then we work to increase the volume of algae until we reach the point where we're ready to go into the greenhouse and start production for people. but not all algae grow fast enough to be used for industrial purposes that's something alexander matis is aiming to change he works at the swiss federal institute of technology in zurich. at the moment the algae are growing too slowly to concentration once we finish cultivating is still too low that means producing and processing the micro algae is too costly for me quite. the scientists are working to accelerate the growth of the algae using short high voltage pulses the single celled organisms have huge potential. because we could use micro algae to produce very interesting new substitutes we are able to convert the algae proteins into a meat like substance that would facilitate a protein rich vegetable based diet and reduce meat consumption at the same time.

that many types of algae can be eaten directly without any processing at all french chef perry cleary regularly harvests the wheat in the city of brest west sea wheat has been a source of food for centuries europe's coastlines alone no home to some 500 different types of sea wheat and algae 13 have been approved for human consumption and laree uses 7 or 8 of them in his cooking. this one here is often referred to as meat inherited it's very fine and part of the sea lettuce family she let is a very interesting algae it's full of vitamin c. more than oranges it's also rich in calcium and minerals rather gives you the. algae can already be found in an estimated 70 percent of all processed fruits. 2 tickets saw additives eve 40407 are made of algae there are thickening agents

amongst the fires or junk agents they're not chemicals they're natural she recalls . the seaweed dishes rustled up by the chef may not appeal to the masses but algae in general clearly has a great future. in. the company recap clips or has already reached sales in the millions its products are selling so well that the company is now preparing to open a new production plant. it's already up and running. you're definitely one of the foods of the future there is still huge potential here which we're only just starting to understand and exploit a lot of research still needs to be done in order to benefit more from this. when you consider how successful this is after just 65 years of the development of algae

production it gives you an idea of just how much potential there really is. recipes that incorporate algae all seaweed growing in popularity and not just the dishes made in traditional japanese cuisine. they can be used to create fit. and even replace eggs in baked goods. food from the marine well that brings us to this week's question. why are whales so big. blue whales feed exclusively on tiny shrimp like creatures known as krill. sounds like they're

just snacking all day doesn't it. but still they grow to a monster size. the marine mammals can reach up to 33 meters in length and can weigh up to 200 tons. that makes them the biggest animals ever to have lived. larger even than the most gigantic dinosaurs. that's because in water gravity poses fewer constraints meaning fewer barriers to growth and more mobility another advantage of the large size is that whales lose less body heat than their smaller relatives. but they weren't always so colossal once upon a time the largest species measured only about 12 meters. it was only 2 or 3000000

years ago that they went through a growth spurt during the ice age oceanic temperatures dropped causing a disruption to establish currents. this led to an increased concentration of fish plantain and krill in some coastal regions. from an evolutionary perspective it was worth developing larger mounds and bodies to take advantage of the expanded menu. there are large size help whales cover great distances and hence get to food sources faster than competitors. so an abundance of food was the reason that whales eventually grew so big. crowd that is red white otter platen even a fish do you have a science question that you've always wanted alan said we're happy to help out send

it to us as a video text over smell if we all saw it on the show we'll send you a little surprise as a thank you can i just ask. if you can write to us on our website at t w dot com slash science or give us a shout out on twitter and facebook. although not quite as large as blue whales many dinosaurs greeted gigantic proportions the bigger and heavier something is the more energy you need to move this. next story is about to drive designers who founded. to make that process more efficient. to increase or decrease the speed of rotation. leonardo da vinci knew that to 500 years ago your systems haven't changed all that much since then. just take a few gear wheels and a few different sizes and you're sad. but perhaps there is

a way to improve traditional care boxes for hundreds of years engineers and builders of said no. but thomas and munfordville were undeterred. they thought it might be possible after all and went back to the drawing board. a good 3 years have been around for a very long time and have been tweaked and optimized over the years we wanted to do something revolutionary a leap forward. when it comes to gear boxes what would a revolution look like one basic form of care box is called an episodic like our planetary gear at the moment it's reminiscent of our solar system the sun here in the center rotates quickly setting the planet years in motion the planet hears rotate more slowly than the sun. but there's a problem along with changing the speed of rotation

a gearbox has another job to do it has to increase turning force or torque. these forces are transmitted by the teeth that touch one another like here here and here but when one tooth is doing the work all the other teeth are not under strain at all for hundreds of years that's just how it worked so why did a company from a small town in southwestern germany decide to try to change things. for 30 years my company has operated according to a basic principle we want to preserve the livelihood of future generations to. take into. it's logical conclusion that principle means that building a better product shouldn't entail making it bigger and heavier instead you strive to do more with less creating better products that consume fewer resources that takes creativity and precision but how might that apply to gear boxes. it's simple

to transmit more force than a gear box the teeth have to be larger that makes the gearbox bigger and heavier the opposite of what we're striving for. in another approach the force could instead be distributed across a larger number of teeth. realized we needed to get all the teeth working all the time even.