award, in the category of medicine -- >> we speak to a 16-year-old superstar of science who has come up with a test to detect pancreatic cancer. >> i was in my high school biology class. i was reading a scientific journal about these things that react with one specific protein. i put two and two together. ♪ it is estimated at least 93,000 people have been killed in a syria since the start of the conflict. according to the latest united nations figures. the us. regime's resurgence is said to have much to do with support from iran and -- the assad regime's resurgence is said to have much to do with iran and russian support. ordinaryiews of syrians being forgotten? some are checked both the

regime and armed rebels, and work -- fear the war will destroy any future hope for democracy in the country. meeting the aggregates -- advocates of a syrian third way at a conference in lebanon. >> a short but missy wrote. an hour away, across the border, a civil war is raging. here on mount lebanon, a resort offers security and calm for a group of syrians who have gathered to talk about ending the conflict. of themnly show a few because some think their discussions are too sensitive to be filmed. but there are activists here from government and rebel held religiousia's various sects. and if you government loyalist. they have not been brought together by outside powers, as diplomats are trying to do at geneva. they organized the meeting themselves. above all, what they want is a

syrian solution to a syrian crisis. >> we had a resolution of loan and we will continue alone. we will get our freedom and build our democracy alone. we do not need any help from anybody. we have to stop the war now and build a new state. >> they are discussing many scenarios, but they agreed that serious should -- syrians should not become pawns in other countries'games. when syria appears to have fallen into a vortex of death and instruction, with outside powers competing to arm opposite sides, activist like this to believe there is enough political space for a homegrown solution to persuade one another to stop fighting.

he was a law students when war forced him to abandon his studies. crowd in this antigovernment demonstration in the spring of 2011 when serious -- syrians like him still hope for peaceful revolution. then, instead of taking up arms like his friends, he began organizing workshops to bring citizens together. one included a fighter from the pro-assad militia blamed for many atrocities. >> he came to the workshop. he just listened. he was active in the workshop. the second day, he changed his mind. , he changed completely. after the workshop, he just -- i do notant

want my weapon anymore. >> the war will not be stopped by a few individual changes of heart. but grassroots activists have brokered a local cease-fires and are to keep institutions running amid the chaos of society breaking up. they are mixed schools, boys and girls club are? run bigal activities risks. this young graduate from aleppo did not dare show her face on television. she moves from her home in a government held area to a rebel territory. people shot dead almost every day. on the other side, she has helped open schools for children who have no education since the fighting began. schools that must be protected against government compartment. >> we choose buildings away from the frontline, surrounded by higher higher buildings that shells cannot reach. we do not use existing school buildings. we find other buildings and put school desks in the basement.

we blocked the roads leading to them with sandbags. >> 1000 children study at the new schools. some as young as these, others old not to join militias. >> many kids of 16, 17, 18 are whipped up with violent ideas and given weapons. our schools attract children who would otherwise lose part of their childhood. when the revolution started, women played a big role. for example, we found food and shelter for internal refugees. we help protect people's rights. but when armed groups arrived, it created divisions in society and everything collapsed. >> this participant has heard an islamist militia wanted to adultery.n for she wanted to know how civil

society responded. but what can civil society do against guns? the aim is to keep alive the spirit of the early days of the serious revolution, but perhaps that is too idealistic. many would say now the conflict can only end with a victory on the battlefield or compelled by outside powers. >> we are relevant. we are the syrians. it is serious -- syria. >> but you have no leverage. .> the fighting needs to stop >> it appears to be intensifying. andntiwar ends -- any war eventually. they will be able to activate society and lead society. it will not be necessarily the warlords. >> he like others who reject both the regime and the arm rebels, has been intimidated by

both sides. but he thinks only a third way will produce a country he can live in afterwards. >> everyone will be living in small camps. cannot have a stable society on the basis of such a split society. we are trying to bring society from collapsing. activists relaxing after the workshops in their lebanese hideaway have seen death all around them. they may be idealistic, but they are not naïve. they are thinking further ahead than the end of the war. they know a victory with a broken society is no victory at all. .orkshops and democracy they seem a lot sure he now. but no one will think that afterwards -- a luck sure he now, but no one think that afterwards. >> could that -- the

destruction of the natural world be reversed? one environmentalist suggests a program he calls re-welding, -- natureing, letting take over unproductive farmland. >> to most of us, the upland moore's are britain -- upland moors are britain at its most majestic. a magnificent natural landscape. one of our nations last unspoiled wilderness ies. but a growing campaign seeks to transform these landscapes forever, turning britain's moore land into this. nature taketo let control of the landscape to reverse thousands of years of domestication and allow ancient ecosystems like this one to reassert themselves.

britain's rewilder in chief. washat went on here massive d4 station in 19th century for the lead mining. then farming after that. trees were. we cut and pt cleared. you end up with this. it is really a barren landscape. the heather and grassland is typical of all over the world where you have d4 station. in britain, we fetishize it. deforestation.- in britain, we fetishize it. we think trees are undesirable, invasive species. >> his idea of what needs to happen is woodland like this. 20 years ago, this was oakland -- open moorland. >> you see the transformation.

it was bleak and barren. ,ow there are insects coming in leasing the trees, birds eating the insects. is much more bio diverse, much richer. it has cover, which is what so many species need. >> by creating places like this means making some profound changes to the way land in britain is managed. darting by getting rid of the woolly ruminant from mesopotamia which george clearly regards as a undesirable immigrants. >> he seemed to have a bit of a problem with sheep. theey are the one -- needed --they have reduced it to a bowling green. a forced it

abundant ecosystem with a great diversity of species. >> some would say you are being a bit naïve. the sheep or here for economic reason. >> i do stand that. but the real reason is we are paying for it. the subsidies a sheep farmer ats in wales is 53 pounds year. >> not surprisingly, the ideas are proving controversial, particularly with those who have most to lose, like sheep farmers. >> we are producing food for the population of these hills. no other animal can do that. that is why there are sheep farmers in the hills of wales. >> he says if you get rid of sheep and reintroduce mobile trees and stuff that used to grow up there you would have a much richer ecosystem. >> 5000 years ago there were only 50 million people living in this world. >> the whole world. >> that is what is living in the uk today. we has farmers, we have a job defeat the ever-increasing -- to

feed the ever-increasing population. a lot of these academics are very intelligent, but they do not have much common sense. they are out of touch. that is coming from a practical farmer who has lived in the hills. .e are producing food >> the irony is that this place, the landscape that george describes as a barren desert, is actually a nature reserve. it is funded with public money and is regarded by many as one of wales's tools -- jewels. >> it is really just letting something go. >> estella bailey is responsible for managing this place. she is the head of the wildlife trust. >> where are we now? >> we are entering the preserve. >> he says we are fetishizing

this wilderness, but the real wilderness would have looked completely different from this. >> we can never get back to something that george's fantasizing about. >> you seem to be saying that it requires human intervention to manage the ecosystem. george seems to say we can let the ecosystem do it itself. >> that is the traditional view of rewilding, which is not appropriate to the uk landscape. >> why not? >> spaces like this play a hugely important function for society. if we let this area here go completely back to three cover, for example, the bog would dry up. we would not be able to store water, would not be able to clean water. erode and carbon would be released into the atmosphere. it would be hugely detrimental. ♪

rewilding areof not just talking about getting rid of sheep. theyant to bring back species, including these. [wolf howling] >> they are very bottom heavy. they are missing most of the top. we are only beginning to discover how certain's -- how important species are. wolves are a very effective ecosystem engineer. when they were introduced the yellowstone national park, the whole park was transformed. there were forests growing where there were no forests before. they were cycling the deer out of the river valley. songbirds came in, bison numbers were rising. bear numbers began to rise because of carcasses left by wolves. >> again, this is hotly debated.

not everyone agrees that releasing aggressive predators into the wild is a good idea in yellowstone or elsewhere. >> a similar process is already underway here in britain. not yet with wolves, but the first extinct mammals have been reintroduced here in wales. i am hoping we will get a glimpse at some of them today. not as frightening as wolves perhaps, but talk of the reintroduction of beavers has been very controversial in wales. beavers have already been released in scotland. no breeding here -- these two are female. they are also fenced in. the aim is to provide evidence of the effect they have on the local environment. >> what i want to see is the restitution of those exciting,

doamic processes where you not really know where they are going to go. exciting,duction of dynamic, dangerous animals like wolves. people will not want wolves in wales or scotland. >> i'm not saying there is no danger at all. but the danger has been horribly exaggerated. >> george wants to prompt a national debate about what it is we are actually trying to conserve. should it be landscape man uses a loan, or one in which replay an active role? how wild should britain's wilderness be? called a been superstar of science at the age of 16. he has come up with a test to detect patri attic -- pancreatic cancer. pancreatic cancer has the lowest survival rate of any cancer. in its early stages, it has no obvious symptoms.

been welcomed into the white house and been especially invited guest at the u.s. first lady at this year's state of the union address. his achievements have been described as not bad for a guy who is just barely old enough for drive -- to drive. jack is just 16. >> it is very exciting and heartening to see somebody in their teens engaging with science. we need all the talent we can get for cancer research. we are always looking out for the next generation of researchers. i am really excited to hear of somebody doing this. i wish him every success in the future. >> the winner of the $75,000 2012 gordon moore award in the category of medicine -- >> he received international education after winning a $75,000 science prize at a

engineering fair in 2012. to detectn tryi pancreatic cancer led to a simple task that is cheaper -- test that is cheaper and more effective than existing methods. he has since applied for a patent and is carrying out further research. >> pancreatic cancer is one of the types where we had the most difficulty improving the survival rate. mainly because it is very deep within her abdomen and you are not aware it is there until it starts to cause pain, by which time it has often spread into surrounding tissues. what we know we can do if we catch it early is to cure people with an operation. what we would like is a test we can use in people to have a -- the cancer at an early stage. the test is not yet at that stage. it has only been used with people who have quite widespread pancreatic cancer. what we would need to use to see if it is useful is tested in people with very early tumors and see if we can pick it up then.

>> it is my honor to present -- >> he says internet search engines and free online science papers were the tools that allowed him to create that test. forare there lessons here the way we understand science and the way we teach it? with us.ere also with us is a professor of cancer medicine. you looked pretty happy in that clip we showed you. congratulations. why did you get into this? wrecks i really got interested in pancreatic cancer because a close friend who is a like an uncle to me passed away to the disease when i was 13. 85% of pancreatic cancers are diagnosed late when they have a low chance of survival. that is why i got interested. >> you were sitting in school in a science class thinking about this, which was good for you but perhaps the teacher was not too impressed. >> i was in my high school biology class and i had this epiphany. we were learning about these

things that only react to one specific protein. i put two and two together and had this idea. my teacher ran up and confiscated the paper. inlects in terms of -- >> terms of what he has done. enthusiasmrate the and the way he tackled this? >> the enthusiasm is inspirational. it is fabulous to see a young man like jack or my phd students working so hard with such a multifaceted approach. what is wonderful about it, he is using engineering and biophysics combined with traditional cell biology and medicine. the interplay is becoming more important. early detection can make a huge difference. it is an interesting test. you can apply it not just to pancreatic cancer, but other cancers as well, and look at different proteins, not just the ones he identified. >> how long do you expect for

this to go through the various stages before we can go into a doctor's surgery and have a cheap test if it works perfectly? >> what jack has shown with his mixture of carbon nano tubes with antibodies designed to detect the protein which may be really important in pancreatic cancer, he can detect really low levels of the. what we now need to show with collaborators is that detecting earlier is associated with better, more favorable outcomes for patients. we need to be able to test normal people to make sure you can not detected, then detect people with early levels of cancer to make sure you can detected -- detect it. then intervene to save lives. >> so many advances of cancer treatment in the last 40 years. pancreatic cancer, same death rate as 40 years ago. >> the advances over the last couple years, there have been a lot, have generally been restricted to chemotherapeutics,

not even the newer drugs we consider. this brings up possibilities we could treat these cancers by targeting the proteins that jack is identifying through a simple apparatus that combines different aspects of science. >> you must be really excited by this. >> i am pretty pumped. it will be interesting to see where this goes now. >> what are your plans for being involved in research in your future? >> currently i have an international patent on the technology and i am in discussions large biotech companies in order to get it on the market as soon as possible and collaborate with them on the large scale can call that clinical trials. i'm currently working on x prize toalled the develop something the size of a smart phone that you can pass over your skin and diagnose anything instantly. i am working with a team of high schoolers on that. >> you talked about the epiphany moment.

that is isaac newton getting hit on the head with an apple. you suddenly figured it out? >> pretty much, i was thinking, maybe if i can combine two different fields together, that is where we get this revolutionary innovation. when you combine two completely unrelated fields with a really elegant solution. >> in terms of your enthusiasm, i am thinking how it might play with people in your own age in your own country and also here. hearing somebody talk about science and the way that you do. do you think you can turn people on the science? >> definitely. when people at my school see that -- i am just this regular kid of the school. just a regular public school. inner-city baltimore. a lot of bad kids there. but when they see me being able to do this great science, they think, hey, maybe i can do that. now there is a lot more people getting into science and being able to do this amazing research. >> that in and of itself is

quite inspirational. >> it is massive to inspire the next generation of kids and young adults to get into science and make a difference for patients in the clinic and get a better education. it is absolutely fascinating. >> in terms of where we are with cancer treatments and tear -- tears -- cures, there is no silver bullet but there have been a lot of announcements. >> it is not just one thing. it is better diagnostics and early detection. also better surgery and care for me -- chemotherapy and treatments. together, all those little things together and that making a large difference for patients in increasing the cure rate. >> thanks for a much. good luck with your work. that is all for this week. from all of us, goodbye.

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coming up, balancing privacy and security in the debate over government surveillance. we talk with michael kessler of georgetown university. also, a new public policy spokesman for the southern baptists. russell moore tells kim lawton he wants to assert traditional values with respect and kindness. >> and, as the g-8 leaders meet in northern ireland, david tereshchuk recalls the history of both violence and forgiveness in the town of enniskillen. major funding for "religion and ethics newsweekly" is provided by the lili endowment an indianapolis based private family foundation dedicated to its founders interests in

religion, community development and education. additional funding also provided by mutual of america. designing customized, individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. and the corporation for public broadcasting. welcome. i'm bob abernethy. it's good to have you with us. this week of capitol hill testimony and widespread debate over the government's massive surveillance of phone calls and internet activity. one key question -- how to find the right balance between protecting citizens' privacy and assuring national security. we want to talk about that with michael kessler, an ethicist, a legal scholar and associate director of the berkley center for religion, peace and world affairs at georgetown university. professor kessler, welcome. >> so how do we get the right balance between privacy on the one hand and secu o