- 24 minutes ago
Patrick finds invisible octopuses and invincible cockroaches; scientists try to create technologies that could better protect us in the future.
在本期节目中，帕特里克·阿里（Patrick Aryee）将探索自然界中那些生存大师如何保护自己。他将探寻诸如“隐形”章鱼和“无敌”蟑螂等神奇生物。节目还将跟随科学家们的脚步，看他们如何研究这些独特的进化适应特征，进而开发出旨在更好地保护人类的、具有开创性的未来机器人技术。生物学家帕特里克·阿里将踏上一段充满激情的探险之旅，揭示大自然如何帮助我们应对人类面临的重大挑战。
在本期节目中，帕特里克·阿里（Patrick Aryee）将探索自然界中那些生存大师如何保护自己。他将探寻诸如“隐形”章鱼和“无敌”蟑螂等神奇生物。节目还将跟随科学家们的脚步，看他们如何研究这些独特的进化适应特征，进而开发出旨在更好地保护人类的、具有开创性的未来机器人技术。生物学家帕特里克·阿里将踏上一段充满激情的探险之旅，揭示大自然如何帮助我们应对人类面临的重大挑战。
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TVTranscript
00:10The oceans are the epitome of beauty, but don't be fooled because this is a very dangerous
00:18environment to live in. It's a world filled with apex predators, poisonous prey, and powerful
00:24currents. Yet life has existed here longer than it has anywhere else on the planet, and so it's
00:29had no choice but to master the art of protection.
00:54Good find that we're finding all this life down here.
01:01It might be a dog-eat-dog world topside, but down here, it's big fish eats little fish.
01:10Anything that's not at the top of the food chain must adapt to stay alive.
01:17Take one of the shark's favourite meals. A creature hunted by these prehistoric apex predators
01:25is perhaps, understandably, hard to find.
01:30I still can't see the octopus. Where is it?
01:35Oh yeah, I can see it. I can see it. Look at that colour.
01:44You really wouldn't be able to see it unless you were looking for it.
01:56I think she's gone, she's gone.
02:04You've got it.
02:09You've got it everywhere. Not only is the octopus coming off of camouflage, it's alluded
02:16to myself as a prevention.
02:18As a last line of defence, an octopus will use ink to confuse a predator's senses.
02:24What an incredible animal.
02:26It's such a privilege to be down here with this fascinating creature.
02:30It's very stunning.
02:32These are exactly the kinds of defence mechanisms that I'm here to investigate.
02:46Whether prey or predator, in a world as dangerous as this,
02:51you need all the protection you can get.
02:55Spines, armour, and chemical weapons.
03:00Over 3.8 billion years, evolution has served up a spectacular array of defensive tactics.
03:09This journey is the culmination of years of experience
03:13investigating how nature can teach us how to better defend ourselves
03:18in this ever-changing world.
03:21It doesn't want to let go.
03:23Could the animal kingdom help us detect deadly new threats?
03:28Oh, whoa!
03:29Or help us protect our most vulnerable?
03:32This is really cool. I love that.
03:35And perhaps even make ourselves impervious to danger.
03:50My journey begins with a team who are trying to crack evolution's very own cloaking device.
03:57Yeah, and it got away from us for a second there, but that was great.
04:02Yeah, great job wrangling it.
04:04Really, really well done.
04:05Yeah.
04:06In the bag is an animal that's been honing its defensive strategies for 500 million years.
04:13That was awesome.
04:14Over that time, it's evolved a whole suite of impressive abilities.
04:20But it's their ability to all but shape-shift that has scientists like Heather really interested.
04:27And so, uh, should we just pop him in?
04:29Let's...
04:30Or hire him?
04:30Yeah, let's...
04:31Well, we can actually do that first if we want to see if it's a male or a female.
04:34Looks like a female to me, actually.
04:36So what are you looking for?
04:37So, on the bottom here, you're looking for some large, large suckers, and we're only seeing
04:43regular size kind of going all the way down, so it looks like probably female.
04:48It's amazing just the feeling of the suckers on my hand.
04:51It's just...
04:52I don't know how to describe it.
04:57Life is pretty short if you're an octopus like this one.
05:01She'll only live a couple of years at best.
05:04But without her evolutionary tricks, she wouldn't survive a fraction of that time.
05:11She's descended from ancient snails.
05:15At some point, her kind abandoned their hard, protective shells and had to develop new ways
05:21to defend themselves.
05:24Her soft, squishy body makes her an easy meal.
05:30As a result, evolution has armed her with some impressive tools.
05:36Eight legs to move quickly around the reef.
05:40And exceptional problem-solving skills to outwit predators.
05:48That complex nervous system is key to performing one of the most fascinating disappearing acts
05:54in nature.
06:00Generations of scientists have been obsessed with unlocking the secrets of the octopus's
06:06camouflage, a supernatural skill that Heather wants to demonstrate with a simple research
06:13demo.
06:19Well, let's get her in the water.
06:21We've had her out of the water for a little while.
06:23Mm-hmm.
