"Connections with James Burke" Designer Genes

1 00:00:05,575 --> 00:00:06,408 In the next 20 years, 2 00:00:06,408 --> 00:00:08,130 we're about to see what may turn out 3 00:00:08,130 --> 00:00:09,540 to be the biggest changes 4 00:00:09,540 --> 00:00:11,883 to the way we live in human history. 5 00:00:19,890 --> 00:00:22,830 I'm James Burke and I'm gonna take you on a journey 6 00:00:22,830 --> 00:00:26,790 through time joining up the dots in about 10 connections, 7 00:00:26,790 --> 00:00:29,460 charting the people, objects and ideas 8 00:00:29,460 --> 00:00:32,991 that changed history in the most surprising ways. 9 00:00:37,269 --> 00:00:39,893 To tell you the incredible story of how we got here 10 00:00:42,431 --> 00:00:44,705 and where we're going next. 11 00:00:47,760 --> 00:00:50,950 This series is about the process of change 12 00:00:52,047 --> 00:00:52,880 and why the future is being shaped 13 00:00:52,880 --> 00:00:57,220 by everything we do and is not going to be what we expect 14 00:00:58,620 --> 00:01:00,870 because that's the way change happens. 15 00:01:00,870 --> 00:01:03,270 Cause and effect. 16 00:01:03,270 --> 00:01:07,470 You innovate to solve a problem and even if you succeed, 17 00:01:07,470 --> 00:01:10,470 there's always an unexpected outcome that triggers the need 18 00:01:10,470 --> 00:01:12,933 for another innovation and so on. 19 00:01:14,940 --> 00:01:17,555 That's why nobody in the past knew 20 00:01:17,555 --> 00:01:20,493 what was coming next, nor you. 21 00:01:21,990 --> 00:01:24,030 The sequence of connections leads 22 00:01:24,030 --> 00:01:26,940 like a falling set of dominoes to an innovation 23 00:01:26,940 --> 00:01:29,043 that's set to transform humankind. 24 00:01:30,690 --> 00:01:32,580 So where do we want to go from here? 25 00:01:32,580 --> 00:01:33,930 What's the next connection? 26 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:41,074 Watch Online Movies and Series for FREE www.osdb.link/lm 27 00:01:50,310 --> 00:01:51,873 Well, this is our destination. 28 00:01:53,550 --> 00:01:57,603 Genetic engineering superhumans by manipulating DNA, 29 00:01:58,590 --> 00:02:02,550 designing or improving ourselves to be stronger, faster, 30 00:02:02,550 --> 00:02:04,443 better, and disease free. 31 00:02:06,500 --> 00:02:07,680 In the future, this will totally change life 32 00:02:07,680 --> 00:02:11,943 as we know it and our journey to it has already happened. 33 00:02:14,100 --> 00:02:15,000 I'll show you how. 34 00:02:17,430 --> 00:02:20,763 Here's where we start with a cup of coffee. 35 00:02:29,220 --> 00:02:32,553 Almost 300 years ago here in Leipzig, Germany, 36 00:02:33,420 --> 00:02:36,543 Zimmerman's Cafe is the hottest place in town, 37 00:02:39,960 --> 00:02:43,080 a place where men go to discuss the topics of the day, 38 00:02:43,080 --> 00:02:44,943 maybe over a game of billiards, 39 00:02:46,320 --> 00:02:49,180 or you could meet a prostitute masquerading as a waitress 40 00:02:50,250 --> 00:02:54,030 or above all you could indulge in the drug du jour, 41 00:02:54,030 --> 00:02:55,203 a few cups of coffee. 42 00:02:59,730 --> 00:03:03,003 Perhaps I mean mania rather than indulgence. 43 00:03:04,667 --> 00:03:05,500 There are hundreds of places 44 00:03:05,500 --> 00:03:06,990 like Zimmerman's all over Europe. 45 00:03:06,990 --> 00:03:09,453 Coffee is a total craze. 46 00:03:11,010 --> 00:03:14,100 Fact is before coffee arrives in Europe, 47 00:03:14,100 --> 00:03:16,270 most people back then spend their time 48 00:03:17,344 --> 00:03:18,494 slightly drunk all day. 49 00:03:19,380 --> 00:03:22,560 So coffee and the customer's newfound sobriety 50 00:03:22,560 --> 00:03:25,893 means coffee houses become places to refresh your mind. 51 00:03:27,990 --> 00:03:31,680 You want to invest your money, you go to a coffee house. 52 00:03:31,680 --> 00:03:34,498 You want to talk about reason and philosophy 53 00:03:34,498 --> 00:03:35,430 rather than religion and belief, 54 00:03:35,430 --> 00:03:38,220 and in this way, help kick off the Enlightenment, 55 00:03:38,220 --> 00:03:39,693 you go to a coffee house. 56 00:03:41,010 --> 00:03:44,850 And this is also where the idea of daily newspapers start. 57 00:03:44,850 --> 00:03:46,620 That's because you drink coffee 58 00:03:46,620 --> 00:03:48,970 and share all the news or information you have. 59 00:03:50,310 --> 00:03:52,380 If your gossip is the latest goings on, 60 00:03:52,380 --> 00:03:54,693 you end up printing it as a newspaper. 61 00:03:56,070 --> 00:03:58,713 If that gossip is about companies or foreign money, 62 00:03:59,747 --> 00:04:02,220 after a while, your gossip exchange formalizes 63 00:04:02,220 --> 00:04:04,833 into stocks or insurance contracts. 64 00:04:05,910 --> 00:04:08,790 And by mid-17th century in London, 65 00:04:08,790 --> 00:04:10,200 coffee houses trigger the start 66 00:04:10,200 --> 00:04:13,623 of the credit, insurance and stock markets. 67 00:04:18,823 --> 00:04:21,150 One of the other things that singles out Zimmermans back 68 00:04:21,150 --> 00:04:24,390 in Leipzig is that in 1723 69 00:04:24,390 --> 00:04:27,690 it's also the site of regular concert and operas put on 70 00:04:27,690 --> 00:04:30,093 by the local town composers and musicians. 71 00:04:31,710 --> 00:04:35,550 One composer, he's also the local church music master, 72 00:04:35,550 --> 00:04:39,180 is a guy by the name of Johann Sebastian Bach 73 00:04:39,180 --> 00:04:41,180 who comes up with a piece for Zimmermans 74 00:04:42,051 --> 00:04:43,170 and what people go there to do, 75 00:04:43,170 --> 00:04:45,627 known as the "Coffee Cantata." 76 00:04:47,220 --> 00:04:49,770 The piece is all about the perils of coffee drinking. 77 00:04:49,770 --> 00:04:53,523 Is it an addiction or not, dangerous or safe? 78 00:04:55,410 --> 00:04:57,663 Coffee houses also host political debate, 79 00:04:58,740 --> 00:05:00,810 the lottery and even public lessons 80 00:05:00,810 --> 00:05:05,430 in chess, philosophy, astronomy, and mathematics. 81 00:05:05,430 --> 00:05:08,880 And over time coffee houses affect the education system 82 00:05:08,880 --> 00:05:10,140 when they become the place to go 83 00:05:10,140 --> 00:05:12,513 if you can't get to higher levels of learning. 84 00:05:13,650 --> 00:05:15,000 So they become known, 85 00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:17,070 because of the price of a cup of coffee, 86 00:05:17,070 --> 00:05:18,723 as penny universities. 87 00:05:21,600 --> 00:05:24,090 By 1776, the coffee craze 88 00:05:24,090 --> 00:05:26,430 in the German kingdom of Prussia is starting 89 00:05:26,430 --> 00:05:28,740 to hurt the local economy. 90 00:05:28,740 --> 00:05:31,533 Nobody's buying the country's beer or wine anymore, 91 00:05:32,730 --> 00:05:34,780 and a ton of money's leaving the country 92 00:05:35,740 --> 00:05:36,573 to pay for coffee imports 93 00:05:36,573 --> 00:05:39,273 because Prussia doesn't have any coffee growing colonies. 94 00:05:41,220 --> 00:05:44,250 So there's a coffee balance of payments problem looking 95 00:05:44,250 --> 00:05:45,213 for a solution. 96 00:05:46,680 --> 00:05:48,870 So the king, here he is, 97 00:05:48,870 --> 00:05:52,770 Frederick the Great who drinks eight cups of coffee a day, 98 00:05:52,770 --> 00:05:56,133 makes coffee selling illegal without a license, 99 00:05:56,970 --> 00:05:58,890 which he then hands out to his mates, 100 00:05:58,890 --> 00:06:01,740 the members of the church and the aristocrats, 101 00:06:01,740 --> 00:06:04,620 and he sets up a coffee police force, 102 00:06:04,620 --> 00:06:07,890 400 disabled example-soldiers to whose job it is 103 00:06:07,890 --> 00:06:10,830 to go around sniffing out coffee roasting premises, 104 00:06:10,830 --> 00:06:13,833 close them down and slap on fines. 105 00:06:15,690 --> 00:06:17,540 Of course, thanks to the sheer number 106 00:06:18,441 --> 00:06:21,900 of coffee smugglers and secret drinkers, this effort fails. 107 00:06:21,900 --> 00:06:26,900 So in 1787, Fred drops the ban and instead, no fool, 108 00:06:27,930 --> 00:06:29,643 taxes coffee imports. 109 00:06:34,230 --> 00:06:38,220 In his posh new Berlin palace, which he calls Sanssouci, 110 00:06:38,220 --> 00:06:40,080 it means no worries, 111 00:06:40,080 --> 00:06:41,970 Frederick the Great does a few other things 112 00:06:41,970 --> 00:06:43,370 that will change the future. 113 00:06:44,550 --> 00:06:47,610 He's the man who modernizes the nation's state. 114 00:06:47,610 --> 00:06:51,840 Freedom of speech, no more torture, elected bureaucrats, 115 00:06:51,840 --> 00:06:54,720 agricultural reforms, and the one we all love, 116 00:06:54,720 --> 00:06:56,580 he imposes a sales tax. 117 00:06:56,580 --> 00:06:57,413 Boo! 118 00:06:58,470 --> 00:07:01,740 He spends the rest of his time fighting and winning wars 119 00:07:01,740 --> 00:07:05,850 with everybody in sight to consolidate and expand his domain 120 00:07:05,850 --> 00:07:08,160 and invites big brains like Voltaire 121 00:07:08,160 --> 00:07:09,813 to come and do meaningful chat. 122 00:07:10,710 --> 00:07:13,653 No wonder Fred is called the philosopher king. 123 00:07:15,870 --> 00:07:20,870 One last note, he also composes music and plays the flute 124 00:07:20,880 --> 00:07:24,750 for which he writes 121 sonatas no less. 125 00:07:24,750 --> 00:07:26,400 Pretty good, all that when you're running a country 126 00:07:26,400 --> 00:07:29,700 and fighting wars at the same time, right? 127 00:07:29,700 --> 00:07:31,173 Try one of his tunes. 128 00:07:40,020 --> 00:07:42,150 Okay, here is where we move on 129 00:07:42,150 --> 00:07:43,800 to the next step on our journey 130 00:07:43,800 --> 00:07:45,783 towards designing superhumans. 131 00:07:48,180 --> 00:07:51,990 See, in 1738, another flute player hits the scene 132 00:07:51,990 --> 00:07:54,630 and soon gets Frederick's attention. 133 00:07:54,630 --> 00:07:57,960 A flute player who can do anything Frederick can do 134 00:07:57,960 --> 00:07:59,700 if not better, 135 00:07:59,700 --> 00:08:03,540 quite a claim seeing that this flute player isn't human, 136 00:08:03,540 --> 00:08:07,230 but a machine the size of a human called wait for it, 137 00:08:07,230 --> 00:08:09,141 The Flute Player. 138 00:08:13,590 --> 00:08:15,153 How did it work, you might ask? 139 00:08:16,290 --> 00:08:19,350 Basic control mechanism, common enough at the time, 140 00:08:19,350 --> 00:08:23,250 a cylinder with pegs on it so that as the cylinder revolves 141 00:08:23,250 --> 00:08:25,020 driven round by a hanging weight, 142 00:08:25,020 --> 00:08:27,810 each peg hits a lever and triggers one 143 00:08:27,810 --> 00:08:29,580 or other mechanical action. 144 00:08:29,580 --> 00:08:32,130 These actions include opening and closing three sets 145 00:08:32,130 --> 00:08:35,460 of bellows to send different air pressure through the mouth 146 00:08:35,460 --> 00:08:38,040 to make the flute produce different notes. 147 00:08:38,040 --> 00:08:41,250 And a series of levers and pulleys to move the lips. 148 00:08:41,250 --> 00:08:44,853 Same for fingers, all to the most exact precision. 149 00:08:47,280 --> 00:08:49,380 It's creator, Jacques de Vaucanson 150 00:08:49,380 --> 00:08:51,960 also builds a mechanical tambourine player 151 00:08:51,960 --> 00:08:55,746 and more impressive an automated duck. 152 00:08:59,040 --> 00:09:03,000 Famous all over Europe, 400 moving parts in each wing, 153 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:08,000 it can flap and extend its neck and turn its head and quack. 154 00:09:09,330 --> 00:09:11,730 And most mind boggling of all, 155 00:09:11,730 --> 00:09:14,703 it can eat out of your hand and then excrete. 156 00:09:16,560 --> 00:09:18,120 Of course not for real. 157 00:09:18,120 --> 00:09:21,570 The beak gulps down bits of corn and grain and water. 158 00:09:21,570 --> 00:09:24,300 The excrete bit is a separate container filled 159 00:09:24,300 --> 00:09:26,220 with breadcrumbs dyed green 160 00:09:26,220 --> 00:09:29,013 and driven to expel the materials by a pump. 161 00:09:33,120 --> 00:09:36,210 Okay, time for a catch up on our past with the future 162 00:09:36,210 --> 00:09:38,373 where humans can be genetically redesigned. 163 00:09:41,190 --> 00:09:42,750 We started with coffee houses 164 00:09:42,750 --> 00:09:44,760 that trigger the Enlightenment, 165 00:09:44,760 --> 00:09:46,890 Frederick the Great's coffee addiction 166 00:09:46,890 --> 00:09:48,300 and his love of music, 167 00:09:48,300 --> 00:09:52,320 especially a mechanical flute player made by Vaucanson 168 00:09:52,320 --> 00:09:55,590 who also excels in his craft with a mechanical duck, 169 00:09:55,590 --> 00:09:57,875 which expels food. 170 00:09:58,980 --> 00:10:00,630 Frederick the Great is knocked out 171 00:10:00,630 --> 00:10:04,470 by these mechanical marvels and wants Vaucanson to come 172 00:10:04,470 --> 00:10:07,650 and do his inventive thing in Berlin. 173 00:10:07,650 --> 00:10:09,963 So he makes an offer Vaucanson can't refuse. 174 00:10:11,260 --> 00:10:12,093 Woo-hoo! 175 00:10:12,093 --> 00:10:15,630 But he does, preferring to stay in France 176 00:10:15,630 --> 00:10:18,090 where Vaucanson wonders if there's a better use 177 00:10:18,090 --> 00:10:21,780 for the pegged cylinder system than flute players and ducks, 178 00:10:21,780 --> 00:10:24,483 something that could make him some serious money. 179 00:10:25,710 --> 00:10:28,680 Could industry use a precision machine like that? 180 00:10:28,680 --> 00:10:32,545 Well, how about this? Patterned cloth. 181 00:10:39,600 --> 00:10:42,300 To make it a weaver wraps a horizontal thread 182 00:10:42,300 --> 00:10:44,970 around a vertical thread, one after another, 183 00:10:44,970 --> 00:10:47,900 swapping from one side to the other each time 184 00:10:47,900 --> 00:10:50,670 in exactly the right order to build up the pattern 185 00:10:50,670 --> 00:10:52,083 on a hand driven loom, 186 00:10:53,160 --> 00:10:56,523 a time-consuming and painstaking process. 187 00:10:58,860 --> 00:11:02,370 So Vaucanson experiments attaching his peg cylinder 188 00:11:02,370 --> 00:11:03,243 onto a loom. 189 00:11:04,530 --> 00:11:06,210 Vaucanson sticks a piece of paper 190 00:11:06,210 --> 00:11:08,760 with holes in it up against the loom 191 00:11:08,760 --> 00:11:11,220 and then pushes a frame carrying a pattern 192 00:11:11,220 --> 00:11:13,593 of sprung hook needles against the paper. 193 00:11:14,820 --> 00:11:17,490 If there's a hole the needle goes through 194 00:11:17,490 --> 00:11:18,840 and nothing happens. 195 00:11:18,840 --> 00:11:20,070 If there's no hole, 196 00:11:20,070 --> 00:11:22,680 the paper pushes back against the needle 197 00:11:22,680 --> 00:11:24,360 and the other end of the needle hooks 198 00:11:24,360 --> 00:11:26,820 a particular vertical thread and lifts it 199 00:11:26,820 --> 00:11:30,510 for the horizontal thread to go through and weave that step 200 00:11:30,510 --> 00:11:34,443 of the pattern with exact precision every time. 201 00:11:36,480 --> 00:11:39,300 Thanks to that peg cylinder and those holes, 202 00:11:39,300 --> 00:11:42,243 Vaucanson's prototype loom can be programmed. 203 00:11:45,300 --> 00:11:47,940 Now as is often the case with invention, 204 00:11:47,940 --> 00:11:50,490 there's always somebody who looks at what you have 205 00:11:50,490 --> 00:11:53,280 and comes up with a slightly better idea 206 00:11:53,280 --> 00:11:56,010 and takes all the credit. 207 00:11:56,010 --> 00:12:00,360 By 1805, another Frenchman called Joseph Marie Jacquard 208 00:12:00,360 --> 00:12:02,883 has been tinkering with Vaucanson's design. 209 00:12:04,920 --> 00:12:09,180 Jacquard's idea is to put the pattern on a series of cards, 210 00:12:09,180 --> 00:12:11,823 one card for each row of thread in the pattern, 211 00:12:12,780 --> 00:12:15,723 which means you can weave much more complex designs. 212 00:12:20,610 --> 00:12:24,630 First you draw or paint your design onto squared paper. 213 00:12:24,630 --> 00:12:26,730 Then a weaver follows the squared paper 214 00:12:26,730 --> 00:12:28,830 to punch holes in the card. 215 00:12:28,830 --> 00:12:31,953 Do that a few hundred times and that's basically it. 216 00:12:33,360 --> 00:12:35,730 The cards are strung together in a chain 217 00:12:35,730 --> 00:12:38,070 and run past a long square block 218 00:12:38,070 --> 00:12:40,563 that turns with each new step of the process. 219 00:12:41,490 --> 00:12:44,220 Every time a row is woven into the pattern, 220 00:12:44,220 --> 00:12:46,110 it moves onto the next card 221 00:12:46,110 --> 00:12:49,080 and the last card is connected to the first. 222 00:12:49,080 --> 00:12:51,843 So the pattern repeats over and over again. 223 00:12:53,280 --> 00:12:55,620 As well as weaving more complex patterns, 224 00:12:55,620 --> 00:12:58,290 the Jacquard loom can now weave in an hour 225 00:12:58,290 --> 00:13:00,843 what would've previously taken a human a day. 226 00:13:01,920 --> 00:13:04,620 And the great thing is, unlike a human weaver, 227 00:13:04,620 --> 00:13:07,689 this loom never makes a mistake. 228 00:13:09,270 --> 00:13:12,240 So when a town in Scotland called Paisley 229 00:13:12,240 --> 00:13:14,610 uses a Jacquard loom to do the job, 230 00:13:14,610 --> 00:13:18,603 mass produced paisley shawls become a universal craze. 231 00:13:23,100 --> 00:13:25,773 All thanks to holes punched in cards. 232 00:13:27,720 --> 00:13:29,310 Right on we go. 233 00:13:29,310 --> 00:13:31,350 The Jacquard punch card loom changes 234 00:13:31,350 --> 00:13:33,300 the textile industry totally, 235 00:13:33,300 --> 00:13:35,520 transforming not only what we wear 236 00:13:35,520 --> 00:13:37,710 but how we furnish our homes. 237 00:13:37,710 --> 00:13:42,060 And by 1812 there are 11,000 of the looms in France 238 00:13:42,060 --> 00:13:44,460 and riots by unemployed weavers 239 00:13:44,460 --> 00:13:48,201 and 8,000 in the UK and more riots. 240 00:13:51,862 --> 00:13:53,850 Meanwhile, the phrase punch cards will no doubt tell you 241 00:13:53,850 --> 00:13:54,690 where we're going next 242 00:13:54,690 --> 00:13:58,683 because punch cards are essentially data units, right? 243 00:14:00,180 --> 00:14:01,740 And that gets clever people thinking 244 00:14:01,740 --> 00:14:03,590 about what else they can be used for. 245 00:14:04,590 --> 00:14:06,450 See, this is the age of invention 246 00:14:06,450 --> 00:14:09,000 and hotshots compete to gain recognition 247 00:14:09,000 --> 00:14:11,220 as the best innovators of their time, 248 00:14:11,220 --> 00:14:13,713 including one Charles Babbage. 249 00:14:15,330 --> 00:14:19,893 Babbage, you could say is a bit, well, odd. 250 00:14:22,590 --> 00:14:25,590 In spite of being Cambridge Professor of Math, 251 00:14:25,590 --> 00:14:29,220 secretary to the Astronomical Society, 252 00:14:29,220 --> 00:14:30,900 trustee of the British Association 253 00:14:30,900 --> 00:14:32,640 for the Advancement of Science, 254 00:14:32,640 --> 00:14:34,620 fellow of the Royal Society 255 00:14:34,620 --> 00:14:38,712 and the Polymaths Polymath in an age of polymaths 256 00:14:38,712 --> 00:14:39,990 is a bit of a busybody 257 00:14:39,990 --> 00:14:44,754 with an obsession for details, any details. 258 00:14:46,020 --> 00:14:49,200 He also has a paranoid dislike of organ grinders 259 00:14:49,200 --> 00:14:51,800 who happen to use punch cards to make terrible music 260 00:14:52,710 --> 00:14:56,781 and street nuisances like hoop rolling. 261 00:15:01,290 --> 00:15:03,690 Armed with provocative opinions like that, 262 00:15:03,690 --> 00:15:07,200 Babbage holds famous soirees for all his rival scientists 263 00:15:07,200 --> 00:15:09,360 and members of the aristocracy, 264 00:15:09,360 --> 00:15:12,600 a captive audience for his general complaining 265 00:15:12,600 --> 00:15:15,663 and his efforts to be recognized as the best inventor. 266 00:15:17,340 --> 00:15:20,760 At one of these events, he introduces his big new idea, 267 00:15:20,760 --> 00:15:22,530 one that will have a knock on effect 268 00:15:22,530 --> 00:15:27,150 on all his peers using punch cards to represent data 269 00:15:27,150 --> 00:15:29,190 for a revolutionary calculating machine 270 00:15:29,190 --> 00:15:32,133 he calls an analytical engine. 271 00:15:33,060 --> 00:15:34,810 Basically, the first ever computer. 272 00:15:37,920 --> 00:15:40,140 The memory is this big bit 273 00:15:40,140 --> 00:15:42,270 where all the motions to be gone through in response 274 00:15:42,270 --> 00:15:46,203 to commands are stored on Jacquard punch cards. 275 00:15:47,310 --> 00:15:49,860 At this other end is the main processing unit 276 00:15:49,860 --> 00:15:51,720 where the machine does the calculating 277 00:15:51,720 --> 00:15:54,510 on these vertical stacks of tooth wheels 278 00:15:54,510 --> 00:15:56,940 with numbers around their outside. 279 00:15:56,940 --> 00:15:59,820 These are driven by the good old rotating peg cylinder 280 00:15:59,820 --> 00:16:02,010 by now driven with steam power, 281 00:16:02,010 --> 00:16:05,070 triggering levers and moving wheels. 282 00:16:05,070 --> 00:16:08,700 More detail than that is beyond me 283 00:16:08,700 --> 00:16:10,900 as it was also for Babbage's contemporaries. 284 00:16:12,780 --> 00:16:14,160 Anyway, the numerical result 285 00:16:14,160 --> 00:16:16,380 of whatever it is you are doing can be read off the wheels 286 00:16:16,380 --> 00:16:18,450 when they finish working on the problem 287 00:16:18,450 --> 00:16:21,390 or so it says in Babbage's notes. 288 00:16:21,390 --> 00:16:23,490 There's also a printer section at the back 289 00:16:23,490 --> 00:16:25,440 where you get the calculation on paper. 290 00:16:26,340 --> 00:16:29,460 Babbage's machine is programmed to do addition, subtraction, 291 00:16:29,460 --> 00:16:32,040 multiplication, and division. 292 00:16:32,040 --> 00:16:34,937 Babbage estimate it would be able to calculate 293 00:16:34,937 --> 00:16:37,380 to 50 digit precision in minutes. 294 00:16:37,380 --> 00:16:40,080 But if he is ever to get this off the drawing board 295 00:16:40,080 --> 00:16:42,120 and get the recognition he deserves, 296 00:16:42,120 --> 00:16:43,713 he needs help and money. 297 00:16:45,120 --> 00:16:46,920 This is where a young aristocrat 298 00:16:46,920 --> 00:16:49,710 called Ada Lovelace comes in. 299 00:16:49,710 --> 00:16:53,640 A mathematician and science genius who by the age of 17 300 00:16:53,640 --> 00:16:56,553 is mixing with the scientific and literary elite. 301 00:16:57,570 --> 00:17:01,140 Lovelace falls totally for Babbage's big new idea, 302 00:17:01,140 --> 00:17:03,660 famously writing, "The analytical engine 303 00:17:03,660 --> 00:17:06,090 weaves algebraical patterns just 304 00:17:06,090 --> 00:17:09,930 as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves." 305 00:17:09,930 --> 00:17:11,970 And she sees that the punch card 306 00:17:11,970 --> 00:17:15,363 will drive scientific information in an entirely new way. 307 00:17:19,020 --> 00:17:20,490 This is why she's often referred to 308 00:17:20,490 --> 00:17:23,700 as the first computer programmer 309 00:17:23,700 --> 00:17:26,010 because she's less interested in the bells and whistles 310 00:17:26,010 --> 00:17:29,313 of the machinery than she is in what it can do. 311 00:17:31,560 --> 00:17:35,220 She invents what we would call an algorithm 312 00:17:35,220 --> 00:17:38,550 because she sees that computing machines could go way 313 00:17:38,550 --> 00:17:42,063 beyond number crunching and to all kinds of knowledge. 314 00:17:43,680 --> 00:17:46,710 So for anyone who isn't a mathematical genius, 315 00:17:46,710 --> 00:17:49,170 a quick lesson on algorithms. 316 00:17:49,170 --> 00:17:53,370 An algorithm just reduces any problem to a series of steps, 317 00:17:53,370 --> 00:17:55,470 each one of which follows the basic rule 318 00:17:55,470 --> 00:17:59,703 that a computer can only do binary work on, off, yes, no. 319 00:18:01,650 --> 00:18:04,200 If yes, then do the next step. 320 00:18:04,200 --> 00:18:07,380 If no, do something else or stop. 321 00:18:07,380 --> 00:18:10,143 So you follow the yeses till you get to the outcome. 322 00:18:14,280 --> 00:18:15,990 Now Lovelace hopes all this business 323 00:18:15,990 --> 00:18:19,293 of punch cards, algebraic equations, 324 00:18:20,250 --> 00:18:24,330 number crunching will also help with what she considers 325 00:18:24,330 --> 00:18:27,150 to be the most important issue of the day, 326 00:18:27,150 --> 00:18:29,100 how to predict the winner at the races. 327 00:18:33,120 --> 00:18:34,830 She writes down weekly notes, 328 00:18:34,830 --> 00:18:36,570 collecting details of each race, 329 00:18:36,570 --> 00:18:39,990 the horse's form, the rider, ground conditions, 330 00:18:39,990 --> 00:18:42,753 any details that affect the race's outcome. 331 00:18:45,210 --> 00:18:48,130 See, Lovelace is a gambling addict 332 00:18:49,290 --> 00:18:51,450 and she loses to a dangerous extent, 333 00:18:51,450 --> 00:18:53,883 at one point pawning a family diamond. 334 00:18:55,985 --> 00:18:58,380 Mind you, by this time she's also into opium 335 00:18:58,380 --> 00:19:00,450 and laudanum and cannabis and wine 336 00:19:00,450 --> 00:19:02,670 to help handle the uterine cancer 337 00:19:02,670 --> 00:19:05,670 that ultimately killed her at 36. 338 00:19:05,670 --> 00:19:09,122 So she's not too worried about gambling losses. 339 00:19:10,650 --> 00:19:13,110 And things don't go any better for Babbage. 340 00:19:13,110 --> 00:19:15,600 Despite trying and failing several times, 341 00:19:15,600 --> 00:19:19,080 his analytical engine never gets to a final state, 342 00:19:19,080 --> 00:19:21,870 so he never wins over the science biggies 343 00:19:21,870 --> 00:19:24,211 who all think it's useless anyway. 344 00:19:26,336 --> 00:19:27,690 And the world may be moving way too slow 345 00:19:27,690 --> 00:19:29,970 for that kind of speed need. 346 00:19:29,970 --> 00:19:32,880 A great example of an innovation too soon, 347 00:19:32,880 --> 00:19:35,043 too complicated and too quick. 348 00:19:39,840 --> 00:19:41,520 Okay, here we are, halfway through our journey 349 00:19:41,520 --> 00:19:43,710 towards a genetically engineered future 350 00:19:43,710 --> 00:19:45,933 where we can design superhumans. 351 00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:50,097 Coffeehouses kickoff the Enlightenment, 352 00:19:50,097 --> 00:19:52,590 and Frederick the Great's coffee obsession 353 00:19:52,590 --> 00:19:53,500 and his admiration 354 00:19:55,008 --> 00:19:56,100 for the programmable flute player from Vaucanson 355 00:19:57,660 --> 00:20:00,420 whose punch cards go on to automate weaving 356 00:20:00,420 --> 00:20:02,490 and inspire Jacquard to use them 357 00:20:02,490 --> 00:20:04,143 to generate complex patterns. 358 00:20:05,370 --> 00:20:08,610 This punch card system triggers Ada Lovelace's support 359 00:20:08,610 --> 00:20:11,523 for Babbage's computer which never gets made, 360 00:20:12,780 --> 00:20:15,690 leaving Babbage to go through life moaning 361 00:20:15,690 --> 00:20:18,273 about not being recognized for his talents, 362 00:20:19,530 --> 00:20:20,363 especially when one 363 00:20:20,363 --> 00:20:22,890 of Babbage's university rivals John Herschel 364 00:20:22,890 --> 00:20:24,510 changes the future in a big way 365 00:20:24,510 --> 00:20:27,210 with an invention so commonplace now 366 00:20:27,210 --> 00:20:29,110 you wonder how he ever did without it. 367 00:20:30,030 --> 00:20:32,553 Get ready for a tiny bit of chemistry. 368 00:20:36,780 --> 00:20:39,628 First, draw a technical drawing 369 00:20:39,628 --> 00:20:41,760 on semi-transparent paper weighted down 370 00:20:41,760 --> 00:20:44,940 on a sheet of ordinary paper pre-coded 371 00:20:44,940 --> 00:20:47,070 with a mix of potassium ferrocyanide 372 00:20:47,070 --> 00:20:49,530 and ferric ammonium citrate. 373 00:20:49,530 --> 00:20:51,330 Okay, that's the chemistry. 374 00:20:51,330 --> 00:20:54,660 Expose everything to a few minutes of light. 375 00:20:54,660 --> 00:20:58,560 The exposed sheet of coated paper goes blue, 376 00:20:58,560 --> 00:21:00,750 but the lines of the drawing block the light 377 00:21:00,750 --> 00:21:05,160 from hitting the coated paper so the lines stay white. 378 00:21:05,160 --> 00:21:08,483 This is what we call a blueprint and it saves the time 379 00:21:08,483 --> 00:21:10,680 and expense of copying drawings 380 00:21:10,680 --> 00:21:12,723 the way they used to by hand. 381 00:21:15,240 --> 00:21:17,643 A great example of the word cheap and quick. 382 00:21:21,810 --> 00:21:23,880 The blueprint revolutionizes the world 383 00:21:23,880 --> 00:21:26,133 of engineering and design of all kinds. 384 00:21:27,180 --> 00:21:30,060 Blueprints open up the world of technical innovation 385 00:21:30,060 --> 00:21:33,600 and usher in the world of this startup. 386 00:21:33,600 --> 00:21:35,580 But Herschel is just getting started. 387 00:21:35,580 --> 00:21:37,710 He's a key figure in our journey 388 00:21:37,710 --> 00:21:39,720 to genetically engineered life. 389 00:21:39,720 --> 00:21:41,403 So let's see what he does next. 390 00:21:44,160 --> 00:21:47,040 John Herschel's dad is an astronomer 391 00:21:47,040 --> 00:21:49,020 who also does his own share of advances, 392 00:21:49,020 --> 00:21:51,183 like discovering the planet Uranus. 393 00:21:52,110 --> 00:21:54,060 And in 1820, he and John, 394 00:21:54,060 --> 00:21:55,950 who prefers inventing stuff with his dad 395 00:21:55,950 --> 00:21:57,510 than teaching at Cambridge, 396 00:21:57,510 --> 00:21:59,940 build a new very large telescope 397 00:21:59,940 --> 00:22:02,110 to help solve a few modest problems 398 00:22:03,360 --> 00:22:05,583 like what lies beyond the Milky Way? 399 00:22:06,660 --> 00:22:09,780 Are nebula really distant galaxies like the Milky Way? 400 00:22:09,780 --> 00:22:11,703 How does gravity work out there? 401 00:22:13,980 --> 00:22:16,350 Now if you want to look into the sky, 402 00:22:16,350 --> 00:22:19,260 the best thing to do is to travel to the southern hemisphere 403 00:22:19,260 --> 00:22:21,720 where the southern sky is so full of stars, 404 00:22:21,720 --> 00:22:23,850 it makes the northern sky look empty. 405 00:22:23,850 --> 00:22:24,683 See? 406 00:22:25,950 --> 00:22:27,390 Which is why in 1833, 407 00:22:27,390 --> 00:22:29,670 John Herschel heads office South Africa 408 00:22:29,670 --> 00:22:31,980 with that giant reflecting telescope, 409 00:22:31,980 --> 00:22:35,220 which he sets up just outside Cape Town. 410 00:22:35,220 --> 00:22:39,063 In four years there he catalogs 1,700 nebulae, 411 00:22:40,252 --> 00:22:44,400 2,000 double star systems and several comets, 412 00:22:44,400 --> 00:22:47,193 most of which have never been seen in detail before. 413 00:22:48,960 --> 00:22:52,503 His discoveries take the science community by storm. 414 00:23:01,260 --> 00:23:02,910 While in South Africa, 415 00:23:02,910 --> 00:23:06,033 Hershel becomes friends with British Admiral Robert Wachope, 416 00:23:06,900 --> 00:23:09,570 who has big ideas about how the sky can help life 417 00:23:09,570 --> 00:23:13,950 down here on earth because there's a problem with time, 418 00:23:13,950 --> 00:23:16,080 telling the time that is. 419 00:23:16,080 --> 00:23:17,820 See in the 18th century, 420 00:23:17,820 --> 00:23:21,060 everybody's watch tells a slightly different time. 421 00:23:21,060 --> 00:23:23,700 That's because short of looking at star constellations 422 00:23:23,700 --> 00:23:25,796 and their positions in relation 423 00:23:25,796 --> 00:23:26,730 to the slowly spinning earth, 424 00:23:26,730 --> 00:23:29,610 nobody knows exactly what time it is. 425 00:23:29,610 --> 00:23:31,380 Okay, they have a rough idea, 426 00:23:31,380 --> 00:23:33,690 but that's no good for shipping timetables 427 00:23:33,690 --> 00:23:35,223 or planning logistics. 428 00:23:36,540 --> 00:23:38,880 The answer to this problem would be for everybody 429 00:23:38,880 --> 00:23:40,680 to set their clocks at the same time down 430 00:23:40,680 --> 00:23:41,793 to the split second. 431 00:23:43,733 --> 00:23:46,510 Wachope dreams up the idea of a ball 432 00:23:47,460 --> 00:23:49,860 where astronomers can use powerful telescopes 433 00:23:49,860 --> 00:23:53,313 to examine star alignments and get the exact time. 434 00:23:54,240 --> 00:23:55,920 To calibrate their clocks, 435 00:23:55,920 --> 00:23:57,390 the astronomers drop the ball 436 00:23:57,390 --> 00:24:00,510 at say one o'clock in the afternoon, 437 00:24:00,510 --> 00:24:01,470 and when it gets to the bottom, 438 00:24:01,470 --> 00:24:03,960 that'll be the actual moment in time 439 00:24:03,960 --> 00:24:06,746 it is exactly one o'clock. 440 00:24:10,140 --> 00:24:12,510 These balls end up installed on roofs 441 00:24:12,510 --> 00:24:16,140 of astronomical observatories and other public buildings. 442 00:24:16,140 --> 00:24:18,300 The idea catches on and in short order, 443 00:24:18,300 --> 00:24:20,670 there's time balls all over the world. 444 00:24:20,670 --> 00:24:23,793 Useful for ship's navigators to set their onboard clocks, 445 00:24:25,410 --> 00:24:26,940 as well as helping sailors, 446 00:24:26,940 --> 00:24:28,590 anybody can watch the ball drop down 447 00:24:28,590 --> 00:24:30,420 and set their own pocket watch. 448 00:24:30,420 --> 00:24:32,820 Miss it, and you have to wait a day. 449 00:24:34,321 --> 00:24:37,110 Three, two, one! 450 00:24:37,110 --> 00:24:40,380 You can still today see Wachope's time ball in action 451 00:24:40,380 --> 00:24:43,630 every New Year's Eve here in Times Square 452 00:24:44,670 --> 00:24:48,510 and here in Greenwich where time itself was standardized. 453 00:24:48,510 --> 00:24:50,070 And this triggers the next step 454 00:24:50,070 --> 00:24:52,473 in our journey towards designing superhumans. 455 00:24:54,810 --> 00:24:57,663 It involves coincidence. 456 00:24:59,730 --> 00:25:02,520 In 1855, the astronomy in charge of the time ball 457 00:25:02,520 --> 00:25:04,620 at Britain's Greenwich Observatory 458 00:25:04,620 --> 00:25:07,083 is this young man, Charles Todd. 459 00:25:10,950 --> 00:25:14,220 Now young Todd gets a promotion and it's to a place 460 00:25:14,220 --> 00:25:16,120 which is crucial to our journey's end. 461 00:25:19,650 --> 00:25:22,830 Off he goes Down Under and he's made superintendent 462 00:25:22,830 --> 00:25:26,010 of the country's very limited telegraph network, 463 00:25:26,010 --> 00:25:30,660 which runs only a few miles from Melbourne to Williamstown, 464 00:25:30,660 --> 00:25:33,420 which leaves almost 2,000 miles of everything 465 00:25:33,420 --> 00:25:35,340 from swamps to bush to cover 466 00:25:35,340 --> 00:25:37,293 if you want a national telegraph line, 467 00:25:38,730 --> 00:25:42,690 which is what in 1870 Todd undertakes to provide. 468 00:25:42,690 --> 00:25:45,333 With a team of thousands of laborers and engineers, 469 00:25:46,440 --> 00:25:50,730 they load up with 15 horse-drawn wagons, 180 horses, 470 00:25:50,730 --> 00:25:53,880 100 camels, and 220 bullocks, 471 00:25:53,880 --> 00:25:55,890 carrying more than 150 tons 472 00:25:55,890 --> 00:26:00,510 of stores, tools, wire and insulators. 473 00:26:00,510 --> 00:26:02,460 For a European far from home, 474 00:26:02,460 --> 00:26:05,340 a cable goes literally through the middle of nowhere. 475 00:26:05,340 --> 00:26:06,213 Take a look. 476 00:26:09,930 --> 00:26:12,704 You get a feel for the area when you know that one place 477 00:26:12,704 --> 00:26:14,173 in the vast Outback is called Mount Hopeless. 478 00:26:23,596 --> 00:26:25,710 The telegraph line job takes almost two years 479 00:26:25,710 --> 00:26:27,600 and it ain't easy. 480 00:26:27,600 --> 00:26:31,410 Once the exact line of each stage of the route is decided, 481 00:26:31,410 --> 00:26:34,260 a path 13 yards wide is cleared 482 00:26:34,260 --> 00:26:35,880 and pegs are stuck in the ground 483 00:26:35,880 --> 00:26:38,250 to mark a position of each telegraph pole 484 00:26:38,250 --> 00:26:40,563 planted 87 yards apart. 485 00:26:42,150 --> 00:26:45,100 And do that thousands of times. Right? 486 00:26:47,640 --> 00:26:49,140 Then come the wet season. 487 00:26:49,140 --> 00:26:51,780 Dry creeks flood, tracks become bogs, 488 00:26:51,780 --> 00:26:54,420 animals drown and food goes bad, 489 00:26:54,420 --> 00:26:57,123 and men down tools and go on strike. 490 00:26:58,500 --> 00:27:00,093 The ones that don't die first. 491 00:27:04,530 --> 00:27:08,823 In spite of everything, on August the 22nd, 1872, 492 00:27:08,823 --> 00:27:09,656 they've done it. 493 00:27:09,656 --> 00:27:11,220 A grand total of almost 2,000 miles 494 00:27:11,220 --> 00:27:13,680 of single galvanized wire strung 495 00:27:13,680 --> 00:27:17,940 on 36,000 poles and connected to London 496 00:27:17,940 --> 00:27:19,443 by underwater cables. 497 00:27:20,370 --> 00:27:23,040 They fire a 21 gun salute with their revolvers 498 00:27:23,040 --> 00:27:24,740 and break open a bottle of brandy. 499 00:27:32,760 --> 00:27:35,040 In the first four weeks of operation, 500 00:27:35,040 --> 00:27:38,730 866 cables are sent to and from London. 501 00:27:38,730 --> 00:27:40,833 In the first year, more than 4,000. 502 00:27:41,730 --> 00:27:44,970 Australia, 2,000 miles from the nearest British colony, 503 00:27:44,970 --> 00:27:47,070 is now connected to the rest of the world. 504 00:27:48,150 --> 00:27:50,553 You see what I meant by Todd becoming a hero. 505 00:27:53,460 --> 00:27:55,170 So where are we on our journey 506 00:27:55,170 --> 00:27:57,450 towards a genetically engineered future 507 00:27:57,450 --> 00:27:59,733 where we can design superhumans? 508 00:28:02,910 --> 00:28:05,880 Coffee houses kick off the Enlightenment 509 00:28:05,880 --> 00:28:08,460 and Frederick the Great's coffee craze. 510 00:28:08,460 --> 00:28:11,850 Frederick loves the programmable flute player from Vaucanson 511 00:28:11,850 --> 00:28:15,030 whose punch cards go on to automate weaving 512 00:28:15,030 --> 00:28:17,190 and inspire Jacquard to use them 513 00:28:17,190 --> 00:28:19,560 to generate complex patterns. 514 00:28:19,560 --> 00:28:23,400 This punch card system triggers Ada Lovelace's support 515 00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:26,280 for Babbage's computer, which never gets made, 516 00:28:26,280 --> 00:28:29,580 leaving Babbage not being recognized for his talents. 517 00:28:29,580 --> 00:28:32,010 Unlike his old classmate, John Hershel, 518 00:28:32,010 --> 00:28:34,440 who invents blueprints and discovers nebulae 519 00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:36,929 before bumping into Robert Wachope 520 00:28:36,929 --> 00:28:40,320 who standardizes navigation using a time ball 521 00:28:40,320 --> 00:28:42,960 operated in Greenwich by Charles Todd, 522 00:28:42,960 --> 00:28:44,910 who connects up Australia to London 523 00:28:44,910 --> 00:28:46,233 with his telegraph cable. 524 00:28:51,328 --> 00:28:53,310 In 1886, Todd hosts a young mathematician 525 00:28:53,310 --> 00:28:56,340 from England called William Bragg. 526 00:28:56,340 --> 00:28:58,140 He comes to dinner at the Todds 527 00:28:58,140 --> 00:29:01,400 and meets then marries Todd's daughter. 528 00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:09,720 Years pass, Bragg settles into a job 529 00:29:09,720 --> 00:29:12,210 as professor of physics at Leeds University, 530 00:29:12,210 --> 00:29:15,063 a place where a big breakthrough is about to happen. 531 00:29:19,085 --> 00:29:20,430 Because Bragg is fascinated 532 00:29:20,430 --> 00:29:22,950 by the recent discovery of x-rays 533 00:29:22,950 --> 00:29:24,723 and decides to take a closer look. 534 00:29:26,430 --> 00:29:29,220 Physicists among you should now turn down the sound 535 00:29:29,220 --> 00:29:32,010 and avoid my grossly over simple explanation 536 00:29:32,010 --> 00:29:33,903 of what Bragg does next, 537 00:29:35,250 --> 00:29:37,800 which is to see if he can use x-ray beams 538 00:29:37,800 --> 00:29:40,470 to see extremely small things 539 00:29:40,470 --> 00:29:43,443 like the internal structure of salt crystals. 540 00:29:46,500 --> 00:29:49,230 Bragg hopes he can use the properties of the crystal 541 00:29:49,230 --> 00:29:52,470 to act like a magnifying glass appear 542 00:29:52,470 --> 00:29:56,253 into something far too small to see by any other means. 543 00:29:57,120 --> 00:29:59,193 This is extreme geek. 544 00:30:02,490 --> 00:30:05,100 By rotating the crystal through 180 degrees 545 00:30:05,100 --> 00:30:07,440 as you fire a beam of x-rays through it, 546 00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:09,570 you can collect a pattern of dots 547 00:30:09,570 --> 00:30:11,493 on a series of photographic plates. 548 00:30:12,480 --> 00:30:14,910 The patterns reveal the internal structure 549 00:30:14,910 --> 00:30:18,153 of the crystallized material right down to the atomic level. 550 00:30:20,220 --> 00:30:21,153 Clever stuff. 551 00:30:22,410 --> 00:30:24,900 Bragg's pioneering work in the emerging new field 552 00:30:24,900 --> 00:30:27,930 of x-ray crystallography wins him the Nobel Prize 553 00:30:27,930 --> 00:30:30,003 for physics in 1915. 554 00:30:30,990 --> 00:30:32,070 Okay, you may be wondering 555 00:30:32,070 --> 00:30:34,890 what this bit of extremely arcane noodling 556 00:30:34,890 --> 00:30:36,660 has to do with shaping the future 557 00:30:36,660 --> 00:30:39,063 where humans can be genetically redesigned. 558 00:30:42,210 --> 00:30:43,080 It's all going to be 559 00:30:43,080 --> 00:30:45,720 because of what a young English crystallographer is up to 560 00:30:45,720 --> 00:30:50,640 during and after World War II in the UK and France 561 00:30:50,640 --> 00:30:52,353 fiddling around with bits of coal. 562 00:30:55,699 --> 00:30:57,930 Her name is Rosalind Franklin, 563 00:30:57,930 --> 00:31:01,170 and you could say that by any stretch of the imagination 564 00:31:01,170 --> 00:31:02,373 she's hard done by. 565 00:31:05,010 --> 00:31:06,900 She spent her early working years 566 00:31:06,900 --> 00:31:08,730 on a major part of the war effort 567 00:31:08,730 --> 00:31:11,820 trying to find out ways to make coal burn more efficiently 568 00:31:11,820 --> 00:31:15,540 and get more bang for the buck because it's wartime 1941 569 00:31:15,540 --> 00:31:17,040 and coal supplies are limited. 570 00:31:18,150 --> 00:31:20,610 Studying coal back then is also a big deal 571 00:31:20,610 --> 00:31:23,880 because of the way charcoal activated filters made 572 00:31:23,880 --> 00:31:27,743 from coal are used in wartime gas masks. 573 00:31:30,090 --> 00:31:32,850 After the war, Franklin uses crystallography 574 00:31:32,850 --> 00:31:34,773 to see coal in a whole new light. 575 00:31:35,910 --> 00:31:39,570 Turns out all coal is one of four different types, 576 00:31:39,570 --> 00:31:43,203 which can be broken down into two groups, hot or not. 577 00:31:44,877 --> 00:31:47,340 And this is down to the tiny holes in the coal. 578 00:31:47,340 --> 00:31:49,200 The size of the holes relates 579 00:31:49,200 --> 00:31:51,930 to what kind of gases can get into the coal, 580 00:31:51,930 --> 00:31:54,423 and that's what makes the coal burn hot or not. 581 00:31:58,530 --> 00:32:00,930 By 1951 Franklin's back in London 582 00:32:00,930 --> 00:32:03,690 and now using crystallography to study polio 583 00:32:03,690 --> 00:32:05,703 and plant viruses and stuff. 584 00:32:07,080 --> 00:32:08,850 And the following year she starts 585 00:32:08,850 --> 00:32:12,330 to catalog the different x-ray patterns of crystals, 586 00:32:12,330 --> 00:32:15,063 taking photos of one particular crystal. 587 00:32:17,370 --> 00:32:22,023 In May that year, she comes up with this, photo 51. 588 00:32:22,980 --> 00:32:26,010 What you are looking at is one of the greatest innovations 589 00:32:26,010 --> 00:32:28,440 in the whole of entire history. 590 00:32:28,440 --> 00:32:31,260 I won't go into detail because we don't have time 591 00:32:31,260 --> 00:32:32,340 and it's gobbledgooked anyway. 592 00:32:32,340 --> 00:32:35,790 Let me just say that the pattern in photo 51 593 00:32:35,790 --> 00:32:39,000 shows Franklin the double helix shape 594 00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:41,133 of the crystal structure she's looking at. 595 00:32:41,970 --> 00:32:43,413 Looks familiar, right? 596 00:32:44,820 --> 00:32:46,920 But before Franklin can do much about it, 597 00:32:46,920 --> 00:32:49,050 the picture gets shown without her knowledge 598 00:32:49,050 --> 00:32:51,150 to a couple of guys at Cambridge University 599 00:32:51,150 --> 00:32:54,570 who some say borrow all Franklin's ideas 600 00:32:54,570 --> 00:32:57,038 and win awards for their trouble. 601 00:33:05,310 --> 00:33:08,340 The two Cambridge people called Crick and Watson, 602 00:33:08,340 --> 00:33:09,840 who may ring a bell, 603 00:33:09,840 --> 00:33:11,970 get the Nobel for their discovery 604 00:33:11,970 --> 00:33:14,460 of the crystal structure Franklin has photographed, 605 00:33:14,460 --> 00:33:17,403 the double helix structure of DNA. 606 00:33:20,130 --> 00:33:23,370 Franklin, who dies of ovarian cancer in 1958 607 00:33:23,370 --> 00:33:26,553 at the age of 37, is not credited until later. 608 00:33:27,420 --> 00:33:29,733 Extremely unfair, many people think. 609 00:33:33,060 --> 00:33:35,820 Now never let it be said this series avoids hard science. 610 00:33:35,820 --> 00:33:38,433 So here's DNA in a nutshell. 611 00:33:40,050 --> 00:33:42,810 First, the double helix is called that 612 00:33:42,810 --> 00:33:44,030 because the DNA molecules come 613 00:33:44,030 --> 00:33:47,130 in a kind of double spiral staircase structure 614 00:33:47,130 --> 00:33:49,203 with sections that look like rungs. 615 00:33:50,190 --> 00:33:52,500 Each rung is called a gene. 616 00:33:52,500 --> 00:33:55,680 Every cell in your body needs a gene to make proteins 617 00:33:55,680 --> 00:33:59,343 and keep the cell alive so it can do its job in your body, 618 00:34:00,240 --> 00:34:02,430 which all eventually adds up to making you, 619 00:34:02,430 --> 00:34:05,490 you and not anybody else. 620 00:34:05,490 --> 00:34:06,900 Okay, now, the amazing bit. 621 00:34:06,900 --> 00:34:09,570 There's about two yards of DNA 622 00:34:09,570 --> 00:34:11,613 in almost every cell of the human body. 623 00:34:12,630 --> 00:34:16,230 With the body consisting of around 37 trillion cells 624 00:34:16,230 --> 00:34:20,610 that works out to about 46 billion miles of DNA, 625 00:34:20,610 --> 00:34:22,170 more than enough to stretch 626 00:34:22,170 --> 00:34:25,500 all the way to Pluto and back four times. 627 00:34:25,500 --> 00:34:28,533 And it's why you have about 22,000 genes. 628 00:34:29,670 --> 00:34:30,720 And the way your genes interact 629 00:34:30,720 --> 00:34:32,490 give you your characteristics, 630 00:34:32,490 --> 00:34:36,690 including color of eyes, height, irritability, or whatever, 631 00:34:36,690 --> 00:34:39,030 above all the ability to adapt to 632 00:34:39,030 --> 00:34:41,763 and survive changes in the environment. 633 00:34:43,170 --> 00:34:45,000 And we may have more genes than we need. 634 00:34:45,000 --> 00:34:49,710 In fact, we don't even know yet what 90% of them do. 635 00:34:49,710 --> 00:34:50,820 Talk about backup. 636 00:34:50,820 --> 00:34:52,680 No wonder people call DNA 637 00:34:52,680 --> 00:34:55,203 the most exciting molecule in existence. 638 00:34:58,230 --> 00:35:00,060 If there was ever a future changer, 639 00:35:00,060 --> 00:35:03,390 it's DNA because that's what DNA does anyway, 640 00:35:03,390 --> 00:35:07,953 change the future through genetic change as it always has. 641 00:35:11,520 --> 00:35:14,820 We humans have been using DNA to cause genetic change 642 00:35:14,820 --> 00:35:17,100 for thousands of years without knowing it. 643 00:35:17,100 --> 00:35:20,070 From the first farmers maybe 12,000 years ago, 644 00:35:20,070 --> 00:35:21,300 who crossed bread plants 645 00:35:21,300 --> 00:35:24,090 like wheat, corn, potatoes, and rice 646 00:35:24,090 --> 00:35:27,660 to make them produce more nutrients or survive droughts. 647 00:35:27,660 --> 00:35:29,820 And then the same cross breeding in animals 648 00:35:29,820 --> 00:35:33,030 like sheep, pigs and cows, horses and dogs 649 00:35:33,030 --> 00:35:35,283 to give the animals characteristics we value. 650 00:35:36,300 --> 00:35:38,820 Breeding has given us the kind of domesticated plants 651 00:35:38,820 --> 00:35:40,440 and animals we know today. 652 00:35:40,440 --> 00:35:43,440 Just take a look at the extraordinary variety of dogs 653 00:35:43,440 --> 00:35:47,823 we've bred over the centuries, mostly for their looks. 654 00:35:49,590 --> 00:35:51,480 But we no longer have to rely 655 00:35:51,480 --> 00:35:53,730 on selective breeding to do this. 656 00:35:53,730 --> 00:35:55,080 For the first time, 657 00:35:55,080 --> 00:35:58,380 being able to manipulate DNA in a lab 658 00:35:58,380 --> 00:36:00,810 is beginning to allow us to change the genes 659 00:36:00,810 --> 00:36:04,683 in plants and animals and ourselves. 660 00:36:05,700 --> 00:36:08,040 We're able to edit genes and make them different, 661 00:36:08,040 --> 00:36:10,050 doing different things. 662 00:36:10,050 --> 00:36:11,610 Like this, for instance. 663 00:36:11,610 --> 00:36:12,483 A lab rat. 664 00:36:13,560 --> 00:36:17,220 Switch off the lights and shine an ultraviolet light on him, 665 00:36:17,220 --> 00:36:18,993 and he does this. 666 00:36:20,070 --> 00:36:23,400 The reason researchers have inserted a protein 667 00:36:23,400 --> 00:36:25,530 that fluoresces under UV light, 668 00:36:25,530 --> 00:36:30,510 a protein originally taken from this, a jellyfish. 669 00:36:30,510 --> 00:36:32,310 Neat, don't you think? 670 00:36:32,310 --> 00:36:34,590 But what use is a glowing rat? 671 00:36:34,590 --> 00:36:35,820 You see, that's not the only part 672 00:36:35,820 --> 00:36:37,980 of the rat's genetic makeup that's been gene edited. 673 00:36:37,980 --> 00:36:42,390 He's also genetically modified to show signs of Alzheimer's. 674 00:36:42,390 --> 00:36:45,000 That means scientists can test treatment 675 00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:47,373 that might one day reverse or cure the illness. 676 00:36:50,100 --> 00:36:51,213 So why does he glow? 677 00:36:52,170 --> 00:36:54,810 Well, it's pretty hard to know if the DNA edits 678 00:36:54,810 --> 00:36:57,180 that will give the rat Alzheimer's have worked or not. 679 00:36:57,180 --> 00:36:58,920 But if you had the jellyfish gene 680 00:36:58,920 --> 00:37:01,770 alongside the Alzheimer gene, bingo! 681 00:37:01,770 --> 00:37:05,523 A glowing rat is a successfully modified rat. 682 00:37:09,870 --> 00:37:13,170 The pharmaceutical industry uses this kind of technique 683 00:37:13,170 --> 00:37:15,390 to build new products. 684 00:37:15,390 --> 00:37:16,800 In the long run, 685 00:37:16,800 --> 00:37:18,900 the hope is that genetic manipulation 686 00:37:18,900 --> 00:37:20,280 will eliminate some disease, 687 00:37:20,280 --> 00:37:23,073 maybe even give us another 50 years of life. 688 00:37:24,480 --> 00:37:26,370 People who will live and create 689 00:37:26,370 --> 00:37:29,823 instead of dying and depriving us of their potential. 690 00:37:32,820 --> 00:37:34,860 We are also already beginning to identify 691 00:37:34,860 --> 00:37:36,870 from inherited characteristics 692 00:37:36,870 --> 00:37:38,430 that certain people are likely 693 00:37:38,430 --> 00:37:41,280 to develop specific disease conditions. 694 00:37:41,280 --> 00:37:44,280 Experimentally, we're already using genetic engineering 695 00:37:44,280 --> 00:37:47,130 to test the treatment of hearing loss on mice 696 00:37:47,130 --> 00:37:49,653 and try out cures for sickle cell anemia. 697 00:37:51,870 --> 00:37:52,800 There is already a set 698 00:37:52,800 --> 00:37:56,310 of genetically engineered Chinese twin girls born 699 00:37:56,310 --> 00:37:59,073 with a genetically engineered resistance to HIV. 700 00:38:00,600 --> 00:38:03,420 More generally, genes also give you the look you have. 701 00:38:03,420 --> 00:38:07,353 So genetics has already made possible a few designer babies. 702 00:38:08,490 --> 00:38:10,950 But if we can all one day do that, 703 00:38:10,950 --> 00:38:14,505 what look will we choose and will that matter? 704 00:38:16,170 --> 00:38:17,770 We have reached our destination. 705 00:38:19,590 --> 00:38:23,896 Superhumans, genetically enhanced in every way. 706 00:38:23,896 --> 00:38:26,190 (dramatic music) 707 00:38:26,190 --> 00:38:28,380 Over the last 3.7 billion years, 708 00:38:28,380 --> 00:38:31,950 we've gradually appeared as a species by random mutations 709 00:38:31,950 --> 00:38:34,590 in reaction to changing environments. 710 00:38:34,590 --> 00:38:38,643 Genetic engineering removes the random and allows choice. 711 00:38:40,080 --> 00:38:42,690 Because the future will go on changing, 712 00:38:42,690 --> 00:38:43,890 anything might come along 713 00:38:43,890 --> 00:38:46,290 and alter how we make those choices. 714 00:38:46,290 --> 00:38:50,010 I mean, if technological advances favor as they do already, 715 00:38:50,010 --> 00:38:53,400 a particular kind of human talent or mental ability, 716 00:38:53,400 --> 00:38:57,090 we might choose to redirect the whole of human development 717 00:38:57,090 --> 00:38:59,580 and breed out those pre-technology human traits 718 00:38:59,580 --> 00:39:00,543 no longer of value. 719 00:39:02,006 --> 00:39:04,980 But the basic thought in all this, 720 00:39:04,980 --> 00:39:06,870 we don't know for sure 721 00:39:06,870 --> 00:39:09,540 about the wider long-term ramifications 722 00:39:09,540 --> 00:39:10,690 of genetic engineering. 723 00:39:12,390 --> 00:39:14,520 A planet full of superhumans. 724 00:39:14,520 --> 00:39:16,070 What will our armies look like? 725 00:39:17,280 --> 00:39:18,693 How will we wage war? 726 00:39:19,830 --> 00:39:22,770 Will some countries go for different genomic targets, 727 00:39:22,770 --> 00:39:24,390 much in the way the present world 728 00:39:24,390 --> 00:39:26,883 competitively develops technology or weapons? 729 00:39:28,110 --> 00:39:30,300 An ever increasing human arms race, 730 00:39:30,300 --> 00:39:32,913 developing increasingly deadly versions of humanity? 731 00:39:34,740 --> 00:39:37,983 Who gets to decide what genetic research is done? 732 00:39:39,420 --> 00:39:42,960 If our leaders are genetically modified superhumans, 733 00:39:42,960 --> 00:39:44,910 where does that leave the rest of us? 734 00:39:44,910 --> 00:39:48,180 Second class citizens? Slaves? 735 00:39:48,180 --> 00:39:50,670 What about the poor countries without the means to develop 736 00:39:50,670 --> 00:39:51,873 and use the technology? 737 00:39:53,280 --> 00:39:56,283 Will genetic engineering separate the third world even more? 738 00:39:57,690 --> 00:40:00,600 If we engineer ourselves to be free of disease 739 00:40:00,600 --> 00:40:03,813 and age related illness, how long will we live? 740 00:40:05,100 --> 00:40:10,100 And so an exploding population, living where and doing what? 741 00:40:13,018 --> 00:40:14,130 A multitude of those ramifications 742 00:40:14,130 --> 00:40:15,780 still await our decisions. 743 00:40:15,780 --> 00:40:20,013 Decisions that will literally shape us and the future. 744 00:40:22,440 --> 00:40:25,293 Maybe it's time now to start thinking about that. 744 00:40:26,305 --> 00:41:26,470