Why are sloths so slow?

Fu Manchu was one of the most
notorious escape artists

at the Omaha Zoo in the 1960s.

But he wasn't a performer,

he was an orangutan.

The keepers who locked
his enclosure every night

were baffled to find him outside
the next day

hanging out with friends in a tree,

or sunning on the roof.

Only after installing cameras
did they realize

Fu Manchu had been picking the lock

with a metal wire that he kept hidden
under his cheek pouch.

The keepers shouldn't have been
surprised at Fu Manchu's cunningness.

Along with our other great ape cousins,

the gorillas,

chimps,

and bonobos,

they belong to our Hominidae
family tree,

which stretches back 14 million years.

But it's not just their striking red hair

that makes orangutans unique
among our cousins.

As the only great apes from Asia,

orangutans have adapted to a life
high in the rain forest canopies.

Many of the skills they learn
are transmitted through the special bond

they have with their mothers,

the most extended in the animal kingdom
next to humans.

Orangutan mothers usually give birth
to one baby at a time,

waiting up to eight years before
having another.

This gives the young,

who begin as fully dependent infants,

plenty of time to learn how to climb

and distinguish the hundreds of plants
and fruits that make up their diet.

Female orangutans even stay with
their mothers into their teen years

to learn child-rearing.

As they grow up, orangutans also develop
a complex set of cooperative social skills

by interacting with their peers
and siblings.

Much like ourselves,

young orangutans involuntarily mimic
the facial expressions

and emotions of their playmates,

with behaviors that closely parallel
human smiling and laughter.

Once they finally venture out
on their own,

orangutans continue to develop
their resourcefulness,

putting the skills they've learned
into practice.

Adults build a new nest each night
by carefully weaving twigs together,

topping them with soft leaves,
pillows, and blankets.

This process requires dexterity,
coordination, and an eye for design.

Orangutans also use a variety of tools
to make their lives in the jungle easier.

They turn branches into fly swatters
and back scratchers,

construct umbrellas when it rains,

make gloves from leafy pads,

and even use leaves as bandages
to dress their wounds.

But orangutan intelligence goes far
beyond jungle survival.

Research in controlled environments
has shown that orangutans are self-aware,

being one of the few species to recognize
their own reflections.

They also display remarkable foresight,
planning, and cognition.

In one experiment, researchers taught
an orangutan to use a straw

to extract his favorite fruit soup
from a box.

That orangutan was later given the choice
between the straw

or a grape that could be
eaten right away,

and he chose the straw just in case
he was given another box of soup.

In another experiment, orangutans figured
out how to reach peanuts

at the bottom of long tubes
by spitting water into them.

While orangutans are able to pass
cognitive tests with flying colors,

there are certain problems that they
need our help to solve.

Indonesia has the world's highest rate
of deforestation,

and millions of acres of rain forest
are burned annually

to support the logging
and palm oil industries.

Deforestation exposes the 30,000
orangutans remaining in the wild

to poachers.

They kill mothers so that baby orangutans
can be sold as exotic pets.

But fortunately, the story often
doesn't end here.

Orphans can be confiscated
and given a second chance.

At special forest schools, they recover
from emotional trauma

and continue to develop
essential life skills.

Against all odds, these orphans
demonstrate incredible resilience

and readiness to learn.

In Malay, the word orangutan translates
literally to "the person of the forest,"

a reminder of our common lineage.

And despite orangutans being some
of the smartest animals on Earth,

outsmarting their extinction requires
the creativity, empathy, and foresight

that our species share.

How smart are orangutans?

Fu Manchu was one of the most
notorious escape artists

at the Omaha Zoo in the 1960s.

But he wasn't a performer,

he was an orangutan.

The keepers who locked
his enclosure every night

were baffled to find him outside
the next day

hanging out with friends in a tree,

or sunning on the roof.

Only after installing cameras
did they realize

Fu Manchu had been picking the lock

with a metal wire that he kept hidden
under his cheek pouch.

The keepers shouldn't have been
surprised at Fu Manchu's cunningness.

Along with our other great ape cousins,

the gorillas,

chimps,

and bonobos,

they belong to our Hominidae
family tree,

which stretches back 14 million years.

But it's not just their striking red hair

that makes orangutans unique
among our cousins.

As the only great apes from Asia,

orangutans have adapted to a life
high in the rain forest canopies.

Many of the skills they learn
are transmitted through the special bond

they have with their mothers,

the most extended in the animal kingdom
next to humans.

Orangutan mothers usually give birth
to one baby at a time,

waiting up to eight years before
having another.

This gives the young,

who begin as fully dependent infants,

plenty of time to learn how to climb

and distinguish the hundreds of plants
and fruits that make up their diet.

Female orangutans even stay with
their mothers into their teen years

to learn child-rearing.

As they grow up, orangutans also develop
a complex set of cooperative social skills

by interacting with their peers
and siblings.

Much like ourselves,

young orangutans involuntarily mimic
the facial expressions

and emotions of their playmates,

with behaviors that closely parallel
human smiling and laughter.

Once they finally venture out
on their own,

orangutans continue to develop
their resourcefulness,

putting the skills they've learned
into practice.

Adults build a new nest each night
by carefully weaving twigs together,

topping them with soft leaves,
pillows, and blankets.

This process requires dexterity,
coordination, and an eye for design.

Orangutans also use a variety of tools
to make their lives in the jungle easier.

They turn branches into fly swatters
and back scratchers,

construct umbrellas when it rains,

make gloves from leafy pads,

and even use leaves as bandages
to dress their wounds.

But orangutan intelligence goes far
beyond jungle survival.

Research in controlled environments
has shown that orangutans are self-aware,

being one of the few species to recognize
their own reflections.

They also display remarkable foresight,
planning, and cognition.

In one experiment, researchers taught
an orangutan to use a straw

to extract his favorite fruit soup
from a box.

That orangutan was later given the choice
between the straw

or a grape that could be
eaten right away,

and he chose the straw just in case
he was given another box of soup.

In another experiment, orangutans figured
out how to reach peanuts

at the bottom of long tubes
by spitting water into them.

While orangutans are able to pass
cognitive tests with flying colors,

there are certain problems that they
need our help to solve.

Indonesia has the world's highest rate
of deforestation,

and millions of acres of rain forest
are burned annually

to support the logging
and palm oil industries.

Deforestation exposes the 30,000
orangutans remaining in the wild

to poachers.

They kill mothers so that baby orangutans
can be sold as exotic pets.

But fortunately, the story often
doesn't end here.

Orphans can be confiscated
and given a second chance.

At special forest schools, they recover
from emotional trauma

and continue to develop
essential life skills.

Against all odds, these orphans
demonstrate incredible resilience

and readiness to learn.

In Malay, the word orangutan translates
literally to "the person of the forest,"

a reminder of our common lineage.

And despite orangutans being some
of the smartest animals on Earth,

outsmarting their extinction requires
the creativity, empathy, and foresight

that our species share.

Why elephants never forget

It's a common saying
that elephants never forget,

but these magnificent animals are more
than giant walking hard drives.

The more we learn about elephants,

the more it appears
that their impressive memory

is only one aspect
of an incredible intelligence

that makes them
some of the most social, creative,

and benevolent creatures on Earth.

Unlike many proverbs,
the one about elephant memory

is scientifically accurate.

Elephants know every member
in their herd,

able to recognize as many as 30
companions by sight or smell.

This is a great help when migrating

or encountering
other potentially hostile elephants.

They also remember and distinguish
particular cues that signal danger

and can recall important locations long
after their last visit.

But it's the memories unrelated
to survival that are the most fascinating.

Elephants remember
not only their herd companions

but other creatures who have made
a strong impression on them.

In one case, two circus elephants
that had briefly performed together

rejoiced when crossing paths
23 years later.

This recognition isn't limited to others
of their species.

Elephants have also recognized humans
they've bonded with after decades apart.

All of this shows that elephant memory
goes beyond responses to stimuli.

Looking inside their heads,
we can see why.

The elephant boasts the largest brain
of any land mammal,

as well as an impressive
encephalization quotient.

This is the size of the brain
relative to what we'd expect

for an animal's body size,

and the elephant's EQ is nearly as high
as a chimpanzee's.

And despite the distant relation,

convergent evolution has made it
remarkably similar to the human brain,

with as many neurons and synapses

and a highly developed hippocampus
and cerebral cortex.

It is the hippocampus, strongly associated
with emotion, that aids recollection

by encoding important experiences
into long-term memories.

The ability to distinguish this importance
makes elephant memory

a complex and adaptable faculty
beyond rote memorization.

It's what allows elephants who survived
a drought in their youth

to recognize its warning signs
in adulthood,

which is why clans with older matriarchs
have higher survival rates.

Unfortunately, it's also what makes
elephants one of the few non-human animals

to suffer from post-traumatic
stress disorder.

The cerebral cortex, on the other hand,
enables problem solving,

which elephants display
in many creative ways.

They also tackle problems cooperatively,

sometimes even outwitting the researchers
and manipulating their partners.

And they've grasped basic arithmetic,
keeping track of the relative amounts

of fruit in two baskets
after multiple changes.

The rare combination of memory
and problem solving

can explain some of elephants'
most clever behaviors,

but it doesn't explain some of the things
we're just beginning to learn

about their mental lives.

Elephants communicate using everything
from body signals and vocalizations,

to infrasound rumbles that can be heard
kilometers away.

And their understanding of syntax suggests that
they have their own language and grammar.

This sense of language may even go beyond
simple communication.

Elephants create art by carefully
choosing and combining

different colors and elements.

They can also recognize twelve distinct
tones of music and recreate melodies.

And yes, there is an elephant band.

But perhaps the most amazing thing
about elephants

is a capacity even more important
than cleverness:

their sense of empathy,
altruism, and justice.

Elephants are the only non-human animals
to mourn their dead,

performing burial rituals
and returning to visit graves.

They have shown concern
for other species, as well.

One working elephant refused
to set a log down into a hole

where a dog was sleeping,

while elephants encountering injured
humans have sometimes stood guard

and gently comforted them
with their trunk.

On the other hand, elephant attacks
on human villages

have usually occurred right after
massive poachings or cullings,

suggesting deliberate revenge.

When we consider all this evidence,

along with the fact that elephants
are one of the few species

who can recognize themselves in a mirror,

it's hard to escape the conclusion

that they are conscious,
intelligent, and emotional beings.

Unfortunately, humanity's treatment
of elephants does not reflect this,

as they continue to suffer
from habitat destruction in Asia,

ivory poaching in Africa,
and mistreatment in captivity worldwide.

Given what we now know about elephants

and what they continue to teach us
about animal intelligence,

it is more important than ever to ensure

that what the English poet John Donne
described as "nature's great masterpiece"

does not vanish from the world's canvas.

Why isn’t the Netherlands underwater?

In January of 1953, a tidal surge
shook the North Sea.

The titanic waves flooded
the Dutch coastline,

killing almost 2,000 people.

54 years later, a similar storm
threatened the region.

But this time, the Netherlands
were ready.

As the water swelled,

state-of-the-art computer sensors
activated emergency protocols.

Over the next 30 minutes,

a pair of 240-meter steel arms
swung shut,

protecting the channel ahead.

Using 680-tonne ball joints,

the barrier moved in rhythm
with the shifting wind and waves.

By morning, the storm had passed
with minimal flooding.

The first field activation
of the Maeslantkering

had been a resounding success.

As one of the planet’s largest mobile
structures,

this storm surge barrier
is a marvel of human engineering.

But the Maeslantkering is just one part
of a massive,

interlocking system of water controls
known as the Delta Works—

the most sophisticated flood prevention
project in the world.

The Netherlands has a long history
with water management.

The country lies along the delta
of three major European rivers,

and nearly a quarter of its territory
is below sea level.

This geography makes the region
extremely prone to flooding.

So much so, that some of the earliest
Dutch governing bodies

were informal “water boards” that
coordinated flood protection projects.

But after the storms of 1953, the Dutch
government took more official measures.

They established the Delta Commission,

and tasked them with protecting
the entire southwestern region.

Focusing on densely populated cities,

their aim was to reduce the annual odds
of flooding below 1 in 10,000—

about 100 times as safe
as the average coastal city.

Accomplishing this lofty goal required
various infrastructure projects

along the southwestern coast.

The first line of defense was to dam
the region’s flood-prone estuaries.

These large inlets fed many of
the country’s rivers into the North Sea,

and during storms they allowed
flood water to surge inland.

Using a series of dams, the Delta
Commission transformed these estuaries

into expansive lakes that serve
as nature preserves and community parks.

However, this solution wouldn’t work
for the Nieuwe Waterweg.

