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From the moment we're conceived
to the day we take our last breath,

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science, and the way we use it,
touches every one of us.

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Science has given immense power
to save and nurture life.

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But the pace of change is so great
that we don't often take time

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to stop and appreciate
how far we've come.

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That's why I want to share with you
ten of the most important scientific
advances of our time,

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and reveal some of the things
that might just lie ahead.

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At the end of the programme
I'll be asking you to vote

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for the advance you think has done
the most to change your world.

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It's had a massive impact
on our society.

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It's really changed
your life, hasn't it?

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So you're the perfect bionic woman?
Yeah!

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And the winner?
Well, it's up to you.

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It's one small step for man,
one giant leap for mankind.

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The last 50 years has seen science
transform our world.

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In half a century,
it's tackled countless diseases,

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put men on the moon,

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and completely changed
the way we communicate.

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These are my top ten advances.

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Some things you may expect,
others you may find more surprising.

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The first advance to take place in
my top ten almost didn't make it,

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because it's very nearly too old!

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There are some women who prefer
at least to pretend
they're not interested in it.

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And who like to be
approached by the man.

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But for all its great age,

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it's made
a lot of people extremely happy.

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Ah, how I lost my virginity!

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Cor blimey.
My mother would have had a fit.

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We had a race, me and this girl,
to see who could have it off first.
It was terrible!

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But we were having a wonderful time!

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When I was a medical student,
which is longer ago
than I actually care to mention,

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there was a revolution

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which some people claim
transformed our society. It was,
of course, the contraceptive pill.

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In 1961, the Pill
was released in Britain.

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The day is printed
by the side of every pill.

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And providing she can
remember what day it is,

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a woman can be quite sure whether
or not she has taken today's pill.

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The manufacturers do their best
to make them foolproof -

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they don't want to lose
their reputation over what
might be called "pilot's error".

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Today we take it for granted,
but for that first generation,
it was revolutionary.

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I was a student teacher

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during that time, and, er,

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it got round in college

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that there was a certain doctor in
Doncaster that would give the Pill,

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so we all made a beeline for that.

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Interestingly enough, all the
patients, we were all called "Mrs"

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when you were called in
to see the doctor.

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You weren't "Miss" even there.

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We knew there was one private
clinic, except you had to pay for
it, so I had to take a paper round.

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The Pill exploded onto the scene
at a time of great social upheaval,

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and itself became
a huge part of that change.

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I felt quite liberated.
Just to be free of that fear
of becoming pregnant was amazing.

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I was aware that I was
taking control of my own life.

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There were lots of things
in the newspapers about the Pill,
"Oh, it'll make women tarty,"

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and everything, you know.
It wasn't like that for me.

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I could plan
my children and my career,
which was so important to me.

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But what nobody foresaw was that
the Pill meant that more women

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have tended to leave child-bearing
later and risk infertility.

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But that freedom to plan
has, on balance, changed
most people's lives for the better.

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And for that reason,
the Pill has to be in my top ten.

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It's tiny but it's had
a massive impact on our society.

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Its liberating influence has been
one of the most important advances
in the last 50 years.

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Just as the Pill transformed
women's lives in the 1960s,

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science is changing our relationship
with contraception again.

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Bill and Rachel
are just about to start a trial

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for a new contraceptive that
doesn't need to be taken every day.

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You've had three children,
and you got pregnant
when on the Pill each time?

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Yeah. Nothing to do with
the Pill, just to do with us.

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You didn't take it properly?
That's the one.

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So what methods of contraception
have you tried?

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We've tried abstinence, cos he
was in the Navy, so that worked
for a while, with him going away.

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We tried condoms
briefly in the beginning.

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And why didn't you want
to take the Pill any more?

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I'm really not good at taking it

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and I'd be relieved to not
have different chemicals, and the
stress of knowing I'd forgotten.

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And you didn't mind your husband
having the chemicals? No. Bash on.

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I think it would be great for him
to take some responsibility.

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The contraceptive they're about
to try is actually for Bill,
not Rachel.

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Now, I know what
you might be thinking -

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and if I were a woman,
I might not trust a man,

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even a reliable fireman
like Bill to take the Pill, either.

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But this pill

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is actually a course of injections
which will leave Bill
temporarily infertile.

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So what on earth made you
take part in this trial?

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Mmm... For me, it's just about
being able to take over

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the role of
contraception from Rachel,
and me being responsible for that,

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rather than
it all being left to Rache.

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And did the side-effects
that they talk about

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on the male contraception worry you?

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There are a few side effects
that they did warn us about,
like weight gain,

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acne, irritability.

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Did they tell you
you might develop breasts?

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They did say that. Yes.

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You're a fireman, aren't you? I am.

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Did you discuss it
with your mates at work?

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Strangely, no.

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Why? I mean...
the ribbing I'll get, never mind...

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It's a really macho environment.

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Yeah. It is I suppose,
it's fertility and a guy, like,
you know, I'm really butch...

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And do you understand the science of
how it actually works? I don't.

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Would you like to know?
Yes, please.

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Let me explain it to you.

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It's actually quite surprising,
and in some ways

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it's not dissimilar
from the female pill, the
oral contraception that women take.

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And essentially, it really works
in the brain, so if this is a body,

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the brain sends out a signal

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to make an egg or make a sperm, OK?

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Now, the pill is a hormone
which inhibits the brain by telling
it the egg is already being made

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when it's not being made, so the
brain thinks the woman is ovulating
so it stops sending the message,

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and that's exactly what happens
with the male contraception, too,
so if you're given the male hormone,

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that tells the brain,
"I'm making lots of sperm,"

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so it just shuts down.
So it's quite an elegant idea,

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and that feedback is

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one of the most interesting examples
in biology of how the body works.

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The idea is that the injections will
deal with Bill's biological feedback
for months at a time.

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This was his idea.

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So the first entry on my list is the
Pill - revolutionary in the '60s,

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and still reinventing itself
almost 50 years later.

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Fantastic.

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My next advance has also had
a dramatic impact on our lives -

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in fact, it's so significant that
it's played a part in almost all
of the other inventions on my list.

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When I was a schoolboy,
I worked in a radio factory.

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I was being paid
five pounds a week by Mr Benzimra,

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a princely sum,
to solder little components onto
a printed circuit board like this.

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Little did I realise that across
the Atlantic, a man was going to
revolutionise the whole process.

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An engineer called Jack Kilby found
a way to shrink all these components

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into one extraordinary,
and tiny thing.

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It's this, the humble microchip.

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And since its invention 50 years
ago, there's been more medical

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and scientific progress than in
any other period in human history.

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The microchip has to be in our top
ten. From the moment we wake up

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to the moment we go to bed,
it affects every part of our lives.

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Without the microchip,
there would be no laptop,

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no cash card, no mobile phone.

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In short, without the microchip,
we'd still be living in the 1970s.

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It amazes me that today
all those elements of the
old electronic circuit board

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I soldered together as a schoolboy
can only be seen down a microscope.

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And now the technology
is set to make it even smaller.

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I'm in the London Centre
for Nanotechnology,

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where they make
the smallest particles
that are possible to be made.

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And the reason why I'm wearing
the garb is because any skin cell

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in the atmosphere
would contaminate what they do.

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And here on my fingertip

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is a little electronic chip.

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On this chip, they can fit
50 million transistors.

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This, the next generation
of mini-miracles,

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is as small as it gets...for now.

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Each electronic component in these
circuits is smaller than a virus.

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And that miniaturisation
means that chips, like viruses,

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are getting closer to us than
we could have possibly imagined.

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Now, here's a thing.
This microchip is made of a
substance which is entirely edible.

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So when you swallow it,
it gets dissolved by the acid

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in your stomach, and it sends
a signal to a plaster on your arm.

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And the plaster on your arm - ow! -

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has got this
little device like a radio, and
if you haven't taken your pill...

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I get a message
on my phone saying,
"You haven't your pill today."

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But there's
a darker side to all technology.

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The sheer proliferation of the
microchip does bring some concerns.

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It's worth considering that
within 50 yards of where I'm
standing in Piccadilly Circus,

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there must be at least
50 surveillance cameras
recording every movement we make,

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amassing a huge amount of data
over which we have no control.

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How we deal with these issues
is an increasing challenge.

