All language subtitles for BBC.How.Science.Changed.Our.World.PDTV.XviD.MP3.MVGroup.org.eng

From the moment we're conceived
to the day we take our last breath,

science, and the way we use it,
touches every one of us.

Science has given immense power
to save and nurture life.

But the pace of change is so great
that we don't often take time

to stop and appreciate
how far we've come.

That's why I want to share with you
ten of the most important scientific
advances of our time,

and reveal some of the things
that might just lie ahead.

At the end of the programme
I'll be asking you to vote

for the advance you think has done
the most to change your world.

It's had a massive impact
on our society.

It's really changed
your life, hasn't it?

So you're the perfect bionic woman?
Yeah!

And the winner?
Well, it's up to you.

It's one small step for man,
one giant leap for mankind.

The last 50 years has seen science
transform our world.

In half a century,
it's tackled countless diseases,

put men on the moon,

and completely changed
the way we communicate.

These are my top ten advances.

Some things you may expect,
others you may find more surprising.

The first advance to take place in
my top ten almost didn't make it,

because it's very nearly too old!

There are some women who prefer
at least to pretend
they're not interested in it.

And who like to be
approached by the man.

But for all its great age,

it's made
a lot of people extremely happy.

Ah, how I lost my virginity!

Cor blimey.
My mother would have had a fit.

We had a race, me and this girl,
to see who could have it off first.
It was terrible!

But we were having a wonderful time!

When I was a medical student,
which is longer ago
than I actually care to mention,

there was a revolution

which some people claim
transformed our society. It was,
of course, the contraceptive pill.

In 1961, the Pill
was released in Britain.

The day is printed
by the side of every pill.

And providing she can
remember what day it is,

a woman can be quite sure whether
or not she has taken today's pill.

The manufacturers do their best
to make them foolproof -

they don't want to lose
their reputation over what
might be called "pilot's error".

Today we take it for granted,
but for that first generation,
it was revolutionary.

I was a student teacher

during that time, and, er,

it got round in college

that there was a certain doctor in
Doncaster that would give the Pill,

so we all made a beeline for that.

Interestingly enough, all the
patients, we were all called "Mrs"

when you were called in
to see the doctor.

You weren't "Miss" even there.

We knew there was one private
clinic, except you had to pay for
it, so I had to take a paper round.

The Pill exploded onto the scene
at a time of great social upheaval,

and itself became
a huge part of that change.

I felt quite liberated.
Just to be free of that fear
of becoming pregnant was amazing.

I was aware that I was
taking control of my own life.

There were lots of things
in the newspapers about the Pill,
"Oh, it'll make women tarty,"

and everything, you know.
It wasn't like that for me.

I could plan
my children and my career,
which was so important to me.

But what nobody foresaw was that
the Pill meant that more women

have tended to leave child-bearing
later and risk infertility.

But that freedom to plan
has, on balance, changed
most people's lives for the better.

And for that reason,
the Pill has to be in my top ten.

It's tiny but it's had
a massive impact on our society.

Its liberating influence has been
one of the most important advances
in the last 50 years.

Just as the Pill transformed
women's lives in the 1960s,

science is changing our relationship
with contraception again.

Bill and Rachel
are just about to start a trial

for a new contraceptive that
doesn't need to be taken every day.

You've had three children,
and you got pregnant
when on the Pill each time?

Yeah. Nothing to do with
the Pill, just to do with us.

You didn't take it properly?
That's the one.

So what methods of contraception
have you tried?

We've tried abstinence, cos he
was in the Navy, so that worked
for a while, with him going away.

We tried condoms
briefly in the beginning.

And why didn't you want
to take the Pill any more?

I'm really not good at taking it

and I'd be relieved to not
have different chemicals, and the
stress of knowing I'd forgotten.

And you didn't mind your husband
having the chemicals? No. Bash on.

I think it would be great for him
to take some responsibility.

The contraceptive they're about
to try is actually for Bill,
not Rachel.

Now, I know what
you might be thinking -

and if I were a woman,
I might not trust a man,

even a reliable fireman
like Bill to take the Pill, either.

But this pill

is actually a course of injections
which will leave Bill
temporarily infertile.

So what on earth made you
take part in this trial?

Mmm... For me, it's just about
being able to take over

the role of
contraception from Rachel,
and me being responsible for that,

rather than
it all being left to Rache.

And did the side-effects
that they talk about

on the male contraception worry you?

There are a few side effects
that they did warn us about,
like weight gain,

acne, irritability.

Did they tell you
you might develop breasts?

They did say that. Yes.

You're a fireman, aren't you? I am.

Did you discuss it
with your mates at work?

Strangely, no.

Why? I mean...
the ribbing I'll get, never mind...

It's a really macho environment.

Yeah. It is I suppose,
it's fertility and a guy, like,
you know, I'm really butch...

And do you understand the science of
how it actually works? I don't.

Would you like to know?
Yes, please.

Let me explain it to you.

It's actually quite surprising,
and in some ways

it's not dissimilar
from the female pill, the
oral contraception that women take.

And essentially, it really works
in the brain, so if this is a body,

the brain sends out a signal

to make an egg or make a sperm, OK?

Now, the pill is a hormone
which inhibits the brain by telling
it the egg is already being made

when it's not being made, so the
brain thinks the woman is ovulating
so it stops sending the message,

and that's exactly what happens
with the male contraception, too,
so if you're given the male hormone,

that tells the brain,
"I'm making lots of sperm,"

so it just shuts down.
So it's quite an elegant idea,

and that feedback is

one of the most interesting examples
in biology of how the body works.

The idea is that the injections will
deal with Bill's biological feedback
for months at a time.

This was his idea.

So the first entry on my list is the
Pill - revolutionary in the '60s,

and still reinventing itself
almost 50 years later.

Fantastic.

My next advance has also had
a dramatic impact on our lives -

in fact, it's so significant that
it's played a part in almost all
of the other inventions on my list.

When I was a schoolboy,
I worked in a radio factory.

I was being paid
five pounds a week by Mr Benzimra,

a princely sum,
to solder little components onto
a printed circuit board like this.

Little did I realise that across
the Atlantic, a man was going to
revolutionise the whole process.

An engineer called Jack Kilby found
a way to shrink all these components

into one extraordinary,
and tiny thing.

It's this, the humble microchip.

And since its invention 50 years
ago, there's been more medical

and scientific progress than in
any other period in human history.

The microchip has to be in our top
ten. From the moment we wake up

to the moment we go to bed,
it affects every part of our lives.

Without the microchip,
there would be no laptop,

no cash card, no mobile phone.

In short, without the microchip,
we'd still be living in the 1970s.

It amazes me that today
all those elements of the
old electronic circuit board

I soldered together as a schoolboy
can only be seen down a microscope.

And now the technology
is set to make it even smaller.

I'm in the London Centre
for Nanotechnology,

where they make
the smallest particles
that are possible to be made.

And the reason why I'm wearing
the garb is because any skin cell

in the atmosphere
would contaminate what they do.

And here on my fingertip

is a little electronic chip.

On this chip, they can fit
50 million transistors.

This, the next generation
of mini-miracles,

is as small as it gets...for now.

Each electronic component in these
circuits is smaller than a virus.

And that miniaturisation
means that chips, like viruses,

are getting closer to us than
we could have possibly imagined.

Now, here's a thing.
This microchip is made of a
substance which is entirely edible.

So when you swallow it,
it gets dissolved by the acid

in your stomach, and it sends
a signal to a plaster on your arm.

And the plaster on your arm - ow! -

has got this
little device like a radio, and
if you haven't taken your pill...

I get a message
on my phone saying,
"You haven't your pill today."

But there's
a darker side to all technology.

The sheer proliferation of the
microchip does bring some concerns.

It's worth considering that
within 50 yards of where I'm
standing in Piccadilly Circus,

there must be at least
50 surveillance cameras
recording every movement we make,

amassing a huge amount of data
over which we have no control.

How we deal with these issues
is an increasing challenge.

Storage of personal data
is largely unregulated, and fraud,

theft and loss of privacy in the
virtual world worries many people.

But in spite of all this,
the chip is on my list,

and we shouldn't forget that without
it, many of the other advances
wouldn't have been possible.

Including this next one.

At number three on my list
is a device in whose story I,

or rather my rabbit
Wilhelmina, played here
by an actor, had a starring role.

Well, a role, anyway.

I met some physics friends in the
bar having a beer one evening,

and they said, "We've just built
this machine with lots of wire

"and string and ceiling wax
and an old television screen

"and it's called
a Magnetic Resonance Image machine,

"and would
you like to put your rabbit in it?"

So we went down to the sub-basement
of Hammersmith Hospital

and we put Wilhelmina gently
into the machine.

I was a bit worried about it,
and then after 20 minutes
of cooking,

we got a photograph,
and it looked a bit like this.

Just a blur.

And I didn't have the sense to
realise that this was going to be
quite revolutionary in its time.

I think my pet rabbit was one
of the first living organisms
to be photographed like this.

And the technology,
which was then in its infancy,
went on to become the MRI scanner.

For much of my career in medicine,
X-rays were the most effective way
of looking inside the human body.

But they didn't give a particularly
clear image of all the organs
beyond our bones.

MRI scanning changed all that.

Engineers first used MRI
to look inside metals.

Now we're able see directly
into living tissues

and that's given amazing
new insights into the most
complicated organ in the human body.

