Whales were being hunted to extinction, when in 1967, a biologist called Dr Roger Payne realised they could sing. It changed the perception of whales and helped found the modern conservation movement. Claire Bowes spoke to Dr Payne about his discovery in 2017.  This programme is a rebroadcast. (Photo: Humpback Whale, courtesy of Christian Miller of Ocean Alliance)

The discovery of whalesong

History as told by the people who were there.

History

Society & Culture

In 1963, Dr Jose Ignacio Barraquer Moner performed the first surgery on a human eye aimed at correcting short-sightedness.  The ophthalmologist had been developing his technique for years, believing that there was a better solution for blurry vision than wearing glasses. But he had to move from Spain to Colombia to begin his experimental surgery which involved dry ice, a watchmaker’s lathe and rabbits. The idea was to change the shape of the cornea – the front layer of the eye - to focus vision. First, he sliced off the patient’s cornea then dunked it in liquid nitrogen, before using a miniature lathe to carve the frozen cornea into the right shape. Next, he thawed the disc and sewed it back on.  Jose’s initial surgery was performed on rabbits, but in 1963 he carried out the first procedure on a human patient, a 9 year old girl. It was a success, and soon doctors from around the world were flocking to Colombia to find out more. Barraquer called this procedure keratomileusis, from the Greek words for “carving” and “cornea.” The technique was the forerunner of Lasik eye surgery when the lathe was replaced with lasers. Jose’s daughter, Carmen Barraquer Coll followed her father into ophthalmology and tells Jane Wilkinson, how he inspired her. (Photo: Lasik eye surgery in 2009. Credit: BSIP/UIG Via Getty Images)

The pioneering eye surgery that led to Lasik

In the 1980s, a thirst for caffeine caused an unusual global collaboration. Coffee-loving East Germans were left without after a crop failure in the world’s biggest exporter of the drink, Brazil. So the East Germans hatched a scheme, linking up with fellow communist state Vietnam to create a mass of coffee plantations. The man behind the plan, Siegfried Kaulfuß, tells Michael Rossi about the scale and success of the endeavour. (Photo: Siegfried Kaulfuß with Vietnamese coffee farmers. Credit: Siegfried Kaulfuß)

East Germany's coffee from Vietnam

When a new show called Friends hit American TV screens in September 1994, it made household names of its cast. Over 10 series, it charted the lives of six young New Yorkers, through marriages, divorces, births and deaths.  The final episode was broadcast on 6 May 2004. In 2014, executive producer Kevin Bright told Farhana Haider how the show was born - and how it became one of the biggest comedies of all time. (Photo: The cast on the last day of filming. Credit: David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images)

Friends: The making of a smash hit

Thirty years on from the opening of the Channel Tunnel between Britain and France, we look at the moment the two halves of the tunnel were connected in 1990. Graham Fagg was the man who made the breakthrough, and the first person to cross by land between the two countries in 8,000 years. In 2010, he told Lucy Williamson about the festivities of that day. (Photo: The moment of breakthrough Graham Fagg greets Frenchman Philippe Cozette. Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

The Channel Tunnel breakthrough

In February 2014, Ukraine’s ousted president, Viktor Yanukovych fled the country. His estate was abandoned by security guards, so for the first time ordinary people got to see inside Mezhyhirya, the extraordinarily extravagant home of the former president. Denys Tarakhkotelyk was one of those early visitors, and went on to take charge of the estate. He tells Gill Kearsley his remarkable story, and how the house became known as a ‘museum of corruption’. (Photo: People wander around President Viktor Yanukovych's Mezhyhirya estate. Credit: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

The discovery of whalesong

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