Seeing earth from outer space not many people have had the experience. One is an exam that gets to is just started his Second Mission to the International Space station. Each of these images during his first run. Will be seeing. Germanys very own super star astro alex. Hes been doing the rounds of the t. V. Talk shows. And he has lots of fans in high places to. The true history and different yes of course we should be following the news about astro alex very closely myself included for four. Other. The guest is the first german astronaut to win a large fan base for himself and space travel. Guys astronaut alexander gets here from baikonur hes a cool dude and also down to earth he talks to his fans on twitter where his handle is astro alex he has more than a million followers theyre excited about the Horizons Mission on the International Space station. And its gas second time up there but his first as commander. Very humbled by the trust that people have in me to actually come on this. Fantastic space station but of course its comes with a big responsibility also already in training. Guest and his crew spent two years training for the mission. It involved countless medical tests and experiments. The fans were kept informed. Even when he tried space food which he says tastes better than it looks. Is mainly to trigger my memory. You know i can make choices based on our. Few new ones in between to sort of get. On the menu in the heavens is comfort food from guests home region a swabian equivalent of macaroni and cheese. The crew wont just be feasting but also working hard. To conduct almost seventy scientific experiments. More than half of them work for top in germany at Research Institutes across the country thousand experts in fields. Ranging from botany to robotics will be helping with the science. Assistant is even going along for the ride an ai based digital assistant named simon. Schoolchildren have contributed to a special guest on board. The time capsule containing among other things wishes for the future of eight thousand kids. Its meant to be opened in fifty years time. But fans of space travel and astro alex wont have to wait that long for news hes planning a press conference from the i assessed on the twelfth of june. Shortly before blast off as to alex waved goodbye to his fans. Now that he had a how to tell message for his mother some of our view is good wishes to the german astronauts. Aswell legs astro i like space sounds really intense and crazy but you handle it with no problem cool and easy easy step by time in the center of your beautiful pictures back to earth you will never get to see the real thing. And the us is in the all the best for your journey and have a safe return i wish you about a pleasant trip i am very jealous of you suppose you have a very nice view to set your mind could take lots of pictures and i hope the food is tasty and its tough to be nice its having to enjoy your time in zero gravity which sounds really cool youll be a great commander and i know youll do us proud oh its wanted to experience weightlessness have an awesome time then your back outs of fun no joy the experience and when you get that feel proud of what youve accomplished and have dismissed you are like steer allies have a good trip its going to be great like always. Theater. Baikonur in kazakhstan home of the Worlds Largest space launch facility not much has changed since yreka guarin lifted off here in the one nine hundred sixty one. Every lawrence follows the same rituals and traditions for example on the eve of the launch the crew get a haircut and watch the same subnet in russia. On a course a year a says he was on hand for this and us. That. Its not long until takeoff astro alecs and two fellow astronauts are about to be blasted into space in a capsule mounted on a russian soyuz rocket. To. Our g. W. Team arrive two days earlier so we could watch the preparations. By mean by canoe up at the Worlds Largest space power to cause more drama as its called here in the middle of the cossacks that. Its the busiest spaceport in the world and nine hundred sixty one yuri gagarin set off from here on the first trip by a human into outer space in preparation for takeoff the rocket is brought to the launch pad by rail there is lots of security personnel the reason i am told is the risk of espionage. And here comes the iraq very long shot at seven oclock in the morning. But the launch vehicle will burn up when it falls back to earth only the small capsule with the crew inside will speed on to dock with the eye. Yess. It only takes a few minutes until the spacecraft is a vertical technicians and engineers check every detail up until the last moment everything has to work perfectly thomas is a retired astronaut who has come to watch obviously the launch as one of the more risky phases but its also something the crew is really looking forward to to experience these incredible forces that push the humans from the surface of this planet into orbit its remarkable the g. Loads its pretty quick less than nine minutes from lift off until you reach the weightlessness and you are traveling with almost twenty eight thousand Kilometers Per Hour its something to look forward to the final finishing touches everybody here is a true professional. Now we have some time left to look around at the city of baikonur just twenty kilometers from the spaceport. This is where the staff of the cars were drawn that just like in soviet times behind defense then and now. Literally outsiders may only enter the challenge with a special permit. Back to the cosmic drone for a press conference the crew of behind a glass screen to keep away from germs and infection is the last thing they need in space. The Mission Commander is like sand against the other two are Sergei Prokofiev yes from russia and serina on your own chancellor from the u. S. You know do this. Now this you guys is its always been in place three nights a week with our family so it will be in time and. Its like were going to be on trips around most of lets leave the room and because i know these guys are fantastic you know to do john. No the word. Before every banchero a Russian Orthodox priest comes to bless the rock. Its a tradition that goes back more than twenty years. The. Two hours before takeoff the three sauntered calmly down cosmonauts alley to the coach that will take them to the launch pad. An old song about cosmonauts by a soviet rock band players out a trip to the pioneers. There. Are three civil wars at the very last to hold before the blast off a very emotional. Day in the three say goodbye to their colleagues and loved ones alexander gas check a pro coffee and serena a known chancellor who will be out of this world until december. As is also enlisted birds in the name of science many states migrate when and where is in the team is. Some species travel tens of thousands of kilometers but many only thought it is believed that Climate Change is affecting these migration patterns now theyll be investigating that question from outer space. Birds are too small to be seen from space but the International Space stations ikarus technology should allow scientists to monitor birds and other small animals from high above the earth researchers hope to gain new insight into the animals and how their migration patterns are affected by extreme weather and Climate Change. The data could also help predict the spread of diseases such as bird flu. Sixteen years of work. Have gone into the Research Project the lab was transported by rocket to the space station. Purpose built antennas equipped with the technology will be mounted in august back on earth researchers have fitted thousands of birds with sensors similar to tiny backpacks these will send data on their movements temperature moisture and the effect of Magnetic Fields up into space the birds will act as environmental monitors the scientists are also planning to attract insects worms and shoals of fish all from outer space. Did you know that time can take differently depending on your speed of motion if one twin were to go on to stay slight shed be younger than her expensively on return at least according to the theory of relativity. Higher of ten that wanted to know more. Why is einsteins theory of relativity so famous. Relativity together with quantum theory form the basis of modern physics. Theory of relativity describes the composition of the universe and how it developed and its not much like how everyday experience of the world time is relative light doesnt travel in Straight Lines and only appears to fall from a tree. The theory says that gravity is the force of attraction but objects exert upon each other and that massive objects distort time and space and that was very new. Einstein came up with the famous formula equals Mc Squared Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared. It says that mass of energy are two forms of the same thing. That helps us understand how the sun works Nuclear Fusion causes the release of energy. Times theory explains the release of energy in an atomic bomb which makes use of Nuclear Fission thermonuclear bombs also involved Nuclear Fusion. Scientists dream of harnessing that for peaceful purposes to develop power plants that release energy the way the sun does. G. P. S. Only works because relativity has been factored in to correct for time flowing faster for the satellites in orbit. Otherwise the all cost saturn up would fail so relativity is not just an abstract theory it plays a very real road in our modern high tech lives. If outlet is right why are they allowed on even if they. Do you have a question then just ask him and tell him he will send you a small surprise to send us your question by video text message over or smell we have to hear from you. To find us at d. S. W. Dot com slash science or drop us a line at g. W. Under school site tech. Facebook d. W. Science. Theoretical physics is a complex subject that makes it all the more amusing that one of its heroes has become such a cultural icon Albert Einstein. Animates his a new tricks book germany has brought the scientific genius back to life. An elderly gentleman is exasperated with modern technology. Someone has certainly never had a smartphone. If god has created to grow his stramonium. Make it understanding easy for us. Albert einstein resurrected in digital form ponders the mysteries of the universe. Its part of a project launched by the Animation Institute at the film academy button button back theyre trying to overcome one of the major hurdles in animation creating a natural and convincing human face by digging. In digital animation one of the trickiest aspects is that the more human an animated figure appears the more difficult it is to create authentic looking facial expressions and emotions we thats because were all experts in interpret in facial expressions so we notice right away when something looks right all seems off. To create an authentic looking digital image the researchers first analyzed many pictures of Albert Einstein. These two dimensional photographs were then used to create a three d. Model. The next hurdle is taking the digital image and breathing life into it. Through capturing einsteins spirit at least somewhat its really tricky we did tons of research and tried to model our character on images that were more than just the Mad Professor with crazy hair. We wanted to create a realistic character like something out of a documentary blind curve and. Next they made busts of Albert Einstein without the trademark moustache to analyze the areas around the eyes and mouth that are most important in communicating emotion. They also documented the effects of light and shadow. These