captioning funded by cbs and ford >> rose: tomorrow, on what is known as cyber monday, it's expected that more than 300 items a second will be ordered on amazon. >> anything you want on earth, you're going to get from us. >> rose: anything you want on earth, you're going to get from us? >> yeah, that's where we're headed, i believe. >> rose: during our recent visit to amazon's campus in seattle, jeff bezos kept telling us that he had a big surprise, something he wanted to unveil for the first time. >> let me show you something. >> rose: oh, man. oh, my god! >> pelley: tomorrow marks the 150th anniversary of the completion of the capitol dome. it's hard to imagine america without this crowning achievement, but when you hear the story of how it was created,

it becomes hard to imagine that our dome exists at all. >> this is the level that we go outside. >> pelley: wow, what a beautiful view. tonight, you're going to see it like you've never seen it before. >> simon: this is called lung packing, and william trubridge is doing it to attempt something known as a free dive-- going down more than 400 feet, longer than a football field, on a single breath. he carries no weights, but he'll go down quickly. at 70 feet, he'll lose buoyancy and will be pulled by gravity alone. medical scholars say the sport is revealing human capabilities that are making them rewrite textbooks on human physiology. >> i'm steve kroft. >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm morley safer. >> i'm bob simon.

>> i'm charlie rose. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories tonight on "60 minutes." >> good evening, national retail federation says 141 million people went shopping this hold day weekend spending $57 billion. that is more shoppers than last year but less money spent. thanksgiving day store traffic was the big winner, up 27%. i'm jeff glor, cbs news. what you wear to bed is your business.

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>> rose: there has never been a company quite like amazon. conceived as an online book seller, amazon has reinvented itself time and again, changing the way the world shops, reads and computes. amazon has 225 million customers around the world. its goal is to sell everything to everyone. the brainchild of jeff bezos, amazon prides itself on

disrupting the traditional way of doing things. a few weeks ago, the company announced it was launching sunday delivery. tonight, for the first time, you will be introduced to perhaps amazon's boldest venture ever. over the last month, "60 minutes" was granted unprecedented access inside amazon's operations. if you have ever wondered what happens after you've clicked and placed an order on amazon, take a look. if there is such a thing as santa's workshop, this would be it-- a 1.2 million square foot distribution center, the size of more than 20 football fields, gearing up for the holiday shopping season. there are 96 of these warehouses worldwide, what amazon calls fulfillment centers. tomorrow, on what is known as cyber monday, it's expected that more than 300 items a second will be ordered on amazon. >> jeff bezos: if you go back in time 18 years, i was driving the packages to the post office

myself and we were very primitive. >> rose: jeff bezos is the founder and c.e.o. of amazon, with an estimated worth of at least $25 billion. he sold his first book on amazon in another era, back in 1995. part of what amazon customers expect-- "we want it now." what's happening at the fulfillment centers that have made that possible? >> bezos: the secret is we're on, like, our seventh generation of fulfillment centers, and we have gotten better every time. when i was driving the packages myself, one of my visualizations of success is that we might one day be big enough that we could afford a forklift and... ( laughs ) >> rose: you've got a forklift. >> bezos: ...we've got forklifts. >> rose: there's very little amazon doesn't have. >> dave clark: right now, we're really in the center of what is the physical manifestation of earth's biggest selection. >> rose: amazon vice president dave clark showed us how the process begins. after the products arrive into the building, they are immediately scanned.

the products are then placed by stackers in what seems to outsiders as a haphazard way, a book on buddhism and zen resting next to mrs. potato head. here's what i want to know-- this is a swiffer. >> clark: it is a swiffer. >> rose: it's sitting next to the encyclopedia of world history. >> clark: of course. >> rose: that doesn't make any sense to me. does it make sense to you? >> clark: it... it does. >> rose: what?! >> clark: can those two things... you look at how these items fit in the bin. >> rose: yeah. oh! >> clark: they're optimized for utilizing the available space. >> rose: oh, i see. >> clark: and we have computers and algorithmic work that tells people the areas of the building that have the most space to put product in that's coming in at that time. >> rose: amazon has become so efficient with its stacking, it can now store twice as many goods in its centers as it did five years ago. >> clark: anything you want on... on earth, you're going to get from us. >> rose: anything you want on earth, you're going to get from us? >> clark: yeah, that's where we're headed, i believe. >> rose: once your order is placed, a so-called pick ambassador walks the aisles,

