How does camouflage work?
CrowdScience
BBC
4.8 • 985 Ratings
🗓️ 22 August 2025
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
CrowdScience listener Paul from Uganda is fascinated by military uniforms. The outfits of so many different armies, from different countries all around the world, often look remarkably similar – mottled shades of olive green camouflage.
Where did it come from? How does it work as camouflage? And what inspired it?
Alex Lathbridge delves into the science, the history and the future of camouflage.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Rory Stewart and I grew up wanting to be a hero and I'm still fascinated by the ideas of heroism. |
| 0:09.0 | In my new series, I'm taking in the long sweep of history from Achilles to Zelensky and asking, what is a hero? |
| 0:16.0 | Simply doing your job, being a decent human being. |
| 0:20.0 | A true hero is someone who just kind of shines by |
| 0:23.1 | their own light and that light is to be recognized by others. The long history of heroism with me, |
| 0:28.6 | Rory Stewart. Listen on BBC Sounds. Okay, he's going to for a little walk. |
| 0:42.3 | Right now, I'm on an unlikely mission. I'm scrambling through a thicket of trees and bushes |
| 0:46.3 | in a patch of forest just on the outskirts of Prague at the Czech Republic. |
| 0:52.3 | Oh, big branches. Let's do this. Big steps. |
| 0:56.0 | Well, I say forest. It's more of a public park. |
| 1:00.0 | There's a couple walking there German Shepherd just over there. |
| 1:03.3 | There's a bank of Portaloo's by the entrance. |
| 1:06.0 | But this bit that I'm scrabbling through, it's quite foresty. |
| 1:10.5 | Currently hiding behind a tree. |
| 1:13.2 | It is very hot. |
| 1:15.1 | It's around 34 degrees Celsius today. |
| 1:18.5 | And I'm entirely cloaked, head to toe in a thick military-grade gilly suit. |
| 1:26.1 | I am warm. I'm going to find somewhere to hide. Okay, I got, I got it. This is perfect. |
| 1:31.6 | Let me just, yeah. They're not going to be able to see me here. |
| 1:36.5 | I'm Alex Laughbridge and this is CrowdScience from the BBC World Service, the program that takes |
| 1:42.3 | your science questions and searches for an answer, |
| 1:45.7 | even if they're really hard to find. |
... |
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