Simon and Rach consider listener suggestions for human body improvements. This week, adjustable digestive tracts, floral farts, and retractable testicles.

In the news

Elon Musk’s baby: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-52557291

Ocean warming: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2242786-a-japanese-nuclear-power-plant-created-a-habitat-for-tropical-fish/

Golden tongue: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-52683468

Wound healing blue-green algae: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2243352-wound-healing-patch-of-blue-green-algae-mends-skin-quickly/

Listener suggestions

@TraceyH100 - retractable breasts and testicles

@KJames_IntBio - a pause button for the digestive tract

@sheencr - floral farts

Check out…

In mice twitter account: https://twitter.com/justsaysinmice

Kangaroos penis and testicles the other way round: https://grist.org/animals/kangaroo-genitals-are-weirder-than-you-ever-thought-possible-2/

Face lice with no anuses: https://www.livescience.com/65533-your-face-mites-never-poop.html

Miracle berry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synsepalum_dulcificum

Clare Jonas’s blog article: https://www.thatthinkingfeeling.co.uk/blog/smell-language-difficult-to-describe

Does it fart?: https://amzn.to/2TkflxU

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Simon and Rach consider regeneration. Humans are pretty rubbish at it. Some lizards, newts and salamanders are INCREDIBLE at it. How do we get it, and would we really want to?

Check out…

The Shining: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081505/

THAT tweet: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1256239815256797184

Bee sniffing tech: https://phys.org/news/2010-03-bee-sniffing-technology-dangerous-vapors.html

FaceTime some Japanese eels: https://www.businessinsider.com/video-call-eels-tokyo-aquarium-so-they-dont-forget-people-2020-5?r=US&IR=T

Zoo animals are lonely in lockdown: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-52493750

T1000 – Liquid Metal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8h8d2XLWKY

Teratoma: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teratoma

Planarian worm: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planarian

Combination of master and mistress is: Mastress. No, I don’t have a link for that.

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S2E11: Level Up Human is a podcast on a mission to redesign the human body.

This week, Simon and Rach chat to naturalist and broadcaster Steve Backshall and visual perception scientist Kate Storrs.

We discuss enhanced vision, limb regeneration, gecko hands, super kidneys and re-breathing.

Extended show notes including edited transcripts are available here.

In the news 

Kate is tickled and baffled by a news story about Microsoft

Steve's news story is entitled, 'Venomous Frogs use Heads as Weapons.'

Rach's levelled up human is Bertolt Meyer, who has hacked his prosthetic hand to hook it up to his synth.

The pitches 

Steve wants to borrow the abilities of the Iberian sharp-ribbed newt, a type of salamander which can regenerate limbs and organs.

Kate thinks the human body should be able to see the polarisation of light

Plus pitches from our audience and Mother Nature herself 🌱

Mentioned this episode

Microsoft's new patent: https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a32318654/microsoft-brainwaves-mine-cryptocurrency

Venomous frogs use heads as weapons: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280753150_Venomous_Frogs_Use_Heads_as_Weapons

Bertolt Meyer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSKBtEBRWi4

'Scuba-diving' lizard, Anolis aquaticus: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-03/bu-lc032019.php

Steve's Home Schooling (9.30am, Wednesdays): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm-URP49TgSgyIU1rgh2m7A/videos

The Mirror Trap: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-mirror-trap-online-tickets-104125171190

Stay In for Towel Day: https://www.savetherhino.org/get-involved/events/stay-in-for-towel-day-2020/

Support us

If you're enjoying the podcast, you can support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/leveluphuman

Leave us an iTunes review: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/level-up-human/id1096637285

…or join our newsletter: http://www.leveluphuman.com/keep-in-touch

With thanks to the Physiological Society.

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Episode summary

Simon and Rachel take a detailed look at flight. Why can’t we fly, how could we achieve it, and wouldn't it be exhausting?

An edited transcript is available here.

Mentioned this episode

Alan Rickman as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, the most attractive man in the world, according to Simon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZhCCu-2gbw

Starlink: https://www.starlink.com/

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy

The incredible, gliding Hoatzin – the Johnny Rotten of the bird world: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87_shPJxdns

Barotrauma: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barotrauma

Pentadactyl limb: https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/pentadactyl-limb

Support us

If you're enjoying the podcast, you can support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/leveluphuman 

Leave us an iTunes review: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/level-up-human/id1096637285 

…or join our newsletter: http://www.leveluphuman.com/keep-in-touch

Follow us

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Rachel and Simon are locked down in London. Joining them from Liverpool and Manchester are microbiologist Dr. Chloe James and immunologist Professor Sheena Cruickshank.

A full transcript is available here.

Episode summary

We discuss if it’s possible for scientists to work from home, cytokine storms and a brand new 'magic' toilet.

Our panellists this week make pitches for command over our internal armies of bacteria phages and reprogramming our immune cells.

The audience want self-scratching backs and bodies we can repair ourselves.

Which will make it onto the shortlist? Which pitch will win? Listen to find out!

Mentioned this episode

NHS Covid-19 advice: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

Quantitative PCR machine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_PCR_instrument

Magic toilet: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/apr/06/magic-toilet-could-monitor-users-health-say-researchers

Bacteria found in gut might help boost physical performance: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jun/24/bacteria-found-in-gut-could-help-boost-physical-performance

Withnail and I: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Withnail_and_I

How stress causes gray hair: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200122135313.htm

Barbara Woodhouse “I took to dog training when I had to give up cows”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic5fe7M_Sys

Cytokine storm: https://www.newscientist.com/term/cytokine-storm/

Support us

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Or leave us an iTunes review: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/level-up-human/id1096637285

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In the last of our Barbican centre recordings from November 2019, Simon and Rachel are souping up the homo sapien once again. Our guest experts are professor of experimental psychopathology from the university of Birkbeck, Naz Derakshan, and Hephzi Tagoe, a skin specialist from Queen Mary, University of London.

Episode summary

We discuss resilience as well as the impacts of skin conditions on psychological health and wellbeing. Rach has news of an ant with a six legged gallop.

In our pitches for human body redesign, Naz wants a boost to resilience and Hephzi pitches snake skin.

The audience want gecko hands, improved brain plasticity and there’s a pitch from Simon stolen from C. Elegans.

Which will make it onto the shortlist? Which pitch will win? Listen to find out!

Mentioned this episode

Building Resilience in Breast Cancer (BRIC) centre: http://briccentre.bbk.ac.uk

The fastest ant in the world: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/oct/16/fastest-ants-in-world-northern-sahara

Ichthyosis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichthyosis

C. Elegans: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caenorhabditis_elegans

Support us

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