The Year in Science Review

It has been a remarkable year in many ways, including in the world of

science. Rebecca Morelle looks back

on the year in science - from British astronaut Tim Peake's

adventures in space, to a discovery that will transform

our understanding of the universe. That's Review 2016:

The Year in Science. From the mission of a lifetime,

this was the year British astronaut In 2016, the world's largest radio

telescope was unveiled. We also learned about

the secret life of seals And saw advances in a controversial

new genetic technique. Human organs are growing

inside these pigs. This was also the year a global

climate deal came into force but the election of Donald Trump

placed a question And after decades of searching,

scientists have detected It's been called the discovery

of the century, making 2016 a truly I'm here at the Jodrell Bank

Observatory in the north of England. For more than half a century,

scientists have been using this vast telescope to gaze up

into the heavens, transforming our Some people have been lucky enough

to experience the wonders This year it was the turn of British

astronaut Tim Peake. Blasting off, the start

of a remarkable mission. He was heading for the space station

to join its international crew The first British

astronaut now on board In his first live broadcast,

he said the experience We always talk about seeing

the view of planet Earth But, when you look the opposite

direction and you see how dark space is, the black is black

and you realise how small the Earth His space moves though

still needed a bit of work. But, before long, Tim got

a chance to put on his space suit and head outside,

joining Nasa astronaut Tim, it's really cool seeing

the Union Jack going outside. It's explored all over the world

and now it's explored space. The task was to carry

out essential repairs. At 400 kilometres above the Earth,

what better place to take a selfie! Science was also key for this

European Space Agency mission. Tim became a human guinea pig,

seeing how the body changes in this He even found time to squeeze

in the London Marathon, and, But, after six months, it was time

to say goodbye and head home. Strapped into the Soyuz capsule,

Tim and his crew mates Awaiting them, a support team

circling above the grassy Then, suddenly, above the clouds,

the capsule appeared. And, with a firing of its thrusters,

it finally touched down. Weak after six months in space

but happy to be home. And it's wonderful to be

back in the fresh air. Since his return, Tim's been meeting

schoolchildren around the UK. He hopes his mission might just

inspire the next generation Jodrell Bank was built back

in the 1950s and this dish In China, the Government

is investing heavily in science and they've decided it's time

for their own record-breaker, a radio telescope that's

half a kilometre across. Hidden in the remote mountains

of south-west China, This is the largest radio

telescope ever built. Earlier this year, as it neared

completion, I was given rare access and a chance for a view

unlike any other. It's only when you get up close that

you really get a sense Bigger is better when it

comes to astronomy. The larger the dish,

the more signals can be collected from space,

helping us to see deeper In China, astronomy,

we are far behind the world. I think it is time for us to build

something in China and used by a lot of Chinese users,

and also welcome the The telescope works by listening

to radio waves emitted The dish is so big it will reveal

the first stars in galaxies and even hunt for signs

of extraterrestrial life. Building it has taken

the Chinese just five years. At a cost of $180 million,

it is part of the country's unprecedented investment in science,

that's on the verge By September, the final pieces

were slotted into place. China is now hoping its super-sized

project will transform it For the medical world it's also been

a year of breakthroughs. These miniature brains,

called orgnoids. They're grown from a single cell,

donated by patients. And they're helping

scientists to understand We can actually compare

the organoids to the patient and see some of the features of the disorder

and try to understand I think it's a really huge step

toward some hopefully really amazing breakthroughs in what has been

a desert in the field And in Poland, this man

was completely paralysed Now he is relearning

how to use his legs. Two years ago he had

a cell transplant to Now scientists want to see if these

outstanding results can And in America, the technology

called gene editing Here, human stem cells are being

injected into a pig embryo. Scientists are attempting to grow

a human pancreas inside a pig. Our hope is that the embryo

will develop normally. But the pancreas will be made up

almost exclusively out of human cells. So that then that pancreas

could be compatible with a patient for transplantation. These peaks are

present -- pregnant with the embryos. They won't reach full term

that they will be removed after a month and carefully analysed. Every

organ we tried to make rugby at kidney, liver or lung, we will look

at what is happening in the brain full if we find it is too human

like, we won't let those foetuses be born. The hope is this technology

could eventually solve organ shortages but it also raises

profound, ethical questions. In 2016, we've also been learning about

the inhabitants of our oceans. These incredible animals were found in the

Mariano trench, as scientists explored the deepest place on the

planet. And an animal that's a record-breaker. Scientists believe

the Greenland shark can reach 400 years old, making it the world's

longest living vertebrate. And this year, we learned about the secret

lives of seals. Beneath the waves, these animals are a mystery. They

spend two thirds of their time in the water. But down here, they have

been little studied. We travelled to their home in the north of England,

the farm islands. It's a grey seal haven. Bill Ababy seals! It was a

chance to join these animals in the freezing North three. -- C. The

animals seemed as interested in us as we work in them. The Alan Alger

it is cold but if you want to study these incredible animals up close,

you do have to get into the water. Around the coast of the UK, nearly

40% of grey seals live here. There are 5000 here in the farm islands.

