BBC Breakfast presenter Naga Munchetty was left baffled on Thursday, as she was forced to shut down her co-host Charlie Stayt in a row over feeling the ‘tender touch’ of a robot hand.
Bizarre as it all might sound, the topic of conversation came about as the two presenters sat on the red sofa leafing through the day’s newspapers to pick out the most interesting headlines.
Charlie kicked off the conversation by asking: “Can I bring you news from the world of robots, which I always like to keep a close eye on?”
Naga responded: “Please!”
Charlie went on to explain: “One of the perennial problems with robots is that you can’t combine the strength of a robot hand with the tenderness required for the use, normally, of a hand. As you might know!”
(Image: BBC)
He added: “They’re always smashing things, aren’t they, robots? But can they do delicate things with their hands?”
But a clearly unimpressed Naga looked off to the camera, clearly baffled as she replied: “I haven’t thought of robot hands being tender, no!” – not enjoying where the conversation was going.
Laughing, Charlie said: “Here we are! The solution may be on its way! Scientists in South Korea created a highly dextrous robotic hand in which each finger has three joints, very much like the human hand.
“What they haven’t managed to do is replicate the human thumb, they can’t do that. But this robotic hand is capable of doing delicate things like picking up an egg, and then moments later, crushing a can. So it’s able to do both these things, where previously all they could do basically was smash things.”
(Image: BBC)
Still looking unimpressed – and rather uncomfortable – with her co-host, Naga squirmed in her seat as Charlie admitted: “Well, that’s an exaggeration.”
She managed to get into the spirit of things a little, looking down at her own hand to consider what it would be like without thumbs.
Charlie pressed on: “But they weren’t able to do things that required a delicate touch. It’s changing!”
Naga remarked: “A delicate touch is always a good thing. It’s development!”
But Charlie soon got his own back as Naga turned the topic to the world’s first text message being bought and sold, as he urged her to hurry up the discussion.
“The world’s first text message! What do you think it said?” she quizzed him.
Charlie guessed ‘hello’, but the answer was ‘Merry Christmas’.
“Not that you were to know that,” Naga reassured him, before quizzing him on the year of its sending. Charlie was wrong again, opting for 1981 – while the answer was 1992.
“Not doing great!” Naga remarked through her giggles.
As the story wore on, Naga eventually sniped: “This took a lot longer than I thought it would to tell this story!”
Charlie agreed: “Yeah, I think we’re all thinking that!”
“Oh, are you now?” Naga swiped back at him.
BBC Breakfast airs from 6am every day on BBC One.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