I find it really rather humbling
that this space,
this inanimate object,

this brain was once the place
where somebody felt angry,
felt sad, and loved.

And the extraordinary thing is
that until quite recently, we had no
idea how it was really working.

Exciting research at the University
of Cambridge is using the MRI
scanner to see how the mind works.

Robert, hello. Nice to see you.

In the scanner next door is
a willing volunteer I've never met.

I want you to face this way.
And not to look in the window?

So I can't see your subject.

By asking some simple
yes or no questions,

I'm going to try to
find out a bit about him. Or her.

If the person in the scanner
is trying to convey a yes,

you'll see a bright red area of
activity around his pre-motor cortex,

right at the top,
in the middle of the head.

If the person in the scanner
is trying to convey a no,

you'll see the same area
of the brain lighting up

but it will be a blue-green colour.

Are you a man?

There you go.

I'm pretty confident this person
is conveying a yes at this stage.

Are you over six foot high?

He's now got a green area,
so this is signalling a no answer,

which would mean that actually
this man is shorter than six foot.

We can't actually see
the brain think yes or no.

That would be too difficult
even for an MRI machine.

What our volunteer was asked
to do was to imagine playing tennis

when he wants to say yes, and when
he does, the area of the brain

which deals with movement,
his motor cortex,

shows increased activity,
and that is easy for the MRI to see.

And this is our last question.

Do you have facial hair?

Again, pretty obvious activation.

I would say that this guy's
either got a beard or a moustache.

Hi!

Thank you so much.
I'm Robert Winston.

You're certainly not six-foot
high, we got that right.

One recent study using
this technique has given us
an insight into communication

with some patients
in what was thought to
be a permanent vegetative state.

We've seen a patient recently,
who'd actually been in that
situation for five years

and he was able
to use this technique
to convey yes and no responses.

It's certainly not the case for all
patients, but we now know there are
a sub-group of these patients

who probably can do more
than we think they can.

It's quite scary, isn't it?

Do you not find that
really quite amazing,

but also very on the edge
of our humanity?

It is and it is something that many
people find quite difficult
to think about,

the idea that you could
be trapped inside your body
and unable to communicate.

Hopefully we've found
a way where some of these
patients can get around that issue.

Essentially what you're
measuring is changes in blood flow.

We're looking at the areas of
the brain that are working hardest.

They're drawing blood,
which is delivering oxygen
and that's what we're measuring.

I couldn't look at somebody
with this machine and say,
"He thinks I am a complete moron."

No, that might be true, but
at least you won't know that.

Undoubtedly, the MRI machine
has been the most important way
of seeing how our brain works.

And that alone qualifies it
as one of the most significant
advances in the last 50 years.

But what really makes it stand out
for me is its extraordinary ability

to transform lives
through its use in medicine.

17-year-old Elyse Westrip has had
severe epilepsy since she was 11.

MRI scans have recently
revealed that the seizures
are due to a brain tumour.

This bright area here
is the area that is abnormal.

What we need to do now
is determine how close

that area to be removed is to parts
that carry out vital functions.

Though it's been decided
that the tumour can be removed,

the bad news is
that it's dangerously close
to her optic nerve.

The operation carries the risk
of partial blindness.

But for Elyse,
it's a risk worth taking.

I'm trying to forget the risks

and just think positive,

the good things
about having the surgery.

I feel I'm going to get better.

I can change my life
back to how it was before.

The epilepsy got so bad
I decided to leave school early
because I couldn't cope any more.

I just got upset a lot
that I was different.

It did change my life a lot.

The tumour is buried
five centimetres into Elyse's brain.

In the past,
patients undergoing this operation

would have run a significant
risk of suffering brain damage.

But thanks to MRI, the
risk to Elyse is greatly reduced.

In a new use of MRI,
the scans are mapped onto an image
seen in the surgeon's microscope,

and that will help him navigate
past the healthy brain
to remove the tumour,

which is shown as a dotted line.

After nearly five hours of surgery,
the tumour is finally removed.

This is the specimen
that's come out so far.

It's the front four centimetres
of the temporal pole, which is
exactly where the brain tumour is.

I think the brain tumour is in this
bit here, right at the very bottom.

And then Elyse is scanned again
to ensure that none
of the tumour remains.

The pictures look amazing.
Fantastic.

Two months later and I'm off to
visit Elyse on her 18th birthday.

Hello. Happy birthday.
There's some flowers for you.

I'm delighted to see
that she's made a full recovery.

It's amazing that only a few weeks
ago before the operation, she was
having up to eight seizures a day.

Are you having any seizures at all?

None.
So it's really changed your life?

Yeah.

That's fantastic.

It's miraculous to see how the
surgeons' skill and MRI technology

has totally transformed
Elyse's life.