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Storage of personal data
is largely unregulated, and fraud,

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theft and loss of privacy in the
virtual world worries many people.

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But in spite of all this,
the chip is on my list,

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and we shouldn't forget that without
it, many of the other advances
wouldn't have been possible.

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Including this next one.

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At number three on my list
is a device in whose story I,

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or rather my rabbit
Wilhelmina, played here
by an actor, had a starring role.

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Well, a role, anyway.

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I met some physics friends in the
bar having a beer one evening,

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and they said, "We've just built
this machine with lots of wire

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"and string and ceiling wax
and an old television screen

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"and it's called
a Magnetic Resonance Image machine,

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"and would
you like to put your rabbit in it?"

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So we went down to the sub-basement
of Hammersmith Hospital

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and we put Wilhelmina gently
into the machine.

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I was a bit worried about it,
and then after 20 minutes
of cooking,

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we got a photograph,
and it looked a bit like this.

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Just a blur.

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And I didn't have the sense to
realise that this was going to be
quite revolutionary in its time.

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I think my pet rabbit was one
of the first living organisms
to be photographed like this.

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And the technology,
which was then in its infancy,
went on to become the MRI scanner.

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For much of my career in medicine,
X-rays were the most effective way
of looking inside the human body.

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But they didn't give a particularly
clear image of all the organs
beyond our bones.

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00:14:21,600 --> 00:14:25,000
MRI scanning changed all that.

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Engineers first used MRI
to look inside metals.

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Now we're able see directly
into living tissues

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and that's given amazing
new insights into the most
complicated organ in the human body.

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I find it really rather humbling
that this space,
this inanimate object,

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this brain was once the place
where somebody felt angry,
felt sad, and loved.

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And the extraordinary thing is
that until quite recently, we had no
idea how it was really working.

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Exciting research at the University
of Cambridge is using the MRI
scanner to see how the mind works.

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Robert, hello. Nice to see you.

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In the scanner next door is
a willing volunteer I've never met.

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I want you to face this way.
And not to look in the window?

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So I can't see your subject.

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By asking some simple
yes or no questions,

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I'm going to try to
find out a bit about him. Or her.

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If the person in the scanner
is trying to convey a yes,

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you'll see a bright red area of
activity around his pre-motor cortex,

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right at the top,
in the middle of the head.

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If the person in the scanner
is trying to convey a no,

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you'll see the same area
of the brain lighting up

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but it will be a blue-green colour.

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Are you a man?

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There you go.

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00:15:53,520 --> 00:15:56,720
I'm pretty confident this person
is conveying a yes at this stage.

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Are you over six foot high?

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He's now got a green area,
so this is signalling a no answer,

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which would mean that actually
this man is shorter than six foot.

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We can't actually see
the brain think yes or no.

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That would be too difficult
even for an MRI machine.

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00:16:19,240 --> 00:16:23,120
What our volunteer was asked
to do was to imagine playing tennis

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00:16:23,120 --> 00:16:27,640
when he wants to say yes, and when
he does, the area of the brain

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which deals with movement,
his motor cortex,

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shows increased activity,
and that is easy for the MRI to see.

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And this is our last question.

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Do you have facial hair?

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Again, pretty obvious activation.

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I would say that this guy's
either got a beard or a moustache.

222
00:16:50,040 --> 00:16:51,920
Hi!

223
00:16:51,920 --> 00:16:54,280
Thank you so much.
I'm Robert Winston.

224
00:16:54,280 --> 00:16:57,080
You're certainly not six-foot
high, we got that right.

225
00:16:57,080 --> 00:17:02,480
One recent study using
this technique has given us
an insight into communication

226
00:17:02,480 --> 00:17:06,320
with some patients
in what was thought to
be a permanent vegetative state.

227
00:17:06,320 --> 00:17:10,880
We've seen a patient recently,
who'd actually been in that
situation for five years

228
00:17:10,880 --> 00:17:15,560
and he was able
to use this technique
to convey yes and no responses.

229
00:17:15,560 --> 00:17:21,920
It's certainly not the case for all
patients, but we now know there are
a sub-group of these patients

230
00:17:21,920 --> 00:17:24,280
who probably can do more
than we think they can.

231
00:17:24,280 --> 00:17:26,480
It's quite scary, isn't it?

232
00:17:26,480 --> 00:17:30,040
Do you not find that
really quite amazing,

233
00:17:30,040 --> 00:17:35,080
but also very on the edge
of our humanity?

234
00:17:35,080 --> 00:17:40,200
It is and it is something that many
people find quite difficult
to think about,

235
00:17:40,200 --> 00:17:43,880
the idea that you could
be trapped inside your body
and unable to communicate.

236
00:17:43,880 --> 00:17:51,160
Hopefully we've found
a way where some of these
patients can get around that issue.

237
00:17:51,160 --> 00:17:54,480
Essentially what you're
measuring is changes in blood flow.

238
00:17:54,480 --> 00:17:57,360
We're looking at the areas of
the brain that are working hardest.

239
00:17:57,360 --> 00:18:01,400
They're drawing blood,
which is delivering oxygen
and that's what we're measuring.

240
00:18:01,400 --> 00:18:06,720
I couldn't look at somebody
with this machine and say,
"He thinks I am a complete moron."

241
00:18:06,720 --> 00:18:10,920
No, that might be true, but
at least you won't know that.

242
00:18:12,480 --> 00:18:19,880
Undoubtedly, the MRI machine
has been the most important way
of seeing how our brain works.

243
00:18:19,880 --> 00:18:26,360
And that alone qualifies it
as one of the most significant
advances in the last 50 years.

244
00:18:26,360 --> 00:18:31,280
But what really makes it stand out
for me is its extraordinary ability

245
00:18:31,280 --> 00:18:35,120
to transform lives
through its use in medicine.

246
00:18:35,120 --> 00:18:40,320
17-year-old Elyse Westrip has had
severe epilepsy since she was 11.

247
00:18:40,320 --> 00:18:47,720
MRI scans have recently
revealed that the seizures
are due to a brain tumour.

248
00:18:47,720 --> 00:18:52,800
This bright area here
is the area that is abnormal.

249
00:18:52,800 --> 00:18:55,480
What we need to do now
is determine how close

250
00:18:55,480 --> 00:18:59,920
that area to be removed is to parts
that carry out vital functions.

251
00:19:03,520 --> 00:19:06,440
Though it's been decided
that the tumour can be removed,

252
00:19:06,440 --> 00:19:12,000
the bad news is
that it's dangerously close
to her optic nerve.

253
00:19:12,000 --> 00:19:15,800
The operation carries the risk
of partial blindness.

254
00:19:18,520 --> 00:19:22,440
But for Elyse,
it's a risk worth taking.

255
00:19:22,440 --> 00:19:25,840
I'm trying to forget the risks

256
00:19:25,840 --> 00:19:29,480
and just think positive,

257
00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:31,600
the good things
about having the surgery.

258
00:19:31,600 --> 00:19:33,880
I feel I'm going to get better.

259
00:19:33,880 --> 00:19:38,560
I can change my life
back to how it was before.

260
00:19:38,560 --> 00:19:45,320
The epilepsy got so bad
I decided to leave school early
because I couldn't cope any more.

261
00:19:45,320 --> 00:19:51,200
I just got upset a lot
that I was different.

262
00:19:51,200 --> 00:19:54,960
It did change my life a lot.

263
00:19:54,960 --> 00:20:00,880
The tumour is buried
five centimetres into Elyse's brain.

264
00:20:00,880 --> 00:20:04,520
In the past,
patients undergoing this operation

265
00:20:04,520 --> 00:20:08,640
would have run a significant
risk of suffering brain damage.

266
00:20:10,200 --> 00:20:14,560
But thanks to MRI, the
risk to Elyse is greatly reduced.

267
00:20:17,320 --> 00:20:25,040
In a new use of MRI,
the scans are mapped onto an image
seen in the surgeon's microscope,

268
00:20:25,040 --> 00:20:28,880
and that will help him navigate
past the healthy brain
to remove the tumour,

269
00:20:28,880 --> 00:20:32,720
which is shown as a dotted line.

270
00:20:42,680 --> 00:20:48,480
After nearly five hours of surgery,
the tumour is finally removed.

