Material World - 17/12/2009

In the long term, if carbon emissions are not controlled, global warming may be even greater than current predictions, according to new research. Quentin Cooper hears how a study of climate three million years ago - the last time carbon dioxide levels were high - suggests that long-term changes to vegetation and ice caps will lead to an even warmer world. Also in the programme, how burning coal in China may change cancer rates as well as the climate. A new British telescope, VISTA, to reveal the heat of creation and a breakthrough in understanding cancer as the genome of lung and skin cancers are mapped for the first time.