Discovery

Seeing more


Listen Later

We've been building computers to think like us for years, but our ability to replicate human senses has been impossible. Until now. This technological revolution is starting to profoundly change not only how we interact with the world around us, but is allowing us to see, hear, smell, taste and even touch things we never imagined possible before.

An Artificial Intelligence revolution is super-charging sensing technology, promising us eyes with laser precision, ears that can distinguish every sound in a mile radius and noses than can sniff out the early signs of forest fires before the first flame forms.

Evolutionary biologist and broadcaster Prof Ben Garrod, is off to meet some of these sensory innovators and technological pioneers. The archaeologists, ecologists and medics, who are turning our world upside down and inside out.

In episode one, Ben tries seeing further. The visible world to us is tiny, and we are able to detect just a fraction of the light spectrum that is out there. But new technology is pushing the boundary of what is visible. Ground penetrating LIDAR arrays are helping us to peel back the layers of planet Earth, and see the remains of ancient civilisations, previously invisible to us. The same technology is being used on the moons of Jupiter to provide 3D maps of the craters of faraway worlds. In the forests of west Africa, we meet the psychologists using infrared to monitor the stress levels of silverback gorillas being returned to the wild. And in a lab in central London, we meet the extraordinary animals that see hidden patterns in the natural world and perhaps even fields that are entirely invisible to us.

Could these new technologies be redefining what it is to see, hear, smell, and feel? Ben takes us through the amazing adaptations and development under the bonnet, and speculates where else these all seeing eyes may yet gaze.

Presenter: Professor Ben Garrod

Producer: Robbie Wojciechowski
Production co-ordinator: Jonathan Harris

(Image: Concept illustration of eye seen through clouds. Credit: Hans Neleman/Getty Images)

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

DiscoveryBy BBC World Service

  • 4.4
  • 4.4
  • 4.4
  • 4.4
  • 4.4

4.4

924 ratings


More shows like Discovery

View all
In Our Time by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time

5,442 Listeners

The Documentary Podcast by BBC World Service

The Documentary Podcast

1,828 Listeners

The Naked Scientists Podcast by The Naked Scientists

The Naked Scientists Podcast

595 Listeners

Nature Podcast by Springer Nature Limited

Nature Podcast

760 Listeners

Science Magazine Podcast by Science Magazine

Science Magazine Podcast

802 Listeners

Global News Podcast by BBC World Service

Global News Podcast

7,803 Listeners

Science Weekly by The Guardian

Science Weekly

411 Listeners

5 Live Science Podcast by BBC Radio 5 Live

5 Live Science Podcast

109 Listeners

Health Check by BBC World Service

Health Check

84 Listeners

6 Minute English by BBC Radio

6 Minute English

1,761 Listeners

Learning English Conversations by BBC Radio

Learning English Conversations

1,067 Listeners

Science In Action by BBC World Service

Science In Action

342 Listeners

The Infinite Monkey Cage by BBC Radio 4

The Infinite Monkey Cage

1,957 Listeners

Newshour by BBC World Service

Newshour

1,054 Listeners

In Our Time: Science by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: Science

707 Listeners

The Life Scientific by BBC Radio 4

The Life Scientific

239 Listeners

Unexpected Elements by BBC World Service

Unexpected Elements

355 Listeners

BBC Inside Science by BBC Radio 4

BBC Inside Science

395 Listeners

The Inquiry by BBC World Service

The Inquiry

751 Listeners

Curious Cases by BBC Radio 4

Curious Cases

805 Listeners

CrowdScience by BBC World Service

CrowdScience

474 Listeners

People Fixing the World by BBC World Service

People Fixing the World

243 Listeners

Americast by BBC News

Americast

769 Listeners

You're Dead to Me by BBC Radio 4

You're Dead to Me

3,025 Listeners