271
00:20:48,480 --> 00:20:51,120
This is the specimen
that's come out so far.

272
00:20:51,120 --> 00:20:56,000
It's the front four centimetres
of the temporal pole, which is
exactly where the brain tumour is.

273
00:20:56,000 --> 00:20:58,960
I think the brain tumour is in this
bit here, right at the very bottom.

274
00:20:58,960 --> 00:21:06,280
And then Elyse is scanned again
to ensure that none
of the tumour remains.

275
00:21:06,280 --> 00:21:09,080
The pictures look amazing.
Fantastic.

276
00:21:11,720 --> 00:21:17,040
Two months later and I'm off to
visit Elyse on her 18th birthday.

277
00:21:17,040 --> 00:21:19,880
Hello. Happy birthday.
There's some flowers for you.

278
00:21:19,880 --> 00:21:22,800
I'm delighted to see
that she's made a full recovery.

279
00:21:22,800 --> 00:21:30,840
It's amazing that only a few weeks
ago before the operation, she was
having up to eight seizures a day.

280
00:21:30,840 --> 00:21:32,960
Are you having any seizures at all?

281
00:21:32,960 --> 00:21:35,320
None.
So it's really changed your life?

282
00:21:35,320 --> 00:21:37,280
Yeah.

283
00:21:37,280 --> 00:21:39,200
That's fantastic.

284
00:21:39,200 --> 00:21:44,720
It's miraculous to see how the
surgeons' skill and MRI technology

285
00:21:44,720 --> 00:21:47,120
has totally transformed
Elyse's life.

286
00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:59,680
The past 50 years has seen
innovation, invention and discovery
on an unprecedented scale.

287
00:21:59,680 --> 00:22:06,600
I'm choosing what I think are the
very best, the top ten scientific
advances of the past half century.

288
00:22:08,480 --> 00:22:13,360
So far we've seen how the
pill has revolutionised women's

289
00:22:13,360 --> 00:22:17,320
and indeed everybody's lives.

290
00:22:17,320 --> 00:22:23,440
We've looked at the almost
miraculous effect of the microchip
on, well, more or less everything,

291
00:22:23,440 --> 00:22:30,400
and we've marvelled at our godlike
ability to peer into the mind,
thanks to MRI scanning.

292
00:22:30,400 --> 00:22:34,440
There are still seven
of my top ten to come

293
00:22:34,440 --> 00:22:39,240
and after the programme,
you'll get a chance to vote
on which is your favourite,

294
00:22:39,240 --> 00:22:41,440
the best of the best.

295
00:22:41,440 --> 00:22:43,560
Meanwhile, on with the list.

296
00:22:46,880 --> 00:22:53,520
My fourth choice, which
though rather familiar, has
the potential to save the planet.

297
00:22:53,520 --> 00:22:55,400
I certainly wouldn't
be without this.

298
00:22:55,400 --> 00:22:59,000
It's one of my favourite inventions.
It's the electric torch.

299
00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:03,880
But the great advance in the
use of light came 50 years ago

300
00:23:03,880 --> 00:23:11,000
with the invention of the laser,
which concentrates the light down a
very narrow beam, very precisely.

301
00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:18,400
It's the greatest advance
in the technology of light
since mankind lit its first candle.

302
00:23:18,400 --> 00:23:26,360
A laser produces light
that's so concentrated
it can burn, cut and destroy.

303
00:23:26,360 --> 00:23:28,760
From the very beginning,
this destructive power

304
00:23:28,760 --> 00:23:32,400
has sparked the imagination
of science fiction writers.

305
00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:34,120
He has chosen his own death!

306
00:23:35,760 --> 00:23:41,040
But the force
can also be used for good
and that's why it's in my top ten.

307
00:23:47,760 --> 00:23:51,040
Here's a laser
of a power of one watt.

308
00:23:51,040 --> 00:23:56,680
If you don't want to use your energy
to strike your match, you can just
hold it in the beam of light.

309
00:23:59,720 --> 00:24:03,160
A one-watt laser can light a match.

310
00:24:04,800 --> 00:24:06,840
Imagine, then, the power

311
00:24:06,840 --> 00:24:10,600
of a 500 trillion watt laser.

312
00:24:10,600 --> 00:24:16,000
That's exactly what
they've built here at the National
Ignition Facility in California,

313
00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:23,120
where engineers have
just finishing constructing
the laser to end all lasers.

314
00:24:23,120 --> 00:24:29,200
In fact, 192 of the world's
most powerful lasers,

315
00:24:29,200 --> 00:24:33,080
all focused
on a tiny hydrogen target.

316
00:24:33,080 --> 00:24:35,880
If they can be made
to strike at the same time,

317
00:24:35,880 --> 00:24:40,280
and when I say the same time, I mean
within one billionth of a second,

318
00:24:40,280 --> 00:24:44,120
then the energy inside
the atoms will be released,

319
00:24:44,120 --> 00:24:48,880
creating in one moment
500 times more energy

320
00:24:48,880 --> 00:24:53,440
than the entire
American National Grid.

321
00:24:53,440 --> 00:24:58,360
This incredible energy release
is from nuclear fusion.

322
00:25:05,160 --> 00:25:08,800
What is fusion power? Fusion power
is what's going on inside the sun.

323
00:25:08,800 --> 00:25:13,640
When we crush hydrogen together,
we get this fusion to happen,

324
00:25:13,640 --> 00:25:15,320
we turn mass into energy

325
00:25:15,320 --> 00:25:18,640
and that energy comes out
and if we can collect it,

326
00:25:18,640 --> 00:25:24,600
and turn it into electricity,
that's what we want to power our
civilization. That's fusion power.

327
00:25:24,600 --> 00:25:27,520
That's what we hope to make
happen in this target chamber.

328
00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:32,040
What is so exciting
about this energy,
we have no issue of pollution

329
00:25:32,040 --> 00:25:34,600
and we have no issue
of global climate warming.

330
00:25:34,600 --> 00:25:38,680
That is the dream. That has always
been the dream of fusion energy

331
00:25:38,680 --> 00:25:42,200
and hopefully, we'll be able to do
it here. And no nuclear waste?

332
00:25:42,200 --> 00:25:43,960
No nuclear waste. Right.

333
00:25:43,960 --> 00:25:47,480
I just know that in this facility
in the next couple of years,

334
00:25:47,480 --> 00:25:51,040
hopefully one,
we will find out that we can do it.

335
00:25:51,040 --> 00:25:54,800
Effectively, within this chamber,
Ed and his colleagues

336
00:25:54,800 --> 00:25:59,480
are trying to create and capture
the power of a star

337
00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:02,400
by fusing protons in an atom.

338
00:26:02,400 --> 00:26:07,280
A source of energy so powerful
that if it could be harnessed,

339
00:26:07,280 --> 00:26:12,920
it would provide the Holy Grail of
cheaper, cleaner renewable energy

340
00:26:12,920 --> 00:26:16,800
and reduce our dependence
on fossil fuels.

341
00:26:19,480 --> 00:26:23,160
What's utterly extraordinary
is that all this energy

342
00:26:23,160 --> 00:26:29,440
that you're generating
from this vast machine
is actually in that.

343
00:26:29,440 --> 00:26:31,240
Just show me that little capsule.

344
00:26:31,240 --> 00:26:35,680
That capsule is where
the hydrogen fuel resides.

345
00:26:35,680 --> 00:26:42,480
It resides there at near absolute
zero and the laser light
comes in and it heats up this can.

346
00:26:42,480 --> 00:26:50,160
When the shell explodes,
that hydrogen implodes at nearly
1.5 million kilometres per hour

347
00:26:50,160 --> 00:26:52,560
and that's how
we get that fusion to happen.

348
00:26:58,520 --> 00:27:03,120
The idea of using
the laser to solve one of
the great problems of physics,

349
00:27:03,120 --> 00:27:06,760
the production of green energy,
which might save the planet

350
00:27:06,760 --> 00:27:12,840
using nuclear fusion.
That seems to be a really important
reason for developing lasers.

351
00:27:14,120 --> 00:27:18,680
It's interesting to remember
that when lasers were invented,

352
00:27:18,680 --> 00:27:22,720
no-one imagined
how many uses we'd have for them.