06:23Wow, look, so right away she got really dark as soon as we got her in that water.
06:28Yeah, definitely.
06:30The secret to the octopus's color-shifting abilities are these.
06:36Chromatophores.
06:37They're essentially sacks of different colored pigment that sit just below the surface of
06:42the skin.
06:45Chromatophores swell and shrink, controlling which colors are displayed.
06:50But this colorful palette needs an artist.
06:53And that is where the octopus's beautifully bizarre brain comes in.
06:59When she wants to mimic something in her surroundings, her brain sends electrical signals to control
07:05the colors displayed by the chromatophores.
07:12Like a balloon filled with dye.
07:14Exactly.
07:14So if you push that dye closer to the surface, it's, you know, creating that tension.
07:20You can see that color more brightly.
07:21Exactly.
07:21And then once you release it, you can see, well, you can't see the dye so much.
07:24Maybe it's just the color of the balloon.
07:26And I guess that's what's happening beneath the skin of this octopus.
07:29That nice, dark color.
07:31Sometimes they'll do that to kind of make themselves look a little bit bigger.
07:35It's kind of a response to predators.
07:37Huffing herself up like that.
07:39Exactly.
07:40Making herself look a little bit bigger and scarier, that dark color.
07:50The octopus's brain uses inputs from her eyes, touch from her arms, and even light-sensitive
07:58proteins in her skin to accurately mimic her surroundings.
08:04Heathers place some coral in this tank to reveal just how far they can push their abilities.
08:12Beyond their kaleidoscope of colors, octopuses can even morph the texture of their skin.
08:19Regions called papillae use muscles to create bumps, spikes, and even branches.
08:27So you want to try at moving it to the next one?
08:30I'll give it a go.
08:31How do you hold an octopus?
08:33Well, you kind of want to get under her arms and support her, but you don't want to get your
08:38fingers close to that beak.
08:39Because you don't want to get bitten.
08:41Okay, sorry.
08:51You got it.
08:52You got it.
08:53You're supporting the mantle, which is good, but if you don't have the arm, she's going to fight you.
08:59Okay.
08:59You kind of want to get...
09:01Okay, perfect.
09:03Nice.
09:04Now she's getting that dark color again, probably responding to those stones.
09:09No more papillae.
09:10She's starting to see, you know, those smoother rocks.
09:13I reckon that if we were to find life on another planet, it would look like that.
09:19I hope so.
09:20Honestly, sometimes I think if octopuses lived longer, they would just take over the world because they're so smart and
09:27adaptable.
09:28Oh, my God.
09:29Hello.
09:29What's going on, mate?
09:31I'm just in awe.
09:31I just like watching it.
09:33Yeah.
09:36The only thing left to do is return our octopus to her rocky outcrop.
09:42And in a hushed goodbye, she gives us one last display of her defensive skills and simply disappears.
09:54Leaving the octopuses' playground behind, it's clear that our own attempts at camouflage are pretty primitive compared to what evolution
10:02has cooked up.
10:04Cephalopods like octopus, squid, cuttlefish, they are really incredible at camouflage and blending into their surroundings.
10:14But for us, we don't even come close to that level of skill.
10:18What we do have is something called digital camouflage.
10:21And the design has been generated by a computer algorithm.
10:25It basically breaks up different shapes and patterns so it's not as easily recognizable.
10:29But it's not that great, really, is it, when we think about it?
10:33And if we're able to generate a way of better camouflaging people, buildings, and maybe even wildlife, that would be
10:43pretty awesome.
10:45Now, Heather's put me onto a scientist who's working on some tech just like this in Boston.
10:51So, I think I'd better get myself onto a plane and over to her.
11:06I'm meeting Leila Dharabi.
11:08She is a professor here at Northeastern University Boston.
11:12She's been studying cephalopod skin.
11:15So, I reckon if anybody knows where this technology is going, it's going to be her.
11:19Pleasure to meet you.
11:20Nice to meet you.
11:20Yeah, thank you for the invite.
11:22Thanks for coming.
11:23You're a biomaterial scientist.
11:26So, for the average person, what does that mean?
11:28So, as a lab, we became really early on super obsessed with the chromatophores.
11:33So, we're trying to figure out from the biology side, how do these compounds work?
11:37And essentially, we found a core group of compounds called xanthomatin and decarboxylated xanthomatin.
11:44Say those two names again.
11:46Xanthomatin.
11:47Xanthomatin.
11:47And decarboxylated xanthomatin.
11:50Decarboxyly, what?
11:51You can just say xanthomatin.
11:52No, I want to know what they are.
11:53I want to know it.
11:54Yeah.
11:54Ah, decarboxylated.
11:57Decarboxylated xanthomatin.
11:59Xanthomatin.
12:00Xanthomatin.
12:01This is good.
12:01You can see where this is going, huh?
12:03Xanthomatin.
12:03Okay.
12:04But essentially, it's so crazy because this one core group of compounds can contribute to a bunch of different colors
12:09and we'll show all that to you in the lab.
12:11It'll be great to check out some of your experiments.
