if you believe me, if not a trace of what happened to a stream of black gold oil, thomas, it starts to simple for you . on today's show, we have creatures, great and small. all of them useful, like derek house, which supply us with valuable milk which perform a vital function as pollination. but their diversity is increasingly under threat. and even some worms that have a surprising superpower all their own. hello and welcome to tomorrow. today the science show on d,

w. images of plastic waste in landfills and our oceans have become so commonplace. we risk becoming immune to them, but plastic is a serious problem that won't go away on its own. more and more plastic is manufactured every year. in 2018, most went to packaging 12 percent was used for consumer products. we should all reduce our plastic consumption because sooner or later it all ends up as waste. but how can we tackle all that discarded plastic? could tiny part of the solution to this gigantic problem? our reporter christian college that decided to find out and made a few new friends on the way or doing something that we always thought was impossible. take reading been on the

jesting, the number just the bear. it in plastic this is how they would use a piece of styrofoam in just the week. if we could harvest their super power, we could get 3 or 4 plastic trash in weeks rather than send to reach. they could save countless animals help clean the environment and avoid toxic plastic incineration can prosecute in bags. help solve our plastic problem.

sure, they are. oh, yeah. yeah. i had to say that my that night. but at the molecular biologist, who in 2017 made an important discovery by not cleaning, or maybe it was basically what they used to find that was there. but the swarms managed to eat their way out of the plastic bag. it's something interesting to grasp the importance of these discovery. we 1st need to understand more plastic is plastic is a mysterious material frankel, a science writer, author, and real plastic. in the natural world. natural substances there, you know, sort of broken up by bacteria,

but they go back to their essential elements. are water, plastic doesn't do it. just get smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller, but it still essentially lasts. that's why micro plastics stained the environment for same to resist, to the plastics resistance to back a few years a curse. but we forget that it's also part of it's miracle plastics really transform the world. they really create our modern or a world that is more colorful the world that came before for most of our history, we've built things with stuff we found in nature, rocks and metals. but there's the ward modernize and there was a growing demand for properties that only scarce natural elements processed things

like raisin silk or ivory in the mid 19th century before worrying that so many elephants were being able to make billiard balls and they'll hunt for being driven into extinction. eventually obeah, the ball manufacturer promised the rich prize to whoever could find a more abundant substitute for ivory that caught the eye of an american. and john wesley hyatt, who spent several years to earning in his work on the bench, came up with the stuff. so you like the plastic age at begun. adverts like visa celebrative and with the mayor of that day, everything ragdoll going to be remarkably washable. rushbrook rogers read it because they were a lot of back 5 7. lloyd replaced tortoise shell coral. and mother pearl nylon replaced. silk and buckeye to replace the raise enough to

lock up people. it's funny because in the early years plastic was seen as sort of a celebration of nature. and today we look at it is one of the chic anime's of the natural world. plastic is no everywhere. some are light and transparent like plastic bags. all those are extremely resistant, like bullet proof vests. but they all have in common is the palmers, which just basically needs their materials that are made up repeating atomic units . and i think of them as like beads on a chain, but a plastic looks like how it feels, how it behaves, all of that demands and how to put together. and the reason why plastic lasts so long in the environment is that nothing evolved to break down to stop of bombs or a key. so that's what we thought

they're called your war. and you can actually buy them online and watch them become as you feed them would stifle it's not organisms themselves. it's the bacteria. those organisms probably produce, you know, he's a, he's a, he's a professor of structural biology and he knows everything about things. 6, i think we're actually actually in those facts on the surface of to find new bugs in bacteria that came there just because they isolate their enzymes and then enhanced must produce them in by reactors. obviously we can't just bring some of these technology can't help with the plastic already in the

environment. however, it could revolutionize our recycling system to really recycle something. you have to break it down to its basic elements so that you can rearrange them into something else. because we can't break down plastic bonds, we can only recycle it once or twice before it becomes unusable. and that's why things warms can be a game changer. if you think about bio recycling, what you can do is take that grid and reuse it again infinitely, in fact, sounds like. but it's already on the way. for example, a french company named car radio using again signs to recycle bottles like these. and not just once or twice, but in theory, if in italy, if you can increase the now you have the racist audience, sensitizing market move forwards, primetime,

collect the past in the 1st place. and instead of people actually giving money to goods, you know what i'm still saying to people who'll be big money to take it back again and we use it. so the technology walks, but it's not scalable yet. and it's still more expensive than virgin plastics. oil and gas is really cheap. that means it's cheaper to make a lick of oil and gas than recycled materials. we need to get these technologies working at a much bigger scale that we're currently doing now in order to even make a dent. i do believe that we really need to work hard so can my warms with their enzymes solve our plastic problem? i think it's great if we can find things like, you know, meal worms that are, you know, the bacteria that while the last is really a design problem it's that we're taking also. busy and we're using them all too

often to make things that are trivial not under necessary and serve, you know, kind of we are in a toxic relationship with plastic. we invented it to substitute and repel box. and now we're turning to bugs to get rid of it, and i don't think we want to live without glasses. i mean, you know, i like the fact that my glasses are on my face so that i'm in the middle of the grownup. i respect. and there are just people, one is demonized. plastic issue is a very only issue is how we take it, how we use it and here is, well my school, you me friend 7 important lesson to teachers. they have adapted to leave with plastic. 'd we should do the same.

and my friend here we are. go now. you're free. go and save the war eagle. the last incidental meal worms usually used as chicken feed or fish base. have another surprise and storm scientists at stanford university already knew that bill worms can eat various forms of plastic. now they've established that the worms can break down the toxic additives in plastic with no ill effects. so in theory, the mealworms could die non-plastic and then still be used just animal feed. and now we turn to another industrious creature. in economic terms, honeybees have always punched about their way. as pollinators and honey produces, they contribute around 2500000000 euros a year to the german economy and know not to mention their contribution to the

natural world. biologically speaking, there are 9 species of honeybee. most of them are native to asia. probably the best known these days is the western honeybee, which has been spread by humans and can be found all over the world. and the next record will take a look at some subspecies of the western honeybee and explore how its genetic diversity could best be protected. and is getting a visit from agronomist. here to the west of mr. big. this is the moment of truth. let's see if you still find any drones in the reagan or works for the institute for be research. he's come here hoping to find some rare bees. a huge problem is that b. species diversity is declining dramatically. the karni on honeybee is the one we have that's most genetically diverse, but the real gem is the european darkie,

which is now very rare that mr. skakel is one of the few people who breeds it. and that's why we're here today to get samples. reagan has instituted, setting up europe's 1st honey bee gene database. good nutrition, like gene banks for cattle, pigs and sheep have been around for some time. but there's been nothing of that kind of bees anywhere in europe. it's needed because the genetic diversity of rb populations is declining fast. there are constantly new parasites as well as challenges due to climate change. we can only meet them at our bees. genetic makeup is as diverse as the challenge. you have to make the database as comprehensive as possible. the scientists have been collecting samples from many b. colonies across germany. they vary widely in terms of the properties of such as gentleness, diligence, and swarming behavior. some types have become extremely rare. for example,

the european duck being until the mid 19th century, it was the most common honeybee in germany. but then it was displaced by the canio, and i may be conic up, you know, the karni omen, honey bee expanded through breeding. and it prevailed because it is also relatively gentle with a relatively low swarming tendency. so people like tim and the dark be declined. that's gone so far that they are no more dark b. colonies originally from germany. the only ones we have now, one or 2 percent of colonies are descended from ri, imports forward off. but the european dog bee is alive and well in hogwarts got because high he had his 1st bees at the age of 10, and he's more interested in the colonies themselves than in how much money they yield. skakel sees the duck be as part of germany's history

and or would over there are lots of drones. so all start collecting them in vague and carefully picks out the drones in the combe. please leave me a couple. i have a few young queens here that i need them to mate with one last drone. then vega collects a few worker bees for good measure. he needs samples of drones and workers from this colony for his gene database. another one is got out and luckily they're being nice today that back in his lab in who are now and off starts to prepare the material for the database 1st. he

preserves the frozen worker bees and alcohol that way. he has a record of that typical shape to help distinguish the different beasts. then come the droves to mail bees. extract under the microscope, it's high precision work. it's a routine procedure for him, but still you have to realize that the drone always dies when it is jackie lates. it would do that if it were mating with the queen. we only do this because we really need his sperm in order to preserve his traits for the future of bees here or elsewhere. in the precious sperm is stored in liquid nitrogen at minus $196.00 degree celsius, a process known as cryo preservation. later

they're going to examine samples of the drones, frozen together with a professor who heads the institute. the researchers want to know how good the quality of the sperm is. once it's defrosted, you can see that after it's fog, the sperm cells still remain in the flagella, can still beat strongly and indicating that it's good sperm. you could inseminated queen with it and she'd be fertile. yes, it really looks like fresh sperm looks really good. sees europe's 1st genetic database where honeybees is just the 1st step towards a larger goal. the diversity among honey bees is endangered around the world. here in germany, they undergo a lot of selection and that decreases the genetic diversity. but globally,

the situation is even more dramatic because these selected species from germany and austria are exported around the world. that means they displace the sub species that are well adapted to the local conditions. and that's why our database is so significant. it can preserve these genetic resources for the future. it will take time before genetic databases for honeybees can be built up across europe or worldwide. but in germany, these research as a hoping to have filed away material from some 300 colonies by the end of 2021. here and that gene bank of b. biodiversity is red white. and even if you have a science question, you'd like us to answer candidate. if we featured on this show, you get a little surprise as a thank you. can just about you'll

