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
Making
Forging a cello from pieces of wood demands its own form of virtuosity
27 minutes
video
Education
Scenes from a school year paint a refreshingly nuanced portrait of rural America
25 minutes
video
Physics
The rhythms of a star system inspire a pianist’s transfixing performance
5 minutes
video
Bioethics
Is it ethical to have a second child so that your first might live?
10 minutes
video
Art
Watch as Japan’s surplus trees are transformed into forest-tinted crayons
4 minutes
video
Meaning and the good life
‘Everydayness is the enemy’ – excerpts from the existentialist novel ‘The Moviegoer’
2 minutes
video
Biology
A spectacular, close-up look at the starfish with a ‘hands-on’ approach to parenting
5 minutes
video
Food and drink
Local tensions simmer amid a potato salad contest at the Czech-Polish border
14 minutes
video
Technology and the self
A filmmaker finds a tactile beauty in the creation of her prosthetic leg
11 minutes