Royal Institution Christmas Lectures 2007
The Christmas Lectures return to the Faraday Lecture Theatre at the Royal Institution following last year’s refurbishments.
The Lecturer
Intensive care doctor and extreme sports enthusiast Dr Hugh Montgomery presents this year’s lectures. The lectures explore the theme of human survival – who lives, who dies, and why?
- Peak Performance – How the body burns fuel with oxygen to create energy.
- Completely Stuffed – How our bodies cope with starvation and thirst
- Grilling and Chilling – Surviving extremes of temperature
- Fight or Flight – How our muscles and reactions aif survival
- Luck, Genes and Stupidity – Many things influence our ability to survive
A Christmas Tradition for many Years
We all know of extraordinary cases of survival. Those situations that people have been in and you think “How on earth did they gat out of that?” It could be the searing heat of the Sahara, shivering in salty seas or facing almost certain starvation. How do they survive, and how does the human body adapt to deal with it?
The Broadcast
The 2007 Lectures were broadcast in the UK by the Channel Five Television Company bringing the unique nature of the lectures and their intellectually challenging scientific experimental style to millions of viewers, young and old. The first lecture was given by Michael Faraday in 1826 although, obviously, was not televised until much later.
Food is fuel
The food we eat contains the fuel we need to power our bodies. But what are they? How do we get them from our dinner plates to our cells? And what other things are there in food apart from fuel?
In this lecture, Hugh Montgomery explores what happens to the fuel and oxygen in a cell and reveals how food is converted into an energy currency to be spent in different ways around the body.
He examines how our body responds to the challenges of dehydration and starvation, and what methods it has to prolong survival. Find out what happens when we eat or drink more than we need or when we’re starved of food and deprived of water.
Finally, Hugh Montgomery thinks about castaways and talks to some real-life survivors, finding out how their bodies coped with the lack of food and water.
External Links
CHRISTMAS LECTURES 2007: Hugh Montgomery – Ri Channel
