i'm usually banished. i'm still not a done deal. april and. you're watching tomorrow today the science show on d w coming up. a sensational find unlike constance archaeologists dive into the past. and mexico and inventor is building houses out of seaweed and find out how to turn carbon dioxide into plastic. 170 large piles of stuff. in

a line running along 10 kilometers of shoreline for millenia they went unnoticed submerged in the waters of lake constance in central europe they form a remarkable manmade monument. all told it consists of more than 120000 tons of stone about as much as went into building the cathedral in cologne. each stone weighs 2 kilograms on average and then the structure is out the leg consist of 60000000 stones. today it would take more than 8000 truckloads to move them but these were all transpose it by hand. the latest analysis shows that they must have been put there by human research teams have been trying to find out when the mysterious cans were built and why. someone 2019 a team of archaeologists and geologists sets up a tiny dry. unlike constance aim to find out when mysterious cans on the lakes

bed were built. from the university of and his team are experts at geological drilling they want to take samples from deep inside the lake bed to determine the age of the stone piles resting on. the rig has to be anchored and then maneuvered into a precise location using g.p.s. . and geologists combine an impressive wealth of knowledge. i hope with the drilling that we can determine the age of but more accurately is it really prehistoric. sturrock was a made during the bronze age or the olympic. team hopes the drilling samples will allow it to form a better picture of the sediment by the can. chose the drilling sites that allows

us to get down to the law which will show us how they developed over time. the scientists used ground penetrating radar measurements to select the site they highlighted all the sediments on which the cams lie if the research has succeeded determining the age of the sediments from a drilling sample they can deduce the minimum age of the cam. the main tool of the experiment has a plastic tube which will be driven down by the trail through the sediment layers. in. the drill casing with the plastic pipe inside just brought into position. time to start. using to how men drill they drive the device 6 meters deep into the bed if they like.

once they reach the desired depth the scientists hold the drill back up to the surface with the layers of earth trapped in its coal. it's all running according to plan the sediments packed solid inside the plastic sheeting. now we cut it into metre long sections then it goes off to the lab where we get to work on it. the sections contain thousands of years of lake constance history and maybe a hint about the age of the mysterious can. a few days later in the cool room that burn university's geological institute and so met he and his team take a closer look at the sediment inside the plastic tubes they've already determined the most promising layers. what we've laid out

comes from a 6 metre deep hole so here we have the lake bed now and in 6 metres depth is the former like the bottom maybe a few 1000 years ago cedars had started depth of about 3 metres according to the radar picture it has to be here somewhere we expect to find the form of lake bed on which they built the mounds. the ice cut through that and see if we can find any organic material we can date with the radio carbon method. in the love poetry the plastic sections cut open lengthwise. the sediment layers a cafe separated. put it down back ok. in front of

a little pressure. pull it back. here. perfect wonderful. the sun after advice and exact image of the cools interior hopefully it will show enough traces of organic fossils that can be used to gauge the lay is age. if you zoom right in you can see lots of black spots in the core samples we hope it's organic material plant remains in sufficient quantity to date yeah now in order to isolate the aerial we're taking individual samples from the core. because. if there's no organic material it won't be possible to carbon date the samples. fortunately the geologists managed to isolate a few minute would fragments and some plant remains.

as cool we found quite a bit not too much but with enough small bits and a large one for us to take them into the sea 14 lab and ask them to date it so you know all. the sophisticated procedure is needed to date the fragments and along with them the cans themselves because she doubted his team watching out for telltale traces of the carbon isotope called c. 14. to say 14 can be found wherever this carbon means in any living materials but also in part in carbonaceous minerals any way you find carbon you'll find sand 14 to fall. in a series of steps the samples i cleaned and prepared for measurement. if their carbon

14 contents can be determined then so can the age. of the age of a sample can be determined by tracing the decay of its c 14 component we know the unique specific carbon 14 content of a fresh sample we can compare that to the content of an old sample in which to see only a minute 400 micrograms that's not point 0004 grams left but that's more than. now for an accelerator mass spectrometer the machine breaks the sample down into its smallest individual components until finally only the c 14 atoms remain physical sheet at that's the key to the samples age. but we can observe that down here and we can see that this sample comes from a period between 3403650 years d c so roughly speaking the sample is some 5 and a half 1000 years old. 5500 years that means the cancer from the

neolithic age. there's no holding back the archaeologists now they take a dredge out onto the lake and bring part of one of the stone piles to the surface for investigation in part of the whole archaeologist was lloyd singer makes a promising find. in local though there was a stake in this block once and the really exciting thing is you can see the remains of the stake in the sediment that's been moved but it's still in proximity and that shows us someone drove a stake and down there and that is not just driftwood and because it's been shaped we can assume that it was driven into the ground at the same time as the karen here . you know. the excavations promised to reveal more secrets concealed in the camp. to meet the humans who most likely built the cairns in lake

