TV season

Season 1

2011-10-17

Episodes

Episode 1

Machines

2011-10-17 • 46 min

The team showcase breakthroughs in technology and engineering that are creating a new generation of machines. Mark Evans fuses his brain with a computer in Switzerland to test a new breed of machine. Kathy Sykes hits the streets of San Francisco to have the ride of her life as she experiences the future of transport in a driverless car. In Italy Jim Alei-Khalili comes face to face with a remarkable, baby-like robot called iCub, which learns like a child. Joy Reidenberg discovers the extraordinary exoskeleton that can make the paralysed walk and give one man the strength of three. In the Canary Islands Maggie Aderin-Pocock visits one of the world's biggest telescopes, where they're searching for new planets in the furthest reaches of the universe - planets that we could one day colonise.

Episode 2

Health

2011-10-24 • 46 min

The experts examine how scientists are fighting for our survival by battling the world's big killer diseases. Biologist Aarathi Prasad joins virus hunters in the jungles of Africa, Robert Winston sees first-hand how the surgeons of the future could be robots, capable of operating round the clock, and Richard Dawkins investigates the way brain disorders might one day be treated using laser light and genetically modified brain cells. Anatomist Joy Reidenberg discovers two possible solutions to the killer disease malaria and - most extraordinarily of all - Aarathi Prasad meets a woman whose life has been saved by a revolutionary new cancer treatment, in which every patient gets an individually tailored cocktail of drugs. From the jungles of Cameroon to the quads of Oxford, the programme celebrates the work of scientists striving to extend and save our lives.

Episode 3

Technology

2011-10-31 • 46 min

The experts explore how 21st-century technology is shaping our future by changing the way we live, the way we communicate and our perception of the universe. Physicist Kathy Sykes explores how our mobile phones can give experts access to our every habit and action: a brave new world in which it's hard to keep a secret but where urban planners can build cities around our needs. Designer Max Lamb witnesses the dawn of a new era in manufacturing where lasers are printing objects in 3D, and Stephen Hawking charts the rise of the former internet entrepreneur who is transforming space exploration. Environmental scientist Tara Shine visits an experimental new city in the desert where the citizens get about by unmanned pod car, and Kathy Sykes descends two kilometres underground to explore how scientists are using technology to study the most mysterious particles in the universe. From spaceship factories in California to one of the world's largest subterranean laboratories in northern Canada, the programme uncovers the technology that is shaping our future.

Episode 4

Environment

2011-11-07 • 46 min

Jim Al-Khalili looks at how the world's largest laser could help answer global fuel needs. David Attenborough helps to collect the DNA of an elephant for a project that aims to save all the planet's endangered species from extinction. Mark Evans discovers how to grow pork in a Petri dish.

Episode 5

Biology

2011-11-21 • 46 min

The experts look at the different amazing break throughs that are transforming the resilience and strength of the human body.