 |
| | | | PROGRAMME INFO | | | |
| | | Quentin Cooper reports on developments across the sciences. Each week scientists describe their work, conveying the excitement they feel for their research projects.
material.world@bbc.co.uk | | | | | LISTEN AGAIN 30 min | | | |
|
|
| | YOUR QUESTIONS | | | |
|
|
|
|
PRESENTER |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
"For me science isn't a subject, it's a perspective. There are fascinating scientific aspects to everything from ancient history to the latest gadgets, outer space to interior decorating; and each week on The Material World we try to reflect the excitement, ideas, uncertainties, collisions and collaborations as science continues its never-ending voyage into the unknown".
Quentin Cooper |
|
|
|
BIOGRAPHY
INTERVIEW |
| |
| | |
| PROGRAMME DETAILS | | | |
|  | | |
Semantic Web
First there was the internet and then there was the World Wide Web: a revolutionary idea that transformed the internet from an academic’s reference tool, to an everyday source of information. But the Web is set for an intellectual revolution. Forget faster, the web is becoming smarter. In this week’s Material World Quentin Cooper surfs the “semantic web” – an “intelligent internet” which can read and understand everything that it contains.
The World Wide Web transformed the way we communicate and access information. But its ease of use and rapid uptake has also been one of its major downfalls. The web is now choked with millions of pages of information and as it continues to grow, it’s increasingly difficult to filter out the information you need. But this looks set to change with the “Semantic Web”, which aims to bring meaning to the virtual information overload.
Currently computers blunder through the web, unable to comprehend the meanings of the words they drag up from search engines. To help them find meaning in the text, the semantic web will use personalised autonomous “agents” – simpler and friendlier versions of Agent Smith, the dark villain from the Matrix – scurrying around the internet at your bidding, booking holidays, solving problems and making sure the information it finds is useful, personal and relevant.
Quentin cooper is joined by Wendy Hall professor of Computer sciences at the University of Southampton and Jim Hendler professor of Computer sciences at the University of Maryland to find out how to add meaning to mass of content on the web.
Super Studied Soil
Just how much do we know about the life going on just under our feet? It’s been suggested that if you went outside into a grassland there would be up to 2000 species of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, worms, insects, mites and other taxonomic groups under your boots. While Scientists know that there’s a huge biodiversity in soil, they’re unsure as to why there are so many species and what they do.
So about 10 years ago a group of scientists decided to try and find out as much as possible about the ecology of just one piece of soil. That patch is an upland grassland at Sourhope, in the Cheviot Hills. Over the last 7 years about 30 different research projects have been focused on the site, making it probably the best known hectare of soil in the world.
Quentin Cooper is joined by Professor Michael Usher, Chair of Soil Biodiversity Programme at the University of Stirling and by Professor Jim Prosser, Microbial Ecologist, at the University of Aberdeen to find out what’s going on in the earth beneath their feet.
| | |
RELATED LINKS
Professor Wendy Hall
Mind Swap
World Wide Web Consortium
BBCi Science
BBC Radio 4 Science Programmes
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites
| |
| |
|
