sits above most of our atmosphere. the night sky here is more brilliant than anything you can see without actually being in orbit. 66 ultra-sensitive radio antennas are helping scientists gaze deep into space. it's the most ambitious astronomical project on the planet, revealing things that have never been seen before, literally. >> cooper: the nile crocodile can grow up to 20 feet long and weigh as much as a car. they're patient and stealthy killers that drag their prey into the water, where they drown and dismember them. hundreds of people are killed every year. yeah, okay. anderson, good? >> cooper: let's go. >> okay. >> cooper: so, why would we go diving with them? to learn more about africa's largest and most feared predator face to face. >> kroft: i'm steve kroft. >> stahl: i'm lesley stahl. >> safer: i'm morley safer. >> simon: i'm bob simon. >> cooper: i'm anderson cooper. >> pelley: i'm scott pelley. those stories tonight on "60 minutes." let that phrase sit with you for a second. unlimited. as in, no limits on your hard-earned cash back. as in no more dealing with those rotating categories. the quicksilver card from capital one. unlimited 1.5% cash back on everything you purchase, every day. don't settle for anything less. i'll keep asking. what's in your wallet? 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>> safer: they must learn not just business and technical skills, but social skills... >> why is that a good handshake? >> strong. >> safer: ...and work hard enough to build the foundation of a career. >> what is a better way to make a connection with someone? >> safer: don't let the suits and ties fool you. almost everyone at year up has faced almost unimaginable hardship in getting here-- poverty, drugs, foster care, men's and women's shelters, you name it. >> gerald chertavian: we are going into a professional skills course. >> safer: this all-out corporate training blitz is the brainchild of gerald chertavian, a wall street veteran who believes that he's discovered an untapped source of talent among the poorest in the country. >> chertavian: a majority of the young adults growing up in isolated poverty in our inner cities want opportunity, want to be challenged, want to be held to high expectations, and are motivated to actually get a good job. they haven't had any exposure as to how do you do that. >> safer: yet, to a good part of the population, those people are invisible. >> chertavian: absolutely invisible. it so saddens me, if someone would see our young adult on the street, and rather than think, "that's my next best employee," they clutch their wallet. and that happens. and part of this perception change is, if enough young people see our students working for the best companies, they'll change perception. >> safer: changing perception started with this kid, david heredia. the two met in 1988 through the big brothers program as chertavian was just beginning his wall street career. heredia lived in one of the most dangerous housing projects in new york. >> chertavian: i saw that he had all the potential, but didn't have the access and the opportunity. and having seen that for three years close up, i realized this was wrong. >> safer: chertavian helped heredia through college, but he wanted to do more. so when he sold his tech company, he finally got the chance. using his own seed money, chertavian began year up with just 22 students and a mission... >> insider trading... >> safer: ...create a year-long job boot camp that provides a pathway to good careers for young people who would otherwise never get the chance. >> china is having, like, a shrinkage as far as their bonds are going down. >> safer: these are fairly complex subject they're dealing with. >> chertavian: yes, absolutely. >> safer: he says the formula is simple. for six months, students choose to concentrate their training in financial operations or, more often, computer technology. >> you may see your bios coming up. >> safer: why these two specific concentrations? >> chertavian: we look for areas that pay livable wages, places where you can really earn a career. >> safer: god. ( laughs ) i don't think... i don't think i would last an hour at this. >> chertavian: i'm sure you'd be great at it. >> barack obama: so this is what my hard drive looks like if i took it all apart? >> safer: chertavian's approach caught the attention of president obama, who visited the washington site. >> obama: what we wanted to do was highlight the fact that there are all kinds of people who succeed, despite the obstacles. >> safer: and the white house is looking for ways of duplicating year up's results. at first, chertavian says he had to beg companies to offer internships. now, firms like j.p. morgan are actually paying year up $23,000 per intern. ceo jamie dimon says the 300 they have taken on in their operations, retail, and technology divisions provide the firm with a well-trained pool of talent. >> jamie dimon: year up gives them six months of intensive training to teach them basics. so, by the time they come here, they kind of know what a job's going to be like, they know what an internship is going to be like, and they can kind of just keep on growing in the job. >> safer: has that investment paid off for you? >> dimon: it has. one of the biggest expenses for a company is hiring people, or particularly... in particular, hiring the wrong people. so if you end up with great, talented people who end up being permanent, full-time here, it pays off as an investment. we... i think it's important that programs like this have an end goal that's not... it's... it's enlightened, it's not just philanthropy. if it's just philanthropy, they tend to fall apart over time. >> we are asking you to acquire a skill so you can go work in corporate america. >> safer: a key to year up's success, chertavian, says is a relentless focus on networking and understanding office culture. beyond the technical training, how important is the social skills part of this? >> chertavian: we know you hire for skills and fire for behavior in the work world. and so, we have to make sure our young adults know the social codes, the social norms of working in an organization like a state street, or a bank of america, or a j.p. morgan. >> safer: each candidate is put through a rigorous application process, where their backgrounds, and more importantly, their determination are carefully examined. the only requirement is a high school diploma or g.e.d. >> you said he was in foster care. will he be stable for a year? >> safer: social workers are on staff to help with the inevitable problems, like unstable living conditions. >> year up is a tool. >> safer: during orientation, everyone is encouraged to share their stories... >> since i was 12, i have been in group homes and foster homes. >> my mom and my dad spent all their time working and never got to talk to me, so basically, i was kind of raised by myself. >> what does this tell us about resilience? >> safer: ...and tap into the adversity and resilience that got them through the door in the first place. >> we offer you the opportunity to do something for yourself, and it's going to be you the whole way. >> safer: jonathan garcia is a graduate. raised in harlem by a single mother who died when he was 14, garcia is now doing computer technical support for the top executives at american express, including the ceo, ken chenault. jonathan says getting accepted into year up saved his life. >> jonathan garcia: back then, i had no ambition. my ambition was just to make money now, so i can eat tonight and tomorrow. >> safer: how far away did wall street seem to you back then? >> garcia: oh, it was nowhere near new york. ( laughter ) >> safer: when a relative told him about year up, he says, at first, he was skeptical. >> garcia: where i was born and raised, if it's too good to be true, it's most likely a scam. but after noticing that everyone was very comfortable and very willing to help you succeed, as long as you have the drive, then, yeah, i made it my business to be the top of my class. >> beta and zeta are both optical. >> safer: students earn college credit and a stipend of a few hundred dollars a week. show up even a minute late to class or forget to turn in your homework, and your pay is docked. more than seven infractions and you're out. >> how are you? nice to meet you? >> safer: a quarter of each class doesn't make it. >> chertavian: so, just teaching that no one cares why you're late, no one cares the bus was slow or the subway was delayed, no one. they only care that you show up on time every day and you're reliable. and if you are, companies will teach you what they... what you don't know. >> good afternoon. >> good afternoon! >> safer: the program culminates in a six-month internship at a fortune 500 company. >> the first persn going to goldman sachs-- tanisha giddons. ( cheers and applause ) >> safer: chertavian's formula has generated impressive results. year up now has 12 sites across the country, training 2,000 young people a year in financial operations and i.t. jobs. ( cheers and applause ) after graduation, 85% go to college or are hired full-time. average starting salaries are $30,000, but with computer expertise, can hit $50,000 a year or more. >> jay hammonds: we take those reports... >> safer: for the past two years, jay hammonds has worked at facebook's i.t. department. born to a drug-addicted mother, he was adopted as a baby by a family friend. >> hammonds: it was rough. but at the same time, i knew nothing different. for example, i had a cousin who, you know, grew up in the same neighborhood as me. and he went down the wrong path. and a few years later, he was killed and... sorry. >> safer: it's okay. >> hammonds: at the time, it was just normal, so i knew nothing different. >> safer: after high school, he tried college but quickly ran out of money. he says, before year up, he couldn't even get a job at a grocery store. >> hammonds: i thought that would be, like, a great position for me coming out of high school. and i applied three times and never got the job. >> safer: doing what? >> hammonds: a bagger. >> safer: and that was the best you could...? >> hammonds: it was the best i thought of at the time. >> safer: when he saw a year up flyer, he jumped at the chance. >> hammonds: you know "you earn money? you get college credits? and, you know, i get an internship?" that was the... the biggest moment for me, because i realized i've had potential, and that taking this chance, and them taking a chance on me, is going to change my life. and it has. >> safer: it's no secret that wall street's image has been tarnished over the last couple of years. >> dimon: i... i noticed, yeah. ( laughter ) >> safer: but, so to what extent is... is this-- not just for j.p. morgan but a lot of the firms-- kind of window dressing, showing that, "we're philanthropic, we want to show civic responsibility." >> dimon: i don't think we just want to show it. i think we are civically responsible. we don't want to drive successful people down. you want to get people who don't have the opportunity, you want to give them the opportunity, and hopefully they become more successful. >> safer: american express ceo ken chenault says chertavian is filling a gap in the economy. there is a shortage of well- trained people in the fields of technology and financial operations. >> ken chenault: it's a win for the urban communities, it's a win for the students, and it's a win for our company. we would not be doing this unless these students were active contributors as employees. and they more than pull their weight. >> safer: can this be expanded on a kind of scale that would have a real effect nationally? >> chenault: this is a template that i think has demonstrated real success, measurable success. and what needs to happen is the business community need to become more aware of the success that a range of companies have had. >> safer: so, in order to duplicate that success nationally, year up has begun offering its program to community colleges like the nation's largest, miami dade. the goal-- to eventually train 100,000 a year across the country. to jonathan garcia, his current job at american express, he says, is just the beginning. >> garcia: college is definitely important for me because i don't want to be the... the technician that keeps on supporting the executives. one day, i want to be the executive that's being supported. >> safer: so you want to be chairman of the board or what? >> garcia: ( laughs ) maybe one day. but what i'm thinking about for now, it's the next position up, and then we'll go from there. >> safer: since our story aired, year up received over $1 million in donations, 175 more companies have signed on, and applications are up 200%. >> cbs update sponsored by lincoln financial. calling all chief life officers. good evening, imposed tougher sanctions on russian banks this week, president obama will soon sign a bill that lets people unlock their cellphones. and fast food workers in chicago are promising civil disobedience to win a $15 an hour minimum wage. i am jeff glor, cbs news,. yall the suns admire themselvesn cin their reflection your eyes are a weather report your eyes are so clear that they hide your lies your eyes are the windows on the gods the doors on humanity your eyes are so precious that diamonds are jealous your eyes are so unique that nothing similar ever existed in the universe lenscrafters loves eyes to make peanut butter so deliciously creamy. ♪ it can even be a game changer. that's why choosy moms and dads choose jif. it can even be a game changer. duuude... iphone might be that hasn't happened yet?en. well... you know that thing you've been waiting on for like two years? and how it is supposed to be awesome. and how it's going to blow your mind. well it's been here this whole time. you must be happy. [laughing] [phone ringing] one second. hey... it's everything you've been waiting for. 5.1 inches of full hd. on the samsung galaxy s5. >> simon: at this very moment, astronomers are exploring parts of space that have never been seen before. they are seeing the actual birth of planets and stars, countless millions of them, from the top of a remote plateau in northern chile. deep in the atacama desert, they've built a revolutionary new observatory known as the atacama large millimeter-sub millimeter array, "alma" for short. it's a different kind of telescope, not the kind you look through. alma is the world's most powerful radio telescope, which means it deciphers wavelengths of light-- colors, really-- that the human eye cannot see, giving scientists a window on parts of the universe that are otherwise invisible. it's a project that's been 30 years in the making and cost $1.3 billion. alma is just getting started, and as we reported last march, it has already made some astonishing discoveries. for centuries, people have come to this high plateau in northern chile to look far into the heart of space. it's called chat-non-tor, which means "place of departure." as these time-lapse pictures show, it is the earth's window to the stars. at 16,500 feet, it's above most of the earth's atmosphere; there's very little here separating man from the heavens. the result is a night sky that's more brilliant than anything you can see without actually being in orbit. the landscape is otherworldly, and the harsh terrain stretches hundreds of miles. but the same features that make the desert so inhospitable also make it an ideal place to gaze at the galaxies; it's high and it's dry. alma is comprised of 66 radio antennas. the expertise and technology assembled here make it the most ambitious astronomical project on earth. has there ever been an enterprise on this scale before? >> pierre cox: on this scale, no. it's the biggest one. >> simon: pierre cox is alma's director. his job is to coordinate the 19 different countries involved in the project. >> cox: when i took my job, people said, "oh, my goodness. that would be like being the secretary general of united nations." >> simon: that's what i would have thought. >> cox: i thought it, also. but then, i thought a little bit about it, and i think, no, it's much easier because all the members have the same goal, which is not true for the united nations. >> simon: but it is a herculean task. everything you see here had to be manufactured in europe, asia and north america, and shipped to the atacama. it was assembled and tested here at alma's base camp at the foot of the mountain, an altitude of 10,000 feet. then, the trip to the top, at instruments has to make the 17- mile journey on a specially- built transporter-- more crab than carrier-- designed to protect this ultra sensitive cargo from even the slightest bump in the road. you put one of these on a truck? >> cox: yes. >> simon: haul it up to 5,000 meters, more than 16,000 feet, and you still expect the kind of accuracy... >> cox: yes. >> simon: ...that is a tiny fraction of a human hair? >> cox: yes. that gives you an idea about how complex this whole endeavor is. >> simon: it's a journey into thin air. the altitude is such a strain on the body that you have to pass a medical exam to go there. do you find that when you're on top, your thinking gets a little bit hazy? >> cox: yes, sometimes it does. i mean, people react very differently. there are people who are starting to babble all the time, other ones who don't say a word. ( laughs ) >> simon: very little can survive at these heights. there's a point at which even the llamas stop climbing. we came here in may, the middle of fall in the southern hemisphere. it's supposed to be the driest place on earth; we found snow. you know what's going on at a trillion miles from here, but you couldn't forecast the weather. >> cox: yeah, that's right. so, we have to live with it. there you see the antennas. >> simon: yes. my god, what a sight. that looks extraterrestrial. >> cox: it is. it's absolutely mind-boggling. >> simon: we were fitted with oxygen tanks. still, we found it difficult to think or breathe or walk. right now, the antennas are spread out on the plateau over a distance of a mile, but they're moveable and eventually they could spread out over ten miles. that will mimic a single telescope dish ten miles wide. then, alma will be able to see far off objects with greater detail than ever before. and because light takes so long to get to us from distant objects, the farther away alma sees, the farther back in time it looks. soon, they will be able to get close to the start of it all, to the big bang. alma will offer us a glimpse at the formation of the very first galaxies 13 billion years ago. the very first galaxies? >> cox: yes, the ones which were born just after the big bang, about a billion years after the big bang. >> simon: just after the big bang is a billion years. after the big bang. >> cox: in... in terms of astronomy, we have those terms. >> simon: and that's never been before? ( chuckle ) >> cox: no, or very few. >> simon: alma's brain is a supercomputer housed in one of the highest buildings in the world, second only to a tiny train station in the tibetan himalayas. physicist alison peck helped oversee alma's construction. >> alison peck: we had to oxygenate the entire room. that means we need to... needed to pump additional oxygen into the room in order for the guys to be able to make decisions correctly, to focus correctly, to compensate for the altitude. >> simon: so, they wouldn't have been able to do this without oxygen? >> peck: there's absolutely no way they would have been able to assemble this without additional oxygen. >> simon: has anything like this ever been done before? >> peck: not at this altitude, no. this is definitely the highest altitude supercomputer in the entire world. >> simon: it's as powerful as three million laptops, and it synchronizes all the data coming in from those antennas. how precise does the computer have to be? >> peck: this computer has to be able to synchronize the data to within just a few femtoseconds. >> simon: what's that? >> peck: that is a millionth of a billionth of a second. >> simon: alma isn't actually the world's highest telescope. hubble, for example, has been orbiting hundreds of miles above the earth for more than two decades. but hubble is an optical telescope, a very different creature from alma. >> peck: alma is a radio telescope, which means that we are observing things that are radiating at wavelengths longer than what the eye can see. optical telescopes observe the visible light. they observe things that light up that we can see with our eyes. >> simon: so, alma can see colors that we cannot see. >> peck: effectively, yes. alma can see wavelengths of light that we cannot see with our eyes. >> simon: take a look. what you're seeing is an image from an optical telescope. it looks little more than a dark cloud in space, but this is how alma sees it. suddenly, that cloud is lifted. what's there? >> peck: what's there is gas, generally, and dust. and that doesn't sound so exciting when you say that. i mean, dust, we just vacuum it up, normally. but in the context of the evolution of galaxies and solar systems, dust is extremely important. >> simon: it's in these dense patches of gas and dust where stars, new solar systems, are born. and that's exactly what we're seeing in this picture: a new star. >> peck: hubble can see stars immediately after they're born, but it can't detect the regions before the stars are born. it can't see the cradles, if you will, where the stars will appear. >> simon: hubble sees the baby, you're seeing the birth? >> peck: exactly. that's exactly right. >> simon: not just the birth of stars, alma can also see planets as they form. stuart corder is alma's deputy director. inside the control room, he showed us some of the remarkable things they're already observing. so, essentially, in language i can understand, we are looking at a young star. >> corder: young star, yes. >> simon: and we're looking at the birth of planets around it. >> corder: right. yeah, i mean, the colors that we're seeing in the... in the... the image are the gas around the star. and that gas, and the dust that's also surrounding the star, eventually comes together into small pebbles and then large rocks, and then bigger rocks, and eventually forms planets. so, i mean, this is really the... you're seeing the natal environment of planets. >> simon: this alma graphic illustrates just how new planets are formed. but will there be life on them? we all know that's the ultimate question. and even at this early stage in its journey, alma has seen evidence that there might be. it has identified chemicals close to newborn stars that are similar to what we find here on earth, which form the building blocks of life. >> peck: we found a simple sugar called glycolaldehyde. now, this is a molecule that we consider pre-biotic. that means that it could lead to conditions where life could form. >> simon: excuse me, i can't resist. there's sugar out there? >> peck: yes. there's sugar out there, there's alcohol. >> simon: this is very good news. ( laughs ) >> peck: yes, indeed. indeed. ( laughs ) >> simon: the scientists at alma aren't the first people to gaze at the skies from this desert. for generations, the indigenous people of the atacama were fascinated not by the brilliance of the stars, but by the very same dark corners of space. chilean physicist eduardo hardy, alma's director of north american operations, showed us how they saw the universe. >> eduardo hardy: they saw the equivalent of constellations. but instead of looking at stars to draw the shapes of the constellations, they used the dark patches to do that. >> simon: the greeks used the stars. >> hardy: the greek used the stars. the local populations used the dark patches, which is precisely what alma is looking at. >> simon: and in these dark patches, they saw reflections of their daily lives-- llamas, for example. they spun a whole mythology around them. the milky way. >> hardy: here, the milky way is a river. and it actually does look like a river, but it's a river that will take the souls of the dead people and take them to heaven. >> simon: it's fitting, then, that scientists at alma are scanning the skies on chat-non- tor, this "place of departure." and even though they've already taken us far into darkness, they're just getting started. >> hardy: we don't even know what has been discovered. people who have made observation with alma are working hard to get the data out and publish it. in the next few years, we will be very surprised. the only thing i can predict is that we will be very surprised. >> simon: surprised, yes. but alma is destined to take science further back in space and time than had ever been imagined, closer than ever to an understanding of what it means to say "in the beginning." >> and now a cbs sports update presented by pacific life, the open in montreal, kim clark shot a final round 65, and birdied five of the final eight holes to win the tournament, meeting furyk by one stroke and in indian miss gordon won his second win of the season, gordon is the first nascar driver to win this five times in his career. >> for more information go to cbssports.com. >> for more information go to cbssports.com. this is stevo glemyer reporting. n and sometimes where they're going. he would always say, "if you know where you're headed, you can make the smart choices to help you get there." and his legacy has h achieve my goals. 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( laughs ) >> cooper: what first went through your mind? >> andy crawford: well, just lots of bubbles and just panic. >> cooper: the panic was understandable. nile crocodiles are africa's largest and most feared predator, but surprisingly, this one didn't attack. brad and andy have been getting closer and closer to these creatures ever since. >> crawford: you do get a different sense of them. they look very beautiful underwater. they're dappled and gold and black, and you see them as more timid, i think. beyond the teeth and the terror, there's this incredible creature that is actually an amazing animal in its own right. >> cooper: you actually think they're beautiful. >> crawford: i do think they're beautiful. i never used to think they were beautiful, but this is a whole different view of them. >> cooper: this is the view most people have of nile crocodiles. patient and stealthy killers, they grab their prey, drag them into the water, then drown and dismember them. and it's not just animals they eat-- hundreds of people in africa are killed each year while bathing, laundering clothes, or fishing along the waters' edge. nile crocodiles are now protected in botswana, but brad and andy believe more needs to be known about their behavior so that humans can better avoid them. they've invited dr. adam britton, an australian zoologist, to dive with them. when you first heard about what they were doing here, what did you think? >> adam britton: look, i'll be honest. when i... when i first heard about this, my instant, immediate reaction was "that sounds crazy." >> cooper: dr. britton has been studying crocodiles for almost 20 years. >> britton: i describe crocodiles like ferraris-- they're just extremely finely honed creatures. they are... they're... they're just perfectly adapted to do what they do. they're, you know, the smartest of... of all the reptiles. >> cooper: britton is building a genetic database on nile crocodiles in the delta to better understand how to protect them. for years, the only way to study them up close was to capture them. >> bestelink: croc on. so, once i've got him by the mouth... >> cooper: it is difficult, dangerous work. >> britton: sit on him. get his legs back. pin his legs between his knees, as well. he's got no leverage. >> cooper: so, what are you doing now? >> britton: i am just going to cover his eyes so that he can't see what we're doing. >> cooper: so, he's not injured at all? >> britton: no, no, he's not injured at all, apart from his pride, perhaps. >> cooper: this crocodile is not sedated; it's simply trying to conserve its energy. why are you doing this? >> britton: if we can get a sample of all the dna from every single crocodile across the delta, then we can start to build up a picture then of exactly not only where these crocodiles came from, but how they're moving within the delta. >> cooper: because right now, you don't really know that? >> britton: no one really knows anything about that at all. >> cooper: when you actually see the crocodiles up close, there is a beauty to them. often, in pictures, they're covered in mud. they look very drab. but up close, you see the variety of color not just on the top, but also on the bottom. and the tou... to the touch, it's really... there's a softness to them, particularly on the... the feet like this. the claws are about an inch, an inch and a half, but the pads of the feet are actually incredibly soft. capturing crocodiles is stressful for the animal and for us; putting them back in the water is just as hard. >> britton: just keep pressing down, anderson, on the top of the skull. that's good. okay, noose ready to go. okay. three, two, one, go. >> cooper: diving with brad and andy has given dr. adam britton a whole new understanding of crocodiles and their underwater world. >> britton: you're in the water. you've got the current washing over you. you can feel the changes in temperature. and you suddenly think, "this is what it's like to be a crocodile. this crocodile is... is experiencing these same things." >> cooper: britton has actually begun to take dna samples from crocodiles underwater, cutting off pieces of their tails. and, incredibly, they don't seem to mind. diving with nile crocodiles is only possible in the winter months when the water is chilly and the animals are sluggish. these cold-blooded reptiles are far too dangerous to dive with in the summer. >> bestelink: the crocs are much more active. they're much more inclined to want to predate. you know, i don't... i don't... >> cooper: predate? attack? >> bestelink: attack, yeah. they... they... they want to go and eat something. >> cooper: so, two months from now, three months from now, you would not dive in these waters. >> bestelink: no. no. no, and i don't. i don't want to die. make no mistake, i do this because i get an understanding as to how these predators work. >> cooper: brad and andy offer to take me diving with them, explaining it's crucial to get off the surface of the water as quickly as possible because that is where crocs attack. >> crawford: that's the most important thing, because as soon as you're underwater, we believe the crocodiles don't know what we are. they don't recognize us as prey. >> cooper: you say "we believe." do... do you know? >> crawford: we don't. we don't know it for sure. we can never know how they're perceiving us. we trying to establish how they perceive us. >> cooper: again, you're not really building my confidence here by saying you're not sure. what... what do i need to know before... before going in? >> crawford: well, we believe you're safe. ( laughs ) with all that uncertainty, we believe you're safe. >> cooper: safe? take a look at a recent encounter they had with a crocodile. >> bestelink: you see how close he comes to me? >> cooper: and look at the eye. >> bestelink: yeah. >> cooper: and look at those teeth. those are huge! >> bestelink: they are. >> cooper: this croc was twelve feet long and weighed about 1,400 pounds. >> bestelink: and there's a diver, and watch what he does. >> cooper: oh, my gosh! but because the croc's moving, it doesn't even really sense that diver there. >> bestelink: it... it didn't even know that he was there. and you'll... you'll see how it just goes. it hits his light and... squashes his light. >> cooper: so, it just thinks that some debris or tree or something? >> bestelink: yeah. >> cooper: that's amazing. we set off early the next day. it's an hour up-river to a spot that has a lot of underwater caves. three divers will go in with me- - brad, cameraman richard uren, and andy. she will be the safety diver watching our backs. >> i'll let you know that there's a croc if i see it first. >> crawford: the sign of crocodile is that. that's the sign. >> cooper: it's the international sign for crocodile? >> crawford: that's the sign for... well, it's our sign for crocodile. >> cooper: okay, okay, good. >> crawford: brad does this. >> cooper: i didn't learn that in scuba school. they didn't teach that. >> crawford: we're going to give you one of these to dive with. it makes you feel better. it also gives you some barrier... >> cooper: makes you feel better? that's really all it's for, is just to make me feel better? >> crawford: well, main... mainly that, and, actually... to actually anchor yourself in the current. >> cooper: because no matter what, you do not want to drift onto... >> crawford: you don't want to drift onto the crocodile. >> cooper: as soon as the crocs see our boat, they disappear. we hope they've gone to the bottom to hide in their underwater caves, but they might still be floating near the surface, waiting to attack. it's a very strange feeling before you go diving because you know there are crocodiles in this area, but you don't see any on the surface. the problem is, as the boat comes in, any motion on the surface does tend to attract crocodiles, so you want to try to get here and in the water and to the bottom as quickly as possible. we suit up, do our final checks, and then take the plunge. >> bestelink: anderson, good? okay. >> cooper: we get to the river bottom as quickly as we can. it's only about 15 feet deep. thankfully, the visibility is good and we find ourselves in a stunning underwater garden with overhanging ledges, walls of papyrus, submerged trees and lilies. we know there's at least one crocodile in this area because we saw the ripples on the water. we believe it's gone into a nearby cave system, and we are going to go into the caves right now to try to see if we can find it. it's eerie and intimidating down here. the only light comes from our cameras, and it's easy to lose your way. brad signals that he sees a crocodile. at first, i can't see anything. but then, out of the darkness, on the floor of the cave, just as brad warned, i see that gleaming row of white teeth. to finally see one, it's amazing. there's a beauty to it, but it's also incredibly intimidating. you really have the sense when you're so close to it of just how strong it is. and it looks right at you, and you know and it knows that it could attack you at any moment, and there is nothing you can do about it. the crocodile disappears into the darkness. we push further into the cave. it gets narrower and more claustrophobic as we move deeper into the gloom. then, lurking on a nearby ledge, there's another crocodile. this crocodile is about nine feet long. its tail, though, makes up about half its length. crocs have the amazing ability to actually slow their heart rate down. they can close off one of the valves in their heart, which stops the flow of blood to some of its organs and allows them to stay underwater for hours at a time. it... it's amazing how close the crocodile is. you can't tell if it's watching you or not. suddenly, the crocodile backs away. it's not taking its eyes off me. i have no idea what it's going to do. my heart is pounding. neither of us moves. then, with a flick of his tail, he's off. we move further through the undergrowth and find yet another crocodile. this time, it's facing me head on. on the stick i'm holding, i have a small camera, and i move it closer to try and get a better shot. i know i should be terrified, but the truth is, it's actually thrilling. it's extraordinary that i can get so close. i'm literally looking at it right in the face, staring at it face to face. the crocodile's front vision is not very good, so this is actually a relatively safe place to be. the crocodile is also laying low, which is a good sign. if it felt threatened, it would rise up on its feet. that would be an indication it might be ready to strike. when it finally takes off, we start following it. the crocodile is kicking up so much sand and sediment, we can't see where we're going. we are trying to pursue the crocodile right now, but i can't tell how large it is. its tail is so powerful, i am almost right on top of it. i can reach out right now and just touch the tail, but i am worried if i do that, it will somehow turn around. it just doesn't seem like a good idea, but i got to say it's so tempting. the croc is moving so fast, we can't keep up for long. it's time to surface and find the boat. that was amazing. i was right... right on top of it. >> bestelink: eh? >> cooper: i was right on top of its tail. i mean, i could have touched it. >> bestelink: yeah, i know. and then he turns around. >> cooper: and then he turns around! ( laughter ) i swear, there was a moment where i thought, "jesus, he could just attack, and there's nothing i could do about it." >> bestelink: absolutely. but did you ever feel like he was going to attack? >> cooper: no. well, may... ( laughs ) ...maybe a little bit, actually. i've dived with great white sharks before, but, in terms of numbers of people killed each year, nile crocodiles are far more deadly. once ruthlessly hunted, still vilified as mindless killing machines, we can finally observe them as they really are: perfectly evolved denizens of the dark, ancient creatures now, for the first time, fully visible in the light. >> did anderson cooper put his life at risk? hear it from him. go to 60minutesovertime.com. my name is karen and i have diabetic nerve pain. it's progressive pain. first that feeling of numbness. then hot pins. almost like lightning bolts, hot strikes into my feet. so my doctor prescribed lyrica. the pain has been reduced and i feel better than i did before. 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