The past 50 years has seen
innovation, invention and discovery
on an unprecedented scale.

I'm choosing what I think are the
very best, the top ten scientific
advances of the past half century.

So far we've seen how the
pill has revolutionised women's

and indeed everybody's lives.

We've looked at the almost
miraculous effect of the microchip
on, well, more or less everything,

and we've marvelled at our godlike
ability to peer into the mind,
thanks to MRI scanning.

There are still seven
of my top ten to come

and after the programme,
you'll get a chance to vote
on which is your favourite,

the best of the best.

Meanwhile, on with the list.

My fourth choice, which
though rather familiar, has
the potential to save the planet.

I certainly wouldn't
be without this.

It's one of my favourite inventions.
It's the electric torch.

But the great advance in the
use of light came 50 years ago

with the invention of the laser,
which concentrates the light down a
very narrow beam, very precisely.

It's the greatest advance
in the technology of light
since mankind lit its first candle.

A laser produces light
that's so concentrated
it can burn, cut and destroy.

From the very beginning,
this destructive power

has sparked the imagination
of science fiction writers.

He has chosen his own death!

But the force
can also be used for good
and that's why it's in my top ten.

Here's a laser
of a power of one watt.

If you don't want to use your energy
to strike your match, you can just
hold it in the beam of light.

A one-watt laser can light a match.

Imagine, then, the power

of a 500 trillion watt laser.

That's exactly what
they've built here at the National
Ignition Facility in California,

where engineers have
just finishing constructing
the laser to end all lasers.

In fact, 192 of the world's
most powerful lasers,

all focused
on a tiny hydrogen target.

If they can be made
to strike at the same time,

and when I say the same time, I mean
within one billionth of a second,

then the energy inside
the atoms will be released,

creating in one moment
500 times more energy

than the entire
American National Grid.

This incredible energy release
is from nuclear fusion.

What is fusion power? Fusion power
is what's going on inside the sun.

When we crush hydrogen together,
we get this fusion to happen,

we turn mass into energy

and that energy comes out
and if we can collect it,

and turn it into electricity,
that's what we want to power our
civilization. That's fusion power.

That's what we hope to make
happen in this target chamber.

What is so exciting
about this energy,
we have no issue of pollution

and we have no issue
of global climate warming.

That is the dream. That has always
been the dream of fusion energy

and hopefully, we'll be able to do
it here. And no nuclear waste?

No nuclear waste. Right.

I just know that in this facility
in the next couple of years,

hopefully one,
we will find out that we can do it.

Effectively, within this chamber,
Ed and his colleagues

are trying to create and capture
the power of a star

by fusing protons in an atom.

A source of energy so powerful
that if it could be harnessed,

it would provide the Holy Grail of
cheaper, cleaner renewable energy

and reduce our dependence
on fossil fuels.

What's utterly extraordinary
is that all this energy

that you're generating
from this vast machine
is actually in that.

Just show me that little capsule.

That capsule is where
the hydrogen fuel resides.

It resides there at near absolute
zero and the laser light
comes in and it heats up this can.

When the shell explodes,
that hydrogen implodes at nearly
1.5 million kilometres per hour

and that's how
we get that fusion to happen.

The idea of using
the laser to solve one of
the great problems of physics,

the production of green energy,
which might save the planet

using nuclear fusion.
That seems to be a really important
reason for developing lasers.

It's interesting to remember
that when lasers were invented,

no-one imagined
how many uses we'd have for them.

It's unfortunate but true
that war is when we make
some of our greatest advances.

And my next owes much to conflict.

I was in southern Afghanistan
on patrol at night
and stepped on an IED.

I remember seeing the flash,
the feeling of going
through the air, landing,

and I got blown about
15 feet away from the lads.

I knew what happened straightaway
cos I checked myself

to see if I had
all my fingers, my hands.

I got to my leg, and I thought,
"That ain't there. Fair enough."

I checked the other leg
and that was bleeding badly.

All shattered bones and everything
else, so I knew that probably
wouldn't be there when I woke up.

There you go.

Until recently,
Sam would have never walked again,

but now the science of biomechanics
is getting closer than ever before

to mimicking the complexity and
sophistication of our own bodies.

At Headley Court Military
Rehabilitation Centre,

doctors are helping hundreds
of injured soldiers like Sam.

Sam, when were you injured?

Beginning of August.

So you're already walking.

So that's what? Five months?

About that, yeah.
Which is rather impressive. Yeah.

Has that been a massive effort for
you? Presumably, it must have been.

More of a challenge, really.
Been trying to beat
some Para friends of mine.

Do you compete amongst yourselves?

There's a lot of competition between
us to see who can be out quickest.

Being soldiers, you tend to
be competitive. Definitely.

