Forces Of Nature - S1.E3 - The Moth And The Flame
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00:00Our world is beautiful to look at.
00:25It's even more beautiful to understand.
00:42Forces of unimaginable power have forged our precious planet.
00:56They've created landscapes of endless variety and wonder.
01:05The forces of nature make Earth a volatile home.
01:15Yet the very stuff of our raging planet also created its greatest wonder, life.
01:27How could something so complex emerge from a barren rock?
01:57To understand how life arose from Earth billions of years ago, we have to start by understanding
02:15what our planet is made of, its raw ingredients.
02:25This volcano in Indonesia is one of the few places where you can see one of those ingredients
02:31boil to the surface.
02:40The substance that bubbles out of the volcano's crater is so pure, it's precious.
02:49It's enough for people to risk their lives to get their hands on it.
03:01Budi and his son Bagio have a job that brings them face-to-face with the raw ingredients
03:07of the Earth.
03:09I've been waiting for this day for so long.
03:14I've been waiting for this day for so long.
03:16I've been waiting for this day for so long.
03:17I've been waiting for this day for so long.
03:18I've been waiting for this day for so long.
03:19I've been waiting for this day for so long.
03:20I've been waiting for this day for so long.
03:21I've been waiting for this day for so long.
03:22I've been waiting for this day for so long.
03:23I've been waiting for this day for so long.
03:24I've been waiting for this day for so long.
03:25I've been waiting for this day for so long.
03:26I've been waiting for this day for so long.
03:27I've been waiting for this day for so long.
03:28I've been waiting for this day for so long.
03:29I've been waiting for this day for so long.
03:30I've been waiting for this day for so long.
03:31I've been waiting for this day for so long.
03:43The crater of this volcano is a mine.
03:46The crater of this volcano is a mine.
03:51The crater of this volcano is a mine.
03:53The product is sulphur, one of the 92 chemical elements
03:58that are the building blocks of our planet.
04:06It's rare to find elements in their pure form like this
04:10because they tend to react and combine with others.
04:15This elemental sulphur is no different.
04:19It wants to combine with oxygen.
04:22It wants to burn to become sulphur dioxide.
04:27That impure combination creates choking fumes,
04:32making this sulphur worthless.
04:38It needs to be kept pure so that it can be sold on
04:40to industry to become an ingredient in the man-made world.
04:49But these men aren't miners.
04:53Their job is to stop the sulphur from burning
04:56and turning into useless clouds of gas.
05:01They are firefighters.
05:07And it's at night that they can get down to work.
05:14That's when the flames of the burning sulphur reveal themselves.
05:23When it ignites and reacts with oxygen,
05:26sulphur emits a blue flame.
05:33If they set alight other parts of the mine,
05:36the blue fires can rapidly spiral out of control.
05:44Wait!
05:45Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait!
05:47Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait!
05:50Wait!
05:51Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait!
05:55It's burning.
05:56It's burning.
05:57It's burning.
05:58It's burning.
06:06It's the only thing left.
06:14It's a big fire.
06:16It's burning.
06:17The noxious sulphurous gases want to react with us too.
06:36On contact with water in the eyes and mouth, gas from the blue flames instantly turns to
06:42sulphuric acid, making this one of the most hazardous places to work on earth.
07:11In the fumes and the searing heat, Baggio and Budi are struggling to keep the fire under
07:15control.
07:21Each passing moment means more pure sulphur is going to waste.
07:51The
08:05fire of the Kawah Ijen volcano has been tamed for another night.
08:22Elemental sulphur from the volcano is valuable because it's needed in everything from sugar
08:27production to medicine.
08:35We rarely get to see the elements like sulphur in their pure state, but they are what the
08:40world is made of, what we are made of.
08:50There is no difference between the sulphur that pours out of a volcano and the sulphur
08:55in each one of us.
09:04All life is made up of the same elements as the earth.
09:14Just 92 elements make up everything on the planet.
09:34The elements are the building blocks of our world, but they are billions of years older.
09:44As old as the universe itself.
10:03The smallest of them all, hydrogen, was born at the beginning of the known universe in
10:09the moments after the Big Bang.
10:17Then in the immense pressure and heat of stars, hydrogen atoms fused together to produce bigger
10:23elements, helium, carbon, oxygen.
10:30But it would take the death of these first stars to create enough energy to fuse those
10:35elements into the rest of the chemistry set.
10:44Ninety-two elements flung out into space by unimaginably powerful explosions, where they
10:54eventually came together to build our planet.
11:07The story of Earth's creation is revealed in the colours that stain its rocks.
11:25Beneath the green carpet of grass of Tanzania, the ground is red, thanks to the powerful
11:34reaction between two of the planet's raw ingredients.
11:43This is the Great Rift Valley, where the first humans walked the earth and have existed ever
11:48since.
11:50Today, it's the Maasai who live off this land, and that's given them an intimate connection
11:58to the earth, one that they exhibit in their most important ceremonies.
12:16Tomorrow, Moiswa's son Ndaika will celebrate a landmark in the life of a Maasai warrior.
12:23Earth's elements will play a vital role in the ceremony.
12:45Ndaika will become an elder. He and his wives will join the leaders of their community.
12:53I'm very happy to be here.
13:17The family are almost ready for their guests, but there's one final ingredient that they
13:22must collect from the land.
13:27The ingredient they are looking for is red ochre, a traditional pigment.
13:57This is the red ochre pigment.
14:02The red ochre pigment is used to color the land.
14:17This is the red ochre pigment.
14:22This is the red ochre pigment.
14:30The redness of the land here comes from one of the most abundant of earth's raw ingredients,
14:37iron.
14:40One third of our planet's mass is iron, most of it locked away in its molten core.
14:52But in this valley, iron has risen to the surface.
15:00The iron found here isn't pure.
15:05It has been powerfully attracted to oxygen in the environment and turned into iron oxide,
15:11a rusty red compound central to Maasai culture.
15:22This is the red ochre pigment.
15:27This is the red ochre pigment.
15:32This is the red ochre pigment.
15:37This is the red ochre pigment.
15:42This is the red ochre pigment.
15:47This is the red ochre pigment.
15:52This is the red ochre pigment.
15:57This is the red ochre pigment.
16:02Iron doesn't only inhabit the earth.
16:07It's within us, too.
16:12Ndaika's passage to elder status will culminate in the slaughtering of a bull.
16:22A momentous moment.
16:27A moment that reveals that our connection to this element is more than skin-deep.
16:40Just like the ochre, the blood is rich in iron.
16:45But this isn't just a ceremonial link to the land and nature.
16:50The Maasai rely on the nutritional value of iron.
16:55The Maasai rely on the nutritional value of iron-rich blood.
17:05The Maasai rely on the nutritional value of iron-rich blood.
17:13We are the descendants of the Maasai.
17:18We are the descendants of the Maasai.
17:39The land here, and the life that depends upon it,
17:44is a reaction of iron and oxygen.
17:49The same chemistry that makes the earth red also keeps us alive.
18:03Thanks to the food we eat, earth's iron is carried into the bloodstream.
18:08And like the iron in rock,
18:13the oxygen we breathe, but only gently.
18:18As it circulates, blood releases the oxygen where it's needed.
18:25Life has taken the chemistry of the earth and made it its own.
18:30But for life to have started in the first place,
18:35it needed a medium for that chemistry to take place.
18:40Somewhere the elements of the earth could find each other,
18:45combine, and become the complex molecules of life.
18:50Somewhere the elements of the earth could find each other,
18:55combine, and become the complex molecules of life.
19:02That medium was created by the union
19:07of two of the most common elements in the universe,
19:12hydrogen and oxygen, water.
19:20Hidden deep in this forest in the Caribbean
19:25is one of the rarest phenomena there is,
19:30a magical site that only exists here
19:35because of a unique property of water.
19:40A property that makes it essential to life on earth.
19:48And biologist Tom Eiliff
19:53has brought a specialist team here to track it down.
19:58This limestone is fantastic here,
20:03the way it's pockmarked and designed.
20:08The way it's pockmarked and dissolved away
20:13indicates that there's a lot of water moving underneath.
20:18We're going to kill ourselves if we go that way.
20:23Only a handful of divers have the skills
20:28to explore this network of caves.
20:33Those two and this one, yeah?
20:38A place that only exists because of water's astonishing potency.
20:57These caves are one of the last
21:03to discover unexplored, unknown frontiers on the planet Earth.
21:1199% of the planet's liquid freshwater is underground.
21:16But this cave is special,
21:19and it's all because of this liquid's extraordinary solvency.
21:27Water can dissolve more substances than any other liquid,
21:32which makes it able to cut through the limestone.
21:37It can literally eat or dissolve its way through the solid rock
21:42and open up cracks and crevices, fissures.
21:47That makes it possible for even more water to go down that crack,
21:52and the crack gets bigger and bigger and bigger.
21:56And the bigger cracks get more water,
21:59and so they get enlarged faster and they form caves.
22:06The caves are perilously fragile,
22:09but the team is intent on penetrating as deep as possible
22:13into this alien world.
22:16The reason why we go through these narrow slots,
22:20why we push our bodies to the limits,
22:23is to find something majestic,
22:26on the other side.
22:30Unless you go there, unless you look,
22:33you're never going to know.
22:37Worst thing is your tanks may wedge in
22:41and literally stick you in a spot
22:46where you can't move forward or backward.
22:56The attempt to squeeze through the narrowing passages
23:00has disturbed the sediment.
23:04Tom and his buddy have no choice
23:07but to call a halt to their exploration.
23:10Hey there, welcome back, glad to see you.
23:13Oh, man, that tight spot in there,
23:16I could barely fit through.
23:18It was really a squeeze, just...
23:21I got, like, the wing stuck on a rock.
23:24I had to move the rock out of the way.
23:27I say we leave it 24 hours at least so it clears up
23:30and then come back, give it another go.
23:33The team has only explored part of this cave system
23:37and seen a hint of its beauty.
23:41What they will find in the morning
23:44will be truly spectacular.
23:46So we're going to tie in the main line and swim down
23:49and about 10, 15 minutes in,
23:51the line makes a slight turn to the left,
23:54so there are expected to be pretty bad waves.
23:57We have to keep pretty close to the line
23:59and be aware of that at all times.
24:06The next day, the visibility is cleared.
24:15The explorers are about to get their first glimpse
24:18of a rare natural phenomenon
24:20created by water's power to dissolve.
24:29I don't know what it is.
24:31I can't tell you exactly what's happening,
24:33but something different, something very, very important
24:37is going on in this cave.
24:48The quality of the water suddenly changes.
25:09This strange and beautiful phenomenon
25:12is known as a halo climb.
25:15You pop up and there's crystal-clear water
25:19and it almost is as if you're lifting off
25:22and flying in the air.
25:28Seawater drawn in from the ocean
25:31is dense with dissolved salts and minerals
25:34and sits in a discrete layer beneath the fresh cave water.
25:39And it's so clear, there's a tendency
25:41you want to take your regulator out of your mouth
25:44and you want to start breathing the water.
25:55All this is created by the marriage
25:58of hydrogen and oxygen.
26:01WATER DRIPS
26:23Water's power as a solvent
26:25means it transports earth's water.
26:28And it does the same within us.
26:36The elements carried around the planet
26:39are also carried around our bodies.
26:48Every living creature on this planet
26:51has a body of water.
26:54Every living creature on Earth
26:57needs water to deliver the ingredients of life to its cells.
27:05And life will go to extraordinary lengths
27:08to get those ingredients.
27:24It's the end of winter in the Italian Alps.
27:32Few creatures can endure this harsh, unforgiving landscape.
27:38The alpine ibex is one of them.
27:43As the winter snow melts,
27:45it unlocks the vast stores of water,
27:48replenishing the rivers.
27:50But for this female and her kid,
27:53water is not the most important thing for them right now.
27:56It's what the water brings that really matters.
28:05Water carries something so essential to their survival
28:08that this female is about to lead her kid
28:11on the most challenging climb of its young life.
28:14Rada Bionda is a park ranger.
28:18He's fascinated by the resilience of these creatures.
28:21Rada Bionda is a park ranger.
28:24He's fascinated by the resilience of these creatures.
28:51The water is so high,
28:53and in the winter, in such harsh conditions,
28:56it's unthinkable.
29:01Rada has been studying the ibex for years,
29:04and he knows exactly where they're heading.
29:21This is the Chinjino Dam.
29:26The vast expanse of the stone wall holds back the snowmelt.
29:34But there is an unintended consequence
29:37thanks to the solvent power of water.
29:42As it seeps through the dam, water evaporates.
29:47Any minerals it carried with it
29:50are left deposited on the dam wall.
29:54These mineral salts are the big draw for the mother and her kid.
30:20Without salts and minerals,
30:23the ibex simply can't survive.
30:26Muscle fibres won't contract.
30:29Electrical signals in their nerves won't fire.
30:33They're left with no choice
30:36but to risk scaling the 50-metre-high wall.
30:41In an extreme situation,
30:44the ibex can't survive.
30:47In an extreme situation,
30:50the ibex can't survive.
30:53In an extreme situation,
30:56the ibex can't survive.
31:17The promise of salt and minerals
31:20leers them even higher.
31:23The promise of salt and minerals leers them even higher.
31:27The ibex is forced to leave the dam.
31:52The kid gets a first taste
31:55of this salt-rich rock.
32:14It's a heroic climb,
32:17driven by breathtaking determination.
32:25With Earth's ingredients
32:28brought here by water, the prize.
32:55Life takes the raw ingredients of the Earth
33:00and transforms them.
33:08Life hijacks Earth's simple chemical reactions
33:14and makes them useful.
33:25Thanks to the medium of water,
33:28the chemicals of life are always on the move.
33:32We are just chemistry.
33:37Earth's elements brought together
33:40to create a living thing.
33:45But what is life?
33:48What does it mean to be living?
33:55This part of Japan
33:58is famous for a unique creature.
34:01Every year,
34:04between March and June,
34:07a special type of squid
34:10rises up from the deep ocean
34:13in their millions.
34:19When these squid appear,
34:22they put on a remarkable display
34:25of the alchemy of life.
34:29For the locals,
34:32that alchemy makes them a delicacy.
34:35But for fishermen like Mr. Urakami,
34:38it makes them highly profitable.
34:52Mr. Urakami is banking
34:55on what he needs to be
34:58the most profitable catch of the year.
35:01Oh, it's still there!
35:04It's still there!
35:07It's still there!
35:10It's still there!
35:13It's still there!
35:16It's still there!
35:19It's still there!
35:22It's still there!
35:25It's still there!
35:28It's still there!
35:39It's still there!
35:42It's still there!
35:46The squid are proving elusive.
35:58But on the beach,
36:01there are the first signs
36:04that the firefly squid
36:07have arrived.
36:24This is the display
36:27of the squid.
36:41This remarkable light show
36:44is caused by a beautifully controlled
36:47chemical reaction inside the squid.
36:50A chemical called luciferin
36:53reacts with oxygen
36:56to produce oxygen.
37:01Oh, good call!
37:05The luciferin is simply made
37:08of elements such as carbon,
37:11nitrogen and sulfur.
37:15The basic elements
37:18and reactions of the Earth's
37:21raw ingredients have been
37:25transferred to the squid.
37:35Back on board Mr. Urakami's
37:38fishing boat,
37:41there's a change in fortune.
37:44I got a bite!
37:47I got a bite!
37:50I got a bite!
37:54I wish I could catch a big one,
37:57but that's all I can do.
38:00I want to show U-chan
38:03how proud I am.
38:08Light on!
38:11It's beautiful!
38:20Although uniquely spectacular,
38:23the squid are doing
38:26what all life does,
38:29controlling chemistry
38:32to do what it needs
38:35to survive.
38:41Ultimately,
38:44life is a cascade
38:47of controlled chemical reactions
38:50between the elements of Earth.
38:55Reactions played out
38:58at exactly the right time
39:01in exactly the right order.
39:05Reactions that harness energy
39:08and sometimes beautifully release it.
39:26For Mr. Urakami and his crew,
39:29this is the spectacle they live for.
39:32Life's chemistry in action.
39:51No matter what form
39:54life on this planet takes,
39:57there is one thing
40:00it has in common.
40:05Whether it's a plant,
40:08or a firefly squid,
40:11or you,
40:15there is one chemical reaction
40:18that is universal to life.
40:22A remarkable piece of chemistry
40:25found in living things
40:28The chemistry that makes
40:31the inanimate animate.
40:36The chemistry we think
40:39made our planet come alive.
40:51This fjord in Iceland
40:54holds the clues to how rock
40:57could have made
41:00the first step to life.
41:03What's hidden beneath
41:06the cold waters here
41:09may have gone undiscovered,
41:12but diver Erlendur Bogason
41:15heard vague reports
41:18of something strange going on.
41:22My next door neighbor
41:25told me about the steams
41:28he saw from the sea.
41:31I had been diving there
41:34many times, so I knew this place.
41:37I didn't believe this odd lady.
41:41So I called my friend
41:44and asked him to take me
41:47to this place.
41:55Splash
42:03I was like stressed
42:06because you're going alone
42:09somewhere to dive
42:12and you don't know
42:15what you're doing
42:18or what you're going to find.
42:21Then I just see this
42:24huge white thing
42:27and it looked like a giant.
42:34The towering pillar of rock
42:37was spewing water like a chimney.
42:40It was an unbelievable sight.
42:43Wow, it's beautiful,
42:46it's something incredible.
42:49I took my glove off
42:52and put my arm into the hot water.
42:55It was like burning hot.
42:58Searing hot fresh water
43:01pumping directly into cold sea water.
43:09But it's what happens
43:12when these two water sources meet
43:15that makes this place so special.
43:19We can see it
43:22in a simple experiment.
43:25Using the water samples
43:28collected from the fjord
43:31we can create the same conditions
43:34of the vent on land.
43:37The voltmeter reveals
43:40that bringing the two sources
43:43of water together generates power.
43:49The power is created
43:52by the movement of charged particles.
43:55Just like in a common battery
43:58the power here is created
44:01by the movement of charged particles.
44:04Acidic sea water
44:07has lots of positively charged particles.
44:10The water in the fjord
44:13has lots of positively charged particles.
44:16Acidic sea water
44:19has lots of positively charged particles
44:22or protons.
44:25And alkaline fresh water
44:28has relatively few.
44:31When you connect them together
44:34they want to equalize
44:37so protons cascade like a waterfall
44:40from one side to another
44:43We now think
44:46energy produced this way
44:49is the spark of life
44:52because it doesn't just happen
44:55at these hydrothermal vents.
44:58Exactly the same flow
45:01of particles
45:04goes on inside the cells
45:07of almost every living creature.
45:14From the lowliest seaweed
45:17to the most abundant
45:20and the most abundant
45:23to the most abundant
45:26a whale
45:29us.
45:35This source of energy
45:38is the one thing that unites life on Earth
45:41and that's the clue.
45:50Our most ancient ancestor
45:53wasn't a living thing at all.
45:58It was most likely a hydrothermal vent
46:01pumping out water into the oceans
46:04of the restless young Earth
46:07four billion years ago.
46:23If the spark of life
46:26emerged from something
46:29as simple as the chemistry
46:32of a planet bathed in water
46:35it could happen elsewhere
46:38for there are places beyond Earth
46:41with oceans of liquid water
46:44where there may be hydrothermal vents.
46:53Such a world may exist
46:56circling the giant gas planet Jupiter.
47:03Europa, one of Jupiter's moons
47:06is an ice-covered ball of rock.
47:14It's now thought
47:17that beneath its icy shell
47:20is a deep, salty ocean
47:23just the right kind of place
47:26to find hydrothermal vents
47:29that could have provided
47:32the same spark that started life on Earth.
47:45Europa's thick ice cap
47:48may not be a barrier to life.
47:51Bacteria live in lake water
47:54capped by deep ice in Antarctica.
48:00Perhaps the mysterious red stains
48:03on the surface of Europa
48:06are signs of alien bacteria.
48:13Perhaps Europa has mirrored
48:16life on Earth.
48:21Perhaps once again
48:24elements of the Universe
48:27have been turned into
48:30the wonderful alchemy of life.
48:46NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
48:49California Institute of Technology
48:52California Institute of Technology
48:55NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
48:58California Institute of Technology
49:01California Institute of Technology
49:04NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
49:07California Institute of Technology