wine region but it's got a lot of history and culture cheers. check your. blood line is all it's way to bring you more conservation. how do we make cities greener how can we protect habitats we can make a difference to the idea of mental series against global series on g.w. gone mind. moving from fossil fuels children uble energy sources the goal is clear but the way to get there is less. bio gas production relies on monocultures that are bad for biodiversity and insects wind pots are noisy and a danger to birds how can we generate truly killing energy that and more coming up .

well come to you tomorrow today the science show on d w. 'd at the risk of sounding corny i'd say today's show is about me not as food for people or animals but feel to generate electricity this share of energy from renewable sources is growing every year especially in asia. europe and north america. most of the energy is produced from biomass from something like me. but the other sources aren't doing so badly either. however i've come under a lot of criticism recently by see for yourself. this field is lush and green. in a way it's a desert

a desert of corn planted to produce biofuel fields like this cover more than a 1000000 hectares in germany corn provides hardly any food for insects biologists say that's one reason for massive insect die offs. one can need i know if you can generate biodiversity with a single type of plant a monoculture so you need to sow a range of different plants to get a range of insects it just doesn't work with corn it was the hope and. the idea is to replace the corn with plants that can also be used to produce biofuel and provide food for insects at the same time. up to 30 different species should begin flowering here soon. so far only come a mile is visible. to see look at the state of that disgusting even though it's a law something nicely of us fighting is all wrong we want to have

a field of flowering prairie shots here you need biomass this senseless camel mile has reached just 70 centimeters in height that's not enough mass we should have some flowers here now perennial sunflowers this trial that's the plan plunk and has been like this for years but this year awful. it's a failure come a mile produces hardly any energy and offers very little nutrition for insects yet the scientists want to examine the field more closely perhaps the sunflowers have germinated underneath to come a mild. a walkable strip is cleared so that they can see what plants they have here . insect traps are set up to check whether more bugs are being drawn to the field. with a measuring stick and a case report forms they set to work looking for anything that might be growing underneath the ramp and come a mile in that area. cornelia might see need. records the amount and height of each

flower species not influenced or looking to various species that were sown here and the main component of the mixture right now is the hemi on those maximillian me a perennial sunflower that's here in that's their year i understand and. it's taken a good foothold here. there's a caterpillar that's not all but. even if such perennial shrubs provide food for insects that indigenous to north america and asia critics fear they might crowd out native species. this and i misspelled comment did you get off on those are actually claimed that have never been investigated their assumptions but do you have to consider that we are here in germany the land of immigration side we have a level of biodiversity which since the ice age has yet to fully recover to what it was before the icing. we're trying to show that our front to only accept these wild species from foreign lands just as much as the indigenous species and interestingly

we discovered that while beings in particular are very close and it's you say often since. mazzini is connie into that it is looking at where the bees and other insects can really feed on the pollen of non-indigenous flowering shrubs for example with cylinders like bees in which wild bees build their nests. the biologists then drive to another field of non-indigenous flowering shrubs. they see right away that it's not overgrown with come a mile and boasts many more types of plants that are not fully grown yet and most aren't in flower. shot on until we have 7 here and this is siberian mother wart neurosis japonica in full bloom no. the field has more flowering shrubs and more bugs. you can also find it very

pleased the field is really clean the plants have space around them so they can establish themselves it's a real success there's enough light getting through to the soil so that these species can develop well the field is still emerging and i can see there's another vase and we were sitting here as a young ross and we'd and here's a hollyhock oh for goodness if you see if your mouth he could mr crow was that all of. the scientists plan seems to be working here even though the plants are not yet in full bloom there are a lot of. insects and the field will also produce a lot of biomass later for generating energy. but the yield will never be as high as it is with corn 50 to 60 percent at most that's a loss for the pharma. navy and it's a fully you know i'm not satisfied for the from a but from martinis programs supporting those so it's ok. but farmers would plant

more of this if they were supported by the government if there was a funding programme to make up for the shortfall i normally have $45.00 to $50.00 tonnes of corn in this field it's good soil but with this stuff so to speak i need to be compensated to make a profit. lower yields but increased biodiversity protecting species and agriculture can go together even if the profits are lower but the idea here is that losses can be minimised the farmers keep growing corn but also plant flowering shrubs in between so that the profitable corn is mixed with flowering perennials that benefit insects. of course will families it's easier to grow the same plants every year. but there's a big downside to that according to a study from munich technical university monoculture has destroyed just as many

species as climate change. an apparent paradox and energy crops often grown as monoculture is intended to counteract global warming when a mix of energy crops help to restore insect bite of this city. biologist ingrid elice has put beehives in this field to see of the insects are feeding on the flowers. although the field is the bees habitat the scientists want to confirm they also gather pollen here small only to be sure the pollen comes from this field step or an every year we have to make certain that there could be something in the field that the bees haven't collected from and that would be important information for us. think of the elite uses a little trick to find out where the pollen comes from 1st she calms the bees with a bit of smoke. then she uses

a grid to block the entrance to the hive. this allows her to gather the pollen that collects on the bees hind legs in their orange colored sacks which she then strips off to examine later. if the bees want to get into the honeycombs in the hive they have to crawl through the grid. the grid openings are so narrow that the insects can just squeeze through. but the pollen on their hind legs sticks to it these samples show how the pollen differs depending on which plant it came from. after an hour the 1st batch is ready for examination. as a shunt it's very likely that a lot of this pollen comes from the field but we really have to look carefully under the microscope and confirm that before we know for sure. but what we can see from this pollen is that the bees are using many different plants for their nourishment. in contrast to the monoculture of corn there's more than one flowering

perceives in here because one of the 30 or so plant species in the field is always in bloom that means the bees and other insects have food from spring right through to autumn. what about other creatures can they also find a habitat here after all many species of birds live on insects. the camera which automatically takes pictures when it detects movement should tell us. in just a few weeks this photographic trap capture several animals including field hampsters birds and hares. it seems that one species attracts the next. and the fact that the bees are making a lot of honey shows that they're thriving in this environment.

trami much of time and it makes me so happy to see a healthy colony like this one was well taken care of adequately supplied with nectar and pollen and the brood nasa's beautiful it's great fun boss. obviously this test field with its energy plants provides food for the insects. but what about the yield for humans. a field cultivated by a farmer is now in full bloom. my god what i like on so much buzzing no matter what a few beehives in there there are a couple of 100000 bees out here and then rush on to go nobody gets crazy. sure to be to full flowers amazing. many of the high yielding perennials are not yet fully grown sometimes clevelanders are going to grow another 50 centimeters

right here we have. our yellow sweet clover that's not yet fully grown you can see it here it's spreading its shoots it should grow another 3040 centimeters so there is plenty of biomass in there and that's exactly what we want we want mass for the biofuel companies and we also need lots of flowers for the insects and that's exactly what we have here. an impressive sight an abundance of blossoms on a cultivated field. it's time for the harvest biologist carnelian martini and farmer klaus gas and i have come to see the results. looking good that. maybe. he wants to be compensated for the reduced yield but he also knows that these species rich fields offer an opportunity for farmers and they prove that

agriculture and biodiversity can work hand in hand. electricity from renewable sources has a weakness the energy supply can fluctuate sometimes renewables provide more electricity sometimes less to the grid. excess power could be stored it electric vehicles they're not in use all of the telling. they rechargeable lithium ion batteries can store a lot of energy relative to their weight but extracting lithium comes with its own problems. this is how lithium is often found in nature as a mineral in hard rock and generally in combination with other elements. that's because a lithium atom has a loosely bound electron that it easily gives up to form compounds in rock like this it is hard to extract. but in south america there are deposits where it is

much more accessible more than half the world's known reserves are there under the crust of the salt flat is a brine rich in the. when the briny water is pumped up and left to evaporate the residue contains among other things lots of lithium. various chemicals some of them toxic are used to separate out the lithium. what's more as the brine is removed from the salt flats groundwater from the only extremely dry terrain takes its place to get enough lithium for the battery of just one midsize car 12000 liters of water are needed if they extract such vast amounts of water so quickly and we know that's a lot of water then in the next 5 or 6 years this area will turn into a real desert it won't just destroy farming and livestock breeding it will make

human life here impossible. a high price to pay for mobility. extracted now undergoes further processing it's the most important part of a rechargeable battery the battery cells are mainly produced in asia about 6 kilograms of lithium are needed for a mid size of my car. and this is how the lithium performs on the road. in the battery it provides power by letting its electron migrate from the antidote to the cathode. and back again during recharging. at some point the lithium as you. and the battery becomes too weak to run a car. but 80 percent capacity a lithium battery can still store electricity from renewable energy and to be ready

to use when the sun isn't shining and there is no wind. but every rechargeable battery down i eventually and its lithium be put to rest. not quite the batteries can be recycled but a lot of energy and chemicals are needed to revive them. right now it's hardly worth the trouble since the price of new lithium from south america. is in huge demand for batteries. in 2019 more than 3000000000 smartphones with. cell phones with an internet connection all great for accessing info from all over the globe. and they can be a big help to people in remote areas for example

a vegetable in rural bangladesh. things have turned gloomy in recent days from into more. he lives in a village in south central bangladesh in barbershop division. he's a tenant farmer and has been doing well. the soil is fertile and describes have been abundant. he's one of 80000 tenant farmers in the district who grow mainly rice and vegetables. but a new problem is just cropped up. plants have been hit by a disease he can't identify.

fix and. is ahead to get this plant has dried up and with her nest egg i think i'm going to what they want 1st the tops of us talks right i'll get that and then lower down as well you know. we've never seen a disease like this before. the plants and i within a week but i mean that next up if they get that means we could be facing huge losses. other farmers in his village owned their own land and are more prosperous. zakia ho sign is one of them he went to school when he was young and he has a smartphone. into more luck tells him about his problem. farmers here have heard that they can get advice from experts via a smartphone app. or sort of the. suck your host sign takes

a photo of the diseased plant writes a brief account of the problem and posts them to for sholay and based online service offering free advice to farmers it's run by a c.i. agribusinesses a unit of the conglomerate a.c.i. . you so visited us that we used to go to the local government agriculture department or other people who could help when we have problems now if you have a smartphone you can find many solutions by an app. for surely is based in the capital dhaka. he thought our alina processes queries received from farmers across the country she's already received about 100 queries today she communicates with the farmers but the information she provides comes from experts sunbeam raman runs the geographical information system and remote sensing unit of a.c.i.

the technology enables farmers to monitor the health of their crops and to protect them by analyzing and predicting threats for surely doesn't just respond to specific queries but also makes a lot of general information available on that sap. the ones that they are meant to by every 12 days we analyze the backscatter values we get from the sentinel one satellite for crop growth and feed the data into our map yes. it won't look good on the day before using pest and disease control methods we try to figure out what kinds of diseases might affect crops within the next 48 hours. and in which particular stage of growth and put all this information in our app information all of that belief system. for sholay is an intelligent decision support system. a.c.i. has invested a lot in its development. farmers don't pay for the service but at the

same time the company using sales of its agricultural products soar. it has recruited staff to go out into the fields and teach farmers about the. local government officials are also involved they appreciate how this software can enhance communication among farmers experts and the authorities. is hoping to get a reply to his query later the same day so that he can start to tackle the disease killing his plans for him and many farmers like him the new digital technology could mean the difference between ruined and a brighter future. in the future digital technologies are expected to develop. much of which may be

