A Brave New World

As part of my interview preparation this weekend I watched 4 episodes of 'A brave new world with Steven Hawkings'  and parts of it were really really really interesting! I mean seriously interesting, we're talking adorable baby robots and underground automated road networks here. But then other parts were so mediocre I could barely keep my eyes open - in fact in some cases I didn't even bother trying.

There was quite a bit of biology in there too but I have to admit that some of it was pretty cool. Like they are growing meat. Actual meat to eat from growing muscle tissue. This would be really great in terms of landuse and famine and growing populations and animal cruelty but I don't know if I would actually eat it... I mean I feel a bit uncomfortable eating processed meat as it is. Plus its super expensive at the moment

The cutest thing I saw were these Icubs! At first I felt like I really wanted one and the experience learning software seems pretty incredible plus they look really cute when they smile (well the lights on its face is in a smiling pattern). But then I saw this robot concentrate and its expression was super freaky to be honest! Then I had visions of Irobot as a reality, I mean they are practically named the same thing!! Maybe I watch too many films but honestly I am struggling to see their actual worth. The way the programme presented it was as though there were robot schools where the robots learnt but surely it would only take one to learn and then the memory could be shared between devices? They win points for cute factor even if they are 200,000 euros.

The next best thing was the SNO lab in Canada. Its 2km below ground so that their measurements of neutrinos can be done without interference of cosmic background radiation. Its basically a big bowl of water with millions of sensors to detect interaction within the water. The only problem is that this programme lacked technical depth. I have no idea why they use water because I thought lead was a good material that they usually use because it is very dense which makes nucleus interactions more likely.The presenter was actually allowed inside the bubble chamber and was the first to ever film inside! She was lowered down on a harness and even though she looked completely excited there was also a hint of fear!

My other favourite moment involved the almost crazy level of enthusiasm from my favourite Maggie Pocock in regards to exoplanets and the detection of them using telescopes and the fact that they block signals from distance stars in their orbits.