:00:00. > :00:07.biggest scientific achievements of 2015. This is Review 2015 - Year in
:00:08. > :00:15.Science. For the first time, images
:00:16. > :00:17.of our solar system's This was the year we
:00:18. > :00:28.finally made it to Pluto. And this is the face of the latest
:00:29. > :00:33.member of the human family tree who's shaking up the
:00:34. > :00:37.story of our origins. Also, a record-breaking effort
:00:38. > :00:42.to travel around the globe We also met some of the world's most
:00:43. > :00:54.endangered animals and heard about a radical plan
:00:55. > :00:59.to put off poachers. And a bid to phase out
:01:00. > :01:01.greenhouse gas emissions, a major climate summit
:01:02. > :01:03.sought to save the planet And the first official British
:01:04. > :01:13.astronaut bringing to a close a momentous year in science,
:01:14. > :01:18.and one that offers so much This is the planetarium
:01:19. > :01:24.at the Royal Observatory, It's here where the public can come
:01:25. > :01:30.to gaze at the wonders Thanks to decades of exploration
:01:31. > :01:35.we have now been to every planet But until this year its most distant
:01:36. > :01:40.world remained a mystery. Pluto was a place we knew
:01:41. > :01:44.barely anything about. For years this blurry image
:01:45. > :01:51.was the best view of Pluto we had. But a new mission sought
:01:52. > :01:56.to bring it into focus. Nasa's New Horizons spacecraft
:01:57. > :02:01.blasted off in 2006, heading on an epic five-billion
:02:02. > :02:13.kilometre journey to the solar No mission's ever travelled so far,
:02:14. > :02:17.or I believe so long, We are very proud to be completing
:02:18. > :02:21.the initial phase of reconnaissance Although we are last,
:02:22. > :02:29.the fact that we are completing this journey that was bigger than 50
:02:30. > :02:32.years ago by our parents' generation But the mission wasn't
:02:33. > :02:35.without setbacks. Months into the journey Pluto
:02:36. > :02:38.controversially lost its planetary status and was demoted
:02:39. > :02:41.to a dwarf world. Nevertheless, as the spacecraft
:02:42. > :02:44.neared its target excitement built But the day of the flyby saw a tense
:02:45. > :02:57.wait at Mission HQ in Maryland. The spacecraft had been out
:02:58. > :02:59.of contact for 13 hours. We have recorded data
:03:00. > :03:09.of the Pluto system At last, the distant
:03:10. > :03:21.world was revealed. A heart shape strangely dominating
:03:22. > :03:25.the planet's surface. And the first close-up images
:03:26. > :03:28.were full of surprises, too. Some areas had giant mountains
:03:29. > :03:33.as high as the Rockies made of ice, while in others, frozen
:03:34. > :03:35.plains went on for miles. Strange arrays of pits and patterns
:03:36. > :03:39.littered the surface. Even the possibility
:03:40. > :03:44.of volcanoes spewing ice. The largest of Pluto's five moons,
:03:45. > :03:50.Charon, also wowed the world. I'll have to tell you I'm a little
:03:51. > :03:53.biased but I think the solar system It will take another year to get
:03:54. > :04:04.all of the data back. Pluto is emerging as a rich
:04:05. > :04:07.and intriguing world, and one that has
:04:08. > :04:12.been worth the wait. 2015 was also a year that
:04:13. > :04:18.through the spotlight 2015 was also a year
:04:19. > :04:22.that threw the spotlight I've come to the Natural History
:04:23. > :04:27.Museum in London where you can see all sorts of amazing objects
:04:28. > :04:29.on display, like this It's the first one ever found and
:04:30. > :04:36.it's one of our closest relatives. But it's not the only one and this
:04:37. > :04:39.year we welcomed some new members It began with a journey deep
:04:40. > :04:44.into a cave in South Africa. Guided by torches, scientists
:04:45. > :04:47.squeezed through the narrow gaps Crawling through 200 metres
:04:48. > :04:56.of tunnel, the rest of the team They found hundreds of fragments
:04:57. > :05:06.of bone, a huge haul Everywhere that my head lamp shone,
:05:07. > :05:13.I could see that there was bone on the floor, not full bone,
:05:14. > :05:17.but fragments of material. Basically everywhere I looked,
:05:18. > :05:19.and it was an incredible The scientists soon realised
:05:20. > :05:26.they had something very special, a new humanlike species they called
