One of the highlights of my career thus far was being involved in a groundbreaking television series Stephen Hawking's Brave New World premiering on Discovery World. A co-operative project between Handel Productions (Canada) and IWC (England), the series showcases some of the most mind-blowing new technologies that will impact our daily lives in the not-too-distant future.
Each of the six, one-hour episodes is narrated by Professor Stephen Hawking, world-renown physicist and author of the best-seller A Brief History of Time, and is comprised of the investigations of a team of five scientists who travel the world -- Myself and Professor Chris Eliasmith from Canada, Dr. Daniel Kraft from the US, and Professor Jim Al-Khalili and Dr. Aarathi Prasad from the UK.
The premiere episode, called Inspired by Nature, is all about how we need only to look to the natural world for some of the most awe-inspiring inventions. Millions of years of evolution have resulted in some highly complex and innovative strategies for life across the animal kingdom...and this episode shows us how humans are attempting to re-create them for our own purposes.
In the episode, my colleagues and I investigate two of the world's most advanced all-terrain robots, underwater subs used to train NASA astronauts for deep space exploration, engineering a virus to prevent pandemics, wireless power and an extraordinary new fabric that can stick to any surface and mimic Spiderman's ability to scale any building.
I hope you enjoy, and I'll be back next week to discuss Episode 2: Code Red.
Stephen Hawking's Brave New World premieres Friday, November 15 at 8 p.m. ET/10 p.m. PT on Discovery World. Check out the trailer here: