WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:03.680 Welcome. This is Marsha for RADIOI and to day I 2 00:00:03.680 --> 00:00:08.560 will be reading National Geographic Magazine dated August twenty twenty five, 3 00:00:09.199 --> 00:00:12.759 which is donated by the publisher as a reminder. RADIOI 4 00:00:12.880 --> 00:00:15.400 is a reading service intended for people who are blind 5 00:00:15.960 --> 00:00:18.640 or have other disabilities that make it difficult to read 6 00:00:18.679 --> 00:00:22.800 printed material. Please join me now for the first article 7 00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:30.600 titled the World's most Indomitable duck. The Madagascar pochard was 8 00:00:30.640 --> 00:00:34.759 thought to be extinct until one local biologist accidentally stumbled 9 00:00:34.799 --> 00:00:40.200 on a tiny flock in the unlikeliest of places a 10 00:00:40.240 --> 00:00:44.240 century ago. The Madagascar pochard thrived in its only known 11 00:00:44.280 --> 00:00:49.159 habitat Lake Eli Ultra, the country's largest lake, but over 12 00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:52.640 time many of the bug filled marshes surrounding the shallow 13 00:00:52.679 --> 00:00:55.679 lake were converted to cropland and the ducks started to 14 00:00:55.759 --> 00:00:59.479 die off. The last flock was recorded in nineteen sixty. 15 00:01:00.039 --> 00:01:02.719 A small group of scientists spent decades looking for the 16 00:01:02.759 --> 00:01:07.439 poachard by hiking through torrential rains, paddling across wetlands and 17 00:01:07.560 --> 00:01:11.159 dugout canoes, and even putting ads in the community paper, 18 00:01:11.599 --> 00:01:14.840 with little to show for it. By the mid nineteen nineties, 19 00:01:14.879 --> 00:01:20.280 the duck, known by locals as Photismaso or white eye 20 00:01:20.560 --> 00:01:23.079 for the bright eyes of mature males, was thought to 21 00:01:23.079 --> 00:01:27.239 have gone extinct, but in two thousand and six, Malagasi 22 00:01:27.760 --> 00:01:34.280 biologists and National Geographic Explorer Lily Arison Rene de Roeland 23 00:01:35.079 --> 00:01:38.599 chanced upon thirteen of the pochards on a remote volcanic lake, 24 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:42.359 far from their historic range. The sighting led to a 25 00:01:42.400 --> 00:01:47.200 nearly twenty year collaboration among scientists, officials, and local companies 26 00:01:47.480 --> 00:01:52.400 communities to revive the species, including an extensive effort to 27 00:01:52.519 --> 00:01:55.680 breed the birds and release them into the wild. The 28 00:01:55.760 --> 00:01:58.599 work is far from complete, but it's starting to pay off. 29 00:01:58.920 --> 00:02:02.079 There are now some two hundred and thirty ho chyards 30 00:02:02.200 --> 00:02:09.280 across Madagascar. This by Carol Hwang. Next The Hidden World 31 00:02:09.439 --> 00:02:14.879 of Cave Dwellers by John Bartlett. For centuries we've sought 32 00:02:14.879 --> 00:02:18.520 shelter underground. Today, this ancient way of life is under 33 00:02:18.560 --> 00:02:21.240 a new threat. What can we learn from the last 34 00:02:21.280 --> 00:02:27.199 subterranean societies before they disappear? Nearly a decade ago, documentary 35 00:02:27.199 --> 00:02:31.879 photographer and National Geographic Explorer Tomorra Marino was driving a 36 00:02:31.919 --> 00:02:35.639 camper van through the hot and seemingly desolate expanse of 37 00:02:35.759 --> 00:02:39.280 Australia's Simpson Desert when one of her tires blew out. 38 00:02:39.680 --> 00:02:42.719 The nearly seventy thousand square miles of barren red dunes 39 00:02:42.759 --> 00:02:45.400 are not a place you want to have car trouble. 40 00:02:45.800 --> 00:02:49.759 Summer temperatures push into the one twenties and water is scarce. 41 00:02:50.120 --> 00:02:52.639 Marino coaxed her van down the road and began to 42 00:02:52.680 --> 00:02:55.240 see signs of a town, but there was no one 43 00:02:55.280 --> 00:02:59.280 in sight and the few buildings felt abandoned. Wandering the streets, 44 00:02:59.280 --> 00:03:03.080 she spouted her rudimentary meatal cross on a hilltop. She 45 00:03:03.159 --> 00:03:05.159 scrambled up to take a look and found that a 46 00:03:05.199 --> 00:03:08.840 wide courtyard opened up below, forming the facade of an 47 00:03:08.879 --> 00:03:12.800 underground Orthodox church. Marino soon discovered that she was in 48 00:03:12.840 --> 00:03:18.680 an Opal mining outpost called kuber Peti. After a gold 49 00:03:18.719 --> 00:03:22.159 prospector discovered an Opal in the area in nineteen fifteen, 50 00:03:22.800 --> 00:03:26.000 miners flocked to the region to cash in. When soldiers 51 00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:29.080 returning from World War One joined the craze, they began 52 00:03:29.159 --> 00:03:32.680 living in dugouts excavated from the hillsides to escape the 53 00:03:32.800 --> 00:03:36.680 extreme daytime temperatures. It was a novel idea that stuck, 54 00:03:36.759 --> 00:03:40.039 and today much of the community of two thousand lives underground. 