neurologically al jazeera's science correspondent jake ward joins us. what does the research tell us about that? >> well, it's really - when you look at the sheer number of horos that poverty seems to inflict on children, it's hard to know where to begin. the most tangible version of the research that we know affects the brain has to do with how it affects the brain specifically the development of white and grey matter, the hippocampus, some of the most important parts of the brain. one study found that living in deep poverty caused white and grey matter to not grow as fast as it needed to, facilitating communication in the brain. the hippocampus turning short term into long term memories was stunted, and the emigulo all were stunted. it leads researches to cognitive disorders, antisocial behaviour and worse. we are see true tangible effect of living in poverty. >> when we do the research, are we talking about environmental factors, the places where poor children live, or the nutrition they get for the stimulation that the environment provides. what is

the coast guard park rangers, we are getting a sense of the clean up effort right now, jake ward was telling us and that was confirmed that at least what 300 or so volunteers right now, but jake, those volunteers as you have been telling us have been trained and the word is going out far and wide, don't just show up, right? you have to be skilled you have to be trained you just can't show up. >> that's right. it is reflects really tony the toxic nature of petroleum product. you should not come anywhere near it, and they are warning away volunteers not just because of the danger that an untrained volunteer may pose, but the danger that the toxic substance that covers this beach poses to ordinary people. we can smell it in the air it is definitely a contaminated scene. you heard the officials talking about how this will be a long and pain staking process, and that is true. what strikes us is that this is also -- it's not a unwith time thing, the beach -- they go up and down the beach sort of scraping and encluing but the tide continues to bring in oil. they are going to be at this for t

jake ward joining us live. what is the latest on the cleanup effort there?> reporter: randall here on the third day after the spill there is a sort of smell of petroleum product in the air. to look across the scene is quite tragic. there is oil speckling basically every rock and you can see the cleanup boats out on the horizon trying to contain which is now a spill that is spreading from beyond 12 square miles here. it is really just a tragic scene. there are 300 or more contract workers behind me wearing special suits, using special equipment to try to clean this beach by hand. it's really painstaking work and local officials are trying to warn away volunteers not just for the wildlife that can be hurt by well-meaning people but can be hurt by the oil. this is the migratory season for the iconic marine mammals that swim up and down this coast. all are moving to their feeding areas for the summer and they come right through here. they are literally swimming right through what is in the ocean right now. and this is the eve of memorial day weekend. so we are r

to be about cleaning these animals as much as they are about disposing of their bodies today. >> jake wardd. >>> sweden says it has scrambled fighter jets to intercept two russian military planes flying near its air space. it comes as nato considers a request for thousands of troops to protect the baltic states. lawrence lee has this report from lithuania. >> reporter: it's a drill, but the intention is real enough. the pilots have 15 minutes from the alarm sounding to take to the skies. they will scramble for real 150 times last year to shadow russian aircraft over the baltic. the current lead nation in this nato mission is norway backed up in lithuania by the italians. this they say is all about reassuring the tiny baltic states that they won't let the russians do to them what they did to ukraine. >> we show presence by being up there and show them that we are nearby and that we are on alert. we are airborne within 15 minutes and there is basically show of force and show them that you are here. >> reporter: lithuania's government is bringing back conscription to bolster its army. should

here is al jazeera's jake ward. >> reporter: every day approximately 3 billion people go to a form of work and bring with them their human abilities - their experience, compassion, manual dexterity. in a generation, how many of these jobs will be done by a machine? in several industries it seems robots could do the work. the jobs are harder than it looks. one of those things is dry cleaning, it takes human dexterity to deal with the variety of clothes that we wear. a robot can't look at this, know what it is and feed it through a standardized machine that could handle other pieces of clothing. >> as soon as i was born my parents had me on their backs working the machine. by the age of 7 i was putting expungers on hangers, taking ticket at the counter. by the age of 16 i was working on saturday so they could have a day off. my whole life i've pretty much worked at a drycleaners. >> we need humans to drive us around in taxis. >> they are pushing us to a world where humans are worse than necessary. at the moment we need human resources and judgment and senses letting us know dangerous st

jake ward is in san francisco tonight. jake?> reporter: john, it's really -- it sort of makes sense why an oil company like shell would in theory want to be exploring the arctic. it's a very shallow, 150-foot depth drilling environment, and in theory the u.s. geological survey says the arctic holds 90 billion barrels of oil, but it's very environmentally sensitive. the drilling area butts right up against russia encapsulates a walrus area an endangered habitat for many many spear spearsy -- species. it's really a very high-stakes environment. >> how would you compare to the gulf of mexico if there were a spill? >> reporter: that's a great question, john. we're talking not only about this being a very very diverse place biologically, but very remote. is truly like trying to drill on march mars. if there is a big spill, you cannot truck or train cleanup crews to the environment. the equipment nearest is a thousand miles away in kodiak alaska. also shell does not have a great track record in that port of the world, talking about to

our science and technology correspondent, jake ward explains it to us. is this a changed policy?> absolutely, it's massive change in policy, and basically, the faa's response to the commercial drone exclusion, a huge industry coming out of nowhere has shut them down. a commercial operation of drones by journalists and by academics in many cases and by anyone trying to use it for any sort of money making t. it has been almost entirely banned. and now the faa is going to try to integrate it into the air space. that's what michael talked about earlier. >> we have very high standards in the aviation system. and it's very important that we get in right. we're looking at the private sector companies to push what is allowed today. and get us to the point where we can see a much broader use of unmanned aircraft. >> the idea here, toney the faa is going to partner with private sector companies cnn studying drones over urban areas, and two applications trying to go beyond the line of sight. use drones drones in a way where you would not be able to see them anyone. one is called precision h

but i must stress even the volunteers must be trains and wearing proper protective equipment jake wardhe beach close to the town of santa barbara on the southern coast. >> here it is really the center of the enchew up effort, which is really only just begun. the workers are manually going across the surface to try to pick up as much as covered in oil as possible. this is the great irony, is this is sort of california as it's most beautiful, this is the birthplace of the environmental movement in the middle of the last century. so the idea that oil spilled here, has californians feeling particularly tragic it has also led the governor of california to declare a state of emergency. there are specialized boom skimmers out in the water. the company plains pipeline which was created the pipeline that spilled said that over 2,000 barrels of oil were lost inland and at least a quarter of that reached the ocean. it is now spreading across an area, at least nine miles maybe more as it spreads literally in all the directions. deepening the tragedy is this is the season for many animals. the sea

as jake ward shows us a lot of damage has been done. >> when you consider that the biggest oil spills history are in the hundreds of millions of gallons, a 100,000 bill may not seem like a big deal. for an animal affected just a little oil can do enormous damage. pipelines are difficult to maintain. what is the environmental impact of a small spill. at what point is it so small that we can stop worrying about it. we are talking about professor valentine. he was the first scientist on the scene. an oil spill expert and has been out in a boat looking at this bill. this is what you collected yesterday? >> yes, we collected this yesterday, about 11 miles offshore. >> reporter: valentine took a sample. and said recently science barely understood the large-term affect of thousands of compounds that make up oil >> at what point is there little enough oil to not be damaging to the environment? >> there is no single point. there's no single point you can point to. it's dependent on environmental context, and where you are. >> so in some environments it takes a lot of oil to damage the eco syst

but as jake ward tells us pulling that off requires tremendous advances in engineering. >> i'm nearly 1400 people in the air in sort of the cutting edge of high-end residential living. in the future we're going to be living at this incredible altitude if we make enough money. this building, manages to stay at this height because a combination of systems. it has a central core. but the exterior of the building the outer limits acts as an outer tube. and they're connected at five different points throughout this 9 of story monstrous building. now the things about it is that your great enemy of building a building of this size is not the basic logistics. it is hard enough to get water at this height. you need high-end pipes. you needle aggravators that can go fast enough that you're not spending all day getting down to get your dinner or breakfast. but the great difficulty, the thing that they really worry about is wind. when you're spending millions of dollars to live in a place like this you cannot be sitting there with your cup of coffee and having the whole thing moving back and fort

jake ward has more. >> reporter: this state beach is the kind of place you see in oil paintings in theal restaurants, but now it is covered in oil. federal and state officials are only just beginning to come to grips with how much got out of a pipeline here and into the water. >> with any oil spill response there is always things that complicated the response. for example, tonight we had to stop our skimming operations because of weather, the high winds and waves got a little bit too choppy. >> >> reporter: the spill comes during the migration season for whales. they are now swimming right through one of nature's most toxic areas. exposure to petroleum probably killed large numbers of animals for at least three years after the gulf of mexico spill. resources here are limited. >> why not have booms along the shore? >> a lot of it comes down to availability. the amount of booms available. it's pretty much impossible to get all of the oil. our crews are trying to get as much as they can while it is still at sea, but then we have to have crews address it as it comes to shore. >> reporter:

