BOX SET: 6 Minute English - 'The Human Body' English mega-class! 30 minutes of new vocabulary!

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from

BBC Learning English.

I’m Sam.

And I’m Neil.

In recent years new diets with

names like ‘vegan’, ‘keto’ and ‘paleo’

have become very popular.

Are you a vegetarian, Neil?

Do you follow any particular diet?

Well, I eat lots of fresh fruit and

vegetables and only a little meat

from time to time.

Well, while many diets claim to

improve health or help you lose

weight, recent research shows

that what counts is not what you

eat but how your body reacts.

Yes, and that reaction doesn’t

happen where you might think –

not in the brain, or tongue, or even

the stomach, but in the gut – another

name for the intestines - the long

tube inside your body which digests food.

Inside everyone’s gut are millions

of microbes – tiny living organisms,

too small to see without a microscope.

Some of them are good for us, some bad.

Microbes help digest food, but they

influence our bodies more than we know.

Think of them as chemical

factories that cause our individual

reaction to the food we eat.

This mix of gut microbes is unique

and different for everyone, even identical twins.

And it’s the reason why

some doctors now recommend a

personalised diet, one that

perfectly fits your own unique

combination of microbes.

We’ll hear more soon, but first I

have a question for you, Neil, and

it’s about the gut - the tube which

includes the large and small intestine.

It’s very long - but how long exactly

is the average adult’s gut?

Is it: a) 3.5 metres?

b) 5.5 metres? or, c) 7.5 metres?

Well, everybody is different of

course, but I’ll say on average

the gut is b) 5.5 metres long.

OK, Neil, I’ll reveal the answer later

in the programme.

Among the first to investigate gut

microbes was Dr Tim Spector, author

of bestselling book, The Diet Myth.

He wanted to check whether the

dietary advice he had heard and

believed, advice like ‘eat little and

often’ or ‘avoid fat’, was really true.

Listen as Dr Spector explains how

he started to doubt some of this

advice - ‘food myths’, he calls them - to

BBC Radio 4 programme, The Life Scientific:

All these so-called myths that I’d

believed, whether it was about

calories, about fats, when to eat, how

to eat, were based on flimsy or no

evidence, very old, very poor quality,

and had been repeated so much

that people didn’t think to question them.

One of the food myths Dr Spector

questioned was counting calories –

the units which measure the amount

of energy food provides.

He discovered that much of the

dietary advice he had heard was

either incorrect or based on flimsy evidence.

If evidence is flimsy, it’s

weak and unconvincing.

As Dr Spector questioned these

food myths, he remembered an

earlier study involving identical

twins, pairs of brothers or sisters

with the same genes.

It was the surprising differences

in weight between one twin and

another that made Dr Spector

realise that no two people have

the same gut – even identical

twins’ guts are different.

But, as he told BBC Radio 4’s,

The Life Scientific, the discovery

came in a very smelly way – by

asking his volunteers to send

samples of their poo in the post!

We collected lots of these samples,

sequenced them, and looked at

twins where one was overweight

and one was skinny… and we

found in every case, the skinnier

twin had a more diverse microbiome,

greater numbers of different

species and they also nearly

always had high numbers of a

couple of microbes that just stuck

out of the crowd – and one was

called christensenella and the

other was called akkermansia.

Although genetically identical, one

twin was overweight, while the

other twin was skinny, or very thin.

Because the weight difference

could not be explained genetically,

Dr Spector suspected the microbes

in the skinnier twin’s gut held the

answer: the more diverse someone’s

microbes, the better their gut was

at digesting food, regulating fat and

maintaining health.

Two microbes, christensenella and

akkermansia, were especially effective.

Dr Spector says these microbes stuck

out of the crowd, meaning they were

easy to notice for their positive effect.

And since everyone’s microbes are

different, it follows that a personalised

diet which selects the friendliest food

for your gut, is best.

Right, and all this

talk of eating is making me hungry, so

tell me, Sam, was my answer to your

question, right?

Ah yes, I asked about the length of the

gut in the average adult.

I said it was 5.5 metres.

Which was… the correct answer!

Well done, Neil – that took ‘guts’, which

is the second meaning of the

word: courage.

OK, let’s recap the vocabulary we’ve

learned starting with gut – an informal

word for the intestines, the tube which

digests food from the stomach.

Microbes are microscopic organisms

living inside the body.

A calorie is a unit measuring how

much energy food provides.

If an argument or evidence is flimsy,

it’s weak and hard to believe.

A skinny person is very thin.

And finally, if something sticks out

of the crowd, it’s noticeable in

a good way.

Unfortunately, our six minutes are up,

but remember: look after your gut, and

your gut will look after you!

Hello.This is 6 Minute English from

BBC Learning English. I’m Rob.

And I’m Georgina.

What do Vincent Van Gogh and

Galileo Galilei have in common, Georgina?

Hmm… their first name and last

names both start with the same letter?

Well, that’s true… but another

similarity is their amazing

contributions – to art and

science - were only recognised after their death.

I know another person whose

huge contribution to science

went unrecognised during her

lifetime, Rob, but unlike Van Gogh

or Galileo, you probably haven’t heard of her.

She’s the subject

of this programme.

Henrietta Lacks was a young,

black, American mother who

died of cancer in Baltimore in 1951.

Although she never consented to

her tissues being used for medical

research, doctors at the time found

her cells to have an extraordinary

ability to replace themselves endlessly.

Named ‘HeLa cells’ after her initials,

Henrietta Lacks’ tissue helped

make possible all sorts of medical

breakthroughs, from the polio vaccine

to cancer drugs, to HIV and IVF treatments.

Born one hundred years ago, in

1920, the great-great-granddaughter

of slaves, Henrietta and her cells

continue to provide medical discoveries

to this day…

…most recently, of course, in the

race for a coronavirus vaccine.

But before we go on, Georgina, it’s

time for my quiz question.

I mentioned that Henrietta Lacks was born one

hundred years ago, but do you know

what other medical breakthrough

happened in 1921?

Was it: a) the discovery of insulin?,

b) the discovery of penicillin?, or,

c) the discovery of vitamin E?

I’ll say, a) the discovery of insulin.

OK, Georgina, we’ll find out if that’s

right later on.

Now, it was Henrietta’s

biography by science writer,

Rebecca Skloot, that brought her

remarkable story to the world’s

attention a decade ago.

Here is Rebecca Skloot, explaining

Henrietta’s importance to

BBC World Service programme, The Forum:

So much of science is based on

growing cells in culture which

started with her cells.

In vitro fertilization – that started with

the ability to grow embryos in

culture which you can do in part

thanks to her cells so the list just

goes on and on, and right now

people are often asking how are

HeLa cells helping with Covid. […]

Scientists worked that out very

quickly using her cells… they

figured out what the receptor

looks like and they did the same

thing with HIV…

so her cells are just

this incredible workhorse that is

at the base of so much science.

Doctors used Henrietta’s cells to

figure out – or understand, how

cells reproduce and divide –

knowledge that was vital in

developing in vitro fertilization,

or IVF, a technique for women

who cannot become pregnant

naturally, in which an egg is

fertilized outside the body.

Our bodies are made of millions

and millions of cells and to

understand how they work we

need to grow them in a lab.

No-one had succeeded in

doing this until Henrietta’s

extraordinary cells which just

grew and grew.

This resulted not only in new

fertility treatments, but later

in AIDS and cancer breakthroughs,

which is why Rebecca refers to

HeLa cells as a workhorse, meaning

someone who does a lot of work.

But perhaps Henrietta’s greatest

legacy of all was the vaccine for polio.

Here’s professor of genetics,

Sir John Burn, talking to

BBC World Service’s, The Forum:

Henrietta would have particularly

liked the announcement this year

that polio vaccine had led to the

eradication of polio in Africa – so

the centenary of her birth it seems

rather symbolic that her unwitting

contribution to medicine eventually

eradicated that scourge of mankind.

John Burn calls polio a scourge,

meaning something causing much

pain and suffering.

Henrietta’s role in eradicating this

terrible disease is all the more

remarkable as she was never

asked permission to use her cells

for research, and it’s taken decades

for the Lacks family to win their

grandmother the recognition she deserves.

That’s why John Burn calls

Henrietta’s contribution unwitting – it

was made without her knowledge or consent.

And with the eyes of the world now

focused on vaccines for the coronavirus,

this year is a symbolic time to celebrate

her centenary - the one hundredth

anniversary of an important event.

Henrietta Lacks - a remarkable

woman whose name is finally making

its way into the history books.

But something else remarkable happened

one hundred years ago, didn’t it, Rob?

Ah yes, you mean my quiz question.

I asked you which important medical

breakthrough occurred one hundred

years ago, in 1921.

I said, a) the discovery of insulin.

Which was… the correct answer!

Discovered by Canadian doctor

Frederick Banting, insulin saved

the lives of millions of diabetics.

And on that healthy note, let’s

recap the vocabulary from this

programme, starting with in

vitro fertilization, or IVF – a

medical technique for women

who cannot become pregnant naturally.

Henrietta’s HeLa cells helped

doctors figure out - or understand -

a lot about how cells grow and led

to so many medical discoveries

we might call them a workhorse –

something which works extremely hard.

A scourge means something that

causes much pain and suffering,

like the terrible diseases which

Henrietta’s unwitting, or unknowing,

contribution helped eradicate.

Making 2021 a year of hope and

the perfect time to celebrate the

centenary of her birth – it’s one

hundredth anniversary!

We hope this upbeat programme

has been just what the doctor ordered.

Remember to join us again

soon at 6 Minute English.

Bye for now!

Goodbye!

Welcome to 6 Minute English, where

today we introduce a hair-raising

topic and six items of vocabulary.

I’m Tim… So what’s hair-raising about

today’s topic, Neil?

Hair-raising means

scary but also exciting!

We’re talking about hair – which may

be exciting for some, but definitely

won’t be scary.

Hair-raising is a real thing, though, isn’t it?

Our hairs do rise!

Yes – Tim, they do.

We get goosebumps when we’re cold,

scared, or excited.

But other mammals do it better

than us – Cats fluff up when they

see other cats they don’t like.

That’s true – We can’t fluff up

because we don’t have enough

body hair.

I suppose we used to be as hairy

as gorillas – if you go back a

million years or so.

Do you know why we lost so

much hair, Tim?

Isn’t it because it allowed us to

sweat more easily?

This meant we didn’t get so hot and tired – we

could run faster and for longer – and

catch more animals to eat!

That sounds like a good theory.

But do you have a theory on how

many hair follicles the human

body has today?

What’s a hair follicle?

A hair follicle is the organ that

produces a hair underneath the skin.

Now answer the question,Tim.

How many hair follicles does

the human body have today?

Is it … a) 500,000,

b) 5 million, or, c) 50 million?

50 million sounds about right.

Did you know that men have

more than women, Tim?

No, I didn’t – but it makes sense

since men are usually hairier

than women.

On their faces – but not

necessarily on their heads!

Are you referring to the fact

that men of a certain age

can be follically challenged?

If you’re follically challenged

it means you’re losing your hair!

Having little or no hair is

called baldness.

And if you’ve reached a certain age it means

you aren’t young any more!

Why is our hair so important to us, Neil?

When we aren’t

worrying about going bald, we’re

busy shaving, waxing, plucking,

and trimming the stuff.

When I say ‘we’ of course I’m referring

to people in general.

Not myself…

Well, a good head of hair indicates

health and youth.

And hair on your face – facial hair – shows

when boys have reached manhood.

On the other hand, going grey or

losing your hair shows you’re

getting older.

Hair today, gone tomorrow?

Bad joke, Neil!

Sorry! It’s true that hair on your

head shows signs of aging – but

this isn’t true of all human hair.

Let’s listen to Ralf Paus, a leading

hair loss researcher, talking about this.

The eyebrows get stronger usually

in aging men, the hairs in your nose

and in your ears get stronger – and

what a miracle of nature that an

organ – when the entire body is

aging actually grows stronger.

So we may even be able to learn

from hair follicles how not to age.

Hmm. I’m not sure I would swap a

good head of hair for thick

eyebrows and nose hair.

How about you, Neil?

I agree! But let’s hear more

from Ralf Paus about why some

hair gets stronger as you get older.

The hair follicle apparently knows

some tricks that the other organs

don’t know.

So it’s continuously

regenerating itself.

It goes through

a so-called hair cycle and part

of that we know pretty well – and

that is, these stem cells that it

uses to regenerate cells.

So a hair follicle can regenerate

cells – or grow new cells to

replace old or damaged ones.

But if that’s only true for eyebrows,

nose and ear hair, I am not that impressed!

I want hairs on my

head to be able to regenerate!

The important thing here is that

these cells in the hair follicle may

help scientists discover a way to stop

other organs of the body aging…

OK, I’m now going to reveal how

many hair follicles on average we

have on our bodies.

The answer is… 5 million.

Oh. So not 50 million then.

Don’t worry, Tim!

It was a tricky question!

Now let’s go over the

words we learned today.

‘Hair-raising’ means scary often

in an exciting way.

For example, “That ride on the rollercoaster

was a hair-raising experience!”

Next is ‘hair follicle’ – the organ

that produces a hair

underneath the skin.

“Scientists believe that

stress can affect hair follicles.”

A number of things can affect

hair follicles actually – age, disease, diet…

OK – but we haven’t got all day, Neil.

So let’s move on to the next item.

‘Baldness’ – which

means having little or no hair

on your head.

“My grandfather is bald and

he always wears a hat to

cover his baldness.”

Nice example.

Is your grandpa

actually bald, Neil?

No – he has a fine head of hair.

Now, if you are a certain age, it

means you are no longer young.

For example… “All the people at the party

were of a certain age…”

How many of them had facial

hair, Tim? That’s our next word,

and ‘facial’ means to do with the face.

“None of the people at the party

had facial hair.”

There’s your answer!

That’s unusual, Tim.

Lots of

men have beards these days.

OK – our final word for today

is ‘regenerate’ which means to grow again.

You can talk about

regenerating a range of things,

for example…

“The council has plans to

regenerate this part of the city.”

“Regeneration of parts of the

city is in progress." -

‘regeneration’ is the noun.

Well, it’s time to go now.

But if today’s show gave

you goosebumps, please

let us know by visiting our

Twitter, Facebook and YouTube

pages and telling us about it!

Bye-bye!

Goodbye!

Hello welcome to 6 Minute English.

I'm Neil.

And I'm Dan.

In this programme, we going to

hear from someone who smells

smells for a living.

Although these

are very expensive smells - smells

that we wear deliberately to make

us smell good.

Ah, you mean scents and perfumes?

Yes and perfumes are big business.

And that is the topic of

our quiz in this programme.

How much is the perfume

industry in the UK worth each year? Is it:

a) £650 million

b) £970 million, or,

c) £1.3 billion?

Well, I don't nose this – smell,

nose - this is just a guess, but

I’ll say £970 million.

Well, I’ll let you know the answer

a little later in the programme.

Now let’s hear from Roja Dove,

who is a perfumer.

He designs

and creates very exclusive and

very expensive perfumes.

In a recent BBC video he talked about

the power of smells.

What does he say there is a very deep

psychological connection between?

…who we are as a personality and

the type of smells we like.

When we are born, the part of our brain

which deals with smell is empty

so we learn our response to smell.

And then when we smell that

odorant again it’s like a trigger or a

catalyst that will revive the original

associational memory.

So Dan, what does he say there

is a very deep psychological

connection between?

Between our personality and

the kind of smells we like.

The point he is making is

that the smells we experience

when we are very young can

have a big psychological impact

on us even later in life.

I know that feeling – smell is a

very powerful sense.

The smell of something can take you right

back in time and fill you with

emotions.

Exactly. For example, when I

walk through the perfume area

of a department store I always

feel a bit nostalgic because I can

smell the perfume my first

girlfriend used to wear.

It’s a powerful sensation.

Dove used particular words and

expression to describe this,

didn’t he?

Yes, first he used the word

odorant to describe the smell.

It’s not really a common word.

We use it more frequently as part

of the word deodorant, which is

something we buy to cover up

what we think of as the unpleasant

natural smell of our bodies.

These odorants, he said, can act as the

trigger or catalyst for these memories.

Both the nouns trigger

and catalyst refer to something that

causes a particular response.

So a particular smell can be a trigger

or catalyst for a particular emotion.

As well as being a trigger for

memories, smells can, according

to Dove, say a lot about your

personality.

Here he is again talking

about the kind of scent to wear if you

want to give a particular impression.

What does he say these scents make

you appear very strong at?

The idea of the message you give

off with scent I think can’t be

underestimated.

My suggestion would be to look for very, very

woody, mossy, structured scents

called Chypres if the message you

want to put across is that you are

someone not to be messed with,

very, very strong in business, or

whatever – just not to be messed with.

So what do the scents he described

make you seem strong at?

Business, they can make you seem

very, very strong in business.

Mmm, and how does he explain that?

Well, he says that some scents give

off a particular message.

The phrasal verb give off is often used to describe

something that we broadcast about

ourselves without saying anything.

So he’s saying that our scent, our perfume,

can give off a message about the

kind of person we are and that we

shouldn’t underestimate that.

If you underestimate something you don’t

give it as much importance as it

should have, you don’t take it

seriously enough.

Then goes on to talk about the

particular scent that gives off the

impression of being very strong

in business.

Yes, it’s a woody, mossy scent

which suggests that you are

not someone to be messed with.

Not to be messed with?

Yes – someone to be taken

seriously, someone who is

serious who you don’t want

to try and trick.

Right and talking of tricking – did

we trick you with the quiz?

I asked - What was the value of

the perfume industry in the UK?

And I said it was £970 million.

And it was actually option c), which

was an incredible £1.3 billion.

Wow! That is a lot of smelly stuff.

It is indeed!

Right, now, time for

vocabulary recap.

What words and expressions did we

have today?

Well, first we had odorant – an

unusual word for something

that smells.

Then two words with a very

similar meaning: a trigger and

a catalyst – both of which refer

to something that can make

something else happen.

In this case it was a particular smell

making us remember something

from the past.

So scents can

sends us to the past.

But they can also say something

about our personality.

Yes, they can send unspoken

information - or give off messages.

And these messages

should not be underestimated.

If you do underestimate the

importance of smell, it means

that you don’t take those

messages seriously.

And finally we heard the phrase

to mess with someone.

To mess with someone means that you

don’t take them seriously, you

cause them trouble and that

may cause you trouble.

Well I certainly wouldn’t want

to mess with you!

Judging by

the messages you’re giving off.

Ah you mean my aftershave?

Makes me seem powerful?

Actually, I was thinking more of the egg

sandwich you had for lunch.

I really wouldn’t underestimate

the power of that.

Ah! On that note, I think it’s

time to end the programme.

For more, find us on Facebook,

Twitter, Instagram and YouTube

pages, and of course our

website bbclearningenglish.com!

Goodbye!

Goodbye!

Hello. This is 6 Minute English

from BBC Learning English.

I’m Rob.

And I’m Georgina.

Brrr!

It’s freezing cold outside

today, Georgina!

Make sure you wrap up warm.

I’ll put my woolly hat on.

When I was growing up I was

told that you lose half your

body heat from your head.

Oh, don’t believe that, Georgina!

It’s just a popular myth – you

know, something people think

is true which actually isn’t – like

‘bulls get angry when they

see the colour red’, or ‘goldfish

only have a three-second

memory’.

Oh… I thought red really did make bulls angry!

But you’re right, there is some

disagreement over the age-old

question: should I wear a hat

when it’s cold outside?

In this programme, we’ll be

asking how much body heat

we lose from our head and

discovering that a simple

answer isn’t so easy to find.

But first, it’s time for my quiz question.

And let’s start by asking someone who

knows all about surviving

in the cold – the US army.

According to the ‘Cold Weather Survival’

chapter of the US army

field guide, how much heat

is lost in the cold through

an uncovered head?

Is it: a) 30 to 35%?,

b) 40 to 45%? or c) 50 to 55%?

You might say it’s just a

popular myth, Rob, but I still

think half your body heat is

lost from the head, so I’ll

say c) 50 to 55%.

OK, Georgina – we’ll come

back to that later.

Anyway, whichever answer is correct,

the US army obviously thinks

a large percentage of body

heat escapes through the head.

But that may not

be the whole picture.

Over the years, experiments

to measure body temperature

in the snowy wastelands of

Canada and Alaska have

given wildly different results -

mostly because of variations

in the methods used, for

example, whether the

volunteer’s head was covered

or not, and whether they were

dry or submerged in water.

So maybe the US army’s view

is out of date.

And here’s some surprising information

that Tim Harford, presenter

of BBC World Service

programme, More or Less,

found after a quick search on Google:

The head accounts for

about 7% of the body

surface area and the

heat loss is fairly proportional

to the amount of skin that’s showing.

A human body’s surface area

means the total area of skin

on its outer surfaces – that’s

the head, chest - or torso,

plus the arms and legs.

According to this view, heat

loss – meaning the total

amount of heat transferred

away from something through

its surface, is proportional to body surface area.

In that case, a 50% heat loss from

the head - which only makes

up 7% of the body’s surface

area – seems like an overestimation.

In the 1950s, other military

experiments were carried out

in Canada on soldiers wearing

artic warfare clothing – the

kind of super-warm thermal

clothes you might wear in

sub-zero temperatures – but

with nothing to cover their heads.

Here’s professor of physiology,

Mike Tipton, taking up the story

with BBC World Service

programme, More or Less:

The question was: how

important is the head… to also

provide some equipment, a hat

or some form of insulation.

And in that scenario of course,

when you’ve got insulation

over much of the rest of the

body preventing heat loss, then

obviously the percentage of

heat loss from the head is

going to be high… and at

minus 4 degrees Celsius, it

amounted to about half of

the resting heat production of the body.

Here the soldiers’ bodies

were protected with insulation –

thick material used to stop

heat from escaping.

Since their heads were

exposed to the cold, around

half of their body heat

escaped that way when resting -

not moving or doing anything active.

And so the idea that half

your body heat is lost

through the head slowly

become a popular myth.

But before you throw your

woolly hats in the bin, there’s

another consideration to

bear in mind; one that

concerns your core

temperature – that’s the

internal temperature inside

your body, including the

blood, heart, and other vital organs.

When the head is allowed to

get cold and the body is well

insulated, the body’s core

temperature drops rapidly

due to the circulation of blood.

Wow! This question really is

blowing hot and cold – now

I have no idea how much heat

is actually lost from the head!

Why don’t you just tell me

the answer, Rob?

OK then. Well, in my quiz

question I asked how much

heat the US army guide says

is lost through the head.

I guessed, c) 50 to 55%, or roughly one half.

Was I right?

Well, you were warm,

Georgina… but not right.

In fact the army field guide

says, b) 40 to 45% … but as

we’ve seen in this case, cold

facts are hard to come by.

Let’s recap our vocabulary

then, because we’re still

not sure if wearing a hat

to keep warm is just a

popular myth - something

people believe to be true

but which actually is not.

It seems that heat loss – the

total heat transferred away

from something, is linked to

the surface area or total area

of the body’s outer surfaces

when exposed to the cold.

But wearing insulation –

material used to stop heat

from escaping, may change

the body’s resting temperature –

its temperature when not

moving and at rest…

…and also affect your core

temperature – your body’s

internal temperature, including

the heart and blood.

That’s all for this programme.

Remember to wrap up warm

for the winter…

And maybe pop a woolly hat

in your pocket to wear, just in case!

See you again soon for

more trending topics and vocabulary

here at 6 Minute English.

Bye for now!

Bye!