0:00:02 > 0:00:07'Man has taken his greatest stride towards turning light into day.'
0:00:07 > 0:00:09'The invention of microfilm has...'
0:00:09 > 0:00:11'This is the software...'
0:00:11 > 0:00:13'Identified as penicillium...'
0:00:13 > 0:00:15'The laser beam has an information capacity...'
0:00:15 > 0:00:18'The white heat of technology come to life...'
0:00:20 > 0:00:23This is D-4, one of eight hangars
0:00:23 > 0:00:25belonging to the UK's Science Museum,
0:00:25 > 0:00:29a mind-boggling collection of hundreds of thousands of inventions,
0:00:29 > 0:00:32all of which have changed our world.
0:00:33 > 0:00:38Everything from steam engines to some of the very first computers.
0:00:40 > 0:00:45I find this an inspiring place. A reminder of how inventive we can be.
0:00:47 > 0:00:49But I've come here to find out about
0:00:49 > 0:00:52some of the most exciting of today's inventions.
0:00:54 > 0:00:58I am going to meet the men and women who are the driving forces
0:00:58 > 0:01:01behind some of the inventions that are changing our world.
0:01:03 > 0:01:08They're pioneers in four areas of science that are shaping our future.
0:01:11 > 0:01:14But it's not just about the inventions themselves.
0:01:14 > 0:01:18I want to know how they go about it, what inspires them,
0:01:18 > 0:01:20how do they drive their ideas forward
0:01:20 > 0:01:24and ultimately end up with a ground-breaking invention?
0:01:25 > 0:01:29I am hoping to get a sneak preview of tomorrow's world.
0:01:49 > 0:01:54For over a million years, this, a simple flint tool,
0:01:54 > 0:01:57was the pinnacle of human invention.
0:01:57 > 0:02:02It remained pretty much unchanged for 30,000 generations.
0:02:02 > 0:02:04But in the past 150 years,
0:02:04 > 0:02:08the pace of invention, from planes to rockets to smart phones,
0:02:08 > 0:02:14has been extraordinary and it shows no signs of slowing down.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17In the US alone, more patents have been filed
0:02:17 > 0:02:23since the year 2000 than in the previous 40 years combined.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27More scientific papers are being published globally year on year.
0:02:27 > 0:02:31And more countries than ever before are getting involved.
0:02:34 > 0:02:37Today anyone can innovate, anywhere in the world, whether that's
0:02:37 > 0:02:41in the West in a garage or in Nairobi on a mobile phone.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44Google, two guys from Stanford University wrote
0:02:44 > 0:02:47a very simple algorithm that now is a multi-billion dollar company.
0:02:47 > 0:02:51I think we're only at the very beginning of our journey.
0:02:51 > 0:02:54If you like new ideas, and you like disrupting things,
0:02:54 > 0:02:56and you like change and doing the new,
0:02:56 > 0:02:58then there has never been a better time to be alive.
0:03:00 > 0:03:03'We have...we have lift-off.'
0:03:04 > 0:03:07I want to start with one area that has fascinated me
0:03:07 > 0:03:10since I was a child -
0:03:10 > 0:03:12the exploration of space.
0:03:14 > 0:03:17It's an area which is being revolutionised
0:03:17 > 0:03:20by 21st-century inventors,
0:03:20 > 0:03:23like Peter Diamandis.
0:03:26 > 0:03:30He started out as an engineer and physician,
0:03:30 > 0:03:35but now he's an entrepreneur who's spearheading a new race to space.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39OK, sure. OK.
0:03:39 > 0:03:41Do you need me to draft...
0:03:41 > 0:03:43And he has some friends in high places.
0:03:44 > 0:03:48OK. It's the White House.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53If I had to put one thing that inspired me,
0:03:53 > 0:03:55it was the Apollo programme.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58You know, seeing humanity going to the moon
0:03:58 > 0:04:02and then seeing America stop going in 1972,
0:04:02 > 0:04:05that really said, OK, they're not going.
0:04:05 > 0:04:07What am I going to do to get us there?
0:04:10 > 0:04:13The lunar programme was brought to a halt in part
0:04:13 > 0:04:15because of the huge price tag.
0:04:16 > 0:04:20The equivalent of over 100 billion in today's money.
0:04:22 > 0:04:27Peter's challenge was to find a way to encourage the private sector
0:04:27 > 0:04:29to pick up where the state had left off.
0:04:33 > 0:04:36He found inspiration in one of history's great aviators,
0:04:36 > 0:04:38Charles Lindbergh,
0:04:38 > 0:04:41and his quest to be the first to cross the Atlantic solo.
0:04:43 > 0:04:47One day a very close friend of mine gave me a copy of Lindbergh's book
0:04:47 > 0:04:49and I read about the fact that
0:04:49 > 0:04:52Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic in 1927 to win a prize.
0:04:52 > 0:04:56I had no idea. He was going after a 25,000 prize
0:04:56 > 0:05:02and that 25,000 drove nine different teams who spent 400,000,
0:05:02 > 0:05:0516 times the prize money, going after that prize.
0:05:05 > 0:05:08The idea of creating a space prize
0:05:08 > 0:05:10for private space flight came to mind.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13I called it the X Prize cos I had no idea who would put up the money.
0:05:13 > 0:05:17The X was a variable to be replaced by the name of the sponsor.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23It's a pleasure to celebrate the launch of the Google Lunar X Prize.
0:05:26 > 0:05:30In 2007, Diamandis set up the Google Lunar X Prize.
0:05:33 > 0:05:37It offers a 20 million reward to the first private team
0:05:37 > 0:05:41that can successfully land a robot on the moon,
0:05:41 > 0:05:44get it to travel 500 metres across its surface...
0:05:46 > 0:05:50..and send data and high-definition images back to earth.
0:05:52 > 0:05:56The Google Lunar X Prize is a competition that will demonstrate
0:05:56 > 0:05:59that small dedicated teams of individuals can do
0:05:59 > 0:06:02what was thought only once possible by governments.
0:06:05 > 0:06:09One of the front-runners for the prize is Moon Express.
0:06:12 > 0:06:15They're based here at Moffatt Field, California,
0:06:15 > 0:06:19where they're using some of NASA's surplus research facilities.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23Their CEO is Bob Richards.
0:06:25 > 0:06:27The Google Lunar X Prize is a master stroke.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31It's an inspiration and a motivation for small teams to try
0:06:31 > 0:06:34what was only accessible to superpowers in the past.
0:06:34 > 0:06:36What used to take thousands of people with slide rules
0:06:36 > 0:06:40can now be done with young engineers sitting in a room
0:06:40 > 0:06:44with desktop computers, and the spacecraft themselves can be
0:06:44 > 0:06:47so much smaller because micro-miniaturisation of technology
0:06:47 > 0:06:50has shrunk electronics and shrunk propulsion,
0:06:50 > 0:06:54and this brings the economics into the realm of the private sector.
0:06:54 > 0:06:58Moon Express's technology is already pretty advanced.
0:07:00 > 0:07:03So this is the lander test facility that we use
0:07:03 > 0:07:07to replicate the spacecraft and what it experiences on its journey to the moon,
0:07:07 > 0:07:10all the way from Mission Control to its landing on the surface,
0:07:10 > 0:07:13so we can actually make it think it's landing on the moon
0:07:13 > 0:07:16and we can watch how it behaves and adjust all the software
0:07:16 > 0:07:20so it just perfectly knows where it is and can land softly on the moon.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27Their work isn't open to the public...
0:07:28 > 0:07:30..yet.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36The team have been designing unique landing gear
0:07:36 > 0:07:39and cutting-edge miniature radar systems.
0:07:48 > 0:07:52And the competition is attracting young scientists and engineers.
0:07:54 > 0:07:58The project manager, Mike Vergalla, is just 27.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04'What we're doing is taking commercial off-the-shelf parts
0:08:04 > 0:08:07'and we're able to make a full vehicle in a very tiny package.'
0:08:07 > 0:08:10Probably good to couple that with the RPMs.
0:08:10 > 0:08:12Oh, you're in the red zone.
0:08:12 > 0:08:14This is a small rover
0:08:14 > 0:08:17with HD cameras there
0:08:17 > 0:08:20and this little guy sits on the side,
0:08:20 > 0:08:25and we land, pop him off and it goes and it explores.
0:08:25 > 0:08:26It roves around and we're able to map,
0:08:26 > 0:08:29look at items of interest, do sample collection,
0:08:29 > 0:08:33try to do spectroscopy and learn about this new world.
0:08:37 > 0:08:40And these are some of the other entries...
0:08:40 > 0:08:43from all over the world.
0:08:50 > 0:08:52To date, since the announcement,
0:08:52 > 0:08:56we've had 25 teams from round the world who have registered to compete
0:08:56 > 0:08:58from nearly a dozen nations.
0:08:58 > 0:09:00And if you think about it,
0:09:00 > 0:09:03there's only two countries have ever been to the moon -
0:09:03 > 0:09:05the United States and the Soviet Union
0:09:05 > 0:09:09and today any number of companies, individuals or countries
0:09:09 > 0:09:11could go to the moon privately.
0:09:16 > 0:09:20But private sector involvement means that these moon missions
0:09:20 > 0:09:22have a more commercial edge than the Apollo programme.
0:09:24 > 0:09:27We will be sending robotic landers initially to the surface of the moon
0:09:27 > 0:09:29carrying scientific and commercial payloads.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32Kind of a Fedex or a lunex model.
0:09:32 > 0:09:33It's a transportation model.
0:09:35 > 0:09:39Then we'll get into the era of exploring for resources and learning
0:09:39 > 0:09:42how to process those resources, and bringing them back to earth.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45After that we'll have the era of settlement, where people
0:09:45 > 0:09:48will need to go there, and we'll have people living on the moon
0:09:48 > 0:09:52and people will be born on earth to look up to the moon and to see
0:09:52 > 0:09:56lights up there, and the children will know that mankind is not
0:09:56 > 0:10:01limited to one planet, but we're actually now a multi-planet species.
0:10:03 > 0:10:06I think the people who are working on the Google Lunar X Prize
0:10:06 > 0:10:08are motivated by the dream,
0:10:08 > 0:10:13the idea that they're part of humanity's expansion into space.
0:10:13 > 0:10:15I mean, think about this -
0:10:15 > 0:10:19millions of years from now, whatever humanity is,
0:10:19 > 0:10:23they'll look back at these next few decades as the moment in time
0:10:23 > 0:10:28when the human race irreversibly moved off planet Earth to the stars.
0:10:28 > 0:10:33And people want to be part of that significant epic adventure.
0:10:35 > 0:10:38Prizes in science have a long history,
0:10:38 > 0:10:41but today, they've staged something of a comeback.
0:10:41 > 0:10:45They're helping to drive innovation in areas from genetics
0:10:45 > 0:10:47to environmental science.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50Competition is really important when it comes to innovation
0:10:50 > 0:10:54because all inventors are people, and people like to get there first,
0:10:54 > 0:10:57they want to make all the money, and to do that,
0:10:57 > 0:11:00you need to have some drive, some reason, some deadline.
0:11:00 > 0:11:03People want to be known as the innovators.
0:11:03 > 0:11:06They want to be known as the Jobs or the Neil Armstrongs,
0:11:06 > 0:11:09and competition is a really good way of forcing people towards that.
0:11:11 > 0:11:14The best inventors are people who are motivated,
0:11:14 > 0:11:17not by making lots of money or building a business,
0:11:17 > 0:11:19but by solving a problem.
0:11:19 > 0:11:21And if the problem is well articulated in a prize,
0:11:21 > 0:11:24that can be a real rallying cry and can bring people together.
0:11:24 > 0:11:29What is striking is that today's private investors have ambitions
0:11:29 > 0:11:31that only governments once dared to have.
0:11:31 > 0:11:36But are a few tens of millions of pounds of prize money
0:11:36 > 0:11:38really enough to be effective?
0:11:41 > 0:11:45Mariana Mazzucato is an economist at the University of Sussex
0:11:45 > 0:11:49who studies the economic forces that drive innovation.
0:11:50 > 0:11:53What's very interesting in space is that we see this role
0:11:53 > 0:11:57of the private sector today. They are calling themselves
0:11:57 > 0:11:59the big risk-takers, the mavericks,
0:11:59 > 0:12:01but the question is, would they be able to do
0:12:01 > 0:12:05what they are doing today if they were not actually riding the wave
0:12:05 > 0:12:09of major state investments in the early stages when space exploration
0:12:09 > 0:12:12was actually much more uncertain than it is today.
0:12:12 > 0:12:15So are there many other examples of industries that were
0:12:15 > 0:12:19initially funded by the state and the private sector moved in later?
0:12:19 > 0:12:23Yes. If you take, you know, one of the sexiest products out there,
0:12:23 > 0:12:27the iPhone, it's really interesting that many people use the iPhone
0:12:27 > 0:12:29to argue that this was created by the entrepreneurial spirit
0:12:29 > 0:12:33of Steve Jobs but, in fact, the sort of key technologies behind it
0:12:33 > 0:12:37that actually make it a smartphone were almost all state-funded.
0:12:37 > 0:12:40I mean, the most obvious example is the internet.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43The iPhone would not be as smart if it didn't have the internet,
0:12:43 > 0:12:45which was funded by part of the US Department of Defense.
0:12:45 > 0:12:49But even the nitty-gritty inside, and the microchips, were funded
0:12:49 > 0:12:52by the military and space departments of the US government.
0:12:52 > 0:12:56We have GPS, which is obviously also very important in the iPhone.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59That was actually created through their satellite programme.
0:12:59 > 0:13:03A multi-touch display was funded by two public sector grants,
0:13:03 > 0:13:05and one from the CIA,
0:13:05 > 0:13:08so, you know, all this great stuff inside the phone
0:13:08 > 0:13:12which actually makes it smart, were funded by the public sector.
0:13:12 > 0:13:15And without that, you would not have the iPhone today.
0:13:16 > 0:13:21In a year or so, we'll know who gets to the moon and gets the cash.
0:13:25 > 0:13:30The second area I want to explore is the world of materials.
0:13:30 > 0:13:34After all, they define our technology.
0:13:34 > 0:13:37From the mass-produced iron of the Industrial Revolution,
0:13:37 > 0:13:40to the complex alloys of the jet age
0:13:40 > 0:13:44and the silicon that underpins the information age.
0:13:44 > 0:13:49Now we could be about to enter a new age, based on our ability
0:13:49 > 0:13:52to manipulate matter at the smallest scale,
0:13:52 > 0:13:55based on nanotechnology.
0:14:00 > 0:14:04Not all inventions are a result of identifying a need
0:14:04 > 0:14:06and coming up with a solution.
0:14:06 > 0:14:11Sometimes, scientific discoveries are so radical and so unexpected
0:14:11 > 0:14:13that it can take a while to realise their potential
0:14:13 > 0:14:15for practical applications.
0:14:15 > 0:14:19These innovations often rely on the mavericks of invention
0:14:19 > 0:14:22who tend to look at the world in a very different way.
0:14:22 > 0:14:26Yeah, so I guess it's liquid hydrogen...
0:14:28 > 0:14:30'Like physicist Andre Geim.
0:14:30 > 0:14:33'He shared the Nobel Prize for discovering
0:14:33 > 0:14:36'one of the strangest new materials in the world.'
0:14:37 > 0:14:41All Nobel Prizes rely on luck.
0:14:41 > 0:14:45With a little bit more experience, you can drink liquid hydrogen.
0:14:45 > 0:14:50'The more you try, the more chance that you get lucky.'
0:14:50 > 0:14:56The best way to describe my approach is hit-and-run experiments.
0:14:56 > 0:15:01There's a very simple idea, we try it, it doesn't work.
0:15:01 > 0:15:05We go somewhere else. If it works, we carry on.
0:15:05 > 0:15:09He's a man who's made tomatoes, strawberries
0:15:09 > 0:15:12and even frogs levitate.
0:15:15 > 0:15:19And who has designed a sticky tape based on the feet of geckos.
0:15:22 > 0:15:29But for Andre, good inventions are about more than just good ideas.
0:15:29 > 0:15:3499% of good ideas lead to nothing or to mediocre results.
0:15:37 > 0:15:41What follows the idea - hard work, and what follows this idea -
0:15:41 > 0:15:44this is important.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47The journey that led Andre to the Nobel Prize
0:15:47 > 0:15:53began with pure scientific curiosity about the world of the very small.
0:15:53 > 0:15:58As a scientist, I was always interested in what happened
0:15:58 > 0:16:02with materials when they become thinner and thinner.
0:16:02 > 0:16:06Eventually, you reach the level of individual atoms and molecules,
0:16:06 > 0:16:09and this is a completely different world.
0:16:10 > 0:16:15Working with materials at these scales is a huge challenge.
0:16:16 > 0:16:20Conventionally, scientists use complex and expensive machines
0:16:20 > 0:16:23to manipulate atoms and molecules.
0:16:25 > 0:16:28But Andre thought there had to be a better way.
0:16:30 > 0:16:35It's very hard to move to a scale, OK, a thousand times smaller than
0:16:35 > 0:16:40the width of your hair, because materials oxidise, decompose,
0:16:40 > 0:16:42segregate, destroy themselves.
0:16:42 > 0:16:47Something new had to be invented to study materials at a smaller scale.
0:16:49 > 0:16:53For their experiment, they chose a widely available mineral -
0:16:53 > 0:16:55graphite.
0:16:55 > 0:17:00It's made up of sheets of atoms like the pages in a tightly-bound book.
0:17:02 > 0:17:08But up until then, there was no easy way of peeling the layers apart.
0:17:08 > 0:17:13We use a completely unorthodox, DIY, if you wish, approach.
0:17:15 > 0:17:18One that required no hi-tech machines.
0:17:21 > 0:17:26The easiest way to chop, we found, is to use Sellotape.
0:17:26 > 0:17:32You put Sellotape on top of graphite and peel it off.
0:17:32 > 0:17:37Then you put it together and make a fresh cut.
0:17:37 > 0:17:41Essentially, it gets twice thinner,
0:17:41 > 0:17:44so you make another cut and so on,
0:17:44 > 0:17:49and then you ask yourself a very simple question -
0:17:49 > 0:17:55how thin you can make graphite by repeating this twice,
0:17:55 > 0:18:01twice, twice, and so on. What the thinnest material can be.
0:18:05 > 0:18:10We looked at what is left on the Sellotape in a microscope,
0:18:10 > 0:18:14and found, to our great surprise, films of graphite which were
0:18:14 > 0:18:18in the range which we wanted to achieve.
0:18:22 > 0:18:25It was a perfect hexagonal lattice
0:18:25 > 0:18:28only one atom thick, called graphene.
0:18:28 > 0:18:33But this material couldn't be more different to the pencil you hold
0:18:33 > 0:18:38in your hand, because when you get down this small, everything changes.
0:18:38 > 0:18:42We started studying properties of graphene
0:18:42 > 0:18:45and then the real surprise came.
0:18:45 > 0:18:51The properties turned out to be unique, and it was my eureka moment.
0:18:51 > 0:18:58This material has 20, 30 superlatives to its name.
0:18:58 > 0:19:03It's the strongest material that has ever been measured.
0:19:03 > 0:19:07It's the most conductive material for electricity, for the heat.
0:19:07 > 0:19:10It's the most impermeable material.
0:19:13 > 0:19:18In fact, this nanomaterial is so different to anything we know,
0:19:18 > 0:19:22it's hard to get your head around quite how powerful it is.
0:19:22 > 0:19:28Graphene is so strong that if you take one-by-one metre of material
0:19:28 > 0:19:32and make a hammock out of graphene,
0:19:32 > 0:19:36it would sustain a cat, a one kilogram cat,
0:19:36 > 0:19:41lying on this hammock, despite this material being only one atom thick.
0:19:41 > 0:19:45It would be like a cat hovering in midair.
0:19:52 > 0:19:56The discovery of graphene may sound like the purest of pure science,
0:19:56 > 0:20:00but I want to find out from Andre's colleague, Sarah Haigh,
0:20:00 > 0:20:03how it will lead to inventions that we can use every day.
0:20:08 > 0:20:11So this is it, this is how you get graphene.
0:20:11 > 0:20:16Is it still the most effective way to get that one atom-thick layer?
0:20:16 > 0:20:20This really is still how we make the most perfect graphene sheets,
0:20:20 > 0:20:22which have the best electronic properties.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26And let's talk about, you know, those incredible properties.
0:20:26 > 0:20:31I mean, how can something so small, one atom in thickness, be so strong?
0:20:31 > 0:20:35it's to do with the bonds we have between the carbon atoms.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38So this is a model of the structure of graphene,
0:20:38 > 0:20:41and each of these black dots represents the carbon atoms.
0:20:41 > 0:20:44The white lines are the bonds between them. And you can see
0:20:44 > 0:20:48that each carbon atom is surrounded by three other carbon atoms,
0:20:48 > 0:20:51and the bond between those carbon atoms is really, really strong.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54And another very exciting property of course is its conductivity.
0:20:54 > 0:20:57Why is graphene so conductive?
0:20:57 > 0:21:01So the electrons inside graphene behave in a really unusual way.
0:21:01 > 0:21:05They behave like they have no mass, and that means they can travel really, really quickly.
0:21:05 > 0:21:07And do we know why that occurs?
0:21:07 > 0:21:09It's really difficult to understand,
0:21:09 > 0:21:12and there are still a lot of questions around exactly how
0:21:12 > 0:21:14graphene has such amazing properties.
0:21:14 > 0:21:18So when it comes to graphene's incredible conductivity,
0:21:18 > 0:21:21does it have potential to replace what was a wonder-material
0:21:21 > 0:21:24for conductivity, silicon? What's going on there?
0:21:24 > 0:21:26We know that silicon has its limits.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29We're going to reach a point where silicon transistors
0:21:29 > 0:21:31can't get any smaller, they can't get any faster,
0:21:31 > 0:21:35and graphene doesn't have the same limitations, and so it could be that
0:21:35 > 0:21:38the next generation of electronics could be made out of graphene.
0:21:38 > 0:21:42But rather like when we first had the original computer switches,
0:21:42 > 0:21:44like this one here,
0:21:44 > 0:21:49and now we're able to produce electronic chips that have
0:21:49 > 0:21:52thousands of these switches built into this tiny chip.
0:21:52 > 0:21:55That change required a whole new way of thinking,
0:21:55 > 0:21:57and using graphene in electronics
0:21:57 > 0:22:00is going to require the same sort of revolutionary new approaches.
0:22:00 > 0:22:02Are we being a little bit impatient?
0:22:02 > 0:22:05We are, but that's because graphene has such potential.
0:22:05 > 0:22:08And there are people working on graphene all round the world,
0:22:08 > 0:22:11thousands of different researchers who are trying to exploit
0:22:11 > 0:22:14the properties, so much so that there are hundreds of papers
0:22:14 > 0:22:18being published every single week, and they are continuing
0:22:18 > 0:22:21to throw up new ideas and new suggestions for applications.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28The speed at which ideas now move around the world
0:22:28 > 0:22:31is one of the defining characteristics of invention today,
0:22:31 > 0:22:35but another is the degree of specialisation it takes
0:22:35 > 0:22:39to make these advances in the first place.
0:22:41 > 0:22:45When you think about all the science that lies behind innovation today,
0:22:45 > 0:22:48it's so complex and so advanced,
0:22:48 > 0:22:52it seems impossible to be able to stay on top of everything
0:22:52 > 0:22:55that's happening, and so, to keep the pace of invention up,
0:22:55 > 0:22:58scientists have to work in a very different way
0:22:58 > 0:23:01to that of lone scientists in the past.
