The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures

Nancy Rothwell: Staying Alive: The Body in Balance

From burning off that extra piece of pudding to keeping cool, our bodies are juggling all sorts of chemical reactions to keep us alive and healthy. Over the course of five lectures, Nancy Rothwell takes a closer look at the physiological processes that help our bodies stay in balance, and reveals what can happen when that balance tips the wrong way.

Where to Watch The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures • Nancy Rothwell: Staying Alive: The Body in Balance

5 Episodes

  • Sense and Sensitivity
    E1
    Sense and SensitivityIn the first of her lectures, Dame Nancy Rothwell reveals how we are endowed with a multitude of sensors that help us regulate our bodies.
  • Fats and Figures
    E2
    Fats and FiguresIn her second lecture, Nancy Rothwell explores how much energy is in the different foods we eat, and what happens to our body weight when we eat it.
  • Chilling Out
    E3
    Chilling OutIn the third of her Christmas Lectures, Dame Nancy Rothwell reveals how humans and animals alike have evolved to keep their body temperatures constant, even when the temperature of their habitats is changing.
  • Times of our lives
    E4
    Times of our livesIn her fourth lecture, Nancy Rothwell explores how our bodies and those of animals are trained by sunlight. The human body has a clock of its own and every creature works to a rhythm controlled by its genes. Professor Nancy Rothwell explains why the iguana has a third eye and how migrating birds navigate.
  • Pushing the Limits
    E5
    Pushing the LimitsIn her final Christmas Lecture, Nancy Rothwell reveals some of the incredible adaptations that animals have evolved to cope with life in the extremes. From anti-freeze blood to double-layered fur, each animal has found its own way to overcome the extremes.

 

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