in our busy cities animals have to adapt their behavior which even changes their d.n.a. since time immemorial this process has continued to date we've looked at the evolution of our universe. and just what ongoing evolution holds in store for life on earth. welcome to tomorrow today the science show on d.w. . the universe is around 13700000000 years old and is continuing to expand and we know this from the hubble space telescope its namesake edwin hubble calculated back in the 1920 s. that the cosmos was expanding but his calculations were very inexact the hubble space telescope was to change that nearly 50 years after the astronomers initial discovery work on the telescope began and in 1990 it was launched the hubble space telescope has since revolutionized our understanding of the universe this year it's

celebrated 30 years in space and it's still one of the most important instruments in astronomy. the tarantella nebula in the large magellanic cloud it's a vast region of gas a stellar nursery giving birth to new stars. and this is the corrina nebula ever 6 and a half 1000 light years from earth the hubble space telescope captured these beautiful images of far reaches of the universe. astrophysicist ralph yogen detmar has used hubble since it went into service he says it revolutionized astronomy. rips their lives and i resolutely move him able to us to prove off that our universe is expanding admixture the reading page original theory that had been gathering dust for 50 years. but once confirmed it completely up ended our entire. i mean your

cosmology of the creation and development of the universe thousands of often are. both all discovered. on the 24th of april 1990 a space shuttle discovery delivered hubble into orbit after decades of planning and construction the size of a tour bus hubble orbits the earth an altitude of 550 kilometers way above the atmosphere and free of the distortions it causes. that 1st the one and a half $1000000000.00 telescope center only blurred snapshots back to base its primary mirror was 2007 millimeter out of shape and no one had noticed before the launch. so in 1993 another space shuttle set off the hubble crew took along a lens attachment to correct the floor much like spectacles that correct our eyesight. over 3 years after its launch hubble could finally

see clearly. after also those all the great breakthroughs only became possible with that newly adjusted instruments it was a huge advantage of that hubble was designed with maintenance in mind. that we would keep updating it to the latest standards it meant we could keep adding new instruments and that's why we're still using it 30 years on after going dark for a heart of prizes are spread out on. in all 5 missions were sent to hubble the last one in 2009 sensors were replaced cameras retrofitted and new solar panels installed. those efforts have kept tumble operational to this day constantly peering into the distance. has measured the movement of gas clouds and stars in other galaxies and discovered planets. distant stars and thanks to its help in

determining that the universe is expanding at an ever faster rate we now know that it is 13700000000 years old. couple success there is the james webb space telescope one of the most complex scientific instruments ever made and costing about $10000000000.00 so far it's also one of the most expensive well hubble mostly operates in the visible light spectrum the james webb telescope will work almost entirely with infrared light. the max planck institute for astronomy and heidelberg is involved in developing the new telescope astrophysicist klaus yeager says there are good reasons for working in the infrared range. i ma in stellar nurseries dust absorbs visible light with infrared you can stare right into the system with its longer wavelengths it passes through the clouds the other

reason is that the universe is expanding so the light from distant galaxies undergoes a redshift with an infrared telescope you can observe these objects much more clearly. the telescope is cameras and instruments have to be kept very cold if faint heat signals are to be detected. and that requires a lot of extra equipment including a sun shield the size of a tennis court of course that won't fit into any spacecraft so engineer's have come up with a complicated structure which will only unfold once it's up in space. the entire program represents and a ray of huge challenges. is a complex is complex equipment all has to function in space i think that's why everyone is being much more careful we're hoping we'll be able to launch in 2021 months on sponsors were placed on and stopped. for example while hubble has

a one piece primary mera the one on james webb space telescope is made up of 18 parts which will only be put together once in orbit together they'll form a single reflector 3 times the size of hubble's every part has to sit perfectly they'll be no 2nd chance like with hubble and it's corrected vision. it's going to monitor the song and some might retort that we managed to repair hubble after its initial problems with james webb we have to avoid anything like that from the very outset because it will be stationed very far away and we won't be able to do any repairs out there. the james webb telescope will be positioned one and a half 1000000 kilometers from us it's easier to protect it there from the sun's radiation than in the earth's orbit. and that will be a great spot to do infra red astronomy. better than our hubble remains what is probably the most important instrument in astronomy as long as it's still in orbit

