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The Self-Access Centre - English - TV Documentaries - Medical Sciences

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At Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital, mum Adele has just heard the devastating news from brain surgeon Jay Jayamohan that her three-year-old daughter Cerys has a malignant brain cancer. This film follows Cerys's battle and shows other patients who are battling similar odds. 1 Brain Doctors - Against the Odds BBC Medical Sciences 60 mins
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The brain is the most complex and mysterious organ in the body and the neurosurgeons of Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital like Jay Jayamohan deal with brains which go badly wrong. 2 Brain Doctors - Emergency BBC Medical Sciences 60 mins
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The parents of two year old Raj face an unimaginable dilemma. Ray has a brain tumour which, untreated, will kill him within months. Doctors at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital can operate but the surgery carries a high risk of paralysis. 3 Brain Doctors - The Decision BBC 2 Medical Sciences 60 mins
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The experts examine how scientists are fighting for our survival by battling the world's big killer diseases. 4 Brave New World With Stephen Hawking - 2 - Health Channel 4 Medical Sciences 60 mins
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GPs are among the most trusted and respected of all professions. They are our first port of call for most NHS treatment with 800,000 people visiting surgeries every day. But Dispatches reveals that failing doctors routinely slip through the system. 5 Dispatches - Can You Trust Your Doctor? Channel 4 Medical Sciences English 50 mins
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As patient numbers and pressures increase, Dispatches investigates the reality of work for nurses around the country and examines whether patient care is being compromised in NHS hospitals. 6 Dispatches - Confessions of a Nurse Channel 4 Medical Sciences English 53 mins
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Dispatches reveals what life is like for elderly men and women forced to live on today's state pension and deal with the complexities of the government's means-tested benefits to keep body and soul together. 7 Dispatches - Heat or Eat: The Pensioners' Dilemma Channel 4 Medical Sciences 50 mins
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In this edition of Dispatches, reporter Jane Moore reveals how nutritious the nation's breakfasts really are and the marketing techniques employed by this lucrative industry. 8 Dispatches - What's in Your Breakfast? Channel 4 Medical Sciences English 48 mins
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What's really going on inside your stomach? In this documentary, Michael Mosley offers up his own guts to find out. Spending the day as an exhibit at the Science Museum in London, he swallows a tiny camera and uses the latest in imaging technology to get a unique view of his innards digesting his food. He discovers pools of concentrated acid and metres of writhing tubing which is home to its own ecosystem. 9 Guts: The Strange and Mysterious World of the Human Stomach BBC Medical Sciences 60 mins
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The heart is the most symbolic organ of the human body. Throughout history it has been seen as the site of our emotions, the very centre of our being. But modern medicine has come to see the heart as just a pump; a brilliant pump, but nothing more. And we see ourselves as ruled by our heads and not our hearts. 10 Heart vs Mind: What makes us Human ? David Malone Medical Sciences 60 mins
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Horizon follows the emotional journey of three young people with currently untreatable conditions to see if, within their lifetime, they can be cured. 11 Horizion - Fix Me BBC Medical Sciences English 60 mins
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Dr Kevin Fong finds out how close scientists are to being able to mend your heart if it stops working. He meets some of the people who have undergone pioneering heart operations and the scientists who are pushing the limits of cardiac treatment. 12 Horizion - How to Mend a Broken Heart BBC 2 Medical Sciences English 60 mins
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Horizon explores the strange and wonderful world of illusions - and reveals the tricks they play on our senses and why they fool us. 13 Horizion - Is Seeing Believing? BBC 2 Medical Sciences English 60 mins
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Horizon reveals the latest research into one of the most mysterious and common human experiences - pain. 14 Horizion - The Secret World of Pain BBC Medical Sciences English 60 mins
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Could you have come up with Einstein's theory of relativity? If not - why not? 15 Horizion - What Makes a Genius? BBC Medical Sciences English 60 mins
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Dallas Campbell delves into the Horizon archive to discover how our understanding of intelligence has transformed over the last century. From early caveman thinkers to computers doing the thinking for us, he discovers the best ways of testing how clever we are - and enhancing it. 16 Horizion - What Makes Us Clever? A Horizon Guide to Intelligence BBC Medical Sciences English 60 mins
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Child psychologist Laverne Antrobus delves into the Horizon archive to find out how science has shaped our approach to parenting and education over the last fifty years. 17 Horizon - Carrot or Stick? A Horizon Guide to Raising Kids BBC 2 Medical Sciences English 60 mins
