Medicine

Eternal life is humanity’s oldest dream. It may be finally coming true. Today, at least in the West, the quest for immortality has shifted from the metaphysical to the technical and the scientific. In this film we will investigate the advancement of this research in laboratories around the world. With cryonics technology improving, human cloning now possible, mind uploading and digital brain simulation thriving, reversing the aging of cells and organs feasible, immortality may seem right around the corner. In some countries, such as the US, Russia and Europe, private companies are financing and promoting the promise of immortality or at least a longer life expectancy. Are they selling a reality or utopia? We will meet scientists, neurophysiologists, computer specialists, geneticists, and biologists, and also hopefuls of immortal life, futurists, sociologists and businessmen. We will film different research laboratories and cities built for the aging; we will interview the experts as well as the anonymous men and women who speak about their relationship with life and death and those who simply embody it.

Boy or girl? It’s the eternal question. But that question may have more than two answers. Science reveals the line between male and female is blurred. And the battle of the sexes is happening deep within our cells. Are there more than two sexes?

Genius lies somewhere in the human mind, bringing mathematical insight, sparking artistic inspiration and enabling some to see what most cannot. Might we augment our biology with technology to unlock the genius inside us all?

Our wheat has changed dramatically, it doesn't even resemble what it used to look like. Not only are we seeing more wheat and gluten sensitivity, there is also a strong connection between gluten and autoimmune diseases. Tens of thousands of people are suffering with ill health and don't realise it's a result of the food choices they are making. Some assume it is part of their genetic make-up or the body changing as they get older.
People need to become educated, knowledgeable and aware. They need to start making changes to improve the health of their children and future generations.

Horizon investigates the idea that the best way to lose weight successfully is a personalised approach, diets tailored to our individual biology and psychology. In a groundbreaking experiment, Dr Chris van Tulleken and Tanya Byron join a team of experts to put 75 overweight volunteers on diets designed to tackle the specific reasons why they eat too much. The volunteers are put through a series of tests at a residential clinic to understand how their genes, hormones and psychology influence their eating behaviour. They are then put on the diets the experts believe are best suited to them. Can science succeed where other diets have failed?

It is time to see if personalised dieting will work in normal life. The volunteers have been given one of three diets to follow - based on their genes, their hormones and their psychology. But now they are back at home, trying to stick to their personalised diets with all the stresses and temptations of real life. Dr Chris van Tulleken and Professor Tanya Byron discover how our genetic makeup can make temptation difficult to resist, how understanding the brain reveals what makes us comfort eat and what science can tell us about why we make disastrous food choices.