12:14Let's go.
12:14Awesome.
12:15Yes, come on.
12:16Which way are we headed?
12:16We're going this way.
12:17Yeah, cool.
12:19Something kind of cool about being in a lab, you know?
12:21Takes me back to my uni days.
12:22Leila and her team have gone way beyond just mimicking the octopuses expanding and shrinking chromatophores.
12:28They found an isolated evolution's secret ingredient for color changing, a compound that's more than 500 million years in the
12:37making.
12:38So here in this little stage is xanthomatin in different solvents and solvent systems.
12:44And so we're able to achieve a vast array of color.
12:48The octopus chromatophores don't themselves change color.
12:51They simply reveal more or less of a specific color, combining their action for an overall effect.
12:58Xanthomatin is the key ingredient responsible for giving each chromatophore its color.
13:04Leila, Erica, are you telling me that you've essentially cracked the code to the secrets of cephalopod skin?
13:12It's just only one piece of the very large puzzle for how these animals camouflage.
13:17What we're really excited about is taking those compounds and actually putting them into materials and films that we can
13:22use to sort of simulate the cephalopod skin.
13:25Leila's team have effectively distilled camouflage into a bottle.
13:29But how are they going to get it to work like real octopus skin?
13:34To me and to anybody at home, that kind of looks like something out of, you know, a sci-fi
13:38movie.
13:39Pretty quickly, we can go between the red and yellow states that xanthomatin offers.
13:45The team have connected a pair of electrodes to this film of xanthomatin.
13:50Like the nerve impulses from an octopus's brain, the electrodes trigger the color change.
13:56The electricity isn't changing the amount of color we see.
14:00It's causing a chemical reaction that changes the color from red to yellow.
14:06As we move forward, we can continue to iteratively improve on these devices to create devices that provide more dramatic
14:14color change.
14:16These are the first steps to mimicking the octopus's adaptive camouflage.
14:21With the first part of the puzzle cracked, I'm curious.
14:24How could we use this technology for our own defense?
14:28Well, the hope lies right here.
14:31One day soon, these panels could be woven together into multipurpose displays, mimicking their surroundings by using the visual inputs
14:40of cameras.
14:42It just seems so incredible because the potential applications are, you know, far and wide.
14:47The obvious application would be militaristic.
14:50So where do you see this technology going?
14:53What would you hope the future applications might be?
14:57We're thinking about all these types of things and ways that we can build devices and materials that can communicate
15:02non-verbally to our surroundings.
15:05Beyond the obvious use of this tech in war zones, I want to know what else it can offer.
15:11Perhaps this adaptive camouflage could help defend nature.
15:16Could it be all we ever needed was a bit of octopus magic to protect our endangered wildlife?
15:22When it comes to observing animal behavior, we're really just at the tip of the iceberg and that in itself
15:29is limited by getting researchers and filmmakers into places where they can see natural behavior without altering them or scaring
15:40the animals away.
15:46If we could get closer to the natural world, we could better understand its secrets, unlocking new science and potentially
15:55new doors for biomimicry.
16:03The human body is pretty impressive and when push comes to shove, it can withstand some seriously extreme forces.
16:13In our everyday lives, to protect our bodies from sudden impacts, we have to limit the amount of force that
16:20our bodies experience.
16:21And we do that through things like knee pads, helmets, safety belts and airbags.
16:28Human beings are always going to push the limits to go harder, faster and further.
16:35But as we do that, the risk of injury to our delicate bodies increases.
16:41Evolution has provided some protection like a reinforced skull for our brain.
16:47But what happens in the future when what we're born with isn't enough?
17:03The answer could be hiding in the holes of trees like this in California.
17:13Holes that were made by one of the hardiest heads in the natural world.
17:19It's autumn and this acorn woodpecker is in full winter prep.
17:25At the heart of it all is this, the granary tree.
17:31He spends every day tending to it.
17:34A tree can hold up to 50,000 acorns.
17:40And he vigorously defends it against any would-be thieves.
17:45But the best tactic for protecting his stash is locking it away.
17:51He's evolved a means for smashing acorns deep into the wood, putting them out of reach of the competition.
18:00Although he might look like a delicate bird, his head is essentially both a hammer and a chisel.
18:10With each sledgehammer blow, the woodpecker's head decelerates at a force 20 times greater than a lethal head-on car
18:19crash.
18:21For your eye, a single blow like this would be enough to kill us instantly.
18:38The answer is tucked away inside the woodpecker's head.
18:44His skull isn't exceptionally thick.
18:47But what he does have is a tweaked version of what most vertebrates already possess.
18:54A hyoid bone.
18:55A small U-shaped structure that supports the tongue.
19:00In most birds, this runs from the bottom of the mouth to the back of the head.
19:04But his extends backwards all the way over the top of the skull.
19:09It effectively becomes a seatbelt for the brain, preventing it from rattling around under the force of impacts.
19:17His spongy skull also acts like a shock absorber, which is better equipped for these repeated blows.
19:25Finally, his beak diverts the force of the blow to the lower part of the skull, safely dispersing it across
19:32his body.