55 00:03:40.599 --> 00:03:43.520 The people there are so deeply connected to their environment. 56 00:03:43.599 --> 00:03:47.439 Marino says she stayed for a month, captivated by the 57 00:03:47.479 --> 00:03:50.840 unusual way of life. The practice of humans living in 58 00:03:50.919 --> 00:03:54.319 caves dates back millions of years to when our early 59 00:03:54.400 --> 00:03:59.319 African ancestors began taking refuge in underground caverns. Over time, 60 00:03:59.360 --> 00:04:02.360 they became more than that. As people added rock art 61 00:04:02.439 --> 00:04:07.879 and held communal ceremonies, they became homes. After visiting kuber Peti, 62 00:04:08.439 --> 00:04:12.080 Marino realized that in some places this ancient lifestyle still indoors. 63 00:04:12.840 --> 00:04:16.399 Exactly how robust these communities are is hard to quantify. 64 00:04:17.040 --> 00:04:19.759 In the early two thousand, some thirty to forty million 65 00:04:19.759 --> 00:04:24.560 people lived underground in Yaodong homes carved into the hillsides 66 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:29.000 of shang Si Province in central China, but according to 67 00:04:29.040 --> 00:04:32.680 a twenty ten estimate, that number has fallen to around 68 00:04:32.680 --> 00:04:37.399 three million as the population urbanized. Some communities have abandoned 69 00:04:37.439 --> 00:04:41.720 their subterranean homes entirely. In the thirteen hundreds, the Dogon 70 00:04:41.839 --> 00:04:46.639 people lived in caves along the Bandiagara Cliffs in Mali 71 00:04:47.040 --> 00:04:50.560 to escape religious conquests and slave raiders, but over the 72 00:04:50.600 --> 00:04:54.360 centuries the threats receded, and they abandoned their rocky abodes 73 00:04:54.680 --> 00:04:58.879 and moved into villages in the valley. Whatever the taily, 74 00:04:59.000 --> 00:05:03.000 its clear, underground living is becoming increasingly rare. Over the 75 00:05:03.040 --> 00:05:06.040 past two years, Marino traveled the world to seek out 76 00:05:06.040 --> 00:05:09.920 the remaining practitioners of this dwindling way of life to 77 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:15.160 discover the advantages of their enduring tradition provides. The subterranean 78 00:05:15.199 --> 00:05:19.360 world is a continuous lesson in sustainability and circular economy, 79 00:05:19.480 --> 00:05:25.160 says Pietro Louriano, a climate focused architect and UNESCO consultant 80 00:05:25.199 --> 00:05:29.240 who studied cave populations. It also teaches us a different 81 00:05:29.240 --> 00:05:33.560 symbolic relationship with space. Today, we have forgotten the importance 82 00:05:33.600 --> 00:05:37.199 of the hidden, the unseen, the underground, and indeed, from 83 00:05:37.240 --> 00:05:40.720 a small pocket of Mormon fundamentalists in Utah to a 84 00:05:40.759 --> 00:05:43.959 town of more than three thousand in southern Spain, Marino 85 00:05:44.040 --> 00:05:47.600 found that while life in these communities seems more precarious 86 00:05:47.600 --> 00:05:50.560 than ever, they have much to teach us about human 87 00:05:50.759 --> 00:05:57.800 ingenuity and resilience. The holdouts staying cool as Tunisia heats 88 00:05:57.879 --> 00:06:02.600 up for thousands of years. The Imazigen, also known as 89 00:06:02.600 --> 00:06:06.160 berbers in southern Tunisia have built their homes by chiseling 90 00:06:06.199 --> 00:06:09.600 into the low slung sandstone hill sides that run through 91 00:06:09.639 --> 00:06:13.000 the wide plains of the Sahara. These cave shelters offered 92 00:06:13.040 --> 00:06:17.000 a cool escape from the searing heat and harsh desert winds. 93 00:06:17.680 --> 00:06:20.240 Then the national government suggested there might be a better 94 00:06:20.279 --> 00:06:23.319 way to live. It all started when Tunisia gained a 95 00:06:23.360 --> 00:06:27.279 dependence from France in nineteen fifty six, and the new president, 96 00:06:27.439 --> 00:06:33.120 tabib Bourg Burguiba began pushing for the country to modernize, 97 00:06:33.160 --> 00:06:38.519 which meant moving cave dwelling imbazigen into government built housing 98 00:06:38.680 --> 00:06:42.839 above ground. The people were promised cheap running water and electricity, 99 00:06:43.120 --> 00:06:46.279 though many who re located soon found that wasn't the case. 100 00:06:46.759 --> 00:06:51.079 They lied to us, says Slimen ben Masoud, a seventy 101 00:06:51.160 --> 00:06:53.600 year old who was born in a cave but moved 102 00:06:53.600 --> 00:06:55.959 to one of the government settlements in the nineteen seventies. 