plucking and scanning your items before placing them in bins. those bins eventually wind up in front of a packer, who knows exactly how big of a box to use based on the weight and amount of items. your address is slapped onto the box, and then a picture is taken of your address label. gadgets known as shoes sort and divert the boxes to the appropriate spiral chute, based on the postal code. this accelerates the delivery process. the boxes are then loaded onto awaiting trucks, which are assigned to particular regions-- raleigh, north carolina, in this case. amazon uses more trucks than planes because so many distribution centers have been built near customers. if you can do this with all these products, what else can you do? you guys can organize the world? >> clark: well, you've got to start somewhere. >> rose: but the company has also started same-day deliveries of groceries in two cities-- milk, vegetables and dry goods, to name a few items.

amazon fresh began in seattle, and only after five years has it expanded to los angeles. >> thank you for your order. >> rose: what is it you're trying to learn that's taken you five years to learn? >> bezos: how to make it make financial sense. you know, what's not to love? you order the groceries online and we deliver them to your door. ( laughter ) but that's very expensive. >> rose: but is this the holy grail for amazon, "i can deliver it on the same day"? >> bezos: it's a possibility. if we can make this model work, it would be great because it extends the range of products that we can sell. >> rose: amazon is now flowing into other areas far removed from its original mission as an online book seller. amazon fashion, launched this fall, sells high-end clothing. tell me, what is amazon today? >> bezos: i would define amazon by our big ideas, which are customer centricity-- putting

the customer at the center of everything we do; invention-- we like to pioneer, we like to explore, we like to go down dark alleys and see what's on the other side. >> rose: on the other side of amazon's online retailing is a business customers know little about. it's called amazon web services- - a.w.s.-- and may soon become amazon's biggest business. to keep track of its massive online orders, amazon built a large and sophisticated computing infrastructure. amazon figured out it could also expand that infrastructure to store data and run web sites for hundreds of thousands of companies and government agencies on what is known as "the cloud." how much of the internet do you run? >> bezos: it's a good question. it's a lot, though. >> rose: well, what's a lot? what's the neighborhood? >> bezos: i could tell you this. most internet startups and a lot of big internet companies run on top of a.w.s.-- netflix, very famously. and you could say, "oh, that's very odd because netflix, in a way, is a competitor of amazon."

>> rose: other than netflix, who else uses a.w.s.? >> bezos: oh, big enterprises, big government institutions... >> rose: like the cia? >> bezos: the cia. >> rose: does that present any conflict for you, the fact that you provide the cloud that the cia uses for its data? >> bezos: i don't think so. we're building what's called a private cloud for them, charlie, because they don't want to be on the public cloud. >> rose: but the company continues to branch out in areas the public can see and touch. people read books the same way for centuries until amazon introduced the kindle e-reader, and amazon has just released its kindle fire hdx tablet-- in typical amazon style, without making a profit on the device. so you sell this at break-even? >> bezos: we sell this at break- even and then we hope to... >> rose: that's a very thin margin. >> bezos: it's a very thin margin. but we hope to make money when you... >> rose: sell all the stuff... >> bezos:...buy books and movies... >> rose: that's always been your philosophy. >> bezos: exactly. >> rose: bezos believes low costs ensure customer loyalty to amazon, even if it's at the expense of profits.

amazon is one of the rare companies that, on a quarterly basis, shows little profit, and yet is beloved by investors. >> bezos: in the long run, if you take care of customers, that is taking care of shareholders. we do price elasticity studies, and every time, the math tells us to raise prices. >> rose: but why don't you do it? >> bezos: because doing so would erode trust. and that erosion of trust would cost us much more in the long term. >> rose: that long view, bezos believes, gives amazon a distinct edge. >> bezos: that long-term approach is rare enough that it means you're not competing against very many companies, because most companies want to see a return on investment in, you know, one, two, three years. >> rose: you don't care about that? >> bezos: i care, but i'm willing for it to be five, six, seven years. so just that change in timeline can be a very big competitive advantage. >> rose: for example, amazon's profits are redirected to building more distribution centers, like this one in new

jersey. the more centers it constructs, the closer the customer and the faster the delivery. and every time a new center goes up, publishers and traditional retailers shudder. a lot of small book publishers and other smaller companies worry that the power of amazon gives them no chance. >> bezos: you got to earn your keep in this world. when you invent something new, if customers come to the party, it's disruptive to the old way. >> rose: yeah, but i mean, there are areas where your power's so great and your margin, you're prepared to make it so thin that you can drive people out of business, and you have that kind of strength. and people worry, is amazon ruthless in their pursuit of market share? >> bezos: the internet is disrupting every media industry, charlie, you know. people can complain about that, but complaining is not a strategy. amazon is not happening to book selling; the future is happening to book selling.

>> alpha house... >> rose: amazon is also pouring money into original television programming that can be streamed to amazon customers, like its first series, "alpha house..." a comedy written by "doonesbury" creator garry trudeau about four republican senators who live in the same townhouse. amazon didn't select the show the conventional hollywood way. "alpha house" was picked out of thousands of scripts with the help of amazon customers who reviewed the shows. you are using your customer base to tell you rather than the opinion of some... >> bezos: that's exactly right. >> rose: ...hollywood programmer? >> bezos: we're changing the green lighting process. instead of a few studio executives deciding what gets green lighted... >> rose: so-called "taste makers"? >> bezos: yes-- we're using what some people would call "crowd sourcing" to help figure that out. >> rose: what other industry will amazon disrupt?

at amazon's secret lab 126 in california, designers and engineers are experimenting on next generation devices, the contents of which are eagerly speculated about. are you working on a set-top box that will allow people to watch streaming video and not need to have cable television? >> bezos: i can't answer that question. ( laughs ) i don't want to talk about the future roadmap of our devices, so i'll have to just ask you to stay tuned. >> rose: soon? >> bezos: charlie! >> rose: but during our visit to amazon's campus in seattle, bezos kept telling us that he did have a big surprise, something he wanted to unveil for the first time. >> bezos: let me show you something. >> rose: oh, man. oh, my god! >> bezos: this... >> rose: this is? >> bezos: ...is... these are octo-copters. >> rose: yeah? >> bezos: these are effectively drones, but there's no reason that they can't be used as delivery vehicles. take a look up here so i can show you how it works. >> rose: all right. we're talking about delivery here? >> bezos: we're talking about delivery.

so there's an item going into the vehicle. i know this looks like science fiction. it's not. >> rose: wow! >> bezos: this is early. this is still years away. it drops the package. >> rose: and there's the package. >> bezos: you come and get your package. and we can do half-hour delivery. >> rose: half-hour delivery? >> bezos: half-hour delivery, and we can carry objects, we think, up to five pounds, which covers 86% of the items that we deliver. >> rose: and what is the range between the fulfillment center and where you can do this within 30 minutes. >> bezos: these generations of vehicles, it could be a ten-mile radius from a fulfillment center. so, in urban areas, you could actually cover very significant portions of the population. and so, it won't work for everything; you know, we're not going to deliver kayaks or table saws this way. these are electric motors, so this is all electric. it's very green, it's better than driving trucks around. this is all an r&d project. >> rose: with drones, there's somebody sitting somewhere in front of a screen. >> bezos: not these; these are autonomous. so you give them instructions of

which gps coordinates to go to, and they take off and they fly to those gps coordinates. >> rose: what's the hardest challenge in making this happen? >> bezos: the hard part here is putting in all the redundancy, all the reliability, all the systems you need to say, "look, this thing can't land on somebody's head while they're walking around their neighborhood." >> rose: yeah, that's not good. >> bezos: that's not good. >> bezos: and, you know, i don't want anybody to think this is just around the corner. this is years of additional work from this point, but this is... >> rose: but will "years" mean five, ten? >> bezos: i'm an optimist, charlie. i know it can't be before 2015, because that's the earliest we could get the rules from the f.a.a. my guess is that's... that's probably a little optimistic. but could it be, you know, four, five years? i think so. it will work, and it will happen, and it's going to be a lot of fun. >> rose: with the drones possibly taking flight in the not too distant future, amazon is raising the stakes in the race for faster delivery. jeff bezos believes the company has no choice. >> bezos: companies have short life spans, charlie, and amazon

will be disrupted one day. >> rose: and you worry about that? >> bezos: i don't worry about it because i know it's inevitable. companies come and go. and the companies that are, you know, the shiniest and most important of any era, you wait a few decades and they're gone. >> rose: and your job is to make sure that you delay that date? >> bezos: i would love for it to be after i'm dead. ( laughs ) >> intrigued by the thought of amazon drones landing at your doorstep? go to 60 to see more you really love, what would you do?" ♪ [ woman ] i'd be a writer. [ man ] i'd be a baker. [ woman ] i wanna be a pie maker. [ man ] i wanna be a pilot. [ woman ] i'd be an architect. what if i told you someone could pay you and what if that person were you? ♪ when you think about it, isn't that what retirement should be, paying ourselves to do what we love? ♪

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>> pelley: if you're yearning for something that rises above the dysfunctional politics of washington, we have just the thing-- 288 feet above, in fact. tomorrow marks the 150th anniversary of the completion of the capitol dome. it's hard to imagine america without this crowning achievement, but when you hear the story of how it was created, it becomes hard to imagine that our dome exists at all. we were given amazing access for this story. and you're about to see the dome like you've never seen it before. george washington knew what he

wanted-- a building so grand that no one could ever move the capitol from his city. he'd still find it on jenkins hill, where he laid the cornerstone. and he might admire the dome which was built later, for what it overcame. built by men who despised each other, topped by a statue of freedom cast by a slave, through war and rivalry, the dome kept rising. and that's american character that runs deep below the skin. >> stephen ayers: this is where we go from that beautifully richly decorated capitol to the battleship gray industrial parts of the capitol building. >> pelley: stephen ayers holds the title architect of the capitol. he takes care of the dome and everything below. this is all original? it's all 150 years old? >> ayers: yes, it is. >> pelley: all this was designed by ayers' predecessor, thomas walter, who proposed a dome no one had asked for.

this is the capitol that george washington knew, and it's still the center of the capitol building today. walter won a competition to expand the house and senate sides to hold all of the politicians coming in from the new states. but then, walter thought the original dome looked too small, so he drew another. >> ayers: he posted it on the wall in his office. and members of congress would often come by and see that, and it just stuck immediately. didn't even have a cost estimate. didn't know how they were going to construct it, how they were going to build it, and how they were going to design it. yet it was so beautiful and so wonderful, everyone just knew immediately that they had to do it. >> pelley: walter drafted it after the great marble domes he'd seen in europe only to discover that the building couldn't support the weight. so he conjured an illusion. everything-- every column, every

ornament-- is cast iron painted to look like stone. the weight was cut in half. wow! >> ayers: this is from 1863. you can see it's signed by thomas ustick walter. >> pelley: his drawing in the archive reveals there are two domes, an inner dome with a ceiling painted with an "apotheosis of george washington" ascending into heaven and the outer dome ascending into the sky. >> ayers: we are climbing atop this inner dome, the "apotheosis of washington" fresco by constantino brumidi. >> pelley: that's right below us. >> ayers: yes. >> pelley: we're on top of that. >> ayers: that's exactly right, and this is the level that we go outside. >> pelley: this is the top. >> ayers: this is the top. >> pelley: wow. what a beautiful view. it's about 30 stories, and because d.c. outlawed skyscrapers back in 1910, you

can see forever. for the record, the washington monument, still being refurbished, is nearly twice as tall. so there's the national mall. they're taking the scaffolding down off the washington monument. >> ayers: yes. you can see the potomac river and anacostia rivers coming together. >> pelley: steven, what did it mean to have this dome completed very near the end of the civil war? >> ayers: to me, it's a measure of our endurance, of our will to succeed, and our will to get it done, and our will to stay together as a country. >> pelley: it took enormous will. in congress, the first vote on the dome passed 71 to 70. a critic called it "a great mistake." and then came the civil war-- not the war you're expecting. this was the war between the greats. the brilliant architect vs. the genius in charge of construction, army captain montgomery meigs. >> bill allen: he was incredibly honest, very efficient.

>> pelley: bill allen was the historian in the office of the architect who told us that, despite meigs' virtues, he was obsessed with winning fame. >> allen: and the way that he chose to do this was to put his name in every place that it occurred to him where it could go. >> pelley: it went on the bricks of the d.c. aqueduct and on its stairs. m.c. meigs even etched his name on copper plates and laid them between the stones of the capitol. >> allen: in case 2,000 to 3,000 years later, that capitol became an archeological site. the archeologists would discover these plates and know exactly who built the capitol extension. >> pelley: but the last straw came when meigs claimed authorship of the dome, signing his name to walter's drawings. the two men stopped talking and raised their pens like swords. >> allen: the letters are well worth reading. they are... they are amazing.

>> pelley: we found them in the archive. meigs-- "you are welcome to assume the authorship of the pyramids of egypt. you have no right to the new dome." walter-- "if i am not the architect of the new dome, i would like to know who is." "i shall be glad never to receive another line from you." meigs-- "i have the honor to inform you that your services are dispensed with..." >> pelley: he fired him. >> allen: he tried to. walter, very calmly, writes back and says, "i would like to remind you that my appointment is at the pleasure of the president of the united states." >> pelley: the work slowed but planning continued, including a debate about what to put on top. >> lonnie bunch: they decided that they would have a statue that would speak of freedom. >> pelley: historian lonnie bunch researched the project for congress. >> bunch: and they went to a young american in rome who was studying, and he came up with this idea to create a statue that had the look of america. >> pelley: describe her to me, in your minds eye.

>> bunch: well, she is this beautiful woman who has some native american features is capped by this beautiful headdress as reminder that this is a country that was different because it was built first and foremost around the issue of freedom. >> pelley: and one of the men instrumental in casting the statue was a slave named philip reid. >> bunch: philip reid was an enslaved man who was owned by someone who owned a foundry here in washington. and that when the statue, initially plaster, came back to the united states, there was a concern about how do you take it apart? philip was really one of the people who knew how to do this, and he came up with the idea of how to separate the model, how to then cast the model. he led the people who were making the cast of the bronze statue. >> pelley: but freedom would be grounded in 1861 when the real civil war began.

montgomery meigs left to become quartermaster general, supplying the army with all that it needed for victory. but all the money for construction was diverted to the war. one of my favorite stories that i love to tell my friends is that lincoln ordered the dome to continue as a symbol that the nation would continue, and that story turns out to be false. >> matt wasniewski: yeah. ( laughter ) >> pelley: matt wasniewski, a historian for the house, told us it was the contractor-- janes, fowler, kirtland of new york-- that resumed work without pay. they'd delivered 1.3 million pounds of cast iron and didn't want to see it rust away. lincoln didn't mind. >> wasniewski: he has the famous line that, if the people see the capitol going on, it will be a sign that we intend the union shall go on. >> pelley: this is the rotunda. you're walking between statues of washington and jefferson. it's just off this room that you find the office of the speaker

of the house, john boehner, who administers a lot of what he called the "campus." do you ever not look up? do you ever take this for granted? >> john boehner: never. listen, for a guy who grew up mopping floors in my dad's bar, it's pretty humbling experience. >> pelley: you've come up in the world. >> boehner: just a little. >> pelley: we went up in the world from the floor of george washington's original capitol to the heights of the inner dome. >> boehner: i told you it'd be beautiful up here. >> pelley: this is the apotheosis of washington by constantino brumidi. i understand that, somewhere in here, the artist painted the face of the architect who designed the dome. >> boehner: it's right over here. >> pelley: thomas walter is the one in the long white beard. >> boehner: yes. >> pelley: the scenes depict american hard work and ingenuity. and 180 feet below, 21st century citizens look up at washington rising at the center of the city

laid down by he and urban planner pierre l'enfant. >> ayers: look how l'enfant laid out this city with these radiating streets-- maryland and pennsylvania and new jersey and delaware. >> pelley: the capitol right in the center... >> ayers: right in the middle. >> pelley: ...and everything proceeds from here. >> ayers: and you put the capitol atop this hill. and that's how you create this iconic symbolism. >> pelley: it was a symbol for the whole nation that the union would endure. now, your job is to make the dome endure. up here, you can see what is hidden from a distance. the dome is falling apart. your guys bring in pieces into the office and say, "hey, boss, here's what i found"? >> ayers: you can see the level of rust behind it that is just eating away at the cast iron. >> pelley: even worse, there are more than 1,300 serious cracks in the dome. architect stephan ayers is starting a massive repair project.

