One Strange Rock (2018) s01e09 Episode Script

What do you need
to win a game of chess?
Patience,
clever tactics,
loads of imagination.
You look nervous.
What makes us human
is the squishy triple-pounder
inside our heads.
Check.
It lets us checkmate
our friends,
build skyscrapers,
and lift a special few of us
into space.
Eight astronauts,
with over 1,000 days
in space between them
can tell us how being up there
helped them to truly understand
what goes on down here.
From space
you get the big picture.
You really see
human civilization
spread out below you.
As far as we know,
there's nobody else
like us out there
in the universe.
The only reason
I'm able to comprehend
the incredible complexity
of the Earth
is because I have an incredibly
complex brain inside my head.
We are the only
species on this planet
that can construct
realities in our mind
and then go actually build it.
But for three billion years,
life didn't even have a brain.
The story of how
our mind evolved
on this one strange rock
is one of chance,
coincidence and impossible odds.
I am going to tell you
about the most incredible place.
The weird connections,
the dynamic forces
that created us.
A species with a brain
as complex as yours and mine.
The human brain is unique.
Not just because of its size,
but also its ability.
It can meet challenges that
are dangerous, demanding.
And wonderfully absurd.
In Spain,
thousands come
together every year
to build towers
out of people.
A ten-story human tower
with the youngest kids on top.
Right.
Claudia and Marina,
they're seven.
Humans are like no other
creature on Earth.
We do these things that
might seem pointless,
not because we're stupid;
because we're smart.
And we work as one.
It's that ability to link
our minds together
that put those girls
on top of that tower
and also put men and women
up in space.
One of them is Leland Melvin.
Former NFL player,
mechanical engineer,
and astronaut.
Strong, smart, brave,
and pretty much unstoppable.
But Leland nearly didn't
make it to space.
An accident in his training,
brought his dreams to a halt.
The only way to really
simulate a spacewalk on Earth
is in a pool.
I remember getting in the suit,
putting my gloves on, my boots.
As you're going down
in the spacesuit,
you have to clear your ears.
Ten feet down,
I realized that
the Styrofoam block,
you press your nose against it
to clear your ears,
was missing in my helmet.
I tell the test director, turn
the volume in the headset up.
I was straining to equalize
the pressure.
And then, I immediately hear
nothing but static.
They were pulling me
out of the water.
And now I see the flight surgeon
walking towards me.
He reaches up and
touches my right ear.
He's moving his lips,
but I don't hear
anything he's saying.
And then I can feel the blood
starting to trickle down
on the side of my face.
I'm like, 'Wow, something's
really wrong.'
I was completely deaf.
Somehow the connection
between my brain and my ears
had been severed,
along with my chances
of going to space.
The accident gave me
a profound appreciation
in what we take for granted.
The thing that makes us, us.
Our brain.
The human brain sets us apart
from all other creatures
on this planet.
It might look like
a lump of Jell-O,
but it's the most complex thing
in our universe.
Inside, there's a vast network
with 100 trillion connections.
That's more than the
number of stars
in our own Milky Way.
It hosts our memories.
Our sensations.
Our dreams.
And all this depends on tiny
cells firing electrical signals.
There's 86 billion of them.
We call them neurons.
86 billion.
Wow.
I'm just glad someone
else was counting.
But here's the thing:
most of life on Earth,
does just fine without a brain.
I'm talking about some
of Earth's oldest inhabitants.
Some brainless creatures
are so successful,
you can even see them
from space.
On a bright, sunny
day, I'm looking down,
and for 1,000 miles,
I see an organized
city of coral.
They just glow.
It's just like the most
beautiful art in the world.
This burst of colour.
I'd never seen colours
that vibrant before.
It's kind of amazing
that corals are vast,
motionless structures,
that thrive without a brain.
In the country of the brainless,
the tiny-brained is king.
Meet this little guy.
He's got more in common with us
than you might think.
Inside, he's got neurons, too,
just not as many.
About two hundred.
Kind of a starter kit.
He's a baby sea squirt,
looking for a home.
His neurons do simple stuff,
like detect light
and twitch his tail.
But here's the thing:
once he's found the right rock,
his swimming days are over.
For the rest of his life,
he stays put.
He dumps the tail,
and consumes the neurons
that made it move.
Then, it grows into
a big, old sea squirt.
Takes 'use it or lose it'
to a whole new level.
It's kind of a
freaky thought that,
you know, when neurons
were developed,
they weren't for thinking.
They were for simple motion
or movement.
But one day, neurons like those,
the ones inside our brains,
would help create things like
rocket ships going to space,
cities and music.
Making a tail twitch
to move a yard or two
requires just a few neurons.
However,
the more advanced stuff,
that needs an awful lot more.
Life needs to sense
its surroundings,
otherwise, it's just flailing
around in the dark.
There is nothing more
complex than the human brain.
But the more complicated
something is,
the more ways it can go wrong.
After my training accident,
the doctors couldn't figure out
what was wrong with me.
Everything looked
physically intact,
but they couldn't fix me.
I was completely deaf.
My goal of getting to space
seemed to be thwarted.
But all I could think about
was whether I'd ever hear
music that I played again.
Music has been such
a big part of my life.
And so, when the music
was silent
That's when I just broke down
and started crying.
Leland's ears were fine.
That's not where
the problem was.
Because you don't just
hear with your ears,
you also hear with your brain.
It's the same for
all the senses,
they link our brains
to the outside world.
And over hundreds
of generations,
they evolve to suit that world,
no matter how harsh it is.
Hunters have lived here
for thousands of years.
But to survive,
they borrow the
senses of a creature
that's been here even longer.
The eagle is like
a weaponized telescope.
It can see a fox
up to two miles away.
Out here, that's a crucial tool
in the fight for survival.
But to see like an eagle,
you need more than eagle eyes;
you need an eagle brain.
Eyes deliver masses of data
about the world around us,
and all that lifesaving data
needed something powerful,
to make sense of it.
Simply put,
if you're an animal with eyes,
you're gonna need a bigger brain
than a sea squirt.
Eyes were a real game changer.
But it's not just the eyes.
Creatures had to develop
an array of senses
that are each calibrated to deal
with the ever-changing
environment of Planet Earth.
Not just barren desserts,
but these very dense jungles,
teeming ocean reefs,
and even icy Arctic waste.
The planet's varied landscapes,
played a significant role
in how animals sense.
What goes for them,
goes for us.
The planet shaped
our senses, too.
It's something
you might not notice
unless you leave the planet.
Our senses have evolved
to operate on Planet Earth.
When you're up in space,
the inner ear isn't registering
an up and down.
So, your sense of orientation
only comes from your eyes.
You know that weird feeling
in the pit of your stomach,
when you go over the top
of a roller-coaster?
I was basically in that moment
for an entire day.
We're Earthlings.
That's just who we are.
The evolution of the
senses in the primitive brain
have allowed living creatures,
to interact with our planet
in a way like never before.
But looking at our
planet from space,
you can see it's
not just varied,
it's dynamic.
Sometimes,
the environment changes quickly,
and when that happens,
you have to be just
as fast to adapt.
Like when the sea level
rises without warning,
and now, you're
an island castaway.
Macaques are great
with their hands.
They peel fruit,
climb trees,
and do each other's hair.
But on these islands,
they do something no
other macaques do.
They use rocks as tools
to shuck oysters.
Macaques don't
normally eat them,
but when they were stranded
by the rising sea,
they needed new ways
to get a meal.
They weren't born
with this skill;
a smart monkey
had to work it out.
This is something only
complex brains can do
not just sense and react,
but learn,
adapt and problem solve.
But just because a macaque
can learn to shuck oysters
doesn't mean it's gonna open
a seafood restaurant.
Only a human would make
that mental leap.
So, how come we're so different?
Monkeys were the first
primates in space,
but it wasn't exactly
their idea.
In fact, they were
probably against it.
So, how come we're the apes
with the big ideas?
Well, it's a long story.
A story about something
that may not exist
anywhere else
in the solar system,
maybe the universe.
Fire.
The Himba people,
have kept this same fire burning
for generations.
As far as we know,
this planet is the only one
with the right conditions
for fire to burn.
But there's one thing
that fire gives us
above all else.
But cooking food,
does something that's
way more important,
than just making it tasty.
Woo! We got fire,
are we ready for food?
