When america pulled out of the worldwide climate deal. And after 20 years in space, a mission to saturn ended in a blaze of glory. A grand finale to a momentous year in science. Im at the Science Museum in london and here the public can come to learn about our planets place in the solar system. And with this incredible close up view you get a sense of the Dynamic World that we live in. The earth is governed by immense geological forces and some of these are of course volcanoes. Earlier this year i went to see one of these wonders of nature for myself but i wasnt expecting such a close up encounter. An explosive reawa kening. After years of quiet, mount etna in italy started to put on a dramatic display. I was there to report on a cutting edge new project. Mount etna and every volcano around the world are being monitored by satellites and they can track minute movements on the ground which show when an eruption is likely, but the technology could not foresee what was about to happen to us. We had gone to film a lava flow that had formed overnight, tourists had come to see this, too. The molten rocks so slow moving it is usually considered safe but then this happened. A huge explosion. Our camerawoman filmed as steam, boiling hot rocks and lava was blown into the air, and we ran for our lives. Many were hit. There were cuts and burns and bruises but amazingly nothing worse. Are you 0k . Stay down. Eruptions at etna are frequent but incidents like this are very rare, a volcano expert said this was the most dangerous experience he had experienced in his 30 year career. We have made it back down the mountain and what happened is only starting to sink in. This hole was made by one of the incredibly hot pieces of volcanic rock that rained down upon us, we really thought we were going to die, we had a very very narrow escape. We later found out the blast was called a phreatic explosion caused when the incredibly hot lava mixes with ice and snow. Our footage will now help scientists, who want to better understand these rare events, but for us, our close call was a real insight into the danger that volcanoes can pose. This year also brought a dazzling spectacle in the skies above. The moon casting a shadow above the sun, eating away at the disc, it was the start of the Great American eclipse. Millions flocked to see it, the first total eclipse to sweep from coast to coast in the United States for 100 years. The lights dipped as day became night and then a bright final flash before the sun disappeared. Blocked by the moon the atmosphere shimmered like a halo. It was like a religious experience. I photographed it, i got some successful pictures, i cried. This was definitely something you have to see in person. You cant describe it unless you have been here and actually seen it. The eclipse could be seen across ten states, turning all eyes skywards across its path. For astronomers it was a chance to collect vital data. We would like to learn more about how these eclipses affect the planet and the atmosphere, if there is any wind changes or temporary Climate Changes in the area. The much anticipated event passed by in a matter of minutes, a brief but breathtaking moment to revel in a true astronomical wonder. In 2017 we also met this rhino, seven years of age, at longleat safari park in the south west. The hope is she can save the species from extinction. She was sedated, a little agitated at first, but soon sound asleep. Ready to take part in an experiment of fertility treatment. Scientists were harvesting her eggs to be fertilised in a lab, its rhino ivf. She has been given hormone treatment over the last week, but what is being done today requires millimetre precision. Egg collection is only a technique that has been perfected over the last year, and this is conservation science at its most extreme. This is the animal that the rhino could bring back from the brink, the northern white rhino, once widespread across africa, today there are just three left on the planet, but they are not able to breed. Back at the safari park in a makeshift lab the researchers checked for eggs success. The plan is to take this southern white rhino egg and mix it with sperm from one of the last northern white rhinos, creating a hybrid. Scientists say it is better than losing the species altogether. Anything can happen to them, and then the genetics would be lost. If we had at least 50 of this species preserved in a hybrid embryo we would preserve at least half of it for future generations. With herjob done, she was back on her feet. At a later stage she could be implanted with a fertilised egg, but with her northern cousins so close to extinction it will be a race against time. In this gallery we can find out about the science of who we are and ask what are the factors that give each of us a unique identity. These are questions that researchers are examining, especially when it comes to the brain. This year they made a major breakthrough, that sheds light on the inner workings of our brain matter. The human brain revealed in unprecedented detail, this is one of the most comprehensive scans that scientists have produced showing nerve fibres, axons, the brains internal wiring that carries billions of electrical workings. The scanning project could show a range of neurological disorders. It is similar to being handed a Hubble Telescope when you have only had binoculars. And for the first time we can get measures for what i have called the missing link between structure and function. In canada they were carrying out the worlds biggest study into sleep, what happens if you dont get enough of it. You get to sleep for four hours and then i will personally come and wake you up. Volunteers were asked to carry out tests designed to work at how well we function if we are tired. The hope is we will find out how much sleep we need for our brains to be at their best. And at this lab in london researchers have been manipulating the dna of very early embryos, to see how one fertilised cell can create a human. This is basic research that is providing a foundation of knowledge about Early Human Development within this first seven day window and our hope is that this information can be used as a basis to build further understanding about underlying causes of infertility. The technique is called gene editing, and inside the nucleus of each cell in our body is our genome the blueprint for life. A single error can affect development, trigger disease or disorders, but now scientists can scan the genome and use molecluar scissors to cut out and replace the gene they want to target. The goal is to see if gene editing can eradicate inherited disease. Already this year scientists have shown it is possible to remove a gene in embryos that causes heart disease. Its early days but some believe the technology has the potential to transform medicine. But with ethical and safety concerns others warn that any Research Needs to advance with caution. In 2017 mysterious mercury was also in scientists sights. Its the smallest planet in our solar system and the closest to the sun, covered in craters, towering cliffs and ancient volcanoes, until now it has been little explored but this year preparations were underway for a major new mission. This is the spacecraft called bepicolombo after a famous italian scientist and the launch will take place in 2018. It is only when you get up close that you get a sense of the size of this huge piece of kit. This is a spacecraft built to withstand extremes, and to get to mercury has to travel towards the sun which means dealing with intense radiation and heat. 0n the surface of mercury temperatures can reach a50 celsius and that is hot enough to melt lead. The journey will take seven years, arriving at mercury in 2025. Once it is there the engine will be jettisoned and two spacecraft will separate, and they will Work Together to give us our best ever view. We will see its features in incredible detail, and look inside to solve the mystery of what lies at the core of mercury. This is the instrument we have built at the university of leicester. British scientists have developed x ray cameras for this mission. We will be the first people on the planet to see this data coming back from mercury, the first people to see x ray images of the mercury surface which will tell us about what the surface is made of and it will revolutionise our understanding. The spacecraft is now almost ready for its long journey, and while it might take some time before we get the first results back, Scientists Say the wait will be worth it. The Science Museums mathematics gallery was designed by the late zaha hadid and this beautiful curved overhead structure represents the mathematical modelling behind airflow. In 2017 studying the atmosphere was a priority for scientists, as well, and with the surprise rise in Greenhouse Gas emissions and levels of Carbon Dioxide reaching a record high, Climate Change was in the spotlight again. The effects can be seen in the stunning landscape of the arctic. This year british scientists went to greenland to understand why the ice sheet is melting and they found that white ice is turning dark. And the blacker the surface the more sunlight it absorbs and the faster it warms. Scientists believe it is linked to microscopic algae. What we want to know is, how far the algae can spread under the Greenland Ice as the climate warms, and it might well be that they will cause more melting and an acceleration of sea level rise. Over the last 20 years greenland has been losing more ice than it gains, scientists want to work out how much the meltwater will raise sea levels and impact on communities around the globe. Extreme weather also hit the headlines. From a deadly Hurricane Season causing widespread devastation across the caribbean, to catastrophic flooding in south asia. And wildfires burning across southern europe, 2017 was forecasted to be one of the top three warmest years on record, making tackling Climate Change a priority. Two years earlier in paris the world came to a landmark agreement to limit temperature rise but the us President Donald Trump dealt the deal a devastating blow this summer. In order to fulfil my solemn duty to protect america and its citizens, the United States will withdraw from the paris climate accord. He claimed the deal did not put America First and penalised the countrys workers. This agreement is less about the climate, and more about other countries gaining a financial advantage over the United States. It provoked an angry response. For the second largest pollutant in the world and the largest economy, to say they dont care any more is a real blow to the rest of the world. Donald trump says coal can be a Clean Technology but the number of americans working in coal is dwarfed by those employed by the solar and Wind Industries and falling prices are leading to growing investments in renewable energy. The impact that Donald Trumps position will have is still under debate, but many remain determined that even without america the climate deal can survive. Three, two, one. This year in the world of tech it was all about finding innovative solutions. This drone is being developed to deliver medical goods in remote parts of rwanda. It uses satnav to fly to its destination and then drops off vital supplies. In the uk scientists have found a new use for the wonder material graphene. They are using it as a sieve to filter out salt from sea water, making it drinkable. At last, a solution to the age old problem, how to get the last drop of ketchup out of a bottle. Researchers have developed a new slippery coating for the containers that allows sticky liquids to glide out effortlessly. So in the future not even a drop of sauce will go to waste. From the first steam train to early forays into the air, and the automobile revolution, when it comes to getting around we have been constantly pushing the engineering boundaries but in 2017 one british Team Revealed how they wanted to take things further and much much faster. Getting ready for a test drive, the bloodhound supersonic car, put through its paces in public for the very first time. Hurtling down the runway it reached from 0 200 mph in just eight seconds. But the aim is to speed things up, in 2019 the car is heading to south africa, with the help of a jet engine and a rocket that would normally launch vehicles into space, the team will try to break the world land speed record and hit 1000 mph. Built in britain, the project has cost £30 million so far and has taken ten years to get to this stage. Engineer ron ayres has already worked on two successful speed record attempts and he is ready to do it again. Im glad we have got this far but of course i will really start getting proud when it starts breaking records. What i really want to do is to make nice supersonic bangs that will reverberate around the world. In its first public trials the car performed beyond expectations and is now on track to go full throttle in the ultimate high speed test. This year the shocking trade in baby chimps was exposed by an undercover investigation in africa. The bbc team was sent these videos by dealers, offering the animals for sale. This one is about a year old, an orphan, captured in the wild when poachers kill his family. A reporter used a hidden camera to film him being held in the ivory coast, but the police were ready and moved in. Police the dealer was arrested and later found to be part of a Global Trade Network and for the police stopping this is a priority. The chimp was given a name and was taken to a nearby sanctuary after. But he never recovered from his ordeal and just a few months after his rescue he died. Conservationists say his death highlights the plight of animals caught up in this brutal trade. This was also a year that a new field of astronomy came into its own, deepening our view of the universe. Inside this tunnel in the United States is an experiment that can detect some of the faintest signals in the cosmos, Gravitational Waves are invisible ripples in space and time, and in 2017 they revealed a celestial smash up, two small but incredibly dense objects called neutron stars, 130 million light years away, they spiralled ever closer to each other before eventually they collide. The huge explosion stretched and distorted space, hurling out Gravitational Waves. And they were picked up here, the first time astronomers have been able to watch a collision like this unfold. We do not know if we were lucky and this happened to be an event that happened close, relatively close to earth, or perhaps there are many more neutron stars than we thought. Gravitational waves were only seen for the very first time in 2016 and this latest finding confirms their potential. A new observational window on the universe typically leads to surprises that cannot be foreseen. We are still rubbing our eyes, or our ears, as we have just woken up to the sound of Gravitational Waves. Researchers say this is just the start and they are expecting many discoveries, a new era in astronomy is finally here. Im in the Science Museums Space Gallery and from the Apollo Lander to the scout rocket, objects from decades of exploration of our solar system are on display but one missionary stands out the orbiter cassini spent 20 years in space and transformed our understanding of saturn but this time it was time for scientists to say goodbye, but they