Strandbeests - Theo Jansen's mechanical artworks
Scheveningen on the Dutch coast and a summer spectacle, the Strandbeests. Windblown mechanical artworks.
Theo Jansen, artist
My name is Theo Jansen, and I try to make new forms of life on the beach where I was born 70 years ago.
Theo Jansen is an engineer and artist, and we joined him as he brought out his latest beasts for his summer experiments.
Theo Jansen, artist
These animals, they give me sleepless nights, because I'm thinking it is really addiction, you could say.
The puzzle: how to make something move and survive on the beach, powered only by the wind.
What you are looking at is 28 years of trial and error. Expertise at creating mechanical movement - almost a mechanical brain, which is what has attracted the attention of Nasa.
This animation shows how their meeting with Theo has influenced their thinking for a Venus rover - an environment where pressure and heat is just too much for normal motors. However, he had doubts that legs could cope with the rocky surfaces, so he showed them this: his caterpillar, inspiration for a more robust design.
Nasa is still working on a final design, but whatever they come up with, it will owe something to Theo's strange, beautiful windborne creatures.
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Underwater sound pollution
Listening in on life underwater.
This small device is picking up sounds we rarely get to hear - and it's helping scientists establish how too much noise is stressing out ocean wildlife.
Professor Steve Simpson, marine biologist
Whales and dolphins, we know have very sensitive hearing and we know that sound causes stress. It affects their migration behaviour. It affects their reproductive behaviour. We've then looked at fish. Fish also have ears and are affected by noise.
Today we joined Professor Steve Simpson, a marine biologist who's dedicated much of his time to studying and collecting sounds from the sea.
Professor Steve Simpson, marine biologist
So, very close to loud sources of noise, we see animals with ruptured eardrums - so whales and dolphins. We see fish with their swim bladders burst because of the noise.
Offshore construction and busy shipping lanes are interfering with the way marine life communicates.
Professor Steve Simpson, marine biologist
That is really loud, isn’t it? I mean, that's totally swamping anything out. If you were trying to communicate, if you were a dolphin in the area, or you were a fish, then you wouldn't get yourself heard over the noise of that boat.
Solving the problem of plastic pollution in our oceans will take many years.
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But when it comes to noise pollution, Steve says it can be reversed.
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Using a smart bin to tackle food waste
This commercial kitchen in central London prepares one-and-a-half thousand meals a day. It provides catering for a museum and a conference centre.
Kitchens like these typically throw away 20% of the ingredients they buy. Some are thrown away as trimmings even though they are edible. And sometimes food ends up in the bin simply because it's not needed after all.
To stop this happening, this kitchen has been using a new piece of technology which can simply be connected to a normal bin on scales. This is what's known as a smart bin. Kitchen staff use it like a supermarket self-checkout. The idea is to keep an accurate digital record of the food being thrown out. This helps the head chef make more informed choices.
Bill Owen, head chef
It was a shocker how many tonnage is actually saved through using this.
By keeping tabs on exactly what kind of food is being thrown out, the chef can adjust his orders of ingredients, but also improvise whole new menus based on what was previously being thrown away.
Mark Zornes, Winnow smart bins
In an operation where you make a significant amount of your food in advance, you can typically cut food waste in half.
Do people actually have time on top of everything else to catalogue the stuff as they are putting it into the bin?
Bill Owen, head chef
They do. To start with, take a little while to get used to the bin system. It is just about familiarising yourself with where the buttons are.
However effective they may be there is one important factor that holds these smart bins back.
Andrew Stephen, CEO, Sustainable Restaurant Association
Traditionally, smart bin technology has been at quite a high price point for particularly small operators. There is only a relatively small fraction that can afford that upfront implementation.
It seems that smart bins are just one part of the solution to the pressing problem of food waste.
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