The amazing thing about Sam's
artificial legs is that
they're controlled by a computer.

Where is the computer in this?

It's just behind the knee joint.

In the shin
we've got some strain gauges

and they give 50 readings per
second back to the computer, which
then regulates the hydraulics.

That's really what makes this
knee so stable in normal walking.

In the early days, an injury
would have resulted in what for Sam?

He'd have probably been sat in a
wheelchair for most of his life.

Now he spends pretty much all his
time on his legs, walking about.

So it's life-changing?
Absolutely. Yeah.

There isn't anything
that you can't do now that you
used to be able to do.

Skiing, swimming, running,
going on the bike.

You'd expect to get back
on the ski slopes? Absolutely.

If you've got the right stuff,
the right attitude, you can pretty
much carry on with everything

as good as before.
Nothing stopping you.

And it is isn't only
wounded soldiers that are benefiting
from this new technology.

From head to toe, biomechanics
is finding ways to repair and
replace
nature's finely-tuned machine.

The ambition for biomechanics is for
prosthetics to be truly integrated.

And for that, they would need to
be controlled by the user's mind.

But until recently,
interfering with the workings of
the brain just wasn't an option.

But today,
that's all starting to change.

The ability to delve into
and manipulate the brain has

many potential benefits, not only
for the control of prosthetic limbs.

Diane Hire suffered from depression
for more than 20 years.

Her illness was so crippling
that it even drove her to
attempt suicide three times.

So tell me what it's like
to be depressed.

It's awful,
it's like being in a dark cave.

Nobody around, cold, lonely.

If you have depression,
you have absolutely no desire to
live

and it just is like that
day after day after day.

Actually,
I guess I felt dead inside,

I was like a living, talking
dead person.

I tried several medications
and I also tried ECT,
electroconvulsive therapy.

That was pretty awful too!

In a last-ditch attempt to control
her depression, Diane underwent

groundbreaking surgery
in the hope of controlling
her devastating depression.

In a five-hour operation,
electrodes were directly inserted
eight centimetres into her brain.

To check the electrodes were in the
correct position, Diane was woken up

during the procedure, so that
the impulses could be adjusted.

You know, when I woke up, they said,

"We're going to turn this on now
and you let us know
how things are feeling."

And at first I felt pretty warm,
and then they turned it to another
setting, and my heart was galloping.

How you feeling? Starting to smile.

I feel happy. Then all of a sudden,
I got this great big grin
on my face.

And after that,
they put me back to sleep

to finish up the surgery.

So you immediately
felt happy suddenly?

Oh yes, for me it was instantaneous.
What was that like?

Amazing.

It was almost like my brain
was doing gymnastics.

You know it's how I used to
feel when I would go to work

and...and...

you know, have good weekends
and do things.

Three years later and Diane lives
with the system wired into
her own body, much like a pacemaker.

And where do the wires run?

The control box is in your chest,
isn't it?

Right. They start here, and then
they go down the back of my skull,

down the back of my neck
and around and plug into

a battery pack on my chest.

Does it worry you that you have
a totally experimental thing
inside your brain?

No. No, because it's been worth it.

From the very moment the electrodes
were switched on,
Diane's depression disappeared.

And of course your life
has changed totally.

180 degrees.

I wake up every day, and I think,
"What's today going to bring?"

I have an excitement about living
that I didn't ever have.

So you're the perfect bionic woman?

Yeah. Yes.

Even as a last resort, it seems
utterly terrifying to think of

thrusting an electronic device deep
into the centre of the brain in the
way that has happened with Diane.

But you can't knock it, because
it's completely changed her life.

Because of its power
to transform lives and potential
to touch many others,

bionics definitely
has a place in my top ten.

Is it the most significant
advance of the last 50 years?

That's up to you to decide
at the end of the programme.

Or maybe you'll go for my next
choice - a remarkable invention

that more than any other, perhaps,
has caused change.

It's changed the way I work.

It's changed the way
I find out about new art.

Keep track of what my kids are doing.

Compare prices.
Look up football scores.

Talk to friends. Chat up girls!

Raise money for charity.
Watch the news.

It's changed the way
I do my research.

In fact, it's changed our lives
in a thousand ways.

I, for one, couldn't do without it.

It is, of course,
the World Wide Web!

It's astonishing to think that the
majority of us went on-line for the
very first time just ten years ago.

My first contact with the Internet
was one day when I went into the lab

and saw my Chinese PhD student
typing on her screen.

And there she was, typing,

and then suddenly she took her hands
off the keyboard

and some other letters
appeared just underneath.

She was communicating
with somebody in Hong Kong.

I thought,
"This will never take off!"

The World Wide Web required all
the computers in the world

to be able to talk to each other
using one common language.