wanted the mission to go out with a bang. Instantly recognisable, saturn and its stunning rings, the cassini spacecraft revealed this giant planet in incredible detail. Taking countless amazing images but in 2017 it was time for one last look. After spending an epic 20 years in space and completing hundreds of orbits around saturn the spacecraft was running out of fuel. So scientists planned a very grand finale, sending it on a death dive into saturns thick atmosphere. This is the control room where the very final moments of the spacecraft will be tracked and every last drop of science is being squeezed out of this mission. As it enters the atmosphere of saturn the data will be streamed back here right up until the very instant it is destroyed. This will actually be the grand truth, as it were, being able to sample the atmosphere as the spacecraft goes in, it doesnt have much time, but it will be one of the most exciting points of the mission. Right at the end of the mission. The day itself was bittersweet for the team. Congratulations to everyone, this has been an Incredible Mission and a incredible spacecraft and you are an incredible team. I will call this the end of mission. Some have spent entire careers working on this mission. Its been a part of my life for 20 years, we have spent day in and day out thinking about this spacecraft, planning the observations and focusing on the science, and my career has been based on it. Its really hard to see that go. But cassini has left a remarkable legacy, it has spotted colossal storms and found structures as high as mountains hidden within its rings, it also revealed the planets many moons, from titan with its methane lakes, to a liquid ocean beneath the icy crust, shooting plumes into space, a discovery that has shaken up the idea of where we could look for life. We want to know, is there life in the solar system, could there be oceans inside of other moons, that will take future missions to go back and answer those questions. As the spacecraft hurtled toward saturn it vaporised, finally becoming part of the planet it had studied for so long. But for scientists the work isnt over. So much data has been collected saturn will keep surprising for decades to come. Back down on earth, a crisp and sunny day across most of the country. Some colder, wet wintry weather on the way. Not for everybody, not an awful lot. A bit of snow in the hills of wales, possibly the cotswolds. Possibly the hills of south eastern england. Parts of the midlands, if you are areas. But mostly rain. Lets see what it is looking like through the course of the day. Turning to snow in parts of wales, midlands and the peak district. Towns and cities mostly sleet rather than snow. Towards the early hours of wednesday morning but clears away. Could see some snow in the chilterns, the south down. To the north of that clearer skies, temperatures dipping 28 clearer skies, temperatures dipping 2 8 in some rural spots. As far as wednesday itself is concerned, most of the country will have a sunny, crisp day. It will be cold. The winds will be colder north westerly. Sunshine here, temperatures 2 4d. Anglia, around three in the afternoon, pretty wet. Some sleet iow. Afternoon, pretty wet. Some sleet row. Northern parts of the country, mixture of sunny spells. Cold temperatures barely above freezing. Then overnight, that low pressure clearing away you can see here the skies clear up. They may have some patches developing. Tomorrow night into thursday morning, you can see temperatures throughout the country very close to freezing. 0n temperatures throughout the country very close to freezing. On thursday in between weather systems. 0ne across scandinavia, another one coming off the atlantic. Eventually, later on thursday, some rain into cornwall. For the vast majority of the uk from thursday looking beautiful and cold. Temperatures of around two degrees, touching 6 degrees across the south. Into the weekend, things more turbulence. The jet stream turning more powerful. Low pressure jet stream turning more powerful. Low pressure is sent in our direction. Wind speeds increasing across parts of the uk. Temperatures also rising to about 13 degrees on saturday. That is it from me. Wherever you are today have a great afternoon. This is bbc news. Im julian worricker. The headlines at 3. 00 a woman from hull is sentenced to three years in an egyptjail for taking painkillers into the country her local mp has condemned the ruling. I think it is a damning indictment, to be honest with you, about good sense and fair play. This is a naive, young woman, a hard working, decent woman who was simply naive. Universities must protect free speech and open minds, not close them orface possible fines. Millions of shoppers are hitting the high streets as they look for bargain in the boxing day sales. A mum from norfolk says shes been overwhelmed by the International Response to her capturing the perfect image on her phone, of meghan markle, alongside prince harry and the duke and duchess of cambridge. And Tottenhams Harry Kane sets a new record for the most premier league goals in a calendar year as he scores