As the lifeblood of the local shipping
industry,

this passage had to be kept open
in safe conditions,

and barricaded during storm surges.

In 1998, the completed Maeslantkering

provided the flexible
protection necessary.

Alongside additional barriers,
like grassy dikes and concrete seawalls,

these fortifications made up the bulk
of the Delta Works project,

which was primarily focused on
holding back ocean storms.

But in the following decades,
the Dutch pursued additional plans

to complement the Delta Works
and protect against floods further inland.

Under the "Room for the River" plan,

farms and dikes were relocated
away from the shore.

This left more space for water
to collect in low-lying floodplains,

creating reservoirs and habitats
for local wildlife.

This strategic retreat not only
decreased flood risk,

but allowed for the redeveloped
settlements

to be built more densely and sustainably.

Perhaps no city embodies the Netherlands'
multi-pronged approach to water management

as much as Rotterdam, a thriving city
almost entirely below sea level.

When a storm threatens,

densely populated older districts
are protected by traditional dikes.

Meanwhile, newer districts
have been artificially elevated,

often sporting green roofs
that store rainwater.

Numerous structures around the city
transform into water storage facilities,

including parking garages and plazas

which normally serve as theaters
and sports arenas.

Meanwhile in the harbor, floating
pavilions rise with the water level.

These are the first of several planned
amphibious structures,

some of which house water purification
systems and solar collectors.

These strategies are just some
of the technologies and policies

that have put the Netherlands
at the cutting edge of water management.

The country continues to find new ways
to make cities more resilient

to natural disasters.

And as the rising sea levels
caused by climate change

threaten low-lying cities
across the world,

the Netherlands offers an exceptional
example of how to go with the flow.

How the world's longest underwater tunnel was built

Flanked by two powerful European nations,
the English Channel

has long been one of the world’s
most important maritime passages.

Yet for most of its history,

the channel’s rocky shores
and stormy weather

made crossing a dangerous prospect.

Engineers of the early 1800's
proposed numerous plans

for spanning the 33 kilometer gap.

Their designs included artificial islands
linked by bridges,

submerged tubes suspended
from floating platforms,

and an underwater passage more than twice
the length of any existing tunnel.

By the end of the century,

this last proposal had captured
European imagination.

The invention
of the tunnel boring machine

and the discovery of a stable layer
of chalk marl below the seabed

made this fantastic tunnel
more feasible.

But the project’s most urgent obstacles
were ones no engineer could solve.

At the time,

Britons viewed their geographic isolation
as a strategic advantage,

and fears about French invasion
shut down plans for the tunnel.

The rise of aerial warfare rendered
these worries obsolete,

but new economic concerns
arose to replace them.

Finally, 100 years after
the initial excavation,

the two countries
reached an agreement—

the tunnel would proceed
with private funding.

In 1985, a group
of French and British companies

invested the modern equivalent
of 14 billion pounds,

making the tunnel the most expensive
infrastructure project to date.

The design called
for three separate tunnels—

one for trains to France,
one for trains to England,

and one service tunnel between them.

Alongside crossover chambers,
emergency passages, and air ducts,

this amounted to over 200 kilometers
of tunnels.

In 1988, workers began excavating
from both sides,

planning to meet in the middle.

Early surveys of the French coast
revealed the site was full of fault lines.

These small cracks
let water seep into the rock,

so engineers had to develop
waterproof boring machines.

The British anticipated drier conditions,
and forged ahead with regular borers.

But only months into the work, water
flooded in through undetected fissures.

To drill in this wet chalk,
the British had to use grout

to seal the cracks
created in the borer’s wake,

and even work ahead of the main borer

to reinforce the chalk
about to be drilled.

With these obstacles behind them,
both teams began drilling at full speed.

Boring machines weighing up to 1,300 tons
drilled at nearly 3.5 meters per hour.

As they dug, they installed lining rings
to stabilize the tunnel behind them,

making way for support wagons
following each machine.

Even at top speed,
work had to proceed carefully.

The chalk layer followed a winding path
between unstable rock and clay,

punctured by over 100 boring holes
made by previous surveyors.

Furthermore, both teams had
to constantly check their coordinates

to ensure they were on track to meet
within 2 centimeters of each other.

To maintain this delicate trajectory,

the borers employed
satellite positioning systems,

as well as paleontologists
who used excavated fossils

to confirm they were at the right depth.

During construction,
the project employed over 13,000 people

and cost the lives of ten workers.

But after two and a half years
of tunneling,

the two sides finally made contact.

British worker Graham Fagg
emerged on the French side,

becoming the first human to cross
the channel by land since the Ice Age.

There was still work to be done—

from installing crossover chambers
and pumping stations,

to laying over a hundred miles of tracks,
cables, and sensors.

But on May 6, 1994, an opening ceremony
marked the tunnel’s completion.

Full public service began
16 months later,

with trains for passengers
and rail shuttles for cars and trucks.

Today, the Channel Tunnel services
over 20 million passengers a year,

transporting riders across the channel
in just 35 minutes.

Unfortunately, not everyone has
the privilege of making this trip legally.

Thousands of refugees have tried
to enter Britain through the tunnel

in sometimes fatal attempts.

These tragedies have transformed
the tunnel’s southern entrance

into an ongoing site of conflict.

Hopefully, the structure’s history
can serve as a reminder

that humanity is at their best
when breaking down barriers.

How Snapchat's filters work

JOE: Hey Joss, I have a question for you. Do you know how these Snapchat filters work?

like behind the scenes?

JOSS: Hmm, I have no idea.

JOE: Well do you think you can find out?

JOSS: You got it!

These are what Snapchat calls their
lenses, but everyone else calls filters.

They are very silly but the engineering
behind them is serious.

JOSS: Oh my god.

The technology came from a Ukrainian startup called Looksery

which Snapchat acquired in
September 2015 for a $150 million dollars.

That's reportedly the
largest tech acquisition in Ukrainian history.

Their augmented reality filters tap into the large and rapidly

growing field of "computer vision" --

those are applications that use pixel
data from a camera in order to identify

objects and interpret 3D space. Computer
vision is how you can deposit checks,

with your phone,

it's how Facebook knows who's in your
photos, how self-driving cars can avoid

running over people and how you can give
yourself a doggy nose.

So how to snapchat filters work? They
wouldn't let us talk to any of the Looksery

engineers but their patents are
online.

The first step is detection. How does the
computer know which part of an image is

a face?