methods they mapped out einstein space even more precisely than they could on a computer. Before. Then came another tricky process we had to find an actor whose appearance harmonized well with all digital sega. When we insert our digital face over the actors we wanted to be the best possible match. And that it proved to be quite challenging. For certain physical features of the act so we walked away it was likely different from the material we did as a reference point. The next step was the most important one creating an authentic looking digital faith. For a viewer even a tiny unnatural looking movement can appear disconcerting or creepy. The research has developed Animation Software to help until recently digitally generated movements were always linear. But now muscle groups can be animated using complex nonLinear Motion which looks much more natural. So the motion of the lips is no longer linear like on the left instead like on the right it can follow a curve more like a human face. When the human actor and the digitally generated face are finally merged series ult looks astonishingly real and. Find me. Human beings. And only if human. Is out any attachment and the nation on the national and but. Often we get volume we did a careful evaluation with user groups and surveys and found out that our approach to generating facial movement did far better. The Standard Approach with Linear Motion did was about two thirds of respondents said our face looked more lifelike and real. Inspired by photographs of Albert Einstein taken in the one nine hundred fifty s. The researchers have succeeded in creating a digital work of art. The animated Albert Einstein is the motion convincing this new animation technique offers all sorts of possibilities for example in documentary films. Our einstein could be used in the future to for example in a recent t. V. Documentary about einstein he was portrayed by a real actor but of course the actor didnt look exactly like him so you could imagine taking our einstein face and projecting it out to the actor and the space to exist einsteins of course. The researchers produced a three part many Series Starring there Albert Einstein the famous physicist ponders the nature of humanity chats about relativity and tries to get the hang of a smartphone. Hes not just visually realistic he captures einstein spirit just as theyd hoped. Hed done this in fifteen or three films are a tribute to Albert Einstein to him as a person and to his lifes work. We also wanted to show whats technologically feasible biased. I have is i just use the real Albert Einstein would surely have appraised close to his digital double and that deriving a formula that gives the answer to lifes most important question is surprisingly simple. All you need is al. Unclothed ciro trying to square root. All. And thats all you need. A good meal also will miss the hans even in outer space. On the ill use this theyve already carried out experiments in growing their own vegetables maybe one day on longer missions theyll be able to enjoy the fresh produce. Back on this new forms of founding a listening test even the new york city will land is at a premium. New york is a vertical City Real Estate prices are soaring to new heights and its among the worlds most expensive cities so space here would appear far too expensive to grow vegetables. But the solution lie underground in this manhattan basement a start up is growing produce for high end restaurants doctrinaires believe that indoor farming could be the first step to selfsufficiency for the metropolis the hundred product farm measures just fifty square metres the plants growing shells which more than doubles the growing area. So this is a growing close to two hundred different. Edible flowers that micrograms and so on every shelf of every part of this room thats something different. Thanks to Energy Efficient l e g lights the indoor farm is environmentally friendly the plants need just five percent as much water as in conventional farming and they are subject to weather conditions for growing seasons the system at farm one is based on just in time production are harvested so theyre delivered on the exact dates chosen by clients everything we grow is to order so the chef has told us i want some. Thing on a particular day and we grow it specially for that so we know exactly how long it takes our crops to grow so that we can determine when she which plants and what we should plant. The Company Founder is originally from australia farm one is not his first startup blank spent seven years in tokyo where he started a Software Company but its true passion is food he bought farm one with his savings and crowdfunding two years ago this is called a public solace and this is a salad that you might use this any time you might use lemon juice or then again its that. Farm one attaches great importance to purity it grows without pesticides or genetically modified seeds. Ladybugs are used to keep pests in check. So we use old plant based bio digestive nutrients and some fish waste and some bad waste so its called an organic nutrient solution its not a mixture of chemical fertilizers its something that a plant can really hold on enjoy. Nearly six hundred different edible plants have been grown at the indoor farm the start up likes to experiment with the sort of being grown here will be ready for harvest in three weeks. So is it possible to provide the city of new york with vegetables grown exclusively with indoor farming. Its probably not possible to all of the food needs of this kind of city with indoor farming but i think that we can make a big difference and i think that we can stop so much importation of products from california by growing a lot more things locally so it doesnt have to be one hundred percent but maybe it could be fifteen or twenty percent and thats still