Veronica Green - Research

What would I do if I came face to face with an ultimate bear? As part of National Geographic’s research team I got to view Explorer Ultimate Bear. This program lets you check out some of the worlds largest and also most ferocious predators: the polar bear, the black bear and the brown bear. And you even get to see a man face off with a real bear. Native to North America, these creatures can weigh more than 1,000 pounds and are capable of killing prey with a single swipe of the paw.

I have a new appreciation of bears as strong and stealthy athletes. In fact, the show featured a bear in Montana moving a 700 lb dumpster! It was incredible to see this lumbering animal stand upright and use his front paws to maneuver the giant object as if he were part of a hired moving crew. If a bear smells food it will use its strength to get rid of anything, regardless of the size, to get to its next meal.

Another great segment features a man who works with these giants for a living. A trained animal expert is shown wrestling with an actual grizzly as if he were part of the species himself. He describes how the bear’s weight feels like its “crushing” his spine as he struggles on the ground with the beast. Also, the expert wears a camera inside of his helmet to get as close as possible to the action. Every one of the bear’s movements and sounds are captured. The key is to remember that in this demonstration the bear is well trained and therefore will not use his force to kill as he wrestles. It made me imagine how deadly a rumble with a grizzly in the wild would be. There would be no way somebody could survive such an encounter! Ultimate Bear gave me a firsthand look at the mechanics behind a bear’s strength. In addition, I was able to imagine the amount of damage that this brute force could cause.

Kathryn Wallace - Special Contributor

Before walking into Salinas Valley State Prison, a maximum-security men’s prison in California, my only perception of prison came directly from the movies. I envisioned my first day being something like the intake day in the prison classic, Shawshank Redemption, with cruel officers on watch and fearsome inmates hurling insults and trash at the crew and me. Entering the sally port for the first time – the double set of security gates that separate the free world from the world behind bars – I felt a sickening thud in the pit in my stomach when the second set of gates shut behind me, locking me in prison.

The reality, of course, is nothing like the movies. The correctional officers are some of the most decent people I’ve met, tasked with the impossible: feed, clothe, protect and rehabilitate a volatile population that could be making nice with you one second and swinging a homemade weapon at you the next. And the inmates? Well, it wasn’t quite the catcalling festival I’d been warned about. First stop on our tour of the prison was a dorm-like housing unit with 120 inmates. The inmates were on their bunks with eyes glued to a small television set propped up against the wall, and didn’t cast so much as a glance our way. The movie? The Longest Yard – the prison football remake with Adam Sandler. It was possibly the most surreal moment of my life.

Next stop was the most dangerous “Yard” – or housing unit – at the prison: C Yard. Here violent convicts and active gang members representing all of the prison race gangs worked out in what seemed to be peace, showing little awareness of our presence on the yard. It took the practiced eye of an officer to explain that the inmates were in fact aware of everything on the yard and the casual movements of the inmates covered a tense choreography. At Salinas, gangs are divided along race lines, and the races are often battling on this yard. In fact, the races migrate in a clump based on the movement of the other races on C yard.

I saw a group of white inmates – called simple “Whites” by both inmates and officers – move toward a particular table, prompting the “Blacks” to move toward the water fountain. A group of Southern Mexicans also headed to the same watering hole, but the Southerners as the clear majority on the yard gracefully yielded the fountain. A few Blacks took their turn at the fountain, while a few hung back, posted as guards in case the Southerners tried anything. The Southerners waited patiently. The officer pointed out when a slight change of posture from one of the Southerners – a leader in that group – signaled it was time for the Blacks to move along. And the Blacks, very slowly, moved away from the fountain.

The officer pointed out what areas of the large yard and what tables belonged to what group – and how one table in particular started a six-year long race war between the Northern Mexican group and the Whites, when the Whites tried to commander Northerner territory. The officers had learned to watch C Yard inmate’s movements carefully; when something didn’t fit – like one group taking space in another group’s territories, or a group out in jackets and shirts (the clothing the inmates call body armor) instead of being shirtless, officers became wary. Even just a change in the feeling on the yard put guards on alert. The officer commented that the yard felt a little “hot” that day. The officer was right. The next day, a Southerner was found with weapons, and the day after that a White was stabbed, prompting retaliation from the Whites a few days later. And the gang violence was just getting started on C Yard.

It’s easy to forget about the 2.2 million Americans locked behind bars, separated from our world. Inmates have created their own world behind prison gates with a set of complex and unspoken rules, with violence resulting from even just a slight infraction of those rules. When territory is reduced to just a bar of soap or a table on a yard, inmates will fight to the death to protect what’s theirs. The strangest part of this world behind bars? After just a few days, the routine of the inmates (not much different than a daily routine on the streets, actually) and politicking among the gangs began to feel normal and somewhat predictable to me. I never would’ve expected THAT from prison movies.

Go Inside the Show at the Official Lockdown Website

Michael Cascio SVP, Special Programming, National Geographic Channel
Executive Producer, Inside 9/11

You know exactly where you were on September 11, 2001. It’s the most famous date in American history. Yet it still amazes me how much people DON’T know about 9/11 more than five years later, such as:

- How al Qaeda meticulously planned the attack years before it happened.
- What the U.S. knew in advance of 9/11.
- What went on inside the airplanes just before they crashed.
- How an amazing portion was captured on video, audio and still photos.
- Why the survivors of 9/11 are still heroes.

And the story isn’t over yet. With war raging in Iraq, and Rudolph Giuliani a serious contender for President on the basis of his handling of 9/11 in New York City, it’s clear that 9/11 is defining public life in the U.S. But people are still amazed when we try to answer the question: What really happened that day?

When we asked our producers at Towers Productions to investigate 9/11, it became clear that even though this was the most important story in modern American history, no one had put together the whole story on television from start to finish. Compiling our four-hour documentary required endless primary research. Our team talked to hundreds of people, and the producers were quickly awash in details, many of them left out of the 9/11 Commission Report. We had to face the fact that our program would not just be a story, but a historical record of a cataclysmic event. Most viewers knew some of the pieces of the story, but not the complete picture or the full background, and they were looking for answers.

So, we began to put together a mosaic of facts. Chilling details emerged:
- Radical Islamists were preaching jihad in the United States in the late 1980s – our team unearthed video of these meetings.

- The U.S. came close to attacking Osama bin Laden at one point but pulled back, fearful of killing innocent victims nearby.

- Some conversations directly from the flights that crashed were recorded on audio tape, with brave flight attendants keeping their cool under incredible pressure.

- The attackers bought their knives at Wal-Mart.

- There are photos of the attackers going through security at airports.

- At least one of the attackers ordered a pornographic video from his motel the night before 9/11.

- That there are still alarming rumors that the Pentagon crash never happened

The reaction to the program has been profound. National Geographic Channel viewership reached historic highs when it first aired the program in 2005 – and updated versions continue to draw high ratings and strong interest. A congressman ordered copies of it sent to every member of the U.S. House and Senate. We held screenings in New York City and Washington, D.C., with passionate debates lasting long into the night. Many of us involved in the program were interviewed by journalists and talk show hosts. I personally found myself in wide-ranging discussions with everyone from Bill O’Reilly to a Minnesota caller to a radio show who insisted that the Pentagon attack was a hoax, even thought there are photos, video and hundreds of witnesses. It’s clear that both survivors and observers are still grappling with what happened that day.

The survivors are the real heroes. They saw their colleagues and family members die, sometimes right in front of them, in an event seen around the world. They have a burden that the rest of us can only imagine. And for them, the answers can’t come soon enough, and are only now beginning to emerge.

As our production team discovered, there are many details we need to know to put this event into proper context. The emotions over 9/11 are still so raw, that it’s almost a relief to look at the facts, just the facts, of 9/11, to help us figure out what happened. It turns out, though, that the facts and context of 9/11 are more dramatic than a movie or fictionalized account. In this case, reality is far more revealing and relevant. And it just might help us figure out what to do to prevent another 9/11 from happening in the future.

Seth Shostak - Senior Astronomer, SETI Institute

Roswell has become America’s favorite shorthand for “extraterrestrials.” The series of events that transpired there in the summer of 1947 is hands-down the most popular evidence cited by folks who think that Earth is awash with visitors from space. This is despite the fact that proof that anything more than human-made debris slammed into the cattle pastures outside of Roswell is either questionable or – according to many accounts – stacked up and labeled at some secret government installation.

My job is to look for extraterrestrials, not by searching the military compounds at Area 51 or something similar, but rather by using large antennas and telescopes to detect signals beamed our way by very distant beings. Frankly, I don’t see any good reason to believe that aliens crash-landed in New Mexico, despite the fact that I gauge it very likely that the galaxy is crawling with life. Reasonable people will disagree with me, but then I would ask them the following: what have we learned from Roswell? Sixty years after this so-called interstellar fender-bender, is there a single bit of new knowledge or technical or social development that this crash has wrought? Sixty years after Columbus discovered the New World, there were colonies up and down the coasts of the Americas, potatoes, tomatoes, and tobacco had become staples in Europe, and Native Americans had been toured around the continent. Should we expect less from a visit by beings from the stars? I don’t think so. Interstellar travel is difficult, and energetically costly. It is not, however, impossible. But if we truly were being visited, that knowledge would be shared far and wide, and not remain for the best part of a century the exclusive province of some clandestine agency in a single country.

