But first to a story that concerns many of us. Today more than half of the worlds population live in cities. In twenty eighteen tokyo was the worlds most populous city followed by delhi and shanghai. These urban centers are referred to as megacities meaning they have a population of over ten million. For years the nigerian city of lagos has been the worlds Fastest Growing economy base and satellite images show how lagos has been loomed in recent years. The city state of singapore is used to a high population density here high rise buildings make maximum use of the land could singapore be a role model for the future. How can densely populated urban centers solve the living space problem in singapore. Swiss team is developing Solutions Together with local universities and a project called the future cities lab. One of the first things you notice here is how heavily built up singapore is but that its also astonishingly green. That verdant sea is largely down to visionary city planning rules here stipulate that any land used for construction has to be at least partially compensated for by green areas in and on the structures the future cities lab is looking at how people in green high rise buildings like these live neighbors know one another how does the vegetation affect the citys climate and hows the quality of life here. Future cities lab Research Director thomas short five lives in a green high rise with his family the interlace is viewed as a successful example of this type of architecture. Its structure doesnt just rear up its also interlaced horizontally. Functional spaces are staggered over various levels communal areas on one the Swimming Pool on another and courtyards on yet others. To take you for an architect the mission is of course to create decent living space in a high density environment and i think the interlace is a very good example of how you can create that high quality of life while not accepting that High Residential density will have negative effects. In color for us. The scientist says that the people who live in the interlace like it and it also provides opportunities to participate in a neighborhood and community. Thats a difficult and delicate challenge and a high rise. Buildings in singapore have proven a lot less successful at mastering at. Social scientist Michele Zhang as also part of the future cities lab project shes looking at how green spaces are used and how they contribute to community building. To meet in a few minutes but i think that this garden is used mostly by the people who live here like this retiree who comes here every day for a workout. Hes proud to show us the apartment he owns in the block not only does it have a great view he says its area enough that he almost never has to turn on the air conditioning. Like him most people in singapore live in public housing. Places like. Three thousand people live here around the same number as an average village and the idea is reflected in the development which groups blocks of eighty units into villages. The green areas and sky vale are meant for communal use but the projects roof terraces are nearly empty apparently building a community involves more than just providing spaces for it to happen. Its not just a provide a space and a boring. Stare we have to consider what kind of people what they use like. Base what kind of needs they. Know what kind of activities. Even though the terraces are attractively laid out and could easily serve as areas for interaction they remain empty if certain key conditions arent met. When we did a survey we understand that people console very much a. Part of temperature and humidity direct sunlight and noise if we cannot find a way to improve and then its very difficult for people to go to the upstairs to. The pinnacle is a complex made up of over eighteen hundred apartments home to about nine thousand residents around the same number as a good sized town. The roof terrace is open to the public you can just stroll around and admire singapore skyline. Fifty floors above rolling traffic a miniature biotope has formed here. Still Big Questions remain even if life can be made pleasant and vertical spaces arent we humans at heart more come. Down on terra firma are plants on a roof really an adequate substitute for green spaces on the ground. Simmons want to go out into nature ground two others. Have said that time and again. But that means that humans are oriented towards green on the ground towards feeling real soil under their feet. That said humans have changed over the millennia. Weve accepted certain influences. So i also think the ground well is like us accept it if the ground whereon happens to be up on the twentieth floor of the building. Finding Common Ground between human nature and vertical living a challenge for architects today and in the future. On facebook we asked what are the biggest problems facing your city. It says cairo has so many problems he doesnt even know where to begin. Hilda lives in villa anyway the city of one and a half million that has no problems sewage system. Has lots of losses but ninety five percent of it is polluted and theres little political will to change that. Frederick says nairobi struggles with traffic emissions Housing Estates that are filled with smoke as a result of garbage burning and plastic that some bottles everywhere which also clog up drains. Design and says khartoum is a quiet city between two rivers which give the place a special charm but one problem is the lack of cleanliness in many areas retailers in concepcion in chile where rush hour traffic is a big problem hed like to see an overhead Railway System to relieve the pressure on the street. Thank you for all you can. Most big cities struggle with Traffic Congestion and car emissions could images like these one day be a thing of the past whats needed is an environmentally friendly alternative to gasoline and diesel. Which could come in the form of electric vehicles we meet an engineer whos not only designed his own electric car hes also forging ahead with many factoring it. There it is again acceleration you could use your drivers license in a car like this you just want to speed up a little but then you look down and its just topped the gas but now im doing over seventy. Thats no good in traffic. Certainly not in town anyway going to shoot designed eco as a city car it began as a study at Athens Technical University the professor and engineer was determined to see his model go into serious production but established car makers werent interested. Its really annoying for scientists when good concepts theyve developed over a long period just disappear into a bottom drawer so we said not with us i was getting all of this but i thought come on you can do this i wanted a mini porsche or a porsche killer so to speak when anyone can afford. The ego might indeed annoy luxury sports car makers because it can be had for as little as sixteen thousand euros sixty eight thousand