Optus is pleased to present Beyond 2000, a glimpse of tomorrow today.
Tonight, Simon Reeve on a disease that affects 200 million people around the world.
It's extraordinary to think that perhaps between 40 and 50 percent of these boys may have the parasite in their blood system.
From Africa, the fight against it and the development that could see it end before we reach the years beyond 2000.
Hello and welcome to this edition of Beyond 2000.
Later I'll be reporting on the weird geomagnetic storms that buffered Earth between 10 and 20 times a year.
It's vital that we learn to predict them for our own protection.
But first, protection for ocean sports enthusiasts.
Part on the wheels of the bicycle helmet revolution comes surfing headgear with some telltale additional features to keep you out of the doctor's surgery and in the tube.
There are many people, particularly novices like me, for whom this idea makes a great deal of sense.
Named after its inventor, the Gaff helmet is being worn by a growing number of windsurfers and surfers, even professionals, around Australia.
Rick Gaff has been a surfer for most of his life.
In pursuit of his passion, his body has taken some almighty punishment.
Designing a practical helmet for the water first became a challenge and is now a full-time job.
A lot of my friends have been surfing for 15, 20 years, they've got ear problems, they've already had the first lot of skin cancers burn off their face.
And when you're surfing, usually once every six months you go to the doctor's and have your head stitched up.
In concert with his partner, John Adrian, Gaff has set up a company called Future Sports.
These days, John is a windsurfer, grateful for the helmet's protective qualities.
Much of his time, though, is devoted to his other office, the Indian Ocean.
Over the years, the combination of water, salt and particularly the sun can take their toll on water sports enthusiasts.
Skin cancers among surfers, particularly in Australia, are commonplace.
That's why this retractable visor has been developed to alleviate those problems.
While maintaining peripheral vision, when it's fully extended, it's virtually 100% effective against the sun's UV rays.
If children take the lead from the stars, such as Western Australia's world top 10 Dave McCauley,
parents too will rest easier about the relative safety of the sport.
Teenagers will often surf in large groups, increasing the risk of head injuries from boards.
And when conditions are good, competition for waves can be costly.
It isn't only the board that represents potential danger.
Underneath the waves, jagged reefs are an ever-present threat.
These three are prototypes for the next generation of helmets.
They look somewhat more space-age than the original.
That's because they've been fitted with a waterproof communication system
that's already been endorsed by surfing's governing world body for use in competition.
But they'll also be very handy for just hanging around in the surf, waiting for the next wave.
For example, if you're surfing metropolitan beaches, the unit can double as an FM radio receiver,
just the thing when the swell has died off a little.
You should start paddling back out really quick because there's a decent set coming out of the south.
But its main function, SurfLink, is an invaluable aid for professionals and for coaching from shore to water.
OK Dave, that's an unreal bottom turn.
How does it feel having someone talk to you while you're riding the wave?
This model could be very advantageous for competitive surfing.
Someone on the beach could relay all the scores of your rides and your opponent's rides, and that can be very helpful.
Solar cells on top of the helmet keep the batteries charged,
while the surfer is in charge of controls such as volume that are built into the back of the helmet.
There's also an alarm for use in competition.
It's even possible to communicate with up to 100 helmets from the one transmitter via a paging system.
This might be useful in extreme circumstances, such as a shark sighting or warning of wipeout black spots.
You see that guy wipeout behind you? He's going to need a helmet. You could paddle over to him right now and sell him a helmet.
It seems more and more surfers and windsurfers are taking the advice.
Like so many good ideas, one wonders why there wasn't a surfing helmet years ago.
Still to come, breaking down the secrets of fine whiskey.
Which compounds and how much flavour are the critical questions?
And next, the speed limit here is 45 miles per hour.
A passenger you won't mind putting up with.
The best backseat driver I've ever had.
On your own in a big and unfamiliar city, trying to read a map and drive at the same time is hopeless.
And you only wish that all those car navigation systems you've seen on Beyond 2000 had come to fruition.
All we've got to do is to press this button in the top left hand corner which says go, and in a few seconds the map will appear and we'll be on our way.
