RTÉ's flagship Science Week TV show Futureville Ireland, supported by Research Ireland, is back for a second series starting this Tuesday, 11 November on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player at 7pm.
Last year, presenters Carla O'Brien and Dr Lollie Mancey, along with experts in cutting-edge science and tech got to work reimagining the midlands town of Athlone as a brand-new city for the year 2050. In 2025, they are back to find out what else can be done to make our lives better with help from our best and brightest.
Here, we are giving you a little taste of the latest STEM discoveries that will be flowing down the Shannon onto your screens this Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 7pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player - watch the trailer up top! Plus, there will be a daily deep dive online from the RTÉ Brainstorm boffins examining the big ideas coming up on the show that evening.
Tuesday
In the first episode, Lollie introduces us to the idea of life with an AI companion. After experimenting with an AI boyfriend she called Billy, Lollie invites influencer Emma Keogh to see whether - after three weeks living with her own AI companion - Emma could imagine it replacing her own friends.
Carla discovers why and how, in Futureville, artistic expression will be on every street corner. She meets urban artist Maser to discover how, after a career spent painting on bricks and mortar, augmented reality is turning thin air into brand new canvas.
We meet Roger and his wife Brigid, who has just been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. New technology means the pair can continue to enjoy their independence while continuing to live at home. This is thanks to a new system involving AI and movement sensors, which could mean the new city's elder generation never have to enter a nursing home.
Carla visits a farmer in Cork who has abandoned his dairy farm in favour of breeding pigs. His new business model side steps the supermarkets and could mean that in 2050, Futureville can feed itself.
Wednesday
In Episode 2, Carla goes on the hunt for the new source of vegetable protein that could fill our cupboards 25 years from now. Things don't get off to a promising start when she finds herself standing waist deep in a pond thick with duckweed.
Later, she prepares a midweek dinner using some ingredients that today sound challenging but could easily be meal-time staples in Futureville. But how will Lollie react to being served cricket crumble?
Lollie meets the communities whose big ideas about the environment could mean that Futureville and the natural world, will be able to exist side by side. And we hear from young entrepreneurs whose inventions are making sports events accessible right around the world.
Carla travels to Tipperary to meet a farmer working in his own kitchen to invent an edible plastic made from food waste that could mean an end to single-use plastics.
Thursday
In the third and final episode Lollie travels to Helsinki to discover a new food source created from microbes and thin air. She also gets to enjoy an unusual gourmet meal cooked up by one of Finland’s finest chefs.
Carla comes face to face with a humanoid robot which today is keeping young people fit. But could they end up being responsible for taking care of us as we age too? We meet the doctor pioneering a medical device fitted onto our hearts that could warn us when cardiac failure could be about to strike.
And we hear how a new scientific technique could make timber a more viable and practical option in the construction of Futureville.
Science Week on RTÉ is supported by Research Ireland/ Taighde Éireann. For more information about on Science Week on RTÉ, see www.rte.ie/scienceweek and go to www.scienceweek.ie for more events and information.
