Rising seas will be one of the biggest challenges we face in the next few centuries. Island states will disappear, coastlines will shift. On the basis of scientists’ predictions, billions of dollars are being invested in coastal protection measures. But not everything can be protected. The polar ice caps are melting and water is on its way. If all the ice in Antarctica and Greenland melted, the seal level would rise by over 50 metres. It’s like a sleeping giant […]
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A journey to research stations all over the world to show the state of play in research at international projects investigating how man could survive on the moon. Spending less than a day there, Neil Armstrong was the first man to go to the moon in 1969. Three years later, in April 1972, Charlie Duke also got his chance to walk on the moon. He stayed three days. Fifty years after the first human foot touched this celestial body, researchers […]
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On King George Island, the gateway to Antarctica, five different nations operate research stations located in the most extraordinary of environments. Only together can researchers survive such hostile conditions. King George Island on the edge of the coldest, loneliest continent on Earth. The island is the gateway to Antarctica. Located at its southwestern tip in an extraordinary landscape of rock and ice are research stations operated by five different nations: Chile, Russia, Uruguay, South Korea and China. Conflicting political views, […]
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It’s impossible to stop and still difficult to forecast avalanches. We spend a winter season following scientists, snow profilers and trainers as they go about their work in the Alps. It doesn’t matter whether they’re snowshoeing or skiing, up to 100 people are killed by avalanches in Alpine countries every year. Stopping the rolling masses of snow is impossible and it’s still difficult, although not impossible, to forecast avalanches. At the world’s largest centre for avalanche research − the Institute […]
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Vision is crucial to survival. It’s how ninety five percent of animals interpret the world. Eyes are so vital they’ve evolved independently almost one hundred times, from the incredibly simple to the bafflingly complex. The results are a countless array of shapes, sizes, colours and abilities. Whether an animal has just two or hundreds of eyes, they’re adapted perfectly for its particular suite of needs. Eyes have evolved to compensate for underwater distortion, tell danger from dinner from vast distances, […]
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Once celebrated as a life saver, penicillin today is alarming researchers all over the world. A fascinating film about the history and current status of antibiotics. Ninety years ago, in the summer of 1928, Scottish doctor Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin by accident. It took another two decades and a world war for him and others to succeed in producing the antibiotic in such large quantities that the epidemics of that time – typhus, syphilis, gangrene and tuberculosis – could be […]
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More than 4000 satellites orbit the Earth, and the services they provide are part of our everyday life. But space debris is a major threat to satellites, and already managed to bring the Hubble space telescope to a standstill. How can space debris be disposed of? We take a look at the possibilities and the latest findings in research. More than 4000 satellites orbit the Earth, and the services they provide are part of our everyday life. They are used […]
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The film presents the latest research into the subject of breast milk, shows what scientists are currently working on and asks which breast milk secrets will be revealed next. For some time now, there has been a real hype about breast milk. Internationally. Women have discovered their lactate can be a source of income and they offer it on the free market via the Internet. Doctors and midwives are calling for more breast milk banks. In Switzerland, the first centre […]
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Is menopause really a deficiency disorder, as the huge range of drugs, medicines and hormones suggest? Or simply part of our aging process? We ask international doctors, researchers and scientists. Almost every woman who enters menopause wants to know what’s happening to her body and how she will cope during this stage of her life. A huge range of medicines, remedies and hormones available on the market suggest the menopause is a curable “deficiency disorder”. But do the symptoms of […]
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What do love and partnership mean in the digital age and what does the future hold? Will sex robots be the better partners? A scientific review of the most interpersonal of all relationships. The digital revolution has also profoundly changed our understanding of desire and love. New technical developments and inventions promise one thing above all else: optimisation. Today, love is a project in which everyone strives to achieve the best for themselves, and eroticism has become an adventure playground […]
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By 2050, passenger planes could emit three times more greenhouse gases than they do today. How can flying become more climate-friendly? Is electromobility in the sky a realistic prospect? We take a look at the latest developments in research. By 2050, passenger planes could emit three times more greenhouse gases than they do today. Not only carbon dioxide emissions from aircraft engines but also vapour trails are contributing towards global warming. Scientists are trying to find out how vapour trails […]
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For Eric Brossier and his family, the research ship “Vagabond” is home. We accompany them on expedition across the Arctic Ocean together with a team of climate researchers. Will their mission succeed? The French family Brossier leads a rather unusual life. Captain Eric, his wife and their two six and nine-year-old daughters live on the “Vagabond”, a 15-metre-long research ship. During the winter, their normally floating home is stuck for months in the Arctic Ocean’s thick pack ice in temperatures […]
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