353
00:27:29,160 --> 00:27:35,240
It's unfortunate but true
that war is when we make
some of our greatest advances.

354
00:27:38,040 --> 00:27:41,040
And my next owes much to conflict.

355
00:27:44,960 --> 00:27:50,840
I was in southern Afghanistan
on patrol at night
and stepped on an IED.

356
00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:58,560
I remember seeing the flash,
the feeling of going
through the air, landing,

357
00:27:58,560 --> 00:28:02,120
and I got blown about
15 feet away from the lads.

358
00:28:03,880 --> 00:28:06,320
I knew what happened straightaway
cos I checked myself

359
00:28:06,320 --> 00:28:08,160
to see if I had
all my fingers, my hands.

360
00:28:08,160 --> 00:28:11,600
I got to my leg, and I thought,
"That ain't there. Fair enough."

361
00:28:11,600 --> 00:28:14,680
I checked the other leg
and that was bleeding badly.

362
00:28:14,680 --> 00:28:19,480
All shattered bones and everything
else, so I knew that probably
wouldn't be there when I woke up.

363
00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:22,560
There you go.

364
00:28:28,480 --> 00:28:31,960
Until recently,
Sam would have never walked again,

365
00:28:31,960 --> 00:28:36,640
but now the science of biomechanics
is getting closer than ever before

366
00:28:36,640 --> 00:28:41,280
to mimicking the complexity and
sophistication of our own bodies.

367
00:28:42,840 --> 00:28:45,560
At Headley Court Military
Rehabilitation Centre,

368
00:28:45,560 --> 00:28:50,440
doctors are helping hundreds
of injured soldiers like Sam.

369
00:28:50,440 --> 00:28:52,240
Sam, when were you injured?

370
00:28:52,240 --> 00:28:54,120
Beginning of August.

371
00:28:54,120 --> 00:28:56,480
So you're already walking.

372
00:28:56,480 --> 00:28:58,960
So that's what? Five months?

373
00:28:58,960 --> 00:29:03,280
About that, yeah.
Which is rather impressive. Yeah.

374
00:29:03,280 --> 00:29:06,600
Has that been a massive effort for
you? Presumably, it must have been.

375
00:29:06,600 --> 00:29:10,920
More of a challenge, really.
Been trying to beat
some Para friends of mine.

376
00:29:10,920 --> 00:29:12,680
Do you compete amongst yourselves?

377
00:29:12,680 --> 00:29:15,800
There's a lot of competition between
us to see who can be out quickest.

378
00:29:15,800 --> 00:29:19,600
Being soldiers, you tend to
be competitive. Definitely.

379
00:29:19,600 --> 00:29:25,720
The amazing thing about Sam's
artificial legs is that
they're controlled by a computer.

380
00:29:25,720 --> 00:29:27,760
Where is the computer in this?

381
00:29:27,760 --> 00:29:30,000
It's just behind the knee joint.

382
00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:32,680
In the shin
we've got some strain gauges

383
00:29:32,680 --> 00:29:39,200
and they give 50 readings per
second back to the computer, which
then regulates the hydraulics.

384
00:29:39,200 --> 00:29:43,120
That's really what makes this
knee so stable in normal walking.

385
00:29:43,120 --> 00:29:47,520
In the early days, an injury
would have resulted in what for Sam?

386
00:29:47,520 --> 00:29:50,600
He'd have probably been sat in a
wheelchair for most of his life.

387
00:29:50,600 --> 00:29:55,320
Now he spends pretty much all his
time on his legs, walking about.

388
00:29:55,320 --> 00:29:57,840
So it's life-changing?
Absolutely. Yeah.

389
00:29:57,840 --> 00:30:02,360
There isn't anything
that you can't do now that you
used to be able to do.

390
00:30:02,360 --> 00:30:07,160
Skiing, swimming, running,
going on the bike.

391
00:30:07,160 --> 00:30:09,840
You'd expect to get back
on the ski slopes? Absolutely.

392
00:30:09,840 --> 00:30:14,720
If you've got the right stuff,
the right attitude, you can pretty
much carry on with everything

393
00:30:14,720 --> 00:30:16,920
as good as before.
Nothing stopping you.

394
00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:23,240
And it is isn't only
wounded soldiers that are benefiting
from this new technology.

395
00:30:23,240 --> 00:30:30,960
From head to toe, biomechanics
is finding ways to repair and
replace
nature's finely-tuned machine.

396
00:30:30,960 --> 00:30:37,240
The ambition for biomechanics is for
prosthetics to be truly integrated.

397
00:30:37,240 --> 00:30:41,080
And for that, they would need to
be controlled by the user's mind.

398
00:30:41,080 --> 00:30:46,800
But until recently,
interfering with the workings of
the brain just wasn't an option.

399
00:30:46,800 --> 00:30:50,880
But today,
that's all starting to change.

400
00:30:52,040 --> 00:30:55,800
The ability to delve into
and manipulate the brain has

401
00:30:55,800 --> 00:31:01,160
many potential benefits, not only
for the control of prosthetic limbs.

402
00:31:04,040 --> 00:31:07,920
Diane Hire suffered from depression
for more than 20 years.

403
00:31:07,920 --> 00:31:14,200
Her illness was so crippling
that it even drove her to
attempt suicide three times.

404
00:31:16,480 --> 00:31:18,680
So tell me what it's like
to be depressed.

405
00:31:18,680 --> 00:31:22,520
It's awful,
it's like being in a dark cave.

406
00:31:22,520 --> 00:31:25,320
Nobody around, cold, lonely.

407
00:31:25,320 --> 00:31:31,320
If you have depression,
you have absolutely no desire to
live

408
00:31:31,320 --> 00:31:36,160
and it just is like that
day after day after day.

409
00:31:36,160 --> 00:31:40,240
Actually,
I guess I felt dead inside,

410
00:31:40,240 --> 00:31:44,440
I was like a living, talking
dead person.

411
00:31:44,440 --> 00:31:50,760
I tried several medications
and I also tried ECT,
electroconvulsive therapy.

412
00:31:50,760 --> 00:31:53,400
That was pretty awful too!

413
00:31:53,400 --> 00:31:57,440
In a last-ditch attempt to control
her depression, Diane underwent

414
00:31:57,440 --> 00:32:02,160
groundbreaking surgery
in the hope of controlling
her devastating depression.

415
00:32:02,160 --> 00:32:09,480
In a five-hour operation,
electrodes were directly inserted
eight centimetres into her brain.

416
00:32:09,480 --> 00:32:14,360
To check the electrodes were in the
correct position, Diane was woken up

417
00:32:14,360 --> 00:32:17,800
during the procedure, so that
the impulses could be adjusted.

418
00:32:19,400 --> 00:32:21,560
You know, when I woke up, they said,

419
00:32:21,560 --> 00:32:25,960
"We're going to turn this on now
and you let us know
how things are feeling."

420
00:32:25,960 --> 00:32:31,800
And at first I felt pretty warm,
and then they turned it to another
setting, and my heart was galloping.

421
00:32:31,800 --> 00:32:36,280
How you feeling? Starting to smile.

422
00:32:36,280 --> 00:32:41,200
I feel happy. Then all of a sudden,
I got this great big grin
on my face.

423
00:32:41,200 --> 00:32:45,160
And after that,
they put me back to sleep

424
00:32:45,160 --> 00:32:47,240
to finish up the surgery.

425
00:32:47,240 --> 00:32:50,280
So you immediately
felt happy suddenly?

426
00:32:50,280 --> 00:32:53,920
Oh yes, for me it was instantaneous.
What was that like?

427
00:32:53,920 --> 00:32:56,520
Amazing.

428
00:32:56,520 --> 00:32:59,240
It was almost like my brain
was doing gymnastics.

429
00:32:59,240 --> 00:33:05,080
You know it's how I used to
feel when I would go to work

430
00:33:05,080 --> 00:33:09,880
and...and...

431
00:33:09,880 --> 00:33:14,160
you know, have good weekends
and do things.

432
00:33:16,080 --> 00:33:23,960
Three years later and Diane lives
with the system wired into
her own body, much like a pacemaker.

433
00:33:23,960 --> 00:33:25,440
And where do the wires run?

434
00:33:25,440 --> 00:33:28,080
The control box is in your chest,
isn't it?