103 00:06:56.319 --> 00:06:59.160 They took everything from me and gave me nothing in return. 104 00:07:00.079 --> 00:07:04.439 Other attempts at relocation have been somewhat more successful. After 105 00:07:04.480 --> 00:07:09.360 a flood destroyed many of the homes around Matmat, Matmata 106 00:07:09.399 --> 00:07:13.680 and Hadej in nineteen sixty nine, residents were offered land 107 00:07:13.680 --> 00:07:17.560 at nearby Nu Matmata for three dnurs a dollar a 108 00:07:17.600 --> 00:07:20.560 square meter. For many, it was an offer too good 109 00:07:20.560 --> 00:07:23.120 to pass up. To day, there is one main road 110 00:07:23.199 --> 00:07:26.720 through the town, lined by a string of packed coffee shops, 111 00:07:26.759 --> 00:07:30.000 a butcher, and an arcade with a few gaming consoles 112 00:07:30.040 --> 00:07:33.519 set up in front of flat screen televisions. But the 113 00:07:33.560 --> 00:07:36.560 town still fails to address the one problem the cave 114 00:07:36.720 --> 00:07:41.000 homes solved thousands of years ago. The heat. Tunisia, like 115 00:07:41.120 --> 00:07:42.879 much of the rest of the world, is heating up 116 00:07:42.920 --> 00:07:46.319 at an alarming rate, and temperatures are expected to rise 117 00:07:46.360 --> 00:07:49.600 by as much as eleven point seven degrees fahrenheit by 118 00:07:49.639 --> 00:07:52.600 the end of the century. You could have brought modernity 119 00:07:52.720 --> 00:07:55.839 to our traditions, but you can't do the opposite, says 120 00:07:55.920 --> 00:08:00.600 Ali Khayel fifty nine at his empty roadside cafe, staring 121 00:08:00.639 --> 00:08:03.839 out over the moonscape of Hadej, where he was one 122 00:08:03.879 --> 00:08:06.639 of more than a thousand people born and raised in 123 00:08:06.720 --> 00:08:09.920 the hundreds of cave homes on the valley floor. He 124 00:08:10.040 --> 00:08:12.480 remembers how when he was a child, the smell of 125 00:08:12.519 --> 00:08:15.480 food drifted between the caves, which would house two or 126 00:08:15.480 --> 00:08:18.199 three families each people started to move away in the 127 00:08:18.279 --> 00:08:21.680 nineteen seventies, and the area has been abandoned since the 128 00:08:21.720 --> 00:08:26.360 nineteen nineties. Khayal says that the state never contemplated protecting 129 00:08:26.399 --> 00:08:28.720 his way of life, and many of those who moved 130 00:08:28.720 --> 00:08:31.720 out of the caves came to regret it. Those who 131 00:08:31.720 --> 00:08:35.240 have stayed have found clever ways to meld the benefits 132 00:08:35.240 --> 00:08:38.639 of their ancient homes with modern living. Eight miles from 133 00:08:38.720 --> 00:08:43.600 Niu Matmata, the ham Ha'amdi family live in five rooms 134 00:08:43.679 --> 00:08:48.440 dug deep into the sandstone hillside of Beni Aissa. Their home, 135 00:08:48.639 --> 00:08:51.080 one of just a dozen or so occupied in the town, 136 00:08:51.639 --> 00:08:55.440 is accessed via an above ground brick foyer that bakes 137 00:08:55.480 --> 00:08:58.799 in the Saharan sun, but the living areas beyond are 138 00:08:58.799 --> 00:09:03.159 comfortable and cool. A complex system of water channels and 139 00:09:03.200 --> 00:09:07.759 walkways engineered over centuries connects the two dozen homes, poked 140 00:09:07.919 --> 00:09:11.519 across the desert. When it rains, the channel's flood gardens 141 00:09:11.559 --> 00:09:15.919 of palm, almond, and olive trees. Inside the aha AMI's 142 00:09:16.519 --> 00:09:21.000 house looks much like any other twenty first century Tunisian home. 143 00:09:21.519 --> 00:09:24.279 The walls of a small pantry are adorned with shallots 144 00:09:24.320 --> 00:09:27.120 and garlic. The flooras in the main living areas are 145 00:09:27.159 --> 00:09:32.000 lined with pillows and throw rugs. When eldest son Salem twenty, 146 00:09:32.080 --> 00:09:34.679 hooks up his phone to a copper antenna, the cave 147 00:09:35.039 --> 00:09:39.240 as Petchy internet and Laylah fifteen, the youngest daughter, can 148 00:09:39.279 --> 00:09:43.679 record tik tok videos in a whitewashed store room. Grandfather 149 00:09:43.759 --> 00:09:47.080 Ali seventy three, the family's oldest member, was born in 150 00:09:47.120 --> 00:09:50.000 the cave and has lost count