Pain, Pus and Poison

Synopsis

Dr Michael Mosley tells the story of how the world’s most useful and valuable drugs were created. The most poisonous toxin known to man, Botulinum, is now used as an anti-wrinkle drug called Botox. Yet it is a myth that most of our drugs come from nature. Modern drugs are man-made, designed in some of the world’s most high tech labs.

Language

English

Country

Great Britain

Year of release

2013

Notes

Episode 1 of this series, ‘Pain’, won the Premier Award and the General Education Broadcast Award at the 2014 Learning on Screen Awards.

Subjects

Medical sciences

Keywords

antibiotics; history of medicine; infection; medicines; pain; pain management; smallpox; Pasteur, Louis (1822-1855); drug development; poison

Credits

Director

Alex Freeman; Ben Crichton

Producer

Ben Crichton

Contributor

Michael Mosley

Distribution Formats

Type

DVD

Format

Region 2 PAL

Price

£34.99

Availability

Sale

Duration/Size

180 minutes

Year

2014

Sections

Title

Pain

Synopsis

Pain has a profound effect on our bodies - when we are experiencing it, millions of nerve cells deep within our brains are firing, telling us ‘it hurts’ - and for centuries the challenge has been to find something that will lessen or even switch off these sensations to bring us relief. Dr Michael Mosley discovers just what pain is, why we want to control it and how we ultimately did it when the discovery of morphine, the world’s first pharmaceutical, at the beginning of the 19th century led to a 200-year journey of scientific breakthrough, discovery and self-experimentation.

Title

Pus

Synopsis

Infection can take over the entire human body and if our immune systems aren’t strong enough we will die - in fact, infectious disease has regularly wiped out millions of people across the planet. Dr Michael Mosley explores our earliest attempts to tackle infection and reveals the moment we began to harness the power of microbes to fight back. This is the story of how scientists, chemists and doctors helped us win the battle, from Louis Pasteur to Howard Florey, and how a small team of dedicated men and women wiped out one of mankind’s deadliest diseases - smallpox.

Title

Poison

Synopsis

Dr Michael Mosley ends the series with a look at poisons, exploring the turning points when scientists went from finding antidotes to poisons to applying poisons as a cure - celebrating the eccentrics and mavericks whose breakthroughs were to pave the way for some of the most striking treatments of modern medicine. Of the medicines explored in this series, those that are derived from poisons are perhaps the most extraordinary. The story of turning poisons into medicines encompasses the planet’s most deadly substances, in which we turned killers into cures.

Production Company

Name

BBC

Notes

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Distributor

Name

Open University Worldwide

Web

http://www.ouw.co.uk External site opens in new window

Phone

+44 (0) 1908 274066

Address

Walton Hall
Milton Keynes
MK7 6AA

Notes

NB. As of May 2016 Open University Worldwide are no longer distributing DVDs. They have posted this message on their website: ‘Unfortunately Open University Worldwide Limited has decided that product sales are no longer viable given the reduced funding to Higher Education institutions and diminishing demand for the products we have traditionally stocked. At present the Open University Students Association (OUSA) will continue to sell the "Good Study Guide", and we are in discussion with other possible distributors to continue to make The Open University’s products available for purchase. As soon as we have any information on other channels of distribution we will update this notice’. Some products are still available via second hand dealers on Amazon.co.uk