Amid growing fears that the conflict there could escalate. Further. Central government is accusing Regional Forces of firing rockets into the neighboring amara region. Fighting began last week off to this of a box lined, the forces attacked National Military bases. In chanceless, a bastion curts has announced a 3 week lockdown to stem a shop rising to run. A virus infections is set to begin on tuesday. The country hit a record 9600 infections on friday. Austria hopes its latest measures will instill stress on its health care system. This is d. W. News from bergen. You can follow us on twitter and instagram. D. W. News or visit our website to be found at w dot com until they show we have creatures great and small. All of them useful, like derek house, which supply us with valuable milk and which perform a vital function as pollination. But their diversity is increasingly under threat and even some worms that have a surprising superpower, all their own. Hello and welcome to tomorrow. Today the science show on d. W. Images of Plastic Waste in landfills and our oceans have become so commonplace. We risk becoming immune to them, but plastic is a serious problem that wont go away on its own. More and more plastic is manufactured every year. In 2018, most went to packaging 12 percent was used for consumer products. We should all reduce our plastic consumption because sooner or later it all ends up as waste. But how can we tackle all that just started plastic. Could tiny worms be part of the solution to this gigantic problem . Our reporter christiane collard decided to find out and made a few new friends on the way. These warms are doing something that we always thought was impossible. But you know the greeting down on the cradle, digesting the number just the there it in plastic. This is how they would use a piece of styrofoam in just the week. If we could harvest their super power, we could get 3 or 4 plastic trash in weeks rather than send to release a could save countless animals help clean the environment and avoid a toxic plastic incineration camp. Prosecuting bugs help solve our plastic problem. d 2 world sure they are. Oh yeah. Yeah. I had to say that mine that night. She spit it up at the molecular biologist who in 2017 made an important discovery by not being one of my beehive. It was basically what they used to find was there. But the swarms managed to eat their way out of the plastic bag. Its just Something Interesting to grasp the importance of these discovery, we 1st need to understand what plastic is. Plastic is a mysterious material. Frankel, a science writer, author, and real plastic. In the natural world, natural substances in their sort of broken up by bacteria, they go back to their essential elements. Water, plastic doesnt do that. It just gets smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller, but it still essentially lasts. Thats why micro plastics stained the environment for centuries to be we see plastics, resistance to book a curse. But we forget that its also part of its miracle. Plastics really transformed the world. They really created our modern or a world that is safe more colorful the world that came before for most of our history, we have built things with stuff we found in nature, rocks and metals. But theres the ward modernize and there was a growing demand for properties that only scarce natural elements processed things like raisin silk or ivory. In the mid 19th century, you were worried that so many elements were being able to make billiard balls. And the elephants were being driven into extinction. Eventually up to get the ball manufacturer promised the rich prize to whoever could find a more abundant substitute for ivory that caught the eye of an american named John Wesley Hyatt who spent several years to bring in his workshop benchley came up with the stuff. So you avoid the plastic age, it begun adverts like visa celebrative in what i put there for that it made everything the rag doll we welcome washable micro who created it because they were laughed at by mark sedwill noida replaced shell coral. And mother pearl nylon replaced the silk and bucket like to replace the raise enough to lock up people. Its funny because in the early years plastic was seen as sort of a some patient of nature. And today we look at it is one of the chic enemies of the natural world. Plastic is no everywhere. Some are light and transparent like plastic bags. Others are extremely resistant, like bulletproof vests. What they all have in common is the polymers which just basically need their materials that are made up repeating atomic units. And i think of them as like beads on a chain. But a plastic looks like how it feels, how it behaves. All of that, my hands and i have been together and the reason why plastic lasts so long in the environment is that nothing of all to break down to stop of bombs or a kiddies. Thats what we thought. So i bought these warms all they have called me awards and you can actually buy them online and watch them become a cute as you feed them would stifle organisms themselves. That is the bacteria. Those organisms probably use again, hes a professor of structural biology and he knows everything about enzymes. Its exciting. Were actually certain places actually to think those bacteria growing on the surface of us think their goal is to find new bugs in the can they just plastic . Isolate their enzymes and then enhanced must produce them in by reactors. Obviously we cant just create your children, and sam says some of these technology cant help with the plastic already in the environment. However, it could revolutionize our recycling system to really recycle something. You have to break it down to its basic elements so that you can rearrange them into something else. Because we cant break down plastic bonds, we can only recycle it once or twice before it becomes unusable. And thats why thieves warms can be a game changer. If you think about bio recycling, what you can do is take that box and reuse it again and again and again, infinitely in fact, sounds like saif i but its already on the way. For example, a French Company named car beyond us is a radio using again signs to recycle bottles like bees, and not just once or twice. But in theory infinitely, if you can increase the value of the waist high in sensitising, the market move forwards, collect the past in the 1st place, and instead of people actually leaving money to consume, im still saying to people big money to get back home again. And we use it. So the technology walks by, its not scalable yet, and its still more expensive than virgin plastics. Oil and gas is really cheap. That means its cheaper to make costly group of oil and gas than are recycled materials. You need to get these technologies working at a much bigger scale that were currently doing now in order to make a dent, i do believe that we really need some more cards. So can my warms with their enzymes solve our plastic problem . I think its great if we can find things like, you know, meal worms that are, you know, the bacteria that while the last is really a design problem its that were taking also. Busy us, and were using them all too often to make things that are trivial and under arrest and serve. You know, we are in a toxic relationship with plastic. We invented it to substitute for a bell box in now were turning to bugs to get rid of it. And i dont want to live without it. I mean, you know, i like the back of my glass lying on my face that im in the middle of the row. I respect. There are just things you go on and demonize ition is very only issue is how we get you killed. And here is, well my screamy friend 7 important for lesson to teach us they have adapted to leave with plastic. d we should do the same. And my friend here we are. Go now to the free. Go and save the war eagle. The last incidental meal worms usually used to stick in feed or fish base. Have another surprise and storm scientists at Stanford University already knew that bill worms can eat various forms of plastic. Now theyve established that the worms can break down the toxic additives in plastic with no ill effect. So in theory, the mealworms could die nonplastic and then still be used just animal feed. And now we turn to another industrious creature. In economic terms, honey bees have always punched about their weight as pollinators and honey produces, they contribute around 2500000000. 00 euros a year to the German Economy and know not to mention their contribution to the natural world. Biologically speaking, there are 9 species of honeybee. Most of them are native to asia. Probably the best known these days is the western honeybee, which has been spread by humans and can be found all over the world. And the next record will take a look at some subspecies of the western honeybee and explore how its genetic diversity picked best be protected and out of beekeepers is getting a visit from agronomists. Here to the west of mr. Big. This is the moment of truth. Lets see if we still find any drones in regular works for the institute for be research near. Hes come here hoping to find some rare bees. A huge problem is that bee species diversity is declining dramatically. In the karni on honeybee is the one we have thats most genetically diverse. But the real gem is the european darkie, which is now very rare that mr. Skakel is one of the few people who breeds it. And thats why were here today to get samples vegan has instituted, setting up europes 1st honey bee gene database. Given a tradition like gene banks for cattle, pigs and sheep have been around for some time. But theres been nothing of that kind of court bees anywhere in europe. Its needed because the genetic diversity of rb populations is declining fast. There are constantly new parasites as well as challenges due to Climate Change that we can only meet them if our bees genetic makeup is as diverse as the challenge is to make the database as comprehensive as possible. The scientists have been collecting samples from many be colonies across germany. They vary widely in terms of the properties of such as gentleness, diligence, and swarming behavior. Some types have become extremely rare. For example, the european duck being until the mid 19th century, it was the most common honeybee in germany. But then it was displaced by the canio. To conic up, you know, the karni omen, honey bee expanded through breeding. And it prevailed because it is also relatively gentle with a relatively low swarming tendency. So people like tim and the dark be declined. Thats gone so far that they are no more dark b. Colonies originally from germany. The only ones we have now, one or 2 percent of colonies are descended from re imports food off. But the european doug b. Is alive and well in hot months. Gikas hives. He had his 1st beans at the age of 10, and hes more interested in the colonies themselves than in how much honey they yield. Skakel seems the duck be as part of germanys history or would over there are lots of drones. So all start collecting them in the uk. A vague and carefully picks out the drones in the comb. The us please leave me a couple. I have a few young queens here that i need them to mate with one last drone. Then vega collects a few worker bees for good measure. He needs samples of drones and workers from this colony for his gene database. Another one is got out and luckily theyre being nice today that back in his lab in who are no handoff starts to prepare the material for the database 1st, he preserves the frozen worker bees and alcohol that way. He has a record of that typical shape to help distinguish the different beast. Then come the droves to mail bees. Extract under the microscope, its High Precision work. Its a routine procedure for him, but still you have to realize that the drone always dies when it is jackie lates. It would do that if it were mating with the queen. We only do this because we really need his sperm in order to preserve his traits for the future of bees here or elsewhere. In the precious is stored in liquid nitrogen at minus 196. 00 degrees celsius, a process known as cryo preservation. Later theyre going to examine samples of the drones, frozen together with professor who heads the institute. The researchers want to know how good the quality of the sperm is, once its defrosted, here, because you can see that after its thought it was sperm cells still remain in the flagella, can still beat strongly and indicating that its good. You could inseminated queen with it and shed be fertile. Yes, it really looks like fresh sperm. Looks really good. Europes 1st genetic database where honeybees is just the 1st step towards a larger goal. Interfered. Diversity among honeybees is endangered around the world. Here in germany, they undergo a lot of selection, and that decreases the genetic diversity. But globally, the situation is even more dramatic because these selected species from germany and austria are exported around the world. That means they displace the sub species that are well adapted to the local conditions, and thats why our database is so significant. It can preserve these Genetic Resources for the future. It will take time before genetic databases for honeybees can be built up across europe or worldwide. But in germany, these research as a hoping to have filed away material from some 300 colonies by the end of 2021 here in that gene bank of b. Biodiversity. That is right. Why . Even if you have a science question, youd like us to answer this candidate. If we featured on this show, you get a little surprise as a thank you. Just youll find us on the web at d. W. Dot com slash science or check us out on twitter. The nutritional components in milk include lactose fats, protein minerals, and fish mix mammals produce it to feed their young or old enough to fend for themselves. For us, humans, milk remains an important source of mutual even into adult it. That is despite estimates that 3 courses of the global population have difficulty digesting lactose, but a special kind of could be a game changer. This milk is said to be easier to digest. Dairy farmer could stop, always has a little in his morning coffee. Its known as a 2 milk that he hopes to ensure the future of his business. Today, hes debuting his own 1000000 delivery service. Hows the feeling about the new venture . So its, well, its another step, one of several weve undertaken since 2015 to diversify away from dairy production. We have to wait and see how well its received. If we get customers, we dont know exactly what to expect. First, he visits his camps to see if theyre all in good shape. Now that hes also making deliveries, hes working on a tight schedule. Township is pretty standard but its human toll cattle are not, at least not all of them. From the outside, they all look alike, but there is a genetic difference. We havent investigated these animals yet. We still need to do a d. N. A. Test to find out which are a one and which are 82. 00. Its been expensive. We had to break up the herd and sell the cows that were a one. Then we bred more of them from the basic stock. Thats why the price of milk went up. On the plus of different fruits produced milk with different proportions of the a one and a 2 variants of beta casein guernseys have a lot of a too, as do some jerseys, and some cement historian. Surmise that selective breeding over the ages change the composition of milk. 8 to the argument goes is the older form. Nowadays, most european cows are a one. From here, we have 140. 00 cows producing 6 and a half just 7000 liters of milk a year. Thats about 22. 00 leaders a day, which runs on stupid stuff thats only 3 quarters of the yield of a dairy cow widely found in intensive farming. But gavins cows also young, good meat. Unlike their high performing industrial counterparts. Whether milk contains only, or mostly a one or a 2, it all looks the same, but the difference is significant. Good and known to see you. Its clear that there are different, we see it ourselves. There are people with milk intolerance who buy their milk from us and can drink it without a problem, but not the other cards. And lots of foreigners buy our milk. You know, there must be Something Different about it. But of course we can prove it scientifically. We dont have the money to do that, but enough to love a 1. 00 and 8. 00 to denote 2 forms of the beta casein protein made up of 209. 00, amino acids. But there is one difference between them. In a 2 milk, an amino acid called proline occurs in position 67. Anyone in addition to delivering, gavin has said a little kiosk where people can buy his milk. His customers seem happy. Yes i may have been paid to milk is great, very wholesome for the children too. We like it a lot kinder pushed it to. Im not milk intolerant. I just feel the other kind of milk isnt is right for me. While this one is so new and not just guess that we have visitors recently, i always have this milk at home years after one of them said he cant drink milk at all. If he does, he has to rush to the bathroom. I told him i had a 2 milk, you know, he tried it and it was fine. So it really seems to work financially at that searchers. One hypothesis is that it might work in the case of milk, protein intolerance, where enzymes cannot clean the proline and aid to milk. Whereas they can cleave the his did in, in a one milk. But this release is a protein fragment called b c m 7, which could cause gastrointestinal problems. This doesnt apply to lactose intolerance though. Since a 2 milk also contains lactose as well as other key components of a strong immune system. Thats especially important for calves on your system. Gatton wants his girls as he calls them to be as healthy as possible. Theyre fed on a diet of grass, corn and wheat before the afternoon delivery. The farmer has to process the milk and fill the bottles, which he does in his own onsite plant. Sales manager, both on audience explains that with normal milk. This is a job usually done by the dairy. I not with a chew, milk. You need another step in the goods flow chains, a whole new handling path in the logistics chain, and a large dairies arent ready for that. So we decided to do it ourselves. You need to be pioneering visionary. But there was immediate demand for saddam approximately 800. 00 households need to buy the product for it to be profitable. For his visit in israel survives to visual images from his art for us personally. This was the only way we could get around Agricultural Policy and price dumping in the milk market. In that respect, its the only alternative by common ground. And the only way they get and family can ensure their dearie farm survives there are no scientific studies that prove a 2. Milk is more digestible, but the market exists. You can buy it in a number of countries. Thats all for now. Thank you for joining us. For morning grossing stories about science and technology visit, our website will be back next week with a fresh edition of tomorrow today. Until then, by fair trade, coffee well brewed 3, german entrepreneurs want to show how it can all be done,