0:00:02 > 0:00:04Let me tell you about the most unlucky animal in the world.
0:00:04 > 0:00:06It's called the Pyrenean ibex.
0:00:06 > 0:00:10Due to over-hunting in 1973 it got put on the endangered species list.
0:00:10 > 0:00:13But the last one didn't die until the year 2000,
0:00:13 > 0:00:15when a tree fell on it.
0:00:15 > 0:00:18But luckily they'd extracted some DNA and they were able to clone it.
0:00:18 > 0:00:20And then the clone died.
0:00:20 > 0:00:23The Pyrenean ibex is the only animal in history
0:00:23 > 0:00:25that's gone extinct twice.
0:00:25 > 0:00:27Tonight we're talking about extinction.
0:00:27 > 0:00:31I'm Dara O Briain, welcome to Science Club.
0:00:31 > 0:00:33APPLAUSE
0:00:55 > 0:00:58Good evening, everyone. Great to have you here.
0:00:58 > 0:01:00This is the show that takes apart all kinds of subjects
0:01:00 > 0:01:03and looks at them from many different angles.
0:01:03 > 0:01:06To help us do that we've got our curious sciencey audience
0:01:06 > 0:01:07and some fantastic guests.
0:01:07 > 0:01:08Palaeontologist, Richard Fortey,
0:01:08 > 0:01:10zoologist, Lucy Cooke,
0:01:10 > 0:01:13our resident supporters Dr Helen Czerski and Dr Tali Sharot,
0:01:13 > 0:01:14science supporter, Alok Jha,
0:01:14 > 0:01:17and special guest, Mark Steel. How are you, Mark? Are you well?
0:01:17 > 0:01:19- Very well.- Lovely to have you here.
0:01:19 > 0:01:21Of course, we also have Professor Mark Miodownik
0:01:21 > 0:01:25who'll be conducting some exciting experiments, ladies and gentlemen,
0:01:25 > 0:01:27featuring, as ever, strong Eastern European vodka.
0:01:27 > 0:01:30Tonight on the show we'll be looking at extinction
0:01:30 > 0:01:32and asking how species come and go from our planet,
0:01:32 > 0:01:33what we should do about it,
0:01:33 > 0:01:35and if indeed we should do something about it at all.
0:01:35 > 0:01:36But don't be depressed,
0:01:36 > 0:01:39it won't all be tearful goodbyes and guilt trips for humanity.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42This being Science Club,
0:01:42 > 0:01:45Dr Tali Sharot explores the ultimate fast food
0:01:45 > 0:01:48and visits the first-ever taste test of man-made beef.
0:01:48 > 0:01:49Are you anxious?
0:01:49 > 0:01:51Oh yes, I am, definitely.
0:01:51 > 0:01:55Comedian Mark Steel attempts to save the planet and goes on a quest
0:01:55 > 0:01:58to find out how we should deal with any incoming asteroid.
0:01:58 > 0:02:01One that has been discovered is a thing called Apophis.
0:02:01 > 0:02:03Great names, by the way.
0:02:03 > 0:02:06Is it people who were put out of work when Star Trek was finished?
0:02:06 > 0:02:09And science journalist Alok Jha asks the unaskable,
0:02:09 > 0:02:11should we just let the pandas die out?
0:02:12 > 0:02:15For extra info while the show is on, you can follow us on Twitter
0:02:15 > 0:02:16or visit the website.
0:02:16 > 0:02:18Details at the bottom of your screen.
0:02:20 > 0:02:23CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:02:23 > 0:02:27Right, tonight we have the pleasure of two esteemed science gurus on our sofa,
0:02:27 > 0:02:30palaeontologist, fellow of the Royal Society,
0:02:30 > 0:02:33doyen of the Natural History Museum in London, Richard Fortey,
0:02:33 > 0:02:37and zoologist, TV presenter and amphibian expert, Lucy Cooke.
0:02:37 > 0:02:39APPLAUSE
0:02:43 > 0:02:45How are you, Richard, Lucy? Pleasure to have you both here.
0:02:45 > 0:02:47Welcome to Science Club.
0:02:47 > 0:02:50We don't normally expect people to arrive in with
0:02:50 > 0:02:53a show-and-tell type gift, what have you brought us in?
0:02:53 > 0:02:55I've brought you in a trilobite.
0:02:55 > 0:02:57A proper...how old?
0:02:57 > 0:02:58This is a 400 million-year-old animal,
0:02:58 > 0:03:01and if we're talking about extinction, these are extinct.
0:03:01 > 0:03:04But they had a good innings. How long were they around?
0:03:04 > 0:03:07They were around for 250 million years,
0:03:07 > 0:03:09that's a great deal longer than we've been around.
0:03:09 > 0:03:11Lucy, speaking of presents,
0:03:11 > 0:03:14at the moment you are dealing with amphibians, frogs, predominantly.
0:03:14 > 0:03:15I love frogs, yes.
0:03:15 > 0:03:17LAUGHTER
0:03:17 > 0:03:18Why is that funny?!
0:03:18 > 0:03:20Frogs just are funny.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23I don't see why it is funny. I think they are amazing creatures,
0:03:23 > 0:03:25and I think they should get more attention.
0:03:25 > 0:03:29- Yay, frogs.- Yay frogs, exactly, that's what I'll be doing all through the show,
0:03:29 > 0:03:31repeatedly, until you all agree with me.
0:03:31 > 0:03:32Tell me about this thing.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36We tend to presume this is a model of extinction,
0:03:36 > 0:03:41which is the dodo, the mortal enemy of the Portuguese sailor.
0:03:41 > 0:03:45But this is a perfectly natural process,
0:03:45 > 0:03:47it's not just us dabbling or asteroids crashing,
0:03:47 > 0:03:50it is what has been going on on this planet.
0:03:50 > 0:03:54That's a very important point. Extinction is a natural process.
0:03:54 > 0:03:56It happens at a regular, slow pace.
0:03:56 > 0:03:59If it didn't, we wouldn't be here.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02We're going to cover a number of these things,
0:04:02 > 0:04:04including what kind of catastrophes there are,
0:04:04 > 0:04:06the manner in which man-made disasters can occur.
0:04:06 > 0:04:08Just a quick historical view.
0:04:08 > 0:04:12It is only relatively recently that we've actually understood the idea of extinction at all.
0:04:12 > 0:04:14Even a couple of hundred years ago
0:04:14 > 0:04:16we had no idea that species emerged and disappeared.
0:04:16 > 0:04:20So let's have a look at how previous generations have thought about species loss.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26Although the dodo is THE poster boy of extinction,
0:04:26 > 0:04:30it took 100 years before anyone realised
0:04:30 > 0:04:32that the dodo had in fact gone extinct.
0:04:32 > 0:04:37Extinction as a concept made no sense to anyone. The reasons are twofold.
0:04:37 > 0:04:39First, it didn't make sense that
0:04:39 > 0:04:43God would let all his hard work go to waste and let creatures die out,
0:04:43 > 0:04:47and second, nobody imagined the earth was very old.
0:04:48 > 0:04:52In the 1650s an Irish bishop, James Ussher,
0:04:52 > 0:04:55looked at who begat whom in the Bible.
0:04:55 > 0:05:00Using this he announced that the earth was less than 6,000 years old.
0:05:00 > 0:05:06Even more precisely, it was created on Sunday, 23 October, 4004 BC,
0:05:06 > 0:05:10even though, technically, Sunday should have been his day off.
0:05:12 > 0:05:16The first clue maybe this was a tiny bit out came from fossils.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23For years people thought fossils had simply fallen from the sky,
0:05:23 > 0:05:24or were left by the devil.
0:05:27 > 0:05:28By the end of the 1700s
0:05:28 > 0:05:32fossils had become something of an elephant in the room.
0:05:32 > 0:05:35Quite literally when French naturalist Georges Cuvier
0:05:35 > 0:05:39presented a paper on fossilised elephant bones in the 1790s.
0:05:39 > 0:05:44He made the controversial claim that one was the jaw of a creature
0:05:44 > 0:05:49that no longer existed, an animal that was extinct.
0:05:49 > 0:05:51It turned out to be a mammoth.
0:05:51 > 0:05:55While many scientists argued that the animals were still around,
0:05:55 > 0:05:57just they hadn't been found alive yet,
0:05:57 > 0:05:59but Cuvier was adamant
0:05:59 > 0:06:03suggesting this and other extinctions were caused by catastrophic events.
0:06:07 > 0:06:11By the early 19th century, although extinction had been established,
0:06:11 > 0:06:14the Bible still held sway.
0:06:14 > 0:06:15And Noah's Flood
0:06:15 > 0:06:19was deemed responsible for both extinction and fossils.
0:06:19 > 0:06:22But again, the earth suggested otherwise.
0:06:22 > 0:06:25A Scottish physician, James Hutton,
0:06:25 > 0:06:29developed the concept of deep time and geology.
0:06:29 > 0:06:33Now, using the power of geology, the estimated age of the earth
0:06:33 > 0:06:35spread from thousands to millions,
0:06:35 > 0:06:40and finally, thanks to the advent of radioactive dating,
0:06:40 > 0:06:45we now know that the earth is about 4.5 billion years old.
0:06:46 > 0:06:49Then, towards the end of the 20th century,
0:06:49 > 0:06:51as geologists looked more closely,
0:06:51 > 0:06:54periods of mass extinction were identified,
0:06:54 > 0:07:00times when species were dying out at quite frankly an alarming rate.
0:07:00 > 0:07:03It was one of these, however, that gave mammals their big break,
0:07:03 > 0:07:05and consigned dinosaurs
0:07:05 > 0:07:08to the entrance halls of natural history museums.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11Ultimately, this paved the way for we humans
0:07:11 > 0:07:14to become the dominant animal on earth.
0:07:14 > 0:07:16In the course of our ascendency,
0:07:16 > 0:07:20we have been responsible for quite a few extinctions ourselves.
0:07:20 > 0:07:22Of course, there is the dodo,
0:07:22 > 0:07:24but there is also the Steller's sea cow,
0:07:24 > 0:07:28extinct within a mere 27 years of its discovery.
0:07:28 > 0:07:32And the Tasmanian wolf, listed as an endangered species
0:07:32 > 0:07:37three years after the last one was seen in the wild.
0:07:37 > 0:07:39Indeed, we are so good at killing animals
0:07:39 > 0:07:42it's been suggested we're actually in the middle of
0:07:42 > 0:07:45a great period of extinction right now.
0:07:45 > 0:07:46All of our own making.
0:07:49 > 0:07:52APPLAUSE
0:07:52 > 0:07:54So...
0:07:54 > 0:07:59if the number of animal species dying out could be graphed,
0:07:59 > 0:08:04it would be a steady level of noise but with spikes for massive events.
0:08:04 > 0:08:06What kind of events are we talking?
0:08:06 > 0:08:10Well, the great dying was about 250 million years ago,
0:08:10 > 0:08:12at the end of the so-called Permian Period,
0:08:12 > 0:08:17where 90%...90% of all species are supposed to have died out.
0:08:17 > 0:08:20That's the biggest one in the history of life that we know.
0:08:20 > 0:08:23The ones where dinosaurs died out, the K-T Event,
0:08:23 > 0:08:25the figure's about 60% there,
0:08:25 > 0:08:27so it is very, very serious
0:08:27 > 0:08:31and a lot of people think we are now in a man-made one,
0:08:31 > 0:08:32just at the moment.
0:08:32 > 0:08:3799.9% of all species that have ever lived on the planet are now gone.
0:08:37 > 0:08:39Yes.
0:08:39 > 0:08:41The thing about extinction is it is a natural process,
0:08:41 > 0:08:44but it is happening at an unnatural rate at the moment.
0:08:44 > 0:08:46For instance, the amphibians,
0:08:46 > 0:08:49my best friends, they are one of the most threatened class of animals
0:08:49 > 0:08:54and their rate of extinction is something like 25,000 to 45,000 times the normal base rate.
0:08:54 > 0:08:56There is the passenger pigeon, the passenger pigeon was hunted
0:08:56 > 0:08:58because they use to flock in mass,
0:08:58 > 0:09:01there was a point at which you could shoot them,
0:09:01 > 0:09:02you could shoot 50 in one go.
0:09:02 > 0:09:03The sky was dark with them.
0:09:03 > 0:09:06Yes, people thought you couldn't over-hunt them.
0:09:06 > 0:09:10And there was a small 14-year-old boy in Ohio who killed the last one.
0:09:10 > 0:09:14It takes a fair amount of guts to be the last person to go,
0:09:14 > 0:09:16this is the one, photograph with the very last one.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19The sad thing is, something you can eat, for example,
0:09:19 > 0:09:23the fewer there are, the more the price goes up,
0:09:23 > 0:09:25the supplies of some of the rarer species of tuna,
0:09:25 > 0:09:27so the more the hunters go after them.
0:09:27 > 0:09:29Many factors cause extinction
0:09:29 > 0:09:32and the last couple of hundred years we've added some of our own.
0:09:32 > 0:09:34In honour of the passenger pigeon and the dodo,
0:09:34 > 0:09:36which was also a type of pigeon, by the way,
0:09:36 > 0:09:39Prof Mark Miodownik presents a guide to the humble shotgun.
0:09:40 > 0:09:45Technology turned the human hunter into a killing machine.
0:09:45 > 0:09:48The shotgun is the perfect piece of kit
0:09:48 > 0:09:50to solve the problem
0:09:50 > 0:09:54of how to get a bird from the sky onto your dinner plate.
0:09:54 > 0:09:59But with a shotgun, you can kill more than you could ever eat.
0:09:59 > 0:10:01It may seem obvious,
0:10:01 > 0:10:04but what's so special about the shotgun is the shot.
0:10:06 > 0:10:09So unlike other guns which fire one bullet at a time,
0:10:09 > 0:10:11shotguns fire many little projectiles.
0:10:11 > 0:10:13Let me show you what it looks like
0:10:13 > 0:10:16if you fire a shotgun at a target from about 40 yards.
0:10:16 > 0:10:19You can see all these tiny little impacts.
0:10:19 > 0:10:23That makes it ideal for trying to hunt or shoot fast-moving objects,
0:10:23 > 0:10:27because you don't have to be entirely accurate to hit something.
0:10:27 > 0:10:31As long as you hit something in here you are very likely to kill it.
0:10:32 > 0:10:34Shot means that even unskilled hunters
0:10:34 > 0:10:38can bring down huge flocks of birds, all too easily.
0:10:40 > 0:10:42This is a flintlock shotgun.
0:10:42 > 0:10:48It consists of three parts, a lock, a stock and a barrel.
0:10:48 > 0:10:50In this type of shotgun
0:10:50 > 0:10:52the shot goes down the barrel here,
0:10:52 > 0:10:55but before it goes down we need to add a propellant
0:10:55 > 0:10:57and that's gunpowder.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01Saltpetre, sulphur and charcoal.
0:11:01 > 0:11:06And then we just need to add the final ingredient, fire.
0:11:06 > 0:11:08Mind out.
0:11:14 > 0:11:18The Chinese invented gunpowder and they used it for fireworks,
0:11:18 > 0:11:19and you can see why.
0:11:19 > 0:11:21But what you can't see is
0:11:21 > 0:11:23the huge amount of carbon dioxide that is given off,
0:11:23 > 0:11:26and it's that that's useful for guns.
0:11:26 > 0:11:31The carbon dioxide creates a huge pressure inside the barrel,
0:11:31 > 0:11:33which propels the shot out.
0:11:34 > 0:11:39But muzzle-loading guns are slow to reload.
0:11:39 > 0:11:41However, one simple invention
0:11:41 > 0:11:43drastically improved the rate of firing,
0:11:43 > 0:11:48and turned the shotgun into something that can kill on an industrial scale.
0:11:48 > 0:11:52The cartridge encapsulates all the stages of loading a gun,
0:11:52 > 0:11:54in one container.
0:11:54 > 0:11:56It makes it easier, quicker and more reliable.
0:11:58 > 0:12:00It has the top cap, the shot,
0:12:00 > 0:12:03the wad, the gunpowder, the cartridge,
0:12:03 > 0:12:05and one extra ingredient,
0:12:05 > 0:12:06the primer.
0:12:06 > 0:12:09And this contains a pressure-sensitive chemical
0:12:09 > 0:12:10that explodes on impact.
0:12:10 > 0:12:15The cartridge meant that the design of the shotgun's lock mechanism,
0:12:15 > 0:12:18which is activated when you pull the trigger, had to change.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24Here is the side lock. This is the mainspring.
0:12:24 > 0:12:26When the trigger is pulled
0:12:26 > 0:12:28it throws the hammer forward
0:12:28 > 0:12:30and that hammer
0:12:30 > 0:12:32impacts the firing pin here.
0:12:33 > 0:12:37And that pushes through and detonates the cartridge.
0:12:37 > 0:12:40Then the rest follows, the gunpowder ignites,
0:12:40 > 0:12:43the carbon dioxide is produced,
0:12:43 > 0:12:44pressure builds up,
0:12:44 > 0:12:47the shot is propelled out,
0:12:47 > 0:12:49and that all happens in a split second.
0:12:52 > 0:12:56The dramatic increase in the speed of reloading
0:12:56 > 0:13:00meant that within 50 years of the invention of the shotgun cartridge
0:13:00 > 0:13:01the passenger pigeon,
0:13:01 > 0:13:05once one of the most numerous birds on the planet,
0:13:05 > 0:13:07was wiped out completely.
0:13:09 > 0:13:10APPLAUSE
0:13:15 > 0:13:19But extinction...extinction isn't necessarily
0:13:19 > 0:13:22always as obvious as shotguns and changed habitats.
0:13:22 > 0:13:25- It moves in mysterious ways, sometimes.- Very mysterious.
0:13:25 > 0:13:26Who are these?
0:13:26 > 0:13:29This is Xenopus, the African clawed toad.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32He is very likely responsible
0:13:32 > 0:13:35for one of the biggest extinction crises
0:13:35 > 0:13:38since the dinosaurs were wiped of the planet.
0:13:38 > 0:13:39And that's happening right now.
0:13:39 > 0:13:41It's happening right now.
0:13:41 > 0:13:45His fellow amphibians are being wiped out in massive numbers.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48How massive? Compare it to the dinosaurs being wiped out,
0:13:48 > 0:13:51how many frogs, species of frogs?
0:13:51 > 0:13:54There's 40% hurtling towards extinction.
0:13:54 > 0:13:56It's more than any other vertebrate.
0:13:56 > 0:14:02And there's about... over 120 that have gone extinct in the last 20-odd years.
0:14:02 > 0:14:06Why is this frog at fault and why is this frog not extinct?
0:14:06 > 0:14:08Well, so this amphibian here
0:14:08 > 0:14:14is the sort of Typhoid Mary of the amphibian extinction.
0:14:14 > 0:14:17And asymptomatic carrier of something.
0:14:17 > 0:14:22So amphibians are being killed off globally by fungus,
0:14:22 > 0:14:24the question was, where is this coming from?
0:14:24 > 0:14:29They have figured out the likely suspect is this frog.
0:14:29 > 0:14:32It carries this particular fungus and spreads it.
0:14:32 > 0:14:35This is the frog which is very popular in the scientific community.
0:14:35 > 0:14:38It's your standard default frog for experiments.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41Exactly, he is a scientific superstar,
0:14:41 > 0:14:44the first vertebrate to be cloned and he's even been into space.
0:14:44 > 0:14:46Wow, hell of a frog!
0:14:46 > 0:14:49There is actually very funny footage, the frog doing that.
0:14:49 > 0:14:52Can we get it out? Is it likely to get out?
0:14:52 > 0:14:56Yes, he's a very slippery customer, I'm going to try to get him out.
0:14:56 > 0:15:00This is an African clawed toad, and he evolved and lived in Africa
0:15:00 > 0:15:04until a chap called Lancelot Hogben,
0:15:04 > 0:15:08who was studying the effects of hormones on amphibians,
0:15:08 > 0:15:10was also working in South Africa,
0:15:10 > 0:15:13and he stumbled upon this frog and started using it in his experiments.
0:15:13 > 0:15:20What he discovered was that this frog makes a great pregnancy test.
0:15:20 > 0:15:24This is not... When are we talking about, 1920s?
0:15:24 > 0:15:28This frog was the number one pregnancy test in the world.
0:15:28 > 0:15:29For almost 20 years.
0:15:29 > 0:15:31If you go into family planning clinics in London,
0:15:31 > 0:15:33they'd have a basement full of frogs who would be
0:15:33 > 0:15:36consulted as to whether you were pregnant or not.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39Just to confirm, it did not mean you needed to wee on the frog.
0:15:39 > 0:15:44If you wee on it, it does not turn blue. That's not how it works.
0:15:44 > 0:15:46What did you have to do?
0:15:46 > 0:15:50You inject its lymph gland with a woman's urine,
0:15:50 > 0:15:54and if she's pregnant, the frog will lay eggs within 8 to 10 hours.
0:15:54 > 0:15:57It got exported out of Africa into labs all over the world
0:15:57 > 0:16:00so that lots of ladies could find out if they were pregnant.
0:16:00 > 0:16:04It's a young, healthy, virile crowd in the peak
0:16:04 > 0:16:07of their reproductive years, does anyone who's not sure if they may
0:16:07 > 0:16:12be pregnant... No judgements will be passed, we're not that kind of show.
0:16:12 > 0:16:14This is merely science. Nobody is stepping forward.
0:16:14 > 0:16:19It's really unfair that you're not taking part in this experiment.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22Is this very common?
0:16:22 > 0:16:24Basically, what happened was it got exported to laboratories
0:16:24 > 0:16:29all over the world, and when the little blue strip replaced the toad,
0:16:29 > 0:16:33people were like, "What are we going to do with all these toads?"
0:16:33 > 0:16:34They just released them.
0:16:34 > 0:16:39What they didn't know was that it carries a fungus on its skin.
0:16:39 > 0:16:41Is it just a case of plunging your hand in?
0:16:41 > 0:16:44Yes, plunge your hand in, they are slippery,
0:16:44 > 0:16:47so try to catch them in a scoop.
0:16:48 > 0:16:52Am I in danger of breaking them? Thank you very much.
0:16:52 > 0:16:53APPLAUSE
0:16:53 > 0:16:57No, no. Really patronising round of applause,
0:16:57 > 0:17:00given I hadn't actually caught the frog.
0:17:00 > 0:17:06Stop, stop. You're there. You're a bad frog. You're a bad, evil frog.
0:17:06 > 0:17:09I'm going to drop you from a great height and it'll teach you a lesson.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12His little face! Look at that. Oh no!
0:17:14 > 0:17:19- Hang on, they're very slippery. - That's fine, nobody saw that.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22APPLAUSE
0:17:24 > 0:17:26OK.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29There are many factors that influence extinction,
0:17:29 > 0:17:33one of the key reasons for current extinction is us,
0:17:33 > 0:17:35our meat-eating habits, we like steaks.
0:17:35 > 0:17:41But they devastate other animals' habitats. Let's look at the numbers.
0:17:41 > 0:17:44Lots of land is taken up with producing meat.
0:17:44 > 0:17:46Each person in the United States consumes
0:17:46 > 0:17:51an average of 120 kilograms a year, that's 1,060 quarter pounders.
0:17:51 > 0:17:55Brits get by on 84.2 kilograms.
0:17:55 > 0:18:01Since 1961, the UK has increased its total meat consumption by a fifth,
0:18:01 > 0:18:06to 84.2 kilograms per person.
0:18:06 > 0:18:10America by a third, and China is now eating 15 times as much.
0:18:10 > 0:18:12To feed these mouths,
0:18:12 > 0:18:16America's meat production has more than doubled in less than 50 years.
0:18:16 > 0:18:18India's has more than tripled,
0:18:18 > 0:18:22and China in the same period has increased production by 30 times.
0:18:22 > 0:18:27There are now at least 1.4 billion cows on planet Earth
0:18:27 > 0:18:31with a total mass of 550 million tonnes.
0:18:31 > 0:18:34If you put them on a scale with every wild mammal,
0:18:34 > 0:18:36cows would outweigh them 10 to 1.
0:18:36 > 0:18:39APPLAUSE
0:18:39 > 0:18:40Yes, yes.
0:18:41 > 0:18:44We are obviously applauding the making of that film rather
0:18:44 > 0:18:49than the sentiments involved, because we just love burgers.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53- It's not just burgers, either. - It's frogs' legs as well.- Really?
0:18:53 > 0:18:55You think of the French eating frogs' legs,
0:18:55 > 0:18:59but actually there is a billion frogs imported into America every year.
0:18:59 > 0:19:03- There is no eating in the middle part of a frog.- I've never tried it.
0:19:03 > 0:19:08I'm just saying, clearly there is a billion frog middles waiting
0:19:08 > 0:19:10to be eaten at the moment.
0:19:10 > 0:19:14Yes, we are diluting the planet in the search of making burgers,
0:19:14 > 0:19:17but just in time, science comes riding into the rescue.
0:19:17 > 0:19:19Do you want to see the future of food?
0:19:19 > 0:19:21In a Science Club exclusive, Tali Sharot
0:19:21 > 0:19:26has been to Maastricht in Holland to bear witness to a historic event.
0:19:32 > 0:19:35This Petri dish could provide a solution to reducing
0:19:35 > 0:19:38the impact we are having on species extinction.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41These are bovine muscle cells.
0:19:41 > 0:19:43They will be turned into a piece of beef steak,
0:19:43 > 0:19:46but one that has been grown in the lab.
0:19:49 > 0:19:53At the University of Maastricht, for the last five years
0:19:53 > 0:19:57Professor Mark Post has been perfecting a way to create lab-cultured meat.
0:20:00 > 0:20:04The idea is very old, in 1932,
0:20:04 > 0:20:09Winston Churchill put forward this idea that you could grow pieces
0:20:09 > 0:20:12of meat without the entire animal, because it seemed inefficient
0:20:12 > 0:20:17to grow an entire animal if you're only eating the wings or the legs.
0:20:19 > 0:20:23The process begins by taking a biopsy of muscle from a cow.
0:20:23 > 0:20:27From this bovine muscle, stem cells are isolated.
0:20:27 > 0:20:32These are the undifferentiated cells that go on to grow into muscle fibres.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38These individual stem cells are then suspended in Petri dishes
0:20:38 > 0:20:42and nutrients and placed in an incubator to grow.
0:20:42 > 0:20:44At the moment,
0:20:44 > 0:20:47there's not enough meat here to make even one single dinner, it is
0:20:47 > 0:20:51running at a very small scale, more proof of concept.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54But it's thought that when the process is scaled up,
0:20:54 > 0:20:58cells from one single biopsy of muscle, from one single cow,
0:20:58 > 0:21:04would be able to produce over 20,000 tonnes of lab-grown beef.
0:21:06 > 0:21:09As they multiply, the muscle cells naturally fuse together to form fibres,
0:21:09 > 0:21:14which are then encouraged to form these rings of muscle tissue.
0:21:19 > 0:21:22After about six weeks, the rings of muscles are harvested
0:21:22 > 0:21:24and cut into strips.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27They might not look like traditional muscle tissue,
0:21:27 > 0:21:31because there is no blood or fat or connected fibres,
0:21:31 > 0:21:32but at the cellular level,
0:21:32 > 0:21:37each strip is indistinguishable from regular beef.
0:21:40 > 0:21:43It's one thing to grow muscle cells in the lab,
0:21:43 > 0:21:46but at the moment this looks like tiny little worms.
0:21:46 > 0:21:49It doesn't smell very appetising either.
0:21:49 > 0:21:53Really, the key in passing man-made meat as a nice piece of beef
0:21:53 > 0:21:55lies wholly in the taste.
0:21:57 > 0:22:00- Have you tasted your lab-grown beef yet?- We haven't yet.
0:22:00 > 0:22:02We're going to do that this afternoon.
0:22:02 > 0:22:04I'm very excited about that.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07This is actually the first time we have sufficient material
0:22:07 > 0:22:11to make tasting a realistic thing to do.
0:22:14 > 0:22:16To oversee this historic moment,
0:22:16 > 0:22:19Mark has drafted in food technician Peter.
0:22:30 > 0:22:32Looks a bit like noodles.
0:22:32 > 0:22:34I agree, yeah.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39'Peter's first task is to try to turn these strips of man-made meat
0:22:39 > 0:22:42'into something like a miniature hamburger.'
0:22:43 > 0:22:47- How many individual fibres do we have there?- Around 600.
0:22:48 > 0:22:51And they are all individually grown.
0:22:52 > 0:22:56'The muscle fibres are mixed with salt to bind them together,
0:22:56 > 0:22:58'then, it's into the frying pan.'
0:23:00 > 0:23:05- Are you anxious?- Yes, I am, definitely.- Very much so.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10- OK, the first-ever frying of lab-grown meat.- Yes.
0:23:11 > 0:23:17'It doesn't look like much, but this is a big moment in culinary science.
0:23:17 > 0:23:21'Peter assesses if the tiny burger is behaving like a more traditional beef patty.'
0:23:22 > 0:23:23A little bit of shrinkage.
0:23:25 > 0:23:30- The water is coming out.- Yes, which is normal. It was quite wet.
0:23:30 > 0:23:33- That's to be expected. - How does it smell?
0:23:36 > 0:23:39- Neutral.- Neutral.- Yeah.
0:23:39 > 0:23:46There you see a slight, brown, crispy brown coating appearing.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50'Finally, the moment of truth.
0:23:50 > 0:23:53'It may be one very small mouthful,
0:23:53 > 0:23:57'but it's one giant leap for the future of lab-grown beef.'
0:24:01 > 0:24:04- Go ahead.- Really? Well, here we go.
0:24:04 > 0:24:06I don't need a big fork like this.
0:24:13 > 0:24:15It's salty.
0:24:16 > 0:24:19It has a very smooth texture.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26You feel the individual fibres, still.
0:24:26 > 0:24:31And it basically tastes like fried chicken.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34It is fried chicken. Salty, fried chicken.
0:24:35 > 0:24:39So in its most naked of forms, even beef tastes like chicken.
0:24:41 > 0:24:45It's going to take around 3,000 strips of lab-grown muscle fibres
0:24:45 > 0:24:48just to make one average-sized hamburger.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52But Mark has already started cultivation.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56Admittedly, I was a little bit sceptical this morning,
0:24:56 > 0:24:59but after seeing it cooked now, I'm much more convinced.
0:24:59 > 0:25:04Although I wasn't allowed to taste the actual meat, it did smell
0:25:04 > 0:25:06and look like proper meat.
0:25:06 > 0:25:10Maybe in the future, we're all going to make burgers from this lab-grown beef.
0:25:10 > 0:25:13APPLAUSE
0:25:16 > 0:25:21You could go either way, you could mock them for the ridiculousness
0:25:21 > 0:25:23of making a tiny white hamburger, and poring over it,
0:25:23 > 0:25:27or you could say that was history being made to a certain extent.
0:25:27 > 0:25:28Do you think it was history?
0:25:28 > 0:25:32Yes, it took them 15 years to get there,
0:25:32 > 0:25:36so it's a lot of work just making that tiny little piece of beef,
0:25:36 > 0:25:40but as we said, it's a proof of concept.
0:25:40 > 0:25:42Are there any vegetarians in the room?
0:25:42 > 0:25:46As a vegetarian, are you vegan?
0:25:46 > 0:25:49I'm vegetarian, and I think I would eat fake meat like that.
0:25:49 > 0:25:51It would be quite interesting to try.
0:25:51 > 0:25:53You could put yourself aside...
0:25:53 > 0:25:56It wouldn't be a grey area, the fact that it is taken from stem cells?
0:25:56 > 0:26:00I'd have to try it and think about how I felt about it after trying it.
0:26:00 > 0:26:02I'm loving the journey.
0:26:02 > 0:26:07"I'd think about how I felt, aw, I like the cow."
0:26:07 > 0:26:11Is there anyone who just wouldn't take it at all,
0:26:11 > 0:26:14who finds the idea of it quite disgusting? Anyone with that objection to it?
0:26:14 > 0:26:19That's quite interesting, nobody thought that small, white...
0:26:19 > 0:26:21No disgust kicked in.
0:26:21 > 0:26:25The other thing, our fear about beef is the amount of resources it takes
0:26:25 > 0:26:27to create a single hamburger.
0:26:27 > 0:26:31It's an insane amount of effort. Grain and water...
0:26:31 > 0:26:35That doesn't look like it's particularly efficient.
0:26:35 > 0:26:36At the moment it isn't.
0:26:36 > 0:26:40At the moment they have vast resources that you have to put in
0:26:40 > 0:26:42to make that tiny little piece.
0:26:42 > 0:26:44It's not helpful at the moment.
0:26:44 > 0:26:49It's a good avenue to try, at this point I don't think we know...
0:26:49 > 0:26:52- OK.- ..if it will be something that will be fruitful.
0:26:52 > 0:26:56The goal is that sometime in the future,
0:26:56 > 0:27:01you can take one biopsy from one cow, and make hundreds of burgers.
0:27:01 > 0:27:05Presumably if we can do it for cows, we can do it for pigs, we can do it for chickens.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08If we can make a chicken taste more like chicken...
0:27:08 > 0:27:11- A chicken that tastes like fish, maybe.- That would be fantastic.
0:27:11 > 0:27:14OK, we have a lot in tonight's show, as ever.
0:27:14 > 0:27:17If you'd like to know more, there are a number of ways you can get involved.
0:27:17 > 0:27:22You can go to the website, you can follow us on Twitter,
0:27:22 > 0:27:26for extra science like surprising facts and helpful doodles,
0:27:26 > 0:27:30and you can join the conversation at hashtag scienceclub.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34Still to come, Dr Helen Czerski goes in search of the secrets
0:27:34 > 0:27:38of resurrection, visiting a lab in New Orleans in the US
0:27:38 > 0:27:42where they're working on bringing extinct species back to life.
0:27:42 > 0:27:47Comedian Mark Steel attempts to save the planet and goes on a quest
0:27:47 > 0:27:50to find out how we should deal with any incoming asteroids.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53There is now a whole industry working on trying to save
0:27:53 > 0:27:58species around the world, but isn't it all being done in a piecemeal way?
0:27:58 > 0:28:01Are we putting our efforts into the right animals?
0:28:01 > 0:28:04Science journalist Alok Jha dares to ask the question,
0:28:04 > 0:28:07should we just let the pandas die?
0:28:09 > 0:28:12Humans have increased the level to which things are going extinct.
0:28:12 > 0:28:14We've increased the speed.
0:28:14 > 0:28:18So some of us might think that we've got a responsibility
0:28:18 > 0:28:20to try and save as much as possible.
0:28:20 > 0:28:24But we don't have infinite resources, so in that finite world,
0:28:24 > 0:28:26what do we choose to save?
0:28:56 > 0:28:58I think the world would be a far worse-off place
0:28:58 > 0:29:01if it didn't have giant pandas.
0:29:01 > 0:29:04This is a species that has been on the planet in one shape or form
0:29:04 > 0:29:06for about 8 million years.
0:29:06 > 0:29:10That means it's been on the planet a lot longer than we have.
0:29:10 > 0:29:15Habitat loss is the greatest man-made threat to wild pandas,
0:29:15 > 0:29:19yet it's a habitat they don't seem entirely suited to.
0:29:19 > 0:29:24They evolved as carnivores, yet gave up meat in favour of just bamboo.
0:29:25 > 0:29:28They also have a very dull sex life.
0:29:30 > 0:29:33These animals are a bit weird, they don't really help themselves.
0:29:33 > 0:29:35They're only on heat for three days a year,
0:29:35 > 0:29:37and they are really fussy eaters.
0:29:37 > 0:29:42So you have to really ask yourself the conservation question,
0:29:42 > 0:29:47are they cost-effective? Basically, are pandas worth the effort?
0:29:53 > 0:29:57At the Zoological Society of London, they are running a project
0:29:57 > 0:30:00that is helping decide how limited conservation funds are best spent.
0:30:02 > 0:30:06So, what they are trying to do here is find the most important species,
0:30:06 > 0:30:09work out how important they are to their environments,
0:30:09 > 0:30:12and then prioritise their conservation.
0:30:16 > 0:30:18They are looking for evolutionarily distinct
0:30:18 > 0:30:22and globally endangered species, or EDGE for short.
0:30:22 > 0:30:27They hope that by giving EDGE species priority,
0:30:27 > 0:30:30they can maintain as wide a gene pool as possible.
0:30:33 > 0:30:37So, how do you go about selecting the animals for that programme?
0:30:37 > 0:30:40They are not always the most pretty. They are the weird and wonderful,
0:30:40 > 0:30:43the things that have really kind of developed on their own, in their
0:30:43 > 0:30:46own lineage, that are really special, be that genetically
0:30:46 > 0:30:51or the type of body shape they have, the type of things they do in the wild.
0:30:51 > 0:30:54In terms of genetics and evolution, they are really important
0:30:54 > 0:30:57- and interesting and different? - Yeah, that's right.
0:30:57 > 0:31:02If I was going to force you to choose, EDGE species or pandas...
0:31:02 > 0:31:04- Which would I choose? - What are you going to choose?
0:31:04 > 0:31:06I would choose the EDGE every day.
0:31:06 > 0:31:10If we were to lose the EDGE species, we would be losing species which
0:31:10 > 0:31:12provide key functions within those environments,
0:31:12 > 0:31:17things that really engineer the ecosystems they live in.
0:31:18 > 0:31:21Alongside the pure science value,
0:31:21 > 0:31:26you can also factor in the value that species bring directly to us.
0:31:26 > 0:31:29Like the many varieties of bees and other pollinating insects.
0:31:34 > 0:31:39- So, Dave, what have bees ever done for us?- Bees have done lots for us.
0:31:39 > 0:31:43As we can see here, they pollinate our crops.
0:31:43 > 0:31:47Roughly a third of the food we eat is insect pollinated.
0:31:47 > 0:31:49That third includes most of the really interesting,
0:31:49 > 0:31:53nice, tasty stuff - raspberries, blueberries, runner beans,
0:31:53 > 0:31:55courgettes and so on.
0:31:55 > 0:31:58Without the insect pollinators, no fruit or veg.
0:31:59 > 0:32:03Sadly, due to increased pesticide use and loss of habitat,
0:32:03 > 0:32:06many bees species are now in decline across the globe.
0:32:08 > 0:32:10But compared to other wildlife,
0:32:10 > 0:32:13losing bees would have much more far reaching effects.
0:32:15 > 0:32:19If we lose our bees, we're going to lose our wildflowers, which means
0:32:19 > 0:32:22that entire ecological communities would collapse and all the other
0:32:22 > 0:32:26species that are dependent on those flowers will also disappear.
0:32:26 > 0:32:30So it is not just bad for our diets if we lose bees,
0:32:30 > 0:32:33we are talking about a kind of ecological armageddon.
0:32:33 > 0:32:36Does it bother you that millions and millions of pounds are spent
0:32:36 > 0:32:40on other charismatic mega-fauna, pandas, for example?
0:32:40 > 0:32:43Everyone likes pandas. They are big and cute and furry.
0:32:43 > 0:32:47But actually, ecologically, those creatures are nowhere near
0:32:47 > 0:32:49as important as the little furry things
0:32:49 > 0:32:51flying around our heads at the moment.
0:32:54 > 0:32:59So, are the panda's days numbered? Maybe.
0:32:59 > 0:33:01But it is possible that this is a species
0:33:01 > 0:33:04that transcends pure scientific reasoning.
0:33:04 > 0:33:06Perhaps being a conservation pin-up is enough.
0:33:10 > 0:33:13The animals are here to help us
0:33:13 > 0:33:18highlight the issues of giant pandas in the wild, through our visitors.
0:33:18 > 0:33:22They are there to help us generate cash for ourselves,
0:33:22 > 0:33:26which we then reinvest back into conservation research and education.
0:33:26 > 0:33:27So it is self-sustaining.
0:33:34 > 0:33:37APPLAUSE
0:33:37 > 0:33:41Alok, look into the giant, doey eyes of the panda and tell me
0:33:41 > 0:33:43you would let the pandas die.
0:33:43 > 0:33:47I'm not suggesting we take a shotgun and shoot all these things in the wild.
0:33:47 > 0:33:49They are not helping themselves.
0:33:49 > 0:33:51Why don't we just take a sense of perspective?
0:33:51 > 0:33:52The hundreds and hundreds
0:33:52 > 0:33:54of millions of pounds we spend on this animal,
0:33:54 > 0:33:55as cute as it is, honestly,
0:33:55 > 0:33:59really cute, I saw one up close, we could spend them
0:33:59 > 0:34:01on so many other things, great apes, for example,
0:34:01 > 0:34:03they are also endangered.
0:34:03 > 0:34:06Orang-utans and gorillas, a few thousand left.
0:34:06 > 0:34:09Why not just shift some of that money into those things?
0:34:09 > 0:34:12Are we running at a net loss on pandas?
0:34:12 > 0:34:14Do they not bring so many people into a zoo...?
0:34:14 > 0:34:17The zoo says, we bring these people in, it gives us visitor numbers,
0:34:17 > 0:34:21we get money and then put that into other conservation programmes.
0:34:21 > 0:34:24I am not sure I believe that actually works,
0:34:24 > 0:34:28because they will spend £20 million over the course of a decade
0:34:28 > 0:34:29on looking after these pandas
0:34:29 > 0:34:31because of the amount they eat, the stuff they are housed in,
0:34:31 > 0:34:33I am not sure they will get
0:34:33 > 0:34:35£20 million worth of visitors in that time.
0:34:35 > 0:34:38Not to get bogged down in the numbers, but we do rent pandas.
0:34:38 > 0:34:42Anyone who has a panda outside China is paying a yearly lease to China.
0:34:42 > 0:34:44£1 million a year per panda.
0:34:44 > 0:34:47And it costs about several hundred thousand pounds
0:34:47 > 0:34:49a year for maintenance, and every panda baby that is born,
0:34:49 > 0:34:52and they will try and have babies, belongs to China immediately.
0:34:52 > 0:34:54Richard, how do you feel on this?
0:34:54 > 0:34:57Well, you know, who can resist a panda?
0:34:57 > 0:35:00But I do think the important thing is,
0:35:00 > 0:35:05if you conserve a species, it is too focused.
0:35:05 > 0:35:08What you need to do is conserve the species which also conserves
0:35:08 > 0:35:10the whole habitat in which it lives.
0:35:10 > 0:35:15So I am not saying don't save the panda, but rather,
0:35:15 > 0:35:19if you save the panda, save the whole environment in which it lives.
0:35:19 > 0:35:22We all know that tremendous environmental degradation
0:35:22 > 0:35:23is going on in China right now.
0:35:23 > 0:35:27And if we can save a flagship species
0:35:27 > 0:35:30and a whole habitat as a result, that has to be a good thing.
0:35:30 > 0:35:36Lucy, what kind of monster would prioritise away from the panda?
0:35:36 > 0:35:39- Where are you on this?- I say, stuff the panda, save the salamander!
0:35:39 > 0:35:41- Really?- Yeah.
0:35:41 > 0:35:44APPLAUSE
0:35:44 > 0:35:46Why... Firstly, why the salamander?
0:35:46 > 0:35:49Because the giant Chinese salamander
0:35:49 > 0:35:51shares a mountain home with the panda,
0:35:51 > 0:35:55and the albino version in particular may look
0:35:55 > 0:35:59like a six-foot penis and be slightly less cute and cuddly,
0:35:59 > 0:36:02but it is the world's largest amphibian,
0:36:02 > 0:36:05it is an incredible creature, it has been around for millennia.
0:36:05 > 0:36:07And it gets almost no conservation funding.
0:36:07 > 0:36:10In fact, there was a study about three years ago that showed
0:36:10 > 0:36:14the charismatic mega-fauna get 500 times more funding
0:36:14 > 0:36:18for conservation and research than, say, endangered amphibians.
0:36:18 > 0:36:21Can I just throw it to the audience, just a show of hands?
0:36:21 > 0:36:22I want to put this in a way
0:36:22 > 0:36:24which doesn't lead the questions too much.
0:36:24 > 0:36:28But would you let the pandas die... That's emotive, isn't it?
0:36:28 > 0:36:33Do you think we place too much emphasis on pandas, let's say,
0:36:33 > 0:36:36and that kind of enormously charismatic...
0:36:36 > 0:36:39Mega-fauna is the word of the day, I believe!
0:36:39 > 0:36:43How many of you would let the pandas die in this situation?
0:36:43 > 0:36:46- The majority...- Not bad! - The majority,
0:36:46 > 0:36:50when the argument is made a certain way, can see other priorities.
0:36:50 > 0:36:51If tonight's programme has given you
0:36:51 > 0:36:53some burning questions about extinction,
0:36:53 > 0:36:56we have our after-hours science club starting when we finish,
0:36:56 > 0:36:59when an extinction expert is waiting to answer your questions.
0:36:59 > 0:37:01Just go to the website to please get involved.
0:37:05 > 0:37:07Let's assuage our species guilt here.
0:37:07 > 0:37:09It's not all about the damage we are doing.
0:37:09 > 0:37:12We ourselves could be the victims of extinction.
0:37:12 > 0:37:14I mean, we have had major events occur.
0:37:14 > 0:37:18How many major extinctions do we now think there have been?
0:37:18 > 0:37:21Everybody is agreed on five.
0:37:21 > 0:37:23And the one we are doing now is sometimes
0:37:23 > 0:37:26- regarded as the sixth extinction. - The one previous to that,
0:37:26 > 0:37:30- was that the dinosaurs one? - The big KT event, yes.- But even now,
0:37:30 > 0:37:32it's one of these things we've always known,
0:37:32 > 0:37:36that asteroids killed the dinosaurs, that's relatively recent, isn't it?
0:37:36 > 0:37:40Yes, the evidence for the arrival of the meteorite was gleaned
0:37:40 > 0:37:42from a little layer in the rocks,
0:37:42 > 0:37:44that was enriched in the element iridium.
0:37:44 > 0:37:51And this was brought in and engendered by the arrival of this massive impact.
0:37:51 > 0:37:53Although we talk about the dinosaurs dying out,
0:37:53 > 0:37:58and they did, the ancestor of the birds was a small dinosaur.
0:37:58 > 0:38:01- So the ancestor of the dodo was in fact a dinosaur?- Exactly.
0:38:01 > 0:38:04That's cruel irony for you, if you're a dodo in all this.
0:38:04 > 0:38:07For all we know, one of those asteroids, meteorites,
0:38:07 > 0:38:10comets, could be winging its way to us right now.
0:38:10 > 0:38:13And there is no way we wouldn't have come up with a way of dealing with it, right? Course not.
0:38:13 > 0:38:16Mark Steel has been to Berlin to meet the man with the plan.
0:38:16 > 0:38:21The human race seems to love the idea of armageddon.
0:38:21 > 0:38:26We are fascinated with the notion of being wiped out by ice ages
0:38:26 > 0:38:27and alien invasions.
0:38:27 > 0:38:30I had to keep a shovel by the front door for a year
0:38:30 > 0:38:32because my son insisted it was the best way
0:38:32 > 0:38:36of fighting off the inevitable zombie apocalypse.
0:38:36 > 0:38:42But an impact between Earth and an asteroid does seem to be
0:38:42 > 0:38:45the most credible of all these potential cataclysmic events.
0:38:49 > 0:38:51So I have come to Berlin
0:38:51 > 0:38:54to find out how we can avoid this death by asteroid.
0:38:57 > 0:38:59I'm going to meet the leader of a multinational group
0:38:59 > 0:39:03of scientists who hope to save us from impending armageddon.
0:39:05 > 0:39:09'Professor Alan Harris is from the German Institute of Planetary Research.'
0:39:11 > 0:39:14So, how do we detect these things, how do we come across them?
0:39:14 > 0:39:17If you take a series of pictures like this
0:39:17 > 0:39:18and track the object through
0:39:18 > 0:39:22one night, and you come back the following night
0:39:22 > 0:39:25and find it again, you can join the dots, as it were.
0:39:25 > 0:39:26And that will tell you
0:39:26 > 0:39:29if this asteroid is potentially hazardous or not.
0:39:29 > 0:39:32In other words, could it one day hit the Earth?
0:39:33 > 0:39:37So how likely is it that a dangerous extraterrestrial object
0:39:37 > 0:39:39will hit Earth in, say, the next hundred years?
0:39:42 > 0:39:45One that has been discovered is, I think, called Apophis,
0:39:45 > 0:39:49- which is a near-Earth asteroid... - Great names, by the way!
0:39:49 > 0:39:54Is it people who were put out of work when Star Trek was finished,
0:39:54 > 0:39:56and they had to come up with names?
0:39:56 > 0:39:58Let me tell you that Apophis
0:39:58 > 0:40:01will come very close to the Earth in the year 2029.
0:40:03 > 0:40:06And it will pass by the Earth's surface at a distance
0:40:06 > 0:40:08of about 30,000 kilometres.
0:40:10 > 0:40:15Now, that is beneath the altitude of TV satellites, for instance.
0:40:15 > 0:40:19So this is really coming into our back garden. It is a wake-up call.
0:40:21 > 0:40:23But if it passes by the Earth at a particular distance
0:40:23 > 0:40:27from a particular small region of space,
0:40:27 > 0:40:31it could be deflected by the Earth's gravitational pull to exactly
0:40:31 > 0:40:36the right extent that it might come back in 2036 and hit the Earth.
0:40:40 > 0:40:43But the chances of this happening, I have to say,
0:40:43 > 0:40:49are currently about one in 250,000, so don't lose sleep over it.
0:40:49 > 0:40:53- Oh, right, it's better than winning the Lottery.- Um, you're right!
0:40:57 > 0:41:01'So apparently, there is a danger from space that could strike
0:41:01 > 0:41:03'within our lifetimes. But if this is true,
0:41:03 > 0:41:06'is there anything we can do about it?
0:41:10 > 0:41:13'Well, this is where my new friend Alan comes in again.
0:41:13 > 0:41:18'He is the project leader of the Near Earth Object Shield,
0:41:18 > 0:41:20'or NEOShield for short.
0:41:20 > 0:41:23'With a 5.8 million euro budget,
0:41:23 > 0:41:26'they are investigating what methods could be used to avert armageddon,
0:41:26 > 0:41:29'based on current technology.'
0:41:30 > 0:41:32So, have you come up with
0:41:32 > 0:41:35a favourite solution to the asteroid conundrum?
0:41:35 > 0:41:39One is simply taking a massive spacecraft
0:41:39 > 0:41:41and throwing it at the asteroid.
0:41:43 > 0:41:46Here we have a very nasty, dangerous asteroid
0:41:46 > 0:41:49that is on course for the Earth.
0:41:49 > 0:41:52That blue ball there is the Earth.
0:41:52 > 0:41:53And you are going to try
0:41:53 > 0:41:56and deflect the asteroid with a kinetic impacter.
0:41:56 > 0:42:02Try with this much lighter ball - that represents the spacecraft.
0:42:04 > 0:42:05It didn't quite work,
0:42:05 > 0:42:10and that is a very realistic scenario in which you could deflect
0:42:10 > 0:42:13the asteroid slightly, but it could still end up hitting the Earth.
0:42:13 > 0:42:14A different bit of the Earth.
0:42:14 > 0:42:16Yes, and that is the problem,
0:42:16 > 0:42:19because then you have a terrible political situation.
0:42:19 > 0:42:22- It was about to hit Chicago, and you've deflected it to Peking.- Yeah.
0:42:25 > 0:42:27- Go on!- Very good.
0:42:27 > 0:42:31Another method we are considering in the NEOShield project
0:42:31 > 0:42:32is something we call blast deflection.
0:42:32 > 0:42:37And this is basically throwing a bomb at the asteroid.
0:42:37 > 0:42:39This is going to be your bomb.
0:42:39 > 0:42:42It is actually a blast of air, but it will do to try
0:42:42 > 0:42:45and demonstrate the idea of blast deflection.
0:42:48 > 0:42:50Oh, dear, it looks like you have failed.
0:42:50 > 0:42:51I think we ought to try again.
0:42:51 > 0:42:54We are going to try and make it more realistic by reducing
0:42:54 > 0:43:00the size of the asteroid, making it much less massive than the Earth.
0:43:00 > 0:43:03- That is, I think, the thing that stops it being realistic.- Exactly.
0:43:03 > 0:43:05Other than that, it's as if we're in space.
0:43:10 > 0:43:12Ooh! You've just caught the outside of Turkey.
0:43:12 > 0:43:14It skimmed through the atmosphere,
0:43:14 > 0:43:16but you just saved millions of lives.
0:43:16 > 0:43:18Hmm.
0:43:20 > 0:43:23APPLAUSE
0:43:24 > 0:43:28You all right, Mark? Let us hope that day never comes.
0:43:28 > 0:43:30Were you impressed with the science of this?
0:43:30 > 0:43:35Well, I don't know, I started out not particularly fretful,
0:43:35 > 0:43:39to be honest, that we were going to be hit by an asteroid.
0:43:39 > 0:43:42By the end of it, I thought, well, we're still not going to be
0:43:42 > 0:43:47- hit by an asteroid, but if we are, then we're stuffed.- Yeah, we are.
0:43:47 > 0:43:49Apophis is the interesting one,
0:43:49 > 0:43:53the one that is going to pass us in 2029.
0:43:53 > 0:43:56Yes, well, there is one that is going to pass
0:43:56 > 0:43:59and then possibly loop back, so that will be
0:43:59 > 0:44:01an interesting eight-year period,
0:44:01 > 0:44:05when we've just waited for an asteroid to come and destroy us.
0:44:05 > 0:44:08I think we should point out, as has to be done intermittently
0:44:08 > 0:44:11and repeatedly, the difference between the terms meteorite,
0:44:11 > 0:44:12meteor, asteroid, comet...
0:44:12 > 0:44:14It is quite hard, isn't it? I always forget.
0:44:14 > 0:44:18Basically, anything which intrudes into our atmosphere from outer space
0:44:18 > 0:44:21is an meteorite if it hits the ground
0:44:21 > 0:44:23or a meteor if it is just a falling star?
0:44:23 > 0:44:27So that can be either asteroid or comet. What is the difference between an asteroid and comet?
0:44:27 > 0:44:31And asteroid is a rocky metal thing. It is really heavy.
0:44:31 > 0:44:35This is a meteorite, but it could have come from an asteroid
0:44:35 > 0:44:37and burnt up and hit the ground.
0:44:37 > 0:44:40This hit the ground in Arizona in 1891.
0:44:40 > 0:44:46It is really worth holding in your hand because it is enormously heavy.
0:44:46 > 0:44:51The main thing of holding it in your hand is that this has been in space!
0:44:51 > 0:44:54- It feeds the six-year-old in you. - It does.
0:44:54 > 0:44:58Although it really would damage the six-year-old in you
0:44:58 > 0:45:01if you happen to be standing underneath it when it hit.
0:45:01 > 0:45:03We have comets here. This is our favourite, Halley's Comet.
0:45:03 > 0:45:06We sent Giotto up to have a look. We have the photographs.
0:45:06 > 0:45:09You are going to make a comet for us.
0:45:09 > 0:45:13To get your head round what a comet is... The best way is to make one.
0:45:13 > 0:45:15Here we go. We're going to make a comet
0:45:15 > 0:45:21The early European space mission Giotto to Halley's Comet
0:45:21 > 0:45:24discovered something great about them which is that they have a lot of water in them.
0:45:24 > 0:45:28First of all, we will mix up some water. Also carbon.
0:45:28 > 0:45:33That is a common element in the solar system and there is loads.
0:45:33 > 0:45:37We have the image of a dirty snowball.
0:45:37 > 0:45:41These things are icy, but they don't look like a snowball.
0:45:41 > 0:45:45There is some mineral content - silica, aluminium and a few other things.
0:45:45 > 0:45:48Which you are representing with sand here.
0:45:48 > 0:45:52The incredible thing is that the NASA Stardust mission, to Wild 2,
0:45:52 > 0:45:55they found they had amino acids in them.
0:45:55 > 0:45:57That was really startling and amazing
0:45:57 > 0:46:01- cos that means.... - We got these from bodybuilders.
0:46:01 > 0:46:06It's incredible because that might suggest that comets cannot just be
0:46:06 > 0:46:10harbingers of doom, but they carry the components of life.
0:46:10 > 0:46:12Amino acids are the building blocks of all our protein.
0:46:12 > 0:46:17Is there any justification for using Eastern European vodka?
0:46:17 > 0:46:21It's not vodka. It's ethanol, alcohol.
0:46:21 > 0:46:27Not only did these comets deliver water, but booze.
0:46:27 > 0:46:29So there is volatiles, there is organics in there,
0:46:29 > 0:46:32and of course, there is carbon dioxide.
0:46:32 > 0:46:35I wonder if you can help me. Mark, can you put on these gloves?
0:46:35 > 0:46:38We should all put on gloves and safety glasses.
0:46:38 > 0:46:43Although this is solid carbon dioxide, it is -78C.
0:46:43 > 0:46:46It's not terribly dangerous, but it will give you frostbite.
0:46:46 > 0:46:51What we do next means that it might spit.
0:46:51 > 0:46:54Whack that in here.
0:46:54 > 0:46:58- How much of this goes in there? - About three cups.
0:46:58 > 0:47:02That will cool this down and create this icy black snowball.
0:47:02 > 0:47:05- Cheap special effects. - This is brilliant.
0:47:05 > 0:47:09- I shouldn't put my hand in there. - Don't put your hand in.
0:47:09 > 0:47:12If a comet landed, all the rock bands in the world would have
0:47:12 > 0:47:16to rush out really quickly.
0:47:16 > 0:47:20This looks like some cheap trick.
0:47:20 > 0:47:25But it will create something that is uncannily like a comet.
0:47:25 > 0:47:30I'm trying to solidify that water we put in there
0:47:30 > 0:47:36and all the carbon and the vodka is being squeezed together.
0:47:36 > 0:47:39I think we have a comet. OK.
0:47:39 > 0:47:41If you have just tuned in,
0:47:41 > 0:47:44this isn't the Great British Bake Off.
0:47:44 > 0:47:47- Look.- Oh, wow!
0:47:47 > 0:47:49Look at the jets. The jets coming across.
0:47:49 > 0:47:54These are the carbon dioxide subliming and creating...
0:47:54 > 0:47:59And cooling the water and the water in the air is creating this steam.
0:47:59 > 0:48:02There would be jets on an actual comet?
0:48:02 > 0:48:05As it comes near the sun, this starts to happen.
0:48:05 > 0:48:08As it comes near to Mark, the warmth of his charisma,
0:48:08 > 0:48:11his personality starts to warm the side of it.
0:48:11 > 0:48:14And that is the coma you see around a comet.
0:48:14 > 0:48:18It's amazing how much you've created a comet
0:48:18 > 0:48:21- that looks like a human brain. - Yeah.
0:48:21 > 0:48:25Wow, that's fantastic. That's exactly as it would appear in space.
0:48:25 > 0:48:29Ladies and gentlemen, this is Mark Miodownik's comet.
0:48:29 > 0:48:31APPLAUSE
0:48:31 > 0:48:33If tonight's programme has given you
0:48:33 > 0:48:35some burning questions about extinction,
0:48:35 > 0:48:38we have our after-hours science club starting when we finish.
0:48:38 > 0:48:40Go to the website and get involved.
0:48:40 > 0:48:43APPLAUSE
0:48:43 > 0:48:47Loads more sources of information for you there.
0:48:47 > 0:48:50Now we have our unsung scientist Hall of Fame.
0:48:50 > 0:48:52This is where we big up scientists
0:48:52 > 0:48:54who don't get enough credit for their achievements.
0:48:54 > 0:48:57Richard, who would you like to add to the Hall of Fame?
0:48:57 > 0:49:02We have heard about the influence of guns on life.
0:49:02 > 0:49:06One wonderful species that almost died out,
0:49:06 > 0:49:11almost became extinct, was the North American buffalo, the bison.
0:49:11 > 0:49:15It was only thanks to a few people who conserved them,
0:49:15 > 0:49:18who valued then, that this species survives now.
0:49:18 > 0:49:24My unsung hero is a farmer or farmer's wife, Molly Goodnight...
0:49:24 > 0:49:28who kept a small herd
0:49:28 > 0:49:31and now there are healthy populations once again
0:49:31 > 0:49:33of this magnificent animal.
0:49:33 > 0:49:34Who are you going to add?
0:49:34 > 0:49:39Alfred Russel Wallace who discovered my favourite frog
0:49:39 > 0:49:41which is... LAUGHTER
0:49:41 > 0:49:43You're noticing a theme here.
0:49:43 > 0:49:47He discovered Wallace's flying frog which is a frog that flies
0:49:47 > 0:49:50which is amazing. But that's not why he's going on.
0:49:50 > 0:49:53He's going on because he thought of the theory of evolution
0:49:53 > 0:49:54by natural selection,
0:49:54 > 0:49:59possibly even before Darwin or definitely around the same time.
0:49:59 > 0:50:02The co-presented. You never hear about Arthur Russell Wallace.
0:50:02 > 0:50:04You always hear about Charles Darwin.
0:50:04 > 0:50:06Do you want to take Darwin out of the...?
0:50:06 > 0:50:10- And put Alfred Russel Wallace in. - That's not going down well in the room.
0:50:10 > 0:50:12Genuinely spontaneous booing for that.
0:50:12 > 0:50:18The one I'm going to bring in is our old friend Lancelot Hogben
0:50:18 > 0:50:23who invented the frog-based pregnancy test that you'll be delighted to know
0:50:23 > 0:50:25isn't the way you'll be pacing
0:50:25 > 0:50:27nervously in a bathroom in 10 years' time.
0:50:27 > 0:50:31- He was the one who popularised that frog?- Absolutely.
0:50:31 > 0:50:35It was because he turned it into a scientific superstar.
0:50:35 > 0:50:40That's the reason it became a model organism. He has a lot to answer for.
0:50:40 > 0:50:44He goes on to the side. Thank you very much.
0:50:44 > 0:50:47I told you at the start of the show this wouldn't be a big depressing
0:50:47 > 0:50:52guilt trip about how bad we are to little animals and pandas crying.
0:50:52 > 0:50:55Yes, resources and species are disappearing at an alarming rate and
0:50:55 > 0:50:59it may be all our fault, but we, as humans, have ingenuity on our side.
0:50:59 > 0:51:03What if we could bring these defunct species back?
0:51:03 > 0:51:05Dr Helen Czerski has been to New Orleans
0:51:05 > 0:51:08to uncover some astonishing experiments.
0:51:11 > 0:51:15Keeping endangered animals behind bars is one way to preserve them
0:51:15 > 0:51:18for future generations.
0:51:18 > 0:51:22The idea of rescuing a few specimens in the hope that they'll breed
0:51:22 > 0:51:25is as old as Noah's Ark.
0:51:25 > 0:51:29Creating Noah's Ark in a zoo isn't practical because, even if
0:51:29 > 0:51:32you had several of every species,
0:51:32 > 0:51:37you have then the enormous problem of finding habitats and food for them.
0:51:37 > 0:51:42At the Audubon Nature Institute in New Orleans, they have a solution.
0:51:42 > 0:51:46A way of keeping animals that doesn't have those problems.
0:51:46 > 0:51:48They're building a genetic ark.
0:51:53 > 0:51:57For over 10 years, Martha Gomez and her team have been collecting
0:51:57 > 0:51:59the next generation of endangered animals
0:51:59 > 0:52:03by storing their DNA in liquid nitrogen.
0:52:03 > 0:52:07Basically, we have here the frozen soup.
0:52:07 > 0:52:13We have cells from lions, antelopes, gorilla and elephants.
0:52:15 > 0:52:18What Martha's team have is effectively a biological hard drive
0:52:18 > 0:52:23to recreate endangered species from around the world.
0:52:23 > 0:52:28After defrosting genetic material like these wildcats sperm and eggs,
0:52:28 > 0:52:33they use IVF procedures to create new embryos in the lab.
0:52:33 > 0:52:38These eggs, there is a cell membrane round the outside
0:52:38 > 0:52:42- and the genetic material from the mother is in there.- Exactly.
0:52:42 > 0:52:45Then swimming around out here,
0:52:45 > 0:52:48these are all the sperm with the genetic material from the father.
0:52:48 > 0:52:54- Mm-hmm.- They are combining here. - It is in-vitro fertilisation.
0:52:54 > 0:52:58- Is this better magnification? - Yes.- Look at that!
0:52:58 > 0:53:03You can see how many sperm you have around. And just one...
0:53:03 > 0:53:08- One more cat in the world, here we go.- Here we go.
0:53:09 > 0:53:12By freezing the embryos, too,
0:53:12 > 0:53:16Martha's team are experimenting with starting life
0:53:16 > 0:53:18then pausing it at will.
0:53:19 > 0:53:23Defrosting the embryos of endangered species years down the line is
0:53:23 > 0:53:26all very well, but they need mothers to bring them into the world.
0:53:26 > 0:53:31So what do you do if the mothers are dying out?
0:53:31 > 0:53:35This African black-footed wildcat is the first of her kind to be
0:53:35 > 0:53:39born through interspecies surrogacy.
0:53:40 > 0:53:41This is Crystal.
0:53:41 > 0:53:46She might be the most astonishing animal I have ever seen.
0:53:46 > 0:53:51The sperm that make up half of her DNA were frozen for a year
0:53:51 > 0:53:55then they joined the egg to make an embryo
0:53:55 > 0:54:00and that embryo was frozen for eight more years.
0:54:00 > 0:54:02And at the end of that,
0:54:02 > 0:54:07that embryo was implanted not in the same species as Crystal,
0:54:07 > 0:54:11but in a domestic cat.
0:54:11 > 0:54:15So that little cat over there was carried to term
0:54:15 > 0:54:20by a mother of a whole separate species.
0:54:23 > 0:54:26So, even if an animal becomes extinct,
0:54:26 > 0:54:30the frozen zoo could use a common relative to resurrect the species.
0:54:32 > 0:54:33But in their latest research,
0:54:33 > 0:54:37Martha's team don't even need frozen sperm and eggs.
0:54:38 > 0:54:42They can now create an embryo from a skin cell using cloning.
0:54:44 > 0:54:49A normal domestic cat donates unfertilised eggs or oocytes.
0:54:51 > 0:54:55Under the microscope, Martha adds fluorescent dye to make
0:54:55 > 0:54:58the mother's DNA visible for extraction from the oocyte.
0:54:58 > 0:55:01What she's doing is going in with another pipette
0:55:01 > 0:55:05and removing the DNA that is already in this egg cell.
0:55:05 > 0:55:09The DNA is now here and there is nothing...
0:55:09 > 0:55:12Nothing. Can you see that this is the DNA?
0:55:15 > 0:55:18Now that there is an empty egg cell,
0:55:18 > 0:55:22a blank, the next stage is to take one of these cells that has come from
0:55:22 > 0:55:25the skin tissue of a different species of cat
0:55:25 > 0:55:28and put that into the oocyte.
0:55:28 > 0:55:33That's the complete genetic package effectively going into the egg cell.
0:55:35 > 0:55:38So the domestic cat DNA inside the egg
0:55:38 > 0:55:41has been replaced with wildcat DNA.
0:55:44 > 0:55:48Martha will apply an electric pulse across the cell
0:55:48 > 0:55:53so that the new DNA will fuse with the egg cell.
0:55:53 > 0:55:56This is the spark of life.
0:55:56 > 0:55:59I'm going to pass it. 3, 2, 1.
0:56:04 > 0:56:06What I do there is helping.
0:56:06 > 0:56:09You can clearly see how the cell got attached.
0:56:11 > 0:56:14Cloning is nothing new, but using separate species to provide eggs
0:56:14 > 0:56:16and surrogate mothers is groundbreaking.
0:56:18 > 0:56:23Martha's team hope to eventually clone tigers
0:56:23 > 0:56:26using the more common lion as a surrogate.
0:56:26 > 0:56:30This technology opens up tantalising possibilities for long extinct animals.
0:56:30 > 0:56:32APPLAUSE
0:56:39 > 0:56:42That is astonishing. It's nothing short of miraculous.
0:56:42 > 0:56:46Even watching the video again, shivers are going down my spine.
0:56:46 > 0:56:49We spent two days there and they have honed this procedure.
0:56:49 > 0:56:53It's very clever. They're using the natural machinery of the cells.
0:56:53 > 0:56:55So there is little artificial about it.
0:56:55 > 0:56:59They are switching things in the cell the right way,
0:56:59 > 0:57:02so they can put whole skin cells into this egg.
0:57:02 > 0:57:07- The technology is astonishing. It makes me shiver.- Dinosaurs?
0:57:07 > 0:57:11Is that a stupid question? This is Jurassic Park.
0:57:11 > 0:57:13It's all about the integrity of the DNA.
0:57:13 > 0:57:15To reproduce an entire animal,
0:57:15 > 0:57:18you need a lot of things to be exactly right.
0:57:18 > 0:57:21In the depths of mammoth DNA that have been found so far,
0:57:21 > 0:57:23no-one's got an intact sequence.
0:57:23 > 0:57:27It's difficult to patch together sequences from different animals.
0:57:27 > 0:57:31DNA does denature quite quickly.
0:57:31 > 0:57:36No DNA has survived in any decent chunks from the age of the dinosaurs.
0:57:36 > 0:57:39The mammoth is a more interesting possibility,
0:57:39 > 0:57:41because deep frozen mammoths are found...
0:57:41 > 0:57:45Wrangel Island, they lived until just a few thousand years ago.
0:57:45 > 0:57:51It's just conceivable that somewhere, there would be a whole strand.
0:57:51 > 0:57:56That is the passenger pigeon shot by a 14-year-old in Ohio
0:57:56 > 0:58:00in the year 1900. Presumably, whose great-grandchildren are still alive.
0:58:00 > 0:58:04So, if you could bring him back he could fly above and shit on him.
0:58:04 > 0:58:07That would be a small piece of vengeance.
0:58:07 > 0:58:10It's a miraculous film but it may be a far more confusing
0:58:10 > 0:58:12and complex issue than that.
0:58:12 > 0:58:15We are almost at the end. Mark, if you could come back in again.
0:58:18 > 0:58:21We want to thank all our reporters. Helen, Tali, Alok and of course our own Mark.
0:58:21 > 0:58:23Mainly our science gurus Richard Fortey
0:58:23 > 0:58:26Lucy Cooke and of course our special guest Mark steel.
0:58:34 > 0:58:36How do we tie a bow on this, ladies and gentlemen?
0:58:36 > 0:58:39Given what we've done to the animals, we've shot them,
0:58:39 > 0:58:42eaten them, knocked down their homes, introduced them to cats
0:58:42 > 0:58:45and we've weed on them to find out if we're pregnant.
0:58:45 > 0:58:48We probably deserve an asteroid strike, but before that happens,
0:58:48 > 0:58:50we're coming after the pandas.
0:58:50 > 0:58:53Ladies and gentlemen, that's all for this week. Good night.
0:58:53 > 0:58:55APPLAUSE
0:59:07 > 0:59:09Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd