i'm not laughing at the germans. well, i guess i'm done now, but i say laughing with the german people, germany thinks deep into the german culture of nudity and get this drama they owe to you because it's all about who they know. i'm rachel. join me for me to get funky, of course, it's a fake news spreads rapidly in times of crisis. unverified articles get millions of shares on social media. fake news often gives rise to conspiracy theories and drives people out onto the streets in protest all over the world. do some countries have bigger problems with fake news than others? and if so, why? more on that on this week's edition of tomorrow today, the science program on t.w. . welcome to the shown

her where do you get your information? can you separate fact from fiction? this disinfectant was manufactured in 26 states and somehow already protected against corona virus. true or false? true coronaviruses were discovered decades ago, that 19 is just a new one. this was also shared thousands of times if you know of dolphins in venice, except there in sardinia. fake news is so prevalent, it's now become the focus of scientific research. from the claim that the corona virus originated in a lab in china, the chinese want to trump's reckless recommendation to inject disinfectant in a minute. and the conspiracy theory that bill gates intends to take over the world with a mind control vaccine is full of bizarre and baseless notions about the virus.

from the university of zurich was involved in an international study on the spread of just information during the pandemic. wanted to see why there were differences between countries. it seems to be that some countries provide a more fertile breeding ground for the spread of disinformation. the researchers prepared a social media post presenting the false claim that the virus is a biological weapon. study. participants were then asked whether they would share or comment on the very, very interesting observation is how the willingness to share. such posts varies between different countries. in switzerland for example, 11 percent of those asked said they would share the posed difference from the u.s.,

where 27 percent said they cherish tying them on from one to 25 percent saying they would like to comment on the post. or either western we asked was whether those surveyed believe their government is capable of getting the crisis under control. and here, more than 75 percent of participants in switzerland said yes, we have a lot of confidence in our government. but then we have, i think, are of under 30 percent for france as we can see here, under 40 percent in the u.s. . so that's a considerable disparity to another fine flourish in countries with a strong populist slant. one reason is the populist style of communication in this information is this. i lift

a device that you often find in populous communication, that certain information is a method while some is distorted to fit the narrative. that the european union has its own fact checking website to counter the growing flood of fake news. versus disinfo combating this information is now a major policy priority. both governments and international organizations have taken to the internet to spell out the facts. vienna based mimi comma is one of the biggest fact checkers in the german speaking world. the coronavirus has posed serious challenges for its experts. they were already dealing with around 150 feet every day. that number as more than tripled. since the pandemic struck communications expert on today, both sides fake news has seriously escalated. i'm frank, to quote

a at the start of the crisis. there were a lot of largely harmless hoaxes chain mails and what's up messages where people were evidently afraid and insecure about the new situation. there was a lot of trolling and initially satirical posts among these people. but then in march we saw things reach a 2nd level with videos imposed by contrary and scientists that contradicted the scientific consensus. that's where things got more difficult. and then in april, we noticed a really big shift with a load of conspiracy theories suddenly popping up that made especially difficult for every kind of fact checking because there are no facts to check on the contrary, these myths 1st, assume legitimacy and then challenge you to disprove them, and actually that's the wrong way to go about it. you know, that the sheer number of all the little myths and bogus reports suddenly to

a lot of responses in the real world. people started going out and setting fire to 5 g. masts because they believed that 5 g. was responsible for the spread of the corona, virus. mindless violence, triggered by made up claims about the virus. another example of the danger of fake news and the importance of facts. news with facts isn't always easy because facts require data and getting hold of them is no piece of cake. take conservation, for example. if you want to know how many species they are in an area and how population numbers are changing, you need to study that area over a long period of time to get a reliable picture. nice that is falling in this study to region in southern germany.

ok, let's go to get 52 commercial and his colleagues here from south korea are setting off to work. they often come to the boards at night to capture insects. they're not assessing up a light truck in the hope of catching more so as to work out how many species are at home here. the thing is really labor intensive. the organisms are really tiny for one, many or only a few millimeters. i can't do much with them out here, so i need to take them with me. another thing is that the species differ depending on the time of year and the weather. so i have to keep on coming back. i need to use different methods as well. so i'm pretty much never done and can really only do it in a certain number of selected areas. researching biodiversity and it's changing patterns

requires a lot of practical know how often there's a shortage of personnel, money, and time for that reason. data is often only collected from one place rather than on a large scale. and over a long period has come to germany to hone a new map that designed to make the process easier and more representative. it really gave me all the time inside. and then also germany is very advanced. it call it occurs study, then south korea. so we are quite late for this area. so i'm logging a lot of things from my colleague here, so they are very nice to work with. and then they are very advanced in many tech. and then all these she'll need to see the samples in the trap before she can show you her, her new method. the next morning they return to the forest to collect the

muffins they've captured. but there is a problem. where exactly did they hang up the trap? unfortunately, we lost yesterday, but sometimes it's not that same, but finally they managed to locate is field research is rarely simple. 1st, at least the weather is good and the area is easily accessible, which isn't always the case. so let's see what the mobile hold looks like. look at this.

you see this big a cockroach, a fire beetle. 2 or 3 dozen moths? i'm faster flies to my uses. the forest is a fantastic catch for me. it was a little warmer last night that explains the activity. and the cocky 1st typical roundabout merits. but this represents just one location and 1. 2 kilometers away. they've set up another trop. really good fortune. yeah. the dead trees may look bad, but they're actually good for biodiversity. even if they do make it harder to reach the tropics, the insects are placed in a liquid to preserve them. sometimes it's not easy, so we should be careful. but normally i think i'm going for,

i just find, i think some korean for ice dates more hard. so it lab tests will help identify the insects. the researchers want to see how climate change is affecting local biodiversity, reducing trees die. and the question is, is this bad for biodiversity? our data currently suggests not knowing. this is for the way it's terrible economically for the forest owner. so it's beyond down to that global warming's growing impact on nature also has huge economic repercussions. but how will it affect biodiversity? we'll have to wait and see. for the fall i was worked up. it's hard to establish exactly was the impact of climate change and human activity has on species. it also depends on the kind of forest coniferous are deciduous,

dense or sparsely populated, as well as the age of the trees. let's go on their way back, they encounter another problem that researchers have to contend with. look at this tree. you see this playing caterpillar. it will one day turn into a gypsy moth. the insects are spreading in many forests in germany. damaging trees in the forest owners want to use poison the spray to kill the caterpillar's. but the extent of the ad break isn't clear. for researchers, monitoring the activity of past is also part of the job a lot of information has yet to be gained by the number of species of insects, ground dwelling organisms, and even birds. it's also unclear how they're all doing

in order to be able to monitor them more effectively and comprehensively. the researchers are turning to new ideas on technical solutions and one of those new ideas can be found in low earth orbit, or neo, for short, 700 kilometers above the earth. the satellite sentinel one keeps a watchful eye like its radio images are available within one hour. in the event of natural disasters, for example, they can help rescue workers get an overview. but the technology is also useful for conservationists. for more on that, let's return to our scientists in germany here at the ecological field station of the university of that's book sawyer on pay and your camilla are inspecting their latest cotch. the single light truck picked up

a good 2 dozen different moths and beetles in just one night. even in a single sample like this, identifying the animals can be a challenge. and then comes the hard part identifying with some species that's very usual like stuff which is large and distinctive looking. but a lot of species are small and gray and all the same, their genitalia will have to be examined. and compared with reference samples, which is a lot of work, we're not talking about 1020 or 100, but between 10500000 specimens to be determined in the long term soil. and showing her colleagues how they can mount a forest fire diversity in a far easier, faster, more comprehensive fashion. i've brought in because it's immediately after you. you can see it is wrong. it's the place that

you're on pace for the great potential of using radar images from satellites in the quest to monitor species diversity. the sentinel one satellite has been orbiting the earth for the past 6 years, using radar discounted surface, an 80 kilometer wide swathe with a spatial resolution of 5.5 meters. the radio waves penetrate cloud cover and even forest canopy revealing the structure of 5th education below. this is the part that i was so impressed that the dark green news conference last light green is brought very forest. and the radar data indeed shows the tree species growing here. this enables the researchers to quickly investigate large amounts of terrain all beers in fairly low resolution. they can improve the image

quality by also conducting flyovers across representative woodland areas. the aircraft scans the forest with an onboard laser. the resolution here is far higher than with radar $10.00 to $1.00 centimeter per pixel. the researchers use a combination of both technologies radar for scanning larger air. i'm laser for greater detail for the structure the resulting data provides information about the species, the height of the trees, the density of vegetation. a lot of the animals in the forest from the specimens taken from traps which species tend to live, where if we kept the structure of we can

just structure and therefore a structure effect a lot in there. so that's why we can detect well there and how the findings can be marked on mops. you find a couple cases in the room always will until you find the feet. you do love harbor a little flycatcher. and this is striking because nobody is able to really work for you though. you're in this rough to row with a lot of, they're just going to want what takes an hour and you cannot go there everywhere. and this is really an old school that we can go into the whole landscape. using traps to take samples on the ground will of course, remain a vital part of the researchers work. but the hope now is that the radar days,

i will enable them to project their findings on to a large scale areas that will give them the bigger picture of whether and how starkly diversity is twin lakes. and maybe what action can be taken to stop the satellite data is not only important for research over 2500 active satellites are currently orbiting the earth, providing information for all kinds of applications, like g.p.s. navigation systems. they could replace t.v. towers. smartphones also use satellite data. and speaking of smart phones, how often have you looked at yours today? and how are your eyes doing? staring at a phone or computer display puts a lot of strain on the eyes. the constant focus on the same object looking in the same direction and from the same distance takes its toll on my muscles. and it can

damage our eyesight. professor chris low man at the hospital of the technical university munich says it raises the risk of developing short sightedness. no minor was. normally we blink every 10 seconds. but when we're staring out a display, it's only every 30 or 40 seconds. it's called for, it's good to the reduced blink reflex. tyra's the eyes, the tear film ruptures and the eyes begin to burn an itch and lose focus when to transfer easy. but it's a simple trick is designed to give our eyes a bit of relief in the dark mode setting found on most apple and android devices with updated operating systems. when it's activated, the background becomes darker and the text brighter. it's easier on the i, specially if the room you're in is dark, but is the dark mode setting really healthier?

this is and i've tried it out too and it does feel better. but it doesn't address the problem that people who stare at displays blink less and get dry. i'm tired eyes so it's not necessarily healthier for your eyes. does it at least improve your battery? life bans ties from german computer magazine connect, conducted a test for us. brand new devices from the same manufacturer was subjected to a stress test with standard settings. and then with the dark option, analyzed a smartphone with the display in both dark mode and in normal mode in dark mode, the phone had a 20 percent longer battery life. but that's because phones with displays only light up the areas of the screen where something is happening. dark mode on cheaper phones with l.c.d. displays has 0 effect on battery life. so dark mode can at least extend your

battery life, but only with more expensive models. in addition to document, this is also a nightmare and all night shift you supposed to use it in the evenings so that the light doesn't disrupt your sleep, but doesn't work. it's been another restless night for tatiana. for the past 2 years, the student has been suffering from chronic sleep deprivation, desperate to find a remedy. she has an appointment at the center for sleep medicine at marburg university hospital. psychologist bannock castle has an immediate suspect late night internet surfing it's quite possible that the light emitted by the screen can compromise your ability to fall asleep after dark is untrue, often pretty. the bright blue white light slows the production of the sleep hormone

melatonin, which normally tells the body it's time to go to sleep. so even though the natural light fades over the course of the evening, tatiana has difficulty turning off. the sleep. research suggests setting her phone to night mode, which reduces the blue tones and for watching movies he recommends donning a pair of amber tinted glasses with a built in blue filter. even if they're not to everyone's taste. kristi's a whole bunch of them to no fit into the orange toned filters out the colder blue and green light. so the light you are exposed to in the evening has little or no impact on your body, clock guns, beenish money in wood, and even better the night shift or spacey dipping. specks, of course is to put your phone away, featuring. 2 countless scientific studies have looked at the function of city and how it can be improved. one international study showed that over 60 percent of people feel that didn't sleep well. and yes,

we spent nearly one 3rd of our lives sleeping and often dreaming. maria consuelo ati's from columbia, sent us a fascinating question about that. can 2 people share the same dream? hollywood thinks they can. in the movie inception, so-called extractors, use experimental military technology to infiltrate their target subconscious and extract information through a shared dream world. but it can just really work in the real world without any technology. can we really share dreams? and studies have shown that people can dream similar things in the same day time experiences are preoccupying them. a brand new study shows that in finland,

the cove in 1000 lock down earlier this year, led to a number of people having similar nightmares. of 800 people, questioned over half of them reported having nightmares. related to the pandemic. dreaming, for example, that they became infected with the virus. but there are also reports of shared or mutual dreams that seem completely random. one woman dreamt that she was at a fashion party and went into an elevator with 2 gay friends. and we got into the elevator and they were dancing, being very cabin funny. and the elevator swooshed out really quickly. another woman who slept in the same room had an almost identical tree. so in her dream, she was in inlay at a fashion party for a fashion designer. it was a very popular hotel and she was going to gain friends of hers. and as it is a,

went into the elevator, it shot out really fast, like it was a rocket. so this is an example of a mutual shared jury, a coincidence, or were the women just subtly in tune with each other? so far, there's no widely accepted explanation for it, but some psychologists say the experience of mutual dreaming is most often reported by friends, relatives, and couples, and that it could express and attempt to enhance emotional attachment in relationships. well, what is red white are great. i don't know if i do you have a science question you'd like us to answer send it in. if we featured on this show, you get a little surprise as a thank you. come on, just awesome. you'll find us on the web at v.w.

dot com slash science or check us out on twitter. that's all for today. put it back next week with more fascinating stories from the world of science. until then stay healthy and curious

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going to tell me this, david, that the trace of oil money was gone a stream of black gold oil promises starts december 4th. this is the w. news. i'm ves, are our top stories leaders of the world's wealthiest countries have pledged to pay for the fair distribution of covert $19.00 vaccines and testing, so that poor countries aren't left out? the move came during a virtual g. 20 summit hosted by saudi arabia. the focus was on ending the pandemic and to dealing with its economic fallout ethiopia's prime minister has given leaders in the northern region.