less like comparable models because she didnt just build it from scratch he also set up a Tailor Made Production line one big advantage electric cars work with far fewer components than traditional field driven models. Where a Combustion Engine production line and the entire building will be too small. Fewer parts equals fewer potential problems as well as low investment costs for components automation and assembly. Working within the car industrys traditional structures are serious that churns out fewer than one hundred thousand units a year just isnt worth while thats because the initial set up requires such a big investment that you need huge production runs to turn a profit here were showing that producing just ten or twenty thousand cars a year can still be economically viable on one saving using an aluminum frayne instead of the standard integral body that saves the costs of expensive presses for bodywork components the lie. Drive is made by a german company. Based company couldnt make an electric drive that wont last one hundred years thats whats special about electro mobility something not possible with internal Combustion Technology and weve built a body that will also last that long it looks so good we dont even painted it cant rust it doesnt soften thats the basic plan for a car that can last for a century if thats what you want. The ego doesnt have panels that all made of plastic and im ready to mount so the ego pants doesnt need painting facility. If you can produce a painted surface like this and its also extremely durable it takes four times the normal force to scratch it and then you can hardly see to scratch and because the material itself is colored theres no problem a coating that makes it a wonderful material. But the path from concept to serious production from scientists was anything but wonderful. I think during the nearly four years since we set up the go mobile there have been six or seven disasters where we could easily have given up. Just said ok thats that. But you know whats really great about that what my team here has been through after youve overcome the problems that all appear wonderful in retrospect was. To is currently building two new production holes soon theyll be manufacturing an electrically powered burst and further ego models. There goes. And again. And again. Most of the time blinking is an automatic reflex blinking helps to fend off germs and protect our eyes from sunlight. It also spread stiffelio its which helps ensure that the surface of the i doesnt dry out. All good and well but it does still leave one question. Every few seconds everything goes dark around eleven thousand times a day we should be seeing this but we dont so whats going on in our brain. Wanted to find out the neuroscientist at the German Primate Center in putting in studies perception. That we dont notice the darkness when we blink is because the i actually reacts extremely quickly to change. It can be seen of a black image lasting just ten milliseconds and the dark face of a blink is much longer about fifteen times longer. So we ought to notice it. For this grooms and for the brain one hundred fifty milliseconds are an incredibly long time when you close your eyes during a blink the brain isnt getting any input so it fills up that gap food and gives a look of. As a result you dont notice the one hundred fifty milliseconds of darkness but what fills the gap. To find out chips it how to watch the brain in real time as it processed visual. But he needed the help of electrodes to direct. The neuroscientist got the opportunity to carry out a test on epilepsy sufferers who had had electrodes temporarily implanted in their brains to treat their disease one group had electrodes in their prefrontal cortex is. The place for the prefrontal cortex is in front here traditionally its associated with your higher cognitive functions for example how you concentrate how you retain things in memory and those are the functions typically associated with this part of the brain not perception but we suspected that the region does play a role with this feeling in effect such as when you blink. To question much from. The electrodes read just a neural activity while the test subjects look at two images one after another showing look to says of dots. They have to decide whether the dots are oriented vertically horizontally or diaconate harder than it sounds as the arrangement of the dots is ambiguous first picture vertical horizontal or to acknowledge using the green point the subject selects diagonal to the upper right. Second picture. Again diagonal to the upper right. Most of the patients showed a kind of memory effect. In the image of the lattice they saw first had a Strong Influence on what they said they saw in the next image. Those who chose vertical in the first picture and nearly always chose vertical in the second picture two at that moment the nerve cells in the prefrontal cortex were highly active even though the images stored in this part of the brain. Only one patient made decisions at random in her case part of the prefrontal cortex had been surgically removed. The composition she couldnt remember what shed seen in the first image. So we concluded the information from the first image couldnt be merged with the information from the second which is what would normally happen. So it seems the prefrontal cortex is necessary for us to perceive images seen one after the other like values that are separated by a blink. If outlet is red white but only if i. See you have a size question that youve always wanted and said were happy to help out send it to us as a video text over a spell if we answer it on the show well send you a little surprise as a thank you cannot just ask. Chuck will as your marker from nigeria wants to know what his d. N. A. Its in every cell in the body along molecule that looks like a twisted rope ladder and it contains all the instructions for making a human being. Its rungs are made up of four different Building Blocks you can think of them as letters that can be used to create an infinite number of words what we call genes that endless variety and the d. N. A. Is what makes each and every one of us unique. Some sections of d. N. A. Are like the different departments in a company that keep business ticking over this and for instance borders to the cells manufacturing facilities to make and deliver more of this or that product. The instructions encoded in d. N. A. Are used to make a vast array of proteins and they control every aspect of metabolism and the body. D. N. A. Is found in every species on earth. Thats made it a powerful tool for determining the course that evolution has taken since life first began. The development of the tree of life is similar to that of a real tree whose branches continuously split and diverged. Researchers used to determine how species were related by comparing their physical characteristics for example by looking at whether an animal had wings or not however that can be misleading. But comparing d. N. A. Can help clear up mistakes because it provides a much more accurate map of degrees of kinship between species. Some ancient human d. N. A. Has survived and fossilized bones and teeth for over one hundred thousand years. But gave researchers the idea to use the molecule as a way to save other kinds of data. When d. N. A. Is dried it looks as in conspicuous as flour but a single gram of it could contain as much information as a trillion c. D. s a medium that takes up little space and doesnt require any power. Researchers have already packed artificial molecules of d. N. A. In tiny glass balls for saving and reading data a First Step Towards making the technology a reality. Do you have a question or a comment visit our website or drop us a line on twitter or facebook. Speaking of d. N. A. A colony of bees has a queen bee male drones and female workers whether a female becomes a queen or a worker is determined by the food she gets as another not her d. N. A. Nature does have many surprises in store. There so surprising the unusual role bees play in the south African Conservation project. In the middle of the South African bush right next to Kruger National park zoo all of gests robin cook and brownie. Have set up fifty beehives. To conservationists attesting by the honeybees can protect selected trees inside the park from the parks largest residents elephants. Just like people elephants dont like getting stung they have an acute sense of smell and hearing so one hint of a beehive and theyre off. And the reason were doing that is that in our projected areas of africa weve got a build up of a lot. And danes a tease and concern over the impact that they may be having on our large tree species and so were trying to find ways that we can mitigate the effects that elephants have on trees and they by placing honeybees in these trees we hoping that we can find a new method to actually protect the trees from elephant impacts. While elephant populations are in serious decline in other parts of africa their numbers are growing in south africa he n. H. L. Reserves a fenced in and equipped with also official reaching homes protected and well provided for the big animals have flourished so much so that theyve become a problem the elephants trees and shrubs naked often up brushing them in the process and destroying the habitat other animals and plants in the park rely on elephants a particularly partial to one of the parks largest trees the marina. Trees are a highly sought after tree by elephants and thats because theyve got a lot of forage for the elephants and were seeing a lot of impact on these trees and for example in the study site here weve seen a decline of around thirty five percent of the military since elephants have been in the system so militaries are very important in our ecosystems they provide a lot of food for species they provide habitats and so we know them as a keystone species. The elephants often flatten them a religion just so they can get to the leaves but so far the maroulis with bees living in them remain largely untouched out of fifty trees only one was damaged during the past year. Cook speed project is a new approach in Park Management in the past a large number of elephants was simply culled nearly seven hundred thousand was shot dead in Kruger National park to keep the population stable and protect the vegetation so when it comes to managing the effects that elephants have been launched theres been a mine search from controlling elephant numbers themselves as previously thought to mitigating the effects of actually have on the trees. So you could have courses on a large scale where you could try and manage a different distribution. Of actually managing the effects or managing the large trees and protecting the large trees themselves. With the beehives. Hoping to control the elephants movements by keeping them moving when the animals stay in one place too long they can inflict extensive damage but above all the conservationists say bees are the perfect way of keeping elephants away from trees when one of the big animals has ripped off that bark they can fall prey to other assailants like termites in the villages around the park people have little experience with bees many are afraid of them and attitude running to calais is working to change he plans to start keeping bees in his village and to train some of the local residents. Out of piece by. Producing honey barbeque. Go. Back inside the park the conservationists have found another way of reducing elephant numbers in problem areas theyve laid dry a number of watering holes that means the elephants have to keep moving to find fresh water relieving the pressure on the local ecosystem but smaller parts dont have that option so there is growing interest in the results of robin cooks experiments with bees he believes its a groundbreaking method with huge potential but we would love to see it applied to new species particular. Species which elephants are off to such as the bad species and then to see if it can be applied to other projects such as the vaults and this project to see if we can protect trees with faults in this in them using african honey and whether that relationship. They should soon find out the first hides already in place if it all works out the bees could in future protect not only trees but also the birds and animals that depend on the trees for their survival. Thats all for now next time well look at spiders a creature many of us are afraid of but Scientists Say protein from a spiders web provides the perfect substrate for growing hot cell tissue that and more on the next edition of tamara today see they. Should care for the twenty first century. Any interest on our. Unique interpretation. A tesla in concert and the world of a young piano machine. Twenty one presents johnny in a tree for nothing show premiered. In thirty minutes. During the Chain Reaction of breasts. Began around six hundred years ago in the midst of the revolution in fall to enable this many people became aware of their abilities and strengths in a new way there was an outpouring of selfconfidence mentions its the first. Scientists. The orchestra entering. The renaissance for. Stars of people twenty second t. W. Takes a personal leave us. With a little gender for people in stories that make the game so special. That only true for. The little more than football on line. Closely. Listen carefully. To see. To begin to. Discover the. Subscribe to the documentary. Los. Plate. This is d w news live from berlin a swing to the left in finland for parliamentary elections on t. V. Then it is set to become finlands first leftist Prime Minister in over twenty eight years the leader of the social democrats led celebrations as news of his partys narrow win came in the populist finns party will be the of biggest Opposition Force in parliament. Also coming up fighting rages near libyas