human beings have lived on earth for

thousands of years in that time they've

tried to understand their place in the

world and what makes them human

through the centuries we have learned to

build great machines to lift and Bend to

forge and carry all of these have been

created by the most highly developed

efficient and superb machine of all the

human body a light flexible yet strong

framework driven by beautifully

engineered organs and made up of

billions of tiny cells each one of us

has 10,000 times more cells in our body

than there are people on earth

no machine is as complex as this one but

without one simple ingredient it would

die after an accident the first aid is

oxygen the breath of life ancient Greeks

believed the body had added center of

flame burning food creating warmth

and that we breathe to cool that flame

to stop it setting fire to the body

it's our lungs that constantly take in

life-giving oxygen the body can't store

exchanging it for carbon dioxide the

surface area of the lungs is huge

flattened out almost the size of a

tennis court breathing in and out six

hundred million times in a life enough

to fill four hundred hot air balloons

from the throat the windpipe divides

into two stems which in turn subdivide

into thousands of fine hair like tubes

each ends with a minut air sac to

receive the oxygen and pass it into the

blood

so vital is breathing to life that

expiration has come to mean death that

inspiration can lead to genius

and it's genius that sets this machine

apart from all others something

exclusively human believed by many to be

the sole and the windows of the soul the

eyes the human camera two-thirds of what

is stored in the human brain has entered

through the eyes sight is the body's

chief sense it's guy and its greatest

Guardian against predators and just like

a camera the eyes have three distinct

parts a transparent outer covering the

cornea behind a lens to receive light

and at the back a screen the retina

containing a hundred and twenty seven

million light-sensitive cells rods and

cones most are rod cells that work in

dim light seeing only black and white in

the dark we have little need of color

but in bright light cone cells suddenly

flood our eyes with color vision the eye

is cleaned and disinfected by moving the

lid across we do it over 5000 times a

day each time for a third of a second

there is another effective cleansing

process crying children do it more often

than adults

the average one-year-old cries at least

twice a day cleaning and sterilizing the

eyes fighting infection tears offer

emotional cleansing to tears of sadness

hon tears of joy a common cause of

laughter the discomfort of others

after sight most information about the

outside world reaches us through the

ears it's taken us centuries to

understand hearing and to appreciate the

true power of the human ear we've

learned to delight in the pleasure of

sound develop a taste for music and

revel in the rhythm of dance

whatever the source all sound begins

with vibration

sound waves enter the ear and reach the

all-important membrane the eardrum a

thin taut skin the size of a fingernail

the drum sends vibrations through the

body's tiniest bone the stabies no

bigger than a grain of rice and nerves

send a signal to the brain that we

recognize as sound many body features

are not just practical in some African

cultures ears display tribal status and

Buddha's long earlobes signified royalty

and spiritual authority King Midas got

his long ears when he objected to Apollo

playing the lyre so he was judged to

have the musical taste of a donkey

he is also helped us keep our balance

tiny head movements trigger nerve

signals to send information about space

motion and gravity to the brain so some

of us keep our balance even on a beam

we use balance for one of the main

things that separates us from our animal

ancestors and enables one of the

greatest human achievements standing

upright the spine in a straight line and

a head held erect to face the world

the body has 206 bones more than half of

them in the hands and feet all are

linked by joints and driven by muscles

to produce the perfect moving machine

our bones are strong

the thighbone 150 times bigger than the

tiny one in the ear is stronger

pound for pound than reinforced concrete

most of us live in houses far less

sturdy than our thighbone

yet bones so essential to our life are

also symbols of death

another body part is even harder the

part that protects our crucial ability

to take a bite tooth enamel so hard that

it takes a dentists drill with a

strengthened tip to penetrate it

the powerful skeleton is only one-sixth

of the body's weight almost half is what

drives this set of bones muscles 640 of

them designed to contract and exert

pressure

muscles can achieve extraordinary feats

when trained to peak form

when a bodybuilder flexes his muscles

they don't get bigger they're just

shortened and swell in the middle like a

long balloon squeezed at each end

but not all muscle work is so obvious

muscles supply the body's heat they even

help the body standstill neck muscles

oppose each other perfectly to achieve

that crucial human advance holding the 4

kilogram head upright

and just as the teeth are the body's

hardest part so the muscle that works

them breaking down food for

all-important digestion is the body's

most powerful the jaw exerts a crushing

pressure of two tons per square

centimeter

muscle and skeleton couldn't work

together without the key link between

them early hunters discovered as they

split animal bone and tore muscle to get

at the rich nutrients that bodies

haven't even tougher part it was the

joints the mechanisms that enable humans

to run to leap to twist and turn

converting power and strength into

movement and precision

all this yet only one organ of the body

is constantly on show it's wrapping that

provides a waterproof cover the skin

made of keratin and covered in fine

hairs it ranges from wafer thin on the

eyelids to five times as thick on the

soles of the feet and all-over

double-layered

the epidermis protects the inner dermis

with it's nerves and blood from water

dirt the sun's rays and even microscopic

enemies typhoid bacteria can survive for

many weeks but on the skin they die in

20 minutes

skin renews itself constantly each

surface particle wears away and falls

off in a month so in our lives each of

us sheds about 20 kilograms of skin the

weight of a six year old girl across the

world millions of tons a year and where

does it all go we see it every day in

dust

but skin doesn't just protect us when

we're cold tiny hairs on the surface

stand on end to trap air and keep us

warm goose pimples and when we're too

hot millions of tiny sweat pores release

fluid cooling us down skin is the body's

outer guard sensing touch heat cold and

pain

hands and feet have tiny ridges with

unique patterns which help with gripping

holding and getting caught hair is also

made of keratin a head of hair is a

hundred thousand spans or so growing

about a centimeter a month but hair has

no feeling luckily otherwise a trip to

the hairdresser would be like a visit to

the dentist

and some hairstyles would need a

full-scale anesthetic

hair grooming has always signified

wealth status or just vanity

when fighting long hair can be a

liability Roman soldiers shaved before

battle and their word barber for beard

became the word for the hairy enemy's

barbarians males are also carried in and

grow about half as fast as hair

in 19th century Asia long nails were a

sign of great wealth obviously the owner

of this set certainly couldn't work the

skin is the most pampered part of our

bodies because it shows age before

anywhere else by stretching and

wrinkling

at an might look good but it's

disastrous for the skin ultraviolet rays

quickly break down the skin's crucial

middle layer

and not just some changes the skins

color embarrassment can - bringing blood

rushing to the surface and causing a

blush

inside the body the rushing of blood is

constant

a vast transport system that never stops

carries supplies to the cells that need

them driven by that strange organ that

artists poets and dreamers have turned

into the symbol of almost every human

emotion the heart

you

early scientists thought it was a kind

of furnace of blood and air some thought

it was a fire burning the body's food

you
it was William Harvey in the 17th

century who first realized that blood

doesn't air them flow but keep

circulating driven by a steady reliable

for chamber pump that never sleeps

sending blood out through arteries into

millions of tiny capillaries then on

into veins that carry the blood on a

route back to the heart

this superb pump combines the action of

muscle and valves to beat steadily two

and a half billion times in a lifetime

moving enough blood to fill the fuel

tanks of 700 jumbo jets

if we dive into water the heart slows

down temporarily reducing our need for

oxygen as we hold our breath some

believe this suggests humans originally

came from water but perhaps it's the

steady beat of the heart that has made

it a steady symbol through the ages for

Christians the heart is the source of

love joy sorrow compassion and suffering

many Saints are pictured holding the

heart sometimes pierced by an arrow the

Greek philosopher Aristotle believed the

heart was the seat of intelligence it's

now best known as the symbol of passion

the Queen of Hearts playing card and the

red heart of the Valentine have one in

the same message warmth and love and

always read the color of blood and

therefore of life itself

human blood is red because of its high

iron content though not all creatures

are the same crustaceans and mollusks

have blue blood and worms blood is green

some creatures live entirely on blood

the blood of others

after a long suck a leech inflates to

five times its normal size but in

medicine they serve a useful function in

1890 the French imported 40 million

leeches and doctors have recently

realised leeches have an anti clotting

agent which reduces the risk of disease

by thinning the blood keeping it flowing

so the leech is now making a medical

comeback

the circulation system supplies our

bodies whatever the demand as our energy

needs rise the hearts pulse quickens to

match just where does all the energy

come from to drive the body food plants

and meat in the course of a lifetime

about 30 tons the weight of 30 cows or

six elephants and because the body can't

store energy for long this intake must

be constant
we can taste four distinct flavors sour

salty bitter and sweet our choice is

based on appearance and smell as we

decide the mouth is already making

saliva to soften food for chewing and

help us swallow it saliva also kills

bacteria and helps keep the mouth free

from infection we produce a liter a day

300 bathtubs in the lifetime

the stomach is both a food mixer and an

acid bath its walls produce a spasm

every few minutes to squeeze and churn

food into a semi liquid the workings of

the stomach were first studied in 1822

by an American army surgeon William

Beaumont a soldiers shot move refused to

heal for the next 10 years the doctor

was able to analyze the contents of the

unfortunate man stock

from the stomach food travels on an

18-hour journey through seven and a half

meters of intestines their nutrients are

absorbed and the waste prepared for

disposal if our intestines weren't

rolled up we would be as tall as houses

before they're sent around the body the

nutrients are broken down in a process

controlled by our most resilient organ

the liver up to 80% of it can be cut off

and it'll regrow

the body's most urgent need is not solid

food without a drink we would die within

days fluids are purified by two kidneys

eats the size of a fist

they filter more than a liter of blood a

minute and produce a liter and a half of

urine a day

all these processes of the human machine

breathing pumping circulation purifying

digestion work 24 hours a day and they

involve every cell in the body

how did the word cell originate

in 1671 a Dutch scientist Antony van

Leeuwenhoek

was examining the skin of an onion under

a microscope

the rectangular shapes he saw reminded

him of the local monastery and the monks

tiny cells

he realized that all plant and animal

life is made up of similar tiny cells in

fact the human body has 60 trillion of

them laid end to end they would stretch

from London to Aberdeen

and all are vulnerable to attack from

the food we'd the fluids we drink and

the air we breathe the body is

constantly bombarded by organisms that

can cause illness so one type of cell is

specifically designed to fight back

white blood cells roam the body killing

and eating anything that threatens it

there my Newt but deadly to their

enemies some cells in the gut live only

three days while others in the brain

live with their owner an entire lifetime

and millions are dying and being born

every second your finger has more cells

than the number of people in the world's

largest city

and just as that huge city would be

paralyzed without its web of

communications so the human machine is

coordinated by a network of its own

nerves like the telephone system nerve

signals are electrical the body has

around 45,000 kilometers of nerve cables

carrying messages and coordinating

everything it does for thousands of

years the Chinese have believed they can

control the nervous energy of the body

through acupuncture inserting fine

needles into precise parts of the skin

to treat different illnesses and the

entire network in fact the entire body

is run by one small the perfect control

center the brain in relation to body

size the human brain is the largest of

any animal and it's unique the only

brain in the animal world intelligent

enough to study itself together with a

spinal cord the brain has more nerve

cells than the number of trees in the

Amazon rainforest and as many

connections as there are leaves on those

trees so important is the brain to

survival that although only one-fiftieth

of the body's weight it receives

one-fifth of its blood supply

the brain is made up of sections with a

job to do

each organizing and controlling its own

body area

if the size of each body part would

relate it to its controlling area and

the brain who would all look very

different the brain even organizes

memories into three departments those

retained for a split second

those kept for around five minutes and a

main bank stored for a lifetime the

brain constantly saves space by erasing

unnecessary memories if we could

remember the whole of our lives like we

can the last minute or two we get very

confused

given its power there is little wonder

that throughout history humans have

built up superstition legend myth and

magic around this massive tissue ancient

warriors even ate the brains of

slaughtered enemy Chiefs to gain their

wisdom

it's not the heart but the brain that

dictates our emotions our consciousness

and love our understanding our passion

and the desire for one another that

leads to physical bonding to the moment

of fertilization between a sperm and an

egg that heralds the creation of a new

body a new brain a new life

unique among machines this one can

reproduce itself

improving developing through nearly a

million years generation after

generation we've evolved beyond our

forebears we've learned to do more than

survive we've learned to play to dance

and sing to speak and teach to reason to

show emotion and to love

and how do we show these human feelings

here in our faces

it's this unique alliance of brain body

feeling and expression that makes us

different we can laugh

we are sadness and joy we are reason and

passion we are human

you