this. what connects people is stronger than what separates them. is so strong that it can't be true and. we celebrate the 30th anniversary of germany's for nothing. congress sir w. . maybe it sets go. to david take a glimpse into the world of insects. no other class of animal has so many species. but a german study has shown that they populations are plummeting. how do you actually count insects. the answer to that and other questions coming up.

well come to you tomorrow today the science show on t w. this does string the night sky is an ever rarest sight for most people on the planet the night looks small like this. we hear mince can shield us else from too much artificial light. that sounds and animals especially insects are defenseless against light pollution we need someone who's trying to help them the 1st night protection officer in a german city. on this autumn evening sabrina frank goes out looking for sources of light pollution in her home city of fulda in central germany she discovers a brightly illuminated plane tree. on the university campus. this gets me reading

annoyed people forget that trees have a biological rhythm to the one in the light still has all its leaves while the one next to it is bad some call that. too much artificial light has convinced the tree it's still summer frank is germany's 1st so-called night protection officer she goes around with a light meter measuring and recording the outdoor illumination 5 locks is the minimum intensity required here for squares and streets but there is no upper limit . little ones i think the light is supposed to be there to help us see powerful lights set in the ground have no meaningful function it's just night for nothing. when you walk over them they don't. they use up electricity light up the sky all for nothing it's next. she'll contact the university about this later it's her job to meet with officials property developers and businesses to raise

their awareness about light pollution and advise them on solutions nearly all life forms have a natural rhythm of day and night in the darkness the human body produces the hormone melatonin which encourages sleep but too much light during the night disrupts the process which can disturb metabolism and regenerative processes in the body animals are affected in the same way. still kind of unlike us animals can't just close the shutters they have to live with the light. studies show for example that black birds in cities start singing earlier in the year migratory birds lose their orientation over bright urban areas the strong like confuses them the possible consequences are still being studied. pontin bridger life is also affected by life as scientists in

britain have found normally water if we swim up to the surface that bite to feed on the algae there that keeps the ecosystem intact if it's too bright the water fleas don't come to feed that causes an imbalance. these 12 streetlights have been placed in the middle of a field by scientists from the lightness institute of freshwater ecology in berlin and they want to know how did lighting at night affects insects. we see that the lights draw insects away from what they're doing and stop them searching for a mate. the insects gather near the light so you think it would be easier for them to find a mate. but the scent that females put out to attract a male is reduced in quality and in amount. every month between march and october the scientists catch insects in special traps

. on the street lights drawn up to 70 percent more insects that's compared to the numbers measured in the dark control field. but. also wanted to know how different types of lighting affect the insects and usually they used sodium vapor lamps with a color temperature of 1800 kelvin then in 2015 they changed to a brighter and we deal with 3000 kelvin. all insects are very sensitive to ultraviolet light and so we assume that they will be more drawn to the cold white lights than the warm white ones such as the sodium vapor lamps. but if there's no other light around the sodium vapor light also shines out very brightly also is this a signal. and so at the moment we're not seeing much difference between the 2 types of lighting of course on. that would suggest that if there is only one

light source roughly the same number of insects will be drawn to it no matter what color it is so the scientists are now working to develop a lamp that the insects won't see gets involved that's the complete option aim now is to have the lamp completely shielded it said that the cover comes right down over the light source so that we're only lighting up the areas that we need down below the people the road and so on and off. that would not only attract fewer insects but also mean less light pollution for birds and humans back to full night protection officers up enough has an appointment with someone from the university she explains why the lighting set in the ground is not good. we're not so keen on these buses and such an angle meanwhile the university has got the message and the campus was planned in 2011

that opened in 2013 light pollution wasn't such a high profile issue was and so will the university take action. is usually good in the university we'll check the outdoor lighting on the entire campus next year and we'll look to see what's really necessary in terms of safety and what could perhaps be switched off those ground embedded lights are probably more for effect so i presume bell be switched off. and asked us up to the truth. that would be another success for the night protection officer she's already achieved a lot in full right cold winds have been replaced with dimmer orange light and the trees by the cathedral are no longer being alumina. did this thing hammer you so we now have these modules installed there flat and the light shines downwards to the right and left it's a nice warm color and the trees are no longer eliminated understood. the new models

developed by the light meter institute are also due to be tested in fulda but what would help even more is an upper limit for the illumination allowed on the roads and public spaces one more way of bringing back the night. how can we tell how a species is doing many conspicuous beautiful species like butterflies have been collected by researchers with centuries don't apply them and preserve them for they to generations for example collections from the vicinity of the german city of lincoln's book have been maintained since 1840. scientists recently reexamined them while in the 40s the area had 117 different butterflies species by 2030 mm they were only 70. 3 local species have done it all together.