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We are in the grip of an allergy epidemic. 50 years ago one in 30 were affected, but in Britain today it is closer to one in three. Why this should be is one of modern medicine's greatest puzzles. 18 Horizon - Allergy Planet BBC Medical Sciences 58 mins
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Touch, sight, smell, hearing and taste - our senses link us to the outside world. Dr Kevin Fong looks back through 40 years of Horizon archives to find out what science has taught us about our tools of perception - why babies use touch more than any other sense, why our eyes are so easily tricked. 19 Horizon - Blink : A Horizon Guide to the Senses BBC Medical Sciences 60 mins
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The film follows Rosemary, Phil and Ray as they undergo remarkable new treatments - from a billion pound genetically targeted drug designed to fight a type of skin cancer, to advanced robotic surgery. 20 Horizon - Defeating Cancer BBC Medical Sciences 60 mins
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Horizon reveals the science behind our perception of colour, a highly subjective illusion. 21 Horizon - Do You See What I See? BBC 2 Medical Sciences English 60 mins
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You might think that your memory is there to help you remember facts, such as birthdays or shopping lists. If so, you would be very wrong. The ability to travel back in time in your mind is, perhaps, your most remarkable ability, and develops over your lifespan. 22 Horizon - How does your memory work? BBC Medical Sciences 50 mins
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Each year millions of people's lives are improved by the use of tissue from the dead. Bodies are used to supply spare parts, and for surgeons to practice on. Horizon investigates the medical revolution that has created an almost insatiable demand for body parts and uncovers the growing industry and grisly black market that supplies human bodies for a price. 23 Horizon - How much is your dead body worth? BBC Medical Sciences 50 mins
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Dr Kevin Fong finds out how doctors can avoid making mistakes in the high-pressure, high-stakes world of the operating theatre. 24 Horizon - How to Avoid Mistakes in Surgery BBC Medical Sciences 60 mins
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The quest to live longer has been one of humanities oldest dreams, but while scientists have been searching, a few isolated communities have stumbled across the answer. On the remote Japanese island of Okinawa, In the Californian town of Loma Linda and in the mountains of Sardinia people live longer than anywhere else on earth. In these unique communities a group of scientists have dedicated their lives to trying to uncover their secrets. Horizon takes a trip around the globe to meet the people who can show us all how to live longer, healthier lives. 25 Horizon - How to live to 101 BBC Medical Sciences 50 mins
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We are bad at making decisions. According to science, our decisions are based on oversimplification, laziness and prejudice. And that's assuming that we haven't already been hijacked by our surroundings or led astray by our subconscious! Featuring exclusive footage of experiments that show how our choices can be confounded by temperature, warped by post-rationalisation and even manipulated by the future, Horizon presents a guide to better decision making, and introduces you to Mathematician Garth Sundem, who is convinced that conclusions can best be reached using simple maths and a pencil! 26 Horizon - How to Make Better Decisions BBC Medical Sciences 50 mins
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Is there any way to slow or even prevent the ravages of time? Veteran presenter Johnny Ball looks back over the 45 years that Horizon - and he - have been on air to find out what science has learned about how and why we grow old. 27 Horizon - Immortal A Horizon Guide to Ageing BBC Medical Sciences 60 mins
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Recent research has analysed the link between the harmful effects of drugs relative to their current classification by law with some startling conclusions. Perhaps most startling of all is that alcohol, solvents and tobacco (all unclassified drugs) are rated more dangerous than ecstasy, 4-MTA and LSD (all class A drugs). If the current ABC system is retained, alcohol would be rated a class A drug and tobacco class B. Drug policies have remained unchanged over the last 40 years so should they be reformed in the light of new research? 28 Horizon - Is Alcohol Worse than Ecstasy? BBC Medical Sciences 50 mins
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Friendly bacteria, superfoods, cholesterol busting spreads, 99% germ free, whiter than white...it's almost impossible to find a product in the supermarket today that doesn't come with impressive claims, scientific claims with an inflated price tag to match. Are they oversold? Or are they worth the extra cash? 29 Horizon - Prof. Regan's Supermarket Secrets BBC Medical Sciences 50 mins
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In 1992 the nuclear industry celebrated its 50th anniversary and the report on the accident at Chernobyl claimed there was no evidence of long term health effects. Within months, a team of western scientists presented a very different picture with evidence of an epidemic of thyroid cancers in local children. 30 Horizon - The Fallout from Chernobyl BBC Medical Sciences 60 mins
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Why are you more likely to have a heart attack at eight o'clock in the morning or crash your car on the motorway at two o'clock in the afternoon? Can taking your medication at the right time of day really save your life? And have you ever wondered why teenagers will not get out of bed in the morning? 31 Horizon - The Secret Life of Your Bodyclock BBC Medical Sciences 50 mins
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Like many, Michael Mosley want to get fitter and healthier but can't face hours on the treadmill or trips to the gym. Help may be at hand. 32 Horizon - The Truth about Exercise BBC Medical Sciences 59 mins
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Plastic surgeon Dr Rozina Ali leaves the operating theatre behind for the frontiers of skin science and asks if it is possible to make your skin look younger without surgery. 33 Horizon - The Truth about Looking Young BBC Medical Sciences 59 mins
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The world is affected by an obesity epidemic, but why is it that not everyone is succumbing? Medical science has been obsessed with this subject and is coming up with some unexpected answers. As it turns out, it is not all about exercise and diet. At the centre of this programme is a controversial overeating experiment that aims to identify exactly what it is about some people that makes it hard for them to bulk up. 34 Horizon - Why Are Thin People Not Fat BBC Medical Sciences 59 mins
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Horizon uncovers the secret world of our dreams. In a series of cutting-edge experiments and personal stories, we go in search of the science behind this most enduring mystery and ask: where do dreams come from? Do they have meaning? And ultimately, why do we dream? 35 Horizon - Why Do We Dream? BBC Medical Sciences English 50 mins
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Talking is something that is unique to humans, yet it still remains a mystery. Horizon meets the scientists beginning to unlock the secrets of speech - including a father who is filming every second of his son's first three years in order to discover how we learn to talk, the autistic savant who can speak more than 20 languages, and the first scientist to identify a gene that makes speech possible. 36 Horizon - Why Do We Talk? BBC 2 Medical Sciences English 58 mins
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Professor Robert Winston presents his top ten scientific breakthroughs of the past 50 years. Tracing these momentous and wide-ranging discoveries, he meets a real-life bionic woman, one of the first couples to test the male contraceptive pill, and even some of his early IVF patients. He explores the origins of the universe, probes the inner workings of the human mind and sees the most powerful laser in the world. To finish, Professor Winston reveals the breakthrough he thinks is most significant. 37 How Science Changed Our World BBC 1 Medical Sciences English 60 mins
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A team of roboticists are creating the first ever complete bionic man. Where could this technology lead? 38 How to Build a Bionic Man Channel 4 Medical Sciences 48 mins
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The second run of the BAFTA Award-winning series reveals the anatomy of some of nature's most successful predators.The experts travel to South Africa to dissect a 900kg, 15-foot-long great white shark. 39 Inside Nature's Giants - Great White Shark Channel 4 Medical Sciences English 50 mins
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The team explore how this animal has been biologically engineered for speed. They dissect an elite racehorse to reveal the extraordinary spring system that propels it to 45mph, its super-sized organs and built-in turbo-booster. 40 Inside Nature's Giants - The Racehorse Channel 4 Medical Sciences English 50 mins
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Veterinary scientist Mark Evans joins experts in anatomy, evolution and behaviour in a bid to get under the skin of the crocodile. 41 Inside Natures Giants - The Crocodile Channel 4 Medical Sciences English 30 mins
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In a special episode of Inside The Human Body, all the family can join Michael Mosley as he takes us on a fantastic voyage through the wonders of the human body. Using state-of-the-art graphics, based on real images and scientific research, he reveals the ingenious inner workings of your body, starting with the extraordinary story of how a sperm and egg fuse to create life. 42 Inside the Human Body - Best of Series BBC 1 Medical Sciences English 60 mins
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In this episode, Michael Mosley traces our development from birth to adulthood, and reveals that the human brain is so sophisticated it takes more than twenty years to mature. 43 Inside the Human Body - Building Your Brain BBC Medical Sciences English 60 mins
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Series exploring the wonders of the human body. Using spectacular graphics based on real images and the latest scientific research, Michael Mosley takes viewers on a voyage through the workings of the inner human universe. 44 Inside the Human Body - Creation BBC Medical Sciences 60 mins
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In this episode, Michael Mosley shows how existence is a struggle and how, minute by minute, from your first breath to your last, your body performs countless small miracles to keep you alive. 45 Inside the Human Body - First to Last BBC Medical Sciences English 60 mins
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In the final episode of Inside The Human Body, Michael Mosley reveals the ingenious ways in which your body defends itself against a hostile world - where sunlight shatters your DNA and every breath contains microbes that can kill. 46 Inside the Human Body - Hostile World BBC Medical Sciences 60 mins
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Documentary telling the story of Britain's first hand transplant, carried out by surgeons at Leeds Infirmary on Boxing Day night 2012, from the moment Professor Simon Kay and his team decided to go ahead to the moment the patient was able to move the transplanted hand. 47 My New Hand Christian Hills Medical Sciences 60 mins
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In the wake of the swine flu outbreak, virologist Dr Mike Leahy uses over 50 years of BBC archive to explore the history of pandemics - infectious diseases caused by bacteria, viruses and parasites. 48 Pandemic: A Horizon Guide BBC Medical Sciences English 60 mins
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Margo MacDonald, the firebrand, independent politician, is one of Scotland's most popular public figures. But she also has Parkinson's Disease and, earlier this year, she spoke openly of her desire to choose the moment of her death. Now, in this deeply personal film, she uncovers the truth about assisted dying, meeting those with illnesses like hers who are desperate to die, and exploring how British law could be changed to allow them to choose when they can. 49 Panorama - I'll Die When I Choose BBC Medical Sciences 30 mins
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Jeremy Vine reveals the problem of sexual bullying in our schools and hears from experts, parents and teachers - but most importantly from the kids themselves - on what we can do to tackle it. 50 Panorama - Kids Behaving Badly BBC Medical Sciences 28 mins
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On 5 July 1948 the National Health Service was brought into existence, making free public health care available to all, funded by the tax system. To mark the 60th anniversary of the NHS, the BBC will be presenting a series of programmes and features. This programme will look at the increasing involvement of the private sector in the Health Service asking what it means of the future 51 Panorama - NHS for Sale BBC Medical Sciences 30 mins
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Panorama's John Sweeney investigates the row behind Shaken Baby Syndrome following the conviction of childminder Keran Henderson. 52 Panorama - Shaken Babies BBC Medical Sciences 30 mins
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Jeremy Vine, Sophie Raworth and Fergus Walsh travel through the UK and the world to expose the myths and the dangers of swine flu. Who is most vulnerable? How do you avoid it? And can the NHS cope? 53 Panorama - Swine Flu: Everything You Need To Know BBC Medical Sciences English 30 mins
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Panorama talks to pilots who have almost passed out at the controls and passengers who say they've been made ill by toxic fumes. The air breathed on airliners is drawn past the engines and can become polluted by any leaks of engine oil. 'Fume events' are rare but there are no accurate figures of just how many occur each year. Panorama wanted to discover what was really in the air passengers, crew and pilots breathe on planes 54 Panorama - There's Something in the Air BBC Medical Sciences 29 mins
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In this documentary from the Race: Science's Last Taboo season, Rageh Omaar explodes myths about race and IQ and reveals what he thinks are important lessons for society. 55 Race and Intelligence: Science's Last Taboo Channel 4 Medical Sciences English 64 mins
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Why does the brain look like a giant walnut, how does it fit in enough wiring to stretch four times around the equator, and why could a magnet on the head stop someone mid-sentence? 56 Royal Institution Christmas Lecture 2011 01: What's in your Head? BBC 4 Medical Sciences English 60 mins
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The brain is constantly being bombarded with information, so how does it decide what to trust and what to ignore, without the person even being aware of it? 57 Royal Institution Christmas Lecture 2011 02: Who's in charge Here Anyway? BBC 4 Medical Sciences English 60 mins
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Have you ever seen a face in a piece of burnt toast, or given your car a name? Why do you feel pain when someone else is hurt? Why are people so obsessed with other people? 58 Royal Institution Christmas Lecture 2011 03: Are You Thinking What I'm Thinking? BBC 4 Medical Sciences English 60 mins
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Geoffrey Smith's moving film follows Henry as he travels to Kiev to help Igor operate on a young man called Marian, who without surgery has just months to live. When Henry arrives, he faces a serious challenge - Marian must be awake when his tumour is removed, and Henry must use the most basic tools, including a Black and Decker drill. 59 Storyville - The English Surgeon Geoffrey Smith Medical Sciences 90 mins
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In a frank and personal documentary, author Sir Terry Pratchett considers how he might choose to end his life. Diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2008. 60 Terry Pratchett - Choosing to Die BBC 2 Medical Sciences English 60 mins
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Bestselling author Terry Pratchett has early onset Alzheimer's disease. And he wants Alzheimer's to be sorry that it ever caught him. In the second of this two-part series, Terry confronts his future living with the disease. He travels to America to witness first-hand how they are coping with the 'tsunami of Alzheimer's', and meets the unlikely doctor who stumbled across a controversial new treatment that he claims produces remarkable results in minutes. 61 Terry Pratchett - Living with Alzheimer's Charlie Russell Medical Sciences 58 mins
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Series in which mathematician Marcus du Sautoy explores the stories behind some of the world's most familiar and influential scientific diagrams. In the last hundred years, one diagrammatic image stands above all others. It represents a scientific breakthrough that has been voted the most significant in the 20th century, more important than penicillin or the first working computer. The double helix shows us what the structure of our DNA looks like. Francis Crick and James Watson announced their discovery in Nature magazine in April 1953, and their article included a diagram of the structure by Odile Crick. The image she drew has become so well known and loved that we now find it in a whole range of consumer products - there are double helix ties, dogs chews and even a perfume. So has the image of the double helix become so divorced from its original scientific setting that no one knows what it really is or what it stands for? 62 The Beauty of Diagrams - Episode 05: DNA Marcus du Sautoy Medical Sciences English 30 mins
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Filmed in the accident and emergency wards of two Midlands hospitals, this episode highlights the alcohol-related casualties and fatalities that are pushing NHS staff to the limits of their endurance… 63 The Hospital - Series 01 Episode 01 Channel 4 Medical Sciences 48 mins
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Around the world, obesity levels are rising. More people are now overweight than undernourished. Two thirds of British adults are overweight and one in four of us is classified as obese. 64 The Men Who Made Us Fat - Episode 01 BBC Medical Sciences 60 mins
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Jacques Peretti investigates how the concept of 'supersizing' changed our eating habits forever. How did we - once a nation of moderate eaters - start to want more? 65 The Men Who Made Us Fat - Episode 02 BBC Medical Sciences 60 mins
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Jacques Peretti examines assumptions about what is and is not healthy. He also looks at how product marketing can seduce consumers into buying supposed 'healthy foods' such as muesli and juices, both of which can be high in sugar. 66 The Men Who Made Us Fat - Episode 03 BBC Medical Sciences 60 mins
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The programme asks whether the introduction of the contraceptive pill was a blessing or burden for women in the 1960s 67 The Pill - Prescription for Revolution UKTV Medical Sciences 10 mins
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In the 2013 Richard Dimbleby Lecture, one of the world's greatest entrepreneurs and leading philanthropists, Bill Gates, explains his optimism for a world free of the debilitating disease, polio. He explains why he is devoting so much of his time, money and influence to eradicating polio, and how we can all help to finish the job. 68 The Richard Dimbleby Lecture 2013: Bill Gates - The Impatient Optimist BBC Medical Sciences 50 mins
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Michael Mosley takes an informative and ambitious journey exploring how the evolution of scientific understanding is intimately interwoven with society's historical path. We now know that the brain - the organ that more than any other makes us human - is one of the wonders of the universe, and yet until the 17th century it was barely studied. The twin sciences of brain anatomy and psychology have offered different visions of who we are. Now these sciences are coming together and in the process have revealed some surprising and uncomfortable truths about what really shapes our thoughts, feelings and desires. And the search to understand how our brains work has also revealed that we are all - whether we realise it or not - carrying out science from the moment we are born. 69 The Story of Science: Power, Proof and Passion : Who Are We? BBC Medical Sciences English 60 mins
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Nigel, a surgeon, talks about the life saving operation he performed on a young man gunned down on the street in a case of mistaken identity. He might recover physically, but the mental scarring will last years. 70 The Truth About Street Weapons: The Doctor's Story Alision Ramsey Medical Sciences 10 mins
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The story of a young man suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder, and his last chance of recovery, using dolphin-assisted therapy. 71 True Stories - Dolphin Boy More 4 Medical Sciences English 60 mins
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Every year in Pakistan, over 100 people - mostly women - suffer brutal acid attacks. Saving Face follows plastic surgeon Dr Mohammad Jawad as he tries to help them. 72 True Stories - Saving Face Daniel Junge Medical Sciences 40 mins
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In a never-before-seen side of life in Pakistan, this film follows the stories of three transgender people, each of whom represent a different way of life in Pakistan. 73 True Stories - Transgenders: Pakistan's Open Secret Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy Medical Sciences English 60 mins
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A hard-hitting documentary following an extraordinary six months in the life of Darcus Howe as he attempts to raise awareness of prostate cancer, a disease which affects one in four black men. 74 True Stories - What's Killing Darcus Howe Channel 4 Medical Sciences 48 mins
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