Programme Index

Discover 11,128,835 listings and 275,010 playable programmes from the BBC

Royal Institution Christmas Lectures

2016: Supercharged - Fuelling the Future

Episode 2: People Power

Duration: 1 hour

First broadcast: on BBC FourLatest broadcast: on BBC Four HD

In his second lecture, chemist Saiful Islam continues his exploration of one of the most important questions facing humankind - how to generate and use energy. He investigates how humans as living pulsing machines actually use energy, asking whether it's possible to 'supercharge' the human body and increase its performance.

Live experiments explore everything from the explosive potential of everyday foods, to what we put into our bodies (and what comes out!), as well as how we measure up to the machines we use every day. Saiful even experiments on himself, showing images captured inside his own stomach.

Every single one of us is an incredibly sophisticated energy conversion machine, finely tuned over millions of years of evolution. So will we ever be able to improve the human body's performance? Can we ever do more with less energy? Show less

About this data

This data is drawn from the data stream that informs BBC's iPlayer and Sounds. The information shows what was scheduled to be broadcast, meaning it was/is subject to change and may not be accurate. More