Mysteries of the Unseen World

For those who

stretch their imaginations,

who envision a future

where technology

serves the greater good...

their mission is our mission.

At Lockheed Martin,

we never forget

who we're working for.

Looks like an ordinary city.

We know what we'll see

on these streets, inside these walls.

Or so we think.

The people living

in this apartment building

are surrounded by things

they can't see.

All of us are.

Everywhere.

Things too slow

for our eyes to detect...

or too fast to follow.

By things that can be seen

only through light waves

invisible to us.

Bye, Mom.

Have fun.

A day in their lives

would look a lot different

if they could see all

the light waves around them.

Or see other worlds around us

that are too small...

microscopic...

or smaller yet...

down to the heart

of matter itself.

Imagine if, for one day,

we could see what they can't-

all that's too slow,

too fast, too small...

Or simply invisible.

It would forever

change our understanding

of the planet we live on.

On this day, we'll see beyond

the limits of human vision.

Normally, we see light waves

that bounce off objects.

They beam into our eyes...

and onto our retina

at the back of our eye,

where an upside-down

and backward image appears.

It's turned into electrical impulses

that race to the brain...

which allows us to see

what we need to survive.

But there's a lot we miss.

We only see the rainbow

of light waves called visible light.

But that's just a fraction

of the millions of wavelengths

in the vast

electromagnetic spectrum.

Some of this invisible light

has waves longer

than the rainbow's,

such as infrared...

microwaves...

and radio waves.

Others are shorter,

including ultraviolet...

X- rays...

and gamma.

These waves radiate

from the sun...

space...

From everything around us.

On the rooftop,

there are creatures

that can see

other light waves.

A bee can view the world

through ultraviolet light.

It can see UV markings

on flowers

that guide bees

and other pollinators

right to their pollen.

All of this

is invisible to you.

You just see a bee

feeding on nectar.

Even a mosquito

has an advantage over you.

Through infrared vision,

it can see the heat patterns

on your body.

Warmer spots means more blood

near the surface.

We have cameras

that can see like a mosquito...

revealing what's hot...

and what's not.

The brighter something looks,

the hotter it is.

Some wavelengths can pass

right through objects.

Wonder what's going on inside

the apartment building?

Gamma rays can show you.

With X-ray vision, you could see

an egg hidden within a quail...

the mechanics

of an animal in motion...

and what's going on inside

anyone's body.

Radio waves can also

pass through us.

An MRI can use them,

along with magnetic energy,

to show your heart beating.

The more invisible light waves

we can see,

the more secrets we uncover

about the world around us.

But that's only the beginning.

Some things happen

too slowly for our eyes.

In the 1930s,

an amateur scientist in Chicago

wanted to see how flowers move.

John Nash Ott had the idea

of shooting a single frame of film

at regular intervals...

15 minutes apart.

By projecting the pictures

at the normal speed of movies-

24 frames per second-

Ott saw that flowers move dramatically

as they react to light.

He also had some fun.

We call it

"time-lapse photography,"

and through it,

we discover movement

Where our eyes see none.

We can see how organisms

emerge and grow.

How a vine survives by creeping

from the forest floor

to reach the sunlight.

A passion-flower vine

tosses its tendrils

like a grappling hook,

wrenches itself up,

and throws open

its sun-catching blossom.

We can see

living things decompose...

providing resources that allow

new life to flourish.

Dead matter can be food

for slime molds,

among the simplest life-forms.

Time-lapse shows that they

are constantly on the move.

One slime mold

is astonishingly complex.

When individual cells

run out of food,

they group together

and form stalks

with spores at the top.

The spores can be picked up

by the wind or passersby

and carried to a place

with more food.

Good boy.

On a grander scale,

time-lapse allows us

to see our planet in motion.

We can view not only

the vast sweep of nature...

but the restless movement

of humanity.

Each streaking dot

represents a passenger plane.

By turning air traffic data

into time-lapse imagery,

we can see something

that's above us constantly...

but invisible-

the vast network of air travel

over the United States.

We can do the same thing

with ships at sea-

turn data into a time-lapse view.

Decades of data give us

a view of our entire planet

as a single organism,

sustained by currents

circulating through the sea...

by moisture and warmth,

swirling through the atmosphere,

pulsing with lightning,

adorned by the Aurora Borealis.

It may be the ultimate

time-lapse image-

the anatomy of Earth,

brought to life.

At the other extreme of time,

there are things that happen

too fast for our eyes.

But we have technology

to see that world, too.

Introducing Dr. Harold E. Edgerton

of the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology.

His stroboscope light,

my friends, is really something,

and it's put the 'super'

in super-speed photography.

While normally film runs

through the average movie camera

at 90 feet a minute,

Edgerton's flicker box

can handle 125 feet a second.

In normal speed movies,

a bullet shot from the muzzle

of a high-powered air gun

is invisible.

Now Edgerton really

photographs a bullet in flight.

Watch it come in from the left-.

Here, fascinating patterns

of movement.

And when you recall that

all the action of this bulb smashing

actually took place

in the fraction of a second,

you realize that here is speed

in movie photography, indeed!

High-speed cameras

do the opposite of time-lapse.

They shoot images thousands,

or even millions of times

faster than our vision.

When played back

at 24 images per second...

they show us remarkable

things we normally miss.

When you see drops

hit the water,

here's what you don't see.

Every drop bounces like a ball.

Held together

by surface tension,

it continues to get smaller

and smaller.

This happens every time

a raindrop hits a puddle.

A hundred times every second,

lightning strikes

somewhere on Earth.

Little was known about lightning

till high-speed cameras turned

the research upside down.

Literally.

What our eyes see

is energy flowing downward

from the clouds.

Now we can see

that electricity also moves

upward from the ground.

If we can see lightning bolts...

We can see almost anything

that's lightning-fast.

When a dragonfly flutters by,

you may not realize

it's the greatest flyer in nature.

It can hover...

fly backwards...

and even upside down.

No one knew the secret.

But high speed shows

that a dragonfly can move

all four wings

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