Brave New World with Stephen Hawking (2011–…): Season 1, Episode 5 - Biology - full transcript

The experts unearth the amazing breakthroughs transforming the resilience and strength of the human body, including the possibility of humans regenerating their own hearts.

Science is
on the brink of changing your life.

Right now,
men and women around the world

are making amazing breakthroughs.

This is incredible!

Wow.

Our team of leading scientists
have chosen the discoveries

they think matter most...

Whoa.

An almost limitless supply
of clean energy.

It's these which are the basis
of one of the most important

of all conservation enterprises.



From the car you will drive...

Aah!

to medical advances
that could save your life...

This miracle means
we can replace surgery.

On a journey that spans
the jungles of Africa...

I'm here to join the hunt,

to find one of the biggest threats
to human survival.

To the quads of Oxford...

This is, arguably,

the most complicated thing
in the universe.

We will show you how science
is a force for good.

Prepare to see your future.

This is the beginning
of that brave new world.

Tonight:
Life.



We have chosen
the breakthroughs in biology

that we think will shape the future.

Discoveries that could cure disease,

deliver an endless supply of fuel

and unlock the secrets
of a longer and healthier life.

It's science we think
really matters.

'My name is Mark Evans.

I'm in Panama,
on the southernmost tip

'of Central America.'

'I'm heading to an isolated
Pacific island,

'where scientists are hunting
for a life form

'that could help defeat one
of humanity's biggest killers.'

I trained as a vet

and I reckon we've got
a lot to learn

from other life forms
that share this planet.

Many of them have been around
a lot longer than we have

and discovering the secrets
of their survival

could well be critical to ours.

This is the island of Coiba.

There used to be
a penal colony here,

so it has remained
largely uninhabited.

A pristine wilderness, which
has survived almost intact.

It's a rich hunting ground for
plants and micro-organisms,

which are known
to have medicinal properties.

This tree is called "cedron",
in Spanish,

and it is used extensively
by the Panamanians.

They boil up the seeds
inside the fruit into a tea,

which they then use to treat
a whole host of ailments,

from liver disease to malaria,
to snake bite.

It's also a pretty good
insect repellent.

'It has taken us hundreds of years
to uncover some of the secrets

'of the terrestrial environment,

'but now science is taking
a harder look

'at another part of the planet...

'the ocean.'

It is home to the broadest
bio-diversity of life on Earth,

and it is opening up new frontiers

in our hunt for cures
for the diseases that kill us.

'Doctor Kevin Tidgewell
is a research scientist

'with the ICBG,

'an international forum
dedicated to investigating

'our oceans.

'Today, he is on the hunt for an
underwater algae-like substance,

'called "cyanobacteria".

You can see it with your
naked eye, and it looks...

Sometimes it will be about
the size of your finger...

That big?

Yeah, that big, and
sometimes even longer.

Are they free floating
about in currents

or are they attached to stuff?

No, they either grow
on the reef or on the rock,

or on the sand, sometimes
on seagrass,

sometimes directly on sponges.

'Kevin is obsessed
with cyanobacteria

'because it's known to have
special biological properties.'

Is it always, kind of slightly
unexpected, what you will find?

We never really know until we dive,
what's going to be there, because

the cyanobacteria bloom
and they die away,

and so conditions change so rapidly
that we can never be 100% certain

we will find specific types
of the bacteria.

One, two, three.

There is a much higher level
of biological activity underwater

than on land.

For every litre of seawater,

there are 20.000 types of bacteria.

Micro-organisms down here
are fighting for habitat space,

and they use toxic chemicals
to battle it out.

It's these toxins that scientists
hope will be equally aggressive

against human diseases.

- Good dive?
- Oh, it was an amazing dive.

- Yeah?
- Yeah.

We got to see a whole
lot of stuff,

but best of all, we got a whole
bunch of cyanobacteria.

And this is it?

It looks like a lot of,...
just kind of... scrappy old weed.

It kind of does. So, cyanobacteria
tends to look a little bit like hair,

and it feels a little slimy, even.

So reach your hand in
and grab some.

Oh, my God.
There's nothing to it.

No.

It's... It's just stringy...
It's like... marine snot.

Exactly. It's a little slimy,
a little gross.

'It's the properties in this
"marine snot"

'that Kevin and his colleagues are studying.

