Though remarkably sensitive and accurate
the human eye is an extremely limited device a surprisingly
narrow window on our world
In the fragile film of a soap bubble lies a normally
unseen realm a miniature liquid kaleidoscope
too small for our eyes to see
Vivid detail is also hidden within an instant of time
Many events are simply too fast to be seen with the unaided eye
When time is compressed
once motionless sights magically come to life
A voracious army of fire ants devours a helpless cricket
It is an awesome
day long process too slow for us to notice
Beyond the spectrum of visible light lie strange
and extraordinary sights images created with forms of energy
which elude the naked eye
Today, as never before
cameras and other instruments
that see are radically expanding the
of our vision and knowledge
and altering forever our image of the world
Join us now on a visual journey beyond the limits of the naked eye
on a voyage into "The Invisible World"
We are visual creatures
reliant on our eyes as our primary link with the world
Able at a glance to estimate size
measure depth, register movement make sudden shifts in focus
and instantly distinguish s million different colors,
our eyes are the most highly developed of all living species
Yet, despite our eyes' amazing powers
and remarkable versatility
there are infinite sights around us to
which we are totally blind
If our vision is expanded beyond its normal bounds
a whole new world of experience suddenly unfolds
Through the specialized eyes of cameras come new dimensions of seeing
Fleeting movement hidden by time...
details shrouded by distance and size
are revealed as vivid images
which our eyes alone could never discern
The camera must often come to the aid of our blinkered sense of sight
What thousands of eyes have witnessed firsthand
we must rely on a camera to actually see
Possessed with powers to reveal the world in myriad ways
that our unaided eyes cannot
cameras and other imaging tools are extending enormously the limited
reach of our vision probing once distant
and unimagined realms that lie hidden all around us
We delight in exploring the world we can see
But even up close
our eyes can barely resolve objects
that are one three hundredths of an inch in diameter a fraction
the size of a tiny grain of sand
What seems very small in human scale is
but the threshold of a microcosm beyond the limits of our eyes
In a tiny drop of water
a bounty of life too small to see
Like spaceships from an alien world
delicate creatures called plankton silently maneuver
through their seemingly boundless universe
Completely unknown until the invention of the microscope some 400 years ago
the discovery of plankton and other microlife provoked unparalleled wonder
When seen for the first time
it was difficult to believe
that living things could be so small-that a single
drop of water could contain a miniature world
Indispensable tools of science
modern microscopes fitted
with cameras can now easily recapture the sights
that were seen when man first glimpsed the microworld
Bacteria. Discovered in 1674
their tiny size and great abundance seemed nearly inconceivable
A slice of leaf revealed a complex structure of tiny living cells
which no one had dreamed existed
Blood was seen to be composed of millions of free-floating corpuscles
The sight of a cell dividing seemed a miracle
of nature-another astounding discovery
which would help to lay the foundations of modern biology and medicine
With a microscope that filters the direction of incoming light
the composition of the physical world can be vividly explored
When a liquid transforms into a solid-as
when water turns to ice-the tiny crystals
that will form its structure organize into shape
Recorded on film at actual speed
we can witness the other invisible process known as crystallization
Seeing with a beam of electrons rather than with light
a powerful new instrument called the scanning electron microscope
has penetrated an uncharged level of detail and size
For David Scharf, a researcher and photographer
it is a means to explore a whole new world of inner space
Though we seem to be leaving some distant planet's surface
our voyage, in fact, is much more contained
The cratered terrain we have left behind is the surface of a moon rock
the size of a grain of sand
The fragile structure of an alyssum flower is barely visible to the eye
In the vacuum chamber of the microscope
a focused beam of electrons will be aimed
across the flower's surface to form a magnified image
Zap
Through the microscope's probing eye
the tiny flower reveals a delicate structure of unexpected complexity
When magnified more than 20,000 times
we can see single grains of pollen
If we spy a little closer on the intimate places we know
we might come to feel like strangers in our own familiar world
Zigzags of rough-hewn channels gouged into a surface
are a magnified view of the narrow grooves
in an ordinary phonograph record
This barren, rutted terrain is not as remote as it seems
It is the porous surface of the tip of a ball-point pen
A tangled network of sinuous fibers
when enlarged 4,000 times
hardly resembles what we usually see
as a smooth sheet of writing paper
In the sofas and beds of even our best kept homes
microscopic dust mites quietly live their lives
Like miniature dinosaurs from a long lost world
their bodies rarely grow large enough for the naked eye to see
Dependent on us for survival
dust mites feed primarily on the flakes of dead
which our bodies constantly shed
What at first sight appears to be a crude medieval machine
is actually a precision instrument nearly all of us depend on
lts roughly chiseled surface offers little clue
that this clumsy contraption is
actually the complex movement of an ordinary wristwatch
Our skin itself hides a miniature world
from the normal view of our eyes
When seen at high magnification
an alien landscape appears
Stubbles of hair grow like tree stumps in a terrain
whose complex ecology supports a wide variety of life
On almost any strand of hair tiny fungi can be found
In numerous forms, their population on our hair
and skin numbers in the tens of thousands
Our intimate fellow travelers
fungi have lived with us through evolution
to establish a permanent niche
in the habitat of our skin
In the roots of everyone's eyelashes live tiny mites
called Demodex folliculorum
Apparently they cause us no harm
But why they are there and exactly
what they do have yet to be discovered
The varied micro-landscapes on the surface of our bodies
also fall prey to less desirable guests
Meet Pediculus humanus capitis
the head louse a tiny and bothersome pest
which lives its life firmly attached to a single strand of hair
Sarcoptes scabiei, the scabies mite
is a microscopic creature that makes a comfortable home
by burrowing directly into the skin
On the warm, moist regions of our skin
there is life in enormous abundance
Bacteria the simplest form of free living life-are constantly with us
A single bacterium can multiply to
more than a million in about eight hours
and mo matter how much we wash
millions remain on our skin
Each of us is the keeper of a huge invisible zoo
In fact, at any given time
there are as many creatures on our bodies
as there are people on Earth
If our numerous companions do not inspire our love
at least we have the consolation of knowing
that we are never completely alone
At the Enrico Fermi Institute of the University of Chicago
a new frontier of the microworld has recently been bridged
Using a powerful electron microscope
which took 14 years to develop
Dr. Albert Crewe has captured on film
what no one had ever seen
You are looking at atoms-uranium atoms
The smaller single specks are individual atoms
each with a diameter of only a few billionths of an inch
The larger masses are clusters of several atoms
Colorized artificially to enhance our view
atoms exhibit unpredicted movement
revealing that solid objects
when seen on an atomic scale
are actually a sea of moving particles
The level of magnification of the movies
on the home TV screen is about ten million,
maybe 20 million, depending on the size of your TV set
That's about the equivalent to blowing a basketball up
to the size of the Earth
The ability to see single atoms to isolate them at that
could have considerable importance
Where it will lead is very difficult to
except what we have is a new technology
a new way of looking at materials in the world
And every time you have a new way of looking at things
you find out something new
We are exiled from other worlds by time as well as by size
In a world of motion
there is infinite detail too fast for the unaided eye
In the 1870s an ingenious photographer Eadweard Muybridge
invented a way to record movements normally too quick to be seen
A wager about the stride of a running horse
brought Muybridge to the stock farm of a wealthy Californian
With a battery of 24 cameras
that were activated by threads stretched across a track
Muybridge captured aspects of motion
that had never been witnessed before
Muybridge's patron had bet that all four legs of a running horse
were sometimes simultaneously off the ground
Stop-action photography proved him to be right
By projecting his photographs in rapid succession
the first motion pictures were born
The movement of people as well as animals became
for Muybridge a passionate subject of study
Much more than just a technical curiosity
Muybridge's pioneering work was the first photographic analysis
of the dynamics of physical motion
Today, modern high-speed cameras can record rapid motion
with a clarity that Eadweard Muybridge could only have dreamed of
Slow-motion film is now a commonplace tool
in analyzing athletic performance
For Dr. Gideon Ariel
a physical education expert
and a former discus thrower on the Israeli Olympic team
slow-motion film is just the first
in the scientific coaching of athletes
Dr. Ariel has turned to the computer
for aid in the analysis of movement
Slow-motion film of an athlete is projected frame
by frame onto a recording screen
Each touch of a sonic pen transmits into the computer memory
the dynamically changing positions of the athlete's joints and limbs
Human movement is governed by the same laws of motion
that apply to the entire physical world
And from the visual information contained in the film
the computer can rapidly calculate the interrelationship of force
acceleration, and velocity in the athlete's movements
Computer-created images combined
with a mass of numerical data can pinpoint
where athletic technique is hindering performance
So, what coaches in the past thought they can see with eyes
we are finding out you can not do
You have to quantify.
With the advent of computers we can provide the coaches
with much more objective
reliable information on how the body moves
Dr. Ariel's computer analysis of Olympic discus
thrower Mac Wilkins revealed
that useful energy which would effect his throw
was being wasted on ground friction
Additional force was being spent
by not rigidly planting his forward leg at the moment of the throw
Based on this analysis
Wilkins altered his throwing technique
Several months later
in international competition
he threw the discus over 13 feet farther than he ever had before
and set a new world record
In a remarkable laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
time and motion are dramatically dissected
With the aid of a pulsating strobe light
Dr. Harold Edgerton can freeze a flurry of movement onto a single plate of film
Dr. Edgerton developed the strobe light in 1931
Unable to see how electric motors behaved
when they rotated at various speeds
he designed a light which could flash so quickly
and brightly that motion seemed to stop
Now we're going to do an experiment here to take a picture of a
bullet-a very high-velocity bullet as it cuts this playing card in two
The playing card will be attached to this tape
The bullet will come out of the gun at 2,800 feet per second
If we aim it correctly it'll cut through the card
And we want to turn on a light
a very special strobe light that lasts less
than a millionth of a second
in order to stop the bullet effectively on film
and make a sharp, clear photograph
The sound of the bullet will trigger the strobe light
which creates an image on film
A first shot will test Dr. Edgerton's aim
Here we go
Now, the event as the strobe light reveals it
Less than a millionth of a second is permanently frozen in time
Another striking example of the strobe's revealing power is
what Edgerton calls "making applesauce"
Perhaps the most dramatic of Dr. Edgerton's visual techniques
combines the powerful strobe light
with a high-speed motion-picture camera
There you go. All set? Three, two, one, two
Stretching events thousands of times reveals invisible detail
that can be seen and studied in no other way
The explosion of a firecracker
now slowed down 1,200 times
Examine the "plop" of a milkdrop 200 times slower than usual
and it becomes a magical vision of hydrodynamic behavior
Unbounded by our human sense of time
specialized cameras can also record events much too slow to see
For nature cinematographer en Middleham
the technique of time-lapse photography
provides a fascinating window
on an otherwise hidden realm
By taking single photographs at longer than normal intervals
time and events are compressed into a dramatic new scale
The two weeks it takes for an orange to spoil
are telescoped into several seconds
A bunch of unripened bananas mature before our eyes
The natural world is alive in ways
we cannot see-constantly in the process of incredible transformation
Over a period of days
tiny worms devour the leaf of a tree
An apple provides a week-long meal
for dozens of hungry grubs
In only four days a dead field mouse is consumed
by a mass of maggots
From the unstoppable process of decay
there inevitably springs new life
in full and beautiful abundance
Even the passage of years is not a barrier
for the time-lapse camera
In less than half a minute
a boy can grow from four to 20
and then return again to childhood
Our eyes perceive the world
only in the language of light
Yet light, visible light
is but a narrow slice of energy contained
within an infinite spectrum of electromagnetic waves
that constantly vibrate all around us
When scientists analyze light
breaking it apart into its component wavelengths
the familiar rainbow of colors from red to violet appears
Colors are the brain's code
for the wavelengths of light we can see
Beyond this band of energy our naked eyes go blind
The world around us hides numerous sights
from our limited light-sensitive eyes
By equipping a camera with a sensitive filter
we can see the world reflected in ultraviolet
light-the invisible wavelengths of energy beyond the color
In the 1930s, scientists discovered
that honeybees have a visual sensitivity
that extends beyond our own
On its daily search for nectar
the bee can sense its surroundings in ultraviolet light
Some flowers we see as solidly colored
have a very different appearance to the bee
When viewed in ultraviolet light
new shadings and patterns appear
Helping to guide the bee to nectar and pollen
ultraviolet markings hidden from our eyes
have been discovered on numerous flowers
Unseen ultraviolet rays stream abundantly from the sun
but they are only one kind of invisible light
that we must rely on cameras to reveal
We see the light of a burning match
but an image of its heat eludes us
If our eyes could see the part of the spectrum
where red light turns to infrared or heat
our view of the world would suddenly take on a new and expanded scope
A technique called schlieren photography
allows us to see heat energy
that constantly flows all around us
A valuable new tool in medicine
super-sensitive infrared cameras
can detect slight variations in skin temperature
which often signal early warnings
of cancerous tumors and other diseases
Each color represents a one-half degree difference in temperature
Red areas are the warmest blue the coolest
To a doctor's trained eye
the body's varied heat patterns show a wealth
of vital diagnostic information once hidden from his view
By photographing a subject with visible light
only the outer surface details are recorded by the camera
Using another form of energy invisible to the eye
we can penetrate solid matter and create an image on film
Discovered in 1895
x-rays were briefly considered
by some to be a threat to feminine modesty
However, fears were allayed at first sight of the image
and the x-ray was quickly put to use
as a valuable new tool of medicine
Today, the power of the x-ray
is expanding our knowledge of the past
When fragile Egyptian mummies are subjected to modern x-ray analysis
scientists gain new insight into their little-known culture and lives
What time and wrappings have hidden
x-rays can still reveal
X-rays of Yuya, a royal adviser
show obvious dental disease
Thuya, his wife, suffered painfully
from arthritis and a badly curved spine
The infant Pediamon received a less than noble burial
His arms were amputated and his legs
were broken to fit an undersized coffin
For an unidentified mummy a less desirable fate
Legs are intact
but the torso is mysteriously missing
Pharaoh Amenhotep I
X-raying directly through his beautifully preserved coffin reveals
that his body had been damaged by ancient grave robbers
and repaired by priests five centuries later
Perhaps no pharaoh is better known
that the young king Tutankhamun
Penetrating rays show that his golden mask
was constructed in several parts
He beard was added last
attached to the chin by a tapered peg
The body of ing Tut itself has undergone careful analysis
in hopes of finding evidence as to the cause of the young pharaoh's death
X-rays, however, show a young man in good health
And unless there is evidence still to be discovered
the reason for Tut's early death may remain forever a mystery
Sound, like light, or heat, or x-rays
radiates all around us in the form of vibrating waves
This image of a human hand was made with high-frequency sound
Using this technique
doctors can now see soft internal tissue
that was not safely accessible before
Sensitive sound-imaging cameras are today
revolutionizing prenatal care
Okay, I'm just going to get one quick look
A tiny developing fetus can be seen
and monitored during growth in the womb
Seen here in profile its head on the top right
the fetus arches its back and stretches
It hiccups... then moves its arm and slightly turns its head
The baby's now sort of turned around
and it's looking at us to see what we're doing
I can take a picture of the baby for you
I'll put this freeze frame which freezes the image for us
Today, a mother's first baby picture is often made
with sound before the child is born
Pretty good See there the baby's head
And everything else looks fine
The baby's moving around a lot
The baby's heart is beating fine
and you have a normal amount of amniotic fluid for this time
Who's it look like? You or Brad
I think it looks like me
A striking means of photography discovered
at the turn of the century shows apparent fields
of energy emanating from our bodies
It is known as irlian or electrophotography
and almost everything filmed
with this technique shows an active surrounding aura
Controversial and only partially understood
irlian photography is now undergoing serious investigation
as a possible diagnostic tool
To make a irlian photograph
a finger is placed over a sheet of unexposed film
which receives a burst of electricity
from a metal plate beneath it
When the film is developed
the irlian aura appears
Dr. Thelma Moss has conducted research
on irlian photography at UCLA
People are always asking
"What is this irlian photography all about?"
And the answer is "Nobody really knows."
But we've got some ideas that are intriguing to us
because they are not the conventional ideas
about what exists around the human body
We believe that not only is there air surrounding us
but that we are emanating something from ourselves
that is energetic-bioenergetic
if you like-and that tells us a great deal about
what is going on inside the body
irlian fingertip images taken over several hours vary their intensity
as a depressant drug takes effect
A mild stimulating drug seems to cause an activating pattern
These irlian photographs record the sequence
of a woman's monthly menstrual cycle
A yogi's hands before
and then during a state of deep concentration
Though powerfully evocative
the meaning and value of the irlian image
still remains largely unknown
With further research it may prove to be a new frontier of our knowledge
At the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago
we are being brought ever closer to an ultimate frontier
With huge, exotic equipment
scientists are working to better see
and understand the smallest possible particles
of which all matter is made
Only 25 years ago, atoms composed of protons
neutrons, and electrons
were regarded as the smallest basic objects
Today it seems that atoms are built of
even tinier things called quarks
Fermilab is, in a sense
the world's largest and most powerful microscope-
an awesome collection of machinery designed to shatter atoms to pieces
and see the objects within
Buried underground
a four-mile ring of powerful magnets guides a narrow beam of particles
which is rapidly accelerated
When fired at their target
they will act like a powerful hammer to break an atom apart
The process begins with a giant generator
and a massive jolt of power
Hurled within seconds to nearly the speed of light
the beam of particles is aimed to strike the tiny nuclei of atoms
The collision will be photographed by several sensitive cameras
When projected onto an analyzing table
the resulting pictures show the scattered tracks left
by hundreds of liberated subatomic particles
Each type of particle has its own distinguishing signature
of curving or spinning lines
By carefully recording and studying these trails
we are gradually learning more about the now smallest
and most elusive units of matter the still
unseen entities called quarks
Quarks, however, may well be composed of even smaller things
We still do not know where, or if ever
the world of the small will stop
High above the Sonoran Desert near Tucson, Arizona
the itt Peak National Observatory is focusing our vision
onto the realm of the very large
The world's biggest collection of astronomical
itt Peak is dominated
by the 19-story dome of the powerful Mayall telescope
Like most modern optical telescopes
it is really a colossal camera with
which to photograph the sky
Galaxies. Only 60 years ago their existence was just a theory
But with the construction of larger and larger telescopes
thousands were seen and photographed
Today astronomers estimate
that the universe contains at least 100 billion galaxies
each with 100 billion stars
Powerful instruments like the Mayall telescope
are now seeing the heavens more clearly
than has ever been possible
lts light-collecting mirror can photographically detect objects
more than six million times fainter than the unaided eye can see
Astronomers today rarely
look through a telescope directly
An array of computers and image intensifiers record
and make visible objects
that the eye alone is not sensitive enough to see
Artificial colorizing shows subtle details
that would otherwise be missed
Revealed on the telescope's computer enhancement screen
the world's first image of the surface of a star other than our sun
nown as Betelgeuse
it lies 600 light years from Earth
The computer-colorized contrasts on its surface
are believed to be huge regions of varying hot and cold
Resolving this image through the telescope was like photographing
a grain of sand from several miles away
Probing ever deeper into the enormity of the sky
the powerful eye of the telescope is extending
our horizons toward the limits of space and time
From this exploration
new and astonishing sights are offering
clues to such baffling questions as
What are stars? How do galaxies form
Does the universe have an end
At the Salt Lake City campus of the University of Utah
a frontier of vision that was once
as remote as the darkness of outer space
has now been dramatically entered
Craig has been totally blind for 15 years
But in a bold experiment
doctors have surgically implanted on the visual cortex
of his brain an array of 64 tiny electrodes
This ingenious feat of medical engineering
allows Craig to be literally "plugged in" to the outside world
Bypassing his useless eyes and optic nerves
doctors can send images in the form of electrical signals
directly to the visual center of his brain
Okay, Craig, that's fine
For Craig, it is a strange new contact
with his long lost sense of sight
When Craig was linked to a television camera
he reported "seeing" both vertical
and horizontal lines
In this experiment
a computer system will generate patterns
of dots representing the braille alphabet
It is the same six-dot code used in touch braille
The images that Craig sees will appear something like this
Go. First word
I
Okay, next word
Okay. "H", "A", "D", had
Next word
"A", "C", "A", "T", cat, "A", "N", "D"
Next word And
Craig has little trouble "seeing" the letters
that will form a sentence
but scientists are working toward even more dramatic goals
I had a cat and ball
Researchers now foresee a day
when a miniaturized system-including cameras for the eyes
electronics in the glasses
and electrodes on the brain-will provide
artificial vision for the blind
In the time it takes to blink an eye
cameras can transport us to wondrous new realms
Revealing once hidden places that span
from the reaches of outer space to the inner depths of nature
the magic eyes of cameras are dramatically transforming
our knowledge and perception
In coming years
our vision of the world will be stretched to newer boundaries
For today we have only begun to explore
the invisible worlds all around us