he showed us how they'll cover the dome with scaffolding for the next two years, replace the rusted parts, and stitch the cracks together with metal sutures. minority leader nancy pelosi helped congress put up nearly $60 million for the work. a lot of people think that you guys can't agree about anything. and yet, everybody came around to the idea of refurbishing the dome. >> nancy pelosi: this capitol belongs to the american people. it is this place for them to visit. it is the most identifiable symbol of democracy that there is. >> pelley: on december 2, 1863, the dome was topped with the statue of freedom. and below, congress had been working on freedom, too. it'd passed an emancipation act for the district of columbia. when philip reid helped cast the statue of freedom, he was a slave. by the time it's placed on top of the dome, he's a free man. >> bunch: he is free. what happens to him is that he symbolizes so many of the

enslaved african-americans who looked at that dome and saw it as a place of possibility, saw it as a place that said "here is the freedom that we deserve." >> pelley: the titanic struggle that crowned the capitol is largely forgotten now... >> boehner: the house will come to order. >> pelley: ...but next time you look on political gridlock and wonder whether anything can get done, remember how much can rise above the fractured politics of washington. >> the motion is adopted. the most free research reports, customizable charts, powerful screening tools, and guaranteed 1-second trades. and at the center of it all is a surprisingly low price -- just $7.95. in fact, fidelity gives you lower trade commissions than schwab, td ameritrade, and etrade. i'm monica santiago

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>> simon: the sport in our story tonight is called free diving, and it involves going down hundreds of feet on one single breath. it's an experimental sport

because it's revealing human capabilities that had never even been imagined, forcing medical scholars to rewrite their textbooks on human physiology. it's also a very dangerous sport. but it's becoming more popular every year, attracting thousands of divers worldwide. its mecca, it's ultimate playing field, is a deep-water cave in the bahamas called "dean's blue hole." two weeks ago, 32-year-old nicholas mevoli of brooklyn, new york, went there to set a new american record-- 236 feet down without so much as a fin. he got there, and surfaced after three minutes and 38 seconds underwater. but something was wrong. he looked stunned. seconds later, he lost consciousness. doctors and medics tried to resuscitate him, but failed.

he died a little more than an hour later. why would somebody risk his life in these deep dark waters? we went to dean's blue hole to last year to explore this burgeoning sport. free diving has been around a very long time. homer and plato wrote about it. it was how the ancient greeks went down for sponges. without so much as a snorkel, they'd dive to around 100 feet. today's free divers go down a lot further for fun and sport. they want to join the sea world without disturbing it-- no tanks, no bubbles, no noise. yes, that is a shark, but it seems friendly enough. the diver, new zealander william trubridge, has become just another guy in the neighborhood. >> ten seconds. >> simon: trubridge is also a world champion in the competitive sport of free diving. >> three, two, one...

>> simon: here he is getting ready to dive 331 feet, twice the height of the statue of liberty, on a single breath. >> five, six, seven... >> simon: he'll be doing this just with his arms and legs; no fins to help him. this film, with the music, was produced by his team. going down is the easy part. after 70 feet, he loses buoyancy and gets pulled down by gravity alone. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> simon: he reaches his target, collects a tag to prove he got there, and goes into reverse for the hard part, getting back up. his body is craving oxygen, but he goes up slowly and gracefully, as if he were doing a water ballet. he was underwater four minutes and ten seconds. >> nose clip. look at the judges. >> simon: a new world record, 331 feet. that's 101 meters. five years ago, the record was 80 meters. ( applause )

five years ago, did anyone think it was possible to go down 100 meters? >> william trubridge: when the record was 80? i don't think so. i don't think anyone realistically thought it was going to happen, or at least not soon. >> simon: isn't there a certain limit of underwater that's just... you can't go beyond it without dying? >> trubridge: definitely, it's... it's out there, but there's no way of kind of knowing exactly where it is. it's just deeper than we are now, we know that much. >> simon: and because of free diving, scientists now know that humans are closer to dolphins than had been thought. just like dolphins, when we go into cold water, a reflex kicks in which slows down our pulse, shifts blood from our extremities to our heart and to our brain. our spleen contracts, releasing oxygen-rich blood into our arteries. is under the water a place humans belong? free divers think so. they point out that the amniotic fluid in the womb where a fetus

lives for nine months is very similar to seawater; that if a newborn is immediately submerged in a pool, it will swim the breast stroke and be able to hold its breath for 40 seconds. it will retain this ability until it learns how to walk. then, it's all over. >> tanya streeter: we're physiologically designed to hold our breath underwater. we're not designed to breathe underwater. >> simon: during her career as a free diver, tanya streeter held ten world records. she had gone down deeper than any man. the key to her success, she says, is her ability to equalize the pressure underwater so her eardrums don't burst. >> streeter: as you dive, the... the pressure of the weight of water around you increases. and it pushes your eardrums in and in and in, and you have to push air into the eustachian tubes to be able to pop the eardrums out to equalize that pressure. i mean, it... it hurts. i've described it as an elephant

sitting on my chest, stabbing hot pokers in my eardrums. >> simon: nobody would choose to do that. >> streeter: no. but, you know, you sort of find yourself there on... at that point on your journey, and realize that that's what you signed up for. so, it... it's all par for the course. ♪ ♪ >> simon: tanya and other free divers come to the blue hole because it's the perfect place to dive. it's in the remotest part of the bahamas, called long island. christopher columbus put it on the map in 1492, but you'll have trouble finding it on any tourist map today. the jet set doesn't come here because jet planes don't fly here from america or europe. there are hardly any hotels, no golf courses, no frozen margaritas. just that deep blue hole. this is where william trubridge lives and trains. for the last six months, he's led a monastic existence,

getting ready to try for another world record. he wants to make it down to 410 feet on one breath, this time using a single fin. to get ready, he goes through a unique a set of exercises that he designed himself to make his body more flexible and supple, more like a dolphin. his waist here is 27 inches. then, the countdown. his wife brittany is on the platform. his parents are on the shore. the judges and safety divers are in the water; their job-- to save him if he loses consciousness. in any other sport, a spurt of adrenaline would be a good thing. not here. tension, anxiety consume oxygen; what you need is serenity.

he begins to swallow air. he is literally swallowing air, packing his lungs with more air than they could receive from breathing alone. free divers discovered this technique themselves to expand their lungs. and in his head? >> trubridge: sometimes, if i'm taking my last breath, a voice will pop into my mind saying, "this is... could be your last breath of your life," or, "you're going to die." it's kind of like the devil's advocate sitting on your shoulder who's going to think of the worst possible thing and voice that in your mind. >> simon: the devil is still talking to you? >> trubridge: always. yeah. >> simon: his lungs are now the size of watermelons. as he descends, they will be squeezed until they're no larger than oranges. his heartbeat slows down to 27 beats a minute. his mother is counting seconds. down deep, the blue hole becomes the black hole.

>> trubridge: you're alone with yourself down there at depth. even your body slips away so that it feels like you're just a kind of a speck of consciousness that's floating into the abyss. you're weightless, there's no light, no sound, and so it's almost as if you're floating in a completely empty tank. >> simon: the pressure is causing his brain to absorb more nitrogen. he is feeling light-headed, kind of drunk. it happens to all divers deep down; it's called narcosis. suddenly, a bright light on the base plate 410 feet down. he takes the tag and begins his ascent. at 100 feet, he is joined by his safety divers. like a pod of dolphins, they guide him through the most hazardous part of the dive. running out of oxygen can cause a blackout.

>> trubridge: ( grunting ) >> simon: the sound you are hearing is william expelling air from his sinuses. >> trubridge: ( grunting ) >> simon: he's made it. but for his record of 410 feet to be ratified by the judges, he needs to perform three simple tasks when he gets to the surface---- take his goggles off, give the okay sign with his fingers, and say "i'm okay," in that precise order. sounds simple, but william's brain isn't working. he does these things in the wrong order. the judges disqualify him. >> linden wolbert: he took off the nose clip, made the sign, and said "i'm okay" without removing his goggles. >> simon: boy, oh, boy. he had just been down a quarter of a kilometer. >> wolbert: that's correct. >> simon: he did goggles in the wrong order and it cost him his record. >> wolbert: it did.

>> simon: it sounds like a technicality, but he has to prove that his mind is as tough as his body. you got there. you got... you got deeper than anyone has ever gotten before. >> trubridge: yeah. yeah. >> simon: and then, you took your mask off and said okay in the wrong order, and it was all for nothing. >> trubridge: yeah. >> simon: and you're smiling. >> trubridge: i feel good because i... i know i can... i can do it again-- maybe it might not be for a while, but i can definitely do that depth. >> simon: but you did feel narcosis? >> trubridge: yeah. >> simon: tanya streeter had a close call with severe narcosis ten years ago. she was doing what's called "no limits" diving, going down in a weighted device, which moves fast and goes down deeper than most world war ii-era submarines. this is tanya at 525 feet,

deeper than anyone had ever gone. she blew a kiss to the ocean. but then she became disoriented. it took her 17 agonizing seconds to remember she had to pull a pin. any longer and she might have stayed down there forever. but with experiences like this, why go down at all? >> streeter: it's just a little bit difficult for people to fathom, if you excuse the pun, but it's... it's what i love to do. you know, it's... it's a common phrase in free diving-- "we don't dive to look around us, we dive to look within ourselves." it's a journey of self exploration. >> simon: what can you possibly be exploring in your own mind when your ears hurt and you're out of breath and it's dark and, you know, it's dangerous? >> streeter: i want to know what i've got. i want to know what i'm made of.

>> welcome to the cbs sports update presented by pacific life. i'm james brown with scores from the nfl. denver controls the top spot with their win, patriots score 27 second half points to beat houston. carolina expands their winning streak 208. 211 yards in the vikings overtime win. three touchdowns as eagles make it four in a row and the jacks win their first straight on the road. more sports news and information go to cbssports.com. made with me when i was ten. he said, "you get the grades to go to college -- and we'll help out with the school of your choice." well, i got the grades and, with dad's planning and a lot of hard work, i'm graduating today with a degree in marine biology. i'm so thankful and excited about the future. [ male announcer ] for strategies on how to help your family achieve financial success,

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>> pelley: at the end of the long thanksgiving weekend, one thought occurs-- "why did i eat so much?" not just thursday's feast, but the sandwiches, the leftovers, and the football snacks that followed. two years ago, morley safer offered the comforting thought that it may not be all your fault. that's when he introduced "the flavorists," experts from givaudan-- the largest flavoring company in the world-- whose job it is to lead us into temptation, and then keep us there. >> you know, a burst in the beginning. and maybe a... a finish that doesn't linger too much so that you want more of it. >> safer: aha. so i see it's got to be a quick fix and then... >> have more. >> safer: but that suggests something else, which is called addiction. >> exactly. >> safer: you're trying to create an addictive taste? >> that's a good word. >> pelley: now, as long as you can avoid the mirror, you know who to blame. i'm scott pelley. we'll be back next week with

another edition of "60 minutes." tomorrow, be sure to watch "cbs this morning," and i'll see you on the "cbs evening news." maya: 'twas the mom with the son with big brains galore. so off she dashed to the best buy windows store. blue shirt: a laptop with new windows. maya: at a great price for your kid. now he can get a job and move out. heaven forbid. vo: save on great gifts, like this asus touch screen laptop. best buy. you really love, what would you do?" ♪ [ woman ] i'd be a writer. [ man ] i'd be a baker. [ woman ] i wanna be a pie maker. [ man ] i wanna be a pilot. [ woman ] i'd be an architect. what if i told you someone could pay you and what if that person were you? ♪ when you think about it,

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on "the amazing race." caught an early train. hil: but the stakes of the detour cost them the lead. >> i always quiet down because i do what you want me to do every time. phil: she wanted help from an source. phil: after leo refused, may tepped in. >> nicole, short one total one. upside down. phil: ally and ashley were liminated. >> i don't want it to be over. phil: four teams remain. be eliminated next? [captioning made possible by cbs productions, cbs, inc., and ford. drive one.]