Angelica Kaufmann is here in London,
17:58painting anybody who is anybody,
18:01including a guy she knew earlier in Italy,
18:03a pile of Winckelmann's,
18:05and by this time they're acting like old friends.
18:08Well,
18:08he would
18:09act.
18:10He's an actor.
18:11Well,
18:12he's the guy who kind of invents what you and I would call acting.
18:20Meet David Garrick.
18:25He's the actor who becomes the manager of the Drury Lane Theatre in London in 1747
18:30and replaces the boring classical backdrops they've used till then with modern, realistic stuff.
18:39He brings in a scene change curtain you can drop.
18:45And while the play goes on,
18:47behind the curtain they change the scene for the next act.
18:53He also stops members of the audience from sitting up on the stage chatting to the actors.
19:00And most of all,
19:02he turns acting from the old overdone posing style
19:06to the modern realism we're used to today,
19:09moving around naturally with natural gestures.
19:14This goes over very big at the box office
19:16and is probably why Garrick has his best idea.
19:23See,
19:23here you are with all this new range of expression and stuff,
19:26very thespian,
19:28but not much good if nobody can see what you're doing,
19:31because all they've got to light you with
19:33is a chandelier
19:34and a few candles.
19:36So Garrick improves the lighting
19:38with reflectors behind the candles.
19:41A few years later,
19:43Drury Lane Theatre is the first to try a new kind of lighting.
19:48This,
19:50invented by a Swiss called Argonne in 1874.
19:55So simple,
19:56you wonder why not before.
19:58How does it work?
20:00Let me illuminate you.
20:06Here's the place where you put the oil.
20:09Here's where the oil goes into the lamp.
20:12Here's the cotton wick
20:13and next to it,
20:15the wick moving mechanism.
20:17And now for the amazing bits.
20:20Amazement number one,
20:21the slits that let air in
20:23and up around the burning wick
20:24so you can get a brighter flame.
20:26Now for amazement number two,
20:29the glass chimney.
20:31So not only do you get a brighter flame,
20:33but you also get it flicker-free.
20:36Nobody has ever seen a brighter flame.
20:39Comforting words
20:40if you're feeling under the weather.
20:48Argonne's lamp is great news for sailors
20:50when it goes into lighthouses.
20:53Well, some sailors.
20:54I'll tell you why
20:55after a quick catch-up.
20:58OK, remember Ferdinand von Richthofen's idea
21:01that people are affected by their environment?
21:04Copied from Herder's idea
21:05that people are affected by their times?
21:07Copied from Winkelmann's art history stuff
21:10he develops in Italy,
21:12where Angelica Kaufmann meets actor David Garrick,
21:15whose theatre uses argon lamps
21:16that go into lighthouses
21:17and cause problems like this.
21:24See, lighthouses make the ocean safer,
21:27so a lot more ships.
21:29So extra hassle for the people
21:31who live here in Hispaniola.
21:32Today, the Dominican Republic,
21:34back in the 18th century,
21:36the stopping-off point for ships
21:38headed for Spain,
21:39loaded with South American gold and silver,
21:41some of which get spent
21:43building Hispaniola's capital city.
21:54Now, you'd think that having tons of gold and silver
21:56would be nothing but good news
21:58for the Spaniards, right?
22:00Wrong.
22:01As any economist will tell you,
22:03there's such a thing as having too much money.
22:06Like, it causes inflation.
22:08One of the other effects it has
22:10is to attract the kind of person
22:12whose standard phrase is
22:13Have I got a deal for you?
22:16Which is what happens here.
22:18Talk about making waves.
22:25The problem back then is the same today.
22:28Smugglers selling contraband
22:29and being chased by the Coast Guard people.
22:34And the reason this is all happening
22:36this way today
22:37is because of all that gold and silver
22:39going home to Spain back in history.
22:41Because those people in Hispaniola
22:43didn't like the way
22:45French and English smugglers
22:46were stopping their treasure ships
22:48and offering them all kinds of cheap contraband
22:50and getting paid with the gold
22:52that should have been going back to Spain.
22:54So the Coast Guard got invented
22:56and all this started happening.
23:09Now, one day back in the 18th century
23:12a Spanish gold ship sails off
23:14after they've bought goodies
23:15from some smugglers
23:16in this case
23:17off an English smuggler
23:19about to be clobbered
23:20by the new Coast Guard
23:22in this case
23:23the guys on the right.
23:36The Coast Guard eventually board the English ship
23:39there's a big fight
23:40and the English captain
23:42a guy called Jenkins
23:44gets his ear cut off.
23:47The English pick it up off the deck
23:49take it home in a box
23:50and wave it about in Parliament
23:52and stir everybody up
23:53which is why the Anglo-Spanish War
23:55that follows in 1739
23:57is called
23:58the War of Jenkins' Ear.
24:01Good, eh?
24:03Now, during that war
24:05an English naval captain called Anson
24:07gets the job of taking six ships
24:09and over a thousand men
24:10to attack the Spaniards in the Pacific
24:12which he does
24:13in spades.
24:19Anson's crew get home
24:21with enough captured Spanish treasure
24:23to keep them for life
24:24because there's so pitifully
24:26few of the survivors
24:27left alive
24:27to tell the terrible tale.
24:31Of the thousand odd men
24:33Anson starts out with
24:35he gets home
24:36with 145
24:37and not because of battles
24:39with the Spaniards, no
24:40because of a dreaded mystery disease
24:42nobody understands.
24:45Horrible swellings
24:46followed by terminal diarrhoea
24:48and their new croak.
24:50Apparently something to do
24:51with the fact that the British
24:52are not yet known as Limeys.
25:02I bet you've guessed it.
25:04The disease Anson's sailors die of
25:06is scurvy
25:07and the cure is lime juice.
25:09Lime juice, Limeys.
25:11Thanks to a young Navy doctor
25:12who learns his trade
25:14from a certain Professor Alexander Munro
25:16who is, as far as we know,
25:19still here where they left him.
25:21I make that point
25:22because Munro is the inspiration
25:24for an outbreak of grave robbing
25:26at the time.
25:27See, Munro teaches dissection
25:29and his daily classes
25:31need a daily corpse
25:32which his students get
25:34from the nearest plentiful supply.
25:36Any graveyard.
25:41Anyway, Munro has studied
25:43all over Europe
25:44and has done enough cutting up
25:46to become top man
25:47in what's under your skin.
25:49And in 1726
25:51he puts it all together
25:52in Anatomy of the Human Bones.
25:56The last word.
25:58Funny thing,
25:59in a book about skeletons,
26:01no skeletons.
26:04Turns out,
26:05Munro's ex-teacher,
26:07a guy from London
26:08called William Chesildon,
26:09is bringing out
26:10his own book on bones
26:11with pictures.
26:14So what?
26:16Well, it could be
26:17because Chesildon's
26:18a Queen's physician,
26:19he's a friend of Isaac Newton,
26:21he's a big cheese
26:22in medical circles
26:23and he knows everybody
26:24who's anybody
26:25and he got Munro
26:26into the Royal Society.
26:27But I'm guessing.
26:29Anyway, Chesildon's book.
26:30Here we go.
26:34No question
26:35what this book's about
26:36and are these pictures accurate?
26:42All thanks to a crafty
26:44visual gizmo
26:45that earlier on
26:46has changed only
26:47the entire universe.
26:49In Austria,
26:50in a tent.
26:59OK,
26:59here's the tent
27:01inside which
27:02here's the man
27:04with the gizmo,
27:05Johann Kepler,
27:06in 1600
27:07using a camera obscura.
27:09A mirror outside the tent
27:11reflects a beam of light
27:12in through a pinhole
27:13to show a detailed image
27:15which Kepler
27:15is tracing out.
27:17It's the image
27:17of the partial solar eclipse
27:19happening outside
27:20happening outside
27:20and Kepler's doing this
27:22because he's an astronomer.
27:28Being a 17th century astronomer
27:31means being heavily into
27:32astrological mumbo-jumbo.