Ben has been guiding with seals for years. Now he is capturing them on

camera. Recording behaviour that surprisingly has never been seen

before. What we are seeing is a lot of mating behaviour under water,

down to depths of nearly eight metres. A lot of balls seal activity

where they will wrestle each other, pushing each other and turning each

other. By having these competitions underwater, whether that reduces

that conflict on the land and they remember that behaviour. We are

getting an intriguing glimpse of the hidden world. Understanding these

animals could be the key to keeping their population thriving. With this

beautiful and intricate model we can see our solar system at a glance and

explore how the planets move around the sun. There is one that dominates

all others, Jupiter. It's the biggest planet in our solar system

in this year had a new visitor. Beneath its swirling clouds, Jupiter

is a world shrouded in mystery. These images, though spectacular,

were taken from afar. Nasa wanted to see this giant up close. Three, two,

one. Ignition, and lift off. In 2011, the mission blasted off. The

spacecraft called Juno embarking on an epic journey. As it neared its

destination, it faced its biggest challenge, to get into orbit it had

to slam on its brakes and survived everything Jupiter could throw at

it, including its deadly radiation. When Juno goes into orbit around

Jupiter, we're going to go through a really nasty, hazardous region,

radiation belts that are very close to the planet. They are nasty and

can destroy an attack all the electronics. We have to be careful.

Scientists faced a tense wait at mission control in California to

learn the fate of their billion-dollar spacecraft. Then, a

signal. APPLAUSE

The mood is pure elation here. After more than a decade of work and a

journey through space, Juno is the closest we have ever been to

Jupiter. We compared -- prepared a contingency procedure. Guess what?

We don't need that anymore. And then came the pictures. For the first

time, its South Pole was revealed. Covered in storms, many even bigger

than the Earth. In the north, it's blanketed by a thick atmosphere. In

this infrared view, at the top you can see Jupiter's Northern lights.

And the sound was captured as the spacecraft through dash flew through

the spectacular space show. The reaction was amazement. Look at

these images X the measure we are flying over the poll for the first

time. It is jaw-dropping. Eye-macro we are expecting more images like

this over the course of the mission. -- We are expecting. It is nothing

like they have ever seen before. But Mars was the destination for the

European Space Agency. The mission had two aims. Firstly to get the

spacecraft into orbit, which went exactly as planned. Scientists also

wanted to set down a lander on the planet's said this. But the signal

was never sent back to Earth. Days later, these images revealed the

crash site. The spacecraft had failed in the final moments of its

descent. This year we have been pushing the boundaries of space

exploration. Our focus has been on our own planet. 2016 has been

declared the hottest year on record, putting climate change and how to

tackle it in the spotlight once again. This year, our planet United,

at least for a while. For the world's ger is, a plan to cut

greenhouse gases became international law. The groundwork

was laid at the climate summit in Paris last year. After years of

negotiations, and historic global agreement had been reached.

Countries must now move away from fossil fuels and instead adopt a

green energy approach will do just as the Paris deal came into force,

Donald Trump was elected as the US president. He once called climate

change a hoax. In 2012, he tweeted it was invented by the Chinese to

harm US businesses. During his campaign, he said this is what he

would do. We are going to cancel the Paris climate agreement and stop all

payments of the United States textiles to UN global warming

programmes. Island nations affected by rising sea levels pleaded with

him to change his mind. President-elect Tramp I formally

invite you to Fiji and promise you the warmest of welcomes. We will

show you how we are already having to move entire communities out of

the way the rising seas. With its reliance on fossil fuels like coal,

the United States is the second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases.