jake ward records. >> this is the state beach past of a coastline that has become epic in american fantasyis would typically be fills with beauty, and boaters and campers, but the boats you see out behind me are not in fact pleasure boths they are specially equipped boats skimming oil off the surface and the only people allowed on the beach are federal officials ought kitted out in hazmat suit. this beach has become not just ruined it is dangerous to human beings. it is very disappointing. i have spent my entire career to protect places like this, and so see it impact sod severely, making the decision to close campgrounds on memorial day weekend is nothing any superintendent wants to do. >> this rei don't think goes goes to great lengths to atrax people, but right now they are warning them away, not only are untrained volunteer as ding tore wild life, but it is also because of the 105,000-gallons that spilled here, and the 24,000 of those that reached the pacific all of that is dangerous to people, this whole beach smells like gal lean. it gives you a headache after a few hours. that's why

jake ward is in san francisco. jake?d the question here really is sort of a philosophical one how much protection is enough for an animal that has made an incredible rebound. so the question really here is -- is -- has it been enough or should the whale continue to be protected? there's something about humpback whales that humans just can't get enough of. their haunting song. their acrobatics. their sheer size. captain nancy black, grew up near san francisco. >> turn to the right a little bit. >> reporter: after a career as a marine biologist, she opened her own while-watching outfit 25 years ago. >> when i first started there was thought to about 400 in california. and now there's close to 3,000. so big noticeable difference. >> reporter: hunted almost to the point of extinction in the 1960s, they wound up on the endangered species list. and now they are back. >> they were definitely on the road to extinction and it was due to the one factor commercial whaling, and once that factor was removed we started to immediately

jacob ward is with us. jake, what do we know about the company involved here? >> well, tony, the plains company has been the subject of local and federal scrutiny before. it has 175 violations since 2006 and it's spills contributed to this small company total $123 million in that time. it has a spotty record up to this time. today there iser there was an announcement that action will be brought against this company. >> we want to make sure as the active investigation proceed there is zero risk of relief while we're conducting the investigation. >> it's clear tony that further scrutiny will be handed out. the attorney general has sent people down to look at the scene. and great deal--the hammer seems to be slowly copping down on down--coming down on this company. >> take this on for me. is there something in the nature of this industry that makes it more prone to accidents? >> well, the trouble here tony is the sort of decentralized nature of oil companies. oil companies, it isn't like the automakers, a very heavily regulated industry where you think of the big

science and technology's jake ward joins us from san francisco, and jake, help us understand better than what the defendants are accused of taking. >> reporter: well, tony, the technology is one that two of them in the indict, they worked together at usc university of southern california, on what is called fbr technology, and what it basically does, it isolates out unwanted frequencies. you and i are awash in frequencies of every order from wi-fi and blue tooth and phonecalls and this very specifically allows phones and will military hardware basically isolate the frequencies that they want. so it's really a way of just making sure that all of the sort of chaos that we walk around in all of the day every day doesn't sort of intrude on phonecalls and other sensitive information. >> so wait a minute, how big a deal is this alleged theft? i guess i'm asking why the justice department clearly is going to to these lengths going to all of this trouble. >> well, it's really just sort of that this case seems to be just particularly kind of sensitive soups and nuts situation, and they have seen t

jake ward reports. >> the students of u.c. berkeley might seem like the last group of people more likely to shoot an unarmed black man than an unarmed white man. but according to a simulated experiment you will find the same bias here as the controversy gripping the nation. ♪ >> as troubling as the implications are for what's going on in policing in america today, it's a compelling demonstration of the power of these implicit biases. >> would you be okay shooting the black guy we are looking at their behavior so we are look at differences in mill seconds. milliseconds. >> the participant is told to shoot all armed targets and not unarmed ones. they decide not to shoot an unarmed white man sooner and more frequently than a black man. >> i was trying to consolidate what i was thinking, obviously this is right thing to do. but then sometimes -- i mean -- it's tough. i'm not a police officer but i can only imagine the stuff they go through. >> perming in this task does not make you a racist person. >> even researchers see their ow

