Les questions les plus énigmatiques et leurs réponses fascinantes

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Transcript

00:00:00Who didn't dream one day to cross the polar circle to admire the natural wonders of the polar bears

00:00:06galloping on the bench to the wafting auroras in the sky?

00:00:09Well, I'm sorry to tell you, but Antarctica, for its part, is not ready to receive tourists.

00:00:15Why, you ask? Let's dive into the heart of the matter.

00:00:19First of all, where is Antarctica? It is located in the southern hemisphere, more precisely in the poles.

00:00:25The Australian Ocean surrounds it and most of the continent is covered with ice,

00:00:30which makes it one of the most isolated and cold places on the planet.

00:00:34Have you ever met someone who has visited Antarctica?

00:00:38Probably not. It is one of the least visited places on the globe

00:00:42and only a handful of lucky explorers have been able to discover the interior of the continent,

00:00:47which is mainly made up of glaciers and other ice fields.

00:00:51But believe me, the fauna and the landscapes there are extraordinary.

00:00:56Why don't we go to Antarctica?

00:00:59First of all, the environment there relies on an incredibly fragile balance and can be easily damaged.

00:01:05In addition, there are no indigenous human populations on the continent,

00:01:09so that your trip would come back to visit a huge desert island.

00:01:13Let's not forget either that it is one of the most expensive destinations.

00:01:17Despite everything, Antarctica is not exactly kept as a fortress,

00:01:21but it is governed by an international agreement, the Treaty on Antarctica.

00:01:26The latter was negotiated to prevent any undesirable activity on the continent

00:01:31and prohibits certain forms of tests carried out by member states.

00:01:35But the main reason why we cannot enter Antarctica like this

00:01:39is that the ecosystem there is fragile and must be protected.

00:01:43The treaty stipulates that Antarctica must be exploited only for peaceful purposes

00:01:47and that it must be free of any human activity likely to harm the environment.

00:01:52Scientists have not yet learned about the unique ecosystem of the continent,

00:01:56and our activity or our machines could disrupt the delicate balance that reigns there.

00:02:01If you still want to go to Antarctica, know that it is not easy to obtain an authorization.

00:02:07American citizens, for example, must fill out a special form

00:02:11and send it to the Department of Oceanic and Polar Affairs.

00:02:14Once there, they must follow strict rules to preserve the environment,

00:02:18such as not to disturb the fauna or to take souvenirs such as stones, plants or animals.

00:02:24Technically, can we live in Antarctica?

00:02:27Although no law prohibits people from living there permanently,

00:02:30it is a very inhospitable and inappropriate environment for human settlement.

00:02:35Temperatures can drop to minus 60 degrees Celsius or even lower,

00:02:40which makes it almost impossible for anyone to survive without the appropriate equipment and experience.

00:02:45In addition, the nearest land is more than 1,600 kilometers away,

00:02:49which completely cuts off the inhabitants of the rest of the world.

00:02:52Who knows, maybe one day we will have the chance to visit this unique and fascinating continent,

00:02:57but in the meantime, we will be content to admire it from afar.

00:03:02Now let's talk a little about the discovery of Antarctica.

00:03:05Unlike other places already populated, Antarctica has never had an indigenous human population.

00:03:11Greek philosophers of Antiquity, however, had a notion of this continent

00:03:15and named it Antarktos, which means in front of the bear.

00:03:19The bears to which it is concerned are not the polar bears,

00:03:22but the constellations of the Great and the Little Bear,

00:03:25which are only observable in the northern hemisphere.

00:03:28This region is therefore the opposite of the country of the bear.

00:03:32At the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century,

00:03:35whale and seal hunting ships began to venture further south

00:03:39when they crossed the Horn Cape, at the end of South America.

00:03:44It was known that pushing further often meant stronger winds,

00:03:47but also the risk of any kind of icebergs.

00:03:51Unpredictable currents could prove dangerous for the ship and the crew.

00:03:56Captain James Cook was the first to cross the Antarctic polar circle on January 17, 1773,

00:04:03in the region of the Sea of Ross.

00:04:05He reached a point further south a year later, and although he did not see the Earth,

00:04:09he approached it less than 80 kilometers away

00:04:12and noticed rocky deposits held by icebergs,

00:04:15indicating that there was indeed a land further south.

00:04:19It is generally admitted that the first observation of Antarctica took place in January 1820,

00:04:25during the voyage of two ships commanded by Captain Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen

00:04:30and CE, as part of a two-year expedition around the world in search of new land.

00:04:36The captain's ships would have been the first to have crossed the Antarctic circle since Cook.

00:04:41The first uncontested landing in Antarctica took place much later,

00:04:45on January 24, 1895, at Cape Hadar,

00:04:48during a stopover of a whale commanded by Henrik Bull,

00:04:52and judiciously named Antarctic.

00:04:54A small canal with 6 or maybe 7 men on board then managed to row to the shore in a calm way.

00:05:02You may not believe it, but Antarctica is actually a desert.

00:05:06With all this ice, one might think that it is a Christmas fairytale landscape,

00:05:10with snowball battles and hot chocolate all day long.

00:05:14When we think of a desert, we rather imagine camels,

00:05:17cacti and people who make feet and hands to find water.

00:05:21But in Antarctica, it's a whole other story.

00:05:24The difficulty is not to find water, but to find something that is not covered with ice.

00:05:29The average rainfall has been just over 10 mm over the last 30 years.

00:05:34It only represents a few drops of rain compared to the aversions we know.

00:05:39Technically, it is not the dunes or the torrid heat that make a desert.

00:05:44It is the absence of rainfall.

00:05:46But don't worry.

00:05:47If you get lost in Antarctica, you won't be afraid of being thirsty.

00:05:51Just make sure to bring a jacket and a scarf,

00:05:54because it is quite cold enough to turn you into a sorbet.

00:05:57Not only is Antarctica one of the driest places on the planet,

00:06:01but it is also the coldest, the windiest and one of the highest.

00:06:05In addition, the manchots and the researchers of Antarctica sometimes have a hard time

00:06:09when it comes to finding their way through time.

00:06:12Indeed, unlike what happens on the rest of this great blue planet,

00:06:17there is no time zone in Antarctica.

00:06:20All the lines of length meet in a single point in the South Pole.

00:06:24Which complicates the task a little when it comes to determining the time it really is.

00:06:29You may be wondering,

00:06:31but how do scientists and researchers keep track of time over there?

00:06:36Good question.

00:06:37They usually stick to the time zone of the country they left from.

00:06:41However, with stations all over the world spread over the continent,

00:06:45things can quickly get a little weird.

00:06:48Imagine that you try to coordinate with the neighboring countries

00:06:51without accidentally waking them up in the middle of the night.

00:06:54One might think that few things can survive in a place where the temperature is so low,

00:06:58where the sun is barely shining,

00:07:00and where the wind can carry you as fast as a straw hat.

00:07:03Well, like in many places on Earth,

00:07:06life also found a way to exist in Antarctica.

00:07:09Believe it or not.

00:07:10This frozen continent is in the midst of an uproar.

00:07:13It is home to billions of krill,

00:07:15which attract many seals,

00:07:17and more manatees than it is possible to count.

00:07:21But don't be fooled by their cute and cuddly appearance.

00:07:24Manatees are out-of-date swimmers,

00:07:27whose fuzzy body would make the greatest Olympic medalists jealous.

00:07:31They go ashore to reproduce and refresh themselves,

00:07:34but their real talent is to chip stones between them

00:07:38and to form mathematically precise circles to preserve their heat.

00:07:42Antarctica also houses the largest species of manatee on Earth.

00:07:45This is the emperor manatee.

00:07:47Of course, these birds are unable to fly,

00:07:50but that doesn't mean they can't jump.

00:07:53In fact, some of them can make 3-meter jumps out of the water.

00:07:57And let's not forget the seals,

00:07:59with their hairy bodies and melodious singing.

00:08:02These marine mammals are also protected by the Antarctic Treaty

00:08:06and thrive in the fresh waters of the Australian Ocean.

00:08:09But the real stars of the show are the whales.

00:08:13During the Antarctic summer,

00:08:15these huge creatures come en masse to feast on an abundance of krill.

00:08:19It's a real buffet for whales.

00:08:23Strange and incredible objects are sometimes discovered,

00:08:27but understanding everything our ancestors did

00:08:30can be quite difficult.

00:08:32Especially when all you have

00:08:34are a few pieces of pottery and rupestrious paintings.

00:08:38So it's not surprising that even experts in white blouse

00:08:41sometimes make a few mistakes.

00:08:43But it's not just a matter of dusty dishes and big stones.

00:08:47Sometimes you can find huge human remains on the head.

00:08:51So grab your search equipment

00:08:53and let's go back to ancient times

00:08:55to discover incredible societies

00:08:57that researchers still can't explain.

00:09:01Sardinia may seem idyllic today,

00:09:04but to be honest,

00:09:06I really wouldn't have wanted to visit it 3,000 years ago.

00:09:09Some rumors claim

00:09:11that horrible giants lived on this island at the time.

00:09:14They even mention the discovery of human skeletons

00:09:17more than 4 meters high,

00:09:19although no one has ever provided concrete evidence.

00:09:22But these stories still raise some questions,

00:09:25because strange things certainly happened there.

00:09:30In 1974,

00:09:32more than 5,000 fragments of stone artifacts

00:09:34were found in a part of the island

00:09:36called Mount Prama.

00:09:38But instead of being exhibited in a museum,

00:09:40they were locked up in an underground vault

00:09:42for nearly 30 years.

00:09:44That seems a bit suspicious, doesn't it?

00:09:48When they were finally moved in 2005,

00:09:51scientists gathered the pieces of the puzzle

00:09:53to reveal the statues of 38 giants,

00:09:55each measuring 2.40 meters high.

00:09:58Not as big as our legendary skeletons,

00:10:01but still quite massive.

00:10:05It is thought that these statues were shaped

00:10:07by the Nuragic culture that inhabited this island

00:10:09a long time ago.

00:10:11In addition to these statues,

00:10:13they also erected more than 8,000 stone structures.

00:10:18Perhaps the people of the Nurags

00:10:20were not themselves giants,

00:10:22but they clearly liked to see things big.

00:10:24We also, by the way,

00:10:26have a large number of likes under our videos,

00:10:28it would be really nice.

00:10:30Thank you for enjoying our content.

00:10:32And now, let's get back to the video.

00:10:36You and I are quite intelligent,

00:10:38but we may not be

00:10:40the smartest humans

00:10:42to have ever lived.

00:10:44In fact, we may not even be

00:10:46the smartest species.

00:10:48Since 1913, remains of skulls

00:10:50found in South Africa have suggested

00:10:52the existence of a competitor

00:10:54more intelligent than us,

00:10:56named the man of Boskop.

00:10:58This species similar to man

00:11:00could have existed as recently

00:11:02as nearly 10,000 years ago.

00:11:04Their skulls suggest

00:11:06that they had very big heads,

00:11:08which means that their brains

00:11:10could have been up to 30% bigger than ours.

00:11:12Wow!

00:11:14Their average IQ could have reached

00:11:16149 points,

00:11:18which would place them among the 0.25%

00:11:20of the most intelligent people today.

00:11:24But if the brains of Boskop's men

00:11:26were so much more developed,

00:11:28why are they no longer among us?

00:11:30Well, bigger does not always mean

00:11:32better, you know.

00:11:34Our brains are much more

00:11:36consistent than those of our primate cousins,

00:11:38mainly in the prefrontal cortex.

00:11:40This part participates

00:11:42in complex tasks such as making decisions,

00:11:44remembering things

00:11:46in the short term,

00:11:48and being aware of ourselves.

00:11:50The parts of the brain that govern

00:11:52our movements have not really

00:11:54grown much.

00:11:56Perhaps the Boskops

00:11:58spent too much time

00:12:00meditating on the past

00:12:02rather than accomplishing practical things

00:12:04like hunting.

00:12:06But all this is just a guess.

00:12:08We do not really know what happened

00:12:10to our big-headed cousins.

00:12:12Some even argue that the Boskops

00:12:14were not different wars from us,

00:12:16the only evidence being

00:12:18these famous pieces of skulls.

00:12:20Did you know that the Amazon forest

00:12:22housed about 30% of all

00:12:24species of plants and animals

00:12:26in the world?

00:12:28It's impressive.

00:12:30However, the history of a local human species

00:12:32has intrigued scientists for a long time.

00:12:34The mysterious Kazakh civilization

00:12:36lived here for hundreds of years

00:12:38before disappearing

00:12:40around 1400

00:12:42after Jesus Christ.

00:12:46It was thought that the Amazon

00:12:48was just a few disappearing tribes.

00:12:50But recently, we have discovered

00:12:52large unusual shapes

00:12:54engraved in the ground

00:12:56and called geoglyphs.

00:12:58These can look like

00:13:00simple, shallow ditches.

00:13:02But they are actually the remains

00:13:04of a vast civilization

00:13:06spanning 1,000-3,000 square kilometers

00:13:08and comprising about 450 symbols,

00:13:10some 400 meters wide.

00:13:12It was breathtaking.

00:13:14They were probably flanked by ceremonial places

00:13:16where people were buried.

00:13:20Thanks to new technologies,

00:13:22such as LIDAR,

00:13:24which uses an inoffensive laser

00:13:26to map the forest without harming it,

00:13:28we can explore more in depth.

00:13:30In 2019,

00:13:32the scanner showed kilometers of roads

00:13:34and overpasses,

00:13:36and even pyramids over 20 meters high.

00:13:38We have discovered 26 distinct

00:13:40settlement areas,

00:13:42each measuring at least 100 hectares.

00:13:44This represents the surface

00:13:46of 330 football fields.

00:13:48We do not know what happened

00:13:50to the Kazakh civilization,

00:13:52but we cannot rule out

00:13:54the fact that the conquistadors

00:13:56are responsible for it.

00:13:58Perhaps the most confusing

00:14:00ancient civilization is the one

00:14:02we have never really found a trace of.

00:14:04Yes, I am talking about Atlantis,

00:14:06this great city that supposedly

00:14:08sank into the ocean.

00:14:10The first mentions of Atlantis

00:14:12are those of Greek Plato,

00:14:14who mentioned a great city

00:14:16close to Gibraltar.

00:14:18But for centuries,

00:14:20everyone simply thought

00:14:22that Plato had imagined it

00:14:24as an idealized version

00:14:26of his native Athens.

00:14:28So why, about 12,000 years

00:14:30after its presumed disappearance,

00:14:32do we still wonder

00:14:34if it could have existed?

00:14:36Well, in the 19th century,

00:14:38Ignatius Donnelly,

00:14:40published a book giving 13 reasons

00:14:42why he thought Atlantis

00:14:44was more than a simple myth.

00:14:46Then, in 1965,

00:14:48some people believed

00:14:50they had really found Atlantis

00:14:52by discovering the structure

00:14:54of Richa, a massive geological dome

00:14:5640 km in diameter in Mauritania.

00:14:58It is so large

00:15:00that we can only observe

00:15:02the whole of it from space.

00:15:04Two astronauts flying over

00:15:06the Sahara Desert

00:15:08looked back at it

00:15:10and thought it was

00:15:12a major discovery.

00:15:14Alas, there is no tangible evidence

00:15:16that connects this structure

00:15:18to Atlantis.

00:15:20We think it was formed

00:15:22from a volcanic activity

00:15:24about 100 million years ago.

00:15:26But that seems a little too practical,

00:15:28doesn't it?

00:15:30Unfortunately,

00:15:32we are no longer close

00:15:34to knowing the truth.

00:15:36You find yourself in South Asia.

00:15:38Let me introduce you to

00:15:40the Arab civilization.

00:15:42These people were ahead of their time.

00:15:44They occupied cities like Harappa

00:15:46and Mohenjo-Daro,

00:15:48with brick houses,

00:15:50sophisticated sewage systems

00:15:52and even public baths.

00:15:54This place could have housed

00:15:56more than 5 million people,

00:15:58making it one of the most densely populated

00:16:00regions of its time.

00:16:02They had also invented

00:16:04an incredibly useful

00:16:06metalworking tool.

00:16:08And they traded.

00:16:10Their contacts extended

00:16:12to the Middle East

00:16:14thanks to their mastery of metallurgy.

00:16:16They had even developed

00:16:18the ancient pendant of the great brands.

00:16:20Buckets were used to mark

00:16:22the clay of their goods.

00:16:24Despite their advancements

00:16:26and their prosperity,

00:16:28their language and alphabet

00:16:30remain surrounded by mystery.

00:16:32But no one has yet been able

00:16:34to decipher them,

00:16:36even with all the technology

00:16:38we have today.

00:16:40We still do not know exactly

00:16:42how their society functioned.

00:16:44It seems that they were not as

00:16:46concerned about their social status

00:16:48as other civilizations.

00:16:50No great palaces or

00:16:52grandiose monuments.

00:16:54Instead, their largest structure

00:16:56would have been grottos,

00:16:58which was surely more practical.

00:17:00Unfortunately,

00:17:02all good things have an end.

00:17:04Around 1800 BC,

00:17:06this flourishing civilization

00:17:08began to decline,

00:17:10perhaps due to changes

00:17:12in the waterways.

00:17:14While their environment was changing,

00:17:16the Arabs made their suitcases

00:17:18and went to more hospitable lands.

00:17:22Have you ever heard of the Minotaur?

00:17:24The beast with a bull's head

00:17:26and a man's body,

00:17:28chasing the valiant adventurers

00:17:30in an endless maze.

00:17:32Well, it's not just any old story.

00:17:34It was one of the most popular

00:17:36dramas in the ancient world

00:17:38and it was inspired by this place,

00:17:40the island of Crete.

00:17:44The Minoans lived there

00:17:46during the Bronze Age.

00:17:48They had magnificent palaces,

00:17:50incredible frescoes and a culture

00:17:52so rich that it still fascinates

00:17:54historians to this day.

00:17:56Like the palace of Knossos,

00:17:58which was so complex,

00:18:00with its buildings on several floors

00:18:02and its elaborate corridors,

00:18:04that it could have inspired

00:18:06the whole myth of the labyrinth.

00:18:08Their engineering was so advanced

00:18:10in its time,

00:18:12that even their evacuation system

00:18:14was more advanced than what

00:18:16many of us have today.

00:18:18The story of the Minotaur

00:18:20also inspired the Hunger Games trilogy.

00:18:22The idea of sending heroes to fight

00:18:24the Minotaur was born.

00:18:26Let us know in the comments

00:18:28what is the story that fascinates you the most

00:18:30and thank you for watching.

00:18:34There are tons of strange things on Mars.

00:18:36Spoons, nails, doors

00:18:38and even faces.

00:18:40Are they really

00:18:42just pebbles?

00:18:44And besides, it is not the only planet

00:18:46in our solar system that is filled

00:18:48with mysterious things.

00:18:50Let's discover them together.

00:18:54Recently, we discovered a strange thing

00:18:56on Mars that looks like a smooth object,

00:18:58similar to a spoon.

00:19:00It has attracted a lot of attention

00:19:02after being spotted by the rover Curiosity

00:19:04of NASA. The rock,

00:19:06with its round neck and head,

00:19:08seems to float on the photo.

00:19:10Internet users remain perplexed

00:19:12as to what it could be.

00:19:14Some joke that it would be

00:19:16a ball of Martian bowling,

00:19:18or even a saucer

00:19:20left by an extraterrestrial civilization.

00:19:22But Andrew Goode,

00:19:24NASA spokesman,

00:19:26says that it is nothing so exciting.

00:19:28It seems

00:19:30that it is just a rock shaped by the wind

00:19:32over a long period.

00:19:34This type of rock with strange shapes

00:19:36is common on the planet Mars.

00:19:38They are called ventifacts.

00:19:40A ventifact

00:19:42is a rock that can be

00:19:44engraved, dug or smoothed

00:19:46by the tiny particles carried by the wind.

00:19:48We usually find

00:19:50these types of rocks in dry places

00:19:52where there are not many trees

00:19:54or vegetation to stop

00:19:56the air currents and where a lot of sand

00:19:58is carried. Sometimes,

00:20:00the wind can give these ventifacts

00:20:02really amazing shapes,

00:20:04like these mushroom-shaped rocks

00:20:06that can be seen in the natural park

00:20:08of the Egyptian White Desert.

00:20:10These rocks look like the houses of the Shtrouf,

00:20:12because the wind erodes

00:20:14the lower part faster than the top,

00:20:16giving them this elongated shape.

00:20:20Ventifacts

00:20:22are not the only Martian rocks

00:20:24worthy of interest.

00:20:26Rather, look at these series of points

00:20:28with the unreal aspect that emerges

00:20:30from the red surface.

00:20:32The rover Curiosity discovered them

00:20:34during the exploration of the Gale crater on Mars.

00:20:36They quickly captured everyone's attention.

00:20:38These twisted structures,

00:20:40similar to points,

00:20:42looked like a door to another world.

00:20:44Even the SETI Institute,

00:20:46an organization dedicated to the research

00:20:48of extraterrestrials,

00:20:50was forced to admit

00:20:52how stylish this rock was.

00:20:54But in reality,

00:20:56they are just chimneys of fairies.

00:20:58These high and slanted points

00:21:00appear when a hard rock

00:21:02is above a softer layer.

00:21:04It is likely that these Martian peaks

00:21:06are in what used to be fractures

00:21:08in the sedimentary rock,

00:21:10and whose softer materials

00:21:12have eroded over time.

00:21:14There are also many chimneys of fairies on Earth.

00:21:16For example, the Pyramid,

00:21:18or Demoiselle Coiffée,

00:21:20can be found in regions such as

00:21:22Bryce Canyon in Utah,

00:21:24or even in the High Alps.

00:21:26NASA is interested in these strange structures

00:21:28because they could help us

00:21:30learn more about the history

00:21:32of the Gale crater.

00:21:34We also noticed

00:21:36a rock that looked like

00:21:38a jellyfish.

00:21:40It was named Pinnacle Island

00:21:42after being spotted

00:21:44by NASA's cameras.

00:21:46However, only 4 days before,

00:21:48it was untraceable.

00:21:50So, how did it magically appear?

00:21:52Well, without any surprise,

00:21:54it was simply moved

00:21:56by one of the wheels of the Rover Opportunity

00:21:58while it was crossing the field.

00:22:00But the mystery continues to hover

00:22:02around this famous jellyfish.

00:22:04Analyzes have revealed that Pinnacle Island

00:22:06contained surprisingly high levels of sulfur

00:22:08and manganese.

00:22:10Yet, these two elements are soluble in water.

00:22:12In other words,

00:22:14Martian water could have introduced

00:22:16these elements inside the rock.

00:22:18Thus, this little thing

00:22:20suddenly caused a scandal

00:22:22as well as a trial

00:22:24against NASA.

00:22:26A man argued that the agency

00:22:28had neglected the possibility

00:22:30that it was a real Martian mushroom.

00:22:34But all our findings

00:22:36are not natural.

00:22:38Another disconcerting discovery

00:22:40was spotted by Perseverance.

00:22:42It looks like spaghetti

00:22:44or tangled string.

00:22:46Unlike the jellyfish mentioned earlier,

00:22:48this mysterious object

00:22:50appeared in an image

00:22:52taken by the rover's camera

00:22:54then disappeared in the sandy soil

00:22:56in just a few days.

00:22:58It seems that it can act

00:23:00on the debris of the Martian rover's

00:23:02landing system.

00:23:04Perseverance landed in the G0 crater

00:23:06in February 2021.

00:23:08Some of these debris

00:23:10appear in the images

00:23:12of the rover

00:23:14for some time now.

00:23:16The object, which looks like a string,

00:23:18is probably just a piece of

00:23:20torn dacron,

00:23:22which is a type of fiber

00:23:24used in thermal blankets.

00:23:26These blankets help to regulate

00:23:28the temperature of the equipment

00:23:30during the incandescent process

00:23:32of entering the Martian atmosphere.

00:23:34It probably suffered a tear

00:23:36during the landing.

00:23:40Thermal blankets

00:23:42lost a lot of things at the time,

00:23:44like this piece of shiny leaf

00:23:46spotted in June, for example.

00:23:48Astromobile found it on a rock.

00:23:50What is remarkable is the distance

00:23:52that some of these debris have traveled.

00:23:54The rover landed

00:23:56about 2 km from the place

00:23:58it is currently exploring,

00:24:00and it is probably because the crash

00:24:02projected the debris into the air

00:24:04and the Martians carried them

00:24:06at such a distance.

00:24:08Mars is known for its violent winds

00:24:10that can move lighter objects.

00:24:12However, if it is fun

00:24:14to discover them on the screen,

00:24:16concerns persist about debris

00:24:18and other waste abandoned on Mars.

00:24:20We haven't even solved this problem

00:24:22on Earth, and we're already

00:24:24reproducing it on Mars.

00:24:26The debris we left on the Red Planet

00:24:28is already accumulating

00:24:30in an area called

00:24:32In addition, these debris

00:24:34can accidentally contaminate

00:24:36the sampling tubes used

00:24:38to collect Martian rocks.

00:24:40So far, NASA doesn't seem

00:24:42too worried about this,

00:24:44but they keep an eye on it

00:24:46to prevent any problems with their machines.

00:24:50Now,

00:24:52what would you say to examine

00:24:54not things, but animals?

00:24:56The Curiosity rover caused

00:24:58the biggest turmoil when it photographed

00:25:00a thing that looked like a Martian rat.

00:25:02Some have begun to speculate

00:25:04that it could be an extraterrestrial

00:25:06trace of life, or even

00:25:08that this rodent was brought

00:25:10by Curiosity. But the

00:25:12Mars rat, once again,

00:25:14turned out to be just a strange

00:25:16rock. It only looked like

00:25:18natural processes,

00:25:20such as wind erosion

00:25:22and mechanical abrasion.

00:25:24We have also discovered several things

00:25:26that remind us of obstacles.

00:25:28Curiosity took this picture of a formation

00:25:30resembling worms

00:25:32twirling around the Martian landscape.

00:25:34Despite its small size,

00:25:36this formation is distinguished

00:25:38by its unique shape and rugged texture.

00:25:40It is probably made

00:25:42of a durable material

00:25:44resistant to the constant erosion of the planet.

00:25:46And finally, our most mysterious

00:25:48discovery is

00:25:50the face of Mars.

00:25:52Sidonia Mensei is a region of Mars

00:25:54that has captivated both the scientific interest

00:25:56and that of the public.

00:25:58It is located in the northern hemisphere of Mars

00:26:00and is located between constellated regions

00:26:02of craters in the south

00:26:04and relatively smooth plains in the north.

00:26:06There is a theory that

00:26:08the northern plains could have been

00:26:10once marine basins.

00:26:12Maybe Sidonia was once a coastal area?

00:26:14This place is full of

00:26:16features as interesting as

00:26:18magnificent and that teach us

00:26:20a lot about the history of the Red Planet.

00:26:22But its most interesting

00:26:24feature remains the Martian face.

00:26:26This thing has aroused

00:26:28the greatest attention since it was

00:26:30spotted by the Viking 1 orbiter

00:26:32in 1976.

00:26:34Some believed that it was the trace

00:26:36of a long-lost Martian civilization.

00:26:38At first, NASA

00:26:40rejected it as a game of shadows

00:26:42and light. But after a few

00:26:44analyzes, it turned out to be

00:26:46well, yes, another rock.

00:26:48We also saw a bear face

00:26:50captured by the

00:26:52High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment

00:26:54camera. In this image,

00:26:56we can observe a fault

00:26:58following a circular pattern

00:27:00that looks like a bear's head

00:27:02with two small craters forming

00:27:04the eyes and a V-shaped

00:27:06asperity that makes up the trough.

00:27:08This head probably formed

00:27:10because something heavy

00:27:12was found on an old hole in the ground.

00:27:14It was either filled with lava

00:27:16or mud. The relief resembling

00:27:18a nose is supposed to

00:27:20come from an eruption.

00:27:24But why do we

00:27:26continue to see these strange

00:27:28things on Mars?

00:27:30Sometimes our brain can deceive us

00:27:32and let us see things such as

00:27:34faces or objects in rocks

00:27:36and nature. But all this

00:27:38is just an illusion called

00:27:40pareidolia.

00:27:42Pareidolia is a psychological phenomenon

00:27:44that lets us see patterns

00:27:46or familiar shapes, especially

00:27:48faces, where there are none.

00:27:50It happens because when

00:27:52the brain is confronted with something

00:27:54it doesn't recognize or understand

00:27:56immediately, it tries to remember

00:27:58things that look like it the most.

00:28:00It thus perceives patterns,

00:28:02textures or strange sounds

00:28:04as something significant

00:28:06and recognizable.

00:28:08That's why a chair with clothes on it

00:28:10can look like a terrifying figure

00:28:12during the night. It also makes you

00:28:14see faces or shapes in the

00:28:16clouds or hear recognizable sounds

00:28:18and even words

00:28:20in an incongruous noise.

00:28:22It's a fascinating proof of the complexity

00:28:24of our perception. But we should

00:28:26also prevent ourselves from this

00:28:28and not let our imagination run too much.

00:28:32Welcome to Rapa Nui,

00:28:34better known as Easter Island.

00:28:36It's a tiny point in the vastness

00:28:38of the Pacific Ocean, located

00:28:403,500 km from the Chilean coast.

00:28:42This island is especially famous

00:28:44for its imposing Moai statues.

00:28:46This place also houses one of the most enigmatic

00:28:48writing systems in the world,

00:28:50known as Rongorongo.

00:28:52We have created 27 small wooden tablets

00:28:54carrying this script.

00:28:56For years, historians have debated

00:28:58the authenticity and history

00:29:00of the latter. And now,

00:29:02we may be about to unravel their mystery.

00:29:06Man set foot on this island

00:29:08for the first time in the 12th century.

00:29:10For many decades,

00:29:12this island was inhabited by the Rapa Nui people,

00:29:14relatively isolated in the heart of the Pacific Ocean

00:29:16until the eruption of the Europeans

00:29:18in the 1720s.

00:29:20With them came a multitude of challenges,

00:29:22drastically reducing

00:29:24the indigenous population to a fraction

00:29:26of what it was.

00:29:28Subsequently, in the 19th century,

00:29:30the missionary Eugène Hérault visited the island

00:29:32and carved wooden tablets

00:29:34decorated with complex symbols.

00:29:36He described them as extraordinary

00:29:38and claimed that there were hundreds of them

00:29:40on the entire island, present in every house.

00:29:42But alas, none of them survived

00:29:44to this day.

00:29:46Only 27 of them have been preserved.

00:29:48Some were eroded by time,

00:29:50burned or otherwise damaged.

00:29:52Today,

00:29:54they are scattered around the world,

00:29:56exhibited in museums

00:29:58and kept in private collections.

00:30:00Some remains of this language

00:30:02have been brought back to Tahiti,

00:30:04then to Europe, leaving nothing

00:30:06on Easter Island itself.

00:30:08The sacred tablets ended up

00:30:10in a Catholic congregation in Rome.

00:30:12They are the same ones that participated

00:30:14in this recent discovery.

00:30:16For years, historians have wondered

00:30:18whether this writing system

00:30:20was developed independently

00:30:22by the inhabitants of the island

00:30:24or if it was borrowed from the Europeans.

00:30:26To elucidate this mystery,

00:30:28they used carbon-14 dating.

00:30:30All organic materials,

00:30:32such as wood, coal and others,

00:30:34contain a tiny amount

00:30:36of radioactive carbon,

00:30:38called carbon-14.

00:30:40At the end of their life,

00:30:42they stop absorbing carbon-14

00:30:44and the amount present

00:30:46begins to disintegrate over time.

00:30:48By measuring the amount of carbon-14

00:30:50remaining in a sample,

00:30:52we can estimate its age.

00:30:54This method allowed us to determine

00:30:56the age of many fossils and artifacts.

00:30:58This is how we studied the age

00:31:00of certain rongo-rongo tablets.

00:31:02Three of them had been made

00:31:04in the 18th or 19th century,

00:31:06corresponding to the arrival

00:31:08of the Europeans.

00:31:10However, one of them is prior

00:31:12to their first visit to the island.

00:31:14Two elements suggest

00:31:16that the Rapanui people

00:31:18created the rongo-rongo writing system.

00:31:20First of all,

00:31:22it presents distinct characteristics

00:31:24of European languages.

00:31:26Its decoding is a difficult task

00:31:28with more than 400 unique glyphs,

00:31:30none resembling a known writing system.

00:31:32Many attempts have been made

00:31:34to uncover the secrets,

00:31:36unsuccessfully so far.

00:31:38Secondly, one of the tablets

00:31:40seems to date back to the 15th century

00:31:42before the arrival of the Europeans.

00:31:44However, the dating to radiocarbon

00:31:46only tells us about the period

00:31:48when the wood of the tablet was cut

00:31:50and not about the period

00:31:52when the writing was engraved on it.

00:31:54And since we only have one reference tablet,

00:31:56we do not have enough evidence

00:31:58to affirm anything.

00:32:00On the other hand,

00:32:02why would the inhabitants of the island

00:32:04have kept cut wood for more than 200 years?

00:32:06Just to catch a beautiful day

00:32:08and write on it.

00:32:10Anthropologists and historians

00:32:12suggest that the thing is plausible.

00:32:14The scarcity of resources

00:32:16could have pushed the islanders

00:32:18to recycle old floating wood,

00:32:20which could date back several centuries

00:32:22before the appearance of writing itself.

00:32:24This phenomenon is known in archaeology

00:32:26under the name of the problem of old wood.

00:32:28It has been maintained

00:32:30to protect it from insects

00:32:32that damage wood and humidity.

00:32:34This is why it has survived

00:32:36over the centuries.

00:32:38Whatever is written on it,

00:32:40it is likely that it is of great importance

00:32:42for the people of Rapa Nui.

00:32:44All this is pure conjecture.

00:32:46But scientists remain prudently optimistic.

00:32:48They consider the possibility

00:32:50that the Rongorongo

00:32:52is one of the rare examples

00:32:54of independent invention of writing,

00:32:56but we need more proof.

00:33:00In Rapa Nui language,

00:33:02Rongorongo means

00:33:04to recite or to declare.

00:33:06Not everyone could write,

00:33:08only a few people sorted on the fly.

00:33:10It is likely that only the elite

00:33:12of the island of Pak,

00:33:14mainly men,

00:33:16had the knowledge of this written language.

00:33:18After the colonization,

00:33:20none of them survived

00:33:22and we are now faced

00:33:24with a new challenge.

00:33:26First of all,

00:33:28researchers cannot agree

00:33:30on the nature of this scriptural system.

00:33:32We cannot even confirm

00:33:34if it is their native language.

00:33:36And even if we do,

00:33:38we do not know

00:33:40if it is a primitive form of writing

00:33:42or an entirely developed system.

00:33:44In the 90s,

00:33:46a linguist named Stephen Roger Fisher

00:33:48thought he had decrypted

00:33:50the structure of Rongorongo.

00:33:52Rongorongo exposes the genesis of the universe

00:33:54as well as the emergence of natural phenomena.

00:33:56They are often rooted

00:33:58in ancient traditions and cultures,

00:34:00such as those present

00:34:02in Eastern Polynesia.

00:34:04Tablets could potentially

00:34:06address subjects such as

00:34:08the origins of the world,

00:34:10the source of all existence,

00:34:12and the formation of various elements of nature,

00:34:14such as stars or mountains.

00:34:16This would also explain

00:34:18why only an educated elite

00:34:20could write.

00:34:22Fisher said that Rongorongo

00:34:24was a combination of logographic

00:34:26and semasiographic systems,

00:34:28which implies that some symbols

00:34:30represented spoken words,

00:34:32while others denoted ideas

00:34:34or concepts.

00:34:36However, decrypting them

00:34:38would be extremely complex

00:34:40and would require an in-depth

00:34:42understanding of the context,

00:34:44because these symbols acted

00:34:46more like clues

00:34:48than predictions,

00:34:50arguing that there were gaps

00:34:52in the way he formulated his theory.

00:34:54Alas, Fisher was not able

00:34:56to corroborate his hypothesis.

00:34:58It is possible that these inscriptions

00:35:00are only drawings.

00:35:02When we examine the tablets,

00:35:04some figures seem familiar.

00:35:06Human beings, animals,

00:35:08plants and geometric shapes.

00:35:10We recognize birds,

00:35:12one of them resembling a frigate.

00:35:14A species associated with the god Mekmek

00:35:16There are also fish,

00:35:18millipedes, or at least

00:35:20these glyphs look like them.

00:35:22Could these inscriptions be

00:35:24only art or a form of decoration?

00:35:26Maybe, but there are some problems.

00:35:28The glyphs exhibit a high level

00:35:30of complexity and structure.

00:35:32In addition, they retain a coherent style.

00:35:34For example, several symbols

00:35:36depict what seems to be a human

00:35:38with a raised hand,

00:35:40the only variation being

00:35:42the different heads represented.

00:35:44This unique style of writing

00:35:46also uses a system called

00:35:48inverse Boustrophedon.

00:35:50This means that each alternate line

00:35:52is inverted, creating a pattern

00:35:54like no other.

00:35:56We do not know why they chose

00:35:58this practice consisting of

00:36:00turning the tablet after each line.

00:36:02All this suggests that they had

00:36:04put in place a system and

00:36:06an organization behind these symbols.

00:36:08In addition, it seems that they

00:36:10used these tablets daily

00:36:12to communicate.

00:36:14Recent technological advances,

00:36:16such as AI and other computer programs,

00:36:18could assist our understanding

00:36:20of ancient languages.

00:36:22We have already undertaken

00:36:24the development of algorithms

00:36:26that could help us to unravel

00:36:28other mysteries,

00:36:30like that of the Voynich manuscript.

00:36:32Universities have even organized

00:36:34the Vesuvius Challenge,

00:36:36an automatic learning contest

00:36:38that, in 2023, solved the enigma

00:36:40after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius

00:36:42in 79 AD.

00:36:44Due to their extreme fragility,

00:36:46decrypting these scrolls

00:36:48would have been a difficult task.

00:36:50But thanks to digitalization

00:36:52and automatic learning,

00:36:54this enterprise has become

00:36:56much more accessible.

00:36:58These scrolls have a rich history.

00:37:00They probably belonged

00:37:02to the personal library

00:37:04of an Epicurean philosopher

00:37:06named Philodemus.

00:37:08We will learn more about

00:37:10the vast history of the Roman Empire.

00:37:12Our planet has experienced

00:37:14five massive extinctions.

00:37:16One of them was so devastating

00:37:18that it destroyed more than 95%

00:37:20of life forms on Earth.

00:37:22And scientists think they have found

00:37:24the culprit, the volcanoes.

00:37:26By analyzing ancient rocks

00:37:28from a dozen sites

00:37:30around the world,

00:37:32they have discovered high levels of mercury,

00:37:34released by volcanoes millions of years ago.

00:37:36This suggests that volcanic eruptions

00:37:38are probably the cause

00:37:40of the extinction of the Permian-Trias.

00:37:42Mercury was not only found

00:37:44in the rocks, but also in the atmosphere.

00:37:46This means that when

00:37:48the volcanoes erupted,

00:37:50they released this toxic gas into the air.

00:37:52They spat out about 3 million

00:37:54cubic kilometers of ash,

00:37:56much more than the famous eruption

00:37:58of Mount St. Helens.

00:38:00The gas left a mark

00:38:02on one of the most significant

00:38:04volcanoes in the world,

00:38:06and prepared the ground

00:38:08for the dinosaurs' era.

00:38:10These eruptions also probably

00:38:12released mercury by inflating

00:38:14vast deposits of coal.

00:38:16The shallower waters revealed

00:38:18peaks of mercury just at the

00:38:20main horizon of the extinction.

00:38:22While the deeper sections

00:38:24recorded peaks several

00:38:26tens of thousands of years ago.

00:38:28This could mean that the effects

00:38:30of volcanic activity and the

00:38:32extinction of the Permian-Trias

00:38:34were prolonged and complex.

00:38:36It not only resulted in

00:38:38a major global warming,

00:38:40but also led to other

00:38:42harmful effects, such as acid rains,

00:38:44which aggravated the situation

00:38:46for plants and animals.

00:38:48Although few traces of the Permian

00:38:50have survived to this day,

00:38:52we can get an idea of what

00:38:54the world looked like at this time

00:38:56thanks to the fossils discovered

00:38:58in eastern Kansas.

00:39:01The terrestrial continents

00:39:03gathered together to form

00:39:05the supercontinent Pangaea.

00:39:07The earth was mainly arid,

00:39:09resembling an austere desert

00:39:11with vast rocky expanses

00:39:13and few water sources.

00:39:15The climate alternated between

00:39:17hot summers and icy winters.

00:39:19Some plants, mainly conifers,

00:39:21giant ferns and primitive mosses,

00:39:23grew in areas with a little water.

00:39:25The earth was dominated by

00:39:27creatures similar to dinosaurs,

00:39:29such as cosaurs and therapsids,

00:39:31often called mammalian reptiles.

00:39:33The formidable Dimetrodon,

00:39:35with its remarkable veiled

00:39:37dorsal fin, was also

00:39:39one of the main predators of the time.

00:39:41Small reptiles and amphibians

00:39:43also populated the landscape

00:39:45alongside emerging insects

00:39:47such as beetles and dragonflies

00:39:49that thrived in this dry environment.

00:39:51But the most interesting events

00:39:53took place mainly in

00:39:55shallow tropical seas.

00:39:57The marine environments were

00:39:59full of life.

00:40:01Rich coral reefs,

00:40:03quantities of molluscs called

00:40:05brachiopods, bryozoares

00:40:07and large unicellular fusilinidae,

00:40:09resembling small forms

00:40:11covered in moss.

00:40:13Ammonites, small and fascinating,

00:40:15were also widespread,

00:40:17evolving alongside brachiopods,

00:40:19bonefish and sharks.

00:40:21Trilobites,

00:40:23ancient marine organisms

00:40:25that lived for the first time

00:40:27500 million years ago during

00:40:29the Cambrian period,

00:40:31persisted until the Permian period.

00:40:33They were very diversified,

00:40:35from active predators to

00:40:37carnivores and plankton eaters.

00:40:39However, almost all these

00:40:41magnificent creatures would

00:40:43disappear during the

00:40:45extinction of the Permian-Trias.

00:40:47It proved to be truly pitiful.

00:40:49More than two-thirds of amphibian

00:40:51and reptile species disappeared

00:40:53after the extinction of the Permian-Trias.

00:40:55Usually, insects are among

00:40:57the most resilient survivors,

00:40:59which illustrates the extent

00:41:01of this event.

00:41:03Among these missing animals

00:41:05was the terrifying Meganeuropsis,

00:41:07a giant libellule with a width

00:41:09of nearly 80 cm,

00:41:11which lived in the center

00:41:13of Kansas near Elmo.

00:41:15The place is famous for its rich

00:41:17collection of Permian insect fossils,

00:41:19including crickets and ancient

00:41:21The exact cause of this event

00:41:23has remained mysterious.

00:41:25Theories allude to the impact

00:41:27of an immense asteroid on

00:41:29natural pollutants depriving

00:41:31the oceans of oxygen,

00:41:33including dust clouds

00:41:35from colossal volcanic eruptions

00:41:37that would have masked the sun

00:41:39and cooled the planet.

00:41:41There was evidence supporting

00:41:43each of these scenarios.

00:41:45However, a recent discovery

00:41:47seems to favor volcanoes.

00:41:49The cause of this extinction

00:41:51is not limited to volcanoes.

00:41:53Researchers funded by NASA

00:41:55have recently discovered what

00:41:57could be the digital footprints

00:41:59of this former leader,

00:42:01or at least one of his accomplices.

00:42:03Studying rocks from all over the world,

00:42:05they found clues suggesting

00:42:07that a massive asteroid impact

00:42:09could also be involved.

00:42:11They discovered unusual molecules

00:42:13in the form of rugby balls

00:42:15called fullerenes.

00:42:17These are extraterrestrial origins,

00:42:19suggesting that a huge asteroid,

00:42:21perhaps as large as Mount Everest,

00:42:23would have crashed on Earth,

00:42:25contributing to the extinction.

00:42:27It seems that a series of catastrophic

00:42:29events have occurred.

00:42:31Volcanoes have spat out

00:42:33huge amounts of lava and gas,

00:42:35thus altering the climate.

00:42:37The formation of the Pangea

00:42:39disturbed the meteorological

00:42:41and oceanic patterns.

00:42:43And an asteroid also hit the Earth.

00:42:45We still find a way to be reborn,

00:42:47proving the adaptability of our planet.

00:42:51It is interesting to note that

00:42:53this was not an isolated event.

00:42:55The extinction of the Pangea

00:42:57about 360 million years ago

00:42:59is also linked to volcanic activity.

00:43:01The eruptions and proliferation

00:43:03of terrestrial plants

00:43:05could have changed the flow

00:43:07of nutrients towards the oceans.

00:43:09The extinction of the Jurassic Trias

00:43:11occurred about 200 million years ago,

00:43:13shortly before the appearance of dinosaurs,

00:43:15could also be due to the combination

00:43:17of volcanic eruptions

00:43:19and an impact of asteroids.

00:43:21Finally, about 66 million years ago,

00:43:23a last drastic change

00:43:25took place on Earth.

00:43:27Our planet went from the era

00:43:29of dinosaurs to that of mammals.

00:43:31This size change

00:43:33is known as the Cretaceous-Paleogene

00:43:35extinction.

00:43:37Just like the extinction of the Permian,

00:43:39it is a sudden event that

00:43:41produces new forms of life.

00:43:43And, once again, two great theories

00:43:45explain what happened.

00:43:47The most widespread theory

00:43:49states that dinosaurs would have disappeared

00:43:51because of a huge asteroid.

00:43:53The Chicxulub meteorite

00:43:55crashed into what is now

00:43:57the south of Mexico,

00:43:59forming the crater that bears its name.

00:44:01This meteorite was about 10 km in diameter

00:44:03and headed towards Earth

00:44:05at a prodigious speed.

00:44:07The impact instantly vaporized

00:44:09everything that was nearby

00:44:11and released an unequal amount of energy

00:44:13in a billion years.

00:44:15The consequences were catastrophic.

00:44:17Earthquakes shook the continents

00:44:19and the ground wavered like a sea.

00:44:21The dust raised by the asteroid

00:44:23fell back on Earth

00:44:25in a scorching rain,

00:44:27warming the atmosphere to the point

00:44:29of burning the forests of the entire world.

00:44:31Shortly after, a gigantic tsunami

00:44:33caused by the upheaval of the seabed

00:44:35submerged the coasts

00:44:37near the Gulf of Mexico.

00:44:39All the dinosaurs did not

00:44:41instantly disappear.

00:44:43In regions like New Zealand,

00:44:45some populations first survived.

00:44:47However, a sky obscured by ashes

00:44:49ended up enveloping the planet,

00:44:51hiding the sun and plunging the world

00:44:53into cold and darkness.

00:44:55This long-term effect

00:44:57truly sealed the fate of the dinosaurs.

00:44:59Without sunlight,

00:45:01the food chain quickly collapsed.

00:45:03Herbivores slowly disappeared,

00:45:05followed by carnivores that depended on them,

00:45:07while ash falls

00:45:09accentuated environmental upheavals

00:45:11and temperature fluctuations,

00:45:13making survival difficult.

00:45:15However,

00:45:17there is another theory

00:45:19according to which the asteroid

00:45:21would only have been a stroke of grace.

00:45:23The extinction of the dinosaurs

00:45:25was already inevitable because of the volcanoes.

00:45:27About a million years before their disappearance,

00:45:29an intense volcanic activity

00:45:31began in the subsoil of present-day India.

00:45:33This event created

00:45:35the famous Deccan Trap,

00:45:37a vast lava plateau

00:45:39covering an area as large as France.

00:45:41For hundreds of thousands of years,

00:45:43these volcanoes ejected sulfur dioxide

00:45:45and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere,

00:45:47darkening the skies

00:45:49and causing acid rain,

00:45:51poisoning food sources

00:45:53and turning the oceans into toxic baths.

00:45:55These gradual but relentless changes

00:45:57put the ecosystems to the test,

00:45:59breaking down food chains

00:46:01and causing a slow but continuous decline

00:46:03of many species, including dinosaurs.

00:46:05Although we do not know

00:46:07with certainty which theory is the most precise,

00:46:09scientists now think

00:46:11that the two phenomena have played a role.

00:46:13Maybe one day

00:46:15we will have a clear picture

00:46:17of how the reign of dinosaurs

00:46:19ended so abruptly.

00:46:21If someone finally invents time travel

00:46:23and you go back to the past,

00:46:25you will not recognize

00:46:27most of the things you know and love today.

00:46:29The Statue of Liberty

00:46:31and the pyramids of Egypt,

00:46:33some basic gadgets like the remote

00:46:35and your laptop,

00:46:37and even the corn you eat for lunch

00:46:39have all changed to the point of being unrecognizable.

00:46:41When the pyramids were built

00:46:43in ancient Egypt,

00:46:45in Giza and other places,

00:46:47they did not have this brown, sandy look at all.

00:46:49They were covered with white limestone.

00:46:51When we looked at them

00:46:53under the scorching sun of Africa,

00:46:55we had to turn our gaze

00:46:57when they were smooth and shiny.

00:46:59The builders used

00:47:01about 6 million tons of limestone

00:47:03for the only large pyramid in Giza.

00:47:05It is the largest of those still standing.

00:47:07The local rulers

00:47:09were rather economical

00:47:11and they reused some of the

00:47:13coating stones for other construction projects.

00:47:15A massive earthquake

00:47:17occurred in the 14th century

00:47:19also detached

00:47:21part of the stones.

00:47:23You will not see a lot of limestone,

00:47:25but there are still some at the top

00:47:27of the Pyramid of Khefren in Giza.

00:47:29It looks like a second point

00:47:31above the first.

00:47:33In antiquity, all the pyramids

00:47:35were decorated with pyramidions

00:47:37covered with a mixture of gold and silver.

00:47:39Most have been lost over the centuries,

00:47:41but you can still see some

00:47:43in museums.

00:47:45They represent Egyptian deities.

00:47:47The pyramids were probably designed

00:47:49according to a pointed sacred stone,

00:47:51the benben.

00:47:53The lifting of heavy stones

00:47:55was not so simple without the technology

00:47:57we have today.

00:47:59I suppose you will agree with me

00:48:01if you have already helped your friends

00:48:03to move at least once

00:48:05and they made you carry the sofa.

00:48:07But the Egyptians had thought of everything

00:48:09and have precisely chosen the pyramidal shape

00:48:11because it allows to distribute the weight

00:48:13uniformly on the whole object.

00:48:15The Statue of Liberty

00:48:17has also undergone a major transformation

00:48:19since its inauguration in 1886.

00:48:21Believe it or not,

00:48:23it was once shiny,

00:48:25like a penny.

00:48:27Twenty years later,

00:48:29it has become green.

00:48:31It was not a fashion effect,

00:48:33but a chemical reaction.

00:48:35The statue is covered with hundreds

00:48:37of thin leaves of copper.

00:48:39When the copper comes in contact with the air,

00:48:41it forms a protective layer

00:48:43called grey-green.

00:48:45This is why statues

00:48:47and other copper, brass

00:48:49and bronze can last so long.

00:48:51When Lady Liberty

00:48:53became green,

00:48:55the authorities decided

00:48:57that it would be a good idea to repaint it.

00:48:59It was well before the advent of social networks

00:49:01and it was therefore not possible

00:49:03to leave a furious comment

00:49:05under the post presenting this idea.

00:49:07But local newspapers talked about it

00:49:09and the public did not agree.

00:49:11The Times then interviewed

00:49:13a copper and bronze manufacturer

00:49:15who confirmed that it was not necessary

00:49:17to remove this protective layer

00:49:19to destroy the statue.

00:49:21Over the years, people have suggested

00:49:23several times to repaint Lady Liberty,

00:49:25but no one has ever done it.

00:49:27I don't know what it is for you,

00:49:29but I can't imagine this lady

00:49:31in another color,

00:49:33so I guess it's better this way.

00:49:35Do you like bananas as much as I do?

00:49:37The next time you taste

00:49:39a juicy one,

00:49:41don't forget that you owe this texture

00:49:43to selective culture.

00:49:45Originally, wild bananas

00:49:47contained a lot of hard seeds

00:49:49and little of this delicious pulp.

00:49:51And the sweet watermelon,

00:49:53do you like that?

00:49:55Its history dates back to more than 5000 years.

00:49:57In the past, the flesh of the watermelon

00:49:59was bitter,

00:50:01of a yellowish white,

00:50:03and it was very difficult to open it.

00:50:05Selective culture has still saved the bet

00:50:07and watermelons have become

00:50:09much sweeter.

00:50:11Japanese scientists have gone even further

00:50:13and invented a new version

00:50:15without seeds.

00:50:17The grandmother of corn is a Mexican

00:50:19seed called teosinte.

00:50:21The seeds of this seed were small

00:50:23and even rather rare.

00:50:25Several thousand years ago,

00:50:27farmers only kept the seeds

00:50:29of the largest,

00:50:31tastiest plants,

00:50:33or whose seeds were easier to mold.

00:50:35And we thank them for giving us

00:50:37this delicious corn that we consume today.

00:50:39And imagine that,

00:50:41wild avocados were so small

00:50:43that they held easily

00:50:45in one hand.

00:50:47Their cores were so big

00:50:49that there was not much to eat.

00:50:51And their shells were also much harder

00:50:53than those of modern avocados

00:50:55that we are used to.

00:50:57You probably could not accomplish

00:50:59a lot of work today without your precious computer,

00:51:01but I can't tell you exactly

00:51:03who you should thank for this invention.

00:51:05The ABC of 1942

00:51:07is one of the claimants

00:51:09of the first computer.

00:51:11It is the acronym of

00:51:13Atanasoff Berry Computer,

00:51:15named after its inventors

00:51:17of the State University of Iowa.

00:51:19The ABC weighed more than 320 kg.

00:51:21Yes, yours is

00:51:23certainly much lighter.

00:51:25This machine was composed of

00:51:27about 300 empty tubes

00:51:29and had a rotating drum,

00:51:31a little bigger than a paint pot,

00:51:33on which were small capacitors.

00:51:35A capacitor is a gadget

00:51:37used to store an electric charge,

00:51:39like a battery.

00:51:41The ABC could solve problems

00:51:43with up to 29 different variables,

00:51:45which allowed scientists to save time.

00:51:47Like modern computers,

00:51:49it used a binary system

00:51:51of 1s and 0s

00:51:53to represent all the numbers

00:51:55and all the data.

00:51:57Thanks to this, it has become possible

00:51:59to perform calculations electronically.

00:52:01And now, listen to this.

00:52:03The ABC performed an operation

00:52:05for about 15 seconds.

00:52:07As a comparison,

00:52:09a computer now performs

00:52:11millions of operations per second.

00:52:13Unlike the technology we use today,

00:52:15the ABC did not have

00:52:17a program that could be recorded and modified.

00:52:19A program could therefore

00:52:21perform only one task at a time.

00:52:23An operator had to note

00:52:25the intermediate answer,

00:52:27then recompose it in the computer.

00:52:29This is why I am happy

00:52:31to live in the 21st century.

00:52:33The remote control

00:52:35you use for all kinds of devices

00:52:37does not date from yesterday either.

00:52:39Nikola Tesla,

00:52:41who gave us the alternative current,

00:52:43designed one of the first wireless remote controls

00:52:45in 1898.

00:52:47He named his invention

00:52:49the Teleautomaton

00:52:51and presented it

00:52:53with a miniature boat controlled by radio waves.

00:52:55The boat was equipped

00:52:57with a small metal antenna.

00:52:59Tesla sent signals to the boat

00:53:01using a box with a lever

00:53:03and a telegraphic key,

00:53:05his version of a remote control.

00:53:07These signals moved the boat's electrical contacts

00:53:09and moved the rudder

00:53:11and propeller.

00:53:13The concept of the remote control

00:53:15then quickly spread to other gadgets.

00:53:17The first television remote control

00:53:19appeared in 1950.

00:53:21It was designed by the Zenit Radio Corporation,

00:53:23which named it

00:53:25Lazy Bone.

00:53:27It means big lazy.

00:53:29The Lazy Bone

00:53:31was equipped with a huge cable

00:53:33connected to the television.

00:53:35Those who tried it did not fall in love

00:53:37right away with this invention.

00:53:39They got their feet in it all the time.

00:53:41Not very practical, I assure you.

00:53:43If you live or work

00:53:45at the top of a building,

00:53:47this invention is for you.

00:53:49Here is the first elevator for passengers.

00:53:51It moved at a speed of 12 meters per minute.

00:53:53It's not very fast.

00:53:55I know,

00:53:57but it's not as fast as today's record

00:53:59which is 12 meters per second.

00:54:01But hey, it dates from 1857

00:54:03and was built in New York.

00:54:05It was more of a tourist attraction

00:54:07than a necessity.

00:54:09The elevator operated

00:54:11with a steam engine hidden

00:54:13in the basement of a five-story building.

00:54:15But it was closed three years later

00:54:17because the public did not appreciate it.

00:54:19It was at this time that Cody Stufts

00:54:21filed the first patent

00:54:23for a vertical railway.

00:54:25His invention included a wagon

00:54:27equipped with a bench so that people could sit down.

00:54:29An ideal place to meet

00:54:31with friends, don't you think?

00:54:33Then

00:54:35they began to install elevators

00:54:37in luxury hotels around the world.

00:54:39These were real rooms

00:54:41very nicely decorated with

00:54:43padded seats, mirrors

00:54:45on the walls and sometimes even a small chandelier.

00:54:47An operator closed

00:54:49the door and the cabin began

00:54:51its very slow ascent.

00:54:53It was fashionable.

00:54:55It was not very fast.

00:54:57I have always preferred stairs.

00:54:59There is a lake

00:55:01in the heart of Asia that contains

00:55:03a fifth of all the fresh water in the world.

00:55:05It is more than

00:55:07the five great lakes combined.

00:55:09Even if all the rivers of our planet

00:55:11suddenly changed direction

00:55:13and gave themselves up for the mission

00:55:15of emptying this lake,

00:55:17it would take a whole year

00:55:19to finish the job.

00:55:21I am talking about the deepest lake in the world,

00:55:23Lake Baikal.

00:55:25If you decide to go down

00:55:27to its deepest point,

00:55:29prepare for a journey of more than 1,600 meters.

00:55:33The descent takes several hours.

00:55:35But the bottom of the lake

00:55:37is even deeper, resting

00:55:39in places on more than 6,000 meters of sediment.

00:55:41This means that it could

00:55:43be even deeper than the

00:55:45Mariana Trench, which is the deepest

00:55:47place known on Earth.

00:55:49The amount of water it contains

00:55:51would be enough for everyone on Earth

00:55:53to be able to drink for 50 years.

00:55:59This gigantic lake

00:56:01renews its water entirely every 383 years.

00:56:05Lake Baikal has an excellent team

00:56:07of over 300 rivers and streams

00:56:09that bring its water directly to it.

00:56:11And only one river

00:56:13comes out of Lake Baikal,

00:56:15Lake Langara, which goes straight

00:56:17to the Arctic Ocean.

00:56:19Lake Baikal is not only the deepest

00:56:21freshwater lake, it is also the oldest

00:56:23on Earth.

00:56:25It was formed at least 25 million years ago.

00:56:27It all started when

00:56:29the Earth's crust decided to play Tetris,

00:56:31creating the lake and the surrounding

00:56:33mountains.

00:56:35At one time, Lake Baikal was apparently

00:56:37just a simple riverbed.

00:56:39But earthquakes came to shake the land

00:56:41and the distance between the banks grew.

00:56:43The water level increased

00:56:45due to the melting of glaciers.

00:56:47Several lakes were then formed

00:56:49to end up creating only one.

00:56:51Lake Baikal

00:56:53is one of the 20 oldest lakes in the world,

00:56:55more than a million years old.

00:56:57And as it was not disturbed by glacial periods,

00:56:59it is a perfect research site

00:57:01for scientists.

00:57:03These deep sediments

00:57:05teach us a lot about the climate

00:57:07of our planet at different times.

00:57:11Since Lake Baikal

00:57:13is located on a continental rift,

00:57:15with 2,000 seismic shocks per year,

00:57:17the lake deepens

00:57:19and continues to grow.

00:57:21Its banks move away at about the same rate

00:57:23as the coasts of South America and Africa.

00:57:25It could therefore become an ocean.

00:57:27Another thing that Lake Baikal

00:57:29shares with the oceans

00:57:33is that its waters are rich in oxygen,

00:57:35even at its most extreme depths.

00:57:39This is one of the reasons

00:57:41why Lake Baikal is incredibly diverse.

00:57:45It houses more than 2,500 animal species

00:57:47and 1,000 varieties of plants.

00:57:51For the most part,

00:57:53these species are unique and endemic.

00:57:55There are algae and also fish,

00:57:57mullet and cormorant.

00:57:59Some bears,

00:58:01eels and lynx

00:58:03also live on its banks.

00:58:05They probably appreciate the fact

00:58:07that the temperatures near the lake

00:58:09are lower than those in the rest of Siberia.

00:58:11Thanks to this large mass of water,

00:58:13most of the inhabitants of Lake Baikal

00:58:15prefer to stay at the bottom of the waters.

00:58:17But you will meet a brave animal

00:58:19if you decide to go there.

00:58:23Here is Lake Baikal's seal,

00:58:25also known as Nerpa.

00:58:27It is the only real freshwater seal in the world.

00:58:31The Nerpa has such a soft look

00:58:33that it almost took on the role

00:58:35of Enchrek's hat.

00:58:37Its big eyes

00:58:39allow it to hunt its favorite pelagic fish.

00:58:43Other types of seals

00:58:45can live in fresh water and reproduce there,

00:58:47but these seals are the only ones

00:58:49to spend their whole lives there.

00:58:51But wait!

00:58:53How did seals, supposed to be ocean creatures,

00:58:55end up in a lake

00:58:57miles and miles from the sea?

00:58:59About 400,000 years ago,

00:59:01during the Pleistocene era,

00:59:03these adventurous creatures

00:59:05crossed the river and the emissaries

00:59:07that connected Lake Baikal to the Arctic Ocean.

00:59:09The Anele seal,

00:59:11which still lives in the Arctic,

00:59:13is considered the ancestor of Lake Baikal's seal.

00:59:15Today,

00:59:17Lake Baikal's seals

00:59:19remain in their freshwater habitats

00:59:21due to geological changes.

00:59:23And they seem to be quite happy

00:59:25where they are,

00:59:27because they have the choice

00:59:29of a wide variety of food.

00:59:31Seals mainly gather in the northern

00:59:33and southern parts of the Arctic in winter.

00:59:35The lake is covered with ice

00:59:37where they lay down to relax,

00:59:39just like their oceanic cousins

00:59:41use rocks or the beach.

00:59:45Since at least 1969,

00:59:47we have seen mysterious ice rings

00:59:49appear here and there

00:59:51randomly.

00:59:53At one point, they were so big

00:59:55that astronauts could even see them

00:59:57from space.

00:59:59These rings usually appear at the end of April,

01:00:01but can be present in January or May.

01:00:03Scientists never managed

01:00:05to unravel the mystery of their formation.

01:00:07They invented all kinds of theories,

01:00:09the most popular based on

01:00:11methane bubbles coming from the depths.

01:00:13But at one point, they noticed

01:00:15that some of the rings were in less deep waters

01:00:17where there is no gas emission.

01:00:19Thus, an international team

01:00:21decided to solve this mystery.

01:00:23They went to Lake Baikal,

01:00:25drilled holes in the ice

01:00:27and installed sensors in the water.

01:00:29In 2016,

01:00:31at the beginning of their research,

01:00:33they heard that two trucks

01:00:35were stuck in these mysterious ice rings.

01:00:37Once the sensors were analyzed,

01:00:39it turned out that behind these rings

01:00:41there were hot whirlwinds

01:00:43circulating in the direction of the needles

01:00:45of a watch under the layer of ice.

01:00:47The currents were less intense

01:00:49in the center of the whirlwinds

01:00:51and the ice above was therefore

01:00:53thicker than on the edges.

01:00:55The lakes are so transparent

01:00:57that you can dive your eyes

01:00:59into extreme depths,

01:01:01up to more than forty meters

01:01:03under the surface.

01:01:05It is because of the surrounding mountains

01:01:07that pour their melted ice there.

01:01:09The plankton of the lake

01:01:11also cleans the floating debris.

01:01:13When this crystalline water freezes,

01:01:15it forms a layer of thick

01:01:17and transparent ice.

01:01:19The wind plays the sculptors

01:01:21on Lake Baikal and creates

01:01:23unique works of art of their kind.

01:01:25It raises water that freezes

01:01:27in unusual forms,

01:01:29bubbles, stalactites,

01:01:31things that you don't see

01:01:33anywhere else.

01:01:35The location and geography of the lake,

01:01:37as well as the cycles of thawing

01:01:39and thawing, create the perfect conditions

01:01:41for this sculptor's workshop.

01:01:43And you can even see rocks

01:01:45that seem to float.

01:01:47The bottom of the rock freezes

01:01:49to the surface of the ice.

01:01:51Then the strong winds erode at its base,

01:01:53creating a beautiful base for the rock.

01:01:59If you think these floating rocks

01:02:01look strange,

01:02:03what would you think of the Baikal monster?

01:02:05The Siberian burrows have a legend

01:02:07about an aquatic dragon

01:02:09living in the lake.

01:02:11The dragon is considered

01:02:13the most powerful creature

01:02:15in Asian mythology.

01:02:17It is said that there would be

01:02:19four dragons living in the four seas,

01:02:21in the direction of the cardinal.

01:02:23The Baikal and the North Sea,

01:02:25in this story.

01:02:27The image of this dragon would be present

01:02:29in ancient petroglyphs

01:02:31on the cliffs of the Baikal.

01:02:33A heavy stone slab,

01:02:35which could go back to the 9th century

01:02:37BC,

01:02:39represents a mysterious water monster.

01:02:43Imagine all the stories contained

01:02:45in this stone,

01:02:47the remains of a revolutionary era,

01:02:49the enigma of the cliffs of the Baikal.

01:02:55The legend tells that a local warrior

01:02:57pursued the dragon.

01:02:59He finally reached the main island of Olkhon.

01:03:01He was ready to face

01:03:03and defeat the dragon.

01:03:05But the beast turned into a beautiful woman

01:03:07and they got married.

01:03:09Here is a strange variant

01:03:11of the classic story of the dragon

01:03:13and the lady to rescue.

01:03:15Local legends describe this dragon

01:03:17as a sturgeon with a muzzle

01:03:19similar to that of an alligator

01:03:21and a leathery body.

01:03:23In reality, this mythical monster

01:03:25is certainly only one of the largest

01:03:27fish living in the lake.

01:03:29The high levels of oxygen contained in the water

01:03:31allow these fish to become very large.

01:03:33The great sturgeon can weigh

01:03:35more than 1,000 kilos,

01:03:37live up to 50 or 60 years

01:03:39and they never stop growing.

01:03:43It was the beginning of the 20th century

01:03:45and two rivals, Robert Scott

01:03:47and Roald Amundsen,

01:03:49each embarked on their own expedition

01:03:51to become the first explorers

01:03:53in history to reach the South Pole.

01:03:55The race was not easy

01:03:57and it ended tragically for Scott.

01:03:59Amundsen, on the other hand,

01:04:01won it and managed to plant his tent

01:04:03in the pole in front of his rivals.

01:04:05Thomas Griffith Taylor, a British geologist

01:04:07and member of Scott's expedition,

01:04:09nicknamed Terra Nova,

01:04:11not only survived

01:04:13the difficult conditions

01:04:15but also made an unexpected discovery.

01:04:17It fell in 1911

01:04:19on a waterfall

01:04:21that seemed made of blood

01:04:23and that sprang from the rocky base of the glacier

01:04:25which now bears his name.

01:04:27It took more than a century

01:04:29for scientists to understand

01:04:31what was behind this strange coloration.

01:04:33A team of American scientists

01:04:35went to the Taylor Glacier

01:04:37with powerful electronic microscopes

01:04:39to analyze its content.

01:04:41Previous studies had only

01:04:43revealed the puzzling riddle

01:04:45but no one had previously

01:04:47made a large-scale analysis

01:04:49of its mineralogical composition.

01:04:51SIES researchers deployed

01:04:53a real arsenal of cutting-edge equipment

01:04:55and thus spotted small nanospheres

01:04:57rich in metal.

01:04:59These tiny particles,

01:05:01100 times smaller than human red blood cells,

01:05:03come from ancient microbes

01:05:05and they thrive abundantly

01:05:07in the bottom waters of the Taylor Glacier.

01:05:09They are full of iron, silicon,

01:05:11calcium, aluminum and sodium

01:05:13forming a unique composition

01:05:15that gives the underwater water

01:05:17a characteristic red tint.

01:05:19These nanospheres do not have

01:05:21the usual crystalline structure

01:05:23found in minerals.

01:05:25This is why previous detection methods

01:05:27were not able to spot them.

01:05:29The frozen depths of the Taylor Glacier

01:05:31house an ancient microbial colony

01:05:33that thrived in autarky for thousands

01:05:35or even millions of years.

01:05:37This discovery could help us

01:05:39in our search for life

01:05:41outside of our good old Earth.

01:05:43Dr. Ken Levy, a researcher

01:05:45at Johns Hopkins University,

01:05:47enjoyed impressive CE expertise

01:05:49on planetary materials

01:05:51and the analysis of Martian samples.

01:05:53He decided to take an interest

01:05:55in what would happen

01:05:57if a Martian rover landed in Antarctica.

01:05:59Could he determine what makes

01:06:01the blood drops so incredibly red?

01:06:03Thus, the researchers treated

01:06:05the blood drops as the site

01:06:07of the simulation of a Martian landing.

01:06:09They used techniques

01:06:11inspired by the rovers

01:06:13exploring the red planet.

01:06:15Then the samples they collected

01:06:17were sent to the Johns Hopkins laboratory.

01:06:19There, Levy used the power

01:06:21of electronic microscopy

01:06:23to reveal these enigmatic nanospheres.

01:06:25He concluded that our current methods

01:06:27of analyzing the surfaces of other planets

01:06:29using astromobiles

01:06:31were insufficient.

01:06:33They could not reveal the true nature

01:06:35of the environmental materials,

01:06:37especially on cold planets like Mars.

01:06:39These could be extremely small

01:06:41and non-crystalline,

01:06:43which disrupts our detection methods.

01:06:45To really understand

01:06:47the essence of rocky planets,

01:06:49we will need 16 electronic microscopes

01:06:51for transmission.

01:06:53Fixing one on a Martian rover

01:06:55is not yet feasible,

01:06:57but this could mean the beginning

01:06:59of a new era in space exploration.

01:07:01Cascades in flames?

01:07:03Every month in February,

01:07:05when the stars align perfectly,

01:07:07Orsettai Falls in the Yosemite National Park

01:07:09undergoes a sensational metamorphosis.

01:07:11At sunset,

01:07:13its rays hit the cascade

01:07:15at the perfect angle,

01:07:17transforming it into a flamboyant show

01:07:19with vivid orange and red colors.

01:07:21We do not know exactly

01:07:23when this natural miracle was discovered,

01:07:25nor by whom.

01:07:27The first inhabitants of the valley

01:07:29but they were able to remain silent.

01:07:31It was only in 1973

01:07:33that the photographer Galen Rowell

01:07:35captured the first known

01:07:37cliché of the cascade,

01:07:39placing it under the fire of the projectors.

01:07:41Since then,

01:07:43the fall of fire has become

01:07:45the talk of the whole world,

01:07:47spreading like a powder keg

01:07:49on social networks

01:07:51and attracting crowds from far away.

01:07:53This magnificent cascade

01:07:55arouses the enthusiasm

01:07:57of all certain conditions.

01:07:59First of all,

01:08:01Orsettai Falls requires a stream of water in motion.

01:08:03If there is not enough snow in February,

01:08:05the cascade will not have enough water

01:08:07to create its magic.

01:08:09The temperatures must also be hot enough

01:08:11to melt the snow during the day.

01:08:13If it is too cold,

01:08:15the snow will remain frozen

01:08:17and the pyrotechnic show will not take place.

01:08:19Secondly, we need a clear sky

01:08:21in the west at sunset.

01:08:23Sunbeams need a direct path

01:08:25to hit the falls and bring them to life.

01:08:27And since the weather in Yosemite

01:08:29is constantly changing,

01:08:31the clouds can clear as if by magic,

01:08:33just in time for the show.

01:08:35If all the conditions are met,

01:08:37you will then admire the Yosemite

01:08:39firefalls in all their splendor

01:08:41for about ten minutes.

01:08:43The mystery of the moving stones

01:08:45in the National Park of the Valley of Death

01:08:47in California has intrigued scientists for years.

01:08:49Heavy stones seem to have their own will

01:08:51and move through

01:08:53the Raystack Playa,

01:08:55which is the bed of a dry lake.

01:08:57It leaves behind it

01:08:59a thorn on the cracked mud.

01:09:01There were all kinds of theories

01:09:03to explain this phenomenon.

01:09:05Magnetic fields with dust swirls,

01:09:07as well as the intervention of malicious scammers.

01:09:09No one had really seen

01:09:11these rocks in action,

01:09:13which only added to the mystery.

01:09:15In 2006, a NASA scientist

01:09:17named Ralph Lorenz

01:09:19entered the scene.

01:09:21He was a meteorologist

01:09:23who reigns on other planets,

01:09:25but he could not resist the attraction

01:09:27of the Valley of Death

01:09:29and its mysterious moving stones.

01:09:31He had a flash of lucidity

01:09:33when he was tinkering

01:09:35at his kitchen table

01:09:37with a Tupperware container.

01:09:39Lorenz filled the water container

01:09:41by letting a small stone pass,

01:09:43then he put it in the freezer.

01:09:45Then he placed this glazed construction

01:09:47on a large plate filled with water

01:09:49leaving a trace in the sand.

01:09:51Lorenz had studied

01:09:53how ice could float

01:09:55and move large rocks

01:09:57along the beaches of the Arctic Ocean.

01:09:59Applying his knowledge,

01:10:01he and his team of researchers

01:10:03discovered that,

01:10:05under certain winter conditions

01:10:07of the Valley of Death,

01:10:09enough water and ice

01:10:11could form to float the rocks

01:10:13through Rastrak Playa

01:10:15in a slight breeze.

01:10:17This is the most beautiful river

01:10:19in the world.

01:10:21During most of the year,

01:10:23it looks like

01:10:25any other ordinary watercourse.

01:10:27The real magic happens

01:10:29between dry and humid seasons

01:10:31when the water level

01:10:33is simply ideal.

01:10:35The unique bed of this river

01:10:37is covered with a particular plant

01:10:39and when the conditions are met,

01:10:41it shines like a star.

01:10:43This is the most beautiful river

01:10:45in the world.

01:11:15And during the dry season,

01:11:17there is simply not enough water

01:11:19to support the luxurious life

01:11:21in the bed of the river.

01:11:23So you have to seize it at the right time.

01:11:25The reason why the beaches of the Maldives

01:11:27shine at night is not a mystery,

01:11:29but it does not make them less impressive.

01:11:31The phenomenon occurs

01:11:33thanks to a bioluminescent plankton.

01:11:3516 tiny creatures

01:11:37look like small disco underwater balls

01:11:39emitting a bluish,

01:11:41flickering light

01:11:43when they are agitated or moving.

01:11:45Imagine walking along the shore

01:11:47and leaving behind you

01:11:49luminous footprints.

01:11:51You can even take a midnight bath

01:11:53in the middle of this magical plankton.

01:11:55Researchers have discovered

01:11:57that their bioluminescence

01:11:59was actually a mechanism

01:12:01of intelligent defense

01:12:03against predators.

01:12:05When these microorganisms

01:12:07flash their little blue lights,

01:12:09it confuses and surprises their attackers.

01:12:11They use a chemical substance

01:12:13called luciferin.

01:12:15These enchanting planktons

01:12:17can appear at any time of the year,

01:12:19but your best chance of admiring them

01:12:21in all their luminous splendor

01:12:23is from June to December.

01:12:25During this period,

01:12:27we find a higher volume of planktons

01:12:29in the seas of the Maldives,

01:12:31creating the perfect conditions

01:12:33for a luminous show

01:12:35after sunset,

01:12:37when the night falls.

01:12:39It is difficult to predict

01:12:41exactly when this magical show

01:12:43will take place.

01:12:45So make sure to do your research

01:12:47in advance.

01:12:49Prepare to take your photos

01:12:51with a high exposure

01:12:53in order to capture it

01:12:55exactly as it appears

01:12:57in travel catalogs.

01:12:59You may not often think

01:13:01about gravity,

01:13:03but it has an influence

01:13:05on everything we do.

01:13:07We do not end up in space

01:13:09every time we jump,

01:13:11but for physicists,

01:13:13it does not stop there.

01:13:15It is for them an enigma

01:13:17whose resolution will help us

01:13:19understand the functioning

01:13:21of the universe.

01:13:23What is so mysterious about it?

01:13:25We will see that.

01:13:27We have learned a lot

01:13:29about gravity

01:13:31thanks to the legendary

01:13:33Isaac Newton.

01:13:35But we must not be attracted

01:13:37to each other,

01:13:39as if it were a secret love affair.

01:13:41The intensity of this attraction

01:13:43depends on two factors,

01:13:45the size of the objects,

01:13:47i.e. their mass,

01:13:49and their proximity.

01:13:51But here is what is interesting.

01:13:53Gravity is not just a dance

01:13:55between two objects,

01:13:57it is a whole complex choreography.

01:13:59Let's take the example

01:14:01of the solar system.

01:14:03Each planet has its own gravity,

01:14:05and it pulls on the sun

01:14:07and even on its neighbors.

01:14:09A few hundred years later,

01:14:11another hero, Albert Einstein,

01:14:13made a lot of progress.

01:14:15He described the theory

01:14:17of general relativity.

01:14:19According to Einstein,

01:14:21gravity is not a simple force.

01:14:23In reality, it curves and deforms

01:14:25the fabric of space-time.

01:14:27Imagine a muscle man

01:14:29sitting on a rubber plate.

01:14:31He has a curve under his weight.

01:14:33The small objects

01:14:35that are nearby

01:14:37cannot prevent him

01:14:39from rolling towards the bodybuilder.

01:14:41Even if the curves of space-time

01:14:43are not visible to us,

01:14:45we can see the effect

01:14:47they have on objects.

01:14:49Being attracted by gravity

01:14:51is like being caught

01:14:53in a whirlwind.

01:14:55The attracted object

01:14:57starts to go down in a spiral,

01:14:59in a circle,

01:15:01like a bicycle in a velodrome.

01:15:03Gravity is the primordial force

01:15:05of our universe.

01:15:07Without it, there would be no stars,

01:15:09no galaxies, nothing.

01:15:11But where does it come from?

01:15:13That's the big question,

01:15:15and we don't have a complete answer yet.

01:15:17But we have some ideas.

01:15:19First of all, we know that gravity

01:15:21is more than a simple feature of space.

01:15:23It is a force that brings things together.

01:15:25Surprisingly,

01:15:27gravity is the weakest of all.

01:15:29But let's take a different look at all this.

01:15:31You may be surprised.

01:15:33Instead of a force that pushes

01:15:35or attracts objects directly,

01:15:37it would be a dance.

01:15:39And as surprising as it may be,

01:15:41gravity is not alone in this dance.

01:15:43It shares the star with other forces,

01:15:45like electromagnetism, for example.

01:15:49Let's imagine two electrons.

01:15:51They are our dancers.

01:15:53They don't guide each other directly,

01:15:55like when you dance, you.

01:15:57Instead, one of the electrons

01:15:59creates a field around it,

01:16:01an invisible force field.

01:16:03This field prepares the stage for the show.

01:16:05The other electron detects this field

01:16:07and starts spinning and interacting with it.

01:16:09It's as if they were both

01:16:11following a choreography.

01:16:13When we watch this dance,

01:16:15we have the impression that the second electron

01:16:17is being pushed or pulled by the first.

01:16:19In reality,

01:16:21it is a complex movement

01:16:23between the dancers and the field that brings them together.

01:16:25The dancers never touch each other,

01:16:27but their interactions inside the field

01:16:29give the impression that they are linked.

01:16:31It's a beautiful show.

01:16:33This field and the movements

01:16:35that are deployed there

01:16:37create the illusion that we are in the presence of force.

01:16:39This is what we call gravity.

01:16:41And even if it is not a force

01:16:43in the usual sense of the term,

01:16:45it behaves as such.

01:16:47We call it an emerging force,

01:16:49because it comes from the interaction

01:16:51between objects.

01:16:53Some scientists therefore avoid

01:16:55the term gravitational force

01:16:57and prefer the term interaction.

01:16:59It is simply a way

01:17:01for particles to mix

01:17:03and exchange energy and information.

01:17:05Electromagnetic interaction,

01:17:07gravitational interaction,

01:17:09all of this is part of the same thing.

01:17:11It is at least one of the theories.

01:17:13Other scientists think

01:17:15that gravity would be made up of

01:17:17tiny particles called gravitons.

01:17:19These tiny particles

01:17:21act secretly

01:17:23and attract objects to each other.

01:17:25However, we have not yet been able

01:17:27to directly see these intangible gravitons.

01:17:29But according to this theory,

01:17:31gravity would be both

01:17:33a force and a particle.

01:17:35As you can see,

01:17:37we have a hard time explaining

01:17:39the operation of gravity on a large scale.

01:17:41But we have at least a good understanding

01:17:43of its operation in certain situations.

01:17:45The orbit of planets around the sun,

01:17:47the orbit of objects, and so on.

01:17:49But what happens

01:17:51when we go to the atomic scale?

01:17:53What if we venture into the depths

01:17:55of the black holes and the Big Bang?

01:17:57This is where everything begins

01:17:59to unravel for us.

01:18:01First, let's look at those

01:18:03who are involved in quantum mechanics.

01:18:05Something special is happening

01:18:07in this tiny world.

01:18:09Gravity, the force that brings things together,

01:18:11seems to be fading.

01:18:13At the microscopic scale,

01:18:15the laws of gravitation

01:18:17take the lead

01:18:19and seem to eclipse gravity.

01:18:21Scientists wonder

01:18:23about the possibility of such a phenomenon.

01:18:25Why does gravity suddenly disappear?

01:18:27We still have no idea.

01:18:29And when it comes to the largest scales,

01:18:31with huge objects like black holes,

01:18:33the question reaches a whole other level of complexity.

01:18:35For example, inside a black hole,

01:18:37the laws of physics and gravity

01:18:39as we know them are no longer valid.

01:18:41Same thing when we try

01:18:43to understand what gravity was

01:18:45immediately after the Big Bang.

01:18:47Where does it come from?

01:18:49We know nothing about it.

01:18:51We find ourselves in an absolute cosmic fog.

01:18:53But rest assured,

01:18:55scientists are working hard

01:18:57to learn more and more

01:18:59about this enigmatic emerging force.

01:19:01They carry out all kinds of experiments

01:19:03and use cutting-edge technologies

01:19:05to decipher the code.

01:19:07Even if we still have a lot to understand,

01:19:09we progress every day.

01:19:11For example,

01:19:13what is a gravitational lens?

01:19:15It's like a beautiful magic trick.

01:19:17Imagine a ray of intrepid light

01:19:19taking a straight trajectory

01:19:21through the universe.

01:19:23But when it crosses the gravitational attraction

01:19:25of a massive object,

01:19:27this trajectory turns into

01:19:29real Russian mountains.

01:19:31The gravity of the massive object

01:19:33bends the fabric of space-time,

01:19:35creating a deforming mirror effect.

01:19:37Our brave luminous ray

01:19:39takes a new and unexpected trajectory.

01:19:41But by changing the trajectory,

01:19:43the light also reveals

01:19:45distant and hidden wonders

01:19:47that would otherwise remain invisible to us.

01:19:49Light can grow,

01:19:51deform or multiply the image

01:19:53of distant objects.

01:19:55Thus, everything that played hide-and-seek

01:19:57with us suddenly becomes visible.

01:19:59Like black holes.

01:20:01There is also something incredible.

01:20:03Gravitational waves.

01:20:05Einstein predicted their existence

01:20:07decades ago.

01:20:09But it is only recently

01:20:11that we have had confirmation.

01:20:13For scientists,

01:20:15this is a considerable advance.

01:20:17These waves are like echoes

01:20:19of cataclysmic cosmic events,

01:20:21such as the collision of massive black holes

01:20:23or the birth of stars.

01:20:25Like a stone falling into the smooth water of a pond,

01:20:27these great events

01:20:29cause an effect of undulation.

01:20:31But it is not the water here

01:20:33that undulates and deforms,

01:20:35scientists have recently developed

01:20:37a way to listen to these gravitational waves.

01:20:39They have created instruments

01:20:41capable of detecting them.

01:20:43These instruments,

01:20:45called interferometers,

01:20:47are like very thin ears

01:20:49that would listen to the subtle vibrations of the universe.

01:20:51One thing is certain,

01:20:53gravity is a superstar

01:20:55and it shapes our cosmos.

01:20:57It connects together everything that surrounds us

01:20:59and governs general choreography.

01:21:01Our quest for these ultimate secrets

01:21:03continues.

01:21:05It is an exciting adventure for scientists

01:21:07as much as for curious minds.

01:21:11R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

01:21:13Find out what it means to me.

01:21:15If you have sung at the same time,

01:21:17congratulations!

01:21:19You know at least one song

01:21:21from the legendary Aretha Franklin.

01:21:23But few people know long about her life,

01:21:25which was full of mysteries.

01:21:27The biopic respects

01:21:29to raise the veil around the secrets

01:21:31of the soul.

01:21:33Jennifer Hudson

01:21:35wonderfully played the main character

01:21:37and guided the audience

01:21:39through the life of the regretted star.

01:21:41However, there are some moments in the film

01:21:43that do not correspond to reality.

01:21:45Born in Memphis,

01:21:47in Tennessee,

01:21:49she was the fourth of five children

01:21:51in a very talented family.

01:21:53Her father was a Baptist pastor

01:21:55and her mother was a gospel singer.

01:21:57When Aretha was little,

01:21:59her father's work led the family

01:22:01to Detroit, in Michigan,

01:22:03where Aretha was destined

01:22:05to a brilliant career.

01:22:07At 12, Aretha had her first son

01:22:09and the second was born two years later.

01:22:11Unlike the film,

01:22:13where it happened earlier,

01:22:15the two sons bore the family name

01:22:17of Aretha Franklin,

01:22:19because the identity of their father

01:22:21remained unknown.

01:22:23Aretha Franklin was a true

01:22:25music prodigy.

01:22:27She was already conducting

01:22:29in front of her father's congregation

01:22:31and recorded some of his first songs,

01:22:33thus beginning her extraordinary

01:22:35musical career.

01:22:37Her recordings were broadcast

01:22:39by a small label in the form

01:22:41of an album in 1956.

01:22:43At the age of 18,

01:22:45Aretha received her father's approval

01:22:47to turn to profane music

01:22:49and move to New York

01:22:51to pursue a musical career.

01:22:53And this is another example

01:22:55of her creativity.

01:22:57Although her contract with

01:22:59Columbia Records in 1960

01:23:01marked a turning point in her career,

01:23:03it was not the first professional

01:23:05recording of the star to become.

01:23:07Her first single was a magnificent

01:23:09interpretation of Never Grow Old.

01:23:11She would come back to it several times

01:23:13in her career, and it was chosen

01:23:15as a closing track for the album

01:23:17Amazing Grace.

01:23:19One of the most memorable scenes

01:23:21of the film is the one where

01:23:23Mary J. Blige flips a table

01:23:25after Aretha Franklin and sings

01:23:27one of Washington's famous songs

01:23:29Unforgettable, in a club.

01:23:31The two divas were not exactly

01:23:33the best friends in the world,

01:23:35but Aretha did not become the object

01:23:37of Dina's anger in real life.

01:23:39It was another rising star,

01:23:41Etta James, who had the courage

01:23:43to sing one of Dina's songs in front of her.

01:23:45At the time, Miss D was a true

01:23:47member of the family,

01:23:49attending Aretha's father's party

01:23:51But during one of Aretha's first shows,

01:23:53Washington went behind the scenes

01:23:55to criticize the mess

01:23:57of Franklin's lodge.

01:23:59Aretha did not appreciate

01:24:01the least we could say,

01:24:03and ended up considering Dina

01:24:05as a capricious diva.

01:24:07The film is faithful to reality

01:24:09when it comes to Aretha's meeting

01:24:11with her future husband, Ted White,

01:24:13at one of her father's parties.

01:24:15But in truth, it happened

01:24:17when Franklin was still a teenager,

01:24:19and not on the eve of his contract

01:24:21with Columbia Records in 1960.

01:24:23Their relationship began a year later,

01:24:25the same year Aretha

01:24:27released her first album.

01:24:29They got married after several months,

01:24:31and Ted became her manager.

01:24:33The film shows producer Jerry Wexler

01:24:35presenting Aretha for the first time

01:24:37as the Queen of the Soul

01:24:39at one of her concerts.

01:24:41In reality, Aretha owed this title

01:24:43to two Chicago DJs.

01:24:45One of them surprised her

01:24:47and crowned her Queen of the Soul

01:24:49at a concert.

01:24:51They even decorated her with a crown

01:24:53decorated with jewels

01:24:55worthy of a real queen.

01:24:57Aretha loved her new title

01:24:59and he quickly became a sensation.

01:25:01Later in the film, Franklin refused

01:25:03to interpret the song

01:25:05that would become a real success

01:25:07because of his own Baptist beliefs.

01:25:09Let It Be had been sent to him

01:25:11by the Beatles themselves,

01:25:13offering him to record it first.

01:25:15She reviewed her opinion

01:25:17on the song when she discovered

01:25:19that Mother Mary was nothing

01:25:21but Paul McCartney's dead mother.

01:25:23However, Aretha opted

01:25:25for another Beatles song

01:25:27to be released as a single,

01:25:29so that the British band

01:25:31did it before her,

01:25:33and history would definitely

01:25:35remember this one as theirs.

01:25:37Franklin had completely forgotten

01:25:39to invite his father

01:25:41until the very last minute.

01:25:43But he still had a few words

01:25:45to say to her on the second day

01:25:47of the concert.

01:25:49Some facts of the life of the star

01:25:51have not been depicted

01:25:53precisely in the biopic,

01:25:55but they deserve to be known.

01:25:57In 2006, the Super Bowl

01:25:59took place in Detroit.

01:26:01The NFL had decided to innovate

01:26:03by opting for the Rolling Stones

01:26:05rather than a local singer

01:26:07during the half-time show.

01:26:09Many people disapproved of this decision

01:26:11and the NFL therefore invited Aretha

01:26:13to join Aaron Neville

01:26:15to sing the national anthem,

01:26:17a first for her at the Super Bowl.

01:26:19She would remember this

01:26:21as a very special honor.

01:26:23She had been invited to perform

01:26:25during this famous match before,

01:26:27but had to refuse

01:26:29due to her fear of the plane.

01:26:31The singer had developed it

01:26:33in the 80s after going through

01:26:35serious turbulence in a small

01:26:37Atlanta twin-engine plane in Detroit.

01:26:39Aretha Franklin

01:26:41even took a special course

01:26:43to overcome her fear,

01:26:45but never completed it,

01:26:47so that she never knew

01:26:49about her aviophobia.

01:26:51During her life,

01:26:53the Queen of Soul

01:26:55won 18 Grammy Awards

01:26:57out of 44 nominations.

01:26:59She became the first woman

01:27:01to appear at the Rock and Roll

01:27:03Hall of Fame.

01:27:05She lent her majestic voice

01:27:07and her involvement in the civil rights movement

01:27:09earned her the Presidential Medal

01:27:11of Liberty in 2005.

01:27:13NASA even baptized an asteroid

01:27:15in her honor in 2014.

01:27:17This song remains popular

01:27:19even after her death,

01:27:21but it is not the only reason

01:27:23why Aretha is still mentioned in the media.

01:27:25When she died in 2018,

01:27:27there was no official will

01:27:29to properly talk about it.

01:27:31So everyone thought

01:27:33that she had not prepared it

01:27:35for the public.

01:27:37But the truth is

01:27:39that she had prepared it

01:27:41for the public.

01:27:43But the truth is

01:27:45that she had prepared it

01:27:47for the public.

01:27:49But the truth is

01:27:51that she had prepared it

01:27:53for the public.

01:27:55But the truth is

01:27:57that she had prepared it

01:27:59for the public.

01:28:01But the truth is

01:28:03that she had prepared it

01:28:05for the public.

01:28:07But the truth is

01:28:09that she had prepared it

01:28:11for the public.

01:28:13But the truth is

01:28:15that she had prepared it

01:28:17for the public.

01:28:19But the truth is

01:28:21that she had prepared it

01:28:23for the public.

01:28:25But the truth is

01:28:27that she had prepared it

01:28:29for the public.

01:28:31But the truth is

01:28:33that she had prepared it

01:28:35for the public.

01:28:37But the truth is

01:28:39that she had prepared it

01:28:41for the public.

01:28:43But the truth is

01:28:45that she had prepared it

01:28:47for the public.

01:28:49But the truth is

01:28:51that she had prepared it

01:28:53for the public.

01:28:55But the truth is

01:28:57that she had prepared it

01:28:59for the public.

01:29:01But the truth is

01:29:03that she had prepared it

01:29:05for the public.

01:29:07But the truth is

01:29:09that she had prepared it

01:29:11for the public.

01:29:13But the truth is

01:29:15that she had prepared it

01:29:17for the public.

01:29:19But the truth is

01:29:21that she had prepared it

01:29:23for the public.

01:29:25But the truth is

01:29:27that she had prepared it

01:29:29for the public.

01:29:31But the truth is

01:29:33that she had prepared it

01:29:35for the public.

01:29:37But the truth is

01:29:39that she had prepared it

01:29:41for the public.

01:29:43But the truth is

01:29:45that she had prepared it

01:29:47for the public.

01:29:49But the truth is

01:29:51that she had prepared it

01:29:53for the public.

01:29:55But the truth is

01:29:57that she had prepared it

01:29:59for the public.

01:30:01But the truth is

01:30:03that she had prepared it

01:30:05for the public.

01:30:07But the truth is

01:30:09that she had prepared it

01:30:11for the public.

01:30:13But the truth is

01:30:15that she had prepared it

01:30:17for the public.

01:30:19But the truth is

01:30:21that she had prepared it

01:30:23for the public.

01:30:25But the truth is

01:30:27that she had prepared it

01:30:29for the public.

01:30:31But the truth is

01:30:33that she had prepared it

01:30:35for the public.

01:30:37But the truth is

01:30:39that she had prepared it

01:30:41for the public.

01:30:43But the truth is

01:30:45that she had prepared it

01:30:47for the public.

01:30:49But the truth is

01:30:51that she had prepared it

01:30:53for the public.

01:30:55But the truth is

01:30:57that she had prepared it

01:30:59for the public.

01:31:01But the truth is

01:31:03that she had prepared it

01:31:05for the public.

01:31:07But the truth is

01:31:09that she had prepared it

01:31:11for the public.

01:31:13But the truth is

01:31:15that she had prepared it

01:31:17for the public.

01:31:19At the time, few people knew

01:31:21electricity.

01:31:23And our scientist wondered

01:31:25if the pyramids did not hide

01:31:27an advanced technology.

01:31:29He thought that their power

01:31:31could be linked to electromagnetism.

01:31:33And he devoted a lot of time

01:31:35and effort to try to know more.

01:31:37He had quite bizarre theories

01:31:39for the time.

01:31:41He thought that the pyramids

01:31:43contained an electric charge

01:31:45and that they fed the surrounding

01:31:47energy.

01:31:49He also thought that crystals

01:31:51were the source of this energy.

01:31:53According to him,

01:31:55these super-powerful crystals

01:31:57were inside the pyramids

01:31:59and could control

01:32:01the electromagnetic fields.

01:32:03But that's not all.

01:32:05Tesla also thought that the materials

01:32:07used to build these monuments

01:32:09had properties allowing them

01:32:11to capture the energy of the sun

01:32:13and the moon,

01:32:15so that they could create

01:32:17a powerful energy field

01:32:19to light entire cities

01:32:21and even illuminate areas

01:32:23plunged into darkness.

01:32:25They were used as

01:32:27giant power plants

01:32:29to produce energy

01:32:31and run machines.

01:32:33According to Tesla,

01:32:35the pyramids were linked

01:32:37to a cosmic energy

01:32:39used for spiritual awakening

01:32:41and the healing of the dead.

01:32:43He had seriously studied

01:32:45all the documents available

01:32:47about the pyramids,

01:32:49from ancient texts to hieroglyphs

01:32:51and drawings.

01:32:53And he concluded

01:32:55that the pyramids were designed

01:32:57as energy amplifiers

01:32:59and that a mysterious energy source

01:33:01was used to build them.

01:33:03Some thought

01:33:05that Tesla was just an eccentric

01:33:07with crazy theories.

01:33:09But his ideas had a considerable impact

01:33:11on the way we perceive

01:33:13the pyramids today.

01:33:15For a few years now,

01:33:17researchers and academics

01:33:19have been studying discoveries

01:33:21and use them to uncover

01:33:23some of the biggest mysteries

01:33:25surrounding these ancient structures.

01:33:27For example, scientists have recently

01:33:29conducted theoretical experiments

01:33:31to analyze how the Great Pyramid

01:33:33would react to certain radio waves.

01:33:35They discovered that it could

01:33:37capture radio waves of a certain length

01:33:39and that the waves would move

01:33:41around the room at its base.

01:33:43Scientists have made many calculations

01:33:45to reach this conclusion.

01:33:47They first thought about the wavelength

01:33:49that would work best.

01:33:51They then modeled the reaction

01:33:53of the pyramid to these waves

01:33:55and they calculated the amount

01:33:57of energy that would be absorbed

01:33:59or diffused.

01:34:01Finally, they studied how the energy

01:34:03would move inside the pyramid

01:34:05once captured by the structure.

01:34:07This is called multipolar analysis,

01:34:09which consists of decomposing

01:34:11a complex object into simple elements.

01:34:13It is then possible to see how

01:34:15each part reacts to the energy.

01:34:17It's a bit like when you undo a puzzle

01:34:19to see how each piece

01:34:21interacts with the others.

01:34:23Researchers are interested

01:34:25in how all this could be useful to us.

01:34:27They try to make particles

01:34:29capable of doing the same thing

01:34:31as the pyramids, but with light.

01:34:33By modifying the size, shape

01:34:35they can control how the light

01:34:37moves around it.

01:34:39This can be very useful

01:34:41for the manufacture of tiny sensors

01:34:43or very efficient solar cells.

01:34:45Scientists had to make

01:34:47some assumptions during their research.

01:34:49They imagined that there was no

01:34:51hidden space inside the pyramids

01:34:53and that the materials used

01:34:55to build them were all identical.

01:34:57And so they managed to make

01:34:59quite impressive discoveries.

01:35:01But their study of the pyramids

01:35:03is not the only testimony

01:35:05of Tesla's hyper-modern genius.

01:35:07Many of his theories

01:35:09seemed to be unrealistic at the time,

01:35:11but scientists re-evaluate them

01:35:13today for practical applications.

01:35:15Let's talk about Tesla's most ambitious project,

01:35:17the Wardenclyffe Tower.

01:35:21In 1900,

01:35:23Tesla was already a big name

01:35:25in electrical engineering in America.

01:35:27His amazing invention

01:35:29and the fact that he managed

01:35:31to surpass Thomas Edison

01:35:33in the War of the Currents

01:35:35impressed people.

01:35:37But Tesla never rested on his laurels.

01:35:39He then decided to embark

01:35:41on his most ambitious project,

01:35:43the Wardenclyffe Tower.

01:35:45Built between 1901 and 1905,

01:35:47it is based on one of Tesla's

01:35:49most revolutionary ideas.

01:35:51He wanted to make the impossible possible

01:35:53by creating a wireless

01:35:55global communication system.

01:35:57This system would use the Earth

01:35:59itself as a conductor,

01:36:01transmitting music, information,

01:36:03stock exchange reports,

01:36:05secure military communications,

01:36:07and even simulated images.

01:36:09Does it remind you of anything?

01:36:11Yes, it looks like the Internet

01:36:13we use today, but without any cable.

01:36:15But Tesla had an even bigger dream,

01:36:17to transmit wireless energy.

01:36:19He had already proven that it was possible

01:36:21to send high-frequency signals

01:36:23thanks to his famous transformer.

01:36:25And then he was obsessed

01:36:27His vision was not only to transform

01:36:29the way we communicate,

01:36:31but also to find a way to transfer

01:36:33electric currents on a global scale

01:36:35by drawing in the natural energy of the Earth.

01:36:37Tesla thought that there was an abundance

01:36:39of free energy all around us

01:36:41and that it could be used

01:36:43for the benefit of humanity.

01:36:45In 1899,

01:36:47he conducted secret experiments

01:36:49and was convinced that it was possible

01:36:51to transmit electric energy

01:36:53through the high Earth's atmosphere.

01:36:55This is how the Wardenclyffe Tower

01:36:57was born.

01:36:59It was supposed to be the prototype station

01:37:01of a planetary network that was to provide

01:37:03wireless energy to the whole world.

01:37:05Unfortunately, Tesla had neither the resources

01:37:07nor the confidence of his investors

01:37:09to carry out this project.

01:37:11He encountered all kinds of financial problems.

01:37:13And in 1917,

01:37:15the unfinished tower was finally demolished

01:37:17and all its equipment sold

01:37:19in order to repay the growing debts

01:37:21of our genius.

01:37:23It sadly reminds us that the greatest minds

01:37:25do not always manage to realize

01:37:27their dreams.

01:37:29However, the red brick laboratory is still there.

01:37:31The only Tesla laboratory

01:37:33to have survived.

01:37:35A funny detail.

01:37:37In 2017, a filming crew

01:37:39made a stunning discovery.

01:37:41They used a georadar

01:37:43to explore the area around Wardenclyffe

01:37:45and they found a whole series of tunnels

01:37:47extending over tens of meters

01:37:49below the site.

01:37:51We don't know what they were used for,

01:37:53but we think they were part of Tesla's great project.

01:37:55Wardenclyffe is of course an important site

01:37:57for the fans of the great man.

01:37:59Who knows?

01:38:01Maybe one day someone will be able

01:38:03to break through the mystery of these tunnels.

01:38:05But even if it never happens,

01:38:07Tesla's legacy will continue to feed

01:38:09the imagination of scientists around the world.

01:38:17If you have ever visited

01:38:19the Yellowstone National Park,

01:38:21you have probably been fascinated

01:38:23by these powerful geysers

01:38:25spitting hot water and steam into the air.

01:38:27But an even more intriguing thing

01:38:29is actually hidden underground.

01:38:31I want to talk about the natural system

01:38:33of underground sewage

01:38:35that makes these magnificent eruptions possible.

01:38:37On this subject, there is good news.

01:38:39Recently, researchers have managed

01:38:41to map the hydrothermal plumbing system

01:38:43of the National Park

01:38:45using a gigantic flying magnet.

01:38:47The scientists have thus managed

01:38:49to document all the characteristics

01:38:51in the smallest detail.

01:38:53The fact is that Yellowstone

01:38:55houses the largest hydrothermal system in the world.

01:38:57It contains more than 10,000 curiosities

01:38:59such as geysers,

01:39:01hot springs,

01:39:03and steam chimneys.

01:39:05They are fed by a network

01:39:07of underground water pipes

01:39:09which are overheated by the magma

01:39:11that flows underground.

01:39:13The water then rises to the surface.

01:39:15This network is still under construction

01:39:17but the newly created maps

01:39:19could finally clarify this mystery.

01:39:21The researchers explain

01:39:23that their knowledge of Yellowstone's underground

01:39:25presents some shortcomings.

01:39:27This is why it is often called the Sandwich Mystery.

01:39:29Scientists know a lot

01:39:31about the characteristics of its surface

01:39:33because they can observe them directly.

01:39:35They also know what happens

01:39:37in the magmatic and tectonic system

01:39:39several kilometers below the surface.

01:39:41But they have not yet fully understood

01:39:43what happens in the middle.

01:39:45We absolutely need to talk to you

01:39:47about this huge flying magnet

01:39:49used for research.

01:39:51It is the Skytem.

01:39:53It was suspended by a helicopter

01:39:55to fly over Yellowstone

01:39:57several hundred times

01:39:59while scratching the ground.

01:40:01The magnet is made up of a cable loop

01:40:03electrically charged

01:40:0525 meters in diameter.

01:40:07Its main task is to generate

01:40:09a powerful electromagnetic field.

01:40:11Scientists have managed

01:40:13to sketch some maps

01:40:15of this subsoil

01:40:17for the very first time.

01:40:19This mapping technique

01:40:21also allowed the researchers

01:40:23to distinguish between magma

01:40:25and sea rock

01:40:27which have slightly different magnetic properties.

01:40:29The team also had the opportunity

01:40:31to observe how magma and water interact

01:40:33and create these breathtaking geological characteristics

01:40:35on the surface.

01:40:37Finally,

01:40:39the researchers obtained high-resolution maps

01:40:41of a depth of about 150 to 700 meters

01:40:43and low-resolution maps

01:40:45showing what happens

01:40:47at a depth of 2 kilometers.

01:40:49At the same time,

01:40:51the researchers think

01:40:53that the hydrothermal system

01:40:55could extend up to 5000 meters

01:40:57below the surface.

01:40:59If they were right,

01:41:01it would mean that they mapped

01:41:03only half of Yellowstone's subsoil system.

01:41:05Anyway,

01:41:07do you remember that we said

01:41:09that scientists knew

01:41:11almost everything about the lower part

01:41:13of Yellowstone's sandwich?

01:41:15If they have such a good idea

01:41:17about the tectonic plates

01:41:19and the deep cracks,

01:41:21it is because the frequent earthquakes

01:41:23that shake the park

01:41:25give them the opportunity

01:41:27to study a variety of phenomena.

01:41:29In July 2021, for example,

01:41:31more than 1000 earthquakes

01:41:33shook the region.

01:41:35They also discovered

01:41:37some famous phenomena

01:41:39like the Geyser Old Faithful

01:41:41or the Great Prismatic Spring.

01:41:43They also discovered

01:41:45that some individual hydrothermal surfaces

01:41:47could be connected to others

01:41:49up to 10 kilometers away.

01:41:51Another interesting discovery

01:41:53is that even though geysers

01:41:55and Yellowstone's hot springs

01:41:57vary in size, shape, color,

01:41:59explosiveness and chemical composition,

01:42:01they are mainly fed

01:42:03by water.

01:42:05This means that the difference

01:42:07between these geological peculiarities

01:42:09appears closer to the surface.

01:42:11I am sure you have already seen

01:42:13the emblematic image of Yellowstone,

01:42:15with a large rainbow-colored spring

01:42:17and whose edges are of a burning orange.

01:42:19What makes these hot springs

01:42:21so colorful?

01:42:23Surprisingly, these impressive colors

01:42:25come from microscopic creatures.

01:42:27The temperature of the springs

01:42:29is so high that they could easily

01:42:31kill a human being.

01:42:33In addition, the water there is very acidic,

01:42:35like the liquid of a car battery.

01:42:37But there are certain types of microbes

01:42:39that appreciate heat

01:42:41and are not afraid of these extreme conditions.

01:42:43We can even say that they thrive there.

01:42:45Thus, each ring of different colors

01:42:47is, in most cases,

01:42:49a ring inhabited by different bacteria.

01:42:51And each species adapted

01:42:53to a particular temperature

01:42:55or pH,

01:42:57which measures the degree of acidity

01:42:59Let's take the example

01:43:01of the Great Prismatic Spring.

01:43:03Yes, the emblematic one.

01:43:05S. euse, rainbow colors,

01:43:07probably indicate the diversity

01:43:09of microbes that live there.

01:43:11So, starting with the center

01:43:13of the thermal spring,

01:43:15you can see a beautiful egg-marine color.

01:43:17This is where the water temperature

01:43:19is the highest, up to 87°C,

01:43:21because this area is just above

01:43:23the underground water source.

01:43:25The water there is far too hot,

01:43:27even for the microbes.

01:43:29That's why what you see

01:43:31is mainly clear water.

01:43:33The reason for its blue color

01:43:35is the same as that of the sky.

01:43:37The sunlight hits the surface of the water

01:43:39and the light disperses.

01:43:41But it is the blue light that disperses the most

01:43:43and is sent back to our eyes.

01:43:45Well, the next color ring

01:43:47is yellow.

01:43:49All this thanks to certain cyanobacteria.

01:43:51The temperature of this yellow ring

01:43:53reaches 74°C.

01:43:55If the conditions of the hot spring

01:43:57were a little different,

01:43:59these bacteria would create a blue-green hue

01:44:01thanks to a well-known pigment,

01:44:03which is nothing but chlorophyll.

01:44:05But since the sunlight hitting the spring

01:44:07is too intense,

01:44:09the bacteria begin to produce

01:44:11another type of pigment.

01:44:13These are carotenoids.

01:44:15And guess what?

01:44:17They act like a solar screen for the bacteria.

01:44:19And since this pigment is orange,

01:44:21the normally green bacteria

01:44:23produce this bright orange color

01:44:25closer to the edges of Prismatic Spring.

01:44:27It is a little cooler there,

01:44:29around 65°C.

01:44:31In this part of the spring,

01:44:33we find several types of bacteria.

01:44:35They produce all the substances

01:44:37that give it this orange color.

01:44:39Finally, on the edges of the spring,

01:44:41the temperature is cooler,

01:44:43about 55°C.

01:44:45And a larger variety of microbes

01:44:47can survive there.

01:44:49All these combined elements

01:44:51produce this brown-red hue

01:44:53on the edges of the spring.

01:44:55But scientists think that

01:44:57man and his activity

01:44:59could have influenced the colors

01:45:01of the hydrothermal characteristics

01:45:03of Yellowstone.

01:45:05For example, in the past,

01:45:07the temperatures of the Morning Glory Pool

01:45:09were much higher than today.

01:45:11That's why its color was a deep blue.

01:45:13But waste began to accumulate

01:45:15in the basin,

01:45:17and some of this waste

01:45:19had a temperature

01:45:21that led to a microbial growth.

01:45:23As a result,

01:45:25this beautiful blue

01:45:27turned into an orange-yellow hue.

01:45:29As for Yellowstone geysers,

01:45:31the most famous of them

01:45:33is the famous Old Faithful.

01:45:35It received this name

01:45:37at the end of the 19th century

01:45:39because of the regularity

01:45:41of its eruptions.

01:45:43This geyser is more active

01:45:45than the others

01:45:47because its boiling water

01:45:49can reach a height of 55 meters.

01:45:51Speaking of the Yellowstone National Park,

01:45:53we can't ignore

01:45:55the Yellowstone supervolcano.

01:45:57Supervolcanoes appear

01:45:59when huge volumes of magma

01:46:01try to escape

01:46:03from the depths of the subsurface.

01:46:05They end up bursting

01:46:07at the surface of the Earth.

01:46:09Sometimes all this magma

01:46:11remains blocked,

01:46:13unable to pierce the earth's crust.

01:46:15The supervolcanoes gather

01:46:17at several kilometers deep.

01:46:19The pressure keeps increasing

01:46:21because more and more magma

01:46:23tries to rise to the surface.

01:46:25At some point,

01:46:27a super-eruption occurs.

01:46:29You don't necessarily want

01:46:31to be there for that.

01:46:33Over the last 50 years,

01:46:35the Yellowstone caldera

01:46:37has risen nearly one meter.

01:46:39Experts are convinced

01:46:41that this is a natural evolution.

01:46:43Scientists believe

01:46:45that the supervolcano

01:46:47is safe for now.

01:46:49For an eruption to occur,

01:46:51the magma inside must be

01:46:53liquefied to at least 50%.

01:46:55In the Yellowstone caldera,

01:46:57this figure is only 5 to 15%.

01:46:59A recent study has led

01:47:01researchers to conclude

01:47:03that its boiling point

01:47:05could be currently declining

01:47:07despite all the activity

01:47:09of the dome's breathing and elevation.

01:47:11The Yellowstone volcano

01:47:13was formed 2.1 million

01:47:15and 1.3 million years ago.

01:47:17And for the last time,

01:47:19640,000 years ago.

01:47:21Long before this video.

01:47:23The most recent super-eruption

01:47:25was called the Lava Creek eruption.

01:47:27It formed the Yellowstone caldera

01:47:29after vomiting nearly

01:47:311,000 cubic kilometers of rock,

01:47:33dust and volcanic ash.

01:47:35I think we'll have a good time

01:47:37with the next eruption.

01:47:39We are now in the depths

01:47:41of exoplanets located

01:47:43thousands of light-years away.

01:47:45We descend into the depths

01:47:47and conquer the highest peaks.

01:47:49We study quantum physics

01:47:51and build super-powerful computers.

01:47:53But we still don't know

01:47:55anything about these strange lights

01:47:57in our night sky.

01:47:59Some of them remain unexplained.

01:48:01Others may lead us

01:48:03to new discoveries.

01:48:05And others are still just mystifications.

01:48:07These lights appear regularly

01:48:09near the city of Marfa,

01:48:11in the west of Texas.

01:48:13They are the size of a basketball

01:48:15and suddenly appear

01:48:17in the middle of the night.

01:48:19They flash,

01:48:21split in two

01:48:23and fly several times a year.

01:48:25People have been seeing

01:48:27blue, white, yellow lights

01:48:29for several generations.

01:48:31These lights really exist,

01:48:33as scientists have confirmed.

01:48:35But they still have to explain

01:48:37to us about nature.

01:48:39It was in 1883

01:48:41that a shepherd noticed

01:48:43the lights of Marfa for the first time.

01:48:45He first thought they were

01:48:47fires lit by the Apaches.

01:48:49Neighbors then told him

01:48:51that they had also seen

01:48:53these mysterious lights.

01:48:55They decided to verify

01:48:57the theory of the Apaches,

01:48:59which turned out to be wrong.

01:49:01There was no trace of fire

01:49:03In the 1940s,

01:49:05the pilots of Midland's airfield

01:49:07saw the lights of Marfa.

01:49:09They tried to uncover the secret

01:49:11of this phenomenon,

01:49:13but found nothing.

01:49:15More and more people

01:49:17then saw these strange lights.

01:49:19There are those who thought

01:49:21it was an alien invasion.

01:49:23For others,

01:49:25it was wandering souls.

01:49:27But scientific theories

01:49:29were much more realistic.

01:49:31Scientists decided to investigate

01:49:33and discovered that these lights

01:49:35were actually the headlights

01:49:37of cars driving on the nearest highway.

01:49:39Yes, some of these lights

01:49:41look like headlights.

01:49:43But how to explain those

01:49:45that fly by changing color?

01:49:47It could be an optical illusion

01:49:49produced by the pressure

01:49:51of a cold layer of air

01:49:53on a hot layer of air.

01:49:55It is possible to observe

01:49:57this phenomenon in the ocean.

01:49:59If these lights are actually headlights

01:50:01and an optical illusion,

01:50:03why do we only see them

01:50:05a few times a year?

01:50:07According to another theory,

01:50:09these lights would be a bit like

01:50:11crazy lights,

01:50:13mysterious light balls

01:50:15rising in the sky

01:50:17in the middle of the night.

01:50:19Organic substances such as

01:50:21twigs, leaves and fallen trees

01:50:23decompose in humid areas

01:50:25and emit phosphine and methane.

01:50:27When these gases come in contact

01:50:29with oxygen, they ignite.

01:50:31But there are no humid areas

01:50:33in the west of Texas.

01:50:35So where could these gases come from?

01:50:37There is a lot of oil and natural gas

01:50:39in the entrails of this region.

01:50:41And these substances can contain

01:50:43phosphine and methane.

01:50:45It seems realistic,

01:50:47but scientists have not yet

01:50:49been able to confirm this theory.

01:50:51Aerospace engineer James Bunnell

01:50:53tried to explain the lights of Marfa

01:50:55as electricity.

01:50:57Under pressure, some substances

01:50:59such as minerals and crystals

01:51:01generate an electric charge

01:51:03and this underground energy

01:51:05would burst under the form of

01:51:07multicolored light.

01:51:09But our scientist could not

01:51:11prove his theory.

01:51:13These lights remain a mystery.

01:51:15Maybe one day you can elucidate it.

01:51:17There is another very strange

01:51:19luminous phenomenon in Norway,

01:51:21in the city of Estalen.

01:51:23These lights appear quite often

01:51:25in the night sky.

01:51:27And, of course, they have been filmed

01:51:29many times.

01:51:31Between 1981 and 1984,

01:51:33the lights of Estalen

01:51:35appeared 10 to 20 times a week.

01:51:37Today, people observe them

01:51:39between 10 and 20 times a year.

01:51:41These giant balls float in the air,

01:51:43blink and move very quickly.

01:51:45And they can sometimes

01:51:47remain suspended in the air

01:51:49for a few seconds and even several hours.

01:51:51Although they have been filmed

01:51:53many times, scientists

01:51:55still fail to study them.

01:51:57The lights of Estalen

01:51:59are powerful.

01:52:01And if we understood their nature,

01:52:03they could perhaps represent

01:52:05an alternative energy source.

01:52:07We have several theories

01:52:09about these lights.

01:52:11Physicists suggest that these balls

01:52:13appear when dust clouds

01:52:15containing scandium start to burn.

01:52:17It is a light metal of silver color.

01:52:19There are many deposits in the valley

01:52:21where people have observed these lights.

01:52:23According to another theory,

01:52:25these balls would be the result

01:52:27of the accumulation of macroscopic crystals

01:52:29in the dust plasma.

01:52:31This plasma is formed

01:52:33when the air is ionized and

01:52:35patati et patata.

01:52:37In short, it is a complex hypothesis

01:52:39that has not been confirmed.

01:52:41It takes immense scientific resources

01:52:43to study the lights of Estalen.

01:52:45Researchers are trying

01:52:47to attract investors

01:52:49by saying that this phenomenon

01:52:51could lead to great technological advances

01:52:53in the field of light.

01:52:55Some of the most famous lights

01:52:57in the world appeared in Phoenix,

01:52:59Arizona, in 1997.

01:53:01Tens of thousands of people

01:53:03saw two strange phenomena

01:53:05that day.

01:53:07The first was a huge flying triangle.

01:53:09Around 8 p.m.,

01:53:11several lights appeared in the sky

01:53:13aligned in a triangle.

01:53:15They flew in regular formation

01:53:17above Phoenix

01:53:19before disappearing in the distance.

01:53:21The second phenomenon

01:53:23began about two hours later.

01:53:25People noticed lights

01:53:27in the sky.

01:53:29They did not form a triangle

01:53:31and moved freely.

01:53:33They shone with a bright light,

01:53:35flew in different directions

01:53:37and disappeared behind a mountain range

01:53:39southwest of the city.

01:53:41People were afraid.

01:53:43They were afraid and reported the phenomenon.

01:53:45Many were convinced

01:53:47that they were aliens.

01:53:49But the explanation

01:53:51did not take long to come.

01:53:53The two incidents were the result

01:53:55of aerial exercises.

01:53:57First, people had seen planes

01:53:59aligned in a triangle.

01:54:01They had flown over Phoenix

01:54:03and landed on a base nearby.

01:54:05After that, they had used

01:54:07lighting rockets.

01:54:09Several planes had dropped

01:54:11slowly, suspended

01:54:13on tiny parachutes.

01:54:15They had burned in the sky before

01:54:17disappearing behind the mountains.

01:54:19A fairly logical explanation.

01:54:21But here it is that,

01:54:23almost ten years later,

01:54:25something strange happened again.

01:54:27On April 21, 2008,

01:54:29the Phoenix police station

01:54:31received hundreds of messages

01:54:33from concerned residents

01:54:35who had seen strange flying lights.

01:54:37Four bright balls had flown

01:54:39and became triangular,

01:54:41then rectangular,

01:54:43before disappearing one after the other.

01:54:45The police contacted the nearest

01:54:47airfield, but it declared

01:54:49that their radar had not detected anything.

01:54:51If they had acted as material objects,

01:54:53the radars would have seen them.

01:54:55The police had no explanation.

01:54:57The aerial controllers

01:54:59did not know anything either.

01:55:01The case aroused great concern.

01:55:03People began to remember

01:55:05the phenomenon that had occurred

01:55:07ten years earlier and again

01:55:09cried out to the extraterrestrial invasion.

01:55:11But the debates ended only two days later.

01:55:13A man called

01:55:15local television and admitted

01:55:17having created these lights using

01:55:19lighting rockets and helium balloons.

01:55:21He had attached a rocket to a balloon,

01:55:23had lit it and launched it into the air.

01:55:25A few minutes later,

01:55:27he had repeated the operation.

01:55:29Then again, four times.

01:55:31Many witnesses

01:55:33did not believe this story and

01:55:35continued to insist on the extraterrestrial nature

01:55:37of the mysterious lights.

01:55:39But they were wrong.

01:55:41The radars would have noticed something

01:55:43if metal objects had passed by.

01:55:45Balloons and lighting rockets

01:55:47were too small

01:55:49to be detected.

01:55:51Secondly, all these lights

01:55:53were flying east.

01:55:55The wind was blowing in this direction that day.

01:55:57Thirdly, the duration of combustion.

01:55:59The signaling rockets

01:56:01burn for about 20 minutes.

01:56:03When one of these lights went out,

01:56:05the next one burned for another minute.

01:56:07And the last one went out

01:56:09about 20 to 30 minutes

01:56:11after everything started.

01:56:13No one disputed this sequence.

01:56:15One of the witnesses was the neighbor

01:56:17of the man who had organized the fire.

01:56:19He had seen him light up

01:56:21lighting rockets around 8 p.m.,

01:56:23about the time the police calls

01:56:25had begun.

01:56:27Phoenix lights prove that it is very easy

01:56:29to deceive people and provoke

01:56:31their curiosity.

01:56:35If one day you fly over the deserts

01:56:37of southern Peru,

01:56:39you will notice distinct white lines

01:56:41on the rusty red background.

01:56:43Looking closer,

01:56:45you will see clear shapes,

01:56:47straight lines, rectangles,

01:56:49triangles, spirals.

01:56:51It looks like it's part of huge drawings.

01:56:53You notice a monkey,

01:56:55a whale, a condor,

01:56:57a hummingbird, etc.

01:56:59The lines were created

01:57:01more than 2,000 years ago

01:57:03by the inhabitants of the Nazca culture.

01:57:05Thanks to the dry climate

01:57:07and the strong winds of the desert,

01:57:09most of the Nazca lines

01:57:11are still visible today.

01:57:13To create them,

01:57:15the Nazca removed

01:57:17the upper layer of stones

01:57:19and thus revealed the underlying soil.

01:57:21The color of the soil varies

01:57:23from reddish brown to grayish brown,

01:57:25so that the lines

01:57:27began with small-scale models

01:57:29and they increased the proportions

01:57:31to create large-scale drawings.

01:57:35Since their discovery in the 1920s,

01:57:37scientists are trying to decipher

01:57:39the meaning of the Nazca lines.

01:57:41But the first reference to these lines

01:57:43is actually much older,

01:57:45as it appears in the Peruvian chronicle

01:57:47of the 16th century,

01:57:49where they are described as beacons in the desert.

01:57:51Since it is impossible

01:57:53to study the lines and their symbolism

01:57:55on the ground,

01:57:57they became known worldwide

01:57:59only in the 1930s,

01:58:01with the advent of commercial aircraft.

01:58:03Ten years later,

01:58:05American professor Paul Kosok,

01:58:07who was doing research on the lines,

01:58:09noticed something interesting.

01:58:11When he looked up at the line,

01:58:13it pointed directly towards the setting sun.

01:58:15This happened one day

01:58:17after the winter solstice,

01:58:19and the scientist concluded

01:58:21that the lines must have been

01:58:23created by the sun.

01:58:25The German scientist Maria Reich,

01:58:27nicknamed the Lady of the Lines,

01:58:29supported the theory

01:58:31that geoglyphs were used

01:58:33as calendars

01:58:35and had an astronomical function.

01:58:37She devoted 40 years of her life

01:58:39to studying the lines

01:58:41and swept them centimeter by centimeter.

01:58:43She also settled in a small house

01:58:45near the lines

01:58:47to protect them from unwanted visitors.

01:58:49Then, in the 1970s,

01:58:51American researchers

01:58:53questioned the theory

01:58:55related to astronomy.

01:58:57They noticed that in a region like Nazca,

01:58:59one of the driest places on the planet

01:59:01with only 20 minutes of rain per year,

01:59:03water is a real treasure.

01:59:05And the straight lines

01:59:07and the trapezoids

01:59:09must be there for a reason.

01:59:11They could indicate the places

01:59:13where the rituals organized

01:59:15by the local population

01:59:17to obtain water

01:59:19The images of animals in the Andes

01:59:21are also related to water.

01:59:23Spiders are considered

01:59:25a sign of rain,

01:59:27hummingbirds represent fertility

01:59:29and monkeys living in the Amazon

01:59:31symbolize the abundance of water.

01:59:33In recent years,

01:59:35Nazca lines have become

01:59:37the research ground for archaeologists

01:59:39at the University of Yamagata.

01:59:41They use high-resolution aerial photographs

01:59:43and drones

01:59:45to discover and catalog geoglyphs.

01:59:47The team identified

01:59:49a total of 358 geoglyphs

01:59:51to date,

01:59:53of which 168 only in 2022.

01:59:55They found images

01:59:57of humans, chameleons,

01:59:59birds, orcs, cats and snakes

02:00:01probably created between

02:00:03100 BC and 300 AD.

02:00:05Some of these images

02:00:07are between 3 and 6 meters long,

02:00:09so it is not surprising

02:00:11that no one has been able to detect them before.

02:00:13For comparison,

02:00:15this large geoglyph

02:00:17measures 365 meters in diameter,

02:00:19about the height of the Empire State Building.

02:00:23Researchers believe

02:00:25that Nazca lines were used

02:00:27as a means of communication in the desert.

02:00:29Linear lines indicated

02:00:31the direction to follow from one valley to the other.

02:00:33The lines drawn on the slopes

02:00:35seem to have been drawn along

02:00:37old roads between villages.

02:00:39Scientists are now considering

02:00:41finding models in geoglyphs

02:00:43based on their distribution.

02:00:45They use artificial intelligence

02:00:47to analyze the images.

02:00:49The AI generates drawings

02:00:51likely to be painted in the desert,

02:00:53and the team then verifies

02:00:55whether they are indeed

02:00:57part of the Nazca lines.

02:00:59Another famous Peruvian geoglyph

02:01:01is a candelabrum slightly higher

02:01:03than the Washington Monument,

02:01:05182 meters.

02:01:07It is located on a hill

02:01:09on the seashore

02:01:11and is a representative of the candelabrum

02:01:13by analyzing objects found nearby.

02:01:15It would seem to date

02:01:17about 200 years before our era.

02:01:19The drawing is deeply engraved in the sand.

02:01:21It was never designed

02:01:23to look like a candelabrum.

02:01:25According to a theory,

02:01:27the drawing should look like

02:01:29the trident of an Inca deity to please it.

02:01:31Another popular theory

02:01:33wants sailors to use it

02:01:35as a navigation beacon.

02:01:37The Fiji Mountains National Monument,

02:01:39located on the Mississippi River,

02:01:41has 195 well-known Amerindian tumulus.

02:01:43Most of them are conical

02:01:45and several look like

02:01:47birds, deer,

02:01:49turtles, bears

02:01:51and panthers.

02:01:53Scientists have established

02:01:55that the mountains date from about 450 BC

02:01:57and that the images are a little younger.

02:01:59A study of the mountains

02:02:01revealed the presence of tools

02:02:03in copper, bone and stone.

02:02:05The descendants of the builders

02:02:07believed that the mountains

02:02:09served as a ceremonial site.

02:02:11This story is passed down

02:02:13from generation to generation.

02:02:15Some historians believe

02:02:17that the tumulus could also

02:02:19have been used to mark celestial events

02:02:21or territories.

02:02:23The American Southwest

02:02:25and the neighboring regions of Mexico

02:02:27have more than 300 Untalios,

02:02:29which are giant images

02:02:31engraved in the ground.

02:02:33The most famous of them

02:02:35is the one in Colorado.

02:02:37The giants of Blythe

02:02:39are a group of six figures,

02:02:41including that of a human being

02:02:43and an animal.

02:02:45Scientists think

02:02:47these images are between

02:02:49450 and 2,000 years old.

02:02:51According to the local Mojave tribe,

02:02:53there is an image of Mustamo,

02:02:55the creator of life.

02:02:57The animal figure represents

02:02:59a mountain lion that served as help.

02:03:01The largest figure is almost

02:03:03impossible to notice

02:03:05from the ground.

02:03:07This is why they were only

02:03:09discovered in the 1930s,

02:03:11when a pilot who

02:03:13flew over them accidentally

02:03:15looked down.

02:03:17The best way to see the giants

02:03:19is still the helicopter.

02:03:21Kazakhstan can be proud

02:03:23of having its own Nazca lines,

02:03:25a set of about 260 landings

02:03:27in the north of the country.

02:03:29The geoglyphs of the steppes

02:03:31present a wide variety

02:03:33of geometric shapes,

02:03:35including squares, crosses,

02:03:37circles and a three-branch pattern.

02:03:39The creators of these images

02:03:41used materials such as

02:03:43earth, rocks and wood

02:03:45to build them from the ground.

02:03:47It was a local economist

02:03:49who spotted the geoglyphs

02:03:51for the first time in 2007

02:03:53when he was browsing Google Earth.

02:03:55Archaeologists assume

02:03:57that the structures date back to 8,000 years,

02:03:59but no one has built them or why.

02:04:01According to a theory,

02:04:03the lines allowed to follow

02:04:05the movement of the sun.

02:04:07NASA was interested in this discovery

02:04:09because the lines are much older

02:04:11than those of Peru.

02:04:13It took pictures of the geoglyphs

02:04:15of the steppe from space

02:04:17to try to unravel their mystery.

02:04:19Another element that makes

02:04:21these lines so particular

02:04:23is their size.

02:04:25One of the largest

02:04:27geoglyphs in the world

02:04:29dates back to the Stone Age,

02:04:31but it is unlikely that it had

02:04:33such perfected tools.

02:04:35If that were the case,

02:04:37it would mean that archaeologists

02:04:39must review the abilities

02:04:41of our distant ancestors.

02:04:43Organizing such a large number

02:04:45of people to work together

02:04:47on a complex project

02:04:49is a feat.

02:04:51Although the White Horse,

02:04:53located on a green hill

02:04:55is in fact one of the oldest

02:04:57geoglyphs.

02:04:59It was created between the Bronze Age

02:05:01and the Iron Age, 1740-210 B.C.

02:05:03and is the oldest

02:05:05hill figure carved

02:05:07in chalk in Great Britain.

02:05:09The one who created it

02:05:11had to remove the lawn

02:05:13to reveal the white and chalky part of the ground.

02:05:15Scientists can only guess

02:05:17why this work of art was created.

02:05:19It could be a symbol of fertility

02:05:21or a way to mark a territory.

02:05:23The aerial images show

02:05:25that the horse has changed

02:05:27over time because of the ground.

02:05:29It took several centuries

02:05:31to reveal a larger form,

02:05:33similar to that of a horse,

02:05:35which is what we see today.

02:05:37A snowstorm is raging.

02:05:39It is extremely cold.

02:05:41Six legs sink

02:05:43into the snow to the knees.

02:05:45Joe Labelle, an experienced hunter,

02:05:47would make his way

02:05:49into the forest

02:05:51facing the wind.

02:05:53Anyone else would have fallen

02:05:55screaming in despair.

02:05:57But not Joe Labelle.

02:05:59He can survive in any circumstance

02:06:01and always knows what to do.

02:06:03Right now, he is heading

02:06:05to one of the villages

02:06:07in northern Canada.

02:06:09This small village is located

02:06:11on the edge of Lake Angikuni.

02:06:13Its inhabitants are Inuit,

02:06:15indigenous people of North America.

02:06:17Joe has not eaten or drunk for a long time.

02:06:19He has just had a good night's sleep

02:06:21and a hot meal.

02:06:23He hopes that the inhabitants

02:06:25will be hospitable.

02:06:27Through the trees and the white mist,

02:06:29he sees the silhouettes of the tents.

02:06:31Smoke escapes from some rooms.

02:06:33Joe will probably arrive

02:06:35in time for lunch.

02:06:37When he arrives,

02:06:39the wind calms down.

02:06:41The blizzard has ended.

02:06:43The hunter accelerates

02:06:45and discovers the village

02:06:47but there are no inhabitants anywhere.

02:06:49People are probably

02:06:51all at home

02:06:53waiting for the weather to clear up.

02:06:57Joe shouts,

02:06:59but he gets no answer.

02:07:01Smoke escapes

02:07:03from this tent.

02:07:05Joe signals his presence

02:07:07but no one opens.

02:07:09He knocks several times

02:07:11then enters.

02:07:13The tent is empty.

02:07:15Everything is in place.

02:07:17There is a piece of fabric with needles

02:07:19and thread on the table.

02:07:21Wood burns in the fireplace.

02:07:23It looks like people

02:07:25have just left.

02:07:27Joe enters the next tent

02:07:29and it's the same thing.

02:07:31Everything is in place but there is no one.

02:07:35Joe goes beyond the tents

02:07:37and discovers a pit where a campfire

02:07:39was burning recently.

02:07:41Above, there is a rope

02:07:43and a piece of meat.

02:07:45For one reason or another,

02:07:47they didn't eat it.

02:07:49Lake Anjikuni is part

02:07:51of a watercourse.

02:07:53The Inuits fished there

02:07:55and traded various goods.

02:07:57Usually, there are a lot of people here

02:07:59but today, something forced people

02:08:01to leave their homes.

02:08:03Why did they leave all their stuff

02:08:05and where did they go?

02:08:07There is no trace around the village.

02:08:09All the sledges are still there.

02:08:11The Inuits even left their dogs.

02:08:13Dogs help them to hunt

02:08:15and pull the sledges.

02:08:17No one would leave his warm clothes

02:08:19and his dogs

02:08:21leaving here,

02:08:23especially in bad weather.

02:08:25Joe Labelle knows all this

02:08:27and concludes that something terrible

02:08:29has happened.

02:08:31His body trembles,

02:08:33not of cold but of fear.

02:08:35He travels the whole village

02:08:37and finds absolutely no one.

02:08:41Terrified, he leaves

02:08:43and goes to the nearest telegraphic post

02:08:45and sends a message to the police.

02:08:47After a while,

02:08:49people start to arrive.

02:08:51The police try to find

02:08:53the missing people

02:08:55and understand what happened

02:08:57but in vain.

02:08:59Near the village,

02:09:01they find an empty tomb.

02:09:03During the ceremony,

02:09:05the Inuits placed stones

02:09:07around the burial site.

02:09:09The stones are intact

02:09:11which means that no animal

02:09:13has passed through there.

02:09:15So what happened?

02:09:19About thirty people lived in this village.

02:09:21They all disappeared.

02:09:23The inhabitants of the neighboring villages

02:09:25are of no help.

02:09:27They have no idea what happened.

02:09:29The only thing the police noticed

02:09:31were strange blue lights.

02:09:35In this region,

02:09:37there is a common phenomenon.

02:09:39The inhabitants of the region

02:09:41often see a glow in the starry sky.

02:09:43But today it is different.

02:09:45The light flashes.

02:09:47The local hunters

02:09:49have seen something similar.

02:09:51They say that strange things

02:09:53were flying in the sky.

02:09:57All this happened in 1930.

02:09:59Almost 90 years have passed

02:10:01since the disappearance of the village

02:10:03and many theories have come to light.

02:10:05According to one of them,

02:10:07it would be the fact of an extraterrestrial civilization.

02:10:09This theory says that

02:10:11the blue lights that the inhabitants

02:10:13and the police saw in the sky

02:10:15were space ships.

02:10:17It is thought that during a sinister night,

02:10:19these ships would have descended

02:10:21to the village and would have taken away

02:10:23all the inhabitants.

02:10:25This is for the science fiction version.

02:10:27There are others

02:10:29more realistic.

02:10:31Internet users have discovered

02:10:33that the inhabitants of the village

02:10:35did not have a hunting license.

02:10:37Maybe he was not a professional

02:10:39after all and he invented everything.

02:10:41But at the time,

02:10:43few hunters had their license.

02:10:45Joe remains a reliable witness.

02:10:47Going back to the source

02:10:49of all this information,

02:10:51we discover books

02:10:53and some newspaper articles

02:10:55from the 1930s.

02:10:57And none of these sources

02:10:59confirms that the mysterious story

02:11:01of this village was invented.

02:11:05Let's leave the snow of Canada

02:11:07for the hot plains of India.

02:11:09In this great country,

02:11:11there is a sinister village

02:11:13where people have also disappeared

02:11:15without leaving a trace.

02:11:17This happened

02:11:19in the first half of the 19th century.

02:11:21Today,

02:11:23the inhabitants avoid this place

02:11:25because they believe it to be haunted

02:11:27by invisible evil forces.

02:11:29This is the story of the village of Kuldhara.

02:11:33It is located in the Rajasthan district.

02:11:35To get there,

02:11:37you can take a taxi to the village

02:11:39or the nearest town.

02:11:41The village is located

02:11:43far from any civilization.

02:11:45It looks deserted.

02:11:47There are only ruins.

02:11:49It looks like archaeologists

02:11:51have just abandoned it.

02:11:53But this is not an ancient city.

02:11:55The village was deserted

02:11:57more than 200 years ago.

02:11:59But until then,

02:12:01it was a prosperous place.

02:12:05Kuldhara was a large village.

02:12:07Most of the inhabitants were farmers.

02:12:09They sold their agricultural products.

02:12:13And then, one night,

02:12:15everything changed.

02:12:17People abandoned their houses

02:12:19and their businesses and fled.

02:12:21No one knows why.

02:12:23And no one knows where they went.

02:12:25No one has ever seen the inhabitants of Kuldhara again.

02:12:29Except for tourists,

02:12:31visitors are extremely rare.

02:12:33The locals are convinced

02:12:35that the village is cursed

02:12:37and that it is home to paranormal activities.

02:12:39If you ask the residents of the neighboring towns

02:12:41or if you look for information

02:12:43on the Internet,

02:12:45you will discover some legends.

02:12:47A popular version says

02:12:49that people left the village

02:12:51because of the lack of water.

02:12:53This does not explain why

02:12:55they left in the middle of the night

02:12:57abandoning all their business.

02:12:59According to another version,

02:13:01the villagers fled

02:13:03to save the daughter of the chief of Kuldhara.

02:13:05A nearby chief

02:13:07fell in love with her

02:13:09and wanted to marry her.

02:13:11He threatened the inhabitants of serious consequences

02:13:13if the young girl rejected him.

02:13:15And he gave them one day

02:13:17to make a decision.

02:13:19The inhabitants refused

02:13:21because of his request.

02:13:23Out of solidarity,

02:13:25they decided to leave the village

02:13:27with the chief and his daughter.

02:13:29But if this is true,

02:13:31why did no one see them leave?

02:13:33Another village must have

02:13:35welcomed them.

02:13:37In addition, they would have needed their business.

02:13:41This is the common point

02:13:43between Kuldhara and Lake Andhikuni.

02:13:45People left a comfortable place

02:13:47for an unknown reason.

02:13:51A similar story took place

02:13:53in Ireland, in a small village

02:13:55on the island of Achilles.

02:13:57Forty stone houses

02:13:59along the Kimbe Valley.

02:14:01In documents dating

02:14:03from the 1830s,

02:14:05this village was mentioned

02:14:07composed of some small buildings.

02:14:09But today, there is practically nothing left

02:14:11except for a few pieces of walls

02:14:13and small mounds of earth.

02:14:15The inhabitants

02:14:17of the neighboring towns

02:14:19were not aware of this village.

02:14:21But we know it

02:14:23thanks to the stories of the writers

02:14:25who described the incredible beauty

02:14:27of the place in their newspapers.

02:14:29The students of the local

02:14:31archeology school

02:14:33tried to find answers.

02:14:35They did some research

02:14:37and found that the inhabitants

02:14:39certainly had to leave their village

02:14:41because of hunger or an illness.

02:14:43Would you like to join me

02:14:45for a little trip into the past?

02:14:47London, at the beginning of the 1900s.

02:14:49If you look closely,

02:14:51you will see that this city

02:14:53already had an electric lighting.

02:14:55Before that,

02:14:57people lit their streets

02:14:59with torches or oil lamps.

02:15:01However,

02:15:03these things you see inside the lamps

02:15:05are not the modern bulbs

02:15:07we use today.

02:15:09At that time, public lighting

02:15:11did not yet use bulbs,

02:15:13although they had already been invented.

02:15:15The bulbs were not as effective

02:15:17at the time,

02:15:19so they could not produce

02:15:21enough light to illuminate

02:15:23the dark alleys of the city.

02:15:25They could not match

02:15:27the interior lighting,

02:15:29but for public use,

02:15:31carbon arc lamps

02:15:33remained a better choice.

02:15:35Here is someone

02:15:37I would like to introduce to you.

02:15:39Thomas Edison.

02:15:41He is mainly credited

02:15:43with the fact that all the sources

02:15:45of electrical light of the time

02:15:47relied on a simple and basic principle.

02:15:49Electricity had to pass

02:15:51through a material.

02:15:53This material had to be

02:15:55resistant and durable,

02:15:57and it was supposed to shine

02:15:59when it was connected

02:16:01to a power source.

02:16:03The first invention of this kind

02:16:05was called the arc lamp.

02:16:07In this device,

02:16:09the material used for lighting

02:16:11this process produced

02:16:13a very bright light.

02:16:15The man behind this invention

02:16:17was a British chemist

02:16:19named Humphrey Davy.

02:16:21He assembled two conductive wires,

02:16:23a battery and elements of coal,

02:16:25which emitted enough light

02:16:27to illuminate the surroundings.

02:16:29But even these arc lamps

02:16:31were not adapted to the lighting

02:16:33of the streets at the beginning,

02:16:35mainly because they were

02:16:37not very effective.

02:16:39So they had to be equipped

02:16:41with large batteries to provide

02:16:43the necessary energy.

02:16:45All this made the arc lamps

02:16:47difficult to use and also very expensive.

02:16:49Edison's name is certainly

02:16:51the one you associate

02:16:53with the invention of the electric bulb.

02:16:55The truth is that his work

02:16:57is only part of this revolutionary innovation.

02:16:59Other scientific breakthroughs,

02:17:01such as those of Alessandro Volta,

02:17:03Humphrey Davy and Joseph Swan,

02:17:05also contributed to it.

02:17:07To continue our story,

02:17:09let's see how modern bulbs work.

02:17:11Each of them is divided into

02:17:13two main parts.

02:17:15The first is a hollow chamber,

02:17:17the part made of glass,

02:17:19which is filled with inert gas.

02:17:21This type of gas is crucial

02:17:23because it does not interact

02:17:25with other chemical substances,

02:17:27creating an environment

02:17:29comparable to vacuum.

02:17:31The second part is a thin filament

02:17:33or a conductive wire.

02:17:35A metal called tungsten

02:17:37is often chosen to make

02:17:39these filaments nowadays.

02:17:41Because of its high melting point,

02:17:43it makes the bulbs more durable.

02:17:45Once you light a bulb,

02:17:47electricity passes through this filament,

02:17:49which heats the inert environment.

02:17:51This heat quickly causes

02:17:53the emission of large amounts of light

02:17:55by the tungsten filament.

02:17:57Now, let's go back to Edison's story.

02:17:59Looking at the previous discoveries,

02:18:01he noticed that the problem

02:18:03of efficiency of the bulb

02:18:05was related to its filament.

02:18:07To make it more comfortable,

02:18:09the filament had to be thinner.

02:18:11Why? Because the thinner the filament,

02:18:13the less electricity it needs

02:18:15to work.

02:18:17This therefore allowed to solve

02:18:19the problem of batteries

02:18:21and additional generators.

02:18:23Thus, at the end of the 1870s,

02:18:25Edison created a bulb

02:18:27that contained a platinum filament

02:18:29in an empty glass bulb.

02:18:31Edison tried to test more than

02:18:333,000 different bulb models

02:18:35between 1878 and 1880.

02:18:37He also tried more than

02:18:396,000 plants to see which material

02:18:41would be best suited to serve as filament.

02:18:43Everything was tried,

02:18:45from cotton to linen,

02:18:47through wood.

02:18:49Finally, they discovered that

02:18:51a carbonized bamboo filament

02:18:53could burn for more than 1,000 hours.

02:18:55They therefore opted for this material

02:18:57for a while,

02:18:59until it was replaced in the early 1900s.

02:19:01Nowadays, a standard bulb

02:19:03can last between 1,000 and 2,000 hours.

02:19:05But there is a bulb that is famous

02:19:07for having broken all records.

02:19:09The story goes that in 1901,

02:19:11a small bulb was fixed

02:19:13to the ceiling of a fire station

02:19:15in Livermore, California.

02:19:17It was a 60-watt bulb,

02:19:19used at the time to light up

02:19:21trucks, even during the day.

02:19:23That's why it was almost never turned off.

02:19:25And that may be one of the reasons

02:19:27why it lasted so long.

02:19:29Another reason for this longevity

02:19:31is its composition.

02:19:33The filament of this particular bulb

02:19:35was not made of tungsten, but of carbon.

02:19:37Unlike metals,

02:19:39carbon drives electricity better

02:19:41when it is heated.

02:19:43In addition, such a filament is much thicker

02:19:45than those we see in modern bulbs.

02:19:47Needless to say that this bulb

02:19:49still works.

02:19:51It is now over 100 years old

02:19:53and even has its own official website

02:19:55although it has not been updated since 2018.

02:19:57Nowadays,

02:19:59we call it the Centenary Bulb.

02:20:01And the reason why so many people

02:20:03celebrate this invention

02:20:05is its incredible ability to resist

02:20:07the test of time.

02:20:09Wouldn't it be great if all the bulbs

02:20:11lasted that long?

02:20:13Alas, it is not up to date.

02:20:15Because it goes against a much too widespread

02:20:17commercial strategy.

02:20:19It is programmed obsolescence.

02:20:21As sophisticated as the concept may seem,

02:20:23it is in fact a scam.

02:20:25It relies on products made to last

02:20:27only for a limited time.

02:20:29These stop working artificially

02:20:31and the duration during which they remain

02:20:33in good working condition is defined

02:20:35from the conception.

02:20:37Finally, you will have to repair or replace them.

02:20:39And, in the long run,

02:20:41people end up consuming more and more.

02:20:43Let's take the example of the Centenary Bulb.

02:20:45If all similar devices

02:20:47were designed to last more than 100 years,

02:20:49people would end up

02:20:51stopping buying them.

02:20:53An entire industry would disappear,

02:20:55at least in the long run.

02:20:57A London businessman therefore

02:20:59came up with a plan in 1932.

02:21:01He called it Programmed Obsolescence.

02:21:03He advocated the idea that

02:21:05selling goods for a limited lifetime

02:21:07meant that more goods

02:21:09would run out in the long run.

02:21:11Thus, he estimated that

02:21:13in a global economy,

02:21:15as long as there was a stable balance

02:21:17between supply and demand,

02:21:19the economy would win.

02:21:21His idea has always been far from unanimous.

02:21:23And for a good reason, I mean.

02:21:25It is really annoying to have to

02:21:27continuously buy new products,

02:21:29especially if it is not really necessary.

02:21:31In addition, it means

02:21:33a lot of waste.

02:21:35There are many ways

02:21:37to make a product obsolete.

02:21:39And some are less obvious than you would have thought.

02:21:41Look at some of the devices

02:21:43in your house,

02:21:45like a phone, a computer,

02:21:47and see if you can identify

02:21:49some of the following examples.

02:21:51These devices may in particular

02:21:53lack spare parts.

02:21:55They are deliberately designed to behave

02:21:57like a single block.

02:21:59You cannot simply disassemble them

02:22:01and replace the element that has stopped working.

02:22:03In other words,

02:22:05these products cannot be repaired.

02:22:07Once broken,

02:22:09you just have to buy them again.

02:22:11Bulbs are actually a very good example

02:22:13of such a product.

02:22:15Can you replace the filament

02:22:17of a bulb that has stopped working?

02:22:19I mean, the glass envelope

02:22:21could still work,

02:22:23but there is no way to bring a bulb back to life

02:22:25once the filament is broken.

02:22:27Then there are products

02:22:29that simply become incompatible

02:22:31with more recent versions.

02:22:33It is a process that we observe

02:22:35more and more often,

02:22:37because technology progresses

02:22:39at a speed never before observed.

02:22:41This is how you could one day

02:22:43find out about a specific device.

02:22:45You could also find out that

02:22:47if your phone is old enough,

02:22:49some applications will simply no longer work.

02:22:51This is because they exploit

02:22:53more recent technologies,

02:22:55which, in most cases,

02:22:57are not compatible with older devices.

02:23:01The coldest part of our planet,

02:23:03the Antarctic,

02:23:05never ceases to surprise us.

02:23:07Take a look at this fall

02:23:09called Blood Falls.

02:23:11Scientists have concluded that this color

02:23:13is related to iron.

02:23:15The water from the glacier oxidizes

02:23:17and turns rusty when exposed to oxygen.

02:23:19And the color red appears.

02:23:21Take a step on Mount Gandeng.

02:23:23It lays eggs.

02:23:25Well, maybe not real eggs,

02:23:27but these stones look like dinosaur eggs.

02:23:29That's why the mountain

02:23:31has become famous.

02:23:33These stone eggs, let's call them that,

02:23:35were formed in a part of the mountain

02:23:37more than 500 million years ago.

02:23:39Note that this phenomenon occurs once every 30 years.

02:23:41The eggs have different sizes

02:23:43and colors.

02:23:45These stones appear on the surface of the cliff.

02:23:47A study carried out in the region

02:23:49revealed that the composition of these stones

02:23:51was not the same

02:23:53as that of the other parts of the mountain.

02:23:55Here, limestone rocks predominate.

02:23:57They are more prone to erosion.

02:23:59They crumble from day to day.

02:24:01It took three decades

02:24:03for the stones to take this egg shape.

02:24:05However, the process by which these rock formations

02:24:07can be perfectly spherical and smooth

02:24:09remains a mystery.

02:24:11According to scientists,

02:24:13each stone egg has an organic material core.

02:24:15They are made up of shells,

02:24:17remains of plants, fish teeth and skeletons.

02:24:19This may be a beginning of an explanation.

02:24:21The village of Gulu

02:24:23is close to stone eggs.

02:24:25Residents believe that these eggs are sacred.

02:24:27Villagers associate them with good fortune.

02:24:29In fact, almost every family

02:24:31has one in their house.

02:24:33Unfortunately,

02:24:35there are only about 70 of them left.

02:24:37So if you want to see them,

02:24:39you better hurry.

02:24:41The Richat structure

02:24:43is a circular geological phenomenon

02:24:45located in the Sahara Desert,

02:24:47near Mauritania.

02:24:49It is made up of rocks in several layers

02:24:51and they look a lot like rings.

02:24:53No wonder this unique structure

02:24:55has attracted the attention of NASA.

02:24:57Seen from the sky,

02:24:59the geological element

02:25:01seems to be spinning on itself.

02:25:03Some say it is the impact of an asteroid.

02:25:05Others think it is a natural geological process.

02:25:07For them,

02:25:09the Richat structure

02:25:11is an eroded and elevated rock dome.

02:25:13Geologists often classify it

02:25:15as an anticlinal dome.

02:25:17Scientists have discovered

02:25:19that the rocks in the center

02:25:21are older than the external rocks

02:25:23in the form of rings.

02:25:25So it would seem that the stones

02:25:27have been eroded

02:25:29until they formed layers of flat rocks.

02:25:31And this mystery of the Sahara,

02:25:3345 km long,

02:25:35is still not solved.

02:25:37Number 4 is Rapa Nui,

02:25:39or Isla de Pascua.

02:25:41But I bet you know it

02:25:43as Easter Island.

02:25:45Yes, it has three names.

02:25:47It was discovered by Jacob Roggeveen,

02:25:49who had no intention of looking for this island.

02:25:51He just landed there by chance

02:25:53on a Sunday, and that's where his name comes from.

02:25:55Jacob was actually looking for

02:25:57Terra Australis,

02:25:59which, by the way, is not Australia.

02:26:01It never existed,

02:26:03and it was just a hypothetical continent.

02:26:05In addition, he wanted to take a look

02:26:07at the land of Davies,

02:26:09which would have been seen in the past

02:26:11by Edward Davies, the pirate,

02:26:13and not Edward Davies, the saxophonist.

02:26:15Jacob didn't make it either,

02:26:17although no one has ever seen this island,

02:26:19except for the pirate Davies himself.

02:26:21He may not have been able to discover

02:26:23the lands he wanted,

02:26:25but he discovered Easter Island instead.

02:26:27Easter Island is a particular territory

02:26:29of Chile, located in the southeast

02:26:31of the Pacific Ocean.

02:26:33It is on this list because

02:26:35nearly 1,000 stone statues,

02:26:37called moai, were discovered there.

02:26:39They were created by the Rapanui people.

02:26:41Almost all of these statues

02:26:43represent gigantic heads,

02:26:45but there are also a small number

02:26:47of kneeling figures with hands on their bellies.

02:26:49Each statue represents leaders

02:26:51or other important members

02:26:53of Easter Island society.

02:26:55To sculpt these statues,

02:26:57the inhabitants used volcanic stones

02:26:59that had been softened.

02:27:01The next stop is the Gate of Hell.

02:27:03Don't worry, it's just the way

02:27:05people called the gas crater

02:27:07of Darvaza in Turkmenistan.

02:27:09This giant natural gas crater

02:27:11has been here for five decades,

02:27:13and it burns gas all the time.

02:27:15The president of the country

02:27:17would also like experts to find

02:27:19a way to put out this permanent fire.

02:27:21This site was accidentally

02:27:23created by workers in 1971

02:27:25while they were working on

02:27:27a natural gas project.

02:27:29Since then, the flames have not ceased

02:27:31and it has become a tourist attraction.

02:27:33Mysterious constructions

02:27:35are sometimes built in our time.

02:27:37We don't need to go back

02:27:39to millions of years,

02:27:41to civilizations that have disappeared

02:27:43for a long time.

02:27:45Edward Litskalin built a structure

02:27:47called the Coral Castle

02:27:49in Homestead, Florida.

02:27:51He sculpted nearly 1,100 tons

02:27:53of coral rock in 28 years,

02:27:55until 1951.

02:27:57It's a real mystery

02:27:59to understand how he managed

02:28:01to do it all by himself.

02:28:03Litskalin sculpted the sedimentary rock

02:28:05in different objects,

02:28:07such as walls, tables, chairs,

02:28:09a fountain and a solar panel.

02:28:11There is of course a legend

02:28:13behind this mystery.

02:28:15He was inspired to build this structure

02:28:17after being abandoned by his fiancée

02:28:19and planted at the hotel.

02:28:21He would have wanted to prove his love

02:28:23to her and the whole world.

02:28:25So he had to produce something extraordinary.

02:28:27Well, he clearly succeeded.

02:28:29Let's talk a little about the mystery

02:28:31of fairy circles in Namibia.

02:28:33There are millions of circular spots

02:28:35on hundreds of kilometers,

02:28:37whose diameter varies from 3 to 20 meters.

02:28:39They are called fairy circles

02:28:41because they seem to have been created

02:28:43by fairies or a creature

02:28:45from another world.

02:28:47They are made of earth,

02:28:49oval-shaped, surrounded by grass.

02:28:51There are many local beliefs

02:28:53surrounding the creation of these marks.

02:28:55However, science says something else.

02:28:57For decades,

02:28:59biologists and mathematicians

02:29:01have been perplexed

02:29:03by the mystery of fairy circles in Namibia.

02:29:05There is more than one theory

02:29:07to explain this phenomenon.

02:29:09Here is a popular theory.

02:29:11As water is limited in the desert,

02:29:13plants compete to access it.

02:29:15But smaller plants,

02:29:17located nearby,

02:29:19cannot get the water they need to survive.

02:29:21In the end,

02:29:23part of the vegetation disappears

02:29:25and the others remain on the edge of the plot.

02:29:27This is why they form such regular gaps.

02:29:31What if I told you

02:29:33that there is a hill in the city of Leh,

02:29:35in India,

02:29:37where, instead of rolling down,

02:29:39things go up?

02:29:41It is an optical illusion.

02:29:43However,

02:29:45the road actually goes down.

02:29:47This kind of phenomenon

02:29:49is called a magnetic hill.

02:29:51The scientific explanations vary.

02:29:53The most common theory

02:29:55says that the hill has such a strong magnetic force

02:29:57that it can attract cars

02:29:59in the vicinity.

02:30:01What would you say

02:30:03if you saw flaming rocks?

02:30:05Yanartas extends over a surface

02:30:07of more than 3 square kilometers.

02:30:09The place is located on a rocky mountain

02:30:11near the city of Sirali.

02:30:13Yanartas owes its name to its appearance.

02:30:15It literally means

02:30:17flaming stone.

02:30:19The rocks have been burning for at least 2,500 years.

02:30:21And they will probably continue

02:30:23to burn for the next decades.

02:30:25The mountain where the rocks are

02:30:27is an inactive volcano.

02:30:29It is therefore sprinkled with tiny fumaroles

02:30:31that release gases like methane.

02:30:33This gas ignites

02:30:35when it comes in contact with oxygen

02:30:37and creates this flaming effect.

02:30:39By the way,

02:30:41at the time,

02:30:43sailors used these flames

02:30:45as a natural lighthouse

02:30:47because they are very close to the coast.

02:30:49Today, it is more of a tourist attraction.

02:30:51Hikers love it too.

02:30:53Now, let's walk on the frozen Lake Abraham

02:30:55in Canada.

02:30:57In winter, the frozen water

02:30:59is filled with ice bubbles.

02:31:01It seems magical,

02:31:03but these white orbs are not so sure.

02:31:05They are composed of flammable methane gas.

02:31:07Maybe the beauty can be misleading.

02:31:09The following image comes from

02:31:11Racetrack Playa in the Valley of Death

02:31:13in the United States.

02:31:15There is a dry lake where the rocks move.

02:31:17These strange rocks seem to have been pushed

02:31:19or dragged by someone or something.

02:31:21It left both a trace

02:31:23and a mystery behind it.

02:31:25But we understand today

02:31:27the force behind all this.

02:31:29Surprise! It's the wind.

02:31:31And a little ice.

02:31:33Scientists say that the wind pushes the rocks

02:31:35during the short periods when the ground is covered with ice.

02:31:39I can't help but notice that

02:31:41many mysterious things on Earth

02:31:43involve stones and rocks.

02:31:45Or methane.

02:31:47And you, which of these phenomena is your favorite?

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