So we just punch those coordinates into this computer.
The information from the Earth's magnetic field is actually coming in from the roof because there's a magnetic sensor up there.
The driver will be informed on screen of impending freeway congestion and shown several alternative routes.
Unfortunately, all these map and arrow systems still require you to look at them and that can be distracting even dangerous because you're taking your eyes off the road.
So what you really need is a navigator in a human sense, someone who can tell you how to get from A to B.
As so often happens these days, to get that human help we turn to a computer keyboard, a destination address and voila.
We are about to start the route.
Oh good, I'm glad. The address I've just typed in is that of the inventor so we're just going to take the equipment back to him.
We'll turn on the CRT just to verify that the system's working properly.
We won't need this anymore.
I'm ready. You are on memorial drive facing northeast.
Drive to the end of this street then take a left.
Okay, I'll do that.
It's a hard left.
Appropriately it's called the backseat driver, a prototype talking navigation system that'll quickly work out the shortest, fastest and simplest route.
For the moment it can get you anywhere within a 41 square mile range of Boston.
Developed by the Media Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the system's directions are calculated using dead reckoning.
Because the car knows where it started from, using an odometer and a gyroscopic compass, it knows how far it's travelled and in what direction.
Intersections, traffic lights, stop signs, traffic lanes and service stations are also used to lock on to a series of predetermined landmarks,
such as major buildings or bridges, to determine where you are to within 10 metres.
Now you're on commercial avenue.
And it not only tells you where you are, it also tries to help you drive safely.
The speed limit here is 45 miles per hour.
It's got everything right so far.
And for that, it also forecasts your future actions in plenty of time.
After the underpass, take the second right. It's Ladsworth Street.
Here's the underpass. Boston's still on our left, I guess we're going OK.
Here's the turn. Do it now.
Yes sir. Without wanting to be unfair, that's about as close to a mother-in-law the backseat driver gets.
Drive to the end of this street, then take a right.
It's been easy so far.
Here's the turn.
Keep going for a while, then you'll be at your destination.
I'm not sure whether to be surprised or not.
This is as close as I can get. It's on this block somewhere on the right.
This looks like it.
OK, thank you.
Well here we are at MIT, the best backseat driver I've ever had.
Well let's see what the system's comprised of.
Here we have the computer which controls the software program for the backseat driver.
On the other side of the trunk we have the navigation controller and that works by dead reckoning.
And at the back of the trunk, the voice synthesizer.
The preset recognition program on which backseat driver is based is still being developed.
It's not something we're likely to have in our vehicles before the year 2000.
Beyond that time, it could in principle be connected by radio transmitter to local police.
They would know not only where you are, but what speed you're travelling at, at any given time.
But there are more immediate things to worry about than a speeding fine.
Like human navigators, the backseat driver does occasionally find map readings a bit of a strain.
Stay put while I think about it.
We've known for a long time that women feel the effects of alcohol well before our male counterparts.
The recommended safe drinking level is only two drinks a day compared to four for men.
It's always been assumed that it's because of our differences in size.
And women who think that being on the large size means they can drink more will now have to find a new excuse.
It boils down to a difference in biochemistry.
Researchers in the United States and Italy have found that the all-important enzymes that break alcohol down in the stomach
do not work as well in women as they do in men.
In fact, these alcohol and aldehyde enzymes are up to five times less active in women.
They also explain why women, even after drinking lower amounts of alcohol, are more likely to develop cirrhosis of the liver.
Ahead, preparing Earth for the fury of a geomagnetic storm.
If that data is hot, an immediate worldwide alert.
And when we return, Brian in a super video battle.
So as they say around here, no guts, no galaxy.
Hi-ho, hi-ho, off to his work he goes.
He is 30-year-old Jordan Weissman, maritime college dropout, now rich whiz kid who's landed on his feet.
Personally, I'm both outraged and envious.
His work, as he jokingly calls it, is really just playing games.
Okay, he may be looking at a turnover greater than a million dollars,
and they may be the world's first computer interactive entertainment sport-type games, but games nevertheless.
