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Survival
For Mark E. Davis, cancer became a personal battle that he fought in a laboratory with innovation and determination as his weapons. Davis, a successful chemical engineer, never dreamed that he would reinvent his career and create a revolutionary kind of cancer drug. But everything changed when his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, and pleaded with him to find an alternative to chemotherapy, which had devastated her body and her spirit. Davis was reluctant at first, having had no prior experience in cancer research, but 10 years later, IT-101, the nanoparticle drug he engineered, was approved for a six-month trial in humans. This segment follows Ray Natha, a terminal cancer patient and IT-101's first experimental subject. The story begins on the first day IT-101 drips into Natha's veins and concludes at the end of the trial, at which time the cancer was stable. Animations illustrate exactly how the drug works. If we run out of oil, civilization as we know it will come to a grinding halt. On the other hand, if we drill for more oil or burn more coal, the damage we inflict on the Earth might prove to be our undoing. It's clear: to power our planet, we're going to need a new kind of fuel. This segment introduces a group of young, hopeful scientists who are setting their sights on a resource that provides enough energy in one hour to power the entire globe for one year – the sun. Solar energy isn't new, but the goal of these scientists is visionary – using the sun to make fuel. They believe they can create an "artificial leaf" that uses sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen can then be used to power fuel cells, which, in turn, can produce electricity when the hydrogen is recombined with oxygen. The result? All the electricity we need, plus pure, clean water as the byproduct. The research team still has a long way to go in seeing this concept evolve from a prototype in the lab to a product on the shelves of America's hardware stores, but their convictions and their curiosity continue to drive and inspire them.
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CC - Closed Caption
HD - High Definition
16:9 - Anamorphic Widescreen
LTR - Letterbox
DVI - Descriptive Video Information for the visually impaired
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