Browse content similar to The £10 Million Challenge. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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For 50 years, Horizon has provided us with an insight | 0:00:10 | 0:00:14 | |
into the very best of scientific discovery | 0:00:14 | 0:00:17 | |
and technological innovation from around the world. | 0:00:17 | 0:00:20 | |
Our films have featured some of the biggest names in science | 0:00:22 | 0:00:25 | |
and brought you the latest advances in everything from medicine | 0:00:25 | 0:00:30 | |
to computer technology - space science to biology. | 0:00:30 | 0:00:35 | |
As the 21st century marches on, the world faces a whole new set | 0:00:35 | 0:00:39 | |
of scientific challenges. | 0:00:39 | 0:00:41 | |
To celebrate Horizon's 50th anniversary, | 0:00:41 | 0:00:44 | |
we're inviting YOU to get involved. | 0:00:44 | 0:00:47 | |
The question is, if you had £10 million | 0:00:47 | 0:00:51 | |
to make one change to the world, what would that be? | 0:00:51 | 0:00:56 | |
This week, a Prize Fund is launched to help solve one key problem | 0:00:57 | 0:01:02 | |
facing our society today. | 0:01:02 | 0:01:05 | |
And we want you to decide what that is. | 0:01:05 | 0:01:08 | |
We've put together a team to help you choose. | 0:01:09 | 0:01:13 | |
From antibiotic resistance, to carbon emissions from planes... | 0:01:13 | 0:01:17 | |
I wasn't expecting that! | 0:01:19 | 0:01:21 | |
..from our thirst for fresh water, | 0:01:21 | 0:01:25 | |
to our hunger for food to feed the world. | 0:01:25 | 0:01:28 | |
They do provide a satisfying crunch. | 0:01:28 | 0:01:31 | |
And from the burden posed by dementia care, | 0:01:31 | 0:01:34 | |
to the difficulty of life in a wheelchair. | 0:01:34 | 0:01:37 | |
Everything I use is in the lower cupboards. | 0:01:37 | 0:01:40 | |
Don't like wasabi! All the stuff I don't like's at the top! | 0:01:40 | 0:01:42 | |
Which of these is most in need of ten million pounds? | 0:01:42 | 0:01:48 | |
It's your choice. | 0:01:48 | 0:01:50 | |
And that's not all, because if you or your team | 0:01:50 | 0:01:53 | |
are sitting on an idea which could solve the problem, | 0:01:53 | 0:01:56 | |
that £10 million could be yours. | 0:01:56 | 0:01:59 | |
This is the Royal Observatory, Greenwich - | 0:02:09 | 0:02:12 | |
a place of huge importance in the history of science. | 0:02:12 | 0:02:15 | |
And it's where the story of today's Prize Challenge started | 0:02:15 | 0:02:18 | |
300 years ago. | 0:02:18 | 0:02:20 | |
1714 saw the launch of perhaps the most famous | 0:02:22 | 0:02:26 | |
science prize in history - one that put Greenwich, | 0:02:26 | 0:02:29 | |
and British science, on the map for ever. | 0:02:29 | 0:02:32 | |
Just like the new prize, | 0:02:34 | 0:02:35 | |
it was prompted by the need for science to solve a grave problem - | 0:02:35 | 0:02:40 | |
one that faced every sea-faring nation on earth. | 0:02:40 | 0:02:44 | |
300 years ago, naval navigation was perilous, | 0:02:46 | 0:02:50 | |
because when they were out at sea, far from any landmarks, | 0:02:50 | 0:02:54 | |
it was extremely difficult for sailors to know precisely where they were. | 0:02:54 | 0:02:58 | |
That problem caused one of the most tragic accidents | 0:03:00 | 0:03:03 | |
in British naval history. | 0:03:03 | 0:03:05 | |
On one terrible night in 1707, four ships sank | 0:03:05 | 0:03:09 | |
near the Isles of Scilly, with the loss of over 1,400 lives. | 0:03:09 | 0:03:14 | |
The sailors died because they couldn't work out | 0:03:14 | 0:03:17 | |
exactly where they were. | 0:03:17 | 0:03:19 | |
The hardest task of all for any navigator was to work out their longitude. | 0:03:19 | 0:03:25 | |
To calculate their position around the globe, in theory | 0:03:27 | 0:03:30 | |
all they needed to know was the time difference | 0:03:30 | 0:03:32 | |
between where they were and London - | 0:03:32 | 0:03:35 | |
every four minutes would translate into one degree of longitude. | 0:03:35 | 0:03:40 | |
But in practice, | 0:03:40 | 0:03:42 | |
it was virtually impossible to keep track of the time back in London. | 0:03:42 | 0:03:46 | |
The clocks of the period were pendulum clocks, | 0:03:46 | 0:03:49 | |
and as soon the ship started to pitch and roll in the waves, | 0:03:49 | 0:03:54 | |
you can see it would've been very difficult to keep good time. | 0:03:54 | 0:03:58 | |
But ocean travel was booming in the 18th century - | 0:03:59 | 0:04:02 | |
something had to be done to make it safe. | 0:04:02 | 0:04:05 | |
Parliament appointed a committee of scientists - | 0:04:05 | 0:04:07 | |
the Board of Longitude - to solve the problem. | 0:04:07 | 0:04:11 | |
And in desperation they appealed to the nation, | 0:04:11 | 0:04:14 | |
offering a reward of £20,000 for the best solution. | 0:04:14 | 0:04:18 | |
That cash prize, worth several million today, | 0:04:20 | 0:04:23 | |
became the catalyst for one of the most world-changing innovations | 0:04:23 | 0:04:27 | |
in the history of technology. | 0:04:27 | 0:04:29 | |
Now, a new Longitude Committee has been formed, | 0:04:31 | 0:04:33 | |
to oversee a prize offered by Nesta, the UK's innovation foundation. | 0:04:33 | 0:04:39 | |
But the prize can only be offered for one of the six problems | 0:04:39 | 0:04:43 | |
on tonight's short list. And that's where you come in. | 0:04:43 | 0:04:47 | |
In this programme, we'll be revealing | 0:04:47 | 0:04:49 | |
the details of those six nominated challenges for the first time | 0:04:49 | 0:04:53 | |
and then asking you to vote | 0:04:53 | 0:04:56 | |
to decide which of the challenges is worth the £10 million. | 0:04:56 | 0:05:01 | |
You'll be able to vote right after this programme, | 0:05:01 | 0:05:04 | |
either by text, or by visiting bbc.co.uk/horizon. | 0:05:04 | 0:05:10 | |
There you'll find links to in-depth guides to the six choices. | 0:05:10 | 0:05:13 | |
Your decision will launch a five-year search | 0:05:15 | 0:05:17 | |
for prize-winning solutions that could change the world. | 0:05:17 | 0:05:21 | |
Let's look at the first problem on our list. | 0:05:24 | 0:05:28 | |
Bacterial resistance to antibiotics has been a growing problem | 0:05:30 | 0:05:35 | |
for decades, and now poses a very real threat to our health. | 0:05:35 | 0:05:39 | |
It presents a nightmare vision of the future, | 0:05:39 | 0:05:41 | |
in which the health of practically everybody alive on the planet | 0:05:41 | 0:05:45 | |
is at risk in a way that it hasn't been for almost a century. | 0:05:45 | 0:05:49 | |
Since Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin over 80 years ago, | 0:05:50 | 0:05:54 | |
it's been estimated that antibiotics have saved | 0:05:54 | 0:05:57 | |
more than 80 million lives. | 0:05:57 | 0:06:00 | |
But now, there are some bacteria that we're defenceless against. | 0:06:00 | 0:06:04 | |
Every year in the UK, 5,000 people die | 0:06:04 | 0:06:08 | |
because antibiotics can't kill the bacteria they're infected with. | 0:06:08 | 0:06:12 | |
Looking at the problem of antibiotic-resistant super-bugs, | 0:06:15 | 0:06:18 | |
here's Liz Bonnin. | 0:06:18 | 0:06:20 | |
Antibiotics have only been widely available for 70 years or so | 0:06:25 | 0:06:30 | |
but the effect they've had on our lives is nothing short of extraordinary. | 0:06:30 | 0:06:35 | |
In that time, life expectancy has increased by 20 years, | 0:06:35 | 0:06:38 | |
thanks in large part to the dramatic reduction in deaths | 0:06:38 | 0:06:42 | |
from all sorts of infections and infectious diseases. | 0:06:42 | 0:06:45 | |
Without antibiotics, modern medicine as we know it wouldn't exist. | 0:06:46 | 0:06:51 | |
Routine operations would be life-threatening | 0:06:51 | 0:06:53 | |
and everything from hip replacements to chemotherapy and organ transplants | 0:06:53 | 0:06:58 | |
would simply be impossible. | 0:06:58 | 0:07:00 | |
But it seems the heyday is over. | 0:07:00 | 0:07:03 | |
Infectious bacteria are becoming increasingly resistant | 0:07:03 | 0:07:07 | |
to the antibiotics we rely on for protection. | 0:07:07 | 0:07:09 | |
We urgently need to preserve this cornerstone of modern medicine | 0:07:11 | 0:07:15 | |
and to do that we need to understand why resistance is on the increase. | 0:07:15 | 0:07:20 | |
I've come to Birmingham to meet Professor Laura Piddock - | 0:07:23 | 0:07:25 | |
a specialist in antibiotic resistance. | 0:07:25 | 0:07:28 | |
So, Laura, how can bacteria become resistant to the antibiotics | 0:07:29 | 0:07:32 | |
that have been so effective against them for so long? | 0:07:32 | 0:07:36 | |
OK, so it's best demonstrated if we look at this plate here. | 0:07:36 | 0:07:40 | |
So you can see the bacteria growing on the top of the agar, | 0:07:40 | 0:07:43 | |
and there's a disc in the middle that's got antibiotic in it, | 0:07:43 | 0:07:46 | |
and the antibiotic is coming out into the agar | 0:07:46 | 0:07:49 | |
and there's this clear zone that's killing all those bacteria. | 0:07:49 | 0:07:53 | |
-OK, so that's how antibiotics work? -Yeah. | 0:07:54 | 0:07:56 | |
But if you look very closely, you can see there's little dots, | 0:07:56 | 0:07:59 | |
little colonies, that have grown up overnight | 0:07:59 | 0:08:02 | |
so they are antibiotic resistant. | 0:08:02 | 0:08:04 | |
And the way that's happened is they have a mutation in one gene | 0:08:04 | 0:08:08 | |
that now allows them to resist that antibiotic. | 0:08:08 | 0:08:11 | |
And if we take one of those resistant colonies, | 0:08:11 | 0:08:13 | |
and then do them on this plate here... | 0:08:13 | 0:08:15 | |
One dot of that, grown out on this agar? | 0:08:15 | 0:08:18 | |
Yeah. And you can see that it's grown right up to the disc | 0:08:18 | 0:08:22 | |
with the antibiotic, there's no zone of inhibition. | 0:08:22 | 0:08:25 | |
And that's it, a completely resistant strain of bacteria to that drug. | 0:08:25 | 0:08:29 | |
And that drug becomes obsolete, that's the end of its working life. | 0:08:29 | 0:08:33 | |
-Yes. -So what have we done to contribute to this resistance? | 0:08:33 | 0:08:38 | |
Well, we're awash with antibiotics. | 0:08:38 | 0:08:40 | |
We need to stop using them as much as we do, | 0:08:40 | 0:08:42 | |
not just in human medicine, we need to stop using them in animals, | 0:08:42 | 0:08:46 | |
as much as they are, we need to stop using them in the home. | 0:08:46 | 0:08:49 | |
We want to make sure patients get the drugs when they need them, | 0:08:49 | 0:08:52 | |
but what we don't want to do is have people using them | 0:08:52 | 0:08:54 | |
when they're just absolutely unnecessary. | 0:08:54 | 0:08:57 | |
It's clear we need to halt our excessive use of antibiotics. | 0:08:58 | 0:09:02 | |
50 million courses of antibiotics are prescribed in UK hospitals | 0:09:04 | 0:09:08 | |
and GP surgeries every year. | 0:09:08 | 0:09:11 | |
And the trouble is, up to half of those prescribed | 0:09:11 | 0:09:15 | |
are probably unnecessary. | 0:09:15 | 0:09:17 | |
If we could develop a quick and easy way to tell | 0:09:20 | 0:09:22 | |
the difference between viral and bacterial infections | 0:09:22 | 0:09:26 | |
then the use of antibiotics could be dramatically reduced. | 0:09:26 | 0:09:29 | |
You can see we're on a busy ward here. | 0:09:29 | 0:09:31 | |
We have sick patients coming in all the time. | 0:09:31 | 0:09:33 | |
And it's often quite difficult to work out clinically | 0:09:33 | 0:09:36 | |
whether they have a serious infection or not. | 0:09:36 | 0:09:38 | |
That's the real challenge. | 0:09:38 | 0:09:39 | |
We often give antibiotics just in case there's serious infection. | 0:09:39 | 0:09:43 | |
What we really need is good strategies to be able | 0:09:43 | 0:09:46 | |
to deliver antibiotics to the patients who really need them | 0:09:46 | 0:09:49 | |
with confidence they have a bacterial infection | 0:09:49 | 0:09:51 | |
and not some other condition or a viral infection. | 0:09:51 | 0:09:54 | |
So how do you go about discerning between a viral infection | 0:09:54 | 0:09:57 | |
and a bacterial one? | 0:09:57 | 0:09:58 | |
It can be very difficult | 0:09:58 | 0:10:00 | |
but we are helped with various blood tests | 0:10:00 | 0:10:02 | |
and there's a relatively new blood test, a biomarker | 0:10:02 | 0:10:05 | |
called procalcitonin, and we can use that in conjunction with | 0:10:05 | 0:10:09 | |
our clinical assessment of the patient | 0:10:09 | 0:10:11 | |
to try and help us establish if the patient has a bacterial infection. | 0:10:11 | 0:10:15 | |
Doctor Dryden is trialling a new technique to measure procalcitonin - | 0:10:15 | 0:10:20 | |
a molecule found in the blood which rises in concentration | 0:10:20 | 0:10:23 | |
when you have a bacterial infection but not if you have a viral one. | 0:10:23 | 0:10:27 | |
I'm not on the ward for long before a test is necessary. | 0:10:27 | 0:10:31 | |
We've just seen a very sick lady. | 0:10:36 | 0:10:38 | |
It's difficult to make a clear diagnosis in this patient. | 0:10:38 | 0:10:41 | |
She could well have pneumonia and septicaemia | 0:10:41 | 0:10:44 | |
but equally it may not be due to a bacterial infection. | 0:10:44 | 0:10:47 | |
By using a biomarker like procalcitonin that can help us | 0:10:48 | 0:10:52 | |
make a decision whether this patient needs antibiotics or not. | 0:10:52 | 0:10:56 | |
After just 90 minutes, Doctor Dryden gets the results. | 0:11:00 | 0:11:03 | |
We have just done the test on the patient we saw | 0:11:04 | 0:11:07 | |
and the procalcitonin level is below the cut-off. | 0:11:07 | 0:11:10 | |
So I presume you are not going to administer antibiotics. | 0:11:10 | 0:11:13 | |
We held off the antibiotics on the ward round this morning | 0:11:13 | 0:11:16 | |
and we'll continue to hold off. | 0:11:16 | 0:11:18 | |
We will continue to monitor her and keep a close eye on her | 0:11:18 | 0:11:21 | |
and if her condition changes, we may change that decision. | 0:11:21 | 0:11:25 | |
But at the moment, she doesn't need antibiotics. | 0:11:25 | 0:11:27 | |
Because of this test, the hospital has been able to have | 0:11:27 | 0:11:31 | |
the antibiotics it prescribes when diagnoses are unclear. | 0:11:31 | 0:11:35 | |
But the equipment remains bulky and expensive. | 0:11:35 | 0:11:38 | |
And as most antibiotics are prescribed by GPs, | 0:11:38 | 0:11:41 | |
the test is nowhere near fast enough. | 0:11:41 | 0:11:43 | |
Speed is absolutely of the essence in the community. | 0:11:43 | 0:11:46 | |
If you think about how short a consultation is with the GP, | 0:11:46 | 0:11:49 | |
a GP sees a patient for 10 minutes, that has to be done within that 10 minutes. | 0:11:49 | 0:11:53 | |
So, it's an exciting time for the research | 0:11:53 | 0:11:55 | |
for the technology of these types of tests, but how urgent is this? | 0:11:55 | 0:11:59 | |
I think it's really important to develop this as soon as possible. | 0:11:59 | 0:12:03 | |
We know antibiotics in the past have saved more lives | 0:12:03 | 0:12:05 | |
than any other drugs. | 0:12:05 | 0:12:07 | |
If we don't preserve our antibiotics, or find new ones, | 0:12:07 | 0:12:10 | |
the future of medicine is really in doubt. | 0:12:10 | 0:12:12 | |
Our massive overuse of antibiotics across the globe is crippling | 0:12:14 | 0:12:19 | |
one of the most effective weapons we have against infection. | 0:12:19 | 0:12:22 | |
We urgently need a solution | 0:12:23 | 0:12:25 | |
because this will affect all our lives in the future. | 0:12:25 | 0:12:29 | |
If this subject is picked for the Longitude Prize, | 0:12:30 | 0:12:33 | |
potential winners will need to develop | 0:12:33 | 0:12:35 | |
a cheap, rapid test for bacterial infections | 0:12:35 | 0:12:38 | |
that can be used easily by doctors and nurses all over the world. | 0:12:38 | 0:12:42 | |
Getting a rapid diagnostic so that we know we are treating bacteria | 0:12:45 | 0:12:49 | |
and ideally the right bacteria, will save lives every day of the week. | 0:12:49 | 0:12:54 | |
We believe the technology is out there | 0:12:54 | 0:12:56 | |
if only the little different bits of technology | 0:12:56 | 0:12:59 | |
were put together in a black box to make it work. | 0:12:59 | 0:13:02 | |
Our next nominated challenge will demand revolutionary advances | 0:13:05 | 0:13:08 | |
in medical engineering but has the potential | 0:13:08 | 0:13:11 | |
to transform the lives of those affected in many ways. | 0:13:11 | 0:13:14 | |
Over the last few decades, our ability to help people with | 0:13:18 | 0:13:21 | |
all sorts of physical disabilities has moved on in leaps and bounds. | 0:13:21 | 0:13:26 | |
But our ability to help people who are paralysed doesn't go much beyond | 0:13:26 | 0:13:30 | |
offering a wheelchair - just as we would have done decades ago. | 0:13:30 | 0:13:34 | |
And there are 50,000 people in the UK who are paralysed. | 0:13:34 | 0:13:38 | |
The loss of mobility and independence that results | 0:13:41 | 0:13:45 | |
can be an enormous challenge both physically and emotionally. | 0:13:45 | 0:13:50 | |
But for many people, technology can play a crucial role. | 0:13:50 | 0:13:53 | |
Investigating paralysis, | 0:13:55 | 0:13:57 | |
here's Dr Saleyha Ahsan. | 0:13:57 | 0:13:59 | |
I'm a doctor and I used to be an army officer. | 0:14:01 | 0:14:05 | |
In 1997, serving in Bosnia, I saw someone | 0:14:06 | 0:14:10 | |
who had just lost their leg after stepping on a land mine. | 0:14:10 | 0:14:14 | |
Watching him come to terms with the reality of his future | 0:14:16 | 0:14:20 | |
as an amputee was something that I've never forgotten. | 0:14:20 | 0:14:24 | |
He had this haunted, lost look on his face. | 0:14:24 | 0:14:28 | |
And he knew at that moment that his life was going to be | 0:14:28 | 0:14:31 | |
changed for ever. | 0:14:31 | 0:14:33 | |
Of course, injuries like that are not confined to the battlefield. | 0:14:33 | 0:14:37 | |
Every eight hours, someone in the UK becomes paralysed. | 0:14:39 | 0:14:43 | |
I'm meeting someone who knows only too well | 0:14:44 | 0:14:47 | |
how easily our lives can be changed in an instant. | 0:14:47 | 0:14:51 | |
Everything that I use is in the lower cupboards. | 0:14:52 | 0:14:54 | |
I can just reach some of these | 0:14:54 | 0:14:57 | |
but not that easily. | 0:14:57 | 0:14:59 | |
You won't reach that wasabi. | 0:14:59 | 0:15:01 | |
No, don't like wasabi. The stuff I don't like is at the top! | 0:15:01 | 0:15:04 | |
'Sophie has been in a wheelchair since a road accident in 2003.' | 0:15:06 | 0:15:12 | |
I fractured my skull, my cheekbone, | 0:15:12 | 0:15:16 | |
apparently my eye fell out of its socket. | 0:15:16 | 0:15:19 | |
My jaw was broken. | 0:15:19 | 0:15:21 | |
My collarbone was snapped and my spine was damaged. | 0:15:21 | 0:15:25 | |
Basically, on impact I was paralysed. | 0:15:25 | 0:15:27 | |
At the moment, the possibility of repairing spinal injuries, | 0:15:27 | 0:15:32 | |
whether through surgery or stem cell therapy, is a long way off. | 0:15:32 | 0:15:36 | |
Could engineering and robotics help instead? | 0:15:38 | 0:15:42 | |
Sophie is helping to trial a remarkable new device | 0:15:43 | 0:15:46 | |
designed by Richard Little. | 0:15:46 | 0:15:49 | |
It offers her the chance to stand and walk independently. | 0:15:49 | 0:15:54 | |
This was extremely surreal for me when I first got it. | 0:15:54 | 0:15:57 | |
To be able to select the option of stand. | 0:15:57 | 0:16:01 | |
LOW MECHANICAL WHIRRING | 0:16:04 | 0:16:06 | |
-Gosh. -Do you feel quite steady? | 0:16:10 | 0:16:13 | |
Yeah, I do, which is amazing. | 0:16:13 | 0:16:15 | |
Just seeing your face now, you've really lit up. | 0:16:15 | 0:16:18 | |
Can I see you walk? | 0:16:18 | 0:16:20 | |
Of course you can see me walk! | 0:16:20 | 0:16:22 | |
It may be slow and bulky | 0:16:37 | 0:16:40 | |
but the exoskeleton can transform perspectives. | 0:16:40 | 0:16:44 | |
Oh, my God. The view. | 0:16:44 | 0:16:46 | |
-Had you not seen the view? -No, not seen the view. Seriously. | 0:16:46 | 0:16:49 | |
-Oh, wow! -There's my car! | 0:16:49 | 0:16:52 | |
I can open the window! I've not been able to do that. | 0:16:52 | 0:16:56 | |
For Sophie, a practical, | 0:16:58 | 0:17:00 | |
simple exoskeleton would also help her physically. | 0:17:00 | 0:17:04 | |
You can live a healthy life in a wheelchair. I mean... | 0:17:04 | 0:17:08 | |
But the time... The toll it takes on your body is bad. | 0:17:08 | 0:17:13 | |
Small things. I've noticed a slight scoliosis in my spine | 0:17:13 | 0:17:17 | |
and just from sitting because I am sitting every day all the time. | 0:17:17 | 0:17:21 | |
-That'll be straightening out your core and everything. -Exactly. | 0:17:21 | 0:17:25 | |
Richard, tell me about the amazing technology that's gone into this. | 0:17:25 | 0:17:30 | |
It looks a simple device on the outside | 0:17:30 | 0:17:32 | |
but it has 29 microcomputers on-board all talking to each other, | 0:17:32 | 0:17:36 | |
managing the different systems so there's a lot goes on behind it. | 0:17:36 | 0:17:40 | |
Sophie's increased mobility, the physical changes she's experienced - | 0:17:40 | 0:17:45 | |
not to mention her joy - is humbling to see. | 0:17:45 | 0:17:49 | |
But if paralysis is chosen to be the Longitude Prize, | 0:17:49 | 0:17:52 | |
technologists will need to develop exoskeletons | 0:17:52 | 0:17:56 | |
that are smaller, lighter and faster. | 0:17:56 | 0:17:58 | |
The hope is also that people who can't use a joystick | 0:17:58 | 0:18:02 | |
to control one could just use their thoughts. | 0:18:02 | 0:18:05 | |
Doctor Tom Carlson is honing mind-control technology by trying | 0:18:07 | 0:18:12 | |
to move a robot using his brainwaves. | 0:18:12 | 0:18:15 | |
So, Tom, you're going to be controlling that little robot | 0:18:17 | 0:18:22 | |
-with your mind. -That's right, yes. | 0:18:22 | 0:18:24 | |
We've chosen 16 key electrode positions over the motor cortex. | 0:18:24 | 0:18:29 | |
This is the part of the brain that deals with me | 0:18:29 | 0:18:32 | |
trying to move my limbs. | 0:18:32 | 0:18:34 | |
To mimic the scenario of someone who is completely paralysed, | 0:18:34 | 0:18:38 | |
Tom will control the robot, not by moving his arms | 0:18:38 | 0:18:42 | |
but by thinking about moving them. | 0:18:42 | 0:18:45 | |
So, let's start this. | 0:18:45 | 0:18:47 | |
Oh, my God. He's walking. | 0:18:49 | 0:18:52 | |
As I keep this bar in the middle, the robot goes forwards, | 0:18:52 | 0:18:55 | |
if I imagine moving my left hand, the bar goes to the left | 0:18:55 | 0:18:59 | |
-and the robot turns left. -And that is all coming from your brain. | 0:18:59 | 0:19:04 | |
-You're thinking about it. -Yes. | 0:19:04 | 0:19:07 | |
That's amazing. | 0:19:07 | 0:19:08 | |
Whilst you're talking to me, | 0:19:14 | 0:19:16 | |
-are you still thinking about moving left and right? -Of course. | 0:19:16 | 0:19:19 | |
-If I don't, the robot will be running away. -I thought men couldn't multitask! | 0:19:19 | 0:19:23 | |
'It takes a lot of concentration to control the robot.' | 0:19:23 | 0:19:27 | |
And you have cleverly stopped him from walking into the cupboard. | 0:19:27 | 0:19:31 | |
No, he's going to go into the cupboard! | 0:19:31 | 0:19:34 | |
Another problem lies in isolating Tom's directional intentions | 0:19:36 | 0:19:41 | |
from the surrounding interference. | 0:19:41 | 0:19:43 | |
So, these signals are very, very small. | 0:19:43 | 0:19:46 | |
The scale we're looking at here is just an order of a few microvolts. | 0:19:46 | 0:19:50 | |
If I clench my teeth... | 0:19:50 | 0:19:52 | |
-Oh, my word. -Yes. | 0:19:52 | 0:19:53 | |
They completely saturate, so when we are processing the signals | 0:19:53 | 0:19:57 | |
we have to filter out all of this noise | 0:19:57 | 0:20:00 | |
so we can understand what's really going on and ignore the rest. | 0:20:00 | 0:20:04 | |
There's no harm in a robot bumping into a cupboard, | 0:20:04 | 0:20:07 | |
but developing this technology to the point that paralysed people | 0:20:07 | 0:20:10 | |
can safely control exoskeletons using their minds is a long way off. | 0:20:10 | 0:20:16 | |
To get this out into the real world, onto the streets, | 0:20:16 | 0:20:19 | |
I think you're looking at decades. | 0:20:19 | 0:20:21 | |
As a doctor, I'm fully aware that when I have a patient | 0:20:24 | 0:20:28 | |
who's paralysed, there's really little I can do for them | 0:20:28 | 0:20:31 | |
apart from offer support. | 0:20:31 | 0:20:34 | |
But imagine if ultimately, through robotics, | 0:20:34 | 0:20:37 | |
and better understanding of the brain, we could find a way to bypass | 0:20:37 | 0:20:42 | |
a broken spinal cord, and help a person to walk again. | 0:20:42 | 0:20:47 | |
If paralysis is chosen as the Longitude Prize, | 0:20:47 | 0:20:51 | |
the challenge will be to invent a system that gets closest to giving | 0:20:51 | 0:20:55 | |
paralysed people the same freedom of movement that most of us enjoy. | 0:20:55 | 0:20:59 | |
We're asking the world | 0:21:00 | 0:21:02 | |
to solve the problem of paralysis. | 0:21:02 | 0:21:04 | |
And the great thing is we don't tell you how to do it. | 0:21:04 | 0:21:07 | |
It could be engineering. It could be neuroscience. | 0:21:07 | 0:21:12 | |
It could be biology. | 0:21:12 | 0:21:14 | |
You might find a new way to grow new nerves. | 0:21:14 | 0:21:17 | |
We don't know. | 0:21:17 | 0:21:18 | |
The next problem on our list of nominations is malnutrition, | 0:21:20 | 0:21:25 | |
a subject that regularly hits the headlines. | 0:21:25 | 0:21:28 | |
But the tragic events that prompt such media attention | 0:21:28 | 0:21:31 | |
are just the tip of the iceberg. | 0:21:31 | 0:21:33 | |
Beyond disaster-related famine, | 0:21:35 | 0:21:37 | |
climate and soil type can leave people | 0:21:37 | 0:21:39 | |
with permanently restricted diets. | 0:21:39 | 0:21:41 | |
And of course social issues like poverty, | 0:21:41 | 0:21:44 | |
education and illness play a part. | 0:21:44 | 0:21:46 | |
As a result, over 800 million people around the world are undernourished, | 0:21:46 | 0:21:51 | |
with children the worst affected. | 0:21:51 | 0:21:53 | |
The vast majority are in developing countries, | 0:21:53 | 0:21:56 | |
where one in seven of the population suffers. | 0:21:56 | 0:21:59 | |
But it can affect us all. | 0:21:59 | 0:22:01 | |
In fact, just here in the UK, | 0:22:01 | 0:22:03 | |
over three million people are either malnourished | 0:22:03 | 0:22:07 | |
or at risk of malnourishment, | 0:22:07 | 0:22:09 | |
with the cost of ensuing health problems | 0:22:09 | 0:22:12 | |
running into billions of pounds every year. | 0:22:12 | 0:22:15 | |
Malnutrition is a problem that affects the whole planet. | 0:22:15 | 0:22:18 | |
Dr Michael Mosley asks how close science is to finding a solution. | 0:22:18 | 0:22:23 | |
When you hear the word malnourishment, | 0:22:29 | 0:22:32 | |
you probably think of natural disasters, droughts, emergency aid. | 0:22:32 | 0:22:38 | |
But, in fact, malnourishment is much wider than that. | 0:22:38 | 0:22:42 | |
They may not be starving to death, but worldwide there are millions | 0:22:42 | 0:22:45 | |
of people who lack vital nutrients in their diet. | 0:22:45 | 0:22:49 | |
120 million don't have enough vitamin A | 0:22:49 | 0:22:53 | |
and many of those will go blind. | 0:22:53 | 0:22:55 | |
An astonishing billion, | 0:22:55 | 0:22:57 | |
maybe two billion people around the globe are iron deficient, | 0:22:57 | 0:23:02 | |
which means they feel tired and listless a lot of the time. | 0:23:02 | 0:23:06 | |
If you don't get enough vitamin C in your diet, you get scurvy. | 0:23:06 | 0:23:10 | |
If you don't have enough calcium or vitamin D, then you develop rickets. | 0:23:10 | 0:23:15 | |
One of the biggest problems is a lack of protein | 0:23:16 | 0:23:19 | |
which can cause a condition called kwashiorkor. | 0:23:19 | 0:23:22 | |
Now, much of our protein comes from meat, | 0:23:24 | 0:23:26 | |
but livestock farming can't feed everyone. | 0:23:26 | 0:23:29 | |
One option for a more sustainable solution | 0:23:35 | 0:23:37 | |
is being explored here in the Netherlands. | 0:23:37 | 0:23:40 | |
Scientists have teamed up with the chef to cook me the sort of meal | 0:23:42 | 0:23:46 | |
a celebrity stuck in the jungle might eat. | 0:23:46 | 0:23:49 | |
-Good morning. -Good Morning. | 0:23:49 | 0:23:51 | |
I like quiche, but I've never had a mealworm quiche. | 0:23:51 | 0:23:53 | |
I keep on thinking they're about to wriggle, come to life. | 0:23:53 | 0:23:56 | |
There's something of a novelty value to my meal. | 0:23:58 | 0:24:01 | |
Thank you. Great. | 0:24:01 | 0:24:03 | |
I'm going to, sort of, tuck in. Bon appetit. | 0:24:03 | 0:24:07 | |
Just when I cut into it, suddenly you see them, falling out. | 0:24:08 | 0:24:12 | |
Ah! | 0:24:12 | 0:24:13 | |
It's delicious. | 0:24:19 | 0:24:20 | |
Entomologist Marcel Dicke is serious about eating insects. | 0:24:20 | 0:24:24 | |
What, sort of, is the nutritional balance? | 0:24:24 | 0:24:26 | |
What have you got here in the way of fat and protein, things like that? | 0:24:26 | 0:24:29 | |
50% protein, but, especially important, | 0:24:29 | 0:24:33 | |
the minerals are very high - zinc, iron, magnesium. | 0:24:33 | 0:24:37 | |
In terms of composition, it's similar or even better than beef. | 0:24:37 | 0:24:41 | |
So I could get more iron from eating insects | 0:24:41 | 0:24:43 | |
-than I could from eating beef? -Yes, definitely. | 0:24:43 | 0:24:46 | |
'Insects aren't just nutritious.' | 0:24:46 | 0:24:49 | |
They do provide a satisfying crunch. | 0:24:49 | 0:24:52 | |
'They're more efficient to farm than livestock, | 0:24:52 | 0:24:54 | |
'which makes them more sustainable.' | 0:24:54 | 0:24:56 | |
For producing 1kg of beef, we need 25kg of feed. | 0:24:56 | 0:25:02 | |
For producing 1kg of similar quality insect meat, | 0:25:02 | 0:25:07 | |
you need only 2.2kg of feed. | 0:25:07 | 0:25:10 | |
-Right, so that's 10%. -Only 10%. | 0:25:10 | 0:25:12 | |
'Marcel's team helped compile a UN report showing that farmed insects | 0:25:12 | 0:25:17 | |
'produced fewer greenhouse gases and less ammonia than cattle.' | 0:25:17 | 0:25:21 | |
'They need less water and land, too. | 0:25:21 | 0:25:23 | |
'And 20,000 insect farms in Thailand show it can be done cheaply. | 0:25:23 | 0:25:28 | |
'The numbers all add up, | 0:25:29 | 0:25:31 | |
'but there is still one thing getting in the way.' | 0:25:31 | 0:25:34 | |
Well, the major barrier in the Western world is here, | 0:25:34 | 0:25:38 | |
psychological, people need to get used to it and I understand that. | 0:25:38 | 0:25:43 | |
If food technologists could find a way round our squeamishness, | 0:25:43 | 0:25:47 | |
insects might become more than a curiosity in the West. | 0:25:47 | 0:25:50 | |
But they aren't our only hope. | 0:25:52 | 0:25:55 | |
When it comes to easing global malnutrition, | 0:25:55 | 0:25:57 | |
there is one area of research where the potential is almost limitless, | 0:25:57 | 0:26:00 | |
and where they have recently also made huge advances. | 0:26:00 | 0:26:04 | |
Unfortunately, it is also incredibly contentious. | 0:26:04 | 0:26:08 | |
It is the genetic modification of crops. | 0:26:08 | 0:26:10 | |
In the US, more than 80% of corn, soya bean and cotton | 0:26:12 | 0:26:16 | |
produced in 2013 was genetically modified. | 0:26:16 | 0:26:19 | |
Here in the UK, you'd be pushed to find any GM food in the shops. | 0:26:21 | 0:26:25 | |
But there's lots of research going on, | 0:26:25 | 0:26:27 | |
because, as well as increasing yield, | 0:26:27 | 0:26:30 | |
GM can make food more nutritious. | 0:26:30 | 0:26:33 | |
This is Rothamsted Research. | 0:26:33 | 0:26:35 | |
Now, it is the longest running agricultural research station | 0:26:35 | 0:26:39 | |
in the world, | 0:26:39 | 0:26:40 | |
and the aim of this place is to get the most out of the crops we grow. | 0:26:40 | 0:26:44 | |
This remarkable Camelina plant contains omega-3 fish oil, | 0:26:46 | 0:26:50 | |
a vital nutrient thought to protect against heart disease and cancer | 0:26:50 | 0:26:54 | |
and to assist brain function. | 0:26:54 | 0:26:57 | |
Now, it isn't found naturally in plants. | 0:26:57 | 0:26:59 | |
But it is found in oily fish like salmon. | 0:26:59 | 0:27:02 | |
That's the root of a major problem, | 0:27:02 | 0:27:04 | |
which Johnathan Napier is trying to solve. | 0:27:04 | 0:27:07 | |
The global fish stocks that we have at the moment | 0:27:07 | 0:27:09 | |
are sufficient to provide our population, | 0:27:09 | 0:27:12 | |
our seven billion mouths, with about a teaspoon full of fish oil a week, | 0:27:12 | 0:27:17 | |
whereas we probably need at least double that, maybe more. | 0:27:17 | 0:27:21 | |
The situation's so bad that a recent US survey attributed | 0:27:21 | 0:27:24 | |
over 80,000 deaths a year to fish oil deficiencies. | 0:27:24 | 0:27:28 | |
So we're interested in trying to develop | 0:27:30 | 0:27:32 | |
an alternative, sustainable source of fish oils. | 0:27:32 | 0:27:35 | |
And these are our GM Camelina plants that we've engineered | 0:27:35 | 0:27:38 | |
to accumulate omega-3 fish oils. | 0:27:38 | 0:27:41 | |
Now that is pretty weird. | 0:27:41 | 0:27:42 | |
So this, presumably, this is the oil you produce, is it? | 0:27:42 | 0:27:45 | |
-Yeah, so... -How much is this? | 0:27:45 | 0:27:46 | |
I think in terms of the amount of time and effort to produce it, | 0:27:46 | 0:27:49 | |
-it's tens if not hundreds of thousands of pounds. -Per litre? | 0:27:49 | 0:27:52 | |
-Oh, yeah. -You'll have to get the price down before you sell it. | 0:27:52 | 0:27:55 | |
Can I have a sniff? I promise not to swallow. | 0:27:55 | 0:27:57 | |
-You can have a sniff of it, as long as you don't... -Not to taste, yeah. | 0:27:57 | 0:28:00 | |
Hold it to your lips and drain it. I would... | 0:28:00 | 0:28:03 | |
It's not at all fishy. | 0:28:03 | 0:28:05 | |
I mean, it's, sort of, if anything, slightly cabbagy. | 0:28:05 | 0:28:07 | |
Camelina is a brassica species | 0:28:07 | 0:28:09 | |
and so it would have a slightly cabbagy smell. | 0:28:09 | 0:28:11 | |
It is very strange, realising that I hold in my hands there | 0:28:11 | 0:28:15 | |
something that could have quite a significant impact on the future. | 0:28:15 | 0:28:19 | |
There are years of field trials and legal debate ahead | 0:28:19 | 0:28:22 | |
for crops like this. | 0:28:22 | 0:28:24 | |
But it does show what could be achieved. | 0:28:24 | 0:28:27 | |
I have seen two very different approaches | 0:28:29 | 0:28:32 | |
to the problem of malnutrition - | 0:28:32 | 0:28:34 | |
genetically-modified crops and insects. | 0:28:34 | 0:28:37 | |
Now, both could contribute significantly in the future | 0:28:37 | 0:28:40 | |
or perhaps solutions will come from | 0:28:40 | 0:28:42 | |
some completely unrelated area of research. | 0:28:42 | 0:28:46 | |
By 2050, there'll be nine billion people on the planet. | 0:28:47 | 0:28:51 | |
To feed them, we need to double food production. | 0:28:51 | 0:28:54 | |
Vote for food to be the subject of the Longitude Prize | 0:28:56 | 0:28:59 | |
and the challenge will be to create a historic innovation. | 0:28:59 | 0:29:02 | |
Something that offers everyone enough to eat that's nutritious, | 0:29:02 | 0:29:06 | |
sustainable and delicious. | 0:29:06 | 0:29:08 | |
It could be immensely exciting. | 0:29:10 | 0:29:11 | |
You know, we're talking about innovations that could | 0:29:11 | 0:29:13 | |
change the world, and if you look at the history of innovations in food, | 0:29:13 | 0:29:16 | |
you think about things like irrigation, | 0:29:16 | 0:29:18 | |
things like refrigeration, | 0:29:18 | 0:29:20 | |
things like fertilisers, industrial fertilisers. | 0:29:20 | 0:29:22 | |
These have quite literally changed the world | 0:29:22 | 0:29:24 | |
and changed the way the human race has developed. | 0:29:24 | 0:29:26 | |
One thing that links each of the nominated problems | 0:29:30 | 0:29:33 | |
is that a world-changing solution | 0:29:33 | 0:29:36 | |
needn't come from renowned scientists. | 0:29:36 | 0:29:38 | |
Back in the 18th century, | 0:29:38 | 0:29:40 | |
as astronomers struggled to solve the Longitude problem, | 0:29:40 | 0:29:43 | |
the Board appealed to the British public for help. | 0:29:43 | 0:29:47 | |
And that was where a man named John Harrison came in. | 0:29:47 | 0:29:50 | |
He wasn't from a university, or a big engineering company - | 0:29:50 | 0:29:53 | |
he was a lone carpenter and clock-maker from Yorkshire. | 0:29:53 | 0:29:58 | |
Harrison was convinced the solution to the problem lay | 0:29:58 | 0:30:02 | |
not in astronomy, but in inventing a clock | 0:30:02 | 0:30:06 | |
that would keep perfect time at sea. | 0:30:06 | 0:30:09 | |
I've come to the Horology Workshop at Greenwich, | 0:30:13 | 0:30:16 | |
to find out how he solved the problem - | 0:30:16 | 0:30:19 | |
with his revolutionary Marine Chronometer, H4. | 0:30:19 | 0:30:23 | |
-This is H4. -This is H4. | 0:30:23 | 0:30:25 | |
Wonderful, it does look like an oversized pocket watch. | 0:30:27 | 0:30:32 | |
Absolutely. | 0:30:32 | 0:30:34 | |
People are often confused, | 0:30:34 | 0:30:36 | |
thinking it would've been worn in an enormous waistcoat pocket. | 0:30:36 | 0:30:39 | |
This wasn't Harrison's first attempt to solve the problem. | 0:30:39 | 0:30:45 | |
For over 25 years, | 0:30:45 | 0:30:46 | |
he'd set his sights on designing a clock that could handle | 0:30:46 | 0:30:50 | |
life at sea. After all, watches at the time were hopelessly inaccurate. | 0:30:50 | 0:30:55 | |
It was to Harrison's great credit that he was the one who | 0:30:56 | 0:31:00 | |
realised that was the wrong course and that he needed to rethink | 0:31:00 | 0:31:05 | |
the technology completely, that's when he started looking at watches. | 0:31:05 | 0:31:09 | |
He asked himself - why don't watches keep time well? And he realised | 0:31:09 | 0:31:13 | |
there was a very specific reason and that he could get round that reason. | 0:31:13 | 0:31:17 | |
-Would you like me to open it up and show you? -Yes, please. | 0:31:17 | 0:31:20 | |
It's very exciting to see this. | 0:31:27 | 0:31:29 | |
It's beautiful. | 0:31:29 | 0:31:31 | |
If you think that's beautiful, prepare to be astonished. | 0:31:33 | 0:31:36 | |
It's a wonderful thing. | 0:31:36 | 0:31:38 | |
Oh! Wow! Look at that. | 0:31:38 | 0:31:39 | |
-Isn't that something? -Incredible! That's really beautiful. | 0:31:41 | 0:31:45 | |
It's OK to start it if you'd like to hear it? | 0:31:48 | 0:31:51 | |
Yes, please. | 0:31:51 | 0:31:52 | |
I won't wind it very much. | 0:31:57 | 0:31:58 | |
That should do it... | 0:32:00 | 0:32:01 | |
To start it, you have to give it a swift swing... | 0:32:01 | 0:32:05 | |
There it goes. Yeah. | 0:32:07 | 0:32:10 | |
Wow! | 0:32:10 | 0:32:11 | |
So what was so special about the timekeeper, | 0:32:15 | 0:32:19 | |
-what was Harrison's breakthrough? -His improvement was | 0:32:19 | 0:32:22 | |
the specification of the large oscillating wheel, the balance. | 0:32:22 | 0:32:27 | |
In a clock, the oscillator is the pendulum, | 0:32:27 | 0:32:29 | |
but in a watch, the oscillator is a little wheel that swings to and fro. | 0:32:29 | 0:32:34 | |
-You can see it flashing away through the holes in the engraving. -Yeah. | 0:32:34 | 0:32:38 | |
Harrison was the first to recognise that with this balance | 0:32:38 | 0:32:41 | |
you needed to have large swings, | 0:32:41 | 0:32:43 | |
that is, not just swinging through a few degrees, | 0:32:43 | 0:32:47 | |
but big circles of swings, if you get me, | 0:32:47 | 0:32:50 | |
and also fast, it has to swing very fast. | 0:32:50 | 0:32:54 | |
In H4 the balance swings five times a second, | 0:32:54 | 0:32:58 | |
so that's really thrashing away in there. | 0:32:58 | 0:33:00 | |
So moving it around on a ship | 0:33:00 | 0:33:02 | |
you're not going to disturb that movement in the clock? | 0:33:02 | 0:33:06 | |
Yes, but received wisdom was you must not do this. | 0:33:06 | 0:33:10 | |
Every trained professional watchmaker had been told as an apprentice | 0:33:10 | 0:33:15 | |
never design a watch like this. | 0:33:15 | 0:33:17 | |
So Harrison was knowingly going against perceived wisdom, | 0:33:17 | 0:33:23 | |
so it required someone prepared to think completely outside the box | 0:33:23 | 0:33:28 | |
to enable him to succeed. | 0:33:28 | 0:33:29 | |
On its maiden voyage to the West Indies, after nine weeks at sea, | 0:33:33 | 0:33:37 | |
Harrison's clock was accurate to within just five seconds, | 0:33:37 | 0:33:41 | |
well inside the target of almost two minutes for such a journey. | 0:33:41 | 0:33:45 | |
And though it was several more years before he convinced the Board | 0:33:45 | 0:33:50 | |
that H4 wasn't a fluke, he finally received | 0:33:50 | 0:33:53 | |
over £23,000 in prize money, rewarding 43 years of work. | 0:33:53 | 0:33:57 | |
Thanks to John Harrison's clocks, | 0:33:59 | 0:34:02 | |
countless lives have been saved at sea ever since. | 0:34:02 | 0:34:05 | |
It really was a world-changing innovation. | 0:34:05 | 0:34:08 | |
It cemented Britain's position as a global power, allowing sea trade | 0:34:08 | 0:34:12 | |
to flourish, and played a part | 0:34:12 | 0:34:14 | |
in fixing Greenwich at the centre of world time once and for all. | 0:34:14 | 0:34:19 | |
This is the international meridian or zero longitude line. | 0:34:19 | 0:34:24 | |
Now I'm in the Western hemisphere, | 0:34:24 | 0:34:27 | |
over here I'm in the Eastern hemisphere. | 0:34:27 | 0:34:29 | |
300 years ago, a clockmaker from Yorkshire changed the world. | 0:34:32 | 0:34:36 | |
Can the new Longitude Prize inspire someone else to do the same? | 0:34:36 | 0:34:41 | |
In its report published in April this year, | 0:34:46 | 0:34:49 | |
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change made it clear | 0:34:49 | 0:34:52 | |
that the world faces an enormous challenge. | 0:34:52 | 0:34:55 | |
If we're to avoid dangerous climate change in the 21st century, | 0:34:55 | 0:34:58 | |
we need to cut global greenhouse gas emissions by 70%. | 0:34:58 | 0:35:03 | |
The effects of climate change are already being felt. | 0:35:05 | 0:35:08 | |
And by raising sea levels, changing our weather patterns, | 0:35:08 | 0:35:11 | |
and affecting our ability to grow food, | 0:35:11 | 0:35:14 | |
climate change will leave its mark on all of us. | 0:35:14 | 0:35:18 | |
And there'll be no single solution to this problem - | 0:35:18 | 0:35:20 | |
it will demand multiple technological innovations. | 0:35:20 | 0:35:24 | |
Most urgently we need to tackle the world's top three | 0:35:24 | 0:35:27 | |
sources of emissions - energy, industry and transport, | 0:35:27 | 0:35:31 | |
which alone accounts for 13% of emissions. | 0:35:31 | 0:35:35 | |
Dr Helen Czerski is investigating flight. | 0:35:35 | 0:35:38 | |
Ten years ago this would've been a revolutionary vehicle. | 0:35:43 | 0:35:47 | |
Because this is an electric car. | 0:35:47 | 0:35:51 | |
Today, electric cars are entering the mainstream. | 0:35:54 | 0:35:58 | |
Offering the potential for road travel to be carbon-free. | 0:35:59 | 0:36:04 | |
But one form of transport is miles behind | 0:36:14 | 0:36:16 | |
when it comes to low carbon innovation. | 0:36:16 | 0:36:20 | |
And that is air travel. | 0:36:24 | 0:36:26 | |
If you're in one of those, you know you're burning jet fuel. | 0:36:26 | 0:36:29 | |
And there are tonnes of carbons belching from those engines. | 0:36:29 | 0:36:33 | |
If we're going to hit current emissions targets, | 0:36:33 | 0:36:36 | |
just one return flight across the Atlantic would use up | 0:36:37 | 0:36:41 | |
a passenger's entire annual carbon budget. | 0:36:41 | 0:36:44 | |
To keep up with our appetite for flight, | 0:36:44 | 0:36:46 | |
we need a low carbon alternative. | 0:36:46 | 0:36:49 | |
There aren't many yet. | 0:36:58 | 0:37:00 | |
But in Slovenia, | 0:37:01 | 0:37:03 | |
one family-owned company has been | 0:37:03 | 0:37:05 | |
experimenting with carbon-free flight, on a small scale. | 0:37:05 | 0:37:09 | |
Launched in 2012, | 0:37:09 | 0:37:10 | |
The Taurus Electro won't be replacing Jumbo jets any time soon, | 0:37:10 | 0:37:15 | |
but it's one of the most eco-friendly planes in the world. | 0:37:15 | 0:37:19 | |
What is it that's so special about this plane? | 0:37:19 | 0:37:22 | |
Well, there's no fuel involved with this aeroplane at all. | 0:37:22 | 0:37:27 | |
it's an electric-powered aeroplane that takes energy | 0:37:27 | 0:37:30 | |
from the battery and moves about by using this little electric motor. | 0:37:30 | 0:37:34 | |
-This is the battery. -It's really small! | 0:37:34 | 0:37:37 | |
It's really small! | 0:37:37 | 0:37:38 | |
It may seem small, but it carries | 0:37:38 | 0:37:40 | |
about tenfold of what a car battery would - | 0:37:40 | 0:37:42 | |
and it's only three times the size. | 0:37:42 | 0:37:44 | |
In fact we're using the highest energy density batteries | 0:37:44 | 0:37:48 | |
that are available on the market. | 0:37:48 | 0:37:50 | |
We're starting to see lots of electric cars on the road, | 0:37:50 | 0:37:52 | |
why aren't there more electric aircraft? | 0:37:52 | 0:37:54 | |
Because it's much more difficult - the aeroplane has to lift the weight | 0:37:54 | 0:37:59 | |
of the battery pack, plus the aeroplane and the people up aloft. | 0:37:59 | 0:38:02 | |
Well, let's see what it can do. | 0:38:05 | 0:38:08 | |
OK, electric aircraft, here we go. | 0:38:11 | 0:38:14 | |
It's so smooth. | 0:38:32 | 0:38:33 | |
The batteries contain enough power to get the aircraft up to | 0:38:38 | 0:38:41 | |
an altitude of 2,500 metres. | 0:38:41 | 0:38:43 | |
At which point we go into economy mode. | 0:38:43 | 0:38:47 | |
ENGINE DROPS OFF | 0:38:47 | 0:38:50 | |
-Oh, God. -Stop the engine. | 0:38:50 | 0:38:52 | |
SHE LAUGHS NERVOUSLY | 0:38:53 | 0:38:54 | |
I wasn't expecting that! | 0:38:54 | 0:38:57 | |
-Actually, now we are a glider. -Right! | 0:38:57 | 0:39:00 | |
At the push of a button, the engine shuts down, the propeller tucks away, | 0:39:00 | 0:39:04 | |
and the plane becomes a glider. | 0:39:04 | 0:39:07 | |
It really is carbon-free flight. | 0:39:08 | 0:39:11 | |
But with only an hour or so's battery life in total, | 0:39:14 | 0:39:17 | |
you can't get very far without thermals providing extra lift. | 0:39:17 | 0:39:21 | |
That's no use for a passenger plane which needs to fly | 0:39:21 | 0:39:25 | |
anywhere in the world. | 0:39:25 | 0:39:27 | |
And bigger batteries would just add weight and demand even more power. | 0:39:27 | 0:39:31 | |
The flight today was just two people on a fun trip, | 0:39:35 | 0:39:38 | |
but what we want | 0:39:38 | 0:39:39 | |
is to transport hundreds of people for hundreds of miles. | 0:39:39 | 0:39:43 | |
And the problem with scaling up this technology is that | 0:39:43 | 0:39:46 | |
the best batteries we can foresee just can't do that job. | 0:39:46 | 0:39:50 | |
Another approach to the problem might be to abandon batteries | 0:39:52 | 0:39:55 | |
and explore completely new power systems. | 0:39:55 | 0:39:58 | |
Like those being developed to drive the next generation of spacecraft. | 0:40:00 | 0:40:04 | |
ENGINE ROARS | 0:40:07 | 0:40:10 | |
Here in Oxfordshire, | 0:40:10 | 0:40:11 | |
a team of engineers are developing a revolutionary engine. | 0:40:11 | 0:40:15 | |
Its fuel has greater energy density than batteries or fossil fuels. | 0:40:15 | 0:40:20 | |
It runs on liquid hydrogen. | 0:40:20 | 0:40:22 | |
How much better is hydrogen than other available fuels? | 0:40:23 | 0:40:26 | |
It's about two-and-a-half times the calorific value | 0:40:26 | 0:40:29 | |
per kilogram of a hydrocarbon. | 0:40:29 | 0:40:31 | |
Which means that gives you the best fuel consumption | 0:40:31 | 0:40:34 | |
possible for the engine. | 0:40:34 | 0:40:36 | |
This isn't just about getting into space, | 0:40:36 | 0:40:38 | |
you can use these ideas for commercial flight as well. | 0:40:38 | 0:40:41 | |
Yes, and such a vehicle could fly halfway round the world at Mach 5, | 0:40:41 | 0:40:45 | |
which would reduce the journey time | 0:40:45 | 0:40:48 | |
to Australia from something like 24 hours down to about four-and-a-half. | 0:40:48 | 0:40:52 | |
You'll just have time to drink a few gin and tonics | 0:40:52 | 0:40:54 | |
and watch the movie, then you'll land. | 0:40:54 | 0:40:56 | |
So it's got the power for a passenger plane, but the real bonus is | 0:40:56 | 0:41:01 | |
that burning hydrogen leaves an exhaust of almost pure water vapour. | 0:41:01 | 0:41:06 | |
So why isn't hydrogen used to power our planes normally? | 0:41:06 | 0:41:10 | |
Because it's incredibly expensive is the simple answer. | 0:41:10 | 0:41:13 | |
You've got to make the hydrogen somehow, | 0:41:13 | 0:41:15 | |
and then you have to liquefy it. | 0:41:15 | 0:41:16 | |
And the liquefaction absorbs a lot of energy, | 0:41:16 | 0:41:19 | |
and that makes it very expensive. | 0:41:19 | 0:41:22 | |
Sadly, it's not just the cost. | 0:41:23 | 0:41:26 | |
To make hydrogen fuel in the first place relies mostly on fossil fuels. | 0:41:26 | 0:41:31 | |
And that means carbon emissions. | 0:41:31 | 0:41:33 | |
We need a cheap, clean hydrogen source before this technology | 0:41:33 | 0:41:37 | |
can truly offer carbon-free passenger flight. | 0:41:37 | 0:41:40 | |
It's just over 100 years since humans first achieved powered flight, | 0:41:43 | 0:41:47 | |
and for all of that time it's been powered by fossil fuels. | 0:41:47 | 0:41:52 | |
But now, there are hints that it could be different. | 0:41:52 | 0:41:55 | |
There are new ideas - battery technologies, hydrogen, biofuels - | 0:41:55 | 0:41:59 | |
and all we need is a spark that will take us on | 0:41:59 | 0:42:03 | |
to a revolution in air travel and give us carbon-free flight. | 0:42:03 | 0:42:08 | |
If you choose this problem as the subject of the Longitude Prize, | 0:42:10 | 0:42:14 | |
the winner would need to build a plane that can fly from London | 0:42:14 | 0:42:17 | |
to Edinburgh at a comparable speed to today's planes - | 0:42:17 | 0:42:21 | |
with no carbon emissions. | 0:42:21 | 0:42:23 | |
The selection of flight was partly | 0:42:24 | 0:42:26 | |
motivated by the fact that it is a challenge that can be | 0:42:26 | 0:42:29 | |
addressed by small groups of creative individuals. | 0:42:29 | 0:42:33 | |
It doesn't require vast resources | 0:42:33 | 0:42:35 | |
to try and make a different sort of aircraft. | 0:42:35 | 0:42:38 | |
The world's population is still growing at an alarming rate. | 0:42:42 | 0:42:45 | |
In fact, there are nearly twice as many people | 0:42:45 | 0:42:48 | |
alive on the planet today as there were when I was born, | 0:42:48 | 0:42:51 | |
placing the planet's precious natural resources | 0:42:51 | 0:42:55 | |
under ever-increasing pressure. | 0:42:55 | 0:42:57 | |
In its 2014 report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change | 0:42:57 | 0:43:01 | |
identified the supply of fresh water | 0:43:01 | 0:43:04 | |
to the global population as an area of major concern, | 0:43:04 | 0:43:08 | |
and the World Health Organisation has predicted that by 2025 | 0:43:08 | 0:43:12 | |
half of the world's population will be living in water-stressed areas. | 0:43:12 | 0:43:17 | |
Professor Iain Stewart is looking at the immense challenge | 0:43:18 | 0:43:21 | |
of supplying the world with fresh water. | 0:43:21 | 0:43:24 | |
There's a reason we call Earth the Blue Planet. | 0:43:31 | 0:43:34 | |
There's a lot of water on it. | 0:43:34 | 0:43:36 | |
Something like a billion trillion litres in fact. | 0:43:36 | 0:43:39 | |
Of course, only a tiny proportion of that is water clean enough | 0:43:39 | 0:43:42 | |
that you can drink or put on your crops. | 0:43:42 | 0:43:45 | |
97% of it is sea water, full of salt. | 0:43:45 | 0:43:50 | |
And if you try and drink that, the consequences can be fatal. | 0:43:50 | 0:43:53 | |
The obvious solution is to convert this vast water resource | 0:43:57 | 0:44:00 | |
into something you can drink, by separating the water from the salt. | 0:44:00 | 0:44:04 | |
But that isn't quite as easy as it sounds. | 0:44:04 | 0:44:07 | |
So this is a solar still, which is designed to take the heat | 0:44:10 | 0:44:15 | |
of the sun and convert dirty, salty water into lovely drinking water. | 0:44:15 | 0:44:19 | |
It's basically an inflatable bag, and I'm going to fill it with | 0:44:22 | 0:44:26 | |
a blend of water, salt and coffee for an authentic muddy look. | 0:44:26 | 0:44:31 | |
I know it doesn't look nice. | 0:44:32 | 0:44:34 | |
But now we just let the sun do its work. | 0:44:34 | 0:44:36 | |
Under the sun's heat, pure water evaporates inside. | 0:44:39 | 0:44:43 | |
It condenses on the lid, and eventually collects in the bag. | 0:44:43 | 0:44:47 | |
Of course, there's only one real test of all of this. | 0:44:49 | 0:44:52 | |
Well, that's all right really. But actually, there's not a lot of it. | 0:44:58 | 0:45:01 | |
We've had about five hours of pretty constant sunshine. | 0:45:01 | 0:45:04 | |
And that's the problem really. | 0:45:04 | 0:45:05 | |
Generating fresh water from saltwater using just | 0:45:05 | 0:45:08 | |
the energy of the sun is a slow business. | 0:45:08 | 0:45:12 | |
It might be OK for occasional use, but for a permanent supply, | 0:45:12 | 0:45:16 | |
we need a lot more energy. | 0:45:16 | 0:45:17 | |
Even here in London engineers are turning to sea water | 0:45:20 | 0:45:24 | |
to boost dwindling water supplies. | 0:45:24 | 0:45:26 | |
This is one of the most advanced desalination plants in the world. | 0:45:27 | 0:45:31 | |
This is where it all starts. This is the Thames. | 0:45:33 | 0:45:35 | |
London is up there, and the sea's down here, | 0:45:35 | 0:45:38 | |
so this water is really pretty salty. | 0:45:38 | 0:45:41 | |
The water itself gets sucked up by these huge pipes here, | 0:45:41 | 0:45:45 | |
up to 220 million litres every day. | 0:45:45 | 0:45:48 | |
Once all the muck has been filtered out, the real job begins. | 0:45:51 | 0:45:56 | |
But instead of evaporation, this place relies on pure brute force. | 0:45:56 | 0:46:00 | |
So, Simon, how do you get the salt out of the water? | 0:46:00 | 0:46:03 | |
We've got to force the water from the salty solution, | 0:46:03 | 0:46:06 | |
and we use these membranes to do that. | 0:46:06 | 0:46:09 | |
So these rolls here...is kind of what's in these tubes, is it? | 0:46:09 | 0:46:13 | |
Absolutely, we've got about 10,000 of these on site. | 0:46:13 | 0:46:16 | |
And that's exactly what's in each one of these tubes. | 0:46:16 | 0:46:19 | |
So how does this work then? | 0:46:19 | 0:46:21 | |
So you've got the salty solution, | 0:46:21 | 0:46:22 | |
and it works its way through the membrane, | 0:46:22 | 0:46:25 | |
and really, you get the clean water coming out through the centre. | 0:46:25 | 0:46:28 | |
So this is where it ends up then, is it? | 0:46:28 | 0:46:29 | |
-Down that kind of tube there? -Absolutely. | 0:46:29 | 0:46:31 | |
The system is fighting against a natural process called osmosis, | 0:46:33 | 0:46:37 | |
which normally drives water INTO salty solutions, not out of them. | 0:46:37 | 0:46:42 | |
It's fighting that process that takes all the effort. | 0:46:42 | 0:46:45 | |
So, if you think, the normal pressure | 0:46:45 | 0:46:48 | |
-in a car tyre is about, what, two bar? -Yeah. | 0:46:48 | 0:46:50 | |
This is about 84 bar - 40 times higher, the pressure, | 0:46:50 | 0:46:54 | |
to force the salty solution against this. | 0:46:54 | 0:46:56 | |
It's the cost of actually providing the pressure behind that, | 0:46:56 | 0:46:59 | |
that's the challenge. | 0:46:59 | 0:47:00 | |
At these pressures, the valuable membranes quickly clog up with dirt, | 0:47:02 | 0:47:06 | |
making drinking water from here around about 15 times | 0:47:06 | 0:47:09 | |
more expensive than regular water. | 0:47:09 | 0:47:11 | |
We desperately need a cheaper, more efficient way | 0:47:13 | 0:47:16 | |
to convert large volumes. | 0:47:16 | 0:47:17 | |
No-one's found the answer yet. | 0:47:19 | 0:47:21 | |
But here in Gibraltar, engineers are trying something new. | 0:47:23 | 0:47:27 | |
-Peter? -Yes? -Hi. -You must be Iain. | 0:47:30 | 0:47:34 | |
'This new system separates salt from water by | 0:47:34 | 0:47:37 | |
'taking advantage of osmosis, rather than fighting it. | 0:47:37 | 0:47:40 | |
'And it can handle 18,000 litres a day.' | 0:47:40 | 0:47:42 | |
So what's actually going on inside? | 0:47:44 | 0:47:46 | |
If we could cut one of them open, what would we see? | 0:47:46 | 0:47:48 | |
What you'd see inside of these is some hollow fibres. | 0:47:48 | 0:47:52 | |
-So this is a hollow fibre membrane. -These are tubes? | 0:47:52 | 0:47:55 | |
-These are tubes. Very, very fine. -Oh, like hair. | 0:47:55 | 0:47:59 | |
Sea water flows on the outside of these fibres, | 0:47:59 | 0:48:03 | |
and through the fibres we pump what we call draw solution. | 0:48:03 | 0:48:07 | |
'That draw solution's the key, | 0:48:08 | 0:48:10 | |
'because it's more concentrated than sea water.' | 0:48:10 | 0:48:13 | |
So, by the natural process of osmosis, | 0:48:13 | 0:48:15 | |
we draw across, effectively, almost pure water. | 0:48:15 | 0:48:18 | |
I guess the point is that there's really no energy involved. | 0:48:18 | 0:48:21 | |
In this step there's very little, it just happens naturally. | 0:48:21 | 0:48:24 | |
'It's a step forwards, although for now, they still need to use | 0:48:25 | 0:48:29 | |
'pressure to separate the water from the draw solution. | 0:48:29 | 0:48:33 | |
'Overall, it's more efficient, but only just.' | 0:48:33 | 0:48:36 | |
OK, so let's have a... | 0:48:39 | 0:48:40 | |
-Slightly nervous! -Shouldn't be. | 0:48:42 | 0:48:45 | |
No, that's really nice. | 0:48:47 | 0:48:49 | |
'New systems like this are setting the scene for a revolution | 0:48:50 | 0:48:54 | |
'in water treatment, but the real goal is still a long way off.' | 0:48:54 | 0:48:57 | |
So the big question is, is there an even better way | 0:48:59 | 0:49:02 | |
to take the almost limitless supplies of that stuff | 0:49:02 | 0:49:06 | |
and turn it into water we can use? | 0:49:06 | 0:49:08 | |
'Fresh water is increasingly precious yet essential. | 0:49:11 | 0:49:15 | |
'If this is the problem you choose as the most important to tackle, | 0:49:15 | 0:49:18 | |
'then the prize will be awarded to whoever can create a cheap | 0:49:18 | 0:49:22 | |
'and environmentally sustainable technology | 0:49:22 | 0:49:25 | |
'to produce fresh water anywhere in the world.' | 0:49:25 | 0:49:28 | |
You just have to read headlines, | 0:49:29 | 0:49:31 | |
whether it's in Beijing or California and so on, | 0:49:31 | 0:49:34 | |
to know that the existing fresh water infrastructure is | 0:49:34 | 0:49:38 | |
really under colossal strain and we need some radical | 0:49:38 | 0:49:42 | |
new approaches to plumb the planet in a fundamentally different way. | 0:49:42 | 0:49:47 | |
An undeniable benefit of modern medicine is that all of us | 0:49:49 | 0:49:53 | |
can expect to live longer. | 0:49:53 | 0:49:55 | |
But an ageing population brings challenges of its own, | 0:49:55 | 0:49:59 | |
in particular the task of caring for those living with dementia, | 0:49:59 | 0:50:03 | |
including its most common form, Alzheimer's disease. | 0:50:03 | 0:50:07 | |
According to the Alzheimer's Society the number of people living with | 0:50:07 | 0:50:10 | |
the disease is set to double in the next 25 years, | 0:50:10 | 0:50:13 | |
placing an immense burden not just on the healthcare system | 0:50:13 | 0:50:17 | |
but on individuals, on their families and care networks. | 0:50:17 | 0:50:21 | |
'As many as 50,000 people are expected to leave work this year | 0:50:23 | 0:50:27 | |
'to cope with the demands of caring for sufferers. | 0:50:27 | 0:50:30 | |
'Finally, Dr Kevin Fong investigates how technology | 0:50:32 | 0:50:35 | |
'might also help with this imminent crisis.' | 0:50:35 | 0:50:38 | |
-Hello! -Hello! -Hello, how are you? -Fine, good, come in. Do come in. | 0:50:41 | 0:50:45 | |
'I've come to see Anne Delve.' | 0:50:47 | 0:50:49 | |
-Anne. -Hello, nice to see you. | 0:50:49 | 0:50:51 | |
'Five years ago, she was diagnosed with dementia.' | 0:50:51 | 0:50:54 | |
Things aren't quite right sometimes | 0:50:54 | 0:50:57 | |
but you have to get that in the right place in the head. | 0:50:57 | 0:51:02 | |
'Her sister Joy has moved in to give her constant care, | 0:51:03 | 0:51:07 | |
'and their mother Joan also helps.' | 0:51:07 | 0:51:09 | |
For Anne, I think knowing that she was ill was hard initially, | 0:51:10 | 0:51:14 | |
but also, when you've got to accept that you've got to have help, | 0:51:14 | 0:51:17 | |
as with anyone with any kind of illness, it's really hard. | 0:51:17 | 0:51:21 | |
Yeah, because, I used to... | 0:51:21 | 0:51:24 | |
-used to go anywhere. -Mm. | 0:51:24 | 0:51:27 | |
Erm, but, you know, that's how things are. | 0:51:27 | 0:51:31 | |
It's the loss of independence, isn't it? | 0:51:31 | 0:51:33 | |
'For people with dementia, even simple chores can become difficult, | 0:51:35 | 0:51:40 | |
'as memory fades and decision-making gets harder. | 0:51:40 | 0:51:43 | |
'But encouraging the keep-up of everyday tasks | 0:51:44 | 0:51:47 | |
'can help slow the decline. | 0:51:47 | 0:51:50 | |
-You've got the tap here for the sink. -Yeah. | 0:51:50 | 0:51:52 | |
-D'you remember how to turn it on? -No. | 0:51:52 | 0:51:54 | |
If you want to turn the tap on, | 0:51:54 | 0:51:56 | |
you'd use the little switch here, d'you remember? Just over there? | 0:51:56 | 0:52:00 | |
You can do that, and pull it towards you. Just pull it. | 0:52:00 | 0:52:03 | |
-I suppose I could. -Give it a go. -I'm not going to burn myself. | 0:52:03 | 0:52:06 | |
No, that's cold water. | 0:52:06 | 0:52:08 | |
-And then you can wash the cups up for me, is that all right? -Yes, yes. | 0:52:08 | 0:52:12 | |
-You don't mind, do you? -No. | 0:52:12 | 0:52:13 | |
-Shall I wash this off now, then? -Yes, Anne. -Leave this on here? | 0:52:15 | 0:52:19 | |
Do you want to put it on the drainer? That's it, Anne, brilliant. | 0:52:19 | 0:52:23 | |
'While many people with dementia have to move into care homes, | 0:52:23 | 0:52:27 | |
'sufferers are normally much better off in a familiar environment.' | 0:52:27 | 0:52:32 | |
It seems important for you that you're at home and not | 0:52:32 | 0:52:34 | |
-somewhere else... -I think so, definitely. | 0:52:34 | 0:52:37 | |
-..being looked after by strangers. -Yes, definitely. | 0:52:37 | 0:52:39 | |
That is great for Anne's health and her wellbeing | 0:52:39 | 0:52:42 | |
because we're carrying on doing what is normal in the home. | 0:52:42 | 0:52:46 | |
'But this sort of care can be a huge burden on the family, | 0:52:46 | 0:52:50 | |
'so the hope is that technology might offer help. | 0:52:50 | 0:52:53 | |
'At Birmingham University, | 0:52:55 | 0:52:57 | |
'researchers are one step closer to the ultimate answer. | 0:52:57 | 0:53:00 | |
'A robot carer. He's called Bob.' | 0:53:02 | 0:53:04 | |
Bob can learn, in somebody's home, | 0:53:04 | 0:53:06 | |
where they typically leave their newspaper or their slippers or | 0:53:06 | 0:53:10 | |
their keys, and use the information so he can quickly find things. | 0:53:10 | 0:53:14 | |
Object located. | 0:53:14 | 0:53:15 | |
And you can see that what he's done is | 0:53:15 | 0:53:17 | |
he's found the keyboard and a bottle. | 0:53:17 | 0:53:19 | |
Bob can monitor the positions of people, | 0:53:19 | 0:53:22 | |
so we're looking to detect, has someone fallen over? | 0:53:22 | 0:53:25 | |
And also remind people or notify carers that someone's | 0:53:25 | 0:53:27 | |
forgotten to take their medicine or they haven't got up at the time they should, | 0:53:27 | 0:53:31 | |
or they're getting up at the time they shouldn't, | 0:53:31 | 0:53:33 | |
so they've gone out and walked around in the middle of the night. | 0:53:33 | 0:53:36 | |
'With today's technology, Bob's abilities are restricted. | 0:53:36 | 0:53:40 | |
'Stairs are a problem, it doesn't have useful arms yet, | 0:53:40 | 0:53:43 | |
'and its decision-making is limited. | 0:53:43 | 0:53:46 | |
'For now, domestic robots are still the stuff of science fiction.' | 0:53:46 | 0:53:50 | |
Of course, these things are a very long way away. | 0:53:50 | 0:53:53 | |
Things are maturing at different rates in robotics, | 0:53:53 | 0:53:55 | |
but one day we'll be able to put these things together. | 0:53:55 | 0:53:59 | |
'Another approach scientists are exploring | 0:53:59 | 0:54:02 | |
'is to make the home itself part of the caring system.' | 0:54:02 | 0:54:05 | |
Pretty ordinary looking kitchen. Tell me what's special about it. | 0:54:05 | 0:54:08 | |
OK, so, physically it's meant to be unremarkable in that it's | 0:54:08 | 0:54:11 | |
meant to be like the sort of kitchen you might have in an everyday home. | 0:54:11 | 0:54:15 | |
We've got sensors in the utensils, sensors in the appliances | 0:54:15 | 0:54:19 | |
and sensors in the worktops themselves to give you | 0:54:19 | 0:54:21 | |
a little bit of a nudge at an appropriate time. | 0:54:21 | 0:54:24 | |
Well, let's have a look at making a cup of tea in this automated kitchen. | 0:54:24 | 0:54:28 | |
So, kettle on. | 0:54:28 | 0:54:29 | |
The kettle itself has a sensor in that measures how much water | 0:54:29 | 0:54:32 | |
is in there, so it knows that you've got enough for a cup of tea. | 0:54:32 | 0:54:35 | |
The cups have a sensor in. | 0:54:35 | 0:54:37 | |
Open the tea caddy to get a teabag. | 0:54:37 | 0:54:39 | |
And as you've just seen there, our environment's reasoned | 0:54:39 | 0:54:42 | |
that our kettle's boiled, our cup's out, we're making a cup of tea. | 0:54:42 | 0:54:45 | |
And it knows that we want to go for a teabag, | 0:54:45 | 0:54:47 | |
and I'm assuming you can't instrument that as well. | 0:54:47 | 0:54:50 | |
Well, actually, we do in this case. | 0:54:50 | 0:54:52 | |
So we use sensors in the teabag's tag here. | 0:54:52 | 0:54:55 | |
Pour hot water into the cup. | 0:54:55 | 0:54:57 | |
'With sensors attached to everything I need to make a cuppa, | 0:54:57 | 0:55:01 | |
'the computer guides me through every step...' | 0:55:01 | 0:55:04 | |
Pour some milk into the cup. | 0:55:04 | 0:55:06 | |
-OK. -There you go. -It wants me to get on with making your tea, yeah. | 0:55:06 | 0:55:09 | |
'..and monitors what I'm doing all the way.' | 0:55:09 | 0:55:13 | |
And so it knows that that's a stirring action, | 0:55:13 | 0:55:15 | |
it's seeing that through the motion of the accelerometer. | 0:55:15 | 0:55:18 | |
Whereas if you put the sensor down... | 0:55:18 | 0:55:20 | |
-I'll just leave it there. -..it'll know that you're not stirring. | 0:55:20 | 0:55:23 | |
That's pretty impressive. | 0:55:23 | 0:55:25 | |
'This system gives us a glimpse of what technology could make possible. | 0:55:25 | 0:55:30 | |
'But the reality is it doesn't yet have | 0:55:30 | 0:55:32 | |
'the artificial intelligence needed to replace a human carer.' | 0:55:32 | 0:55:36 | |
Dementia is one of the most difficult | 0:55:38 | 0:55:40 | |
and devastating problems that we face in science and society today. | 0:55:40 | 0:55:44 | |
We're a long way from any meaningful treatment, much less a cure. | 0:55:44 | 0:55:49 | |
But in the meantime there's the hope that technology might allow us | 0:55:49 | 0:55:52 | |
to live our lives as fully as possible for as long as possible. | 0:55:52 | 0:55:57 | |
-Come on. -All right. | 0:55:57 | 0:55:58 | |
'Most of us will know someone with some form of dementia | 0:55:58 | 0:56:02 | |
'during our lives, and it's a growing problem. | 0:56:02 | 0:56:06 | |
'If this gets your vote, | 0:56:06 | 0:56:07 | |
'then the challenge to potential winners will be to develop | 0:56:07 | 0:56:10 | |
'an affordable technology that's truly capable of giving independence | 0:56:10 | 0:56:15 | |
'to people living with the condition.' | 0:56:15 | 0:56:17 | |
It's a cruel disease, as you watch the person you love change, | 0:56:17 | 0:56:22 | |
and you lose them, but you still want to support them. | 0:56:22 | 0:56:26 | |
We can't throw the money at a human caring system, so we need to think | 0:56:26 | 0:56:30 | |
about how we can use technology and smart devices to enable them | 0:56:30 | 0:56:36 | |
to live on their own with dignity for longer. | 0:56:36 | 0:56:39 | |
Carbon free flight, paralysis or food? | 0:56:42 | 0:56:46 | |
Dementia care, fresh water or antibiotics? | 0:56:46 | 0:56:50 | |
'Six vital problems facing us today, | 0:56:52 | 0:56:55 | |
'but only one can benefit from the £10 million Longitude Prize Fund.' | 0:56:55 | 0:57:00 | |
We want to get the whole country involved in deciding | 0:57:02 | 0:57:06 | |
which of these challenges the £10 million prize fund should be | 0:57:06 | 0:57:11 | |
offered for, and in just a few moments, | 0:57:11 | 0:57:14 | |
when this programme finishes, | 0:57:14 | 0:57:16 | |
you can cast your vote by text or online. | 0:57:16 | 0:57:19 | |
'Texts will be charged at your standard rate. | 0:57:55 | 0:57:58 | |
'Or you can vote for free online at bbc.co.uk/horizon. | 0:57:58 | 0:58:04 | |
'There you'll find Terms and Conditions | 0:58:04 | 0:58:06 | |
'and lots more information on the challenges too. | 0:58:06 | 0:58:09 | |
'Voting will close at 7.10pm on the 25th of June with the result | 0:58:12 | 0:58:17 | |
'announced live on The One Show that night.' | 0:58:17 | 0:58:19 | |
It may take several years | 0:58:22 | 0:58:24 | |
but eventually someone somewhere will come up with | 0:58:24 | 0:58:27 | |
an effective solution to the challenge you choose, | 0:58:27 | 0:58:31 | |
and a genuine claim to the new Longitude Prize. | 0:58:31 | 0:58:35 | |
300 years ago, that someone was a clockmaker from Yorkshire. | 0:58:35 | 0:58:40 | |
This time, could it be you? | 0:58:40 | 0:58:42 |