Agriculture Technobabble

Give me a T! Give me an E!

Give me a C! Give me an H!

What have you got?

Tech!

Yes, teccy Technobabble.

Coming up on today's show -

Frankie discovers that a rainbow of colours can give you green fingers.

This is incredible. I feel like I'm in a disco.

And Sam has some apps that are, well, just for fun.

It is not as easy as you think.

But first, Paul's getting all chummy with games

you can play with your mates.

I've got the perfect mix of games

to waste hours and hours in with your mates.

First up is one of my tried and tested favourites.

You can't go wrong with Gang Beasts.

You're put in charge of one of four clay wrestlers and your mission is

to shamble around the arena and try to throw your friends out of bounds.

And a little tip for you - if you can time your hits with a jump,

you can one-hit knockout your opponent,

making it easy to pick them up and chuck them out.

Next up is a proper classic, Star Wars Battlefront.

This is a really solid Star Wars game where you can fight

alongside your friends as either Storm Troopers or rebels.

You can become a Jedi, drive a huge metal Walker,

it doesn't get much more epic than that.

-RADIO:

-Rebel Y-Wings are making their attack run.

But a tip - don't worry too much about the Jedi invader pick-ups,

they just make you an easy target.

Instead, I suggest focusing on the vehicles.

Minecraft - you don't have to whittle away at your own world,

though, you can jump online and play with your pals

on a whole number of multiplayer servers.

And a quick tip - try to crouch when you can, it hides your name

and helps you sneak around loads.

Now, that's just some of my favourite games

to play with your mates.

It's a good mix that will have you playing together

for hours and hours.

Thank you, Paul. It's good to have friends.

I've got loads, of course!

We only need to open up my message app to see that

and this week we are calling it Techno Notice.

Is that a joke?

OK, let's have it, Techno Notice.

Vlogster, will food be grown differently in the future?

Oh, tasty question!

This is a job for someone who knows their spuds from their spinach,

their beans from their greens.

Let's hope Frankie's a quick learner.

Frankie boy! You're looking very efficient. What're you up to?

Oh, hey, Vlogster.

I've just got some important documents I need to photocopy.

As long as that's all you're making copies of.

I don't want to see anything cheeky, thank you very much.

Vlogster, I would never do that! Is there something you need me for?

One of the Babblers would like to know how fruit and veg

-might be grown in the future.

-Hah, well, you know me, Vlogster.

Five a day all the way!

I'm sending Frankie to Stockbridge Technology Centre,

where researchers are leading the way in using tech to help horticulture.

He's going to meet one of their specialist growers.

Uh, Phil, this isn't quite what I had in mind.

Don't worry, Frankie, you're in the right place.

But Vlogster told me we were going somewhere where we can show

how technology boosts the growth of fruit and veg,

but this field is empty.

We do grow stuff in this field, but it's winter, so it's too cold

and there's not enough sunlight. That's where the tech comes in

-and that's what we're going to show you now.

-Right, let's go.

This is incredible. I feel like I'm in a disco.

Phil, what do you actually do here?

It's not a disco - what we have here is a multi-tiered LED-lit urban farm

-for growing crops.

-Oh, amazing.

-And don't you need sunshine to grow crops, though?

-No, we don't.

We are using the LED lights and

we are providing all the light they need for growth.

So hang on, if you don't need sunshine, does that mean you can

set these things up anywhere?

It means you can grow plants in places that we can't

traditionally do that, so underground or in the basement

of the building, space that is essentially going to waste

and now we can fill it with plants and grow really good quality crops

and that means we can produce fresh food in the winter

when a lot of food is imported in the UK.

Can you tell me a bit more about the LEDs?

Yeah, so these are fairly standard LEDs, but we have different

colours and then we control how much of each colour we want.

But they are very energy efficient and they are cool to touch.

That means you can get the lights really close to the plants without

damaging them and then you can fit as many shelves in as possible.

What else can you change by altering the different lights?

Well, we can change flowering, so we can tell a plant when to flower.

We can change the flavour of something like basil.

And hopefully we can change the health benefits of those plants,

so changing things like vitamin C concentrations.

And I understand this is actually one of the biggest research centres

of its kind in the world.

Yes, this is really cutting-edge stuff

and we are very proud to have it here in Yorkshire.

And it's amazing to be here, but I want to get my hands dirty,

I want to get stuck in. Is there anything I can help you with?

Yeah, we've got lots of dirty jobs to get you stuck in

-and to see how we do things.

-Fantastic, let's do it.

-Brilliant.

Right, Phil, what are we doing now?

-So we're going to pot up these petunia plants.

-OK.

So grab the pot, push up from underneath, grab the ball of soil.

We're going to put them into a slightly bigger pot,

so they've got more space to grow.

So you've obviously got some amazing technology that you're using here.

Is there anything else that you're working on?

So elsewhere on site we have some satellite farming projects

where we're using satellites to guide tractors around fields

and feed the plants differently at different parts of the fields

to maximise efficiency.

And where do you think things are going to go in the future?

Well, the sky is the limit.

So we've got this technology here that we can grow without sunlight.

And really this place is, you know...

We've seen Mars now has water on, so potentially

we could grow plants on Mars or anywhere in space, really.

So who knows, in 20 years' time,

-we could have something like this on Mars.

-Absolutely.

I don't know about you, Vlogster,

but I found that pretty ILLUMINATING.

I do the gags, Francis!

Now, forget growing crops on solid ground,

the oceans are where it's at for future farming.

What, you mean underwater food, like seaweed?

No, we're talking lettuce, basil, strawberries and garlic.

Italian scientists have been growing underwater

in transparent biospheres.

The constant warm temperature and high humidity mean that

-sea greenhouses give perfect growing conditions.

-What next?

Fancy some wasabi-flavoured chocolate mousse for pudding?

-Not really.

-Me neither. But you could with this fancy fork.

It releases aromas while you eat,

combining the sense of taste and smell to create unique food pairings.

The aromas include coffee, peanut and smoke.

To be honest, all my cooking comes with a hint of burnt.

Remind me never to come to yours for lunch.

How about the world's first lab-grown meat restaurant?

Researchers in the Netherlands think that in vitro meat,

created using animal cells in a bioreactor, could be

a sustainable food source in the future.

To get people used to the idea,

they've cooked up an online experience with a menu

of unusual dishes and a restaurant of virtual tables.

Vlogster, all this talk of food is making my stomach rumble.

Fancy a take away?

Here's Adam and he's talking short videos.

Today I'm going to show you how to be funny and creative

in a short video that's under a minute long.

A simple gag can be easily done through a short video to make

'people laugh, just as long as it's not too complicated.'

-How are you doing?

-I'm just feeling a bit under the weather.

Oh...

To pull off a great video, you'll need some acting help.

Grab a friend and assign them to a role.

You can then develop your roles into different characters

that relate to the gag that you're filming.

Let's hit the road.

To make your short video, you will need a camera and a prop.

A camera or a phone to film and a prop as part of the gag.

What, Dad?!

That's the last straw.

I need it for my drink!

Now it's time to film.

First film a person saying their lines,

then film your other actor reacting to the phrase well performing it.

-Great.

-Just one more question. How are you with computers?

-Yeah, I think it's a piece of cake.

-Great. Oh!

Why... You're fired.

When you've finished filming your skit, it's time to edit it together.

First connect your camera or phone to the computer,

then move your footage into your editing programme.

Now we're going to use the trimming tool to get rid of any sections

of the video we don't want.

Once you've done that to all of your footage

and you've cut them together, you are done.

-Come on, spill the beans.

-OK!

-Oh!

So there you have it, you've made a short video

to make your friends laugh... hopefully.

Cheers, Adam, lad!

Oh, that's another message. Shall we Techno Notice?

I don't mean "take no notice", I mean Techno Notice!

Oh, open the app.

Will we ever live with dinosaurs?

Oh, that's a ROAR-some question, Star!

Right, let's find out if the most fearsome creatures on Earth

could make like Take That and be...

SINGS: ..back for good.

By studying loads of fossils, scientists have discovered

that birds are direct descendents of flesh-eating flying dinosaurs.

And it doesn't stop with our feathered friends.

Tortoises, Komodo dragons and alligators are all ancient animals.

The Carnufex carolinensis, a crocodile-like creature,

walked on two legs, had huge jaws and grew three meters tall.

That was 230 million years ago.

But don't be disappointed just yet, Jurassic fans.

DNA is in every single cell in your body

and it carries all the information needed to make you or a dinosaur,

from the colour of your eyes to your favourite flavour of crisps.

One problem - DNA doesn't survive more than a few million years

and dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago.

But researchers in America have found blood-like cells in even older

fossilized bones and claws and these cells can give hints to the

building blocks of dino skin, so there's still hope for dinosaur DNA.

American palaeontologists - that's dino experts - also think that

one day we could have pet dinosaurs.

Because birds are related to flying dinosaurs, scientists reckon we can

turn off the newer genes that make them birds, like beaks and feathers,

and switch on older genes, like teeth and scales, to create dinosaurs.

This bonkers biology is called transgenics.

Using transgenics, scientists have already taken the genes

from jellyfish and used them to make glow-in-the-dark rabbits.

This could mean a lot for the world of medicine, but for dino fans,

forging a friendly flying pterodactyl might take a while yet.

Talking of transgenics,

what do you get if you cross a pig with a dinosaur?

Jurassic pork!

I'm wasted on the show.

What we need now is some fun, some funny fun. Sam, entertain me!

Hello there and welcome.

Today I'm going to be talking to you a little bit about my favourite apps

that I like to play when I'm bored, when I'm waiting for a bus,

what I'm waiting for my pasta,

when I'm waiting...for my sofa?

Basically these are just apps I like to play when I'm bored.

First of all, we're going to start with The Impossible Quiz.

I used to play this game so much when I was younger

and when I realised there was an app for it, I was straight on it.

It's a quiz, but it's impossible...

nearly.

OK, yes! Click. Answer.

Yeah, oh, I am literally the best at this game.

We now come on to Oldify, but not actually old,

you just take a picture of yourself,

your dog, your mum, your nan, your cat and it will make them look old.

And last but by no means least, we come on to The Impossible Flappy.

Your job for this app is to tap the screen with the little bird

to guide him through an obstacle course and make sure

he doesn't hit the edges. And just trust me here,

it's not as easy as you think. Really.

I can't really give you that many tips for this app, but all you've

got to do is keep trying and trying and trying, because, you know...

as long as you try your hardest,

then you won't be beaten by the app and just...

Why can't I do this app?

Tiptop tips there, thanks, Sam. And I've got a tip for you, too.

Don't download apps without permission.

It's not big and it's not clever and the chances are you'll be grounded...

forever!

Right, just time for another visit to the Babblebuster!

The Babblebuster, Babble-Babblebuster.

Whoo, yeah, that's definitely going to catch on.

So, today's letter is C.

C is for cookies, but not the sweet, chocolate chip biscuits

that you like to munch on.

A cookie is a tiny file that stores information about you.

When you visit a website, it sends a small file, a cookie,

to your computer and that gets stored on the hard drive.

The cookie has your details, login name, password,

basket contents, that are recognised and used again by the web page

the next time that you go to it, meaning that you don't need

to re-enter the info, making life much more simple, a bit like me.

OK, that's it, I'll see you soon. Ta-ra!

Next time on Technobabble, we spend the day with Kim to find out

-what life is like as a professional gamer.

-You ready?

-I'm ready! Yeah!

And Marcus discovers that the future of music is right at his fingertips.