Dr Peter Kohl has a big idea for the future of heart surgery.

A patient needing an immediate operation will have a scan and in the 45 minutes it takes for blood test results to come back, surgeons will have simulated alternative operations using computer models, and know the best way to proceed.

They will have investigated different surgical scenarios in virtual reality and will understand the effects these have on the individual's heart.

For example, they will know the optimum place to fit stimulation leads that are tailored to improve that patient's heartbeat.

And they will have gained vital insight into how blood flow is affected when a tube is inserted to re-open a blocked vessel and decide the best location for it in that person.

All this, they are confident, will result in a faster procedure, when time is of the essence, and less trauma to the patient's body through prior experimentation on the virtual surgical table.

How long does Dr Kohl, a physiologist at Oxford University, think this idea will become reality?

"50 years - no 10 years - maybe even 5 years. I am getting ahead of myself, but I am very optimistic," he explains excitedly.

Virtual Physiological Human

Dr Kohl is one of the principal investigators of the Virtual Physiological Human (VPH) initiative, an international collaboration, funded by the European Union, to produce biomedical models simulating the human body both structurally and functionally.

Computer models can assess the best surgical options

He explains that over the last few decades biology has focused at stripping the body down to understand how it works and now it is time to build it back up again.

"We have developed better tools to look at smaller parts of the puzzle in terms of structure and function," he said.

"We have drilled down into the detail. At the same time, our knowledge has become a fragmented construction site.

"We now need to understand how the pieces interact with each other and the environment."

Through funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and British Heart Foundation (BHF) Universities in the UK, including Oxford and Leeds, are working towards this vision.

In an international effort research is being shared by engineers, bioscientists, physicians and computer scientists to build systems, apply technologies, assess applications and analyse data.

No perfect model

However, Dr Kohl believes a complete model of the body will never be finished.

Computers can already calculate more steps ahead than a chess master - we need to make use of this to be able to cope in the real world."  Dr Kohl, Oxford University

"A model cannot aim to capture every aspect of the original; otherwise it would be just as complex and unwieldy as the real thing," he said.

"A model is a simplified representation of reality. Different models are built for different purposes.

"Models need to be constantly updated with testing, and new models will be needed for different specific reasons.

"Like tools in a tool-box, you need to select your model to fit the question."

How reliable?

Such developments may worry people, who fear that these kinds of methods will be less reliable than traditional approaches.

Dr Kohl argues: "Why should a quantitative computer model be any less reliable than a doctor-based in-brain assessment of a patient?

"A computer model can be used as a tool to access plausibility and help a human researcher or clinician work more efficiently through scenarios.

"Computers can already calculate more steps ahead than a chess master - we need to make use of this to be able to cope in the real world."

However, Dr Kohl stresses the need for computer predictions to be assessed thoroughly.

"If you compare your predication with real life and you get an exact match, this is great for clinicians.

"Within the given framework your model addresses reality. This increases your confidence - but there is no knowledge gained.

"However, if your model and reality are different - this drives insight.

"Either your data is incorrect, implementation is wrong or understanding inaccurate. You have more to learn."

Luckily, Dr Kohl and his colleagues are up for this challenge.

Courtesy:BBC

Experts say many of these errors are not well known

The US National Security Agency has helped put together a list of the world's most dangerous coding mistakes.

The 25 entry list contains errors that can lead to security holes or vulnerable areas that can be targeted by cyber criminals.

Experts say many of these errors are not well understood by programmers.

According to the SANS Institute in Maryland, just two of the errors led to more than 1.5m web site security breaches during 2008.

It is thought that this is the first time the industry has reached agreement on the worst things that can creep into software as it is being written.

More than 30 organisations, including the US National Security Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, Microsoft, and Symantec published the document.

THE TOP 25 MOST DANGEROUS PROGRAMMING ERRORS CWE-20:Improper Input Validation CWE-116:Improper Encoding or Escaping of Output CWE-89:Failure to Preserve SQL Query Structure CWE-79:Failure to Preserve Web Page Structure CWE-78:Failure to Preserve OS Command Structure CWE-319:Cleartext Transmission of Sensitive Information CWE-352:Cross-Site Request Forgery CWE-362:Race Condition CWE-209:Error Message Information Leak CWE-119:Failure to Constrain Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer CWE-642:External Control of Critical State Data CWE-73:External Control of File Name or Path CWE-426:Untrusted Search Path CWE-94:Failure to Control Generation of Code CWE-494:Download of Code Without Integrity Check CWE-404:Improper Resource Shutdown or Release CWE-665:Improper Initialization CWE-682:Incorrect Calculation CWE-285:Improper Access Control CWE-327:Use of a Broken or Risky Cryptographic Algorithm CWE-259:Hard-Coded Password CWE-732:Insecure Permission Assignment for Critical Resource CWE-330:Use of Insufficiently Random Values CWE-250:Execution with Unnecessary Privileges CWE-602:Client-Side Enforcement of Server-Side Security Source: SANS Institute

"The top 25 list gives developers a minimum set of coding errors that must be eradicated before software is used by customers," said Chris Wysopal, chief technology officer with Veracode.

"There appears to be broad agreement on the programming errors," says SANS director, Mason Brown, "Now it is time to fix them."

"We need to make sure every programmer knows how to write code that is free of the top 25 errors."

"Then we need to make sure every programming team has processes in place to find and fix these problems [in existing code] and has the tools needed to verify their code is as free of these errors," he said.

Patrick Lincoln, director of the Computer Science Laboratory at SRI International, told the BBC that if programmers prevented these errors appearing in their code, it would deter the majority of hackers.

"This list is primarily for people who have first responsibility for designing a system. Veteran programmers have probably learnt the hard way whereas a brand new programmer will be making more basic errors."

"The real dedicated serial attacker will probably find a way in even if all these errors were removed. But a high school hacker with malicious intent - ankle-biters if you will - would be deterred from breaking in."

Previously, most advice has focused on vulnerabilities that can result from programming errors. The top 25 list examines the actual programming errors themselves.

The US Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the principal adviser to the President, the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council also lent their support to the list.

In a statement, they said: "We believe that integrity of hardware and software products is a critical for cyber security. "

"Creating more secure software is a fundamental aspect of system and network security, given that the federal government and the nation's critical infrastructure depend on commercial products for business operations."

"The top 25 is an important component of an overall security initiative for our country. We applaud this effort and encourage the utility of this tool through other venues such as cyber education." 

Courtesy:BBC

Red kite were among the species confirmed as poisoned

A map of Scotland detailing where birds of prey have been poisoned has been hailed as a significant step in the fight against wildlife crime.

It is the first record of confirmed poisonings recognised by both the wildlife lobby and landowners, who have disputed the scale of the problem.

Areas within Midlothian, the Borders, the Highlands and South Lanarkshire are among those identified as "hot spots."

The map was compiled for the Scottish Government for the period 2004-2008.

Environment minister Michael Russell described the persecution of birds of prey as "appalling."

He said: "While I am pleased to see there has been an overall improvement in poisoning incidents the map clearly shows it remains a problem in parts of Scotland.

"Our wildlife is precious and deserving of our protection. Simply put, a crime against Scotland's natural heritage is a crime against Scotland.

"I applaud those involved for involved for working together on this important issue and hope their efforts will result in a safer Scotland for our birds of prey."

The map, which used data from the Scottish Agricultural Science Agency (SASA), only shows incidents of confirmed poisoning cases.

The locations of incidents are not exact and could have happened within a 1km radius, this is in recognition of the fact that birds may travel some distance after ingesting poison.

Duncan Orr-Ewing, head of species and land management for RSPB Scotland, said there was no place for illegal poisoning in Scotland.

He said: "We will work hard with responsible land managers, the police and the Scottish Government to resolve this problem, which blights the otherwise good reputation of people working across the countryside."

Douglas McAdam, chief executive of the Scottish Rural Property and Business Association (SRPBA), said the map would be a useful tool

He said: "With the publication of this report, we have moved to a position where we are looking at official government verified facts, rather than unofficial reports, where often incidents that might not be illegal are captured in the reported persecution statistics."

The species of birds confirmed as poisoned and included in the incidents are red kite, buzzard, golden eagle, tawny owl, and peregrine falcon.

The size of the circles reflects the number of confirmed poisoning incidents

Courtesy:BBC

Tourism commands one-third of the economy directly - but is under threat

By Olivia Lang  Male, Maldives

The Maldives' idyllic, pristine beaches and tropical reefs attract more than half a million tourists to the small Indian Ocean nation every year.

But an unavoidable catastrophe awaits the Muslim nation and its natural beauty: the threat of global climate change and rising sea levels.

An increase in sea levels of 58cm (22.8in), as projected by the UN International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), could see most of the country's 1,192 islands submerged by next century and leaving many of its 369,000 citizens without a homeland.

But locals say the effects of global warming have begun to show already, with the phenomenon likely to damage significantly the nation's key industries - fisheries and tourism - not far into the future.

Tidal surges

The atolls of the Maldives are protected by networks of coral reefs which act as a defence against natural phenomena including flooding, tidal surges and erosion.

Many fishing catches have also been reduced

But scientists say that many such reefs are facing extinction from fluctuating water levels and rising temperatures as the Earth warms up because of climate change.

According to Abdul Azeez Abdul Hakeem, head of conservation at the Banyan Tree Resort, a rise of sea temperatures of only 2C will wipe out many coral reefs if it is sustained for a period of two weeks.

"With climate change there will be more tidal surges, more swells, and more storms," he says. "Weather patterns are changing rapidly. From fishermen we know these are not normal. Before we knew what to expect; today those things are very unpredictable."

Tidal surges will not only increase the risk of houses and communities being flooded, but will also result in a higher level of salt water on local vegetation - which will impact on food production too, says Mr Azeez.

Erosion is already affecting many of the Maldives' 200 inhabited islands, with domestic activities such as pollution, reclamation and illegal coral and sand mining contributing to the damage.

Islanders are beginning to feel the impact. On one island in Raa atoll this month, residents held protests demanding government action after four houses collapsed into the sea due to the erosion of sand banks.

'Adverse impact'

A rise in sea temperature is also likely to have a significant, but still under-researched impact upon fishing in the Maldives, the second biggest of the nation's industries.

The lifeline of the industry, tuna fishing, which depends on bait fish which live in the reef, is likely to be at threat.

Mohamed Hassan, 37, a fisherman from Gaaf Daal atoll, says he believes climate change is already having an adverse impact.

"When the temperature of the water rises, the plankton lives deeper so the fish also live deeper and it is much more difficult for the catch," he says.

Hassan, who has been fishing for 25 years, now says he has to travel three times as far for his catch, but still brings in much less than he used to.

Three years ago his fishing vessel caught 70 tonnes of tuna a week, he says, but nowadays it brings in only around 35-40 tonnes a week.

Tourism commands one-third of the economy directly, making the Maldives the region's highest earner in tourism in relation to Gross Domestic Product.

But the slow destruction of reefs could have an impact on the quality of diving - the Maldives currently boasts more than 250 types of coral - as well as its vast, flawless beaches.

Ali Rilwan, executive director of local environmental NGO Bluepeace, says that if the IPCC projection is accurate, the luxurious white sand beaches of the Maldives could disappear in a similar way to the ice sheets in the Arctic.

"Our natural asset is the beauty of the islands. If the proper measures are not taken to protect these islands, I don't think the Maldives as a tourist destination can be sold as it is today," he says.

But Mustag Hussein, owner of Maldivers' diving company, argues that it is "a very slow and gradual process" and corals and ecosystems may well adapt to the changing conditions.

"This will not be a sudden thing like pouring a pot of boiling water on the reef," he says, "Some types of coral are very resilient. Certain species die but certain species will grow back".

Homeland

Former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom was credited for bringing international awareness to the perils posed to small island states by global warming.

But the former leader has faced criticism domestically for failing to implement a proper waste disposal management system, as well as for widespread reclamation projects and a lack of monitoring of environmental impact assessments.

The Maldives felt the full force of nature during the 2004 tsunami

"We are not naïve to think climate change is not happening. It will have a severe impact," says Minister for Housing, Transport and Environment Mohamed Aslam.

He says that while there is global awareness of the issue, there is a surprising lack of research in the country on how climate change may affect local ecosystems.

"It is only through understanding and protecting our environment that we can even have any hope of surviving here given the climatic scenario."

After being sworn in last month, President Mohamed Nasheed, the country's first democratically elected leader, said he would put money aside to save for a new homeland to relocate his people in the face of the threat.

But Mr Rilwan, from Bluepeace, argues in favour of an alternative contingency plan: reclaiming land for seven safe islands, one in each region, as a last-resort option.

"Finding a new homeland is not a solution. It is not easy for people to abandon 2,000 years of heritage and migrate," he says.

"We don't believe in reclamation, but in a doomsday scenario we don't have much choice but to develop a few places for our survival."

Courtesy:BBC

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The removal of cats in 2000 caused "catastrophic" damage to the ecology of a sub-Antarctic island, a study says.

Since cats were removed from Macquarie Island, rabbit numbers have soared, and the animals are now devastating plants.

Cats previously kept a check on rabbits but were eradicated because they were also eating seabirds, scientists relate in the Journal of Applied Ecology.

The Australian government plans to eradicate rabbits, rats and mice from the island, a World Heritage Site.

The rabbits have now caused so much damage to the island's flora that the changes can be seen from space.

The scientists behind the research say conservation agencies must "learn lessons" from the episode.

Dana Bergstrom gets close and personal with some of Macquarie's penguins

"Our study shows that between 2000 and 2007 there has been widespread ecosystem devastation and decades of conservation effort compromised," said Dana Bergstrom from the Australian Antarctic Division.

"The lessons for conservation agencies globally is that interventions should be comprehensive and include risk assessments to explicitly consider and plan for indirect effects, or face substantial subsequent costs."

In this case, one element of the cost is the 24m Australian dollars ($17m, £11m) that authorities will spend eradicating rabbits and the rats and mice that eat seabird chicks.

As with mainland Australia, rabbits were an introduced species

Rabbits were introduced to Macquarie Island in 1878 by seal-hunters to provide food.

The first attempt to control them, in the 1960s, involved introducing myxomatosis.

That brought numbers down to about 10,000. But subsequently numbers have grown again.

Since the eradication of cats eight years ago there are now an estimated 100,000 rabbits munching the foliage of Macquarie Island, which lies about halfway between Australia and Antarctica.

It is the most important breeding site for the royal penguin, and several other species of penguin also breed there.

Removal of plant cover is thought to make penguins more vulnerable to predation.

Eradication of rabbits and rodents will involve dropping poisoned bait around the island. It is due to start next year. 

Courtesy:BBC

The Mount Lemmon telescope in Arizona has a 1.5m diameter

The discovery of six comets made 2008 a truly stellar year for Italian astronomer Andrea Boattini.

He spends solitary nights keeping vigil on the heavens at Mount Lemmon Observatory in Arizona - looking for cosmic debris hurtling through the inner Solar System.

Two telescopes in Arizona and one in Australia are conducting the Catalina Sky Survey - part of a Nasa project to find and track near-Earth objects (NEOs).

Six comets in one year is the most found by an Italian astronomer since the mid-19th Century, even if it is not a world record.

Asteroids are far more common in the Solar System and potentially more hazardous to Earth. Mostly they are rockier, smaller and less spectacular than comets, so usually they are harder to find. There is a vast belt of asteroids between Mars and Jupiter.

'More predictable'

In 1998, Nasa started compiling an inventory of NEOs larger than one kilometre (0.62 miles) in diameter.

Don Yeomans, head of the NEO programme at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, says his team has found 763 asteroids and 82 comets in that category. That is 81% of the estimated total of near-Earth asteroids wider than 1km.

This comet was discovered by Andrea Boattini in November 2007

"It's getting much more predictable. Before 1998 we hadn't found many and didn't do much follow-up," he told BBC News.

But he admits that the new task set for the US space agency in 2005 - to log NEOs as small as 140m (460ft) in diameter - is much harder. The target is to find 90% of them by 2020.

An object is classed as an NEO if it comes within 45 million km (28 million miles) of Earth's orbit. Astronomers call that within 0.3 astronomical units (AU) - one unit being the distance of the Earth from the Sun. If the distance is only 0.05AU or less it is a potentially hazardous object.

The rationale for the project is that, while the chances of a NEO smashing into Earth are very slim, it would only take one to cause a global catastrophe and perhaps wipe out mankind. Even one smaller than 140m in diameter could cause a continental disaster - a giant fireball or a tsunami.

A rock about 50m wide which exploded over the Tunguska region of Siberia in 1908 levelled a vast area of forest and the impact energy was comparable to a modern nuclear weapon.

The impact of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 in 1994 inflicted giant bruises on Jupiter, even though the comet was tiny in comparison with the giant gaseous planet.

Impact alert

Yet the NEO team's observations are paying dividends, in terms of early warning of a hazard.

The Hubble space telescope revealed the comet damage on Jupiter in 1994

A major success was the first ever accurate prediction of an Earth impact, last October. The Arizona observatory spotted a two-metre space rock heading for Earth and predicted exactly when and where it would land. The rock exploded in an empty part of northern Sudan, within a day of discovery.

"We have to react very fast, especially when objects are very close to Earth," Mr Boattini told BBC News.

He said the 10-member Catalina team - one of three doing the NEO survey - had found 70% of the NEOs in the past year.

His digital cameras take a 30-second exposure of a specific area of sky, then keep going until there are 12 images of 12 different fields. Then the whole process is repeated, so finally there are four images for each field, and each image is separated from the next one by a 10-minute interval. A computer then picks up and displays the motion of a NEO.

Mr Yeomans says new wide-field telescopes specially designed for the sky survey will be operational in the next few years and "should improve the discovery rate by a factor of about 40".

One of the new telescopes, called PanSTARRS, will be installed in Hawaii.

"The idea is to have four telescopes co-located, all pointing at the same region of sky," Mr Yeomans said.

The NEO team also uses two radar telescopes - one in California's Mojave desert, the other at Arecibo, in Puerto Rico. "Radar gives you range - the distance between the observer and the asteroid, so it's a more powerful data set," he explained. But the radar facilities are much in demand for other space projects.

The aim is to find NEOs 20 or 30 years before they come close to Earth - and that is already achievable, Mr Yeomans says. If necessary, a craft could be sent up to deflect it - and a big space rock might require a nuclear explosion to push it away from Earth.

In April 2029, an asteroid called Apophis will come within five Earth radii - below the orbits of geosynchronous satellites, "but we can already rule out an Earth impact," Mr Yeomans told BBC News.

Andrea Boattini also uses this 0.7m telescope on Mount Bigelow, Arizona

Space probes are increasingly sending back a rich harvest of data about asteroids and comets - again making their behaviour more predictable.

Comets streak towards the Sun from the outer Solar System or beyond, usually leaving a tail millions of kilometres long as solar radiation reacts with their ice particles.

Mr Yeomans said the Stardust mission (1999-2006) indicated that comets "are surprisingly fragile". The comet has a density of less than 1g per cubic cm - less than water's density - and may have "interior voids", he said.

Courtesy : BBC

Porites and other corals provide habitat for thousands of species

Coral growth in Australia's Great Barrier Reef has slowed to its most sluggish rate in the past 400 years.

The decline endangers the species the reef supports, say researchers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science.

They studied massive porites corals, which are several hundred years old, and found that calcification has declined by 13.3% since 1990.

Global warming and the increasing acidity of seawater are to blame, they write in Science journal.

Coral reefs are central to the formation and function of ecosystems and food webs for tens of thousands of other marine organisms.

The Great Barrier Reef is the largest in the world, composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands.

Dr Glenn De'ath and colleagues investigated 328 colonies of massive Porites corals, from 69 locations.

The largest corals are centuries old - growing at a rate of just 1.5cm per year.

By looking at the coral skeletons, they determined that calcification - or the deposit of calcium carbonate - has declined by 13.3% throughout the Great Barrier Reef since 1990.

Such a decline is unprecedented in at least the past 400 years, they write.

The researchers warn that changes in biodiversity are imminent, both at the Great Barrier Reef and at other reef systems throughout the world's oceans.

Growing at 1.5 cm/year, large Porites corals are hundreds of years old

Courtesy: BBC

The Sichuan quake was one of several disasters to strike Asia in 2008

The past year has been one of the most devastating ever in terms of natural disasters, one of the world's biggest re-insurance companies has said.

Munich Re said the impact of the disasters was greater than in 2007 in both human and economic terms.

The company suggested climate change was boosting the destructive power of disasters like hurricanes and flooding.

It has called for stricter curbs on emissions to prevent further uncontrollable weather scenarios.

Although there were fewer "loss-producing events" in 2008 than in the previous year, the impact of natural disasters was higher, said Munich Re in its annual assessment.

More than 220,000 people died in events like cyclones, earthquakes and flooding, the most since 2004, the year of the Asian tsunami.

Meanwhile, overall global losses totalled about $200bn (£137bn), with uninsured losses totalling $45bn, about 50% more than in 2007.

Climate change has already started and is very probably contributing to increasingly frequent weather extremes and ensuing natural catastrophes  Torsten Jeworrek Munich Re

This makes 2008 the third most expensive year on record, after 1995, when the Kobe earthquake struck Japan, and 2005, the year of Hurricane Katrina in the US.

Torsten Jeworrek of Munich Re said the pattern continued a long-term trend already observed.

"Climate change has already started and is very probably contributing to increasingly frequent weather extremes and ensuing natural catastrophes," he said.

Uninsured

Asia was the continent worst hit by natural disasters in 2008, Munich Re reported.

The year saw five major hurricanes in the North Atlantic

Munich Re said the losses of $85bn made Sichuan the second most expensive earthquake after Kobe.

Although Nargis and the Sichuan quake brought the biggest cost in terms of human lives, the economic losses were mostly uninsured.

The most expensive single event in 2008 was Hurricane Ike, which brought $30bn in losses. It was one of five major hurricanes in the North Atlantic over the year, which saw a total of 16 tropical storms.

In addition, roughly 1,700 tornadoes across the US caused several billion dollars of damage, as did periods of low pressure weather activity in Europe.

If we delay too long, it will be very costly for future generations  Mr Jeworrek

Munich Re quoted World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) figures showing that 2008 was the 10th warmest year since reliable records began, meaning that the 10 warmest years on record all occurred in the past 12 years.

"It is now very probable that the progressive warming of the atmosphere is due to the greenhouse gases emitted by human activity," said Prof Peter Hoppe, head of Munich Re's Geo Risks Research.

"The logic is clear: when temperatures increase there is more evaporation and the atmosphere has a greater capacity to absorb water vapour, with the result that its energy content is higher.

"The weather machine runs into top gear, bringing more intense severe weather events with corresponding effects in terms of losses."

The company said world leaders must put in place "effective and binding rules on CO2 emissions" to curb climate change and ensure that "future generations do not have to live with weather scenarios that are difficult to control".

"If we delay too long, it will be very costly for future generations," said Mr Jeworrek. 

Courtesy:BBC

Divers have been helping restore Indonesia's coral reefs

Scientists have reported a rapid recovery in some of the coral reefs that were damaged by the Indian Ocean tsunami four years ago.

It had been feared that some of the reefs off the coast of Indonesia could take a decade to recover.

The New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) found evidence of rapid growth of young corals in badly-hit areas.

A spokesman said reefs damaged before the tsunami were also recovering.

Some communities were abandoning destructive fishing techniques and even transplanting corals into damaged areas, the WCS said.

"This is a great story of ecosystem resilience and recovery," said Stuart Campbell, co-ordinator of the WCS's Indonesia Marine Program.

"These findings provide new insights into coral recovery processes that can help us manage coral reefs in the face of climate change."

Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, a reef expert from the University of Queensland in Australia who did not take part in the study, said the findings were not surprising since corals typically recovered if not affected by fishing and coastal development.

"We are seeing similar things around the southern Great Barrier Reef where reefs that experience major catastrophe can bounce back quite quickly," the scientist told the Associated Press.

Countries across the Indian Ocean have been remembering the 2004 disaster, which claimed some 230,000 lives.

Prayers were said in Indonesia, Thailand and India on Friday, while Sri Lanka declared a two-minute silence in memory of the dead.

Courtesy:BBC

The first Earthrise to be witnessed by a human

Forty years ago, the biggest TV audience in history tuned in to watch humankind's first close encounter with another world, as the crew of Apollo 8 reached lunar orbit. Here, the Apollo historian and film-maker Dr Christopher Riley gives his perspective on the mission and how that Christmas Eve of 1968 changed the world.

Back in 1948, the British astrophysicist Sir Fred Hoyle predicted that when spaceflight enabled us to see the whole Earth from space, the view would change us forever.

Hoyle would have to wait another 20 years before humans would get to see this view with their own eyes, when the crew of Apollo 8 became the first astronauts to leave Earth orbit.

By then, a handful of satellites had snapped a number of breathtaking portraits of the Earth from afar and even a stunning shot of the Earth rising above the Moon's surface from lunar orbit.

Oh, my God! Look at that picture over there! Isn't that something…  Apollo 8 crew member

But on Christmas Eve 1968, none of the astronauts on board Apollo 8 were ready for the opportunity to witness their own Earthrise.

In all the months of training and preparation which had preceded the mission, no-one had thought to schedule an attempt for the crew to glimpse and record the most moving of sights, as their jewel of a home planet, suspended in the blackness of space, rose from behind the barren lunar horizon.

The blue marvel

For the first three orbits, preoccupied by the Moon and their latest TV broadcast, the spacecraft was not orientated to give them a chance to see the Earth.

But as Apollo 8 nosed its way back from the far side of the Moon for the fourth time, one of the crew spotted the view by chance from a window, his reaction captured by the on board tape recorder.

"Oh, my God! Look at that picture over there!" he exclaimed. "Isn't that something…"

The stills were taken orbiting the Moon's equator, with north at the top

After a quick joke about the fact that it was not in their flight plan to photograph it, the crew abandoned protocol and scrambled to get a snap of the occasion with their stills camera.

The Hasselblad only had a black and white film magazine in, resulting in the image above - the first photograph of Earthrise taken by a human as he watched it happen.

But this first historic picture is rarely reproduced.

Not content with this first monochromatic image, the astronauts rushed to find a colour film, and Bill Anders managed to snap two more frames which became the choice of photo editors for the rest of history.

Quite who spotted the view and took the first black and white Earthrise image is the subject of debate among historians.

Some say it was Bill Anders (and claim the flight recording proves it); others have pointed to Frank Borman as the man behind the camera.

Nasa is planning to eventually post the recording on its Apollo 8 Flight Journal website, so you can decide for yourself.

Mystery film

Perhaps more surprising than the unexpected nature of this historic photo-op is that during the rest of the mission, whilst the crew did spend time photographing and commenting on views of the Earth, they did not think to film an Earthrise on their 16mm movie cameras.

These Data Acquisition Cameras, as they were called, were carried to record technical mission moments.

The Apollo 8 crew would use them to film each other messing about during quiet moments; so they weren't averse to deviating from their flight plan.

But it seems that they were too busy with their other scheduled tasks that Christmas Eve to film mankind's first Earthrise.

The profound juxtaposition of such a vibrant, vulnerable, living blue and white marble of a planet rising from the stark grey lunar landscape was not captured on moving film until the Apollo 10 and 11 crews filmed it the following year.

By the fourth expedition to lunar orbit on Apollo 12, filming the Earth rising from behind the Moon had lost its magic and was only captured once through a slightly fogged window. It was the last Earthrise ever filmed during the Apollo era.

Green rise

These images, along with hundreds of other still pictures taken of the whole Earth during Apollo's nine flights to the Moon, helped to drive the momentum of a burgeoning green movement during the 1970s.

They fuelled an awareness of the vulnerability of the Earth which still resonates with us today and shapes our behaviour, as Fred Hoyle predicted it would.

These images helped to drive the momentum of a burgeoning green movement during the 1970s

Only 24 human beings have ever laid eyes on a view of the whole Earth from space. But thanks to a new generation of missions carrying high-resolution cameras beyond Earth orbit, moving HD footage of the whole planet is now available for all of us to marvel at.

In 2007, the Japanese lunar mission Selene transmitted back the first movies of Earthrise from lunar orbit since Apollo.

Even more ambitious, a Nasa project called The Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) was conceived at the end of the 20th Century.

Its mission was to stream a continuous live colour image of the Earth from a million miles out in space. The data from DSCOVR was designed to help with modelling climate change.

The first picture of the whole Earth, taken by Lunar Orbiter V

Al Gore, who had supported the project from its conception, also suggested that such live footage of the whole Earth broadcast continuously over the internet would provide a powerful modern reminder of the fragility of our home planet - in the way that those first hand snapped Apollo pictures had done all those decades earlier.

"Goresat" as it was dubbed was never launched under the Bush presidency.

Some suggest that DSCOVR would not have helped the cause of an administration committed to a path of oil dependency.

Today, the satellite still rests in storage at Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland awaiting a more enlightened presidency to give it a green light.

Perhaps, under a new administration, and to mark the 40th anniversary of humankind's first vision of the Earth from space, that time has now come.

Dr Christopher Riley is the co-producer of the documentary feature film In the Shadow of the Moon and curates the online Apollo film archive project Footagevault 

Courtesy:BBC