Fever that is common in west africa, the last one is mers, believed to be spread by camels. It has mostly killed here in saudi arabia. This lab in oxford is one of the Research Facilities trying to protect people against mers. It is one of the most advanced vaccines out there. This is the clinical Bio Manufacturing facility and this is the basis for the mers vaccine. It will be scaled up the mers vaccine. It will be scaled up over the coming months and it is suspected hundreds of files of it will be ready for human trials by the end of the year. If this vaccine does work it could still take a decade or so to get it to those who need it. Historically, many hasnt been forthcoming and research is long and context. This Research Costs hundreds of millions of dollars. It may not be any of these three viruses that cause the next epidemic but if it is, putting the time and money in now could stop a small outbreak becoming the next local health emergency. The headlines on bbc News Donald Trump has attended an official lunch in washington ahead official lunch in washington ahead of his inauguration tomorrow as americas 45th president. Martin mcguinness, Northern Ireland s former deputy first minister has announced he is retiring from front line politics due to ill health. Dozens of people are feared dead in italy after avalanche engulfed a hotel. Up to 35 are missing. And on the market, it is not looking too good. The ftse 100 and the dax too good. The ftse100 and the dax down, so is the nasdaq. Now it is time to speak to steven baxter, who has taken on the huge task of taking on a sequel to hg wells War Of The Worlds. You have to be brave to write a sequel to a novel by hg wells, the father of Science Fiction. But Stephen Baxter has done it for the second time. Having taken on the story of The Time Machine more than 20 years ago, he has now written the massacre of mankind, which is the story of the return of the martians after their defeat in wellss classic story, the War Of The Worlds. Stephen baxter, maths and physics teacher turned author is one of our best known Science Fiction authors with more than a0 books to his name has also collaborated with Arthur C Clarke, no less, and terry pratchett. Now he takes on one of his biggest challenges. Welcome. So, the martians are back. Why . Well, they always intended to, i think. The First Expedition, as we know, failed. There is so much they didnt anticipate the bacteria on the earth, particularly. They didnt anticipate resistance, i dont believe. We did manage to down a few Artillery Shells and so forth. Didnt really expect the conditions of the earth. Wells says they were baffled by seeing ships in the sea, no deep oceans on mars. I think the First Expedition was like columbus. He gets over the atlantic and has no idea where he is or what he is dealing with. What followed that is the conquistadors, more purposeful and they know what they want and how to get it as well. So it is a Story Notjust Of Fear on earth, the sense of impending doom, it is the story of mutual incomprehension. Yes, i think so. Rather like the story of the americas, i guess. But the martians are on a kind of different moral level in a sense. And wells emphasised this. They are loyal to each other. They treat us as livestock, basically. Awkward livestock that is liable to attack you if youre not careful but livestock. As with animals, they are loyal to each other, they come back to each other and save each other when they are wounded and so forth and what they are trying to do is save the race from a catastrophe back on mars. You talk in terms of wells in terms of enormous respect, obviously, but a kind of affection for his vision. What does he mean to you . Well, he was the father of Science Fiction, i think its fair to say that. If he had done nothing else that would have been massively important for me. But he did all sorts of other things. He did. He was a big figure in the world and i think after his death weve rather forgotten that. He was a Massive Public figure all the way through to the second world war. Very popular in the first world war, accounts of the true condition of life in the trenches and so on. And i think his lifes work in a way was crystallised by his work on the declaration of the rights of man, his work on that influenced what came after. He was a famous idealist but in his great Science Fiction books, The Time Machine, War Of The Worlds, which was published just before the turn of the century in the 1890s, he was doing something that really hadnt been done before. Trying to imagine the world in a way nobody had ever seen or read before. No, thats true. There had been visions ofjourneys to other planets but nothing as rigorous and scientifically thought out as wells. His vision of mars in particular. He used the logic of the time, which was the sun was cooling down and the further from the sun a planet was, the older it was. So mars is old and cooling. It is locked in an ice age and the martians have had to reduce themselves to a kind of minimal, bunker like existence to cling on and now they have got to that. Thats one of the fascinating things that emerges in your own story, the massacre of mankind, the sympathy for, as it were, the enemy, the other side. I think we, the readers, who arent under the feet of the martians, can see glimmers of sympathy for them. As i say, they are loyal to each other. The way you talk about the story and the martians is interesting because youve written dozens of Science Fiction stories of your own but its almost as if youre coming back to the motherload of Science Fiction with this story. The fascination that we have with mars is the archetypal fascination with the other. Yes, mars was always. In the telescopic age mars was the only world whose surface you can see apart from the moon, which was obviously dead, so you could project your fantasies on it. Which we did. All the way through to the 1960s, actually, when the first space probes went past and it was much more like the moon as it turns out. Now we believe life of some kind might be up there. Yes, it is the motherload of dreams. You talk about projecting ourfantasies. Is that really what Science Fiction is about . Well, i think you could say that Science Fiction is about. Its not about the future or in other words its about the here and now, predicting our concerns, in a way. So with wells and War Of The Worlds he was reflecting late victorian angst about imperialism and colonialism and the damage it can do to the colonial conscience, for one thing. Now i think we could look at it as a metaphor for climate change. You know, the martians planet has collapsed in a terrible way and migrants, heavily armed migrants come to the earth. What is it that gives this story such a grip . Is it the sense of impending doom . Is it as simple as that . The fear that lurks inside all of us in some way . I think it works on many levels and as a myth you can take out of it what is relevant to your time. The sense of the universe as evolving around us, not necessarily to our liking and we have to adapt. In other words, in every age there is some threat that seems impossibly big. And horrific. Yes. As i mentioned earlier, you have collaborated with some extraordinary authors and Arthur C Clarke comes to mind. A name who is known to people who are not necessarily Science Fiction addicts as somebody who could imagine the unimaginable. What was he like when you communicated with him and talked to him late in his life . Yeah, he was in his 80s when i was working. He had lived through so much. Much of what he predicted, logically, had worked out. A lot of it hadnt. But he was continually interested. Did that bother him . He got it wrong . What i asked him about specifically was about space flight, how come we dont have places on mars now, as predicted. He said no, because so much of what has happened was so enriching. The robot probes to jupiter and beyond. He loved all that. He set novels out there late in life. So he never got tired of that curious search for the next thing that was coming round the corner . Exactly, yeah. He was always open to curiosity, to new influences. To new writers. He read the latest sf, like mine, and stayed curious right till the end. Lets go back finally to the martians themselves. When weve finished this book, what do you want us to think about the martians . I think the lesson we have to learn from the martians is what the characters are working for at the end of the book and, indeed, at the end of War Of The Worlds. In a way the specific nature of the martians and their actions doesnt matter. It is the way they represent the wider context of our future. You know, our earth isnt infinite. It is one grain of sand in infinity. That is the specific story and you have to take it away. Rather than columbus and what he did, his journey emphasised the globalisation of mankind. So i think its the universalisation of mankind of what you need to take away. Would you like to meet a martian . I would probably be the running fast the other way. I would be fascinated. If i could watch from a height maybe, yes. Watch from a distance. Stephen baxter, thank you very much. Thank you. Good evening. It is very quiet weather across the uk at the moment because of High Pressure but that said, weve got some distinct zones of weather. Sunshine in the south and the frost and a cloudy zone where we have the Weather Front. This is how it looked in the sunshine. Sparkling in london. Near the Weather Front it was quite murky. Mist and fog and drizzle. Slightly lets grey in cumbria, but it clearly is pretty cold air. It is only january after all. You it clearly is pretty cold air. It is onlyjanuary after all. You can it clearly is pretty cold air. It is only january after all. You can see how extensive that cloudy weather is. The breaks in the cloud will maintain overnight so fog and frost is an issue here and a sharp frost with temperatures in towns and cities falling to freezing and well below in the countryside. Where we keep the cloud it is largely mild with a few holes. Not as cold further south. Minus six degrees. Much warmer in melbourne, the Australian Open taking place. Friday looks like a blustery and wet start to the day and the worst of the rain will hopefully be over by the middle of the afternoon. A crisp and clear morning on friday with some fog around in east anglia and into wales and we will be scraping cars. Further north it is milder but a few brea ks further north it is milder but a few breaks and fog in the vale of york. We could have some patches of fog for Northern Ireland and across the Northern East of scotland. Fog and frost. Friday should see a clearing with sunshine becoming more abundant, covering wales and england, the midlands, similarly so for Northern Ireland and maintaining the lovely weather across the north of scotland, where we could see possibly ten but for most of us five 01 possibly ten but for most of us five or6 possibly ten but for most of us five or 6 degrees. Into the weekend not much change with High Pressure around. We cant forget about the week Weather Front because there could well be some wintry flurries. We have cloud in eastern areas and southern and Western Areas best for the sunshine. Those temperatures are continuing into sunday. A lot of dry weather. This is bbc news. Im clive myrie. The headlines at 8pm donald trump has arrived in washington, ahead of his inauguration tomorrow as americas 45th president. Martin mcguinness, the former ira commander turned peacemaker, has announced hes retiring from front line politics the sinn fein politician recently quit Northern Irelands power sharing executive, and now says hes suffering from ill health. The question i asked myself is, you capable, are you physically capable of fighting this election with the intensity of elections needed before . And the honest answer is that im not physically capable. Dozens are feared dead in italy after an avalanche engulfed a hotel. 35 people are missing. Theresa may says britain will be Open For Business after brexit, as one high street bank predicted london will remain europes top Financial Centre despite the uk leaving the eu
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