Curated playlist
Hepatotoxins
- ArsenicArsenic was called the inheritance powder because it was used to kill relatives for a fortune.
- Alcohol (drug)Alcohol works by boosting GABA, the brain's main brake pedal. The liver then breaks down most of it.
- EstrogenEstrogen softens ligaments, which helps explain why women tear their ACLs more often.
- Anabolic steroidMost anabolic steroid users in the U.S. are not competitive athletes. Typical users are middle-class men around 25.
- IbuprofenStewart Adams, a researcher at Boots the Chemists in Nottingham, first tried the compound that became ibuprofen as a cure for his own hangover. A patent application followed in 1961. Ibuprofen is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug,…
- AspirinEvery year, people swallow an estimated 40000 tonne of aspirin, somewhere between 50 and 120 billion pills. In the United States alone, doctors wrote more than 14 million prescriptions for it in 2023, which made it the 46th most commonly…
- ParacetamolParacetamol, called acetaminophen in the United States, was the 112th most commonly prescribed medication there in 2023, with more than 5 million prescriptions. That count misses the far larger number of people who buy it without a…
- EthanolEthanol, the molecule that makes alcoholic drinks intoxicating, turns up in the breath of healthy volunteers at an average of 196 parts per billion. It also forms an icy coating on dust grains in interstellar clouds. This one plain liquid,…
- PenicillinPenicillin was discovered when mold spoiled a dish of bacteria. Alexander Fleming saw the nearby bacteria had died.
- QuinineQuinine is the reason that, behind many bars, the tonic water button on the soda gun is marked with a single letter, Q. That letter stands for a bitter compound taken from the bark of a tree native to Peru. Using it against malaria marks…