discoverable. subscribe to the documentary too. they are part of every society yet their needs are often overlooked. worldwide there are more than 1000000000 people with a physical or mental disability. what scientific developments might improve their lives. we're taking a look in this edition of tomorrow today the science show on d w. it's great to have you with us welcome to the show.

our 1st record is about hands or rather if we lose them how we can replace them it's not so easy because of our hands we can grasp tightly move smoothly and work with great precision. it takes children several years to learn to grip properly. this only works thanks to coordination of the brain nerves and muscles. and how does that work. when a movement is to be performed the brain sends commands to the muscles via the spinal cord. the signal arrives and the young is racist. the nerve cells in the spinal cord also conduct stimuli back to the brain the impulses flow in both directions. and that's at the core of modern press that it

technology. this robotic hand can learn to cooperate with its wearer thanks to artificial intelligence. 'd is its teacher and also its owner today bauer can use his robotic arm to carry out amazingly precise and fluid movements for him the ai based technology has opened up a new realm of possibilities. and reason for an interesting one huge advantage of the system is the fact that is adapts to me instead of me having to adapt to the system. it's a game changer i don't have to think about what i want my robot arm to do as a house for him if he just does it automatically of the matter's. vulcan bower is a farmer who lives in bavaria in southeastern germany tending to his crop and

livestock is all he's ever wanted to do. but after an accident involving a crop chopper blade his lower arm had to be amputated to continue farming he needed an artificial limb. since the worst part was pulling out the arm and seen the open bones muscles and fibers that were covered in blood it was a terrible sight. despite surgery bowers arm couldn't be saved to avoid having to give up his dream of being a farmer he urgently needed to replace the hand he lost his search led him to the prosthetics manufacturer auto box into the shot. their therapist daniela vista failed teachers patients like wolfgang bauer how to use their ai based robotic limbs the initial training process takes several weeks this special a designed cuff is fitted with 8 pairs of electrodes. they recognize tiny movements in the muscles of the upper arm and ab visualizes these

tiny movements and stores them as movement patterns. as. the cuff and put connected by in them and inside the cuff there are lots of electorates. there's tiny impulses in both guns muscles will be transferred on to the out. or is learning how to use his robotic limb. it's crucial that the tiny muscle impulses he's learning are as distinct as possible that way the prosthetic can link each impulse to a specific movement. he's not starting from scratch even after an amputation the brain remembers the patterns of movement needed to do things like open or close a hand. once muscle impulses become associated with specific movements the robotic limb will use ai to learn specific movement patterns the electrodes inside the robotic limb register the muscle impulses from the upper arm

. the app matches these muscle patterns to specific movements and stores them. while vulcan bower spent weeks learning the basics the company's engineers were building his robotic limb now it's ready to learn and adapt to bowers movement patterns. and all the patient has to do is imagine carrying out movements with the missing hand the system can distinguish among those imagined movements and then carry them out and the food. from our his robotic limb means a major increase in quality of life. but i'm. controlling the movements it's just amazing that all you have to do is imagine opening your hand and the robot hand opens imagine closing it and it closes with the same rotation in the 1st set of arm just carries out these movements as. german prosthetics manufacturer auto block is charting new territory currently the technology only works on form prosthetics but

that might change soon other intelligent systems that control other lambs could soon follow. researchers are working on these and other developments. right now we're working on systems that could provide tactile signals to their wearers to chris that expect can actually feel at some point i'm sure we'll be able to provide feedback on temperature or the information about the surface of the object being touched the shelf not just gotten engaged on. that will help the researchers emulate a real hand as accurately as possible. what prosthetics have already made possible is on display at events like this i both want insurrection it's a sporting event where people with physical disabilities from all over the world come together every 4 years to compete in different disciplines the competitors demonstrate what today's prosthetics are capable of.

