Synopsis
The human body is a wonderfully complex machine, and confronted to extreme conditions such as hypoxia, cold, and isolation, it triggers off strange and primitive survival mechanisms that modern science is only beginning to understand. In a human adventure series, with re-enactments and 3-D medical imagery, follow scientists who risk their lives to explore the limits of their bodies when confronted to extreme conditions: Hypoxia: In 1979, Dr. Jaeger tested his resistance to hypoxia, the lack of oxygen, by living two months at an altitude of 6,700 meters - before disappearing a year later on his way to Mount Everest. Cold: 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. Time isolation: In 1962, Michel Siffre spent two months 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. Today, he accepts to go down in the same cave to show us how isolation from time references influences our body's cycle and mental state.


Prizes and Awards
Not specified