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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Adenosine in weight-loss therapy?
European researchers have made a discovery that ought to interest ...
European researchers have made a discovery that ought to interest the many people who are overweight. The hormone adenosine, a natural product of the body, can activate weight loss. White fat - which stores energy in the belly, legs, and buttocks - comprises a fifth of a person’s body weight. But brown fat cells - found at the collarbone, neck, and back - burn fat to produce energy and keep the body at a constant temperature. The scientists have found a way to make white fat cells behave like brown fat cells. In the long run, they hope to develop a medication to shed unwanted pounds.
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Beating Botnets - Science for Cyber Security
Cyber criminals are getting more and more sophisticated, sometimes harnessing ...
Cyber criminals are getting more and more sophisticated, sometimes harnessing millions of computers worldwide to form botnets that send spam e-mails or bring down websites, for example. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute of Computer Graphics IGD want to track down the perpetrators while they're still at the planning stage. The scientists have developed software that can visually depict the complex relationships in such networks quickly and simply. The technology should give security specialists and police a better chance of catching the criminals.
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The Future of Road Traffic
How many years will it take until we see autonomous ...
How many years will it take until we see autonomous cars out there on the road? Florian Lennert, an expert from the Innovation Centre for Mobility and Societal Research in Berlin talks about intelligent cars and the reliability of robotic vehicles. DW: Cars will be driving autonomously. Isn't that too risky to rely on computers? Florian Lennert: This is something that is much discussed at the moment, but I think that autonomous systems can actually improve safety in a number of situations. Situations like what? Usually, it feels kind of risky, and some people might even be afraid of it. We forget that we ourselves are also quite risky beings. So many accidents are caused by driver errors, and obviously, computer-assisted systems can often improve that safety performance. And what about actually leaving the steering to the car itself. Would you like to do that? I love to drive myself, so, what about you? Of course, many people do enjoy driving and being in the driver’s seat, as we say. However, there are many situations where you want to access individual mobility but don't have a driver's license, like when you're too old or disabled. So, there are a number of people who could benefit from being able to access autonomous vehicles. I think it also gives us an opportunity to rethink mobility in cities in a more fundamental way. And sometimes, it might be even nice to leave everything to the car, for example, when you're in a traffic jam, right? That's right. On the other hand, the reason we have traffic jams is that we have far too many cars in cities. This is becoming a major problem for cities worldwide. If we can re-invent individual auto-mobility, which means that we provide mobility to individuals in many different ways on demand, then we can start replacing that old fossil, 'private automobile', which is really a very inefficient way of organizing urban transportation. What does that mean exactly? What kind of mobility are you dreaming of? And with what kind of vehicles? Well, we also need to rethink vehicles. At the moment, we use cars that weigh two tons to transport an individual who weighs seventy kilos. This is obviously economic and energetic nonsense. We need to think about how we can build lighter city vehicles that don't need to travel as fast, and how we integrate them then into car-sharing and/or autonomous taxi services. So, it's actually not about sitting in a car by yourself, but it's more about individual mobility - or just getting from here to there? Yes, we need to re-organize cities to enable the widest choice of travel modes for the individual, and not just limit it to the private fossil automobile. If we think about small electric cars and shared taxis as part of an overall on-demand transport system in the cities, where you connect public transport, buses, bikes AND these autonomous vehicles, then that's an exciting way we can re-organize transport in the future. Our automobile companies, which rely on the old model of just producing cars, are they prepared for that new concept? I think they understand very well that there's a challenge on the horizon. They are making very good money off selling these traditional cars at the moment, so, unless demand drops, they will continue to do so. But still, they're investing heavily, and are obviously technology leaders on these issues, so it will be interesting to see how that plays out. (Interview: Ingolf Baur)
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Dancing Drones
Scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich ...
Scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich are trying out new uses for quadcopters. Equipped with the necessary computing power, the four-rotor drones become flying robots able to communicate and work together to perform tasks beyond the capabilities of one alone. For example, they could stack up containers to build high-rises. But it's critical to ensure there's no danger of the robots colliding. And they have to be able to coordinate their activities. The scientists composed a ballet performed by quadcopter-borne, glowing lampshades. They foresee the drones becoming regulars in major stage shows and concerts within just a few years.
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Talk: Recycled Coal Mines - Storage Space for Renewable Energy?
Surplus power generated by renewable energy sources needs to be ...
Surplus power generated by renewable energy sources needs to be stored because the wind isn't always blowing and the sun doesn't always shine. Jochen Bard, a physicist from the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Wind Energy System Technology (IWES) in Kassel tells about using decommissioned coal mines to set up pump storage power plants, an approach that could be a hit in other countries. DW: Pump storage hydroelectric plants are seeing reinvigorated industrial landscapes, old mines are being reused, surely there's a downside to this technology? Jochen Bard: It is an excellent idea. We need more energy storage in the future and pump storage systems that a high efficiency, so it is a great idea to try and reuse existing infrastructure. However, we will need much more energy storage in the future, maybe a thousand times more than what is available today in pump storage, but this is a step in the right direction. Well in a facility like this, how much energy exactly is it producing? Is it enough for a small town, or a small city? A pump storage power plant can provide power for a city the scale of Berlin for several hours, so it's quite a lot of energy that can be stored. Well, that's quite impressive. This is the kind of solution that Germany needs, if it's going to make this massive transition to renewables, the Energiewende, that they've promised to carry out over the coming decades. On Facebook, our viewer Sato Adriono says that supplying energy from renewables is actually simply a matter of will on the part of governments. Do you agree with that? We certainly need a very consistent energy policy over a number of decades in order to achieve what our targets are, but it's also depending on the contribution of all people in the country to save energy, use new technologies, such as heat pumps, electric vehicles and so on. Among the different sustainable sources, you know you have hydroelectric and solar power, wind power, just to name a few. Which one do you think will win out in the long run? The energy solution in the future will not be one silver bullet. It will not be only one supply system. We will have a mix of energy supplies, from solar and wind which are the two most important ones, but also bioenergy because it can be controlled. And there are other parts of the world that have other opportunities - like geothermal and ocean energy or hydropower. When you talk about bioenergy, you're talking about power to gas, then? Yes, power to gas or biogas from fermentation processes are the options that we are currently looking at. Power storage is for when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing. Storing the energy is the major problem. Hydroelectric plants, like the one in the report, they're one solution. What other kinds of solutions are out there for storing large amounts of energy on the scale we would need? Batteries. Electrochemical batteries like lead acid batteries or lithium ion batteries, to name a new technology. They are also very important for electric vehicles or stationary systems in houses. They will not be very big, so we will have to use very many of them. Other forms are chemical storage systems by using hydrogen or methane and that can be done by using the existing gas network that we already have. Well, supply is just one aspect of this equation. The other is going to be consumer behavior. What can individuals do to actually improve the energy supply balance? Everybody can reduce their electricity consumption by simply buying efficient appliances. Wen you buy a new fridge or buy a new tv, pay attention to the energy consumption. We have reduced our consumption at home maybe by two-thirds, by now, step-by-step. Two-thirds? That's a lot. Thank you very much for joining us on Tomorrow Today. (Interview: Derrick Williams)
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Nano-Particles Against Malaria - Tricking Parasites
According to the World Health Organization, 200 million people around ...
According to the World Health Organization, 200 million people around the world suffer from malaria. Treating the disease is becoming increasingly difficult because the parasites that cause it are growing resistant to medicine. Scientists in Basel are trying a new approach. They're using vesicles they call 'nanomimics' to stop the parasites from invading red blood cells and proliferating. The artificial bubbles resemble red blood cells: if a parasite adheres to the bubbles, it's vulnerable to the immune system. The method worked in the research laboratory: now the scientists want to see if it's effective in mice, and later in humans. They have already filed a patent for their idea.
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XFEL laser X-ray - a look at the building blocks of life
Scientists would like to understand the spatial structures of complex ...
Scientists would like to understand the spatial structures of complex organic molecules, and observe every stage of a chemical reaction. That's not possible yet. But XFEL, the largest free electron x-ray laser in the world, is about to change that. The device is a kind of combined camera and microscope that opens up whole new molecular worlds. Curretnly under construction in Hamburg, XFEL will be able to generate up to 27,000 X-ray flashes a second. The first components have been put together in a subterranean tunnel that’s seven kilometers long. Technicians and engineers are now testing components like magnets and the first detector for a "molecular cinema". The super-laser is due to enter service in 2017.
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Ebola vaccine - tests in West Arica
The Ebola epidemic in western Africa has killed about ten ...
The Ebola epidemic in western Africa has killed about ten thousand people in recent months, and scientists have been working flat-out to develop a vaccine against the disease. Time is of the essence, because the number of fresh cases is remaining steady. In Gabon in West Africa, scientists from Tübingen University are testing a new vaccine for tolerance and effectiveness.
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Interview: Chances of new Ebola vaccines
We talk to Professor Günther Schönrich, a virologist from Berlin's ...
We talk to Professor Günther Schönrich, a virologist from Berlin's Charité hospital, about the chances new Ebola vaccines have. We also ask him about the consequences of the Ebola epidemic in the global fight against epidemics. DW: Do you have any doubts about the effectiveness of the new vaccine? Prof. Günther Schönrich No, I have no doubts, because this vaccine have been developed in the past and already tried and in all experiments and already have also explored with vaccines, so I think they are safe, so everything is pointing towards that direction. But all in all, we see that the number of new infections is actually not exploding any more, so we might not have enough patients actually to test it. Right, right. That's great in the first place, because we want to get rid of Ebola virus, and in Liberia, it seems to be the case, but there are still cases in Guinea and Sierra Leone, and, of course, it would be a problem if there are no Ebola virus cases any more for the testing of the vaccinations, so, but anyway, we have to have this experience; we have to have the knowledge that these vaccines are safe, and at least that thing can be settled. So, on the one hand, we actually see that the measures that had been taken to fight the virus are actually effective, so we don't - these numbers of new infections don't explode, but we still have a few cases in countries like Sierra Leone where there are still more infections coming up: do we have to fear a new outbreak? That's definitely possible, so there's no time for complacency. We have to keep aware - and it's possible - that the epidemic reignites, so it takes some time. We have to be very careful, and most importantly, we need these vaccinations, because there are a lot of people, which are especially in danger of being infected with this dangerous bug, and these, of course, are health-care workers, ambulance drivers and members of the burial team. So we have to protect those people, otherwise we have no chance in future outbreaks. But, even if we have a vaccine right now - an effective vaccine - I mean, viruses can mutate very quickly, so will we have to develop another one, actually, with the next outbreak? Yes, indeed, that's a very important scientific question, and we have to keep an eye on whether the virus mutates or whether it stays stable. It's still a possibility that it's going to change, but it's not clear at the moment. If that happens, we have to adapt the vaccination. The virus Ebola actually originated in bats. So, in order to keep people from being infected again, we'd have to stop these contacts. That probably won't work, so how fast can actually viruses jump these species barriers? If you get into close contact with fruit bats, for example, or with non-human primates that are infected, then it's possible that the virus jumps from the animal to the human being, and then, of course, the human being is going to be sick. So you can't avoid that, because it's usually people there in West Africa, they like to have this bush meat, and therefore they slaughter non-human primates, chimpanzees, for example. Could happen, and that's the case, then they can have an infection. (Interview: Ingolf Baur)
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What happens in the future with the International Space Station?
We talk to space engineer Jürgen Herholz about Russia's plan ...
We talk to space engineer Jürgen Herholz about Russia's plan to remain on board until 2024 and what that means for the future of the ISS. DW: Up until now, the ISS has been a symbol for worldwide cooperation in space research. That's changed a little bit. There's a lot of tension at the moment between Russia and western powers at the moment over the Ukraine situation. Is the situation in Ukraine on the ground having an effect up there in space? Jürgen Herholz: I believe so very strongly because the Russians are trying to tease the Americans in different areas -- why not in space? -- but they're keeping to their obligations and that's important to know. Well, actually, you could then really see it from the positive side. You could say they've agreed to remain on board for the next 9 years rather than saying in 2024 they're going to be stopping their cooperation. They're also going to be sending up some new modules. What do you think are the most interesting? I don't know if it's a Russian module, but the most interesting one will be a free-flying laboratory, which would be decoupled from the station and would allow experiments under micro-gravity, which is very interesting because the station itself is not really a micro-gravity environment. What kind of technology could come out of those tests? Mostly material sciences, crystal growth for interest, which is of very big interest on Earth for developing new materials. Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, says it wants to decouple its modules in 2024, making them part of a new national space station. Now it looks like a fairly significant portion of the ISS that they're decoupling. How easy is that going to be? Surely, it's not just loosening a couple of screws... First, I think it's not important if you look at the scale and the overall functionality. In fact, the Russian part initially was the only part that existed before the remaining 90 percent arrived, but they have lost importance because a lot of, for instance, the altitude control now is taken over by the space station and the Americans certainly will have a manned transport by 2020 and so the two questions relating to the Russian part will be less important. You just mentioned the subject. What about the commercial aspects of possibly the Americans having a new transport system up and running? What about commercial companies doing that? Is that an option, a possibility? I have an extremely high regard for Elon Musk and his SpaceX. I had the chance to meet him in the United States. He is a great guy and he has a great undertaking with his Falcon and I am sure by 2018 he will be sending people to the space station. Well, Jürgen Herholz, up at the space station with commercial air flights by 2018, thanks for joining us. Elon Musk himself would love himself to go to the space station and to Mars. And that is his objective. (Interview: Derrick Williams)
