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In 1981, the US Department of Energy and the civil engineering company Bechtel Corp assembled a task force to help tackle the problem of how to warn future humans to stay away from radioactive nuclear waste sites thousands of years into the future. Perhaps the strangest solution came from the French author Françoise Bastide and the Italian semiologist Paolo Fabbri, who proposed genetically engineering cats to change colour in response to radiation, and creating a mythology of danger around those cats. An exploration of unusually creative problem-solving, the French director Benjamin Huguet’s film probes how the once-obscure, decades-old ‘ray-cat solution’ has recently found new life.
Director: Benjamin Huguet
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Ecology and environmental sciences
GPS tracking reveals stunning insights into the patterns of migratory birds
6 minutes
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Human rights and justice
Can providing humanitarian aid be illegal? A troubling case from the US-Mexico border
17 minutes
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Space exploration
The rarely told story of the fruit flies, primates and canines that preceded us in space
12 minutes
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Film and visual culture
A lush animated opus evokes the frenzied pace of modern life
4 minutes
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Family life
The precious family keepsakes that hold meaning for generations
10 minutes
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Archaeology
What did the first people who entered Tutankhamun’s tomb see?
5 minutes
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Information and communication
Coverage of the ‘balloon boy’ hoax forms a withering indictment of for-profit news
17 minutes
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Childhood and adolescence
Marmar is living through a devastating war – but she’d rather tell you about her new dress
8 minutes
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Meaning and the good life
Wander through the English countryside with two teens trying to make sense of the world
10 minutes