ringback if you change it tomorrow today the science show on t.w. coming up. could this tower be a solution to the problem of renewable energy storage. we need a scientist who is searching for new antibiotics from microorganisms. and poor pluto our faraway solar system neighbor was a planet and then it wasn't what happened. but

1st let's take a look at our planet sun wind and water are almost inexhaustible sources of energy here on earth and we have the technology to tap into them we're moving away from fossil fuels to renewable energies that much is clear but what's unclear is how to reliably store all of that energy. it's a problem that urgently needs solving as more and more of our electricity in the future will come from renewable sources. this was engineer has come up with an interesting concept. andrea petrecki has a vision he wants to build a gravity assisted battery to compensate for the fluctuating nature of solar and wind energy if it works it'll be able to store millions of times more energy than a conventional household battery and is integral of the. vision is

a system for storing large amounts of energy so we can increase the sheriff energy is in the grid. or right now it's about 30 to 35 percent that's the limit because the sun doesn't shine constantly what we need is a more economical and efficient storage system that and this is what his batteries will look like towers 60 to 120 meters high made of hundreds of cement blocks built around the 6 armed crane when there's excess energy in the grid it will power electric motors which move the crane arms to lift and stack the 35 ton blocks. now the battery is charged. when electricity is needed the blocks are let down again generators in the crane arms turn the potential energy of the stat blocks into electrical energy which is returned to the grid this leaves the tower discharged.

petrecki cement blocks essentially function the way the water in a pumped storage hydroelectric plant but with the advantage according to the inventors that the towers can be built on any terrain and are cheaper. to store the energy very cheaply because we use existing technology like motors and generators mechanical systems that have been around for a 100 years. this seemingly simple idea has garnered quite a lot of attention after his team presented the concept at an energy storage developers conference in the us microsoft founder bill gates mentioned the company to his millions of followers he wrote wind and solar won't reach their potential until we vastly improve energy storage there are some exciting companies working in the space like bill gross and then threatens energy vault.

tweet from bill gates made is known around the world but that wasn't the only factor but after the official presentation there was a lot of interest on the part of many different investors. still gates tweet helped of course that investing is the boy that's what i mean. here in southern switzerland the vision is actually taking shape start up as well financed thanks to a generous investment from japan softbank and tata power india's biggest electricity provider has ordered a tower. the one here is a prototype andrea has yet to prove that the idea really works. because although the concept sounds simple it's quite complicated to put into practice. it is the intelligence software that controls the crane autonomously it has to grasp the concrete blocks around reposition them without vibrations and without any

human involvement. once completed this small scale prototype will have the chance to prove itself as a future technology for energy storage. making the switch to renewables is a project that will be with us for years to come. but at the moment most headlines are about the new coronavirus in late 2019 a hitherto unknown coronavirus strain appeared in the city of will happen in china it soon spread to other countries again and again virus outbreaks threaten the health of communities and pressure researchers to develop vaccines. that's the case with many pathogens. here's a little a.b.c. about viruses. some $3.00 to $5000.00 species of viruses have been classified worldwide scientists believe that millions more have yet to be identified. viruses

are transmitted by droplet infection they microscopic parasites that are neither really dead nor align. they are not made of cells don't carry out metabolic processes and can't replicate outside of the host when viruses enter the body meaning when we become infected they insert their genetic material into the host cells the virus hijacks the cells in order to reproduce. when the host cell dies thousands of new viruses are released and the process starts all over again. in contrast if viruses bacteria don't need a has to be a p.d.s. and they perform generally beneficial functions and now bodies when we are infected with pathogenic bacteria we can beat them with antibiotics. well not necessarily

the problem is that bacteria are increasingly developing resistance to antibiotics . bacteria reproduce by cell division every so often there's a replication error such random mutations can drive evolution via natural selection usually in there of little consequence the mutated bacterial form eventually dies out in some cases however a mutation can result in resistance to antibiotics and when antibiotics are used to bacteria with the meaty and proliferate. the antibiotic kills most of the bacteria but the mutated bacteria are unaffected. the resistant bacteria survive and multiply. the use of antibiotics leads to a population of resistant bacteria. in hospitals antibiotics are prescribed to many patients that increases the chances that

