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It has been a remarkable year in many ways, including in the world of | :00:00. | 3:59:59 | |
science. Rebecca Morelle looks back | :00:00. | :00:00. | |
on the year in science - from British astronaut Tim Peake's | :00:00. | :00:00. | |
adventures in space, to a discovery that will transform | :00:00. | :00:00. | |
our understanding of the universe. That's Review 2016: | :00:00. | :00:08. | |
The Year in Science. From the mission of a lifetime, | :00:09. | :00:16. | |
this was the year British astronaut In 2016, the world's largest radio | :00:17. | :00:19. | |
telescope was unveiled. We also learned about | :00:20. | :00:36. | |
the secret life of seals And saw advances in a controversial | :00:37. | :00:41. | |
new genetic technique. Human organs are growing | :00:42. | :00:50. | |
inside these pigs. This was also the year a global | :00:51. | :00:52. | |
climate deal came into force but the election of Donald Trump | :00:53. | :00:55. | |
placed a question And after decades of searching, | :00:56. | :00:57. | |
scientists have detected It's been called the discovery | :00:58. | :01:03. | |
of the century, making 2016 a truly I'm here at the Jodrell Bank | :01:04. | :01:08. | |
Observatory in the north of England. For more than half a century, | :01:09. | :01:18. | |
scientists have been using this vast telescope to gaze up | :01:19. | :01:21. | |
into the heavens, transforming our Some people have been lucky enough | :01:22. | :01:29. | |
to experience the wonders This year it was the turn of British | :01:30. | :01:34. | |
astronaut Tim Peake. Blasting off, the start | :01:35. | :01:38. | |
of a remarkable mission. He was heading for the space station | :01:39. | :01:45. | |
to join its international crew The first British | :01:46. | :01:53. | |
astronaut now on board In his first live broadcast, | :01:54. | :01:59. | |
he said the experience We always talk about seeing | :02:00. | :02:06. | |
the view of planet Earth But, when you look the opposite | :02:07. | :02:13. | |
direction and you see how dark space is, the black is black | :02:14. | :02:19. | |
and you realise how small the Earth His space moves though | :02:20. | :02:22. | |
still needed a bit of work. But, before long, Tim got | :02:23. | :02:32. | |
a chance to put on his space suit and head outside, | :02:33. | :02:41. | |
joining Nasa astronaut Tim, it's really cool seeing | :02:42. | :02:43. | |
the Union Jack going outside. It's explored all over the world | :02:44. | :02:52. | |
and now it's explored space. The task was to carry | :02:53. | :02:55. | |
out essential repairs. At 400 kilometres above the Earth, | :02:56. | :03:01. | |
what better place to take a selfie! Science was also key for this | :03:02. | :03:08. | |
European Space Agency mission. Tim became a human guinea pig, | :03:09. | :03:11. | |
seeing how the body changes in this He even found time to squeeze | :03:12. | :03:15. | |
in the London Marathon, and, But, after six months, it was time | :03:16. | :03:20. | |
to say goodbye and head home. Strapped into the Soyuz capsule, | :03:21. | :03:32. | |
Tim and his crew mates Awaiting them, a support team | :03:33. | :03:37. | |
circling above the grassy Then, suddenly, above the clouds, | :03:38. | :03:40. | |
the capsule appeared. And, with a firing of its thrusters, | :03:41. | :03:48. | |
it finally touched down. Weak after six months in space | :03:49. | :03:52. | |
but happy to be home. And it's wonderful to be | :03:53. | :04:00. | |
back in the fresh air. Since his return, Tim's been meeting | :04:01. | :04:12. | |
schoolchildren around the UK. He hopes his mission might just | :04:13. | :04:21. | |
inspire the next generation Jodrell Bank was built back | :04:22. | :04:30. | |
in the 1950s and this dish In China, the Government | :04:31. | :04:38. | |
is investing heavily in science and they've decided it's time | :04:39. | :04:43. | |
for their own record-breaker, a radio telescope that's | :04:44. | :04:51. | |
half a kilometre across. Hidden in the remote mountains | :04:52. | :04:58. | |
of south-west China, This is the largest radio | :04:59. | :05:00. | |
telescope ever built. Earlier this year, as it neared | :05:01. | :05:10. | |
completion, I was given rare access and a chance for a view | :05:11. | :05:18. | |
unlike any other. It's only when you get up close that | :05:19. | :05:21. | |
you really get a sense Bigger is better when it | :05:22. | :05:25. | |
comes to astronomy. The larger the dish, | :05:26. | :05:34. | |
the more signals can be collected from space, | :05:35. | :05:36. | |
helping us to see deeper In China, astronomy, | :05:37. | :05:38. | |
we are far behind the world. I think it is time for us to build | :05:39. | :05:46. | |
something in China and used by a lot of Chinese users, | :05:47. | :05:51. | |
and also welcome the The telescope works by listening | :05:52. | :05:54. | |
to radio waves emitted The dish is so big it will reveal | :05:55. | :06:07. | |
the first stars in galaxies and even hunt for signs | :06:08. | :06:16. | |
of extraterrestrial life. Building it has taken | :06:17. | :06:18. | |
the Chinese just five years. At a cost of $180 million, | :06:19. | :06:21. | |
it is part of the country's unprecedented investment in science, | :06:22. | :06:23. | |
that's on the verge By September, the final pieces | :06:24. | :06:25. | |
were slotted into place. China is now hoping its super-sized | :06:26. | :06:32. | |
project will transform it For the medical world it's also been | :06:33. | :06:44. | |
a year of breakthroughs. These miniature brains, | :06:45. | :06:54. | |
called orgnoids. They're grown from a single cell, | :06:55. | :06:58. | |
donated by patients. And they're helping | :06:59. | :07:00. | |
scientists to understand We can actually compare | :07:01. | :07:01. | |
the organoids to the patient and see some of the features of the disorder | :07:02. | :07:13. | |
and try to understand I think it's a really huge step | :07:14. | :07:16. | |
toward some hopefully really amazing breakthroughs in what has been | :07:17. | :07:22. | |
a desert in the field And in Poland, this man | :07:23. | :07:25. | |
was completely paralysed Now he is relearning | :07:26. | :07:28. | |
how to use his legs. Two years ago he had | :07:29. | :07:35. | |
a cell transplant to Now scientists want to see if these | :07:36. | :07:37. | |
outstanding results can And in America, the technology | :07:38. | :07:43. | |
called gene editing Here, human stem cells are being | :07:44. | :07:47. | |
injected into a pig embryo. Scientists are attempting to grow | :07:48. | :07:57. | |
a human pancreas inside a pig. Our hope is that the embryo | :07:58. | :08:00. | |
will develop normally. But the pancreas will be made up | :08:01. | :08:14. | |
almost exclusively out of human cells. So that then that pancreas | :08:15. | :08:19. | |
could be compatible with a patient for transplantation. These peaks are | :08:20. | :08:25. | |
present -- pregnant with the embryos. They won't reach full term | :08:26. | :08:30. | |
that they will be removed after a month and carefully analysed. Every | :08:31. | :08:36. | |
organ we tried to make rugby at kidney, liver or lung, we will look | :08:37. | :08:39. | |
at what is happening in the brain full if we find it is too human | :08:40. | :08:45. | |
like, we won't let those foetuses be born. The hope is this technology | :08:46. | :08:50. | |
could eventually solve organ shortages but it also raises | :08:51. | :08:58. | |
profound, ethical questions. In 2016, we've also been learning about | :08:59. | :09:04. | |
the inhabitants of our oceans. These incredible animals were found in the | :09:05. | :09:11. | |
Mariano trench, as scientists explored the deepest place on the | :09:12. | :09:18. | |
planet. And an animal that's a record-breaker. Scientists believe | :09:19. | :09:23. | |
the Greenland shark can reach 400 years old, making it the world's | :09:24. | :09:32. | |
longest living vertebrate. And this year, we learned about the secret | :09:33. | :09:37. | |
lives of seals. Beneath the waves, these animals are a mystery. They | :09:38. | :09:43. | |
spend two thirds of their time in the water. But down here, they have | :09:44. | :09:49. | |
been little studied. We travelled to their home in the north of England, | :09:50. | :09:53. | |
the farm islands. It's a grey seal haven. Bill Ababy seals! It was a | :09:54. | :10:03. | |
chance to join these animals in the freezing North three. -- C. The | :10:04. | :10:12. | |
animals seemed as interested in us as we work in them. The Alan Alger | :10:13. | :10:17. | |
it is cold but if you want to study these incredible animals up close, | :10:18. | :10:22. | |
you do have to get into the water. Around the coast of the UK, nearly | :10:23. | :10:27. | |
40% of grey seals live here. There are 5000 here in the farm islands. | :10:28. | :10:35. | |
Ben has been guiding with seals for years. Now he is capturing them on | :10:36. | :10:41. | |
camera. Recording behaviour that surprisingly has never been seen | :10:42. | :10:45. | |
before. What we are seeing is a lot of mating behaviour under water, | :10:46. | :10:49. | |
down to depths of nearly eight metres. A lot of balls seal activity | :10:50. | :10:55. | |
where they will wrestle each other, pushing each other and turning each | :10:56. | :11:00. | |
other. By having these competitions underwater, whether that reduces | :11:01. | :11:03. | |
that conflict on the land and they remember that behaviour. We are | :11:04. | :11:10. | |
getting an intriguing glimpse of the hidden world. Understanding these | :11:11. | :11:13. | |
animals could be the key to keeping their population thriving. With this | :11:14. | :11:21. | |
beautiful and intricate model we can see our solar system at a glance and | :11:22. | :11:25. | |
explore how the planets move around the sun. There is one that dominates | :11:26. | :11:33. | |
all others, Jupiter. It's the biggest planet in our solar system | :11:34. | :11:38. | |
in this year had a new visitor. Beneath its swirling clouds, Jupiter | :11:39. | :11:46. | |
is a world shrouded in mystery. These images, though spectacular, | :11:47. | :11:51. | |
were taken from afar. Nasa wanted to see this giant up close. Three, two, | :11:52. | :12:01. | |
one. Ignition, and lift off. In 2011, the mission blasted off. The | :12:02. | :12:05. | |
spacecraft called Juno embarking on an epic journey. As it neared its | :12:06. | :12:14. | |
destination, it faced its biggest challenge, to get into orbit it had | :12:15. | :12:19. | |
to slam on its brakes and survived everything Jupiter could throw at | :12:20. | :12:25. | |
it, including its deadly radiation. When Juno goes into orbit around | :12:26. | :12:30. | |
Jupiter, we're going to go through a really nasty, hazardous region, | :12:31. | :12:33. | |
radiation belts that are very close to the planet. They are nasty and | :12:34. | :12:37. | |
can destroy an attack all the electronics. We have to be careful. | :12:38. | :12:43. | |
Scientists faced a tense wait at mission control in California to | :12:44. | :12:47. | |
learn the fate of their billion-dollar spacecraft. Then, a | :12:48. | :12:52. | |
signal. APPLAUSE | :12:53. | :12:59. | |
The mood is pure elation here. After more than a decade of work and a | :13:00. | :13:05. | |
journey through space, Juno is the closest we have ever been to | :13:06. | :13:11. | |
Jupiter. We compared -- prepared a contingency procedure. Guess what? | :13:12. | :13:17. | |
We don't need that anymore. And then came the pictures. For the first | :13:18. | :13:26. | |
time, its South Pole was revealed. Covered in storms, many even bigger | :13:27. | :13:31. | |
than the Earth. In the north, it's blanketed by a thick atmosphere. In | :13:32. | :13:36. | |
this infrared view, at the top you can see Jupiter's Northern lights. | :13:37. | :13:41. | |
And the sound was captured as the spacecraft through dash flew through | :13:42. | :13:50. | |
the spectacular space show. The reaction was amazement. Look at | :13:51. | :13:54. | |
these images X the measure we are flying over the poll for the first | :13:55. | :14:01. | |
time. It is jaw-dropping. Eye-macro we are expecting more images like | :14:02. | :14:07. | |
this over the course of the mission. -- We are expecting. It is nothing | :14:08. | :14:15. | |
like they have ever seen before. But Mars was the destination for the | :14:16. | :14:20. | |
European Space Agency. The mission had two aims. Firstly to get the | :14:21. | :14:26. | |
spacecraft into orbit, which went exactly as planned. Scientists also | :14:27. | :14:30. | |
wanted to set down a lander on the planet's said this. But the signal | :14:31. | :14:38. | |
was never sent back to Earth. Days later, these images revealed the | :14:39. | :14:46. | |
crash site. The spacecraft had failed in the final moments of its | :14:47. | :14:50. | |
descent. This year we have been pushing the boundaries of space | :14:51. | :14:56. | |
exploration. Our focus has been on our own planet. 2016 has been | :14:57. | :15:00. | |
declared the hottest year on record, putting climate change and how to | :15:01. | :15:03. | |
tackle it in the spotlight once again. This year, our planet United, | :15:04. | :15:13. | |
at least for a while. For the world's ger is, a plan to cut | :15:14. | :15:16. | |
greenhouse gases became international law. The groundwork | :15:17. | :15:25. | |
was laid at the climate summit in Paris last year. After years of | :15:26. | :15:32. | |
negotiations, and historic global agreement had been reached. | :15:33. | :15:37. | |
Countries must now move away from fossil fuels and instead adopt a | :15:38. | :15:41. | |
green energy approach will do just as the Paris deal came into force, | :15:42. | :15:47. | |
Donald Trump was elected as the US president. He once called climate | :15:48. | :15:53. | |
change a hoax. In 2012, he tweeted it was invented by the Chinese to | :15:54. | :15:59. | |
harm US businesses. During his campaign, he said this is what he | :16:00. | :16:05. | |
would do. We are going to cancel the Paris climate agreement and stop all | :16:06. | :16:11. | |
payments of the United States textiles to UN global warming | :16:12. | :16:17. | |
programmes. Island nations affected by rising sea levels pleaded with | :16:18. | :16:23. | |
him to change his mind. President-elect Tramp I formally | :16:24. | :16:26. | |
invite you to Fiji and promise you the warmest of welcomes. We will | :16:27. | :16:32. | |
show you how we are already having to move entire communities out of | :16:33. | :16:39. | |
the way the rising seas. With its reliance on fossil fuels like coal, | :16:40. | :16:43. | |
the United States is the second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. | :16:44. | :16:47. | |
Its participation in the global climate deal was seen as vital. No | :16:48. | :16:54. | |
one knows what Trump will do. He has recently appointed a climate sceptic | :16:55. | :16:57. | |
to lead on the environment. Some fear the future of the Paris deal | :16:58. | :17:07. | |
now looks uncertain. In 2016, protection for the animals living in | :17:08. | :17:12. | |
the icy wilderness of Antarctica was also a focus. In October, a great | :17:13. | :17:18. | |
swathes of its ocean was declared a marine protected area, the largest | :17:19. | :17:24. | |
in the world. It is hoped, even for tiny creatures like Quayle, the | :17:25. | :17:28. | |
foundation of the food chain, the future of this unique and fragile | :17:29. | :17:34. | |
environment will be preserved. And this will be vital for the | :17:35. | :17:42. | |
continent's 's charismatic animals. These penguins started nesting here | :17:43. | :17:47. | |
just ten years ago. It is thought they may have moved because of | :17:48. | :17:51. | |
climate change. Now scientists have set up a network of cameras to | :17:52. | :17:56. | |
monitor them. It shows how the colony is changing, hour by hour, | :17:57. | :18:02. | |
over the course of a year. At another site, scientists are | :18:03. | :18:04. | |
counting the birds but numbers are down. We are in a colony of | :18:05. | :18:12. | |
penguins. This particular region, this particular species, has seen a | :18:13. | :18:16. | |
decline in the past two decades. There may be a link with competition | :18:17. | :18:22. | |
from fisheries, as in humans obtaining the same food, kreel, as | :18:23. | :18:27. | |
the penguins would normally eat. Scientists say only by tracking | :18:28. | :18:30. | |
these birds will we see how they fare in this changing world. And | :18:31. | :18:35. | |
coming soon to Antarctica, Boaty McBoatface, well, | :18:36. | :18:50. | |
almost. The British public voted for OT to be its name. The public over | :18:51. | :18:56. | |
ruled them. They dedicated the vessel to Sir David Attenborough, a | :18:57. | :19:00. | |
more fitting title, they said. The public post-match choice will live | :19:01. | :19:06. | |
on. Boaty McBoatface is now the name of the robotic submersible. In the | :19:07. | :19:12. | |
world of tech, there was a battle between man and machine. A champion | :19:13. | :19:24. | |
player of the ancient game of Go went up against an artificial | :19:25. | :19:27. | |
intelligence programme developed by Google's deep mined. After four | :19:28. | :19:35. | |
hours, the cumin resigned. The computer had one. Advances in AI are | :19:36. | :19:38. | |
also enabling developments in driverless cars. This vehicle was | :19:39. | :19:47. | |
made by Tesla, the company owned by a tech entrepreneurs. Only a car | :19:48. | :19:53. | |
that is not self driving in the long-term will be like owning a | :19:54. | :19:57. | |
horse. You would use it for sentimental reasons but not for | :19:58. | :20:05. | |
daily use, really. But the burgeoning industry came under the | :20:06. | :20:09. | |
spotlight earlier this year. Joshua Brown was a huge fan of Tesla cars | :20:10. | :20:15. | |
and their autopilot feature. It takes all the stress out of it. His | :20:16. | :20:20. | |
vehicle collided with a lorry and he was killed. It seems his car failed | :20:21. | :20:25. | |
to recognise the trap crossing in front of it on a Florida highway. | :20:26. | :20:31. | |
The vehicle's safety features have been upgraded and Elon musk still | :20:32. | :20:36. | |
maintains they are safer than a car with a human in control. | :20:37. | :20:44. | |
In 2016, it was time to take a last look at this comet, as we said | :20:45. | :20:52. | |
farewell to the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission. It had | :20:53. | :20:58. | |
given us these stunning images, revealing an alien world in | :20:59. | :20:59. | |
incredible detail. Two years before, scientists | :21:00. | :21:11. | |
attempted something many thought was impossible. Landing a robot on the | :21:12. | :21:16. | |
comet's said this. It was a moment of space history in the making. -- | :21:17. | :21:25. | |
surface. Fantastic! The robots stopped working after a few days but | :21:26. | :21:29. | |
it did manage to collect vital data. Continuing the mission was the | :21:30. | :21:33. | |
Rosetta mothership, which remained in orbit around the comment. This | :21:34. | :21:37. | |
year its power began to fade and it was time to bring the mission to a | :21:38. | :21:41. | |
close. The spacecraft would go out with a crash landing. The Rosetta | :21:42. | :21:48. | |
spacecraft was designed to fly to the comet, around the comet, but not | :21:49. | :21:54. | |
to land on it. There is no doubt that as soon as it touches down, it | :21:55. | :21:59. | |
is going to be destroyed. It gives scientists the chance to squeeze | :22:00. | :22:02. | |
every last drop of science out of this mission. All the way down it | :22:03. | :22:05. | |
will be taking close-up photos and collecting data. We will be | :22:06. | :22:10. | |
listening to the signal from the Rosetta. Scientists waited for | :22:11. | :22:15. | |
Rosetta to defend. The signal vanishing forever. And so, this is | :22:16. | :22:21. | |
the end of the Rosetta mission. Thank you and goodbye. It is like | :22:22. | :22:30. | |
RIP Rosetta. It is really sad, really, really sad. The legacy lives | :22:31. | :22:35. | |
on. You just know when you do these things it comes to an end. But, you | :22:36. | :22:40. | |
know, it is the end in a long, long Russian. But with more than 100,000 | :22:41. | :22:50. | |
photos and countless scientific observations, the work for the team | :22:51. | :22:55. | |
is not over. The mission has captured the world's imagination and | :22:56. | :22:59. | |
we may well be hearing about its discoveries for the next years to | :23:00. | :23:06. | |
come. For researchers at this observatory and around the world, | :23:07. | :23:10. | |
2016 is a year that will go down in history. After decades of searching, | :23:11. | :23:16. | |
scientists finally discovered gravitational waves. Invisible | :23:17. | :23:20. | |
ripples that pass through our cosmos. It is a breakthrough of | :23:21. | :23:28. | |
simply astronomical proportions. It all started with Albert Einstein. | :23:29. | :23:34. | |
This is the equation behind his theory of general relativity, | :23:35. | :23:39. | |
conceived 100 years ago. A pillar of modern science. It told us | :23:40. | :23:42. | |
everything from the motion of the planet to the presence of black | :23:43. | :23:49. | |
holes. But this year, the final piece of Einstein's 's was found. We | :23:50. | :23:57. | |
have detected gravitational waves. We did it. The idea is, as any | :23:58. | :24:03. | |
object moves through the fabric of the universe, it gives off waves of | :24:04. | :24:07. | |
gravitational energy, much like the ripples that emanate across the | :24:08. | :24:11. | |
surface of the water when you throw a stone into a pond. And the ones we | :24:12. | :24:17. | |
have spotted emanated from this cataclysmic event which took place | :24:18. | :24:22. | |
1.3 billion light years away. Two black holes moving ever closer | :24:23. | :24:27. | |
together. Eventually they smashed into one another, merging. The | :24:28. | :24:31. | |
collision generated a surge of gravitational ripples that | :24:32. | :24:35. | |
eventually reached Earth. They were spotted by this vast experiment in | :24:36. | :24:39. | |
America. Tunnels carrying laser beams, sensitive enough to pick-up | :24:40. | :24:46. | |
the minute disturbances caused by the oscillations. These black holes | :24:47. | :24:51. | |
actually spiralled in over a billion years ago. The signal has been | :24:52. | :24:56. | |
travelling to us since then and we turned on our detectives at just the | :24:57. | :25:01. | |
right time to detect it arriving. It is a discovery that not only | :25:02. | :25:05. | |
provides another feather in Einstein's at. He has been proved | :25:06. | :25:11. | |
right once again. It also howls in the new Iraq in science. | :25:12. | :25:15. | |
Gravitational waves provide a completely new way of looking at the | :25:16. | :25:20. | |
universe. The ability to detect them as the dead shall to revolutionise | :25:21. | :25:31. | |
astronomy. Until now, even our most advanced telescopes could show us | :25:32. | :25:34. | |
only a fraction of the cost Mars. The rest was dark, unseen. Now we | :25:35. | :25:37. | |
can detect gravitational waves, we can look deeper into space and | :25:38. | :25:41. | |
further back in time than ever before, perhaps all the way to the | :25:42. | :25:46. | |
Big Bang. The NBA with a brand-new perspective of the universe, one | :25:47. | :25:50. | |
that will usher in new discoveries for decades to come. | :25:51. | :26:09. | |
Hello. Things are set to turn very lively indeed over the next 24, 36 | :26:10. | :26:10. |