The Secret World of Pain
Horizon reveals the latest research into one of the most mysterious and common human experiences - pain.
Breakthroughs have come from studying a remarkable woman in London who has felt no pain at all in her life, a man in the US who cut off his own arm to survive, and three generations of an Italian family who don't feel extremes of temperature.
We witness a new treatment that involves a pioneering computer game 'snow world' that contains the power to banish pain. And we find how powerfully our moods and emotions shape what pain we feel.
Monday 31 January, 21:00, BBC Two
Ego
Art critic Laura Cumming takes a journey through more than five centuries of self-portraits and finds out how the greatest names in western art transformed themselves into their own masterpieces.
The film argues that self-portraits are a unique form of art, one that always reveals the truth of how artists saw themselves and how they wanted to be known to the world. Examining the works of key self-portraitists including Durer, Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Warhol, Laura traces the development of the genre, uncovering the strange and various ways artists have managed to get their inner and outer selves to match up.
Ego: The Strange & Wonderful World of Self-Portraits
Monday 31 January, 19:30, BBC Four
Material World
A team of astronomers from California have discovered what may be the oldest galaxy ever seen. Images from the Hubble Space Telescope, although faint and blurry, show a galaxy that dates from 480 million years after the big bang. Quentin Cooper talks to Rychard Bouwens, who led the research.
In response to listener emails about last week’s item on bed bugs, Professor Mike Siva-Jothy, from the University of Sheffield, returns to answer questions about their distinctive odour and how long they can survive.
Monday 31 January, 21:00, BBC Radio 4
Justice Makers
They are the UK's most powerful arbiters of justice and now for the first time, four of the Justices of the Supreme Court talk frankly and openly about the nature of justice and how they make their decisions. The film offers a revealing glimpse of the human characters behind the judgments and explores why the Supreme Court and its members are fundamental to our democracy.
The 11 men and one woman who make up the UK Supreme Court have the last say on the most controversial and difficult cases in the land. But are their rulings always fair, do their feelings ever get in the way of their judgments and are they always right?
The Highest Court in the Land: Justice Makers
Monday 31 January, 23:00, BBC Four
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