Tomorrow Today: The Science Magazine
DW-TV’s science program TOMORROW TODAY focuses on current topics in research, and is aimed at anyone who is interested in ongoing projects in Germany and Europe. Our reports use terms and concepts that are easily understood, portrayed in interesting ways, and address the core issues ...
DW-TV’s science program TOMORROW TODAY focuses on current topics in research, and is aimed at anyone who is interested in ongoing projects in Germany and Europe. Our reports use terms and concepts that are easily understood, portrayed in interesting ways, and address the core issues at stake. The show presents a comprehensive overview of the latest trends in science and research. The exploration of the deep sea is one of the great scientific challenges of the future. This is a gigantic area. Covering two thirds of the earth’s surface, it is an unknown world with bizarre geological structures and exotic inhabitants. So far, only one percent of the deep ocean habitat has been explored. TOMORROW TODAY takes a fascinating look into the work of marine researchers – a five-part series in cooperation with the MARUM Research Center in Bremen. Heiko Sahling is a biologist and deep sea geoscientist at the MARUM Research Center. The area he studies is in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Pakistan. There, at depths down to 3,000 meters, something fascinating is happening. Natural gas is emerging from the sea bed, to produce a surreal world of millions of tiny bubbles, which has already spurred the fancy of science fiction authors. In these exotic surroundings, the scientist has discovered both new animal species and communities and new geological truths. But the main questions that drive him are concerned with the methane gas emitted here. How much is emitted, how does it affect the biological world of the deep sea, and how much reaches the surface to enter the atmosphere? That is also relevant to climate researchers, because methane is a major greenhouse gas that increases global warming. Heiko Sahling takes Tomorrow Today viewers on an expedition on the METEOR research vessel. He tells us about life on board, about burning ice and about organisms that no one has seen before.
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Between Ebola and Mers
South Korea is facing the largest-ever outbreak of the Mers ...
South Korea is facing the largest-ever outbreak of the Mers virus outside the Middle East. Several people have died and the number of people rose dramatically within a matter of days. The virus was first identified in 2012 and is now known to be transmitted by camels. German researchers have developed a vaccine and clinical trials are set to begin next year.
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The Mers Virus: Is a vaccine imminent?
First Ebola, now MERS: New pathogens can spread frighteningly fast. ...
First Ebola, now MERS: New pathogens can spread frighteningly fast. How well prepared are the experts in infection medicine? Scientists from Germany and the Netherlands have developed a MERS vaccine last year that was successfully tested on mice. The next step is clinical trials, which will be overseen by Marylyn Addo from the University Medical Center Hamburg - Eppendorf. DW: Unluckily for the people in South Korea, the development of the new vaccine against MERS comes too late. How hard is that for you? Marylyn Addo: Oh, we're excited to see the vaccine move forward in any case. It always takes a long time to develop a vaccine, so there will be another MERS outbreak in the future, and we'll be ready for that then. And there have been MERS outbreaks in the past, for example in Saudi Arabia; in Chile, we had 93 people dying from MERS in the past. Now, has the virus mutated since? Well, the current outbreak is being investigated by the WHO, and the virus has been sequenced in that context. There is so far no evidence that there has been a super-mutation or a change in the virus sequence that explains why it's been spreading so rapidly through South Korea. But do we have to expect that? And an epidemic that might follow? We've known MERS since 2012 now, and there has not really been evidence to support that notion at this point in time. We have to learn more about the virus at this point, to see where things are heading. How long will it actually take till the first people can profit from the new vaccine with MERS? We don't know how long it will take until they can profit, in terms of having it over the counter. But we are planning to test the vaccine the first time in humans in the beginning of 2016. Now, moving to another dangerous outbreak, you conducted the first tests of Ebola vaccines - in Germany last year, and we were quite surprised about the speed of the development. Were there new techniques involved, or what happened? No, there were not new techniques involved, but the world community really came together in an unprecedented way to move the vaccine development forward in response to a global emergency. That was really inspiring to see. So you didn't leave out anything. I mean, it's not more risky - the new vaccines of Ebola? No, there was no cutting corners, the safety had not been impaired. But things that would have otherwise been done in sequence were done in parallel. There was a lot of information sharing and a lot of international communication and interaction that made the process go much more smoothly and much more rapidly. So, that's actually the way that we should take with the development of new vaccines in future? An emergency needs a fast response. We cannot wait years for a vaccine to emerge. MERS actually showed up for the first time three years ago. Where do all these new viruses usually come from? Well, not all, but quite a few have their reservoir in animals, like MERS, Ebola, and the flu. So those pathogens can jump from an animal to humans and then cause outbreaks and diseases. I think we have to expect that for the future, as well. New viruses will emerge and follow the same pattern. And 'expecting that' - what does that mean for the development of vaccines? Is there a chance to really be prepared? Well, I think the experiences of that past few years have made us understand that we have to be prepared a little better in the future. And one of the approaches to be better prepared in the vaccine setting is to develop vaccine platforms. Both the Ebola vaccine and the MERS vaccine that we are studying, follow the principle of using a carrier virus, and an antogen or a piece of the virus that you want to protect against. And then you just engineer that. If you can essentially build on this platform, and then you just stick whatever new virus comes along into that platform, that would be a huge step forward. (Interview: Ingolf Baur)
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Let’s talk about the weather with a real weather-man – Sven Plöger.
Sven Plöger is a meteorologist and well-known TV journalist in ...
Sven Plöger is a meteorologist and well-known TV journalist in Germany.DW: So, you’ve spent most of your life trying to make sense of clouds. Do clouds always make sense? SP: I think so. Look at a sky without clouds. It's boring. So if you look at the clouds, you see the weather. You can see the weather through clouds. The clouds are very important. They have different formations. And they bring the most important thing for us - for nature - life: they bring rain. So for me they are very important. But on the other hand, they are low-scale phenomena. And that means they are developing, resolving, moving, and this is very difficult for the weather forecast, for my daily job. I'm just curious: when you walk out the door in the morning, as an expert, as a cloud expert, can you look up in the sky - and say it's covered - do you know if it's going to rain? Do you know - oh, I've got to turn around and get my umbrella? Absolutely. I see when it's completely cloudy, when it starts raining I get my umbrella. That's not a problem. But it's not enough information for doing a good forecast. The one point is when I go out I have to make the forecast for all of Germany. When I go out in Munich and look at the sky I don't know what the sky looks like in Berlin. So that won't help. And if I don't know anything about the pressure of the air then for me it's a very big problem. So I need more information. It's a little bit like a judge who doesn't have a law. Then he can't decide anything. Sometimes I see things which help me. If the lower troposphere and the upper troposphere have different currents, different directions of the wind.... So if the clouds are moving in different directions.... ... then I can see OK maybe it's starting raining soon. Or if the high clouds, the cirrus clouds are increasing from one direction, I see a warm front is coming on and it'll rain. Or if a cumulonimbus is coming up, then I see maybe it's going to be... maybe I will see a thunderstorm. Do you have a favorite type of cloud? Absolutely, this cumulonimbus - in German it's called cumulonimbus capillatus incus - it's the big cloud with an anvil... It looks like an anvil.... Like an anvil, because the end for a cloud is always the troposphere, at 12-13 kilometers above ground. So the cloud can't move higher. So this is a stop and that makes it like an anvil [shape]. And this cloud has a big strength so for me it's interesting to look at the heavy rain, the hail possibly, the electricity - and this for me is very important - also for the warning management, for the people I make the weather forecasts for. It's an important and a very nice cloud if you only look at the cloud as a cloud. Weather forecasting is very vague. You often hear, you know, 'mostly sunny with a few clouds' or 'mostly cloudy with a little bit of sun.' Why is it still so vague? Clouds are very small-scale processes. And this means developing, resolving, and always change. And this makes it very difficult for us. I can't say 'Look, tomorrow at 13:15 exactly this cloud is coming here and bringing the rainshower.' We have to summarize it. Also because I have only two minutes time for the whole of Germany. And the mathematical problem is also very interesting. The clouds are small but the equation to describe this physical process is huge. It's very difficult to solve it, so these clouds - in German I would like to translate it as: the cloud is falling through the meshes of the model grid, and that is a little bit the problem, also for us in the daily forecasts. Well thanks for telling us about the daily forecast - the life of a German weatherman, Sven Plöger.
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Greening the Desert
From millet to pomegranate, tomatoes to basil - can these ...
From millet to pomegranate, tomatoes to basil - can these plants thrive in hot, dry areas? That’s the question being investigated by researchers at the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research in Israel. Affiliated with Ben Gurion University, they are based in the Negev Desert. As a high-tech operation in a desert region, the center is a magnet for researchers from Asia, Europe and Africa. The institute’s findings are especially beneficial to people in emerging and developing countries. DW reporter Mabel Gundlach paid the institute a visit.
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Saving the Harvest
In many of the world's poorest countries, a lot of ...
In many of the world's poorest countries, a lot of the food that’s harvested is lost due to pests and poor storage conditions. At the University of Kassel, German and African researchers are searching for ways to improve storage facilities. They're turning traditional mud houses into cool houses to store yams, using fans that run on solar power. And they've developed a little microphone that allows people to hear whether cockroaches or rice weevils are present in grain silos.
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Meat from the Test Tube
Mark Post from the Netherlands is convinced that one day ...
Mark Post from the Netherlands is convinced that one day soon, steaks will be grown in the laboratory. A professor of biomedicine at the University of Maastricht, he’s an expert in tissue culturing. Some time ago, he had the idea that artificial beef and pork could be grown in the lab in much the same way that stem cells are used to grow artificial heart valves or artificial skin. He’s already had his first success. In 2013, he presented the world’s first lab-grown hamburger. It cost an astonishing €250,000 to grow, but the price has already dropped significantly. Post is convinced that one day soon, lab-grown meat will play an important role in feeding the world. Because cattle farming is expensive and a burden on the environment, artificial meat could help solve many different problems. DW reporter Andreas Neuhaus presents the scientist and his research.
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Expo Report
At the EXPO2015 in Milan, the overarching theme is food. ...
At the EXPO2015 in Milan, the overarching theme is food. More than 140 countries are taking part, many with their own pavilions and their own take on the Expo’s theme, "Feeding the planet, energy for life.” It’s a topic that affects many people. According to the UN, more than 800 million people worldwide suffer from hunger, and that number is expected to rise as the world’s population increases. Tomorrow Today pays a visit to Expo to see what solutions are being presented. DW reporter Johan von Mirbach tells us more.
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SALT - Astronomy in South Africa
The South African Astronomical Observatory is located in the western ...
The South African Astronomical Observatory is located in the western part of the Republic of South Africa on the Karoo plateau. In the midst of the complex is the largest optical telescope in the Southern Hemisphere: the South African Large Telescope, or SALT. Researchers are using it to find out how galaxies and gas clouds are distributed in the universe. SALT is also part of a "virtual observatory", a worldwide joint project that allows astronomers to share their data.
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Horizontal Trees
For Alina Schick, trees don't always grow upwards. The biologist ...
For Alina Schick, trees don't always grow upwards. The biologist carried out an experiment at the University of Hohenheim in which she attached different plants in pots to a disc that rotates horizontally. This meant that light and gravity were no longer acting on the plant from a single direction.The researcher is interested in the role of gravitation, light and temperature on the growth of a plant, and the effect this has on its biochemical make-up. The continual rotation also affects the plant’s stability, because a tree which is made to grow horizontally has to endure a constant push and pull in various directions, which can completely alter the properties of the wood. Schick likes the uniqueness of her experiment too; a tree growing sideways across the wall is quite eye-catching.
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Messenger - Mission to Mercury
What began 11 years ago has now come to a ...
What began 11 years ago has now come to a spectacular end. At the end of April, the NASA space probe MESSENGER slammed into the surface of Mercury at 14,000 kilometers an hour after orbiting the small, terrestrial planet for four years.The mission sent back thousands of images and reams of valuable data, helping scientists improve predictions on both Mercury's geological history and its make-up. And in a surprise find, the probe also detected both water ice and organic molecules on the planet’s surface. Tomorrow Today looks back at one of the most successful space missions in recent history.
