The Year in Science Review

biggest scientific achievements of 2015. This is Review 2015 - Year in

Science. For the first time, images

of our solar system's This was the year we

finally made it to Pluto. And this is the face of the latest

member of the human family tree who's shaking up the

story of our origins. Also, a record-breaking effort

to travel around the globe We also met some of the world's most

endangered animals and heard about a radical plan

to put off poachers. And a bid to phase out

greenhouse gas emissions, a major climate summit

sought to save the planet And the first official British

astronaut bringing to a close a momentous year in science,

and one that offers so much This is the planetarium

at the Royal Observatory, It's here where the public can come

to gaze at the wonders Thanks to decades of exploration

we have now been to every planet But until this year its most distant

world remained a mystery. Pluto was a place we knew

barely anything about. For years this blurry image

was the best view of Pluto we had. But a new mission sought

to bring it into focus. Nasa's New Horizons spacecraft

blasted off in 2006, heading on an epic five-billion

kilometre journey to the solar No mission's ever travelled so far,

or I believe so long, We are very proud to be completing

the initial phase of reconnaissance Although we are last,

the fact that we are completing this journey that was bigger than 50

years ago by our parents' generation But the mission wasn't

without setbacks. Months into the journey Pluto

controversially lost its planetary status and was demoted

to a dwarf world. Nevertheless, as the spacecraft

neared its target excitement built But the day of the flyby saw a tense

wait at Mission HQ in Maryland. The spacecraft had been out

of contact for 13 hours. We have recorded data

of the Pluto system At last, the distant

world was revealed. A heart shape strangely dominating

the planet's surface. And the first close-up images

were full of surprises, too. Some areas had giant mountains

as high as the Rockies made of ice, while in others, frozen

plains went on for miles. Strange arrays of pits and patterns

littered the surface. Even the possibility

of volcanoes spewing ice. The largest of Pluto's five moons,

Charon, also wowed the world. I'll have to tell you I'm a little

biased but I think the solar system It will take another year to get

all of the data back. Pluto is emerging as a rich

and intriguing world, and one that has

been worth the wait. 2015 was also a year that

through the spotlight 2015 was also a year

that threw the spotlight I've come to the Natural History

Museum in London where you can see all sorts of amazing objects

on display, like this It's the first one ever found and

it's one of our closest relatives. But it's not the only one and this

year we welcomed some new members It began with a journey deep

into a cave in South Africa. Guided by torches, scientists

squeezed through the narrow gaps Crawling through 200 metres

of tunnel, the rest of the team They found hundreds of fragments

of bone, a huge haul Everywhere that my head lamp shone,

I could see that there was bone on the floor, not full bone,

but fragments of material. Basically everywhere I looked,

and it was an incredible The scientists soon realised

they had something very special, a new humanlike species they called

naledi, that was up to 3 And this picture shows what it

would have looked like, an intriguing mix of human

and ape-like features. It would have stood about five feet

tall, a small brain about the size of a large orange, but a very

humanlike character to the overall A hand that is almost human

to the palm, but then curved And then long legs that culminate

in an incredibly humanlike foot. Australopithecus deyiremeda,

was unveiled in May. Unearthed in Ethiopia,

bones as old as 3.5 million Our family tree is growing,

and these latest finds suggest there were several different human

species alive at the same time. The question now is,

which of these was an evolutionary dead-end and which ones

gave rise to us? In March, we saw the start

of a record-breaking attempt to fly around the world using only

the power of the sun. The aircraft called Solar Impulse

set off from Abu Dhabi. With a wingspan bigger than a Boeing

747, the plane was packed At first the circumnavigation

carried out in multiple stages Solar Impulse has touched

the ground and landed in Oman. But the most difficult leg, an epic

crossing of the Pacific Ocean, After several false starts,

the plane finally took off from Japan

at the beginning of a test Strapped in a seat for five days

and nights, he was only allowed But 118 hours after taking off,

the ocean crossing was complete I think I was privileged to be

able to do this flight. But above all it is a demonstration

that this technology works. You know, this aeroplane flew

for five days and five nights. It could have flown for maybe a week

or maybe one month more, and that's also

what we want to show. But after the celebrations,

the world record attempt stopped here.

The ocean crossing left the plane forcing the team to abandon the rest

of their journey around the world At London Zoo, researchers tried

to answer that burning question, The birds were put to the test,

lured across a high-tech track Hoping to find out how penguins

use their legs to waddle. They are applying forces left

and right as they swing their body And what is not known about penguins

is how the legs do that, how big are the sideways

forces on penguin legs, and how does that compare

to other waddling birds? It's only when you get up close

to penguins like Puddle and Clyde here that you see just how strangely

they are put together. But it turns out that penguins

didn't always waddle and in fact their ancient ancestors

moved in a much more elegant way. You wouldn't want to be

pecked by one of these. Some ancient penguins were as big

as humans and with a more horizontal posture and different leg anatomy,

there was hardly a hint of waddle. The data from these experiments

should pinpoint how and when one of nature's weirdest walks evolved,

even if the penguins themselves were a bit puzzled

by all the attention. The medical world in 2015 also saw

a number of breakthroughs. In London, surgeons used stem cells

to cure a patient of blindness, a treatment that could

eventually benefit many. And in July, a vaccine against Ebola

virus was hailed against change. And in July, a vaccine against Ebola

virus was hailed a gamechanger. It offered 100% protection

against the deadly disease. And a pioneering laser surgery

to remove a brain tumour the patient was asked to sing to make sure

the surgery didn't affect a vital This year a radical new treatment

was also given the go-ahead, one that paves the way for babies

born with DNA from three people, but also means a range

of devastating diseases can I will never forget the day that

doctors sat Dave and I down and said we are really sorry,

we think your daughter has a disease called mitochondrial disease,

for which there is no cure and no That is probably the hardest,

harshest words that, Lily passed away when she was

just eight months old. She had been diagnosed

with faulty mitochondria, the biological power

packs in our cells. But the new technique could

eliminate this genetic disease. In the procedure, the nucleus

of a woman's fertilised egg is taken out, leaving the faulty

mitochondria behind. It is then placed into an egg

from another woman. This has had its nucleus

removed but has kept It is then implanted

back into the mother. It means a child born free

of mitochondrial disease, but they would now have some genetic

material from a third person. In February, Parliament

backed the new treatment. It's too late for Lily's mother,

but she believes this could make This technique would allow them

to go ahead and have another baby It is like a light at the end

of the tunnel for them. The UK is the first country

to go ahead with this. And we could see the first birth

as early as next year. were filmed in space

by the Solar Dynamics Observatory. But in March, back here

on the ground, we had an amazing Across northern Europe

and in the UK, we got to witness our star putting

on one of its greatest displays. A dazzling spectacle in the skies

above, one that millions The moon started to cast its shadow

across the sun, eating away In Stonehenge, there

was a tantalising glimpse And in Leicester, children from 60

schools gathered to watch. Red.

It's got black over it. It's very special because it

doesn't happen that often. In the Faroe Islands day turned

tonight, the last glimpse The hairs still stand up on the back

of my neck when I see this. It reminds you that we are

on a planet orbiting a sun in a galaxy of 100,000 million stars

and we can all still get excited by where we are in

the universe, I think. It will be nearly a century before

the UK sees its next total eclipse. But for those left wanting more,

in the autumn, the moon took centre stage, turning from silver to blood

red, this time with a lunar eclipse. And it was the best view

we'd had for 33 years. By celestial coincidence,

the moon was at its closest to Earth,

so it appeared a giant in the sky. In Exmoor, stargazers

came to take a look. At first I was really sceptical,

I thought, I can't see any red. And then it got redder and redder

and I was convinced it was red. I don't want to stop looking really,

I want to keep having another you'll have to hang

on until 2033. It was also a year for machines

on a mammoth scale. After a two-year upgrade,

the Large Hadron Collider was switched back on,

smashing particles at twice as much Meanwhile, Nasa's work

on the James Webb Space Telescope The giant eye in the sky will be

bigger than a tennis court And these are the world's

largest artificial waves. This huge new facility

in the Netherlands is being used It was the smaller but smarter tech

we welcomed in for the BBC's Even if they didn't

quite perform to plan. ..to those machines

joining the workforce. ..and those that look spookily

like us, we explored how these technological advances

are changing our lives. At this Nasa robotics lab

in California, scientists are working

on ever more versatile robots. But could the Hollywood vision

of machines outwitting humans move We are a long way from a machine

or a robot that is as intelligent Because, we just can't put

the processing power on board a robot that is anywhere

near what humans are. And on top of that, we don't have

batteries that give us the endurance Clearly with robots like this

there isn't much to worry about now, but scientists say we need to think

ahead and make sure AI isn't It has been very nice

working with you today. At museums like this,

visitors can come and learn about the world

around them and see some things they would

never normally see. But what if you had something

so fragile and so precious that opening it up to the public

could destroy it? That was the dilemma faced

by conservationists in France, and one that required

a radical solution. A descent into the darkness to

witness a prehistoric time capsule. Until recently, the last people

to set foot in this place Sealed shut for tens

of thousands of years, by cavers in 1994, and then closed

off to the public immediately. Very few people have

ever been allowed in. On top of its natural beauty,

the Chauvet Cave's most breathtaking Hundreds of images adorn the walls,

painted 35,000 years ago, it's some of the oldest

art ever found. But opening it up to

the public could destroy it. The climate would be disturbed

so much that we could have Now the French authorities have

found a way to both preserve This replica reproduces the cave's

most important features to scale. 3D scans were used to create

a digital map and sculptures and artists brought

the natural features to life. It's important for the public to see

the art in the environment, you have the darkness,

and the fresh air and the humidity. These elements are also an important

part of the feeling of the emotion that you can have in

front of the originals. Back in the real thing, and it's

full of the echoes of history. But with so few privileged

enough to experience this, the replica brings a glimpse

of the past to the outside world. Conservation of another kind

was also a major concern. This time, saving

animals from extinction. The shooting of Cecil the lion

brought wildlife crime In Africa, more than 30,000

elephants are killed each year. And for rhinos, poaching

is also at a record high. In Madagascar, the ploughshare

tortoise is now at serious risk. These animals fetch up to ?25,000

on the black market. So conservationists have

taken an extreme step Desperate times require

desperate measures - there's no

way around that. What we're doing now

is we are defacing one of the most This goes against every fibre

of our bodies to do this, but it's got to be done

to help save the species. In the forests, local people

are hired to watch over the tortoises, using radio

transmitters to keep track of them. 100 animals bred in captivity have

been released into the wild, These carvings could be our

last chance to protect This is a species whose

future hangs by a thread. In Paris, a UN summit began

with the largest ever gathering of world leaders, seeking a major

new deal on climate change. This is the moment we finally

determined we would save our planet. It is the fact that our nations

share a sense of urgency about this challenge,

and a growing realisation that it is within our power

to do something about it. The aim was to cut greenhouse gas

emissions that are heating As temperatures rise,

droughts and heat waves And warming means the melting

of the ice caps, raising sea levels and threatening millions

living in low-lying areas. But during the two long

weeks of negotiations, We will not sign off on any

agreement that represents a certain It is deeply disappointing that

on the one hand developed countries are not fulfilling their

obligations, and on the other hand they are trying to shift

their responsibilities We need a bolder text

with fewer undecided options, But as the summit ran into overtime,

the UN appealed for a compromise. The issues are many and complex,

but we must not let the quest for perfection become

the enemy of the public good. On offer was a plan to peak

greenhouse gas emissions, to keep

the rising global temperatures to well below two Celsius

above preindustrial levels. Finance for green technology

was also offered to developing countries, with a review

of progress every five years. Finally, it was something that 195

countries could agree But after the celebrations,

questions remain over whether this agreement can really lead

to a low carbon world. Gazing up at The Eagle Nebula,

it's views like this that In 1961, Yuri Gagarin became

the first human in space. Since then, more than 500 people

have made it to the great beyond. This year, though, another

joined their ranks - Tim Peake,

the first official Tim Peake was selected

by the European Space Agency He's undergone a rigorous training

programme, from underwater spacewalks to surviving in a cave

and learning how to cope As the launch in Kazakhstan neared,

Tim was asked what he was most It really has to be

the view of planet Earth. And as much as I've spoken

to flown astronauts, and as much advice as they have

given me, I don't think anything can When the big day arrived, Tim Peake,

with Nasa's Tim Kopra, and Russia's Yuri Malenchenko,

made his way to the launch pad. One last goodbye, then

it was time to go. Very emotional, I have

to confess it was. It's been such a long time and he's

wanted it for such a long time and finally it's

here, we've done it. And back in the UK, schoolchildren

join in with the celebrations. A new generation inspired

by this journey into space. Inside, the crew get to experience

microgravity for the first time. But as they close in

on the International Space Station, A computer malfunction means

the astronauts have to guide There we can see Tim Peake

of the European Space Agency. At last, a warm welcome

for Tim in his new home. It was a beautiful launch and we got

launched straight into night and got But that first sunrise

was absolutely spectacular. And we also got the benefit

of a moonrise on the first orbit Tim Peake now begins his six-month

adventure in space - a fitting end

to a remarkable year in science. Time for the latest weather

forecast. Sunshine and showers now for the rest of this afternoon. Some

snow in those showers