The Science of Winter Sports
5 March - 14 mins
Podcast Series
Show Me the Science with Luke O'Neill
Winter sports look clean and crystalline on the surface. Snow, ice, precision, courage. But scratch that frozen surface and you find molecular biology doing quiet, mischievous work.
In this week’s podcast, Professor Luke O'Neill takes us from the ski jump ramp to the veg aisle, via one of the strangest alleged performance hacks of the recent Winter Olympics.
First stop: hyaluronic acid. A substance your body already makes, found in skin and connective tissue, famous for its ability to hold vast amounts of water. That’s why it appears in skin creams, dermal fillers, and treatments for sore joints — it hydrates, cushions, and plumps.
Reports suggested some ski jumpers injected it weeks b...
Series Episodes
