discovered. subscribe to the documentary. crowds and busy city spaces have become a problem in times of covered 19. how can we maintain social distancing and get back as far as possible to our normal lives. d.w. science magazine takes a look. at born welcome to this edition of tomorrow today. mt public squares deserted streets and restaurants familiar images the world

over. normally these spaces are bustling with people but it's hard to imagine how we could maintain social distancing and stay safe under such circumstances. computer simulations and risk analysis could point the way. that in many parts of the world life has been returning to city streets people are travelling on trams buses and trains again but social distancing remains a priority even if it's not always easy to maintain and it's busier and during rush hour but not like it used to go before the not too crowded social distancing is ok i wrote sometimes it's a bit overcrowded so you can't maintain the minimum distance with us there's quite a lot of space and people tend to stay a part of mine they are far apart. largely negative experiences because people do

as they please a lot of people aren't being very careful so. preventing overcrowding is something these people specialize in accurate is a munich based startup made up of a team of i t and simulation experts. the coronavirus pandemic has brought them new challenges normally they work on emergency evacuation plans security concepts for bigger events and passenger flow analyses. now they're also working on ways to help protect passengers visitors and workers from infection with the coronavirus. because one of the coronavirus crisis has shown us that simulations are more than just the way to analyze the behavior of crowds so they can also help us figure out how to maintain a social distancing that's important in office buildings regs are called but also for ensuring passenger safety in railway stations eyes. the simulations use

forecasts based on the behavior of these human avatars agents which follow realistic movement patterns social distancing rules have added a new twist to the calculations the agents aren't supposed to get too close to each other which is hard in tight quarters. here we've already incorporated social distancing the agents are surrounded by a green circle with a diameter of 3 meters or a radius of one and a half and. now they all have to lean back but there's a bottleneck what would be the 1st to leave the doorways just one metre wide and but you're supposed to keep a distance of 1.5 meters some of the agents are now turning red that shows they haven't been able to maintain social distancing for a certain amount of time. which. they don't yet have specifically coronavirus related data to incorporate into their simulations who keeps their distance hoot.

rise to barge through but they can draw on many experiments with crowd behavior carried out over the years. wherever we have pedestrians in downtown areas railway stations airports or queues outside concerts we have to know how the flow of pedestrians tends to work where do bottlenecks develop. that's useful to know in all sorts of contexts like evacuating crowded sports stadiums or schools or figuring out whether a train station is just busy or whether it's actually overcrowded. is so far the simulations function without the fear of the coronavirus as a parameter to help the agents maintain social distancing research is looking for new ways to guide pedestrian flow. using we already have queuing systems in place at entrances to supermarkets for example the kind of research we're doing now draws on similar concepts. we're trying

to understand and describe what's happening when people are waiting in line. or. those insights could help us design queuing systems in other contexts. social distancing can even help to decrease queues and crowding. in railway stations and stairwells a one way system can keep pedestrians flowing smoothly. this is a huge opportunity the authorities have fast tracked for a research project that will allow us to expand the scope of our simulator we could make a real contribution to getting life back to something more like normal. that will entail combining real life pedestrian and commuter volumes flows and 12 times with true to scale architectural data to help daily life in cities flow more smoothly.

the brazilian city of manassas was hit so hard by the corona virus that it was forced to bury its dead in mass graves because symmetries couldn't keep up. but then infection rates suddenly slowed for a time even though few measures had been taken to protect people from the virus. it looked as though the city might have managed to write the 1st wave of coded 19 paradoxically due to widespread infection a phenomenon called herd immunity. sadly rising numbers now seem to say otherwise. but how can we even gauge immunity. am i already immune some people hope a rapid antibody test could answer that question and potentially provide reassurance. the test involves taking a blood sample and generates a result within minutes but it doesn't detect the virus itself it shows the

presence or absence of antibodies that may indicate past infection. unfortunately there is a chance that you will test positive if you have antibodies linked to other types of corona virus including the common cold. the false positives of this kind are possible. and even if the test correctly identifies antibodies against the corona virus it doesn't automatically mean that person is immune. our bodies produce different kinds of antibodies in response to the virus but only those that actually help put it out of action offer protection the so called neutralizing antibodies to be sure you would have to perform a 2nd test to demonstrate the presence of neutralizing antibodies using real viruses in a cell culture these kinds of tests are complicated and have to be carried out and specialized lamps. so immunity can only really be shown in

