Bang Goes The Theory (2009) s01e03 Episode Script
Episode 3
Tonight, Liz sinks to the bottom of the Baltic Sea.
l'm standing on the surface of a submarine, 80 metres at the bottom of the sea.
'l'm off to try and save the world from plastic.
' l'm melting! 'And Jem is going to try and climb a building with a pair of vacuum cleaners stuck to his back.
'That's Bang Goes The Theory, putting science to the test.
' Welcome to Bang Goes The Theory.
Tonight, we start with this.
To the untrained eye, an innocent and bog-standard vacuum cleaner.
That's what it was, until Jem got his hands on it.
'l have always been very keen on pushing household appliances to their limits.
'The vacuum cleaner is actually one of the most powerful electrical machines you'll ever touch.
'And at 1 ,500 watts, l don't think that kind of power 'should be restricted to removing crumbs from carpets.
'My hunch is these things produce enough suction 'to turn a man into a Spiderman.
' Even the cheapest vacuum cleaners give a suction force of about a fifth of a vacuum.
lt doesn't sound like much, but that's a suction force of a kilo for every five square centimetres.
The area of a postage stamp.
So On the area of this nozzle, it's a pretty good force, but not much.
But suck all the air out of a sandwich box, and that's a massive force.
Unbelievable! So, l reckon if l suck out an area big enough, l'll be able to hang my own weight off a suction pad and a vacuum cleaner.
Maybe.
'But then, what would l do? Simple.
'Take that concept and turn it into a set of vacuum gloves, 'capable of scaling one of the smoothest buildings in the land.
'The BBO's own White Oity building.
'100 feet of sheer aluminium cladding.
'As with all projects, the first task is to prove the concept works.
lf an area the size of a sandwich box can lift a sheet of ply, l'm hoping this can support my whole weight.
Right Yes! That takes my whole weight.
Totally held by that one board of ply.
The idea is, my thinking, if l make a couple of these a bit neater, that's two vacuum gloves.
Two vacuum gloves, l reckon l can start climbing buildings.
(HE SWlTOHES lT OFF) And when you switch the vacuum off, it comes away pretty quick.
Which means l can release my hands and definitely climb.
'But there's a problem.
' You might think, if a vacuum pad can hold me to the ceiling, it can hold me to a wall, too.
But watch this.
This pad is stuck to the wall in the way that l just can't pull it off, but there's not enough friction to stop it sliding down the wall.
And if l'm going to climb buildings, l'm going to need an awful lot more friction.
'There's one material that might just solve the friction issue.
'Rubber is known for its grip and for keeping things airtight.
'lt should be the key to making my gloves work.
'And after a lot of testing with different types of rubber, 'l eventually produced a seal soft enough to mould to brick, 'but with enough friction to hold me on smooth surfaces, too.
'Now all l had to do was figure out how to turn my single pad 'into a Spiderman-style climbing machine.
'And after just a few more late nights, l had a system that seemed to work.
' Are you seriously going to trust your life to two cheap vacuum cleaners strapped to your back? lt seems ridiculous.
Yeah.
But it is a calculated risk.
This might be the stupidest thing you've ever done.
That's ridiculous.
Possibly.
But my experiments suggest there'll be enough suction and friction to get me up the side of the building.
OK, given that friction is going to play quite a large part in keeping Jem alive for this little stunt, we thought we'd send off Dr Yan to demonstrate just how strong a force it is.
We all take friction for granted.
But used in the right way, it can be a really powerful force.
To prove it, l've bet these two really strong blokes that l can stick these two books together using friction, - and you'll not be able to pull them apart.
- Let's try it.
You take that and hold there, and you take that bit.
Right, go! (LAUGHTER) There's something wrong with these books! lt really is just friction holding them together, honest.
So if l have two pieces of paper and try to pull one over the other, then obviously, it's really easy.
But there is a tiny bit of friction there.
What's happening is that the molecules in one sheet of paper are being attracted ever so slightly to the molecules in another, so it takes a little bit of effort to pull one over the other.
That's only a very small force, but if you know what you're doing, a lot of very small forces can add up to something really strong.
lf l pushed down a bit on the top sheet of paper, then l'm squeezing the two sheets together, so more of the two surfaces are touching each other.
That means there's more friction and it's harder to pull them apart.
So if l take a whole lot of pages and interleave them together like this, then go on, have a go.
Ooh, getting there, maybe.
lt ain't happening.
lt ain't happening, is it? l can see your muscles going.
(LAUGHTER) So, the binding is pushing the pages together just like when l was pushing down on the two sheets of paper.