435
00:33:28,080 --> 00:33:33,560
Right. They start here, and then
they go down the back of my skull,

436
00:33:33,560 --> 00:33:38,400
down the back of my neck
and around and plug into

437
00:33:38,400 --> 00:33:40,720
a battery pack on my chest.

438
00:33:40,720 --> 00:33:45,120
Does it worry you that you have
a totally experimental thing
inside your brain?

439
00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:49,360
No. No, because it's been worth it.

440
00:33:49,360 --> 00:33:55,760
From the very moment the electrodes
were switched on,
Diane's depression disappeared.

441
00:33:57,600 --> 00:34:00,360
And of course your life
has changed totally.

442
00:34:00,360 --> 00:34:02,400
180 degrees.

443
00:34:02,400 --> 00:34:07,480
I wake up every day, and I think,
"What's today going to bring?"

444
00:34:07,480 --> 00:34:11,280
I have an excitement about living
that I didn't ever have.

445
00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:13,360
So you're the perfect bionic woman?

446
00:34:13,360 --> 00:34:16,040
Yeah. Yes.

447
00:34:16,040 --> 00:34:22,280
Even as a last resort, it seems
utterly terrifying to think of

448
00:34:22,280 --> 00:34:28,560
thrusting an electronic device deep
into the centre of the brain in the
way that has happened with Diane.

449
00:34:28,560 --> 00:34:32,720
But you can't knock it, because
it's completely changed her life.

450
00:34:34,960 --> 00:34:40,400
Because of its power
to transform lives and potential
to touch many others,

451
00:34:40,400 --> 00:34:43,040
bionics definitely
has a place in my top ten.

452
00:34:43,040 --> 00:34:47,640
Is it the most significant
advance of the last 50 years?

453
00:34:47,640 --> 00:34:51,440
That's up to you to decide
at the end of the programme.

454
00:34:53,200 --> 00:34:58,680
Or maybe you'll go for my next
choice - a remarkable invention

455
00:34:58,680 --> 00:35:02,280
that more than any other, perhaps,
has caused change.

456
00:35:09,240 --> 00:35:10,880
It's changed the way I work.

457
00:35:10,880 --> 00:35:12,840
It's changed the way
I find out about new art.

458
00:35:12,840 --> 00:35:15,120
Keep track of what my kids are doing.

459
00:35:15,120 --> 00:35:17,200
Compare prices.
Look up football scores.

460
00:35:17,200 --> 00:35:18,800
Talk to friends. Chat up girls!

461
00:35:18,800 --> 00:35:21,400
Raise money for charity.
Watch the news.

462
00:35:21,400 --> 00:35:24,240
It's changed the way
I do my research.

463
00:35:24,240 --> 00:35:28,760
In fact, it's changed our lives
in a thousand ways.

464
00:35:28,760 --> 00:35:30,880
I, for one, couldn't do without it.

465
00:35:30,880 --> 00:35:33,800
It is, of course,
the World Wide Web!

466
00:35:35,080 --> 00:35:42,120
It's astonishing to think that the
majority of us went on-line for the
very first time just ten years ago.

467
00:35:47,680 --> 00:35:51,680
My first contact with the Internet
was one day when I went into the lab

468
00:35:51,680 --> 00:35:54,440
and saw my Chinese PhD student
typing on her screen.

469
00:35:54,440 --> 00:35:55,960
And there she was, typing,

470
00:35:55,960 --> 00:35:59,000
and then suddenly she took her hands
off the keyboard

471
00:35:59,000 --> 00:36:01,840
and some other letters
appeared just underneath.

472
00:36:01,840 --> 00:36:04,680
She was communicating
with somebody in Hong Kong.

473
00:36:04,680 --> 00:36:07,240
I thought,
"This will never take off!"

474
00:36:08,760 --> 00:36:11,800
The World Wide Web required all
the computers in the world

475
00:36:11,800 --> 00:36:16,200
to be able to talk to each other
using one common language.

476
00:36:16,200 --> 00:36:22,840
But that was impossible until 1990,
when a British scientist
called Tim Berners-Lee

477
00:36:22,840 --> 00:36:24,960
figured out a way
to link everybody up.

478
00:36:24,960 --> 00:36:28,360
# Welcome to my world... #

479
00:36:28,360 --> 00:36:32,920
He created a code allowing
computers to share information.

480
00:36:34,360 --> 00:36:37,200
And suddenly,
we could speak to each other.

481
00:36:37,200 --> 00:36:40,200
# Welcome to my world... #

482
00:36:40,200 --> 00:36:42,840
And a new age
of communications began.

483
00:36:42,840 --> 00:36:48,320
# Built with you in mind... #

484
00:36:48,320 --> 00:36:53,440
Because the Web was never patented,
it is free and open
to anyone to use.

485
00:36:53,440 --> 00:36:57,680
Today, 1.7 billion people
use the web globally.

486
00:36:59,800 --> 00:37:03,360
Hi, everyone, today we're going
to be doing a Hollywood lip look.

487
00:37:03,360 --> 00:37:06,800
When you're poaching eggs without an
egg poacher, it can get messy.

488
00:37:06,800 --> 00:37:09,440
So if you can dance like this...

489
00:37:09,440 --> 00:37:11,880
Not since the invention
of the printing press

490
00:37:11,880 --> 00:37:18,240
have we seen such a leap forward
in the amount of information
freely available to everyone.

491
00:37:18,240 --> 00:37:24,640
And never before has there been
such a platform for ordinary people
to make their voices heard.

492
00:37:24,640 --> 00:37:27,560
This is just my opinion,
you disagree, feel free!

493
00:37:27,560 --> 00:37:29,680
It's how we communicate
with friends.

494
00:37:29,680 --> 00:37:32,240
One billion of us
using social networking sites

495
00:37:32,240 --> 00:37:36,720
and 300 million meet people
in a virtual world.

496
00:37:36,720 --> 00:37:40,240
Our children use it to interact,
to learn and play.

497
00:37:40,240 --> 00:37:42,680
It's transformed news
and information.

498
00:37:42,680 --> 00:37:47,840
In business, we've all become
traders, buying and selling
at the click of a button.

499
00:37:50,920 --> 00:37:58,120
For all the risk of exposure to
violence and pornography,
worrying issues we have to face,

500
00:37:58,120 --> 00:38:02,240
the Internet is one of
the most significant advances
of the past 50 years.

501
00:38:02,240 --> 00:38:05,120
And for me, the Web is exciting,

502
00:38:05,120 --> 00:38:09,440
because it allows all of us
to participate in science
like never before.

503
00:38:12,160 --> 00:38:16,720
Dr Chris Lintott
has the task of classifying

504
00:38:16,720 --> 00:38:22,280
over a million galaxies from photos
taken by robotic telescopes.

505
00:38:22,280 --> 00:38:29,120
He was so overwhelmed by the amount
of data that he enlisted thousands
of on-line volunteers to help him.

506
00:38:29,120 --> 00:38:35,800
But the really exciting thing
is that these armchair scientists
made a new discovery.

507
00:38:35,800 --> 00:38:39,800
A couple of years ago, a group of
our volunteers noticed that

508
00:38:39,800 --> 00:38:45,240
in the background of
some of the images, there were
these small, round, green objects.

509
00:38:45,240 --> 00:38:49,680
They called them peas. They found
a couple of hundred of them and said,
"What are these?"

510
00:38:49,680 --> 00:38:53,280
We've looked at these with some
of the world's largest telescopes.

511
00:38:53,280 --> 00:38:57,000
They are galaxies undergoing
a dramatic burst of star formation.

512
00:38:57,000 --> 00:39:01,360
These are the most efficient
makers of stars
anywhere in the local universe.

513
00:39:01,360 --> 00:39:04,040
They'd been missed
by professional astronomers.

514
00:39:04,040 --> 00:39:07,720
It was only thanks to a quarter of
a million people, their armchairs

515
00:39:07,720 --> 00:39:11,520
and their Internet connections
that they came to our attention.

516
00:39:13,200 --> 00:39:20,280
Galaxy Zoo is just one of a host
of projects inviting the public
to get involved in science.

517
00:39:20,280 --> 00:39:22,640
Who knows what progress
we could make through

518
00:39:22,640 --> 00:39:25,760
collaborations like these,
made possible by the Internet?

519
00:39:27,880 --> 00:39:29,680
This massive progress

520
00:39:29,680 --> 00:39:32,960
in how humans exchange information

521
00:39:32,960 --> 00:39:38,560
undoubtedly makes it
one of the defining advances
in the last 50 years.

522
00:39:40,360 --> 00:39:43,720
Does the far-reaching impact of the
World Wide Web on all our lives

523
00:39:43,720 --> 00:39:47,520
make it
the most significant advance?

524
00:39:48,840 --> 00:39:56,840
Or does the revolutionary joining
of man with machine mean that
biomechanics gets your vote?

525
00:39:56,840 --> 00:40:02,960
Could it be the promise of
clean energy for us all that
makes the laser your number one?

526
00:40:02,960 --> 00:40:08,440
Before you decide, there are
four more advances to consider.

527
00:40:08,440 --> 00:40:14,360
The next one has the potential
to change everything
we've ever believed in.

528
00:40:29,360 --> 00:40:32,560
What distinguishes us
from all other creatures?

529
00:40:32,560 --> 00:40:35,240
It's human inquisitiveness.

530
00:40:35,240 --> 00:40:37,240
Why are we here? Where are we going?

531
00:40:37,240 --> 00:40:41,200
What's our place in the universe?

532
00:40:41,200 --> 00:40:46,440
Looking down on the world
from above, you realise
just how insignificant we are.

533
00:40:46,440 --> 00:40:50,440
Since the dawn of time,
people have marvelled

534
00:40:50,440 --> 00:40:55,480
at the vastness around us and
wondered, "How did it all begin?"

535
00:41:02,080 --> 00:41:05,520
In the 1920s,
American astronomer Edwin Hubble

536
00:41:05,520 --> 00:41:08,360
showed that the universe
was expanding,

537
00:41:08,360 --> 00:41:10,600
and from this simple observation,

538
00:41:10,600 --> 00:41:13,840
it was calculated
that if you run the clock back...

539
00:41:16,400 --> 00:41:23,200
..everything must have exploded into
existence nearly 14 billion years
ago
in a big bang.

540
00:41:28,320 --> 00:41:34,200
For me, I suppose what I find
so exciting about big bang
is the ambition of the idea.

541
00:41:34,200 --> 00:41:38,560
Here is an idea that is not just
about our planet or our solar system

542
00:41:38,560 --> 00:41:43,080
but unifies our whole notion
of the universe.

543
00:41:43,080 --> 00:41:50,240
And it tells us about our
beginnings, about where we came from
and possibly to where we are going.

544
00:41:50,240 --> 00:41:55,240
But the big-bang theory also
predicted that the entire universe,

545
00:41:55,240 --> 00:42:01,360
all the planets and galaxies we see
around us, exploded from nothing.

546
00:42:01,360 --> 00:42:03,000
Which sounds crazy.

547
00:42:03,000 --> 00:42:07,680
When it was first proposed
almost 100 years ago,
the idea was controversial,

548
00:42:07,680 --> 00:42:12,920
but in the last 50 years, science
has started to gather hard evidence

549
00:42:12,920 --> 00:42:16,040
that the big bang might not
be such a crazy idea after all.

550
00:42:16,040 --> 00:42:21,280
In 1965, two radio astronomers
working on this satellite antenna

551
00:42:21,280 --> 00:42:25,960
in New Jersey
started to pick up a strange signal.

552
00:42:25,960 --> 00:42:29,120
This radiation was coming
from somewhere

553
00:42:29,120 --> 00:42:31,440
in really deep cosmic space,

554
00:42:31,440 --> 00:42:35,240
beyond any radio sources
that any of us

555
00:42:35,240 --> 00:42:37,440
knew about or even dreamed existed.

556
00:42:38,560 --> 00:42:42,360
The daring explanation for the
radiation was that it might be

557
00:42:42,360 --> 00:42:47,840
the last remnant of the big bang
echoing through space and time.

558
00:42:47,840 --> 00:42:50,120
Perhaps.

559
00:42:50,120 --> 00:42:55,600
In 2001, the WMAP spacecraft
analysed this radiation

560
00:42:55,600 --> 00:42:59,880
and even produced a map
of the early universe

561
00:42:59,880 --> 00:43:03,120
that seemed to more or less
prove the big-bang theory.

562
00:43:03,120 --> 00:43:09,560
But unfortunately, as yet,
it doesn't explain why the big bang
banged in the first place.

563
00:43:13,120 --> 00:43:19,120
High in the Californian hills
at Lick Observatory,
astronomers are trying to calculate

564
00:43:19,120 --> 00:43:24,800
how fast the universe is expanding,
in the hope that they will be able
shed some light on the problem.

565
00:43:24,800 --> 00:43:29,160
And in doing so,
they've made a surprising discovery.

566
00:43:31,840 --> 00:43:34,800
Everyone anticipated that
gravity would slow down

567
00:43:34,800 --> 00:43:36,680
the expansion of the universe.

568
00:43:36,680 --> 00:43:40,480
So we were trying to measure how much
the universe has been slowing down

569
00:43:40,480 --> 00:43:46,800
in order to predict whether it
will expand forever, though more
and more slowly or re-collapse.

570
00:43:46,800 --> 00:43:51,560
Instead, we found that it's actually
speeding up. Not slowing down at all.

571
00:43:51,560 --> 00:43:53,240
An accelerating universe.

572
00:43:53,240 --> 00:43:55,520
How does that work?
Why should it do that?

573
00:43:55,520 --> 00:44:00,120
Well, we think the universe
is filled with some weird substance,
we call it dark energy,

574
00:44:00,120 --> 00:44:02,360
but we know essentially nothing
about it.

575
00:44:02,360 --> 00:44:05,920
So it's there and in a sense,
it's gravitationally repulsive,

576
00:44:05,920 --> 00:44:11,240
causing space to expand
faster and faster with time.

577
00:44:11,240 --> 00:44:14,000
It's all very well to say
the universe is expanding,

578
00:44:14,000 --> 00:44:18,840
but one of the questions
that will puzzle a lot of people is,
what are we expanding into?

579
00:44:18,840 --> 00:44:20,720
That actually puzzles all of us.

580
00:44:20,720 --> 00:44:26,280
We may be expanding into a bigger
hyperspace, one with more dimensions.

581
00:44:26,280 --> 00:44:30,880
And there could be all sorts
of universes expanding
within this bigger space.

582
00:44:30,880 --> 00:44:35,360
And ours is just one of these
universes in the multiverse.

583
00:44:35,360 --> 00:44:41,480
I accept that you're doing is
incredibly interesting,
but it's useless, isn't it?

584
00:44:41,480 --> 00:44:46,120
In a sense, it's useless, but the
accelerating nature of the universe

585
00:44:46,120 --> 00:44:50,160
is important in part because it
may help us understand the big bang.

586
00:44:50,160 --> 00:44:54,280
So it's the birth of the universe
and so we should try to understand

587
00:44:54,280 --> 00:44:58,120
how it is that it happened and how
the universe has evolved since then.

588
00:44:58,120 --> 00:45:04,360
But that the data are indicating
something weird is, I believe,
not controversial at this stage.

589
00:45:08,840 --> 00:45:12,160
Why is big bang
in my ten great ideas?

590
00:45:12,160 --> 00:45:13,440
Well, it's symbolic.

591
00:45:13,440 --> 00:45:17,880
It's symbolic of something
that makes us uniquely human -

592
00:45:17,880 --> 00:45:19,760
our inquisitiveness.

593
00:45:19,760 --> 00:45:24,480
And it's that which drives us,
through science, forward.

594
00:45:30,360 --> 00:45:34,200
We've had the audacity
to tackle outer space,

595
00:45:34,200 --> 00:45:37,600
but we've had the nerve
to take on inner space too.

596
00:45:37,600 --> 00:45:42,920
My final three advances
are all about understanding us...

597
00:45:44,480 --> 00:45:48,440
..starting with a remarkable book
published in the year 2000.

598
00:45:59,600 --> 00:46:02,680
115 volumes like this

599
00:46:02,680 --> 00:46:08,000
contain the print-out of the human
genome, from just one individual.

600
00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:10,400
Three billion letters.

601
00:46:10,400 --> 00:46:14,680
It's the recipe
for what makes you who you are.

602
00:46:14,680 --> 00:46:20,200
It will revolutionise the diagnosis,
prevention and treatment of most,
if not all, human diseases.

603
00:46:20,200 --> 00:46:23,920
Ten years ago,
decoding the human genome

604
00:46:23,920 --> 00:46:28,280
was hailed by many as as significant
as putting a man on the moon,

605
00:46:28,280 --> 00:46:31,120
a symbol of the hope
for the new millennium.

606
00:46:31,120 --> 00:46:35,480
The reason for all the hope -
and some would even say "hype" -

607
00:46:35,480 --> 00:46:40,480
was because of the
enormous potential of gene therapy.

608
00:46:40,480 --> 00:46:43,680
Until recently,
medicine could do nothing to restore

609
00:46:43,680 --> 00:46:50,040
broken or malfunctioning genes,
but today, there are some procedures
which can offer hope.

610
00:46:50,040 --> 00:46:57,320
Ten-year-old Abdullahi is
about to undergo an operation which
might change his genetic destiny.

611
00:46:57,320 --> 00:47:00,800
Abdullahi has poor vision,
particularly poor night vision,

612
00:47:00,800 --> 00:47:02,840
because he lacks one of the genes

613
00:47:02,840 --> 00:47:06,440
essential for converting
light energy into a nerve impulse,

614
00:47:06,440 --> 00:47:08,200
so the idea of this operation

615
00:47:08,200 --> 00:47:15,000
is to provide his retina
with the correct, functioning copy
of that gene.

616
00:47:15,000 --> 00:47:21,120
In order to do that,
we package the genes themselves
into a harmless virus.

617
00:47:21,120 --> 00:47:25,360
But to get the virus
to the right place,

618
00:47:25,360 --> 00:47:29,360
we need to inject the virus
underneath the retina.

619
00:47:29,360 --> 00:47:35,320
Though his surgeon isn't certain
how effective this
cutting-edge treatment will be,

620
00:47:35,320 --> 00:47:40,760
without intervention,
Abdullahi could eventually become
totally blind.

621
00:47:42,800 --> 00:47:45,960
But what this remarkable procedure
hopes to achieve

622
00:47:45,960 --> 00:47:52,760
is nothing less than delivering
a new, undamaged section of DNA
to do the work

623
00:47:52,760 --> 00:47:54,800
of Abdullahi's faulty gene.

624
00:47:56,240 --> 00:48:03,360
The good news is that,
since the operation,
Abdullahi's vision has improved.

625
00:48:03,360 --> 00:48:08,800
It's a small step
on the gene therapy journey,
but its champions believe

626
00:48:08,800 --> 00:48:13,040
it could eventually have
benefits for a great number of us.

627
00:48:19,600 --> 00:48:22,840
It's got hundreds and thousands
on it, hasn't it?

628
00:48:22,840 --> 00:48:29,160
Like about ten per cent
of children in the UK,
Millie and Ruby suffer from asthma.

629
00:48:29,160 --> 00:48:32,200
But while both girls
have the condition,

630
00:48:32,200 --> 00:48:37,240
Millie responds a lot better
to medication than her sister.

631
00:48:37,240 --> 00:48:39,080
RUBY COUGHS

632
00:48:39,080 --> 00:48:44,000
You've got a bit of a cough, haven't
you? Do you always have a cough?

633
00:48:44,000 --> 00:48:50,000
'For Ruby,
attacks result in endless dashes
to hospital and could be fatal.'

634
00:48:50,000 --> 00:48:53,720
RUBY COUGHS

635
00:48:53,720 --> 00:48:56,560
There is nothing you can do
to help your child.

636
00:48:56,560 --> 00:48:59,600
You think, "At some point,
is she going to stop breathing?"

637
00:48:59,600 --> 00:49:02,120
They are coughing so much
that they are being sick,

638
00:49:02,120 --> 00:49:05,880
their breathing becomes worse
and then you are going to hospital,

639
00:49:05,880 --> 00:49:07,920
it is the worst feeling
you can imagine.

640
00:49:07,920 --> 00:49:11,120
But Ruby's quite
a resilient character, isn't she?

641
00:49:11,120 --> 00:49:12,480
Absolutely.

642
00:49:12,480 --> 00:49:16,040
She's amazing. Even when she's at
her worst, she'll give you a smile.

643
00:49:19,720 --> 00:49:22,440
Millie and Ruby are taking part
in a research project

644
00:49:22,440 --> 00:49:27,400
which is trying to discover
why some patients are easier
to treat than others.

645
00:49:27,400 --> 00:49:29,720
Over 100,000 children

646
00:49:29,720 --> 00:49:33,080
in the United Kingdom with asthma

647
00:49:33,080 --> 00:49:35,160
carry a particular gene change

648
00:49:35,160 --> 00:49:39,040
which seems to make them
much less responsive

649
00:49:39,040 --> 00:49:45,720
towards the
commonest asthma-reliever inhaler,
the blue inhaler that we use.

650
00:49:45,720 --> 00:49:52,160
Swabs are taken so
that the girls' DNA, their genes,
can be examined.

651
00:49:55,320 --> 00:50:00,160
The hope is that medicines
can be matched to genes,

652
00:50:00,160 --> 00:50:02,920
and that the current
trial-and-error approach

653
00:50:02,920 --> 00:50:06,840
to treating people like Ruby
will be a thing of the past.

654
00:50:06,840 --> 00:50:10,400
The dream is that, eventually,
we'll all be treated with medicines

655
00:50:10,400 --> 00:50:14,960
that are a perfect match
for our own unique DNA.

656
00:50:14,960 --> 00:50:19,440
The technology that's developed
since the human genome project means

657
00:50:19,440 --> 00:50:25,560
that decoding an individual's genome
is becoming easier and affordable.

658
00:50:25,560 --> 00:50:31,440
Genetic knowledge is a new frontier
and our understanding of
how genes work

659
00:50:31,440 --> 00:50:37,800
is one of the most significant
medical advances
since the time of Ancient Greece.

660
00:50:37,800 --> 00:50:45,000
The methods it employs have
applications that will revolutionise
the treatment of disease.

661
00:50:52,240 --> 00:50:55,240
Scientists working in this lab
at Imperial College

662
00:50:55,240 --> 00:50:59,680
are trying to find a cure
for a devastating human disease.

663
00:50:59,680 --> 00:51:05,400
But they're not developing
medicines, they are trying to
understand how to grow new tissues.

664
00:51:07,760 --> 00:51:12,240
My colleague Michael Schneider
is a world leader in this research,

665
00:51:12,240 --> 00:51:15,600
and he and his team
have made a remarkable advance.

666
00:51:17,120 --> 00:51:22,960
They've created
beating-heart cells from scratch.

667
00:51:22,960 --> 00:51:25,200
When you first looked
down the microscope

668
00:51:25,200 --> 00:51:26,880
and saw a heart cell beating,

669
00:51:26,880 --> 00:51:28,480
what was your reaction?

670
00:51:28,480 --> 00:51:30,160
When you see a cluster like this,

671
00:51:30,160 --> 00:51:36,640
beating vigorously in the dish,
it obviously stimulates your thinking

672
00:51:36,640 --> 00:51:43,920
about how to apply that information
to the complicated task of cardiac
muscle repair in a clinical setting.

673
00:51:43,920 --> 00:51:46,520
Ten days ago, those kinds of cells

674
00:51:46,520 --> 00:51:50,040
were undifferentiated
embryonic stem cells

675
00:51:50,040 --> 00:51:53,720
that can become any cell
in the body without restriction.

676
00:51:54,760 --> 00:52:00,160
Stem cells are among the first cells
produced when an egg is fertilised.

677
00:52:00,160 --> 00:52:02,400
Though they start off
looking the same,

678
00:52:02,400 --> 00:52:04,640
they soon turn into
very different things -

679
00:52:04,640 --> 00:52:09,400
bone, muscle, hair, teeth, nerves,

680
00:52:09,400 --> 00:52:12,600
all the different cell types
that make up a human being.

681
00:52:12,600 --> 00:52:15,920
By understanding how
these transformations work,

682
00:52:15,920 --> 00:52:22,360
scientists like Michael
are trying to find out how to repair
damaged or diseased organs.

683
00:52:26,960 --> 00:52:31,080
So how important is this work
in the field of stem cell biology?

684
00:52:31,080 --> 00:52:35,560
40% of the people
watching this programme will die
of cardiovascular disease.

685
00:52:35,560 --> 00:52:41,840
Taking that together with the fact
that heart disease boils down to
cell death without cell replacement,

686
00:52:41,840 --> 00:52:44,280
that makes cardiac repair
by stem cells

687
00:52:44,280 --> 00:52:47,040
one of the most important
and promising areas

688
00:52:47,040 --> 00:52:48,520
for stem cell research.

689
00:52:48,520 --> 00:52:52,800
So far, there have been
few treatments developed

690
00:52:52,800 --> 00:52:58,200
because of work on stem cells,
but some researchers even hope
that eventually they'll be able

691
00:52:58,200 --> 00:53:03,320
to grow replacement organs, or at
least help the body repair itself.

692
00:53:08,040 --> 00:53:14,560
A tiny minority
are opposed to human embryo research
because it damages human embryos.

693
00:53:14,560 --> 00:53:19,480
They have a point, but to my mind
it's actually an ethical imperative

694
00:53:19,480 --> 00:53:23,240
to try to save lives
and this is one way of doing it.

695
00:53:25,520 --> 00:53:30,560
'My final scientific advance
is very close to my heart.

696
00:53:30,560 --> 00:53:33,400
'It's something to which
I've devoted most of my career.

697
00:53:33,400 --> 00:53:38,320
'Every single one
of these children's lives
began in a test tube

698
00:53:38,320 --> 00:53:44,920
'or a dish. They are IVF children.
They come from eggs fertilised not
in the womb but in the laboratory.'

699
00:53:44,920 --> 00:53:48,240
That was really frightening!

700
00:53:48,240 --> 00:53:53,960
'None of them would be here if
it wasn't for scientific research
into the earliest stages of life.'

701
00:53:53,960 --> 00:53:56,440
Well, it is sort of pink.
It's not really red.

702
00:53:56,440 --> 00:53:59,400
Would you allow pink, then? No?
You're very particular!

703
00:53:59,400 --> 00:54:03,320
'And although I was involved
in that research,

704
00:54:03,320 --> 00:54:09,600
'I have to confess that,
at the time, I didn't appreciate
its significance.'

705
00:54:09,600 --> 00:54:13,080
I didn't think it was really
going to be very important.

706
00:54:13,080 --> 00:54:15,560
I didn't think
that IVF was a technology

707
00:54:15,560 --> 00:54:19,480
that would really make any
difference to infertility treatment.

708
00:54:19,480 --> 00:54:21,480
Look how wrong I was...

709
00:54:21,480 --> 00:54:25,520
all these babies. There are about a
million IVF babies around the world.

710
00:54:26,640 --> 00:54:32,320
In the 1980s,
my colleagues and I developed
an experimental IVF technique

711
00:54:32,320 --> 00:54:37,840
to screen for genetic diseases
in the developing embryo.

712
00:54:37,840 --> 00:54:42,160
Christine Munday's first son Justin
was severely handicapped,

713
00:54:42,160 --> 00:54:46,160
and it was discovered that
she carries a genetic condition

714
00:54:46,160 --> 00:54:49,240
which means it is very likely
that any of her male children

715
00:54:49,240 --> 00:54:52,040
would inherit the same problems.

716
00:54:52,040 --> 00:54:54,600
We've been trying for nine years

717
00:54:54,600 --> 00:55:01,200
for this breakthrough to come so
that we could have another chance.

718
00:55:01,200 --> 00:55:07,600
In 1990,
we screened her fertilised embryos
to ensure that she had a girl.

719
00:55:07,600 --> 00:55:11,320
Rebecca is now 19.

720
00:55:11,320 --> 00:55:15,560
Your mum was wonderfully brave.
I don't know if you realise that,

721
00:55:15,560 --> 00:55:17,920
because what we were doing was

722
00:55:17,920 --> 00:55:23,120
a very, very experimental procedure
and we had no idea
if it was going to

723
00:55:23,120 --> 00:55:28,520
work or not. As you remember, we
couldn't guarantee that you wouldn't
have a child who wasn't affected.

724
00:55:28,520 --> 00:55:32,840
No. To us, it wasn't brave, you know,
the baby could have been damaged

725
00:55:32,840 --> 00:55:37,040
in some way but I never, ever
worried about that side of it at all.

726
00:55:37,040 --> 00:55:42,200
I had my whole confidence
that you would actually get it right.

727
00:55:42,200 --> 00:55:46,640
Yeah, funny, isn't it? I don't think
that I had that confidence.

728
00:55:46,640 --> 00:55:53,560
Does having been born as a result of
in vitro fertilisation make you feel
any different?

729
00:55:53,560 --> 00:55:56,960
I'm quite humbled.

730
00:55:56,960 --> 00:56:00,480
For our family, it's been quite
crucial for this breakthrough.

731
00:56:00,480 --> 00:56:03,360
You know? Of course, of course.

732
00:56:03,360 --> 00:56:08,120
I wouldn't have Rebecca today
if it wasn't for that.
She doesn't always say that.

733
00:56:10,560 --> 00:56:17,120
For me,
it's genuinely a very moving
occasion actually to meet you.

734
00:56:17,120 --> 00:56:19,160
Very special for me.

735
00:56:21,160 --> 00:56:26,440
'20 years ago, there was
considerable opposition from people
hoping to stop such work.'

736
00:56:26,440 --> 00:56:28,080
What's that?

737
00:56:28,080 --> 00:56:30,960
Was that you?

738
00:56:30,960 --> 00:56:35,280
'But in the UK,
legislation was hugely positive.

739
00:56:35,280 --> 00:56:41,880
'And it has enabled us give hope,
not just to people like Christine,
but also to hundreds of thousands

740
00:56:41,880 --> 00:56:45,960
'of families who otherwise
couldn't have had children.'

741
00:56:45,960 --> 00:56:48,440
ALL: Cheese!

742
00:56:53,000 --> 00:57:00,200
Well, that concludes my list. Now
it's time for you to have your say.

743
00:57:00,200 --> 00:57:06,280
Which of the ten scientific
advances we've looked at
do you think is the most important?

744
00:57:08,760 --> 00:57:15,240
Is it the millions of lives
created by IVF, or the huge promise
of stem cell research?

745
00:57:15,240 --> 00:57:18,640
Is your favourite
the life-saving MRI machine?

746
00:57:18,640 --> 00:57:21,160
Or the mighty microchip?

747
00:57:21,160 --> 00:57:27,240
Do you think the contraceptive
pill has done more for us
than the giant laser ever will?

748
00:57:27,240 --> 00:57:32,720
Or is it our ability to
rebuild ourselves with bionics
that inspires you the most?

749
00:57:32,720 --> 00:57:40,440
Can you say the global power of the
Internet beats the huge potential of
understanding more about our genes?

750
00:57:40,440 --> 00:57:46,920
Or does the mind-boggling
big-bang theory trump them all?

751
00:57:46,920 --> 00:57:49,600
Go to our website to vote
for the scientific advance

752
00:57:49,600 --> 00:57:52,240
you think has been
the most significant. Visit...

753
00:57:57,080 --> 00:58:00,640
There's a reminder of the top ten
advancements on the website.

754
00:58:00,640 --> 00:58:06,640
Before you vote on-line, I feel
I should put my cards on the table.

755
00:58:06,640 --> 00:58:10,280
I'm reluctant to say which of
these ten advances is my greatest,

756
00:58:10,280 --> 00:58:15,160
but just possibly, I might plump
for the research on big bang.

757
00:58:15,160 --> 00:58:18,640
It might seem useless,
yet the knowledge it brings

758
00:58:18,640 --> 00:58:22,680
will almost certainly
have unforeseen consequences
for humanity.

759
00:58:22,680 --> 00:58:27,840
Just possibly, understanding
the universe a little better

760
00:58:27,840 --> 00:58:31,800
will help our species
to continue to flourish.

761
00:58:38,520 --> 00:58:41,560
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

762
00:58:41,560 --> 00:58:44,600
E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk