1 00:00:01,511 --> 00:00:05,514 [narrator] Can this golden disc answer the biggest mystery of all? 2 00:00:05,548 --> 00:00:07,849 Are we alone in the universe? 3 00:00:07,884 --> 00:00:13,688 [narrator] What secrets are hidden in a bizarre 600 year old book that nobody can read? 4 00:00:13,723 --> 00:00:17,292 The Voynich manuscript is one enormous puzzle. 5 00:00:17,326 --> 00:00:19,861 It could be a hidden key to unknown mysteries. 6 00:00:19,896 --> 00:00:23,865 [narrator] And is this stone mirror a conduit to the supernatural? 7 00:00:23,900 --> 00:00:27,569 This weird thing is encased in mystery. 8 00:00:27,603 --> 00:00:31,239 Nobody knew how it worked or where this came from. 9 00:00:34,877 --> 00:00:39,214 [narrator] These are the most remarkable and mysterious objects on Earth. 10 00:00:40,750 --> 00:00:45,187 Hidden away in museums, laboratories and storage units. 11 00:00:46,856 --> 00:00:52,227 Now, new research and technology can get under their skin like never before. 12 00:00:54,263 --> 00:01:00,836 We can rebuild them, pull them apart and zoom in 13 00:01:00,870 --> 00:01:06,241 to reveal the unbelievable, the ancient 14 00:01:07,310 --> 00:01:09,111 and the truly bizarre. 15 00:01:10,813 --> 00:01:14,216 These are the world's strangest things. 16 00:01:24,393 --> 00:01:25,927 [mysterious music playing] 17 00:01:25,962 --> 00:01:30,732 [narrator] This is the most distant manmade object in the universe. 18 00:01:30,766 --> 00:01:34,035 An eye catching gold disc. 19 00:01:34,070 --> 00:01:40,108 It's already beyond the limits of our solar system, 14 billion miles from Earth. 20 00:01:40,143 --> 00:01:47,048 Now, to reveal its secrets, we're bringing it back home virtually. 21 00:01:48,484 --> 00:01:50,352 [dramatic music playing] 22 00:01:51,387 --> 00:01:54,422 This is the Voyager Golden Record. 23 00:01:55,491 --> 00:01:58,026 Just 12 inches in diameter. 24 00:01:59,862 --> 00:02:01,897 Etched onto its outer casing are what appear to be 25 00:02:01,931 --> 00:02:05,267 incomprehensible scientific hieroglyphs. 26 00:02:07,904 --> 00:02:12,073 And what's inside is even more bizarre. 27 00:02:12,108 --> 00:02:16,144 [Philip] It is a metal disc that is coated with gold 28 00:02:16,179 --> 00:02:21,750 and engraved with these very fine grooves that preserve information. 29 00:02:21,784 --> 00:02:26,988 [narrator] It looks like an LP record because that's exactly what it is. 30 00:02:27,823 --> 00:02:30,792 A record of a very human planet. 31 00:02:30,826 --> 00:02:37,165 Pictures, sounds, music and a message in 55 languages. 32 00:02:37,200 --> 00:02:43,872 [Sascha] In essence, it's a time capsule giving us a glimpse of the human world. 33 00:02:45,074 --> 00:02:49,544 [narrator] But this message is not designed for humanity. 34 00:02:49,579 --> 00:02:53,648 [Maggie] The purpose of the disc was to explain what planet Earth is all about. 35 00:02:53,683 --> 00:02:58,119 And the goal was to pass information on to aliens out there. 36 00:02:58,154 --> 00:03:03,391 [narrator] But how do you create something that can be understood by an alien species 37 00:03:03,426 --> 00:03:05,827 you don't even know exists? 38 00:03:05,861 --> 00:03:12,000 What exactly is on the disc? And why send it in the first place? 39 00:03:16,672 --> 00:03:20,809 By 1972, humans have put 12 men on the moon, 40 00:03:20,843 --> 00:03:26,314 sent seven successful unmanned probes to Venus and four to Mars. 41 00:03:27,583 --> 00:03:31,987 But NASA wants to explore further. Much further. 42 00:03:32,555 --> 00:03:36,891 [man] Three, two, one... 43 00:03:36,926 --> 00:03:42,664 [narrator] In 1977, NASA launches two state of the art space probes. 44 00:03:42,698 --> 00:03:44,666 [man] And we have lift off. 45 00:03:44,700 --> 00:03:48,503 The first of two Voyager spacecrafts to extend man's senses 46 00:03:48,537 --> 00:03:51,406 farther into the solar system than ever before. 47 00:03:51,440 --> 00:03:53,408 [pleasant music playing] 48 00:03:54,477 --> 00:03:56,344 [narrator] Voyager 1... 49 00:03:57,580 --> 00:03:59,681 and Voyager 2. 50 00:03:59,715 --> 00:04:03,785 Their mission? To visit all the outer planets, 51 00:04:03,819 --> 00:04:09,357 Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune for the very first time. 52 00:04:10,793 --> 00:04:13,762 But this will be a one way trip. 53 00:04:13,796 --> 00:04:15,930 [Maggie] If you want to send a probe to the outer planets 54 00:04:15,965 --> 00:04:21,536 it needs to be travelling stupidly fast, about ten miles per second. 55 00:04:21,570 --> 00:04:23,705 But when you're travelling at that speed, you can't stop. 56 00:04:23,739 --> 00:04:26,808 You sort of fly past all the planets grabbing pictures as you go 57 00:04:26,842 --> 00:04:28,410 and then you keep on going. 58 00:04:28,444 --> 00:04:32,347 That means after they'd finished their mission, they're just going to carry on 59 00:04:32,381 --> 00:04:35,350 out into interstellar space. 60 00:04:35,384 --> 00:04:38,753 [narrator] So NASA dreams up a plan for the probes to carry a message 61 00:04:38,788 --> 00:04:40,689 out into the universe. 62 00:04:40,723 --> 00:04:43,391 The Golden Record. 63 00:04:43,426 --> 00:04:48,630 The idea was that if in some distant future, thousands or even millions of years hence 64 00:04:48,664 --> 00:04:51,800 some alien civilization were to come across this bizarre artifact 65 00:04:51,834 --> 00:04:53,034 floating in deep space 66 00:04:53,069 --> 00:04:56,771 and then maybe decode information that's contained on it. 67 00:04:56,806 --> 00:05:01,509 Find out something about the strange species that sent this time little traveler off 68 00:05:01,544 --> 00:05:03,978 deep into interstellar space. 69 00:05:04,013 --> 00:05:05,914 [narrator] It is a message in a bottle. 70 00:05:05,948 --> 00:05:09,918 A message to a race of space-faring aliens. 71 00:05:09,952 --> 00:05:14,756 To my mind the golden disc is, I guess a dream, a hope 72 00:05:14,790 --> 00:05:20,028 that one day something out there might find it and realize that we're here. 73 00:05:20,062 --> 00:05:21,830 We're alive and we want to make contact. 74 00:05:21,864 --> 00:05:25,533 [narrator] But if NASA is really serious about making first contact with 75 00:05:25,568 --> 00:05:27,802 an advanced alien species, 76 00:05:27,837 --> 00:05:32,207 why on earth did they send something as old-fashioned as a record? 77 00:05:34,143 --> 00:05:40,382 That decision falls to the man who NASA selects to produce their interstellar message. 78 00:05:41,117 --> 00:05:42,851 Carl Sagan. 79 00:05:42,885 --> 00:05:46,187 [Andrew] Carl Sagan was one of the most famous scientists and science communicators 80 00:05:46,222 --> 00:05:47,922 of the 20th century. 81 00:05:47,957 --> 00:05:53,194 At heart he was an astronomer. But he was also one of the world's first astrobiologists. 82 00:05:53,229 --> 00:05:54,863 He was really interested in the nitty gritty science of 83 00:05:54,897 --> 00:05:57,265 what aliens would actually look like. 84 00:05:59,869 --> 00:06:04,472 [narrator] Whatever format Sagan chooses to carry his message to the stars 85 00:06:04,507 --> 00:06:07,609 has to survive thousands of years. 86 00:06:07,643 --> 00:06:09,944 And space is a brutal place. 87 00:06:09,979 --> 00:06:15,517 Beyond the Earth atmosphere is a very harsh environment. 