Human Machine

VHS cover

*Human Machine* is the eighth episode of the third season of Eyewitness. The topic is about the human body, its different parts and how they all help the body to function. The episode first aired on 3rd November 1997.

*Human Machine* is based on a book, entitled Human Body, that was first published in 1993 in the Eyewitness Science series. It was then republished within the main Eyewitness book series in 2000, subsequent to the episode airing.

## Episode

### Introductory sequence

A series of red hoops fly through the air and arrange into the shape of a human wireframe mid-stride, which then turns into a running human athlete as guitar music plays. The screen then fades to white.

### Episode outline

Click here for the full transcript for Human Machine.

Human beings have lived on Earth for thousands of years and tried to understand what makes them human. Through the centuries they have learned to create machines that have been sculpted by the greatest machine of all – the human body.

After the introduction the camera pulls out to reveal a robot resembling a human, who walks toward a statue bust with a fire in it blowing it out. The narration all the while brings up the lungs as a mean of gathering oxygen to fuel life.

The eyes are sometimes called windows to the soul. The structure of the eye is described, as is the role of tears in cleansing the eyes and emotional cleansing.

After sight, our most important sense is hearing. The structure of the ear, which includes the smallest bones in the body, and the way sound signals are sent to the brain are explored. The size and shape of ears can have social importance among some cultures. The inner ear also helps us to balance.

Balance has granted one of the greatest human achievements – the ability to stand and walk upright. So some of us keep our balance even on a beam. This is helped by the skeleton, made up of 206 bones with half of those in the hands and feet. Some of our bones are stronger, pound for pound, than reinforced concrete. Even harder is tooth enamel.

The skeleton is a sixth of the body’s weight, with almost half made up of muscles. The way that muscles work, and some of the jobs they do in the body, are shown. Just as the tooth enamel is the strongest body part, the jaw muscles are the strongest in the body.

Muscles and bones could not work without the help of joints connecting them. They enable humans to run, jump and perform other acrobatic skills.

The skin is the only organ that is constantly on show. It is made of keratin, covered in fine hairs and varies in thickness according to its location on the body. So in our lives, each of us sheds about twenty kilograms of skin, the weight of a six year old girl. The skin protects the body, can warm or cool us by producing goose pimples or by sweating and the hands and feet have individual tiny ridges. Hair is also made of keratin, with its grooming often conferring wealth or status. Nails are another keratin body part, and long nails are a sign of wealth in some countries. The skin is our most pampered body part, as it shows age faster. The skin’s colour can be changed by tanning or blushing.

Inside the body, the rushing of blood is constant. It is controlled by the heart, and the role of the heart in both pumping blood through the body and in human culture is shown. Our blood is red because of its high iron content, while some invertebrates have blue or green blood. Leeches feed on blood, but have a useful medical function as they produce an anti-clotting agent that reduces the risk of disease.

The body derives its energy from food – a combination of meat and plants. Humans can taste four distinct flavours, produce saliva to help in the process of eating and both the stomach and intestines help in the breaking down of food during digestion.

The nutrients that come from the process of digestion is broken down by the liver, while the water we drink is filtered by a pair of kidneys. All the processes of the human body are constantly working and involve every cell in the body.

The human body is made up of around 60 trillion cells. They are all constantly under attack from organisms that enter the body via food, drink or the air we breathe. A special type of cell, the white blood cell, travels around the body and destroys these foreign bodies. Some cells live for only three days while some in the brain remain for an entire lifetime.

Coordinating the human body is a network of nerves. Nerve signals are electrical. The body has around 45,000 kilometres of nerve cables. For thousands of years the Chinese believed they could control the nervous system with acupuncture.

The entire body is controlled by the brain. In relation to body size, the human brain is the largest of any animal and it is also the only brain capable of studying itself. The brain is made up of sections with a job to do, each controlling its own body area. The brain organises memories into three departments – ones maintained for a split second, ones kept for around five minutes and those maintained for a lifetime. The brain saves space by erasing unnecessary memories. Given its power, it is no wonder that the brain has had superstition, myth and magic built up around it.

It is the brain that dictates our emotions that eventually lead to physical bonding. Uniquely among machines, this one can reproduce itself. We’ve now learned to do more than survive and show complex emotions on their faces. The unique alliance of brain, body, feeling and expression are what makes us human.

## Animal species filmed for the programme

### Studio footage

No animals were used in studio footage for this episode.

### Stock footage

* Common chiffchaff, *Phylloscopus collybita*
* Medicinal leech, *Hirudo verbana*

## Stock footage sources

* Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) – Cyclone comedy clips
* The Goodies - A Collection of Goodies: Special Tax Edition (1972) – Slapstick comedy clips
* Lifesense (1991)
	+ Home Life - Dead skin being dislodged by a sock being removed
	+ Human Life - Fingernail growing
* The Human Animal (1994)
	+ The Hunting Ape – Multiple clips: Different clips of people eating ice cream, time-lapse of children at food table, close-up of meat being bitten, Ghanaian woman eating clay, crabs being cracked open, close-ups of food being cut with cutlery, astronaut eating banana in zero gravity, underwater footage of people swimming, seafood being arranged
	+ The Biology of Love - Beach/swimsuit footage, clips of blushing
	+ The Immortal Genes - Crying mothers, crying newborn baby

## Credits

* Director - Alex Hearle
* Writer - David Hanson
* Music - Guy Dagul
* Graphics Director - Morgan Almeida
* Graphic Design - Piers Helm
* Camera - Nick Squires and Martin Bobbin
* Set Design and Visual Effects - Chris Reynolds and Andy David
* Research - Fred Casella
* Production Co-ordinator - Maryrose Upjohn
* Production Team - Louisa Bowman, Nikki Weston, Sara Forfar and Clare O'Donovan
* Unit Manager - Jackie Williamson
* 3-D Animation - Paul Kavanagh and Andy McNamara
* Videotape Editor - Andy Quested and Andy Attwell
* Dubbing Mixer - Steve Hudson and Kian Wong
* With thanks to:
	+ Imperial Cancer Research Fund
	+ NASA
	+ Sarah Berry

## Making this programme

Computer effects are often used in Eyewitness but in Human Machine it was decided a real person would be used to create the look of a computer wireframe. A mime artist was brought in to play the part but it took time to get into the rubber suit. Carefully designed grid lines enhanced the effect of an electronic skeleton, as did the grid added to the face. The mime had to interact with a museum that only existed in the director’s mind and would be added later. Another perfect performance was needed during the filming of a gymnast with a high-speed camera. Normally in production music is added at the end of editing, but here the script called for a performance by a real violinist and harpsichordist. Recreating a late seventeenth century scientist, like many of the characters in Eyewitness, requires careful research into period costume. The first stage is a trip to the wardrobe department. Here, the selection of garments and props is immense, where an entire room is dedicated solely to wigs. The first task is to find a hairstyle that dates back to 1671. Once the style has been chosen, it then remains to find the right size in order to recreate another Eyewitness moment from history.

## Further Information

* The episode is tied with Planets as having the least animals featured in it, with only chiffchaffs and leeches appearing via stock footage, and not studio footage.

## Home media releases

As well as being released on VHS, Natural Disasters was also released as an interactive DVD (where it is titled Bodyzone), as part of the DVD release in America and as one of the free DVDs released with the Daily Mirror newspaper.

The programme on the interactive DVD release included nineteen hotspots (represented by a pumping heart)

1. Reproduction of life (from Life) – Linked to cells in the body
2. Humans as mammals (from Mammal) – Linked to first meeting with the hero
3. Lungs and ribcage (from Skeleton) – Linked to the lungs
4. Laws of optics and how sight works (from Sight) – Linked to eye structure
5. Colour vision (from Sight) – Linked to colour vision
6. Human evolution (from Prehistoric Life) – Linked to evolution of upright posture
7. How the skeleton facilitates movement (from Skeleton) – Linked to human athleticism
8. Human body temperature (from Life) – Linked to sweating
9. The need for oxygen (from Life) – Linked to response of body to diving into water
10. The human skeleton (from Skeleton) – Linked to eating
11. Mammal’s milk (from Mammal) – Linked to human cells
12. The role of the brain in sight (from Sight) – Linked to nervous system
13. The skull (from Skeleton) – Linked to brain
14. Optical illusions (from Sight) – Linked to brain superstitions
15. Human baby (from Mammal) – Linked to human reproduction

The interactive DVD also includes a ten-question quiz:

1. Which part of the body contains rods and cones? Correct answer: Eyes
2. Where is the stapes bone? Correct answer: Ear
3. Which is the hardest part of the body? Correct answer: Teeth
4. Where would you find the epidermis? Correct answer: Skin
5. Hair is formed from keratin. What else is made from keratin? Correct answer: Nails
6. Arteries carry blood away from the heart, but what carries it back? Correct answer: Veins
7. Human blood is red but what colour is worm’s blood? Correct answer: Green
8. Of which substance does the body produce a litre a day? Correct answer: Saliva
9. Where would you find electricity in your body? Correct answer: In the nervous system
10. An egg is needed for reproduction but what is the other vital ingredient? Correct answer: Sperm

Human Machine America-release DVD coverEyewitness Bodyzone interactive DVD coverEyewitness Bodyzone interactive DVD alternative coverEyewitness Human Machine Daily Mirror DVD cover

**Writing staff**: Anne MacLeod • Ben Southwell • Ben Steiner • Brian Meehl • David Hanson • David Stafford • David Helton • George Bloom • Lynette Singer • Mike Tomlinson • Paul Thomas • Stan Cullimore
**Directors**: Gavin Maxwell • Justine Kershaw • David Hutt • Andrew Jackson • Justin Hardy • Ludo Graham • Jerry Foulkes • Derek Hall • Sanjida O'Connell • Caius Julyan • Bonni Cohen • Leanne Pooley • Edwina Vardey • Alexandra Beazley • Sam Hodgkin • Karen Walsh • Jack Weber • Richard Simkin • Alex Hearle • Brian Cummins • Ben Southwell
**Composers**: Guy Michelmore (season one) • Guy Dagul (seasons two and three)

**Season One**: Cat • Fish • Horse • Dog • Jungle • Bird • Amphibian • Insect • Shark • Elephant • Reptile • Dinosaur • Skeleton
**Season Two**: Desert • Tree • Ape • Mammal • Butterfly and Moth • Volcano • Rock and Mineral • Seashore • Pond and River • Weather • Arctic and Antarctic • Prehistoric Life • Shell
**Season Three**: Flight • Bear • Sight • Island • Survival • Mountain • Monster • **Human Machine** - Plant • Ocean • Planets • Life • Natural Disasters