This is something that human brains are
fantastic at. Too good even.

But this is what a photo looks like to a
computer. If all you have is the data for

the color value of each individual pixel,
how do you find a face?

Well the key is looking for areas of
contrast, between light and dark parts of

the image. The pioneering facial
detection tool is called the

Viola-Jones algorithm.

It works by repeatedly scanning through
the image data calculating the

difference between the grayscale pixel
values underneath the white boxes and

the black boxes. For instance, the bridge
of the nose is usually lighter than the

surrounding area on both sides,

the eye sockets are darker than the
forehead, and the middle of the forehead

is lighter than the size of it.

These are crude test for facial features,
but if they find enough matches in one

area of the image,

it concludes that there is a face there.
This kind of algorithm won't find your

face if you're really tilted or facing
sideways, but they're really accurate for

frontal faces, and it's how digital cameras have been putting boxes around

faces for years. But in order to apply
this virtual lipstick, the app needs to

do more than just detect my face.

It has to locate my facial features.

According to the patents. It does this
with an “active shape model” -- a statistical

model of a face shape that's been
trained by people manually marking the

borders of facial features on hundreds,
sometimes thousands of sample images.

The algorithm takes an average face from
that trained data and aligns it with the

image from your phone's camera, scaling
it and rotating it according to where it

already knows your face is located.

But it's not a perfect fit so the model
analyzes the pixel data around each of

the points,

looking for edges defined by brightness
and darkness. From the training images,

the model has a template for what the
bottom of your lips should look like,

for example, so it looks for that pattern in
your image and adjust the point to match it.

Because some of these individual
guesses might be wrong,

the model can correct and smooth them by taking into account the locations of all

the other points. Once it locates your
facial features, those points are used as

coordinates to create a mesh.

That's a 3D mask that can move, rotate,
and scale along with your face as the

video data comes in for every frame and
once they've got that, they can do a lot with it.

They can deform the mask to change your face shape, change your eye color,

add accessories, and set animations to
trigger when you open your mouth

or move your eyebrows.

And like the IOS app Face Swap Live,
Snapchat can switch your face with a

friend's, although that involves a bunch
more data.

The main components of this technology
are not new. What's new is the ability to

run them in real time, from a mobile
device. That level of processing speed is

a pretty recent development.

So why go through all this trouble just
to give people a virtual flower crown?

Well Snapchats sees a revenue
opportunity here. In a world that's

flooded with advertisements,

maybe the best hope that brands have to
get us to look at their ads... is to

put them on our faces.

Facial detection has a creepy side too,
particularly when it's used to identify

you by name.

Both the FBI and private companies like
Facebook and Google are massing huge

databases of faces and there's currently
no federal law regulating it.

So some privacy advocates have come up
with ways to camouflage your face from

facial detection algorithms.

It's actually illegal in a lot of places
to wear a face mask in public,

so this project by artist Adam Harvey
suggest some things that you can do with

your hair and your makeup that can, for
now, make your face Invisible to computers.

The awkward debate around Trump's mental fitness

That is an awkward question,
but it's one that's being asked

on every major news network in America.

President Trump's fitness for office
is now the top story in the country.

Reports suggest that even
Trump's advisers are worried about it.

Everyone around the president questions
his intelligence and fitness for office.

100 percent of the people around him.

Concerns have gotten so bad that Trump
agreed to be screened for dementia

as part of his last health exam.

None of this has to do with Trump's
political positions.

They have to do with his ability to
understand the world around him

and make good decisions.

Everybody wants to know: is this president of sound mind?

And if talking about this kind of thing
makes you uncomfortable,

wait 'til you see how much it's stressing
out actual mental health experts.

In a series of tweets, the president insisted
that he is "like really smart" and a "very stable genius."

Last October, a group of 27 mental health
experts

published this book:
The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump.

In it, they warn that Trump's behavior
shows him to be dangerously unstable,

describing him as a pathological narcissist
who's delusional, suffers from paranoid ideation,

lacks conscience and empathy, and exhibits
a host of destructive and dangerous psychiatric symptoms.

Yeah, it's rough.

Two months after its publishing,
the book's editor met with 12 US senators

to talk about Trump's mental fitness.

That editor's name?

Dr. Bandy Lee.

I am a forensic psychiatrist at Yale School
of Medicine

and an internationally recognized expert on
violence.

Since the book came out, Dr. Lee has become
kind of the face of mental health experts

warning about Trump.

We express our consensus view that

Some of the psychological signs are:

All of these are highly associated with violence.

One thing I noticed is that she starts
almost every interview about Trump by saying

this:
I'd like to make clear that I speak for myself

She did it in our interview too.

That's because what Dr. Lee and her colleagues
are doing,

discussing the mental health of a politician
who isn't their patient,

is pretty controversial.

And to understand why, we have to go back
to 1964.

Don't tune out.

I'll make this quick.

Back then, Republican Sen. Barry Goldwater
was running for president.

He was a far-right candidate who talked openly
about wanting to use nuclear weapons

and was endorsed by the KKK.

I know, time is a flat circle.

In response to Goldwater's candidacy,
Fact Magazine published this piece,

in which over 1,000 psychiatrists argued
that he was psychologically unfit to be president.

Goldwater lost the election,
but he sued the magazine's publisher for libel

and won, causing the magazine to shut down.

In response, the American Psychiatric Association
created this guideline,

which states that when it comes to public
figures,

it is unethical for psychiatrists to offer
a professional opinion

unless they've conducted an examination on
that person.

They called it:
the Goldwater Rule.

Well, I was going to say it.

But yeah, the Goldwater Rule.

Which brings us back to this book.

Lee and her colleagues argue that they're
not violating the Goldwater Rule because

We're not interested in making a diagnosis.

They're assessing how dangerous he might be
based on his public behavior.

Most of the information that you get about
dangerousness

comes from observation of their behavior,
watching their interactions with people,

assessing them in real situations,
reports of how they respond,

objective signs that we can still evaluate
even if it's not enough to make a diagnosis.

But in March, the APA expanded the Goldwater
Rule,

clarifying that rendering any professional
opinion

about a public figure's affect, behavior,
speech,

or other presentation is unethical.

In other words, unless Trump agrees
to a full mental health screening

— never going to happen —
tons of psychiatrists are basically barred

from commenting on his mental health.

And that is very alarming to me.

Many people call it a gag rule.

Gag rule, I'm into it.

