Lecture 4 - Fight, Flight and Fright
When the shark is honing in, you must swim for your life. When the soldier faces enemy guns, he must run to survive. Or sometimes, stand and fight.
Such physical work involves burning a huge amount of energy. So how does the body increase that energy delivery, all of a sudden? What happens to the heart, lungs and blood vessels? How is the energy used?
Today, we shall answer some of these questions, looking at the amazing high-performance all-terrain vehicle that is the human body. We’ll find out what the skeleton is made of, and how muscles attach to move it. We’ll find out what those muscles are made of, and how they create force. And we’ll also find out how they are controlled- the ‘computer’ in our skulls, and the wiring that carries the ‘messages to move’.
Are all muscles the same or not? Why is it that one person can sprint well, and another is better at running a long distance?
We’ll make an athlete exercise to exhaustion to find out. And then we’ll talk to someone whose ability to just keep on going determined whether he’d live… or die.