And if you think all that interactive stuff is just a load of old jargon, stick around.
You're about to enter the virtual reality world of battle tech.
Man has fulfilled his dream and colonized the stars.
Yet the expanse of the universe has given him only more opportunity for conquest and betrayal, for treachery and defeat.
The wealth and promise of a unified star league has been shattered.
War between worlds rages on, and the ideals of both technology and brotherhood have been forever changed.
The year is 3029.
It's an eerie world that exists in the minds of its creators, a growing league of players,
and in 5,000 square feet of a Chicago pier turned tourist and shopping complex.
Welcome to the Solaris News Service Update. I'm Aliyah Duveen.
In this edition, we'll be covering the escalating hostilities.
To squeeze you into this world, there's a combat information center where you can catch up on the news from the front.
As well, there's this area. While not quite knitting in front of the guillotine, it's close.
The multi-screen display allows the non-paying public to observe the games in progress, to see and hear the battles,
get into it enough to hand over between $6 and $8 for 10 minutes of their own on the battlefield.
But before you head out...
Don't be cocky. Your battle mech is a sophisticated machine.
Eventually, you'll be able to pilot it with the best in the universe.
But until then, listen to what I'm going to tell you.
I think I've got the gist of it.
This is team against team, fighting it out over 100 square miles of computer-generated terrain that's randomly generated for each game.
Now, this is different from a more conventional arcade game in that this is not player against machine.
In that case, you eventually learn how it's being programmed and it becomes easy.
This is player against player, team against team, using the machines only to create and respond in real time to the fictional world that's going on in there.
Now, my opponents are ready, and so as they say around here, no guts, no galaxy.
Strategy wins battles, not raw firepower.
Good luck and good hunting.
To radar...
Steer with your feet, not with a joystick.
The idea is to maneuver these awesome fighting machines called battle mechs to find and destroy those of the opposing team without getting blown away yourself.
As well as the screen with the action, there's the lower one that gives you radar information and system reports on your mech.
You choose where to hunt in this computer-generated world that was originally painted frame by frame by animators, then sculptured with a 3D software package.
But there's a lot to learn.
There are over 100 controls inside your Battletech cockpit.
Starting on the left here, we have large laser, which I've just armed onto the green button, which means I can throw this one to fire.
Team lasers on the red, MG and so on on the long-range missiles on the blue.
It's located at the enemy, which is pretty much close to this point, so I'll switch from this long-range screen to a short-range radar and start bringing fire in.
It's quite a challenge, so no wonder I'm losing badly.
The opposition team just happens to include Jordan and his partner Ross, the guys who spent 10 years developing this.
We wanted to take entertainment fully interactive so that you told the story by your actions.
You actually became the hero of the movie as opposed to a passive observant.
Every game is different because each opponent uses a different strategy.
This violent video is a marriage between basic hand-eye and foot coordination and the strategy of chess.
But I can make it more difficult quite easily by plunging this fantasy world into night and by lowering the wind speed and creating a fog.
Now we'll see how he gets on.
The infinite permutations achievable for each game, along with the sensory bombardment for the player, is creating a cult following of devotees willing to hand over their money.
The merchandising is also full-on.
As well as board games and t-shirts, over one million words of fiction are contained in the books that keep alive the fantasy for the players.
For those who definitely don't want to leave reality behind, this fictional world has been created with four ordinary computers with a total of 32 megabytes of RAM.
Two of them are used for vision.
42,000 different colors are possible at any one time.
The other two are for sound effects, digitally sampled and then computer generated.
Now each capsule is linked to every other via a local area network.
Ask most people and they'll tell you that the Four Succession War began at ComStar's first circuit compound, Ontario.
A lot of people watching this though might be thinking that it looks like great fun, but why does it have to be so violent?
Well in the long run I don't think it needs to be.
The violence here I think is, first off it's purely machine against machine.
We don't ever have any violence happen to an individual.
When a person's vehicle is destroyed their cockpit ejects out.
The pilot is always safe.
So we sort of remove the human element from it.
So you're just blowing up expensive hardware.