But that was impossible until 1990,
when a British scientist
called Tim Berners-Lee

figured out a way
to link everybody up.

# Welcome to my world... #

He created a code allowing
computers to share information.

And suddenly,
we could speak to each other.

# Welcome to my world... #

And a new age
of communications began.

# Built with you in mind... #

Because the Web was never patented,
it is free and open
to anyone to use.

Today, 1.7 billion people
use the web globally.

Hi, everyone, today we're going
to be doing a Hollywood lip look.

When you're poaching eggs without an
egg poacher, it can get messy.

So if you can dance like this...

Not since the invention
of the printing press

have we seen such a leap forward
in the amount of information
freely available to everyone.

And never before has there been
such a platform for ordinary people
to make their voices heard.

This is just my opinion,
you disagree, feel free!

It's how we communicate
with friends.

One billion of us
using social networking sites

and 300 million meet people
in a virtual world.

Our children use it to interact,
to learn and play.

It's transformed news
and information.

In business, we've all become
traders, buying and selling
at the click of a button.

For all the risk of exposure to
violence and pornography,
worrying issues we have to face,

the Internet is one of
the most significant advances
of the past 50 years.

And for me, the Web is exciting,

because it allows all of us
to participate in science
like never before.

Dr Chris Lintott
has the task of classifying

over a million galaxies from photos
taken by robotic telescopes.

He was so overwhelmed by the amount
of data that he enlisted thousands
of on-line volunteers to help him.

But the really exciting thing
is that these armchair scientists
made a new discovery.

A couple of years ago, a group of
our volunteers noticed that

in the background of
some of the images, there were
these small, round, green objects.

They called them peas. They found
a couple of hundred of them and said,
"What are these?"

We've looked at these with some
of the world's largest telescopes.

They are galaxies undergoing
a dramatic burst of star formation.

These are the most efficient
makers of stars
anywhere in the local universe.

They'd been missed
by professional astronomers.

It was only thanks to a quarter of
a million people, their armchairs

and their Internet connections
that they came to our attention.

Galaxy Zoo is just one of a host
of projects inviting the public
to get involved in science.

Who knows what progress
we could make through

collaborations like these,
made possible by the Internet?

This massive progress

in how humans exchange information

undoubtedly makes it
one of the defining advances
in the last 50 years.

Does the far-reaching impact of the
World Wide Web on all our lives

make it
the most significant advance?

Or does the revolutionary joining
of man with machine mean that
biomechanics gets your vote?

Could it be the promise of
clean energy for us all that
makes the laser your number one?

Before you decide, there are
four more advances to consider.

The next one has the potential
to change everything
we've ever believed in.

What distinguishes us
from all other creatures?

It's human inquisitiveness.

Why are we here? Where are we going?

What's our place in the universe?

Looking down on the world
from above, you realise
just how insignificant we are.

Since the dawn of time,
people have marvelled

at the vastness around us and
wondered, "How did it all begin?"

In the 1920s,
American astronomer Edwin Hubble

showed that the universe
was expanding,

and from this simple observation,

it was calculated
that if you run the clock back...

..everything must have exploded into
existence nearly 14 billion years
ago
in a big bang.

For me, I suppose what I find
so exciting about big bang
is the ambition of the idea.

Here is an idea that is not just
about our planet or our solar system

but unifies our whole notion
of the universe.

And it tells us about our
beginnings, about where we came from
and possibly to where we are going.

But the big-bang theory also
predicted that the entire universe,

all the planets and galaxies we see
around us, exploded from nothing.

Which sounds crazy.

When it was first proposed
almost 100 years ago,
the idea was controversial,

but in the last 50 years, science
has started to gather hard evidence

that the big bang might not
be such a crazy idea after all.

In 1965, two radio astronomers
working on this satellite antenna

in New Jersey
started to pick up a strange signal.

This radiation was coming
from somewhere

in really deep cosmic space,

beyond any radio sources
that any of us

knew about or even dreamed existed.

The daring explanation for the
radiation was that it might be

the last remnant of the big bang
echoing through space and time.

Perhaps.

In 2001, the WMAP spacecraft
analysed this radiation

and even produced a map
of the early universe

that seemed to more or less
prove the big-bang theory.

But unfortunately, as yet,
it doesn't explain why the big bang
banged in the first place.

High in the Californian hills
at Lick Observatory,
astronomers are trying to calculate

how fast the universe is expanding,
in the hope that they will be able
shed some light on the problem.

And in doing so,
they've made a surprising discovery.

Everyone anticipated that
gravity would slow down

the expansion of the universe.

So we were trying to measure how much
the universe has been slowing down

in order to predict whether it
will expand forever, though more
and more slowly or re-collapse.

Instead, we found that it's actually
speeding up. Not slowing down at all.

An accelerating universe.

How does that work?
Why should it do that?

Well, we think the universe
is filled with some weird substance,
we call it dark energy,

but we know essentially nothing
about it.

So it's there and in a sense,
it's gravitationally repulsive,

causing space to expand
faster and faster with time.

It's all very well to say
the universe is expanding,

but one of the questions
that will puzzle a lot of people is,
what are we expanding into?

That actually puzzles all of us.

We may be expanding into a bigger
hyperspace, one with more dimensions.

And there could be all sorts
of universes expanding
within this bigger space.

And ours is just one of these
universes in the multiverse.

I accept that you're doing is
incredibly interesting,
but it's useless, isn't it?

In a sense, it's useless, but the
accelerating nature of the universe

is important in part because it
may help us understand the big bang.

So it's the birth of the universe
and so we should try to understand

how it is that it happened and how
the universe has evolved since then.

But that the data are indicating
something weird is, I believe,
not controversial at this stage.

Why is big bang
in my ten great ideas?

Well, it's symbolic.

It's symbolic of something
that makes us uniquely human -

our inquisitiveness.

And it's that which drives us,
through science, forward.

We've had the audacity
to tackle outer space,

but we've had the nerve
to take on inner space too.

My final three advances
are all about understanding us...

..starting with a remarkable book
published in the year 2000.

115 volumes like this

contain the print-out of the human
genome, from just one individual.

Three billion letters.

It's the recipe
for what makes you who you are.

It will revolutionise the diagnosis,
prevention and treatment of most,
if not all, human diseases.

Ten years ago,
decoding the human genome

was hailed by many as as significant
as putting a man on the moon,

a symbol of the hope
for the new millennium.

The reason for all the hope -
and some would even say "hype" -

was because of the
enormous potential of gene therapy.

Until recently,
medicine could do nothing to restore

broken or malfunctioning genes,
but today, there are some procedures
which can offer hope.

Ten-year-old Abdullahi is
about to undergo an operation which
might change his genetic destiny.

Abdullahi has poor vision,
particularly poor night vision,

because he lacks one of the genes

essential for converting
light energy into a nerve impulse,

so the idea of this operation

is to provide his retina
with the correct, functioning copy
of that gene.

In order to do that,
we package the genes themselves
into a harmless virus.

But to get the virus
to the right place,

we need to inject the virus
underneath the retina.

Though his surgeon isn't certain
how effective this
cutting-edge treatment will be,

without intervention,
Abdullahi could eventually become
totally blind.

But what this remarkable procedure
hopes to achieve

is nothing less than delivering
a new, undamaged section of DNA
to do the work

of Abdullahi's faulty gene.

The good news is that,
since the operation,
Abdullahi's vision has improved.

It's a small step
on the gene therapy journey,
but its champions believe

it could eventually have
benefits for a great number of us.

It's got hundreds and thousands
on it, hasn't it?

Like about ten per cent
of children in the UK,
Millie and Ruby suffer from asthma.

But while both girls
have the condition,

Millie responds a lot better
to medication than her sister.

RUBY COUGHS

You've got a bit of a cough, haven't
you? Do you always have a cough?

'For Ruby,
attacks result in endless dashes
to hospital and could be fatal.'

RUBY COUGHS

There is nothing you can do
to help your child.

You think, "At some point,
is she going to stop breathing?"

They are coughing so much
that they are being sick,

their breathing becomes worse
and then you are going to hospital,

it is the worst feeling
you can imagine.

But Ruby's quite
a resilient character, isn't she?

Absolutely.

She's amazing. Even when she's at
her worst, she'll give you a smile.

Millie and Ruby are taking part
in a research project

which is trying to discover
why some patients are easier
to treat than others.

Over 100,000 children

in the United Kingdom with asthma

carry a particular gene change

which seems to make them
much less responsive

towards the
commonest asthma-reliever inhaler,
the blue inhaler that we use.

Swabs are taken so
that the girls' DNA, their genes,
can be examined.

The hope is that medicines
can be matched to genes,

and that the current
trial-and-error approach

to treating people like Ruby
will be a thing of the past.

The dream is that, eventually,
we'll all be treated with medicines

that are a perfect match
for our own unique DNA.

The technology that's developed
since the human genome project means

that decoding an individual's genome
is becoming easier and affordable.

Genetic knowledge is a new frontier
and our understanding of
how genes work

is one of the most significant
medical advances
since the time of Ancient Greece.

The methods it employs have
applications that will revolutionise
the treatment of disease.

Scientists working in this lab
at Imperial College

are trying to find a cure
for a devastating human disease.

But they're not developing
medicines, they are trying to
understand how to grow new tissues.

My colleague Michael Schneider
is a world leader in this research,

and he and his team
have made a remarkable advance.