generated by wind power. but critics say. to add. inventive fountain solution. this is a conventional wind turbine and this could be the wind turbine of tomorrow the 3 rotor blades rotate around a vertical axis so far no one's managed to produce electricity with a 100 meter high vertical axis wind turbine. but inventor patrick traister believes he and his team have made a breakthrough. fixture spent more than 6 years working on the project as a personal hobby after another 6 years collaborating with scientists he managed to produce a prototype. i'm excited we've been working on this for a while it's a major component and now we'll see it for the 1st time when it comes out of the mold. and this is the moment of truth in the hangar near zurich

the part measuring 27 meters in length and weighing 2 tons is the 1st section of a rotor blade for a test in the field made of fiberglass and resin it was bonded and pressed into a gigantic mold. and it's coming along. so cool. his vertical axis wind turbine has a certification a $105.00 metre tall tower is already standing waiting for it in western germany the turbine will be mounted on top for the inventor to demonstrate its advantages especially for the environment is to because the back of your poke is compatible with wildlife in the air bats will fly around it and birds can recognise it so there aren't any bird strikes if this was his one very important feature is that it's much quieter than conventional wind turbines. even at close range you don't hear anything it's like

a tower that turn slowly and it can be used in many different places where conventional wind turbines can't be. back in 2011 at dubin door airport near 0 after the special trial on the runway patrick feaster could no longer keep his vertical wind turbine a secret. second test in 2012 in the swiss town of coeur it was sobering the turbine with 12 blades that tracked the wind didn't produce enough power like many before him face to face failure especially after a storm knocked the turbine off kilter. back just 10 days after it was installed was a huge shock. it was weird to be woken up on a saturday morning by the police of the port it's a quick trip. 8 years and many lab tests later patrick easter and this team were able to solve the problem of the rotor blades. today the blade still adjusts to the

wind but they're powered by 3 motors it's the heart of the invention. of sorts to fuel the motor ensures that the position of the rotor blade is always optimized so that the stream of air on the blade doesn't break down and the blades pull the entire road or even in the same direction. that way they turn very slowly and quietly which allows us to enlarge the system. picture wants to get his prototype on the market he has projects in the planning phase in asia and the us and a lot depends on their success there's already 18000000 euros worth of venture capital invested in this design. bad mix of all thumb if you don't take risks you won't reap the rewards of my entire life i wanted to be a pioneer because my parents always said i should do something pioneering software i always search for things that no one had done before. from that force is when you really do experience tilting at windmills 1st hand sometimes you don't feel like

going through with it but moments like this make up for everything. there's no turning back now for patrick easter his 1st vertical axis wind power system is now complete and about to go into operation. and that's all from tomorrow today for this week. will be most science from us next time until then stay healthy and stake areas.

today i'm going to take you on a trip along to sex and wine rooms from tasty to mice and right why in the name sense of all. 60 fun filled kilometers you just have to come to the section one roof it's a small a wine region but it's got

a lot of history and culture cheers. changes. coming. and seeing overcome boundaries. changing the world with day. no words required. but a full body engagement. with. the journey. parts 21. to 30 minutes on w. . has a virus spread. why do we panic and when we'll all miss. just 3 of the topics covered and the weekly radio show is called spectrum if you would

like any information on the cloning virus or any other science topic you should really check out our podcast you can get it wherever you get your podcast you can also find us at dot com and slash science. it's there session for spectacular pictures. it's their passion for nature. it's their complete devotion. that makes them the best wildlife photographer. in the world. of. fascinating. and poetic. confrontational and stirring. find adventures.

one goal. the preservation of our planet. is not as issue martin trees and saving planets anymore. it's us that's the danger of surviving and us right through to realize that there's a radically different way of living that it's really rather. for china starts november 6th on t w. this is d w news and these are our top stories demonstrations have been held across france to honor some well pati schoolteacher who was killed after showing cartoons of the muslim prophet mohammad and a class prime minister john custody was among the crowd in paris police shot dead the alleged perpetrator and have detained 11 others.

voters in cyprus have elected a right wing nationalist as president of the breakaway northern turkish cypriot stay.