jake ward reports. >> reporter: there's something about humpback whales that human humans just can't enough of. their haunting song their acrobatics their sheer size. captain nancy black grew up near san francisco. >> turn to the right a little bit and see if it pops up again. >> reporter: she opened her own whale-watching outfit 25 years ago. >> when i first started way back then there was thought to be only about 400 off of california and now there's there -- close to 3,000. >> reporter: hunted almost to the point of extinction in the 1960s, they wound up on the endangered species list and now they are back. in a big way. >> they were on their way to extinction due to commercial whaling. and once that factor was removed he started to almost immediately see recoveries of the populations. and what we have been seening is the populations have doubled almost every decade. and there has been four decades since then. >> reporter: there are now an estimated 91,320 humpbacks in the world up from as little as 20,000 worldwide 20 years ago. now the united states is looking to sup divide the

jake ward is in berkeley california, and why is shell so interested in the arctic?> good evening, del. it's clear in theory at least, why any oil company would want to drill in this place. the arctic sort of as a whole contains an estimated 90 billion darrells of oil and about 85% of that is offshore so it's a logical place to go. you really only have to get down about 150 feet. it's a pretty shallow place. the difficulty is just that this is a very very hostile, very remote environment. it's really like trying to drill on mars. >> and where exactly will the drilling take place? >> well, that is exactly the right question here del. the place is basically the northwestern coast of alaska and it's a very remote inhospitable place. there is a big walrus use area there, a designated habitat for birds, the wild wife refuge is on the coast there, and shell hasn't had a great record of operating in this region. even in calmer regions, they are managed to ground on to the shores on new years eef of 2012 so it's just a difficult place to operate. and the real problem is the

jake ward last word on how they are built.e. >> the specific conditions of new york have created a new kind of mutant. architects that has to go to great lengths to standing up straight and to keep people comfortable at the top of these penthouses. there's a new kinds of sky crepe iser going up in new york city. super-tall knife like being skyscrapers. be honestly it feels like you can see china from up here. this apartment costs $95 million but we managed to get inside when it was still under construction. >> fresh air beautiful view. >> silvian marcus is the engineer behind pretty much every tall tower in manhattan. >> there are so many buildings aas i'm looking around -- assemble we're looking at your portfolio right? >> yes yes. >> for him the height isn't the challenge. the challenge is in manhattan you have to make it very thin. >> the slenderness of the building, the width of the building multiplied by 15 is equal to the height of the building. >> think of a child's ruler. its slenderness is one unit wide to 12 units ta

. >> jake ward for us. >>> today marks 70 years since the ally victory over nazi germany, surviving world war ii vets gather to mark e. day and thousands come to the mall to show their appreciation. the ceremony included fly overs from vintage world war ii aircraft. coming up on the program more trouble for blue bell. one of the biggest ice cream companies new about contamination years ago. plus stay connected while taxiing. good news for airline passengers. >> so deliver this. the food and drug administration said that a listeria outbreak in blue bell ice creme is worse than initially reported. they have released the results of the investigation and said there was a pattern of poor sanitation at blue bell factories. erica is here with us with more on this. >> let's put this in per perfective. blue bell is sold in 23 states and it's really like an institution in texas, it's been in business for 108 years and it's first recall was this year for a this listeria problem which we are now learning dates back two years to one of its facilities. the fda insists it was not aware of the problem un

and as jake ward shows us, it's changing the city's iconic style. >> there's a new kind of skyscraper going up in new york city. super tall, towers for the extremely rich. the tallest among them, on park avenue, views of central park and the whole of manhattan, and honestly, it feels like you can see china from up here. this apartment cost $95 million. but we managed to get inside while it was still under construction. >> we're very proud. >> silvie an marcus is behind virtually every tall building in manhattan. >> looking around. >> your portfolio right? >> for him the height of 432 park is not the challenge. the challenge is in manhattan you have to make it very thin. >> the weight of the building, multiplied, is equal to the height of the building. >> think of a child's ruler it's slenderness ratio is one unit wide to 12 units tall. in terms of buildings, that's very skinny. the north tower of the world trade center had a ratio of 1-7, but it has 1-15, while looking down on the wall world trade center and on top of the new one. that creates it's own set of problems. robert goodwin

be jake wardjacob ward ward last more. >> refugio beach is now covered with oil. >> with any oil spill response there's always things that complicate the response. for example, tonight we had to stop our skimming operations this evening because of weather. the high winds and the waves got a little bit too choppy. >> reporter: the spill comes during the migratory time for hump back whales and sea lions. now swimming through the most toxic creations. new studies show exposure to petroleum killed large number of animals there for at least three years after the spill. with each high tide more oil continues to hit this shoreline because resources here are limited. >> why not have booms available to keep the oil? >> it's pretty much impossible to get all the oil they're trying to get it while at sea but when it comes to shore we have to have crews address it. >> it's certain memorial day is not going to happen for this stretch of coastline, there are armed guards posting here to keep visitors from the beech. be jacob ward, al jazeera outside santa barbara california. >> the daily white house

jake ward has been on the scene in and around santa barbara at one of the beaches hardest hit by the spill. what is it like for you to see the environmental catastrophe, what does it feel like reporting on the story? >> it's the great irony of the assignment. you come out thinking "we're going to the beach, fantastic, it's a wonderful thing" we will not see violence some of the things that our colleagues are assigned to cover. then you get here and something about the sort of - the beauty and sort of postcard perfection of the coastline having been as utterly spoilt as it has been by the spill, that is - it's a very - it's tough to come to grips with there's a tremendous amount of tension between the beauty of the place, and how brutal this catastrophe is. you go to the beach, and not only is it covered with oil, it smells like a big open bucket of gasoline. we are at u.c. santa barbara interviewing scientists today, and the feeling behind - what we learnt is that the smell in the beginning is not harmful, as soon as you stop smelling the smell your body is saturated with it. we stop

our science and technology editor jacob ward is northbound be san francisco. jaken the united states and two teams in canada put together the theoretical pathway that would go from glucose all the way to possible drugs like anti-cancer drugs antibiotics and more 15. it has global implications that have to be explored. yeast is a miracle of nature. feed it a little something like sugar and it can spit out all kinds of things like alcohol. now several teams of researchers around the world have banded together to create a process where yeast can theoretically make anything from construction materials to medicine. process starts with glucose you know i.t. as sugar researchers have done what they've always done they feed it to yeast and it makes ethanol alcohol beer and other things but reticuline you can make all sorts of things anti-mall aerials and other types of drugs morphine and that raises the ethical question of whether this research could lead to something they didn't really intend. >> we realized it's not like ten years away, probably two or three years away.

jay ward is in san francisco tonight. jake? >> reporter: one this three foods we eat depend on pollinators, but over the past decade bee keepers have been reporting annual hive losses 30% or higher. today the announcement from the white house will work to reverse that trend. >> you look down in there you'll see there are bits of nectar and pollen still in there. they didn't starve to death. >> something else killed them. >> jeff anderson is a third generation beekeeper. 's trying to recover from the death of 70% of his stock part of a worldwide trend of disastrous losses in the bees. like hundreds of bee keepers around the world jeff rents his hives to farmers to pollinate almonds, avocados and apples. >> back in the '70s, it was a walk in the park to an beekeeper. >> now with help with fellow bee keepers he's bringing the bees he has left up in the hills away from commercial agriculture to detoxify. >> this frame is full of honey. that should be the sign of a well-fed healthy population. but these bees died opposite any way. a

our science and technology editor jacob ward is live in san francisco. jake. >> the terrible loss of life and injury here, the further tragedy of this is there's this system of a positive train control system. it came into play because of an earlier crash back in 2008. in 2008, a commuter train crashed just outside los angeles killed 24 people. the crash prompted congress to mandate that by the end of 2015 a so-called positive control system must be in place on the 70,000 miles of track that carry passengers or chemicals that are toxic to inhale. think of positive control is a sort of air traffic control system that can take control of trains. positive control would use gps satellites, sensors on the tracks or a centralized system that could slow or stop a train if it senses excessive speed. >> we have called for positive train control for many, many years. it is on our most wanted list. based on what we know right now we feel that had such a system been sthawld in this installed in such a route this accident wouldn't have happen. >> like to make an adjustmen

jacob ward is at the beach with more on that. jake? >> john the largest oil spill history was in kuwait in 1991, when iraqi troops turned on the taps to slow coalition forces and 240 million gallons of water flowed into the gulf. by comparison this seems small, but when you learn how many small spills there are, turns out that oil is everywhere. >> when you consider that the biggest oil spills history are in the hundreds of millions of gallons, a bill may not seem like a big deal. to any animal affected just a little oil can do damage. when you look at how many oil spills there are in the u.s. it starts to add up pretty quickly. in the scheme of things this spill is considered a small spill, a major spill is 120,000 gallons and greater. thing about to this way, the e.p.a. estimates every year in the united states there's 14,000 oil spills. at the same time the government says each spill is no more than a barrel of oil. here is the thing. each barrel of oil is 42 gallons. let's assume that all of those 14,000 are a single barrel. that m

ward pregnant. but when she walked out, there was no baby and no birth certificate. (jakeon the ground and one plane flying air support. that pilot was the president. so why does this guy go get a tattoo