. obvious 30 years is really a record time and it's not what we expected at the beginning it's been a great time but it was also was that was sad to see a drawing to a close. on the other hand hubble successor is the future we needed to do more science the public has observed just about everything we could think of asking you to do for the record. on the other hand hubble may yet have a few surprises in store for us over the past 3 decades it has revealed distant realms never before seen. if all goes well it can keep going for several more years and who knows what it might come up with. and here's a few more images sent back by hubble this is the ways to learn to star cluster it

contains some of the hottest and brightest stars in our galaxy. and here we dive into the large metal and cloud incidentally couple doesn't produce color images the colors have to be reconstructed on a computer afterwards. hubble can look at the universe almost as far back as the big bang earth came into existence about 10000000000 years later water gathered on the earth the 1st single celled organisms appeared in the water in another 1000000000 years after that some of them eventually began photosynthesizing filling the atmosphere with oxygen around 2000000000 years ago the 1st multicellular organisms developed 400000000 years ago vertebrates then began was. the earth and 300000 years ago modern humans appeared so more complex life forms have any existed for a tiny fraction of its history but they've said

a few records in that time uphill from gun a scientific question about that. what's the biggest animal ever to have existed. that's easy the blue whale. blue whales can grow to more than 30 meters in length that's almost as long as an airbus a 320. the biggest blue whales can weigh up to around $190.00 metric tons the weight of about 30 elephants. a blue whales heart is the size of a small car. even as babies blue whales are huge a calf can weigh in at 2 tons when born. and the milk from its mother is so rich in fact it gains another 90 kilos a day. the adults primarily eat krill tiny shrimp like creatures. they live in swarms and the whales filter them out of the water with their bristle like

believe. an adult blue whale can tuck away over 4 tons of krill a day. blue whales are not only big but also loud. their calls can reach a volume of $188.00 decibels that's louder than thunder. sound carries much farther through water than air. that allows these whales to communicate with each other across distances of up to one and a half 1000 kilometers. deep. only known natural threat to blue whales comes from killer whales. humans are the greatest source of danger. the giant mammals were hunted for centuries almost to

extinction their billing was used to make whale bone corsets and umbrella frames. their fat was boiled down to obtain oil from lance. it's thought that by 960 only 3000 blue whales were left. most countries have banned whaling and populations of blue whales have recovered slightly. however the noise from ships engines climate change and ocean pollution still pose serious hardships and the blue whale is still classified as an endangered species. of whales most probably developed from hooved animals that lived on land that's why they closest relatives today still hippos and cows. but if aleutian hasn't stopped not even in the case of us humans our jaws have become more narrow

over the course of time as we no longer use our teeth to crack open nuts bonus all shelves. we eat more soft cooked food instead but we're also populating more and more land thereby affecting the development of other animals in our environment. biologist frederik sun tool is studying catfish in the river town in the a town southern french. the catfish are from eastern europe and shouldn't really be here. but in 1903 anglers released some specimens into the town they had offspring and their descent. continue to procreate a few years ago these catfish found a new source of food.

living in town brought the catfish into contact with pigeons. visual. pigeons never had aquatic predators and they were always scanning the skies for birds of prey coming from above. pigeons come down to the river to bathe and drink . if you're a catfish only notices the presence of a pigeon when it's barbells those whisker like things register its movement then his attacks because the author. peach and sleep dangerously here. the killer fish have developed a taste for an entirely new kind of prairie and have learned how and where to catch them. the diet of some catfish here includes 40 percent of pigeon. the scene is now set for a spot of high speed evolution only those pigeons will survive that learn to deal

with this relatively new source of danger. another example of how urban living influences evolution. new york city is home to advance of people and lots of other animals. jason munchie self is an evolutionary biologist he's off to find some specimens in central park. the park opened in 1873 and house a species that were already there at that time. it's no surrounded on all sides by streets and buildings right now we're in the middle of central park we're going to be traveling to the north end of the park where there's a very nice forest called the north woods and there will be setting out traps hopefully to capture whitefoot of mice. you also see that they are almost like a chain of islands that are scattered in this sea of concrete and roads and buildings and you know 8 and a half 1000000 people so in a sense if it's

a species like a mouse that can't leave the forest across you know neighborhoods and buildings and roads and make it to the other patch it is essentially the same biologically as if they were on an island in terms of them not being able to move and spread their genes with the other patches and these urban patches once they become sufficiently isolated operate like a mini galapagos. and may be driving the evolution of many species that are you know stuck there now. munchie south is studying the white footed mouse you. investigating whether different populations have developed different ways of life and genetic footprints for the mice of central park there is no escape. are these strange from their rule kin. one of the other populations under study lives 40 kilometers north of the city on the grounds of the calder center fordham university field research station.

there's one. first right foot in mouth of the day. what they are after is the mouse's d.n.a. . we take a jack sample in this case we will be using this small tool like a paper punch for tissue and we store that for genetic analysis and we want to be able to tie that tissue sample to a location because that's important for understanding how they vary when they're in a more urban or less urban population. the trapped miners are relieved of a small tissue sample and then set free. there we go it turns out that the genetic makeup of big city mice really does differ from their wild cousins so. we're starting to fill in our gradient really nicely.

