Brave New World with Stephen Hawking

The experts examine how scientists are fighting for our survival by battling the world's big killer diseases. Biologist Aarathi Prasad joins virus hunters in the jungles of Africa, Robert Winston sees first-hand how the surgeons of the future could be robots, capable of operating round the clock, and Richard Dawkins investigates the way brain disorders might one day be treated using laser light and genetically modified brain cells. Anatomist Joy Reidenberg discovers two possible solutions to the killer disease malaria and - most extraordinarily of all - Aarathi Prasad meets a woman whose life has been saved by a revolutionary new cancer treatment, in which every patient gets an individually tailored cocktail of drugs. From the jungles of Cameroon to the quads of Oxford, the programme celebrates the work of scientists striving to extend and save our lives.