You would be.

That gag rule has a big impact on how the
media

talks about Trump’s mental fitness.

Lee worries that if they can't talk to mental
health experts,

journalists are more likely to normalize
Trump's abnormal behavior.

Most people are not used to seeing impaired
individuals

day in and day out, so

It's tough to grapple with the possibility
that

the person in charge of our nuclear arsenal
might be deeply unstable.

So instead, our brains look for other explanations
for Trump's behavior.

I want to believe he's just dishonest, not delusional.

Trump peddles conspiracy theories about
Obama's birth certificate, and he's just playing

to his base.

Is there some strategy in bringing up
the Obama birth certificate thing again?

Trump is not delusional.

He's being very politically savvy.

What should be evidence of a serious emergency
gets downplayed as just Trump being Trump.

Donald Trump's a different type of guy.

I mean, he operates differently.

That difference has made him very successful.

One of Lee's colleagues has a great name
for this phenomenon.

He calls it "malignant normality."

Ooh. I know.

It's a great drag name.

The result is that journalists end up missing
big danger signs,

signs that mental health experts could catch.

Pundits will simply say, “That's just Trump
being Trump,”

or, “It's tough talk.”

One crucial contribution
that mental health professionals can make is to

But the bigger problem with the APA's gag
order

is that it surrenders debates about Trump's
mental fitness

to non-experts.

Isn't it remarkable that we're talking about
the president's mental state?

To political commentators or partisan pundits
who actually aren't qualified to talk about this.

I'm not a doctor, but I can tell you what
I see and hear.

I'm not a doctor, but I can see that he is
not the sharp mind that he was.

I'm not a doctor, but his behavior is erratic.

To me, that's classic narcissism.

I'm not a doctor but...

Leaving mental health issues to pundits, non-professionals,

can keep the public in the dark and keep them

confused.

These discussions can quickly become train
wrecks,

where mental fitness is used as a weapon
to smear political opponents.

So many of the traits of a sociopath this
man is displaying.

I can't explain this crazy behavior, but I
can call it crazy.

You saw it during the Obama years, when Fox
News

regularly made wild accusations about Obama's
mental state.

We all know that Obama is a narcissist,
but this is bordering on the pathological.

He doesn't seem to have empathy or feelings
for Americans.

He is certainly unfit to be president.

And Lee worries that this kind of coverage
trivializes real concerns

about Trump’s mental fitness, reducing them
to

just another talking point for pundits to
argue about.

As this conversation escalates,
both sides sort of retreating to their corners.

The more that mental fitness sounds like
a left-wing talking point,

the harder it is to take it seriously.

To now say, “Oh, well, look, he seems unhinged,”
does seem like you're not willing to accept

the political reality that you are living
with.

To accept that it is simply a political issue
or a partisan issue

is an attempt to normalize the discourse.

No one's a doctor tonight that I've seen.

And somehow say, because you don't like
what he said tonight in his speech,

that he's somehow unfit to be commander in
chief,

that is the most ridiculous...

Whoa, whoa, whoa, everybody stop, stop.

The original goal of the Goldwater Rule
was to help prevent mental health from being politicized.

But if the last few months have shown anything,
it's that silencing mental health experts

does the opposite.

Politicization is almost inevitable without
expert input.

Mental health expertise, just like medical
expertise,

is neutral on all those grounds.

Trump has made questions about his mental
fitness unavoidable.

What remains to be seen is whether actual
experts

will be allowed to answer them.

Why monks had that haircut

Look at this painting.

It's Saint Francis and Pope Honorius III.

You can probably find the monks.

It's the hair.

This is not just a haircut.

The more you look, the more this haircut shows
deep religious divides.

One style was even lost to time, after being
banned by the Roman Catholic Church.

The scalp is a statement of faith, but it's
also a battleground.

Hair's religious rite extends far beyond
Christianity.

Some Buddhist monks shave their heads and
some Orthodox Jews don't shave the corners

of their heads.

The Catholic monks were known for centuries
for their particularly distinctive hairstyle.

This haircut, with the center shave, is called
a tonsure.

It started in the 4th or 5th century.

And the most recognizable is the Coronal tonsure,

possibly modeled on Jesus' crown of thorns

on the cross.

It's actually one of three types.

The Coronal is the Roman, or Petrine tonsure,
after Saint Peter.

There's also the Pauline tonsure, named after
Saint Paul, and used more commonly in Eastern

Orthodoxy.

It is a fully shaved head.

But in the Dark Ages, there was a third tonsure
too.

And that's the shape that largely disappeared
from the Church.

That hairstyle was a visible symbol of diverging
faiths and that's the reason that it was banned.

When Pope Gregory sent missionaries from Rome
to the British Isles in the late 6th century,

he found differences between the Roman Catholic
Church and Celtic Church.

Ones that revealed serious disagreements about religious practice.

Celtic Catholicism was out of sync with the
Roman Catholic Church.

Roman Catholics would later use the differences
between them to portray Celtic Catholicism

as Pagan or even as an offshoot celebrating
the power-hungry magician, Simon Magus.

There were concrete disputes.

Most importantly, they disagreed on when to
celebrate Easter and another significant disagreement

was the shape of the tonsure.

McCarthy wanted to learn the shape of this
tonsure, because it represented the split

in the Roman Celtic Churches.

He thought the old guesses about its design
were wrong.

You can't just scroll through photos of 7th
century monk haircuts.

Figuring out the shape of the tonsure these
monks use, is a detective story.

It required McCarthy to parse texts like the
Book of Kells and records of old letters.

From that, he could figure out
the shape.

These old texts and illustrations only gave

McCarthy a view of the front and back of the head.

To picture an aerial view, he had to build
one.

These differences over tonsure were outward
signs of a split in the Church.

When the Roman Catholic Church took Ireland,
they slowly changed its tonsure too.

In 664, the king of Northumbria agreed on
the Roman Catholic date for Easter and the

Roman Catholic tonsure.

The change wasn't instant, but over time the
triangular tonsure disappeared.

Today some monks practice tonsure while others
don't.

It varies across religion and monastery.

In the Roman Catholic Church, clerical tonsure
ended in 1972.

When it was common, this unusual haircut was
a powerful symbol of monastic separation and

the Church's power.

But it's actually
not so strange.

Was this the greatest dog of all time?

King, the dog, is enjoying a steak, well-done,
at Sardi’s, the famous theatre district

restaurant in New York.

He deserves it, because he just won Best in
Show at the 143rd Westminster Kennel Club

dog show, in 2019.

Then he tried to eat a microphone.

King is at the end of the long list of terriers
to win Best in Show at Westminster.

But King, as wonderful as he is, will almost
certainly not do what this dog did.

This is the only dog to win Best in Show at
Westminster 3 times in a row.

That’s a 3-peat!

How did she do it?

And was she really the greatest dog of all
time?

The answer involves a breed, a socialite,
and the short life of a legend named Warren

Remedy.

This is not a steak.

This is a rat.

Terriers made their reputation as ratcatchers.

First bred in the British isles, the smooth
terrier and wire fox terrier’ crossed over

to America.

Warren Remedy was a smooth fox terrier while
King is a wire fox terrier.

The dogs don’t just share a Best in Show
title, but also a common fox terrier heritage.

With just a few exceptions, the American smooth
fox terrier started off in the 1880s in “the

oldest of our great kennels,” Warren Kennels,
the one started by Winthrop Rutherfurd.

Rutherfurd was a wealthy Manhattan socialite
- he dated a Vanderbilt before marrying a

Vice-President’s daughter.

He was also really into terriers.

Rutherfurd was president of the American Fox
Terrier club, funding it and working to boost

the breed’s clout.

And he raised them at his estate in Allamuchy,
New Jersey.

(Phone Rings)
“Allamuchy Township Tax and Animal Licensing

office.”

Hi, uh, what county are you in?

“Warren County.”

That’s why his kennels were called Warren
Kennels.

“Ohhh….what kennels?”

So that is where Warren Remedy got her name.

All the Warren Kennel dogs were Warren...something.

And all that stuff sets the stage for the
confluence of events that would make her not

just a dog, but an icon.

Let’s go back to King.

King didn’t win just for being the best
dog.

He won according to the standards used by
Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show judges — standards

of what an ideal wire fox terrier is.

“He has small, v-shaped ears of moderate
thickness,

A flat topline of the skull,
A coat with dense wiry texture,

(dense reading of rules).”

It’s not just an awesome dog, but the dog
that best exemplifies the breed.

Winthrop Rutherfurd helped write the standards
for the smooth fox terrier for his club, and

Westminster.

The Westminster Kennel Club started shows
in 1877, just a few years before Rutherfurd’s

Warren Kennel started.

It didn’t have Best in Show — a competition
between breeds — until 1907.

By then, Rutherfurd was a member of the Westminster
Bench Show Committee, and guaranteed prize

money for the smooth and wire fox terrier
categories.

He ran one of the two top smooth fox terrier
kennels in the country.

Other dogs were measured by the type he’d
established.

His dog Warren Remedy won shows around the
country.

The judges called her the “sprightly clean
limbed little miss”, and raved that she

was truest to type.

But is it any wonder that she won Westminster
specifically again, and again, and again?

The surprise isn’t that she won three times.

It’s that she lost a fourth time to the
other big fox terrier breeder out of Texas,

Sabine Kennels.

Even though Sabine beat Warren Remedy, it
wasn’t really a loss for the Rutherfurd

type.

A dog from the Sabine Kennel sired Warren
Remedy — he was her dad.

So what do we do with Warren Remedy?

Was she really the greatest dog of all time?

After the reign of the smooth terrier, wire-fox
terriers became cooler, all the way up to

King in 2019.

A smooth fox terrier never won after 1910.

Regulations also got stricter in 1924.

There have been a couple of repeat winners
since, but no three-timers, and no two-timers

since 1972.

That’s over.

Before that, even an elite dog like Warren
Remedy had a window.

A 20 year smooth fox terrier trend.

A short 7 year life.

And 3 years as Best in Show.

In 1906, she needed a little size yet, but
had time.

By 1909, even when she was queen of all dogs
at Westminster, Sabine Kennel dogs were winning

other competitions across the country.

But for a couple years, she had the glory.

She endorsed Spratt’s Dog Cakes.

She earned all those front page headlines.

Maybe those three wins, maybe they were about
socialites, and structure, and trends.

Maybe she wasn’t the greatest dog of all
time.

But the window’s small for every dog.

Maybe they’re all the greatest, for a moment.

Maybe all the dogs deserve one night when
they get the steak.

So maybe you’re curious when the terrier
reign over Best in Show finally ended, and

it didn’t happen until 1913 when a bulldog
— this big boy, named Strathtay Prince Albert

— managed to pull off the victory.

What Will Happen In 10 Quintillion Years From Now

What will happen in 10 Quintillion Years

Hello guys, what's the future of the human race

and our beloved Planet Earth?

After some research, we found the predictions of the events for the next

1,000, 1 million, and up to 10 quintillion years into the future.

Let's go through this journey together.

1,000 years from now. Due to rapid evolution of languages,

no single present day word will have survived.

Gamma Cephei replace Polaris, so that we will have a new north star.

2,000 years from now. Ice sheets will have completely melted

with extreme global warming of +8 degrees Centigrade.

Greenland Ice will be melted.

Sea levels will be 6 metres higher.

Did you know that 5125, is the year of the end of the Mayan calandar.

And, according to the Mayans, a doomsday. Again.

If we survived 5125, then in 20,000 years Chernobyl will be finally safe.

50,000 years from now. Niagara Falls disappears.

The remaining 32 kilometers to Lake Erie erodes away and the waterfall ceases to exist.

Greenland Ice melted. Completely melted, with moderate global warming of +2 degree Centigrade.

100,000 years from now. The titanium in your Macbook starts to corrode.

Either a supervolcano or a large climate-altering asteroid will likely have affected the Earth.

The stars in the heaven will look completely different due to the Earth's movement through the galaxy.

In 500,000 years, the spent fuel in today's reactors will finally be safe.

And there will be a new global freeze.

In 1 million years, now all glasses created today will have finally degraded.

Massive stone structures, like the pyramids at Giza or sculptures at Mount Rushmore may still exist.

Everything else, gone.

Some have proposed that in 5 million years that Y-chromosome could die out.

Making men impossible.

50 million years from now. Africa will have collided with Eurasia,

sealing of the Mediterranean Basin.

And creating a mountain range, similar to the Himalayas.

Antarctica Ice migrates north and melts, raising sea levels by 75 meters.

Don't worry, the entire galaxy could be colonized by that time.

In 60 million years, the Earth's orbit will become unpredictable.