of how many generations 151 00:09:50.039 --> 00:09:52.720 came before him. I will never leave here, he says. 152 00:09:53.279 --> 00:09:57.879 Leila and Salem aren't thinking of leaving either. They're making 153 00:09:57.919 --> 00:10:02.679 plans to dig further into the forous rock, the tribe 154 00:10:02.720 --> 00:10:06.720 preserving a connection to the land. The city of Petra 155 00:10:06.879 --> 00:10:09.480 was carved into the sandstone cliffs and canyons of the 156 00:10:09.559 --> 00:10:13.159 Jordanian desert over two thousand years ago as the dazzling 157 00:10:13.279 --> 00:10:17.320 trading capital of the Nabatean Empire, but for more than 158 00:10:17.320 --> 00:10:22.279 two centuries Bedouin have called its labyrinth of catacomb's passageways 159 00:10:22.279 --> 00:10:26.440 and chambers their home. It was a bucolic and pastoral existence. 160 00:10:26.519 --> 00:10:29.960 The slopes below the royal tomb were used for agriculture, 161 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:33.480 and the tribe herded their goats through the long canyon 162 00:10:33.559 --> 00:10:36.279 into the city. It was the perfect spot until the 163 00:10:36.320 --> 00:10:40.240 nineteen seventies, when the Jordanian government made plans to convert 164 00:10:40.240 --> 00:10:44.720 the site into an archaeological tourist attraction. King Hussain bin 165 00:10:44.879 --> 00:10:48.679 Tellal brokered an agreement for the one hundred forty Bedouin 166 00:10:48.720 --> 00:10:53.600 families to leave, and officials built towns nearby to house them. Essentially, 167 00:10:53.600 --> 00:10:57.480 it was justified as preservation of the monuments, as well 168 00:10:57.519 --> 00:11:02.840 as establishing new employment and subsist distants opportunities, says Michael Vile, 169 00:11:03.120 --> 00:11:07.159 a professor of ethnology at the University of Copenhagen and 170 00:11:07.279 --> 00:11:11.720 author of Being Bedouin Around Petra. By nineteen eighty five, 171 00:11:11.840 --> 00:11:14.399 most of the tribe had vacated the ancient city, and 172 00:11:14.480 --> 00:11:18.440 Petra was named a World Heritage Site. The Bedouin who remained, 173 00:11:18.480 --> 00:11:21.360 some one hundred twenty of them, were moved from the 174 00:11:21.399 --> 00:11:25.840 main archeological areas to a peripheral valley, where tribe members 175 00:11:26.080 --> 00:11:29.000 have made use of whatever space they could find. What 176 00:11:29.080 --> 00:11:32.759 were once Nabataean tombs have become store rooms and ancient 177 00:11:32.799 --> 00:11:37.480 halls now house tractors, pickup trucks and camels. Rya who 178 00:11:37.559 --> 00:11:42.679 sign Suleiman Samahin was born in the royal tomb when 179 00:11:42.759 --> 00:11:46.240 her tribe had free reign over Petra. Now aged ninety, 180 00:11:46.320 --> 00:11:48.759 she lives in a row of caves cut into the 181 00:11:48.759 --> 00:11:51.440 red rock of the adjoining valley. A kitchen with a 182 00:11:51.480 --> 00:11:55.480 wide fire pit and blackened walls, a bedroom dimly lit 183 00:11:55.519 --> 00:11:59.039 by lights powered from a solar panel, and a wardrobe 184 00:11:59.080 --> 00:12:01.919 cave or. Her clothes and scarves are hung on a 185 00:12:01.960 --> 00:12:06.960 string suspended between two juniper tree branches on a dusty 186 00:12:07.039 --> 00:12:10.600 hilltop several miles from the valley. The government recently built 187 00:12:10.600 --> 00:12:16.120 a modern village with the intention of rehoming Petra's remaining residents. 188 00:12:16.120 --> 00:12:18.639 Some cave dwellers are ready for a new way of life. 189 00:12:19.039 --> 00:12:24.240 Haniya Suliman Ali Samahen, thirty seven, wants her eight children 190 00:12:24.320 --> 00:12:27.279 to be closer to the school and have permittent access 191 00:12:27.279 --> 00:12:30.360 to fresh water, which currently trickles out of a tap 192 00:12:30.759 --> 00:12:35.120 on the valley floor just once every three or four days. Others, though, 193 00:12:35.159 --> 00:12:38.360 will never leave Petra for life of concrete and modernity. 194 00:12:38.960 --> 00:12:42.200 We like the open airs, as eighteen year old Suliman Samahin, 195 00:12:42.679 --> 00:12:46.279 the nature and the freedom as the sun sets. Suleiman's 196 00:12:46.320 --> 00:12:49.679 mother sits on a stone slab outside her cave home, 197 00:12:50.039 --> 00:12:53.720 tending to a fire nearby, Suliman and his brother's cook 198 00:12:54.080 --> 00:12:57.600 mansaf a traditional dish of lamb and yogurt in a 199 00:12:57.679 --> 00:13:01.840 sand filled pit that once held nabatan wine. When nightfalls, 200 00:13:01.840 --> 00:13:05.120 the family will lie outside on mattresses and animal pelts 201 00:13:05.200 --> 00:13:08.559 underneath the stars. Taking the bedouin out of Petra is 202 00:13:08.639 --> 00:13:11.519 like taking the spice out of a dish, says Raya. 203 00:13:11.720 --> 00:13:17.840 Your left with nothing a home for the homeless, the 204 00:13:17.919 --> 00:13:21.080 cave vet Ha Koma has always been a place of 205 00:13:21.159 --> 00:13:24.919 last resort. In the early nineteenth century, a Basotho chief 206 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:29.279 named Koma led his tribe into the Melati Mountains, fleeing 207 00:13:29.320 --> 00:13:32.120 a period of war that displaced millions of people throughout 208 00:13:32.200 --> 00:13:36.440 Southern Africa and led to countless deaths. Komi came across 209 00:13:36.440 --> 00:13:40.000 a vast east facing cave surrounded by steep valleys and 210 00:13:40.120 --> 00:13:44.000 mountainous plateaus, and set up camp. The location was strategic 211 00:13:44.080 --> 00:13:49.039 for security reasons during those times, says Joshua Chaikawa, a 212 00:13:49.080 --> 00:13:52.240 senior lecturer in the Department of Historical Studies at the 213 00:13:52.320 --> 00:13:56.559 National University of Lisoto. Members of Komi's tribe, he said, 214 00:13:56.840 --> 00:14:00.320 were able to shield themselves and critically their livestock from 215 00:14:00.399 --> 00:14:05.039 the violence. Eventually, the tribe built individual homes within the 216 00:14:05.120 --> 00:14:10.279 Kahoma Cave, molding six foot high domed huts from stick's 217 00:14:10.360 --> 00:14:15.279 mud and during done before smearing orange clay around the 218 00:14:15.320 --> 00:14:21.440 low doorways. Locals dubbed the cave the Mahalapana or palette, 219 00:14:21.600 --> 00:14:24.679 imagining it as a huge open mouth. At the turn 220 00:14:24.720 --> 00:14:27.600 of the twenty first century, thirty three of Come's tribal 221 00:14:27.879 --> 00:14:31.000 descendants still lived in the huts beneath the rock. Over 222 00:14:31.039 --> 00:14:33.440 the past two decades, nearly everyone has moved to a 223 00:14:33.480 --> 00:14:37.000 cinder block village constructed on the bed rock above the cave, 224 00:14:37.480 --> 00:14:40.240 where the homes are basic but provide little comforts like 225 00:14:40.279 --> 00:14:43.600 glass windows, and are more pleasant than the huts within 226 00:14:43.799 --> 00:14:47.919 a cave. But the mahalapan is still a place of 227 00:14:48.080 --> 00:14:52.639 refuge and security for those in need. Ne Fane net 228 00:14:52.639 --> 00:14:55.720 Fane and forty one year old farmer can't afford to 229 00:14:55.720 --> 00:14:57.639 build a home in the village, so he lives in 230 00:14:57.679 --> 00:15:00.320 the cave, sleeping on a bundle of animal skins and 231 00:15:00.519 --> 00:15:05.240 washing his clothes in the Thutiyatsana River, which flows past 232 00:15:05.279 --> 00:15:07.759 the cave's mouth. He sweeps the dust out of his 233 00:15:07.799 --> 00:15:10.519 house with a straw room and shovels it into a 234 00:15:10.559 --> 00:15:13.879 small fire grate, where an old teapot sits over the flames. 235 00:15:14.480 --> 00:15:16.919 Inside he is a few empty candle holders set on 236 00:15:16.960 --> 00:15:19.919 a shelf in the corner, and three leather suitcases are 237 00:15:19.960 --> 00:15:24.960 stacked beside buckets and wash bowls. Adjacent is Sebastian kuts 238 00:15:25.440 --> 00:15:28.320 Sane fifty eight, who is using the one room hut 239 00:15:28.360 --> 00:15:31.159 where he raised his children. It's a quick solution to 240 00:15:31.200 --> 00:15:34.320 a temporary problem. His daughter in law is bidding visiting 241 00:15:34.360 --> 00:15:37.440 from South Africa, and he's given her and her family 242 00:15:37.519 --> 00:15:40.720 his home in the village. The men wake each morning 243 00:15:40.720 --> 00:15:44.080 with the sunrise as copper pink light bathes the rock. 244 00:15:44.519 --> 00:15:47.919 The only shade comes from a la Kassi tree, a 245 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:51.200 variety of wild peach, which, according to local lore, was 246 00:15:51.240 --> 00:15:55.639 planted two centuries ago by Komme to ward off lightning strikes. 247 00:15:55.679 --> 00:15:59.600 Soon Kuanes daughter in law will head back to South 248 00:15:59.600 --> 00:16:03.000 Africa and he'll move up to the village, and Netafane 249 00:16:03.200 --> 00:16:05.399 says he'll build a house of his own when he 250 00:16:05.440 --> 00:16:08.639 can afford it. Until then, they do with their home 251 00:16:09.039 --> 00:16:14.320 beneath the metal pane the dwelling that checks all the boxes. 