Its participation in the global climate deal was seen as vital. No

one knows what Trump will do. He has recently appointed a climate sceptic

to lead on the environment. Some fear the future of the Paris deal

now looks uncertain. In 2016, protection for the animals living in

the icy wilderness of Antarctica was also a focus. In October, a great

swathes of its ocean was declared a marine protected area, the largest

in the world. It is hoped, even for tiny creatures like Quayle, the

foundation of the food chain, the future of this unique and fragile

environment will be preserved. And this will be vital for the

continent's 's charismatic animals. These penguins started nesting here

just ten years ago. It is thought they may have moved because of

climate change. Now scientists have set up a network of cameras to

monitor them. It shows how the colony is changing, hour by hour,

over the course of a year. At another site, scientists are

counting the birds but numbers are down. We are in a colony of

penguins. This particular region, this particular species, has seen a

decline in the past two decades. There may be a link with competition

from fisheries, as in humans obtaining the same food, kreel, as

the penguins would normally eat. Scientists say only by tracking

these birds will we see how they fare in this changing world. And

coming soon to Antarctica, Boaty McBoatface, well,

almost. The British public voted for OT to be its name. The public over

ruled them. They dedicated the vessel to Sir David Attenborough, a

more fitting title, they said. The public post-match choice will live

on. Boaty McBoatface is now the name of the robotic submersible. In the

world of tech, there was a battle between man and machine. A champion

player of the ancient game of Go went up against an artificial

intelligence programme developed by Google's deep mined. After four

hours, the cumin resigned. The computer had one. Advances in AI are

also enabling developments in driverless cars. This vehicle was

made by Tesla, the company owned by a tech entrepreneurs. Only a car

that is not self driving in the long-term will be like owning a

horse. You would use it for sentimental reasons but not for

daily use, really. But the burgeoning industry came under the

spotlight earlier this year. Joshua Brown was a huge fan of Tesla cars

and their autopilot feature. It takes all the stress out of it. His

vehicle collided with a lorry and he was killed. It seems his car failed

to recognise the trap crossing in front of it on a Florida highway.

The vehicle's safety features have been upgraded and Elon musk still

maintains they are safer than a car with a human in control.

In 2016, it was time to take a last look at this comet, as we said

farewell to the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission. It had

given us these stunning images, revealing an alien world in

incredible detail. Two years before, scientists

attempted something many thought was impossible. Landing a robot on the

comet's said this. It was a moment of space history in the making. --

surface. Fantastic! The robots stopped working after a few days but

it did manage to collect vital data. Continuing the mission was the

Rosetta mothership, which remained in orbit around the comment. This

year its power began to fade and it was time to bring the mission to a

close. The spacecraft would go out with a crash landing. The Rosetta

spacecraft was designed to fly to the comet, around the comet, but not

to land on it. There is no doubt that as soon as it touches down, it

is going to be destroyed. It gives scientists the chance to squeeze

every last drop of science out of this mission. All the way down it

will be taking close-up photos and collecting data. We will be

listening to the signal from the Rosetta. Scientists waited for

Rosetta to defend. The signal vanishing forever. And so, this is

the end of the Rosetta mission. Thank you and goodbye. It is like

RIP Rosetta. It is really sad, really, really sad. The legacy lives

on. You just know when you do these things it comes to an end. But, you

know, it is the end in a long, long Russian. But with more than 100,000

photos and countless scientific observations, the work for the team

is not over. The mission has captured the world's imagination and

we may well be hearing about its discoveries for the next years to

come. For researchers at this observatory and around the world,

2016 is a year that will go down in history. After decades of searching,

scientists finally discovered gravitational waves. Invisible

ripples that pass through our cosmos. It is a breakthrough of

simply astronomical proportions. It all started with Albert Einstein.

This is the equation behind his theory of general relativity,

conceived 100 years ago. A pillar of modern science. It told us

everything from the motion of the planet to the presence of black

holes. But this year, the final piece of Einstein's 's was found. We

have detected gravitational waves. We did it. The idea is, as any

object moves through the fabric of the universe, it gives off waves of

gravitational energy, much like the ripples that emanate across the

surface of the water when you throw a stone into a pond. And the ones we

have spotted emanated from this cataclysmic event which took place

1.3 billion light years away. Two black holes moving ever closer

together. Eventually they smashed into one another, merging. The

collision generated a surge of gravitational ripples that

eventually reached Earth. They were spotted by this vast experiment in

America. Tunnels carrying laser beams, sensitive enough to pick-up

the minute disturbances caused by the oscillations. These black holes

actually spiralled in over a billion years ago. The signal has been

travelling to us since then and we turned on our detectives at just the

right time to detect it arriving. It is a discovery that not only

provides another feather in Einstein's at. He has been proved

right once again. It also howls in the new Iraq in science.

Gravitational waves provide a completely new way of looking at the

universe. The ability to detect them as the dead shall to revolutionise

astronomy. Until now, even our most advanced telescopes could show us

only a fraction of the cost Mars. The rest was dark, unseen. Now we

can detect gravitational waves, we can look deeper into space and

further back in time than ever before, perhaps all the way to the

Big Bang. The NBA with a brand-new perspective of the universe, one

that will usher in new discoveries for decades to come.

Hello. Things are set to turn very lively indeed over the next 24, 36