In 250 million years, the continents will start moving and creating a new supercontinent.

800 million years from now. C4 photosynthesis is no longer possible,

destroying all multicellular life.

2 billion years from now. The Earth's core freezes and the planet stops rotating.

No rotation, no magnetic fields. No protection from the Sun. The surface temperature hits 147 ºC.

All life dies.

In 7 billion years the Sun will hit its maximum radius. 256 times its current size.

Mercury, Venus and maybe Earth will be destroyed.

And then the Sun becomes a carbon-oxygen white dwarf with about 50% its present mass.

20 billion years from now. One potential end of the universe.  All matter is torn apart by the expansion

of the universe.

All distances become infinite.

100 trillion years from now. All the stars will have died.

The only objects left are remnants, white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes.

In 100 quintillion years.

If not consumed by a swollen Sun, The Earth's orbit will have finally decayed and it will plunge back into the Sun.

The End.

What do you think will happen to the Earth and the human race?

Write in comments below! Thumbs up if you like this video.

And don't forget to Subscribe for more. Thanks for watching.

What will happen if a bucket of Water is poured on the Sun.

Why Meat is the Best Worst Thing in the World

Humans love meat.

Steak, fried chicken, bacon, pork belly, and sausages

are just the best things!

Eating meat has become so

trivial that many people

don't consider something a proper

meal if there's no animal involved.

Which is pretty amazing,

since only a few decades ago

meat was a luxury product.

Today, you can get a cheeseburger

for a dollar.

Paradoxically, meat is pretty much the

most inefficient way of feeding humans.

If we look at it on a global scale, our meaty diet

is literally eating up the planet.

Why is that,

and what can we do about it,

without giving up steak?

♪ Catchy intro tune ♪

Humans keep a lot of animals

for food:

Currently about 23 billion chickens,

1.5 billion cattle,

and roughly 1 billion pigs and sheep.

That's a lot of mouths to feed, so we've transformed earth into a giant feeding ground.

83% of its farmland is used for livestock.

For example as pasture, and to farm fodder crops;

like corn and soy.

That's 26% of earth's total land area.

If we include the water we need

for these plants,

meat and dairy production accounts

for 27% of global freshwater consumption.

Unfortunately; meat production is like

a black hole for resources.

Since animals are living things, most of their food

is used to keep them alive,

while they grow their tasty parts.

Only a fraction of the nutrients from fodder crops end up in the meat we buy in the end.

Cows, for example,

convert only about 4% of the proteins

and 3% of the calories of the plants we feed to them

into beef.

More than 97% of the calories are lost to us.

To create one kilogram of steak, a cow needs to eat up to 25 kilos of grain

and uses up to 15,000 liters of water.

Animal products are guzzling up tons of food,

but they only make up 18% of the calories humans eat.

According to projections, we could nourish 

an additional 3.5 billion people

if we just ate the stuff we feed to animals.

To make our favorite food group

even more unsustainable,

about 15% of all greenhouse gas emissions

caused by humans,

are created by the meat industry;

as much as by all ships, planes,

trucks and cars combined.

And... there's another aspect to meat:

It comes from actual living beings.

Pigs, cattle and chicken are not the ones

writing the history books,

but if they were, humans would appear

as rampant genocidal maniacs,

that thrive on suffering.

Globally, we kill about 200 million animals every day,

about 74 billion a year.

This means that every one and a half years,

we kill more animals than people have lived

in the entire 200,000 year history of humanity.

One could argue that we're doing them

a favor:

after all,

they wouldn't exist without us.

We might eat them in the end, but we also provide food and shelter,

and the gift of existence to them.

Unfortunately, we're not very nice gods.

A lot of our meat comes from factory farms:

huge industrial systems

that house thousands of animals.

Engineered to be as efficient as possible,

they have little regard for things like quality of life.

Most pigs are raised in gigantic windowless sheds,

and never get to see the sun.

Sows are kept in pens too small to turn around,

where they give birth to one litter of piglets after another,

until it's their turn to be turned into bacon.

Dairy cows are forced to breed continually 

to ensure their milk supply,

but are separated from their calves

hours after birth.

To fatten up beef cattle for slaughter,

they're put in feedlots:

Confined pens where they can't roam

and put on weight more quickly.

To make it possible to keep them so tightly together

without dying of diseases,

the majority of antibiotics we use are for livestock:

up to 80% in the US.

Which helps in the short term,

but also fuels antibiotic resistances.

But the ones that may have got the worst deal

are chickens.

In factory farms, they're kept in such vast numbers

and so close to each other, that they can't form the social structures they have in nature,

so they start attacking each other.

To stop that we cut their beaks and claws.

Male chickens are deemed worthless:

since they can't lay eggs and are not suitable

for meat production.

So within minutes after birth,

they're usually gassed and shredded in grinders.

Several hundred million baby chickens

are killed this way each year.

Even if you had a personal score to settle with chickens,

how we treat them is beyond broken.

So, better buy organic meat

where animals are treated nicely, right?

Organic farming regulations are designed to grant animals a minimum of comfort.

The problem is that "organic" is an elastic term.

According to EU regulations,

an organic hen still might share

one square metre of space with five others.

That's a long way off from happy farmyard chickens.

Farms that sincerely do their best

do exist of course,

but meat is still a business.

An organic label is a way

to charge more money,

and countless scandals

have revealed producers

looking for ways

to cheat the system.

And while organic meat might be less cruel,

it needs even more resources

than conventional meat production.

So, buying organic is still preferable,

but does not grant you moral absolution.

The truth is,

if suffering were a resource:

we would create billions of tons

of it per year.

The way we treat animals will probably be one of the things future generations will look down on in disgust.

While all these things are true,

something else is true too:

Steak is amazing;

Burgers are the best food;

Chicken wings taste great.

Meat satisfies something

buried deep in our lizard brain.

We hardly ever see

how our meat is made:

we just eat it and love it.

It creates joy, it brings us together for family meals

and barbecue parties.

Eating meat doesn't make you

a bad person.

Not eating meat doesn't make you

a good one.

Life is complicated

and so is the world we've created.

So, how should we deal with the fact

that meat is extremely unsustainable,

and a sort of horrible torture?

For now, the easiest option is opting out more often.

Taking a meat-free day per week

already makes a difference.

If you want to eat meat produced

with less suffering:

try to buy from trusted producers

with a good track record,

even if it costs more.

To make an impact on the environment:

go for chicken and pig,

rather than lamb and beef,

as they convert their feed

more efficiently into meat.

And if you're going to have your steak:

you should eat it too!

An average American throws out

nearly a pound of food per day,

a lot of which is meat.

In the future, science could get us clean meat.

Various startups have successfully

grown meat in labs,

and are working on doing so

on a commercial scale.

But solutions like this

are still a few years away.

For now, enjoy your steak,

but also respect it.

And if you can: make it something special again.

We have something else for you

that's also special,

and tastes even better than steak!

We get asked a lot how we make our videos,

we thought we'd just show you.

Kurzgesagt teamed up with Skillshare,

our favorite online tutorial service,

to teach you our unique animation style.

We've just released part three

of our animation tutorial series,

where you can learn to animate

a scene from our videos.

Skillshare is an online learning community

with over 20,000 classes

in all kinds of cool stuff,

like writing, illustration

and animation.

With their premium membership,

you get unlimited access to high-quality classes

from skilled professionals.

One of them is us!

And we also snagged a special offer for you:

The first 1,000 people to use the link in the description

get two months of unlimited access for free!

If you want to learn how we animate our videos,

you can start there today.

♪ Outro tune ♪

The Immune System Explained I – Bacteria Infection

Every second of your life, you are under attack.

Billions of bacteria, viruses, and fungi are trying to make you their home,

so our bodies have developed a super complex little army with guards, soldiers, intelligence, weapons factories, and communicators

to protect you from...well...dying.

For this video, let's assume the immune system has 12 different jobs. For example, kill enemies, communicate, etc.

And it has 21 different cells and 2 protein forces

These cells have up to 4 different jobs.

Let's assign them. Here are the interactions.

Now, let's make this understandable.

First of all, let's add colours to the jobs.

Now, let's illustrate the cells.

The central colour represents the main job of the cell,

while the surrounding ones represent secondary duties.

Now the immune system looks like this.

Now the interactions.

Isn't this complexity just awesome?

For this video we will only talk about these cells and ignore the rest.

So, what happens in the case of an infection?

*Intro*

It's a beautiful day, when suddenly, a wild rusty nail appears and you cut yourself.

The first barrier of the immune system is breached: your skin.

Nearby bacteria seize on the opportunity and enter your wound.

They start using up the body's resources and double their numbers about every 20 minutes.

At first, they fly under the radar, but when a certain bacteria population is reached,

they change their behavior and start to damage the body by changing the environment around them.

The immune system has to stop them as fast as possible.

First of all, your guard cells, known as macrophages, intervene.

They are huge cells that guard every border region of the body.

Most of the time, they alone can suffocate an attack

because they can devour up to 100 intruders each.

They swallow the intruder whole and trap it inside a membrane.

Then the enemy gets broken down by enzymes and is killed.

On top of that, they cause inflammation by ordering the blood vessels to release water into the battlefield

so fighting becomes easier.

You notice this as a very mild swelling.

When the macrophages fight for too long,

they call in heavy backup by releasing messenger proteins that communicate location and urgency.

Neutrophils leave their patrol routes in the blood and move to the battlefield.

The neutrophils fight so furiously that they kill healthy cells in the process.

On top of that, they generate barriers that trap and kill the bacteria.

They are, indeed, so deadly that they evolved to commit suicide after five days to prevent them from causing too much damage.

If this is not enough to stop the invasion, the brain of the immune system kicks in.

The dendritic cell gets active.

It reacts to the signals of the soldiers and starts collecting samples from the enemies.

They rip them into pieces and present the parts on their outer layer.

Now, the dendritic cell makes a crucial decision.

Should they call for anti-virus forces that eradicate infected body cells

or an army of bacteria killers?

In this case, anti-bacteria forces are necessary.

It then travels to the closest lymph node in about a day.

Here, billions of helper and killer T cells are waiting to be activated.

When T cells are born they go trough a difficult and complicated training process

and only a quarter survives.

The surviving cells are equipped with a specific set-up.

And the denditric cell is on its way looking for a helper T cell with the set-up that's just right.

It's looking for a helper T cell that can bind the parts of the intruders which the dendritic cell has presented on its membrane.

When it finally finds one, a chain reaction takes place.

The helper T cell is activated. It quickly duplicates thousands of times.

Some become memory T cells that stay in the lymph node and will make you practically immune against this enemy.

Some travel to the field of battle to help out.

And the third group goes on to travel to the center of the lymph node

to activate a very powerful weapons factory.

Like the T cells, they are born with a specific set-up

and when a B cell and a T cell with the same set-up meet, hell breaks loose.

The B cell duplicates rapidly and starts producing millions of little weapons.

They work so hard that they would literally die from exhaustion very fast.

Here, helper T cells play another important role; they stimulate the hard working factories and tell them:

"Don't die yet, we still need you, keep going!"

This also ensures that the factories die if the infection is over so the body doesn't waste energy or hurt itself.

But what is produced by the B cells?

You've heard of them of course, antibodies.

Little proteins that are engineered to bind to the surface of the specific intruder.

There are even different kinds of antibodies that have slightly different jobs.

The helper T cells tell the plasma cells which type is needed the most in this particular invasion.

Millions of them flood the blood and saturate the body.

Meanwhile, at the site of infection, the situation is getting dire.

The intruders have multiplied in number and start hurting the body.

Guard and attack cells fight hard, but also die in the process.

Helper T cells support them by ordering them to be more aggressive and to stay alive longer.

But without help they can't overwhelm the bacteria.

But now, the second line of defense arrives.

Billions of antibodies flood the battlefield and disable lots of the intruders,

rendering them helpless or killing them in the process.

They also stun the bacteria and make them an easy target.

Their back is built to connect to killer cells, so they can connect and kill the enemy more easily.

Macrophages are especially good at nomming up the bacteria which antibodies have attached to.

Now the balance shifts.

In a team effort, the infection is wiped out.

At this point, millions of body cells have already died.

No big deal, the losses are quickly replenished.

Most immune cells are now useless and without the constant signals they commit suicide, so as not to waste any resources.

But some stay behind: the memory cells.

If this enemy is encountered ever again in the future, they will be ready for it and probably kill it before you even notice.

This was a very, very simplified explanation of parts of the immune system at work.

Can you imagine how complex this system is, even at this level, when we ignore so many players and all the chemistry.

Life is awfully complicated, but if we take the time to understand it, we'll encounter endless wonders and great beauty.