252 00:16:14.919 --> 00:16:19.200 The volcanic landscape of Cappadocia in central Turkey has eroded 253 00:16:19.240 --> 00:16:23.399 over millennia to form mountain ridges, sandstone valleys, and rows 254 00:16:23.440 --> 00:16:28.360 of gaudisque cones that the tourism industry likes to call 255 00:16:28.440 --> 00:16:32.240 fairy chimneys. Over four thousand years, humans too have carved 256 00:16:32.279 --> 00:16:36.200 the porous rock, excavating a warren of caves, tunnels, and passages. 257 00:16:36.799 --> 00:16:40.080 Among two hundred five thousand acres of archaeological sites in 258 00:16:40.120 --> 00:16:45.480 the region, there are dozens of abandoned underground cities. One, Kamakli, 259 00:16:45.679 --> 00:16:48.799 is over four thousand years old and extends eight stories 260 00:16:49.080 --> 00:16:53.799 below ground, complete with stables and wine cellars. Another, during Cuyu, 261 00:16:54.320 --> 00:16:57.440 was vast enough to have housed twenty thousand people at once. 262 00:16:58.320 --> 00:17:01.360 While these larger archaeological trees measures haven't been occupied in 263 00:17:01.440 --> 00:17:04.519 more than a hundred years, many of the individual homes 264 00:17:04.799 --> 00:17:08.200 carved into the area's rocks are still in use. Okte 265 00:17:08.240 --> 00:17:12.680 seventy two and Hanifa Torun sixty four have lived in 266 00:17:12.720 --> 00:17:16.039 their cave home in the hill top town of Ortahisar 267 00:17:16.480 --> 00:17:19.359 since their wedding day more than four decades ago. They 268 00:17:19.400 --> 00:17:22.119 are one of maybe ten families left living full time 269 00:17:22.160 --> 00:17:24.839 in a cave in all of Cappadocia, and they love 270 00:17:24.880 --> 00:17:28.160 it for a simple reason. It satisfies all their needs. 271 00:17:28.559 --> 00:17:31.960 The home has plumbing and electricity, The living room stays 272 00:17:31.960 --> 00:17:35.319 warm enough in winter, while the adjoining storage room, separated 273 00:17:35.359 --> 00:17:38.960 by a thick rock wall, maintains a stable cool temperature 274 00:17:39.119 --> 00:17:41.720 that allows them to eat summer crops all year round. 275 00:17:42.519 --> 00:17:47.440 Rows of ampheri hold bulgar and lentils harvested five seasons ago, 276 00:17:47.559 --> 00:17:51.079 and walnuts and fresh fruit are stacked on silver trays. 277 00:17:52.279 --> 00:17:55.119 While the Torans have always seen the value in their 278 00:17:55.160 --> 00:17:57.599 cave home, the rest of the world has started to 279 00:17:57.640 --> 00:18:01.480 take notice. Two nearly five million people visited Cappadocia in 280 00:18:01.519 --> 00:18:05.480 twenty twenty three. This tourist boom has prompted many locals 281 00:18:05.720 --> 00:18:08.599 to convert their cave homes into shops and hotels, and 282 00:18:08.720 --> 00:18:12.880 ancient storehouses into underground restaurants and bars. Recently, one of 283 00:18:12.920 --> 00:18:17.119 the turn's neighbors sold his cave to hotel developers, leaving 284 00:18:17.119 --> 00:18:20.880 the couple completely surrounded by tourism projects. Now, when they 285 00:18:20.920 --> 00:18:23.640 duck into their cave, they're met with a low throb 286 00:18:23.680 --> 00:18:26.240 of a drill shaking the floor and trails of fine 287 00:18:26.319 --> 00:18:32.200 dust dropping from the ceiling. Oktay and Hanif's son, Refat 288 00:18:32.240 --> 00:18:35.000 forty five, grew up playing hide and seek in the 289 00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:39.240 maze of carved churches and catacombs beneath the family home. Now, 290 00:18:39.480 --> 00:18:43.279 like almost everyone here, he works in the hospitality industry, 291 00:18:43.599 --> 00:18:46.720 driving visitors from all over the world from one attraction 292 00:18:46.839 --> 00:18:50.119 to the next. The steady advance of tourism in or 293 00:18:50.200 --> 00:18:53.960 Tahisar is likely to force the foam the family out 294 00:18:54.319 --> 00:18:56.720 before too long. If we have to leave, we will 295 00:18:56.759 --> 00:18:59.400 sell everything and end up living just like everybody else. 296 00:19:00.319 --> 00:19:04.359 Hanifa tears welling in her eyes. Many of those who've 297 00:19:04.359 --> 00:19:07.440 moved out of the caves around Cappadocia have ended up 298 00:19:07.480 --> 00:19:11.880 in the city of Niveshir, where squat apartment blocks with 299 00:19:11.920 --> 00:19:16.440 double glazed windows and enclosed balconies, crowded basketball courts and shops. 