Where do I come from? - Alison Woollard's 2013 Christmas Lectures 1/3

How do each of your cells know what to do? And when? And where? Your life stems from a single cell. Yet within the trillion of cells that make up your body lies a fundamental conundrum. Each cell contains identical DNA, yet muscle cells are very different from skin cells; blood cells are very different from brain cells. How does each of your cells 'know' exactly what to do? And when? And where? How do your heart cells start beating? How can your eye cells help you see the world around you? Can we use our understanding of how stem cells transform into specialised cells to build new body parts? What can we learn from animals that can regenerate their limbs? And what are the implications of tinkering with the fabric of life? About the 2013 CHRISTMAS LECTURES Life is the greatest show on Earth from the lowliest worm to the mightiest mammal. Yet from the moment of conception to the formation of limbs, to the development of brains there’s something that all living things depend on: cells. Cells grow, multiply, change, move, communicate and ultimately die. They are the very essence of life, but how do they work together to form it? Gradually we are beginning to unravel their secrets. Life is fantastic and full of questions, but as we reveal the answers more questions emerge. The 2013 CHRISTMAS LECTURES, presented by Alison Woollard from the University of Oxford, will explore the frontiers of developmental biology and uncover the remarkable transformation of a single cell into a complex organism. What do these mechanisms tell us about the relationships between all creatures on Earth? And can we harness this knowledge to improve or even extend our own lives? --- Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYeF244yNGuFefuFKqxIAXw/join Subscribe for regular science videos: http://bit.ly/RiSubscRibe --- Chapters: 00:00 The World’s Largest Bird Begins as a Single Cell 01:08 You Are Made of 40 Trillion Cells 03:00 Rewinding Human Development to the Very Beginning 06:20 How One Cell Becomes Trillions (Cell Division) 08:40 The Worm That Reveals the Secrets of Life 11:50 Watching a Living Embryo Divide in Real Time 15:10 How Cells Build a Body (Morphogenesis) 21:30 The Incredible Variety of Cells in the Human Body 29:00 The Proteins That Power Cells 43:00 The Discovery of DNA 55:30 How Genes Turn On and Off During Development ---- The Ri is on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ri_science and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/royalinstitution and TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ri_science Listen to the Ri podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ri-science-podcast Donate to the RI and help us bring you more lectures: https://www.rigb.org/support-us/donate-ri Our editorial policy: https://www.rigb.org/editing-ri-talks-and-moderating-comments Subscribe for the latest science videos: http://bit.ly/RiNewsletter Product links on this page may be affiliate links which means it won't cost you any extra but we may earn a small commission if you decide to purchase through the link.