>> we released between 30,000 and 39,000 tons of ash into the river. >> stahl: wow. >> we moved immediately to repair the pipe and also began cleaning the river. >> stahl: that's the c.e.o. of the biggest utility company in the country, duke energy, talking about a huge spill of coal ash into the dan river. these canyons and ridges are what was left after a drainage pipe collapsed and a storage basin emptied. now, duke's problem is what to do with 100 million tons of old coal ash stored at sites all over north carolina. >> imagine reclassifying cancer. >> gupta: and what's it going to mean? >> well, it's going to mean that you have a better shot at having a better outcome and having a quality of life and actually turn the cancer hopefully into a

chronic disease. >> gupta: he has been called a genius, a showman, an innovator and a hypester, a doctor and entrepreneur who now wants to disrupt the conventional way we treat cancer. >> this is a cell that's actually gobbling up the cancer cell, so watch. so, here's the t-cell gobbling it up. there's the cancer cell and... >> gupta: that's amazing. so you're literally watching cancer cells die here? >> correct. >> ♪ ♪ >> whitaker: the violin makers of cremona have used wood from the very same forests for hundreds of years. it is said stradivarius first discovered the acoustic qualities of these woods. ♪ ♪ the violin makers use compasses, hand saws, glue-- no nails. the tools are simple, the craftsmanship precise. 300 years we're talking about and people still want to have a stradivarius. what is it?

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federal regulations on its disposal. it's left to the states to oversee some of the most powerful utility companies in the country. so coal ash is often just dumped into giant pits that are dug by rivers and lakes, where toxins can leach into nearby water and soil. there are over 1,000 ash pits or ponds dotting the nation, many of them old, poorly monitored, all but forgotten. but every few years, we are reminded that the status quo can lead to disaster, like the coal ash spill this past february into north carolina's dan river at a power plant owned by duke energy, the biggest utility company in the country. the spill at dan river happened when a drainage pipe that ran underneath an ash basin and dam collapsed, sucking out six decades of waste and spewing gunk directly into the river.

>> lynn good: it was an accident. it didn't work the way it should have worked. it did not meet our standards or our expectations. >> stahl: duke energy c.e.o. lynn good, then only seven months on the job, had a crisis on her hands. how many tons of ash, do you know, went into the river? >> good: yes, we released between 30,000 and 39,000 tons of ash into the river. >> stahl: wow. >> good: we moved immediately to repair the pipe and also begin cleaning the river. and we've used this as an opportunity at duke to raise our standards even higher, of all of our basins to insure and confirm that they were operating safely. >> stahl: once the water spilled out of the basin, this is what was exposed-- canyons and ridges of industrial waste the size of 20 football fields, buried right by the river where people fish and swim and get their drinking water. but the accident at dan river wasn't the first time a coal ash pond collapsed.

it happened to another company six years ago in kingston, tennessee. that spill was more than 100 times larger, smothering homes in toxic muck and choking up the river. after kingston in 2008, did duke raise its vigilance? did you heighten...? >> good: yes. there were inspections that went on throughout the industry, certainly at duke, where all the basins were reviewed. >> stahl: actually, inspections had been going on for years, including this one in 1986 that duke itself paid for. it recommended "quantitative monitoring" of the very pipe that collapsed, saying it was "expected to have less longevity." so that first report urging duke to watch that pipe was 30 years ago. but there were others-- 1996, 2001, 2006-- advising you to keep watching that pipe, over and over. 2009, the e.p.a. warned about

the pipe. >> good: most of those... >> stahl: how could you neglect those? >> good: the results of those inspections indicated that we should monitor, and we were monitoring. and what we were looking for is that the pipe would leak before it failed. but it didn't fail in that way; it failed without leaking. >> pat mccrory: i don't think duke even knew what was underneath some of their dams and knew the structural issues. >> stahl: the spill infuriated pat mccrory, the pro-business republican governor of north carolina. he knows duke well, having worked there for 29 years. how would you describe or rate duke's record on dealing with coal ash disposal? >> mccrory: well, actually, there has been no record regarding coal ash disposal. >> stahl: they haven't done anything? >> mccrory: very little, very little. i think the record's been quite poor. because frankly, it's been out of sight, out of mind. >> good: lesley, we have been generating electricity in this country from coal for decades. >> stahl: and that means coal ash.

>> good: and that ash that has been produced has been stored in accordance with industry standards and practices for decades. we're at a period when the electric system and certainly duke's system is modernizing. we're adding natural gas, we're adding renewables, and we're closing some coal plants. >> stahl: fact is, duke closed the dan river plant in 2012, and that perplexed the governor. >> mccrory: when i heard about the dan river plant having a coal ash spill, my first reaction was, "wait a minute. that plant's been closed for years. why are we having a spill at a plant that's not even open?" >> stahl: that's because when they closed the plant, duke just left the ash pond where it was. in an unprecedented program, duke has closed half their coal ash plants in north carolina in the last three years, blowing up one... after another... after another, as the company switches to natural gas.

in all cases, they just left the coal ash ponds and basins behind. >> frank holleman: this is no way to store industrial waste in large quantities in such a primitive way. >> stahl: frank holleman, an attorney at the southern environmental law center, says it makes no sense to store coal ash, that usually contains toxins like arsenic, mercury, thallium, and cadmium, in basins right next to waterways. >> holleman: it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out, if you dig an earthen, unlined hole in the earth next to a river, and you put in it a substance that has toxic substances, that is going to leak into the groundwater. it doesn't take a genius to figure that out. >> stahl: your organization, you have been suing duke energy. >> holleman: that's correct. well, what we have hoped is that we could convince duke to get the coal ash out of these unlined pits, move it to safe, lined, dry storage away from the

waterway. >> stahl: that's what duke is already doing with most of its newly generated ash, trucking it to dry, lined landfills away from waterways, or sending it off for reuse as building material. but the company's big problem is what to do with the 100 million tons of old coal ash it's accumulated in their 32 ponds in north carolina-- some, like this one, up against people's backyards where children play. >> good: lesley, we're committing to closing all of the sites. >> stahl: when you say "close," what do you mean by "close"? >> good: so, there are various methods that can be used to close. certainly, excavating them to a lined landfill is one of the methods. >> stahl: that method would cost up to $8 billion. but duke is considering two other options-- lining the bottom and top of the ponds, but

leaving the ash there, which would cost somewhat less, or-- least pricy at $2 billion-- "cap in place," which means just covering the top of the pond. with no lining on the bottom? >> good: and typically, "cap in place" is not lined on the bottom. but we would not move forward with a cap in place unless we had a certainty that the water is safe. and so, that's where the science comes in. that's where the study needs to be completed, so that we develop smart solutions. >> stahl: it's called "cap in place." >> holleman: "cap in place." >> stahl: right. now, would that satisfy your organization? >> holleman: no, it would not. an unlined pit next to a river, a lake, or a drinking water reservoir-- it stays wet. only if you have a lining in it do you separate this industrial waste from the water table and the groundwater, so "cap in place" is only "pollute in place." >> stahl: obviously, i'm not a scientist, but shouldn't you just say, "okay, we're going to line them all?" >> good: i'd love to tell you there is a simple solution to this. i'd love to tell you that ash... >> stahl: well, why isn't that a simple solution?

>> good: ...that ash that has been stored for decades can be solved quickly. we like quick answers. we like to pull our cell phone up and do research and get answers right away. but in order to do this right, we do need to do the study. we need to understand, what is the groundwater? where is the groundwater? we need to understand the stability of the basin. we need to understand the soil type. i cannot immediately move 100 million tons of ash. it's not a response that makes any sense, doesn't make common sense. as much as i'd love to tell you there's a simple solution, it's one that requires study, and it's one that requires time to complete. >> stahl: but environmentalists say "studying" is code for "stalling," because this problem isn't new. duke has been conducting tests around their ash ponds for decades. and five years ago, when state regulators demanded to see the data, they found something alarming-- the coal ash ponds in all of duke's 14 plants were

either leaking toxic chemicals into rivers and streams, or contaminating the groundwater. >> good: some of the readings that we have found are for elements like iron and manganese, which are naturally occurring. >> stahl: but nine of your plants have been found to have groundwater violations for contaminants including lead, sulfate, boron, chromium, thallium, selenium, and arsenic. >> good: so we have had exceedances. and when i said iron and manganese, lesley, i was talking about the majority of them. we have had instances of other readings, as well. >> stahl: well, i'm citing your own monitoring statistics, which do say that there have been hazardous chemicals that have entered the groundwater or surface water at all 14 plants, by your own admission. >> good: and what we have recommended, and will be moving forward with, and the state has recommended, is further assessments so that appropriate

steps can be taken. >> stahl: ( laughs ) >> good: so, lesley, i think... >> stahl: further assessments! >> good: i know, i think it's important to understand this, and i... >> stahl: but even you have to throw your head back and say, "further assessments?!" but these results go back years. and to say we need to study more, you know, is a very frustrating thing to have to hear, and i'm not even a citizen of north carolina. >> good: we have very openly and transparently disclosed these results to work with the regulators to determine whether it really represents a risk. >> stahl: does duke's coal ash today pose any health risk at all? >> good: i believe our system is operating safely. >> stahl: but local environmentalists showed us leaks from several of duke's ash ponds, like this one at cape fear. >> this stream is like this, leaking coal ash into the river 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. >> stahl: after we asked state officials about this particular leak, lab tests were done showing "notably elevated concentrations of sulfate,

aluminum, iron, manganese, boron, and strontium." the state says the leak doesn't impact the overall health of the river, but is illegal, a violation of the clean water act. yet environmentalists like frank holleman say that, over the years, the state never forced duke to clean up its ash ponds, under both democratic and republican administrations. how powerful is duke energy in the state of north carolina? >> holleman: it's the most powerful entity in the state of north carolina. it spends millions of dollars on political contributions, and it has traditionally had a very close relationship with the state regulators. >> stahl: just this year, governor mccrory cut the budget and staff of the specific department that inspects the ash ponds. the state legislature did pass a law in august requiring duke to clean up its plants, but only after the company had already volunteered to do that. earlier, when holleman tried to

sue duke, he was thwarted by the state, which stepped in and negotiated a settlement that allowed duke-- you guessed it-- more time to study, and imposed only a paltry fine. tell everybody how much the fine was. >> mccrory: i don't have that list, but again... >> stahl: it was $99,111. >> mccrory: that's correct. >> stahl: which does not sound like a big fine. >> mccrory: it wasn't a big fine. >> stahl: all this has made federal prosecutors suspicious. they empanelled a grand jury to investigate whether duke or the regulators has done anything illegal to get the state to go easy on the company. virtually every newspaper in the state of north carolina came out with editorials claiming that duke was lax, and lawless, when it came to the environment, and acted like a bully with state regulators. >> good: i recognize that. i disagree with that characterization. there's been... it's been a challenging time, a difficult time. lots of voices weighing in.

certainly lots of scrutiny and criticism. >> stahl: but you must take this to heart, if there's so much of it, you know? >> good: of course we do. we take this very seriously. and we're using this as an opportunity to raise our standards even higher, to ensure that our operations are safe. it's our highest priority at duke. >> stahl: later this month, the environmental protection agency is set to announce whether coal ash will be regulated by the federal government as hazardous waste, meaning potentially much tougher disposal rules and waste, meaning potentially much tougher disposal rules and oversight. >> cbs money watch update sponsored by lincoln financial. calling all chief life officers. >> glor: good evening. north korea today called the hack at sony pictures a "righteous deed" but denied responsibility. b.p. is looking the make job cuts and freeze projects due to plummeting oil prices, and new mexico this weekend fined the

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>> stahl: now, cnn's sanjay gupta on assignment for "60 minutes." >> gupta: cancer has outwitted scientists and doctors for decades. more than 1,500 people still die of the disease every day in this country. but scientists will tell you they have learned more about cancer in the last five years than ever before. and no one is more optimistic about what that will mean for patients than dr. patrick soon- shiong. he's been called a genius, a showman, an innovator, and a hypester. he's also the richest man in los angeles, a doctor and entrepreneur who is worth an estimated $11 billion.

soon-shiong was a respected surgeon before making his name in the cancer world by developing a multi-billion dollar drug that few initially thought would work. he now wants to disrupt the conventional way we treat cancer, and soon-shiong is overflowing with ideas on how to do it. >> patrick soon-shiong: that was what i call "feed the tumor." >> gupta: give dr. patrick soon- shiong a white board and a few markers, and like a mad scientist, he'll diagram how he thinks cancer can be beaten. he wants to attack on multiple fronts, and is confident there is a pathway to the cure. for 45 minutes, he outlined his vision from beginning to end. this is a crazy looking board. ( laughter ) >> soon-shiong: this is what goes on in my head, you know. this is, it's like bursting. it just has to get this stuff out, right? >> gupta: are we looking inside your head? >> soon-shiong: yeah, i think so, a little bit. >> gupta: how long before we get to here? >> soon-shiong: i'm incredibly encouraged to say that we are on the path.

and the technology to actually do all these things is not just hypothetical. >> gupta: technology is the main weapon soon-shiong is deploying against cancer. in october, at his company's headquarters in los angeles, final tests were being run on high-speed tumor genome sequencing machines that soon- shiong is convinced will unmask the molecular secrets to cancer. >> soon-shiong: and for the first time, with this technology, we can watch it, catch it, outsmart it, and play chess at this multi-dimensional level. >> gupta: to understand the significance of what soon-shiong is touting, it's important to know what cancer is. >> soon-shiong: a cancer is not what people think-- cells growing. actually, cancer is actually the inability of the cells to die. >> gupta: the key is figuring out the genetic mutation or glitch that prevents cells from dying a natural death. soon-shiong's hope is to provide patients with the precise genetic mutations that fuel their cancer, regardless of where tumors are found in the body.

>> soon-shiong: the mutation that happens in lung cancer could be the exact same mutation that happens in the breast cancer. so you need to treat that patient based on its mutation, not on its physical, anatomical location. >> gupta: that's a big idea. i mean, you know, the idea that the breast cancer specialist, they're looking for breast cancer mutations and they may be missing the ball. >> soon-shiong: absolutely. >> gupta: a lung cancer drug could work on breast cancer, for instance, if the mutation is the same. the concept of doing away with labeling the disease by where it's found is not unique to soon-shiong, but it is a tectonic shift in the fight against cancer, the notion of classifying a cancer by its mutation. >> soon-shiong: imagine reclassifying cancer, and having people conceive and understand that cancer's a slew of rare diseases. so i am very excited, because we are going to create this revolution. >> gupta: and what's it going to mean? >> soon-shiong: well, it's going to mean you have a better shot at having a better outcome and having a quality of life and

actually turn the cancer hopefully into a chronic disease. >> gupta: that's very optimistic. realistic as well? >> soon-shiong: i think so. very much so. >> gupta: soon-shiong has appointed himself to lead this revolution. cancer genome sequencing is not new, but what's different about soon-shiong's project is the scale. he has spent nearly a billion dollars of his own money to build a massive infrastructure, run by super-computers, to find every single genetic mutation that could drive cancer. this is soon-shiong's plan-- a patient, anywhere in the world, has his tumor biopsied. the tumor cell's complete genetic map is then created all the way down to the proteins that are produced. what only recently took months can now be done in a day. ultimately, personalized information for each cancer patient would show up in the palm of his hand. >> soon-shiong: this is the baby. >> gupta: that's it, huh? >> soon-shiong: it'll be the world's first browser of the

cancer genome, so think about that. you'll be able to fly through to get to the single letter that's mutated. >> gupta: he's teamed with blackberry to produce a device that will identify for patients and doctors what they need to make more informed decisions. at the end of the day, someone has a tumor and they could find out the complete analysis of that tumor and what the perfect drug is to treat it? >> soon-shiong: correct. that's what's exciting. it's not the end of the day; this is what we think we can bring to the world now. >> gupta: but some in the cancer world fear soon-shiong is getting ahead of himself, that he's declaring victory before any of this has been proven to work consistently. >> derek raghavan: it's "show me the money, show me the data. show me that it's true..." >> gupta: dr. derek raghavan, a renowned oncologist and researcher, is president of the levine cancer institute in charlotte, north carolina. dr. soon-shiong says, "look, if we can figure out which mutations are driving a cancer, we're going to be better able to find the drugs that treat

cancer." is that a fair theory? >> raghavan: yes, that's a fair theory. but to say, "i can throw a tumor into a gizmo, and that gizmo will tell me the answer in a few minutes, and everything will flow from that," i don't think we're there now. i don't think we'll be there next year. i think there's just too much hard, complex science that has to be done before this is state of the art. but it's a very cool idea for the future. >> gupta: the vast majority of mutations are actually not a threat. so to figure out which mutations are dangerous, soon-shiong is going back in time. >> soon-shiong: this national treasure... >> gupta: wow! in the basement of the john wayne cancer institute in santa monica, california, decades of cancer tissues were stored by scientists in deep-freeze vats. now, soon-shiong wants to use technology that didn't exist back then to map the genomes of these thousands of tissues in order to look for critical patterns.

so, even after a patient died, their samples were stored here. they can go back, say, "oh, they had this mutation." and now, we can explain that this mutation actually leads to death, and other mutations may not. >> soon-shiong: that's exactly right. and ask the question, "why did this patient live and why did this patient die? why did this treatment work? why did that not work?" >> gupta: to make any of this work, soon-shiong believes you need to upend the way cancer drugs are developed. he's started a biotech company to try to dramatically ramp up production. >> soon-shiong: i know it sounds like an audacious goal, but you need to actually develop 20 to 30 drugs a year to actually get ahead of this game. >> gupta: right now, it takes a few years to create a single drug, and you're talking about 30 drugs in one year. is that really feasible? >> soon-shiong: i think that's where we have the challenge in the pharmaceutical industry. we actually need to change the way we actually develop drugs now. >> gupta: soon-shiong is impatient with the pace of drug approvals. in the early '90s, he invented a drug called abraxane that treats pancreatic, lung, and breast cancer patients.

but more than a decade passed before the f.d.a. approved it. >> soon-shiong: the problem is, for cancer, however, we don't have that time. you know, if you have pancreatic cancer, you have two months, if you have metastases throughout your body. the war against cancer is a war against time. >> gupta: soon-shiong is also frustrated with what he calls the "trial and error cycle" of cancer care. >> soon-shiong: the truth of the matter, we treat cancer today-- we guess. we take what we call the average results, put it in you, see if it works. if it doesn't work, oops, we'll try another drug. if it does work, we stop the drug. when you look back ten years from now, it's almost barbaric. >> gupta: the 62-year-old native of south africa can afford to be outspoken, because of his immense wealth. he doesn't need to rely on the government or big pharma for funding. soon-shiong is certain what he terms the "dark age of cancer treatment" is nearly over, and the enlightened age is about to begin. what will the average person note about the enlightened age versus the dark age? >> soon-shiong: the treatment doesn't need to be painful.

metastasis doesn't need to be a death sentence. cancer could be a chronic disease and treated towards the cure. >> gupta: while the oncology world may cringe when he boasts, as he's prone to do, patients see him differently. >> david roy: the established community doesn't like false hope. but if you have a terminal disease, like i do, you want some hope. >> gupta: david roy was diagnosed two years ago with stage four metastatic pancreatic cancer. he was given four and a half months to live and told to settle his affairs. he called dr. soon-shiong, whom he had met on a plane years before. soon-shiong recommended a ucla oncologist who devised an unusual therapy that combined abraxane with other cancer drugs. then, soon-shiong had roy's tumor genome sequenced. based on those results, roy is now taking part in a clinical

trial involving another front in cancer treatment. >> soon-shiong: that's the t- cell and that's the cancer cell. >> gupta: it's called immunotherapy. soon-shiong is not the only one working on it, but he was anxious to show us why oncologists believe it's a promising field-- a time-lapse demonstration of how t-cells, which our immune systems naturally produce, can attack cancer cells. >> soon-shiong: this is a cell that's actually gobbling up the cancer cell. this cell will grow in size and this cell will decrease in size, so watch. so, here's the t-cell gobbling it up. there's the cancer cell and... >> gupta: that's amazing. so you're literally watching cancer cells die here? >> soon-shiong: correct. >> gupta: if you find these t- cells and you're able to isolate them, is the idea then, you know they could do the job, you could come out and grow them, proliferate them, and put them back in the body... >> soon-shiong: exactly. >> gupta: even though it's been two years now since david roy's original diagnosis, he's realistic about his chances of

survival. but he's convinced soon-shiong and other scientists are on track to dramatically decrease cancer death rates in the not too distant future. >> roy: i'm not sure that it'll happen fast enough for me, but i have every confidence that my children and grandchildren won't be concerned about the things that i'm concerned about. we are on the edge here of going from the oil lamp to electricity. and it is going to happen. >> gupta: soon-shiong's most provocative idea, though, centers on how cancers may become metastatic. he believes chemotherapy works best when administered in frequent, low doses, and that in some cancers, the traditional method of blasting a tumor with heavy doses of chemotherapy may actually be counterproductive, because it could induce cancer cells to escape the hostile environment, enter the bloodstream, and find a new home. it's on the move. >> soon-shiong: it's on the move, and it's looking for another place to land.

so circulating tumor cells in the blood is the new frontier. those are the circulating tumor cells. >> gupta: that's incredible. if cancer spreads, the likelihood of survival decreases dramatically. so before individual rogue cancer cells fan out and form new tumors, soon-shiong wants to detect them with what are known as liquid biopsies. a person's blood sample is put through this bio-chip that separates normal blood cells from heavier, circulating tumor cells. this is a view inside the bio- chip as the tumor cells are being funneled to the top. >> soon-shiong: and if we can now monitor the cancer cell in the blood, we then have the path to getting this and winning this war. we never had those paths before. >> gupta: after pulling out the circulating tumor cells, scientists can take them back to the genome sequencer to look for new mutations that made them resistant to the initial treatment, and hopefully find a new drug to treat it. it's yet another angle soon- shiong is taking to disrupt cancer. you got genomics.

you have circulating tumor cell liquid biopsies. death by t-cell. why are you the one taking all this on? i mean, these are lots of different types of things... >> soon-shiong: you know, somebody once said to me, "you know, patrick, you're all over the place." and i said, "you have to be all over the place, because i'm trying to fight this war from all over the place." ( laughs ) because you can't... there's no ( laughs ) because you can't... there's no one single magic bullet. >> welcome to the cbs sports update presented by pacific life. i'm james brown with scores from around the nfl today. pittsburgh scores 25 unanswered to tighten up the a.f.c. north. andrew luck's last-minute touchdown pass rallies the colts. the saints offer their worst home loss ever under shawn peyton. matthew stafford throws three scores as the lions roll. the rams toss back-to-back shutouts since the first time since 1945. arizona survives and ends a

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,,,,,, waiter: yep. new gingerbread french toast and pumpkin pancakes. but they're only around for a limited time. girl: can i still get it if i'm on the naughty list? waiter, chuckling: i think you'll be fine. [bell rings] waitress: welcome to denny's! >> whitaker: if you have ever taken a vacation to italy,

chances are you've been to florence, or venice, or rome. it's unlikely you've been to a place called cremona, a small city with a rich heritage. it's home to one of mankind's most glorious and coveted creations-- elegant, hand- crafted stradivarius violins. cremona was home to the master himself, antonio stradivari, who carved stringed instruments out of raw wood, and set the standard for a vibrant musical tradition that still flourishes today. time seems to stand still in the small northern italian city of cremona. it's a quiet place, almost sleepy. it moves to the rhythms of pedals and pedestrians. but to understand the culture of cremona, you have to listen. ♪ ♪

it's believed the violin was invented here. to an audience of school children in a cremona concert hall, ukrainian musician anastasiya petryshak plays a violin made 300 years ago by the most famous violin maker in history, antonio stradivari. he plied-- many would say perfected-- the craft of violin making in cremona in the 17th and 18th centuries. there are tributes to him all over town. the city's violin museum pays homage to stradivari and his magnificent creations. >> paolo bodini: and they are really our history. >> whitaker: paolo bodini, a doctor, the former mayor of cremona, and a director of the museum, took us on a tour of what he calls the "treasure box." >> whitaker: so paolo, these four, all by stradivari? >> bodini: yes, we're in the middle of the stradivari world. >> whitaker: you live with these all the time. is it possible you have a favorite?

>> bodini: i would say the 1715, that's my favorite, as far as the sound. >> whitaker: many of stradivari's 1,100 instruments have decayed or disappeared over the years, but a number that survived are in remarkable condition, and in great demand by musicians all over the world. ♪ ♪ cremona's creations have been exported worldwide. here at a strad-fest in los angeles, an event almost as rare as the instruments, not one but several stradivarius violins on stage together. these world-class violinists played second fiddle to the old master. ♪ ♪ ( applause )

cremona has brought many of stradivari's violins back home. there are older instruments from cremona here, too, some made by the guarneri family; and this one, made in 1566 by the man credited with inventing the violin, andrea amati. now, this could be played today and would... and would still have that... >> bodini: yeah, this is. >> whitaker: ...exquisite sound? >> bodini: yeah. this one is sort of a deep sound. >> whitaker: to nurture that sound, these delicate old instruments must be handled, held, played every month or two. they're not just museum pieces... >> bodini: no, if you want to keep them in shape, you have to play it quite... i won't say quite often, but once in awhile. you know, they... they need to vibrate to... to be kept alive. >> whitaker: and when these exquisite, valuable instruments are taken from their cases to be played by anastasiya petryshak, they get armored car-type security.

it's a measure of their timeless power and versatility. in anastasiya's hands, the 300- year-old strad is just as adept playing a serene passage from paganini... ♪ ♪ ...as a gypsy melody by a spanish composer. ♪ ♪ >> itzhak perlman: i don't need something better because there isn't something better. ♪ ♪ >> whitaker: itzhak perlman, one of today's most celebrated violinists, plays only a strad, though he has a more humble name for his, a "fiddle." ♪ ♪ >> perlman: this fiddle is so amazing, i don't have to worry about it. >> whitaker: you call it the

perfect violin? >> perlman: well, it's the violin of my dreams, you know. if you want to play a pianissimo that is almost inaudible, and yet it carries through a hall that seats 3,000 people, there is your strad. >> whitaker: so describe the sound produced by this stradivarius. >> perlman: i can actually see the sound in my head. i can actually see it. it has... it has silk... god, it's so difficult to... to describe. but each sound is different, so this one has that sparkle, there is a sparkle to the sound. >> whitaker: somebody said it's just the cremona magic. >> perlman: could be. it could be the dna of the city. >> whitaker: in almost any other italian city, a medieval piazza and cathedral this magnificent would be crawling with foreign tourists, but cremona is off the beaten path. it doesn't draw many visitors. but don't mistake it for some

charming music box time has forgotten. cremona actually is a very international city, where the past and the present coexist quite harmoniously. thousands of violins still are made here every year. there seem to be more violin shops than espresso shops in cremona; there are 150 of them. stefano conia came here from hungary more than 40 years ago. edgar russ moved from austria, and makes violins, violas and violincellos. mathijs heyligers came from holland. he says he and all the other violin makers were drawn by cremona's history and tradition. do you feel the old master when you're walking through these streets? >> mathijs heyligers: well, yes. it's a matter of realizing that the man who made all those incredible instruments that we are admiring every day and we're listening at in the concert halls were made by a man that actually walked on the street here, because these streets

haven't changed. the houses haven't changed. >> whitaker: neither has the way mathijs heyligers and the other craftsmen make their violins. about the only thing that has changed in the past 500 years-- workshops today have electric lights. the violin makers use compasses, hand saws, glue-- no nails. the tools are simple, the craftsmanship precise. this is the way stradivari did it? >> heyligers: yeah, 300 years ago, he was sitting in the same town, doing the same job. >> whitaker: the same way. >> heyligers: the same way, absolutely. i mean, no power tools, no... no big technology, you know? >> whitaker: how do you decide what piece of wood to use? >> heyligers: well, that is very much a matter of sound. you know, if you listen to this one, for instance, you can hear it. >> whitaker: what are you listening for? >> heyligers: that's the note

this blade has, okay? now, it has a kind of clear resonance note. this violin is going to have a clear sound. >> whitaker: can i hear? >> heyligers: it's kind of high, but it's... it's clear in color, not so dark. >> whitaker: the violin makers of cremona have used wood from the very same forests for hundreds of years-- maple from bosnia, and red spruce from this one valley in the italian dolomites. it's said stradivari first discovered the acoustic qualities of these woods. now, visitors show up every year to honor the trees, and italy being italy, there's a violinist to play a concert-- not for the spectators, for the trees. ♪ ♪ >> heyligers: the material needs to be cut in the right place,

but also the right way. we need to have the right moon and the right air humidity and the right wind when we cut the tree in the right season to make sure. >> whitaker: really? >> heyligers: absolutely. >> whitaker: is anyone today making violins as good as the old masters in cremona? >> perlman: i don't think so, but you know, i hope somebody proves me wrong. that will be great. >> whitaker: 300 years we're talking about, and people still want to have a stradivarius. what is it? >> perlman: what is it? there is nothing like a fine italian sound. >> whitaker: that's the magic? >> perlman: yeah. >> whitaker: there are only about 650 of stradivari's creations still in existence. the old instruments from cremona are so rare and beautiful, they've ignited a kind of feeding frenzy. sotheby's has this very rare stradivari viola up for sale and says it's worth $45 million.

no takers yet. but stradivari violins have fetched as much as $16 million, snapped up by collectors and investors. could you afford your... >> perlman: no, no, no. >> whitaker: ...violin today? >> perlman: no, no, absolutely not. >> whitaker: would you ever sell your violin, your strad? >> perlman: right now, the way... the way it feels? >> whitaker: no? ( laughs ) >> perlman: i don't think so, no. >> whitaker: musicians lucky enough to have an old cremonese instrument like to play them as often as possible. but being played decade after decade for centuries can be rough on old bodies and joints. >> bruce carlson: i wish it could talk... >> whitaker: bruce carlson, born in michigan, has been restoring violins in cremona for 40 years. he has to take them apart to fix them.

>> carlson: once we're all the way around, then we can slip the table off. >> whitaker: he did this to a stradivarius that literally had fallen apart in a violinist's hands. what is that like to pry open a violin made by stradivari? i'd be scared to death to try to open that thing. >> carlson: it may be something like a surgeon, you know, when he... when he's operating, can't think about... too much about the human side of things as... as to just getting on with the business and doing it. >> whitaker: bruce carlson learned his craft at this school in cremona. students from all over the world come here to learn to make violins in the way of the old masters. chris kurz dropped out of penn state to study here. it took him a year to make his first instrument. what can you get in cremona that you couldn't get, say, if you studied at penn state or went to new york? >> chris kurz: i mean, like, i can walk down the street, and walk by three or four shops on my way to get a coffee. and the fact that i can bring my

instrument along to any one of those people, and walk in and say, "hey, maestro, do you have a minute or two to look at what i'm doing?" and then, they give me their input. >> whitaker: it's the city of violins? >> kurz: yeah, yeah, it's... it's like living, breathing right here in cremona. ♪ ♪ >> whitaker: living, breathing here on the stage of the city's grand old hall, a 21st century chamber orchestra featuring a 300-year-old stradivarius. it's a tradition, a sound, a gift from cremona. ♪ ♪ ( cheers and applause ) >> mathijs heyligers shows bill whitaker what modern-day cremona craftsmanship can do. go to 60minutesovertime.com. sponsored by lyrica.

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>> whitaker: in the mail this week, viewers wrote about the story we called "the lion whisperer." kevin richardson told correspondent clarissa ward how he rescues the big cats from becoming victims of canned hunts in south africa. "the story was important and i hope it leads to positive change. however, the video of the lions being shot was entirely too graphic and wasn't even preceded by a viewer warning." "seeing that brought a tear to my 12-year-old's eyes. i agree it needs to be exposed and seen, but a 12-year-old doesn't need to see that yet."

i'm bill whitaker. we'll be back next week with i'm bill whitaker. we'll be back next week with another edition of "60 minutes." vo: the lenovo yoga 2-in-1. with 4 different modes, there's a new way to make this holiday one to remember. expert service. unbeatable price. best buy. with a favorite book is nice. but i think women would rather curl up with their favorite man. but here's the thing: about half of men over 40 have some degree of erectile dysfunction. well, viagra helps guys with ed get and keep an erection. and remember, you only take it when you need it. ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain; it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. side effects include headache, flushing, upset stomach and abnormal vision. to avoid long-term injury, seek immediate medical help

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