88 00:06:15,551 --> 00:06:18,353 [Maggie] Radiation from the Sun blasts you. 89 00:06:18,387 --> 00:06:20,955 Temperature ranges are suddenly huge. 90 00:06:21,924 --> 00:06:23,258 [Philip] It's a very dangerous environment. 91 00:06:23,292 --> 00:06:27,629 So it's actually very difficult to think about what sort of object 92 00:06:27,663 --> 00:06:33,334 is going to be able to retain information in that environment. 93 00:06:33,369 --> 00:06:34,702 [mystical music playing] 94 00:06:36,138 --> 00:06:41,843 [narrator] Sagan ignores the magnetic tapes used in 70s computers. 95 00:06:41,877 --> 00:06:44,679 The tape itself would disintegrate in space. 96 00:06:44,713 --> 00:06:48,850 Instead, he goes old school. Vinyl. 97 00:06:48,884 --> 00:06:52,187 [Maggie] The idea of using a phonograph, a record, to send information 98 00:06:52,221 --> 00:06:59,461 seems bizarre. Even in the 70s it was dated a technology. But it was a good way to go. 99 00:07:00,729 --> 00:07:04,666 It's a physical object, the information is stored on it 100 00:07:04,700 --> 00:07:06,768 in these tiny little grooves. 101 00:07:06,802 --> 00:07:09,170 They're carved into the material. 102 00:07:09,205 --> 00:07:14,075 They're going to be able to withstand a bit of bombardment from high energy particles. 103 00:07:14,109 --> 00:07:17,879 [narrator] They assume that any species capable of building spacecraft 104 00:07:17,913 --> 00:07:21,149 will be able to work out how to play the disc. 105 00:07:21,183 --> 00:07:26,488 And for good measure, they decide to include a record needle under the cover. 106 00:07:27,823 --> 00:07:31,993 But actual vinyl, the material isn't space-proof. 107 00:07:32,528 --> 00:07:34,496 So they pimp it up. 108 00:07:34,530 --> 00:07:36,798 They decided they would make it out of metal. 109 00:07:36,832 --> 00:07:40,101 In fact they made it out of engraved copper. 110 00:07:40,135 --> 00:07:44,472 And then to make sure that it was going to last for a long time, 111 00:07:44,507 --> 00:07:46,808 they coated the copper with gold. 112 00:07:46,842 --> 00:07:49,611 Because gold is a very inert metal. 113 00:07:49,645 --> 00:07:53,781 It doesn't corrode. It doesn't degrade easily. 114 00:07:53,816 --> 00:08:00,221 [narrator] Sagan's next problem is what to put on his intergalactic record. 115 00:08:00,256 --> 00:08:04,025 How can he sum up all of humanity and the world around us 116 00:08:04,493 --> 00:08:07,095 on a 12 inch LP? 117 00:08:14,069 --> 00:08:16,004 [narrator] NASA has given astronomer Carl Sagan 118 00:08:16,038 --> 00:08:20,008 the job of sending a comprehensive message about us 119 00:08:20,376 --> 00:08:21,921 to aliens. 120 00:08:21,945 --> 00:08:26,814 But it's all got to squeeze on to a single 12 inch disc. 121 00:08:26,849 --> 00:08:31,386 The challenge posed by this is immense. 122 00:08:31,420 --> 00:08:34,822 You have got one record. 123 00:08:34,857 --> 00:08:37,625 And on it, you somehow have to sum up 124 00:08:37,660 --> 00:08:41,529 the nature of human civilization in all its many forms. 125 00:08:41,564 --> 00:08:44,065 What do you put on the record? 126 00:08:44,099 --> 00:08:48,803 [narrator] NASA gives Sagan just eight months to complete and deliver the entire project 127 00:08:48,837 --> 00:08:53,875 He builds a team from scientists, musicologist and artists 128 00:08:53,909 --> 00:08:57,445 It includes SETI pioneer, Frank Drake. 129 00:08:57,479 --> 00:09:01,482 And author Ann Druyan, Sagan's future wife. 130 00:09:02,952 --> 00:09:08,923 The first thing the disc does is say, "Hi from everyone on Earth." 131 00:09:08,958 --> 00:09:13,695 The beginning of the record has a greeting from the UN Secretary General 132 00:09:13,729 --> 00:09:17,532 and greetings in 55 different languages. 133 00:09:17,566 --> 00:09:20,735 One of the weirdest things is that uh... 134 00:09:20,769 --> 00:09:23,905 Two of those greetings, one of them is Sumerian, 135 00:09:23,939 --> 00:09:25,673 and another is ancient Greek, 136 00:09:25,708 --> 00:09:30,845 neither of which have been spoken for quite some time. 137 00:09:30,879 --> 00:09:36,551 [narrator] Greetings done, the aliens can relax with 90 minutes of eclectic tunes. 138 00:09:36,585 --> 00:09:39,320 The greatest hits of an entire planet. 139 00:09:40,589 --> 00:09:43,424 You've got Mozart's Magic Flute opera. 140 00:09:43,459 --> 00:09:44,626 A Georgian folk song. 141 00:09:44,660 --> 00:09:46,594 Johann Sebastian Bach, of course. 142 00:09:46,629 --> 00:09:48,963 Songs from Navajo Indians. 143 00:09:48,998 --> 00:09:51,733 - The Brandenburg Concertos. - Indonesian gamelan music. 144 00:09:51,767 --> 00:09:53,601 A Japanese song about cranes. 145 00:09:53,636 --> 00:09:56,371 And of course, Chuck Berry's Johnny B. Goode. 146 00:09:57,473 --> 00:10:00,975 [Sascha] Sagan is a pioneer here in that he's 147 00:10:01,010 --> 00:10:03,878 put together a collection of world music 148 00:10:03,912 --> 00:10:08,282 before the term or concept "World Music" was really in common usage. 149 00:10:09,418 --> 00:10:11,386 [narrator] Then, there's the sounds of the Earth. 150 00:10:11,420 --> 00:10:13,688 A rousing compilation of wind, 151 00:10:13,722 --> 00:10:17,325 thunder, an erupting volcano, 152 00:10:18,260 --> 00:10:19,961 animal noises, 153 00:10:20,362 --> 00:10:22,430 Morse code, 154 00:10:22,464 --> 00:10:26,000 a train, a tractor, a moon rocket, 155 00:10:26,402 --> 00:10:27,468 and a kiss. 156 00:10:30,439 --> 00:10:35,009 Sagan wants this to be a truly multimedia experience for our new alien friends. 157 00:10:35,644 --> 00:10:38,579 So, it gets a photo album too. 158 00:10:38,614 --> 00:10:42,083 By an incredibly fortunate coincidence, the technology had just been developed 159 00:10:42,117 --> 00:10:45,086 to allow images to be recorded to vinyl discs. 160 00:10:46,321 --> 00:10:50,458 [narrator] But there is space for just 115 pictures. 161 00:10:50,492 --> 00:10:55,029 Surprisingly, Sagan wastes the first one on a plain circle. 162 00:10:56,699 --> 00:11:02,804 The thinking being that circles are universal structures. 163 00:11:02,838 --> 00:11:05,073 There will be circles anywhere in the universe. 164 00:11:05,107 --> 00:11:11,779 And any alien civilization intelligent enough to start decoding this message 165 00:11:11,814 --> 00:11:15,516 will figure out pretty quickly that this was a circle. 166 00:11:15,551 --> 00:11:19,787 [narrator] So aliens can use this to tell if the pictures are the correct shape. 167 00:11:19,822 --> 00:11:24,759 That leaves space for just 114 more pictures to show to the aliens. 168 00:11:25,694 --> 00:11:27,762 [Andrew] When we look at a photograph, 169 00:11:27,796 --> 00:11:29,897 you have a much better idea of what you're looking at than an alien might. 170 00:11:29,932 --> 00:11:32,800 So, the picture of a couple of people holding hands... 171 00:11:32,835 --> 00:11:35,536 Would an alien even recognize that those are separate organisms 172 00:11:35,571 --> 00:11:38,172 or would they think that's just one giant creature? 173 00:11:40,542 --> 00:11:43,511 [narrator] The pictures they choose cover biology 174 00:11:43,545 --> 00:11:47,515 animals, plants, our planet 175 00:11:47,549 --> 00:11:50,585 our behavior, our civilizations, 176 00:11:50,619 --> 00:11:52,453 and our accomplishments. 177 00:11:53,288 --> 00:11:55,656 All in just 115 images. 178 00:11:57,226 --> 00:12:02,897 The final addition to the disc is a one hour recording of human brain waves. 179 00:12:02,931 --> 00:12:06,300 Just in case aliens can read our minds. 180 00:12:08,003 --> 00:12:09,804 [Andrew] The Voyager Golden Record is a pretty good answer 181 00:12:09,838 --> 00:12:12,507 to a frankly ridiculous question. 182 00:12:12,541 --> 00:12:15,387 Which is how can you encapsulate the entire works, 183 00:12:15,411 --> 00:12:16,711 the entire history of a species 184 00:12:16,745 --> 00:12:19,814 life on a planet, a planet, a solar system 185 00:12:19,848 --> 00:12:22,683 on basically two sides of a long playing record? 186 00:12:22,718 --> 00:12:25,787 [narrator] The content is the easy bit. 187 00:12:25,821 --> 00:12:27,989 The tricky part is the instructions. 188 00:12:28,957 --> 00:12:32,393 These will be engraved on the disc's cover. 189 00:12:32,427 --> 00:12:36,430 But how do you create instructions that the aliens will understand? 190 00:12:37,299 --> 00:12:38,432 [amusing music playing] 191 00:12:40,202 --> 00:12:43,771 The team's only assumption is that anyone who finds the disc 192 00:12:43,806 --> 00:12:46,474 will already have made it into space. 193 00:12:47,576 --> 00:12:50,111 But they won't speak or read any human language. 194 00:12:50,145 --> 00:12:56,017 And their measurements for time and distance will be totally, well, alien. 195 00:12:56,051 --> 00:13:01,322 So what unit of measure could possibly be considered literally universal? 196 00:13:02,858 --> 00:13:06,093 The genius answer comes from Frank Drake. 197 00:13:06,128 --> 00:13:10,097 If you listen to the universe with the right radio at the right frequency 198 00:13:10,132 --> 00:13:14,702 you can hear a signal. And it's a signal that pervades throughout the universe. 199 00:13:14,736 --> 00:13:19,173 It's a signal created by the most common element in the universe. 200 00:13:20,209 --> 00:13:22,310 Hydrogen. 201 00:13:22,344 --> 00:13:26,314 [narrator] This signal is known as the Hydrogen Hyperfine transition. 202 00:13:26,348 --> 00:13:30,351 Drake's choice of using the hydrogen frequency was a brilliant one. 203 00:13:30,385 --> 00:13:33,821 Any intelligent beings out there would be aware of this frequency. 204 00:13:34,823 --> 00:13:38,759 [narrator] Its wavelength is 8.28 inches long. 205 00:13:38,794 --> 00:13:41,596 And the time it takes for a single oscillation 206 00:13:41,630 --> 00:13:44,866 is seven tenths of a billionth of a second. 207 00:13:44,900 --> 00:13:49,103 And those measurements are the same everywhere in the universe. 208 00:13:49,137 --> 00:13:54,742 Frequency of the oscillation gives you a universal unit of time. 209 00:13:54,776 --> 00:13:59,647 The wavelength of that oscillation gives you a universal unit of distance. 210 00:14:01,083 --> 00:14:04,886 [narrator] To explain this to aliens, Sagan engraves on the cover 211 00:14:04,920 --> 00:14:10,958 a tiny drawing of two hydrogen atoms representing the hyperfine transition. 212 00:14:10,993 --> 00:14:12,793 So imagine you're an alien, you find this disc 213 00:14:12,828 --> 00:14:16,731 you can use it to explain how tall a human being is or how big the solar system is 214 00:14:16,765 --> 00:14:19,166 in terms of hydrogen hyperfine wavelengths. 215 00:14:19,201 --> 00:14:20,935 Or you can use it to explain time. 216 00:14:20,969 --> 00:14:26,140 How long it takes a human baby to be born or even how fast you have to play this record. 217 00:14:27,576 --> 00:14:29,677 [narrator] The next problem is numbers. 218 00:14:29,711 --> 00:14:32,246 How exactly does an alien count? 219 00:14:32,281 --> 00:14:36,617 Now most of us work in base 10 what that means is you've got digits from 0 to 9 which is 220 00:14:36,652 --> 00:14:37,952 ten digits in total. 221 00:14:37,986 --> 00:14:40,721 And that makes big numbers easier to write in a small space. 222 00:14:40,756 --> 00:14:42,757 But essentially, it's completely arbitrary. 223 00:14:42,791 --> 00:14:45,960 [narrator] Sagan can't rely on aliens counting in tens. 224 00:14:45,994 --> 00:14:49,997 But there is one system that any intelligent being should recognize. 225 00:14:50,032 --> 00:14:54,535 The numerical information on the Golden Record is encoded in binary. 226 00:14:54,569 --> 00:14:56,671 So just using ones and zeroes. 227 00:14:56,705 --> 00:15:00,942 And the reason is that binary is perhaps the most fundamental numerical system. 228 00:15:00,976 --> 00:15:03,110 If they're advanced enough to be space-faring, 229 00:15:03,145 --> 00:15:08,449 hopefully, they'll be able to understand the mathematics that we've used. 230 00:15:08,483 --> 00:15:11,786 [narrator] At high magnification you can see a picture of the record itself 231 00:15:11,820 --> 00:15:13,187 on the cover. 232 00:15:13,221 --> 00:15:17,602 And engraved around it in binary is the speed it should rotate at. 233 00:15:17,626 --> 00:15:21,195 16 and 2/3rd rpm. 234 00:15:21,229 --> 00:15:26,334 And a diagram of nearby stars with their distances also marked in binary 235 00:15:26,368 --> 00:15:28,369 gives directions to Earth. 236 00:15:30,138 --> 00:15:34,809 There's one last unplanned but very human addition to the record. 237 00:15:35,477 --> 00:15:37,278 Under extreme magnification 238 00:15:37,312 --> 00:15:38,379 there's a faint inscription 239 00:15:38,413 --> 00:15:39,580 scratched into the surface 240 00:15:39,614 --> 00:15:42,216 by the men that cut the master disk. 241 00:15:43,485 --> 00:15:46,253 It reads, "To the makers of music 242 00:15:46,288 --> 00:15:48,422 all worlds all times." 243 00:15:49,491 --> 00:15:50,524 And there you have it. 244 00:15:50,559 --> 00:15:52,760 A snapshot of human life on Earth, 245 00:15:52,794 --> 00:15:55,429 and the means for ET to read it. 246 00:15:55,464 --> 00:15:57,665 All contained in one LP. 247 00:15:58,834 --> 00:16:02,470 So what has become of these interstellar messengers? 248 00:16:09,911 --> 00:16:10,811 [narrator] The Voyager space probes 249 00:16:10,846 --> 00:16:12,913 are carrying a message from Earth 250 00:16:12,948 --> 00:16:17,118 and are now over 11 billion miles away from our planet. 251 00:16:18,353 --> 00:16:21,389 The Voyager spacecraft transformed our understanding 252 00:16:21,423 --> 00:16:22,690 of bodies that are out there. 253 00:16:22,724 --> 00:16:24,592 As the probes went through space, 254 00:16:24,626 --> 00:16:26,594 we get these images back. 255 00:16:26,628 --> 00:16:28,496 Saw close-ups of Jupiter. 256 00:16:28,530 --> 00:16:30,431 We can just about make the red spot out 257 00:16:30,465 --> 00:16:31,665 from Earth using telescopes. 258 00:16:31,700 --> 00:16:33,801 But now, we could see 259 00:16:33,835 --> 00:16:35,770 a dynamic weather system 260 00:16:35,804 --> 00:16:40,241 churning around this amazingly huge planet. 261 00:16:40,275 --> 00:16:41,609 We went out to Saturn 262 00:16:41,643 --> 00:16:43,811 and saw close-up of the rings. 263 00:16:44,746 --> 00:16:47,281 It just transformed our understanding. 264 00:16:48,617 --> 00:16:49,717 Neptune and Uranus, 265 00:16:49,751 --> 00:16:52,453 had been just points of light from Earth. 266 00:16:52,487 --> 00:16:53,654 And now we could see them 267 00:16:53,688 --> 00:16:56,957 as of a beautiful, sort of aqua marine bodies. 268 00:16:56,992 --> 00:17:00,528 [narrator] Incredibly, more than 40 years after launch, 269 00:17:00,562 --> 00:17:03,431 both Voyagers are still working. 270 00:17:03,465 --> 00:17:04,732 They have left the solar system, 271 00:17:04,766 --> 00:17:07,268 carrying our message on a golden disk, 272 00:17:07,302 --> 00:17:08,469 out into the Universe. 273 00:17:09,337 --> 00:17:11,072 It will be 40,000 years 274 00:17:11,106 --> 00:17:15,009 before either of them passes close to another star. 275 00:17:15,043 --> 00:17:17,578 The golden record is a beautiful, hopeful message 276 00:17:17,612 --> 00:17:20,381 about a bountiful, amazing planet that it comes from. 277 00:17:20,415 --> 00:17:21,482 A huge mixture 278 00:17:21,516 --> 00:17:22,850 of different cultures and languages 279 00:17:22,884 --> 00:17:26,587 and even emotions have gone into making this record. 280 00:17:26,621 --> 00:17:30,558 [narrator] The question is will anyone or anything 281 00:17:30,592 --> 00:17:32,193 ever find them? 282 00:17:41,470 --> 00:17:44,038 In a locked cabinet at Yale University, 283 00:17:44,673 --> 00:17:46,707 is a strange medieval book 284 00:17:46,741 --> 00:17:49,243 that has confounded historians 285 00:17:49,277 --> 00:17:50,444 for a hundred years. 286 00:17:51,513 --> 00:17:53,981 There is just one copy in existence, 287 00:17:54,649 --> 00:17:56,684 we have no idea who wrote it 288 00:17:57,586 --> 00:18:00,154 and we have no idea what it's about. 289 00:18:00,755 --> 00:18:03,157 It's one enormous mystery. 290 00:18:09,664 --> 00:18:13,033 [narrator] This is the Voynich manuscript. 291 00:18:14,302 --> 00:18:17,004 It measures nine by six inches 292 00:18:17,038 --> 00:18:20,374 and it's pages are made of cat skin parchment. 293 00:18:21,476 --> 00:18:24,044 It has 240 pages. 294 00:18:25,380 --> 00:18:28,215 Sometimes with inked illustrations. 295 00:18:29,050 --> 00:18:30,384 [narrator] It's pages are covered 296 00:18:30,418 --> 00:18:32,319 with incomprehensible writing. 297 00:18:33,155 --> 00:18:34,855 It really looks like a language. 298 00:18:35,390 --> 00:18:36,857 [narrator] But is it? 299 00:18:36,892 --> 00:18:39,760 We can't really make sense of the letters. 300 00:18:39,794 --> 00:18:42,663 [narrator] Why would anyone create such a detailed book 301 00:18:42,697 --> 00:18:46,267 and then make it impossible to understand? 302 00:18:46,301 --> 00:18:47,735 The text is a riddle 303 00:18:47,769 --> 00:18:50,604 but the drawings aren't much better. 304 00:18:50,639 --> 00:18:52,540 [narrator] It's packed with arcane symbols 305 00:18:52,574 --> 00:18:54,542 and bizarre illustrations. 306 00:18:54,576 --> 00:18:57,778 Like naked ladies bathing, plants and castles. 307 00:18:58,847 --> 00:19:01,749 Now recent research may finally have uncovered 308 00:19:01,783 --> 00:19:03,651 hidden clues in these drawings 309 00:19:03,685 --> 00:19:06,387 that could help explain this mystery. 310 00:19:06,421 --> 00:19:10,958 Despite that, the Voynich manuscript remains an enigma. 311 00:19:11,560 --> 00:19:13,260 Where does it come from? 312 00:19:13,662 --> 00:19:14,828 How old is it? 313 00:19:14,863 --> 00:19:17,765 And what is it trying to tell us? 314 00:19:18,433 --> 00:19:21,535 It could still be a hidden key 315 00:19:21,570 --> 00:19:23,103 to unknown mysteries. 316 00:19:27,008 --> 00:19:29,810 [narrator] Even a brief glance at this bizarre document 317 00:19:29,844 --> 00:19:32,846 raises one very obvious possibility. 318 00:19:32,881 --> 00:19:34,815 [Mark] When you take everything together, 319 00:19:34,849 --> 00:19:38,919 the illegible alphabet, the weird drawings, 320 00:19:38,954 --> 00:19:40,754 sooner or later you have to consider that 321 00:19:40,789 --> 00:19:44,091 it might be a relatively modern hoax. 322 00:19:46,995 --> 00:19:48,696 [narrator] For decades, the Voynich manuscript 323 00:19:48,730 --> 00:19:50,798 has been tainted by accusations 324 00:19:50,832 --> 00:19:52,600 that it is a modern fake 325 00:19:52,634 --> 00:19:56,003 created for the lucrative antiquarian book market. 326 00:19:57,372 --> 00:19:59,240 If it is, the prime suspect 327 00:19:59,274 --> 00:20:02,910 has to be the man who discovered it in 1912, 328 00:20:03,378 --> 00:20:05,112 Wilfrid Voynich. 329 00:20:06,481 --> 00:20:07,648 [Kevin] Voynich spent his life 330 00:20:07,682 --> 00:20:10,451 looking for rare books and lost manuscripts. 331 00:20:10,485 --> 00:20:11,852 If you were looking for a character 332 00:20:11,886 --> 00:20:15,356 who would have had the correct mental equipment 333 00:20:15,390 --> 00:20:16,423 to construct such a fake, 334 00:20:16,458 --> 00:20:17,925 he would certainly be a candidate. 335 00:20:17,959 --> 00:20:20,327 [narrator] But it is also possible Voynich 336 00:20:20,362 --> 00:20:21,695 was the victim of a scam 337 00:20:21,730 --> 00:20:23,597 perpetrated by the people 338 00:20:23,632 --> 00:20:25,499 he bought the manuscript from. 339 00:20:25,533 --> 00:20:27,768 [Mark] He bought it from a monastery 340 00:20:27,802 --> 00:20:28,802 that was in dire need of money. 341 00:20:28,837 --> 00:20:31,705 So maybe they just made something up, 342 00:20:31,740 --> 00:20:33,374 gave it to him, sold it, 343 00:20:33,408 --> 00:20:35,109 and got some money for it. 344 00:20:35,777 --> 00:20:36,677 [narrator] To find the truth, 345 00:20:36,711 --> 00:20:38,779 experts have turned to science. 346 00:20:40,048 --> 00:20:42,416 [Andrew] In 2009, scientists at the University of Arizona, 347 00:20:42,450 --> 00:20:44,151 managed to use carbon dating 348 00:20:44,185 --> 00:20:45,552 to work out that the manuscript date 349 00:20:45,587 --> 00:20:48,989 as from somewhere between 1404 and 1438. 350 00:20:49,024 --> 00:20:52,026 So the vellum it's made from at least days from the appropriate time. 351 00:20:52,861 --> 00:20:54,461 [narrator] But that doesn't mean 352 00:20:54,496 --> 00:20:55,996 it's written in the Middle Ages. 353 00:20:56,464 --> 00:20:57,665 Using old vellum 354 00:20:57,699 --> 00:21:00,601 or reusing pages from an old manuscript 355 00:21:00,635 --> 00:21:02,836 is a common forger's trick. 356 00:21:02,871 --> 00:21:06,540 To test this, scientists analyze the ink 357 00:21:06,574 --> 00:21:09,476 searching for synthetic modern chemicals. 358 00:21:09,511 --> 00:21:10,644 The ink that was used on the manuscript 359 00:21:10,679 --> 00:21:12,680 is very similar to the inks that were used in other 360 00:21:12,714 --> 00:21:13,881 medieval manuscripts. 361 00:21:13,915 --> 00:21:16,984 They're made of things like hematite or iron, 362 00:21:17,018 --> 00:21:19,420 naturally occurring simple substances, 363 00:21:19,454 --> 00:21:21,255 rather than the complex hydrocarbons 364 00:21:21,289 --> 00:21:22,723 that are often used as pigments in modern inks. 365 00:21:23,892 --> 00:21:26,560 [narrator] The combination of different ancient materials 366 00:21:26,594 --> 00:21:28,962 is enough to convince experts. 367 00:21:28,997 --> 00:21:31,398 If you look at the vellum and the ink, 368 00:21:31,433 --> 00:21:33,067 and the dating of both, 369 00:21:33,101 --> 00:21:33,901 then you know that 370 00:21:33,935 --> 00:21:35,469 this is something that is really old. 371 00:21:36,604 --> 00:21:38,472 [narrator] Which means if it's a fake, 372 00:21:38,506 --> 00:21:40,507 it's not a modern fake. 373 00:21:40,542 --> 00:21:42,543 So could it be real? 374 00:21:42,577 --> 00:21:45,412 And if it is, what does it say? 375 00:21:51,820 --> 00:21:54,588 [narrator] For decades, code breakers and linguists 376 00:21:54,622 --> 00:21:55,823 have been trying to decipher 377 00:21:55,857 --> 00:21:58,826 the extraordinary Voynich manuscript. 378 00:21:58,860 --> 00:22:01,662 [Mark] When we look at the possible alphabet, 379 00:22:01,696 --> 00:22:05,799 we see more than 20 letters, maybe 22, 25, 380 00:22:05,834 --> 00:22:08,669 we see something that could be vowels, 381 00:22:08,703 --> 00:22:11,305 we see something that could be numbers, 382 00:22:11,339 --> 00:22:13,574 but beyond that nobody knows 383 00:22:13,608 --> 00:22:16,577 what this alphabet consists of. 384 00:22:16,611 --> 00:22:19,546 [narrator] Which suggests an obvious possibility. 385 00:22:19,581 --> 00:22:22,316 Perhaps, it's not normal writing at all. 386 00:22:22,350 --> 00:22:23,917 Perhaps, it's a code. 387 00:22:24,786 --> 00:22:26,019 [Andrew] One idea is the manuscript 388 00:22:26,054 --> 00:22:27,588 could have been written with what's called 389 00:22:27,622 --> 00:22:28,889 a substitution cipher. 390 00:22:28,923 --> 00:22:31,458 And this is a code where you simply take a given letter 391 00:22:31,493 --> 00:22:32,726 of the alphabet or a given symbol 392 00:22:32,761 --> 00:22:34,628 and replace it directly with another one. 393 00:22:34,662 --> 00:22:37,297 So A becomes B, B becomes C and so on. 394 00:22:37,332 --> 00:22:38,399 And that means you can write things 395 00:22:38,433 --> 00:22:41,135 that look very difficult to read just at first glance. 396 00:22:42,337 --> 00:22:45,506 [narrator] But substitution ciphers are relatively easy 397 00:22:45,540 --> 00:22:47,408 for mathematicians to spot. 398 00:22:47,909 --> 00:22:48,876 You look at the text 399 00:22:48,910 --> 00:22:51,645 and you see which letters occur most frequently. 400 00:22:51,679 --> 00:22:53,380 So, for example, in written English, 401 00:22:53,415 --> 00:22:55,382 the most common letter is the letter E. 402 00:22:55,417 --> 00:22:56,917 So say you were to find a Z 403 00:22:56,951 --> 00:22:57,785 as the most common letter 404 00:22:57,819 --> 00:22:59,586 in the text that you're looking at, 405 00:22:59,621 --> 00:23:00,654 you could guess that maybe 406 00:23:00,688 --> 00:23:02,623 that Z corresponded to the letter E. 407 00:23:02,657 --> 00:23:03,624 And then you can go down 408 00:23:03,658 --> 00:23:05,559 looking at less and less frequent letters 409 00:23:05,593 --> 00:23:08,328 and slowly but surely build up a picture of the words. 410 00:23:10,765 --> 00:23:11,698 [narrator] Experts have tested 411 00:23:11,733 --> 00:23:15,068 this approach on the enigmatic writing. 412 00:23:15,103 --> 00:23:16,670 [Andrew] When you're trying to do this with the Voynich manuscript, 413 00:23:16,704 --> 00:23:18,305 you don't come up with anything. 414 00:23:19,374 --> 00:23:20,507 Even when you compare it 415 00:23:20,542 --> 00:23:22,676 to loads and loads of different languages, 416 00:23:22,710 --> 00:23:24,311 there's just nothing that seems to work 417 00:23:24,345 --> 00:23:25,646 with this technique. 418 00:23:25,680 --> 00:23:27,514 [narrator] If it's not a code, 419 00:23:27,549 --> 00:23:28,749 maybe the Voynich manuscript 420 00:23:28,783 --> 00:23:32,119 is simply written in an unknown language. 421 00:23:34,689 --> 00:23:38,826 In 2013, mathematicians and computer scientists 422 00:23:38,893 --> 00:23:41,962 at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, 423 00:23:41,996 --> 00:23:44,865 test the Voynich language to see if it displays 424 00:23:44,899 --> 00:23:48,335 the same kind of patterns as known languages. 425 00:23:49,604 --> 00:23:52,239 Scientists have tried to compare objectively 426 00:23:52,273 --> 00:23:55,809 things like word length, and the number of letters 427 00:23:55,844 --> 00:23:58,779 with English and Portuguese in the Voynich manuscript 428 00:23:58,813 --> 00:24:01,715 to get some idea of whether or not, 429 00:24:01,749 --> 00:24:03,951 even the kind of word groupings 430 00:24:03,985 --> 00:24:04,885 would make any sense. 431 00:24:05,887 --> 00:24:09,490 And generally speaking, it does kind of fit, 432 00:24:09,524 --> 00:24:10,891 it doesn't fit perfectly, 433 00:24:10,925 --> 00:24:15,662 but it's not outside of what we would expect. 434 00:24:15,697 --> 00:24:17,898 [Andrew] What's bizarre is that you look at the Voynich manuscript 435 00:24:17,932 --> 00:24:20,400 and even though we don't know what any of the symbols are 436 00:24:20,435 --> 00:24:21,602 or what they mean, 437 00:24:21,636 --> 00:24:24,638 they still seem to have these same kinds of patterns. 438 00:24:24,672 --> 00:24:26,473 This isn't just random gibberish. 439 00:24:26,508 --> 00:24:28,375 It really looks like a language. 440 00:24:30,645 --> 00:24:31,812 [narrator] So the Voynich writing 441 00:24:31,846 --> 00:24:34,982 seems to fit the pattern of a real language. 442 00:24:35,650 --> 00:24:37,217 But knowing it's a language 443 00:24:37,252 --> 00:24:39,887 is a long way from being able to translate it. 444 00:24:40,989 --> 00:24:43,524 [Abigail] We can identify words through two routes, 445 00:24:43,558 --> 00:24:45,659 that we've seen that word before, 446 00:24:45,693 --> 00:24:47,694 and that we've heard that word before. 447 00:24:47,729 --> 00:24:50,631 But the fact that we can't make out 448 00:24:50,665 --> 00:24:52,466 what any of the letters are, 449 00:24:52,500 --> 00:24:53,834 leaves you in a kind of no man's land. 450 00:24:53,868 --> 00:24:56,837 Cause not only do we not know what these words are 451 00:24:56,871 --> 00:24:58,805 but we've no idea how they sounded either. 452 00:25:00,041 --> 00:25:03,510 [narrator] Decades of analysis by code breakers and linguists 453 00:25:03,545 --> 00:25:06,547 have failed to unlock the manuscript's writing 454 00:25:06,581 --> 00:25:10,117 which just leaves the illustrations. 455 00:25:10,151 --> 00:25:13,387 Could they crack the secrets of the Voynich manuscript? 456 00:25:17,992 --> 00:25:19,593 [Abigail] The images on this text 457 00:25:19,627 --> 00:25:22,796 are some of the strangest things I've seen. 458 00:25:22,830 --> 00:25:25,566 [narrator] The manuscript is a riot of colorful 459 00:25:25,600 --> 00:25:27,801 and baffling illustrations. 460 00:25:27,835 --> 00:25:31,371 It's a bit like a list of classes at Hogwarts. 461 00:25:31,406 --> 00:25:32,673 You've got kind of Herbology, 462 00:25:32,707 --> 00:25:34,942 all these beautiful pictures of plants 463 00:25:34,976 --> 00:25:39,713 and then you have things like images of naked women bathing 464 00:25:39,747 --> 00:25:42,883 and then very detailed images of a castle. 465 00:25:43,985 --> 00:25:46,820 [narrator] Now new research claims these drawings 466 00:25:46,854 --> 00:25:48,622 could finally answer the puzzle 467 00:25:48,656 --> 00:25:50,390 of the Voynich manuscript. 468 00:25:51,793 --> 00:25:55,729 In 2013, the manuscript's bizarre illustrations 469 00:25:55,763 --> 00:25:59,299 catch the eye of two US scholars. 470 00:25:59,334 --> 00:26:03,503 They think they've seen some of the plants in it before. 471 00:26:03,538 --> 00:26:05,639 [Abigail] A couple of American botanists 472 00:26:05,673 --> 00:26:07,541 have looked at these images 473 00:26:07,575 --> 00:26:09,843 and they've seen similarities 474 00:26:09,877 --> 00:26:12,579 between the plants depicted in this manuscript 475 00:26:12,614 --> 00:26:13,847 and plants that are native 476 00:26:13,881 --> 00:26:17,718 and indigenous to Central America. 477 00:26:17,752 --> 00:26:20,354 [narrator] They identify nearly 60 plants 478 00:26:20,388 --> 00:26:21,521 in the Voynich manuscript 479 00:26:21,556 --> 00:26:24,358 that they believe show a striking correlation 480 00:26:24,392 --> 00:26:26,126 with Mexican plants. 481 00:26:27,328 --> 00:26:30,464 Agave, Dioscorea, 482 00:26:31,699 --> 00:26:35,435 Cylin, Eryngium, 483 00:26:36,638 --> 00:26:38,438 and the Viola 484 00:26:39,474 --> 00:26:41,541 and many more. 485 00:26:41,576 --> 00:26:44,444 It certainly seems convincing at first glance. 486 00:26:45,747 --> 00:26:48,482 [Abigail] The idea of identifying this manuscript 487 00:26:48,516 --> 00:26:51,685 and connecting it to scholarship from Central America, 488 00:26:51,719 --> 00:26:54,421 is an interesting idea 489 00:26:54,455 --> 00:26:56,823 and it's quite creative and innovative. 490 00:26:56,858 --> 00:26:59,660 [narrator] The botanists have also noted similarities 491 00:26:59,694 --> 00:27:01,561 between the Voynich manuscript 492 00:27:01,596 --> 00:27:03,597 and a well-known ancient manuscript 493 00:27:03,631 --> 00:27:05,666 on Central American herbology, 494 00:27:05,700 --> 00:27:08,335 called the Codex Cruz-Badianus. 495 00:27:09,537 --> 00:27:10,671 So has this new research 496 00:27:10,705 --> 00:27:12,539 finally begun to crack the secrets 497 00:27:12,573 --> 00:27:13,840 of the Voynich manuscript. 498 00:27:14,909 --> 00:27:17,844 Can its origins be traced to Central America? 499 00:27:18,713 --> 00:27:22,516 Is it a Mexican herbology of plants? 500 00:27:22,550 --> 00:27:25,252 Indigenous cultures certainly have writing 501 00:27:25,286 --> 00:27:28,055 and a sophisticated knowledge of the natural world. 502 00:27:29,057 --> 00:27:31,224 But there are problems with this idea. 503 00:27:34,562 --> 00:27:37,531 For one thing, the timing seems off. 504 00:27:37,565 --> 00:27:40,333 The vellum in the Voynich manuscript has been dated 505 00:27:40,368 --> 00:27:43,303 to around 1404 to 1438. 506 00:27:45,506 --> 00:27:47,808 The problem is, and it's a big one, 507 00:27:47,842 --> 00:27:51,378 at this date Europeans won't discover the Americas 508 00:27:51,412 --> 00:27:53,213 for another 50 years. 509 00:27:54,515 --> 00:27:56,416 And the Codex Cruz-Badianus, 510 00:27:56,451 --> 00:27:58,085 that it's been compared with, 511 00:27:58,119 --> 00:28:01,521 isn't written for a 100 years after the vellum's dating. 512 00:28:02,890 --> 00:28:07,294 Is it possible that after someone made this valuable vellum 513 00:28:07,328 --> 00:28:10,097 it sat unused for a 100 years? 514 00:28:10,131 --> 00:28:12,466 It's not completely out of the question 515 00:28:12,500 --> 00:28:15,135 but it does seem pretty unlikely. 516 00:28:16,771 --> 00:28:19,706 And even if you ignore the dating issues, 517 00:28:19,741 --> 00:28:22,409 other illustrations point towards an origin 518 00:28:22,443 --> 00:28:23,677 much closer to home. 519 00:28:24,579 --> 00:28:28,615 There's an intricate drawing of a castle 520 00:28:28,649 --> 00:28:30,851 and there are aspects of the architecture that are 521 00:28:30,885 --> 00:28:33,453 identifiable as what they would call 522 00:28:33,488 --> 00:28:34,688 Ghibelline architecture. 523 00:28:34,722 --> 00:28:35,689 It's particularly I think 524 00:28:35,723 --> 00:28:37,791 the crenellations on the turrets 525 00:28:37,825 --> 00:28:40,861 and they are in kind of Central Northern Italy 526 00:28:41,763 --> 00:28:44,865 around that kind of northern border. 527 00:28:45,733 --> 00:28:47,601 [narrator] So is it a book on Mexico 528 00:28:47,635 --> 00:28:50,771 or some unknown text on Europe 529 00:28:50,805 --> 00:28:52,172 or something else entirely? 530 00:28:52,740 --> 00:28:54,775 No one seems certain. 531 00:28:55,443 --> 00:28:57,644 But there is one final clue. 532 00:28:57,678 --> 00:28:59,346 A clue that might at last 533 00:28:59,380 --> 00:29:02,249 tell us the origins of the Voynich manuscript. 534 00:29:09,857 --> 00:29:11,525 [narrator] The Voynich manuscript 535 00:29:11,559 --> 00:29:13,059 is a 500 year-old document. 536 00:29:13,094 --> 00:29:18,498 Written in an untranslatable text and covered in strange images, 537 00:29:18,533 --> 00:29:21,234 it has baffled scholars for centuries. 538 00:29:23,104 --> 00:29:26,173 But there is one final clue to its origins. 539 00:29:26,741 --> 00:29:29,709 A letter dating to 1639 540 00:29:29,744 --> 00:29:32,179 that mentions the manuscript. 541 00:29:33,381 --> 00:29:34,581 According to the letter, 542 00:29:34,615 --> 00:29:37,584 the book was owned by an alchemist in Prague 543 00:29:37,618 --> 00:29:40,086 by the name of Georg Baresch. 544 00:29:40,121 --> 00:29:42,622 [narrator] Almost nobody had ever heard of Baresch. 545 00:29:42,657 --> 00:29:44,157 But there is a second clue 546 00:29:44,192 --> 00:29:47,160 that also ties the manuscript to Prague. 547 00:29:48,462 --> 00:29:51,264 But it's only visible under UV light. 548 00:29:53,434 --> 00:29:55,368 Another tantalizing detail 549 00:29:55,403 --> 00:29:56,536 is that a signature 550 00:29:56,571 --> 00:29:59,239 was found on the title page of the volume 551 00:29:59,273 --> 00:30:00,807 of a man named Tepenec 552 00:30:00,842 --> 00:30:04,144 who was a herbalist in the court of Rudolf II. 553 00:30:05,646 --> 00:30:09,082 [narrator] Rudolf II, the holy Roman emperor, 554 00:30:09,116 --> 00:30:12,619 one of the most colorful characters in renaissance Europe. 555 00:30:13,521 --> 00:30:17,023 Rudolf II was exactly the sort of person 556 00:30:17,058 --> 00:30:19,359 who would want to acquire a manuscript like this. 557 00:30:19,393 --> 00:30:21,728 He had the money, he had the interest, 558 00:30:21,762 --> 00:30:25,232 and he necessarily need to understand it himself. 559 00:30:25,266 --> 00:30:27,467 He just needed enough people around him telling him, 560 00:30:27,501 --> 00:30:30,003 that it was fascinating and important. 561 00:30:31,806 --> 00:30:37,644 [narrator] So could Prague and Rudolf II explain the manuscript's origins? 562 00:30:37,678 --> 00:30:41,681 If you were looking to sell something for a high price, 563 00:30:41,716 --> 00:30:46,386 something which featured an untranslatable text 564 00:30:46,420 --> 00:30:48,622 and mysterious illustrations, 565 00:30:48,656 --> 00:30:51,625 which seemed to cross continents and cultures, 566 00:30:51,659 --> 00:30:53,727 what better place to try to shop this 567 00:30:53,761 --> 00:30:56,329 than in the court of Rudolf II? 568 00:30:57,798 --> 00:30:59,666 [narrator] Is this the real truth 569 00:30:59,700 --> 00:31:02,636 behind this strange book? 570 00:31:02,670 --> 00:31:05,705 Unfortunately, there seemed to be as many explanations 571 00:31:05,740 --> 00:31:06,740 as there are experts. 572 00:31:07,742 --> 00:31:11,678 I personally see a lot of drawings and scripts 573 00:31:11,712 --> 00:31:15,916 and very, very long texts of people who have psychosis. 574 00:31:16,651 --> 00:31:18,118 [narrator] People with psychosis 575 00:31:18,152 --> 00:31:19,719 can construct their own reality 576 00:31:19,754 --> 00:31:22,389 unconnected to the outside world. 577 00:31:24,425 --> 00:31:26,860 So maybe our basic assumption is wrong, 578 00:31:26,894 --> 00:31:30,697 that this is a language that we can ever understand, 579 00:31:30,731 --> 00:31:32,532 comprehend and decode. 580 00:31:32,566 --> 00:31:35,669 So maybe, for everybody else except of that person 581 00:31:35,703 --> 00:31:37,904 it will never make any sense. 582 00:31:37,939 --> 00:31:41,474 [narrator] So, could it be the result of psychosis 583 00:31:41,509 --> 00:31:44,711 or could it simply be and ancient fraud? 584 00:31:44,745 --> 00:31:48,581 I don't think the Voynich manuscript was created 585 00:31:48,616 --> 00:31:51,051 ultimately to be understood. 586 00:31:51,085 --> 00:31:55,622 But to puzzle, to deceive, to fascinate 587 00:31:55,656 --> 00:31:58,191 and perhaps to get a sack of gold 588 00:31:58,225 --> 00:31:59,426 from Rudolf II. 589 00:32:00,795 --> 00:32:03,763 [narrator] Maybe the real secret of the Voynich manuscript 590 00:32:03,798 --> 00:32:07,767 is that it will always remain an unsolvable puzzle. 591 00:32:07,802 --> 00:32:11,271 [Abigail] I kind of love how it remains a mystery 592 00:32:11,305 --> 00:32:12,372 and it remains something 593 00:32:12,406 --> 00:32:14,474 that we can continue to speculate 594 00:32:14,508 --> 00:32:16,977 because we don't know what it says. 595 00:32:24,051 --> 00:32:26,820 [narrator] In 1966, the British Museum in London 596 00:32:26,854 --> 00:32:30,457 acquires one of its eeriest artifacts. 597 00:32:30,491 --> 00:32:33,393 It appears to be a very plain black disc. 598 00:32:34,562 --> 00:32:37,464 It's a great deal more than that. 599 00:32:37,498 --> 00:32:40,066 It is a macabre supernatural device 600 00:32:40,101 --> 00:32:43,436 whose origins have perplexed experts for centuries. 601 00:32:43,471 --> 00:32:46,673 [Ruth] This weird thing is encased in mystery. 602 00:32:46,707 --> 00:32:52,045 Nobody knew how it worked or where this came from. 603 00:32:52,079 --> 00:32:55,348 [narrator] Now using the latest graphics technology, 604 00:32:57,818 --> 00:33:01,554 we can shed new light on the Obsidian Mirror. 605 00:33:02,757 --> 00:33:06,459 Roughly seven inches across and a half an inch thick, 606 00:33:06,494 --> 00:33:09,429 it is made from a single slab of obsidian. 607 00:33:10,531 --> 00:33:14,000 A stone born in the heart of a volcano. 608 00:33:17,338 --> 00:33:20,774 It's a natural form of glass, but it's very nature, 609 00:33:20,808 --> 00:33:23,276 it has this glassy, black sheen to it. 610 00:33:25,713 --> 00:33:28,648 [narrator] But in the mirror, these natural properties 611 00:33:28,682 --> 00:33:31,851 have been taken to unnatural extremes. 612 00:33:32,620 --> 00:33:34,621 It's clearly been very, very worked 613 00:33:34,655 --> 00:33:36,656 and polished into this final form. 614 00:33:36,690 --> 00:33:39,125 And it shines like a mirror. 615 00:33:39,160 --> 00:33:43,563 [narrator] But this isn't a mirror intended for the human world. 616 00:33:43,597 --> 00:33:46,166 It has a much more macabre purpose. 617 00:33:48,536 --> 00:33:51,571 Now, new research can finally reveal 618 00:33:51,605 --> 00:33:55,308 the incredible origins of the Obsidian Mirror. 619 00:33:57,578 --> 00:33:59,145 So where does it come from? 620 00:33:59,613 --> 00:34:01,147 Who made it? 621 00:34:01,715 --> 00:34:03,283 What is it? 622 00:34:08,489 --> 00:34:10,457 When the British Museum acquired this object 623 00:34:10,491 --> 00:34:11,691 it came with a little note 624 00:34:11,725 --> 00:34:15,462 "The claim, "This was the stone 625 00:34:15,496 --> 00:34:19,132 with which Doctor Dee called his spirits." 626 00:34:23,737 --> 00:34:26,840 [narrator] There is only one famous Doctor Dee in history. 627 00:34:27,741 --> 00:34:31,511 John Dee, a shadowy enigmatic figure 628 00:34:31,545 --> 00:34:34,380 from Tudor Britain 500 years ago. 629 00:34:35,516 --> 00:34:37,750 So who was Doctor Dee? 630 00:34:37,785 --> 00:34:40,687 Well, that's actually quite hard to pin down. 631 00:34:40,721 --> 00:34:43,456 He's a kind of slippery character. 632 00:34:43,491 --> 00:34:45,391 Was he a magician? 633 00:34:46,460 --> 00:34:47,827 Was he a scientist? 634 00:34:48,395 --> 00:34:50,363 Was he a philosopher? 635 00:34:50,397 --> 00:34:51,998 Was he an astrologer? 636 00:34:52,766 --> 00:34:55,135 He sort of, sat on the boundary 637 00:34:55,169 --> 00:34:57,370 between what we now think of as science 638 00:34:57,404 --> 00:34:59,405 and what we now think of as magic. 639 00:35:01,709 --> 00:35:03,810 [narrator] Dee's reputation as a man of knowledge, 640 00:35:03,844 --> 00:35:06,579 sees him rise to the position of astrologer 641 00:35:06,614 --> 00:35:10,550 and personal advisor to Queen Elizabeth the First. 642 00:35:10,584 --> 00:35:13,753 She, on occasions, actually visited him in his house. 643 00:35:13,787 --> 00:35:16,689 They had consultations about the future, 644 00:35:16,724 --> 00:35:17,790 about the nature of the universe, 645 00:35:17,825 --> 00:35:20,193 about how she should run the country. 646 00:35:20,227 --> 00:35:24,364 This is a man who had his finger right in the middle 647 00:35:24,398 --> 00:35:27,867 of the political heart of the nation. 648 00:35:27,902 --> 00:35:29,502 A man with influence. 649 00:35:30,971 --> 00:35:34,474 [narrator] But the volcanic mirror isn't part of his cultured life 650 00:35:34,508 --> 00:35:35,808 in the Elizabethan court. 651 00:35:36,744 --> 00:35:40,346 John Dee uses it to speak to the dead. 652 00:35:48,689 --> 00:35:49,789 [narrator] This Obsidian Mirror 653 00:35:49,823 --> 00:35:51,758 was one of the strangest possessions 654 00:35:51,792 --> 00:35:55,028 of Elizabethan alchemist, John Dee. 655 00:35:57,031 --> 00:35:58,498 [Ruth] Many of us think of alchemists 656 00:35:58,532 --> 00:35:59,866 as people who try to turn lead into gold, 657 00:35:59,900 --> 00:36:03,636 but actually, they were much more interested 658 00:36:03,671 --> 00:36:06,306 in finding something called the philosopher's stone. 659 00:36:07,641 --> 00:36:09,409 And what they meant by that, 660 00:36:09,443 --> 00:36:12,679 was something that would prolong life 661 00:36:12,713 --> 00:36:15,648 and give you the answers to the meaning of life. 662 00:36:16,684 --> 00:36:19,552 So in searching for this philosopher's stone, 663 00:36:19,587 --> 00:36:20,853 he became convinced 664 00:36:20,888 --> 00:36:24,290 that he could seek the assistance of angels. 665 00:36:25,759 --> 00:36:27,594 [narrator] The Obsidian Mirror is central 666 00:36:27,628 --> 00:36:29,996 to this obsession with the occult. 667 00:36:31,465 --> 00:36:33,766 A note attached to its case claims 668 00:36:33,801 --> 00:36:36,803 Dee uses it for calling spirits. 669 00:36:36,837 --> 00:36:40,707 He is known to have attempted to raise spirits to speak with them 670 00:36:40,741 --> 00:36:42,575 in a search for more knowledge 671 00:36:42,610 --> 00:36:45,345 to try and speak with other worldly beings. 672 00:36:46,614 --> 00:36:49,682 [narrator] The Obsidian Mirror is Dee's supernatural gateway 673 00:36:49,717 --> 00:36:51,184 to the other side. 674 00:36:52,586 --> 00:36:55,722 In order to communicate with these angels, 675 00:36:55,756 --> 00:36:58,524 he began to use something that he called a scrying stone 676 00:36:58,559 --> 00:37:00,360 or a seeing stone. 677 00:37:00,394 --> 00:37:03,329 And it may well be that this object 678 00:37:03,364 --> 00:37:04,530 is that stone. 679 00:37:06,033 --> 00:37:10,770 [narrator] So, it appears John Dee uses this object to summon spirits. 680 00:37:10,804 --> 00:37:12,805 And that's not as surprising as it sounds 681 00:37:12,840 --> 00:37:16,342 because this connection between mirrors and spirits 682 00:37:16,377 --> 00:37:18,111 is very old indeed. 683 00:37:18,779 --> 00:37:20,647 Looking into a glass or mirror 684 00:37:20,681 --> 00:37:23,616 in order to try and see something more 685 00:37:23,651 --> 00:37:26,786 is a very ancient idea. 686 00:37:26,820 --> 00:37:29,689 People have been doing it for a long time. 687 00:37:29,723 --> 00:37:32,759 [narrator] More than 1,500 years before John Dee, 688 00:37:32,793 --> 00:37:35,495 the Celts in the British Isles are already using 689 00:37:35,529 --> 00:37:37,563 bronze mirrors and pools of water 690 00:37:37,598 --> 00:37:39,899 to connect with their Gods and spirits. 691 00:37:39,933 --> 00:37:42,568 Could this ancient British mystical connection 692 00:37:42,603 --> 00:37:43,870 between spirits and mirrors 693 00:37:43,904 --> 00:37:47,307 explain why this strange obsidian object 694 00:37:47,341 --> 00:37:48,808 turns up in Tudor England? 695 00:37:50,044 --> 00:37:54,013 Unfortunately, there's one big problem with that theory. 696 00:37:56,550 --> 00:37:59,886 [Dougal] We don't have obsidian in the UK. 697 00:37:59,920 --> 00:38:02,622 There's a very small ancient volcanic rocks 698 00:38:02,656 --> 00:38:03,823 which have some glassy bits, 699 00:38:03,857 --> 00:38:04,924 but nothing that would give you 700 00:38:04,958 --> 00:38:08,461 such a beautiful object that we see in this mirror. 701 00:38:08,495 --> 00:38:10,630 So it must've come from somewhere else. 702 00:38:10,664 --> 00:38:13,333 [narrator] So where on earth does it come from? 703 00:38:14,268 --> 00:38:16,069 And who made it? 704 00:38:18,639 --> 00:38:20,239 Whoever is responsible 705 00:38:20,274 --> 00:38:21,841 for this supernatural spirit mirror 706 00:38:21,875 --> 00:38:24,911 went to great lengths to craft it. 707 00:38:24,945 --> 00:38:28,815 It's made out of one piece of obsidian which is quite hard to find 708 00:38:28,849 --> 00:38:31,484 'cause often it's fractured in many places. 709 00:38:31,518 --> 00:38:32,752 They must've really looked hard 710 00:38:32,786 --> 00:38:35,722 to find a natural example that they could work up 711 00:38:35,756 --> 00:38:37,790 into this wonderful mirror. 712 00:38:38,859 --> 00:38:41,494 [narrator] But to produce this mirror-like finish, 713 00:38:41,528 --> 00:38:43,563 out of rock as hard as obsidian, 714 00:38:43,597 --> 00:38:47,767 would mean weeks of grinding and polishing by hand. 715 00:38:47,801 --> 00:38:51,304 It must've been something very special to the people that made it. 716 00:38:53,374 --> 00:38:54,574 [narrator] For hundreds of years, 717 00:38:54,608 --> 00:38:57,377 the origin of the mirror remains a mystery. 718 00:38:58,645 --> 00:38:59,879 But in 2019, 719 00:38:59,913 --> 00:39:02,582 the University of Manchester in England 720 00:39:02,616 --> 00:39:05,318 analyzes the mirror's chemical fingerprint 721 00:39:05,352 --> 00:39:06,619 using a cutting edge technique 722 00:39:06,653 --> 00:39:09,455 called X-Ray Fluorescence. 723 00:39:09,490 --> 00:39:12,392 [Dougal] Different magma bodies in different parts of the earth 724 00:39:12,426 --> 00:39:14,527 have different chemical fingerprints. 725 00:39:14,561 --> 00:39:19,365 And so, if you can analyze what the mirror is made up of 726 00:39:19,400 --> 00:39:21,834 and you can work out which volcano, 727 00:39:21,869 --> 00:39:24,604 or which area that your fingerprints too, 728 00:39:24,638 --> 00:39:26,606 bingo, you could find out where it came from. 729 00:39:27,541 --> 00:39:30,176 [narrator] The results are astonishing. 730 00:39:31,979 --> 00:39:34,580 [Dougal] They trace the composition of this obsidian 731 00:39:34,615 --> 00:39:35,782 back to the jungles 732 00:39:35,816 --> 00:39:39,419 in the Sierra de Las Navajas in Mexico. 733 00:39:39,453 --> 00:39:41,854 And there they found ancient quarries 734 00:39:41,889 --> 00:39:43,756 that have been worked for over 3,000 years 735 00:39:43,791 --> 00:39:45,558 where they were taking obsidian 736 00:39:45,592 --> 00:39:47,460 from a two million year old volcano. 737 00:39:47,494 --> 00:39:49,673 And that's the actual birthplace 738 00:39:49,697 --> 00:39:52,632 of this beautiful Obsidian Mirror. 739 00:39:52,666 --> 00:39:56,135 [narrator] But this doesn't tell us when it was made. 740 00:39:56,503 --> 00:39:57,703 You can date 741 00:39:57,738 --> 00:40:00,373 the age of the rock that made the mirror, 742 00:40:00,407 --> 00:40:01,808 but it's actually impossible to date 743 00:40:01,842 --> 00:40:04,811 exactly when this mirror was manufactured by human hands. 744 00:40:04,845 --> 00:40:07,480 So it could well have been hundreds of years old 745 00:40:07,514 --> 00:40:09,315 when Doctor Dee got his hands on it. 746 00:40:09,349 --> 00:40:10,450 It's difficult to know. 747 00:40:11,652 --> 00:40:14,554 [narrator] So, chemistry doesn't hold the answer, 748 00:40:14,588 --> 00:40:17,323 but maybe archaeology does. 749 00:40:17,357 --> 00:40:19,158 Over 700 years ago, 750 00:40:19,193 --> 00:40:21,794 when these quarries were being mined for obsidian, 751 00:40:21,829 --> 00:40:25,164 the area was ruled by the Aztecs. 752 00:40:27,868 --> 00:40:30,503 And the mirror fits into the Aztecs story 753 00:40:30,537 --> 00:40:32,138 like a missing puzzle piece. 754 00:40:32,806 --> 00:40:34,607 Because the Aztecs religion 755 00:40:34,641 --> 00:40:37,643 is known to involve Obsidian Mirrors. 756 00:40:37,678 --> 00:40:40,746 In fact, the name of one of their Gods 757 00:40:40,781 --> 00:40:44,884 is Tezcatlipoca, meaning, smoking mirror. 758 00:40:44,918 --> 00:40:49,355 And he is shown in some images clutching an Obsidian Mirror. 759 00:40:50,824 --> 00:40:53,826 And this is where things get very strange. 760 00:40:53,861 --> 00:40:56,662 Because some Aztec rulers possessed a mirror 761 00:40:56,697 --> 00:40:58,631 known as a Tezcatl 762 00:40:58,665 --> 00:41:02,235 that they used to travel to the underworld 763 00:41:02,269 --> 00:41:04,470 and talk to the dead. 764 00:41:04,505 --> 00:41:06,906 Which is an astonishing coincidence given 765 00:41:06,940 --> 00:41:11,010 that is exactly what John Dee uses it for. 766 00:41:12,813 --> 00:41:14,714 The mirror probably reaches Dee 767 00:41:14,748 --> 00:41:16,816 via the Spanish conquistadors 768 00:41:16,850 --> 00:41:20,586 who invade Aztec, Mexico, in 1519 769 00:41:20,621 --> 00:41:23,356 and carry it's treasures away to Europe. 770 00:41:24,558 --> 00:41:25,758 [Ruth] There's no real surprise 771 00:41:25,792 --> 00:41:28,661 that somebody like Doctor Dee might get his hands on it. 772 00:41:28,695 --> 00:41:30,596 It's going to be encased in mystery. 773 00:41:30,631 --> 00:41:33,432 And that's absolutely his bag. 774 00:41:33,467 --> 00:41:35,701 He is Mister Mystery. 775 00:41:35,736 --> 00:41:38,504 [narrator] This strange inky, black object 776 00:41:38,539 --> 00:41:40,940 connects two different cultures 777 00:41:40,974 --> 00:41:43,409 separated by thousands of miles of ocean 778 00:41:44,278 --> 00:41:45,311 Both identified it 779 00:41:45,345 --> 00:41:48,447 as a supernatural doorway to the spirit world. 780 00:41:49,383 --> 00:41:51,784 Who knows? Maybe John Dee now sits 781 00:41:51,818 --> 00:41:53,486 on the other side of the mirror 782 00:41:53,520 --> 00:41:55,321 next to its Aztec owners 783 00:41:55,355 --> 00:41:58,057 looking out at us.