distributed quite uniformly throughout space so we should see light shining at us from every direction right. just like we see trees in every direction we're standing in the midst of a huge forests but the night sky is mostly dark this apparent contradiction was first described by astronomer hines they should have been around two hundred years ago that's why it's called qualifies paradox. today we believe the universe formed fourteen billion years ago in what's called the big bang since then says the theory the universe has been expanding at an ever increasing rate. here on earth we can see just one small sliver of the universe many stars are so far away that their light hasn't arrived here yet after all it takes two and a half million years for light to make the journey from our nearest galactic neighbor andromeda to the earth.

and because the universe is expanding radiation from distant galaxies is also stretched into wavelengths that are no longer visible to the human eye but they are visible to the hubble telescope it can also observe radiation and those parts of the spectrum and even reveal stars hidden behind clouds of cosmic dust that block radiation in the visible spectrum the light. and that's why at least to our eyes the night sky is dark. if our love is red right up but only a few. do you have a science question that you've always wanted answered it we're happy to help out send it to us as a video text over a smell if we answer it on the show we'll send you a little surprise as a thank you can all just honest. you'll find us online

under d.w. dot com slash science and of course on twitter and facebook so get in touch. since the very first automobile hit the road in eight hundred eighty five cars have changed the laws. countless millions of them have rolled off the tree feel the most important things speed and looks environmental friendliness didn't play a big role until now e-cards could help us achieve the dream of a cleaner greener future but the batteries and then rely on lithium in germany plans to mine the metal are ramping up. the alps can pick up mountains are situated on the border between germany and the czech republic here near the town is in via lies a treasure worth an estimated one hundred fourteen billion euro europe's largest lithium deposit a group of researchers from the fightback university of mining are descending

eighty meters beneath the surface to examine the reserves the valuable natural resource is hidden in this glittering rock called lithium mica or is involved i. don't look right here this area is nearly one hundred percent so it's a very lithium rich zone. for nearly five hundred years this was an active mine that yielded mainly ten people knew there was let in here but they had no real use for it to fight back researchers have assessed the size of the deposit. in the. foreign positing a compass or some ninety thousand tons of lithium out of but that's just a third of the overall deposit there's twice that over on the check side so if we add it all up incorporating some of the older calculations we arrive at an estimate of at least two hundred fifty thousand tonnes of metallic lithium compared to other deposits around the world for example those in australia this is certainly an important deposit and of course

a lot of. for years the lithium in this mine remained virtually untouched there was no way to extract it on a commercial scale now that's changed the fried egg researchers have developed a new process to extract lithium carbonate friends involved. lithium it seems to make batteries for cell phone cameras and laptops. it's also a key material in the production of storage shelves for solar and wind energy. and as electro mentality takes up demand will continue to soar so this raw material that play such a critical role in the transition to cleaner energy. it's going. to be through the price of lithium has nearly doubled over the last year and a half and if the turn of lithium carbonate in the form in which i was traded now costs around thirteen thousand dollars. on the chinese market itself around twenty two or twenty three thousand dollars

a tonne along. the process used to extract the lithium from or it's relatively simple there or is first crushed and this involved is removed using magnets. it's then heated to one thousand degrees celsius which causes the chemical bonds in the material to break down making the various elements in his involved like easier to separate. the fluoride aluminum and iron which used to get in the way of lithium extraction can also be refined and used. if you can already say that the process is very environmentally friendly you could even call it a form of green mining because it doesn't produce any waste. crucial step is just carbon dioxide and water as a leeching medium. with the help of electro dialysis pressure and heat the carbon dioxide escapes leaving the lithium carbonate behind once that's filtered and dried

it can be sold commercially. this extreme i'm focused it's very simple that's important otherwise it might not be economically viable the amount of lithium in sin while diet isn't very high the extraction process has to be easy and inexpensive otherwise it wouldn't be worth it i talked to him on the brakes. what's more the same process can be used to extract lithium from old battery. until now became ion batteries collected for recycling have been fed into a high temperature furnace that yields an alley from which cobalt nickel and copper can be recovered. to recycle the lithium it would need to be extracted from the flat before it's melted. the lithium is contained in what's called the black mass the substance layered on the cathode by adding carbon dioxide and water and heating

the mass to at least fifty degrees celsius the other components of the black mass are melted out leaving behind a white deposit the m. carbonate. d. we are able to extract nearly all the lithium from first generation batteries. it's a bit more difficult with the more modern batteries but we've been able to extract seventy five or eighty percent of it already with no real problem song but it's a moment of life. in the future recycling all the valuable raw materials and lithium ion batteries will become ever more important the freiburg process that's very promising. the lithium to life slumbering in the alps kubica mountains has now become a valuable resource. and the old mine here they soon be cropped back to life. that wraps it up with this

week but join us again next time when we'll look at how researchers are trying to harness out official intelligence to decode hieroglyphs faster than ever before. graphics in the video game assassin's creed origins are based on ancient egyptian sources but machine learning played a key role during design. in the project experts from the field of egyptology worked closely with game developers the past meets the future next time on tomorrow today see that. you're all maxed out. your good dr ro i know her so long there's this really good neuroma everything's different is it in celebrities are calling the shots. today british photographer rankin this in charge must write

them please fiction see my upset if you're not sadistic one thousand of. your romance next off d w. fostering integration plans keeping residents safe how can cities make the case that. the belgian city is micheline and she took dance in germany have achieved the extraordinary here residents feel included in the local community and safe to make cultural and social integration work. in forty five. dollars. earth. home to millions of species

a home worth saving. here's what some of those are big changes and most start with small steps global ideas tell stories of creative people and innovative projects around the world like to use the term the climate boost to green energy solutions and reforestation. to create interactive content for teaching the next generation about environmental protection and words of terming to build something here for the next generation of global ideas the multimedia environment series on t.w. . where is home. when your family is scattered across the globe. with the kids if you don't listen to the book it's a journey back to the roots should get a minimum of the. bush on trial only from somalia live around the world to come up to urgent assistance. family starts generally twenty third on

w. . illiam. today meghan is posing for stuff the talk of her drunken he has invited if you join him in his studio in next month's kansas town district. however why welcome to the special edition of your own max i'm your host i'm a lady and co-hosting with me this is a is our very special guest world famous for hire for ranking. in that i thank you so much for having us in your studios here in line it. right well you name it from the rolling stones david boy madonna the queen even miss piggy you've pretty much

filmed and photographed them all so i guess it's fair to ask you for my first question what is a day in the life of rincon like oh it's quite long because i'll be very early probably wake up about five maybe five thirty i get i'll check my emails very quickly i then take my dogs for a walk for about an hour and a half i come by. six seven emails to about nine thirty and then i come and say generally no go shoot which is very rare i'll do the meetings and then i probably finish it was have a lunch at one and always have a meeting never have a lunch and then be finished by seven and then have me. ok so it sounds pretty ordinary even though you're surrounded by celebrities when you do actually do shoot yeah i'm pretty much a workaholic so so everybody thinks i'm

a photographer direct. i have a publishing company i have an advertising agency or rep direct. i have managed to know the studio which. yes some kind of place and it's really there's a rank in help us put the show today sic out there we're going to be talking a little bit more in-depth about your publishing company will come to that later ride but you know your subject very differently from superstar athletes like le bron james a basketball star to actresses to singers walk me through the creative process of how you start a shoot who is it was different you know sometimes it would be mean it's come up with the idea the idea sometimes an agency sometimes it's a client and sometimes it's a celebrity that comes out with a you. basin start with a brief which is like a treatment. of pre-production that gets all the stuff that you need to shoot

together. with celebrity all the model the subject going to her make up it's cool kind of concept behind it and make up will spend ages doing the concert i call it glam present which means i'm waiting for glam and then we go on set and we shoot digitally which means that everything is seen by everybody and it's a very open forum so everybody can comment on it and sometimes that doesn't work for you because maybe the steps he's not in a really good place that day so you have to persuade can be very difficult. because it's very collaborative ok we want to take a look at the work and life so far of frankie. rankin's portraits are world famous he manages to do what most photographers can only dream of capture unforgettable moments with stars like. david bowie and

politicians like mikhail gorbachev or. many of his works have become iconic. like this official portrait of the queen's marker golden jubilee. the british photographer is in the world why he shoots photos and creates our campaigns for international labels rankin has even made a name for himself as a film director. john rankin walkable in scotland did nine hundred sixty six he demonstrated a good sense of humor in his cell full traits when he was in his early twenty's rankin decided to make photography his career and moved to. this. is when he got his big break back in the early nine hundred ninety s. together with his college friend jefferson hack he founded youth culture magazine dazed and confused. stars like you do from. model kate moss.

actress kirsten dunst and pop star justin timberlake graced the covers of rankin now publishes for fashion and lifestyle magazines and has issued more than forty books of photographs he has his own studio publishing house and ad agency. his latest print project is hunger magazine which appears twice a year. and with his ambitious project rankin live the photographer shows that he can make anyone look like a cover model since two thousand and nine he shot pictures of fountains of ordinary people like here in berlin.