so here the mice we have today from the color center and you can see it's right in between highly urbanised new york city and then all these sites we have a here and one out here so central park seems to be our most distinct population today so if you take a mouse from central park some of its genes will be different from miles outside in the countryside in a big part those genes are associated with digestion and metabolism would seem central park my suggested to a new urban diet but couldn't pass their genes to their real relatives once you get so what we've learned so far is that one set of genes that are changing. i have to do with what i was on so these white sort of mice are eating things and they have to digest them in a some way the nutrients and we know it's evolution because a heritable change and d.n.a. sequences are delusional. central park mice even a lot of junk food and that's changing their d.n.a. it raises several like broader questions about what we are doing as a species as we modify the earth's habitat for our needs how are we changing the

future of other species not only are affecting them but we're changing what they will become in the future. as the global population grows it also makes it easier for pathogens and disease to spread like the novel coronavirus sassed c.o.v. 2. and as the areas that we inhabit expand the natural habitat of many plants and animals this reduced forcing them to adapt. in addition large scale factory farming makes it easier for pathogens including viruses to develop and spread an evolutionary trend that could pose a threat to our lives. in the earth's evolutionary development plants appeared on the land before animals one important step in that process was

that they enrich the atmosphere with oxygen new niece has developed in the ecosystem the 1st land based plants appear to have been masses. ferns and horse tails followed around 100000000 years later seed bearing and flowering plants followed after that and they began using animals and insects to pollinate their flowers and spread their seeds even today insects still fall for the clever tricks adopted by flowers. what a charming scene of peace and harmony. except it isn't flowers are forever competing for attention. they each want the right pollinators to come visit and entice them with sweet nectar. flowering plants of a whole set of tricks up their sleeve to. take common sage salvia.

it's developed a clever pollination mechanism. underlip. the sage petals are fused into upper and lower the ups the big lower one is where pollinators can land a gland continue the nectar is deep inside and that's what the pollinators are after they don't actually care about pollen and they just want nectar the fun the plant oh ever has modified its daemons so they function like a lever and block access to the nectar. getting through gunk so next. only bumble bees and honey bees are strong enough to operate the lever. as a bee depresses it and the male stage flower the stamen is lowered and deposits pollen on its back. when it then visits a female stage flower a similar mechanism lowers the stigma which scoops up the pollen. and there are

plenty of other smart plants at the botanical garden of hamburg university botanists are also studying some tropical plants with even wilder strategies to get what they want. is also known as the fly catcher bush. did sticky hairs it traps insects it can't however digest them and depends on the help of others. these are funston leaving one sometimes he. gets an easier tom dees a funny little bugs reveal the specialists who live on the plant. and the insects trapped by the host or the ridge of the live of the bugs excrement it's full of nitrogen and that's the substance the plant craves the most funding dashed off to the flanks on mice and. here's another amazing plant it too has a staff of little helpers. members of the genus mema code you have large birds. and inside them is

a maze of chambers and passages. a delightful home for a colony of ants. are epiphytes that means they grow on other plants usually trees they have no contact with the ground and can't directly access nutrients in the soil so they're always at risk of malnutrition which they offset with the help of als some of the chambers have rough walls and in those chambers all kinds of waste are deposited and excrement the remains of prey and dead ends come on under tropical conditions that all breaks down quickly and is then evidently absorbed by the little protrusions that make the walls rough and deal with all funding income on the stuff it on off today i'm. moving right along to another green house we need another crafty plant in. the our own is a family of flowering plant that pretends to be

a tree. this is not a tree trunk but a huge long stem. european members of the family are modestly sized about 40 centimeters tall but their tropical cousins belonging to the genus amorphophallus are huge. the more follows good gas known to its friends as giant food really can grow to 6 metres in height. it only flowers one day a year. so beetles and carrion flies have to get their timing just right. they enter. or a narrow gap to get close to the reproductive organs. isn't often u.v.'s in the skin no one the plant has to rely on a beatles arriving with a load of pollen on just the right day and setting off the following day with a fresh load to visit the next plant which is also ready to be pollinated it's a very tricky strategy this is one of the english 21st century as it evidently

works are on the tracks insects would walk to us is an overwhelmingly files smell than traps them for 24 hours beneath a ring of hair as. your side for the insects is nectar and warmth. while they're chilling in their insect hotel they get peppered with pollen. the next morning off they go it's a win win situation. and then ensues even v.z. takes on toys plants play tricks used deception dressed up as trees and pretend to be carrying lies they have evidently been misleading insects for millions of years the more one studies these phenomena the more impressive their achievements but i'm talking about us live. competition is said to spar inventiveness in business as in nature is considered a driver of evolution does not apply to baldness as well what more amazing things

about a set to discover. if outlet is right why i needed it. to do you have a science question that you've always wanted on it when happy to help out send it to us as a video text or force mail if we answer it on the show we'll send you a little surprise as a thank you come on just us. and full moon stories about the world of science visit us on our website on twitter and facebook. that's all for this week next time on tomorrow today we'll look at the miniscule world of men and technology scientists have developed nano robots designed to deliver drugs to specific parts of the human body world that next time by finance.

law of the nation's. founders sally bianco controls its model just as in. the price of cotton in a halt social entrepreneurs are changing the lives of the for providing schooling and home. use cvs goes into the movie losing it seems the duties of $100.00 more from the parents. next on d. w. . gore made dining in

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