Cyanobacteria, kind of turn into
small chemical factories

and they are producing
the most potent

and toxic things that they can.

'This really is

'scientific research
at its most intrepid!

'The scientist as hunter-gatherer.

'But finding the samples
is only part of the story.

'To discover just how useful

'the toxins in the cyanobacteria
might be,

'they need to be tested
back in a laboratory.'

This is the cyanobacteria that we
collected yesterday in Coiba,...

but preserved in a mixture of ethanol
and seawater, to make sure it didn't rot.

So this is step one now?

Yes, we're going to filter off
all the seawater and ethanol,

so that then we can extract all
the chemicals inside the cyanobacteria,

with a different solvent.

'It can take over 48 hours

'to process and test the cyanobacteria,

'so Kevin shows me
an earlier sample,

'to demonstrate exactly
how effective

'the isolated chemicals
can be.

'Kevin is been testing them
on cancer cells.

What we have here
are live cancer cells.

'This is what living breast cancer
cells look like,

'under the microscope.'

It's amazing, isn't it?

It's kind of shocking, as well,
when you look at cancer cells,

to think of the damage
these guys do?

'And this is what cancer cells
look like

'after they've been exposed
to one of the chemicals

'from the cyanobacteria.

'In some cases,
after only two days,

'the cancer cells have been
completely killed off.'

It's very nice to think that
the work we do here, in these labs,

can have a large effect
on people all over the world.

Yeah, yeah,... amazing!

And how much more
there is to potentially find.

I was really conscious when
you were in the boat and diving,

you're looking at such
a tiny, tiny part of the ocean.

We are a blue planet.

Yeah.

These results are really impressive,

but there is a long way to go
from this sample,

to a new treatment
for breast cancer.

There is no doubt, though,
that for medical science,

the ocean is an expanding frontier,

and this is just the tip of
what might be out there.

Unlocking the secrets
of our natural world

has given us remarkable power.

Now, we are taking it
one step further,

combining biology and engineering

to take control...
as never before.

My name is Richard Dawkins,

and I'm an evolutionary biologist.

I'm here in Oxford
on the banks of the River Cherwell,

doing what I've done
for most of my life,

which is marvel...

at the complexity
of the living world.

And trying to understand it.

I look at the river,...

and I don't see the teeming
millions of micro-organisms,

but I know they are there,

under the surface,
reproducing away.

I look at a tree,...

and I see thousands of solar panels.

Each leaf is a solar panel,

gathering sunlight, to drive
the whole metabolism of the tree.

But what would it be like

if we could harness these
extraordinary natural processes

and shape them
to our own purpose?

If we could get these
teaming micro-organisms

to work for us
at our bidding?

That is the inspiration of a whole
new area of science.

It's called "synthetic biology".

And I think it offers
exciting possibilities.

Some of the most groundbreaking
work in synthetic biology

is being done here,
in the United States,

where millions of dollars
are being invested in an attempt

to create organisms that could
generate billions in profits.

And one of the biggest
challenges of synthetic biology

is to harness natural processes

to create something the world
desperately needs more of...

Fuel.

It might sound like
science fiction,...

but it's already happening here

at the Joint BioEnergy Institute
in San Francisco's Bay area.

They are using a bacterium
that can cause food poisoning

to make a very precious
commodity instead.

Professor Jay Keasling
is behind a project,

It's a bacterium that can
naturally take in sugar

and transform it
into other chemicals.

that Keasling and his team
recognised and wanted to harness.

It's an organism that
we can quickly manipulate,

we can make changes
to its genetic make-up,

and test whether it could
produce a particular biofuel.

so it could feed off readily
available plant cellulose,

turn that into sugar,

and then metabolise the sugar
into that most valuable of products,...

diesel.

It's a fantastically
efficient process

which creates pure diesel fuel

that can be used in an ordinary car,
without further refining.

And just on the side of the tube,

you can see the beginnings
of the bio diesel.

And this, here...

You can get bacteria
which are widely available

and tell it what to do
to produce bio diesel,

or drugs,
or many kinds of medication.

It's like a little factory,...

right here in this tube!

Around 150 years ago,

the development of synthetic chemistry

revolutionised our ability
to make paints,...

petrochemicals and plastics.

Now, synthetic biology
looks set to produce

a revolution in our ability
to produce everything,

from bio diesel,
to new medicines.

But this time,
bacteria will do the work

and plants will provide
the raw material.

Keasling predicts that in
two to three decades from now,

his new bio diesel,

will have replaced up to 30%
of the world's transportation fuels.

Synthetic biology has
incredible possibilities.

Who could be against
a clean environment

or greater food production?

Or better medicines
produced inexpensively

so that everyone
has access to them,

not just people
in developed countries?

This could be a
world-changing technology.

We have many medicines
to help us when we are ill,

but in the future, perhaps our
bodies can learn to heal themselves.

We want to tell you about
two great advances

on this road to regeneration.

I'm Joy Reidenberg
and I'm an anatomist.

I've come to Pittsburgh
to find out about

an astonishing development
in human healing.

The team here are isolating
a substance called ECM,

or extracellular matrix.

It's a biological structure

on which a body can build
or rebuild itself,

and it's found in all animals.

This is a pig bladder
that's being opened up

and once it's laid out,

the cells are going to be
scraped off the surface.

The idea is to mechanically
remove as many cells as possible

so the only thing left
is the framework

the cells were sticking to.

That is, the matrix itself.

When we're in the womb,

ECM is the scaffold on which
our bodies build themselves.

As very small children, it helps us
heal ourselves if we're injured.

But after that,
it seems to stop working.

By using the ECM structure
from this pig's bladder,

the scientists here hope
to trick the human body

into repairing itself.

This extraordinary footage
shows ECM at work,

recruiting stem cells
to build healthy tissue

rather than scar tissue.

It could transform the lives of
patients with severe muscle injury.

The work on muscle regeneration
has already started,

and here in San Antonio, Texas,

is a man who's one of the first to
receive this experimental treatment.

Corporal Hernandez was
a US Marine serving in Iraq

when a mortar blew out
the muscle from his right thigh.

Did they ever tell you that you
would not walk again?

Yes.

How did they say that to you?

Pretty much just like that.
"You might not walk again."

At first, they told me that,
I guess because of the damage,

that I should have been paralysed,
at least from the waist down.

Then, that I should have had
my legs amputated.

Then, Hernandez heard about ECM

and asked to have it
inserted in his thigh.

ECM is this little round area
you can see here,

it's kind of rounded off
by the scars.

Right. But I can see that this has
more bulk to it than this area here.

That's a little bubble there.

Oh, yeah. You can see it
bulging when you work out.

Yeah, yeah, yeah...
I can see that.

After ECM, I can stand up
and walk no problem,...

even running and jogging
a little bit now.

Really?!
Running and jogging?!

And working out
on equipment like this?

Yes.

Corporal Hernandez is one
of the first ever patients

to receive ECM
for muscle regeneration.

The success of his treatment

shows the potential
of this breakthrough

in regenerative medicine.

I'm Dr Roberta Bondar

and as an astronaut on board
an international space mission,

I was also the first neurologist
in the world to fly.

Roger, Endeavour.

'Orbiting Earth was
an extraordinary experience

'and seeing our planet
from such a privileged perspective

'made me appreciate
our achievements as a species.

'But the discovery
I want to tell you about

'excites me not because
I was an astronaut,

'but because I'm a doctor.

This is Dr Hesham Sadek
of the University of Texas.

His speciality is
regenerative cardiology.

We're looking at an image
of the heart of a 50-year-old man

who's had a near-fatal
heart attack.

He survived it,...

but his heart will never
function well again.

You can see that entire segment

that has a scar
is not moving.

I'd say about 25% of the heart

doesn't contribute to the pumping
function of the heart, any more.

And this is really the basis
of heart failure.

We cannot return back the heart
to what it was before injury.

But there are species that can
spontaneously repair themselves.

The salamander is capable
of self regenerating

damaged heart tissue.

But could biological science find
a way to help humans do the same?

That's what Dr Sadek
and his team are trying to do.

And their starting point
is an extraordinary discovery

about a fellow mammal.

These are the heart cells
of a newly born mouse.

They're outside the mouse's body,
but astonishingly,

they are continuing to beat.

More than that, they are
growing and replicating.

So, when they're outside
the body like this,

they're still able
to survive quite well?

Yes, and as you can see,
they're beating by themselves.

And, what's really special
about these cells is that

they will divide once or twice.

This is the basis of why
we started this experiment.

Hesham and his team wanted to know
whether this phenomenon

would occur inside a living mouse.

The only way to find out was
to perform open-heart surgery

on a one-day old mouse.

Remove a section of its heart,

and see if it repaired itself.

If it worked, it might help
unlock the secrets

of how to make
a human heart regenerate.

Using ice to place a mouse into

a state of anaesthetised
suspended animation,

this is a procedure that
has never been filmed before.

What Ahmed is doing, is...

..is going to dissect
the muscles between the ribs,

and enter the chest cavity
to access the heart.

Very delicate work.

Yes. He is a good surgeon.

He exposed the heart,
so the heart is outside the body...

That is incredible in itself.

..and then he is using
specialised scissors,

to dissect the apex of the heart.

Ahmed is removing as much as
15% of the left ventricle.

Now he is closing the skin,...

by skin glue, just like the skin glue
that is used for wounds in humans.

This is most amazing,... I mean
the fact that you've even let us

see this operation,
record it, is so impressive.

I see it moving now.
A little arm out.

That's pretty impressive!

Only minutes after surgery,
the mouse is already recovering.

But what happens
to its now damaged heart

has never been seen
in mammals before.

We found that within three weeks,

after cutting off the tip of the heart,
that it all grew back normally,

and the function was normal
and the heart went back

to pumping blood normally
as if nothing had happened.

Although the mouse is
only capable of regenerating

its damaged heart tissue like this,
for the first seven days of its life,

this is a discovery
that could lead to harnessing

this regenerative power for humans.

What is the switch that
turned on this process initially?

How did you do that initially?

How did the heart do that
when it was younger?

How do the heart cells divide
when they're younger?

What makes them stop dividing?
And can we reawaken that again?

Can we make the adult heart cells divide
again and heal themselves again?

It may be years before
Dr Sadek's work reveals results

we can use in humans,

but it's no less important for that.

This research really
opens up the possibility

that we might be able to find
a cure for cardiac disease,

without a scalpel in sight.

That one day,
we may have the power

to enable our bodies
to heal themselves.

Next, our decoding of genetic
secrets of a select few

could help us all lead
longer and healthier lives.

I'm a geneticist, so I'm interested
in how our individual genetic codes

can impact on every
stage of our lives.

Even our final years.

'Most research into human genes
is focused on what's wrong with us,

'but what about
what's right with us?

'What about the genes that help us
to have a long and healthy life?

'This is San Diego.

'Where the over-75s olds
are thick on the ground.

I'm here to meet Elsie Taylor.

She's quite a special woman.

So special, in fact,...

that science has taken
a very keen interest in her.

'Elsie has never suffered
from any serious disease

'and scientists would like
to find out why.

'She's 91 and has an impressive
fitness regime.'

I exercise Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, I dance on Thursday.

Friday I have yoga as a rule.

I take Shagan
and tai chi with Cherie.

Have you ever smoked?

My grandmother thought it was
sinful for a woman to smoke.

What about your diet?

I have been fortunate enough

that I haven't had to worry
about my weight.

My weight hasn't changed
really too much,

over the last 30 years.

'82-year-old Natalie is,
in some ways, very similar to Elsie.

'Both are sociable.

'And, Natalie used to play
a lot of hockey and tennis.

'But there the similarities end.'

I had a boyfriend who smoked.

I thought it was very cool
to smoke as well.

My mother-in-law
used to bribe me,

she used to say, "I'll give you
so much money if you stop smoking!".

And, I once stopped
for about a month.

And that was it!
I was back again.

What about things like
your diet and exercise?

Do you eat particular foods?

I'm not a fussy eater
but I don't eat everything.

I don't like fish,
I do like hamburgers.

I can go to McDonald's
and have a hamburger

or I can have a hamburger
in a smart restaurant.

For breakfast I will often have
frozen waffles.

And I just hope that I'll
get through the day.

I climb steps, I go down
to the laundry, which are steps.

I have 30 steps in my house,
and it's frequent up and downs.

And,... I feel
that's sufficient exercise.

Elsie and Natalie have lived
very different lives,

but both of them
are in a tiny minority,

because neither has suffered
from any serious disease.

So scientists want to know if there
is something that connects them.

Both women belong to an exclusive
club dubbed the "Wellderly".

Researchers here at Scripps Health
are investigating

whether there is something in their
genetic code that sets them apart.

They're comparing
their gene sequences

against those of people who have
died from age-related diseases,

before the age of 80.

They've identified
one particular gene

that might play a crucial role
in determining lifespan.

If they're right, this gene
doesn't help you live longer,

it makes you die sooner.

This research has caught
the attention of Andrew Dillin,

a professor at Salk Institute
for Biological Studies.

He's an expert in ageing.

Well,... ageing is a stress!

Is every day,...

day after day,
we're dealing with

the environmental stresses that are
going to be placed on our cells.

Whether or not that's UV damage
from the sun

or oxidative damage
from our environment,...

there is damage that is happening
to our cells and our bodies

throughout all of our life.

And somehow,
when we're young,

we're able to deal
with that very well.

We can protect ourselves and protect
the damages that are caused by that,

but as you age, you start to
accumulate more and more damage.

Andrew wants to put the gene
identified by the Wellderly Project

to the test,

by seeing what happens
if he disrupts its effect.

He can't tweak the genes of humans,
so he's trying it out on worms.

What we do is we make
the same gene disruption

in worms and flies and mice,

and ask whether it will also increase
the health span of those animals,

and make them appear like these...
Wellderly population of humans.

It's still early days for the
research on these Wellderly worms,

but in previous studies,

Andrew has been able to disrupt
other age-related genes

to create a breed of super-worms

that live far longer
than their peers.

He is confident that we are
narrowing in on the key genes

that affect lifespan.

Now that we know the different genes
that are moduling the ageing process,

those are targets
to make drugs against.

At the end of the day, you know,
we are not doing the research

to make a person
that's going to live

to be 120 or live to be 250,

that's not our goal.

The whole goal here is
to have a healthy lifespan

and die of natural causes,

rather than suffer through
these age-related diseases.

It comes as no surprise to Elsie

that the secret of her long life
might lie in her genes.

My father was 89,
he was very active,

and his brothers
all lived to be late 80s.

The oldest was 96
when he died.

On my father's side,
definitely...

longevity was...
there!

So that helps, I'm sure.

And my brother,
in spite of... problems

that he's had with his health,

he is 91, he will be
92 in August,

so, um,...
it's continuing.

I hope to live
a few years longer.

'But what is significant
to the rest of us

'is that, if researchers like Andrew
Dillin can identify these genes

'and turn them on and off,

'then we might all enjoy
a healthy old age,

'like Elsie's.

You've been doing exciting
travelling and kayaking and dancing.

What's next for Elsie?

It's wonderful to have a young man
in my life at this stage,

that likes to go places
and do things,

so we dance together every Thursday

and we had this wonderful trip
to Spokane,

and the Tetons and Yellowstone.
Oh, it was just great.

Until recently,
little was known

about the processes
by which we grow old.

What's fascinating about this
research is that it seems possible

that we may be able
to alter those processes,

and unlock the secrets
of a longer and healthier life.

Er,... I think it would be
a selfish thing to say

that I'd like to live forever,

and I am having a good time.

So why shouldn't
I go on having a good time?

But the fact of the matter is that
the world is overpopulated as it is!..

Here I am in my 80s,

I have been living far beyond
my natural span, I suspect,

and that means that the population
of the world has grown and grown,

and what about
young people coming on?

No, I think human lifespan
has already been extended

and I don't think
we ought to ask to live forever.

I would definitely
like to live forever,

because my dream is to one day
travel to the stars.

But to travel from our star to
the next-door neighbour star

would take 76,000 years
using current technology.

So to see the whole of the universe,
I'd really need to live forever.

I personally would love
to live forever!

I don't think it's a good idea
for all humans to live forever,

because then we'd never have anybody
new, or any new ideas on Earth.

We always need an influx
of new stuff,

but I personally
am terrified of death.

Not dying,...
but being gone!

So I'd love to stick around and see
what's happening in the future.

The more we discover about DNA,

the more complex it becomes.

Now scientists are beginning to
understand that we can affect

the health of future generations in
ways that none of us ever imagined.

Let's suppose that I'd smoked
heavily throughout my lifetime,

or indeed eaten far too much.

Then that would be my responsibility,

because my genes might well
behave in a certain way

which would cause me
to have diseases.

The received wisdom
has always been

that that genetic message
could not be passed on,

but there's some new evidence

that what we do to our genes
can affect not only our children,

but our children's children.

We first started to unlock
some of the secrets of our DNA

nearly 60 years ago,

but recently science
has begun to focus

on an additional layer
that sits above our genes...

a layer of multiple switches
that may be turned on and off

as a result of our lifestyle.

This field of study
is called "epigenetics",

and I think that epigenetics, and
the study of the way genes function,

will be one of the most significant
advances in health care

in the next decade.

This is Professor Marcus Pembrey.

He's one of the key proponents

of what is still
a controversial theory.

As a paediatric geneticist,

he's been fascinated for years
by the idea that a parent

could pass on their life experience
epigenetically to their children.

He began to look for evidence

with the help of a unique database
at Bristol University.

Beginning in 1990, 14.000
pregnant women and their partners

agreed to take part in a study

which would follow
the development of their children.

This study is called
Children of the 90s.

And for the last two decades it's
been collecting a detailed store

of biological samples and lifestyle
information from the families.

Marcus focused on
the pre-adolescent experiences

of the study fathers.

The theory was that, as boys
at the age of around nine or ten

began developing sperm,

what they experienced
in life at that stage

might then be passed on
to the next generation.

But what life experiences
could they look at?

The only thing that we could
come up with was...

when the study father
started smoking.

You mean the age he started smoking?

The age he started smoking.

So it was the onset of smoking before
puberty, before about the age of 11.

Boys in Bristol were already
smoking before puberty?

Well, indeed they were.

Because we are a big study,

we had over 5.000 who smoked,
fathers who had smoked,

but 166 reported that they were
smoking before the age of 11.

And what did smoking cause?

What it did for the future sons,
but not the daughters...

They had increased obesity
at the age of nine,

and indeed that's been shown
to go right through, er, puberty.

This result may seem extraordinary,

but the correlation between early
smoking fathers and obese sons

held true even when they took all
other social factors into account.

Marcus is convinced that this is
an inherited epigenetic effect...

and the phenomenon isn't
just smoking-related.

A remarkable study in Sweden
had previously shown

that boys who over-ate
at the pre-adolescent stage

fathered sons
whose health was affected.

But, most significantly,

they have male grandchildren who
are much more likely to die early.

So the inheritance
is not just the DNA,

but these additional
layers of information,

that is placed on the DNA...
so... called epigenetics.

But if an epigenetic effect
can pass down through the male line,

what about the female line?

Scientists started to study the
experiences of women during pregnancy

and wondered if stress
could cause an epigenetic effect.

There was just one problem!..

Obviously, you can't subject
a pregnant woman to massive stress

in order to find out
what's happening to her babies.

But occasionally
scientists can really benefit

from a massive natural disaster,

and in 1998 a huge ice storm
hit eastern Canada.

Electricity pylons buckled under
the severity of the freezing rain

and the weight of the ice.

For over a month,

thousands of families had to endure
sub-zero temperatures without power.

Marie-Claude LeBlanc was seven
months pregnant with her son Samuel

when the storm struck.

We lived each day
as a survival exercise.

It wasn't exactly a camping trip,
it really was survival.

Even in a brick-built house,

the cold and the damp seeped in,
and we felt it to be -35, -40.

We couldn't let the fire go out.

There's no doubt, that living through
the ice storm would have been

a stressful experience for anyone,

but especially so
for a pregnant woman

concerned about her unborn baby.

Yet could the stress
that the women experienced

have a long-term effect
on the health of their children?

Psychologist Dr Suzanne King

experienced the ice storm first-hand
and wondered exactly that.

My family was without power
for seven days,

which was not all that long compared to
people in the region we're studying,

but a few days after the ice storm
I went to give blood

and found that my blood pressure
was abnormally high.

I realised that this was probably
due to stress,

and it also occurred to me that

there were probably hundreds,
if not thousands,

of pregnant women out there,
also being stressed by the ice storm.

Dr King and colleagues
at McGill University

recruited more than 150 women
who were pregnant during the storm

and is studying their children.

We're looking really at development
in the child in terms of

their cognitive development,
their IQ and language and so on.

Their behavioural development
in terms of depression, anxiety,

aggressiveness.

Also, their physical development.

So in very general terms,

what it looks like is that

for women who had the highest levels
of stress from the ice storm,

the worse the outcome
in the child.

This suggests
that the extreme hardship

experienced by the pregnant women
during the ice storm

has resulted in some
of their children having a lower IQ

and greater emotional difficulties.

In the womb, we develop hundreds
of thousands of brain cells a day.

And perhaps exposure to high
levels of stress hormones

has an epigenetic effect.

We have to wait for the ice-storm
mothers to have grandchildren

to see if this epigenetic effect
is passed on to the next generation.

In the past, people thought
the slate was wiped clean

between a generation...
only DNA mattered.

Now we know it's not destiny,
there is other things.

What you choose to do,
the lifestyle you choose to have,

for good or bad,

not only sets an example

to your offspring
and grandchildren,

but actually biologically
can affect the way their genes work

and the way they develop
and their health.

You know,

we humans are really arrogant.

We think, with science,
that we control our environment,

but actually,
our environment controls us.

And unless we learn that message,

we, our children
and our children's children

will always have
a battle for our health.

In this series, we have given you
a glimpse into our future.

We have shown you the discoveries and
inventions we think matter most.

Perhaps the most astonishing...

the power of genetics...

how our understanding
of the genome

is creating a revolution
in human health.

Like the cancer treatment that has
saved the life of Tina Miranda.

We couldn't be more pleased
about how well you're doing.

Thank you!

You're feeling well, your cancer
has been shrinking away.

It's just wonderful to see that.

Yes.

A new understanding
which is also ensuring

a future for endangered animals...

A vet is now taking a blood sample

from this lovely old creature.

It will preserve genetic information
that will last for hundreds,

if not thousands, of years.

And has led to the new science
of optogenetics,

which might reveal at last
the inner workings of our brains.

In there were once thoughts,
memories, dreams,

perceptions of colour, sounds,
melodies, language.

There are perhaps 100 billion
nerve cells... neurons... in there,

and maybe 200 trillion
connections between them.

These discoveries have inspired us.

I think the most interesting
aspect of all the biological sciences

is actually how the brain thinks,

and I think we're just beginning now,
for the first time, to understand

the physiology of human emotion,
human love, human anger and so on.

Really fascinating.

I think if I were
starting my career all over again,

I might be very tempted to
work in biology,

because with our knowledge
of genetics now,

the world really seems
to be our oyster.

I think the most significant
discovery in the last decade or so

has been the recognition that

genetics is not just
a matter of chromosomes.

The breakthrough that is just
on the verge of becoming reality

is understanding our own
genetic make-up,

enough to be able to predict
what diseases we might get,

and be able to beat
the disease to the punch

and stop that
disease from happening.

But our future is not
just about flesh and blood.

We revealed a new machine age where
lasers built a world around us...

and cars drive themselves.

- We've just gone driverless?
- Absolutely, yeah.

Show me your hands!

And there is public transport
to dream of.

It's all a bit James Bond.

It's a time where
there are rockets for hire,

an era where robots learn like us...

Do you want me to play alone?

Operate to save our lives,

and even help
the paralysed to walk again.

I'm massively optimistic
about the future.

You only have to see what's coming
out of scientific research institutes

around the world to think the future's
going to be a fabulous place to live.

But science
is not just about the practical.

It allows us
to understand the world...

it gives meaning to life.

Everybody knows science is useful,

so they run away with the idea
that useful is all that science is.

Of course science is useful...
it's very useful...

but you have to remember science is
almost an aesthetic pursuit as well.

It's inspirational.

How we know that the Earth
is not flat, but round.

How we know that the Sun
doesn't go round the Earth,

but the Earth goes round the Sun...

These fundamental understandings

are actually, crucial to understanding
our place in the universe.

Trying to unlock
and understand the secrets of nature

and the universe is a part of being
curious, and a part of being human.

And we know from the past
that this kind of fundamental science

has the potential to change
the world.

I've lived with the prospect
of death for many years,

but I'm in no hurry to die.

I want to see the future,
and the wonders it will bring.

Magic is going on inside there!