300 00:19:16.960 --> 00:19:20.319 Living in an apartment is like a jail, says Hanif, 301 00:19:20.640 --> 00:19:23.359 as she rushes about her house, filling bowls with fruit 302 00:19:23.680 --> 00:19:26.759 and vegetables from the store rooms, while she skins a 303 00:19:26.759 --> 00:19:30.319 plate of green onions onto a tray fresh milk from 304 00:19:30.359 --> 00:19:33.359 the families. Two cows bubbles on a stove to make cheese. 305 00:19:33.599 --> 00:19:35.480 When I open the door, I need to breathe fresh 306 00:19:35.480 --> 00:19:39.680 air and see the valley next. The future of data 307 00:19:39.759 --> 00:19:47.279 storage is DNA by Diana Marcus and Patricia Heally. Eons ago, 308 00:19:47.400 --> 00:19:51.720 evolution invented DNA to store vast quantities of information. Now 309 00:19:51.759 --> 00:19:54.839 scientists think a similar technology could offer a solution to 310 00:19:54.880 --> 00:19:59.359 our fast growing data storage dilemma. The world produces a 311 00:19:59.400 --> 00:20:02.799 tremendous mane out of data, some four hundred billion gigabytes 312 00:20:02.799 --> 00:20:06.240 every day, a number that's increasing rapidly. Most of it 313 00:20:06.319 --> 00:20:08.319 is stored in the cloud, which is a pretty word 314 00:20:08.359 --> 00:20:11.559 for a network of millions of computer servers in air 315 00:20:11.559 --> 00:20:15.720 conditioned warehouses that transfer and save our data to cassettes 316 00:20:15.759 --> 00:20:19.279 of magnetic tape. But the cloud demands huge amounts of 317 00:20:19.279 --> 00:20:22.400 space and energy and has heavy impacts on the environment. 318 00:20:22.839 --> 00:20:26.480 The magnetic tape also degrades, needs to be recopied, and 319 00:20:26.559 --> 00:20:31.039 requires frequent updates. Enter DNA, the tiny molecule that stores 320 00:20:31.079 --> 00:20:34.279 our genetic information. Scientists have come up with a way 321 00:20:34.319 --> 00:20:38.960 to mimic DNA artificially to meet our escalating data storage needs. 322 00:20:39.559 --> 00:20:42.559 The secret lies in translating binary code of ones and 323 00:20:42.680 --> 00:20:46.440 zeros into the chemical bases that make up our genetic code. 324 00:20:46.880 --> 00:20:50.200 As the future of innovation will require massively more data, 325 00:20:50.599 --> 00:20:53.319 we will need more sustainable ways to store it. This 326 00:20:53.440 --> 00:20:56.480 novel solution takes up almost no space and can last 327 00:20:56.559 --> 00:21:00.480 for millennia, keeping human knowledge safer than ever. Will it 328 00:21:00.559 --> 00:21:04.519 totally replace the cloud, not yet. For now, the technology 329 00:21:04.720 --> 00:21:07.599 is being developed for long term storage of things we 330 00:21:07.680 --> 00:21:12.440 don't frequently access, think medical records or library archives. But 331 00:21:12.519 --> 00:21:15.640 costs and processing times are going down and experts are 332 00:21:15.640 --> 00:21:19.240 working on scaling the technology. The revolution is expected to 333 00:21:19.319 --> 00:21:22.920 accelerate over the next decade, upending data storage as we 334 00:21:23.000 --> 00:21:27.599 know it. How DNA storage works, scientists and engineers can 335 00:21:27.759 --> 00:21:31.319 convert entire libraries into microscopic threads with the help of 336 00:21:31.359 --> 00:21:35.200 specialized laboratory equipment. Here, they build the word hello into 337 00:21:35.240 --> 00:21:38.079 a strand of DNA and then turn it back into letters, 338 00:21:39.039 --> 00:21:43.640 encoding bits into bases. Computer store each letter or pixel 339 00:21:43.680 --> 00:21:48.039 of digital data in combinations of ones and zeros. Algorithms, 340 00:21:48.079 --> 00:21:51.759 then convert them into combinations of the four letters representing 341 00:21:51.920 --> 00:21:57.440 DNA's chemical bases THAA, G, and C. Building a DNA 342 00:21:57.519 --> 00:22:02.519 strand compounds called nuclear leotides that contain these DNA bases 343 00:22:02.599 --> 00:22:05.880 are in a solution of chemicals or enzymes and bond 344 00:22:05.920 --> 00:22:10.240 together to build a strand. Long term archiving. A strand 345 00:22:10.319 --> 00:22:12.880 can then be kept in a sealed vile glass bead 346 00:22:13.319 --> 00:22:17.039 or even synthetic bone for preservation. DNA is stable if 347 00:22:17.079 --> 00:22:23.440 stored away from light, water, and hydrogen oxygen. Retrieving files, 348 00:22:23.599 --> 00:22:26.160 One of the several ways to retrieve a specific file 349 00:22:26.240 --> 00:22:28.680 is to send in a probe with a tiny magnet 350 00:22:29.000 --> 00:22:33.559 to attach to its ID tag another magnet that extracts 351 00:22:33.680 --> 00:22:39.039 the tagged file reading DNA. After retrieval, strands that make 352 00:22:39.119 --> 00:22:42.640 up a file are read via variety of methods, including 353 00:22:42.640 --> 00:22:45.119 the two shown at right that revealed the order of 354 00:22:45.160 --> 00:22:50.200 the bases, turning DNA back into data. The algorithms that 355 00:22:50.279 --> 00:22:54.599 initially converted digital bits into DNA bases reverse the operation, 356 00:22:54.799 --> 00:22:59.400 converting archived information back to digital ones and zeros, and 357 00:22:59.440 --> 00:23:04.119 then back in next. Extreme Birding at the Edge of 358 00:23:04.119 --> 00:23:09.319 the World by Tom Kleins how an abandoned military station 359 00:23:09.400 --> 00:23:13.680 in Alaska became an unlikely hotspot for sea bird research 360 00:23:14.079 --> 00:23:17.200 and approving ground for the young scientists who spend their 361 00:23:17.240 --> 00:23:23.119 summers there. For decades. Middleton Island was little more than 362 00:23:23.160 --> 00:23:27.200 a forgotten outpost, a flat sliver of land battered by 363 00:23:27.240 --> 00:23:29.799 the restless winds and waters of the Gulf of Alaska. 364 00:23:30.119 --> 00:23:32.359 In the late nineteen fifties, the U. S. Air Force 365 00:23:32.640 --> 00:23:35.839 built a radar station on the remote island to scan 366 00:23:35.960 --> 00:23:39.119 the skies for Soviet bombers during the Cold War. The 367 00:23:39.160 --> 00:23:43.519 facility was shuttered just seven years later, its squat buildings 368 00:23:43.559 --> 00:23:47.519 and steel towers left to rust. Today, the qualities that 369 00:23:47.680 --> 00:23:52.480 made Middleton perfect for military surveillance isolation, bird's eye views, 370 00:23:52.880 --> 00:23:55.920 and the absence of human distraction have made it ideal 371 00:23:56.000 --> 00:23:59.519 for a new kind of outpost. Amid the dilapidated Air 372 00:23:59.559 --> 00:24:03.559 Force structures. Small crews of scientists arrive each summer by 373 00:24:03.640 --> 00:24:07.519 air taxi to turn this ghostly military complex into a 374 00:24:07.559 --> 00:24:12.319 frontline research station for seabird science. Where radar once scanned 375 00:24:12.359 --> 00:24:17.279 the skies, cameras now monitor nests where airman once stood 376 00:24:17.319 --> 00:24:23.559 guard researchers peer through observation ports, studying the delicate interplay 377 00:24:23.599 --> 00:24:26.759 between marine life and climate, using birds as a window 378 00:24:26.880 --> 00:24:31.559 into ocean health. Birds are a barometer, says wildlife biologists 379 00:24:31.559 --> 00:24:35.640 Scott Hatch, who founded and directs the Institute for seabird 380 00:24:35.799 --> 00:24:40.799 research and conservation. Sea birds, particularly kittiwakes, are sensitive to 381 00:24:40.920 --> 00:24:44.559 environmental changes, so they reflect the conditions and health of 382 00:24:45.039 --> 00:24:49.880 ocean ecosystems. Hatch first visited Middleton in nineteen seventy eight 383 00:24:50.319 --> 00:24:54.200 with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and started the ISRC, 384 00:24:54.440 --> 00:24:59.039 which partners with universities to run the monitoring program in 385 00:24:59.039 --> 00:25:03.079 two thousand and nine. Changing ocean temperatures and currents can 386 00:25:03.079 --> 00:25:06.480 reduce fish populations, making it harder for birds to find 387 00:25:06.519 --> 00:25:10.599 food and successfully raise chicks. When food is scarce, birds 388 00:25:10.680 --> 00:25:15.559 reproductive rates decline. Because sea birds accumulate pollutants like plastics, 389 00:25:15.839 --> 00:25:18.799 heavy metals, and oil as they eat and preen, they 390 00:25:18.799 --> 00:25:24.400 are useful indicators of contamination levels in marine ecosystems. Like 391 00:25:24.599 --> 00:25:28.039 the birds they study. Graduate students and other budding scientists 392 00:25:28.400 --> 00:25:31.480 arrive at this avian crossroads from different parts of the world. 393 00:25:31.880 --> 00:25:35.039 Drawn by the opportunity to explore the mysteries of sea 394 00:25:35.079 --> 00:25:39.799 bird behavior and ecology under nearly twenty four hours of daylight. 395 00:25:40.039 --> 00:25:43.839 Researchers immerse themselves in the demanding work of documenting the 396 00:25:43.880 --> 00:25:47.119 lives of birds and piecing together the deeper story of 397 00:25:47.160 --> 00:25:51.880 the forces shaping life in Earth's oceans. The centerpiece of 398 00:25:51.920 --> 00:25:55.440 the research is the old radar tower, repurposed as a 399 00:25:55.480 --> 00:25:59.440 one of a kind's sea bird observatory. In nineteen ninety three, 400 00:25:59.599 --> 00:26:02.640 Hatchet and his growing team began to outfit the tower 401 00:26:02.720 --> 00:26:07.960