First broadcast in 1936, the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures are the oldest running science television programme. Broadcast every year at Christmas time, they have become a festive tradition, presenting science in an exciting, fun and easily digestible way (pun intended).

This year, the lectures are all about the revolutionary science inside our bodies when we eat, and are presented by television personality and medical doctor, Dr Chris van Tulleken.

A team from Professor Hazel Screen’s Biomedical Engineering research group lent their knowledge to this year’s third lecture, broadcast on Tuesday 31st December.

For the episode, titled The Big Food Hack, PhD student Luke Philbrooks and Postdoctoral researcher Dr Nidal Khatib devised a way to visually demonstrate the strength of tendons before and after cooking. Analytical Laboratories Manager Dr Erica Di Federico helped set up and test the experiment, which was used live during the lecture, showing that cooking food makes it easier to digest.

You can watch the lecture back on BBC iPlayer.