find us on the web dot com slash science or check us out on twitter. the nutritional components in milk include lactose fat, protein minerals, and fishermen, mammals produce it to feed their young till they're old enough to fend for themselves. for us, humans, milk remains an important source of mutual even into adult it. that is despite estimates that 3 quarters of the global population have difficulty digesting lactose. but a special kind of milk could be a game changer at this milk is said to be easier to digest. dairy farmer could stop, always has

a little in his morning coffee. it's known as aide to milk that he hopes to ensure the future of his business. today, he's debuting his own 1000000 delivery service housey feeling about the new venture as well. it's another step, one of several we've undertaken since 2015 to diversify away from dairy production . well, we have to wait and see how well it's received. if we get customers, we don't know exactly what to expect. models of october. first, he visited scamps to see if they're all in good shape. now that he's also making deliveries, he's working on a tight schedule. township is pretty standard, but it's all mental cattle are not, at least not all of them. and also michelle from the

outside, they all look alike. but there is a genetic difference. we haven't investigated these animals yet. we still need to do a d.n.a. test to find out which are a one and which are age 2. it's been expensive. we had to break up the herd and sell the cows that were a one. then we bred more of them from the basic stock. that's why the price of milk went up. on the almost plus of different breeds produced milk with different proportions of the a one and a 2 variants of beta casein guernsey's have a lot of a too, as do some jerseys, and some cement historian. surmise that selective breeding over the ages change the composition of milk. 8 to the argument goes is the older form. nowadays, most european cows are a one. here. we have 140 cows producing 6 and a half to 7000 liters of milk a year. that's about 22 leaders a day,

which runs from people that's only 3 quarters of the yield of a dairy cow widely found in intensive farming. but gavin's cows also good meat. unlike their high performing industrial counterparts. whether milk contains only, or mostly a one or a 2, it all looks the same, but the difference is significant. good known to see here, it's clear that they're different. we see it ourselves. there are people with milk intolerance who buy their milk from us and can drink it without a problem, but not the other card, and lots of foreigners buy our milk. there must be something different about it, but of course we can't prove it scientifically. we don't have the money to do that, it down but enough to love anyone and 8 to denote 2 forms of the beta key seen protein made up of $209.00, amino acids. but there is one difference between them in a to milk,

an amino acid called proline occurs in position 67, all anyone male. it's his duty. in addition to delivering gavin to set up a little kiosk where people can buy his milk, his customers seem happy yet very much of the day to milk is great, very wholesome. for the children too. we like it a lot. some kind of pushed it to. i'm not milk intolerant. i just feel the other kind of milk isn't is right for me. while this one is, people sitting around, got disgusted, we had visitors recently. i always have this milk at home because after the one of them said he can't drink milk at all. if he does, he has to rush to the bathroom. i told him i had a 2 milk. he tried it and it was fine. so it really seems to work financially at that stage. there's one hypothesis is that it might work in the case of milk,

protein intolerance, where enzymes cannot clean the proline in 8 to milk. whereas they can cleave the histidine in a one milk. but this releases a protein fragment called b.c.m. 7, which could cause gastrointestinal problems. this doesn't apply to like towson tolerance though. since a 2 milk also contains like toes, as well as other key components of a strong immune system. that's especially important for calves the stuck out and wants his girls as he calls them to be as healthy as possible. they're fed on a diet of grass, corn and wheat before the afternoon delivery. the farmer has to process the milk and fill the bottles, which he does and his own onsite plant. sales manager, both on our hands explains that with normal milk. this is a job usually done by the dairies. i'm not with

a 2 mil cause you need another step in the goods flow chains, a whole new handling path and the logistics chain and the large dairies aren't ready for that. so we decided to do it ourselves. you need to be pioneering visionary. but there was immediate demand for the president approximately $800.00 households need to buy the product for it to be profitable. for the fundies are personally, this was the only way we could get around agricultural policy and price dumping in the milk market. in that it's the only alternative by common ground. and the only way they get and family can ensure their dear a farm survives. there are no scientific studies that prove a 2 mochas more digestible. but the market exists. you can buy it in

a number of countries. that's all for now. thank you for joining us for morning. grow some stories about science and technology visit. our website will be back next week with a fresh edition of tomorrow today. until then, by for

each session, for spectacular passion. for nature. it's the complete devotion that makes them the best wildlife photographer 5 adventurers. one goal, the preservation of our planet. 75 w.

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this is news coming to you live from berlin, germany, braces for tighter coronavirus measures. despite a partial lockdown, hospitals are filling in and infection rates are rising. michael is set to meet today with regional leaders and discuss the possibility of tougher restrictions. also coming up for group is a country without a leader. after the interim president steps down through bubblicious celebrations in the streets after deadly mass protests. but the nation now faces a constitutional crisis. plus for.