With franchises being developed at three quarters of a million dollars each, this new video sport is expected to spread wherever science fiction buffs have the money and the inclination to become part of this fantasy.
Next week, why Simon doesn't feel so bad throwing it all away.
I've always wanted to do this.
But coming up tonight, the key to that we drum be wonderful.
Learning the whisky vocabulary is a bit like learning a new language.
And when we return, that special report from Africa.
Water, a life-giving liquid, a precious resource.
In nations like this, the task of providing the family's water can consume much of the day.
But while it gives life, it also takes life.
Death is never far away in the poor villages of this dry and dusty country.
Salvation, AIDS, malaria, the necessity for water and this common mollusk provides another insidious form.
These tiny snails appear harmless enough that they're directly responsible for transmitting one of the most widespread diseases in the third world.
It's called schistosomiasis, or as it's more commonly known, Bilharzio's disease.
It is a cure for the more than 200 million sufferers around the world, but it's expensive.
And there are often prohibitive problems involved in getting the drugs into the infected areas.
Lack of money and an extremely inefficient transport system effectively rules out drugs as a means of breaking the vicious Bilharzia cycle.
Although the people appear happy, the infections caused by Bilharzia force them to live with symptoms such as nausea, headaches and blood in their urine and feces.
Schistosomiasis is a parasitic infection.
Lavae hatch from eggs in fresh water and infect their first host, the snail.
Another larval stage emerges from the snail and infects their second host, people washing or playing in the water.
They grow into adult worms and lodge in the blood vessels of the person's abdomen.
They mate and lay hundreds of eggs a day.
Some are excreted back into the water to complete the cycle.
Others stay lodged in the body, causing infections.
Children are at the greatest risk of contracting the disease.
It's extraordinary to think that perhaps between 40 and 50 percent of these boys may have the parasite in their blood system.
In some areas of Zimbabwe, the infection rate may be as high as 80 percent, but it will be later in life that the symptoms will begin to manifest themselves.
The infestation of the worm reduces the sufferer's ability to withstand malnutrition and other diseases such as malaria.
The body's defence system is gradually worn down.
Re-infection is common. The combination of factors is very often fatal.
In Zimbabwe, they want bilhazias under control, and from Ethiopia comes encouragement.
In that country, a young scientist charged upon an interesting phenomenon while looking for a way to break the bilhazia cycle.
Downstream of ladies washing, he found the carrier snails were dying.
The conclusion he reached was that the suds being used for washing were killing the snails.
But the most promising aspect of the discovery was the fact that the women were using these berries as their washing powder.
Without realising it, they discovered a natural molluscicide.
It's called the endod plant, or African soapberry.
The dried and crushed berries have been used as soapsuds for years.
But now the successful cultivation is high on the priority list of the Blair Research Institute.
What we need is to formulate a national control program.
So in this document, what we have decided to do is to involve the community in the cultivation of the plant.
And also we are going to involve them in this application.
The endod is a cheap alternative to chemical molluscicides, and is even more exciting because communities can grow and make their own effective snail killer.
Researchers at Blair concentrate their efforts on breaking the cycle by better understanding the snail.
Getting to know one's enemy will help win the war.
Here they mass produce snails, trying to identify which species carry the bilhazia parasite most efficiently.
They look at the snail's genetic makeup, searching for non-carriers,
and suggest introducing them to infected areas in order to out-breathe the carriers.
They test different strengths of the endod molluscicide,
but realise there is really only one surefire way of stamping out bilhazias.
Dr Indamba and his team keep a regular check on the villagers' children.
They hope to educate them about the effects of schistosomiasis.
There is no doubt the most effective attack against the disease is changing people's habits.
Using toilets and taking away the need to visit the infected watering holes are the priorities.
We shouldn't come here because the water is dead.
So it's not our problem. It's just because we don't have enough water to use in both cooking and washing.
Well, as you can see, it's pretty hard and pretty hot work.
And that's been one of the problems facing the Blair research team.
If there is a river nearby, the people would generally prefer to travel to that traditional watering hole,
rather than use the pump.
But thankfully, through education, the attitude is changing.
This one is one of 18,000 around Zimbabwe, and it's in use 18 hours a day.
And the government is desperately trying to provide more.
The sound of the pumps throughout the villages does signal change, but it will be a gradual process.
Women have been washing in the infected waters for centuries.
In the short term, they'll continue to do so and will continue to be infected with bilhazias.
For them, it's a part of life. But thankfully, that attitude is changing.
Providing alternative water supplies and education may see the babies of the future bathed in better conditions.
Hopefully, the word will spread that there can be life without bilhazia's disease.
Since we recorded that story, French scientists have discovered an intriguing connection between the bilhazia parasite and the HIV virus that causes AIDS.
The team from the Pasteur Institute found the parasite has the same surface protein as the HIV virus.
It's exciting because from early research, the surface protein appears to be important in enabling the HIV virus to infect cells.
The scientists believe the function protein plays in the infection may be easier to study in the bilhazia parasite.
But most importantly, it could hold a clue to the origin of AIDS.
An integral step in better understanding the deadly disease.
After the break, a very clever typist and those storms from the sun.
Computers have given us enormous powers.
Well, it's an extremely laborious task, copy typing from printed text, especially the two-finger variety.
Scanning documents direct to the computer is obviously a lot easier, but the devices available are either big and expensive,
or the smaller ones have to be retrained in order to recognize the different fonts and characters.
But this new handheld optical character recognition or OCR scanner can read almost any printed text at about 500 words a minute
and will dump it straight onto the document you're working on in the format that's already set up.
So let's try it. First we go to accessories, then to typist.
There, it's already set up. OK.
Now, I drag the scanner down the page when a little green light here goes on. There it is.
Barely, slowly.
Right, and on the screen this window shows that it's actually working.
Sensors register the signal from these infrared beams, scanning the page in a similar way to a photocopier,
sending the data to the computer at 300 dots per inch.
Now the software at the heart of all this recognizes the text by using what is known as topographical analysis,
the ability to look for the general characteristics of a particular character rather than the specific type of font.
And these rollers, well they make sure that the scanner travels down the page in a straight line,
compensating for any possible wobble that I may have.
There, it is complete. No trouble at all.
It can also handle an A4 page with two swipes automatically stitching together, overlapping text and discarding repeated lines.
And it's not only for word processing.
It can also be used in conjunction with a database, page layouts, and can even grab numbers from a printed table and drop them into a spreadsheet.
No wonder it's called Typist.
On March the 13th, 1989, our planet was bombarded by forces from outer space.
Forces of immense potency overpowered the magnetic shield of the Earth.
The electric current generated by the solar wind as it rushed by disrupted satellite communications and blacked out major North American cities.
It was a demonstration of the awesome natural force of the Sun, a disturbed nuclear furnace that powers all life on Earth.
As the world becomes more reliant on complex electronics and communication networks,
we're going to have to get in tune with the mood swings of our volatile neighbour.
Although the Sun seems to burn with a steady light, it's actually fluctuating in intensity as it moves on its 28-day rotation.
And once, every 11 years, it's subject to a massive personality change.
It flips its magnetic poles. North becomes south and vice versa.
And when this happens, a celestial volcano blows energy out to the planets and beyond.
This is what's called Solamax.
The forecast for the next 24 hours follows.
Solamax continues today and will do so for many months to come.
And it's providing scientists with an excellent opportunity to get acquainted with the Sun.
I think we should be concerned. We are now having a very large solar cycle, larger than anything we've seen in 30 years.
Our systems are much more complex than we've found are vulnerable to that.
In a geomagnetic storm, the Sun belches out part of its own mass, which travels through space as solar wind.
When it hits Earth some three or four days later, it strains and distorts the Earth's magnetic field, and electric currents begin to flow.
It's these that create the lights of the aurora borealis and play havoc with technology, communications and industry.
On the night that Quebec was lashed by the fury of the geomagnetic storm, its power grid was fully loaded and working to near maximum capacity.
The resulting electromagnetic force from the solar flare overloaded the system and plunged the city into darkness.
If that event had happened a little further south in the heavily populated and industrialised northeastern states of the USA,
it would have resulted in the most serious and costly natural disaster in that country's history.
Forewarned is forearmed. If you know the storm is about to hit, you can take steps to minimise its chaos by downloading and isolating the power grid,
by changing the direction of satellites and by reprogramming software.
Researchers here at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA for short, monitor a variety of data.
Optics measure light emissions. Particles, protons, electrons and helium ions, which increase during solar storms, are quantified.
Highly sensitive magnetic instruments grade the effects of solar wind on the Earth's magnetic field.
And the aim? To predict the willful and chaotic behaviour of the sun and, when necessary, publish worldwide alerts.
48 hours ago, it was a pretty normal day on the surface of the sun.
There were a few solar flares and sunspots, but all in all, nothing out of the ordinary.
This filament represents an area of cool gas suspended in the solar atmosphere,
and we'd expect the filament to move across the disk in the next couple of days.
But today, that filament is missing. This is the very phenomenon that this facility is looking for.
The loss of the filament will be correlated with other data, an increase in radio and X-ray emission from the surface of the sun.
Now, the result will be a forecast in anticipation of disturbance in the next 48 hours.
Or, if that data is hot, an immediate worldwide alert.
Solar storms have a way of sneaking up on the Earth.
Despite the fancy computers and software, solar forecasting is still an imperfect science, which often relies on the human eye.
This is another of the newer facilities. Unlike most celestial observatories that work only at night, this one works only in the day.
And the reason, of course, is that it's observing the sun.
As Solamax continues and the winds of space buffet our planet,
scientists are working fast to develop and launch a satellite that will sit out in the solar stream,
halfway to the sun, and acts like the minus canary to alert us of solar storms to come.
But until then, it's back to basics.
The sun is the source of our life and we need to regard it as a friend and an ally.
An ally, perhaps, but we're learning more and more about the disruption to electronics and communications
and the subtle side effects of the sun, its magnetism and particle bombardment.
The challenge is to quantify the constant stream of radiation that bathes us even as we sleep
and to understand better how variations in that radiation can affect global warming and even our daily weather.
We'll come back with a gas chromatograph that has a nose for a good whisky.
The home of haggis, bagpipes and scotch whisky, all uniquely Scottish,
but while the haggis and bagpipes have largely stayed at home, scotch whisky is a world-travelling sophisticate,
found in the best bars of the best hotels in every country on earth.
It may only be a drink, but it spells affluence, style and good taste.
If you ask a Scotsman what makes scotch whisky taste so good,
he'll probably say that's one of life's little mysteries.
And it would have stayed that way if it wasn't for a couple of whisky-loving researchers in Glasgow
who want to know exactly what goes into your favourite bottle of scotch.
They already know this water, icy cold and sparkling clean from the Scottish Highlands,
is an essential ingredient. But that's just the beginning.
For all its worldliness, no one has been able to duplicate the flavour of scotch.
If it's not produced in Scotland, it just doesn't taste the same.
There are half a dozen processes from malting to maturation which come into play.
Even the type of peat used to dry the malt and the shape of the still contribute to the flavour.
The skills and preferences of individuals also count,
like the still man who monitors the distillation process and decides when to draw off the spirit.
But even after the whisky is eventually made, it's still not finished.
The new whisky goes into casts and lies untouched for another three to fifteen years.
Three years' maturation is the minimum legal requirement for scotch whisky.
The time spent maturing in oak transforms the whisky from raw spirit to mellow scotch.
The casks sit in huge bond warehouses like this one,
absorbing undesirable compounds from the whisky and imparting their own flavour.
But which compounds and how much flavour are the critical questions?
These are the questions our whisky-loving researchers are asking
in the hope they can take some of the guesswork out of whisky making.
Dr John Pigott and his colleagues want to quantify whisky's flavour
and work out how much influence casks have on the final product.
Chemist John Connor is collecting wood samples from different types of casks.
Traditionally, whisky was matured in old sherry casks until a shortage
forced producers to substitute American bourbon or wine casks.
The sherry, wine or bourbon impregnates the wood and influences the whisky's flavour.
But Pigott and company want to know more about the process.
They also want to know which wood gives the best flavour and how important charring is.
It seems a bit harsh to say it, but to an analytical chemist,
a nose is an unreliable detector connected to an unreliable computer, that is the brain.
By those standards, a gas chromatograph gives a very reliable breakdown
of the chemical compounds contained in a whisky or a wood sample.
But the consumer depends on his or her nose.
And that's why this highly sophisticated piece of machinery has a sniff port.
What's it smell like?
John uses the sniff port to pick up nuances of flavour the chromatograph can't recognise.
So far, man and machine have succeeded in isolating 20 different wood compounds.
To further monitor the flavouring process, different cask types, old, new, charred,
and uncharred have been filled with an identical distilled spirit
and laid down at the shivers warehouse.
These are sampled every few months and the distillate examined by a team of volunteer whisky sniffers.
The sniffers have been learning whisky language so they can give a reliable flavour profile of each sample.
Learning the whisky vocabulary is a bit like learning a new language.
It sounds easy because there are only 24 words, but it takes about six months to become fluent.
First of all, you have to take a deep whiff.
And then you have to answer the questionnaire.
Now, it asks questions like, does it smell soapy?
No. Does it smell...
Oh, here's a good one.
Does it smell meaty?
No, not in the least.
Dr. Pigott wants to chart the development of more than 300 compounds which are known to make up whisky.
Eventually, he hopes to be able to classify different cask histories
and predict the grade of whisky likely to come out of the maturation process.
This information will help producers decide which cask to use
Already, the Strathclyde team has found that newer casks produce darker whisky
and that the whisky extracts more flavour from new wood.
They also know that charred wood absorbs undesirable flavours and helps release the wood compounds.
Despite these early leads, Dr. Pigott is quick to reassure.
Scotch whisky producers aren't about to start synthesising whisky flavours.
or adding wood powders, since additives of any kind are illegal.
And even if they do succeed in defining the best cask,
the secret of Scotch whisky will still be safe,
thanks to the complexities of the final whisky-making process, blending.
Up to 200 of these casks may be blended in one batch.
That's 66,000 litres of whisky.
The formula is always a secret, and it usually remains the same for decades.
In this case, we're seeing a premium 12-year-old Scotch
that's being blended from 40 different moulds.
Unravelling secret 100-year-old formulas is beyond both the nose and the chromatograph.
Besides, canny whisky-loving researchers know which of life's little mysteries
should remain a mystery?
Next on Beyond 2000, Ryan reports from the plastic surgery capital of the world.
They come here by the plane load. The rich, the famous, the deformed.
From Rio de Janeiro, a complete reconstruction with a difference,
and a technology to ensure it never has to be repeated.
The resurrection of Rio's Christ.
Cats that signal disaster.
The cats were literally dancing in the streets.
The graphic aftermath of mercury poisoning on a gross scale.
Maxine on the environmental tragedy that decimated the town of Minamata.
The scene of a kind of Japanese Chernobyl.
And the recycling of an item that you'd hardly believe is ready to throw away.
Many of these units are just four or five years old,
but in the next few days, this is all that's going to be left of them.
Simon with that absolutely uncontrollable urge.
I've always wanted to do this.
Hardly a throwaway item, but that's just some of what we'll have for you when we return.
See you then.
Bubba becomes involved with a dangerous woman
and puts his career in jeopardy next in the heat of the night.
And at 10.30 on Minder, a beautiful Aussie girl searching for her fiancé
easily wins the hearts of Arthur and Terry.
Stay with us at 10.30 and see just how helpful the lads can be on Minder.
7.30 tomorrow, Martin takes up a challenge on Hey Dad
as he plays chess for more than just a simple pleasure of winning.
Check out his moves tomorrow night on 7 and Hey Dad.
Then enjoy some more chuckles on Empty Nest to date
as Barbara starts to wonder if she really does want kids
and Harry is caught with his pants down.
Empty Nest, guaranteed to cheer up your night tomorrow on 7.
Optus was pleased to present Beyond 2000, a glimpse of tomorrow today.
Optus.