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The Forum: The Air You Breathe

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Breath: photo by Dan Kitwood/getty

28/09/2013 GMT

The Air You Breathe

BBC World Service - The Forum, The Air You Breathe

Could your ‘breath print’ be a marker as unique to you as your finger print?

How the biochemical properties of our breath could be as unique to individuals as a finger print. Plus, tenor John Potter on the relationship between breath control and singing.

Swiss chemist Renato Zenobi has been analysing the chemicals in the air we exhale. His findings suggest that the metabolites in our breath could help early medical diagnosis or catch sports cheats right on the starting line. Tenor John Potter explains the intimate relationship between the singing voice and the breath. And, writer William Bryant Logan reminds us that the air we breathe is not a thing or a place but the continual product of the breathing of all living things.  

(Photo:A woman breathes out on a cold day. Credit: Dan Kitwood/ Getty Images)

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