The first crewed mission to Mars could launch as soon as the 2030s, and, according to some scientists, it may be just a few decades before we attempt to establish permanent colonies on the Red Planet. But, to keep such colonies up and running, scientists would need to account for issues well beyond the extraordinary logistics of getting there. Presented as a series of interplanetary postcards, this short animation probes short-term and long-term quandaries of procreation and childrearing beyond our home planet, including: could childbirth and development removed from the physics of Earth create new human subspecies? And would it be ethical to rear and raise children in extreme and isolated environments?
Video by BBC Ideas and the Royal Society
Animator: Christopher Brooks
video
Animals and humans
The wild tale of a young animal keeper, an angry tiger and a torn circle net
10 minutes
video
Technology and the self
Why single Chinese women are freezing their eggs in California
24 minutes
video
Beauty and aesthetics
Can you see music in this painting? How synaesthesia fuelled Kandinsky’s art
10 minutes
video
The ancient world
Petty squabbles and bloody battles – the life of an ancient Roman soldier
18 minutes
video
Astronomy
The remarkable innovations inspired by our need to know the night sky
5 minutes
video
Knowledge
Why it takes more than a lifetime to truly understand a single meadow
11 minutes
video
Physics
Groundbreaking visualisations show how the world of the nucleus gives rise to our own
10 minutes
video
War and peace
‘She is living on in many hearts’ – Otto Frank on the legacy of his daughter’s diary
12 minutes
video
Art
Why Diego Velázquez needed a lifetime to paint his enigmatic masterpiece
31 minutes