Ultimate Swarms Page #6

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these robots all do their own thing.

By reacting to each other,

they can combine to do things

that would be impossible

on their own.

The hope is that one day

these robots could be sent out

into some of our most

dangerous locations.

Artificial swarms working together

on the front line,

or on search and rescue missions,

replacing humans and potentially

saving lives.

But while some swarms work

together day after day,

other swarms exist for only

a few hours.

Coordination is critical.

Get it wrong,

and your whole life has been wasted.

This is a swarm that's seen

on just a few nights of the year.

Oh, my God!

It's a blackout.

GIRL SCREAMS:

Yes. They are alive.

To be in with a chance of finding

this swarm,

I'm travelling to the States,

to Wisconsin.

I'm chasing a massive swarm

that appears from nowhere,

so this part of my journey

will be a race against time.

To get a sense of the challenge

ahead,

I've come to the local weather

centre in La Crosse,

where they've been keeping a close

eye on the swarm's past movements.

That is just incredible!

It's like an explosion.

Right, this was just after sundown.

Some biological target is coming

out of the river

and then being carried by the wind

away from the Mississippi River.

If I could see that,

if that happened again,

or even anything

remotely like that...

I would be very, very happy.

So, what swarm could be so intense

that it shows up on weather radars?

Well, for just a few days every

summer, amazingly, millions,

some say trillions of mayflies take

to the sky to form dense clouds.

It's a blizzard of insects thick

enough to stop traffic.

But despite the massive size of this

swarm, it's unpredictable,

so finding it won't be easy.

Time for me to take to the airways.

Well, I'm in the right place and

it's more or less the right time.

But if I'm going to see a really

big swarm,

I've got an idea of how

I can enlist some local help.

Downtown La Crosse.

It's now 14.10. WIZM.

I'm George McGavin

and we're from the BBC.

RADIO DJ:
Swarms of mayflies have

attracted the attention

of famed entomologist

and TV host George McGavin.

For a lot of people around here

it's going to be surprising

to hear that you want to be

in the swarm. When we see

those swarms we want to get

in our car, get inside

and get away from it.

Why? It's fantastic.

For an insect to be able to halt

a train or a car, you know,

that's pretty special.

That's something

I really want to see.

We just need mayflies, lots of them.

And they can call any time, day or

night? Absolutely. We'll be there.

We'll be hot on the heels

of the swarm.

I just hope we get the phone calls.

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