Narrator: We rise above nature tame the frontier's of our planet now, we harness the force of the universe claiming powers that could destroy us but, still we fight for freedom truth, new beginings as mankind turns towards the frontier's of the future amidst the chaos of a unforgiving planet most species will fail but for one all the pieces will fall into place and a set of keys will unlock a path for mankind to triumph This is our story the story of all of us Today over 7 billion humans on planet earth in just four generations our Population has grown by 5 billion faster in the first 50 years of the 20th century than the previous 50 thousand and as mankind expands in a ever more crowded world we face the ultimate challange abusing the power of the planet to propel us into the future The Midwest, 1935 giant dust storm's ravage American farm land the worst drought in U.S. history two and half million people abandoned the great plains families driven off their farms heading in hope for California Russell: Life in rural America was absolutely horrendous dust storms could happen that could obliterate everything it was nearly impossible to grow food in that soil Narrator: One man plans to revive this barren land Rosewell Garst born and breed farmer instinctive entrepreneur he sells his cattle mortgages his farm and bet's everything on a wonder crop that will become a key to mankind's future hybrid corn its cross breed to resist drought and disease so it can still grow in the scorched earth of the Midwest he drives two thousand miles a week promoting his hybrid seeds his slogan ''An astonishing product produces astonishing results'' Narrator: But the seed cost 50 times more than ordinary corn Garst: [Trying to sell his seeds to other farmers] Narrator: One of Garst colleagues notes " You would say, 6 or 7 dollars a bushel and you could almost see them reaching around to their hip pocket to get the gun" ["Garst- come on sir'] [farmer- listen, I'm not interested get, get off my land"] ['Garst- I just wanted to give you the chance of your lifetime'] ["Farmer- get off my land'] Narrator: Its a hard sell when a third of U.S. farms are being abandoned [Garst: We had to sell the corn if I didn't trade the corn for money we wouldn't eat or sleep] Narrator: Garst gambles everthing he gives farmer's the seed for free in return for a share of their profit's Across 50 counties in two states in the worst drought ever miraculous growth but Garst isn't finished he sell's another revolutionary product taken from natures chemistry set nitrogen fertilizer spewed from volcano's during the birth of our planet nitrogen makes up 78 percent of earth's atmosphere its invisible odorless, inert but when scientist learn to isolate nitrogen and turn the gas into nitrate a nutrient essential for the growth of plants they uncover the key to feeding the world's growing population Garst, markets the new product with a salesmen flare sewn into a field in a distinct pattern "N" for nitrogen Written into the grass of the Midwest a clear message for the future today almost every industrial farm uses nitrogen fertilizer Garst becomes a international farming consultant and one of the largest seed suppliers in the world Russell: We found out that the food supply is not finite, that we can actually continue to increase it to match the increasing population Narrator: In 30 years the worlds population grows from 2 billion to 3 billion 15 years later 4 billion and rising but with new crops and fertilizer's we've grown more in the last 100 years than in the previous ten thousand Bourdain: Fertilizer allowed us to grow more, faster and more productively it could increased the food supply Narrator: But as our numbers explode so does the scale and reach of human conflict 1942, mankind's first truly global war In Europe,Nazi Germany dominates in the pacific imperial Japan the largest state in the U.S. Alaska dangerously close to Asia and isolated [testing bombs] Now 11,000 American soldiers blaze an impossible trail the out can highway to link Alaska to west coast Canada and the rest of the United States an engineering challenge that will connect a continent In command General William Hoge decorated war hero engineering genius battling some of the most rugged terrain on the planet he'll unlock a building boom Meigs: What the out can highway shows is it modern civilization can project itself into the wilderness with incredible speed Narrator: The challenge ahead 1,500 miles of forest in tundra 200 rivers and the highest mountains in North America Hoge's greatest obstacle time just 8 months to complete the highway before the Alaska winter In Hoge's command Corporal Refines Sims from Philadelphia one of nearly 4,000 African Americans soldier's in Alaska a third of the workforce [we were in wilderness, we saw nothing but trees upon trees] Narrator: Seven teams hundred of miles apart racing to meet in the middle but with a third of the road unfinished, disaster permafrost a layer of frozen ground up to 2,000 feet deep exposed by bulldozer's it melts into sinking mud [we only found out about the permafrost when it was to late] trucks and caterpillars sink into the muck til they were out of sight] Narrator: The army is loosing battle against nature at stake the security of the united states and time is running out Alaska, army engineers racing to build the out can highway a supply route that will help launch the greatest road building boom in mankind's history but the project was stuck in the mud McNichol: This was a extraordinary effort for the Alaskan road became mired in mud vehicles couldn't move Narrator: General Hoge has a radical idea ditch the bulldozers engineers become ax men [the only thing to do was make a matter, timber and branches] Narrator: Corporal Refines Sims leads a team laying a solid foundation corduroying, an old roman technique reinvented but progress plummet's from 14 miles a day to just 1 for thousand's of years the key to mankind's ambition engineering No longer prisoner's of geography we re-write nature we overcome each new obstacle by force of will Gates jr: This ability has shaped not just our existence but, the fact that we are the prodominate life form on the planet Narrator: With winter closing in two teams, one black one white battle the weather to complete the final strectch Wunderlich: Bitter cold, permafrost wild animals completely untamed wilderness men sat on the side of the road and wept in pain Narrator: October 29, 1942 temperature heading for minus 50 [cheering] but today, the two ends of the road meet Corporal Refines Sims becomes a national hero Wunderlich: It was a shining symbol of the fact these men are equal to the task their equal to their white counter parts, their equal men Narrator: Within six years the U.S. army is racially integrated The out can highway complete part of a 16,000 miles road The world's longest drivable route running the length of the America's Meigs: It was huge step forward and it lead to such a demand for more roads, that we see roads now literally circling the planet Narrator: Within half a century the world is racked in a network of roads long enough to stretch to the moon and back, 20 times But while warfare on a global scale push's us to connect the world and reshape it also unleashes a new and and terrifying source of power that could support human life on earth for million of years or obliterate it [ sound's of explosions] August 6th, 1945 two miles above the pacific ocean bomber pilot Colonel Paul Tibbets 30 years old a military prodigy on a secret mission to end world war II In Tibbet's pocket 12 cyanide tablets one for each man on board capture is not a option they know to much over 5 thousand years and 14,500 wars up to 3.5 billion have died battling to exert maximum force at maximum distance with each new generation a new weapon Wunderlich: We talk about arms races and this has been going on since the beginning of time um you hit me with a stick I hit you with a bigger stick Narrator: But mankind has never know a weapon like this the ultimate projection of power the atom bomb code name, little boy target Hiroshima, Japan first the bomb need's to be armed Captain William Parson's one of its designers bomb comander he removed the detonator before take off to make it safe to fly now he must refit it The core of the bomb uranium born in a cosmic explosion six billion years ago before the birth of our planet dormant until scientist split its atoms unleashing a apocalyptic power to annihilate our species or fuel our future Dawn 850 miles from Japan an American B-29 bomber the anola gay carries the most destructive weapon in the history of mankind "Tibbets, I'd been intrusted with the most frightful weapon ever devised I thought yes, were going to kill a lot of people but, by god were going to save a lot of lives" Wunderlich: We have the power that we have always reserved only for God, we know have it to end everything its in human power that pervades every single part of our lives today Machowicz: The men aboard the anola gay knew what they had to do and they focused on the details of that mission in order to execute it no one really knows what's going to happen once this bomb leaves that aircraft Narrator: 9:14 a.m. a 60 second warning tone below them a city of 350,000 people Tibbits has 43 seconds to escape the blast zone [sound of bomb exploding] Narrator: An explosion 10,000 times hotter than the surface of the sun the bomb kills more than 60,000 instantly 3 days later a second atom bomb Japan surrenders Williams: Its the most fearsome thing this world can unleash that's why we've only seen two in the history of the world Narrator: Since 1945 mankind has been living in the atomic age today there are over 19,000 nuclear war heads able to destroy our species 20 times over Meigs: With atomic weapons we finally hit that point of sort of a spiritual crisis have we gone to far and what does it mean that we can can control this most elemental of forces with such awesome destructive power Narrator: But with a terrible weapon also comes a revolutionary source of energy nuclear power, now the third largest generator of electricity with the potential to power our planet for billions of years In the 20th century technology and science are the key to enhancing our world human life takes a giant leap forward in a hospital in South Africa 1967, Capetown Christiaan Barnard a medical pioneer with 20 years experience preparing to re-engineer the human body the patient Louie Washkansky former boxer, an athlete he'll die without Barnard's ground breaking surgery the worlds first heart transplant Oz: It was the sentinel moment that showed everybody that technology and science married together could accomplish the unimaginable in improving human life Narrator: Key to the operation a new technology the life support machine the apex of human ingenuity technology has always improved our lives enabling us to by past the limits of our bodies and advance farther, faster than any other species now man and machine unite to re-engineer life itself Barnard, has done 50 heart transplants on dogs but never on a human "Barnard, I'm not ready for this the dogs didn't survive for long enough what right do I have to experiment on human" Narrator: Washkansky had 3 previous heart attacks he's critically ill a fist sized muscle vital to the life every person on the planet the human heart beats two and a half billion times in a average life one missed beat can be fatal first step, remove the dying heart and hook up Washkansky to a life support machine it will do the work of the heart "Barnard, I've never seen a chest like this before a human without a heart kept alive by a machine" Oz: Something so sacred as the human heart the organ of our poets the internal metronome of our bodies the thought that it could be removed and replaced and the patient still live , unimaginable Narrator: Three hours into the operation with the patients blood mechanically pumped through his body Barnard must attach the donor heart before it dies Barnard jump start's the new heart [clear the table, go ahead and shock it, shock] [intense music] the hear beat's but, it is still powered by a machine it has to beat on it's own or Washkansky will die the first ever heart transplant an operation that could revolutionize modern medicine at a critical stage after 3 heart attacks Louie Washkansky has a new heart still powered by a life support machine but when Christiian Barnard turns the machine off the new heart falters blood pressure drops it's failing [sound of machine beeping] Washkansky's heart is spent his life hangs in the balance with it the future of medicine Oz: Christiian Barnard's risk was not just with his career he, was also risking the dreams of many who believed we could do organ transplantation successfully that it wasn't just a gimmick Narrator: To save Washkansky's life Barnard put's him back on life support and tries again the new heart beat's and keeps beating without the machine the most complex operation in history a success Oz: Mechanical heart's transplanting other organs, the thought that we regenerate tissue, all this came about because one brave man was able accomplish one unimaginable feat and show it was all possible Narrator: Barnard's procedure has saved over 75,000 lives in the United States alone surgeons perform over 2,500 heart transplant's a year our organ's replaceable and re-engineered new body parts, new technology a new mankind but as science and technology free us from the limit's of our bodies across the world they are also key to a new victory in the struggle for individual rights and justice Selma Alabama, 1965 600 African American's demand change inspiring a global fight for freedom Amelia Boynton 53 years old, a civil rights activist since high school Camarillo: Risk taker absolutely committed to chance absolutely hero absolutely Narrator: Marching for the right to vote blocking her way centuries of discrimination racism rules in the south but only 25 percent of blacks and southern states are registered voters volunteer Boynton, helps them sign up [next, is this your full name?] [yes sir] [you haven't filled this section in, can you right?] [sir I know I don't have that piece] [ I can't help you] [please sir] [go to the back of the line!] [next] Narrator: White authorities block their path with red tape, and police intimidation [confrontation between police and a man standing in line] Narrator: the only option, protest Camillo: People knew, like she did that you protest in the south and you risk life and limb they knew it was dangerous but they were also driven for this struggle for equality Williams: It's very hard to bottle up the notion of freedom once it's been uncorked sadly, as long as there's been human kind and as long as were around, there's going to be this tug of war between democracy and repression Narrator: their destination the state capitol Montgomery determined to stop them, Jim Clark World War II, aircraft gunner Selma Sheriff he deputizes every white male over 21 joining 200 state troopers but this confrontation won't go unseen on the ground is local camera man Lawrence Pierce new's hungry, committed tough as nails the journalist with the biggest story of his life new technologies will harness the powers of mass communication information will travel further and faster than ever before a 3 minute warning to disperse and go home but the protestor's won't back down 90 seconds later the police attack 40 cans of tear gas 8 cans of nausea gas on the receiving end activist Emilia Boynton Machowicz: Imagine the courage and the fear that they have to confront as club and foot and hand is smashed upon them until their driven into the ground Narrator: Boynton, left for dead she'll be unconscious for 2 days but, the world is watching Selma Alabama police attack a non-violent protest civil right activist Emelia Boynton is on of 50 who are injured but, key to any protest movement in the modern age, television journalist Lawrence Pierce rush's film to New York 15 minutes of raw footage interrupts (ABC) Sunday night movie the birth of breaking TV news by 1965, nine out ten American families own a television over 70 percent of the adult population watch the TV new every evening all three networks show the Selma violence 45 million viewers Gates: Television made horror and brutality local so local, that it was in your living room that had never happened before in the history of the United States Willams: The nation couldn't look away people were amazed , however grainy however black and white at immediacy of those image's, the people who were beaten to within a inch of their lives you didn't have to be in the movement to believe in civil rights but those pictures you couldn't turn off Narrator: Within 15 days, President Lyndon Johnson proposes the voting the rights act outlawing voter discrimination landmark legislation a turning point for civil rights in America media for the masses means repression won't go unseen in a world for instant communication everyone has a voice Lindbergh: Communication, helps to grow the concept and understanding of civilization in the human race on the earth equalizing the classes, equalizing the culture's Narrator: The greater the numbers the stronger the bonds in a world of connections we are the product of our history 100,000 thousand years ago the emergence of an extraordinary species Megis: One thing that defines humanity is skill anything that you learn to do that nature didn't program you to do Narrator: A hunger to survive fuels a power to invent [the innovator survive, the innovator's had success ] Narrator: Our thirst for knowledge a quest to explore William: This is what we do never content with were we are were, always looking over there and over there may mean oceans or mountains or continents away Narrator: We forge connections but contact can bring conflict Brands: One of the striking things about humans is there never any human society that hasn't had war, maybe its necessary to our evolution Narrator: Mankind most enduring enemy disease Oz: I'm confident in our life time we experience a pandemic that is similar scope to the bubonic plague, but now we have and advantage, now we know its possible we know what we can do to stop it, we know what we can do cure people who are infected we will use science to beat back the things we have feared the most Narrator: Yet in our darkest moments we find enlightenment and with all we've learned we face the future Wunderlich: History is the road map and with out it there is no way to navigate the furture its not possible Narrator: Now a new journey into inner space Oz: The most important place for us to investigate the body now is the brain in order to enter the next realm of longevity and wealth and health among humanity Narrator: That same instinct to discover ourselves will fuel the exploration of our universe will unlock the power of the sun and reach out into space There's a human need to investigate to explore to see new lands I think that drive will eventually will lead us to other planets Narrator: The next step a new home Megis: There's no question humans will be going to mars probably within the lifetime of people who are alive today Narrator: The story of mankind is only just beginning