19:41Scientists and designers are creating safety equipment based on the woodpecker.
19:46And they've been doing it using some rather unexpected materials.
19:50In fact, one U.S. designer has decided to use cardboard to replicate the spongy layer of skull.
19:56Animals that endure high forces could transform everyday life.
20:01In the natural world, you never quite know when the next threat will arise.
20:08Which is why detection could be the best form of defense.
20:25Maybe if I can find a good hiding place.
20:35Then I'll lose them.
20:37Then we'll just hide here.
20:58Let me introduce you to one of nature's finest detection systems.
21:02It doesn't want to let go.
21:03It doesn't want to let go.
21:05It's going to let go.
21:07Yeah.
21:07Boy.
21:09Well done.
21:10I'm so impressed.
21:12I tried to run.
21:13Yeah?
21:14I tried my best.
21:15The greatest threat out here isn't actually to any of us humans.
21:19It's to the endangered wildlife.
21:22And if I've learned anything on this journey, it's that every single species has the potential
21:28to improve our future.
21:30It's vital we give them a fighting chance.
21:34And round these parts, that job falls to Marlise and her anti-poaching team.
21:41You can't even get up.
21:44Well done.
21:45I want to know how did the dogs track me down so quickly.
21:48You have something in there that she was taught on.
21:50And that is a rhino horn oil pangolin or drugs.
21:53So one of the three is in your bag.
21:55So I hope it's not drugs.
21:56No.
21:57Because then we might get to arrest you.
21:59Yeah.
22:00So let's see what's in there.
22:02All right, cool.
22:02You're a naughty poacher.
22:04It's a sumo poacher.
22:06Okay, so this is my bag.
22:09Aha.
22:10Aha.
22:10Boom.
22:11This is what it is.
22:12Can I hold that?
22:13Yeah.
22:13This is what it all comes down to.
22:17That, to me, and to everybody at home, that looks like a piece of rhino horn.
22:23Yep.
22:24That's a piece of rhino horn.
22:25How much would that fetch on the black market?
22:28So it's almost 100,000 U.S.
22:31I mean, that's a lot of money.
22:32How big a problem is poaching?
22:34In Namibia, only in Namibia, 30 rhinos have been poached in 2020 that we know of, that was reported.
22:41The battle will continue, and we have to fight it and make sure that these animals are protected.
22:46Do you think that having these dogs working alongside the team, has it made any difference?
22:52In three years, we've not had one incident of people trying to get into the reserve.
22:57Because we are proactive.
23:02Marlise's dogs are highly trained.
23:04They have to protect nearly 20,000 acres of land.
23:09But out here, there's no telling what you might find around the next bush.
23:17And they're trying to shoo this rhino away, and they're doing that by clapping.
23:27I think we might be here for a little while.
23:30Has anybody got any popcorn?
23:32No?
23:33Snacks?
23:34No?
23:37Oh, thank you.
23:39That would be good.
23:39Marlise, yeah.
23:41Hmm.
23:44A real poacher would be much harder to detect than me in a sumo suit.
23:50Marlise puts her dogs through training scenarios to get them ready for the real thing.
23:55Today's test?
23:56Tracking ascent across miles of dense bush.
24:00So what's the plan right now, Marlise?
24:02So the plan is, we've got a spore dog and one attack dog.
24:06We have a guy out that's left a trail for us.
24:11So we're going to spore and find the trail with Nala to find the guy.
24:18You mentioned the spore.
24:19What's a spore?
24:20So the spore is footprints.
24:22So it's really difficult to find any footprints in this.
24:26Yeah, I wouldn't be able to find anything.
24:27How long can a dog like Nala remember a scent for?
24:31So Nala's still young.
24:32She's nine months old, and she's just getting the hang of it.
24:36So I've seen that she can go up to four or five hours.
24:40Oh, wow.
24:42If we could see these scents, it would reveal the dog's incredible view of the world.
24:48Trace scents, like our rhino horn, are like a needle in a haystack.
24:53But Nala can increase her sensitivity by separating her sniffing air from the air she's using to breathe.
25:01To identify any target odors, she has around 300 million scent receptors,
25:06while you and I only have around 6 million.
25:10Each sniff lights up her receptors like a Christmas tree,
25:15sending signals to the olfactory part of her brain.
25:19Out here, real poachers won't be easy to track down.
25:23So it's a good thing her scent of smell is up to 100,000 times more powerful than ours.
25:33So what's she looking for right now?
25:34She's now looking for a scent.
25:37Nala!
25:39Nala!
25:40Nala!
25:55Nala!
25:58That smell good.
26:04I'm going to give her to you.
26:05So one hand through here?
26:06Yeah.
26:06And you keep her on your...
26:07On my left?
26:08Left.
26:10Okay.
26:10Okay, here we go.
26:15Oh, she's definitely on it.
26:17Good boy!
26:20Suck!
26:20Suck!
26:20Suck!
26:20Suck!
26:21Yeah, good girl!
26:22Suck!
26:22Suck!
26:24Suck!
26:25Suck!
26:26Suck!
26:27Suck!
26:28Suck!
26:28Suck!
26:29Suck!
26:39Suck!
26:40Suck!
26:40Suck!
26:40Look!
26:41Look for that smell.
26:42Look for that scent.
26:43Look for that odor.
26:44She was on it.
26:45And you can see how she reacts.
26:46She changes.
26:47Yeah.
26:47She started lifting her head because there was a lot of other smells, but she's tuned in.
26:52She was bouncing, jumping up her over the grass, using her eyes as well to try and see
26:57if she can spot, well, our mock poacher.
27:00But that was brilliant.
27:01That was amazing.
27:02That keen sense of smell.
27:04But I also think that maybe the key to that incredible sense of smell lies in the physical structure
27:09of the nose as well. Good girl, Nala. Nala's nose has been evolving for 40 million years.
27:18It's a key adaptation carried over from her ancestor, the wolf.
27:25Out here on the tundra, that nose is what helps keep this mother and her pups alive.
27:34Their pack survives by working together to hunt their prey. In places like this, food is scarce.
27:42Territorial battles with other packs over hunting grounds can be deadly.
27:48Scent isn't just useful for finding prey, she uses it for communication and crucially for detecting danger.
27:57Pups are an easy target for hungry rivals, so mum does all she can to defend them.
28:03Her ability to mark territory and detect other wolves is a matter of life and death.
28:11Dogs have allowed us to harness their sense of smell to protect everything from wildlife to, well,
28:17us. Something that becomes clear as I hop onto my next flight.
28:23Tracking down things like contraband, weapons, harmful substances, is something that postal
28:30services, border patrol, and airports, right? That's one of the challenges that they face.
28:36In fact, one test showed that 95% of bombs and harmful substances that went through security
28:44did so undetected, which, I mean, considering the lines that we're going through, I'm not too sure I'm
28:50too pleased with. But that is why dogs are so important. They have an incredible sense of smell,
28:57and they can track down this contraband really easily. The only problem is that they are really
29:02expensive to train, and also they can only work for so long before their scent receptors start to
29:08become fatigued. And so what we really need is a technology that can work 24-7, 365 days a year.
29:24Here we are. Welcome to NIST, National Institute of Standards and Technology. It's my chance to meet
29:30up with Matt Stamick. Matt's team have been working to harness the detection prowess of the dog's nose,
29:37only without the limitations that come with using a real dog. And his research might help to keep us
29:44safe in the future. Walk this way and let's check out the lab. Awesome. What am I looking at? This
29:50looks
29:51really cool. We wanted to understand what the dog is doing with its environment. How, what is it actually
29:57doing when it's sniffing on the ground? So we ended up 3D printing an anatomically correct dog's nose. So
30:03this is a snout of a female Labrador retriever. And we built a special system that makes the lab sniff,
30:11like a real dog sniff. So this is a Schlieren optical system. It is a very unique imaging system that
30:18allows
30:18us to see things we can't normally see. Oh wow. So what's going on there? So what we're looking at
30:26here is the heat rising off of my hand.
30:30That's awesome. Try this. Just a lighter. Whoa. Oh wow. So that is the warm plume of air.
30:38Many substances emit their very own unique chemical signature in the form of a scent.
30:44Even though you can't see them, your brain can still identify them using the body's olfactory system.
30:50But the trace scents of explosives and contraband are barely detectable by most off-the-shelf vapor detectors.
30:59So Matt, this is just the tool. How does it translate, you know, when we think of like a real
31:04dog's nose and an electronic dog's nose? And we're going to watch right now what happens when you
31:11replicate that? Yeah. First thing you can do is kind of squirt that with some acetone.
31:15Okay. And then whenever you're ready, we're going to see what a dog does in action.
31:21That's amazing. That's so cool. And look at how far of a distance. Like,
31:25we're pretty close here, but look at this.
31:28It's still quite effective. Look at that. That's brilliant.
31:30So here's what's happening. The dog, as it exhales, there is a turbulent air jet that comes out of
31:37each nostril and is vectored down in this direction. So it's exhaling in this direction,
31:41and then it reverses flow and it inhales and it sucks up what it just pulled towards itself,
31:48spits out the old, pulls in the new. So the dog is reaching out, pulling in Odarin from an extended
31:54distance, inhaling it and analyzing it with this amazing chemical detector, right? The olfactory
32:01system and repeating this five times a second. So this is the reason that the dog is a smart sampler.
32:08Detection, fine. We can do that and we can analyze different volatile compounds, but getting them,
32:15sampling them, bringing them in from a distance is what we we need to work on. And it seems that
32:22dogs, canines, wolves have mastered that. That is part of their world.
32:26So we took a whole bunch of commercially available vapor detectors and we designed and 3D printed these
32:33custom, you want to call them nostrils in a way. We made these systems sniff like a dog. And what
32:39we
32:39found was that when we use biomimicry on these instruments, we saw an improvement by about a factor
32:47of 18. Wow. And its ability to detect vapors from a given distance. There and then those two holes is
32:55where the air is going to be coming in and then being exhaled as well. So it's a very simple
33:00way
33:01of improving the sampling. That's right. Now that that little system is able to reach out and pull
33:08vapors that it otherwise would have never had a fighting chance to see.
33:13Matt's team has me thinking, how far could we take snout inspired tech in the future?
33:23I've heard that airports screen up to 4.3 billion passenger bags a year.
33:29And with the need to detect threats in law enforcement, on battlefields and in the freight industry.
33:38And there's just way too much for dogs to do it alone. Dog nose inspired sniffers could give us
33:45enhanced detection systems that don't need food, water, sleep or even much training. But I know this
33:53tech can go even further. Dogs can already detect human diseases before we even know we're sick.
34:02What if these detectors could help us sniff out people who are unaware they're contagious?
34:09We could potentially stop pandemics before they even start.
34:20I've been constantly on the go throughout this journey. And I've been sending all my data back to
34:25the production team thousands of miles away. But as modern threats continue evolving, all that data is
34:33at risk. Our own information can now be turned against us. Take this device for example, my smartphone.
34:42It contains information pretty much on every aspect of my life from my password, pictures, my location,
34:49my bank details. But the danger isn't in the fact that it's on this device. The danger lies in the
34:56fact
34:56that this phone is connected to a virtual network, the World Wide Web. So anybody with know-how could
35:03potentially access it.
35:08But surprisingly, the key to protecting us in the digital age could lie with a creature that invented the
35:14original web. The spider. Unlike its phobia-inducing cousins, this dancing spider will leave you spellbound.
35:28And it's important that we all try learning to love spiders because they may one day become our saviors.
35:37Over the millennia, spiders have evolved an incredible array of shapes,
35:41colors, sizes and skills. But perhaps the most remarkable aspect remains their elaborate webs,
35:52evolution's answer for catching their prey. These intricate webs are usually built by just one spider.
36:02Most spiders are highly antisocial. Some females are so antisocial, they'll even try to eat their mates.
36:12But amongst the 40,000 different species, there are a few spiders that have learnt to put their
36:18differences aside and live as a colony. These are the rare social spiders. By working together,
36:28they can punch way beyond their weight to take down predator or prey much larger than themselves.
36:36Any web is complex and requires constant patrolling. But when you're part of a collective,
36:44you can easily cover a lot more ground, knowing that any intruder will be spotted quickly and dealt with
36:52as a group. Every strand can be defended by an individual spider. And once danger is located,
37:00they can call in reinforcements to protect the web from the invader.
37:08You can imagine cyberspace as a virtual web. When an irregularity is noticed, it sends out a signal,
37:15just like a real insect would send out real vibrations on a real web. Monitoring devices
37:22act as social spiders working together to detect intruders on a virtual network. Just like social
37:29spiders, more monitoring devices on the network, the quicker they can find the intruder. And this means
37:35expending less energy and shutting down the threats more efficiently.
37:42Hacking and cyber warfare are front lines of the future, where billions of dollars can be stolen
37:48and our livelihoods endangered with the click of a button.
37:53With each internet connected device, computers, phones, wi-fi routers, our digital web grows.
38:02And each device is another backdoor for would-be attackers.
38:08Once inside the network, the damage can spread quickly. So the key lies in detecting these intruders
38:14and neutralizing them as fast as possible. Hoping to combat digital threats, researchers in Nigeria
38:23have carefully studied the behavior of social spiders. They used special monitoring devices
38:30and spider-inspired algorithms to detect intruders on a digital network. Compared to similar cyber
38:37security systems, they claim to find and eliminate threats faster and more accurately.
38:43It seems in the world of monitoring complex webs, evolution has done the hard work for us.
38:49We just had to dust off the cobwebs to find it.
39:00We just had to do it. Now having spent some time looking at some of the most successful creatures
39:11on this planet, there is one that I just couldn't possibly ignore. It's known the world over for being
39:17super resilient. So resilient, in fact, that it can survive sometime, sometime without its head.
39:26In the grand scheme of things, the ultimate form of protection would be total invincibility.
39:33Now, this creature can't quite boast that, but it's pretty indestructible nonetheless.
39:39They say cockroaches will be the first creatures to emerge after a nuclear apocalypse.
39:45So what better animal to learn from?
39:50We just need to muster up the courage to film them.
39:54Not our favorite animals, these.
40:01I think you're covered.
40:02No, no, no, no, no. I don't want cockroaches in my shoes.
40:09Like a young Padawan, Luke Skywalker, as he goes to face his mortal enemy, the Darth Roach.
40:21Yeah, let's do it. Let's go find some roaches.
40:23Okay. Here we go. Off to see the wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz.
40:29It's actually not Wizard of Oz. It's Mike Masterson. And look, there he is. Mike.
40:35Hey, Patrick. How are you doing?
40:37Yeah, not too bad. Trying to find dinner?
40:38Oh, absolutely.
40:40Mike is the retired CEO of a pest control company, but these days has changed sides somewhat.
40:47Choosing to spend his days researching the very cockroaches and other critters,
40:51many of us would rather avoid.
40:54Look, I've come prepared.
40:57Lovely, wonderful guards. Look at this. Spared no expense.
41:01I think you're ready for this. Hopefully it's just roaches we're going to find today.
41:06Nothing else. Fingers crossed.
41:10What is it about cockroaches that you think just sends a shiver down people's spine?
41:15One of the main things is, just to see how dirty that is, everybody thinks roaches are dirty.
41:21And they're actually not. They're very clean insects. They continue to groom their legs.
41:26And that's one of the ways they stay very clean.
41:30In the world of creepy crawlies, roaches are the number one boogeyman.
41:36But if we put aside our repulsion, even I have to admit, they're remarkable creatures.
41:45Evolution armed them with long antennae to detect food and danger from afar,
41:50and wings to help them escape predators.
41:54They have a mouth that can chomp through 50 times their own body weight,
41:58which is why very little can stop them.
42:01They're also omnivores, eating anything from bread to leather.
42:07So one man's trash really is a cockroach's treasure.
42:12You think of how we're going through this, looking for them.
42:15This is what they're doing, trying to find food all day long.
42:20Cockroaches are actually related to termites.
42:23But instead of living in a sturdy mound, they evolved a different suite of defenses.
42:30Their legs have three knees to carry them at speeds of over five feet a second,
42:35which for you and me is like running at 200 miles per hour.
42:42So this now becomes a very interesting area for us to look.
42:47But again, I'm sure if we came out here at midnight, we would probably find some activity.
42:52But because it's in the daylight and they tend to stay away from the light,
42:56we have to now start digging, OK, where will they go?
42:59Well, they're going to go down that sewer tube.
43:03With the ability to withstand extreme heat and cold,
43:07cockroaches adapted to our planet's most unsavory spaces.
43:12If they lose a limb, they can simply grow a new one
43:15the next time they molt their exoskeleton.
43:18Plus, its body is remarkably flexible,
43:21helping it to squeeze into tiny gaps and avoid threats.
43:25Like me.
43:31Are you picking up that odor?
43:33Do you smell?
43:34Yeah, something.
43:34I don't know what it is, but...
43:35I'll tell you what.
43:37Let's look at this area right here.
43:40So again, here's dirty laundry coming out.
43:43Mm-hmm.
43:43Dirty laundry has what on it?
43:46Food debris?
43:47Exactly.
43:48Plainly said exactly correct.
43:50There's not a whole lot of s*** on it.
43:52Look at these towels, here we go.
43:54Look at that.
43:54So we know this is a great food source.
43:57So the roaches...
43:58Dead skin.
43:59Right.
44:00Just all sorts, just left out here.
44:03So we know that they're not going to harbor in this area right now because of the daylight.
44:07They're nocturnal.
44:08So I think they might be in this little area here.
44:13I mean, not.
44:14Ugh!
44:15Oh yeah, there's one in there.
44:16You got something?
44:17Oh, there's two.
44:18Oh no, there's loads of them.
44:19Ugh!
44:20Oh wow.
44:21Yeah, you got it.
44:23That's disgusting.
44:24Oh my...
44:24So is this how they are during the daytime?
44:26They're kind of all resting like this?
44:28Exactly.
44:28They don't look like they're moving that much.
44:30Well, right now, basically, you figure this is their night time.
44:33So they're sleeping there.
44:34I mean, this is an area where they're resting.
44:36I mean, it's...
44:37Oh gosh.
44:38Don't you...
44:38Doesn't this creep you out?
44:40Uh, no.
44:41Actually, kind of...
44:42It's like a little playground.
44:43You know, I'm looking at the kids playing in the playground.
44:45Oh man.
44:46There we go.
44:47They're waking up now.
44:48Oh yeah, they don't want any part of this.
44:50And then you have the adults.
44:52Don't wake them up too much.
44:53Coming right at it.
44:53Especially on the flying ones.
44:54Yeah, as soon as we...
44:55Let's take one of these guys out and take a closer look at it.
44:59You got to be careful.
45:00These things can fly also.
45:01Don't put that near my face.
45:03Oh, you're so mean.
45:05Okay.
45:06All right, let's take a look at this thing.
45:08Got a little jar there.
45:11There we go.
45:12Perfect.
45:13Mike, you know, I've heard that these critters are
45:15really, really industrious, really hardy.
45:18And in fact, they can withstand a lot of pressure.
45:21How much?
45:22Between 300 and 900 times their body weight.
45:26Wow.
45:27So right now, I'm putting pressure on to kind of
45:29simulate them going underneath a door through maybe,
45:34let's say, a crack in the wall.
45:35And as you can see, as the pressure goes out, it's expanding.
45:43It can literally be like an accordion and shrink down 40 to 60% of its size and still move
45:50freely.
45:51Where do you think that the cockroach could help us?
45:56Well, I think number one is we have to look at how long they've survived.
46:01Their ancestors go back 280 million years.
46:05So you're looking at here, this American roach is literally generations and generations
46:13of evolving into a survivor.
46:16If that's not enough to teach us on what we need to do to take our biometrics to the next
46:23level,
46:24I don't know what is.
46:26I might not be a cockroach lover just yet, but I've been invited to a lab
46:31that wants to show me the beauty in these virtually indestructible insects.
46:42Look at those epic mountains, blue sky, a beautiful day here in Boulder, Colorado,
46:49and I'm hot on the heels of one of the researchers that Mike put me in touch with.
46:54His name is Kaushik Jayaram.
46:56His research combines biology with robotics to uncover how animals maneuver around their environments.
47:05I'm looking inside this box.
47:08A nightmare for some.
47:10So you've got a couple of different species of cockroach here.
47:14Yeah.
47:14Which ones are in here?
47:15So the ones we have here are the Madagascar hissing roaches.
47:20These are a bit bigger than the American ones.
47:24Can I pick them up?
47:25Yeah, of course.
47:25Go for it.
47:26I'm not a big fan of the American cockroaches, I've got to say, but these
47:31guys and gals are really cool.
47:32They've got this really hard exoskeleton.
47:34They're massive, really big, but they can also use it to do this.
47:39If we bring the mic in, you guys can have a little listen.
47:47Expel air in that hissing sound to try and warn predators or annoying TV hosts to go away.
47:58That's cool, isn't it?
48:00I like these cockroaches.
48:03Armoured giants.
48:06Time to see how Kaushik's pet roaches have fuelled his research.
48:16Walking into his lab is like entering a treasure trove of biomimicry inspired wonders.
48:23Many of the robots appear to be based on different aspects of the cockroach's biology.
48:30This one can even squeeze through small spaces, just like its real-life counterpart.
48:37One of the cool things you can do is you can actually run the robot off the table and see
48:41really how robust these systems are.
48:46Oh!
48:47Whoa!
48:48That's fine.
48:50Yeah, I guess we should see if it still works, which it does.
48:53This is really cool.
48:55I love that.
48:56Well, if you think that's cool, we have some robots to
48:59even smaller.
49:00So we're beginning to approach and shrink these robots to the size of insects,
49:04and we're trying to make them even smaller.
49:06Let's take a look at them.
49:08Yes!
49:08Let's do it.
49:09Ah!
49:10Yeah, so this tiny thing.
49:12So you can grab the tweezers and grab them by the earlobe.
49:16Right here.
49:16Take them up.
49:16Yeah.
49:17Oh, my goodness.
49:18Take a look at them.
49:19Look at that.
49:19I think this is probably the smallest robot that I've ever seen, actually.
49:23And it's really cool.
49:24I love the intricacy of this machine.
49:28Of course, those fine filament wires clearly tells you how small this thing is.
49:33And the arrangement is incredible.
49:38Just for reference, that right there is a one-cent penny.
49:42That's awesome.
49:43That is really awesome.
49:45Actually, can I pick this up as well?
49:46Yeah.
49:47So let's have a look at it, because that, to me, looks like a little miniature wing.
49:51So you're also trying to figure out how to make flying robotic insects as well.
49:56Yeah.
49:56So hopefully, we'll be able to take these wings and integrate them with the robots.
50:02And so these robots can be multifunctional.
50:05So depending on the situation, they can either fly or they can choose to crawl on land if it's more
50:10efficient.
50:11That's really impressive.
50:12I love that.
50:13There's a lot of potential to do good with robots interacting with humans.
50:19And some of the key directions where we're thinking these robots can really be influential,
50:24obviously, things like search and rescue.
50:27And the time-critical nature of trying to find survivors from the aftermath of an earthquake,
50:33for example.
50:33Imagine having these, hundreds of these, being able to just send them out into a potentially
50:39really dangerous environment for those first responders and be able to locate exactly where
50:44victims are.
50:45That would be so cool.
50:48Team cockroach or not, we can't ignore the future these mini bots could offer us.
50:53We might not like the idea of being saved by a roach, but just imagine teams of tiny protectors.
51:02They'd be tough, flexible, and a game changer in emergency situations.
51:08All the cockroaches' evolutionary genius packed into microbots.
51:14Capable of deploying into life-threatening scenarios like this.
51:20Collapsed buildings are hazardous for human rescue teams, and it's a race against time to find survivors.
51:27Robo-roaches could squeeze themselves into impossible places,
51:31meaning less risk for rescuers and better odds for survivors.
51:37Some parts of the world see as many as 2,500 deaths a year from collapsed structures.
51:43So, could Robo-roaches be our saviors?
51:50As this chapter of my biomimicry research concludes, I can't help but reflect on the
51:56ways that nature can help protect us and our loved ones.
52:01We've tapped just a tiny fraction of the potential found in the natural world.
52:08There's around 8.7 million species out there, each with their own defensive secrets.
52:17So the best way to protect ourselves is by protecting as many of them as we can.
52:35We are taking care of ourselves.
52:53We will be together in the future.
52:54We will be together in the future.
52:56You