Material World - 13/05/2010

Quentin Cooper presents his weekly digest of science in and behind the headlines. This week the dangers of deep water exploration. How do engineers drill wells into the rock below the sea bed? How do they overcome the different currents that drag the mile long steel tube in different directions? The maths behind electoral reform - is there such a thing as a fair voting system? The fourth of our finalists from our science talent search "So you want to be a scientist?" meets her mentor and decides on how best to track snails from her garden. And fifty years of the laser - what will be next fifty bring - we find out if nuclear fusion is a reality? The producer is Ania Lichtarowicz.