Documentary

Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines

In this "entertaining medical series" (The Sunday Times, U.K.), Dr. Michael Mosley shows how drugs have revolutionized medicine and changed the course of human history. Unfolding over a period of 200 years, it's an extraordinary tale of daring, self-experimentation, revelation, genius, and outright luck.

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Created By

Status

Ended

Original Name

Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines

First Air Date

July 22, 2013

Last Air Date

August 5, 2013

Seasons

1

Episodes

3

Language

English

Production Companies

Networks

BBC Four

Poison
S01E03

Poison

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.

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