Spine Nina and the Neurons: Brilliant Bodies

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# If you've got a question and you don't know where to go

# Ask Nina for some help Cos she's got a science show

# She makes sense of her senses While helping all her fans

# By doing her experiments with potions and with bangs

-# Touch your tongue

-Tongue!

-# Fingers

-Fingers!

-# Eyes.

-Eyes!

-Ears.

-Ears!

-Nose.

-Nose!

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Luke, he helps us with our eyes And Felix with our touch

# Ollie sniffs out smells And Belle, she hears so much

# Bud is Ollie's brother He helps us with our taste

# They're Nina's little Neurons And they're coming to your place!

-# Touch your tongue

-Tongue!

-# Fingers

-Fingers!

-# Eyes.

-Eyes!

-Ears.

-Ears!

-Nose.

-Nose!

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Oh yeah! #

Oh, hello. I'm just tidying up after an experiment.

I'll have to stretch up to put this back.

Oh, there we are.

COMPUTER BLEEPS

I hear a beep, I see a flash. I wonder what they're going to ask?

ALL: Hi, Nina.

Hi, guys.

We've got a question for you.

Why are our backs so bumpy?

Oh, that's a great question. Why are our backs so bumpy?

I haven't thought about it. You're right, they're really bumpy.

Come down to the lab and we'll do some experiments to investigate.

ALL: See you soon, Nina.

Bye!

I'll need help to answer this and I know just who to ask.

OK, Neurons, time to get to work.

ALL: Neurons at the ready, Nina.

OK. Today's question is, why are our backs so bumpy?

Which Neuron will be most useful to help find the answer?

ALL: Me! Me! Me! Oh, me!

Will it be fabulous Felix?

I can help so very much if you need the sense of touch.

Beautiful Belle?

I send messages to brain from ear. If there's a sound, I'll help you hear.

-Lovely Luke?

-For looking and seeing, day or night,

I'll help you with your sense of sight.

-Will it be awesome Ollie?

-If it's pongy or whiffy but you can't tell,

my messages help your sense of smell.

Or will it be baby Bud?

Sour, salty, bitter or sweet, I'm your taste buddy whenever you eat!

It's Felix!

CHEERING

ALL: Go Felix! Go Felix!

Go Felix! Go Felix! Go Felix! Go Felix!

Go Felix!

Marvellous! A little touch can mean so much, Nina.

Today's question is, why are our back so bumpy.

Because we use touch to feel the bumps,

Felix, our touch neuron, will be helping us today.

Right, I need to get the lab ready for the experimenters.

Kai likes balancing, Cara likes hopping, and Rianna loves tennis.

But they all want to know how our backs are so bumpy.

So today, for one day only, Kai, Cara and Rianna

become the experimenters!

-Hi, guys.

-ALL: Hi, Nina.

Oh, welcome to my science lab. Come in.

Now, your question is, why are our backs so bumpy?,

which is a great question.

But why do you want to know?

When we went swimming,

I noticed that my friend's back was all bumpy.

And we want to know why.

We're going to have fun exploring this question.

For our first experiment, we're using our senses.

ALL: Whoop-woo! A sense experiment! We're ready, Nina.

I'd like you to touch the bumps on each other's backs

and tell me how they feel.

Kai's feels lumpy.

Lumpy?

-Feels like a tortoise shell.

-Well, you're right.

It does feel quite hard and knobbly, doesn't it?

The bumps you felt in each other's backs

are part of your backbone,

which is also called your spine.

Now, let's have a look at Mr Skeleton's spine. So where is it?

The middle.

That's right. Our spine is in the middle of our skeleton.

It goes all the way from the top of our neck,

all the way down to our bottom.

Now, I'd like you guys to have a feel of Mr Skeleton's spine

and tell me what it feels like.

Lumpy.

-Bumpy and lumpy.

-Yes!

The spine is lots of little bones,

a bit like these cotton reels.

We're going to use these to make a pretend spine.

So we're going to thread them

onto this piece of cord like this.

Whoop!

OK, let's do it.

Oh, nice work, guys.

We've made our very own bumpy spine. Ha-ha!

Now our real spine is actually a lot like this.

There's a cord running right down the middle of it

and it's called our spinal cord. It runs right down the middle

of our spine, through little holes

that you can see here.

Our spinal cord is like a telephone line

our brain uses to talk to the rest of our body.

Hello, is that the body? Yes, it's the brain calling.

I need you to do something.

The brain is the thing inside our head

that tells the rest of our body what to do.

If we want to jump in the air, our brain sends a message

down our spinal cord to our legs and feet

to tell them to jump.

It sounds like the spinal cord is really important, Nina.

It is, Belle. The little hard bones in the spine

do a good job of protecting the spinal cord inside.

But why is there lots of little bones, Nina?

Good question, Rianna. Yeah, the bumpy spine

looks very different to the long, straight bone

in Mr Skeleton's arms and legs, doesn't it? So I think we need to go

to an exciting place with lots of action.

-Let's go, experimenters!

-ALL: Yeah!

I wonder where Nina is taking us.

Nina said it's somewhere exciting with lots of action.

It might be a bowling alley!

Or maybe it's a fairground with lots of brilliant rides whizzing around.

Look, guys! We're here!

OK, experimenters.

We've discovered that our spine is made of lots of bones.

Abby here is going to help us work out why.

OK, everyone. Let's try a side bend.

Ah, yes. All this bending feels marvellous.

-Ah! Thanks, Abby.

-You're welcome, Nina.

Ah, that was brilliant fun! All that bending and twisting!

And what part of our bodies were we bending a lot?

-Our backs.

-That's right.

And in what directions did our backs bend?

Forwards and backwards and side to side.

Yeah, we can bend our backs forwards, backwards,

from side to side and all around in a circle.

And we can only do this

because our spine is made of all these little bumpy bones.

They allow our bodies

to twist and bend and turn, like this.

Wow, look at how it bends.

You can see all the bumps that stick out our back when we bend.

You try.

-It's really bendy.

-That's a good thing.

If our spine was just one big long hard bone,

like this pretend one, then it wouldn't be able to bend.

Hrrgh!

And we wouldn't be able to do lots of things,

like reaching over and picking something up

or bending over to tie our shoelaces.

There's another thing our spines do in our brilliant bodies.

Let's go back to my lab for an experiment.

OK, first of all, I would like you to simply jump on the spot.

Let's go for it!

THEY GIGGLE

Oh, that was fun.

OK, tell me how the floor felt underneath your feet

when you were jumping.

Hard and a wee bit sore.

OK, the same thing again,

but this time we're jumping on these big cushions. Let's go!

-OK, now how did your feet feel that time?

-Really bouncy.

Yes, much comfier on the feet and legs.

This is another reason why our spines are brilliant.

In between the bony bumps on our spine,

we have something called discs which act as little cushions.

And this experiment

is going to explain why.

OK, now you each have an egg joined to a little pole.

What will happen if you bang the bottom of the pole

against the hard brick?

-It'll smash.

-Well, let's see.

OK, when I count to three,

you're going to hit the bottom of the pole off this hard brick, OK?

One, two, three, go!

Oh! Ho-ho-ho!

Hee-hee-hee! Oh, dear! OK, Kai.

Let's see if it happens again. Go!

Oh! Ha-ha-ha!

Oh, no! The eggs are both smashed!

We only broke the eggs for our experiment, Bud.

It's not good to waste food normally.

OK, now Cara.

What will happen if we do the same thing again,

but this time with a little cushion under the egg?

Don't know.

OK. Well, let's give it a go.

Oh!

It didn't break! Why do you think it didn't break?

There was a soft cushion underneath.

Eggs-actly! Ha-ha!

The soft, squishy cushion protected the egg

and stopped it breaking.

And the disks in our spine do the same thing.

They act like little cushions

in between all the hard little backbones

so that when we walk, run or jump in the air,

the little bones don't bash together and our head stays nice and safe.

Your question was, why are our backs so bumpy? I think we've answered it.

Our brilliant backbone, our spine,

is bumpy because it's made up of lots of little bones.

This allows us to bend, stretch and move in lots of different ways.

These little hard bones also protect

the soft spinal cord

which our brain uses to talk to our body.

The soft discs between the bones in our spine

cushion our body and head when we walk, run or jump up and down.

So I hope that's answered your question.

ALL: Thanks, Nina. Bye!

Bye!

If you want to find out more about the science all around us,

go to the Nina page on the CBeebies website. Have fun!

-Hearts beating.

-Lungs breathing.

-Fingers feeling.

-Mouths eating.

And don't forget your brain.

# Brilliant bodies, brilliant bodies

# Inside and ou-ou-out

# Brilliant bodies, brilliant bodies

# Come on, let's find out about

# Our happy hands and bendy knees

# Stretchy backs And noses that sneeze

# We all have brilliant bodies... #

Brilliant bodies!

# Every part has a job to do

# Even scabs and ear wax too

# We all have brilliant bodies... #

Brilliant bodies

# Brilliant bodies, brilliant bodies

# Lashes to protect our eyes

# Brilliant bodies, brilliant bodies

# And don't forget to exercise. #

It's been marvellous day, especially feeling Mr Skeleton's

hard, bumpy spine.

Oh, I've had a brilliant day.

The exercise class with the bending

and stretching was great fun!

Ah, it's been such a great day, man.

The experiment with the eggs was really smashing. Hee-hee!

Remember, everyone's body is different,

but they're all brilliant. See you again soon. Bye!

ALL: Bye!

E-mail: [email protected].