27:34So take a sneaky look
27:36at what friend Kepler
27:37is up to
27:38in the privacy
27:39of his own home.
27:41See,
27:41Kepler's one of those
27:42cosmic harmony weirdos
27:44in the search
27:45for which
27:45what does he come across
27:47but some ancient
27:48Greek bits of geometry
27:49that are supposed
27:50to have magic powers.
27:52Here they are
27:53called
27:54the five perfect solids.
27:56Now,
27:57there's something
27:58deeply meaningful
27:58about these things
27:59that really turns Kepler on.
28:01So if you're ready
28:02for a truly cosmic revelation,
28:04here goes.
28:06First,
28:07you nest the shapes
28:08inside each other.
28:09Then,
28:10you draw circles
28:11around each shape.
28:12So you get
28:13five circles.
28:14Big deal.
28:16Except,
28:16astronomy types
28:17like Kepler
28:18think there are only
28:19five planets
28:19out there in space.
28:21Get it?
28:21This is clearly
28:23God's cosmic design
28:24we're dealing with here.
28:25Except,
28:26Kepler finds a bit
28:27of a glitch
28:28when he checks out
28:29the astronomical data.
28:31The planetary orbits
28:32aren't in fact circles.
28:33They really look more
28:35like this.
28:36But why?
28:37Kepler crunches
28:38the numbers
28:39and realizes
28:40that the sun's
28:41attracting the planet
28:42when they're close.
28:43So their orbits
28:44are really elliptical,
28:45not circular.
28:47You think he's going
28:48to call the attraction
28:48gravity?
28:49Nope.
28:50Holy Spirit Force.
28:52But whatever it's called,
28:53Kepler's discovery
28:54is one more proof
28:55that the Earth,
28:57Terra,
28:58is not the center
28:59of the universe
28:59but just a planet
29:00around the sun
29:01like all the others.
29:03This amazing breakthrough
29:04is so much of a shock
29:06it affects even
29:07the scientifically illiterate,
29:09I mean people like poets,
29:10whom I will get to
29:11after a quick check
29:13on where the story
29:14has taken us so far.
29:18You recall
29:19the Caribbean coast guards
29:20that start the war
29:21of Jenkins' ear
29:22and how in that war
29:24Anson's sailors
29:25die of scurvy,
29:26the cure for which
29:27is lime juice
29:28discovered by the pupil
29:30of Alexander Munro
29:31who writes a skeleton book
29:33with no pictures
29:34because his old boss
29:35is doing one
29:35with pictures
29:36using the same
29:38camera obscura gizmo
29:39that Kepler
29:40draws eclipses with
29:42before he proves
29:43that the Earth
29:44is orbiting the sun,
29:45scientific news
29:46that blows away
29:47absolutely everything,
29:49everybody,
29:49everywhere,
29:50believes in.
29:51Because, well,
29:52look at it
29:52from their point of view.
29:53If the Earth
29:54isn't the centre
29:55of the universe anymore
29:56but the Church
29:57says it is
29:58but now it isn't
29:59so the Church
29:59is wrong,
30:00in that case
30:02which way is up?
30:03Or as poet
30:04John Donne puts it
30:05the new philosophy
30:07calls all in doubt.
30:10The element of fire
30:11is quite put out.
30:14The sun is lost
30:15and the Earth
30:16and no man's wit
30:18can well direct him
30:20where to look for it.
30:22And freely men confess
30:23that this world spent
30:25when in the planets
30:26and the firmament
30:28they seek so many new.
30:30They say all this
30:32is crumbled out again
30:33to his atomies.
30:35It is all in pieces.
30:37All coherence gone.
30:41All coherence gone.
30:43Makes the end
30:44of the Cold War
30:45feel like sea spot run,
30:47doesn't it?
30:47You get a feel
30:48for how they must have felt
30:49with people like Kepler
30:51pulling the cosmic rug
30:52out from under them.
30:53I mean,
30:54with all the new
30:54astronomical data
30:55coming in,
30:56all bets are off.
31:00In 1619,
31:02Dunn bumps into Kepler
31:03in Austria
31:04and Kepler gives him
31:05a copy of his new book
31:07about his new discovery.
31:08You remember,
31:09the stuff that turns out
31:11to be gravity.
31:12To bring home
31:13and give to the king
31:14here in England.
31:16Never gets to him.
31:17Well, there's no record of it.
31:19Fishy, hmm?
31:21Not half as fishy
31:22as the guy
31:22who writes the whole story up.
31:38Dunn's biographer
31:39is a Brit named
31:40Isaac Wharton
31:41who in 1653
31:43writes the definitive book
31:44on how to fish,
31:46The Complete Angler.
31:47All about what stuff
31:48you need with you
31:49on the river.
31:50You know,
31:50flies,
31:51waders,
31:52how to cast your line
31:54in different kinds of water,
31:55what pubs to go to
31:57with your pals,
31:58best time of day
31:59to catch whatever fish
32:00you're after.
32:02Everything any fishing freak
32:03might ever want to know,
32:05including hints
32:06on how to tell stories
32:08about the one
32:09that got away.
32:14Now,
32:15Walton gets a lot of material
32:16for his book
32:17while fishing
32:17with an aristocratic
32:18young friend of his,
32:19Charles Cotton,
32:21who builds this little
32:22stone cottage
32:23for both of them
32:24to use.
32:28Here's when,
32:29and below it
32:30the initials
32:31IW,
32:32Isaac Walton
32:32and CC,
32:34Charles Cotton.
32:40Cotton himself
32:41is a dab-hound
32:42at fly fishing
32:43and is also
32:44filthy rich.
32:45He doesn't have
32:46what you and I
32:46would call a job,
32:47so he spends his time
32:49fishing,
32:50drinking fine wines
32:51and dabbling in
32:52a bit of poetry.
32:53Tough life,
32:55right?
33:09Where was I?
33:10Oh, yes,
33:10Cotton,
33:11doing poetry
33:12and drinking fine wines,
33:13which is where
33:14this delectable liquid
33:15comes in.
33:17Chateau Ikem,
33:19possibly the best
33:20dessert wine
33:20only in the entire world.
33:23Point being,
33:24Cotton translates poetry,
33:26in this case
33:26from French,
33:27and in this case
33:28the writer,
33:29Michel Ikem,
33:30is always said
33:31to come from
33:31the same family
33:32as that.
33:33Chateau Ikem,
33:35well,
33:35the two names
33:36are similar,
33:37but frankly,
33:38like the people
33:39here at Chateau Ikem,
33:41as regards
33:42to the link
33:42with Monsieur Ikem,
33:43the writer,
33:44I'm sceptical.
33:46Speaking of which,
33:48scepticism.
33:49You know,
33:49don't believe
33:50everything you read,
33:51that stuff.
33:56Well,
33:57back in the early
33:5817th century,
33:59being sceptical
34:00is something new
34:01and dangerous.
34:02I mean,
34:03there are Protestants
34:04and Catholics
34:04and Utopians
34:05and Puritans
34:06and astrologers
34:07and who knows
34:07what else,
34:08all telling you
34:09theirs is the only
34:10true way to salvation.
34:11So it's a wise man
34:13who takes it all
34:13with a pinch of salt.
34:18Like Monsieur Ikem,
34:20whom you may know
34:21by his pen name,
34:23Montaigne.
34:30OK,
34:31a few words
34:31on the subject
34:32of ripples,
34:34which Montaigne
34:35makes with his
34:35new scepticism,
34:36lots of ripples,
34:37because Montaigne
34:38pulls the rug out
34:39from under
34:40every form of authority.
34:41What you see
34:42is not what you get.
34:43Don't trust anybody
34:44or anything,
34:45that kind of stuff.
34:46Anyway,
34:47all this gets
34:48into the papers
34:48because one of
34:49Montaigne's fans
34:50is an editor
34:51and what he does
34:52pretty much causes
34:54everything to hit the fan
34:55when he publishes
34:56a piece by another
34:57Montaigne fan,
34:59a guy called
35:00Fontanelle,
35:00who comes up
35:01with what you and I
35:02would describe
35:02as the first bit
35:03of science journalism.
35:05This is him
35:06and this is his story.
35:09In 1680,
35:10Halley's Comet
35:11appears
35:11and so Fontanelle
35:13decides the best
35:14thing to do
35:14for his next column
35:15is something on space.
35:17Right?
35:19Wrong.
35:19Well,
35:20wrong the way
35:20he does it.
35:21Because what
35:22Fontanelle's piece
35:22says is,
35:23hey,
35:24maybe there's
35:24millions of planets
35:25out there
35:25with other civilizations
35:26and people like us
35:27and towns and roads
35:28and shopping malls
35:29and all that.
35:31Okay,
35:32why not?
35:32Except this is
35:33the 17th century
35:34we're in,
35:35remember?
35:39And Fontanelle
35:41is Catholic
35:41and Rome's authority
35:43rests on what
35:43the church says
35:44about us humans
35:45being the centre
35:46of everything,
35:47unique in the universe,
35:49made specially
35:50in God's own image,
35:51all that,
35:52a one-off
35:53exclusive.
35:55So,
35:56what's all this
35:57about more
35:57of us out there?
35:58Maybe they're
35:59the centre
35:59of the universe,
36:00eh?
36:01And if that is true,
36:02Rome is wrong.
36:04Well,
36:05you just know
36:05that as far
36:06as the Pope's
36:06concerned,
36:08Fontanelle's number
36:08is up.
36:10Still,
36:10he was never
36:11any good at math
36:12anyway.
36:18It's a boring
36:19Swiss mathematician
36:20named Johann Bernoulli
36:21who calls
36:22Fontanelle's math
36:23second rate.
36:24Bernoulli comes
36:25from Basel.
36:26He's one of
36:27eight mathematicians
36:28from the same
36:28family,
36:29and he's the guy
36:30who is said
36:31to have made
36:31calculus understandable
36:32to the average
36:33person.
36:34Well,
36:35you could have
36:35fooled me.
36:42Here's something
36:43Bernoulli isn't
36:44able to explain.
36:45What happens
36:46when you shake
36:47up mercury
36:47in a tube
36:48and it glows?
36:50Something the
36:50people at the
36:51time call
36:53mercurial electricity,
36:54and one of the
36:55obsessions
36:56of an English
36:57weirdo,
36:57Francis Hawksby,
36:59who being
37:00obsessed with
37:00electricity
37:01invents the
37:02world's first
37:02static electricity
37:03machine.
37:04Just crank a glass
37:05container with a
37:06vacuum inside,
37:07rest your hand
37:08or any other part
37:09of you against
37:10the turning glass
37:11surface,
37:12count to several
37:12hundred,
37:13count to another
37:14several hundred.
37:15Hey, what can I
37:16tell you?
37:16This stuff took
37:17forever.
37:18And besides,
37:20what else did
37:20Francis Hawksby
37:21have to do?
37:22Then you go
37:23anywhere near
37:24metal,
37:28so Hawksby
37:29starts rubbing
37:30anything else
37:30he can get
37:31his hands on.
37:37Hawksby attracts
37:38the attention
37:39of no lesser
37:39person than
37:40Sir Isaac Newton
37:41when he comes
37:42up with his
37:43next trick.
37:47Watch carefully.
37:48What you're
37:49about to see
37:49is what's
37:50called
37:51capillary
37:52action.
37:54See the two
37:55upright glass
37:56tubes?
37:56The red
37:57liquid goes
37:58higher up
37:58the narrow
37:59tube on
37:59the right.
38:01Now,
38:01Hawksby reckons
38:02this must have
38:02something to do
38:03with the liquid
38:04being more
38:05attracted up
38:05the narrow
38:06tube,
38:06which is why
38:07Newton gets
38:08interested,
38:09because since
38:10he's the man
38:10who works out
38:11what gravity
38:12is,
38:12attraction
38:13for obvious
38:14reasons is
38:15Isaac Newton's
38:16middle name.
38:17So he writes
38:19about Hawksby's
38:19experiments in
38:21one of his
38:21heavier volumes
38:22on scientific
38:23matters,
38:23which I'll get
38:24to after we
38:25use his book
38:26to illustrate
38:27the scientific
38:27matters this
38:28programme has
38:29been dealing
38:29with for the
38:30last few
38:31minutes.
38:34OK.
38:35The poet
38:36John Dunn,
38:37whose biographer
38:38is a fishing
38:39freak called
38:39Isaac Walton,
38:41whose pal
38:42Cotton translates
38:43the sceptical
38:44Montaigne,
38:45whose science
38:45writer Fan Fontenelle
38:47does a newspaper
38:47column all about
38:48space,
38:49and whose math
38:50is clobbered by
38:50Bernoulli,
38:51who is mystified
38:52by mercurial
38:53electricity,
38:54investigated by
38:55Hawksby,
38:55whose capillary
38:56work is published
38:58by Newton and read
38:59by a vicar.
39:05Here's the vicar,
39:06name of Stephen
39:07Hales.
39:08In 1727,
39:09Hales plants a few
39:10capillary thoughts
39:11in a new book
39:12of his all about
39:13how plants suck
39:14up water the
39:15capillary way
39:16Hawksby discovered
39:17through tiny
39:18capillary tubes
39:19in the plant
39:20structure.
39:21This study of
39:22tubes takes
39:23Hales on to
39:23breathing and
39:24respiratory medicine
39:25and public
39:26health, which
39:28Hales may well
39:28have seen as
39:29something of a
39:30musical matter.
39:40A musical
39:41matter, because
39:43Hales reckons the
39:44source of all
39:44disease is foul
39:46or putrid air,
39:47found mostly in
39:49enclosed spaces.
39:51And what that
39:52has to do with
39:52public health is
39:53the way a church
39:55organ works.
40:02See, it takes
40:03two to play the
40:04organ, one to
40:05play up front and
40:07one to work round
40:08the back, pumping
40:10for all he's worth,
40:11making it all
40:12possible with the
40:13organ bellows, which
40:14are not exactly
40:15high-tech.
40:17You use hinged
40:19wooden flaps moving
40:20up and down,
40:21drawing air in and
40:23pushing it out of a
40:24wooden box.
40:25It's not totally
40:26airtight, but I
40:27suspect the
40:28congregation doesn't
40:29care.
40:35Hales tries it out
40:37as a ventilator in
40:38a granary down the
40:38road from the
40:39church.
40:40Knockout.
40:41Then he offers it
40:42to the Navy and
40:42various prisons.
40:44Boffo.
40:45Then he tries it
40:46in a smallpox
40:47hospital at which
40:49he's a governor.
40:50Dismal failure.
40:53Well, foul and
40:55putrid air isn't
40:56the cause of
40:56smallpox any more
40:57than any other
40:58disease.
40:59But funnily enough,
41:00the problem of
41:01smallpox is about to
41:02be solved anyway by
41:04a country doctor who's
41:06never been near an
41:07organ and who, in
41:09the end, you could
41:11say, goes completely
41:13cuckoo.
41:21country doctor Edward
41:22Jenner lives in
41:24deepest nowhere,
41:25England, after doing
41:26something that saves
41:27the lives of millions
41:28of people all over
41:29the planet.
41:30It all happens because
41:32of something very
41:32strange happening to
41:34the local milkmaids.
41:36Jenner gets to hear
41:37about a disease
41:38milkmaids are catching
41:39when they milk the
41:40cows.
41:40It's called cowpox
41:41and it makes horrible
41:43pustules on the
41:43hands.
41:45Now, cowpox is no
41:46big deal, but what
41:48Jenner discovers is it
41:50gives you immunity to a
41:52killer disease called
41:53smallpox.
41:56In 1796, Jenner hits
41:59the headlines when he
42:00deliberately infects the
42:01healthy son of one of
42:02his labourers with liquid
42:04from a cowpox pustule.
42:05And then he deliberately
42:06infects the kid with
42:08smallpox.
42:08And he survives.
42:10And that's why we're all
42:11survivors today of
42:12smallpox, because we all
42:14get what the boy got.
42:16Vaccinated.
42:17From vacca, the Latin
42:19word for cow.
42:21Twelve years later,
42:23everybody else has worked
42:23up enough nerve to try it.
42:26With a reaction in the
42:27press not all that
42:28different from the
42:29reaction to genetic
42:30engineering today.
42:33Now, in case you're
42:34wondering if all that
42:35money and publicity goes
42:36to Jenner's head, and
42:38that's why I said he goes
42:39cuckoo, no.
42:41See, the other thing,
42:43besides vaccination, about
42:45which Jenner is cuckoo,
42:47is cuckoos.
42:48On which he writes the
42:49definitive paper and gets
42:51elected to the Royal
42:52Society for services to
42:54ornithology.
42:54and then dies.
42:56Just in time to miss the
42:58guy who, you might say,
43:01turns birdwatching into an
43:03art.
43:21Meet JJ Audubon, the first
43:24real painter of birds, and
43:26the man whose name has
43:27become synonymous with bird
43:28lovers everywhere.
43:30Audubon and his feathered
43:31friends become world famous
43:33after he fails in about
43:34five careers and settles
43:36for painting.
43:37In 1821, he's here, near
43:40St. Francisville, Louisiana,
43:42where he gets a job at the
43:43Oakley Plantation, teaching
43:44basic painting techniques to
43:46the daughter of the family.
43:48Painting birds is a piece of
43:49cake here, since the woods
43:51and bayous of this part of
43:52Louisiana are stiff with
43:53birds.
43:54Well, they're stiff when JJ
43:56paints them.
43:57By the time he's finished, if
43:59it's got feathers and a
44:00beak, JJ has done its
44:05portrait.
44:06JJ's thing is realistic detail,
44:09as you can see.
44:10And when he puts all his
44:12paintings into a giant book
44:13called Birds of America, he
44:16starts a whole new fashion for
44:17birdwatching and chocolate box
44:20art, some people say.
44:21Well, you may not like it much,
44:23but you've got to admit it's
44:24accurate.
44:25If photography had been invented
44:27at the time, you'd have said
44:29these were snapshots, right?
44:31Now, JJ has only one other
44:34obsession besides painting birds.
44:36It's painting all of them.
44:38So when some young kid writes to
44:40him one day to say he's found a
44:42new kind of yellow-bellied fly
44:44catcher that JJ has missed, JJ's
44:47language gets positively foul.
44:50Detailed correspondence with the
44:52aforementioned kid follows, the
44:53offending bird is tracked down,
44:55stuffed and mounted, and it's
44:57picture done before you could say
44:59St. Petersburg.
45:10So, guess where we are now?
45:21OK, Imperial Russian architecture
45:24is all very beautiful and historic
45:26and all that, but building this
45:28stuff to the greater glory of the
45:30bazaar is expensive.
45:32What you're looking at here is
45:34conspicuous consumption.
45:35So why are we looking at it?
45:37Well, it's all to do with that
45:39kid Audubon hears from, you know,
45:41the one with the yellow-bellied
45:42fly catcher, Spencer Fullerton
45:45Baird, who goes on to become
45:47secretary to the Smithsonian, no
45:49less, and gets involved in a very
45:53shady deal being brokered by some
45:55top-level Russians.
45:56OK, here's the plot.
45:58If you're living a lifestyle like
46:00this, just for the upkeep, you need
46:02three things.
46:03Money, money, and more money.
46:07So, you're the Tsar of all the
46:09Russians.
46:10The last thing you want is your
46:11government bureaucrats coming at you
46:12for more cash, especially if it's
46:15for some tin-pot colony you've never
46:17heard of up in the middle of nowhere
46:19that isn't even paying its way.
46:23Which is just what happens.
46:25The Prime Minister drops a note about
46:27this tin-pot colony to the Tsar's
46:29brother, who then drops a note to the
46:31great man himself.
46:38Anyway, in no time at all, in Tsarist
46:41Russia, that's several months later,
46:43various bigwigs are summoned to an
46:45audience with you-know-who.
46:51Now, where'd you say this place is?
46:53There?
46:54There?
46:55Oh, way over there.
46:57Well, get rid of it.
46:59No, wait.
47:00Wait.
47:01Who'd be sucker enough to take it?
47:04Who?
47:05They would.
47:07How much?
47:09Five million bucks?
47:12Tell you what.
47:14Play hard to get.
47:15Say, seven and a half.
47:17Let's see if they blink.
47:19Oh, and wait.
47:20It's got to look as if they're
47:22pushing for the deal, right?
47:27As the plot thickens,
47:28the sting moves to the foreign office
47:30and some back-channel,
47:32totally deniable discussions
47:34with the potential buyers
47:35are held behind closed doors
47:37and the Russians pull it off.
47:40Good.
47:45That's one problem solved.
47:48Leaving one other minor matter.
47:52Of the original seven and a half
47:54million bucks,
47:56only five million ever turns up
47:58in Russia.
47:59The other two and a half?
48:03Well, that's what you get
48:05when you conduct international
48:06diplomacy behind closed doors.
48:12Oh, I nearly forgot
48:13where that kid Fullerton Baird
48:16fits into the scam.
48:18Well, at one point,
48:20he commissioned a survey
48:21of that colonial dump
48:23the Russians are trying
48:23to offload.
48:25Persuades the US
48:26Secretary of State
48:27that the place is worth buying
48:28and the Russians are laughing
48:30all the way to the bank.
48:32Mind you,
48:34a hundred years later
48:35when the North Slope oil fields
48:36come on stream,
48:37who's the sucker then, hmm?
48:39Anyway, all this is why
48:41in 1869,
48:43the map of America changes
48:44when they add
48:46this little bit.
48:49Not that they need the space.
48:51America is still practically
48:52uninhabited,
48:53especially here.
48:55In 1871,
48:57this is this,
48:59and that kid Fullerton Baird
49:01does it again.
49:02He sends a surveyor
49:04called Ferdinand Hayden
49:05to check the place out.
49:07Hayden turns up
49:08with a photographer
49:08called William Henry Jackson,
49:10and Jackson's photographs
49:12blow everybody away.
49:14This was America
49:16over a hundred years ago.
49:34I said Jackson's photographs
49:36blow everybody away,
49:38especially the US Congress,
49:40because what that kid,
49:42now secretary to the Smithsonian,
49:44does with the pictures
49:45is one of history's
49:46greatest bits of PR.
49:48I mean,
49:49think about it.
49:51They've only just finished
49:52the Transcontinental Railroad.
49:54You can get lost out here
49:56and never return.
49:58In some places,
50:00Native Americans
50:00are still at war
50:01with the government
50:02in Washington.
50:03It can be fatally dangerous
50:05to go anywhere
50:05west of the Mississippi.
50:07But thanks to Fullerton Baird,
50:09Congress designates
50:10this place
50:11a wilderness.
50:12In the wilderness?
50:30Well, that's just what they do,
50:32which is why today
50:33you can't own property here
50:35or do much of anything
50:36without a permit,
50:37except a visit,
50:39which people do,
50:40in their thousands.
50:41And like them,
50:43we end our journey here, too.
50:46Because,
50:47thanks to all the connections
50:48we've made
50:49between the DNA profile
50:52and the work on aerodynamics
50:54and machine guns
50:56and the Red Baron
50:57and geography
50:58and romantic ideas
51:00that start in Italy
51:02and paintings of actors
51:03and lighthouses
51:05and Spanish gold
51:06and skeleton drawings
51:08and astronomical poetry
51:10by friends of fishing freaks
51:11who write books
51:12and sceptical wine drinkers
51:14called Ikem
51:14and the cure for smallpox
51:16and American bird painters
51:18and devious Russian real estate deals
51:20because of all that...
51:21In 1872,
51:23America gets a special place.
51:25The first national park,
51:27Yellowstone.
51:46The Red Baron
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