our will need many months and there be sessions to continue refining his work with his intelligent self learning prosthesis he's making progress quickly. but even with the help of artificial intelligence he needs a lot of patients and stamina to get used to living with his ai prosthesis. you just have to keep playing with it when something doesn't work you just have to keep trying it some movements work right away while others require more time and more practice and forth and fighting with. like many things practice makes perfect that's the only way the intelligent prosthesis can continue learning including therapy the cuff in fine tuning the devices cost around 60000 euros which are covered by his professional accident insurance. quite honestly i can't imagine my life without this person he says i use it all day long depending on what i'm

currently doing. i use the producers for everyday purposes at home too for things like eating there are so many things i use it for. thanks to his prosthetic arm this gun bauer can continue to follow his dream. contrast to purely physical disability there are developmental disorders that are not immediately apparent and often go unrecognized. to some spectrum disorder for example is usually only noticed when a child is the target but the earlier it's detected the better the chances of it being managed and treated. researchers at frankfurt university hospital are trying to find out. what is autism interpret in these symptoms correctly is quite a challenge even for experts. 2 and a half year old lucas is taking part in

a study by frankfurt university's academic teaching hospital he's not affected and is being used as a control subject so far he's been developing quite normally. so what are the 1st signs of autism in a toddler. to find that out scientists at the hospital's autism therapy and research center truck children's i move ments they want to find out if are to stick children see their world through different eyes. what we're trying to find out is how the eye moves. this seems to be certain differences between children with autism and those without trying to stop them we know for instance that children with autism play much less attention to social stimulus like emotional faces or biological movements we know that only too well. what we don't know is why that's

the case. so therefore it is. time for an experiment using an eye tracker. while lucas follows the images on the screen in front of him the eye tracker logs how long his gaze rests on the various figures and faces shown. how quickly do his eyes respond what holds his attention longest and which emotions appealed to him. initial results indicate that children with autism stare at certain images longer and they have difficulty refocusing their attention they lack a broader view. what we're hoping to achieve is to get a better insight into it to perhaps detect autism earlier. so that we can say we found a marker of the eye movements and continues a diagnosis from that. right now we can only reliably make

a diagnosis on the basis of behavior in the 3rd year of life. the earlier autism can be diagnosed earlier with medial therapy can be applied besides i movements the frankfurt team has found other signs in the brain clinical director christina high tuck manages the autism research center. her team uses brain scans to investigate the cerebral anatomy of people affected by autism it seems that their new ronal networks are woven differently could early diagnosis improve life for those of you. acted on it what do you think if there is a hypothesis that the earlier support begins the more elastic the brain is and that up to a point can compensate a little bit. but recognizing the minimal differences in brain structure is not easy to do it neuroscientist christina uses

a software which recognizes patterns it's algorithms compare hundreds of brain scans to calculate the probabilities of accurately predicting autism before her 4 years early prognosis is especially important for instance when someone in the family is already affected that increases the probability many times over and it would be an interesting scenario if a simply had autism then you can start scanning very early on and make a forecast based on our models. of basel stanwood lives on the 4 years i go there. but for now computer diagnosis is just a pipe dream and i movement analysis requires a lot more intensive research as well but the sooner the early signs of autism can be deciphered the faster therapies can be developed to help the children affected. the majority of people with disabilities live in developing countries often in

poverty. mel nutrition a lack of sanitation and poor medical care often lead to disabilities that could be avoided. it is estimated that 2 thirds of visually impaired people could actually regained their eyesight using simple measures as this report from rwanda. 9 in the morning in the cup clinic in rwanda as usual the waiting room is already teeming with people. little angelo is waiting with his mother new mg echo the 2 year old has already undergone his 1st operation that was 2 months ago when doctors had to remove his cancer stricken left eye. but ghani eye clinic is an oasis of hope for patients across the country it attracts large numbers up to

