Google Speech-to-Text API Automatic Transcription (Chirp). Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:01of
00:00:10of of Moving
00:00:13mountains at the push of a
00:00:15button.
00:00:18It might sound like science fiction, but in the Swiss Alps, it may
00:00:22soon become
00:00:23in reality. In the gothard massive, researchers
00:00:27at the University of Zurich hope to trigger a small... earthquake
00:00:30if it works, it could reveal more about how
00:00:34earthquakes start
00:00:36of and whether they can be
00:00:37predicted.
00:00:41all this and more groundbreaking stories on DW's science
00:00:45of show. welcome to tomorrow
00:00:46today.
00:00:53the big moment is just days away. researchers at
00:00:56ETHH Zuric University are hoping to do something that never been done
00:01:00in quite this way before, deliberately triggering a small
00:01:04earthquake. But first, there's still
00:01:08plenty of work
00:01:09to do. A
00:01:12of narrow road leads two and a half kilometers deep into the
00:01:15Gottat. The Bedreto tunnel underneath the mountain
00:01:19range is more than 50 years old and no longer in
00:01:22use, and now it's a perfect natural laboratory.
00:01:26Here, the team hopes to make ancient fault deep inside the rock.
00:01:53of
00:02:03of
00:02:16a
00:02:28of 70 member team have been planning and
00:02:32building this experiment for 5 years. They've installed more than
00:02:36200 sensors inside the mountain, hoping to capture every
00:02:39moment
00:02:40of the earthquake as it
00:02:41unfolds. Here's
00:02:45how they plan to trigger it. The fault has slipped naturally
00:02:49before, producing tiny
00:02:52of earthquakes. To reach
00:02:56it, the team has excavated new tunnel branching off from the
00:02:59a Bagetta. From
00:03:03here, they'll pump water through three bore holes directly into the
00:03:06fault.
00:03:09of As water pressure increases, the rock begins to shift. The
00:03:13existing stresses in the
00:03:15a rock are released, triggering micro
00:03:19in earthquake. Using six high pressure pumps, they'll inject
00:03:23around 2,0 cubic meters of water into the bore holes to
00:03:27bring the fault to the point where it slips.
00:03:31The pump system operates at pressures approaching 200 bar,
00:03:35demanding test for the equipment and a potential hazard for anyone
00:03:39inside the tunnel. These
00:03:43are the anchoring systems, they're secured
00:03:46of with chains and anchor pins in case the pressure becomes too high and part
00:03:50of the pipework comes
00:03:51loose.
00:04:00We want to
00:04:00of prevent damage to the equipment and avoid any
00:04:03injuries,
00:04:08the team checks every sensor and seismic instrument again and
00:04:12again.
00:04:16They want to
00:04:17of make sure that all the data will stream live to the control room at ETH
00:04:20Zuric, where the experiment will be
00:04:25of run. We're about to launch the first full-scale experiment. It's
00:04:28exciting.
00:04:30a two weeks later, the control room
00:04:34in Zurich, in just few minutes, the test will
00:04:37begin.
00:04:42of one last systems check at the badretto lab, 100 kms
00:04:46away.
00:04:50it's been a busy night and morning, but everything looks good and we're ready to
00:04:53go,
00:04:56sind bereit. the researchers are optimistic, the pumps are ready,
00:05:00and the safety systems are in
00:05:03of place, so this is button is uh to um manually stop the
00:05:07pump uh, so we can press this button, once we have it pressed
00:05:11for about eight seconds, the... pumps in the tunnel will stop automatically
00:05:14and this is safety procedure that will allow to have a bit more
00:05:18control. the last members the team have just
00:05:21left the tunnel. this is steam to and that's pressure
00:05:25up by one megapascal. here we
00:05:28go.
00:05:34the pumps are starting up, forcing water deep into the bore
00:05:37holes.
00:05:42the... a stream to zuric is running
00:05:43smoothly
00:05:48now comes the waiting game, watching the instruments and
00:05:51waiting for the fault to
00:05:52slip, pressure
00:05:56inside the fault continues to rise approaching 100
00:05:59bar, then
00:06:02suddenly a flood of new data
00:06:05appears, deep inside the mountain, something has
00:06:09begun to move.
00:06:13We've already detected and located more than a thous quakes since we started the
00:06:17simulation. They're almost certainly induced by us, given their
00:06:21number and size. We're doing this on
00:06:24purpose.
00:06:29After 3 hours, they triggered more than 30
00:06:31microquakes.
00:06:38Look at it from above,
00:06:39you can see that these earthquakes line up along a plane.
00:07:12Soon they'll try again, hoping to make one tiny part the Gottat
00:07:16Masif slip, just enough to trigger the mini earthquake they've
00:07:20been waiting
00:07:21for.
00:07:27Deep beneath the alps lies resource prized for thousands of
00:07:31years.
00:07:35Salt, it's mined by pumping water
00:07:38underground or cut directly from the rock, often called.
00:07:42with white gold, its story began earth's ancient
00:07:45oceans. The story
00:07:49of this salt began 250 million years
00:07:52ago. Today that salt lies deep
00:07:55underground, and we rely
00:07:59on salt in more ways than ever before. The seemingly
00:08:03humble mineral is one the key raw materials of modern
00:08:06life. But
00:08:10table salt accounts for only tiny... fraction of its
00:08:13use. most salt doesn't land on our
00:08:16plates. it's found in products we use
00:08:19every day. without sodium chloride, many aspects of modern
00:08:23life simply wouldn't work. so how does such
00:08:27simple substance become so incredibly versatile?
00:08:31the key lies a chemical process that transforms it into three
00:08:35essential chemical building blocks. chlorine is used to make
00:08:39plastics like pvc, medications, wide range of
00:08:43chemical products and to disinfect drinking
00:08:45water. Costic soda is used
00:08:49to produce aluminum, paper and textiles and much
00:08:53more. Hydrogen is a
00:08:56byproduct used mainly in industry and increasingly as an
00:09:00energy
00:09:01carrier.
00:09:06One raw material, countless
00:09:08products.
00:09:12In Germany, salt is an important natural resource, and the country
00:09:16produces average of 18 million tons of salt every
00:09:20year. Most of domestic demand
00:09:24is met from these deposits and large amounts of salt are exported
00:09:28every
00:09:28year.
00:09:33Today's salt deposits formed many millions of years
00:09:36ago. Back then a shallow sea covered
00:09:40large parts of central Europe.
00:09:45Shifting tectonic plates created isolated seas and salt
00:09:48lakes. As the water evaporated into the hot
00:09:52arid climate, the dissolved salts
00:09:54crystallized. Eventually layers of salt were buried
00:09:58under sediment and younger rock over and over
00:10:01again. Today, salt
00:10:04deposits in the form of sodium chloride stretch beneath northern and
00:10:08central Germany. It's mined and then processed, but
00:10:12not. All salt is the same, sodium chloride is only
00:10:16part the story. There are also potassium rich salts,
00:10:20the most important raw material for potash
00:10:22fertilizer, but it's not. pure, much
00:10:26the ore consists of rock salt and other minerals that must be
00:10:29processed and separated.
00:10:33These deposits are concentrated in central
00:10:35Germany. Potassium is an essential
00:10:39nutrient for plants. That's why potash salts are used around
00:10:43the world to make fertilizers. Potache
00:10:47salts dissolve a soil, releasing potassium that helps
00:10:51plants use water efficiently and also resist drought.
00:10:55frost and disease, and that in turn
00:10:58increases the quantity and quality the
00:11:01harvest.
00:11:06But potash mining also has a downside. Only
00:11:09part the ore is used, while huge quantities remain as solid
00:11:13and liquid residues. Over the
00:11:17decades, huge waste heaps have built up at some mining
00:11:20sites. The KNS mining
00:11:24company. for example, extracts up to 40 million tons of potassium
00:11:28rich ore year. After
00:11:32processing, that becomes just 9.5 million tons of
00:11:35marketable products. Most the mined material ends up
00:11:39as waste. At just one site in central
00:11:43Germany, hundreds of millions of tons of residue are stored in
00:11:46towering heaps, with official approval.
00:11:50Rain washes salt from those heaps, creating waste water that's discharge.
00:11:55ver
00:11:57into river. the liquid processing residues also end up
00:11:59there. salt is a raw
00:12:03material essential to much of modern life. it helps
00:12:06power our world and reshape it. the question
00:12:10is at what
00:12:12cost?
00:12:18this river has a problem and you can measure
00:12:21it. biologist. Andre
00:12:25Bush and his colleagues are searching for life in
00:12:28Nevaga. For
00:12:31decades, environmental authorities have been tracking salt levels here,
00:12:35and what they're doing to the plants and animals that depend on this
00:12:38river. Under the EU water framework
00:12:42directive, rivers are graded a five-point scale. Here at
00:12:46Gaustungan, the Vera is currently rated as being in poor environmental
00:12:50condition. One the
00:12:53biggest reasons is...
00:13:33Their abundance is another clear sign the river's high salt
00:13:36content. By now,
00:13:40things should be different. Under EU rules, rivers and lakes
00:13:43are supposed to be in good condition by
00:13:452027. That's essential for clean
00:13:49drinking water and healthy
00:13:51ecosystems.
00:14:25were much
00:14:25lower,
00:14:30further downstream though, the discharges are set to
00:14:33continue. The KNS mining company has long faced
00:14:36criticism over the pollution, but says it's working to reduce its
00:14:40environmental impact. One
00:14:44major project is a more environmentally friendly processing
00:14:47system, designed to eliminate liquid production
00:14:50waste. KNS declined our request
00:14:54for. a written statement, the company
00:14:58said, when disposing of solid residues, we
00:15:02are also continuously minimizing our environmental
00:15:05impact, and using state the art
00:15:07technology.
00:15:12the company's main solution is covering the waste heaps. layers
00:15:16of plastic liner, soil and vegetation are designed to keep
00:15:19rainwater out, preventing salt from entering the
00:15:22river, but question whether it will work in
00:15:26the long run. reducing
00:15:30the river salt pollution is technically difficult and
00:15:33expensive, and the company says the problem can't be eliminated.
00:15:37completely, the authorities have repeatedly
00:15:41renewed
00:15:41the discharge permits, although with progressively
00:15:43tighter limits. salt levels
00:15:47in the ver have fallen, but the river still has a long
00:15:51way to
00:15:52go.
00:15:56salt can also have healing properties. the salt
00:16:00brine has been used in spars for
00:16:02centuries.
00:16:05now it's helping to grow seal.
00:18:37If you've never eaten alg before, your microbiom needs time to
00:18:41adapt, so you should introduce them gradually and get used to
00:18:45them step by step für schritt eigentlich den eigenenuss erschließen
00:18:48müssen. It's still early days, but before long,
00:18:52superfood Algie from Bad Saro could be on the
00:18:54menu. What are
00:18:58stars made of? How many colors can butterflies
00:19:02see? Could robots have babies one
00:19:05day? Do you have a science? question, then
00:19:08send it to us as a video, text or voice message. If we
00:19:12answer it in the show, then we'll send you a little gift as a thank you.
00:19:16So, just
00:19:17ask.
00:19:22Algae is often called the super food the future.
00:19:26It also contains iodine, a trace element our thyroid gland
00:19:29needs to function. But in Germany and many other countries,
00:19:33millions of people still don't get enough iodine, and here too,
00:19:37salt can be part the
00:19:38solution.
00:19:42around one and three people in Germany may not be getting enough
00:19:45iodine, often without realizing it. experts have been
00:19:49warning about the problem for years. yochinf is doctor
00:19:53who's campaigning to improve iodine intake in
00:19:56Germany. the situation has worsened because
00:20:00of lower iodi salt consumption. the main problem is the food
00:20:03industry which still relies mostly on ordinary salt.
00:20:07As result, we're getting less iodine from our
00:20:09food. We've now reached the point where
00:20:13Germany once again meets the WHO criteria for iodine
00:20:17deficiency. Both west and east Germany
00:20:21began using iodise salt much more widely in the
00:20:241980s. By then scientists already understood how
00:20:27important iodine is for health. Iodine is a
00:20:31trace element we need to get from food.
00:20:35The thyroid gland uses it. produce the hormones T3 and
00:20:39T4, which act on almost every cell in the
00:20:42body.
00:20:48These hormones help regular. the cardiovascular system and blood
00:20:52pressure and support cell growth and development.
00:20:56That's why they're important for healthy bones and for the development
00:21:00the brain and nervous system. They also help
00:21:03regulate metabolism, which influences body weight. To
00:21:07little iodine over time can lead to health problems.
00:21:11Radiologist Malva Abel often sees thyroid nodules in her
00:21:15patients. Long-term iodine deficiency can be one factor in
00:21:19their development.
00:21:53Mild id deficiency often goes unnoticed, but if
00:21:56the thyroid can no longer produce enough hormones, symptoms may
00:22:00include feeling cold, dry skin, hair
00:22:04loss, weight gain, as well as low mood and
00:22:08problems with memory and concentration. Over the long term,
00:22:12iodine deficiency can cause what's known as a guider.
00:22:16For adults, the WHO recommends a daily intake of 100%
00:22:50Jodanteil im Salz etwas höher
00:22:52wird.
00:22:57Much of it comes from processed foods, such as
00:23:01bread, cold cuts and cheese, and seasoning
00:23:04mixes, but manufacturers usually use ordinary
00:23:07salt rather than iodized salt. cost is one
00:23:11reason, so we may be eating plenty of salt, but
00:23:15still not getting enough iodine. Nutrition specialist Constanza
00:23:18Losa says cooking more.
00:23:51One more tip, unfortified sea salt, Himalayan salt, and
00:23:55many specialty salts contain very little iodine. A
00:23:59diet based mainly on fresh, unprocessed foods provides about
00:24:03120 micrograms of iodine a day. Fish and
00:24:06seaweed are naturally rich sources of iodine, but in
00:24:10Germany most people don't eat them regularly.
00:24:14Milk, dairy products and eggs also provide small amounts, partly
00:24:18because iodine is added to animal.
00:24:54It's not a medication, it's a dietary supplement to maintain your
00:24:58health, and it's considered
00:25:00safe. Adequate iodine is especially
00:25:04important during pregnancy for the healthy development the
00:25:07baby. Severe iodine deficiency
00:25:11during pregnancy and breastfeeding can cause lasting developmental
00:25:14problems even a mild deficiency may affect a child's brain
00:25:18development.
00:25:30Some studies have also found slightly lower IQ
00:25:32scores. That's why adequate iodine is important
00:25:36for the developing brain. And
00:25:40for many people iodized salt is still the simplest way to get
00:25:44more
00:25:44iodine.
00:25:50That wraps things up this time around, thanks for joining us and hope to
00:25:54see you next time tomorrow today. Bye for
00:25:57now.
00:28:51but of course you never got to choose, it was this family trip to
00:28:54Devon that that changed the course of your family's life and
00:28:57ultimately led to the end of Heathers, can you talk to me about what happened that day, because it was an
00:29:01ordinary... family trip to the beach,
00:30:08but then as things progress she started to bleed and that's when we
00:30:12went back to the doctors and that's when we were rush to casualty um
00:30:16and everything you saw in dirty business is what happened um
00:30:20which is the the channel 4 series yeah yeah
00:30:23based on your family's experience and
00:30:26exploring the state the uk waters and the the
00:30:30industry involved in it south'. water carried out
00:30:33investigations at the time um, despite formal investigations,
00:30:37no cause for the outbreak was identified, um, the inquest
00:30:41documentation confirming that no definitive source of infection was established, and the
00:30:44circumstances southwest water say of waste water infrastructure
00:30:48regulation, the late 1990s is very different from today, and
00:30:52since then there has been significant investment, however, can
00:30:56I just say something? yeah,
00:30:57you can, at the time it took them