Season
- Season 0 1998-12-27
- Season 1 1970-01-01
- Season 2 1970-01-01
- Season 3 1970-01-01
- Season 4 1970-01-01
- Season 5 1970-01-01
- Season 6 1970-01-01
- Season 7 1970-01-01
- Season 8 1970-01-01
- Season 9 1970-01-01
- Season 10 1970-01-01
- Season 11 1970-01-01
- Season 12 1970-01-01
- Season 13 1970-01-01
- Season 14 1970-01-01
- Season 15 1970-01-01
- Season 16 1970-01-01
- Season 17 1970-01-01
- Season 18 1970-01-01
- Season 19 1970-01-01
- Season 20 1970-01-01
- Season 21 1970-01-01
- Season 22 1970-01-01
- Season 23 1970-01-01
- Season 24 1970-01-01
- Season 25 1970-01-01
- Season 26 1991-12-26
- Season 27 1970-01-01
- Season 28 1993-12-26
- Season 29 1970-01-01
- Season 30 1970-01-01
- Season 31 1996-12-26
- Season 32 1970-01-01
- Season 33 1970-01-01
- Season 34 1970-01-01
- Season 35 1970-01-01
- Season 36 1970-01-01
- Season 37 1970-01-01
- Season 38 2003-12-26
- Season 39 2004-12-16
- Season 40 2005-12-25
- Season 41 2006-12-25
- Season 42 2007-12-23
- Season 43 2008-12-28
- Season 44 2009-12-21
- Season 45 2010-12-28
- Season 46 2011-12-27
- Season 47 2012-12-26
- Season 48 2013-12-28
- Season 49 2014-12-29
- Season 50 2015-12-28
- Season 51 2016-12-26
- Season 52 2017-12-26
- Season 53 2018-12-26
- Season 54 2019-12-26
- Season 55 2020-12-28
- Season 56 2021-12-28
- Season 57 2022-12-26
- Season 58 2023-12-26
- Season 59 2024-12-29
Season 59 Episode
- Season 42 Back from the Brink, the Science of Survival: Peak Performance
- Season 42 Back from the Brink, the Science of Survival: Completely Stuffed
- Season 42 Back from the Brink, the Science of Survival: Grilled and Chilled
- Season 42 Back from the Brink, the Science of Survival: Fight, Flight and Fright
- Season 42 Back from the Brink, the Science of Survival: Luck, Genes and Stupidity
Royal Institution Christmas Lectures - Season 42 Episode 3 Back from the Brink, the Science of Survival: Grilled and Chilled
5.10 60 minutes How the body copes with extremes of temperature. Humans live in some extraordinary places –from the middle of the Sahara desert to the frozen wastelands of Alaska. Take a snake to the North Pole, and it will stop moving in minutes; take a cat to the desert and it will be dead in hours. So how can some humans survive such extremes, and could anyone?
Dr Montgomery explains how our bodies burn fuel using oxygen to create an energy currency, which in turn creates heat. Viewers will discover whether shivering really works, whether a hot meal makes a difference to our internal body temperature and whether mothers are right when they say that you should wear a hat on a cold day. But what about when it is too hot? Where is the blood diverted in order to cool the body down? What is sweat and how does it work? And why do dogs pant, and humans not?
Finally, Dr Montgomery meets some people who have survived in the very coldest places and the hottest places on Earth. What are the limits to human survival, and how close did these people come to death?
