. >> i'm in the peruvian amazon and we're on the search for endangered macaws. >> now techknow is on a one of a kind mission. >> look at those wings. >> the macaw; graceful, elegant, and in some parts of the world endangered. it's a race against time - >> so the climber up top just yelled down saying she saw a lightning strike. >> - to save a species. >> it's time to hurry up. >> i'm phil torres, i'm an entymologist. i do much of my research in this jungle i'll share my findings with marita davision, an environmental biologist, and dr. crystal dilworth, a molecular neuroscientist. that's our team, now let's do some science. >> it's all worth it. >> hey guys, welcome to techknow. i'm phil torres, joined by dr. crystal dilworth and marita davison. so guys, picture this, you are deep in the rain forests of peru when suddenly a flock of red and blue magnificent creatures takes off in front of you. they are beautiful, but let me tell you, they don't start out so pretty. >> you have to be talking about macaws. i'm a bird biologist so in my day i've seen a lot of baby birds and i have to ad

"hard earned". >> in 2013 haunting images of the toll illegal mining had taken on the peruvian amazonent viral. the video was taken by the carnegie airborne observatory - a high tech plane developed by greg asner from the carnegie institution's department of global ecology. what is it about these mining activities that are so destructive from let's say from an environmental perspective first. >> gold miners not only remove the forest they go down below the soil surface to what would be called the mineral soil. below the biologically active part of the soil so deep in the soil that there isn't a science to tell us that those forests could ever recover. >> the devastation exposed from above was dramatic - but it was also only part of the story. the aircraft it's outfitted with all sorts of cool technology. how did you use some of that technology to zero in on what was happening in terms of gold mining? >> one of the key technologies aboard the plane is a laser imaging system what it does is we fire laser beams out of the bottom of the plane - the lasers can penetrate all the way to the

. >> i'm in the peruvian amazon and we're on the search for endangered macaws. >> now techknow is on a one of a kind mission. >> look at those wings. >> the macaw; graceful, elegant, and in some parts of the world endangered. it's a race against time -

. >> i'm in the peruvian amazon and we're on the search for endangered macaws. >> now techknow is onne

. >> i'm in the peruvian amazon and we're on the search for endangered macaws. >> now techknow is on a one of a kind mission. >> look at those wings. >> the macaw; graceful, elegant, and in some parts of the world

. >> i'm in the peruvian amazon and we're on the search for endangered macaws. >> now techknow is on a one of a kind mission. >> look at those wings. >> the macaw; graceful, elegant,

. >> i'm in the peruvian amazon and we're on the search for endangered macaws. >> now techknow is on a one of a kind mission. >> look at those wings. >> the macaw; graceful, elegant, and in some parts of the world