0:23:02 > 0:23:05Certainly, science has become so specialised now
0:23:05 > 0:23:08that it's impossible to be an expert in all areas.
0:23:08 > 0:23:14Once upon a time, there was just one science journal.
0:23:14 > 0:23:16Today, there are over 8,000.
0:23:19 > 0:23:23I reckon no scientist knows what other scientists are doing.
0:23:23 > 0:23:25They might have some basic idea of the background,
0:23:25 > 0:23:29but right at the cutting edge, there's no way they could keep up with each other.
0:23:29 > 0:23:30When I'm researching stories,
0:23:30 > 0:23:34sometimes I'll just see something and think, "What is that?!"
0:23:34 > 0:23:36Or I'll have a scientist on the phone, be talking to him and
0:23:36 > 0:23:40just be frantically Googling as he's saying things to try and keep up.
0:23:40 > 0:23:42Look at the Nobel Prize.
0:23:42 > 0:23:46When you read the citation for what somebody's done, it very often
0:23:46 > 0:23:50is totally non-understandable to the average person.
0:23:50 > 0:23:55Indeed, the simple categories we remember from school have now
0:23:55 > 0:23:59multiplied into a complex web of interconnected fields,
0:23:59 > 0:24:02each with their own highly specialised subject areas.
0:24:04 > 0:24:08Quantum optics in photonics in nanotechnology.
0:24:08 > 0:24:12Genomics, that's about genes, but I never did Biology O-level,
0:24:12 > 0:24:14so that's one of my weak areas!
0:24:14 > 0:24:16- INTERVIEWER:- Systems biology?
0:24:16 > 0:24:19Er, yeah, I think I could... Systems biology... No.
0:24:19 > 0:24:23Quantum teleportation, quantum cryptography.
0:24:23 > 0:24:24Neuroelectrodynamics.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27It seems to make sense but I've never actually... What does it do?
0:24:27 > 0:24:30I think that is using electric currents to make the studies
0:24:30 > 0:24:34of nerves, repair nerves, look at nerves, all that stuff. I think!
0:24:34 > 0:24:38- Transcriptomics, never heard of it. - INTERVIEWER:- Bioelectrochemistry?
0:24:38 > 0:24:42I think it's the study of how you can use electro... OK, I have no idea.
0:24:42 > 0:24:47One thing is clear - in a highly specialised world,
0:24:47 > 0:24:51scientists and technologists have to collaborate to create
0:24:51 > 0:24:54the next generation of inventions,
0:24:54 > 0:24:57and one field where this is already happening with enormous success
0:24:57 > 0:25:00is biomedical engineering.
0:25:06 > 0:25:09Cambridge, Massachusetts.
0:25:09 > 0:25:12This is Professor Bob Langer,
0:25:12 > 0:25:16one of the most inventive scientists working today.
0:25:16 > 0:25:20Over a hundred million people have benefited from his innovations
0:25:20 > 0:25:25in cancer and heart research, so we spent a day with him
0:25:25 > 0:25:30at his lab at MIT to find out how he does it.
0:25:30 > 0:25:32This one is a National Medal Of Science.
0:25:32 > 0:25:35That's given to you by the President.
0:25:35 > 0:25:38That's the highest scientific award in the United States.
0:25:38 > 0:25:41And Draper Prize up there.
0:25:41 > 0:25:44That's often considered the Nobel Prize of engineering.
0:25:47 > 0:25:51With over 800 patents to his name, not surprisingly,
0:25:51 > 0:25:54Langer is a little hard to keep up with.
0:25:54 > 0:25:56Well, that's not open.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59Leon. So this is Dr Leon Bellan. What is the number?
0:25:59 > 0:26:05Can we go...? Yeah, we'll go to take a look at Leon's lab and...
0:26:05 > 0:26:10Dr Bellan is using some rather unconventional lab equipment.
0:26:11 > 0:26:13This is actually very cool stuff.
0:26:15 > 0:26:18Let's plug this guy in.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22What Leon's been able to do is convert a 40 cotton candy machine
0:26:22 > 0:26:24into something that can make all kinds of scaffolds
0:26:24 > 0:26:28for regenerative medicine and tissue regeneration.
0:26:28 > 0:26:32This will take a while to warm up, so this is just some sample
0:26:32 > 0:26:38cotton candy-like material that's used to make artificial capillaries,
0:26:38 > 0:26:40basically the smallest blood vessels in your body.
0:26:40 > 0:26:43This is extremely cheap micro-fabrication.
0:26:43 > 0:26:46- Yeah, and it works.- And a high throughput, yes.- And it works.
0:26:46 > 0:26:48Langer's signature approach is
0:26:48 > 0:26:54to bring people from different scientific disciplines together.
0:26:54 > 0:26:59It all started for him with a search for new materials for medicine.
0:26:59 > 0:27:01Pretty much all the materials in the 20th century
0:27:01 > 0:27:04that have been used in medicine, when I looked at it,
0:27:04 > 0:27:06largely were driven by medical doctors
0:27:06 > 0:27:10who would go to their house and find an object that kind of resembled
0:27:10 > 0:27:14the tissue or organ they were trying to fix. So if you look at this,
0:27:14 > 0:27:19the artificial heart, that started actually in 1967
0:27:19 > 0:27:23with medical doctors saying "Well, what has a good flex life?"
0:27:23 > 0:27:27They actually picked a lady's girdle and used the material in that.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30But those materials can sometimes cause problems.
0:27:30 > 0:27:32For example, the material in the artificial heart,
0:27:32 > 0:27:36when blood hits that, it can form a clot, and that clot can go
0:27:36 > 0:27:39to the patient's brain and they could get a stroke and die.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42So I started thinking, could we have materials that we could specifically
0:27:42 > 0:27:47design for medical purposes rather than just taking them off the shelf?
0:27:48 > 0:27:51When Langer started over 30 years ago,
0:27:51 > 0:27:55his big idea was to design new materials - polymers -
0:27:55 > 0:27:59that could go inside the body and carry out all sorts of
0:27:59 > 0:28:03medical procedures before dissolving safely,
0:28:03 > 0:28:08like delivering drugs or acting as scaffolds for growing new skin,
0:28:08 > 0:28:10bone and cartilage.
0:28:10 > 0:28:14The problem was it had never been attempted before.
0:28:14 > 0:28:16When we first started this,
0:28:16 > 0:28:18people said that we wouldn't be able to synthesise the polymer.
0:28:18 > 0:28:21The chemists said it would be too difficult or couldn't work.
0:28:21 > 0:28:24They said the polymers will break in the body, they're fragile,
0:28:24 > 0:28:27and people said it wouldn't be safe.
0:28:27 > 0:28:30It involved polymer science, chemical engineering
0:28:30 > 0:28:33and chemistry and pharmaceutics and pharmaceutical science.
0:28:33 > 0:28:35It involved also neurosurgery and pharmacology,
0:28:35 > 0:28:39medicine and radiology, and toxicology.
0:28:39 > 0:28:45This collaboration turned out to be a success, and here's the proof.
0:28:45 > 0:28:49These are polymer wafers being put into someone's brain
0:28:49 > 0:28:52to treat a tumour with targeted drugs.
0:28:52 > 0:28:57Devices like these have now become a routine part of treating cancer.
0:28:57 > 0:29:02One of Langer's key collaborators is neurosurgeon Henry Brem.
0:29:02 > 0:29:06The patient goes home three days later.
0:29:06 > 0:29:09They're not sick from chemotherapy, they don't lose their hair,
0:29:09 > 0:29:12they don't throw up, they don't have
0:29:12 > 0:29:16any of the typical, sad side effects of chemotherapy,
0:29:16 > 0:29:21and yet they have a very effective drug that's working on their behalf.
0:29:21 > 0:29:25Langer's way of drawing people together is proving to be
0:29:25 > 0:29:30an immensely powerful way of driving innovation in 21st-century science.
0:29:30 > 0:29:33The way we have developed the interdisciplinary approach, really,
0:29:33 > 0:29:35is the people I have in the lab.
0:29:35 > 0:29:38We probably have people with about ten different disciplines.
0:29:38 > 0:29:42Hey, Chris, I'll look forward to seeing you later, but also, I gave you comments.
0:29:42 > 0:29:44- Yes, I saw that. Thank you. - OK, great.
0:29:44 > 0:29:47'I think the big advantage of trying to do interdisciplinary research is'
0:29:47 > 0:29:50you can take things that are, say, in engineering
0:29:50 > 0:29:53and apply them to medicine and vice versa.
0:29:53 > 0:29:57So, you have the possibility of going down avenues and roads
0:29:57 > 0:29:59that other people just wouldn't go.
0:30:02 > 0:30:05In fact it's hard to find anyone in this lab
0:30:05 > 0:30:08who's got just one area of expertise.
0:30:08 > 0:30:09Hey, I'll be right there.
0:30:11 > 0:30:17And Langer is always hunting for new collaborators, like Dr Gio Traverso.
0:30:17 > 0:30:19He's got incredibly neat stuff.
0:30:19 > 0:30:22He's actually the perfect example of somebody
0:30:22 > 0:30:24who's super-interdisciplinary.
0:30:24 > 0:30:29I'd say now he's got medicine, molecular biology, and engineering
0:30:29 > 0:30:33all in one person so he'll tell you a couple of things that he's doing.
0:30:33 > 0:30:34They're actually amazing.
0:30:34 > 0:30:39- One of the things that we're working on, we're developing... - And all these are inventions.
0:30:39 > 0:30:42We're developing a series of ingestible devices,
0:30:42 > 0:30:45which are actually coded with different needles.
0:30:45 > 0:30:48Here the needles are actually fairly long so they're getting smaller
0:30:48 > 0:30:51and shorter as we progress with the development.
0:30:51 > 0:30:54When devices like this can be sufficiently miniaturised,
0:30:54 > 0:30:58external injections might become a thing of the past.
0:31:04 > 0:31:08So, are you working on a vaccine, or on bubbles, or which?
0:31:08 > 0:31:10- Right now on the bubbles.- OK.
0:31:10 > 0:31:13Bob's mind works very differently than the rest of us.
0:31:13 > 0:31:18He sees the world as a song, as an orchestral piece
0:31:18 > 0:31:20and he is the ultimate conductor.
0:31:20 > 0:31:25He knows what it's supposed to sound like, and at the end of the day,
0:31:25 > 0:31:28he can have all of us play
0:31:28 > 0:31:32so that what we produce is not only harmonious,
0:31:32 > 0:31:38but each individual player, so much better than we could ever have done alone.
0:31:38 > 0:31:42You'll find something. If it works, that's a good thing, but obviously
0:31:42 > 0:31:45- if it works according to theory, that's a better thing.- Yeah, yeah.
0:31:49 > 0:31:54After almost four decades, Langer's method now provides
0:31:54 > 0:31:58something of a blueprint for the rest of the scientific world.
0:31:58 > 0:32:02I think the days of an individual working in a garage
0:32:02 > 0:32:06and coming up with major inventions that really make an impact are over.
0:32:06 > 0:32:10It's teams now of people with a unified purpose that work together,
0:32:10 > 0:32:13and you build on everyone's expertise.
0:32:14 > 0:32:18Eight hours later and Bob Langer is on his way home,
0:32:18 > 0:32:20but I don't think he's finished his work just yet.
0:32:24 > 0:32:27It seems that collectively we can do far more
0:32:27 > 0:32:30than even the most brilliant individual,
0:32:30 > 0:32:32and now a new breed of inventors
0:32:32 > 0:32:36is taking this interdisciplinary approach a step further
0:32:36 > 0:32:40by using the internet to develop a concept on a global scale.
0:32:42 > 0:32:44One of them is Cesar Harada,
0:32:44 > 0:32:47an inspirational young inventor who's been tapping
0:32:47 > 0:32:52into the true power of the internet, the power of the crowd.
0:32:57 > 0:33:00His invention came as a result of one of the biggest
0:33:00 > 0:33:03environmental disasters of the last decade -
0:33:03 > 0:33:07the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion of 2010.
0:33:09 > 0:33:13Millions of barrels of crude oil poured into the Gulf of Mexico
0:33:13 > 0:33:16and the race was on to clear up the mess.
0:33:19 > 0:33:22Cesar Harada wanted to help,
0:33:22 > 0:33:25but he'd just won a coveted place at MIT.
0:33:25 > 0:33:28As events unfolded, he faced a difficult choice.
0:33:31 > 0:33:36I was watching TV, and I was, er, terrified and sad,
0:33:36 > 0:33:41and my response was to leave my job,
0:33:41 > 0:33:43my dream job in MIT, and move to New Orleans
0:33:43 > 0:33:46and try to develop technology to clean up the oil spill.
0:33:47 > 0:33:51Cesar believed that the fishing boats adapted with skimmers,
0:33:51 > 0:33:55which were being used to clear up the spill, weren't up to the job.
0:33:56 > 0:33:59The tools they were using to capture it are these small fishing boats
0:33:59 > 0:34:01and they capture some of the oil,
0:34:01 > 0:34:04but imagine if you're swimming into an ocean of oil and you're just
0:34:04 > 0:34:07extending your arms like this, you're not going to catch very much.
0:34:07 > 0:34:08It's such a big surface.
0:34:10 > 0:34:14What's more, when seas were rough, no skimming could take place.
0:34:17 > 0:34:20So obviously there were many problems to cope with,
0:34:20 > 0:34:23but how did you go about it? What were you mainly focusing on?
0:34:23 > 0:34:27The first was to remove human beings from the...from the equation
0:34:27 > 0:34:29so how do you make a boat that is going to operate better?
0:34:29 > 0:34:33And I will use wind power, surface currents and the waves to actually
0:34:33 > 0:34:37navigate up the wind to capture the oil that is drifting down the wind.
0:34:38 > 0:34:43Cesar's plan was to create a fleet of unmanned remote-controlled
0:34:43 > 0:34:47sailing drones that could cover the sea surface more effectively.
0:34:48 > 0:34:52Each boat would tow behind it a huge absorbent sponge
0:34:52 > 0:34:56that would get heavier and heavier as it soaked up the oil.
0:34:59 > 0:35:01So how did you go about designing a sailing vessel
0:35:01 > 0:35:04that is able to tow something like that upwind?
0:35:04 > 0:35:07So imagine this is a conventional sail boat
0:35:07 > 0:35:11and a conventional sail boat has a rudder at the back.
0:35:11 > 0:35:14So imagine you have something very, very long behind,
0:35:14 > 0:35:17it's going to be really difficult and very ineffective to move that part here.
0:35:17 > 0:35:19You can't manoeuvre the boat?
0:35:19 > 0:35:22So what we did is that we took the rudder that's normally here
0:35:22 > 0:35:25at the back and brought it at the front, right here,
0:35:25 > 0:35:28and so you can imagine, if you have something long and heavy behind,
0:35:28 > 0:35:31you already have a lot more influence in controlling this part.
0:35:31 > 0:35:34And then we kept adding a rudder, and at some point we were like,
0:35:34 > 0:35:36what if we make the whole boat curve
0:35:36 > 0:35:40and the whole boat becomes the organ of control, so we have more control
0:35:40 > 0:35:43over something long and heavy, it would be a lot more.
0:35:43 > 0:35:46So the whole hull is flexible, the entire thing?
0:35:46 > 0:35:50- It resembles some kind of skeleton of a dinosaur or something.- Yeah!
0:35:53 > 0:35:55Cesar had a brilliant idea,
0:35:55 > 0:35:59but neither the technical skills nor the hard cash to bring it to life.
0:35:59 > 0:36:04So he did something which I think is pretty radical for an inventor.
0:36:04 > 0:36:07He shared his idea on the internet,
0:36:07 > 0:36:11opening it up to collaborators for free.
