Secrets of Skin

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Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

Professor Ben Garrod explores how skin has allowed vertebrates to conquer the planet.

Featuring groundbreaking new science, experiments and leading scientists from a variety of disciplines, the series unravels the natural history of the body's largest organ.

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Ben Garrod

Reema Lorford

Doug Mackay-Hope

Honor Peters

Secrets of Skin: Series 1: Defence

Defence

Series 1

BBC Four - Secrets of Skin, Series 1, Defence

The complex ways in which skin helps defend animals against threats of all kinds.

What is the most toxic animal on earth? Why is a rhino armour plated? Professor Ben Garrod discovers the complex ways in which skin helps defend animals against threats of all kinds.  

What is the most toxic animal on earth? How are porcupine quills helping us in medicine? Why is a rhino armour plated, and it is not to protect them from lions? 

Professor Ben Garrod discovers the complex ways, from camouflage to deadly toxins, in which the skin helps defend animals against threats of all kinds. From the barbed quills of the North American porcupine to the battering ram of a rhino’s horn, the skin has developed an impressive armoury of weapons and warnings to keep predators at bay. 

With experiments and specialist factual insight, Professor Ben Garrod reveals the toughest and most resilient of animals defend themselves through their skin. One of the most iconic warnings in nature is that of the rattlesnake. Ben takes a teaching sample of a rattlesnake’s tail to the University of Bristol to test just how fast it can vibrate. He uncovers how poison-dart frogs produce their toxins, and how cuttlefish are the masters of disguise when it comes to hiding in plain sight.

Secrets of Skin: Series 1

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Professor Ben Garrod explores how skin has allowed vertebrates to conquer the planet. 

Professor Ben Garrod tells the story of how skin, the largest organ in all vertebrates, has allowed them to conquer the planet. 

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