Dramatization of activites at Area 51

Do you believe that we aren't alone in the universe?
Preview a clip of The Real Roswell and tell us what you think.
Remember you can watch The Real Roswell on March 21, at 8pm et/pt

Dr. Mike Heithaus and Dr. Ray Heithaus

We’ve done a lot of traveling in our decades as biologists, but our trip to the Galapagos was one of the most exhilarating! The oceans teem with life from the curious and acrobatic sea lions to the slow and stately sea turtles, bizarre hammerhead sharks, and countless colorful fish. Imagine snorkeling with a penguin without freezing – you can only do that in the Galapagos! It’s also the only place you might run across a lizard – a marine iguana – in your underwater exploration!

The life on land is just as amazing! Nowhere else can you get so close to so many different species – without native predators they are totally unafraid of humans. As you travel among the many islands and diverse habitats – from beautiful rocky landscapes devoid of almost all life to lush forests in the clouds – you see similar kinds of plants and animals, but looking closely you will see most of these kinds are different species from one island to the next. Each island exerts its own pressures on the species found there and through natural selection many species have been born in a geological eyeblink! The fantastic birds you see flitting around the islands are finches of many kinds. Some have even figured out how to use tools – poking cactus spines into trees to stab tasty meals. The magnificent giant tortoises that you encounter are all adapted to the conditions on their own island! The diversity of the Galapagos has given rise to some of the best examples of speciation ever studied and helped Darwin to develop his ideas about evolution that form the foundations of modern biological thinking! Having the privilege to walk some of the same paths and see the same animals and plants is a treat for anybody – and especially for fellow biologists.

At the water’s edge some of the most fascinating sites are found – where sea lions and marine iguanas come ashore to bask in the sun. Here you get to see albatross, blue footed boobies and magnificent frigate birds dance and display as they try to impress a mate and then work hard to raise their young. Then, you can marvel as the boobies fly out to sea and plunge into the waters, feathered missiles, as they dive for a meal of fish.

As soon as we got back from the Galapagos, we were already hoping to find a way to go back. You can see so much in one trip, but more unbelievable sites and animals await in the sea and on land. We missed seeing those hammerhead sharks – one of Mike’s favorite animals – and we didn’t get to investigate those intriguing clicking sounds from the swallow-tailed gulls that intrigued Ray.

Luckily, we are getting a chance to go back to the Galapagos, and see an even more intimate side of the lives of the animals than a mere week trip could offer, when we watch National Geographic Channel’s Galapagos! The stunning footage reveals the beauty of the islands and the animals and the intimate camera work takes us inside the lives of the island’s inhabitants in a way that is hard to believe. This Special also introduces us to the importance of the Galapagos in the history of Science and chronicles the ongoing efforts of dedicated people trying to protect these wonderful islands.

NGC.Galapagos.com

Jonathan Burhop - Producer

Ever think your job is tough? Nobody puts in the hours like you do?
Think again, until you've logged a season with a custom harvest crew you haven't seen tough.

These tight teams of farm equipment operators start in the American Southwest and travel north as the crops ripen; harvesting wheat, corn, and soy. Like a swarm of bees, teams of tractors, semi-trucks, RVs and John Deere STS Combines caravan toward Canada. No weekends, no days off, just harvesting. Every two days they set up camp and before they've got a chance to settle into a rhythm they're off again. It's a brutal way to make a living; just look at the hands of Owner/Operator Kent Wright, a man who's been in the game his entire life. His hands tell the story of someone who's spent more hours outside than in, they're thick and tan like leather and pocked with scars. It ain't fun fixin' machinery in the bitter cold or extreme heat but this is what he does. He's a man of few words but when he does speak I suggest you listen. To me the wisdom of man who dedicates his life to hard honest work is something to be cherished, admired, and lived by.

Kent's father started the business when their family farm in Nebraska was hailed out three seasons in a row. With farm equipment sitting idle loans and debt must have been pounding on the family's front door. The choice boiled down to going bankrupt or putting the equipment to work. Kent's father took his equipment on the road and the rest was history. Today, Wright's Trucking and Harvesting is a finely tuned operation using state of the art equipment, a well-engineered plan, and an army of seasonal workers.