a resistant strain of bacteria with the merge and patients sometimes bring antibiotic resistant bacteria with them when they're hospitalized those super bugs are often washed into the waste water system and then into the environment they end up on crops in domesticated and wild animals and eventually in us it's a vicious cycle. antibiotics are also used in large quantities in livestock farming that also promotes the rise of resistant bacteria which end up in the environment. new bacterial strains can spread around the world quickly even within days to combat. the rise of superbugs we need to understand how they spread and we need to develop new drugs to combat them. anti-microbial substances. where every bacterial colonies are trying to survive and thrive. and ordinary clump

of soil is brimming with bacteria and. they compete with their neighbors for resources and space. microbes have a secret weapon in their arsenal they produce chemical substances that can sweep away the competition. microbial compounds or antibiotics are of great interest to researchers they isolate the microorganisms grow them in the lab and extract the antibiotics they produce. in a screening process. then samples of the soil and. are added to the culture. the bacteria grow on the plate except where they encounter an anti-microbial agent that they're vulnerable to known as a zone of inhibition. that's evidence that the substance is preventing bacterial growth in the zone one day it could be the basis for

a new drug. and drugs could come from a place like this and mangroves. mangroves considered to be one of the most productive habitats on the planet protecting coastal areas from erosion and providing. the diversity of microorganisms. 'd there the object of study by young scientists from indonesia. she's currently working at a research institute. new. antibiotics is a race against time most antibiotics were derived from substances produced by soil dwelling microorganisms at the helm of scent of infection research in germany sally octavian is studying sediment from mangrove swamps to isolate bacteria that produce antibiotic substances the samples come from

a nature conservation area in indonesia. the microorganisms in this house have adapted to their tidal environment to thrive in the sediment and brackish water they've evolved to produce a variety of novel and to microbial compounds could this be a new source for the drugs that are so urgently needed. all. we all know the world needs new antibiotics that. a growing number of pathogens are developing resistance to the antibiotics used in medicine today. well that's because so many antibiotics are being overused and misused. but. the biologists have been trying to find as many microorganisms as possible that produce antibiotic substances and no work is paid off she's already isolated 28

previously unknown species mostly mix of bacteria. and mix of bacteria produce a large variety of antibiotic substances. some of them can even produce compounds that are effective against malaria or viruses. and. the mixer bacteria found among grove ecosystems have also attracted the attention of biologist you watch him think. he believes that indonesia which is home to about one 5th of the world's mangrove ecosystems could be a rich source of useful microbes. the research is still in its infancy but sent me off to have you on this project is a promising start then he has done a very interesting work with this mix of materials that this is a special group of bacteria we are. working on and she has isolated

a number of novel specious and characterized them and is now on to states that she can look for bioactive compounds which are produced by unique or by crawling missiles indonesia is having a huge and wide biodiversity and especially in the field of my crawling isms this biodiversity is not investigated. 70 octavian as initial findings showed that the mix of bacteria among grove swamps include many read species. the bio octave compounds they produce will be screened to see if they have anti microbial properties which could. stem the rise of super books that have become a global health crisis. yes sir fred. were very surprised to find that nearly every species we identified was a rare one. had. we only read about them in books or online

but here we've been able to work with them directly but i'm very proud that indonesia has so much potential. 70 october yana will soon complete her project at the helm on center then she plans to return home to indonesia where she'll continue her work a mix of bacteria and a mission to find new antibiotics. the next report is about a far away planet or known planets. here's how it was discovered 90 years ago a sensational find the same year disney named a cartoon doug after the 9th planet in the solar system recently nasa sent a mission past puso which took some spectacular pictures but pewter is dubbed back in traverse city a view in tanzania sent in a question about that. why

is pluto no longer a planet. for 76 years pluto was known as the 9th planet in the solar system far out in space orbited our central star. pluto was the tiniest of the planets until 2006. then the international astronomical union the i you held is general assembly in prague and demoted pluto to dwarf planet it was a controversial decision which angered many astronomers the american astronomer clyde tombaugh discovered pluto in 930 and it was feigned as the 1st planetary discovery in the u.s. . in 2015 many space enthuses hope that nasa is new horizons programme might restore pluto status as a planet the spy.