constance we would have to journey back in time past the middle ages the roman empire before the celts before the bronze age back 5 and a half 1000 years to the neolithic. a time when europe was partially copulated. the lakes near the alps would have been lined with houses on low still. the population might have seemed very youthful by our standards few people live to old age. life was simple and hard. people farmed the land raised cattle and went hunting. they only survived by living in communities. behind mortality rate meant that women as give us of life had a special status as illustrated by these clay pots with moldings in the form of breasts or this wall sculpture one of the oldest and biggest in europe it 2

features clay breasts. their belief to depict the female ancestors of various lineages. the famous mural was also found by like constance. there is evidence suggesting that a european network already existed in the neolithic age goods and materials have been found in the region around lake constance that were imported from across the continent including copper ceramics and even jewelry. another thing that people from across europe appeared to have in common already was an appreciation of megaliths large stone manmade monuments such as stonehenge in england. and qana in brittany but now europe has another neolithic landmark in lake constance dubbed the swiss

stonehenge. the scientists want to know what purpose the stone pile cept maybe the people in the neolithic age built them to celebrate the summer and winter solstice the piles are lined along the sun's. bonfires on the piles as possible ritual. it's just one of the many riddles yet to be uncovered about the find in the lake. another remarkable find is this neanderthal skeleton that archaeologists recently excavated in the shanidar cave in northern iraq. it is around 70000 years old the position it was found in suggests that it was buried with care. the left hand bend towards the head the right arm lies at an angle on the chest the

head is bedded on a stone. it's the best preserved discovery of its kind in a quarter of a century the researchers hope it will tell them more about the burial rituals and the society of our neanderthal cousins. we'll see you on facebook what you think archaeologists might discover about 5000 years from now. when indonesia reckons they'll find devices they think are junk like mobile phones computers and. nicholas is pessimistic saying that they won't be any archeologists in 5000 years because they won't be any more people. alphonso from mexico jokes that the archaeologists in the future will find all those socks speck got lost in the washing machine. and sherry says that the main thing they'll find

from us is plastic lots and lots of plastic along with discarded phones and other devices. 'd and indeed all the plastic we produce today is likely to stick around for hundreds of years. each year around $8000000.00. and more tons of plastic end up in the sea and moved around the planets by wide ranging ocean currents currents that play a key role for life on our planet. but how do they rise if you were in el salvador sent in a question about that. what causes ocean currents bay flow like vast rivers with no water driven near the shore by the rise and fall of tides at high tide water flows towards the coast at low tide it flows away from its. surface currents in the ocean are propelled by strong persistent winds.

while further down variations in temperature and salinity drive deep ocean currents . cold salty water is denser than warmer water with a low salt content so it sinks towards the bottom of the ocean. the speed of the water flow depends on the topography of the seabed. the variations in temperature and salt content also cause a phenomenon known as the global conveyor belt it's a system of currents that transports water around the world. ocean currents crucially affect climate for example the humboldt current brings cold water teeming with nutrients from the antarctic to the galapagos islands for 6 months of the year . they feed the tiny plankton on and algae that form the base of the food chain providing sustenance for swarms of fish and also for the marine in quanah the only

lizard that lives and forage is in the sea. on land and meanwhile life in these months is hard there's hardly any rainfall wildlife including the galapagos giant tortoises have to embark on perilous journey is in search of food but in the other half of the year food is available in abundance that's when the wet season comes with the panama current bringing warmer waters. this current isn't nearly as rich in nutrients so much of the island's marine life heads off to colder climes aquatic animals that remain have to make do that finally climate change is taking a toll on ocean currents exactly how is the subject of intense research.

as we heard ocean currents are critically important former marine life cold oxygenated currents are a source of life under water. that sometimes. the local ecosystem tips out of balance when one species takes over. for example a kind of seaweed. that in mexico an inventor has found a way to use. ground seaweed on the mexican coastline a disaster for the environment and the tourist industry but former vasquez it's free building material. we extract all the water and remove the garbage we continue that process until the seaweed itself starts to produce a kind of organic clay and becomes a hard resistant mass. which. he could use is his own bricks that is 60 percent seaweed a 1000000 tons of the saga so much. can be washed up on the yucatan peninsula over

the course of one year the problem has exploded in the last decade. it comes from all the pollution caused by human activity all those chemicals washing and cleaning agents that end up in the sea. the algae feed on causing them to grow and multiply. in every day for a nickel rivera and her team. it's important to support initiatives like on mars where. we just collect the seaweed we're happy to then pass it on to others who can do something with it the main thing is for it to not be polluting the environment. that cares and his team make seaweed with mud and other organic materials and then stomp on it with their feet to press it together it takes around 20 tons of seaweed to produce one house it's actually

a gardener by trade and initially used the seaweed for calm past it took a while to get the consistency right for building blocks and to ensure the bricks would no longer release toxic. since i 1st came up with the idea we've been improving the formula every day and now we have a patent and we have the best organic product for building. codes donated this house to a family who lost their home in a fire one 3rd of the local population lives in poverty including monica gomez and her 6 children. that this house is cooler than are all gone when the sun is very hot many of my neighbors now want to. feel much better see. this august and brakes are said to be more robust the word and cheaper to produce than cement they've generated huge interest. i haven't really invented anything i'm just giving

back to the what belongs to it problem into an opportunity. experts see great potential in his idea hotel chain in mexico has now started a project with its aiming to build part of a resort with his son gus and brakes foreign companies are also showing interest and there's certainly no shortage of the seaweed on mexico's caribbean coastline. there's so many clever ideas around for turning it into something valuable like making elegant clothes out of plastic waste. collecting beverage bottles and using them to build boats. or even houses. and recycling plastic to lower c o 2 emissions. but now it team of researchers wants to make new plastic out of c o 2. plastic circuit make the class nerd

a multi-talented who no one really likes. there are some good reasons for that even though plastics. have the answer to all kinds of needs be it in the household as construction material in cars or aircraft. plastics are carbon based substances synthesized from hydrocarbons from crude oil so they're not sustainable that's exactly what these 3 chemists bear which i know christopher gertler and voltaire like not want to change is long. plastics has been based on fossil resources and the fossil resources are finite but there is one source which is infinite and that is carbon dioxide carbon dioxide the greenhouse gas imagine simply getting the carbon for our plastics out of the air thereby reducing oil consumption and mis ferric levels of c o 2 to problem solve that one fell swoop. but the researchers not only want to make

c o 2 based plastics they want it to be easily recyclable let's do what they did and go right back to square one. the typical plastic consists of long molecular chains of carbon atoms with lots of hydrogen atoms not much more but to actually make a plastic the constituent molecules have to be induced to bond properly. the hydrocarbons from oil are bursting with energy and looking for any excuse to react with something. the c o 2 molecule is in there it unreactive a regular couch potato of a molecule. sealed 5 c o 2 is a decidedly sluggish molecule it needs a partner it's just like in real life to a new job and get a lazy dog moving. in the reagan home and to believe that you need

a catalyst to bring the 2 together and get a bonding started to form the final compound. and just what is this catalyst well it's not a magic potion but it does lower in the visions enough to allow the 2 partners that have a certain affinity to hook up properly. it's like at a party the guys want to dance with the gals but are too shy to ask but when the d.j. puts on the right music then push everything comes together music is the catalyst. and this white powder is the catalyst for our reluctant c o 2 the result of hears of research it persuades carbon dioxide to react with other chemicals. the result is this viscous fluid a polio or a problem eric molecule incorporating numerous oxygen atoms for the polio is used

as the basis for a variety of plastics such as polyurethane foam for mattresses derived from c o 2 from the atmosphere. on set and our innovation was to be able to utilize it as a kind of technology planful that way we can easily broaden it spectrum of occupations bring us into areas like elastic find it such a fast on. that means clothes could also be made of c o 2 in future but clothing doesn't last forever what happens then here the new plastic has another advantage the c o 2 it contains x. is a built in breaking point and able in the polymer to be split out and then easily recycled that doesn't work with pure carbon chain plastics. our vision is to become more focused on circularity in 10 years time we'll be seeing many more chemically recycled products in the human like it's just a good way towards our vision of a circular economy. but. the goal is to

make our resource footprint smaller to move away from a linear economy which turns resources into waste. to a circular one based on recycling. old what is read why are. you. 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 or voicemail if we answer it on the show we'll send you a little surprise as a thank you card just ask. get in touch with us on our website g.w. dot com slash science or drop us a line on twitter and facebook. next week and the usual storage system for sustainable energy at gravity battery its inventor wants to build a tower of stacked cement blocks to store excess energy how does that work join us

next time to find out until then but i. the be. the big.

moment. that sounds so warm and protective a lifetime of love not every woman wants to be a mother would imagine if you've got being a mother and means losing my identity my mother by studying i mean i'm going to becoming a mother. now going to be selfish even though we're overpopulated. what women experience when they choose not to have children. on d w. is for me. is for you. as for help the best beethoven is for. the betov is for the. the

beethoven is for us the being told it is for the beethoven 2020 the 250th anniversary here on the oh ho. you. choose news from back. east gibson. t.v. series last week. followed . the space above. the believe.

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