0:36:13 > 0:36:16I started posting it on a website and some scientists
0:36:16 > 0:36:18and engineers just started looking at this and thinking it has
0:36:18 > 0:36:21a lot of potential and people were really excited about it.
0:36:21 > 0:36:26Soon inventors from all around the world started to contribute
0:36:26 > 0:36:30their ideas to the project, and many others began to donate money.
0:36:32 > 0:36:35So we had 300 people give us ten, 15 dollars,
0:36:35 > 0:36:3920, 100, and we collected more than 33,000.
0:36:41 > 0:36:45With this funding, Cesar was able to set up a workshop
0:36:45 > 0:36:50and he invited inventors from around the world to come and work with him.
0:36:50 > 0:36:53I'm Tu Yang-Jo, I come from China.
0:36:53 > 0:36:56I'm Logan Williams, I'm from the United States.
0:36:56 > 0:36:58My name is Roberto, I am originally from El Salvador.
0:36:58 > 0:37:01My name is Francois de la Taste, and I am from Paris, France.
0:37:01 > 0:37:05My name is Molly Danielson, I'm from Portland, Oregon.
0:37:07 > 0:37:11This free not-for-profit exchange of ideas through the internet
0:37:11 > 0:37:14is known as open hardware.
0:37:17 > 0:37:19Open hardware means that we can innovate a lot faster
0:37:19 > 0:37:23because we are not limited to a small number of people
0:37:23 > 0:37:27but the whole internet community is giving us feedback.
0:37:27 > 0:37:30The only condition for those participating
0:37:30 > 0:37:32is that they must credit other inventors' work
0:37:32 > 0:37:35and use the information to further the project.
0:37:35 > 0:37:38You're almost flipping the whole system on its side.
0:37:38 > 0:37:42It's not about profit first, environmental near the end.
0:37:42 > 0:37:44You're making the environment a priority,
0:37:44 > 0:37:47- which means we all have to start thinking differently?- Yep.
0:37:47 > 0:37:51The conventional way is that a scientist or an inventor has an idea.
0:37:51 > 0:37:54He goes to the office of patents and says, "OK, the idea is mine,
0:37:54 > 0:37:57"and I'm going to talk to a manufacturer and together
0:37:57 > 0:38:01"we're going to make a deal and we'll sell this as expensive as possible to people,"
0:38:01 > 0:38:04and the thing is that this is really good for the manufacturer
0:38:04 > 0:38:07and the inventor but not really good for the people.
0:38:10 > 0:38:14Open hardware, open sourcing, crowd sourcing,
0:38:14 > 0:38:18releasing intellectual property freely on the internet -
0:38:18 > 0:38:22these are all part of a new culture of openness and sharing
0:38:22 > 0:38:24that's re-shaping how and what we invent.
0:38:33 > 0:38:34I think the biggest change
0:38:34 > 0:38:38is the fact that things now happen worldwide.
0:38:38 > 0:38:42You don't get the individual inventing things on his own.
0:38:42 > 0:38:46It's a worldwide collaboration on almost everything.
0:38:46 > 0:38:49The inventor today is a collaborator, a sharer.
0:38:49 > 0:38:54Somebody who isn't selfish and protective about their ideas,
0:38:54 > 0:39:01but wants to, er, throw them out there and see how they can be nurtured and grown by others.
0:39:01 > 0:39:03Today there's a really interesting
0:39:03 > 0:39:05tension going on between
0:39:05 > 0:39:06the open source movement
0:39:06 > 0:39:10and business, so on the one hand people having ideas
0:39:10 > 0:39:13and wanting them to go out into the public and flourish,
0:39:13 > 0:39:17and people to riff on them, I suppose, and then there's making money.
0:39:17 > 0:39:20And there's a battle between these two worlds.
0:39:20 > 0:39:21I love the idea of where an idea
0:39:21 > 0:39:23can come forward, where it can be
0:39:23 > 0:39:25shared, where there's no patents,
0:39:25 > 0:39:28where there's no copyright and where it's for the common good
0:39:28 > 0:39:31but underneath all that, it has to get delivered
0:39:31 > 0:39:33and somewhere, somebody has to earn something
0:39:33 > 0:39:36so it's a difficult balance but the concept is fantastic.
0:39:38 > 0:39:40At the heart of the open source movement
0:39:40 > 0:39:44is of course our ever-increasing connectivity.
0:39:44 > 0:39:47Today 2.3 billion of us are online.
0:39:48 > 0:39:53What the internet gives today is the chance for people
0:39:53 > 0:39:56to collaborate very quickly, to come up with the idea,
0:39:56 > 0:40:01the messaging to communicate the idea, and then
0:40:01 > 0:40:05the distribution platform to share the idea really, really quickly.
0:40:05 > 0:40:07It just makes such a difference
0:40:07 > 0:40:10to be able to suddenly send an e-mail to somebody
0:40:10 > 0:40:14that you've never met, never seen before, and ask them a question.
0:40:14 > 0:40:16How do you do this?
0:40:16 > 0:40:19And they know how, and I can get that back immediately.
0:40:19 > 0:40:23I think that more than ever now, the internet has reached
0:40:23 > 0:40:26a kind of mainstream so that it's more possible to connect
0:40:26 > 0:40:28with more people in a more profound way than ever before,
0:40:28 > 0:40:32and to create different products and services on a global scale.
0:40:40 > 0:40:43If you take a look at the patents currently being filed,
0:40:43 > 0:40:46you can get a very good sense of where the next generation
0:40:46 > 0:40:48of inventions is coming from.
0:40:48 > 0:40:53What's clear is that many inventors are concentrating on the area
0:40:53 > 0:40:55of alternative energy,
0:40:55 > 0:40:58joining the race to find a replacement for fossil fuels.
0:41:04 > 0:41:08Tapping the sun's energy is sometimes seen as the holy grail
0:41:08 > 0:41:12but it's not all about solar panels.
0:41:14 > 0:41:16In the deserts of New Mexico,
0:41:16 > 0:41:19one company is taking a different approach.
0:41:21 > 0:41:25Michael Glacken is on his way to their first ever production plant...
0:41:28 > 0:41:32..a showcase for a new way of harvesting energy from the sun.
0:41:50 > 0:41:51Inside this plant,
0:41:51 > 0:41:55they've harnessed the power of one of the world's oldest organisms.
0:42:02 > 0:42:07So, welcome to south-eastern New Mexico and our new plant.
0:42:07 > 0:42:08You guys are pretty lucky
0:42:08 > 0:42:12because we've only been in operation now for less than 24 hours
0:42:12 > 0:42:15so you'll get to see everything as it happens.
0:42:22 > 0:42:25The company's founder is Noubar Afeyan.
0:42:29 > 0:42:33He's a biologist who's spent his life looking for alternatives to fossil fuels.
0:42:35 > 0:42:38His inspiration comes from nature,
0:42:38 > 0:42:41and one of the most common micro-organisms on the planet -
0:42:41 > 0:42:43called cyanobacteria.
0:42:45 > 0:42:49This is a piece of soil, and of course to the eye
0:42:49 > 0:42:52it just seems like dirt that you find
0:42:52 > 0:42:54in daily life in a lot of places,
0:42:54 > 0:42:58but in fact, if you were to take this soil and refine it
0:42:58 > 0:43:01and isolate from it all of the life forms,
0:43:01 > 0:43:05a substantial amount of the life forms in fact will be cyanobacteria.
0:43:05 > 0:43:12And these organisms have the basic capability of using sunlight
0:43:12 > 0:43:17and carbon dioxide to live, and to exclusively live on those nutrients.
0:43:21 > 0:43:27Cyanobacteria have remained almost unchanged for 3.5 billion years.
0:43:32 > 0:43:37They were the first organisms to evolve the process of photosynthesis
0:43:37 > 0:43:38that we see in plants today,
0:43:38 > 0:43:42converting sunlight and carbon dioxide into chemical energy.
0:43:45 > 0:43:48But Noubar's plan was to genetically modify them
0:43:48 > 0:43:50to take control of this process.
0:43:53 > 0:43:56The heart of the technology was to take that organism
0:43:56 > 0:44:00and to begin to engineer the capability of that organism
0:44:00 > 0:44:06to take the carbon from carbon dioxide and convert it into a fuel molecule.
0:44:08 > 0:44:12The fuel molecule he sought to produce was ethanol...
0:44:13 > 0:44:16..a biofuel which is usually created
0:44:16 > 0:44:18by fermenting food crops such as corn.
0:44:20 > 0:44:24But making it from corn can divert land away from food production.
0:44:28 > 0:44:32At his labs in Bedford, Massachusetts, his team began
0:44:32 > 0:44:36to search for a way to genetically modify the cyanobacteria.
0:44:40 > 0:44:44When we entered the field, the tools that are needed to manipulate
0:44:44 > 0:44:47the genetic make-up of these organisms did not exist at all,
0:44:47 > 0:44:50and so there was a lot of inventing to do to transform them.
0:44:51 > 0:44:53After five years of research,
0:44:53 > 0:44:57the team managed to introduce the right combination of genes
0:44:57 > 0:45:01into the cyanobacteria so that they would produce ethanol.
0:45:04 > 0:45:06It was a remarkable achievement.
0:45:08 > 0:45:11But to make the process economically viable,
0:45:11 > 0:45:13all of the bacteria's energy
0:45:13 > 0:45:16would have to be channelled into producing the fuel.
0:45:16 > 0:45:19To do that, the team had to switch off
0:45:19 > 0:45:21what is the most basic function
0:45:21 > 0:45:25of every living organism on the planet - reproduction.
0:45:27 > 0:45:28And when you do that,
0:45:28 > 0:45:32you'll see a lot more carbon goes to making the product,
0:45:32 > 0:45:37and that allowed us to create a micro-scale, single-cell factory.
0:45:37 > 0:45:40It's a factory that does a very precise chemical conversion.
0:45:40 > 0:45:45Think of it as a micro-refinery that could convert carbon dioxide
0:45:45 > 0:45:49and solar energy into a fuel molecule.
0:45:51 > 0:45:54And so today in New Mexico,
0:45:54 > 0:45:57this plant is about to start harvesting fuel
0:45:57 > 0:46:01from genetically modified cyanobacteria for the very first time.
0:46:08 > 0:46:11So all these tanks, all this technology, all these valves
0:46:11 > 0:46:14have been designed and installed to do one thing
0:46:14 > 0:46:18and that is to use trillions and trillions of bacteria
0:46:18 > 0:46:20to make fuel from the sun.
0:46:21 > 0:46:26The first stage of the process is to make enough bacteria to produce the fuel.
0:46:31 > 0:46:35The green is actually the cells themselves.
0:46:35 > 0:46:40And last night we introduced them to this system.
0:46:40 > 0:46:44This is a large circulation unit, 4,000 litres,
0:46:44 > 0:46:47so what we want to see them do right now is get greener and greener,
0:46:47 > 0:46:50basically reproduce, make more cells,
0:46:50 > 0:46:54and increase in mass by about tenfold.
0:46:55 > 0:47:00It'll take just a few days to reach the right amount of cyanobacteria.
0:47:03 > 0:47:07The next stage is to make them stop reproducing, and shift them entirely
0:47:07 > 0:47:13towards producing fuel using just carbon dioxide and sunlight.
0:47:19 > 0:47:24And inside this can is the product of all that research.
0:47:26 > 0:47:32So this is it, 500ml of the world's very first ethanol fuel
0:47:32 > 0:47:35made by genetically engineered bacteria.
0:47:35 > 0:47:39Now there are still many technical challenges to overcome
0:47:39 > 0:47:43but this is a bold attempt to make a renewable fuel
0:47:43 > 0:47:45that has the potential to be greener than oil.
0:47:48 > 0:47:52Now, whether you like the idea or not, the technology that
0:47:52 > 0:47:56allows us to make another organism produce something it normally wouldn't,
0:47:56 > 0:48:00that can be of such value to us, is an incredible invention.
0:48:00 > 0:48:06What they're doing is effectively re-engineering nature for our benefit.
0:48:06 > 0:48:11It's part of a growing and important field called synthetic biology.
0:48:13 > 0:48:17So what nature has is billions of years of practice
0:48:17 > 0:48:19to perfect amazing solutions,
0:48:19 > 0:48:23and what inventors are trying to do today
0:48:23 > 0:48:26is to compress those billions of years into a few months
0:48:26 > 0:48:29that can bring around something really useful.
0:48:29 > 0:48:30If I had a billion pounds,
0:48:30 > 0:48:33I would invest it in synthetic biology companies
0:48:33 > 0:48:35because that area is so exciting.
0:48:35 > 0:48:38They're going to programme organisms to do everything from
0:48:38 > 0:48:43clean up oil spills to create new fuels, new drugs.
0:48:43 > 0:48:46It's going to be an entire platform of stuff.
0:48:46 > 0:48:48I think we've always taken inspiration from nature
0:48:48 > 0:48:50for the things that we've invented,
0:48:50 > 0:48:53but the point is that we're understanding the natural world
0:48:53 > 0:48:56so much more at the moment and every new breakthrough
0:48:56 > 0:48:59at a fundamental level I think leads to new technologies.
0:49:00 > 0:49:05Today, all over the world, we're seeing some incredibly complex
0:49:05 > 0:49:09and beautiful bits of science driving innovation.
0:49:09 > 0:49:12But even with all this increased collaboration
0:49:12 > 0:49:15and globalisation spurring on invention,
0:49:15 > 0:49:19the most important thing of all is still a simple idea.
0:49:22 > 0:49:25Michael Pritchard is a British inventor who decided
0:49:25 > 0:49:29to tackle a simple but devastating problem.
0:49:29 > 0:49:32How do you get clean water in a disaster zone?
0:49:33 > 0:49:38The crisis that spurred him on was the Asian tsunami of 2004.
0:49:41 > 0:49:43The initial tragedy of the wave's destruction
0:49:43 > 0:49:47rapidly turned into a greater human catastrophe,
0:49:47 > 0:49:49as drinking water supplies became polluted,
0:49:49 > 0:49:52spreading sickness, disease and death.
0:49:57 > 0:50:01The thing that struck me most was watching the tsunami,
0:50:01 > 0:50:03was that there was water everywhere.
0:50:03 > 0:50:06They were surrounded by water, the thing for life,
0:50:06 > 0:50:09and yet they couldn't drink it and all the wells had come up
0:50:09 > 0:50:11and they were contaminated,
0:50:11 > 0:50:14and I just...I don't know, it just touched a nerve.
0:50:14 > 0:50:16It just made me angry.
0:50:16 > 0:50:18And that was sort of my cue really.
0:50:18 > 0:50:20We don't need to ship water,
0:50:20 > 0:50:23we just need to make the water that's there safe to drink.
0:50:24 > 0:50:27Michael began looking at the membranes that are used
0:50:27 > 0:50:32in sewage plants to filter harmful pathogens out of water.
0:50:32 > 0:50:37He wondered if these nano-scale meshes could be used in a portable bottle.
0:50:39 > 0:50:43Was it fairly easy to get your hands on a mesh that had pores the right size?
0:50:43 > 0:50:48No, I had to work with people in the membrane world
0:50:48 > 0:50:51to transfer their technology, if you like,
0:50:51 > 0:50:54into a portable device, which is the lifesaver bottle.
0:50:54 > 0:50:58And if I break it down, I can show you its sort of constituent parts.
0:50:58 > 0:51:00That's the first level of filtration,
0:51:00 > 0:51:05that's kind of a sponge, and that will stop an elephant to a twig.
0:51:05 > 0:51:10But the...the real clever bit, if you like, is in this filter here.
0:51:10 > 0:51:15I don't know whether you can see inside there, but there's windings.
0:51:15 > 0:51:19- Yes.- There's actually... that's a hollow fibre membrane
0:51:19 > 0:51:23so now, with a pump, I can build up the pressure that I need,
0:51:23 > 0:51:27and that will force the water through the membranes,
0:51:27 > 0:51:30leave the contamination on the dirty side
0:51:30 > 0:51:33and just let the sterile clean water come up.
0:51:33 > 0:51:35I suppose what remains to be seen is if it works,
0:51:35 > 0:51:38- which is why I presume this tank of water is here?- Yeah.
0:51:38 > 0:51:40That looks fairly benign.
0:51:40 > 0:51:44In the middle of a flood zone, your water doesn't look like this
0:51:44 > 0:51:47so I've gone and got some bits and pieces to put in it
0:51:47 > 0:51:50to try and recreate what's going to happen in a flood zone.
0:51:50 > 0:51:51Bits and pieces, you say?
0:51:51 > 0:51:55Bits and pieces, so let's start off with something pretty simple,
0:51:55 > 0:51:59some detritus, some leaves, twigs, that sort of thing.
0:51:59 > 0:52:01Nice organic matter, it's all good.
0:52:01 > 0:52:03Nice organic matter, that's pretty fine.
0:52:03 > 0:52:05But that's not bad enough.
0:52:05 > 0:52:08So, I've gone and got some water from the pond.
0:52:08 > 0:52:10I'm just going to put that in as well.
0:52:12 > 0:52:14What kind of pond do you have?!
0:52:14 > 0:52:16THEY LAUGH
0:52:16 > 0:52:19But what happens in a disaster is, the water surges
0:52:19 > 0:52:21and up come the drains, OK,
0:52:21 > 0:52:25so you've got all sorts of stuff going on in the drains.
0:52:25 > 0:52:29So, I've gone and got some run-off from a sewage plant
0:52:29 > 0:52:32and I'm just going to pop that in there, as well.
0:52:32 > 0:52:34So...
0:52:34 > 0:52:36Toilet roll and everything!
0:52:36 > 0:52:39Yes! The whole nine yards.
0:52:39 > 0:52:42But what I've also gone and got,
0:52:42 > 0:52:46is a little gift from my dog, Alfie.
0:52:46 > 0:52:47HE LAUGHS
0:52:47 > 0:52:49And it's genuine.
0:52:49 > 0:52:50It looks very real!
0:52:50 > 0:52:52OK, so just let's put that in there.
0:52:52 > 0:52:54Oh, good grief.
0:52:54 > 0:52:56People don't believe this stuff.
0:52:56 > 0:52:58And you're going to drink it.
0:52:58 > 0:53:01This is not a smile of happiness. I smile when I'm nervous!
0:53:01 > 0:53:03This is not good.
0:53:03 > 0:53:06So, now, when you look at that, that is more like the water
0:53:06 > 0:53:09that you're going to be faced with in the middle of a disaster.
0:53:09 > 0:53:11So, what we're going to do is,
0:53:11 > 0:53:15we're going to scoop up a jug of this water.
0:53:15 > 0:53:20And let's just stir that up a bit. OK, let's get some of that...
0:53:20 > 0:53:24Oh, look. We know where that came from, don't we?
0:53:24 > 0:53:25- Exactly.- Those bigger bits.
0:53:25 > 0:53:27All we're going to do is pop it in here
0:53:27 > 0:53:30- and make it safe to drink.- Mm-hm? - OK?
0:53:30 > 0:53:33So, we chuck it in here like that.
0:53:33 > 0:53:37That's it. It just goes everywhere. OK?
0:53:39 > 0:53:42Put the base on. Give it a few pumps.
0:53:44 > 0:53:46OK?
0:53:46 > 0:53:48And then...
0:53:48 > 0:53:49- Are you ready?- Yeah.
0:53:49 > 0:53:52- Do you want to hold it?- Sure.- OK.
0:53:52 > 0:53:55Get it in. There we go. That's it.
0:53:56 > 0:54:00And that is clean, sterile drinking water.
0:54:01 > 0:54:05I am going to just check for those little bits of...
0:54:05 > 0:54:06Have a smell. Have a smell.
0:54:08 > 0:54:10- OK?- It smells perfectly fine. - Have a taste.
0:54:15 > 0:54:17- What's it taste of? - Water. Clean water.
0:54:17 > 0:54:20Because that's all it is. OK?
0:54:20 > 0:54:21It's fantastic. It's just brilliant.
0:54:21 > 0:54:23And that is sterile, clinically sterile.
0:54:29 > 0:54:33This filtration system is now being used by thousands of people
0:54:33 > 0:54:34all around the world.
0:54:34 > 0:54:37It's being used in Haiti and Pakistan
0:54:37 > 0:54:40in the wake of devastating earthquakes.
0:54:40 > 0:54:43And, to me, it shows that having a bold vision and the drive
0:54:43 > 0:54:48to implement it are sometimes the most important part of invention.
0:54:54 > 0:54:57Small, dedicated teams of individuals can do
0:54:57 > 0:55:00what was once thought only possible by governments.
0:55:00 > 0:55:03We've seen some inspirational inventors.
0:55:03 > 0:55:06Together, they and thousands of others like them
0:55:06 > 0:55:09are helping to create tomorrow's world,
0:55:09 > 0:55:13and I've been intrigued to see what makes these men and women tick.
0:55:15 > 0:55:17I think the one attribute
0:55:17 > 0:55:22that all scientists and engineers and innovators need is curiosity.
0:55:22 > 0:55:27Being curious about the world, asking questions that no-one else has asked.
0:55:27 > 0:55:30I think you'll probably find that all inventors have
0:55:30 > 0:55:35kind of darting and volatile minds.
0:55:35 > 0:55:39Not regularly proceeding from A to B to C.
0:55:39 > 0:55:44I think that, if you want to be an inventor, have good ideas,
0:55:44 > 0:55:47then you can't get away with not doing the hard work.
0:55:47 > 0:55:50The more challenges we have in life, the more exciting life is.
0:55:50 > 0:55:52That's what it's like to be a human being.
0:55:52 > 0:55:55Some people like to sit on the sofa and do bugger all.
0:55:55 > 0:55:57Most of us like to rise to the challenge.
0:55:59 > 0:56:01Innovative people and great ideas
0:56:01 > 0:56:04have always been at the heart of invention.
0:56:04 > 0:56:07But, what I find fascinating is how, today,
0:56:07 > 0:56:10these inventions become a reality in a very different way.
0:56:15 > 0:56:18We've seen how scientific prizes are making a comeback.
0:56:21 > 0:56:24The importance of collaboration across different fields.
0:56:26 > 0:56:30But there will always be a place for blue-sky thinking.
0:56:30 > 0:56:34How we're starting to re-engineer nature itself.
0:56:37 > 0:56:41And how the internet is changing everything.
0:56:51 > 0:56:55Pretty much anyone today, if you have an idea,
0:56:55 > 0:56:58you can actually make it, you can make it happen
0:56:58 > 0:57:00and you couldn't do that 10 years ago,
0:57:00 > 0:57:02let alone 100 years ago.
0:57:03 > 0:57:06As human beings, we are really pushing boundaries at the moment
0:57:06 > 0:57:09and that's what we're here for, and that's why
0:57:09 > 0:57:11I never worry about the future of the human race,
0:57:11 > 0:57:13because I think we're totally capable
0:57:13 > 0:57:14and have shown, historically,
0:57:14 > 0:57:17that we're totally capable of solving problems.
0:57:19 > 0:57:23I think we're on the cusp of being able to create more things
0:57:23 > 0:57:26in more innovative ways than ever before in history.
0:57:33 > 0:57:38The process of invention is becoming a global conversation
0:57:38 > 0:57:41with many minds interacting, sharing ideas,
0:57:41 > 0:57:45making the seemingly impossible possible.
0:57:45 > 0:57:47And the speed at which this is all happening
0:57:47 > 0:57:49means that these inventions are changing our world
0:57:49 > 0:57:52more quickly than ever before.
0:57:52 > 0:57:54It's an exciting time to be alive.
0:58:26 > 0:58:28Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd