it to the lab and get it in a solution where we can clean it up. reporter: a few hours later at the ford discovery lab look at how it just ate the plastic. reporter: to retrieve the data, the phone is pulled apart, the board which includes the memory chip is bathed into an 80 degree ultrasonic cleaner several types and any tiny salt deposits are chipped away. this is the most important part. this is where the data is held and stored. this is actually looking pretty good. reporter: there we go. the chip is actually then removed, using heat. it was in good shape. the next step, quite honestly lsh lshis to pop it into an adapter like this. reporter: there it is, the e-mails, the photos, the video we recorded of the chicago river. and while our experiment with the aquarium tank is not the same as the indian ocean, our experts believe they could also retrieve data from cell phones on flight 370.