By 8AM all the heavy equipment is in the field hard at work and they're not stopping until today's acreage is harvested. When the crop ripens and it's ready to be harvested a farmer may have as little as ten days to reap before the yield plummets to nothing and it only takes one bad storm to wipeout an entire crop. A blow like that can be devastating. Want to talk about high stakes? Think of Kent's annual gamble, every season he sells his used gear and buys a new stable of equipment. Kent is paid per bushel; if he can't deliver or his crews are forced to stop for weather the entire operation can go belly up as his expenses and bills continue without income. It's the ultimate gamble.

After 10-hours of nonstop work the sun is setting but the crew continues to work into the night to finish the job. It isn't until nearly midnight that the operation wraps completely with weary harvesters refueling and prepping the trucks for tomorrow. Even after 16-hours of nonstop work the custom harvest crew stays up for a few more hours to grab a beer and share some laughs.

I'll tell you what, sitting in this little bar way up in Northern Montana with Kent and his crew I can't help but feel a little sentimental. This is what America is all about, or at least what I think it should be all about. Good 'ole boys working hard and still having the energy to toast their success. Cheers.

Check Out a Clip of Ultimate Factories: John Deere

Veronica Green - Research

Can you imagine using infrared technology to uncover the origins of Christianity? As part of National Geographic research, I had the opportunity to view Science of the Bible: Decoding the Dead Sea Scrolls prior to its Sunday March 11th premiere. In this program, you get to watch as world class archaeologists and scholars use modern technology to understand the meaning behind these ancient texts. I believe the story of these scrolls will appeal to anyone who enjoys a mystery, regardless of the role religion plays in their lives. After all, who wouldn’t be intrigued by a story with a real life ancient treasure map in it?

I felt immersed in a world Indiana Jones might find himself in, as I took in images of the hidden desert caves in Qumran where the scrolls were discovered. It is hard to fathom the hundreds of centuries that have passed since letters were first printed on these scripts. In my world of emails and text messages, it is easy to forget a time in which words did not instantly appear on a screen. Instead, they had to be written on materials such as papyrus, animal hide and even partially on copper. With a quill pen! After all, these are the oldest known biblical documents.

And that brings another thought to mind: who exactly wrote these mysterious scrolls? It turns out that this question, like many others about the texts, cannot be answered with absolute certainty. Written mainly in Hebrew, the scrolls contain more than 900 manuscripts in total. Imagine the dedication these authors had to have in order to amass such a collection complete with thoughts that shape how we think about religion today. These works are the earliest seeds of the religious beliefs that many have been taught and grown accustomed to. Who were these writers and what were their lives like?

It was also amazing to witness how modern computer imaging could bring these works to life and make them actually readable. Technology has come a long way since 1947 when the scrolls were first discovered. Due to these incredible developments, it seems as though they are being clearly deciphered and translated for the first time now.

It was fascinating to learn about the actual unearthing and subsequent trafficking of the scrolls beginning in 1947. The scrolls were the subject of conspiracy and controversy since the day their existence was revealed. The story of this conflict reiterates the power and meaning the Dead Sea Scrolls carry in a land where clashing religious beliefs are often a catalyst for war.

Aside from enjoying the incredible mysteries and adventures surrounding the story of these scrolls in this Science of the Bible episode, I also came away with solid religious and historical facts. As a person who hasn’t been exposed to much religious history, I found myself beginning to understand the individual stories behind each unique section of the bible and the beliefs that are extracted from them. I realized by watching this program that this is not a television series meant solely for those interested in religion; it is a series for anyone who wants to learn about the historical and cultural events that ultimately shape the world we live in now.

Preview a Clip From Decoding The Dead Sea Scrolls

Victoria Kirk - Producer

I always knew that yeast was an important part of beer making, but when Budweiser Brew Master Doug Muhleman took the National Geographic film crew to a steel reinforced door and said “this far and no further”, I knew there must be more to these microscopic organisms than I first thought.

Behind the locked door, preserved in liquid nitrogen was the very first strain of yeast used by Aldolphus Bush, the founder of Budweiser, over 120 years ago. Today it’s still used to give Budweiser its distinctive taste and of course its beer buzz. “Not only does yeast convert sugar to alcohol,” explained Doug “but it also creates a myriad of different flavors during fermentation. Yeast is responsible for a lot of the flavor in beer”. Considering the yeast behind the locked door in question, launched the Budweiser Empire, there was no chance we were going to get in. The risk of contamination was too high.

Intrigued, I decided to investigate further. The University of California Davis has one of the largest yeast collections in the world. It seemed like the perfect place to start. Biologist Kyria Boundy Mills, the curator of the collection took us into the main storage area. Here over 7000 different yeast strains and over 450 different spices were stacked in neat rows. “These strains represent over half of the world’s known species”, she said “we’ve isolated yeast from insect guts, decaying plant matter, cactus and in every imaginable habit around the world”.

So what is yeast? It turns out that yeast is a simple single cell organism with an incredible appetite for sugar. In just one-hour a yeast cell can eat its own weight in sugar. It’s what it does with that sugar that’s interesting. Kyria is working with biotechnology companies to produce ethanol from agricultural waste, potential medicines, pigments and different types of wines and beers. As an example she held up a test tube filled with what looked like grains of sand. “This yeast contains the same pigment that gives salmon it red color,” she said “we want to extract these properties and put them into fish feed for farm raised salmon so that they’ll be pink”.

It was a long way from beer, but I was beginning to understand why yeast was so important. Our next step was to watch yeast in action. Kyria took us to a yeast cryo-preservation chamber – a minus 80-degree deep freeze. Using gloves to protect her hands Kyria removed a single vial. Frozen yeast is dormant so her next step… yeast resurrection. It turns out it’s as simple as adding heat. Using a heat loop – a small metal pen that thaws the yeast cells, Kyria spread a few grains onto a Petri dish filled with a sugar rich solution. Under a microscope we watched the individual yeast cells come to life.

At first the cells looked round, then they began to change shape. “They’re budding”, she said, “ it means they’re growing, they’re alive.” If this was beer these yeast cells would continue eating and growing, dividing at exponential rates until all the sugar was converted into alcohol. It’s a process called fermentation. It is the job of the Brew Master to control the process, creating just the right amount of alcohol. At the Anheuser-Busch brewery in St’Louis, the fermentation tanks are temperature controlled. If the yeast starts creating too much alcohol, the Brew Masters simply drop the temperature, slowing down the yeasts ferocious appetite,

Kyria explained that yeast has another very important role to play in beer making – it determines if it’s ale or a larger. “If you use ale yeast its called top fermenting, it rises to the top of the tank and it usually ferments at a higher temperature,” she said. “This means it creates more alcohol and more flavor. So ales tend to be fruitier, more fully flavored.” She went on to explain, that laager yeasts are called bottom fermenting yeasts, they settle to the bottom of the tank and ferment at a relatively cool temperature. This is why larger is a lighter with less alcohol.

Ancient civilizations had no idea that yeast was responsible for intoxicating properties of beer – they put it down to magic or a gift from the gods. Modern science has unlocked yeasts microscopic magic – it’s but made it even more interesting. In the future we’ll be toasting new wines, new beers and even be curing illnesses. Kyria thinks there are still millions of undiscovered yeast species out there – so happy hunting Kyria.

Click Here to Visit More Ultimate Factories

Jeff Darnell – Research

The National Geographic Channel has always taken its viewer feedback very seriously. Despite having a small staff, (1 person), that responds to the many emails we get, we try to get back to everyone that contacts us as quickly as possible. We also perform more formal methods of research where we do focus groups, survey opinions through the telephone or online and other avenues to find out what viewers like yourself watch on TV, what you think of our channel, your general media habits and anything else that will help us in producing great programming.

One of the research methods we utilize is called recruit-to-view. This is where we ask viewers to watch all or part of a program as it airs on the network and tell us what they think. Generally, we do this via phone or online and it’s a one-to-one communication between the viewer and the channel. However, we’d like to open this up for a little discussion. So, with that in mind, we’d like to reach out to you, the elite readers of the NGC blog to see if you have time to watch and write about a program coming up this weekend. Unfortunately, we don’t have any incentives for you, other than our appreciation for your candor.

On Saturday, March 3, 2007, we have encore airings of Hunter and Hunted from 8-11pm Eastern. Hunter and Hunted is a program we’ve had on the air for awhile now, described by one viewer as ‘CSI with Animals’. We are looking at producing more in this series, but would like to hear if there is interest, reactions to the style of production and thoughts on new topics. The first hour is called Shark Invasion at 8pm Eastern, the second hour is on Dolphins Attacks at 9pm Eastern and finally Gator Attack at 10p Eastern. You can visit the video area of the website for more information on these shows; I don’t want to set up too many expectations, however. If you have the time to watch part of any of these episodes, I ask that you tell come back to this site and post your thoughts.

If you do watch the programs, please come back and share your general feelings. These questions below are meant to show the type of insight we would like from you, but any comments are greatly appreciated.
- How much did you watch and why did you stop watching?
- Did you learn anything new?
- Did you watch the show in HD or SD and does that matter to you?
- If we hadn’t asked you to watch the show, would you have tuned in?
- Does the show fit with your expectation of National Geographic?

Preview Hunter And Hunted Episodes