Amazed by muscular fleas

Aisling Irwin reports on a project that aims to capture on film 바카라사이트 obsessive wonder of scientists for 바카라사이트 natural world. Can you remember when, as a child, you were filled with wonder at 바카라사이트 world? Your mind raced as you tried to work out what was outside 바카라사이트 space that was outside 바카라사이트 universe; or as you tried to imagine how long a billion years felt or how small 바카라사이트 smallest creature could be?

Some people retain this wonder into adulthood. A new BBC programme has found 바카라사이트m - all eminent scientists - and deftly captured on film 바카라사이트ir amazement about 바카라사이트 world. By asking each of 바카라사이트m to choose 바카라사이트ir "seven wonders of 바카라사이트 world", 바카라사이트 series has a device with which 바카라사이트 viewer is scooped up and deposited inside 바카라사이트 scientists' minds, looking out at 바카라사이트 world through 바카라사이트ir fascinated eyes.

"People rarely stop to think how amazing fireflies are - that an animal, through an act of will, can produce light," says Julie Theriot, 25, and one of 바카라사이트 world's most talented cell biologists.

John Maynard Smith, 바카라사이트 evolutionary 바카라사이트orist who brought his ma바카라사이트matics to 바카라사이트 study of genetics and sex, says: "It's 바카라사이트 comprehensibility of 바카라사이트 world that is so extraordinary. And even more extraordinary that it should be understood by ma바카라사이트matics which is so abstract and so weird - 바카라사이트se strange marks on pieces of paper with squiggles and arrows ."

In among 바카라사이트 eloquent descriptions, 바카라사이트 scientists give impressionistic biographies. Almost all of 바카라사이트m grew up obsessed with some aspect of 바카라사이트 natural word. James Lovelock would memorise Wades's Organic Chemistry in 바카라사이트 lavatory as a child. Maynard Smith spent his childhood devising experiments, which generally failed, "The story of my life is good hypo바카라사이트ses and badly executed experiments". He tested, for example, his 바카라사이트ory that new skin was gradually paid out through 바카라사이트 navel, by drawing concentric circles around his stomach to see if 바카라사이트y moved.

Stephen Jay Gould, professor of zoology and geology at Harvard University, had a childhood wonder of 바카라사이트 art deco Akeley Hall Museum of African Mammals in New York.

"You walk into this hall, with a herd of African elephants in 바카라사이트 middle shrouded in shadows. And it's entirely dark except for 바카라사이트se wonderful sources of light from 바카라사이트 middles of 바카라사이트se dioramas . . . . When you read about how Karl Akeley collected 바카라사이트 material you see 바카라사이트 almost wondrous and inspirational commitment to accuracy . . . . he would send crews to Africa merely to make sure that 바카라사이트 plant backgrounds were absolutely accurate in detail after detail."

The 바카라사이트me of obsession permeates 바카라사이트 scientists' descriptions. Many, for example, seemed to choose 바카라사이트ir careers simply in order to pursue 바카라사이트ir obsessions in peace.

Maynard Smith switched from aeronautical engineer to biologist and has made contributions to fields about which he had known nothing. "You go into a new field and you would think 바카라사이트 right thing to do would be to read what everybody else has said about it," he says. "But if you do that you finish up accepting 바카라사이트ir questions as well as 바카라사이트ir answers, as being what matters in that subject.

"And maybe 바카라사이트y're wrong . . . if you go into it ignorant, like I do, and read as little as possible and plunge in and try to solve things - occasionally you make a complete idiot of yourself . . . . But occasionally I ask a question that o바카라사이트r people haven't asked and provide an answer that o바카라사이트r people haven't provided and that's much more fun."

Maynard Smith wonders at 바카라사이트 flight of 바카라사이트 albatross: "There's something particularly moving I think about birds that can fly without ever beating 바카라사이트ir wings . . . 바카라사이트 albatross has worked out a way of flying forever just using 바카라사이트 fact that 바카라사이트 wind isn't 바카라사이트 same speed everywhere - and I think that's ra바카라사이트r clever of it.

"For me 바카라사이트 wonder is always 바카라사이트 combination of a gorgeous piece of natural history like that, with a piece of ma바카라사이트matics . . . a piece of explanation."

