The Human Instrument
Curious Cases
BBC
4.8 • 4.1K Ratings
🗓️ 11 May 2018
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"What happens to the human voice as we age? If I hear a voice on the radio, I can guess roughly how old they are. But singer's voices seem to stay relatively unchanged as they age. Why is this?" All these questions were sent to curiouscases@bbc.co.uk by Jonathan Crain from Long Island in New York.
The Doctors discover how the human voice is produced and listen to how our voice sounds when it emerges from our vocal cords. Acoustic engineer Trevor Cox, author of 'Now You're Talking', explains why German and French babies have a different accent. And neuroscientist Sophie Scott describes what happens when boys' voices break, and why a similar thing can happen to women during the menopause.
Finally, our voices often change dramatically in later life, as demonstrated by impressionist Duncan Wisbey from Radio 4's Dead Ringers. Expect cameos from David Attenborough, Dumbledore and Paul McCartney.
Presenters: Hannah Fry, Adam Rutherford Producer: Michelle Martin.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Dr Adam Rutherford. And I'm Dr Hannah Fry. And you are going to send us your everyday |
| 0:10.8 | mysteries. And we are going to investigate them. Using the power of science. Science. |
| 0:16.5 | I like it. Hello, Curios. Oh, your voice sounds a bit croaky there, Adam. |
| 0:27.3 | Ah, that's because I was smoking a pipe before we started today, which is a hot... |
| 0:30.8 | You strike me as a sort of person who would be well at home with a pipe and a cr of ash. |
| 0:35.6 | We do, but my friend Jack once considered reintroducing pipes into polite society. They didn't |
| 0:41.8 | really catch on because smoking pipes is absolutely disgusting. Yeah, taste disgusting, smell |
| 0:47.9 | disgusting. Looks great. Looks really good for having arguments because you can just articulate |
| 0:52.1 | with them. But really, really bad news if your job is predominantly as a radio presenter. |
| 0:59.2 | Absolutely. Not very good for your voice. And that is what this episode of Curios Cases is all about. |
| 1:12.6 | Hello, it's Curios Cases. And the question we're tackling is from Jonathan Crane in Long Island |
| 1:18.0 | in New York. He asks, what happens to the human voice as we age? If I hear a voice on the radio, |
| 1:24.0 | I can guess roughly how hard they are. But singers' voices seem to stay relatively unchanged as they |
| 1:29.7 | age. Why is this? Okay, without looking this up listeners, how old do you think that we are? Be kind, |
| 1:37.6 | send your answers and more importantly, questions to Curios Cases at BBC.co.uk. |
| 1:42.8 | I think we might be attempting fake hitters. This is a dangerous thing to get into. Now, |
| 1:47.0 | we're going to get on to age and voice in a moment. But first off, what do we do when we talk? |
| 1:52.6 | Well, normally I say something and then you make face and then you disagree with me. |
| 1:59.2 | No, I mean, what's actually happening inside our bodies? I went to the visit the lab of neuroscientists |
| 2:04.6 | and voice experts Sophie Scott to find out. Our voices actually start down at the rib cage. |
| 2:09.6 | And what we do at the rib cage is we squeeze the air out very gently when we use our voices. |
| 2:14.8 | And what we're actually doing with that is we're providing a very controlled flow there |
... |
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