Discovery

The world's first animal with an artificial genetic code. In a breakthrough in synthetic biology, Cambridge researchers have succeeded in re-writing a key part of an animal's genetic code.

The animal is a tiny, engineered species of laboratory worm, whose cells glow red, thanks to an unnatural amino acid the animals have been reprogrammed to recognise.

Most genetic engineering reshuffles genes that already exist in nature. This work adds an extra card to nature's deck - vastly expanding the range of biomolecules researchers can work with.

The lead scientist behind the work, Dr Jason Chin, describes the development as "potentially transformational".

Last year Dr Chin won the European Molecular Biology Organisation's Gold Medal for his earlier work on reprogramming bacteria and yeast cells.

Roland Pease goes to the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge to meet the team behind the breakthrough and learn how it could help researchers illuminate hard problems in life sciences.

On 12 July 2011, Neptune was one year old - one Neptunian year that is.

The furthest planet from the sun, it's only now completed one solar orbit since its discovery in 1846, traveling so slowly each Neptunian season lasts 40 Earth years.

Too distant to spot with the naked eye, the ancients could never have known of Neptune's existence.

Nineteenth century astronomers had to climb on the shoulders of scientific giants to see it.

First a tiny blue disc now an ice giant whose strange atmospheric features send shivers down the spines of astronomers today.

What twists and turns of fate, what scientific clues and personality clashes won the race for Neptune's discovery?

Some say Galileo spotted it 200 years earlier, secretly noting its existence in a coded Latin anagram awaiting further proof.

Forensic tests of the ink he used could solve the puzzle along with painstaking studies of his original manuscripts in Florence.

It's late spring, early summer in Neptune today.

It has been for decades now.

Astronomers can only watch and marvel at the quirky movements and sudden shifts and disappearances of the vast 'black spot' amongst its clouds.

What is it?

Where does it come from?

What can you ever know about a world when even the most advanced human telescopes have only studied it for a season?

In medicine, there are few certainties when it comes to cause and effect.

Diseases can take a long time to develop and people tend overall to live a long time.

And during their lives they're exposed to an almost endless series of experiences that might alter their risk of developing a particular condition (diet, social class, lifestyle, economics, education and so on).

So, the only way we can be reasonably certain about the risks is to observe vast numbers of people over a long period of time and record what happens to them.

It's costly, it's unbelievably slow but it works and it's the bedrock of medicine.

Without the numerous evidence-based discoveries that have come out of decades of longitudinal science, medicine would be stuck in the dark ages.

In this programme, Dr Ben Goldacre, medic and author of Bad Science explores the past, present and future of longitudinal research.

How did these monumental long term-studies come about?

What have we learned from them and what do we still need to know?

Ben talks to some of the pioneers of epidemiology including Sir Michael Marmot whose famous study on civil servants changed our view of executive stress and Professor Diana Kuh, who now leads the 1946 cohort study.

And he meets the scientists behind a new UK Birth cohort study, starting in 2012 which will track a whole new generation of children, starting from their development in the womb to their final days of life.

Many of us think of our gardens, parks and green urban spaces as retreats and oases of calm from our busy lives, others think of them as places for fun, socialising and play, whereas there are some who think of them as just hard work.

Whatever we think, we usually think of them in terms of what they look like, even maybe what they smell like. But in Green Ears, Professor Trevor Cox explores what they sound like.

Acoustics play a massive part in our sense of space. With loud noises like traffic or industrial works actually causing us harm. The right sorts of sounds, at the right volume and pitch though can really help to enhance our sense of tranquility.

So what are the sounds we most like to hear in our gardens? Water tricking, birds singing, bees buzzing, wind rustling leaves and children playing (quietly or from a distance!) can be as calming as beautiful planting and clever layout. But it has to be the right trickle of water, get it wrong and you may find you want to rush to the loo! too loud and the sense of Niagra Falls in your small back yard can feel threatening.

Trevor talks to the scientists who have put it to the test and found the water sound we all seem to enjoy. He talks to garden designers who not only think about harmonising colours and textures of plants, but think about how they'll attract birds and insects into the garden as well as creating cocooned quiet spaces and introducing natural noises.

Plants can also be used to block out or distract you from unwanted sounds. Green walls not only reflect sounds, but they can also absorb them. Again water can be used to distract you from a busy motorway - and these have all been used to varying effect by urban planners aiming to create pockets of peace and calm in busy cities.

Trevor also explores the use of artificial sounds in our green spaces and finds out how a garden in Florence is being used as a sound laboratory to test cutting edge sonic devices to see if they can increase the harmony of the garden.

If you’re among the lucky few, you’ll live past 90 without suffering years of debilitating illnesses.

Your final decline will come swiftly and relatively gently.

In this week’s Discovery Andrew Luck-Baker looks at whether scientists can extend this kind of final exit to many more of us.

Their research centres on structures in our cells known as telomeres.

More immediately, this science may also lead to a kind of new cancer therapy.