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World Wise Web

BBC World Service
Latest available episode Nasa’s Curiosity rover parachute Ready to listen
0:00 9 min 27 s

13 Episodes

Nasa’s Curiosity rover parachute

Aerospace engineer Dr Anita Sengupta led the team that developed the supersonic parachute which helped land Nasa’s Curiosity rover on Mars in 2012. It’s still on the Red Planet today, and its...

Drones

Eighteen year old Michael, from Dubai, who wants to become an engineer, talks to Keller Rinaudo, whose company Zipline has built what they say is the world’s fastest delivery drone. Travelling at...

Prosthetics

Eighteen-old-entrepreneur Leander, from Greece, discovers how sci-fi became reality, through the work of leading orthopaedic surgeon Professor Munjed Al Muderis. He has developed a new generation of implants for amputees which replaces...

Formula 1 simulator

In the late 1990s, engineer Dr Caroline Hargrove was working with the McLaren motor racing team when she developed the first Formula 1 simulator - a machine that helps racing teams design...

The mobile phone

In 1973, Marty Cooper made the first public mobile phone call using his newly invented cell phone. Now, there are more mobile phones on the planet than people. Fourteen-year-old Becky, from Northern...

Internet networks

Computer programmer Radia Perlman is often called "the mother of the internet". In the late 1970s, she started working in network routing - the way data is moved from one network to...

Computer animation

In 1995, Pixar Animation Studios created Toy Story, the first feature length computer animated film, and a blockbuster that changed cinema history. Here we bring together Danielle Feinberg, director of photography for...

Google Search

In 1998, a small company was launched offering a simple way to search the World Wide Web. That company was Google. Now every day billions of questions are put into the search...

GPS

The digital world only works if it is connected. In the early 1970s, Professor Bradford Parkinson was working with the United States Air Force as an engineer leading the team that developed...

Lithium ion battery

Forty years ago, Professor John Goodenough developed the lithium ion battery and kick-started the wireless revolution. From electric cars to mobile phones, the world now relies on rechargeable batteries. Now, 97, and...