0:00:02 > 0:00:03'Animals are amazing.'
0:00:03 > 0:00:05That's astonishing.
0:00:05 > 0:00:09'And the more we find out about them, the more amazing they seem.'
0:00:09 > 0:00:11That feels pretty harsh.
0:00:11 > 0:00:14'That's why scientists all over the world
0:00:14 > 0:00:16'are trying their best to copy them.'
0:00:16 > 0:00:18This is the future!
0:00:18 > 0:00:20'Making brand-new inventions...'
0:00:20 > 0:00:21Tomato juice.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24'..Based on what animals can do.
0:00:24 > 0:00:25'Some are astounding...'
0:00:25 > 0:00:27We've just dived under the sea.
0:00:27 > 0:00:29'..Some bizarre.'
0:00:29 > 0:00:32This is not at all pleasant.
0:00:32 > 0:00:34Yes! It's gone!
0:00:34 > 0:00:39'But they're all inspired by the miracles of nature.'
0:00:41 > 0:00:47Episode two - how we can help jet pilots do this
0:00:47 > 0:00:48by studying giraffes.
0:00:51 > 0:00:56Jet fighter planes get faster and more agile almost every year.
0:00:56 > 0:01:02But they all suffer from one big problem - gravity.
0:01:02 > 0:01:06Because as pilots throw their planes through ever more violent twists
0:01:06 > 0:01:11and turns, it's as if the force of gravity becomes magnified.
0:01:14 > 0:01:18Magnified to such an extent that it pulls all the blood
0:01:18 > 0:01:22away from their head and they lose consciousness.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30But giraffes hold a secret that might just be the key
0:01:30 > 0:01:32to the pilot's life-or-death problem.
0:01:32 > 0:01:37And it's a secret that's hidden in that long neck.
0:01:40 > 0:01:45Because, by rights, when the giraffe lowers its head down to take
0:01:45 > 0:01:49a drink, the consequences should be catastrophic.
0:01:49 > 0:01:52As I shall now demonstrate with this giraffe.
0:01:52 > 0:01:54The important thing is, this represents the heart.
0:01:54 > 0:01:56There's actually a pump in there
0:01:56 > 0:01:58that is going to pump this, representing the blood,
0:01:58 > 0:02:03along these arteries all the way up to the giraffe's head there.
0:02:03 > 0:02:06But the giraffe's head is so high,
0:02:06 > 0:02:10that it takes an awful lot of pressure to get it up there.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13That was a human's blood pressure. Straight past that.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16In fact, the giraffe has roughly twice our blood pressure.
0:02:16 > 0:02:19It's the highest blood pressure of any living thing.
0:02:19 > 0:02:22But that high blood pressure is only down by the heart,
0:02:22 > 0:02:25where the pump is working furiously.
0:02:25 > 0:02:30Up at the head, the pressure is much the same as ours.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33And that is how it stays.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36Until it decides to lower its head to have a drink,
0:02:36 > 0:02:38then everything changes.
0:02:38 > 0:02:39Let's give it a go.
0:02:41 > 0:02:42As I turn the handle,
0:02:42 > 0:02:47all that blood starts going down towards the ground -
0:02:47 > 0:02:49just like with the jet pilots.
0:02:49 > 0:02:53Straight away, watching my meter I can see the blood pressure
0:02:53 > 0:02:55is rising back up again.
0:02:55 > 0:02:58Quite quickly. And now it is rising more because now the head
0:02:58 > 0:03:00is getting lower than the heart,
0:03:00 > 0:03:01and suddenly, everything has changed.
0:03:01 > 0:03:04It's not pumping all the way up there any more, gravity is helping
0:03:04 > 0:03:06and it's flooding down to the head.
0:03:06 > 0:03:09That blood pressure is going way past
0:03:09 > 0:03:12what it should be, and now it's into the danger zone for our giraffe.
0:03:12 > 0:03:16And things are looking bad. Very bad.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24Obviously, its head doesn't really fly off.
0:03:24 > 0:03:28In reality, as the blood pressure rises, the head comes down
0:03:28 > 0:03:31and gravity steps in, a giraffe's head would...
0:03:31 > 0:03:32Well, it would explode.
0:03:32 > 0:03:35But they don't explode every time they come to drink, otherwise
0:03:35 > 0:03:37this place who be littered with bits of them.
0:03:37 > 0:03:39So, what's happening?
0:03:39 > 0:03:44It turns out that valves in the giraffe's neck
0:03:44 > 0:03:47stop the blood being pulled down by gravity.
0:03:51 > 0:03:55To see how effective this is, this giraffe has been fitted
0:03:55 > 0:03:58with pressure sensors at its head and its heart,
0:03:58 > 0:04:01just like my model.
0:04:01 > 0:04:03But what will happen to the readings
0:04:03 > 0:04:05when the giraffe bends down to drink?
0:04:10 > 0:04:12As soon as the head lowers,
0:04:12 > 0:04:16the giraffe's arteries constrict automatically.
0:04:18 > 0:04:22And though the pressure continues to rise, the giraffe's blood
0:04:22 > 0:04:26doesn't suddenly rush to the head but stays where it's needed...
0:04:28 > 0:04:32..leaving the patient completely unharmed.
0:04:32 > 0:04:36Which takes us back to jets.
0:04:38 > 0:04:42Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting for one moment
0:04:42 > 0:04:45that giraffes would make good fighter pilots.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48But they are, as we have seen, very good at controlling
0:04:48 > 0:04:52blood pressure and distribution of blood around the body,
0:04:52 > 0:04:55and that's very important in here.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00Because this capsule is designed to recreate the forces
0:05:00 > 0:05:03that a fighter pilot experiences whilst flying.
0:05:03 > 0:05:07And those forces are immense.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11The faster they accelerate, brake or turn,
0:05:11 > 0:05:14the greater the effect of G-force on the body.
0:05:16 > 0:05:18At 2G, double the force of gravity,
0:05:18 > 0:05:22you feel you weigh twice as much as normal.
0:05:22 > 0:05:26At 3G, the effects are tripled,
0:05:26 > 0:05:29and blood starts to struggle to get to your brain.
0:05:30 > 0:05:31Go further,
0:05:31 > 0:05:34and you lose your peripheral vision,
0:05:34 > 0:05:39Finally, around 4 or 5G, you lose consciousness.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48Today, in here, using technology that mirrors very closely
0:05:48 > 0:05:53what happens in a giraffe's neck, we're hoping to see 9G.
0:05:53 > 0:05:57Five seconds of that is enough to go through all of those stages
0:05:57 > 0:05:58to unconsciousness.
0:05:58 > 0:06:01And I'm not doing it.
0:06:01 > 0:06:03I'm getting out.
0:06:05 > 0:06:09Instead this man, Ralph, has been chosen to be the guinea pig
0:06:09 > 0:06:13for a completely new form of flying suit.
0:06:14 > 0:06:18It's called the G-raff. Get it?
0:06:18 > 0:06:22A series of valves and chambers stop the blood
0:06:22 > 0:06:25pooling by compressing the body,
0:06:25 > 0:06:29just like the constrictions in the giraffe's neck.
0:06:29 > 0:06:33They've made the tubes and valves so small
0:06:33 > 0:06:36that they're now almost invisible.
0:06:36 > 0:06:40In fact, the only way you can tell this is a G-raff suit
0:06:40 > 0:06:43is the small plastic animal attached to the zip.
0:06:45 > 0:06:51But will giraffe technology be enough to stop Ralph losing consciousness?
0:06:53 > 0:07:00To find out, we're putting him inside the world's most powerful centrifuge,
0:07:00 > 0:07:05a spinning pod that can recreate huge amounts of G-force.
0:07:06 > 0:07:10What I've been told is Ralph, who's in the pod,
0:07:10 > 0:07:12is going to fly himself with the joystick
0:07:12 > 0:07:15and he'll subject himself to 9G.
0:07:15 > 0:07:19That's nine times the force of gravity.
0:07:19 > 0:07:21- Are you ready?- Yes, I am.
0:07:23 > 0:07:25We'll be fine.
0:07:25 > 0:07:30I'm glad he's confident, because he's launching himself into unknown territory.
0:07:30 > 0:07:343, 2, 1, go.
0:07:40 > 0:07:43Right now as he slowly increases and tightens the turn,
0:07:43 > 0:07:48the blood is having a harder and harder time getting up to his head.
0:07:48 > 0:07:52Now I'm going up to 4G.
0:07:54 > 0:07:56A little bit more, 5G.
0:07:58 > 0:07:59Six.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07Now we have seven.
0:08:07 > 0:08:088G.
0:08:12 > 0:08:14Now moving up to 9G.
0:08:17 > 0:08:189G.
0:08:22 > 0:08:26He just did 9, whilst chatting.
0:08:28 > 0:08:29But the test isn't over.
0:08:29 > 0:08:36With Ralph still at 9G, Andreas takes the controls.
0:08:36 > 0:08:40And decides to push it just that little bit further.
0:08:40 > 0:08:41It feels fine.
0:08:50 > 0:08:55Not only is Ralph not struggling, he appears to be enjoying it.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59Wow! Whoa! Nice!
0:08:59 > 0:09:04So much so, that he has a little surprise for us.
0:09:04 > 0:09:06SPEECH MUFFLED BY NOISE
0:09:12 > 0:09:15His face might be ending up stretched over his knees
0:09:15 > 0:09:18but he's managing to do a Rubik's cube at 9G.
0:09:18 > 0:09:21I can't do those at 1G.
0:09:24 > 0:09:26Thank you. It's finished.
0:09:26 > 0:09:28THEY LAUGH
0:09:31 > 0:09:34I mean, giraffes don't do this.
0:09:34 > 0:09:37But it is linked directly to how giraffes' necks work.
0:09:37 > 0:09:39HE SPEAKS GERMAN
0:09:39 > 0:09:42Who knew? Who'd have thought?
0:09:45 > 0:09:48A plane suit based on a giraffe's neck -
0:09:48 > 0:09:51that's got to be one of the miracles of nature.