Demis Hassabis

The British artificial intelligence lab DeepMind have made an astonishing breakthrough in one of biology’s toughest problems. The firm announced this week that it had largely cracked the problem of predicting how proteins folds into unique shapes, a challenge scientists have been working on for 50 years. The discovery is expected to accelerate research into illnesses like cancer and Alzheimer’s, and could even help find solutions to climate change. Behind the project is DeepMind’s co-founder, Demis Hassabis. A former chess prodigy, Hassabis has always been captivated by games and the mental agility needed to play them. This fascination with the human mind inspired his determination to use artificial intelligence to solve the world’s problems. Producers: Ben Crighton, Viv Jones Editor: Rosamund Jones