We as humans have these
power-hungry brains.
A big chunk of our body's energy
has to be used
to keep them running.
Turn, baby, turn.
By cooking, we're actually
breaking down
the cell walls of the food
that releases so many more
nutrients and calories,
to help fuel our big brains.
One of the key moments
in the history of our species
was when our ancestors
harnessed fire.
Alright, get your plates.
The theory goes,
cooking let us get more energy
out of every bite of food.
So we spent less time
feeding our brain
and more time using it.
Try going a day
that isn't touched by fire.
You couldn't imagine
life without it.
But a brain that
could harness fire
may not have evolved
in the first place
if it wasn't for
a force so powerful,
it made the highest
mountains on Earth.
The fossils tell us
that these mountains,
once at the bottom of the sea,
were forced high into the sky.
When you're in orbit,
as you come over
the Himalaya Mountains,
you almost feel like
you need to fire
the thrusters a little bit.
You can tell where
that subcontinent
just jammed into
the Asian continent
and thrust those mountains up.
This collision
between the smooth flatness
of India and these rugged,
crumpled mountains,
it's like watching a super
slow-motion train wreck.
The further you get away,
you can kind of see
these overarching themes
to the way our planet is formed.
It was forces like these
that would transform
one particular corner
of our rock
into the cradle of humanity.
The Great Rift Valley
in East Africa
was once a lush green forest,
a paradise for apes.
But the Earth's crust shifted,
mountains rose,
and the climate changed,
making it a much
tougher place to live.
It's hard to really
know exactly,
how our ancestors,
adapted, over millions of years.
The changes may have pushed apes
to do things
like innovate the tools.
Or walk on two legs.
And even harness fire.
Whatever it was,
we came out the other
side as early humans,
with bigger brains.
We took off across the planet,
and there was one
uniquely human skill,
we brought with us.
Here I am, talking to you,
and some of you
are even listening.
What you're hearing,
is probably the
most powerful tool
we've ever mastered.
So, how do you get a brain
that can tell a damn good story?
We speak.
We link signs and sounds
to thoughts and things,
in countless ways, creating
almost infinite meanings.
That takes a lot of brain power.
Moving to
Hong Kong has been amazing.
I'm originally from Japan,
but I've lived in Hong Kong
for six years now.
But it has its challenges.
Even just buying dinner
can get complicated.
A lot of us foreigners
try to learn Chinese,
but it's not always easy.
One word can actually
have many meanings,
depending on the tone you use.
For example, if I say xiao,
it means burn,
or xiao,
it means little,
or xiao,
it means laugh.
Use the wrong tone,
you could be in big trouble.
It's only us human beings
that have developed
complex language.
Unlike many other languages,
Chinese uses the musical areas
of the brain
to extract meaning
from all those tones.
And that takes a lot
of processing power.
But the really big question is
why we have any language at all.
It's partly due to
the size of our big brains.
But there could be
another factor at play.
One theory is that it was
something really tiny.
There's a version of a gene,
called FOXP2,
that only us humans have.
Take it away,
and you'll struggle to talk.
No one knows how we've
got this mutation.
But we do know
it gave us more precise control
over our mouth and
our tongue muscles.
And that let us make
more sophisticated sounds,
helping us turn
thoughts into words.
Small genetic twists turned us
from a bunch of folks who grunt
to a species that can tell
xiao from xiao,
from xiao.
Sharing ideas,
communicating them,
lets us do things that alone
would be impossible.
Something pioneers
know full well.
Okay, let's do it.
I'm getting all kinds
I've wiped it off,
but I have all kinds
of salt on me.
My shield got covered in salt.
Turn the water pump off.
We're here in Bolivia
trying to break the motorcycle
world land speed record.
We probably don't have
a better opportunity
than we have right now
to see just how fast
this bike will go.
This is a huge team effort.
We communicate a lot,
the team and I.
Communication is
a huge advantage.
It takes so many people
to come up with a machine
of this calibre.
You have all these people doing
all this stuff for you,
but once that canopy closes
You ready?
You're all alone.
Forty five, hit it, Rocky!
Full speed, 333.9.
Roger, six.
Whoa, whoa, whoa!
There's something wrong
with the motor.
He's coming
to a he's slowing down.
Everything okay down there?
Seems okay.
It is going really strong,
and it's, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Main off?
-Yeah.
-Okay.
Got up to right around
378 miles an hour,
and then the turbo coupler
came off.
It's frustrating.
It's a huge team effort,
and, you know, we're all
trying to reach our goal.
Probably 95% of the time,
there is something going wrong.
That's why records last so long.
Everything about
land speed racing
is learning what's new
and how to improve things.
We learn a lot,
and I think we can
put that to good use
in the future.
I'm with Rocky on this.
You get knocked down,
you get back up again.
Communicating helps you face
failure without fear.
But our brains adapt.
So if we lose the ability
to communicate,
our brain might find
a work-around.
It's flexible.
Talk to Leland about it.
During the time of recovery
from my hearing accident,
there was a point when
I could feel my brain,
rewiring itself, to hear again.
The brain over time,
can make adjustments
to compensate,
for losses or changes.
And I think that's
what happened to me.
My hearing started coming back
about three weeks
after my accident.
But it took two more years,
for me to recover properly.
Then finally,
the chief medical
officer for NASA
pulled out a piece of paper
that said, 'You are now cleared
to fly in space.'
That was one of the most
incredible days of my life.
I never took my brain
for granted again.
With that flexible brain,
we learn, adapt,
and problem solve.
Our brains give us language,
allowing us to share
those lessons with others.
And writing,
lets us pass on that
knowledge through time.
All that human brain power,
all that knowledge
through written textbooks,
through calculations,
through mathematics.
That just led
to a huge explosion
in the development
of civilization.
We can get a lot smarter,
because we can learn a lot more
from the previous generations.
Humanity is linked
together by a network of minds
that spans time and space.
And that's helped us create
things of dazzling complexity.
The most complex one
we've ever made,
is floating above us.
Ignition sequence start.
Five, four, three, two, one.
You're lifting off
of the planet.
Feeling 3 g's on your chest
as you're being propelled
to the cosmos.
It is one heck of a ride.
After losing
the sense of hearing,
it took so many years for me
to get to the launchpad,
but it just took a few minutes
to get to orbit.
Good morning, Houston.
We got to space,
I saw the planet.
It just blows your mind.
This burst of colour.
I've never seen colours
that vibrant before.
And I almost had to, like,
smack myself to
get back to work.
If you could get the other end
the expedition four crew,
that we have them in sight.
And then I saw this
little dot out on the horizon.
And we get closer
and closer and closer.
The first time I saw the
space station flying overhead,
I never knew how complex
a vehicle it was.
You know, you could see
the intricate design
and these modules,
all these things
that were envisioned
by the human brain.
So, you know,
when you approach it,
it's just so beautiful.
It's an amazing, amazing
engineering marvel.
There's no question
that the space station
is the greatest international
scientific project
that's ever been undertaken.
It's like, wow,
this thing is awesome.
And I'm gonna get
to live on that thing
for four or five months.
Coming in now
and carrying the camera,
mission specialist
Leland Melvin.
How you doing?
Bull in a china shop, man.
Climbing this hill to space
was one of the hardest things
I've ever done.
I never imagined myself
going deaf,
I never imagined coming back
and getting this opportunity
after that accident.
And it's really a similar story
for all of humankind.
Everything we've achieved
as a species
is the product of
a lucky chain of accidents.
To get here,
we needed a planet to
congeal out of dust.
In the right place
for life to form,
and mould our world,
allowing us to breathe,
and grow complex.
We needed to be shielded
from our sun,
gifted with a moon,
and granted seasons.
We needed just enough
bombardments
and near-annihilations
to let life meander through
its twists and turns
and evolve a species
with a brain as complex
as yours and mine.
When I was on the space station,
looking back at the planet,
it gave me
a profound appreciation
in what we take for granted.
Humans are a wonderful,
extraordinary oddity.
Good job, man, great game.
With this blob of Jell-O,
these 86 billion neurons,
we've left the planet
and looked far, far out
into the universe,
trying to unravel the mysteries
of the cosmos.
But no matter
how far out we look,
the most far-out thing
we've ever found
is right between our ears.
Next time
What does it feel like when
you finally come back to Earth?
Is there really
no place like home?