170 people can gather here as they wait to be examined the treatment cabins are all occupied staff work around the clock there are only $7800.00 doctors in all of rwanda compared bad with $8000.00 in germany now it's a little angelos turn doctoral koori studied medicine in germany he removes the child's dressing carefully the womb from the operation is healed well dr he wants to try and save angelos other eye he examines it closely and discovers a tumor is already growing here as well unfortunately angela was initially taken to a so-called miracle healer for treatment a custom that is widespread in rwanda valuable time was lost as a result. it's.

the 1st sign of an unusual white reflection on the eye or luko korea was it 6 months old now he's 2 and a half meaning they came here 2 years too late after the i had already grown out and was being pressed out the mother only brought the child to us when the same thing happened with the other eye cancer of the retina or retinoblastoma is curable but 70 percent of african children will contract it because they're diagnosed too late for effective treatment doctorow corey uses a special found scope to examine angelos retina it allows him to see how far the disease has progressed he decides to treat the right eye with chemotherapy. believes public health education is required to prevent suffering of this kind. we have to raise awareness about it and get treatment closer to the patients localities because of a patient comes to us too late the tumour can be deadly if they come here early

enough we can save the eye and possibly their vision as well. that's why dr corey and his colleagues regularly visit the countries more remote villages. he's seen a lot of the world born in levanon he grew up in to bring him in germany and worked in paris he arrived in rwanda in early 2019 once a year he comes to this outreach clinic where he performs operations for days on end here he comes across patients who can't afford a trip to a city i hospital over half the people here are live in extreme poverty there's no expensive laser technology in this operating theater every move has to sit perfectly. can treat 50 to 60 patients a day here a mere drop in the ocean a day later in the cup guy i clinic. the operating team works relentlessly 12 hour days are the norm almost 80 percent of the country's eye surgery is carried out

here. in the meantime angelos mother get go prepares frood kitchen. mother and son have been here for 8 weeks now but me and jake go hasn't given up hope. learned of his income and i need to i believe the doctors who can help my son who was. the problem is right why are they allowed on even if they. do you have a science question you'd like us to answer. send it in as a video text ovoid well if we feature it on the show you look at a little surprise from us as a thank you come on just ask. your find us on our website oh on twitter.

now here's a question from a viewer in nigeria. how do you fish see in mortar. under water everything looks blurry to humans that's because water has a higher density than at say light waves bend as they cast from at a water and the slow down that means an image isn't focused exactly on the retina as is the case out of water but behind it hence the blur diving goggles compensate for that. fish by contrast have almost spare echo hard lenses and can see everything up to a distance of one meter clearly. to look further away you. just focus by moving the lens closer to the retina they still can't really see far but usually they don't need to. they have

a wide panoramic view because of their sight facing eyes. with ultra wide angle camera lenses called fisheye lenses mimic this effect. fish see more colors than we can they have receptor is not only for red green and blue light but also for ultraviolet. light all in the dark depths that helps them locate prey that sport brilliant colors fisherman use colorful bait to exploit this ability in fish. something a ship turns out to can distinguish different human faces. as a study of archer fish found. they'd shoot down prey by spitting a jet of water. in the experiment they were trained to hit a picture of

a particular face in most cases they succeeded. fish vision is far better adapted to water than ours otherwise they wouldn't survive. most of our planet is covered with water. and makes up only about a 3rd of the area and of that only about a 3rd is covered with forest. in most forests humans have encroached hunting felling trees and clearing arable land. in africa and south america in particular the forested area has declined significantly over the past 30 years. in asia and europe on the other hand some lost forest has been regained through the forest station. example of the varian forest national. punk shows how it can be done. for 150 years the glass industry and

forestry methods have shaped of a very in forest. what was once wild mountain mixed forest has become a spruce monoculture and it was here of all places that germany's 1st national park was created a wager with an unknown outcome because nobody knew how to turn this kind of a commercial forest back into a primeval forest. mikail held was deputy head of the national park for many years and he knows the forest intimately he still poking around here. as a forest scientist and local he followed the beginnings of the national park very closely. in that one finds the early years of the national park no one really knew what national park actually meant and you made clearing some of the spruce trees for example and then planted furred trees because you wanted to make it more

natural it was hard to imagine that in here a natural forest would develop in the direction of a prime evil forest without human influence without forestry interventions in question. but 2 years after the national parks inauguration a storm felled $3000.00 spruce trees the park's manager at the time dr hans be bullied decided to try an experiment. against massive resistance from the national park forestry office which was still responsible for the care of the forest at that time he made sure that a few 100 trees weren't removed from the forest and were simply left where they fell ringback. then a process began around the dead trees that hardly anyone had previously thought possible within 10 years a new species of rich and near natural forest would grow in the nutrient rich. soil where the trees had fallen. so could it be possible that humans don't have to

interfere in order to regenerate a natural force. in 1903 a violent thunderstorm provided an opportunity to test that hypothesis the storm flattened spruce trees on about 90 heck cares. manager hons people data wanted to leave the trees in the heart of the national park and the ministry of forestry gave him the green light. it was a revolution against prevailing nature conservation ideas. with the same tried to always and you know you with this decision there was also a new nature conservation strategy in germany process protection as the scientists called it or wilderness as the tourism experts called it and then later people back to coined the term let nature be nature for this type of conservation where instead of humans acting they just let nature get on with it you know to our acute. as

hoped the forest also regenerated itself on the large when throw areas without human intervention. but the biggest disaster and with it the biggest test for the national park was still to come. in the 1990 s. the park was to be expanded that led to heated exchanges with private forest owners and the population. then in the high areas between hostel and lives and an area of around 70 square kilometers of spruce trees fell victim to the bark beetle in the north signal in the ninety's the national park with its principle of letting nature be was on the brink of failure by the nutters with even the nature conservation association. i suddenly had doubts as to whether this principle was really right for the national parks thank god politics remain steadfast on toast. because even in the

tough climate of the high country between a hostile and loosen the forest regenerated itself within a very short time today it's growing with a level of density and biodiversity that humans could have never created and with the new wilderness long lost residents are also coming back. links roam the national park again. and 2 wolf packs. primeval forest relics species find habitat again in the diverse natures of the ecosystem. in 50 years the national park has become a hotspot of biodiversity with its new near natural forests. mikail head is grateful that he was allowed to be a part of this development. the bavarian forest national park venture paid off and today the concept of letting nature be nature is applied in national parks

worldwide. that's it for this week's edition of tomorrow today. more news from the world of science and research next time until then stay safe and stakes here yes.

by 2050 more than half the world will be leaving with limited water resources we haven't had to think about our war or worry about. i think that era is over misses the crisis of our time it's a financial problem like any other financial. the world is changing tremendously important commodity junkers all be free forever more as a water necessity or commodity. cysteine and so on d w. o. o.

o guys this is the 77 percent stuff up for africa super tuesday issues and share ideas. you know hardest so i doubt we're not afraid to touch on delicate topic of africa's population is knowing. and young people clearly have the solution to job. the 77 percent. m d w l. more than one thing. 1000 years ago europe witnesses a huge construction boom. with christianity firmly established there is

a greater demand for houses of worship. and both religious and secular leaders are eager to display their followers so churches become palaces. the race begins who can create the tallest biggest and most beautiful structures. stone masons builders and architects compete with each other and if it doesn't do projects. this is home massive churches with towers that pierce the clouds like skyscrapers are creating a. contest of the cathedral stars people 12th on t.w. .

this is the deadly new slide from building no end in sight to germany's locked up chancellor angela merkel seeks to extend of restrictions for another month as covered 19 cases sold look at the impact on small businesses worried i'll go bust also on the program the us party hot spot miami cracks down on thousands of revelers gathered for a spring break holiday and this is now this something but since last year and in the bundesliga had to build and finally put it all together to secure a big quick hi.