the problem was. they all required certain plants and ecosystems for their survival . they were known as specialists now german landscapes are dominated by a bunch of guys species that are less picky. such as the common brimstone. seas. and the meadow brown so the number of butterflies species that existed 2 centuries ago has definitely declined but what about the actual number of insects. that kind of study requires different methods for. researches at the entomological society in crayford germany have been gathering data for 3 decades that allows inferences about the change in insect populations they used traps like this. the insects fly into the tent wall head up to the branches point and end up in a small chamber above a bottle containing

a solution of ethanol the vapor daises the insects they fall into the liquid which preserves them. and. insects get trapped this way day and night throughout the season the bottles are collect. every 2 weeks sometimes thousands of different species of fish die after the alcohol. at the lab the catch is sorted. and the experts get to work. every member of the entomological society has a special area of expertise to amass hern fishes out of the flies there are more the $90000.00 fly species in germany alone the team joins forces to identify the species the society's insect collections go back more than a century they document the diversity of local insect species and how that's

changed over the years. since the late 1980 s. members have been recording not just the various species but also the weight of each catch. before the sorting begins the content of a bottle is weighed. members follow a standardized procedure to make sure they get comparable results. i have to perform every step in exactly the same way each time we have set procedures for times materials everything otherwise we can compare the results of. the society now has some 3 decades worth of data on the total weight of the trapped insects. over time the research is observed what appeared to be an alarming patent. they'd been putting out traps in a clay fed for many years in 1909 this spatio did 1117

rounds of insects in 2030 minute yielded just 257 grams that's a drop of 77 percent was this just an anomaly. they kept conducting measurements and finally reviewed the data. collected between 19092016 from traps at 63 locations more than 1500 bottles of insects over 27 years. they found a lot of variation from year to year but overall the biomass trended downwards on average 5 percent less year which adds up to a huge decrease. if you look at the entire period from 1000 maybe 9 to 2016 that is 27 years then we're talking about a decline of about 76 percent. of.

the shocking findings by the fed insect watches made headlines around the world. if you're looking for even more d.w. science content some that you can take with you anywhere you want to go you should really check out our podcast it's called science unscripted will keep you safe keep you healthy and we will give you something to talk about you can find some spotify apple or. again our podcast is called science unscripted we hope you listen and until then please stay safe out there. in the 19th century machines driven by steam and power with the 1st industrial revolution. the early 20th century saw mass production aided by assembly lines and electrical power the 2nd industrial revolution then came the 3rd industrial

revolution as technology went digital. now industry 4.0 is taking that to a new level of robots people who machines logistics and products can communicate and cooperate directly to artificial intelligence. let's meet some research making it happen. university in western germany is home to the b. i t. team and 29000 they took 1st at the world competition the annual robot soccer world cup offers researchers a chance to collaborate on developing robot algorithms mohamed was from indonesia was part of the team helping to develop artificial intelligence and robots the body is the robot and acts as its brain.

i must say oh my name is mohammed this is you but i mean industrial robot my research interest is robot perception how robots perceive their environment and how they respond to objects. we object. to this robot uses a time of flight camera which can capture objects in 2003 d. using that sensory data it can identify and estimate the position of objects in its vicinity. mohamed use this machine learning to train his robot to recognize objects such as bolts or material such as aluminum and factories. but 1st of all we need to collect data of the objects that we want the robots to learn then we train them using that data this is what happens during the training process the robot predicts the name and location of those objects. the object that is about. the robot is then instructed to autonomous and perceive

and transport the object. that doesn't always work when the object has a complex. sometimes miscalculates its position. but if you bought is a good navigator when there's an obstacle in its path it comes up with an alternate route on its own what kinds of applications aren't there for robots like you thought it was developed by industrial robotics. industry robots can be used to assemble components they can also be used to move goods autonomous lee from one place to another. almost. in agriculture my research could be applied to detect crops so that fertilizer can be applied more efficiently and that's a look. at the get. it could help autonomous cars detect roads

pedestrians traffic lights cyclists and other cars to reduce the risk of accidents accidental. mohammad hopes that research on artificial intelligence will also progress in his home country i'd like to see more indonesian researchers working in the field of ai we're now on the cusp of industry 4.0 which will have ai as one of its key. this could help accelerate ai research in many fields such as manufacturing and agriculture in indonesia ai is poised to transform manufacturing agriculture and other industries the world over and help them become more intelligent and efficient. if our old one is read why are a lot of it do you have a science question you'd like us to answer send it in if we answer it on the show

and you'll get a little surprise as a thank you. i. can log on just ask. you can get in touch by going to our website g.w. dot com slash science or check us out on twitter. the alps are a popular holiday destination. but it's not all fun and games in the close in the swiss can talk of god bindon landslides are growing more and more frequent erosion and global warming our contribution factor is melting ice and strong rains sent rivers of mud and rock star on the slopes how can people protect themselves. from the summit of the hopeful the mountain in the alps will

soon collapse into the valley scientists at munich's technical university want to pinpoint exactly when it will happen and warn people in the vicinity as quickly as possible yeah far pretty good kick start the mountain is moving quickly and we might see rock slides soon we're planning to monitor this something that happens to see how good our forecasts are could we give a useful warning 3 days in advance and reports are good for have a school to start. warming. wind speeds are high access is difficult and it's all a bit dangerous pursuit if you're looking. at. a large section of the southern summit is threatening to break off and tumble down more than 1000 meters. new cracks have formed some of them more than 100 meters long.

the most striking is a huge crevice so wide a truck could drive through it it's growing by 0.4 millimeters every day that might not sound mind much but it's very fast for a mountain. michaud cutter and his colleagues have already installed some sensors meanwhile they've broken. today the weather is good so they've come to repair the instruments. i say this is that i don't respond this right now this is the most exciting crevice though it's quite small it emerged in 2014 i can see 15 meters down right here but if you look from the rock face it's more than 100 meters deep. we put these sensors in here which can measure the gap to $100.00 to the millimeter but a lightning strike charge of the sensors this one is broken too so we're going to try and fix actions prove me when you go to north korea. we. knew senses

need to be installed on the other side to. the senses measure the distances in the crevasse record every change and send the data back by radio. the think that this is next. to the right are you ready i'm going to throw the rope down now. the crevice has been expanding so rapidly that the upper edge tipped backwards and bent the sensor ruds the chain have to climb down and reinstall them they reckon that if all the cracks and crevices were to break open at the same time up to 260000 cubic meters of rock could fall into the valley. that means a geyser that's huge a one cubic metre rock fall is enough to block a ravine or a road that's the usual size so 260000 cubic meters would be huge there would be

clouds of dust for hours it would probably take quite a while and be insanely loud. the dust cloud would be visible across the horn and probably cover everything but it would be a major event. to get. a similar rock fall took place in august 2017 on the pits in the swiss alps. around 3000000 cubic meters of rock broke off its northeast track. 8 hikers were killed in the box lines a massive river martin granite swept more than 6 kilometers across the valley before striking the village of bondo. the village of into horn back in austria at the foot of the hole for what it is not

likely to be hit by a rock slide but mudslides afterwards could wreak havoc here too. the scientists hope that their continuous monitoring will allow them to warn the residents and any hikers in the area in good time. these plastic rods contain distance senses that expand and contract to monitor the size of the crevice as it grows. that data is then transmitted to the valley. if the southern flank of the hopeful go collapses that would also affect the northern side in germany there are no villages here but there is a popular hiking trail. as a vendor for stock cliffs suddenly collapses the entire summer will be destabilized or more rockslides will be the result is going to come so i don't want you to observe. me and made plans and.

also monitor the area with a drone. it's good let's focus on the summer suits are. good but good to the photos you steered as smoothly as you can. flow and major takes photos with the drone camera which he uses to make a 3 d. graphic image that is accurate to within one or 2 percent. this allows them to detect cracks or to centimeters in when. their research is also take the opportunity to test different monitoring techniques. back at the large crevice michelle cottle at and his team are installing the sensors. that's easier said than done.

let's move the problem up there struggling to attach the devices. it's hard work there's about 20 kilos of tension on this force. to. let them. have to be very careful the cliff walls are crumbling you need to check carefully because you can easily lose your grip. on all of this is everything. everything ok. but then it works. you know i want to yes. by nightfall they've installed all the sensors another step forward in warning nearby residents in tight because of an impending rock slide. was.

that's all for this week's edition of tomorrow today the science show on d w. we'll be back next time with more hot topics from the world of science and technology. until then stay healthy i'm curious.

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oslo diaries. 15 minutes on d w. the power of the influencers and what they mean for democracy. will come to 6. online session closed. influencers more mystery. now simply voicing their opinions about political issues as a new dynamic is emerging. does this mean for democracy. join our discussion starts 1230 t.c. . beethoven is for me it. is for you. is for health. beethoven is for her.

it's for the. beethoven is for. tovan is for. the following beethoven 202250th anniversary here on d o l. i think is everything challenging i make a muslim. school much different culture between here and there challenging for if. some of the 7 year was worth it for me to come to germany. i got my license to work as a swimming instructor i'm sure now our 2 children wanted us to swim fast just.

what's your story take part cherish on info migrants caught next. plane. play. this state of the news live from berlin a large scale investigation finds banks were involved in illegal dealings hundreds of investigative journalist working together for field documents leaked from the u.s. financial authorities that appear to perve big banks facilitated corruption money laundering and sanctions boston on behalf of criminals. small mass protests.