Stargate SG-1: True Science Page #2

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because scientists suggest

that some parasites can actually

make us humans do stuff we can't control.

For example, the pig tapeworm that human

beings get from eating uncooked pork,

those worms form cysts in various parts

of the body, including the brain,

and as a result

we have all kinds

of behavioural changes, dizziness, lethargy,

sometimes a loss of vision,

so this is another case in which

our behaviour is altered by a parasite.

So if tapeworms can change our behaviour

and make us dizzy and tired,

is it possible that an alien parasite like

the Goa'uld could control our minds completely?

The evolutionary rules say that

there has to be a reason for it,

so maybe infection with a certain kind of

tapeworm might make us become evil or criminal.

If there's a reason that has to do with...

reproductive success, then sure, why not?

Scared yet?

You should be,

because as it turns out, Professor Janovy believes

we might not be the dominant creatures on Earth.

It's the parasites.

They infect everything, they are more diverse,

they are successful in occupying environments

that we would consider not necessarily places to live.

In some cases they control populations.

It's the most successful way of life on Earth.

Does she please you my love?

This Stargate forms the battleground

in our struggle between the powers of good

and the powers of evil.

On our side at Stargate Command,

helping us are various aliens like the Asgard,

the Tok'Ra, and humans all around the galaxy.

Against us are the terrifying parasites the Goa'uld,

and the unstoppable and insatiable Replicators.

At first, we at the SGC fought

them with our low-tech Earth guns,

but pretty soon, we discovered these.

This is a staff weapon,

and this is a zat gun.

One blast and your enemy is stunned,

two and they die.

Now you may think this is pure science fiction,

but it turns out that the truth is much more strange.

What you're seeing here is the taser.

It's a hand-held gun that brings criminals

to their knees by blasting them with a fierce

jolt of fifty thousand volts of electricity.

The amazing thing is that the taser can knock down

a suspect without killing or even harming them.

But the US government are secretly

developing something far more powerful.

It's called the Active Denial System.

This classified new weapon works

by emitting a beam of microwaves,

like the ones you get in your microwave oven

but much more concentrated.

It is, so the experts say, a perfect ray gun.

So with ray gun weapons

that stun already in development,

are guns that can actually disintegrate

a person too far-fetched?

In order to vaporise you, I'd have to heat

you up to about a hundred million degrees,

and the energy required to do that is immense,

just literally immense,

so it's hard to imagine in a hand-held device

that you'd be able to do those sorts of things.

Directed energy weapons can be useful

in certain contexts, they can burn things,

they can destroy electronics,

they can blind people, that sort of thing.

After the break,

I'll be showing you more of the Stargate set,

and we'll come face to face with one of the most fierce

and terrifying of all of mankind's adversaries,

and finding out whether their

Earth-based relatives should be loved,

or feared.

The time has come to meet the Replicators.

Not that I wanna show off or anything,

but "Stargate" is currently one of the

longest-running science fiction series in the world,

watched by nearly twenty million

people in over eighty countries.

Not bad, eh?

It's amazing that people enjoy the show,

because really the heroes of the show ar

a bunch of screw-ups who are always causing,

you know,

horrible problems for themselves and everyone else.

I guess it's the fact that they occasionally

make up for it or get out of those problems

that keep people coming back.

The series is shot in over nine

sound stages in Vancouver, Canada.

The show employs a crew and cast

numbering more than five hundred,

and its punishing schedule turns out

one episode every seven days.

That's pretty fast, but you wouldn't

know it by the atmosphere here on set.

As you see, we don't take ourselves very seriously and

there's none of that... you know,

TV star attitude.

It won't be tolerated at all.

If you've got a joke, action has to wait,

you know,

and so it's always about laughter first.

At the heart of all the adventures

Samantha Carter and SG-1 get involved in,

and what makes this show particularly unique

is this,

the Stargate itself.

It's an amazing device inscribed with unusual symbols.

It looks beautiful, but what makes it truly amazing

is that it's a gateway through time and space.

"Stargate" imagines that there

are thousands, if not more, devices,

ring-shaped devices not unlike

the one behind me all over the galaxy

by which you can travel from planet

to planet simply by stepping through it

and it takes you instantaneously

from one planet to another.

In fact,

I think the Stargate is one of the reasons

the show's been running for so long,

it's because the Stargate itself is

a terrific device for storytelling.

And the fact of the matter is,

this is a, you know, it's a great prop.

I mean, it's a doorway, because essentially it's,

every week, it's "Where are we gonna go?"

You know, it's like getting into

a rollercoaster with your best friends,

and you wanna take that ride this week.

In the series, this Stargate is one

of thousands throughout the galaxy

created by a mysterious

and powerful ancient civilisation.

You can cross limitless space in the blink o an eye

just by going through one Gate and out of another.

It really is instant interplanetary travel.

So how does it work?

As Samantha Carter is always trying

to explain to the usually clueless Jack O'Neill,

a Stargate works by creating an artificial

wormhole through the space time continuum.

That's a tunnel in time and space through which we can

travel, covering huge distances in just a short moment.

So is this a flight of fantasy,

or a genuine piece of contemporary science?

Well, the truth may shock you.

Lawrence Krauss is a professor of physics and astronomy

and leading expert on Einstein's theory of relativity.

Some of the implications of Einstein's

famous theory are truly mind-blowing.

One of them is that empty space can bend.

Now, I know that's a really hard idea

to get your head around, but it's true.

Emptiness can be made to curve.

You see, Einstein told us

that mass or energy curve space.

And if I take this bowling ball here,

in this two-dimensional universe

you can see that when I put it down,

it literally curves the space around us,

and that allows all sorts

of interesting things to happen.

So let's get this straight:

Einstein's theory says that something really big,

something with a lot of gravity

like a star or a giant planet,

can literally bend space,

and if it's big enough,

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