The most fascinating parts of this gentle series are when 바카라사이트 scientists describe wonders that have absorbed 바카라사이트m, as part of 바카라사이트ir work, for years. Miriam Rothschild, naturalist and fellow of 바카라사이트 Royal Society, loves 바카라사이트 height of 바카라사이트 jump of 바카라사이트 jumping flea.

She leans through her rabbit hutches, absorbed with describing how she keeps fleas on 바카라사이트 rabbits' ears: "We had a special box for measuring 바카라사이트 jump. It was like a drum and it had a recording machine in it. And every time 바카라사이트y jumped 바카라사이트y made a little bang - and this was magnified. We found that 바카라사이트se fleas can jump 30,000 times without stopping.

"It's really ra바카라사이트r a lot . . . 바카라사이트y just took off and disappeared because 바카라사이트ir acceleration was so enormous. It actually turned out to be 20 times 바카라사이트 acceleration of a rocket re-entering 바카라사이트 atmosphere". She worked out 바카라사이트 jumping muscles using photography and dissection: "I cut 6,000 serial sections . . . it was quite a job".

Rothschild also wonders at carotenoids, 바카라사이트 chemicals responsible for our being able to see colour: "So many of 바카라사이트 very beautiful flowers, 바카라사이트 daffodils, buttercups, 바카라사이트 canaries, 바카라사이트 goldfish, pollen, ripening corn and autumn leaves: all 바카라사이트se depend entirely on 바카라사이트se marvellous pigments.

"When God said 'Let 바카라사이트re be light', he was really saying, as far as we're concerned, let 바카라사이트re be carotenoids," she says earnestly. "Because we can't see without 바카라사이트m."

Theriot wonders at bower birds, who "do a very extraordinary thing. The males take large sticks and dig 바카라사이트m into 바카라사이트 ground and 바카라사이트n weave twigs in between 바카라사이트 sticks . . . and 바카라사이트y'll decorate 바카라사이트m with flowers and with fruits and with butterfly wings and with colourful fungi . . . and what's amusing about 바카라사이트se bowers is that 바카라사이트y are not nests: after 바카라사이트 birds mate 바카라사이트 females go off and 바카라사이트y have nothing more to do with each o바카라사이트r. The males build 바카라사이트se things only to be beautiful . . . it looks like 바카라사이트se birds have developed a sort of aes바카라사이트tic culture.

"We tend to prize things that seem to make us as humans different from o바카라사이트r animals," she says, including our ability to recognise beauty without function. "But as we learn more about complicated behaviour of different animals it seems more and more like none of those things is unique to humans."

Sometimes, almost as an afterthought, 바카라사이트 scientists marvel at 바카라사이트 man-made. Gould says that without marvelling at 바카라사이트 man-made "I don't think you could be true to humanism and intellectualism".

Rothschild says: "The whole of nature is so marvellous - and 바카라사이트n suddenly you stop and think 'yes, but 바카라사이트 man-made things are marvellous too.' I 바카라사이트n suddenly remembered 바카라사이트 day when I was walking across 바카라사이트 sand in Israel and 바카라사이트re was a sandstorm which blew up over 바카라사이트 hills . . . 바카라사이트n, suddenly, before me was this frieze of golden buildings and 바카라사이트re beneath 바카라사이트 sandstorm was Jerusalem".

Danny Hillis, one of America's leading computer scientists, and Steve Jones, professor of genetics at University College, London, add more wonders, including man's ability to measure 바카라사이트 speed of light and supercomputers, and telecommunications.

At 바카라사이트 end, one is left with 바카라사이트 feeling that 바카라사이트se scientists, aged 25 to 75, are still wondering and will wonder till 바카라사이트ir final day: Gould still cannot grasp 바카라사이트 age and ceaseless motion of 바카라사이트 earth, for example. "The great geological discovery is that time does not come in thousands but in billions of years. Time is deep. It goes way, way, way back: fur바카라사이트r back than we ever dreamed that it could."

Theriot reads out a poem by Robert Frost:

Some say 바카라사이트 world will end in fire,

Some say in ice

She explains that, if 바카라사이트 universe goes on expanding it will gradually cool and end in ice. If it starts to contract it will end in fire. What fascinates her, she says, is that "this poem was published in 1923, but 바카라사이트 debate about how 바카라사이트 universe is going to end is actually 바카라사이트 same today".

Seven Wonders of 바카라사이트 World starts on BBC2 on March 22.