Bodies

The human body is the battleground where our most fundamental ideas about the way the world is come into sharp focus.

When we think and talk about the body, we are suddenly very aware of that pattern of thinking which frames concepts in opposition, divides the world up between dark and light, material and immaterial, technology and humanity, invisible and visible, mind and body, body and soul.

In this new ten part series, academic and broadcaster Professor Alice Roberts traces how human knowledge of anatomy has grown and changed over time, and how this changing understanding has in turn affected our understanding of who we are.

Episode 1: Cutting and Crisis - Rediscovering the human body

Professor Alice Roberts is an anatomist. She cuts up bodies to reveal another world of astonishing detail beneath the skin. In this episode, Alice introduces her time-travelling tour of anatomical knowledge, from the Stone Age to the Silicon Age. She begins by asking how we see our bodies and examines one idea that has forever dogged our concept of the body - the soul and the need for it to somehow be meshed into our picture of the body.

Presenter: Professor Alice Roberts
Actor: Jonathan Kydd

A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4

Alice Roberts begins a time travelling tour of anatomical knowledge of the human body.

Professor Alice Roberts traces our changing understanding of human anatomy and ourselves.

The human body is the battleground where our most fundamental ideas about the way the world is come into sharp focus.

When we think and talk about the body, we are suddenly very aware of that pattern of thinking which frames concepts in opposition, divides the world up between dark and light, material and immaterial, technology and humanity, invisible and visible, mind and body, body and soul.

In this new ten part series, academic and broadcaster Professor Alice Roberts traces how human knowledge of anatomy has grown and changed over time, and how this changing understanding has in turn affected our understanding of who we are.

Episode 1: Cutting and Crisis - Rediscovering the human body

Professor Alice Roberts is an anatomist. She cuts up bodies to reveal another world of astonishing detail beneath the skin. In this episode, Alice introduces her time-travelling tour of anatomical knowledge, from the Stone Age to the Silicon Age. She begins by asking how we see our bodies and examines one idea that has forever dogged our concept of the body - the soul and the need for it to somehow be meshed into our picture of the body.

Presenter: Professor Alice Roberts
Actor: Jonathan Kydd

A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4

Alice Roberts begins a time travelling tour of anatomical knowledge of the human body.

Professor Alice Roberts traces our changing understanding of human anatomy and ourselves.

The human body is the battleground where our most fundamental ideas about the way the world is come into sharp focus.

When we think and talk about the body, we are suddenly very aware of that pattern of thinking which frames concepts in opposition, divides the world up between dark and light, material and immaterial, technology and humanity, invisible and visible, mind and body, body and soul.

In this new ten part series, academic and broadcaster Professor Alice Roberts traces how human knowledge of anatomy has grown and changed over time, and how this changing understanding has in turn affected our understanding of who we are.

Episode 2: The skull cup and the shape-shifters - The body in pre-history

What did our pre-historic ancestors think of the human body? Did they see it as the same as the animals they hunted - a collection of bones, muscle, sinews and blood vessels. Or was it somehow separate? Professor Alice Roberts contemplates tantalising glimpses of human bodies from our deep past - a human skull used as a drinking vessel, a statue of a half-man half-lion being, tiny figurines of Ice Age women.

Presenter: Professor Alice Roberts
Actor: Jonathan Kydd

A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4

Alice Roberts continues a time travelling tour of anatomical knowledge of the human body.

Professor Alice Roberts traces our changing understanding of human anatomy and ourselves.

The human body is the battleground where our most fundamental ideas about the way the world is come into sharp focus.

When we think and talk about the body, we are suddenly very aware of that pattern of thinking which frames concepts in opposition, divides the world up between dark and light, material and immaterial, technology and humanity, invisible and visible, mind and body, body and soul.

In this new ten part series, academic and broadcaster Professor Alice Roberts traces how human knowledge of anatomy has grown and changed over time, and how this changing understanding has in turn affected our understanding of who we are.

Episode 2: The skull cup and the shape-shifters - The body in pre-history

What did our pre-historic ancestors think of the human body? Did they see it as the same as the animals they hunted - a collection of bones, muscle, sinews and blood vessels. Or was it somehow separate? Professor Alice Roberts contemplates tantalising glimpses of human bodies from our deep past - a human skull used as a drinking vessel, a statue of a half-man half-lion being, tiny figurines of Ice Age women.

Presenter: Professor Alice Roberts
Actor: Jonathan Kydd

A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4

Alice Roberts continues a time travelling tour of anatomical knowledge of the human body.

Professor Alice Roberts traces our changing understanding of human anatomy and ourselves.

The human body is the battleground where our most fundamental ideas about the way the world is come into sharp focus.

When we think and talk about the body, we are suddenly very aware of that pattern of thinking which frames concepts in opposition, divides the world up between dark and light, material and immaterial, technology and humanity, invisible and visible, mind and body, body and soul.

In this new ten part series, academic and broadcaster Professor Alice Roberts traces how human knowledge of anatomy has grown and changed over time, and how this changing understanding has in turn affected our understanding of who we are.

Episode 3: Slaughterhouse Anatomy - The body in ancient Egypt

The first civilisation to leave us traces of medical knowledge is ancient Egypt. And among these records of ancient injuries and remedies, one set stands out - the Edwin Smith papyrus. For the first time, magic spells are mixed with a rational and proto-scientific understanding of the human body. Professor Alice Roberts uncovers the papyrus's examples of anatomical thinking - its description of membranes around the brain, of cerebrospinal fluid, and the relation between neck injuries and paralysis. She asks where this anatomical knowledge came from - could it be from the battlefield or ritual embalming rites?

Presenter: Professor Alice Roberts
Actor: Jonathan Kydd

A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4

Alice Roberts continues a time travelling tour of anatomical knowledge of the human body.

Professor Alice Roberts traces our changing understanding of human anatomy and ourselves.

The human body is the battleground where our most fundamental ideas about the way the world is come into sharp focus.

When we think and talk about the body, we are suddenly very aware of that pattern of thinking which frames concepts in opposition, divides the world up between dark and light, material and immaterial, technology and humanity, invisible and visible, mind and body, body and soul.

In this new ten part series, academic and broadcaster Professor Alice Roberts traces how human knowledge of anatomy has grown and changed over time, and how this changing understanding has in turn affected our understanding of who we are.

Episode 3: Slaughterhouse Anatomy - The body in ancient Egypt

The first civilisation to leave us traces of medical knowledge is ancient Egypt. And among these records of ancient injuries and remedies, one set stands out - the Edwin Smith papyrus. For the first time, magic spells are mixed with a rational and proto-scientific understanding of the human body. Professor Alice Roberts uncovers the papyrus's examples of anatomical thinking - its description of membranes around the brain, of cerebrospinal fluid, and the relation between neck injuries and paralysis. She asks where this anatomical knowledge came from - could it be from the battlefield or ritual embalming rites?

Presenter: Professor Alice Roberts
Actor: Jonathan Kydd

A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4

Alice Roberts continues a time travelling tour of anatomical knowledge of the human body.

Professor Alice Roberts traces our changing understanding of human anatomy and ourselves.

The human body is the battleground where our most fundamental ideas about the way the world is come into sharp focus.

When we think and talk about the body, we are suddenly very aware of that pattern of thinking which frames concepts in opposition, divides the world up between dark and light, material and immaterial, technology and humanity, invisible and visible, mind and body, body and soul.

In this new ten part series, academic and broadcaster Professor Alice Roberts traces how human knowledge of anatomy has grown and changed over time, and how this changing understanding has in turn affected our understanding of who we are.

Episode 4: Archetype and Anatomy - The body in ancient Greece

Images of ideal bodies are everywhere we look today. We are invited to look, to enjoy, to judge, to compare to these bodies. Can anyone match up to the ideal? This is not a new problem. In ancient Greece idealised images of the human body were everywhere and an explicit connection was drawn between physical and moral beauty. And it was from this society that the first true anatomist emerged - Aristotle. Professor Alice Roberts celebrates his wonderful studies of animal anatomy and the analogies he drew.

Presenter: Professor Alice Roberts
Actor: Jonathan Kydd

A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4

Alice Roberts continues a time travelling tour of anatomical knowledge of the human body.

Professor Alice Roberts traces our changing understanding of human anatomy and ourselves.

The human body is the battleground where our most fundamental ideas about the way the world is come into sharp focus.

When we think and talk about the body, we are suddenly very aware of that pattern of thinking which frames concepts in opposition, divides the world up between dark and light, material and immaterial, technology and humanity, invisible and visible, mind and body, body and soul.

In this new ten part series, academic and broadcaster Professor Alice Roberts traces how human knowledge of anatomy has grown and changed over time, and how this changing understanding has in turn affected our understanding of who we are.

Episode 4: Archetype and Anatomy - The body in ancient Greece

Images of ideal bodies are everywhere we look today. We are invited to look, to enjoy, to judge, to compare to these bodies. Can anyone match up to the ideal? This is not a new problem. In ancient Greece idealised images of the human body were everywhere and an explicit connection was drawn between physical and moral beauty. And it was from this society that the first true anatomist emerged - Aristotle. Professor Alice Roberts celebrates his wonderful studies of animal anatomy and the analogies he drew.

Presenter: Professor Alice Roberts
Actor: Jonathan Kydd

A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4

Alice Roberts continues a time travelling tour of anatomical knowledge of the human body.

Professor Alice Roberts traces our changing understanding of human anatomy and ourselves.

The human body is the battleground where our most fundamental ideas about the way the world is come into sharp focus.

When we think and talk about the body, we are suddenly very aware of that pattern of thinking which frames concepts in opposition, divides the world up between dark and light, material and immaterial, technology and humanity, invisible and visible, mind and body, body and soul.

In this new ten part series, academic and broadcaster Professor Alice Roberts traces how human knowledge of anatomy has grown and changed over time, and how this changing understanding has in turn affected our understanding of who we are.

Episode 5: The Living and the Dead - Opening up the body

In the city of Alexandria, in the 3rd century BCE, physicians were allowed to do something that had been completely out of bounds for centuries before and would then be outlawed for centuries afterwards - dissect human bodies. The handiwork of two Alexandrian pioneers - Herophilus and Erasistratus - went on to form the basis for the theories for perhaps the most influential anatomist of all time, a Roman called Galen. Although he never dissected a human body himself, his theories of anatomy shaped Western thinking for more than a thousand years.

Presenter: Professor Alice Roberts
Actor: Jonathan Kydd

A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4

Alice Roberts continues a time travelling tour of anatomical knowledge of the human body.

Professor Alice Roberts traces our changing understanding of human anatomy and ourselves.

The human body is the battleground where our most fundamental ideas about the way the world is come into sharp focus.

When we think and talk about the body, we are suddenly very aware of that pattern of thinking which frames concepts in opposition, divides the world up between dark and light, material and immaterial, technology and humanity, invisible and visible, mind and body, body and soul.

In this new ten part series, academic and broadcaster Professor Alice Roberts traces how human knowledge of anatomy has grown and changed over time, and how this changing understanding has in turn affected our understanding of who we are.

Episode 5: The Living and the Dead - Opening up the body

In the city of Alexandria, in the 3rd century BCE, physicians were allowed to do something that had been completely out of bounds for centuries before and would then be outlawed for centuries afterwards - dissect human bodies. The handiwork of two Alexandrian pioneers - Herophilus and Erasistratus - went on to form the basis for the theories for perhaps the most influential anatomist of all time, a Roman called Galen. Although he never dissected a human body himself, his theories of anatomy shaped Western thinking for more than a thousand years.

Presenter: Professor Alice Roberts
Actor: Jonathan Kydd

A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4

Alice Roberts continues a time travelling tour of anatomical knowledge of the human body.

Professor Alice Roberts traces our changing understanding of human anatomy and ourselves.

The human body is the battleground where our most fundamental ideas about the way the world is come into sharp focus.

When we think and talk about the body, we are suddenly very aware of that pattern of thinking which frames concepts in opposition, divides the world up between dark and light, material and immaterial, technology and humanity, invisible and visible, mind and body, body and soul.

In this ten part series, academic and broadcaster Professor Alice Roberts traces how human knowledge of anatomy has grown and changed over time, and how this changing understanding has in turn affected our understanding of who we are.

Episode 6: Irreconcilable Opposites - The Medieval Body

The Medieval era stands out for its obsession with the body and proliferation of theories, often far-fetched, surrounding it. Professor Alice Roberts takes us from the transformation of Thomas Becket's body from a corpse into a relic, to arguments around resurrection, sex and the mirroring between the human body and the elements that make up the universe.

Presenter: Professor Alice Roberts
Actor: Jonathan Kydd

A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4

Alice Roberts continues a time-travelling tour of anatomical knowledge of the human body.

Professor Alice Roberts traces our changing understanding of human anatomy and ourselves.

The human body is the battleground where our most fundamental ideas about the way the world is come into sharp focus.

When we think and talk about the body, we are suddenly very aware of that pattern of thinking which frames concepts in opposition, divides the world up between dark and light, material and immaterial, technology and humanity, invisible and visible, mind and body, body and soul.

In this ten part series, academic and broadcaster Professor Alice Roberts traces how human knowledge of anatomy has grown and changed over time, and how this changing understanding has in turn affected our understanding of who we are.

Episode 6: Irreconcilable Opposites - The Medieval Body

The Medieval era stands out for its obsession with the body and proliferation of theories, often far-fetched, surrounding it. Professor Alice Roberts takes us from the transformation of Thomas Becket's body from a corpse into a relic, to arguments around resurrection, sex and the mirroring between the human body and the elements that make up the universe.

Presenter: Professor Alice Roberts
Actor: Jonathan Kydd

A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4

Alice Roberts continues a time-travelling tour of anatomical knowledge of the human body.

Professor Alice Roberts traces our changing understanding of human anatomy and ourselves.

The human body is the battleground where our most fundamental ideas about the way the world is come into sharp focus.

When we think and talk about the body, we are suddenly very aware of that pattern of thinking which frames concepts in opposition, divides the world up between dark and light, material and immaterial, technology and humanity, invisible and visible, mind and body, body and soul.

In this ten part series, academic and broadcaster Professor Alice Roberts traces how human knowledge of anatomy has grown and changed over time, and how this changing understanding has in turn affected our understanding of who we are.

Episode 7: Leonardo - Drawing the body

Drawing and anatomy have always gone hand in hand. And perhaps the most beautiful anatomical drawings of them all are from the notebooks of the Renaissance master, Leonardo da Vinci. Professor Alice Roberts celebrates da Vinci's lifelong fascination with anatomy and the ground-breaking diagrams he made. His drawings were based on his first-hand experience of dissections. He claimed to have performed more than thirty by the time he died.

Presenter: Professor Alice Roberts
Actor: Jonathan Kydd

A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4

Alice Roberts continues a time-travelling tour of anatomical knowledge of the human body.

Professor Alice Roberts traces our changing understanding of human anatomy and ourselves.

The human body is the battleground where our most fundamental ideas about the way the world is come into sharp focus.

When we think and talk about the body, we are suddenly very aware of that pattern of thinking which frames concepts in opposition, divides the world up between dark and light, material and immaterial, technology and humanity, invisible and visible, mind and body, body and soul.

In this ten part series, academic and broadcaster Professor Alice Roberts traces how human knowledge of anatomy has grown and changed over time, and how this changing understanding has in turn affected our understanding of who we are.

Episode 7: Leonardo - Drawing the body

Drawing and anatomy have always gone hand in hand. And perhaps the most beautiful anatomical drawings of them all are from the notebooks of the Renaissance master, Leonardo da Vinci. Professor Alice Roberts celebrates da Vinci's lifelong fascination with anatomy and the ground-breaking diagrams he made. His drawings were based on his first-hand experience of dissections. He claimed to have performed more than thirty by the time he died.

Presenter: Professor Alice Roberts
Actor: Jonathan Kydd

A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4

Alice Roberts continues a time-travelling tour of anatomical knowledge of the human body.

Professor Alice Roberts traces our changing understanding of human anatomy and ourselves.

The human body is the battleground where our most fundamental ideas about the way the world is come into sharp focus.

When we think and talk about the body, we are suddenly very aware of that pattern of thinking which frames concepts in opposition, divides the world up between dark and light, material and immaterial, technology and humanity, invisible and visible, mind and body, body and soul.

In this ten part series, academic and broadcaster Professor Alice Roberts traces how human knowledge of anatomy has grown and changed over time, and how this changing understanding has in turn affected our understanding of who we are.

Episode 8: The genius of Vesalius - science and salvation

In 1543, a scientific and artistic phenomenon emerges into the world. With a hefty thud. De humani corporis fabrica - on the fabric of the human body - by a Flemish artist known by his Latin name, Vesalius. This book was full of the most gorgeous illustrations of anatomy, based on Vesalius' own dissections. Its publication marks a watershed in the history of anatomy. Not only was it the most accurate depiction of human anatomy to date, it directly contradicted the anatomy of the Roman Galen, which had gone unchallenged for more than a millennium.

Presenter - Professor Alice Roberts
Actor: Jonathan Kydd

A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4

Alice Roberts continues a time-travelling tour of anatomical knowledge of the human body.

Professor Alice Roberts traces our changing understanding of human anatomy and ourselves.

The human body is the battleground where our most fundamental ideas about the way the world is come into sharp focus.

When we think and talk about the body, we are suddenly very aware of that pattern of thinking which frames concepts in opposition, divides the world up between dark and light, material and immaterial, technology and humanity, invisible and visible, mind and body, body and soul.

In this ten part series, academic and broadcaster Professor Alice Roberts traces how human knowledge of anatomy has grown and changed over time, and how this changing understanding has in turn affected our understanding of who we are.

Episode 8: The genius of Vesalius - science and salvation

In 1543, a scientific and artistic phenomenon emerges into the world. With a hefty thud. De humani corporis fabrica - on the fabric of the human body - by a Flemish artist known by his Latin name, Vesalius. This book was full of the most gorgeous illustrations of anatomy, based on Vesalius' own dissections. Its publication marks a watershed in the history of anatomy. Not only was it the most accurate depiction of human anatomy to date, it directly contradicted the anatomy of the Roman Galen, which had gone unchallenged for more than a millennium.

Presenter - Professor Alice Roberts
Actor: Jonathan Kydd

A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4

Alice Roberts continues a time-travelling tour of anatomical knowledge of the human body.

Professor Alice Roberts traces our changing understanding of human anatomy and ourselves.

The human body is the battleground where our most fundamental ideas about the way the world is come into sharp focus.

When we think and talk about the body, we are suddenly very aware of that pattern of thinking which frames concepts in opposition, divides the world up between dark and light, material and immaterial, technology and humanity, invisible and visible, mind and body, body and soul.

In this ten part series, academic and broadcaster Professor Alice Roberts traces how human knowledge of anatomy has grown and changed over time, and how this changing understanding has in turn affected our understanding of who we are.

Episode 9: Dutch Still Life - the theatre of anatomy

Art, literature and science in 17th century Holland shared a fascination with death - and overlapped each other in macabre ways as they explored their subject. Dutch anatomists made great discoveries both about the structure of the body and how to preserve and prepare corpses for dissection. But they also created what today we'd call artistic installations. Some turned their dissection theatres into museums of curiosities open to the public, others took preserved body parts to create creepy scenes - a boy's foot stamping on the guts of a girl who had died, a fetal head resting on a pillow of placenta. Professor Alice Roberts explores this intriguing turn of events in the history of anatomy.

Presenter: Professor Alice Roberts
Actor: Jonathan Kydd

A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4

Alice Roberts continues a time-travelling tour of anatomical knowledge of the human body.

Professor Alice Roberts traces our changing understanding of human anatomy and ourselves.

The human body is the battleground where our most fundamental ideas about the way the world is come into sharp focus.

When we think and talk about the body, we are suddenly very aware of that pattern of thinking which frames concepts in opposition, divides the world up between dark and light, material and immaterial, technology and humanity, invisible and visible, mind and body, body and soul.

In this ten part series, academic and broadcaster Professor Alice Roberts traces how human knowledge of anatomy has grown and changed over time, and how this changing understanding has in turn affected our understanding of who we are.

Episode 9: Dutch Still Life - the theatre of anatomy

Art, literature and science in 17th century Holland shared a fascination with death - and overlapped each other in macabre ways as they explored their subject. Dutch anatomists made great discoveries both about the structure of the body and how to preserve and prepare corpses for dissection. But they also created what today we'd call artistic installations. Some turned their dissection theatres into museums of curiosities open to the public, others took preserved body parts to create creepy scenes - a boy's foot stamping on the guts of a girl who had died, a fetal head resting on a pillow of placenta. Professor Alice Roberts explores this intriguing turn of events in the history of anatomy.

Presenter: Professor Alice Roberts
Actor: Jonathan Kydd

A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4

Alice Roberts continues a time-travelling tour of anatomical knowledge of the human body.

Professor Alice Roberts traces our changing understanding of human anatomy and ourselves.

When we think and talk about the body, we are suddenly very aware of that pattern of thinking which frames concepts in opposition, divides the world up between dark and light, material and immaterial, technology and humanity, invisible and visible, mind and body, body and soul.

In this ten part series, academic and broadcaster Professor Alice Roberts traces how human knowledge of anatomy has grown and changed over time, and how this changing understanding has in turn affected our understanding of who we are.

Episode 10: Visible and Invisible - where the body ends

Professor Alice Roberts ends her journey through the history of anatomy. From pre-history until the 20th century, the story was broadly the transformation of a conception of the body as a mysterious black box into the body as a machine. But now we seem on the cusp of a new era - with technology profoundly changing the ways we view our bodies both metaphorically and practically.

Presenter: Professor Alice Roberts

Actor: Jonathan Kydd

A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4

Alice Roberts concludes her time-travelling tour of human anatomical knowledge.

Professor Alice Roberts traces our changing understanding of human anatomy and ourselves.

The human body is the battleground where our most fundamental ideas about the way the world is come into sharp focus.

When we think and talk about the body, we are suddenly very aware of that pattern of thinking which frames concepts in opposition, divides the world up between dark and light, material and immaterial, technology and humanity, invisible and visible, mind and body, body and soul.

In this ten part series, academic and broadcaster Professor Alice Roberts traces how human knowledge of anatomy has grown and changed over time, and how this changing understanding has in turn affected our understanding of who we are.

Episode 10: Visible and Invisible - where the body ends

Professor Alice Roberts ends her journey through the history of anatomy. From pre-history until the 20th century, the story was broadly the transformation of a conception of the body as a mysterious black box into the body as a machine. But now we seem on the cusp of a new era - with technology profoundly changing the ways we view our bodies both metaphorically and practically.

Presenter: Professor Alice Roberts

Actor: Jonathan Kydd

A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4

Alice Roberts concludes her time-travelling tour of human anatomical knowledge.

Professor Alice Roberts traces our changing understanding of human anatomy and ourselves.

In this first omnibus episode, anatomist Professor Alice Roberts introduces her time-travelling tour of anatomical knowledge, from the cave men to DNA. She asks how we see our bodies and examines one idea that has forever dogged our concept of the body - the soul and the need for it to somehow be meshed into our picture of the body.

What did our pre-historic ancestors think of the human body? Did they see it as the same as the animals they hunted - a collection of bones, muscle, sinews and blood vessels. Or was it somehow separate? Alice contemplates tantalising glimpses of human bodies from our deep past - a human skull used as a drinking vessel, a statue of a half-man half-lion being, tiny figurines of Ice Age women.

The first civilisation to leave us traces of medical knowledge is ancient Egypt. And among these records of ancient injuries and remedies, one set stands out - the Edwin Smith papyrus. For the first time magic spells are mixed with a rational and proto-scientific understanding of the human body.

Images of ideal bodies are everywhere we look today. We are invited to look, to enjoy, to judge, to compare to these bodies. Can anyone match up to the ideal? In ancient Greece idealised images of the human body were everywhere and an explicit connection was drawn between physical and moral beauty.

And In the city of Alexandria, in the 3rd century BCE, physicians were allowed to do something that had been completely out of bounds for centuries before and would then be outlawed for centuries afterwards - dissect human bodies.

Presenter: Professor Alice Roberts
Actor: Jonathan Kydd

A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4

Alice Roberts with her time travelling tour of anatomical knowledge of the human body.

Professor Alice Roberts traces our changing understanding of human anatomy and ourselves.

Perhaps the most beautiful anatomical drawings of them all are from the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci. Alice celebrates da Vinci's lifelong fascination with anatomy and the ground-breaking diagrams he made.

In 1543, De humani corporis fabrica - on the fabric of the human body - by a Flemish artist known by his Latin name, Vesalius was published. This book was full of the most gorgeous illustrations of anatomy. Its publication marks a watershed.

Art, literature and science in 17th century Holland shared a fascination with death - and overlapped each other in macabre ways as they explored their subject. Dutch anatomists made discoveries both about the structure of the body and how to preserve and prepare corpses for dissection. But they also created what today we'd call artistic installations.

From pre-history until the 20th century, the story was broadly the transformation of a conception of the body as a mysterious black box into the body as a machine. But now we seem on the cusp of a new era - with technology profoundly changing the ways we view our bodies both metaphorically and practically.

Presenter: Professor Alice Roberts

Actor: Jonathan Kydd

A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4

Alice Roberts with her time travelling tour of anatomical knowledge of the human body.

Professor Alice Roberts traces our changing understanding of human anatomy and ourselves.