Beyond Human Limits
Three adventurous scientists risk their lives exploring the limits of their bodies. Will they survive their own experiments? The human body is a wonderfully complex machine. Confronted with extreme conditions such as hypoxia, cold, and isolation, it triggers off strange and primitive survival mechanisms that modern science is only beginning to understand. Based on true stories, with re-enactments and 3-D medical imagery, Beyond Human Limits recounts the adventures of three scientists who had risked their lives to explore the limits of their bodies.
- 2006-2015
- 1 season
- Documentary
- Not Rated
Three adventurous scientists risk their lives exploring the limits of their bodies. Will they survive their own experiments? The human body is a wonderfully complex machine. Confronted with extreme conditions such as hypoxia, cold, and isolation, it triggers off strange and primitive survival mechanisms that modern science is only beginning to understand. Based on true stories, with re-enactments and 3-D medical imagery, Beyond Human Limits recounts the adventures of three scientists who had risked their lives to explore the limits of their bodies.
Season 1 Episode Guide
3 Episodes 2014 - 2015
Episode 1
Hypoxia
51 mins
Hypoxia literally means the absence of oxygen, and it acts like an insidious poison that suffocates not only the lungs and muscles but also the brain. Dr. Nicolas Jaeger was fascinated by hypoxia and he put himself to the test in order to solve its enigmas. In 1979, he climbed to the top of the Andes in Peru. He lived at 6,700 meters longer than anybody in history, undergoing medical exercises each day despite the cold and discomfort.
Episode 2
Cold
50 mins
Strange barriers protect our cells from the assault of freezing cold, yet they are fragile and sometimes give way. What is it that maintains some people alive, while abandoning others to the land of white death? Dr. Cauchy is one of today's best experts on the science of cold. During an expedition in the Himalaya, he was trapped for a whole night outdoors in extreme weather. In this film he relives his fight against hypothermia and frostbite and explains how he survived against all odds.
Episode 3
Time
51 mins
Deep within our cells our internal clock determines the cycle of life and death, the transition from our days to our dreams. In 1962, Michel Siffre spent two months in a cave beneath the earth's surface without any time landmarks. He discovered the existence of an "internal clock" and his experiments gave birth to a new science: chrono biology. Taking us down the same cave, we are now shown how isolation from time references influences our body's cycle and mental state.