The Science of Skin

Go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxPlCkTKhzY

Listen to the TED talk and fill in the missing information:

1. Skin amounts to ……………..of your body weight.

2. It would spread over ………..square meters of ground.
3. The Integumentary System consists of:…………………………………………….
4. The three layers of skin are:……………………………………………..
5. The three key functions of the integument are: ………………………………………………
6. Merkel cells are ……………….-sensitive skin components which are coupled with …………
receptors needed for the sense of ……………….
7. Without skin your body will be a ……………………………of tissue and fluids.
8. Flexible ……………………….is the key component of the dermis.
9. Skin cells called …………………………..build up the epidermis and are replaced every
………………..
10. Keratin is a ………………………………. which forms a tightly-overlapping, …………………
layer protecting the body from invading ……………………………
11. Langerhans cells’ role is to ………………………………………………. and inform T-cells
which launch ………………………..
12. There are several thousand species of microorganisms which inhabit
………………………………………..of your skin.
13. Sebum is an oily substance excreted on top of the skin by ………………………………..
14. Nerves are responsible for detecting whether………………………………………………….
15. The brain then instructs the ………………………………..to expand or constrict.
16. Sweat glands are particularly active in …………………weather.
17. The average human has approximately five million …………………………. situated
……………………………
18. The scalp protects the head from …………………………………
19. Goosebumps is a phenomenon which refers to ………………………………………..
20. Skin deep means:
a. superficial
b. subcutaneous
c. thorough
d. essential
Tapescript

Between you and the rest of the world lies an interface that makes up to 16% of your physical weight.
This is your skin: the largest organ in your body. Laid out flat it would cover close to 1.7 square meters of
ground. Its purpose may seem obvious – to keep our insides in, but a look beyond the surface reveals that
it plays a surprising number of roles in our lives.

First, the basics: skin is the foundation of the Integumentary System, which also incorporates your hair,
nails, and specialized glands and nerves. Made up of three layers: the epidermis, dermis and hypodermis,
skin’s thickness varies from 0.5 millimeters at its thinnest, and up to four millimeters at its thickest. It also
carries out three key functions: protecting, regulating, and sensing the world beyond its limits.

On a daily basis, its huge surface processes hundreds, if not thousands, of physical sensations, relying
mostly on large, pressure-sensitive skin components, called Merkel cells. In your fingertips alone, there
are 750 Merkel cells per each square centimeter of skin, coupled with over 2,500 receptors that give you
your sense of touch. This surface is also the body’s first major line of defense. Without it, you’d be a
soggy mass of tissue and fluids, fatally exposed to the elements.

Skin effectively seals off your insides, and also absorbs pressure and shock with flexible collagen that
makes up most of its dermal layer. The epidermis is made up mainly of skin cells called keratinocytes that
are completely replaced every four weeks. As new cells form at the base of the epidermis, older ones are
pushed up. When these cells move upwards, they’re filled with a hardened protein called keratin. Once
they reach the surface, they form a tightly-overlapping, waterproof layer that’s difficult for invading
microbes to breach.

Any harmful microbes that make it into the epidermis will encounter Langerhans cells. This group of
protective skin cells detects invaders and communicates their presence to resident immune system T-cells,
which react by launching an immune response. A crucial feature of this immune defense is the several
thousand species of microorganisms that inhabit the planes, folds and crevices of your skin. These
microbes, which include bacteria and fungi, thrive in the sebum, an oily substance that’s secreted onto the
skin’s surface by sebaceous glands nestled inside the dermis. These skin microbes keep the immune
system in a state of constant surveillance, ensuring that it’s ready to react if the body really is at risk.

Beyond this protective role, your skin is also a sensory organ that helps regulate your body’s temperature,
two roles that are closely interlinked. Nerves detect whether your skin is warm or cold and communicate
hat information to your brain. In return, the brain instructs localized blood vessels to either expand if the
body is too warm, releasing heat from the blood through the skin, or to constrict if the body is cold, which
retains heat. At any given time, up to 25% of the body’s blood is circulating through the dermis, making
this process extremely efficient. Under warm conditions, the skin’s sweat glands will secrete sweat via
ducts onto the surface, transferring heat out of the body.

Hair can also be stimulated to conserve or release body warmth. The average human has 5 million hair
follicles embedded everywhere on the body except the palms of your hands and soles of your feet. Ninety
to 150,000 of those are on your scalp, where they help shield the large surface area of your head from
physical damage and sunburn. When you’re cold, tiny muscles called arrector pili cause hair to stand
upright across the body. That’s the phenomenon known as goosebumps and it traps body heat close to
your skin. Skin’s vast surface isn’t just a shield, it also enables us to interact and connect with the world.
Its multifunctional layer cools us down and keeps us warm.

The Integumentary System may be many things, but it’s certainly more than skin deep.