They've created
beating-heart cells from scratch.

When you first looked
down the microscope

and saw a heart cell beating,

what was your reaction?

When you see a cluster like this,

beating vigorously in the dish,
it obviously stimulates your thinking

about how to apply that information
to the complicated task of cardiac
muscle repair in a clinical setting.

Ten days ago, those kinds of cells

were undifferentiated
embryonic stem cells

that can become any cell
in the body without restriction.

Stem cells are among the first cells
produced when an egg is fertilised.

Though they start off
looking the same,

they soon turn into
very different things -

bone, muscle, hair, teeth, nerves,

all the different cell types
that make up a human being.

By understanding how
these transformations work,

scientists like Michael
are trying to find out how to repair
damaged or diseased organs.

So how important is this work
in the field of stem cell biology?

40% of the people
watching this programme will die
of cardiovascular disease.

Taking that together with the fact
that heart disease boils down to
cell death without cell replacement,

that makes cardiac repair
by stem cells

one of the most important
and promising areas

for stem cell research.

So far, there have been
few treatments developed

because of work on stem cells,
but some researchers even hope
that eventually they'll be able

to grow replacement organs, or at
least help the body repair itself.

A tiny minority
are opposed to human embryo research
because it damages human embryos.

They have a point, but to my mind
it's actually an ethical imperative

to try to save lives
and this is one way of doing it.

'My final scientific advance
is very close to my heart.

'It's something to which
I've devoted most of my career.

'Every single one
of these children's lives
began in a test tube

'or a dish. They are IVF children.
They come from eggs fertilised not
in the womb but in the laboratory.'

That was really frightening!

'None of them would be here if
it wasn't for scientific research
into the earliest stages of life.'

Well, it is sort of pink.
It's not really red.

Would you allow pink, then? No?
You're very particular!

'And although I was involved
in that research,

'I have to confess that,
at the time, I didn't appreciate
its significance.'

I didn't think it was really
going to be very important.

I didn't think
that IVF was a technology

that would really make any
difference to infertility treatment.

Look how wrong I was...

all these babies. There are about a
million IVF babies around the world.

In the 1980s,
my colleagues and I developed
an experimental IVF technique

to screen for genetic diseases
in the developing embryo.

Christine Munday's first son Justin
was severely handicapped,

and it was discovered that
she carries a genetic condition

which means it is very likely
that any of her male children

would inherit the same problems.

We've been trying for nine years

for this breakthrough to come so
that we could have another chance.

In 1990,
we screened her fertilised embryos
to ensure that she had a girl.

Rebecca is now 19.

Your mum was wonderfully brave.
I don't know if you realise that,

because what we were doing was

a very, very experimental procedure
and we had no idea
if it was going to

work or not. As you remember, we
couldn't guarantee that you wouldn't
have a child who wasn't affected.

No. To us, it wasn't brave, you know,
the baby could have been damaged

in some way but I never, ever
worried about that side of it at all.

I had my whole confidence
that you would actually get it right.

Yeah, funny, isn't it? I don't think
that I had that confidence.

Does having been born as a result of
in vitro fertilisation make you feel
any different?

I'm quite humbled.

For our family, it's been quite
crucial for this breakthrough.

You know? Of course, of course.

I wouldn't have Rebecca today
if it wasn't for that.
She doesn't always say that.

For me,
it's genuinely a very moving
occasion actually to meet you.

Very special for me.

'20 years ago, there was
considerable opposition from people
hoping to stop such work.'

What's that?

Was that you?

'But in the UK,
legislation was hugely positive.

'And it has enabled us give hope,
not just to people like Christine,
but also to hundreds of thousands

'of families who otherwise
couldn't have had children.'

ALL: Cheese!

Well, that concludes my list. Now
it's time for you to have your say.

Which of the ten scientific
advances we've looked at
do you think is the most important?

Is it the millions of lives
created by IVF, or the huge promise
of stem cell research?

Is your favourite
the life-saving MRI machine?

Or the mighty microchip?

Do you think the contraceptive
pill has done more for us
than the giant laser ever will?

Or is it our ability to
rebuild ourselves with bionics
that inspires you the most?

Can you say the global power of the
Internet beats the huge potential of
understanding more about our genes?

Or does the mind-boggling
big-bang theory trump them all?

Go to our website to vote
for the scientific advance

you think has been
the most significant. Visit...

There's a reminder of the top ten
advancements on the website.

Before you vote on-line, I feel
I should put my cards on the table.

I'm reluctant to say which of
these ten advances is my greatest,

but just possibly, I might plump
for the research on big bang.

It might seem useless,
yet the knowledge it brings

will almost certainly
have unforeseen consequences
for humanity.

Just possibly, understanding
the universe a little better

will help our species
to continue to flourish.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk