1 00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:04,600 The human body is fantastic, but it's far from perfect. 2 00:00:04,600 --> 00:00:08,360 Millions of years of evolution have left us with littered with glitches 3 00:00:08,360 --> 00:00:11,080 and flaws, of which I'm just too painfully aware. 4 00:00:11,080 --> 00:00:15,240 In my opinion, the human body is long overdue a makeover. 5 00:00:17,520 --> 00:00:19,560 Nobody designed the human body. 6 00:00:19,560 --> 00:00:23,920 It evolved with no plan in mind, and, like other animals, 7 00:00:23,920 --> 00:00:25,960 we've got useful adaptations - 8 00:00:25,960 --> 00:00:28,680 but we've also inherited plenty of flaws. 9 00:00:28,680 --> 00:00:31,000 That's why we have ears that go deaf... 10 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:34,080 My ears aren't working properly, it feels as though I need to pop them. 11 00:00:34,080 --> 00:00:36,160 ..throats that can choke us, 12 00:00:36,160 --> 00:00:39,040 and skin that is easily damaged. 13 00:00:39,040 --> 00:00:40,080 That is shocking. 14 00:00:42,280 --> 00:00:45,520 But what if we could shed that evolutionary baggage 15 00:00:45,520 --> 00:00:48,800 and seize the best that nature has to offer? 16 00:00:48,800 --> 00:00:50,520 There we go, the toes curl round. 17 00:00:51,760 --> 00:00:54,160 Exploring the entire animal kingdom, 18 00:00:54,160 --> 00:00:58,000 I want to find out how evolution has solved problems we face 19 00:00:58,000 --> 00:00:59,320 in different ways. 20 00:00:59,320 --> 00:01:00,720 Release the guinea fowl! 21 00:01:00,720 --> 00:01:02,640 Go on, go on, go on, go on, go on! 22 00:01:02,640 --> 00:01:05,640 Do apes have the pain-free backs we've always wanted? 23 00:01:05,640 --> 00:01:07,880 Oh! SHE LAUGHS 24 00:01:07,880 --> 00:01:11,280 Can an octopus open our eyes to better vision? 25 00:01:11,280 --> 00:01:12,920 Now, that is much better. 26 00:01:13,960 --> 00:01:17,640 And could a marsupial teach us something about childbirth? 27 00:01:17,640 --> 00:01:20,440 Having a jelly bean-sized baby, that's amazing. 28 00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:23,720 Using the best of these animal designs, 29 00:01:23,720 --> 00:01:28,120 I'm going to create a lifelike model of me that will be a total rethink 30 00:01:28,120 --> 00:01:29,600 of the human body. 31 00:01:29,600 --> 00:01:33,400 So, you want to do something a little bit like this? 32 00:01:33,400 --> 00:01:35,120 Oh, wow, look at that! 33 00:01:35,120 --> 00:01:37,920 Each improvement will highlight our limitations, 34 00:01:37,920 --> 00:01:41,800 and reveal how changing body parts could mean compromises. 35 00:01:41,800 --> 00:01:46,240 So, the mouth needs air from the lungs in order for us to speak? 36 00:01:46,240 --> 00:01:49,880 Can I create a body better than my own, 37 00:01:49,880 --> 00:01:53,680 and what will she look like when I come face-to-face 38 00:01:53,680 --> 00:01:55,400 with my perfect body? 39 00:02:12,720 --> 00:02:15,800 The human form is incredible - 40 00:02:15,800 --> 00:02:18,400 the result of millions of years of evolution. 41 00:02:27,280 --> 00:02:31,600 muscle and other tissues working together in miraculous harmony. 42 00:02:32,680 --> 00:02:37,040 Our bodies have helped make us one of the most successful species 43 00:02:37,040 --> 00:02:38,240 on the planet. 44 00:02:38,240 --> 00:02:39,760 But are they perfect? 45 00:02:41,520 --> 00:02:46,560 I'm an anatomist, I am fascinated by the structure of the human body, 46 00:02:46,760 --> 00:02:49,880 but the more I delve into it, the more I realise 47 00:02:49,880 --> 00:02:54,160 what a cobbled-together, hodgepodge of bits and pieces it really is. 48 00:02:54,160 --> 00:02:58,160 The human body is far from perfect. 49 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:07,560 Ironically, our technological and social progress 50 00:03:07,560 --> 00:03:09,640 has created new problems for us. 51 00:03:11,600 --> 00:03:15,160 Thanks to modern medicine and with good diet and exercise, 52 00:03:15,160 --> 00:03:18,080 we can expect to live decades longer than our ancestors. 53 00:03:19,480 --> 00:03:24,520 As we get older, we start to suffer from bad backs, joint pain, 54 00:03:24,880 --> 00:03:29,840 failing senses, even our hearts can become unreliable. 55 00:03:29,840 --> 00:03:32,120 And if you focus in on each of those elements, 56 00:03:32,120 --> 00:03:35,960 you just can't help feeling that they could be better designed. 57 00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:41,760 I've been writing about this for some time, 58 00:03:41,760 --> 00:03:45,080 but now my outspokenness has provoked a response. 59 00:03:47,320 --> 00:03:49,920 I've been summoned to the Science Museum. 60 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:57,400 I'm here to see an old friend, Roger Highfield. 61 00:03:57,400 --> 00:03:59,520 Roger! Hey, Alice! 62 00:03:59,520 --> 00:04:03,080 Hello! Good to see you! But this is no social call. 63 00:04:03,080 --> 00:04:06,400 You're always complaining about how the human body 64 00:04:06,400 --> 00:04:09,640 isn't really optimised, how it's kind of trapped by... 65 00:04:09,640 --> 00:04:12,280 Do I always do that?! ..that we're not as well-designed, 66 00:04:12,280 --> 00:04:14,240 you know, whinge, whinge, whinge. So, Alice, 67 00:04:14,240 --> 00:04:16,200 I want you to put your money where your mouth is, 68 00:04:16,200 --> 00:04:19,520 and look at your own body, figure out the flaws in it, 69 00:04:19,520 --> 00:04:22,040 and then I want you to rebuild yourself, 70 00:04:22,040 --> 00:04:25,080 to create a model of yourself, a perfect Alice. 71 00:04:25,080 --> 00:04:27,040 A physical model? A physical model, 72 00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:30,360 so we can see what perfection looks like, 73 00:04:30,360 --> 00:04:33,360 and then we want to put that model on display in this case 74 00:04:33,360 --> 00:04:36,240 for our million or so visitors to this gallery each year 75 00:04:36,240 --> 00:04:39,040 to have a look at. It's going to be right there, in the Science Museum? 76 00:04:39,040 --> 00:04:41,560 It's going to be right there. It's going to be the perfect you. 77 00:04:41,560 --> 00:04:43,840 I'm up for it. I accept the challenge. 78 00:04:43,840 --> 00:04:45,400 How long have I got? 79 00:04:45,400 --> 00:04:48,000 You've got about three months, so not that long. 80 00:04:58,600 --> 00:05:02,600 This is an imaginative exercise, but in tackling this project, 81 00:05:02,600 --> 00:05:04,880 I'm not going to give myself completely free rein, 82 00:05:04,880 --> 00:05:06,480 because that feels like cheating. 83 00:05:06,480 --> 00:05:09,360 I'm going to stick with biological materials, 84 00:05:09,360 --> 00:05:13,040 but what I am going to do is allow myself to rewrite some of that 85 00:05:13,040 --> 00:05:16,400 evolutionary history, or at least to get rid of the evolutionary baggage. 86 00:05:16,400 --> 00:05:18,800 I think of the human body as a building 87 00:05:18,800 --> 00:05:21,400 which has been renovated over time, 88 00:05:21,400 --> 00:05:24,480 and some of its features are just a bit odd now, 89 00:05:24,480 --> 00:05:27,280 so I'm going to take it right back down to ground level 90 00:05:27,280 --> 00:05:29,240 and build it again, from the bottom up. 91 00:05:30,880 --> 00:05:34,560 Natural selection only weeds out anything that reduces 92 00:05:34,560 --> 00:05:37,200 the chances of survival and reproduction. 93 00:05:37,200 --> 00:05:40,520 It's only perhaps now, as we demand more quality from life, 94 00:05:40,520 --> 00:05:42,240 that we're aware of our failings. 95 00:05:44,840 --> 00:05:47,920 But the animal kingdom is full of alternative forms... 96 00:05:49,600 --> 00:05:53,440 ..different ways that nature has tackled the same trials of life 97 00:05:53,440 --> 00:05:54,800 that humans face. 98 00:05:58,440 --> 00:06:01,720 This is quite a challenge that the Science Museum has set me, 99 00:06:01,720 --> 00:06:04,160 but as I attempt to redesign my own body, 100 00:06:04,160 --> 00:06:08,720 I have got the entire natural world to provide me with inspiration. 101 00:06:11,600 --> 00:06:14,120 To keep my design grounded in reality, 102 00:06:14,120 --> 00:06:17,200 I'm going to call on the talents of anatomical artist 103 00:06:17,200 --> 00:06:19,520 and designer Scott Eaton. 104 00:06:20,600 --> 00:06:25,560 Scott is an expert at recreating accurate human and animal anatomy, 105 00:06:25,840 --> 00:06:30,840 producing sculptures or models for the art world and CGI industry. 106 00:06:30,840 --> 00:06:35,000 He's agreed to help me produce the blueprint for Alice 2.0. 107 00:06:37,120 --> 00:06:41,120 Well, Scott has asked me to meet him here at this industrial estate 108 00:06:41,120 --> 00:06:43,800 on the edge of London, and I think this is the building. 109 00:06:43,800 --> 00:06:45,440 I'm pretty excited about this, 110 00:06:45,440 --> 00:06:47,720 because this is the start of making the new me. 111 00:06:51,360 --> 00:06:53,360 At this special effects studio, 112 00:06:53,360 --> 00:06:56,400 a bit of hi-tech photographic wizardry takes place. 113 00:06:59,720 --> 00:07:01,320 Scott? Alice, hi. 114 00:07:01,320 --> 00:07:02,840 Hello. Come in, come in. 115 00:07:02,840 --> 00:07:05,400 Can I come through here? Try, be careful! 116 00:07:05,400 --> 00:07:08,400 Squeeze in! Well, this is an amazing rig. 117 00:07:08,400 --> 00:07:09,800 Ah, we have a lot of cameras set up. 118 00:07:10,920 --> 00:07:14,720 To provide a visual base to work from, Scott must first capture 119 00:07:14,720 --> 00:07:17,360 exactly what I look like in three dimensions. 120 00:07:17,360 --> 00:07:20,200 Oh, my goodness, OK, how many cameras have we got here? 121 00:07:20,200 --> 00:07:23,280 Looking around, there are about 130 cameras in this rig. 122 00:07:23,280 --> 00:07:26,400 And each one of them is trained on this spot in the centre, 123 00:07:26,400 --> 00:07:28,480 so I presume that's where I've got to stand? 124 00:07:28,480 --> 00:07:31,360 Yep, that will be your position on the platform, 125 00:07:31,360 --> 00:07:32,880 kind of your little pedestal. 126 00:07:32,880 --> 00:07:35,160 So, 130 eyes all trained on me? 127 00:07:35,160 --> 00:07:36,240 Yep. 128 00:07:39,720 --> 00:07:42,480 OK, Alice, for the first kind of pose, 129 00:07:42,480 --> 00:07:45,320 we're just going to do a standard anatomical reference pose, 130 00:07:45,320 --> 00:07:49,080 so elbows out, and try to get your forearms going down vertical. 131 00:07:49,080 --> 00:07:50,240 Yeah, that's it. 132 00:07:50,240 --> 00:07:51,280 OK, I'm good to go. 133 00:07:53,080 --> 00:07:54,160 Oh! 134 00:07:54,160 --> 00:07:55,920 THEY LAUGH 135 00:07:55,920 --> 00:07:57,640 That was quite bright! 136 00:07:57,640 --> 00:07:58,840 Relax, relax, relax. 137 00:08:00,080 --> 00:08:02,880 OK, in three, two, one. 138 00:08:05,120 --> 00:08:08,400 And the last one I think we'll get you to do is stretch out, 139 00:08:08,400 --> 00:08:10,280 like you're pushing on a wall. 140 00:08:10,280 --> 00:08:12,440 Like I'm in a case. That's it, that's it! 141 00:08:12,440 --> 00:08:15,040 Three, two, one. 142 00:08:15,040 --> 00:08:16,400 Good. 143 00:08:16,400 --> 00:08:18,080 Great, thanks, Alice. So weird! 144 00:08:20,880 --> 00:08:25,120 A bit of data crunching and 130 photos are combined 145 00:08:25,120 --> 00:08:27,120 into a single 3-D image. 146 00:08:27,120 --> 00:08:28,640 Alice, so there you are. 147 00:08:29,600 --> 00:08:31,520 What do you think? Oh, that's amazing. 148 00:08:34,840 --> 00:08:35,920 It's really strange. 149 00:08:39,240 --> 00:08:41,600 It looks like a solid object when you pull out, 150 00:08:41,600 --> 00:08:43,960 and then when you go in, you realise that I'm just mapped 151 00:08:43,960 --> 00:08:46,080 as a cloud of individual pixels. 152 00:08:48,040 --> 00:08:49,000 Oh, it's great! 153 00:08:55,200 --> 00:08:59,520 OK, Alice, so we have the data now, what are we going to do to it? 154 00:08:59,520 --> 00:09:01,960 What I want to do is talk to plenty of other people. 155 00:09:01,960 --> 00:09:04,440 I want to talk to other anatomists, I want to talk to surgeons - 156 00:09:04,440 --> 00:09:07,200 who are always patching up the human body - 157 00:09:07,200 --> 00:09:11,440 and then I'll get back to you with a wish list of ways of modifying me. 158 00:09:11,440 --> 00:09:12,840 OK, let me know, let me know. 159 00:09:17,520 --> 00:09:19,840 So, where to begin? 160 00:09:19,840 --> 00:09:22,480 Well, since the model is based on me, 161 00:09:22,480 --> 00:09:25,280 I've decided to get deeply personal. 162 00:09:25,280 --> 00:09:28,120 Well, the best place to start looking for flaws in the human body 163 00:09:28,120 --> 00:09:29,440 is actually right here, 164 00:09:29,440 --> 00:09:33,160 so I'm going to take an extremely detailed look inside my body. 165 00:09:36,520 --> 00:09:40,800 I've come to seek the help of a master at exposing hidden flaws, 166 00:09:40,800 --> 00:09:43,400 consultant radiologist Iain Lyburn. 167 00:09:43,400 --> 00:09:46,680 Iain, I want to have a look inside. OK. 168 00:09:46,680 --> 00:09:48,600 There are a few areas that I want to focus on. 169 00:09:48,600 --> 00:09:51,680 Right. And I just want to see how my body's bearing up, you know, 170 00:09:51,680 --> 00:09:55,080 after 44 years of wear and tear. 171 00:09:55,080 --> 00:09:57,400 OK, so the plan is to get into the MRI machine... Yeah. 172 00:09:57,400 --> 00:09:59,720 ..and sort of slice you, lots of different slices, 173 00:09:59,720 --> 00:10:03,000 lots of different angles, check out all the different structures inside, 174 00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:05,360 and make sure you're surviving and doing well. 175 00:10:05,360 --> 00:10:07,480 So, I'm approaching this with a bit of trepidation, 176 00:10:07,480 --> 00:10:11,080 there is a possibility that we might find something unforeseen. 177 00:10:11,080 --> 00:10:14,240 There'll be some sign of something, some ageing process. 178 00:10:22,320 --> 00:10:25,000 The MRI sees right through me, 179 00:10:25,000 --> 00:10:27,520 collecting data on all the tissues in my body. 180 00:10:28,640 --> 00:10:32,520 But it's my skeleton, and most specifically my spine, 181 00:10:32,520 --> 00:10:34,000 that catches Iain's attention. 182 00:10:35,680 --> 00:10:38,240 So, looking at the spine here, the vertebral bodies, 183 00:10:38,240 --> 00:10:41,040 the bony bits of the vertebrae, are these squares. 184 00:10:41,040 --> 00:10:42,920 Yes. And then in between them, 185 00:10:42,920 --> 00:10:46,840 we've got the slightly pulpy cartilage discs. 186 00:10:46,840 --> 00:10:49,680 That's right, yes, yes. They're like the shock absorbers in between 187 00:10:49,680 --> 00:10:53,400 the vertical bodies, slightly softer, more spongy discs. 188 00:10:53,400 --> 00:10:55,920 This disc here, I don't like the look of that. 189 00:10:55,920 --> 00:11:00,600 No. The height is narrowed, so the disc is slightly squashed, 190 00:11:00,600 --> 00:11:03,400 but also it's lost some of its water content, so it's dehydrated, 191 00:11:03,400 --> 00:11:05,680 and that's a sign of it being degenerate. 192 00:11:05,680 --> 00:11:08,080 It's a bit like a doughnut, we talk about it like a doughnut, 193 00:11:08,080 --> 00:11:10,880 because there's a nice sort of rounded edge, and in the middle 194 00:11:10,880 --> 00:11:14,160 there's the jam, and it's the jam that comes out at the back 195 00:11:14,160 --> 00:11:16,920 and squashes onto your nerves and causes trouble. 196 00:11:16,920 --> 00:11:18,520 OK, so it is pushing out the back, 197 00:11:18,520 --> 00:11:20,960 so this is what we would describe, surely, as a slipped disc, 198 00:11:20,960 --> 00:11:22,560 or the beginning of a slipped disc? 199 00:11:22,560 --> 00:11:24,000 Very near the beginning of one. 200 00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:25,800 So, it's a slightly protruded disc 201 00:11:25,800 --> 00:11:28,040 but not actually squashing anything particularly. 202 00:11:29,840 --> 00:11:32,440 This explains my years of back pain. 203 00:11:33,520 --> 00:11:34,920 But I'm not alone. 204 00:11:34,920 --> 00:11:37,600 It turns out that bad backs are everywhere. 205 00:11:40,000 --> 00:11:43,440 Spinal problems and bad backs are a huge problem for this country. 206 00:11:43,440 --> 00:11:46,160 We spend well over £1 billion a year on treatment 207 00:11:46,160 --> 00:11:47,680 for spinal disorders. 208 00:11:47,680 --> 00:11:50,320 Wider than that, it has a huge implication for the nation 209 00:11:50,320 --> 00:11:54,160 as a whole, with over £12 billion, £13 billion a year spent 210 00:11:54,160 --> 00:11:58,760 in missed days from work because of back pain and spinal disorders. 211 00:11:58,760 --> 00:12:02,040 And, in fact, if you look at chronic pain as an entity, 212 00:12:02,040 --> 00:12:05,200 about 30% to 40% of patients who suffer with chronic pain, 213 00:12:05,200 --> 00:12:07,160 it's originating from the spine. 214 00:12:07,160 --> 00:12:11,080 So why are our spines so injury-prone? 215 00:12:11,080 --> 00:12:13,840 The challenge the spine faces is that it has to move 216 00:12:13,840 --> 00:12:17,800 in many directions, at the same time it has to bear the weight 217 00:12:17,800 --> 00:12:19,360 of the body and the torso. 218 00:12:19,360 --> 00:12:22,200 This puts huge forces throughout this structure. 219 00:12:23,880 --> 00:12:26,720 To balance our upper body over our legs, 220 00:12:26,720 --> 00:12:30,160 our spines evolved a series of curves. 221 00:12:30,160 --> 00:12:32,880 But this shape created specific weak points. 222 00:12:34,520 --> 00:12:38,480 We tend to see the wear and tear at the points within the curves 223 00:12:38,480 --> 00:12:41,560 of the spine where there is the most amount of movement and flexion 224 00:12:41,560 --> 00:12:44,600 extension, which in the neck is around the mid-cervical region, 225 00:12:44,600 --> 00:12:47,640 and in the lumbar spine is at the very base of the spine, 226 00:12:47,640 --> 00:12:49,680 where the curve is at its most noticeable. 227 00:12:49,680 --> 00:12:52,720 About 95% of spinal problems in fact originate 228 00:12:52,720 --> 00:12:55,000 from the lower lumbar spine region. 229 00:12:55,000 --> 00:12:58,240 As we get older, the structures within our spine fail. 230 00:12:58,240 --> 00:12:59,640 That then leads to the pain, 231 00:12:59,640 --> 00:13:01,880 and that then leads to the disability caused by it. 232 00:13:03,600 --> 00:13:08,600 So, why hasn't natural selection weeded out bad backs? 233 00:13:09,080 --> 00:13:12,360 Well, back pain doesn't really start to affect us 234 00:13:12,360 --> 00:13:16,360 until we're in our fifth or sixth decade, and I'm afraid, 235 00:13:16,360 --> 00:13:18,320 once you've passed your genes on, 236 00:13:18,320 --> 00:13:21,080 evolution doesn't care quite so much about you. 237 00:13:23,720 --> 00:13:28,280 The ageing process exacerbates a fundamental problem in our spines. 238 00:13:28,280 --> 00:13:32,520 But perhaps a close look at our evolutionary past can provide a path 239 00:13:32,520 --> 00:13:33,920 to a possible solution. 240 00:13:35,080 --> 00:13:38,000 So, I've come here to Twycross Zoo to meet some of our closest 241 00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:40,440 living relatives in the animal kingdom, 242 00:13:40,440 --> 00:13:43,880 and to find out more about our own evolutionary journey. 243 00:13:46,960 --> 00:13:50,040 Here to meet me is Dr Emily Saunders, 244 00:13:50,040 --> 00:13:53,880 and some monkeys who can take our backs back in time. 245 00:13:56,160 --> 00:13:59,560 What monkeys represent really nicely is how we would have been 246 00:13:59,560 --> 00:14:00,800 a long time ago, 247 00:14:00,800 --> 00:14:02,840 so we're going back 40 million years or more, 248 00:14:02,840 --> 00:14:05,680 and so we would have been small-bodied, 249 00:14:05,680 --> 00:14:09,240 running around the tree tops on four limbs. 250 00:14:09,240 --> 00:14:12,360 What this does is it brings your body centre of mass down 251 00:14:12,360 --> 00:14:17,040 lower towards the branch, and lessen the risk of you swaying, 252 00:14:17,040 --> 00:14:19,480 and over-balancing, and toppling off the branch. 253 00:14:22,520 --> 00:14:23,960 For millions of years, 254 00:14:23,960 --> 00:14:27,600 our ancestors' spines worked in a horizontal position. 255 00:14:27,600 --> 00:14:30,720 As our ape ancestors got larger and heavier, 256 00:14:30,720 --> 00:14:34,520 they held their bodies in a more upright position, climbing, 257 00:14:34,520 --> 00:14:37,640 and then even standing on two legs, up in the trees. 258 00:14:37,640 --> 00:14:42,600 But our spine problems really began around 7 million years ago, 259 00:14:42,600 --> 00:14:45,920 when our ancestors started to do less clambering in the trees, 260 00:14:45,920 --> 00:14:48,720 and more walking on the ground. 261 00:14:48,720 --> 00:14:50,280 To walk more efficiently, 262 00:14:50,280 --> 00:14:53,680 our lumbar spines lengthened and became more flexible, 263 00:14:53,680 --> 00:14:56,680 but that made the backbone weaker. 264 00:14:56,680 --> 00:14:59,680 So, our spine is longer and we've also got this curvature? 265 00:14:59,680 --> 00:15:02,280 Yeah, it's a slight recipe for disaster, 266 00:15:02,280 --> 00:15:05,320 because we perhaps don't have the muscle support to be able to support 267 00:15:05,320 --> 00:15:08,400 that part of our spine, so that causes quite a lot of the problem. 268 00:15:09,840 --> 00:15:14,880 In terms of a durable design, humans have perhaps taken a wrong turn. 269 00:15:15,000 --> 00:15:18,480 So, maybe we could learn something useful by studying the alternative 270 00:15:18,480 --> 00:15:21,640 spinal arrangements of our primate cousins. 271 00:15:21,640 --> 00:15:25,040 What chimpanzees do is they're moving in a lot of different ways, 272 00:15:25,040 --> 00:15:26,680 in an upright posture... 273 00:15:26,680 --> 00:15:29,000 And then they're clambering, hanging from their arms, 274 00:15:29,000 --> 00:15:30,480 bearing their weight on their feet? 275 00:15:30,480 --> 00:15:33,320 Yes, and so they're adapting themselves to that upright posture, 276 00:15:33,320 --> 00:15:35,440 and that comes with a lot of anatomical changes... 277 00:15:35,440 --> 00:15:36,800 BANG Oh! 278 00:15:36,800 --> 00:15:38,040 THEY LAUGH 279 00:15:38,040 --> 00:15:40,120 Thank you for that! We're not popular! 280 00:15:41,520 --> 00:15:45,480 In a chimp, the lumbar spine is straighter, shorter, 281 00:15:45,480 --> 00:15:48,400 and entrapped by the pelvis on each side, 282 00:15:48,400 --> 00:15:50,400 making for a more stable structure. 283 00:15:52,440 --> 00:15:55,120 They're flinging themselves around the trees and doing all these 284 00:15:55,120 --> 00:15:57,520 different behaviours that they need to do to be able to move 285 00:15:57,520 --> 00:15:58,800 around the forest canopy. 286 00:15:58,800 --> 00:16:01,640 That support might actually be to do with reducing the injuries 287 00:16:01,640 --> 00:16:04,280 that they might get in that part of the spine as a result. 288 00:16:05,720 --> 00:16:09,880 I'm now thinking that chimps might hold the key to the solution here. 289 00:16:09,880 --> 00:16:14,400 We might be better off switching to a stiffer, shorter lumbar spine. 290 00:16:17,840 --> 00:16:20,760 So, if I was going to re-engineer the human spine to be more 291 00:16:20,760 --> 00:16:23,800 chimpanzee-like... If you had a sort of slightly more entrapped, 292 00:16:23,800 --> 00:16:26,200 shorter lumbar spine, that was a bit straighter, 293 00:16:26,200 --> 00:16:28,600 you'd get a huge amount of support and stability, 294 00:16:28,600 --> 00:16:32,120 and potentially have reduced risk of all the different maladies 295 00:16:32,120 --> 00:16:33,640 that come along with that. 296 00:16:33,640 --> 00:16:36,480 You wouldn't be able to walk quite as nicely as we do, 297 00:16:36,480 --> 00:16:39,080 quite as efficiently as we do, but chimpanzees, 298 00:16:39,080 --> 00:16:40,800 when they're walking bipedally, 299 00:16:40,800 --> 00:16:44,360 do actually have a little bit of opposite rotation, in that vein. 300 00:16:44,360 --> 00:16:46,280 And I'd avoid my slipped disc, I think. 301 00:16:46,280 --> 00:16:48,600 Exactly, yes. You may do, yeah. 302 00:16:48,600 --> 00:16:50,720 Not making any promises! THEY LAUGH 303 00:16:53,800 --> 00:16:57,440 Time to pass on my first redesign to artist Scott. 304 00:17:00,240 --> 00:17:02,160 So, this is your den! Hey, Alice! Come in. 305 00:17:02,160 --> 00:17:04,360 Hello! How are you? Good to see you. 306 00:17:04,360 --> 00:17:06,760 OK, then, Scott, what have you got for me? 307 00:17:06,760 --> 00:17:10,880 OK, well, I have you loaded into the computer. 308 00:17:13,200 --> 00:17:15,680 You might recognise yourself, I hope! 309 00:17:15,680 --> 00:17:18,240 The colour is there, the form is there. 310 00:17:18,240 --> 00:17:19,560 It's quite freaky! 311 00:17:21,120 --> 00:17:22,440 It's quite... It is strange, 312 00:17:22,440 --> 00:17:24,600 because there's something quite spooky about it. 313 00:17:24,600 --> 00:17:26,720 I'm obviously used to seeing photographs of myself, 314 00:17:26,720 --> 00:17:28,520 and I'm even used to seeing myself on film, 315 00:17:28,520 --> 00:17:30,880 but there's something quite different about this. 316 00:17:30,880 --> 00:17:32,640 That's the starting point, 317 00:17:32,640 --> 00:17:35,400 and then we can do anything we want to it, really. 318 00:17:36,920 --> 00:17:39,720 I've got a good idea of where I want to start with this, 319 00:17:39,720 --> 00:17:41,560 and it's the spine. 320 00:17:41,560 --> 00:17:44,440 I think that there are problems there that we could try to fix 321 00:17:44,440 --> 00:17:46,280 that are actually quite personal to me, 322 00:17:46,280 --> 00:17:48,160 but also generally quite important. 323 00:17:48,160 --> 00:17:49,560 I've got a slipped disc. 324 00:17:49,560 --> 00:17:51,800 OK. And this is a really common problem for humans. 325 00:17:51,800 --> 00:17:54,560 OK. So, I think this is a poor bit of design 326 00:17:54,560 --> 00:17:56,320 that we could look at fixing. 327 00:17:56,320 --> 00:17:58,320 It's the structure of the spine 328 00:17:58,320 --> 00:18:00,680 which predisposes it to this problem, 329 00:18:00,680 --> 00:18:02,880 the fact that you've got this curve. 330 00:18:02,880 --> 00:18:05,920 OK, so you want to work on straightening 331 00:18:05,920 --> 00:18:08,080 some of the lumbar region? 332 00:18:08,080 --> 00:18:12,000 So, you want to do something a little bit like this? 333 00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:13,080 Wow, look at that! 334 00:18:13,080 --> 00:18:14,960 That is actually moving back. 335 00:18:14,960 --> 00:18:16,720 This is amazing, this is like some kind of 336 00:18:16,720 --> 00:18:18,320 really radical virtual surgery. 337 00:18:19,600 --> 00:18:23,080 Scott is now able to incorporate elements of chimpanzee 338 00:18:23,080 --> 00:18:25,040 into my upgraded spine. 339 00:18:26,200 --> 00:18:30,200 We have five lumbar vertebrae. Chimps have four. 340 00:18:30,200 --> 00:18:32,960 Right. They're also really well supported at the bottom here, 341 00:18:32,960 --> 00:18:35,360 so you can see the way that the pelvis comes up on either side. 342 00:18:35,360 --> 00:18:37,120 So what do you think, shall we...? 343 00:18:37,120 --> 00:18:38,640 Can you pull the pelvis up a bit? 344 00:18:38,640 --> 00:18:41,520 OK, so let me, let me just see... 345 00:18:41,520 --> 00:18:44,000 That's amazing. That's a variation, right there. 346 00:18:45,160 --> 00:18:48,640 It's odd, it's going to make me more straight-sided... 347 00:18:48,640 --> 00:18:50,960 Yeah, let's see. ..as chimps are. 348 00:18:50,960 --> 00:18:55,320 So, I've lost the small of my back, I've lost my waist. 349 00:18:55,320 --> 00:18:57,680 It's also going to change functionality, isn't it? 350 00:18:57,680 --> 00:19:00,680 Bringing the pelvis closer to the ribcage is going to mean 351 00:19:00,680 --> 00:19:03,040 that I don't have as much rotation there. 352 00:19:03,040 --> 00:19:06,240 Is that worth it for the stabilisation of the spine? 353 00:19:06,240 --> 00:19:07,720 Maybe, maybe it is. 354 00:19:07,720 --> 00:19:11,080 We'll see. It looks weird, it looks completely weird to me, 355 00:19:11,080 --> 00:19:13,160 I'm very familiar with human anatomy, 356 00:19:13,160 --> 00:19:15,080 I'm very familiar with chimpanzee anatomy, 357 00:19:15,080 --> 00:19:16,480 and that's a kind of...hybrid. 358 00:19:16,480 --> 00:19:19,360 Well, it'll look even more weird when we fit your body 359 00:19:19,360 --> 00:19:23,080 to this underlying skeleton. Yeah! Then it will look weird. 360 00:19:31,840 --> 00:19:35,120 The new me has received its first modification. 361 00:19:36,360 --> 00:19:41,360 Straightening and strengthening my lumbar spine is a subtle change, 362 00:19:42,040 --> 00:19:45,040 but it could make life dramatically more comfortable. 363 00:19:46,280 --> 00:19:48,520 Now, it's time for the next adaptation. 364 00:19:52,440 --> 00:19:56,440 Our backs aren't the only parts of our bodies that have suffered 365 00:19:56,440 --> 00:20:00,040 from our ancestors' preference for walking upright. 366 00:20:00,040 --> 00:20:02,080 As we became more bipedal, 367 00:20:02,080 --> 00:20:05,880 the strain of supporting the body fell from four legs to just two. 368 00:20:07,600 --> 00:20:10,680 That's a lot of weight passing through just a few joints... 369 00:20:14,920 --> 00:20:18,400 ..as judo competitor Rhys Thompson knows to his cost. 370 00:20:18,400 --> 00:20:21,000 I planted my foot to try and move my opponent. 371 00:20:22,640 --> 00:20:26,280 He pulled me in a certain direction, my foot slipped, replanted, 372 00:20:26,280 --> 00:20:28,440 and his weight came down on my knee. 373 00:20:30,080 --> 00:20:32,560 Initially, I felt, like, a snap. 374 00:20:34,880 --> 00:20:37,080 I thought I'd done something. 375 00:20:37,080 --> 00:20:39,520 I couldn't get up, and then I struggled to walk after. 376 00:20:45,400 --> 00:20:49,040 Rhys had ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament, 377 00:20:49,040 --> 00:20:51,640 a key element in the crowded mechanics of the knee. 378 00:20:52,920 --> 00:20:55,400 The important thing to understand about the knee joint 379 00:20:55,400 --> 00:20:58,840 is it's a very complicated join, by comparison to many others. 380 00:20:58,840 --> 00:21:03,880 It moves a little bit like a hinge, slides backwards and forwards, 381 00:21:04,160 --> 00:21:07,080 but it also turns. 382 00:21:07,080 --> 00:21:09,160 So, it's inherently unstable. 383 00:21:12,320 --> 00:21:15,200 Rhys broke the anterior cruciate ligament, 384 00:21:15,200 --> 00:21:19,000 which is this ligament in the centre of the joint at the front. 385 00:21:21,520 --> 00:21:25,440 The way these ligaments break is usually through a pivoting motion, 386 00:21:25,440 --> 00:21:26,800 so the knee rotates. 387 00:21:28,240 --> 00:21:33,240 The foot is fixed on the ground, and the body rotates around the joint, 388 00:21:33,360 --> 00:21:35,400 and this explodes. 389 00:21:37,400 --> 00:21:40,600 Sportspeople are especially prone to ligament damage. 390 00:21:42,720 --> 00:21:45,080 But the forces that the knee experiences, 391 00:21:45,080 --> 00:21:48,920 and the complexity of its structure, means there's a lot to go wrong. 392 00:21:50,320 --> 00:21:53,960 The thin layer of protective cartilage lining the bones 393 00:21:53,960 --> 00:21:55,600 takes much of the punishment. 394 00:21:57,040 --> 00:22:00,880 Two pieces of normal cartilage rubbing over one another 395 00:22:00,880 --> 00:22:05,200 are more slippery than two ice cubes rubbing over one another. 396 00:22:05,200 --> 00:22:10,240 The problem is it has no ability to repair or heal itself, 397 00:22:10,960 --> 00:22:13,680 so over time, it gradually wears out. 398 00:22:13,680 --> 00:22:17,840 It's only in the last 50 years or so that we've doubled our life span, 399 00:22:17,840 --> 00:22:21,160 we now live until we're 100, and so our joints, I'm afraid, 400 00:22:21,160 --> 00:22:22,440 can't quite cope. 401 00:22:26,960 --> 00:22:30,200 When the cartilage wears away, you get arthritis. 402 00:22:31,840 --> 00:22:35,680 Successful surgery means Rhys is now on the road to recovery. 403 00:22:35,680 --> 00:22:39,640 OK, head back and relax, I'm just going to make it move. 404 00:22:39,640 --> 00:22:42,400 But by the time we pass 45, 405 00:22:42,400 --> 00:22:46,040 nearly 20% of us will suffer from arthritic knees, 406 00:22:46,040 --> 00:22:49,560 rising to almost a quarter by the time we pass 75. 407 00:23:02,240 --> 00:23:06,480 The knee is clearly a prime candidate for my next redesign. 408 00:23:08,440 --> 00:23:11,760 If we look at the knee joint, and explode it, 409 00:23:11,760 --> 00:23:14,040 we can just see how much anatomy is in there. 410 00:23:14,040 --> 00:23:16,400 All these ligaments, all these bits of cartilage, 411 00:23:16,400 --> 00:23:19,840 each one of those is another component that can go wrong. 412 00:23:19,840 --> 00:23:22,080 So, I think we could simplify this even more. 413 00:23:22,080 --> 00:23:25,680 I think we could make it into a very simple hinge joint. 414 00:23:27,920 --> 00:23:31,400 However, I think what we need to do is look at the whole leg. 415 00:23:31,400 --> 00:23:34,000 I don't think we can just pull the knee out on its own, 416 00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:36,560 I think we've got to look at the entire lower limb, 417 00:23:36,560 --> 00:23:39,560 and see if there's something quite radical we could do 418 00:23:39,560 --> 00:23:42,080 to save some of the stress on these joints. 419 00:23:45,120 --> 00:23:48,880 Could we learn something from other successful bipeds? 420 00:23:50,280 --> 00:23:52,960 Birds, the descendants of dinosaurs, 421 00:23:52,960 --> 00:23:57,160 have been at this game tens of millions of years longer than us. 422 00:23:57,160 --> 00:24:00,920 Their legs evolved very differently to our own, 423 00:24:00,920 --> 00:24:05,160 so could they have discovered a less damaging way to treat their joints? 424 00:24:07,840 --> 00:24:10,320 I've come to the Royal Veterinary College campus 425 00:24:10,320 --> 00:24:12,160 to meet Dr Monica Daley. 426 00:24:12,160 --> 00:24:14,800 Hello. Hi. Are you Monica? Yeah, hi. 427 00:24:14,800 --> 00:24:17,040 Hi, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, too. 428 00:24:17,040 --> 00:24:19,320 Come and meet my team. This is Hannah. Hannah, hello. 429 00:24:19,320 --> 00:24:22,560 Monica and her team are bird locomotion specialists. 430 00:24:22,560 --> 00:24:24,520 Hello. That's a lovely guinea fowl. 431 00:24:24,520 --> 00:24:26,760 This is one of our flock, he's going to run for us today. 432 00:24:26,760 --> 00:24:28,440 He's a performer? Yes. An athlete? 433 00:24:28,440 --> 00:24:32,320 Yes. I've been working with guinea fowl for over ten years now, 434 00:24:32,320 --> 00:24:36,560 and I have spent my career trying to, basically, trip birds, 435 00:24:36,560 --> 00:24:38,280 as they're running! THEY LAUGH 436 00:24:38,280 --> 00:24:39,440 That sounds really mean! 437 00:24:39,440 --> 00:24:42,440 It does, but they're very, very good, and it's actually rare 438 00:24:42,440 --> 00:24:45,360 that they ever fall down. Have you managed to trip them up? 439 00:24:45,360 --> 00:24:48,280 Occasionally. A couple times in a thousand. 440 00:24:48,280 --> 00:24:51,440 So, if you were to compare us running with a guinea fowl running, 441 00:24:51,440 --> 00:24:52,840 who's better? 442 00:24:52,840 --> 00:24:54,760 Guinea fowl. Really? Yes. 443 00:24:55,760 --> 00:24:57,640 Monica is keen to rope me in. 444 00:24:58,960 --> 00:25:03,680 An extremely important part of this experiment involves this, 445 00:25:03,680 --> 00:25:07,400 and I have been commissioned to use this instrument in order 446 00:25:07,400 --> 00:25:09,040 to make the guinea fowl run, 447 00:25:09,040 --> 00:25:13,320 but no bird will be harmed during the filming of this sequence. 448 00:25:15,640 --> 00:25:19,240 In the wild, guinea fowl can travel over 20 miles a day 449 00:25:19,240 --> 00:25:22,800 in search of food, so they are optimised for running. 450 00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:24,920 Right, release the guinea fowl! 451 00:25:24,920 --> 00:25:27,560 Go on, go on! Run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run! 452 00:25:27,560 --> 00:25:31,200 The force plates detect the impact of the bird's feet, 453 00:25:31,200 --> 00:25:34,840 while high-speed cameras capture its every move. 454 00:25:34,840 --> 00:25:36,320 Go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on! 455 00:25:37,560 --> 00:25:39,240 Ooh! SHE LAUGHS 456 00:25:39,240 --> 00:25:41,640 Thank you very much. Well done! I'm sorry about that... 457 00:25:41,640 --> 00:25:43,960 GUINEA FOWL SQUAWKS I'm sorry. It is just a mop. 458 00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:47,200 It's very disgruntled with me. 459 00:25:47,200 --> 00:25:48,640 GUINEA FOWL SQUAWKS LOUDLY 460 00:25:52,480 --> 00:25:54,720 So, there's the bird running. 461 00:25:54,720 --> 00:25:58,120 And you can see the force plates, the rectangles, in the runway here. 462 00:25:59,440 --> 00:26:02,680 And you can see the bird running along, a nice, bouncing gait. 463 00:26:02,680 --> 00:26:04,520 It's beautiful. 464 00:26:04,520 --> 00:26:08,080 The pressure pad data reveals that bipedal birds proportionately 465 00:26:08,080 --> 00:26:10,960 put their leg joints under far less stress than we do. 466 00:26:12,600 --> 00:26:16,320 We have the ground reaction forces here, so this is measuring how hard 467 00:26:16,320 --> 00:26:18,280 the leg is pushing against the ground, 468 00:26:18,280 --> 00:26:21,160 so in this running guinea fowl, 469 00:26:21,160 --> 00:26:23,840 you see a nice, characteristic single peak. 470 00:26:23,840 --> 00:26:26,240 Yeah. But it's a nice, slow peak, 471 00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:29,240 so you don't see a very rapid loading of the leg, 472 00:26:29,240 --> 00:26:31,000 because they have a very soft gait. 473 00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:33,720 If we were to look at a human running, 474 00:26:33,720 --> 00:26:36,000 how would it vary from this? 475 00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:37,720 If you were to compare this to humans, 476 00:26:37,720 --> 00:26:39,880 you'd see a very rapid rise in the force, 477 00:26:39,880 --> 00:26:42,160 so there's very rapid loading of the bones, 478 00:26:42,160 --> 00:26:44,800 because we have a very straight-leg posture, 479 00:26:44,800 --> 00:26:46,040 very heavy legs, 480 00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:48,240 so when they come into contact with the ground, 481 00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:50,560 you see very large and rapid impact loading. 482 00:26:51,920 --> 00:26:56,320 These powerful, sudden impact forces are one of the reasons human knees 483 00:26:56,320 --> 00:26:59,480 and ankles are vulnerable to damage. 484 00:26:59,480 --> 00:27:03,600 So, what is it about these birds' legs that puts such a spring 485 00:27:03,600 --> 00:27:04,640 in their step? 486 00:27:06,480 --> 00:27:08,880 To explore their anatomy in detail, 487 00:27:08,880 --> 00:27:11,480 Monica needs to get something from the freezer. 488 00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:19,320 So, what's this bird, then, Monica? 489 00:27:19,320 --> 00:27:22,280 Well, this is the left leg of an emu. 490 00:27:22,280 --> 00:27:23,600 Is it? It's huge! 491 00:27:23,600 --> 00:27:24,920 It's huge. Yeah. 492 00:27:24,920 --> 00:27:28,000 Here you have the calf muscles, and then ankles down here. 493 00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:31,600 So, that is the equivalent of our ankle, but it's right up there? 494 00:27:31,600 --> 00:27:33,240 Up in the middle of the leg, yeah. 495 00:27:33,240 --> 00:27:35,240 So, this is all essentially foot. 496 00:27:35,240 --> 00:27:37,720 Right, shall we have a look under the skin, then? Yes. 497 00:27:38,680 --> 00:27:42,640 Time to make use of my skill as an anatomist. 498 00:27:42,640 --> 00:27:45,200 It's kind of what you find on chicken drumsticks, isn't it? 499 00:27:45,200 --> 00:27:48,120 Yeah, well, it's exactly what you find on chicken drumsticks! 500 00:27:49,320 --> 00:27:54,320 Emus weigh up to 60kg, and can hit speeds of up to 30mph. 501 00:27:55,480 --> 00:27:58,040 But you rarely hear of them ripping a cruciate ligament 502 00:27:58,040 --> 00:27:59,840 or twisting an ankle. 503 00:27:59,840 --> 00:28:03,320 Their anatomical secrets are now exposed. 504 00:28:03,320 --> 00:28:06,760 The fleshy parts of the muscles are all high up in the leg, 505 00:28:06,760 --> 00:28:10,480 controlling movement lower down via long tendons. 506 00:28:10,480 --> 00:28:13,840 So, these tendons that start here, all the way up here, 507 00:28:13,840 --> 00:28:15,360 go all the way out to the toes. 508 00:28:15,360 --> 00:28:17,560 Wow, so look how long those tendons are, then. 509 00:28:17,560 --> 00:28:19,040 So, I'm going to pull on them here. 510 00:28:19,040 --> 00:28:20,480 OK. 511 00:28:20,480 --> 00:28:22,680 There we go. And the toes curl round. 512 00:28:25,320 --> 00:28:26,320 Just to prove it. 513 00:28:27,680 --> 00:28:31,480 But, importantly, these tendons also take pressure off the joints, 514 00:28:31,480 --> 00:28:34,560 acting as enormous shock absorbers. 515 00:28:34,560 --> 00:28:38,840 The Achilles tendon is the tendon we actually use quite a lot during 516 00:28:38,840 --> 00:28:40,360 running to store elastic energy. 517 00:28:40,360 --> 00:28:42,160 Yeah. But it's much, much bigger here. 518 00:28:42,160 --> 00:28:44,360 These are springy, aren't they? They're elastic. 519 00:28:44,360 --> 00:28:46,360 They're stringy, very, very compliant tendons, 520 00:28:46,360 --> 00:28:47,720 so these stretch a lot. 521 00:28:47,720 --> 00:28:50,040 The leg works almost like a pogo stick. 522 00:28:50,040 --> 00:28:53,520 The force of each step is absorbed by the stretching tendon, 523 00:28:53,520 --> 00:28:56,320 which then recoils back to pop the bird into the air. 524 00:28:58,160 --> 00:29:00,640 It makes running very efficient. 525 00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:02,680 With ankles lifted right up off the ground, 526 00:29:02,680 --> 00:29:06,640 these birds make the most of their shock-absorbing tendons. 527 00:29:06,640 --> 00:29:09,360 Being able to respond passively, like birds can do, 528 00:29:09,360 --> 00:29:14,040 to an unexpected bump means that it can have an intrinsically fast 529 00:29:14,040 --> 00:29:16,720 response, and it's intrinsically more stable. 530 00:29:16,720 --> 00:29:18,480 And when you say "responding passively," 531 00:29:18,480 --> 00:29:20,480 you're simply talking about the stretch and...? 532 00:29:20,480 --> 00:29:22,080 Just the stretch of the tendon, 533 00:29:22,080 --> 00:29:24,840 and the response is entirely due to the stretch of the tendon, 534 00:29:24,840 --> 00:29:28,040 and how that transmits up the leg. 535 00:29:28,040 --> 00:29:30,800 I think I've been tinkering with human anatomy up to this point, 536 00:29:30,800 --> 00:29:35,280 but I am so persuaded by the efficiency of this bird design, 537 00:29:35,280 --> 00:29:37,760 this time I'm going to go for something a bit more radical. 538 00:29:40,920 --> 00:29:44,240 It's time to go back to my designer, Scott Eaton. 539 00:29:44,240 --> 00:29:47,280 I've got something rather extreme, so I don't know if it's too extreme. 540 00:29:48,280 --> 00:29:50,240 So, I was wondering about doing something 541 00:29:50,240 --> 00:29:52,320 which is a bit more birdlike. OK. 542 00:29:52,320 --> 00:29:55,480 So, it's going to be a really radical departure, 543 00:29:55,480 --> 00:30:00,200 because the human lower limb is really different from the bird's. 544 00:30:00,200 --> 00:30:03,600 This is a big, complicated redesign. 545 00:30:03,600 --> 00:30:06,760 I think the first thing to do is to kind of modify the length 546 00:30:06,760 --> 00:30:09,960 of the femur. This is just going to be kind of an approximate sketch, 547 00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:12,440 and we'll refine this later... SHE LAUGHS 548 00:30:12,440 --> 00:30:15,360 So, I've kind of imagined all these in my mind's eye, 549 00:30:15,360 --> 00:30:19,360 and now actually seeing it happening, it's just bizarre. 550 00:30:19,360 --> 00:30:22,680 We've kind of done a quick modification of the femur. 551 00:30:22,680 --> 00:30:24,720 We have the tibia in place. 552 00:30:25,920 --> 00:30:28,760 To resolve the rest is going to take a bit of time. 553 00:30:28,760 --> 00:30:30,760 We're going to have to stretch out the foot. 554 00:30:30,760 --> 00:30:34,960 This lower segment here is going to be basically a really lengthened 555 00:30:34,960 --> 00:30:37,280 metatarsal, isn't it? The whole of that segment there. 556 00:30:37,280 --> 00:30:39,960 A really lengthened and reinforced metatarsal. 557 00:30:39,960 --> 00:30:42,360 And how many toes am I going to end up with, do you think? 558 00:30:42,360 --> 00:30:46,080 Three toes? I'm going to estimate that you end up with three toes. 559 00:30:46,080 --> 00:30:48,480 Yeah. One order for bird legs, coming up! 560 00:30:51,480 --> 00:30:54,840 The addition of bird legs is a compromise. 561 00:30:54,840 --> 00:30:59,840 I will lose the mobility of my feet, so useful in climbing, 562 00:30:59,840 --> 00:31:03,800 but those enormous tendons should take the pressure off my joints, 563 00:31:03,800 --> 00:31:06,320 keeping me happily mobile for years to come. 564 00:31:08,160 --> 00:31:09,760 I'll send you some more stuff... 565 00:31:09,760 --> 00:31:13,160 In order to keep me focused on the science, for the rest of the build, 566 00:31:13,160 --> 00:31:15,880 Scott has banished me from his studio. 567 00:31:15,880 --> 00:31:17,160 Can you send me updates? 568 00:31:17,160 --> 00:31:19,560 No. No, no, no, it'll be a surprise. 569 00:31:19,560 --> 00:31:21,640 All right, I'm up for that. Brilliant. All right? 570 00:31:21,640 --> 00:31:24,440 Thanks for stopping by. No, it's been brilliant, thank you very much! 571 00:31:24,440 --> 00:31:26,840 OK, I'll see you again soon, Alice. See you soon! 572 00:31:33,800 --> 00:31:36,920 Skeletal weaknesses aren't our only flaws. 573 00:31:36,920 --> 00:31:40,640 Dig deeper, and you discover more of evolution's oversights. 574 00:31:44,880 --> 00:31:48,000 The heart is the most active muscle in our body, 575 00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:51,360 but unlike other muscles, it never gets tired. 576 00:31:52,720 --> 00:31:54,480 By the time you hit 90, 577 00:31:54,480 --> 00:31:57,520 it will have generated almost 4 billion heartbeats. 578 00:31:59,400 --> 00:32:03,200 But some basic flaws in its design mean that many of us 579 00:32:03,200 --> 00:32:04,840 won't get that far. 580 00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:09,360 It's time for me to get to the heart of the matter, 581 00:32:09,360 --> 00:32:11,920 with the help of cardiologist Dr Alex Lyon. 582 00:32:14,200 --> 00:32:16,640 Alice, here's your heart on the ultrasound. 583 00:32:16,640 --> 00:32:20,160 So, every pulse you feel, it's due to this lovely organ, 584 00:32:20,160 --> 00:32:23,600 the heart, contracting to pump the blood. 585 00:32:23,600 --> 00:32:26,880 You have 100 billion little muscle cells making up 586 00:32:26,880 --> 00:32:30,280 this pumping chamber, and I can tell this is lovely and healthy. 587 00:32:30,280 --> 00:32:32,880 Oh, good. It's just amazing to see it in real-time, isn't it? 588 00:32:32,880 --> 00:32:35,120 It is. It's fantastic. It's a beautiful structure. 589 00:32:35,120 --> 00:32:37,760 There are a few things that I think we would like to change, 590 00:32:37,760 --> 00:32:38,800 if we could. 591 00:32:42,400 --> 00:32:43,680 According to Alex, 592 00:32:43,680 --> 00:32:47,080 there's a big problem with the arteries that supply the heart 593 00:32:47,080 --> 00:32:48,960 itself with oxygenated blood. 594 00:32:50,920 --> 00:32:53,160 One of the biggest problems is heart attacks 595 00:32:53,160 --> 00:32:55,440 caused by coronary blockages. 596 00:32:55,440 --> 00:32:58,240 We all have two main coronary arteries, 597 00:32:58,240 --> 00:33:00,440 one on the left and one on the right, 598 00:33:00,440 --> 00:33:03,560 and our left coronary artery starts as this common trunk, 599 00:33:03,560 --> 00:33:06,520 and then divides into two important arteries. 600 00:33:06,520 --> 00:33:09,840 So, we really have three big arteries supplying our hearts 601 00:33:09,840 --> 00:33:11,080 with all our blood. 602 00:33:11,080 --> 00:33:15,120 Our problem is that every part of the heart muscle only receives 603 00:33:15,120 --> 00:33:20,200 blood from one artery, so if one of the big three block off, 604 00:33:20,200 --> 00:33:24,280 then that causes a large heart attack and the heart muscle dies. 605 00:33:24,280 --> 00:33:27,920 Every seven minutes, someone in the UK will have a heart attack. 606 00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:32,760 Coronary heart disease remains one of the biggest killers 607 00:33:32,760 --> 00:33:34,240 in the country. 608 00:33:34,240 --> 00:33:37,960 It does seem crazy to have two blood vessels supplying the heart, 609 00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:41,200 but for each part of the heart muscle to only have supply 610 00:33:41,200 --> 00:33:42,800 from one of those vessels. 611 00:33:42,800 --> 00:33:46,240 I agree, and there are some species which actually have a much 612 00:33:46,240 --> 00:33:50,040 more clever coronary system, with lots of little connections 613 00:33:50,040 --> 00:33:54,080 between the different arteries, which we call collaterals. 614 00:33:54,080 --> 00:33:58,520 So, here is an example of the coronary anatomy of a dog heart, 615 00:33:58,520 --> 00:34:01,440 and you can see that each part of the heart muscle 616 00:34:01,440 --> 00:34:04,000 gets its blood supply from lots of different routes, 617 00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:07,320 so if you blocked off one artery it would still receive the blood 618 00:34:07,320 --> 00:34:08,480 from the other side. 619 00:34:08,480 --> 00:34:10,920 So, that would mean if you had a clot coming down 620 00:34:10,920 --> 00:34:12,680 this blood vessel here, 621 00:34:12,680 --> 00:34:15,640 it's got branches coming from the other vessel too, 622 00:34:15,640 --> 00:34:19,320 so it's OK? If we're designing a perfect heart for you, 623 00:34:19,320 --> 00:34:22,520 I would like your coronaries to have lots of collaterals, 624 00:34:22,520 --> 00:34:24,160 like a dog's heart, 625 00:34:24,160 --> 00:34:28,240 so that you're protected if you ever have a blockage of the coronaries 626 00:34:28,240 --> 00:34:30,440 that you don't then suffer a heart attack. 627 00:34:30,440 --> 00:34:33,160 So, dog-like coronary arteries? 628 00:34:33,160 --> 00:34:34,240 That's right. 629 00:34:37,920 --> 00:34:41,040 So, it turns out we can learn some useful tricks 630 00:34:41,040 --> 00:34:42,240 from man's best friend. 631 00:34:43,320 --> 00:34:46,760 Like the lumbar spine, this is a very subtle change, 632 00:34:46,760 --> 00:34:49,560 but one that could transform countless lives. 633 00:34:54,480 --> 00:34:57,320 This could be a simple redesign, 634 00:34:57,320 --> 00:35:00,400 but there are more structural additions I could make 635 00:35:00,400 --> 00:35:02,840 to improve the circulation of the blood. 636 00:35:02,840 --> 00:35:07,200 Our upright bodies make the steady flow of blood a challenge. 637 00:35:07,200 --> 00:35:09,240 There's the heart, up there. 638 00:35:09,240 --> 00:35:10,920 In red, we're seeing the arteries 639 00:35:10,920 --> 00:35:13,360 which are carrying blood away from the heart, and in blue, 640 00:35:13,360 --> 00:35:16,600 the veins, which carry blood back to the heart. 641 00:35:16,600 --> 00:35:18,920 And this is where we get the problem in the legs, of course, 642 00:35:18,920 --> 00:35:21,720 because the blood's coming all the way down here to the feet, 643 00:35:21,720 --> 00:35:26,320 and then it's got to get all the way back up again to the heart. 644 00:35:28,400 --> 00:35:31,200 As we age, the circulatory system can have trouble 645 00:35:31,200 --> 00:35:34,000 overcoming the force of gravity. 646 00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:38,480 When blood begins to pool in the legs, it can cause varicose veins, 647 00:35:38,480 --> 00:35:40,400 and deep-vein thrombosis. 648 00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:45,080 It's clear that the circulation needs some assistance. 649 00:35:47,640 --> 00:35:49,040 It is helped a bit - 650 00:35:49,040 --> 00:35:52,480 the muscles of the calf help to pump the blood 651 00:35:52,480 --> 00:35:53,680 through the deep veins. 652 00:35:55,160 --> 00:35:57,040 And there are valves in the veins, as well, 653 00:35:57,040 --> 00:35:58,800 to keep the blood flowing in one direction. 654 00:35:58,800 --> 00:36:01,040 But I think we could improve this. 655 00:36:01,040 --> 00:36:03,760 I think that rather than just relying on the muscles 656 00:36:03,760 --> 00:36:07,160 outside the veins, why don't we put some muscle into the veins? 657 00:36:07,160 --> 00:36:10,680 So, rather than just having these thin walled veins... 658 00:36:11,880 --> 00:36:14,600 ..maybe at a couple of places we could add a bit of muscle 659 00:36:14,600 --> 00:36:19,640 into the walls, and create what is effectively another tiny heart. 660 00:36:20,200 --> 00:36:23,880 Add a couple of valves in like this, then we've got a little pump. 661 00:36:23,880 --> 00:36:27,080 I mean, this is essentially how the heart forms in the embryo, as well. 662 00:36:27,080 --> 00:36:29,640 It just starts off as a fairly simple vessel, 663 00:36:29,640 --> 00:36:33,200 with contractile muscle in its walls to pump the blood through. 664 00:36:33,200 --> 00:36:36,520 So, I think that this is relatively easy to achieve. 665 00:36:36,520 --> 00:36:41,000 In terms of the exact positioning of these extra little hearts 666 00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:44,880 in our leg veins, I'm going to leave that up to Scott. 667 00:36:44,880 --> 00:36:47,160 But I think this could be part of the solution 668 00:36:47,160 --> 00:36:49,040 to varicose veins and DVT. 669 00:36:51,080 --> 00:36:54,480 I'm banished from his studio, but Scott is hard at work, 670 00:36:54,480 --> 00:36:56,640 turning my ideas into reality. 671 00:36:57,920 --> 00:37:01,600 The big kind of requirement that the body always has to fulfil 672 00:37:01,600 --> 00:37:04,920 is it has to protect really important organs. 673 00:37:04,920 --> 00:37:09,360 So, to protect these new little pumps that we're putting in, 674 00:37:09,360 --> 00:37:12,680 the obvious place is to put it in this area 675 00:37:12,680 --> 00:37:16,720 called the femoral triangle, kind of on the inner surface of your thigh. 676 00:37:16,720 --> 00:37:19,280 And here is the corresponding area on her. 677 00:37:19,280 --> 00:37:22,760 Depending on how lean she is in her new form, 678 00:37:22,760 --> 00:37:25,680 you'll be able to make out possible evidence of it. 679 00:37:25,680 --> 00:37:30,200 So, reasonably well-protected, all things considered. 680 00:37:33,440 --> 00:37:35,840 Scott is my virtual architect, 681 00:37:35,840 --> 00:37:39,440 but responsibility for building the Science Museum sculpture 682 00:37:39,440 --> 00:37:43,840 goes to top prosthetics and special effects expert, Sangeet Prabhaker. 683 00:37:46,240 --> 00:37:48,200 I mainly work in the film industry. 684 00:37:48,200 --> 00:37:52,400 I create creatures and monsters, fake people, 685 00:37:52,400 --> 00:37:54,480 but I don't think that's quite the same thing. 686 00:37:54,480 --> 00:37:57,320 I think this is quite a unique design, 687 00:37:57,320 --> 00:37:59,680 unlike anything that I've done before. 688 00:37:59,680 --> 00:38:02,280 Scott's virtual designs are made real 689 00:38:02,280 --> 00:38:04,760 with the help of Sangeet's 3-D printer. 690 00:38:08,440 --> 00:38:12,160 If we were just working from drawings provided by Scott, 691 00:38:12,160 --> 00:38:15,320 we would easily spend six or seven weeks, I think, 692 00:38:15,320 --> 00:38:18,480 just working on the sculpture. 693 00:38:18,480 --> 00:38:20,800 But since we're working with printers, 694 00:38:20,800 --> 00:38:23,120 we can get something together in about a week 695 00:38:23,120 --> 00:38:27,200 that is way more accurate than most human sculptors 696 00:38:27,200 --> 00:38:28,240 could ever achieve. 697 00:38:29,360 --> 00:38:33,440 Sangeet's first challenge is my spindly bird legs. 698 00:38:33,440 --> 00:38:37,080 They will have to support the whole structure. 699 00:38:37,080 --> 00:38:41,480 What we have here is our left foot, and believe it or not, 700 00:38:41,480 --> 00:38:43,120 that is the entire foot. 701 00:38:45,680 --> 00:38:48,760 The tricky thing is getting this to stand, right? 702 00:38:51,480 --> 00:38:55,560 And not have any visible supporting structure underneath. 703 00:38:56,800 --> 00:38:59,360 It's a bit of a challenge, but, I mean, that's what we do, right? 704 00:38:59,360 --> 00:39:01,280 Everything we make is a prototype. 705 00:39:01,280 --> 00:39:04,560 Everything - by definition - we make hasn't been made before. 706 00:39:04,560 --> 00:39:08,000 So, that's our craft, it's always being adaptable, 707 00:39:08,000 --> 00:39:11,040 and finding new, efficient ways of putting things together. 708 00:39:15,600 --> 00:39:19,920 So far, in my imaginary redesign of the human form, 709 00:39:19,920 --> 00:39:23,200 I've been correcting flaws that generally only show themselves 710 00:39:23,200 --> 00:39:24,480 with age. 711 00:39:24,480 --> 00:39:27,480 But the problems with our design can go deeper than that. 712 00:39:28,440 --> 00:39:31,760 The flawed blueprint of the human body means that some 713 00:39:31,760 --> 00:39:35,120 totally natural processes can be gravely damaging. 714 00:39:36,600 --> 00:39:40,080 I'm in hospital today for a minor operation, 715 00:39:40,080 --> 00:39:44,760 and it's to correct a small injury that was essentially caused 716 00:39:44,760 --> 00:39:47,400 because my body wasn't up to the mechanical demands 717 00:39:47,400 --> 00:39:48,680 being placed on it. 718 00:39:48,680 --> 00:39:52,480 It's a hernia, and I can show it to you - it's just here. 719 00:39:52,480 --> 00:39:55,280 I don't know if you can see this lump just there. 720 00:39:55,280 --> 00:39:56,880 I can certainly feel it, 721 00:39:56,880 --> 00:39:59,480 and I can push it back in. 722 00:39:59,480 --> 00:40:02,600 It's not fatal, but it's uncomfortable, 723 00:40:02,600 --> 00:40:05,280 and it's quite painful at times. 724 00:40:05,280 --> 00:40:07,000 So, we need to keep it on the inside. 725 00:40:14,360 --> 00:40:17,560 As far as I'm concerned, this really is a flaw in the design 726 00:40:17,560 --> 00:40:19,080 of the human body. 727 00:40:19,080 --> 00:40:24,120 It came about as an unfortunate side-effect of a completely natural 728 00:40:24,440 --> 00:40:29,440 process that up to half of the adult population can go through - 729 00:40:29,800 --> 00:40:31,480 pregnancy. 730 00:40:31,480 --> 00:40:35,840 As my belly swelled with my second child inside, 731 00:40:35,840 --> 00:40:40,880 my muscles separated a little bit, and then the seam between them tore, 732 00:40:41,800 --> 00:40:46,640 and that is the origin of the hernia that, hopefully, 733 00:40:46,640 --> 00:40:48,120 I'm going to get corrected today. 734 00:40:48,120 --> 00:40:49,560 So, it is fixable, 735 00:40:49,560 --> 00:40:52,560 but wouldn't it be brilliant if it didn't happen in the first place? 736 00:41:00,200 --> 00:41:03,840 It's estimated that up to 20% of pregnant women experience 737 00:41:03,840 --> 00:41:07,440 some type of hernia, but it can be much worse. 738 00:41:10,960 --> 00:41:14,160 Giving birth is perhaps the most dangerous natural process 739 00:41:14,160 --> 00:41:16,320 experienced by any animal. 740 00:41:16,320 --> 00:41:20,720 For much of history, at least 2% of women died giving birth. 741 00:41:22,320 --> 00:41:26,400 Our babies' large heads have to fit through a fairly narrow gap 742 00:41:26,400 --> 00:41:27,680 in the pelvis. 743 00:41:29,200 --> 00:41:32,000 But there's no reason why women should put up with this... 744 00:41:35,400 --> 00:41:40,200 ..because an intriguing alternative exists in some of our close cousins, 745 00:41:40,200 --> 00:41:42,560 the marsupial mammals of the southern hemisphere. 746 00:41:46,240 --> 00:41:48,280 I've come to the Natural History Museum 747 00:41:48,280 --> 00:41:52,040 to meet marsupial expert, Professor Anjali Goswami. 748 00:41:52,040 --> 00:41:54,200 Hi, Anjali. Hey, Alice. 749 00:41:55,520 --> 00:42:00,120 Anjali is using laser scanners to create a 3-D virtual catalogue 750 00:42:00,120 --> 00:42:02,200 of this particular group of mammals. 751 00:42:03,480 --> 00:42:06,480 We are trying to gather really high-resolution data 752 00:42:06,480 --> 00:42:09,440 for a wide variety of marsupials, 753 00:42:09,440 --> 00:42:11,720 to try and reconstruct their evolutionary history. 754 00:42:11,720 --> 00:42:14,240 And we have a nice fossil record for them, 755 00:42:14,240 --> 00:42:16,680 going back to 125 million years ago. That's a long time! 756 00:42:16,680 --> 00:42:19,200 I mean, that's way back into the time of the dinosaurs. 757 00:42:19,200 --> 00:42:20,240 Absolutely. Yeah. 758 00:42:21,840 --> 00:42:25,040 The most noticeable difference between marsupials 759 00:42:25,040 --> 00:42:28,600 and placental mammals like us is the process of birth. 760 00:42:29,880 --> 00:42:31,720 How big are they when they're born? 761 00:42:31,720 --> 00:42:36,200 Maybe a jellybean size would be appropriate for a kangaroo. 762 00:42:36,200 --> 00:42:38,000 That is minute! 763 00:42:38,000 --> 00:42:40,160 I would have liked to have given birth to something 764 00:42:40,160 --> 00:42:42,920 the size of a jellybean! I am right behind you, I absolutely agree. 765 00:42:42,920 --> 00:42:45,080 It seems terribly unfair that we have this 766 00:42:45,080 --> 00:42:46,720 difficult birthing process, 767 00:42:46,720 --> 00:42:49,840 and yet, you could just have a nice, little baby that was this big, 768 00:42:49,840 --> 00:42:51,920 and go about your business most of the time. 769 00:42:53,400 --> 00:42:58,360 These marsupial jellybean newborns look very underdeveloped, 770 00:42:58,720 --> 00:43:01,800 but Anjali's scans show that parts of their bodies 771 00:43:01,800 --> 00:43:04,280 are unexpectedly well-developed. 772 00:43:04,280 --> 00:43:07,240 It looks equivalent to about, I don't know, 773 00:43:07,240 --> 00:43:09,320 a seven-week-old human embryo, 774 00:43:09,320 --> 00:43:13,600 but, at that point, the embryo in the human has no bone. 775 00:43:13,600 --> 00:43:15,800 So, it's got bone around the jaws, 776 00:43:15,800 --> 00:43:18,960 it's got bone in its little, tiny forelimbs here. 777 00:43:18,960 --> 00:43:22,840 In many ways, you can think of placental birth as - 778 00:43:22,840 --> 00:43:26,400 for the embryo, at least, or for the baby - as really cushy 779 00:43:26,400 --> 00:43:29,600 compared to what a marsupial has to do at that really early stage 780 00:43:29,600 --> 00:43:30,800 of development. 781 00:43:33,720 --> 00:43:37,320 These newborns must immediately spring into action, 782 00:43:37,320 --> 00:43:41,160 their arms pull them along as their noses follow a scent trail 783 00:43:41,160 --> 00:43:43,040 to the safety of their mother's pouch. 784 00:43:47,200 --> 00:43:49,400 What is the pouch actually made of? 785 00:43:49,400 --> 00:43:51,800 Well, it's essentially a skin flap that's covering up 786 00:43:51,800 --> 00:43:53,120 the mammary glands. 787 00:43:53,120 --> 00:43:54,600 So, inside the pouch, 788 00:43:54,600 --> 00:43:57,800 the mother will have a certain number of nipples. 789 00:43:59,600 --> 00:44:04,200 Once they latch on, the newborns are sustained by energy-rich milk. 790 00:44:04,200 --> 00:44:07,160 But this way of delivering nutrition isn't as efficient 791 00:44:07,160 --> 00:44:08,600 as our placental system, 792 00:44:08,600 --> 00:44:11,440 especially if you want to grow a brain like ours. 793 00:44:12,600 --> 00:44:17,040 So, it's not just the equivalent of human gestation, plus lactation, 794 00:44:17,040 --> 00:44:19,280 it's actually going to be even longer than that? 795 00:44:19,280 --> 00:44:21,280 Oh, yes, it won't just be nine months extra, 796 00:44:21,280 --> 00:44:24,000 it'll be years and years extra. 797 00:44:24,000 --> 00:44:26,480 Years of carrying a baby in a pouch? 798 00:44:26,480 --> 00:44:29,440 If you want them to have a big brain size. 799 00:44:29,440 --> 00:44:32,640 And there is another compromise to consider. 800 00:44:32,640 --> 00:44:34,640 OK, so I hadn't really thought about that. 801 00:44:34,640 --> 00:44:38,680 The... The solution, if we import this into humans, 802 00:44:38,680 --> 00:44:41,480 means that we are probably going to have to move the nipples down 803 00:44:41,480 --> 00:44:44,120 off the chest, onto the belly, inside the pouch. 804 00:44:44,120 --> 00:44:48,480 That's probably true. But I still think the pro of having 805 00:44:48,480 --> 00:44:50,880 a jellybean-sized baby... That's amazing. 806 00:44:50,880 --> 00:44:51,920 PHONE BUZZES 807 00:44:53,720 --> 00:44:56,720 I've been expecting your call. So, what do you have? 808 00:44:56,720 --> 00:45:01,400 This time, it's all about the problems associated with childbirth. 809 00:45:01,400 --> 00:45:02,600 So... 810 00:45:02,600 --> 00:45:05,000 I'd quite like to have a pouch. 811 00:45:05,000 --> 00:45:06,800 Oh, wow! HE LAUGHS 812 00:45:06,800 --> 00:45:09,560 It means that the baby can come out when it's really tiny, 813 00:45:09,560 --> 00:45:11,400 and it's just easy to carry it around. 814 00:45:11,400 --> 00:45:13,080 You can just keep it in the pouch. 815 00:45:13,080 --> 00:45:15,200 Uh, yeah, that's, that's... 816 00:45:15,200 --> 00:45:16,560 Uh... 817 00:45:16,560 --> 00:45:18,880 That is going to have its own challenges. 818 00:45:18,880 --> 00:45:22,120 If we move the teats down into the pouch, 819 00:45:22,120 --> 00:45:24,280 then, obviously, I don't need breasts any more. 820 00:45:24,280 --> 00:45:28,560 Mmm, yes. I knew you were going in that direction! 821 00:45:28,560 --> 00:45:32,240 I'm not sure how I feel about giving up breasts, but I think... 822 00:45:33,280 --> 00:45:35,160 ..on the whole, it's worth it. 823 00:45:35,160 --> 00:45:38,000 Well, we can do anything, you know, you just have to ask, 824 00:45:38,000 --> 00:45:40,560 and you just have to bear with the results. 825 00:45:43,440 --> 00:45:47,840 In my search for perfection, I've made some dramatic changes. 826 00:45:47,840 --> 00:45:49,360 To strengthen my spine, 827 00:45:49,360 --> 00:45:53,200 I've adopted the more stable design of the chimpanzee. 828 00:45:53,200 --> 00:45:56,160 I've taken the shock-absorbing legs of a bird, 829 00:45:56,160 --> 00:45:58,240 and added a few extra hearts. 830 00:45:59,960 --> 00:46:02,760 And now I'm getting a marsupial pouch, 831 00:46:02,760 --> 00:46:05,400 and saying goodbye to my breasts. 832 00:46:06,480 --> 00:46:10,480 When I finally get to see this new me, will I even recognise her? 833 00:46:14,760 --> 00:46:16,960 A lot of the changes I've been making so far 834 00:46:16,960 --> 00:46:19,640 have been about correcting design flaws in the body, 835 00:46:19,640 --> 00:46:22,080 but there's something else I can look at doing, 836 00:46:22,080 --> 00:46:27,120 and that is improving function, enhancing performance, 837 00:46:27,800 --> 00:46:29,400 boosting my abilities. 838 00:46:31,960 --> 00:46:36,080 I've already looked at our skeletal and circulatory systems, 839 00:46:36,080 --> 00:46:41,120 so to improve athletic performance, it's time to focus in on our lungs, 840 00:46:41,320 --> 00:46:44,760 and ask the question, are they really doing a good job? 841 00:46:48,920 --> 00:46:50,600 That's it, keep going... 842 00:46:50,600 --> 00:46:52,320 At Middlesex University, 843 00:46:52,320 --> 00:46:56,560 Dr Lizi Bryant works to help top-end athletes improve their performance. 844 00:46:58,160 --> 00:47:00,320 OK, ready? And it's going to go up again now. 845 00:47:00,320 --> 00:47:02,720 Keep pushing, this is a really, really good effort. 846 00:47:04,080 --> 00:47:05,600 With the VO2 max test, 847 00:47:05,600 --> 00:47:07,680 we are trying to get an athlete or an individual 848 00:47:07,680 --> 00:47:09,400 to work to their absolute maximum, 849 00:47:09,400 --> 00:47:12,240 and the reason we're doing that is because we want to know 850 00:47:12,240 --> 00:47:17,240 what that individual's capacity is to intake oxygen and utilise it 851 00:47:17,240 --> 00:47:18,960 within the muscles. 852 00:47:18,960 --> 00:47:23,200 Oxygen is transported via our blood to every single cell of the body. 853 00:47:23,200 --> 00:47:24,880 You've got one more in you! 854 00:47:24,880 --> 00:47:28,320 It feeds the chemical reactions that keep us going. 855 00:47:28,320 --> 00:47:30,280 Keep it going, keep pushing! Well done. 856 00:47:32,760 --> 00:47:36,400 But the first challenge is to get oxygen into the blood... 857 00:47:36,400 --> 00:47:39,720 Great effort, well done. ..and that is the job of the lungs. 858 00:47:41,840 --> 00:47:43,280 You OK? Yeah. 859 00:47:43,280 --> 00:47:44,960 Great effort, well done. 860 00:47:45,960 --> 00:47:48,520 You can improve your lung function to a certain degree, 861 00:47:48,520 --> 00:47:50,320 but you will definitely hit a ceiling, 862 00:47:50,320 --> 00:47:52,440 and you won't be able to improve it any more, 863 00:47:52,440 --> 00:47:55,240 and one of the reasons for that is because of the mechanisms 864 00:47:55,240 --> 00:47:56,680 of the lungs. 865 00:47:56,680 --> 00:47:59,440 The lungs are trying to perform more than one function. 866 00:48:00,840 --> 00:48:03,880 The lungs do two jobs, in terms of they do the ventilation, 867 00:48:03,880 --> 00:48:06,520 bringing the air from the room into your lungs, 868 00:48:06,520 --> 00:48:08,160 and then they do the respiration, 869 00:48:08,160 --> 00:48:10,760 which is the gaseous exchange from the oxygen in the air 870 00:48:10,760 --> 00:48:12,520 into your blood. 871 00:48:12,520 --> 00:48:15,400 The way that air flows into our lungs means they are not 872 00:48:15,400 --> 00:48:16,920 as efficient as they could be. 873 00:48:19,040 --> 00:48:22,320 The tidal flow basically means we bring air into our lungs 874 00:48:22,320 --> 00:48:24,080 and we take air out of our lungs. 875 00:48:24,080 --> 00:48:27,280 By constantly having to reverse the process of bringing air 876 00:48:27,280 --> 00:48:29,320 in and out of the same channels, 877 00:48:29,320 --> 00:48:33,800 we are unable to get that constant stream of oxygen into the blood. 878 00:48:33,800 --> 00:48:37,000 We have to get rid of the air with the carbon dioxide in, 879 00:48:37,000 --> 00:48:38,840 and then we can replace the oxygen. 880 00:48:38,840 --> 00:48:42,800 So, it limits the amount of oxygen that we can get into our blood. 881 00:48:42,800 --> 00:48:45,320 For the most efficient system, 882 00:48:45,320 --> 00:48:48,520 for us to be able to perform at high intensities, 883 00:48:48,520 --> 00:48:51,880 I think if we could have a mechanism where we had maybe 884 00:48:51,880 --> 00:48:56,640 a one-way system, that we could have a constant supply of oxygen, 885 00:48:56,640 --> 00:49:01,120 therefore our muscles are getting a faster supply of oxygen, as well, 886 00:49:01,120 --> 00:49:03,360 then that would be definitely more efficient. 887 00:49:07,400 --> 00:49:12,440 Having lungs like this, with a tidal, bidirectional flow of air 888 00:49:12,440 --> 00:49:16,640 through them is something that we share in common with all mammals. 889 00:49:16,640 --> 00:49:19,880 But a little bird told me it doesn't have to be that way. 890 00:49:22,760 --> 00:49:26,920 Flight demands a constant effort from wing muscles, 891 00:49:26,920 --> 00:49:29,560 needing an uninterrupted high level of oxygen... 892 00:49:30,680 --> 00:49:33,960 ..and birds achieve this through an ingenious design. 893 00:49:38,680 --> 00:49:41,560 I've returned to see Monica Daley at the Royal Vet College, 894 00:49:41,560 --> 00:49:44,320 where she's brought something else out of the freezer. 895 00:49:49,320 --> 00:49:51,160 OK, Monica, what have we got this time? 896 00:49:51,160 --> 00:49:53,280 A swan. A swan? 897 00:49:54,600 --> 00:49:57,360 Monica shows me something intriguing. 898 00:49:57,360 --> 00:50:01,240 Squeezing the abdomen of the bird has a weird result. 899 00:50:01,240 --> 00:50:03,840 So, if we pull this up a little bit and compress... 900 00:50:03,840 --> 00:50:05,200 SWAN WHEEZES 901 00:50:05,200 --> 00:50:06,840 ..you can hear it breathing. 902 00:50:08,000 --> 00:50:09,280 SWAN WHEEZES 903 00:50:09,280 --> 00:50:11,960 Oh, my goodness, that's so strange! 904 00:50:14,040 --> 00:50:17,080 To find out what's happening, we're going to have to look inside. 905 00:50:17,080 --> 00:50:19,600 I'm painfully aware that we're dissecting a swan here, 906 00:50:19,600 --> 00:50:21,880 does that mean we're in trouble with the Queen? 907 00:50:22,960 --> 00:50:25,040 No, we'll be OK! 908 00:50:25,040 --> 00:50:28,400 This swan was donated to us from a wildlife park. 909 00:50:29,480 --> 00:50:33,680 On inspection, a key part of its anatomy seems to be missing. 910 00:50:33,680 --> 00:50:35,760 This is just so odd. 911 00:50:35,760 --> 00:50:39,160 So, I can identify the heart easily, there's the liver down there, 912 00:50:39,160 --> 00:50:41,880 but, in a mammal, I'd expect to see the lungs wrapping around, 913 00:50:41,880 --> 00:50:44,360 so where are they? They're actually quite small, 914 00:50:44,360 --> 00:50:46,600 so they're all the way at the back here. 915 00:50:46,600 --> 00:50:49,760 These lungs are tiny! The lungs are quite compact and small, 916 00:50:49,760 --> 00:50:52,640 because they don't inflate and deflate during breathing. 917 00:50:53,800 --> 00:50:57,480 Monica reveals the source of the swan's strange wheezing. 918 00:50:57,480 --> 00:51:00,000 Its body is full of air sacs. 919 00:51:00,000 --> 00:51:03,120 If you look here, you can see the sort of deflated balloon tissue. 920 00:51:03,120 --> 00:51:04,760 It's very thin. 921 00:51:04,760 --> 00:51:06,280 See that air sac, there? 922 00:51:06,280 --> 00:51:07,640 Let's open that up, then. OK. 923 00:51:09,480 --> 00:51:11,480 Oh, deflated the balloon... 924 00:51:12,680 --> 00:51:15,680 There we go. And we're into another air sac. Just very thin-walled. 925 00:51:15,680 --> 00:51:18,080 Yeah, and it's lined with this incredibly thin membrane, 926 00:51:18,080 --> 00:51:19,840 which is like clingfilm, isn't it? 927 00:51:19,840 --> 00:51:23,160 Their entire body cavity is filled with these air sacs, 928 00:51:23,160 --> 00:51:26,120 and they act like bellows to ventilate the lungs. 929 00:51:26,120 --> 00:51:29,760 And it's the breastbone rocking forward and back 930 00:51:29,760 --> 00:51:33,160 that ventilates the system, and acts as a bellows, 931 00:51:33,160 --> 00:51:35,280 inflating and deflating these air sacs, 932 00:51:35,280 --> 00:51:37,040 pumping the air over the lungs. 933 00:51:39,080 --> 00:51:43,320 The air sacs do the job of moving the air around the system, 934 00:51:43,320 --> 00:51:46,240 pushing it in one direction through the lungs... 935 00:51:47,960 --> 00:51:51,440 Meaning that gas exchange is much more efficient 936 00:51:51,440 --> 00:51:53,280 than in mammalian lungs. 937 00:51:55,200 --> 00:51:57,960 In a mammalian lung, you're inflating and deflating, 938 00:51:57,960 --> 00:52:00,040 you can never get all of the air out, 939 00:52:00,040 --> 00:52:02,680 so that you're always mixing old air and new air. 940 00:52:02,680 --> 00:52:04,120 Birds don't have that problem. 941 00:52:04,120 --> 00:52:07,440 If I was to redesign a human body along these lines, 942 00:52:07,440 --> 00:52:10,200 then I'd end up with smaller, more efficient lungs, 943 00:52:10,200 --> 00:52:12,640 but I would have to accommodate air sacs. 944 00:52:12,640 --> 00:52:14,600 Room for air sacs, yeah. 945 00:52:14,600 --> 00:52:17,200 PHONE VIBRATES 946 00:52:17,200 --> 00:52:20,440 Hello, Alice. So, this time, it's the respiratory system. 947 00:52:20,440 --> 00:52:24,200 I've been looking at how other animals do it, in particular, birds, 948 00:52:24,200 --> 00:52:27,160 and they've got a series of air sacs, 949 00:52:27,160 --> 00:52:28,880 which feed into the lungs. 950 00:52:28,880 --> 00:52:30,960 OK, that's interesting. 951 00:52:30,960 --> 00:52:35,000 So, maybe a slight increase in the chest cavity? 952 00:52:35,000 --> 00:52:39,600 Who knows? I think there might be a slight increase, but, on the whole, 953 00:52:39,600 --> 00:52:41,720 gas exchange is going to be much more efficient. 954 00:52:46,200 --> 00:52:49,040 These lungs, combined with my bird legs, 955 00:52:49,040 --> 00:52:51,760 will make me quite the long-distance runner. 956 00:52:59,520 --> 00:53:02,640 Improving lung function is all very well, 957 00:53:02,640 --> 00:53:06,080 but our breathing arrangements are not without other pitfalls. 958 00:53:09,720 --> 00:53:13,280 We often think about how we've evolved from apes and monkeys, 959 00:53:13,280 --> 00:53:16,320 but we can understand even more about the human body 960 00:53:16,320 --> 00:53:18,680 if we go back further, 961 00:53:18,680 --> 00:53:22,520 to a time when our ancestors were all swimming in the oceans. 962 00:53:28,000 --> 00:53:32,040 The air-breathing lung didn't evolve from nowhere. 963 00:53:32,040 --> 00:53:36,160 Inside many fish is an air sac - the swim bladder. 964 00:53:36,160 --> 00:53:41,200 It's a natural buoyancy device, and it buds off the digestive tract. 965 00:53:41,200 --> 00:53:43,800 It fills with gas, which it derives from the blood. 966 00:53:46,120 --> 00:53:49,400 As air-breathing amphibians evolved from fish, 967 00:53:49,400 --> 00:53:52,560 other sacs budded off from the digestive tract, 968 00:53:52,560 --> 00:53:54,200 the origin of our lungs. 969 00:53:57,840 --> 00:54:00,720 But it's not all happy ever after. 970 00:54:00,720 --> 00:54:04,600 The fact that our lungs are an offshoot of our digestive systems 971 00:54:04,600 --> 00:54:07,080 means that, occasionally, it can all go wrong. 972 00:54:11,560 --> 00:54:14,960 The digestive tract and the respiratory tract - 973 00:54:14,960 --> 00:54:17,080 your windpipe leading into your lungs - 974 00:54:17,080 --> 00:54:19,720 are intimately related to each other. 975 00:54:21,240 --> 00:54:23,880 They meet at a junction in the throat, 976 00:54:23,880 --> 00:54:28,040 and it's guarded by a trap-door valve called the epiglottis. 977 00:54:28,040 --> 00:54:30,600 This valve closes tight as we swallow, 978 00:54:30,600 --> 00:54:33,120 and it's the main barrier stopping food or drink 979 00:54:33,120 --> 00:54:34,560 dropping into our lungs. 980 00:54:35,680 --> 00:54:38,280 So, this is a recipe for choking. 981 00:54:42,040 --> 00:54:44,160 At the Wellington Hospital in North London, 982 00:54:44,160 --> 00:54:47,600 I've come to meet Professor Martin Birchall, and his patient, 983 00:54:47,600 --> 00:54:48,640 Angela Phillips. 984 00:54:50,280 --> 00:54:53,480 Angela's trap-door valve was gravely compromised 985 00:54:53,480 --> 00:54:56,480 when she suffered brain damage four years ago. 986 00:54:56,480 --> 00:55:01,520 I had a subarachnoid haemorrhage, and then I had a stroke after that. 987 00:55:03,680 --> 00:55:08,680 For two years, I couldn't eat anything, or drink anything. 988 00:55:10,200 --> 00:55:12,320 Because of her problems with swallowing, 989 00:55:12,320 --> 00:55:14,440 Angela had to be fed through a tube. 990 00:55:15,480 --> 00:55:18,680 Angela, in effect, by having a stroke that's affected 991 00:55:18,680 --> 00:55:22,760 this key crossing point in the railroads 992 00:55:22,760 --> 00:55:25,320 between the airway and the swallowing pathway, 993 00:55:25,320 --> 00:55:29,560 highlights this innate weakness in the human body. 994 00:55:31,440 --> 00:55:35,200 Martin is keen to examine how the mechanics of Angela's throat 995 00:55:35,200 --> 00:55:37,800 are working, four years on from her stroke. 996 00:55:39,160 --> 00:55:43,120 He's asked her to drink a contrast medium of barium sulphate, 997 00:55:43,120 --> 00:55:45,680 which reflects X-rays differently to human tissue. 998 00:55:45,680 --> 00:55:48,360 Are you OK with this image? 999 00:55:48,360 --> 00:55:51,640 On this moving X-ray, the liquid shows up as a black fluid. 1000 00:55:52,840 --> 00:55:56,080 With this scan, Angela's problem is still all too clear. 1001 00:55:57,520 --> 00:56:00,360 We can see a lot of it actually does go down the gullet, 1002 00:56:00,360 --> 00:56:01,960 does go down the right way. 1003 00:56:01,960 --> 00:56:03,960 We can see it going down the right way there, 1004 00:56:03,960 --> 00:56:07,200 but quite a lot of it is being held up in this top area here. 1005 00:56:07,200 --> 00:56:09,200 So, the epiglottis isn't doing its job, is it? 1006 00:56:09,200 --> 00:56:10,880 It's not behaving like a trap door, 1007 00:56:10,880 --> 00:56:14,560 and we're getting some of this black contrast fluid coming right down 1008 00:56:14,560 --> 00:56:16,720 into the entrance of the larynx, the voice box. 1009 00:56:16,720 --> 00:56:19,160 The trap-door effect of the epiglottis 1010 00:56:19,160 --> 00:56:21,200 is just not happening for her. 1011 00:56:23,040 --> 00:56:25,080 And do you think there's any more you can do, then, 1012 00:56:25,080 --> 00:56:26,560 to help her, at this stage? 1013 00:56:26,560 --> 00:56:28,960 We've already identified, just from today's exercise, 1014 00:56:28,960 --> 00:56:31,760 that turning her head slightly to the left does improve 1015 00:56:31,760 --> 00:56:33,400 certain textures going down. 1016 00:56:34,880 --> 00:56:37,880 Angela's condition illustrates an extreme version 1017 00:56:37,880 --> 00:56:39,760 of the design problem we face. 1018 00:56:39,760 --> 00:56:44,160 So, perhaps it would be better if we get rid of this junction altogether. 1019 00:56:44,160 --> 00:56:48,400 You might think that dolphins have come up with a solution. 1020 00:56:48,400 --> 00:56:51,200 They breathe through nostrils on the top of their heads, 1021 00:56:51,200 --> 00:56:54,760 but, on the inside, they've got the same problem as us. 1022 00:56:54,760 --> 00:56:59,040 The airway passes through a junction with the digestive tract. 1023 00:56:59,040 --> 00:57:04,040 I need to go for a completely new design, never seen before in nature. 1024 00:57:04,280 --> 00:57:06,480 This should be easy to fix, surely? 1025 00:57:06,480 --> 00:57:09,000 It's a ridiculous design that we've got the airway 1026 00:57:09,000 --> 00:57:11,040 and the passageway for food crossing over. 1027 00:57:11,040 --> 00:57:13,080 We should be able to separate them out. 1028 00:57:13,080 --> 00:57:16,760 My idea is for a throat bypass. 1029 00:57:16,760 --> 00:57:18,960 So, we could completely separate them, 1030 00:57:18,960 --> 00:57:21,400 the food's coming down from the mouth into the oesophagus, 1031 00:57:21,400 --> 00:57:23,680 the air is going from the nasal cavity, 1032 00:57:23,680 --> 00:57:26,640 down through these double trachea into the lungs. 1033 00:57:28,080 --> 00:57:32,480 Yeah. The mouth has a dual function, though. 1034 00:57:32,480 --> 00:57:36,760 We use it primarily for keeping ourselves alive by eating, 1035 00:57:36,760 --> 00:57:40,320 but we also, as humans, use it for speech. 1036 00:57:40,320 --> 00:57:43,640 If you put the windpipe somewhere else, it's not going to do that. 1037 00:57:43,640 --> 00:57:47,400 So, the mouth needs to have air from the lungs coming through it, 1038 00:57:47,400 --> 00:57:50,040 in order for us to speak? Yeah. 1039 00:57:50,040 --> 00:57:52,240 If we're going to speak like human beings, yeah. 1040 00:57:52,240 --> 00:57:54,760 It does. Surely, we'd be better off with gills... 1041 00:57:54,760 --> 00:57:56,600 So, if we're going to keep talking, 1042 00:57:56,600 --> 00:57:58,600 it's going to have to be a compromise. 1043 00:57:58,600 --> 00:58:00,680 So, I've got an idea for how to do this. 1044 00:58:00,680 --> 00:58:03,880 So, here's a tiny little valve - it can be very small, 1045 00:58:03,880 --> 00:58:06,640 it's a one-way valve, so that you can, if you want, 1046 00:58:06,640 --> 00:58:09,560 force air out through here, and it can come out through the mouth, 1047 00:58:09,560 --> 00:58:12,280 and you can speak. Absolutely, I don't see why not. 1048 00:58:12,280 --> 00:58:14,640 You know, I've actually thought of something else 1049 00:58:14,640 --> 00:58:16,640 that this would work really well for. 1050 00:58:16,640 --> 00:58:18,560 Speaking as a middle-aged man, 1051 00:58:18,560 --> 00:58:22,280 this would be really helpful in avoiding snoring, 1052 00:58:22,280 --> 00:58:23,840 which is a massive problem. 1053 00:58:25,040 --> 00:58:28,080 We can separate the airways from the oesophagus... 1054 00:58:28,080 --> 00:58:30,200 We've solved snoring. 1055 00:58:30,200 --> 00:58:32,040 So, I think we've done it. I think we have. 1056 00:58:34,920 --> 00:58:36,720 We're pretty pleased with this new design. 1057 00:58:37,840 --> 00:58:42,040 But Scott is not so sure, because the neck is already jam-packed. 1058 00:58:43,240 --> 00:58:45,680 You have food, you have air, 1059 00:58:45,680 --> 00:58:48,760 you also have veins and arteries, and it's all coming through 1060 00:58:48,760 --> 00:58:52,720 this really constricted passageway, and then, 1061 00:58:52,720 --> 00:58:54,440 to complicate things further, 1062 00:58:54,440 --> 00:58:58,160 that same passageway has a huge amount of mobility 1063 00:58:58,160 --> 00:59:00,720 so that you can flex and extend your neck, 1064 00:59:00,720 --> 00:59:04,400 and also a huge amount of rotation to both sides. 1065 00:59:04,400 --> 00:59:09,000 I would honestly have to look at all the mechanisms more closely 1066 00:59:09,000 --> 00:59:11,280 to see if it's the best way. 1067 00:59:15,160 --> 00:59:18,240 By retaining the lower single windpipe, 1068 00:59:18,240 --> 00:59:21,640 and adding optional bypasses just around the throat, 1069 00:59:21,640 --> 00:59:24,920 Scott has found a compromised but workable solution. 1070 00:59:35,840 --> 00:59:38,120 With less than three weeks to go 1071 00:59:38,120 --> 00:59:40,160 before the Science Museum's deadline, 1072 00:59:40,160 --> 00:59:43,400 Sangeet and his team are making progress. 1073 00:59:43,400 --> 00:59:46,520 Here, we've now joined all the printed elements, 1074 00:59:46,520 --> 00:59:50,720 so what we're now doing is using a filler paste to go over 1075 00:59:50,720 --> 00:59:54,400 the joins of each of the printed pieces, to create a nice, 1076 00:59:54,400 --> 00:59:57,320 seamless transition between all these elements. 1077 01:00:00,480 --> 01:00:04,520 As a team here, we are experienced in creating lots 1078 01:00:04,520 --> 01:00:08,120 of famous creatures and monsters for movies, 1079 01:00:08,120 --> 01:00:11,760 so it's nice to do something that's neither entirely human 1080 01:00:11,760 --> 01:00:13,960 nor entirely animal. 1081 01:00:13,960 --> 01:00:16,640 The design itself is pretty impressive. 1082 01:00:16,640 --> 01:00:21,360 I think Scott's done a beautiful job of designing this, so it's nice. 1083 01:00:23,800 --> 01:00:25,920 All that's left now is the head. 1084 01:00:29,480 --> 01:00:30,520 The eye. 1085 01:00:32,400 --> 01:00:37,440 Often touted as the prime example of refined biological engineering... 1086 01:00:38,840 --> 01:00:41,840 ..but perhaps it's not all it's cracked up to be. 1087 01:00:42,880 --> 01:00:44,280 OK, here's an experiment, 1088 01:00:44,280 --> 01:00:46,800 and this one requires some audience participation. 1089 01:00:46,800 --> 01:00:49,160 So, please stand up, 1090 01:00:49,160 --> 01:00:52,440 and now, cover your right eye with your right hand, 1091 01:00:52,440 --> 01:00:54,400 and stare at this cross. 1092 01:00:54,400 --> 01:00:56,120 Don't look at me, look at the cross, 1093 01:00:56,120 --> 01:00:59,160 and I want you to move back and forwards in front of the screen, 1094 01:00:59,160 --> 01:01:02,480 and, eventually, you'll find that my head disappears. 1095 01:01:03,600 --> 01:01:05,560 So, this is very strange indeed. 1096 01:01:05,560 --> 01:01:07,840 You've discovered a blind spot. 1097 01:01:07,840 --> 01:01:09,040 Don't worry. 1098 01:01:09,040 --> 01:01:13,040 Everybody's got it, it's perfectly normal, but it's odd. 1099 01:01:13,040 --> 01:01:14,760 What is going on here? 1100 01:01:18,120 --> 01:01:21,320 I've come to Moorfields Eye Hospital to get a closer look 1101 01:01:21,320 --> 01:01:23,320 at what's causing this visual flaw. 1102 01:01:24,520 --> 01:01:26,200 I'm handing my eyes over 1103 01:01:26,200 --> 01:01:29,640 to consultant ophthalmic surgeon Badrul Hussain. 1104 01:01:29,640 --> 01:01:31,720 Mr Hussain? Yeah! Dr Roberts, nice to meet you. 1105 01:01:31,720 --> 01:01:33,720 Hello. I'm Badrul, please, please. Alice. 1106 01:01:33,720 --> 01:01:36,120 Let's get through, we'll start doing our tests. 1107 01:01:37,800 --> 01:01:39,600 If you pop your chin on the chinrest, 1108 01:01:39,600 --> 01:01:41,680 and your forehead against the bar, please. OK. 1109 01:01:41,680 --> 01:01:43,880 OK. Can you see the light? Yeah. 1110 01:01:43,880 --> 01:01:46,400 Very good. OK, stay as you are. Very, very good. 1111 01:01:46,400 --> 01:01:49,120 Wide, wide, wide. There's going to be a flash. 1112 01:01:49,120 --> 01:01:51,960 Whoa! Yeah. Very good. OK, very good. 1113 01:01:51,960 --> 01:01:53,360 Well done. You can sit back. 1114 01:01:53,360 --> 01:01:54,600 Ooh, that was quite bright. 1115 01:01:54,600 --> 01:01:55,600 Thank you. 1116 01:01:57,880 --> 01:02:02,280 Badrul's team has taken a photo of the back of my eyeball - my retina. 1117 01:02:04,520 --> 01:02:07,480 The retina is the innermost layer of the eyeball. 1118 01:02:09,160 --> 01:02:13,920 Buried inside it are light-detecting cells, known as rods and cones, 1119 01:02:13,920 --> 01:02:15,040 that allow us to see. 1120 01:02:16,800 --> 01:02:19,680 But they're not distributed evenly. 1121 01:02:19,680 --> 01:02:22,440 There is one particular concentration. 1122 01:02:22,440 --> 01:02:25,280 So, this is where you've got that density of colour receptors. 1123 01:02:25,280 --> 01:02:28,880 Yeah, yeah, so the macular is the tiny little spot here 1124 01:02:28,880 --> 01:02:31,360 with this concentration of light-sensitive cells. 1125 01:02:31,360 --> 01:02:33,320 That's where most of your vision comes from, 1126 01:02:33,320 --> 01:02:35,640 your clear, detail vision. 1127 01:02:35,640 --> 01:02:39,240 But close to the highly-sensitive macular is an area 1128 01:02:39,240 --> 01:02:41,400 that looks a complete mess. 1129 01:02:41,400 --> 01:02:43,480 A nexus of crazy pipework. 1130 01:02:44,720 --> 01:02:48,320 Both the blood supply and the nerves connecting the light-detecting cells 1131 01:02:48,320 --> 01:02:51,080 to the brain run across the front of the retina, 1132 01:02:51,080 --> 01:02:53,320 and pass through a hole at the back. 1133 01:02:53,320 --> 01:02:55,000 This area that you see here, 1134 01:02:55,000 --> 01:02:58,960 this is where all the wiring exits the eye to get to the brain. 1135 01:02:58,960 --> 01:03:01,000 There are no photoreceptors in this area, 1136 01:03:01,000 --> 01:03:04,240 so that you've effectively got no vision in that area. 1137 01:03:04,240 --> 01:03:08,160 This is the cause of our mysterious blindspot. 1138 01:03:08,160 --> 01:03:12,440 We don't usually notice, as our brains cleverly fill in the gap, 1139 01:03:12,440 --> 01:03:15,640 but, clearly, our retina is wired back to front. 1140 01:03:18,040 --> 01:03:19,960 I think this is a design flaw. 1141 01:03:19,960 --> 01:03:22,720 I think it's ridiculous to have the wires coming off... 1142 01:03:23,800 --> 01:03:28,280 ..in front of the retinal light-detecting cells, 1143 01:03:28,280 --> 01:03:30,600 and then having to pile over here. 1144 01:03:30,600 --> 01:03:33,120 Pile up in such a way that there's actually no room 1145 01:03:33,120 --> 01:03:34,760 for any photoreceptors at that point, 1146 01:03:34,760 --> 01:03:36,720 and so you've got a whole area of the retina 1147 01:03:36,720 --> 01:03:38,240 where you cannot detect light. 1148 01:03:50,120 --> 01:03:54,440 We share this back-to-front design of our retina with all the other 1149 01:03:54,440 --> 01:03:57,240 vertebrates - fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, mammals, 1150 01:03:57,240 --> 01:03:58,960 we've all got it this way. 1151 01:03:58,960 --> 01:04:02,480 It goes very deep in our evolutionary history, 1152 01:04:02,480 --> 01:04:04,040 but it doesn't have to be this way. 1153 01:04:05,960 --> 01:04:08,480 More than 500 million years ago, 1154 01:04:08,480 --> 01:04:13,120 the spineless ancestors of squid and octopi evolved eyes 1155 01:04:13,120 --> 01:04:14,760 completely independently. 1156 01:04:15,840 --> 01:04:19,560 Evolution led their eyes to form a very similar structure 1157 01:04:19,560 --> 01:04:24,120 to that of the vertebrates, but the retinae of these cephalopods 1158 01:04:24,120 --> 01:04:27,920 are the right way round, so no blind spots for them. 1159 01:04:29,200 --> 01:04:32,520 By adopting the retinal design of the cephalopods, 1160 01:04:32,520 --> 01:04:36,640 I will be rectifying an evolutionary glitch that has been hanging 1161 01:04:36,640 --> 01:04:38,920 around for 500 million years. 1162 01:04:43,040 --> 01:04:46,920 But perhaps our vision has bigger problems than blind spots, 1163 01:04:46,920 --> 01:04:51,120 because modern habits are stretching our eyes to their design limit. 1164 01:04:51,120 --> 01:04:56,200 We evolved from monkeys and apes who were active during the day. 1165 01:04:56,440 --> 01:05:00,800 But, increasingly, we seem to be spending a lot more time awake 1166 01:05:00,800 --> 01:05:05,760 at night, and our eyes are just not very good at dealing with low light. 1167 01:05:05,920 --> 01:05:10,200 Now, we can modify our environment, but that causes light pollution, 1168 01:05:10,200 --> 01:05:13,600 so what if we were to modify ourselves instead? 1169 01:05:20,120 --> 01:05:22,360 Now, that is much better. 1170 01:05:24,520 --> 01:05:29,160 Image intensifiers work by turning infrared light into visible light, 1171 01:05:29,160 --> 01:05:31,560 giving objects instant luminescence. 1172 01:05:34,000 --> 01:05:36,040 But by changing the design of our eyes, 1173 01:05:36,040 --> 01:05:38,560 we could achieve this with visible light. 1174 01:05:38,560 --> 01:05:40,440 It's simply a matter of scale. 1175 01:05:42,560 --> 01:05:45,560 As they evolve to live or hunt in semi-darkness, 1176 01:05:45,560 --> 01:05:49,720 nocturnal animals often have noticeably larger eyes. 1177 01:05:49,720 --> 01:05:52,840 Their enlarged pupils allow more light to hit the retina, 1178 01:05:52,840 --> 01:05:54,680 increasing visual sensitivity. 1179 01:06:01,200 --> 01:06:03,480 Hey, Alice. So, here's another one for you, then. 1180 01:06:03,480 --> 01:06:07,040 I've been looking at eyes and I think our eyeballs could be better, 1181 01:06:07,040 --> 01:06:10,760 so they could let more light in and we could trap more light, as well. 1182 01:06:10,760 --> 01:06:15,800 And I think the eyeballs need to be about 20-25% larger than they are 1183 01:06:15,800 --> 01:06:17,360 at the moment. I... You know, 1184 01:06:17,360 --> 01:06:22,360 I think that's just big enough that they will look really interesting. 1185 01:06:24,040 --> 01:06:25,480 There's no doubt about it. 1186 01:06:25,480 --> 01:06:27,680 You're going to have big old cartoon eyes. 1187 01:06:34,920 --> 01:06:37,200 Our distant relations, the Neanderthals, 1188 01:06:37,200 --> 01:06:39,120 actually had bigger eyeballs like this. 1189 01:06:40,720 --> 01:06:43,800 But we'll be the first vertebrates ever to operate 1190 01:06:43,800 --> 01:06:45,200 without a blind spot. 1191 01:06:51,600 --> 01:06:55,160 Sight isn't the only sense I want to tinker with. 1192 01:06:55,160 --> 01:06:58,800 As we age, our hearing is often the most vulnerable to failure. 1193 01:07:00,920 --> 01:07:03,400 Perhaps this shouldn't be surprising. 1194 01:07:03,400 --> 01:07:07,160 The ears of our hominem ancestors evolved to help them survive 1195 01:07:07,160 --> 01:07:09,600 and communicate on quiet grasslands. 1196 01:07:13,120 --> 01:07:16,120 Ears haven't developed to deal with the high-decibel noises 1197 01:07:16,120 --> 01:07:18,600 we now encounter on a daily basis. 1198 01:07:18,600 --> 01:07:20,240 TRAFFIC ROARS 1199 01:07:20,240 --> 01:07:23,960 The African savannah was never THIS loud. 1200 01:07:23,960 --> 01:07:25,000 TRAFFIC ROARS 1201 01:07:30,240 --> 01:07:32,720 I've come to the University of Salford to check on 1202 01:07:32,720 --> 01:07:34,720 the true state of my own ears, 1203 01:07:34,720 --> 01:07:38,880 seeking the help of acoustic engineer Professor Trevor Cox. 1204 01:07:40,800 --> 01:07:42,960 Trevor, I want to find out about my hearing, 1205 01:07:42,960 --> 01:07:45,160 and I'd like to test how good it is. 1206 01:07:45,160 --> 01:07:47,160 Well, you need a really quiet place to do that, 1207 01:07:47,160 --> 01:07:48,640 and I've got just the room for you. 1208 01:07:48,640 --> 01:07:51,600 So, after you. In this room here? Yeah, it's this peculiar space. 1209 01:07:53,120 --> 01:07:55,640 Whoa, where are you taking me, Trevor? This is bizarre. 1210 01:07:55,640 --> 01:07:57,200 What on earth is this room? 1211 01:07:57,200 --> 01:07:59,400 Well, welcome to the anechoic chamber. 1212 01:07:59,400 --> 01:08:01,240 This is an acoustic isolation room. 1213 01:08:02,240 --> 01:08:04,120 I feel like I'm underwater. 1214 01:08:04,120 --> 01:08:06,360 It feels as though my ears aren't working properly. 1215 01:08:06,360 --> 01:08:08,360 It feels as though I need to pop them. 1216 01:08:08,360 --> 01:08:10,360 Well, if you really want to hear how weird it is, 1217 01:08:10,360 --> 01:08:12,040 you need to really close the doors, 1218 01:08:12,040 --> 01:08:14,120 to block out the outside world entirely. 1219 01:08:16,080 --> 01:08:20,440 It's very strange. The silence when we are not talking is dead. 1220 01:08:20,440 --> 01:08:23,440 All the foam wedges you can see above you and around you 1221 01:08:23,440 --> 01:08:26,480 and even on the floor are absorbing everything I say, 1222 01:08:26,480 --> 01:08:28,480 and, normally, when you listen to my voice, 1223 01:08:28,480 --> 01:08:30,920 you hear not just the voice coming direct from me to you, 1224 01:08:30,920 --> 01:08:33,760 you hear reflections from the walls and the floors and the ceiling. 1225 01:08:33,760 --> 01:08:36,600 People come in here and it's a really peculiar sense, 1226 01:08:36,600 --> 01:08:38,320 a bit like almost being travel sick, 1227 01:08:38,320 --> 01:08:40,960 and it's because you can see a room, but you can't hear it, 1228 01:08:40,960 --> 01:08:43,280 and your brain, your two senses are a bit out of kilter. Yeah. 1229 01:08:43,280 --> 01:08:45,160 And, therefore, people kind of go, 1230 01:08:45,160 --> 01:08:47,200 "No, this is a bit unpleasant, can I go?" 1231 01:08:47,200 --> 01:08:49,640 Yeah, I am not entirely happy in here, I must admit. 1232 01:08:49,640 --> 01:08:51,600 It is a bit unpleasant. 1233 01:08:51,600 --> 01:08:53,800 I wouldn't want to spend much time here, 1234 01:08:53,800 --> 01:08:57,200 but it's the perfect environment to check my ears. 1235 01:08:58,360 --> 01:09:00,960 So, how are you going to test my hearing, then? 1236 01:09:00,960 --> 01:09:03,840 We're going to do a really simple test where we start off with a tone 1237 01:09:03,840 --> 01:09:06,080 and move it gradually up in frequency 1238 01:09:06,080 --> 01:09:08,640 and see how high a frequency you can hear. 1239 01:09:08,640 --> 01:09:11,560 OK, so I have to tell you when I can't hear it? 1240 01:09:11,560 --> 01:09:13,680 Yeah, I want you to say when you can no longer hear it. 1241 01:09:13,680 --> 01:09:15,600 So I'll start it off. All right. 1242 01:09:15,600 --> 01:09:16,920 BEEP 1243 01:09:16,920 --> 01:09:18,680 I can hear that. 1244 01:09:18,680 --> 01:09:20,680 So, that is right in the middle of the speech range. 1245 01:09:20,680 --> 01:09:22,480 And I will just keep dialling it up. 1246 01:09:22,480 --> 01:09:24,120 HIGHER-PITCHED BEEP 1247 01:09:24,120 --> 01:09:27,360 Can still hear it. 1248 01:09:28,720 --> 01:09:30,000 Yeah, I can still hear it. 1249 01:09:30,000 --> 01:09:31,240 HIGHER-PITCHED BEEP 1250 01:09:31,240 --> 01:09:34,040 Yeah. Yeah. 1251 01:09:34,040 --> 01:09:35,800 Yep, I can still hear that. 1252 01:09:37,320 --> 01:09:38,520 Can still hear that. 1253 01:09:39,920 --> 01:09:42,160 It's weird, but I can still hear it. 1254 01:09:44,000 --> 01:09:45,080 It's gone. 1255 01:09:46,600 --> 01:09:49,600 So you could hear almost 15,000 hertz. 1256 01:09:49,600 --> 01:09:51,960 Is that good? Well, when you were 20, 1257 01:09:51,960 --> 01:09:54,600 you probably could hear up to 20,000 hertz. 1258 01:09:54,600 --> 01:09:56,080 The problem is, with hearing, 1259 01:09:56,080 --> 01:09:58,080 you have this age-related hearing loss 1260 01:09:58,080 --> 01:10:00,800 where the inner ear slowly loses some of its sensitivity 1261 01:10:00,800 --> 01:10:03,240 and it starts at high frequencies and works down. 1262 01:10:03,240 --> 01:10:05,640 You're better than I am. I stopped at about 10,000 hertz, 1263 01:10:05,640 --> 01:10:07,000 I couldn't hear it any more, 1264 01:10:07,000 --> 01:10:09,640 because I'm probably about ten years older than you are. 1265 01:10:09,640 --> 01:10:12,640 The inability to hear like my younger self 1266 01:10:12,640 --> 01:10:15,320 comes down to the anatomy of the ear 1267 01:10:15,320 --> 01:10:19,800 and, in particular, to the cells that turn vibrations into sound, 1268 01:10:19,800 --> 01:10:23,520 inside the snail-shaped organ known as the cochlea. 1269 01:10:23,520 --> 01:10:25,680 Hair cells inside the beginning of the cochlea 1270 01:10:25,680 --> 01:10:28,680 are responsible for detecting high-frequency sound. 1271 01:10:29,880 --> 01:10:34,680 But they also bear the brunt of all sound waves entering the inner ear. 1272 01:10:34,680 --> 01:10:37,480 As a result, they're usually damaged before the rest 1273 01:10:37,480 --> 01:10:41,080 and that's why we lose high-frequency hearing first. 1274 01:10:41,080 --> 01:10:44,000 But according to Trevor, there could be a simple solution. 1275 01:10:45,480 --> 01:10:48,200 There is a way I can make it audible to you. 1276 01:10:48,200 --> 01:10:50,080 What I can do is turn up the volume. 1277 01:10:50,080 --> 01:10:52,040 OK. 1278 01:10:52,040 --> 01:10:54,080 HIGH-PITCHED BEEP 1279 01:10:54,080 --> 01:10:55,920 Yes. Yeah, OK. 1280 01:10:55,920 --> 01:10:57,880 I can hear that quite clearly now. 1281 01:10:57,880 --> 01:11:00,480 If you can't, well, sorry - 1282 01:11:00,480 --> 01:11:02,840 I'm afraid your hearing is even worse than mine. 1283 01:11:04,240 --> 01:11:06,080 So, what you have is a loss of sensitivity, 1284 01:11:06,080 --> 01:11:09,040 so when the sound is loud enough, you can hear it, 1285 01:11:09,040 --> 01:11:11,960 and that's what hearing aids essentially do, they amplify things, 1286 01:11:11,960 --> 01:11:15,080 so you can get it into a range where you can actually hear things. 1287 01:11:18,040 --> 01:11:21,200 There is a natural way that we could increase the volume of sound 1288 01:11:21,200 --> 01:11:25,360 without a hearing aid, and that's by increasing the size of our ears. 1289 01:11:25,360 --> 01:11:29,440 The more sound waves we can trap, the louder the sound we hear. 1290 01:11:29,440 --> 01:11:31,440 And that is Trevor's suggestion. 1291 01:11:31,440 --> 01:11:33,720 It also has the advantage of focus. 1292 01:11:35,360 --> 01:11:37,400 So, Trevor, what's this all about? 1293 01:11:37,400 --> 01:11:39,560 So, this is a typical problem you have. 1294 01:11:39,560 --> 01:11:42,040 You are in a noisy cafe or bar 1295 01:11:42,040 --> 01:11:43,720 and you are trying to pick out the speech 1296 01:11:43,720 --> 01:11:45,120 from the noise that is around, 1297 01:11:45,120 --> 01:11:46,920 and I can see you are slightly struggling. 1298 01:11:46,920 --> 01:11:50,200 I think I am actually only really hearing every other word, 1299 01:11:50,200 --> 01:11:53,600 and I'm filling in gaps, but I'm struggling without looking at you. 1300 01:11:53,600 --> 01:11:55,640 But in front of you you've got these devices - 1301 01:11:55,640 --> 01:11:58,720 if you were to put those on, does my voice become more clear, 1302 01:11:58,720 --> 01:12:01,760 with the headphones and funnels on, than it does without? 1303 01:12:01,760 --> 01:12:03,000 OK. 1304 01:12:03,000 --> 01:12:05,680 As I talk quietly, can you hear the difference as you put those on? 1305 01:12:05,680 --> 01:12:08,280 Maybe my speech will suddenly become... Oh, that's... 1306 01:12:08,280 --> 01:12:10,680 Yeah, that's... That's really different. 1307 01:12:10,680 --> 01:12:11,960 I'm just going to pick up this, 1308 01:12:11,960 --> 01:12:15,680 because this is a parabolic microphone, so the viewers, 1309 01:12:15,680 --> 01:12:18,400 the listeners at home will be able to hear a similar thing 1310 01:12:18,400 --> 01:12:19,840 to what I'm experiencing. 1311 01:12:19,840 --> 01:12:22,960 And if you were to rotate that, so it's not facing me any more, 1312 01:12:22,960 --> 01:12:26,840 so it hasn't got that... VOICE FADES OUT 1313 01:12:26,840 --> 01:12:28,960 ..and that volume level should drop off, 1314 01:12:28,960 --> 01:12:30,400 and if you point it back to me 1315 01:12:30,400 --> 01:12:33,960 and then it should focus and amplify the sound and it should be louder. 1316 01:12:36,320 --> 01:12:38,320 So, I'm really won over by this idea. 1317 01:12:38,320 --> 01:12:40,520 This is making quite a big difference to my hearing. 1318 01:12:40,520 --> 01:12:42,320 But I do need to come up with something 1319 01:12:42,320 --> 01:12:43,760 that is slightly less ridiculous. 1320 01:12:47,280 --> 01:12:50,880 Mobile ears are a common adaptation in the animal kingdom, 1321 01:12:50,880 --> 01:12:54,120 and one that's more feasible in humans than you might have thought. 1322 01:12:57,000 --> 01:12:59,280 Scott's aware of an anatomical secret 1323 01:12:59,280 --> 01:13:01,920 that could make them a simple adaptation. 1324 01:13:03,400 --> 01:13:06,760 The interesting thing about our ears is that, 1325 01:13:06,760 --> 01:13:10,080 kind of looking at our evolutionary past, 1326 01:13:10,080 --> 01:13:15,080 we have a set of ear muscles kind of left over that we no longer use, 1327 01:13:15,520 --> 01:13:20,560 but if we brought those back into play and kind of rewired them, 1328 01:13:20,680 --> 01:13:23,800 and maybe augmented them, we could, you know, 1329 01:13:23,800 --> 01:13:27,040 quickly kind of reintroduce mobility in our own ears. 1330 01:13:31,080 --> 01:13:34,200 With large mobile ears, I will collect more sound 1331 01:13:34,200 --> 01:13:36,640 to compensate for my hair cells' decline, 1332 01:13:36,640 --> 01:13:40,120 and have an enhanced ability to focus on sounds I'm interested in. 1333 01:13:44,120 --> 01:13:46,320 It's time for my final touch. 1334 01:13:46,320 --> 01:13:49,800 The largest organ of all - the skin. 1335 01:13:49,800 --> 01:13:52,880 Our skin is an incredible protective sheath - 1336 01:13:52,880 --> 01:13:57,040 elastic, waterproof and temperature controlling. 1337 01:13:57,040 --> 01:14:00,400 It is a fantastic shield, but it has its limits. 1338 01:14:01,640 --> 01:14:04,600 Especially when assaulted by UV light, 1339 01:14:04,600 --> 01:14:06,880 the high-energy component of sunlight. 1340 01:14:08,880 --> 01:14:11,320 To see how my skin has been bearing up, 1341 01:14:11,320 --> 01:14:13,680 I've come to a specialist London clinic 1342 01:14:13,680 --> 01:14:17,440 where I will be checked out by Dr Anita Sturnham, 1343 01:14:17,440 --> 01:14:20,160 who is going to give me a hi-tech facial scan. 1344 01:14:22,760 --> 01:14:25,200 OK, if you remove yourself from the scanner. 1345 01:14:25,200 --> 01:14:26,720 Your scan is now done, 1346 01:14:26,720 --> 01:14:28,880 so we're looking at the deeper layers of your skin. 1347 01:14:28,880 --> 01:14:30,960 This is hidden damage. 1348 01:14:30,960 --> 01:14:36,000 And so this is your UV damage in the deeper skin layers. 1349 01:14:36,120 --> 01:14:37,560 That is shocking. 1350 01:14:38,800 --> 01:14:43,440 You have a distribution of UV damage throughout the facial region. 1351 01:14:43,440 --> 01:14:46,120 You have slightly more damage than you should for your age. 1352 01:14:46,120 --> 01:14:48,000 So, that's over the last six months? 1353 01:14:48,000 --> 01:14:49,760 And that is over winter? Exactly. 1354 01:14:49,760 --> 01:14:53,160 So we must remember that it's not just about summer protection, 1355 01:14:53,160 --> 01:14:54,440 it's all year round. 1356 01:14:55,840 --> 01:15:00,000 High-energy UV rays from the sun can cause havoc to our cells, 1357 01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:04,160 attacking their DNA, causing dangerous mutations to develop, 1358 01:15:04,160 --> 01:15:05,880 which can lead to cancer. 1359 01:15:07,200 --> 01:15:09,880 So, that picture of the damage in the dark layers of my skin 1360 01:15:09,880 --> 01:15:12,040 looks horrendous. So, what does it represent? 1361 01:15:12,040 --> 01:15:13,280 When you have UV damage, 1362 01:15:13,280 --> 01:15:15,560 what's happening is those UV rays enter the skin, 1363 01:15:15,560 --> 01:15:17,360 they penetrate through the epidermis, 1364 01:15:17,360 --> 01:15:19,560 which is like your protective brick wall, 1365 01:15:19,560 --> 01:15:21,320 and they enter this layer here, 1366 01:15:21,320 --> 01:15:23,400 called the dermo-epidermal junction. 1367 01:15:23,400 --> 01:15:26,320 You have immune cells called melanocytes - 1368 01:15:26,320 --> 01:15:29,280 their job is to protect your skin from UV damage. 1369 01:15:29,280 --> 01:15:31,760 When they get a signal that there's damage happening, 1370 01:15:31,760 --> 01:15:33,160 you get melanin production. 1371 01:15:34,840 --> 01:15:38,480 When you tan, you're experiencing an immune-like reaction 1372 01:15:38,480 --> 01:15:41,000 to the damage being wreaked by UV light. 1373 01:15:42,040 --> 01:15:45,560 The brown pigment, melanin, acts as a physical shield, 1374 01:15:45,560 --> 01:15:49,480 but it's slow to appear and not highly effective. 1375 01:15:49,480 --> 01:15:51,680 Does that mean that any tan at all 1376 01:15:51,680 --> 01:15:54,760 is actually going to be associated with damage? 1377 01:15:54,760 --> 01:15:58,200 Absolutely. Any tan at all is bad for you. 1378 01:15:58,200 --> 01:15:59,840 The fairer skin types, we know, 1379 01:15:59,840 --> 01:16:02,760 are more at risk of that damage becoming more severe, 1380 01:16:02,760 --> 01:16:05,760 so you're more likely to get burned rather than tanned, 1381 01:16:05,760 --> 01:16:08,920 you are more likely then to get an increased risk of skin cancer, 1382 01:16:08,920 --> 01:16:11,720 particularly the severe skin cancers like melanoma. 1383 01:16:11,720 --> 01:16:15,200 Because of the danger of UV in the Tropics, 1384 01:16:15,200 --> 01:16:19,480 our African ancestors were all dark-skinned originally. 1385 01:16:19,480 --> 01:16:23,800 But as some human populations moved north to less sunny latitudes, 1386 01:16:23,800 --> 01:16:26,440 the evolutionary pressure for dark skin lessened. 1387 01:16:27,880 --> 01:16:32,920 So, in some ways, it seems annoying that paler skin ever evolved. 1388 01:16:34,160 --> 01:16:36,440 We'd have been better off staying with dark skin. 1389 01:16:36,440 --> 01:16:39,520 Absolutely. From a UV damage perspective, yes. 1390 01:16:39,520 --> 01:16:43,000 We know, from some studies, that the paler the skin tone you are, 1391 01:16:43,000 --> 01:16:45,520 the more effective you are at making things like vitamin D 1392 01:16:45,520 --> 01:16:46,960 versus darker skin tones, 1393 01:16:46,960 --> 01:16:51,000 so there are some evolutionary benefits to being paler, as well. 1394 01:16:55,440 --> 01:17:00,440 If dark skin confers some protection against UV and skin cancer, 1395 01:17:01,600 --> 01:17:06,440 but, at the same time, perhaps makes vitamin D synthesis less efficient, 1396 01:17:06,440 --> 01:17:09,920 then wouldn't it be brilliant to be able to turn it on and off? 1397 01:17:09,920 --> 01:17:14,480 So, if I was trying to make vitamin D, I could make my skin paler, 1398 01:17:14,480 --> 01:17:19,200 and if I were wanting to protect myself from the UV, I could go dark. 1399 01:17:22,200 --> 01:17:26,360 Some cephalopods and reptiles have colour-changing capabilities, 1400 01:17:26,360 --> 01:17:29,080 used mainly for camouflage and communication. 1401 01:17:34,280 --> 01:17:36,920 But there's another type of animal that may have developed 1402 01:17:36,920 --> 01:17:39,480 the perfect sunshade system I'm looking for. 1403 01:17:40,880 --> 01:17:42,720 London Zoo's Dr Chris Michaels 1404 01:17:42,720 --> 01:17:45,840 has a few lurking at the back of one of his tanks. 1405 01:17:49,120 --> 01:17:51,720 Frogs change colour for lots of different reasons. 1406 01:17:51,720 --> 01:17:54,080 Sometimes it could be camouflage, 1407 01:17:54,080 --> 01:17:57,440 sometimes it could be to attract the opposite sex. 1408 01:17:57,440 --> 01:18:00,080 And, sometimes, it's to protect themselves from sunlight, 1409 01:18:00,080 --> 01:18:02,520 specifically UVB radiation. 1410 01:18:03,920 --> 01:18:05,880 To protect themselves from sunlight, 1411 01:18:05,880 --> 01:18:09,280 amphibians use the same melanin pigment as we do, 1412 01:18:09,280 --> 01:18:14,320 but it's contained in a unique type of cell called a melanophore. 1413 01:18:15,000 --> 01:18:18,600 So, this is a Majorcan midwife toad, 1414 01:18:18,600 --> 01:18:21,920 and you can see on its skin these dark spots, 1415 01:18:21,920 --> 01:18:26,360 and the dark spots are where the melanin-containing cells, 1416 01:18:26,360 --> 01:18:30,280 the melanophores, are especially densely packed. 1417 01:18:30,280 --> 01:18:34,960 Amphibians can rapidly adjust the apparent colour of their skin 1418 01:18:34,960 --> 01:18:37,120 by changing the size of those cells. 1419 01:18:38,480 --> 01:18:43,480 Our melanocytes only produce melanin slowly when stimulated by UV light. 1420 01:18:44,160 --> 01:18:48,360 But the amphibian melanophore cells are always filled with melanin. 1421 01:18:48,360 --> 01:18:50,400 They simply inflate like balloons. 1422 01:18:52,000 --> 01:18:54,440 In order to make them go darker, 1423 01:18:54,440 --> 01:18:57,360 all they have to do is expand those cells. 1424 01:18:57,360 --> 01:18:59,640 Those then expand and the frog is immediately darker 1425 01:18:59,640 --> 01:19:01,840 because that melanin is on show, 1426 01:19:01,840 --> 01:19:05,760 and that can happen over hours rather than over days to weeks 1427 01:19:05,760 --> 01:19:08,520 as you would get in people. 1428 01:19:08,520 --> 01:19:10,920 It's really, really quick to occur, 1429 01:19:10,920 --> 01:19:13,400 so whereas humans may get skin burns, 1430 01:19:13,400 --> 01:19:16,440 in that same time the frog would have gone brown already. 1431 01:19:18,440 --> 01:19:20,960 And the system works just as well in reverse. 1432 01:19:25,880 --> 01:19:29,200 If we had these amphibian melanophores in our skin, 1433 01:19:29,200 --> 01:19:32,120 we could provide ourselves with an instant shield 1434 01:19:32,120 --> 01:19:33,920 from the worst of UV light, 1435 01:19:33,920 --> 01:19:37,680 whilst also allowing for optimal vitamin D production - 1436 01:19:37,680 --> 01:19:40,920 the perfect skin for a globetrotting modern human. 1437 01:19:46,920 --> 01:19:49,560 This improvement comes just in time, 1438 01:19:49,560 --> 01:19:53,000 as Sangeet is reaching the end of the sculpting process. 1439 01:19:53,000 --> 01:19:55,240 The brief I have been given is 1440 01:19:55,240 --> 01:19:58,200 to create kind of adaptive froglike skin 1441 01:19:58,200 --> 01:20:01,600 that can very quickly change colour. 1442 01:20:01,600 --> 01:20:04,240 I have gone for a kind of look 1443 01:20:04,240 --> 01:20:08,920 that suggests she started off as a light-skinned person, 1444 01:20:08,920 --> 01:20:13,000 and I suppose the idea is she has got a very healthy skin tan, 1445 01:20:13,000 --> 01:20:16,200 but what I'm trying to do is just localise that, 1446 01:20:16,200 --> 01:20:20,840 to suggest that she is able to tan very quickly in some areas 1447 01:20:20,840 --> 01:20:24,320 and yet in other areas I'm keeping it much lighter. 1448 01:20:27,800 --> 01:20:30,600 Paintwork takes a couple of weeks, at least, really. 1449 01:20:30,600 --> 01:20:34,280 To give you an estimate of, you know, how little paint we're using, 1450 01:20:34,280 --> 01:20:38,560 there's probably less than half a cup of paint 1451 01:20:38,560 --> 01:20:41,840 spread out this entire model. 1452 01:20:41,840 --> 01:20:44,200 And the best part about it is 1453 01:20:44,200 --> 01:20:46,800 knowing that when I am done with this, the job is done. 1454 01:20:54,160 --> 01:20:56,120 With the model almost complete, 1455 01:20:56,120 --> 01:20:59,840 artist Scott has come to Sangeet's studio to get a sneaky peek. 1456 01:20:59,840 --> 01:21:03,240 Hi, Scott, how you doing? How's it going? Yeah, very well. 1457 01:21:03,240 --> 01:21:05,760 Good. All good. She's outside, do you want to come and look? 1458 01:21:05,760 --> 01:21:07,320 All right. Let me put my bag down. 1459 01:21:09,720 --> 01:21:11,520 So, here we are. 1460 01:21:13,360 --> 01:21:15,040 Wow, look at that. 1461 01:21:16,720 --> 01:21:18,080 HE LAUGHS 1462 01:21:18,080 --> 01:21:19,640 The marsupial pouches. 1463 01:21:21,360 --> 01:21:23,280 It is a thing of its own, isn't it? 1464 01:21:23,280 --> 01:21:24,960 The hands look great. 1465 01:21:24,960 --> 01:21:26,960 The hands are beautiful. That looks amazing. 1466 01:21:28,440 --> 01:21:29,720 Here's the last piece. 1467 01:21:36,200 --> 01:21:41,080 Wow. I am really looking forward to seeing Alice's reaction to it. 1468 01:21:41,080 --> 01:21:45,360 She will have kind of the shock of seeing her in a different way. 1469 01:21:45,360 --> 01:21:48,200 I think she is going to fall in love with her new legs. 1470 01:21:48,200 --> 01:21:51,520 I think she's going to like it. I think she is going to like it. 1471 01:21:51,520 --> 01:21:53,920 Yeah, I think she's going to really like it. 1472 01:21:59,080 --> 01:22:00,800 It's been three short months 1473 01:22:00,800 --> 01:22:04,280 since the Science Museum set me this challenge, 1474 01:22:04,280 --> 01:22:07,760 and now, the night of the big reveal has arrived. 1475 01:22:07,760 --> 01:22:12,280 As the crowds gather, it's time to finally meet the new me. 1476 01:22:14,960 --> 01:22:17,080 I have not seen anything of it. 1477 01:22:17,080 --> 01:22:20,480 I haven't seen any photographs, I haven't seen anything 1478 01:22:20,480 --> 01:22:22,520 since very early on in the project 1479 01:22:22,520 --> 01:22:24,960 when I was talking to Scott in his studio. 1480 01:22:24,960 --> 01:22:28,800 And it's over there with a veil over it. 1481 01:22:28,800 --> 01:22:31,680 So, I'm intrigued, 1482 01:22:31,680 --> 01:22:34,880 but I'm also slightly fearful about what it actually looks like. 1483 01:22:40,240 --> 01:22:41,840 Hundreds of people have turned up. 1484 01:22:46,120 --> 01:22:49,360 This experiment has clearly sparked the interest of the public. 1485 01:22:55,200 --> 01:22:57,880 APPLAUSE AND CHEERING 1486 01:22:57,880 --> 01:22:59,600 Hello, everyone. 1487 01:22:59,600 --> 01:23:01,520 Welcome to the Science Museum. 1488 01:23:01,520 --> 01:23:04,160 Alice came into this gallery, met me, 1489 01:23:04,160 --> 01:23:08,640 we were talking about something that she has complained about endlessly 1490 01:23:08,640 --> 01:23:11,720 in articles and books, and it sort of struck me, 1491 01:23:11,720 --> 01:23:15,680 well, why doesn't she come up with the perfect Alice? 1492 01:23:15,680 --> 01:23:19,360 Now, I can't wait to see what is behind that curtain. 1493 01:23:19,360 --> 01:23:21,760 It's now time to introduce... 1494 01:23:21,760 --> 01:23:23,440 Alice Roberts. 1495 01:23:25,480 --> 01:23:27,320 Thanks, Roger. 1496 01:23:27,320 --> 01:23:30,200 So, this has been an extraordinary project. 1497 01:23:30,200 --> 01:23:33,360 I have been terribly excited about this for a month. 1498 01:23:33,360 --> 01:23:35,240 But I'm also really nervous, 1499 01:23:35,240 --> 01:23:38,280 and I'm interested to see what you think, as well. 1500 01:23:38,280 --> 01:23:40,680 OK, right, help me with this, then. 1501 01:23:40,680 --> 01:23:43,960 Five, four, three, 1502 01:23:43,960 --> 01:23:46,040 two, one... 1503 01:23:47,160 --> 01:23:48,680 SHE SQUEALS 1504 01:23:55,960 --> 01:23:57,280 Oh, my goodness. 1505 01:23:57,280 --> 01:23:59,040 Oh. 1506 01:24:01,480 --> 01:24:03,480 No, I can't look at her. 1507 01:24:05,480 --> 01:24:07,400 Oh, this is really strange. 1508 01:24:09,520 --> 01:24:14,320 She's so different, and yet in some ways so realistic. 1509 01:24:14,320 --> 01:24:16,320 The thing I find weirdest is the face, actually, 1510 01:24:16,320 --> 01:24:17,880 because it does look like my face, 1511 01:24:17,880 --> 01:24:20,960 but those eyes have changed the geometry of it. 1512 01:24:20,960 --> 01:24:22,880 No, it's not the weirdest thing, is it? 1513 01:24:22,880 --> 01:24:25,760 The baby is the weirdest thing. That is the weirdest thing. 1514 01:24:25,760 --> 01:24:28,360 But it's very, very cute at the same time. 1515 01:24:29,880 --> 01:24:30,880 Ohh! 1516 01:24:34,560 --> 01:24:38,080 Alice 2.0 is amazing. 1517 01:24:38,080 --> 01:24:42,680 To counter the faults of our flawed transition to standing upright, 1518 01:24:42,680 --> 01:24:45,400 she has got a chimp's sturdy lower back 1519 01:24:45,400 --> 01:24:48,720 and the shock-absorbing legs of an emu. 1520 01:24:50,600 --> 01:24:55,600 To improve blood circulation, she has got tiny pumps in her thighs. 1521 01:25:00,040 --> 01:25:02,800 and the graceful lungs of a swan. 1522 01:25:02,800 --> 01:25:06,040 Her neck houses a choke-proof windpipe. 1523 01:25:06,040 --> 01:25:09,520 And to ensure a pain-free childbirth, 1524 01:25:09,520 --> 01:25:12,920 she nurtures her baby in a marsupial pouch. 1525 01:25:12,920 --> 01:25:15,560 Her senses have been transformed. 1526 01:25:15,560 --> 01:25:20,560 with large mobile ears and light-sensitive super-sized eyes. 1527 01:25:21,760 --> 01:25:24,880 This could be a human fit for the future. 1528 01:25:27,960 --> 01:25:31,040 I am blown away by the artistry here. 1529 01:25:31,040 --> 01:25:33,280 I mean, both of you. It's just astonishing. 1530 01:25:33,280 --> 01:25:36,120 It's weird, I'm... I think it is coherent. 1531 01:25:36,120 --> 01:25:41,000 Yeah. There's enough structure that it would be mechanically sound. 1532 01:25:41,000 --> 01:25:43,280 She looks like she could just walk away. 1533 01:25:43,280 --> 01:25:46,560 Yeah, for a moment you are able to suspend your disbelief and... Yeah. 1534 01:25:46,560 --> 01:25:49,320 ..get wrapped up in something that you can see in front of you. 1535 01:25:49,320 --> 01:25:52,280 It's lovely. I can't believe how absolutely brilliantly well 1536 01:25:52,280 --> 01:25:54,320 it's all come together, and it's down to you. 1537 01:25:54,320 --> 01:25:55,480 So thank you so much. 1538 01:25:59,240 --> 01:26:01,240 But what does the public think? 1539 01:26:02,600 --> 01:26:04,360 I don't think, in our culture, 1540 01:26:04,360 --> 01:26:07,360 that is what you imagine the perfect body to look like. 1541 01:26:07,360 --> 01:26:10,520 But maybe it should be. Exactly. 1542 01:26:10,520 --> 01:26:13,840 See that first thing in the morning, I would run a mile, 1543 01:26:13,840 --> 01:26:16,120 faster than an ostrich. 1544 01:26:16,120 --> 01:26:19,320 If I were to think about the favourite part of her, 1545 01:26:19,320 --> 01:26:21,600 I would have to think long and hard, 1546 01:26:21,600 --> 01:26:25,400 and it definitely wouldn't be the massive eyes looking at me. 1547 01:26:25,400 --> 01:26:28,560 I would probably do a lot to spare the sheer horror 1548 01:26:28,560 --> 01:26:31,080 of what I expect childbirth to be like, 1549 01:26:31,080 --> 01:26:34,440 therefore the pouch is a winner for me. 1550 01:26:34,440 --> 01:26:36,680 Same with me. 1551 01:26:36,680 --> 01:26:41,000 I think the part I disliked most, if I can say that, is the legs, 1552 01:26:41,000 --> 01:26:44,040 because they look so very different, so animal-like. 1553 01:26:44,040 --> 01:26:46,760 When I saw the legs, I was astonished. 1554 01:26:48,400 --> 01:26:52,400 I think the legs were just so different, so amazing, 1555 01:26:52,400 --> 01:26:57,240 something I wouldn't have thought about. And exciting! 1556 01:27:03,280 --> 01:27:06,480 Creating the new me has been a fantastic journey. 1557 01:27:07,640 --> 01:27:11,120 But along the way, I've had to make a whole series of compromises. 1558 01:27:12,200 --> 01:27:16,400 I've provided stability and durability to my spine and legs, 1559 01:27:16,400 --> 01:27:18,280 but I've sacrificed mobility. 1560 01:27:19,280 --> 01:27:21,440 I've made childbirth easier, 1561 01:27:21,440 --> 01:27:24,880 but I'll be carrying this baby and producing milk for it for years. 1562 01:27:26,200 --> 01:27:29,400 And with those powerful and reliable new organs, 1563 01:27:29,400 --> 01:27:32,640 I may have created a corresponding new set of maladies 1564 01:27:32,640 --> 01:27:34,720 that I can only begin to imagine. 1565 01:27:36,280 --> 01:27:39,480 This journey has given me a renewed appreciation 1566 01:27:39,480 --> 01:27:43,360 of the true complexity of designing a working body 1567 01:27:43,360 --> 01:27:45,360 and of evolution itself. 1568 01:27:46,680 --> 01:27:50,160 I set out trying to achieve perfection, 1569 01:27:50,160 --> 01:27:53,280 and I'm not sure that's what we have done. 1570 01:27:53,280 --> 01:27:56,240 We've looked at all those different problems 1571 01:27:56,240 --> 01:27:58,920 that are in our bodies and tried to fix them, 1572 01:27:58,920 --> 01:28:03,120 but every single time we nudged something in a particular direction, 1573 01:28:03,120 --> 01:28:04,800 we lost something else. 1574 01:28:04,800 --> 01:28:07,000 So, it's been a lesson in trade-offs. 1575 01:28:07,000 --> 01:28:09,120 It's also been a lesson in... 1576 01:28:09,120 --> 01:28:12,680 Actually, what evolution has provided us with 1577 01:28:12,680 --> 01:28:14,600 is a package that works. 1578 01:28:14,600 --> 01:28:18,320 You can't take those individual elements out, 1579 01:28:18,320 --> 01:28:20,640 fix them, and put them back in. 1580 01:28:20,640 --> 01:28:23,120 It has to work as a coherent whole. 1581 01:28:23,120 --> 01:28:26,080 But, nevertheless, I think we've created something 1582 01:28:26,080 --> 01:28:28,280 which is different, 1583 01:28:28,280 --> 01:28:31,120 which is beautiful in its own way, 1584 01:28:31,120 --> 01:28:33,960 and deeply, deeply strange.