- 2 days ago
This episode uses extreme time-lapse photography and specialized camera technology to reveal biological and physical dynamics that happen too fast or too slow for the human eye to normally catch.
追踪超高速自然现象, 包括传奇旗鱼的游动...捕捉并定格复杂的动作, 例如舞者在空中的舞姿或孩子迈出人生第一步的瞬间...
追踪超高速自然现象, 包括传奇旗鱼的游动...捕捉并定格复杂的动作, 例如舞者在空中的舞姿或孩子迈出人生第一步的瞬间...
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FunTranscript
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.
29:17An astonishing phenomenon which we'd like to know more about.
29:21One 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.
30:26MUSIC
30:33Thanks, sir.
30:36Using an effect called time-morph, we can circle around a movement frozen in time.
30:52when learning and perfecting movements the brain functions in a similar way to this technology
30:59which makes every detail visible in stages it stores a kind of copy of the practiced
31:06pattern of motion in the cerebral cortex
31:24when the dancers watch colleagues at work this copy is activated without them having to perform
31:31the movements themselves this amplifies the learning effect this phenomenon could help
31:39injured dancers to remain in training simply by observing
31:50when we look at how other people move a so-called mirror neuron system is activated
31:56that has the function of a kind of imitative network areas in the motor cortex of the brain
32:03are activated that are also used when we want to carry out a similar movement ourselves
32:14mirror neurons also contribute to our ability to empathize with other people and recognize emotions
32:21the language of motion functions entirely without words
32:32in ballet dancers mirror neurons do not only become active when watching movements that have long been
32:38practiced and perfected
32:48so
32:49scientists examined the dancers brains while they watched videos of the brazilian martial art dance capoeira
32:56in contrast to amateurs activity in the motor areas of the brain increased
33:04we'd like to know whether ukino and maurice's 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 observing each other imitating demonstrating even when the others laughed
33:30you could really see that was communication that was language
33:44this prima ballerina needs no special effects to be able to hang suspended in the air
33:51when performing their aerobatics the wings of hoverflies beat it up to 300 times a second
33:58the two thousand 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
34:23in the naked eye to be able to enter the world of the microscopically small
34:28we've spent months preparing a world premiere
34:46the scent scales of a butterfly the surface of minuscule eggs photographed with the aid of a scanning electron microscope
34:58the hairy compound eye of a butterfly we want to make the hidden beauty of nature visible
35:05using a completely new method and dive into the fascinating world of butterfly
35:17with their transparent wings glass wing butterflies are among the most beautiful insects in the world
35:24their microstructures are full of surprises
35:34stefan diller's great passion is the scanning electron microscope
35:39here surfaces can be scanned with an electron beam and transformed into ultra high definition pictures
35:49his pioneering project is on glass wing butterflies
35:52his pioneering project is on glass wing butterflies
35:55first the insect has to be painstakingly prepared
35:59alcohol baths remove the water so that the sensitive structures are better preserved
36:05well-canning scanning with the electron beam takes place in a high vacuum water would evaporate and cause the specimen
36:17to shrivel
36:22with infinite patience diller affixes the sensitive insect to a sample holder
36:27In a special apparatus, he steams an ultra-thin film of platinum onto it to create a conductive surface.
36:36The metal interacts with the electron beam.
36:45The real innovation is the sample holder, which can be moved in three planes,
36:50thus allowing the 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
37:03allows thousands of pictures to 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.
37:26The 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-winged 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.
38:11It also functions as a sensorial organ and is equipped with spiky taste hairs,
38:18allowing the butterfly 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.
38:37They 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.
39:14One 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.
39:49He can no longer remember what it's like to run on two legs.
39:54At nine, he was diagnosed with cancer.
39:57And doctors had to amputate his leg above the knee.
40:02His biggest worry was not being able to play football.
40:06But he fought and fought and achieved much more.
40:21World champion long jumper, super sprinter, 24 Paralympic medals.
40:28A high-tech prosthetic leg changed his life forever.
40:37For me, running means testing your limits, setting yourself targets.
40:44I've also learned to contradict people.
40:46People told me I'd have to do without so many things due to my handicap.
40:51But thanks to all the sport, the running, I've not done without anything.
40:56And that's why running has made me into a personality.
41:05Does the secret of his success really lie in his artificial leg?
41:10A sprinter with a spring who generates his performance and take-off power
41:15with the aid of a technical precision instrument?
41:19Our high-speed camera and a motion analysis should tell us more.
41:27The thigh muscle of the good leg is extremely strong, a real power pack.
41:32The challenge when running is that the control of the prosthetic limb is purely mechanical,
41:38because it contains no nerves.
41:41A long-practiced balance act.
41:48The prosthetic limb has no motor, it can only be moved passively.
41:52The acceleration, the power for high speeds, comes from the strong thigh muscles of his good leg.
42:01The motion analysis reveals the absolute harmony in the running pattern.
42:09Both legs can go equally fast.
42:12There has to be a harmonic movement to develop performance.
42:15I always compare it to a rowing eight.
42:17What if the left side rows faster than the right?
42:20They go round in circles.
42:22It's the same with me.
42:24A hundred-meter sprint goes straight on.
42:26The biggest challenge for a handicapped sprinter is the start.
42:30This can mean the difference between victory and defeat.
42:38The first step out of the blocks is with the prosthetic limb.
42:43But it's very hard for Popov to push off with the prosthesis and build up speed.
42:49He only really gets going after around 20 meters.
42:55The power vectors show that Popov has to counterbalance his first few steps with his body.
43:01A process that does not occur automatically because he can't feel his body via the prosthesis.
43:13This 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 would.
43:31He would have twice the muscle power.
43:33He could reach higher speeds and he would run faster with two good legs.
43:40At Weißensee, adventure calls.
43:46With its crystal clear water, the highest lake in Austria is the ideal place for a very special kind of
43:54camera test.
43:56Cameraman Rudolf Diesel wants to test his own construction for an underwater camera housing.
44:02The trick here is that the weight of the housing corresponds exactly to the amount of water displaced.
44:09So that it is, practically speaking, suspended in the water.
44:20Weißensee is an El Dorado for cliff divers.
44:24Okay, they're not the cliffs at Acapulco, but for beginners, 18 meters is quite a challenge.
44:40It's asking a lot, just for a camera test.
44:44Even from a height of only 10 meters, a diver hits the 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.
45:16And, because it's so spectacular, let's have a bit more diving in super slow motion.
45:35The 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 1,000 pictures a second.
45:55The real adventure, however, awaits us in the Gulf of Mexico.
46:00We 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 110 kilometers an hour.
46:37Like lightning, they pounce with their saber-like bills.
46:41Far too fast for the human eye.
46:44Far too fast for the human eye.
46:54Some specimens cover more than 320,000 kilometers during their lifespan.
47:01Theoretically, eight times around the world.
47:08Jens Causer brings the high-speed camera onboard.
47:12The biologist is researching the hunting technique of sailfish and the behavior of the schools.
47:23Jens knows he'll find the fish about 90 kilometers off the coast.
47:32The 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.
47:51From the air, they hunt schools of sardines, which are also targeted by sailfish.
48:00Our scouts check if the phantoms are anywhere to be seen.
48:04Only then will the cameraman dive.
48:10There aren't many experts that can master this high-speed technology underwater.
48:16The specially made housing is sought after worldwide.
48:22To protect themselves against the sailfish, the sardines have formed a so-called bait ball.
48:29A shoal that moves like a single organism.
48:36The first impressions at 1,000 pictures a second are in the can.
48:41But in order to get detailed footage of the sophisticated hunting technique, we need to get closer.
48:48In 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 its 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.
49:40Their theory is that the sardines see the sailfish but don't spot its weapon, the long bill, in time.
49:56When it attacks, the sailfish pushes its 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 dragonfish get used to our lights and camera until we finally got the
50:41unique 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 and the best jumpers can catch insects three meters above
51:01the surface.
51:13These 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.
51:48Archerfish are real marksmen.
51:50Their 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.
52:03Whilst 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 managed to generate
52:17such a strong and deadly jet.
52:19They 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.
52:54For scientists, high speed footage is a gateway to knowledge, with the enjoyable side effect that you just can't get
53:03enough of it.
53:04In the middle of time.
53:12Over there now.
53:31It was real.
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