WILLIAM SHATNER:
Dogs that can detect
deadly diseases. Birds that can
escape disasters... days before they occur. And horses that
actually have the ability to read our minds. Are humans really the kings of the animal kingdom? We'd like to believe we are. After all, we have language, create art... music... and have invented
incredible technologies. But what about animals? Some of them have
abilities that make us seem primitive by comparison. And not only don't we
possess those abilities, we don't even understand
how they work. Well, that is... what we'll try and find out. ♪ For centuries, mankind has had a unique
relationship with horses. A horse and its rider can
often form a unique bond... so strong that they eventually
become attuned to each other's wants and needs. And there are those,
who like myself, spend so much time around horses that they start
to ask themselves... can this animal actually read my mind? From the famed Mongol riders
of Genghis Khan... to the charging cavalries
of the American Civil War, horses have long been
a powerful force in combat. Horses have a unique combination of strength and speed that we don't see
in other animals. Their muscles are massive. The bones of the spine,
along the back, the upper leg bones
are fairly strong, so their super structure
is pretty substantial. And the horse's heart
and the horse's lungs are relatively large compared to other animals. So they are doing things that no other animal can do, because no other animal is built as big with such fine tolerance. Horses, because they have these
precocious physical abilities, become the central part
of so many different empires'
movement into history. In modern times,
horses are associated with the Wild West frontier. They're associated with
the indigenous peoples, who were master horsemen. And this is
a good example of how horses and humans
bond endlessly. SHATNER:
But as people who train and ride horses will tell you,
it isn't only the horse's strength and speed that makes it so unique. It is their incredible ability to form an almost
psychic connection... with humans. The United States Marines
unveil a statue dedicated to a Korean War hero who earned two Purple Hearts
for her service. But this was no ordinary hero. This hero... -was a horse.
-(applause and cheering) Sergeant Reckless
was a Mongolian mare, who in the Korean War,
became a legend. She would live
in the infantry camp, and they would let her run free, and she would walk around. But then she became most notable because of the Battle
of Outpost Vegas, where she made 51
unaccompanied trips to the front lines and back, carrying ammunition,
carrying wounded soldiers back. And not being led by people. One of the special qualities
she had was to become close to the men,
and she took many chances alone, without humans. It's one of the finest examples
of the human-horse bond. She was very bonded to the
individuals whom she was working with and thus went
beyond the call of duty. And that is what makes her
one of the great, great horses in history. SHATNER:
A horse courageously
charging into battle carrying wounded men
on her back... by herself? And without a rider? Is it possible that Sergeant
Reckless knew what she was needed to do because she
could read the soldiers' minds? There are many horse owners
and trainers who believe the notion is not
as far-fetched as it sounds. A lot of people will say that
horses mirror the people that they're with and I
think there is a lot to that. Horses don't put
themselves first. They put themselves as part of a group,
as part of a... a group of horses
or a group of horse riders. If a horse has
a bond to the human, the horse is constantly getting
communication from the human, whether it's
our heartbeat racing, whether it's our
facial expressions, whether it's our breath. They're very sensitive to their
environment and to verbal cues. And so that may be why people
thought it was telepathic at that time because they
weren't aware of the sensitivity of a horse
to its environment. And in the sensitivity
of a horse to pick up on the cues
that humans give off. SHATNER:
Was Sergeant Reckless
guided by training? Instinct? Or some kind
of strange telepathy? In her case, we may never know, as Reckless passed away in 1968. And although urbanization has
made interaction between horses and humans an increasingly
rare occurrence, there is at least one area
where the unique bond between the two species can
be more closely investigated... JOAN BLANK:
That's really good. SHATNER:
...equine therapy. You're very thorough. I love it. (laughs) I describe
equine therapy as a way to use horses to help people that need physical or emotional assistance. There you go, perfect. When a human adult, for example,
is in a stress situation, horses know this. Horses are excellent
at securing our trust. And in a therapy situation,
that is ideal for letting the human begin to express
himself or herself -as much as possible.
-Now throw your leg over. And like a cowboy, perfect! SHATNER:
Today, 15% of United States
military veterans return home with post-traumatic
stress disorder, known as PTSD. Symptoms may include everything
from insomnia to psychosis. Fortunately, organizations such
as Dream Catcher of Los Angeles have proven effective
at using equine therapy to ease a veteran's too often difficult transition
back to normal life. BLANK:
Bring your hands forward. There you go. -Walk on.
-BLANK: All right! So Dream Catcher got started
about 11 years ago. What I thought would be
maybe one or two horses became ten and at one point 12, and serving over
200 people a-a week. And with veterans
that come to us with severe trauma, PTSD. Walk, walk on. BLANK:
There you go! The horrors of war
never leave you. For me, it was a combat PTSD. I used to have really
vivid nightmares. I had some substance
abuses years ago. I was lost. ABBIE JOHNSON:
When I got out of the military, Dream Catcher was
the first place I saw, and they welcomed me
with open arms. It was probably
one of the first times since I got out that I felt
like I could trust somebody, even if it was
a thousand-pound horse. I started out with Tristan and he just understood me. We clicked. I think he knew that I could barely be outside by myself without looking behind my back. We started off brushing the
horses and cleaning them up and I feel more pleased
around the horses. I feel like I can be
a little more relaxed, 'cause apparently when you're
a little stressed about it, they tend to sense that
emotion and perhaps also be just as tense, if not more. Whoa! I feel like we've created
some type of little bond. Good job. Good boy. The thing about
equine therapy horses that makes them so good at it, they're tremendous
at picking up cues that we're not even aware of. Horses have a very
wide range of vision, so they can pick up in a 270-degree field
around them. But they'll also note how
that being is approaching them. If it's calm
or if it's aggressive, if it's moving quick. They'll hear, they'll listen. They'll turn their ears
towards whatever it is to try to pick up sounds. Thank you for letting me
ride you. I appreciate you. Did you want to kiss me? You want to get close? PAGE:
We've been shot at, blown up, screamed at. Seen dying brothers
and sisters. I've seen horses take
chances on some veterans that I knew were in some very questionable
psychological states... Josie, how you doing? PAGE:
...so I have to say
that might be God's divinity on how He allows these animals
to interact with us. WALDAU:
They read our body language, and often know what
we're feeling before we do. They know when we're tense,
they know when we're relaxing, they know when we're
breathing differently. So in a colloquial sense
we'd say, "Yes, they can read our mind." SHATNER:
Horses... reading our minds? Anticipating our needs
by sensing our emotions? Could such a profound notion
even be possible? Perhaps the answer can be found
in examining how one animal in particular can possess the ability to know
when a human is dangerously ill... before they do. SHATNER:
47-year-old Stephanie Herfel experiences a sharp pain
in her lower abdomen. She rushes to the hospital, where doctors perform
a series of emergency tests. A few anxious hours later, Stephanie receives
her diagnosis. She has a cyst on her ovaries. According to the doctors,
it is completely harmless. She's sent home
with a prescription for pain medication
and told to rest. But unbeknownst to both
Stephanie and her doctors is a disturbing fact: her condition is far
more serious than anyone knows. I thought, I'll be back to
normal, living my normal life, and that just was not the case. -(Sierra sniffing)
-My Siberian husky Sierra put her nose
on my belly very intently, -and I scolded her.
-(Sierra whines) And she went
and hid in the back closet. And just the expression on her
face really touched at my heart. There was some sort
of connection between the two of us that was
happening in that moment. And I thought,
"Well, maybe I need to follow up with a doctor just to make sure
everything's okay with me." SHATNER:
It was a decision that would
save Stephanie's life, because after she underwent
more tests, it was determined
that what was originally thought to be a benign cyst was actually
stage 3 ovarian cancer. It was just a kind of
a numbing particular moment in my life and very, very dark. And I just kept thinking about what Sierra
had just done for me. DAVID KUSHNER:
Unfortunately,
with ovarian cancer, the symptoms are really subtle,
and they go on for months. So, oftentimes, people will go
from doctor to doctor to doctor
and not get this diagnosed. In her case, that was really
shortened by the fact that her dog had noticed
something wrong. SHATNER:
Stephanie immediately began lifesaving treatment that put her cancer
into remission. But how was it that Sierra was able
to detect Stephanie's cancer when experienced doctors
using sophisticated labs and advanced equipment
missed it? Dogs have an incredible sense
of smell, far beyond the human. They can detect down
to parts per trillion. So what's parts per trillion? If us humans can detect
a spoonful of sugar in a cup of tea, a dog would be
able to detect the equivalent in the volume of water held in two Olympic-sized
swimming pools. Over the last ten to 15 years,
we've understood more and more about cancer,
and the fact that it has its own unique smell of disease. So what we believe
and understand is that dogs are finding different volatile
organic compounds-- VOCs-- that are associated
with these disease changes. TRAVIS TAYLOR:
Volatile organic compounds, often called VOC-- V.O.C.-- are organic molecules that,
in a gaseous form, can make you pass out or make you sick. It could even be deadly,
depending on which VOC it is. And a pet could certainly
smell that. SHATNER:
For Stephanie, it didn't matter where Sierra's cancer-detecting
ability came from. She was just grateful
that it worked. RUPERT SHELDRAKE:
It's hard to understand how Sierra could have done this,
because you can train dogs
to detect cancer, but you have to tell them
what cancer smells like in the first place. And how Sierra could have known
that this was cancer, compared
with all the other smells that every human body emits
is very hard to know. There's another level of things
we don't understand, and I think that Sierra is
tapping into that. -I love you.
-(whines) I love you. If it wasn't for what she did,
I wouldn't be here today. SHATNER:
What allowed an untrained dog like Sierra to detect
potentially fatal cancers? Was it her sense of smell,
as many scientists believe? Or could it have been
an even more powerful and mysterious sixth sense, something humans
don't currently understand? Perhaps the answer can be found
in the extraordinary way a dog remained psychically
connected to its owner long after its owner's death. SHATNER:
For the past six years,
John Gray has patrolled the city's cold, lamplit streets
as a night watchman. And every night, on his rounds,
he's been joined by an extraordinarily faithful
companion: -a Skye terrier named "Bobby."
-(barking) TONY BROONFORD:
Round about 1856, John Gray, or as he was
affectionally known in town, "Auld Jock," uh,
must have got a little dog, a Skye terrier which would
accompany him round about, on his beat, so to speak,
as he walked about town. ROGER EDWARDS:
And over the years, they became
inseparable companions, devoted to each other. After a few years, sadly,
John Gray died, and he was buried
in Greyfriars Kirkyard. BROONFORD:
Now Bobby was a very loyal dog, and Bobby decided to stay
at his master's grave here in Greyfriars Kirkyard. The groundskeepers were
quite annoyed by this, and they did try
to chase him away a few times. However, he was a determined
little dog and stayed here. Bobby became very famous
in town. People used to come
and try and watch him, nicknaming him
"Greyfriars Bobby," and Bobby stayed
at his master's grave for 14 years, until eventually,
he passed away, and is now buried
in this very graveyard. EDWARDS:
What was the bond between John Gray and Bobby that made this dog sit
on the grave for so long? You would think that a dog that lost its master
might actually, after a few days,
maybe after a few weeks, run off
and find somewhere else to live. But something drew Bobby
back to his master's grave. They always say that dogs
are incredibly perceptive, and they can see and hear things
that humans can't. I actually like to think
that Greyfriars Bobby, when he sat on the grave,
could actually see maybe the spiritual form
of his master. And that was what
was keeping him there on the grave for so many years. CHARMAIN LEITCH:
When I first heard the story of Greyfriars Bobby,
I was really touched by it. I think I saw Greyfriars Bobby
as a member of the family. It was quite
a heartwarming story that the dog was still loyal
to its owner even though
the owner had passed away. SHATNER:
If dogs are able to smell cancer
and see the dead, could they also
have other senses that we're only just beginning
to discover? There are both dog owners
and scientists alike who believe the answer is "yes." And they also insist
that we are surrounded by animals
who possess abilities that are even more incredible. SHATNER:
Marine biologist Nan Hauser is diving in an area filled with migrating groups
of humpback whales. -(whale vocalizes)
-She's in the middle of collecting routine data
about these whales when an enormous shape swims
toward her from the depths. HAUSER:
It was just another day
out on the water. I saw the two whales,
and one of them, I started to swim towards
a little bit, and he started to swim
towards me, which was fine. I thought he was just going
to go past me. But he didn't go past me. He came right up against me. Right up to the point
where I put my hand out, not to touch him, but to push myself
away from him. SHATNER:
The gigantic humpback-- estimated to be
around 50 feet long-- began to nudge Hauser with its nose. It pushed her
with its enormous pectoral fins, and even rolled her
on its belly, before finally turning over
to bring Hauser to the surface. (Hauser laughs) HAUSER:
Next thing I know,
I'm sitting on his head. I'm thinking,
"Okay, what's he gonna do?" If he goes like that, I'm dead. If he takes his pec fin,
if he takes his tail fluke. (water gurgling) And you have to remember,
we're talking about an animal
that's the size of a school bus. I sort of, just gently
tried to get away, but he won't let me get away. So I'm on his head, and he flips over, and
at this point, I'm on his chin. And, um, I'm thinking
I'm gonna get away, but he... Nope, he turns right around, and he keeps trying to tuck me
under his pectoral fin. He had his eye next to me over and over and over again. That was the most intense part
of the entire encounter. There's a word in the English language called "opia," and it's when you stare
into someone's eye, and you feel an emotion
that's very strong. Well, this was an emotion of curiosity and love, and... it looked like he was trying
to tell me something. SHATNER:
After about ten minutes, the whale swam off, allowing
Hauser to return to her boat. And that's when Hauser realized
why the humpback may have taken such a strong interest in her. WOMAN:
Well, come on the boat. It never occurred to me
that he was pushing me away from potential danger. SHATNER:
Growing to nearly 20 feet and weighing as much as a ton, tiger sharks are one of the most
feared predators in the ocean, and for good reason. Since 2010, experts believe tiger sharks
have been responsible for nearly two dozen
human attacks, ten of which were fatal. Is it possible
the presence of a tiger shark motivated the whale's
interaction with Hauser? Was it trying to save her life? She was tail slapping, and I looked,
and it was undoubtedly a big, fat tiger shark coming right for me. (excited chatter) (laughter) I'm sorry. I love you, too. I love you, too. I do. I love you. Humpback whales have a very strong
antipredator response in which they try to protect
their young from predators. And there have been a number
of documented cases all around the world of humpbacks
not only trying to protect their own young but actually protecting
other species. There's many cases
where whales and dolphins will actually rescue humans
from shark attacks and drownings and other things like that. There's an interesting story
in New Zealand where a group of lifeguards were actually approached
by a great white shark. And a pod of dolphins came in and actually formed
a protective ring around the lifeguards
to protect them. The question is why would they
be motivated to do this? ABRAHMS
We don't know why
that behavior exists, but there are a number
of different hypotheses. One of those hypotheses
is that it's altruism. SHATNER:
Altruism? Could that be what compels whales,
dolphins and other sea creatures to come to the aid of humans? If true, it almost sounds like
something a human would do. This animal was telling me
by the look in his eye to let him protect me. This animal
pushed me back to the boat and made sure I was on board. WHITEHEAD:
The interesting thing
about whales is that they're
highly intelligent, and there's a lot of commonality being demonstrated
in modern research between whales and humans. Could it be
that we should start thinking about these animals as a level of personhood in a way
that could be given to them? TOK THOMPSON:
If you do something nice, it's a humane thing to do. Uh, but what happens when
a dolphin does something nice? Is it still
a<i> humane</i> thing to do? Is that a word we should use? Or is it more
of a dolphin thing to do? ABRAHMS:
There was
a really interesting study that was done a few years ago that demonstrated
that killer whales learned to vocalize
with bottlenose dolphins in order to interact with them,
which suggests that some animals can learn to develop
the language of other species in order to facilitate
social interactions. THOMPSON:
The idea of learning
another species' language is just cutting-edge
in academic thought. And yet other species
have been doing this for presumably millions
of years. Science is becoming aware that animals
are much more thoughtful, inventive and have much more
of an inner life than we ever
gave them credit for. SHATNER:
We humans have always
perceived ourselves to be separate from the rest
of the animal kingdom. We like to think
we are intelligent, noble, righteous and moral in ways that animals are not. (Hauser laughs) And yet does the story
of Nan Hauser's encounter with a humpback whale
indicate otherwise? Perhaps a clue can be found
by examining an animal that not only has
an incredible homing sense but also has the ability
to anticipate disaster before it happens. In many cultures, the appearance
of a certain type of bird at a specific time can signify either good
or bad things to come. And while this may seem like
a far-fetched notion that belongs
in the realm of folklore, one group of scientists
recently discovered that some birds
actually have the ability to warn us of natural disasters
before they happen. University of Toledo biologist
Dr. Henry Streby and his team are studying
a species of songbird called golden-winged warblers. It's well-known
that the tiny birds, small as your thumb, migrate thousands of miles to the Tennessee forests
every year to mate. But no one could figure out
where they went afterward. So the scientists devise a way to track them. STREBY:
We were trying to determine why these birds had to move. But when you have an animal
that's only nine grams, a GPS unit is too heavy. So we needed
a very tiny tracking device called a light-level geolocator that these
golden-winged warblers can carry throughout
their entire migration for a year. All they are is a computer chip
and a battery and a light sensor that can estimate approximately
where you are on the Earth. SHATNER:
Dr. Streby and his team started tracking the birds
when they arrived in Tennessee at the beginning
of their mating season, which is supposed to last
for at least a month. But when they analyzed
the birds' location data, they realized that
something strange had happened. STREBY:
These birds were settling into their breeding season for two weeks
and then just left. That was unheard of. And then the question was why? We noticed this pattern where it seemed
as if they had backtracked to the Gulf Coast
and even on to Cuba. And being good,
skeptical scientists, we thought,
"Okay, how did we mess up?" So we started ruling out all these possible errors
in our analysis. We went through
and meticulously checked each data point, and we couldn't find
anything that explained why these birds
seem to have moved. SHATNER:
The warblers
had mysteriously interrupted their mating season
after only two weeks to make a quick trip
almost a thousand miles south, only to return five days later as if nothing had happened. Dr. Streby and his team
were dumbfounded. Until they discovered that the birds knew something
that they didn't. We remembered
that during that time, roughly in the middle
of when the birds were gone, a massive storm system from off the coast
of the Carolinas blew through
Central United States. And that's when we realized, aha, that's why they did this. SHATNER:
On April 27,
a massive storm system swept through Tennessee
and the surrounding states. More than 80 tornadoes
touched down in the region, killing 35 people and causing $1 billion in damage. But amazingly, the golden warblers
were already on their way south, having left two days
before the storms hit their mating area. And, as if that
wasn't incredible enough, when the warblers fled, meteorologists
hadn't even identified yet the oncoming storm. Now, the storm system
has yet to form. The atmospheric pressure
hasn't changed. The temperature hasn't changed. So what is occurring
that tells these birds that they shouldn't be there? We've done a lot of research,
but one thing we know for sure is that there's far more
that we don't know than there is that we do know. Birds see in a much different
wavelength than we do. They see
all of our visual wavelengths, and they also see
in a tetrahedral color space, which is impossible
to show a human, but it's sort of
a fourth dimension of color. Birds seem to have evolved
to see better than us and hear better than us. All of this adding up
to this incredible ability to navigate the planet. SHATNER:
As the storm started gathering thousands of miles away, according to one theory,
the birds may have literally been
listening in by detecting what is known as infrasound. MICHAEL DENNIN:
Infrasound is fairly simple
to understand. It's just sound
that has a lower frequency than we as humans can hear. But there's no reason
to assume that birds wouldn't be able to detect it
in various ways. It's such a low vibration,
they might just simply detect it literally in their body. KIRSTEN FISHER:
Infrasound waves can travel very far distances, so the vortices of
strong tornadoes would generate these very low frequency
sound waves that animals could detect
and potentially respond to. TAYLOR:
We have instruments
that can detect infrasound, and we haven't seen
this infrasound phenomena two days before a tornado. I think there's something else
at play here that is, as of yet, unexplained. SHATNER:
While it's possible
that infrasound might have alerted the birds, other scientists have suggested that they were listening
to something else entirely: nature itself. FISHER:
Within the last
probably 20 years or so, we've really opened up
a whole new understanding of the way
that plants communicate with their neighbors. So, a plant that's being eaten by an herbivore--
say, a caterpillar-- will actually emit
chemical signals into the air that warn other plants
in the vicinity to beef up their defenses. And it also sends
chemical signals to wasps or other predators to come and attack
the caterpillars. And presumably, those messages might be propagated
across plants for some distance. So there's a lot of intricate
communication webs going on. STREBY:
It seems very unlikely that it was just a coincidence,
and these birds moved out of the way
and got lucky. So it isn't completely
impossible to think the plants could be receiving
some signal from far away, and their response
to that is picked up by the birds as kind of
a passive communication. But until we can ask the birds
themselves, parts of this are just going
to remain unexplained. SHATNER:
If the golden-winged warblers are any indication, perhaps
we should pay closer attention when a flock of birds
is headed towards the horizon. Or when encountering an animal
that most of us assume is just a playful and cuddly feline, but who some believe is the most intelligent
and cunning of all. SHATNER:
They lurk in the shadows, waiting to strike. (growling) Creatures so mysterious, they were once worshipped as gods. Across history, you can see
a certain series of patterns with regard to human attitude
towards cats. By far, the most distinctive
example is Ancient Egypt, which started early and
continued for thousands of years to foreground the importance
of cats. The initial push of cats
as domestic creatures did seem to spread out of Egypt
and the Middle East. And so,
throughout the world today, all cats, even if they have
different genetics of wild cats
in different areas of the world, they also share
that genetic commonality that traces right back
to ancient Egyptian cats that were represented to the
Egyptians as the goddess Bastet. WALDAU:
Bastet was an ancient god, but as always happens
with images of God, Bastet's image is going
to change. Bastet starts out
as a fierce lioness, later becomes the protector
of the king, later becomes the guide
in the afterlife. Moving forward
into the Middle Ages, we shift that perspective to now being more associated
perhaps with devils, where there's an image more
of being a trickster, or some might even call
sort of a shape-shifter. Europe had associations of cats with many different kinds
of negative powers. (rain pouring) They were known to be secretive, or with people
who had power thought to be used
in a negative way for humans. So, for this reason, there were times
where churches condemned cats. There were times when people rebelled against cats
and massacred them. PACHEL:
When we see this attribution of shape-shifting,
or their ability to be so incredibly secretive, my brain goes back
to those inherent qualities that allow cats to be successful
in their wild environment. Cats are incredible predators. The amount of muscle control
that they have and their ability
to move through a variety of environments with almost
a silence about them really is about them being able
to sneak up -in an undetected way.
-(pigeon coos) Either getting close enough
to launch an attack or to remain still enough that they're undetected
prior to that attack. (purring) SHATNER:
Today, cats are thought of more as pampered pets
than as primal hunters. Unlike dogs,
they resist training, and behave more
as if they are not your pet, but that you are theirs. Nevertheless, the bond between
cats and humans has proven to be stronger
and more astounding -than previously thought.
-(mews) Especially when examining
their eerie ability to track down their human owners across hundreds of miles. LOYD AUERBACH:
There was this case in 1949. The cat's name was
"Clementine Jones." The family moved
from Western New York to Denver. They couldn't take the cat
with them. They left the cat
with some friends, and they got a call
a while later that the cat had disappeared. Four months later, this cat showed up
at their door. It was their cat. That's a 1,600-mile commute
for that cat. SHATNER:
1,600 miles in four months? It seems nothing
short of miraculous. And yet,
there have long been stories of cats
traversing vast distances, and we don't know
how they do it. PACHEL:
When I think of a story where a cat has traveled
an incredible distance, in order to go
from point A to point B, lots of questions come to mind
for me as a scientist. Is there a scent trail,
essentially, that they're following
that allows them to navigate that space? And do they have that ability to create that mental map? FISHER:
We know cats potentially have other types
of navigational capacities, too, that we don't even know about that sort of hearken back
to their ancient ancestors who maybe need
to roam great distances in order to hunt, for example, and home their way back
to their den. DEBRA HORWITZ:
Some people posit that cats are somehow attuned
into the electromagnetic field of the Earth
that birds use for navigation. (birds singing) SHELDRAKE:
There are all sorts of theories. The magnetism one's
the most popular, but that can't explain it. If you were given a compass and taken to a place
you'd never been before, the compass would tell you
where north was, but it wouldn't tell you
where home was. So, homing animals,
including this cat, require more
than a magnetical compass sense. AUERBACH:
We think the animal
is using their ESP to trail where the family
actually went to. That's called "psi-trailing." "Psi" is the catchall term we
use for any psychic experience. Psi-trailing typically happens
where there's an animal that has a real close connection
with the family, and it's possible that the animal saw the path
in front of her and followed that path. PACHEL:
There's a lot
of unknowns around cats. Is there a psychic connection
that exists between cats and their owners, and there's a-a magnetism
that's there that's drawing that cat in? It's entirely possible. SHATNER:
Until cats can talk
to us themselves, we may never know exactly
what lies behind their eyes. Perhaps it's time
to rethink our place in the natural order of things and to look to animals
as inspiration for how<i> we</i> can evolve. SHATNER:
Scientists at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology's Center for Bits and Atoms
announce the creation of an innovative
new device dubbed: "the nano-nose." It is touted as being able to identify scents
millions of times fainter than can be detected by humans. And this extraordinary piece
of technology was invented by reverse engineering
the inside of a dog's nose. HOROWITZ:
Dogs are macrosmatic. In other words, they can smell
bigger molecules than we can, and their sense of smell
is probably about a thousand to a hundred million times
more sensitive than ours. GUEST:
So it's not impossible that within the next ten years,
our phones may be able to detect cancer in the way
that dogs can currently do. SHATNER:
In other labs, scientists are developing
next-generation robots than can walk, jump
and run just like the fastest
and most agile animals on Earth. The abilities of humans pale in comparison to these
animal-emulating machines. But even so, these incredible inventions
can only scratch the surface of what real animals can do. Humans really are just animals,
I think, that have lost a lot
of their other sensory abilities in favor of cognition
and higher thought. I think
we are totally out of tune with a lot
of the sensory information that animals are able
to tap into. HOROWITZ:
I look forward to the future as we learn more about how
they interact with us, and I think
there's a deeper connection between us and animals that we don't even really
understand yet. THOMPSON:
We've been taught so long that we are sort of the pinnacle
of evolution, as if evolution was just for us. And in fact,
many of our mythologies and creation stories
reinforce this vision that the world is built for us. And yet, are those stories true? Now that we're becoming more and
more aware of how close we are connected
to all these other organisms and how much of a part
we all are of each other, it causes
to reassess this notion that we are somehow separate
from the rest of life. Whether it's birds fleeing an unseen danger, or dogs sensing illness,
or aquatic animals risking their lives to protect
humans from predators, animals possess
incredible abilities that make us look like, uh, well, animals. So, what are we to make of it? Perhaps animals are here
to keep us humble by reminding us that there are
an amazing number of things about them that will remain... unexplained.
