Extraordinary satellite images show an ordinary day in Britain - as seen from space

By Daily Mail Reporter

This is Britain - but not as we know it. These extraordinary satellite images reveal what our nation looks like from the skies.

From flight paths and road networks to telephone exchanges across London, the stunning aerial shots paint a striking new perspective on the British Isles.

Everything from London taxi journeys to internet activity across the nation are replicated in the breathtaking images.

Using the latest satellite technology and innovations in aerial photography, the pictures will be shown for the first time on 'Britain from Above', a new BBC series that starts this Sunday.

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A satellite image over the UK showing aircraft flight paths activity

Presenter Andrew Marr takes to the skies by plane, helicopter, microlight and even parachute to give viewers a bird's eye view of landmarks across the UK.

The programme uses satellite data and the latest computer generated imagery to demonstrate how Britain keeps moving - tracking the planes that enter our airspace, the ships that cross the English Channel and the cars that travel our streets, all in the space of a single day.

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London Taxi activity - proving how difficult it is to get a taxi south of the river

Series director Cassian Harrison, said: 'It has been amazing to work with cameras mounted on so many helicopters and planes.

'The one disadvantage is that when we film we're contending so much with the weather.

'It has been a battle with the elements, but a brilliant one, working out how many different ways it is possible to get up in the sky and look down at the nation.

'In a way, though, the biggest privilege is being able to look down on the world you know.

'It's like Google Earth, but for real.'

'Britain From Above' begins on BBC1 on Sunday at 9pm.

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HGV activity at the M4/M5 junction near Bristol in the South West

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Internet activity in the South of England

Enlarge Telephone exchange activity over part of the UK

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Pluto should get back planet status, say astronomers

By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent

Pluto should have its status as a planet reinstated, leading astronomers have said.

Senior space scientists, including experts from Nasa, will this week attack a controversial decision by the International Astronomical Union, the body responsible for astronomy nomenclature, to redefine what constitutes a planet.

The new definition adopted by the Union saw Pluto demoted to a new kind of celestial underclass now known as "plutoids".

	Too small: Pluto's classification was changed to plutoid by the International Astronomical Union

It had been been known as the furthest planet from the sun since its discovery around 70 years, but saw its status changed because of its small size and remote position in the solar system.

Scientists speaking at a major conference on planets in the Maryland, which starts on Thursday, will call for the icy globe to be reinstated as the ninth planet.

They claim that the revised definitions are confusing and will mean that newly discovered planets in solar systems outside our own can no longer be described as such.

In the current classification, all small and nearly spherical objects orbiting beyond the eighth planet from the sun, Neptune, are now plutoids.

Dr David Morrison, director of the Nasa Lunar Science Institute in California, said: "It has never before been necessary for any organisation to define a word that has been in common every day use so I see no reason why it was necessary on this occasion.

"Astronomers use adjectives such as giant and dwarf to describe different subclasses of objects like planets, stars and galaxies, so why could Pluto not remain as a dwarf planet just as Jupiter is a giant planet.

"Also, around 90 per cent of the planets we know now are outside our solar system, but under the International Astronomical Union’s definition, they cannot be classed as planets."

Scientists speaking at the Great Planet Debate conference will also propose using a simple shape-based mechanism for categorising planets.

Mark Sykes, from the Planetary Science Institute will argue that roundness should be the only category that is applied.

This, he says, will lead to the number of planets in our own solar system increasing to 12.

This has alarmed traditionalists at the International Astronomical Union who fear there will be an ever increasing number of planets in the solar system as more smaller objects are discovered.

Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson, from the American Museum of Natural History, will argue that Pluto does not deserve to be a planet.

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Scientists stop the ageing process

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Clean bill of health: Scientists have shown that clearing damaged protein from the liver helps stop age decline in the organ (Source: iStockphoto)

Scientists have stopped the ageing process in an entire organ for the first time, a study released today says.

Published in today's online edition of Nature Medicine, researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in New York City also say the older organs function as well as they did when the host animal was younger.

The researchers, led by Associate Professor Ana Maria Cuervo, blocked the ageing process in mice livers by stopping the build-up of harmful proteins inside the organ's cells.

As people age their cells become less efficient at getting rid of damaged protein resulting in a build-up of toxic material that is especially pronounced in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative disorders.

The researchers say the findings suggest that therapies for boosting protein clearance might help stave off some of the declines in function that accompanies old age.

In experiments, livers in genetically modified mice 22 to 26 months old, the equivalent of octogenarians in human years, cleaned blood as efficiently as those in animals a quarter their age.

By contrast, the livers of normal mice in a control group began to fail.

The benefits of restoring the cleaning mechanisms found inside all cells could extend far beyond a single organ, says Cuervo.

"Our findings are particularly relevant for neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's," she says.

'Misbehaving proteins'

"Many of these diseases are due to 'misbehaving' or damaged proteins that accumulate in neurons. By preventing this decline in protein clearance, we may be able to keep these people free of symptoms for a longer time."

If the body's ability to dispose of cell debris within the cell were enhanced across a wider range of tissues, she says, it could extend life as well.

In healthy organisms, a surveillance system inside cells called chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA) locates, digests and destroys damaged proteins.

Specialised molecules, the "chaperones", ferry the harmful material to membrane-bound sacs of enzymes within the cells known as lysosomes.

Once the cargo has been "docked", a receptor molecule transfers the protein into the sac, where it is rapidly digested.

With age, these receptors stop working as well, resulting in a dangerous build-up of faulty proteins that has been linked, in the liver, to insulin resistance as well as the inability to metabolise sugar, fats or alcohol.

The same breakdown of the cell's cleaning machinery can also impair the liver's ability to remove the toxic build-up of drugs at a stage in life when medication is often part of daily diet.

In genetically modified mice, Cuervo compensated for the loss of the receptors in the animals by adding extra copies.

"That was enough to maintain a clean liver and to prove that if you keep your cells clean they work better," she says.

Settles debate

The study goes a long way towards settling a sharp debate in the field of ageing research.

Leading Australian ageing researcher David le Couteur, Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Sydney, says the paper is a major breakthrough.

"She has single-handedly shown that lysosome function is a crucial part of the ageing process," he says.

Cuervo has also shown, he says, the critical role the lysosomal receptor molecules play in keeping the liver clean of damaged proteins.

While her paper does not show increased survival rates among the mice, le Couteur, who has advised her recently on the research, says Cuervo does have data on improved survival rates which she intends to publish.

He also says she is now working with pharmaceutical companies to identify drugs that will turn the receptors on, or make them more active.

Cuervo believes maintaining efficient protein clearance may improve longevity and function in all the body's tissues.

It is also possible that the same kind of "cellular clearance" can be achieved through diet, she says.

Research over the past decade has shown that restricted calorie intake in animals, including mammals, significantly enhances longevity.

"My ideal intervention in the future would be a better diet rather than a pill," she says.

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