a followup test but even if you do detect neutralizing antibodies specific to the corona virus one problem remains it's unclear for now how long immunity actually lasts following an infection. aspects of the immune system could also explain why africa has been less hard hit by kevin 19 then feared it's possible that the mean systems of people living there are more used to coping with infections. we asked one researcher why certain parasites might be linked to milder cases of covert 19. 1 of the dominant features is that there was ensure their survival for 10 years and longer in the body by suppressing the immune response and the prophecies are is that this

overshooting immune reaction that comes with severe cold 90 cases might be mitigated because the people harbor wars and haven't units oppressed general. status. these insights about parasites help us find drugs to treat cavite 19. has long been sought to for them to carve out the beneficial parts of the immune response of a parasite immunosuppressive mold avoids the talking parasitic infections that this is very tricky you have to imagine that the parasite harbors about 10000 different proteins and even more of the molecules that it can play with in order to exert down regulate the resistance not to speak about the infection of the locality and all these things it's very complicated so far. except for a few molecules that for example. all i've been showing today.

becomes those specific receptors that is part of. the immune system also play your very important role in infections they can be addressed by small molecules but they are still in the brutal development so we are not yet there and definitely the longer. perspective ideal scene which seems to be. only parasites are in the scientific spotlight some insect species are quietly disappearing. to assess the situation of 6 legged friends a german conservation organization is harnessing the help of the general public to keep tabs on the insect number is. a prime example of citizens science.

these people are in the garden. here something really tiny and i meet these 2 enough farmers field down there. and these people are in a forest meadow there you see. but they're all doing the same thing. they're. they're counting insects for germany's nature and biodiversity conservation union for the past 2 summers the organisation has called on the general public for the world it's a fun thing to do but the situation is serious because insects are on the decline in germany part of a global trend. among my own studies the results of the insect count she says the initiative is very important. work on song we have a greater decline now and then what we saw in the past and we urgently need to

start collecting data that we can show what's happening for salmon and that's fun. the goal is to take an inventory of insects in various locations for one week members of the public are asked to count insects for one hour following a set pattern within a radius of 10 meters gobby into to our searching in a wildlife garden a pamphlet showing pictures of various insects plus a photo app on their phone help them to identify the most common species their garden is a treasure trove. it's been quite about i'm happy and surprised to see so many honeybees there's these everywhere back here. and perhaps even more important the pair also find bumble bees and other wild species population numbers for wild bees in particular have plummeted. hover flies have also taken a hit 30 percent of hover fly species are threatened with extinction bats and

hartman meanwhile are struggling to find much of anything in their chosen field until recently that was we going here now after the harvest the field is a desert. millipede here. and despite there and that's it. it was a long time before we found on the thing. another and then only small insects that probably arrived after the harvest and. before that the fields would have been treated heavily with chemicals of course to boost the eels. intensive farming monocultures on the use of pesticides have taken their toll pests that damage the harvest like the colorado beetle are being targeted but many useful insects like the green dot people that eat sweets are also suffering other species that live in the farce like the stand beetle are also endangered. in this forest many of the

reason semen are being kept busy there's plenty going on at ground level he. they find grasshoppers in particular this area is the launch of the wildlife to nature butterflies are also out in force here. butterflies are also in decline they make up the 2nd largest group of insects after beetles but in the last 10 years alone their numbers have dropped 10 percent. but it's not clear which species of butterfly are most at risk in order to understand what's happening in detail precise scientific studies are needed. entomologist get into layman has set up traps with bottles of alcohol to attract flying insects so that she can check their numbers for traps that look like tents have been set up in nature reserves that are located near agricultural fields.

the project is funded by the german government and continues a long term study into insects that ran for 30 years. in 2017 that study showed a dramatic drop in flying insects in western germany at least in terms of the overall numbers of insects caught. it's in our study we've chosen 21 representative locations that are spread all over germany and we record the specific species not just overall numbers we decode the d.n.a. of insects to produce a barcode and then we can say exactly which species were in the trash can all based on. this study will run for 4 years allowing the scientists to see which insects are endangered and to what extent then they hope to have exact numbers. the

civil side goal is to produce recommendations for the politicians on how best to preserve insect diversity and germany one on the australian. one useful practice is the plant a flower bed along the edge of fields while not sufficient it does show how important diverse vegetation is for insects. alive doesn't just what's flying in the air there is a 100 times what's here. after a whole hour banton hot moat found only a handful of insects the reasons so mostly grasshoppers and butterflies in the forest meadow but still they counted more than 70 of those. and as i think that's quite good because they play an important role in nature bees are of course vital for our lives and they're declining fast from. all of us can do something to help and insect friendly garden is one option. the most insects by far counting more

than $150.00 in one hour they also have the largest range of species. with some other net good and amazing results we found so many insects it's great. next summer germany will launch another insect count in the hope of safeguarding the very future and ours. because what is red white object glad. to see you have a size question you'd like us to answer. send it in if we featured on the show you'll get a little surprise as a thank you. come on just ask. your find us on the web at v.w. dot com slash sons or check us out on twitter at. this week's question comes from camera me.

why are mammals born blind. some not all mammals are born especially helpless blinded with no fur to protect them this means their parents have to spend more time caring for them before they can fend for themselves. and it's not until they've developed sight and the ability to roam by themselves that the young animals leave their nests caves or hideouts a model that's common among predators. that's because along pregnancy is not advantageous for the mother it would stop her from hunting. that's why hurt comes before they're fully mature their eyes are not yet properly developed. other mammals are born fully developed they can leave their nests right away and are born with vision they're also quick to get

on their feet. the group includes jarana. and elephants. to them survival means being able to see and fully speed off from the babies are able to feed themselves. up 3rd group or get carried around one parent usually the mother carries the offspring around with her kangaroos are an example. blind when born. others in this group. are born. only some kinds of mammals are born blind. so what about humans. newborns can see true distance of about 30 centimeters they can hear too but they can't walk so are carried around by their parents.

but there are also some young people who take their time fleeing the nest science has yet to come up with an official term to describe that phenomenon. the age at which young people leave their parents' homes varies a lot across europe well many swedes leave when they're 18 people in montenegro 33 on average the e.u. average is 26 just like in the us. in south american countries there are also like stasis. there it's not just about money or the need to look up. elderly relatives living in extended families is just more part of the culture. would get involved would love. to sit at streets abandon stations but this time it's not because of the pandemic. and unexploded world war 2 bomb has been on earth

in a residential neighborhood to me still has lots of underestimated ordinance in the ground a fund like this means emergency services have to organize large scale and disruptive evacuations and. a researcher in southern germany is trying to help them against the wrist more accurately with some rather dramatic experiments. this is the kind of destruction that could be unleashed if an unexploded bomb from the 2nd world war suddenly detonates. but the device creation that shockwave is not old munition but a compressed air con.

this is a controlled experiment at the front over in situ for high speed dynamics in southwestern germany. the pressure wave shatters windowpanes and cause a cloud of glass and even her chairs across the test room. for alexander stalls the destruction delivers vital insights his aim is to optimize the evacuation of locations following the discovery of unexploded bombs. among the tools at his disposal are high speed cameras which can identify the size speed and direction of the glass flying through the air right down to the tiny a shards. the engineer has conducted dozens of such

experiments under a variety of different conditions the results are fed into a simulation program the more data he collects the better he can predict the physical fallout from an explosion. and the authorities always cordon off a huge area around the mission's find. but if there's a hospital in that area with intensive care patients that's a problem. they don't have to be evacuated to teach a danger to those patients. because the bomb really pose a threat to the hospital or is a vacuum raising it perhaps unnecessary. the red spots in the simulation represent areas that are extremely vulnerable to the shock wave the blue regions less so. here the hospital takes a direct hit some sections see a convergence and amplification of the shock waves. and the

subsequent analysis the red areas show where windows would be shattered this hospital would be devastated despite being 200 meters away and theoretically shielded by the buildings in between. under shockwave is not the only danger when old munitions go off. the researchers conduct a 2nd test to look at the effects of shrapnel. this is not your typical 200 kilogram bomb but a small metal cylinder containing just 250 grams of explosive material. the damage incurred is evaluated by its impact on a sheet of. metal safety 1st which means the researchers retreating to an observation bunker.

even the high speed camera it seems has trouble capturing exactly what happened during the explosion. but one broken down the footage shows how the shrapnel pierces the metal she's on the wooden board behind us. the force of the explosion took its toll not only on the concrete block but also on the metal and without any of the standing here would have sustained serious injuries from the shrapnel possibly fatal ones. with a real bomb that kind of damage could be caused up to 100 meters away another factor for the researchers to incorporate into their simulations as they seek to pinpoint areas that really would need evacuating. that's

all for now thank you for joining us. for morning pressing stories about science and technology visit our website. we'll be back next week with a fresh edition of tomorrow today until then by.

a country at peace and yet on the front lines. germany during the cold war the been for decades since way the bad stuff against the bulk of ordinary germans experience the conflict the beginning and the cold war. 15 minutes. d.w.

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is a g.o.p. news live from berlin hopes of a last thing truce between 2 former soviet republics our debt. azerbaijan and armenia trade accusations as missiles rained down on several cities victims describe a night of terror under fox also coming up. nigeria dissolves a controversial police unit accused of violating human rights authorities filed to public pressure after days of national demonstrations widespread anger against unchecked police brutality.