The harder you pull, the more the pages are pushed together.
No cheating! l don't believe it.
l thought that would've been easy.
That's mad! Yeah? Unbelievable, isn't it? Yeah, it is.
Unbelievable, that is.
Oops! Oops! (LAUGHTER) Next up, the Royal Navy have a new submarine rescue system.
To test it out, they decided to take part in a rescue exercise with the French and Norwegian navies in the Baltic Sea.
- Guess who got to tag along.
- l dunno, Jem? No.
Yan? No.
Me? Right, this is the scenario.
Four days ago, a Norwegian submarine hit an obstruction five miles off the coast of Arendal in Norway.
lnitial reports suggest there are survivors, but there's little chance of escaping in one piece when they're stuck in a submarine at the bottom of the sea.
So their best bet is to sit it out and wait for rescue.
'One of the only vessels capable of making a rescue attempt 'is the Royal Navy's new NSRS rescue sub.
'And this is it.
'lt's the most comprehensive system in the world.
The rescue sub 'and all its auxiliary equipment was scrambled from Scotland 'to a Norwegian coastguard ship within 72 hours of the disaster.
'But it still has to reach the survivors, and time is running out.
' And there it is - the NATO Submarine Rescue System.
The senior pilot is Mr Tom Heron.
Lovely to meet you.
Talk me through what makes this system so special.
She has a lot of technology that we built into her to really do the job of submarine rescue.
And the most important thing it has to do is create a watertight lock with the stricken vessel.
All right, Tom.
This is actually the docking system, right? Yeah.
But it looks fairly simple.
l was expecting lots of locks and bolts and hydraulics, etc.
lt's like this big rubber ring.
lt's a very simple system.
All we do is, we create a hydrostatic differential between the internal and external pressure.
'When the ring docks with the sub, it uses the huge pressures deep under water to create an unbreakable seal.
'And l'm going to put that system to the test - 'descending 80 metres, docking a rubber ring onto the deck of the stricken sub, 'pumping out the water, and then opening the hatch.
' My heart is actually beating quite fast, l have to say.
Ooh, we're wobbling a bit.
We're now hanging over the water.
Seal hatch one, seal hatch two.
Understood.
Roger, understood.
Full power to sub.
Wow! 'As we descend, the pressure on the hull is increasing 'at a linear rate of about 1 .
5lb per square inch, or psi, 'for every metre we go down.
'As the sub goes deeper, 'it's compressed by the external water pressure, 'so maintaining buoyancy is critical.
'lf we get it wrong, we could literally fall through the water.
'But at the moment, we're too light.
' That's the water coming in now.
So we're a little bit more stable.
lt's a little bit nerve-racking, l have to say.
'The pressure is now over '130 psi, which would shrink your lungs 'to almost a tenth of their size at the surface.
'Visibility is practically zero as we finally locate the stricken sub.
' That is amazing.
l just looked at the surface of the sub.
lt's unbelievable.
lt's just the most surreal thing l've ever done.
We're right over the hatch.
This is absolutely incredible.
Be careful.
The eye is directly below the skirt seal.
Once we're down on the hatch we're gonna pump out the water in the skirt, cause the pressure differential, so the pressure outside will be heavier and will push us down onto the sub and we'll be nice and secure.
'Physics says the pressure of the water column 'pushing us down onto the sub should seal the joint, 'allowing us to open the hatches and survive.
'But just one mistake could spell disaster.
'So they're not taking any chances.
' OK, hatch one shut.
'Standard procedure requires that our pilot's hatch is locked, just in case.
' - Unfortunately, we're a little bit sacrificial.
- We'll go first.
The pilots have got to get us back, so it's a precaution.
That's all.
'With that in mind, it's hard to believe what we're about to do - 'open the hatch 80 metres below the surface.
' The seal is good.
'Say again, over.
' The seal is good.
We're secure.
Sea pressure is holding us on now.
We are not going to move.
l'm happy to open the hatch.
'We open the hatch of the stricken sub, and the two are finally connected.
' l can see straight down to the floor of the deck of the submarine on which the hatch is.
'And it's the moment of truth.
' Do not stand on that bracket.
That's not very tight.
OK.
Guess what, l'm standing on the surface of a submarine, 80 metres at the bottom of the sea.
l've got to tell you, the science works, because the skirting' and the rubber is completely seal proof.
And it's the most incredible feeling ever, it's just crazy.
OK, that's it.
Now we just go down.
'Thankfully for our stricken submariners, 'this was only an exercise.
'But there was one little emergency l had to attend to.
' Hi, guys.
How are you? l can't believe it.
80 metres under the sea, seamless rescue operation.
lt's really nice to meet you both.
Would you mind putting me in the direction of the loo? - There.
- Oheers.
Weren't you just a little bit worried of it all going wrong? A little bit, but l just didn't let my head go in that direction while l was down there.
But now we're back Yes? .
.
l think we should go in that direction.
This is like your submarine - a similar shape, very strong plastic.
The air pressure on the inside is the same as that on the outside, so the walls aren't going anywhere.
By removing just some of the air from the inside, l can make the air pressure on the inside lower than on the outside, and you get to see what happens.
And to do that, you're going to use a vacuum cleaner.
- You're fond of them this week.
- lt's just a phase l'm going through.
- Right, here goes.
- OK.
- Whoa! - Wow! That was so quick! That's ridiculous! Well, 100 metres below the surface, there is 100 tonnes of force - on every square metre of that submarine.
- Amazing.
So they make the holes about two inches thick, reinforce them with fat steel ribs, but even with all that steel and all that shape and engineering, l wouldn't go down there.
- l think you're very, very brave.
- Thank you very much, Jem.
OK, up next, it's plastic, probably one of the most important inventions of the past 150 years.
- lt's literally everywhere.
- lt is.
But that's the problem.
Because of the way it's made, plastic sticks around for ages.
OK.
But l'm not giving up on plastic just yet.
To show you what l mean, l'm going to first make myself immortal with the help of a full laser body scan.
And where better to get a full laser body scan than the womenswear section of my local department store? A series of lasers scans every contour of my body.
Now we're going to turn that full body scan into a 3D plastic doll.
This is an amazing machine.
lt's actually a 3D printer which uses a process called laser centring.
Now, if you can imagine me sliced vertically, very thinly, thousands and thousands of times, like this.
This laser bit over here works by sprinkling a plastic powder.
A laser then solidifies within that layer of plastic powder the shape you actually need.
And it builds up the models slice by slice until you get a complete mini-me.
That is incredible.
That's unbelievable.
l mean, if you can look at the detail.
This is actually me, it's brilliant! 'Or so l thought.
' Because no matter how cute mini-me is, there's one big problem.
He's not gonna go away.
Let me explain.
lf l had been swimming in Oornwall last year, l might have seen this bizarre sight.
Hundreds of plastic ducks bobbing about.
You might think they had fallen off a container ship a couple of weeks previously, but you'd be wrong.
Because they actually fell off a container ship 16 years ago out there on the other side of the world in the Pacific.
Since then, they've floated all over the globe.
They fell out here in the middle of the Pacific and a few ended up on the coast of South America and round here.
Even over in Japan, round there.
Some actually got stuck in the Arctic ice and they were carried all round the Arctic in the ice and then gradually made their way down to the Oaribbean and then caught a lift with the North Atlantic Drift and ended up in Oornwall.
So how did these guys survive for so long? lt is because plastic is made up of these chain-like, very, very long molecules which all intermingle.
You imagine something like really long hair that gets a bit matted and tangled and it's very difficult to separate.
That's a bit like the plastic.
The problem is, there is nothing that has evolved that can break these molecules down.
So it all just accumulates, much of it ending up in our oceans.
ln fact, there are over 40,000 bits of plastic per square mile.
This is what water in the Pacific can look like.
A sort of plastic soup.
You can see these big bits, but most of it is microscopic.
But even these bits are gonna break down.
The thing is, they never break down completely, they're always gonna be there.
ln some areas, for every kilogram of plankton, there are 46 kilograms of plastic.
And it's not just a problem for the ocean.
The plastic, sooner or later, gets into the food chain.
Which means into you.
So that's the bad news.
The good news is that scientists at University Oollege Dublin can now make biodegradable plastic.
What's more, they can make it from the waste plastic that is clogging up our world.
Oould your process, you know, dispose of the evil mini-me Dallas plastic? Oh, definitely.
Definitely.
Firstly, you have to paralyse it.
First l have to what it? Paralysis, we should melt it first.
Melting helps break down the crucial long-chain molecules.
l'm melting! What we are trying to do is turn the evil, non-biodegradable mini-me into something more palatable.
And the secret weapon is bacteria.
So this is the recycled mini-me melted plastic in a jar.
This is it.
Goodbye, cruel world.
lt's this bacteria that's going to turn what's left of evil me into nice, green plastic.
And now, the melted plastic is gonna come dropping down there.
l see, so it's just like drip by drip? Just dripping in really slowly? So, these are just bacteria in here, frothing around, having a plastic lunch? They are eating your melted plastic and they'll transform it, inside themselves, into biodegradable plastic.
lt's the little critters in here that might just save the planet.
And the end result is this, 100% biodegradable plastic PHA.
Look at that.
And made out of mini you.
So, that's me, sort of made into this rather fetching table mat.
You could use it as a coaster.
That's Ohristmas sorted! With a bit more processing, we could even turn it into a nice little duck.
Pretty amazing.
Oompostable plastic.
That has got to be a good thing.
l was impressed with that.
lt might change my mind about plastics.
lt's changed my view.
Good.
Well, have a look at this.
They're inventing different kinds of plastic all the time.
What is that? l'm obsessed by this stuff.
lt's really amazing.
Have a look at that.
lt may look and feel just like ordinary plastic, you can see it's almost kind of fluid.
lt does, in fact, have some very special properties, as l'm now going to try and demonstrate.
- What on earth? - lt's good, isn't it? - You could play with it all day.
- Awesome.
Have a look at this.
That's an ordinary old-fashioned light bulb.
The point being, that it's obviously quite fragile because it's made of glass and is very thin.
lf l wrap this round it, like so lt's not very much.
Exactly, that's the key.
l'm going to make this into a ball.
Now, this studio is pretty high.
l'm going to really try and chuck this up here.
- Are you sure about this? - Here we go.
Watch your heads.
Wow! l didn't even hear any smashing glass, did you? Not only does it bounce, hopefully Look at that! That's amazing, isn't it? lt's really good.
lt's incredible.
This is actually a silicone-based plastic.
The army are developing this stuff to use in lightweight body armour.
l've noticed something ace about this stuff.
lf you push something into it slowly, it's dead easy, but it changes its consistency according to the force on it.
Watch this.
A hammer just bounces right off.
Have a look at that again in slow motion as Jem hits that with a hammer.
You can actually see it changes consistency.
Watch just where the hammer hits, it turns into a solid.
What is it about this plastic that makes it behave like that? lt's very interesting.
lf you imagine all plastics are long chains of molecules, these molecules have got little cross hairs.
lmagine them a bit like a ladder.
lf you imagine a big pile of twigs, you can imagine pulling a twig out slowly and it'll come out, but if you yank it hard, then it's going to react with all the other twigs and get all tangled up.
So, all of the molecules interlock and jam? - That's exactly what happens.
- That's clever stuff! Talking of clever stuff, do you not want to see if l could climb a building using two vacuum cleaners? - Nah, not really.
- Go on, then.
Let's have a look at this, then.
This is my challenge.
The BBO's White Oity building in west London.
This is it.
Mark three on the pads, exactly the same vacuum unit.
l'm going to try and climb 100 feet of sheer aluminium-faced building.
l'm properly scared.
Physically, it's a big challenge to get this - probably 20 kilos of kit - and me straight up 100 feet.
But l've got to do it.
l can't bottle out in front of these guys, or in fact anybody.
Up l go.
Right, dark clouds coming in, we're gonna have to go.
Ready? Yes.
With 500 people watching, the first few feet seemed just fine.
But soon, my arms began to ache l'd like to say l'm never going to use the stairs again, but the fact is, l think l probably will.
lt's getting a bit tiring.
And the surface is starting to feel a bit slippier.
The main thing l'm worrying about is the rain.
We've got a tiny window in the weather.
l've just got to go now.
Behind the building, the weather was changing fast.
Rain on the aluminium surface would destroy any friction from the gloves.
The clouds are looking really dark.
l'm going to keep going.
lf it starts raining, l'm toast.
Oome on, Jem! lt's not easy getting over these little marks here.
But we're getting there.
As l start getting near the top, l can feel the scum on the building.
lt's getting a tiny bit slippier.
l'm just gonna have to keep pushing on now.
As l climbed, l found another problem.
The building is really slippy here.
Grease, caused by traffic pollution.
Once my heart rate had dropped a bit, l had to battle on.
With the pads slipping and the rain getting ever closer, my strength was failing fast.
He's only about two feet from the top.
Man, that was unbelievably hard.
(OHEERlNG) Thank you.
Really good to be up here.
From down there, it doesn't look possible.
From up here, frankly, it doesn't look possible.
Somewhere in-between, it just seemed to work.
Big up the vacuum gloves.
Wow! Unbelievable.
You're officially a hero, l'm going to sew you up a cape.
- You're an international news event.
- That was as hard as it gets.
Well done you, that was amazing.
Ok, well we say goodbye for now.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Are you sure about this? - Yes, of course l am.
OK, let's do it.
- Alrighty.
How are you? - OK, actually, l felt it but.
.
My go!
l'm standing on the surface of a submarine, 80 metres at the bottom of the sea.
'l'm off to try and save the world from plastic.
' l'm melting! 'And Jem is going to try and climb a building with a pair of vacuum cleaners stuck to his back.
'That's Bang Goes The Theory, putting science to the test.
' Welcome to Bang Goes The Theory.
Tonight, we start with this.
To the untrained eye, an innocent and bog-standard vacuum cleaner.
That's what it was, until Jem got his hands on it.
'l have always been very keen on pushing household appliances to their limits.
'The vacuum cleaner is actually one of the most powerful electrical machines you'll ever touch.
'And at 1 ,500 watts, l don't think that kind of power 'should be restricted to removing crumbs from carpets.
'My hunch is these things produce enough suction 'to turn a man into a Spiderman.
' Even the cheapest vacuum cleaners give a suction force of about a fifth of a vacuum.
lt doesn't sound like much, but that's a suction force of a kilo for every five square centimetres.
The area of a postage stamp.
So On the area of this nozzle, it's a pretty good force, but not much.
But suck all the air out of a sandwich box, and that's a massive force.
Unbelievable! So, l reckon if l suck out an area big enough, l'll be able to hang my own weight off a suction pad and a vacuum cleaner.
Maybe.
'But then, what would l do? Simple.
'Take that concept and turn it into a set of vacuum gloves, 'capable of scaling one of the smoothest buildings in the land.
'The BBO's own White Oity building.
'100 feet of sheer aluminium cladding.
'As with all projects, the first task is to prove the concept works.
lf an area the size of a sandwich box can lift a sheet of ply, l'm hoping this can support my whole weight.
Right Yes! That takes my whole weight.
Totally held by that one board of ply.
The idea is, my thinking, if l make a couple of these a bit neater, that's two vacuum gloves.
Two vacuum gloves, l reckon l can start climbing buildings.
(HE SWlTOHES lT OFF) And when you switch the vacuum off, it comes away pretty quick.
Which means l can release my hands and definitely climb.
'But there's a problem.
' You might think, if a vacuum pad can hold me to the ceiling, it can hold me to a wall, too.
But watch this.
This pad is stuck to the wall in the way that l just can't pull it off, but there's not enough friction to stop it sliding down the wall.
And if l'm going to climb buildings, l'm going to need an awful lot more friction.
'There's one material that might just solve the friction issue.
'Rubber is known for its grip and for keeping things airtight.
'lt should be the key to making my gloves work.
'And after a lot of testing with different types of rubber, 'l eventually produced a seal soft enough to mould to brick, 'but with enough friction to hold me on smooth surfaces, too.
'Now all l had to do was figure out how to turn my single pad 'into a Spiderman-style climbing machine.
'And after just a few more late nights, l had a system that seemed to work.
' Are you seriously going to trust your life to two cheap vacuum cleaners strapped to your back? lt seems ridiculous.
Yeah.
But it is a calculated risk.
This might be the stupidest thing you've ever done.
That's ridiculous.
Possibly.
But my experiments suggest there'll be enough suction and friction to get me up the side of the building.
OK, given that friction is going to play quite a large part in keeping Jem alive for this little stunt, we thought we'd send off Dr Yan to demonstrate just how strong a force it is.
We all take friction for granted.
But used in the right way, it can be a really powerful force.
To prove it, l've bet these two really strong blokes that l can stick these two books together using friction, - and you'll not be able to pull them apart.
- Let's try it.
You take that and hold there, and you take that bit.
Right, go! (LAUGHTER) There's something wrong with these books! lt really is just friction holding them together, honest.
So if l have two pieces of paper and try to pull one over the other, then obviously, it's really easy.
But there is a tiny bit of friction there.
What's happening is that the molecules in one sheet of paper are being attracted ever so slightly to the molecules in another, so it takes a little bit of effort to pull one over the other.
That's only a very small force, but if you know what you're doing, a lot of very small forces can add up to something really strong.
lf l pushed down a bit on the top sheet of paper, then l'm squeezing the two sheets together, so more of the two surfaces are touching each other.
That means there's more friction and it's harder to pull them apart.
So if l take a whole lot of pages and interleave them together like this, then go on, have a go.
Ooh, getting there, maybe.
lt ain't happening.
lt ain't happening, is it? l can see your muscles going.
(LAUGHTER) So, the binding is pushing the pages together just like when l was pushing down on the two sheets of paper.
The harder you pull, the more the pages are pushed together.
No cheating! l don't believe it.
l thought that would've been easy.
That's mad! Yeah? Unbelievable, isn't it? Yeah, it is.
Unbelievable, that is.
Oops! Oops! (LAUGHTER) Next up, the Royal Navy have a new submarine rescue system.
To test it out, they decided to take part in a rescue exercise with the French and Norwegian navies in the Baltic Sea.
- Guess who got to tag along.
- l dunno, Jem? No.
Yan? No.
Me? Right, this is the scenario.
Four days ago, a Norwegian submarine hit an obstruction five miles off the coast of Arendal in Norway.
lnitial reports suggest there are survivors, but there's little chance of escaping in one piece when they're stuck in a submarine at the bottom of the sea.
So their best bet is to sit it out and wait for rescue.
'One of the only vessels capable of making a rescue attempt 'is the Royal Navy's new NSRS rescue sub.
'And this is it.
'lt's the most comprehensive system in the world.
The rescue sub 'and all its auxiliary equipment was scrambled from Scotland 'to a Norwegian coastguard ship within 72 hours of the disaster.
'But it still has to reach the survivors, and time is running out.
' And there it is - the NATO Submarine Rescue System.
The senior pilot is Mr Tom Heron.
Lovely to meet you.
Talk me through what makes this system so special.
She has a lot of technology that we built into her to really do the job of submarine rescue.
And the most important thing it has to do is create a watertight lock with the stricken vessel.
All right, Tom.
This is actually the docking system, right? Yeah.
But it looks fairly simple.
l was expecting lots of locks and bolts and hydraulics, etc.
lt's like this big rubber ring.
lt's a very simple system.
All we do is, we create a hydrostatic differential between the internal and external pressure.
'When the ring docks with the sub, it uses the huge pressures deep under water to create an unbreakable seal.
'And l'm going to put that system to the test - 'descending 80 metres, docking a rubber ring onto the deck of the stricken sub, 'pumping out the water, and then opening the hatch.
' My heart is actually beating quite fast, l have to say.
Ooh, we're wobbling a bit.
We're now hanging over the water.
Seal hatch one, seal hatch two.
Understood.
Roger, understood.
Full power to sub.
Wow! 'As we descend, the pressure on the hull is increasing 'at a linear rate of about 1 .
5lb per square inch, or psi, 'for every metre we go down.
'As the sub goes deeper, 'it's compressed by the external water pressure, 'so maintaining buoyancy is critical.
'lf we get it wrong, we could literally fall through the water.
'But at the moment, we're too light.
' That's the water coming in now.
So we're a little bit more stable.
lt's a little bit nerve-racking, l have to say.
'The pressure is now over '130 psi, which would shrink your lungs 'to almost a tenth of their size at the surface.
'Visibility is practically zero as we finally locate the stricken sub.
' That is amazing.
l just looked at the surface of the sub.
lt's unbelievable.
lt's just the most surreal thing l've ever done.
We're right over the hatch.
This is absolutely incredible.
Be careful.
The eye is directly below the skirt seal.
Once we're down on the hatch we're gonna pump out the water in the skirt, cause the pressure differential, so the pressure outside will be heavier and will push us down onto the sub and we'll be nice and secure.
'Physics says the pressure of the water column 'pushing us down onto the sub should seal the joint, 'allowing us to open the hatches and survive.
'But just one mistake could spell disaster.
'So they're not taking any chances.
' OK, hatch one shut.
'Standard procedure requires that our pilot's hatch is locked, just in case.
' - Unfortunately, we're a little bit sacrificial.
- We'll go first.
The pilots have got to get us back, so it's a precaution.
That's all.
'With that in mind, it's hard to believe what we're about to do - 'open the hatch 80 metres below the surface.
' The seal is good.
'Say again, over.
' The seal is good.
We're secure.
Sea pressure is holding us on now.
We are not going to move.
l'm happy to open the hatch.
'We open the hatch of the stricken sub, and the two are finally connected.
' l can see straight down to the floor of the deck of the submarine on which the hatch is.
'And it's the moment of truth.
' Do not stand on that bracket.
That's not very tight.
OK.
Guess what, l'm standing on the surface of a submarine, 80 metres at the bottom of the sea.
l've got to tell you, the science works, because the skirting' and the rubber is completely seal proof.
And it's the most incredible feeling ever, it's just crazy.
OK, that's it.
Now we just go down.
'Thankfully for our stricken submariners, 'this was only an exercise.
'But there was one little emergency l had to attend to.
' Hi, guys.
How are you? l can't believe it.
80 metres under the sea, seamless rescue operation.
lt's really nice to meet you both.
Would you mind putting me in the direction of the loo? - There.
- Oheers.
Weren't you just a little bit worried of it all going wrong? A little bit, but l just didn't let my head go in that direction while l was down there.
But now we're back Yes? .
.
l think we should go in that direction.
This is like your submarine - a similar shape, very strong plastic.
The air pressure on the inside is the same as that on the outside, so the walls aren't going anywhere.
By removing just some of the air from the inside, l can make the air pressure on the inside lower than on the outside, and you get to see what happens.
And to do that, you're going to use a vacuum cleaner.
- You're fond of them this week.
- lt's just a phase l'm going through.
- Right, here goes.
- OK.
- Whoa! - Wow! That was so quick! That's ridiculous! Well, 100 metres below the surface, there is 100 tonnes of force - on every square metre of that submarine.
- Amazing.
So they make the holes about two inches thick, reinforce them with fat steel ribs, but even with all that steel and all that shape and engineering, l wouldn't go down there.
- l think you're very, very brave.
- Thank you very much, Jem.
OK, up next, it's plastic, probably one of the most important inventions of the past 150 years.
- lt's literally everywhere.
- lt is.
But that's the problem.
Because of the way it's made, plastic sticks around for ages.
OK.
But l'm not giving up on plastic just yet.
To show you what l mean, l'm going to first make myself immortal with the help of a full laser body scan.
And where better to get a full laser body scan than the womenswear section of my local department store? A series of lasers scans every contour of my body.
Now we're going to turn that full body scan into a 3D plastic doll.
This is an amazing machine.
lt's actually a 3D printer which uses a process called laser centring.
Now, if you can imagine me sliced vertically, very thinly, thousands and thousands of times, like this.
This laser bit over here works by sprinkling a plastic powder.
A laser then solidifies within that layer of plastic powder the shape you actually need.
And it builds up the models slice by slice until you get a complete mini-me.
That is incredible.
That's unbelievable.
l mean, if you can look at the detail.
This is actually me, it's brilliant! 'Or so l thought.
' Because no matter how cute mini-me is, there's one big problem.
He's not gonna go away.
Let me explain.
lf l had been swimming in Oornwall last year, l might have seen this bizarre sight.
Hundreds of plastic ducks bobbing about.
You might think they had fallen off a container ship a couple of weeks previously, but you'd be wrong.
Because they actually fell off a container ship 16 years ago out there on the other side of the world in the Pacific.
Since then, they've floated all over the globe.
They fell out here in the middle of the Pacific and a few ended up on the coast of South America and round here.
Even over in Japan, round there.
Some actually got stuck in the Arctic ice and they were carried all round the Arctic in the ice and then gradually made their way down to the Oaribbean and then caught a lift with the North Atlantic Drift and ended up in Oornwall.
So how did these guys survive for so long? lt is because plastic is made up of these chain-like, very, very long molecules which all intermingle.
You imagine something like really long hair that gets a bit matted and tangled and it's very difficult to separate.
That's a bit like the plastic.
The problem is, there is nothing that has evolved that can break these molecules down.
So it all just accumulates, much of it ending up in our oceans.
ln fact, there are over 40,000 bits of plastic per square mile.
This is what water in the Pacific can look like.
A sort of plastic soup.
You can see these big bits, but most of it is microscopic.
But even these bits are gonna break down.
The thing is, they never break down completely, they're always gonna be there.
ln some areas, for every kilogram of plankton, there are 46 kilograms of plastic.
And it's not just a problem for the ocean.
The plastic, sooner or later, gets into the food chain.
Which means into you.
So that's the bad news.
The good news is that scientists at University Oollege Dublin can now make biodegradable plastic.
What's more, they can make it from the waste plastic that is clogging up our world.
Oould your process, you know, dispose of the evil mini-me Dallas plastic? Oh, definitely.
Definitely.
Firstly, you have to paralyse it.
First l have to what it? Paralysis, we should melt it first.
Melting helps break down the crucial long-chain molecules.
l'm melting! What we are trying to do is turn the evil, non-biodegradable mini-me into something more palatable.
And the secret weapon is bacteria.
So this is the recycled mini-me melted plastic in a jar.
This is it.
Goodbye, cruel world.
lt's this bacteria that's going to turn what's left of evil me into nice, green plastic.
And now, the melted plastic is gonna come dropping down there.
l see, so it's just like drip by drip? Just dripping in really slowly? So, these are just bacteria in here, frothing around, having a plastic lunch? They are eating your melted plastic and they'll transform it, inside themselves, into biodegradable plastic.
lt's the little critters in here that might just save the planet.
And the end result is this, 100% biodegradable plastic PHA.
Look at that.
And made out of mini you.
So, that's me, sort of made into this rather fetching table mat.
You could use it as a coaster.
That's Ohristmas sorted! With a bit more processing, we could even turn it into a nice little duck.
Pretty amazing.
Oompostable plastic.
That has got to be a good thing.
l was impressed with that.
lt might change my mind about plastics.
lt's changed my view.
Good.
Well, have a look at this.
They're inventing different kinds of plastic all the time.
What is that? l'm obsessed by this stuff.
lt's really amazing.
Have a look at that.
lt may look and feel just like ordinary plastic, you can see it's almost kind of fluid.
lt does, in fact, have some very special properties, as l'm now going to try and demonstrate.
- What on earth? - lt's good, isn't it? - You could play with it all day.
- Awesome.
Have a look at this.
That's an ordinary old-fashioned light bulb.
The point being, that it's obviously quite fragile because it's made of glass and is very thin.
lf l wrap this round it, like so lt's not very much.
Exactly, that's the key.
l'm going to make this into a ball.
Now, this studio is pretty high.
l'm going to really try and chuck this up here.
- Are you sure about this? - Here we go.
Watch your heads.
Wow! l didn't even hear any smashing glass, did you? Not only does it bounce, hopefully Look at that! That's amazing, isn't it? lt's really good.
lt's incredible.
This is actually a silicone-based plastic.
The army are developing this stuff to use in lightweight body armour.
l've noticed something ace about this stuff.
lf you push something into it slowly, it's dead easy, but it changes its consistency according to the force on it.
Watch this.
A hammer just bounces right off.
Have a look at that again in slow motion as Jem hits that with a hammer.
You can actually see it changes consistency.
Watch just where the hammer hits, it turns into a solid.
What is it about this plastic that makes it behave like that? lt's very interesting.
lf you imagine all plastics are long chains of molecules, these molecules have got little cross hairs.
lmagine them a bit like a ladder.
lf you imagine a big pile of twigs, you can imagine pulling a twig out slowly and it'll come out, but if you yank it hard, then it's going to react with all the other twigs and get all tangled up.
So, all of the molecules interlock and jam? - That's exactly what happens.
- That's clever stuff! Talking of clever stuff, do you not want to see if l could climb a building using two vacuum cleaners? - Nah, not really.
- Go on, then.
Let's have a look at this, then.
This is my challenge.
The BBO's White Oity building in west London.
This is it.
Mark three on the pads, exactly the same vacuum unit.
l'm going to try and climb 100 feet of sheer aluminium-faced building.
l'm properly scared.
Physically, it's a big challenge to get this - probably 20 kilos of kit - and me straight up 100 feet.
But l've got to do it.
l can't bottle out in front of these guys, or in fact anybody.
Up l go.
Right, dark clouds coming in, we're gonna have to go.
Ready? Yes.
With 500 people watching, the first few feet seemed just fine.
But soon, my arms began to ache l'd like to say l'm never going to use the stairs again, but the fact is, l think l probably will.
lt's getting a bit tiring.
And the surface is starting to feel a bit slippier.
The main thing l'm worrying about is the rain.
We've got a tiny window in the weather.
l've just got to go now.
Behind the building, the weather was changing fast.
Rain on the aluminium surface would destroy any friction from the gloves.
The clouds are looking really dark.
l'm going to keep going.
lf it starts raining, l'm toast.
Oome on, Jem! lt's not easy getting over these little marks here.
But we're getting there.
As l start getting near the top, l can feel the scum on the building.
lt's getting a tiny bit slippier.
l'm just gonna have to keep pushing on now.
As l climbed, l found another problem.
The building is really slippy here.
Grease, caused by traffic pollution.
Once my heart rate had dropped a bit, l had to battle on.
With the pads slipping and the rain getting ever closer, my strength was failing fast.
He's only about two feet from the top.
Man, that was unbelievably hard.
(OHEERlNG) Thank you.
Really good to be up here.
From down there, it doesn't look possible.
From up here, frankly, it doesn't look possible.
Somewhere in-between, it just seemed to work.
Big up the vacuum gloves.
Wow! Unbelievable.
You're officially a hero, l'm going to sew you up a cape.
- You're an international news event.
- That was as hard as it gets.
Well done you, that was amazing.
Ok, well we say goodbye for now.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Are you sure about this? - Yes, of course l am.
OK, let's do it.
- Alrighty.
How are you? - OK, actually, l felt it but.
.
My go!