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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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[CHEERING]

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Few of us think about the trauma
we generate in our voice boxes

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when we talk, sing,
laugh, or scream.

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[CHEERING]

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But take a look down
the talented gullet

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of Steven Tyler,
Aerosmith's lead singer--

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[SINGING]

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--and you get a feel for why
he, and millions of others,

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are wreaking havoc on
a delicate instrument.

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OK.

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[INAUDIBLE]

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Tonight, as Aerosmith
performs, Dr. Stephens Zeitels

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and his team from
Massachusetts General Hospital,

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will get a rare treat.

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Yeah.

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With the help of special
monitoring equipment,

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they'll see how this
famous pair of vocal cords

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holds up to such extremes.

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Doctors Zeitels, one time
for my kids, what do you--

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what do you-- what
is this monitoring?

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What we're going to be doing
is looking at the vibrations

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on the skin of your neck,
which is going to pick up

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the intensity of your voice.

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Mm hm.

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It's going to be picking up
the loudness of your voice.

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Mm hm.

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Thank you, doctor.

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Thank you.

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Into the abyss.

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[THROAT CLEARING]

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Oh.

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Into the great beyond
with doctor Zeitels.

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And that one--

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Backstage, throughout
tonight's concert,

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Zeitels will use an endoscope
to examine Tyler's voice

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box up close.

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[INAUDIBLE]

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Try not to touch the sides.

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Yup.

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[THROAT CLEARING]

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That's great, Steven.

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Put your tongue out for me.

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Just breathe.

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Say hee.

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Heee--

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It's a rare insight into what
goes on in a high performance

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singer.

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Mm.

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Eh.

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Real-time measures
of a performer,

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who is at the top of his
game doing a live performance

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for thousands of people.

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It's a first.

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It hasn't been done before.

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[SINGING]

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To produce these
kinds of sounds,

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Tyler's vocal chords are
slamming together an average

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of 170 times a second.

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Ah.

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That's more than
half a million times

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during the course of a concert.

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Ah.

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And nearly a billion
times during the course

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of his 30-year
professional career.

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There's no part of
the human body that

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likely sees these kinds of
collision forces and shearing

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stresses, which is why vocal
folds essentially wear out

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over time.

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It's also why, just months
earlier, damaged vocal chords

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canceled much of
Aerosmith's tour.

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Tyler could barely sing--

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[SINGING]

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Just breathe.

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--forcing him to
undergo Zeitels' knife.

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Or laser, in this case.

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Stephen basically had
a vocal bleed, which

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is very common in performers.

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Common, in fact, to many
with the gift of gab.

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From attorneys to telemarketers.

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The laser surgery, which
Zeitels and his team pioneered,

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works by sealing off damaged
vessels to stop the bleeding.

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These aren't some Photoshop
tricks you're looking at.

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This is Steven
Tyler's voice box.

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And these are his fragile
blood vessels disappearing.

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He was able to zap
those blood vessels.

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So I go out there and just
sing and hope for the best.

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[MUSIC - AEROSMITH, "DREAM ON"]

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Now, as Stephen heads on stage,
his finely tuned vocal chords

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spring into action.

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And we get a front row seat.

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This is Steven Tyler outside--

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Anytime that I look
in the mirror--

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--and in.

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Anytime that I
look in the mirror.

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All these lines on my
face getting clearer--

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Every time we
exhale, we force air

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through our two
membranous vocal chords.

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When we bring them
together they vibrate.

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Dream on.

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Dream on.

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These vibrations produce sound,
much like a guitar string

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after it's been plucked.

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Dream on.

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Muscles open and
close the chords,

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and change the sound's pitch.

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Dream until your
dreams come true.

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During low notes, the chords are
loose and vibrate more slowly.

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Dream on.

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Dream on.

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Dream on.

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But for those falsettos--

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Dream on.

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--his chords stretched
to the limit--

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Dream on.

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--and vibrate, virtually,
off the charts.

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A surprisingly simple feat
for Tyler's pliable chords.

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I mean to go from, and
woke up this morning

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on the wrong side of the bed.

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And all them things you
said, and all the things I

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said, but-- and
it's in that voice.

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And then, you know,
of course, and I

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don't want to miss a
thing, is in that voice,

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and then Dream On is Dream on.

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Dream on.

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And they've asked
me before, how do

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you sing that song every night?

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Well that's one of the
easiest ones for me to sing.

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[SINGING]

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As for what translates these
vocal vibrations into song,

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that happens much farther
up in the throat, the mouth,

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the tongue, the nose.

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These are what put the
stamp on a human sound,

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distinguishing the likes
of Steven Tyler from just

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about anyone else.

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[MUSIC - AEROSMITH, "LOVE IN AN
ELEVATOR"]

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Bettin' on the dice--

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After some two hours
of vocal gymnastics,

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initial data reveal
that Tyler's chords

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crash together more than
half a million times--

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I really need a
girl like an open--

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--and covered the equivalent
of more than six miles.

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[CHEERING]

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And there's no
indication they'll

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be wearing out anytime soon.

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[CHEERING]

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Thank you!

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[CHEERING]

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Dramatic as it may be,
singing is a side effect

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of a much more crucial process.

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The real reason why air
passes through our mouths

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is breathing.

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[CAR HONKING]

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[BREATHING]

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We wouldn't survive much more
than a couple of minutes if we

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didn't.

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[BREATHING]

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With every inhale,
our noses or mouths

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suck in about a pint of air
some 20,000 times a day.

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We can follow it on its
journey down the throat, passed

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the voice box, and into
the windpipe, or trachea.

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As it approaches the
lungs, air has a choice.

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Left or right?

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But both lungs lead
to the same end.

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The lungs' bronchi
divide and divide

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into thousands of smaller and
smaller branches, progressively

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filtering chemicals, dust,
and smoke in the air,

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until, finally, they come to
an end in this pouch-like ball

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called, an alveolus.

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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More than 300 million of
them spread across each lung

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with a combined surface area
roughly a third the size

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of a tennis court.

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In less than a second,
oxygen molecules

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exit the lungs here through
walls just one cell thick.

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They'll then cross into
a surging bloodstream,

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be whisked throughout the body,
and provide precious resources

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to every one of our
trillions of cells.

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Assuming air gets to this point.

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The blue, here, shows how a
healthy lung empties oxygen

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into the bloodstream.

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In this smokers lung, oxygen
can't empty nearly as well.

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Then there's the exhale.

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Carbon dioxide, the waste
product of breathing,

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makes the opposite
journey back out.

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Another inhale and our
breathing apparatus

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offers yet another gift with
delightful or disgusting

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results.

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With every new
breath, our noses can

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distinguish as many as
10,000 different odors.

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Some pleasing, some not.

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They can calm, caution,
or make our mouths water,

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but the essence of
any aroma, from a day

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at the beach to fresh baked
bread, is pure chemistry.

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Isobutyl acetate, vanillic
acid, and more than 300

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different chemicals,
for example,

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come together to give chocolate
its unmistakable bouquet.

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A rose, by any other name,
might be phenol ethyl alcohol.

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And once fish is
passed its prime,

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it owes its stench
to trymethylamine,

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a byproduct of the
bacteria growing inside it.

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Whatever the chemical,
deep inside our noses,

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there is a small patch of
about 10 million cells waiting

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to sniff it out.

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These cells carry about
1,000 different kinds

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of receptors on their surfaces.

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When the right odor
chemical meets up

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with the right receptor,
an electrical signal

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gets sent to the brain.

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And finally, the
incredible machine, smells.

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00:10:01,030 --> 00:10:04,430


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All in all, our
respiratory systems

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are ingenious multi-taskers,
sorting thousands of smells

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at each intake.

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Capable of making thousands
of sounds on the way out.

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But no matter how
pleasant the by product,

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there is a higher
calling to breathing.

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Every breath we
take delivers oxygen

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to our trillions of
power hungry cells

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and gets our hearts to pump.

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[HEART BEAT]

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