:05:27. > :05:29.naledi, that was up to 3 And this picture shows what it
:05:30. > :05:35.would have looked like, an intriguing mix of human
:05:36. > :05:38.and ape-like features. It would have stood about five feet
:05:39. > :05:41.tall, a small brain about the size of a large orange, but a very
:05:42. > :05:44.humanlike character to the overall A hand that is almost human
:05:45. > :05:55.to the palm, but then curved And then long legs that culminate
:05:56. > :06:04.in an incredibly humanlike foot. Australopithecus deyiremeda,
:06:05. > :06:11.was unveiled in May. Unearthed in Ethiopia,
:06:12. > :06:14.bones as old as 3.5 million Our family tree is growing,
:06:15. > :06:21.and these latest finds suggest there were several different human
:06:22. > :06:23.species alive at the same time. The question now is,
:06:24. > :06:27.which of these was an evolutionary dead-end and which ones
:06:28. > :06:34.gave rise to us? In March, we saw the start
:06:35. > :06:38.of a record-breaking attempt to fly around the world using only
:06:39. > :06:42.the power of the sun. The aircraft called Solar Impulse
:06:43. > :06:51.set off from Abu Dhabi. With a wingspan bigger than a Boeing
:06:52. > :06:56.747, the plane was packed At first the circumnavigation
:06:57. > :07:03.carried out in multiple stages Solar Impulse has touched
:07:04. > :07:10.the ground and landed in Oman. But the most difficult leg, an epic
:07:11. > :07:21.crossing of the Pacific Ocean, After several false starts,
:07:22. > :07:28.the plane finally took off from Japan
:07:29. > :07:31.at the beginning of a test Strapped in a seat for five days
:07:32. > :07:40.and nights, he was only allowed But 118 hours after taking off,
:07:41. > :07:45.the ocean crossing was complete I think I was privileged to be
:07:46. > :07:51.able to do this flight. But above all it is a demonstration
:07:52. > :07:57.that this technology works. You know, this aeroplane flew
:07:58. > :08:00.for five days and five nights. It could have flown for maybe a week
:08:01. > :08:03.or maybe one month more, and that's also
:08:04. > :08:09.what we want to show. But after the celebrations,
:08:10. > :08:11.the world record attempt stopped here.
:08:12. > :08:13.The ocean crossing left the plane forcing the team to abandon the rest
:08:14. > :08:19.of their journey around the world At London Zoo, researchers tried
:08:20. > :08:35.to answer that burning question, The birds were put to the test,
:08:36. > :08:43.lured across a high-tech track Hoping to find out how penguins
:08:44. > :08:52.use their legs to waddle. They are applying forces left
:08:53. > :08:55.and right as they swing their body And what is not known about penguins
:08:56. > :09:02.is how the legs do that, how big are the sideways
:09:03. > :09:05.forces on penguin legs, and how does that compare
:09:06. > :09:09.to other waddling birds? It's only when you get up close
:09:10. > :09:16.to penguins like Puddle and Clyde here that you see just how strangely
:09:17. > :09:19.they are put together. But it turns out that penguins
:09:20. > :09:21.didn't always waddle and in fact their ancient ancestors
:09:22. > :09:26.moved in a much more elegant way. You wouldn't want to be
:09:27. > :09:31.pecked by one of these. Some ancient penguins were as big
:09:32. > :09:34.as humans and with a more horizontal posture and different leg anatomy,
:09:35. > :09:38.there was hardly a hint of waddle. The data from these experiments
:09:39. > :09:43.should pinpoint how and when one of nature's weirdest walks evolved,
:09:44. > :09:47.even if the penguins themselves were a bit puzzled
:09:48. > :09:53.by all the attention. The medical world in 2015 also saw
:09:54. > :09:57.a number of breakthroughs. In London, surgeons used stem cells
:09:58. > :10:02.to cure a patient of blindness, a treatment that could
:10:03. > :10:06.eventually benefit many. And in July, a vaccine against Ebola
:10:07. > :10:16.virus was hailed against change. And in July, a vaccine against Ebola
:10:17. > :10:19.virus was hailed a gamechanger. It offered 100% protection
:10:20. > :10:20.against the deadly disease. And a pioneering laser surgery
:10:21. > :10:23.to remove a brain tumour the patient was asked to sing to make sure
:10:24. > :10:27.the surgery didn't affect a vital This year a radical new treatment
:10:28. > :10:36.was also given the go-ahead, one that paves the way for babies
:10:37. > :10:39.born with DNA from three people, but also means a range
:10:40. > :10:42.of devastating diseases can I will never forget the day that
:10:43. > :10:55.doctors sat Dave and I down and said we are really sorry,
:10:56. > :10:59.we think your daughter has a disease called mitochondrial disease,
:11:00. > :11:02.for which there is no cure and no That is probably the hardest,
:11:03. > :11:06.harshest words that, Lily passed away when she was
:11:07. > :11:12.just eight months old. She had been diagnosed
:11:13. > :11:15.with faulty mitochondria, the biological power
:11:16. > :11:17.packs in our cells. But the new technique could
:11:18. > :11:21.eliminate this genetic disease. In the procedure, the nucleus
:11:22. > :11:24.of a woman's fertilised egg is taken out, leaving the faulty
:11:25. > :11:27.mitochondria behind. It is then placed into an egg
:11:28. > :11:30.from another woman. This has had its nucleus
:11:31. > :11:33.removed but has kept It is then implanted
:11:34. > :11:39.back into the mother. It means a child born free
:11:40. > :11:43.of mitochondrial disease, but they would now have some genetic
:11:44. > :11:46.material from a third person. In February, Parliament
:11:47. > :11:51.backed the new treatment. It's too late for Lily's mother,
:11:52. > :11:54.but she believes this could make This technique would allow them
:11:55. > :11:59.to go ahead and have another baby It is like a light at the end
:12:00. > :12:07.of the tunnel for them. The UK is the first country
:12:08. > :12:11.to go ahead with this. And we could see the first birth
:12:12. > :12:19.as early as next year. were filmed in space
:12:20. > :12:25.by the Solar Dynamics Observatory. But in March, back here
:12:26. > :12:28.on the ground, we had an amazing Across northern Europe
:12:29. > :12:35.and in the UK, we got to witness our star putting
:12:36. > :12:38.on one of its greatest displays. A dazzling spectacle in the skies
:12:39. > :12:42.above, one that millions The moon started to cast its shadow
:12:43. > :12:48.across the sun, eating away In Stonehenge, there
:12:49. > :12:58.was a tantalising glimpse And in Leicester, children from 60
:12:59. > :13:05.schools gathered to watch. Red.
:13:06. > :13:07.It's got black over it. It's very special because it
:13:08. > :13:09.doesn't happen that often. In the Faroe Islands day turned
:13:10. > :13:15.tonight, the last glimpse The hairs still stand up on the back
:13:16. > :13:21.of my neck when I see this. It reminds you that we are
:13:22. > :13:25.on a planet orbiting a sun in a galaxy of 100,000 million stars
:13:26. > :13:28.and we can all still get excited by where we are in
:13:29. > :13:30.the universe, I think. It will be nearly a century before
:13:31. > :13:36.the UK sees its next total eclipse. But for those left wanting more,
:13:37. > :13:39.in the autumn, the moon took centre stage, turning from silver to blood
:13:40. > :13:43.red, this time with a lunar eclipse. And it was the best view
:13:44. > :13:52.we'd had for 33 years. By celestial coincidence,
:13:53. > :13:54.the moon was at its closest to Earth,
:13:55. > :13:57.so it appeared a giant in the sky. In Exmoor, stargazers
:13:58. > :14:02.came to take a look. At first I was really sceptical,
:14:03. > :14:05.I thought, I can't see any red. And then it got redder and redder
:14:06. > :14:09.and I was convinced it was red. I don't want to stop looking really,
:14:10. > :14:12.I want to keep having another you'll have to hang
:14:13. > :14:29.on until 2033. It was also a year for machines
:14:30. > :14:35.on a mammoth scale. After a two-year upgrade,
:14:36. > :14:38.the Large Hadron Collider was switched back on,
:14:39. > :14:40.smashing particles at twice as much Meanwhile, Nasa's work
:14:41. > :14:45.on the James Webb Space Telescope The giant eye in the sky will be
:14:46. > :14:56.bigger than a tennis court And these are the world's
:14:57. > :15:02.largest artificial waves. This huge new facility
:15:03. > :15:07.in the Netherlands is being used It was the smaller but smarter tech
:15:08. > :15:20.we welcomed in for the BBC's Even if they didn't
:15:21. > :15:23.quite perform to plan. ..to those machines
:15:24. > :15:43.joining the workforce. ..and those that look spookily
:15:44. > :15:46.like us, we explored how these technological advances
:15:47. > :15:52.are changing our lives. At this Nasa robotics lab
:15:53. > :15:54.in California, scientists are working
:15:55. > :15:56.on ever more versatile robots. But could the Hollywood vision
:15:57. > :15:58.of machines outwitting humans move We are a long way from a machine
:15:59. > :16:04.or a robot that is as intelligent Because, we just can't put
:16:05. > :16:09.the processing power on board a robot that is anywhere
:16:10. > :16:16.near what humans are. And on top of that, we don't have
:16:17. > :16:20.batteries that give us the endurance Clearly with robots like this
:16:21. > :16:26.there isn't much to worry about now, but scientists say we need to think
:16:27. > :16:29.ahead and make sure AI isn't It has been very nice
:16:30. > :16:35.working with you today. At museums like this,
:16:36. > :16:37.visitors can come and learn about the world
:16:38. > :16:39.around them and see some things they would
:16:40. > :16:44.never normally see. But what if you had something
:16:45. > :16:47.so fragile and so precious that opening it up to the public
:16:48. > :16:49.could destroy it? That was the dilemma faced
:16:50. > :16:51.by conservationists in France, and one that required
:16:52. > :16:57.a radical solution. A descent into the darkness to
:16:58. > :17:08.witness a prehistoric time capsule. Until recently, the last people
:17:09. > :17:11.to set foot in this place Sealed shut for tens
:17:12. > :17:17.of thousands of years, by cavers in 1994, and then closed
:17:18. > :17:22.off to the public immediately. Very few people have
:17:23. > :17:25.ever been allowed in. On top of its natural beauty,
:17:26. > :17:34.the Chauvet Cave's most breathtaking Hundreds of images adorn the walls,
:17:35. > :17:44.painted 35,000 years ago, it's some of the oldest
:17:45. > :17:47.art ever found. But opening it up to
:17:48. > :17:51.the public could destroy it. The climate would be disturbed
:17:52. > :18:00.so much that we could have Now the French authorities have
:18:01. > :18:12.found a way to both preserve This replica reproduces the cave's
:18:13. > :18:24.most important features to scale. 3D scans were used to create
:18:25. > :18:29.a digital map and sculptures and artists brought
:18:30. > :18:36.the natural features to life. It's important for the public to see
:18:37. > :18:43.the art in the environment, you have the darkness,
:18:44. > :18:49.and the fresh air and the humidity. These elements are also an important
:18:50. > :18:52.part of the feeling of the emotion that you can have in
:18:53. > :18:57.front of the originals. Back in the real thing, and it's
:18:58. > :19:02.full of the echoes of history. But with so few privileged
:19:03. > :19:06.enough to experience this, the replica brings a glimpse
:19:07. > :19:12.of the past to the outside world. Conservation of another kind
:19:13. > :19:16.was also a major concern. This time, saving
:19:17. > :19:21.animals from extinction. The shooting of Cecil the lion
:19:22. > :19:24.brought wildlife crime In Africa, more than 30,000
:19:25. > :19:37.elephants are killed each year. And for rhinos, poaching
:19:38. > :19:42.is also at a record high. In Madagascar, the ploughshare
:19:43. > :19:46.tortoise is now at serious risk. These animals fetch up to ?25,000
:19:47. > :19:50.on the black market. So conservationists have
:19:51. > :19:54.taken an extreme step Desperate times require
:19:55. > :20:02.desperate measures - there's no
:20:03. > :20:05.way around that. What we're doing now
:20:06. > :20:08.is we are defacing one of the most This goes against every fibre
:20:09. > :20:16.of our bodies to do this, but it's got to be done
:20:17. > :20:19.to help save the species. In the forests, local people
:20:20. > :20:22.are hired to watch over the tortoises, using radio
:20:23. > :20:25.transmitters to keep track of them. 100 animals bred in captivity have
:20:26. > :20:29.been released into the wild, These carvings could be our
:20:30. > :20:37.last chance to protect This is a species whose
:20:38. > :20:48.future hangs by a thread. In Paris, a UN summit began
:20:49. > :20:51.with the largest ever gathering of world leaders, seeking a major
:20:52. > :20:59.new deal on climate change. This is the moment we finally
:21:00. > :21:08.determined we would save our planet. It is the fact that our nations
:21:09. > :21:11.share a sense of urgency about this challenge,
:21:12. > :21:13.and a growing realisation that it is within our power
:21:14. > :21:15.to do something about it. The aim was to cut greenhouse gas
:21:16. > :21:19.emissions that are heating As temperatures rise,
:21:20. > :21:25.droughts and heat waves And warming means the melting
:21:26. > :21:31.of the ice caps, raising sea levels and threatening millions
:21:32. > :21:37.living in low-lying areas. But during the two long
:21:38. > :21:40.weeks of negotiations, We will not sign off on any
:21:41. > :21:48.agreement that represents a certain It is deeply disappointing that
:21:49. > :21:55.on the one hand developed countries are not fulfilling their
:21:56. > :21:59.obligations, and on the other hand they are trying to shift
:22:00. > :22:01.their responsibilities We need a bolder text
:22:02. > :22:08.with fewer undecided options, But as the summit ran into overtime,
:22:09. > :22:22.the UN appealed for a compromise. The issues are many and complex,
:22:23. > :22:27.but we must not let the quest for perfection become
:22:28. > :22:34.the enemy of the public good. On offer was a plan to peak
:22:35. > :22:37.greenhouse gas emissions, to keep
:22:38. > :22:38.the rising global temperatures to well below two Celsius
:22:39. > :22:42.above preindustrial levels. Finance for green technology
:22:43. > :22:45.was also offered to developing countries, with a review
:22:46. > :22:53.of progress every five years. Finally, it was something that 195
:22:54. > :22:58.countries could agree But after the celebrations,
:22:59. > :23:04.questions remain over whether this agreement can really lead
:23:05. > :23:11.to a low carbon world. Gazing up at The Eagle Nebula,
:23:12. > :23:15.it's views like this that In 1961, Yuri Gagarin became
:23:16. > :23:23.the first human in space. Since then, more than 500 people
:23:24. > :23:32.have made it to the great beyond. This year, though, another
:23:33. > :23:34.joined their ranks - Tim Peake,
:23:35. > :23:35.the first official Tim Peake was selected
:23:36. > :23:39.by the European Space Agency He's undergone a rigorous training
:23:40. > :23:45.programme, from underwater spacewalks to surviving in a cave
:23:46. > :23:49.and learning how to cope As the launch in Kazakhstan neared,
:23:50. > :23:58.Tim was asked what he was most It really has to be
:23:59. > :24:02.the view of planet Earth. And as much as I've spoken
:24:03. > :24:07.to flown astronauts, and as much advice as they have
:24:08. > :24:10.given me, I don't think anything can When the big day arrived, Tim Peake,
:24:11. > :24:17.with Nasa's Tim Kopra, and Russia's Yuri Malenchenko,
:24:18. > :24:20.made his way to the launch pad. One last goodbye, then
:24:21. > :24:23.it was time to go. Very emotional, I have
:24:24. > :24:55.to confess it was. It's been such a long time and he's
:24:56. > :24:59.wanted it for such a long time and finally it's
:25:00. > :25:03.here, we've done it. And back in the UK, schoolchildren
:25:04. > :25:09.join in with the celebrations. A new generation inspired
:25:10. > :25:16.by this journey into space. Inside, the crew get to experience
:25:17. > :25:23.microgravity for the first time. But as they close in
:25:24. > :25:25.on the International Space Station, A computer malfunction means
:25:26. > :25:29.the astronauts have to guide There we can see Tim Peake
:25:30. > :25:36.of the European Space Agency. At last, a warm welcome
:25:37. > :25:41.for Tim in his new home. It was a beautiful launch and we got
:25:42. > :25:44.launched straight into night and got But that first sunrise
:25:45. > :25:50.was absolutely spectacular. And we also got the benefit
:25:51. > :25:55.of a moonrise on the first orbit Tim Peake now begins his six-month
:25:56. > :26:04.adventure in space - a fitting end
:26:05. > :26:21.to a remarkable year in science. Time for the latest weather
:26:22. > :26:25.forecast. Sunshine and showers now for the rest of this afternoon. Some
:26:26. > :26:26.snow in those showers