Special all audio edition!
No reading this week, just a podcast to listen to. What happens when scientific research leads to more harm than good? What if the self-correcting nature of science is blocked by celebrity and charisma? This is called Pandora's Lab. Examples of this discussed in the episode are opiod-based painkillers and frontal lobotomies.
If you are at all interested in self-delusion, or psychology in general, I highly recommend going through the back catalog of the You Are Not So Smart podcast. The host also has published a few books that are worth checking out if you are interested in finding out why your brain is doing weird things to you.
56 comments:
Today, I listened to the You Are Not So Smart Podcast. This podcast was extremely interesting and it highlighted many different points about science. It's main point was that scientific research that is meant for good purposes is often transformed and has harmful effects because of false information from celebrities and big names. One of the examples that was given was the belief that vaccines caused autism. This was very untrue, but a scientist published this information and caused many parents to be scared of vaccines. This caused their children to become sick because they didn't have vaccines protecting them from certain illnesses. If false scientific information is published for a very short time, it will still have extreme amounts of people believing in it, no matter how many papers there are disproving whatever was said. Another commonly talked about example was the use of drugs. There are so many drugs such as morphine, oxi-codon, and heroin that were created with good intentions but used for the wrong things. Each one was created to help stop the addiction from another drug, but then the drug that was used to stop an addiction would just then become another addiction. It went full circle. The reason we have all these drugs today is because a scientist falsely advertised for them, and they became popular. The media showed these drugs to be lifesaving and praised this false information, meanwhile there were hundreds of people dying because of these drug addictions. I found this podcast to be extremely interesting and engaging because it explained the reason for so many crises going on today and it was very understandable. It was very interesting to find out that such false scientific information could become an outbreak in the media within such a short time and have very harmful effects on the people.
Scientific research leads to so much benefit for society. However, it can also lead to harm. The discovery of opioids. It was originally used only as pain killers, but now it is used too often as an addictive drug that people get high off of. Eventually, during the 19th century, countries were even trading these drugs for money. Heroin was a “safe, chemistry created alternative.” But just as the opium epidemic spread, so did the heroin epidemic. In the late 1990’s however, the heroin use declined. The reason for this was “oxicodon.” However, this became the new epidemic. Scientists could never really produce a pain medicine without a side effect of addiction for years. Scientific innovation doesn't always immediately lead to help, but it leads to harm at first. There have been several examples in the past in which scientists have developed false theories that everyone believed at first. I don't blame the public for initially believing those false theories because when one is uneducated on a topic, they will most likely believe everything that someone who is educated in that topic says. Because of this, people have to do deeper research and question science more to make sure it is accurate. Some people are desperate for answers and will choose what data to believe, while some people have to do research to be 100% sure. My personal opinion is that communication in science gets very tricky when you mix experienced educated scientific people, with the common person who doesn't know much about science. The same goes for any other topic.
I found the You Are Not So Smart podcast very interesting. I do agree that many scientists make a lot of mistakes in research that they put out into the world. I think that the scientists should test their theories/discoveries more times before they put it out into the world. Sometimes, the things that are put out into the world are very harmful to society rather than helpful. One example is heroin. When it was first put out into the world, everybody was using it and everyone thought that it was this wonderful thing. Then many years later, scientists decided to look back into the effects of heroin and found out that it was actually extremely harmful. I do agree with the podcast when it says that we need to be more cautious. My opinion is that we need to understand exactly what we are using/believing before we start using/believing it because it may not always be helpful.
This podcast was engaging because of the interesting scenarios it discussed and because its main point was one that many people don't consider. People can easily overlook the dangers of science if they hear what they want to hear or are just looking for easy answers. One situation that caught my attention was the one about Dr. Offit visiting a senator who truly didn't believe that vaccines don't cause autism or other diseases. It astonished me that some lawmakers would propose such an expensive bill for a problem that obviously doesn't exist. It draws attention to the fact that scientists not only have to be the collectors of data, but also its interpreters; they have to publish the data in an easy to understand way so that people who are affected by it know its main conclusions and how reliable it is. Unfortunately, it becomes too easy to just listen to the celebrity types who toot their own horns the loudest, and to ignore the full picture, which is often published in scientific journals which may be more accurate, but not read by the majority of the public. The lobotomy part was the most sickening to me because common sense would say that jabbing a spike into the brain can't be good for the health, yet people (like Walter Freeman) made it seem useful because of the way he presented data to the public. This is not to say that all wrong results should be shunned and condemned, or that science doesn't come up with answers, but it is necessary to think twice and find related studies before comig to conclusions, especially if the result could have a large impact.
For me, this raised a few key points. One is that communication of results can be just as important as those results themselves, and the other is that the results of a study should be carefully thought out before being spouted to the public, most of who would not know a thing about such complicated topics. Like the podcast said, people should question science, but they shouldn't flat out ignore the results, because they can have huge consequences.
The You Are Not So Smart Podcast brought up many good points about the history and modern usage of opioid painkillers. I never knew that ancient cultures had almost worshipped the poppy crop, calling them a gift from gods, or from the buddha's own skin. It relates closely to a biblical tale, like how the 10 commandments were hand written in stone by God himself. Since then, the timeline of opioids have gone from drug to drug, opium, morphine, to heroine, to oxy, they all promised to fix your addiction from the last. The problem roots from this mindset that medicine should be used to put a bandage over issues, instead of fixing the root of your problem. These drugs mask pain, but no one asks why they are in pain in the first place. The podcast mentions pain being the "fifth vital sign", which speaks to the commonality of this modern epidemic. Some holistic nutritionists and doctors today have realized this, and help their patients fix their nutritional downfalls, and that is where science needs to be focused. Not giving the public addictive painkillers, but educating them on how to live a healthy life without them.
I found the concept of Pandora's Lab used throughout the entire podcast to be an extremely valuable perspective on science and medicine. Medicine specifically should not just be blindly followed due to endorsements or the fact that trained chemists created it. Take the opium epidemic discussed in the podcast for example. There have been a train reaction of drugs used to treat other addictions that lead to more addictions. It becomes an endless cycle where a viable solution becomes quite unclear. That concept specifically reminded me of introducing new a species into an ecosystem and causing new kinds of issues. For instance, the introduction of North American gray squirrels to Great Britain and Italy are pushing native red squirrels to extinction because they can not forage as effectively. The extinction of these red squirrels could lead to further extinction of organisms that rely on them for survival and so on. There is simply no all-inclusive answer to either problem due to the complicated chain reaction that follows. The War on Drugs which was a government effort to stop the epidemic caused even further issue. The almost blind usage of opium based medicines for both illegal and practical use along with the chain reaction it has caused brought up the podcast's last key point to not blindly trust science. As it stated, there is a tradeoff for everything. It is up to people to look into possible side effects, studies, etc. to determine what is best for them. Without educating themselves, people will be left in the dark to blindly trust medicine or treatments simply for the sake of being scientific.
This podcast makes several points that are important to our understanding of opioids and their diverse uses in medicine. An astounding point was that opioids affected Coach K and he became dependent on it. Thankfully his dependency remained just that, and did not grow into a further addiction of CNS depressants. However it made me realize that even the most mentally strong, disciplined, and educated people can suffer from the adverse effects of opioids. It is the responsibility of medical providers and prescribers to prescribe oxycodone cautiously and then responsibly and quickly ween the patients of it. Opioids have their place in medicine and are certainly effective, but medical providers must proceed with caution.
The podcast You Are Not So Smart shed light on a very interesting topic. Over the years science has had many amazing discoveries that greatly improved life and health, but sometimes science can cause more harm than good. One example, is pain killers that contain opiod. The discovery that this drug opiod can be used as a pain killer was very big. People started using opium in everything from candy to cough medicine. Eventually, it becomes apparent that this drug was causing addiction, and the addiction out of control. Scientist chemically created heroin which they thought to be a safe drug that could help pain or sicknesses like bronchitis. Overtime, people started to get addicted to heroin. People feared it would destroy the country. In the early 2000s, heroin use dropped,but the use of oxycontin increased. Oxycontin was made synthetically by scientist. Throughout history, scientist have been trying to fix problems, but sometimes they cause more problems for society. Scientist used morphine to treat addiction to opium, but people because addicted to morphine. Then, heroin was used to treat the morphine addiction, but people became addicted to heroin. Then, scientist used oxycontin to treat heroin addiction, but people became addicted to oxycontin. It is a never ending cycle. Scientist try to find a pain killing medicine that doesn't cause addiction and eases suffering, but they end up causing more harm then good. In addition, charismatic people popularize an argument that causes more damage then good. One example, is the argument that vaccines cause cancer. In Southern California, people stopped getting vaccinated for measles which lead to an outbreak that spread through the country. Soon, people realized they need to be vaccinated, and it doesn't cause cancer. Another example is one scientist wrote a paper stating opiod based drugs would not cause addiction based off his study, and it was alright to use this drug for all pain. He convinced doctors, and this lead to the widespread addictions that we have today. Scientist tore his paper down and his ideas with new facts, but the public believed him because of his charisma. Also, two men named Freeman and Monez used technique called frontal lobotomies to calm mental patients down by causing brain damage with a metal pick. It became popular because he convinced people it was beneficial. Eventually, scientist were able to correct it. People say you can not trust science because it is wrong, but really you can not trust science blindly. People should always have all the facts. Without the facts, society faces the problems of addiction and inhumane treatments.
In the following podcast, Dr.Paul Offit covers the issue of mistakes in science. As the article states, many people escape being corrected due to their fame. The first topic of the podcast was the history behind the opioid epidemic. Throughout the ancient times to the last few centuries. It spread to many countries and was banned. Eventually, heroin was created to fix the issue, but there were more deaths throughout the 20th century. After the War on Drugs was declared, drug use declined, but addictions spread from drug to drug. Ironically, many got addicted to drugs that were designed to end their addictions to earlier ones. This is related to dangerous misinformation when a paper published by a prominent doctor in the 20th century stated that opioids were good to use for all kinds of pain relief and even for everyday use. This turned out to be catastrophic for the next century since doctors justified that because of this they could prescribe them for all kinds of patients. Thus leading to drug epidemics from patients who couldn't get off of the medication. Therefore, leading to many hundreds of thousands of deaths. This can be prevented by researchers and scientists proving their studies. This is since many will still believe them regardless of correctness since they're trusted by many.
The Your Are Not So Smart Podcast told me many things about the history of science. I never knew that drugs like heroin were created to fix addictions to opiods. I realized that people should not just blindly trust scientists. For example, the podcast showed that many drugs were created to treat addictions and these drugs caused more addictions. These 'chain reactions' are dangerous and have caused the death of many people. This shows that scientists are not always right and if people trust scientists blindly, many horrible things can happen. In addition, I believe creating drugs to treat addictions is a terrible idea and is similar to treating the effects of a disease without treating the cause. The effects are addictions and the causes are taking the drugs. If drug users are told and taught how to live without drugs, then the problems caused by creating drugs like heroin don't occur. I believe that scientists should experiment on something many times and in many ways before giving it to the public. Without doing that, many new, dangerous problems can occur.
The podcast discusses the discovery and use of opioids and how they spiraled out of control because of people blindly trusting celebrities and doctors. Morphine was created to replace opium, then heroin, and finally oxycodone. Legal heroin became a treatment for a common sickness like bronchitis. Scientists needed to create a medicine that would remove pain without causing addiction. Just because one doctor said that people should get over "opiophobia" and published a paper saying that people will not get addicted, everyone thought it was harmless. People should not follow the the things they hear or see without doing research for themselves, to be sure that they are well informed about whatever medicine they will be taking.
I found the You Are Not So Smart podcast very intriguing. Being raised in a family full of doctors and nurses, I've been guided to believe that the doctor has the correct instinct for what to do. Listening to this podcast has tapped into the ideas of how doctors make mistakes that lead to ongoing problems. For example, things doctors have researched with good intent have been spoiled due to false information among the people. Things such as vaccinations, oxycodone, morphine, and other drugs and such have been made with good intent, but resulted in addiction and side effects. Doctors aren't always right with what they conclude with their research, which is a gigantic problem for when something inaccurate or harmful is released for society to use. Society has manipulated these tools to help us for addiction purposes, when in reality they were made to help protect and help us.
While listening to the podcast, I realized that it highlighted upon the benefits and harm of science. The main message that it expressed was that the many cures or scientific techniques that scientists come up with can often be shot down by the negative connotations that celebrities bring to the public. For example, the theory that vaccines are a leading cause of autism was brought on by a big name publishing this information and scaring many people. No matter how untrue it may be, the internet these days spreads information so quickly that it is almost impossible to stop it. I still can't believe how one person with some amount of followers has the ability to influence mass amounts of people.
I found the podcast very informative about the origin and history of the opiod- epidemic. What was very ironic was that morphine was created for pain relief, then heroin was created to treat morphine addiction, and then oxycodone was created to treat heroin addiction. Now today’s world is stuck with oxycotin overdoses and users everywhere, with no cure close in the future. What I found most interesting about the podcast was that before opium pills or morphine, lobotomies were quite common. What shocked me even more was that John F. Kennedy’s sister was lobotomized, because their father claimed that it would be beneficial for his other kids. Lobotomizes were popularized through media, starting out rarely operated, but as the scientist, who created the procedure, became famous, so did the use of this unethical procedure. Lobotomies were primarily used to treat mental patients; however this procedure was first subjected to mice, during an animal behavior course. Thankfully, this procedure is no longer used as a “cure”, yet opiod addiction is sweeping across America, with no cure in sight as doctors continue to prescribe these dependent medications with extra quantities for pain relief purposes.
Today I read the You Are Not So Smart podcast. It was very interesting. I also agree that many scientists make mistakes in research that they put out for us to see. Scientists should test their theories and discoveries more before they put it out into the world. Sometimes, the theories that scientist put out are worse for society than us. For example, when heroin was first introduced, every single person was using it. everyone had thought that heroin is a good thing and they kept on using it. Finally, later scientists decided to look back into the effects of heroin and figured out it was very harmful.I fully agree that we need to be more cautious. We first need to understand exactly what we will use and everything about it, or it could be very harmful to us and the world.
I found the podcast by Pandora's Lab to be very interesting and engaging. I learned a lot about the history of opioids and how they affected humans for millennium. I didn't know that it was scientists who created heroin as a substitute for opioid addicts. My whole life I was under the impression that scientists were always inventing things that were beneficial to humans. Although scientists do a lot in pushing our society forward, they sometimes make mistakes which costs lots of lives. In health class, we watched a powerful documentary about a talented basketball player whose career was cut short because of his addiction to oxycodone, which is a pain killer that was developed for people who were addicted to heroin. That documentary showed me the dangers of painkillers. But even though people already know the dangers of painkillers I guarantee if one charismatic scientist comes out and says that he created a new non addictive drug alternative for painkillers, millions of people would get hooked on the new drug. It was also scary to think that thousands of mentally ill patients were lobatomized. Although the procedure was clearly unethical, it's popularity was so high that even the presidents sister had it done. That is why I agree with the podcast with saying that people should be skeptical but not cynical of science.
In this podcast, it is discussed how there is a large misuse of drugs in order to combat other forms of drug abuse and this is largely popularized by celebrity doctors and anything like that. It's said it is unethical to promote such harmful usage; however morphine, Oxycontin, heroin and any other opioid are still necessary painkillers in a functionally healthy state. There are two major crises in regards to these opioids: lack of its availability for medical treatment and excessive availability resulting in many abusing it. This all depends on the economic state of the country on its availability, but where it is considered an epidemic in the US, many are suffering in other countries without it.
The podcast You Are Not So Smart was quite interesting. The podcast stated that opium, a highly addictive drug used to relieve pain in the last, was synthetically modified to make drugs like heroin. Heroin is also another addictive drug, but it is not as addictive as opium was. oxycodone was created to treat addicts using heroin. This chain of modification started with the morphine in opium that was meant to relieve pain. This shows that scientists try to create new products to treat other products that are detrimental for one's health. However, these new products turn out to be just as harmful for one's body. Furthermore, the podcast discusses how celebrities have a large impact on society. Some cures that may actually work may not be able to be given out because of how one person was affected by it. If one celebritiy had a negative affect from a medicine, the rumor will go around that the medicine doesn't work. For instance, the belief that vaccines cause autism is false. However, people were frightened when someone with great influence said that vaccines cause autism. People believe anything and everything on the internet nowadays, no matter how untrue it may be.
In the podcast, Chris Christie mentioned that there were 142 Americans who died out of opioids. The podcasts tells how opioids was made to treat nausea. Also, it was made to relief the pain but it is also made people addicted. Some people even cheat, lie, and steal to stay on this drug. I believe that people should do research themselves before taking a drug that will be addicted and hard to get rid of. Before reading this article I had no idea that celebrities and doctors was fooling into other people taking this drug. I'm glad that scientists are able to define these negative suggestion that celebrities are showing the public. Moreover, something interesting I heard along the way was that in India, when Buddha took his eye lids to prevent sleep it landed on the ground and planted like seeds and became opioum. It is said that wherever this plant will make more money it will continue to spread. I think even though it may help people with pain it should be ban because it is very addictive and not safe at all.
In this week’s podcast, the podcast discussed about Paul Offit’s book, Pandora’s lab, which highlighted the times in history when science has gone wrong due to flawed, biased humans. The first example was about the discovery about opium when a Greek scientist found out this beneficial in helping people cope with pain but later warned that this drug was highly addictive. But scientists decided that they could be able to separate pain relief from addiction but never able to and later Mike Krzyzewski became addicted to pain relief medication. This means that over hundreds of years humans still haven’t learned the simple fact or better yet believed the simple fact that you aren’t able to separate pain relief from addiction. Another example is about neurologist Walter Freeman performing lobotomy, which is making an incision in a person’s skull. This procedure was helpful for the mentally ill because of the terrible conditions in mental hospitals the patients faced but was shunned by scientists and later replaced by the drug chlorpromazine, which had the same effect as lobotomies. Lastly, people were frightened by vaccines because they thought it would cause autism. However, people never looked at the data which clearly showed it didn’t. For example, a senator was deciding whether to fund two million dollars for scientific research on if vaccines caused brain damage. At first he was going to but changed his mind after Offit had to persuade the senator even with having clear cut evidence in his scientific studies. This tells me that not only scientists must be able to perform experiments to support their hypothesis, they have to explain and communicate their conclusions efficiently to the public in order to avoid confusion.
This podcast highlighted many concerns with how science is received in mainstream media. Science is a wonderful thing to study and advancements we make because of it are beneficial to humanity as a whole, but celebrities and public icons can give it a bad name. This person claims that science is too smart for scientists, that we'll never truly understand science because societal stigmas and biases against it will limit us from advancements. Current examples of this include how climate change is completely discredited in modern politics despite scientific backup and how vaccines are distrusted even though no studies prove that they cause autism. Even clearly harmful drugs can be supported in society and our legal system, while harmless ones can be labelled illegal, despite how science proves them to be harmful/harmless. The scientific community has been discredited since the dawn of time, and with the massive media attention in the 21st century, scientific advancements can be set back because of what big names and celebrities have to say about said advancements. We, as a society, must push past negative stigmas to do what's best for our community and planet.
The podcast "You Are Not So Smart was very interesting." Before watching this podcast, I did not know that oxycontin was formed to replace the heroin addiction in the late 1990’s. However, this replacement caused a rise in oxycontin addicts. Scientists and doctors tried to find painkillers that would not cause an addiction but failed to do so. The FDA approved painkiller, oxycontin, is given to patients experiencing moderate to severe pain. The podcasts discusses how commonly oxycontin is prescribed to patients. Many patients end up getting addicted to these painkillers due to its very addictive ingredient. Scientists and doctors should research more safer alternatives for pain medicines. They should also use this type of painkiller as an absolute last resort. Doctors should prescribe smaller doses to prevent less addicts and deaths.
This podcast explains the positives and negatives of science. When scientists find new cures, celebrities say bad things about them. Nowadays, any information can be sold to readers on the internet. Even people with such a small fan base have the ability to mock the cures that are found by scientists.
This "You Are Not So Smart" Podcast was engaging to me because of this idea that people will choose charismatic scientists with poor data over awkward scientists with excellent data. This will lead to science leading to more harm than good. In the beginning of the podcast, Dr. Paul Offit talks about the opioid epidemic that is affecting our country right now. He talks about the different pain killers that are opioid based, and these same drugs are the drugs that hundreds of thousands of people are addicted to. They also kill over one hundred people every day. Opioid was present even 2,500 years ago, during the times of Ancient Greece. However, morphine was created to fight against the addiction of the drug, but people got addicted to that. So heroine was created to fight against the addiction of that drug, but then people got addicted to that drug. Currently, oxycodone was created to fight against heroin addiction, but now people are addicted to oxycodone. Each new drug was created to be a pain killer, and so people won't be addicted to the drug, they failed every time. This is because charismatic doctors persuade the public into thinking that these drugs will work, even though the evidence they have for their claims are flawed. Another example of this happening was when a scientist made a paper about vaccines leading to autism. This paper has been criticized against by his academic peers, but because he was charismatic, the general public believed the evidence, some refusing to have their children taking vaccines, which leads to much more harm than good. A solution to this is to be skeptical of scientists, not believing their every word, but at the same time being cynical of them either.
The "You Are Not So Smart" podcast brought up a very important and controversial topic, opioid addiction in the United States due to the common prescription of painkillers by doctors. Throughout history, opium was seen as a "gift from the Gods" and a very important discovery for the future of medicine. Although opioids can have a beneficial effect on patients' pain after various procedures, the negatives seem to outweigh the positives in this case. From opium to morphine to heroin and now oxycontin, each drug caused more and more people to become dangerously addicted. If opioid addiction was such a problem in the past, why do we still continue to utilize these harmful drugs today? Despite this shocking information, some scientists still published studies and papers supporting the idea that opioids are safe to use in medicine. Although other scientists were quick to refute this, the original information was presented to the public by charismatic, authoritative, confident, and famous scientists who were quickly able to convince people that dangerous drugs were and are safe to use. The bottom line of this segment of the podcast is that drastic scientific information should be "taken with a grain of salt," and that opposite viewpoints should also be considered before having a concrete position on such a controversial topic.
This podcast, You Are Not So Smart, brought attention to issues with celebrities or widely known people spreading false information based on what they pick and choose to belief from scientific date/research, and the wide spread damage it has. One of the most interesting parts of the podcast was how they talked about scientists or doctors themselves making the mistake of spreading false information. The damage of Dr. Portenoy's paper was clearly significant as it promoted the use of opioid as pain killers, and many people decide to follow his words. Portenoy believed that people needed to get over their opioid "phobia", because opioids would help relieve pain for many different diseases. Of course when statistics show that more than 20,000 people die each year from opioid usage, the spreading of a message like this from a valued doctor brings more harm than good. In the podcast it is discussed that over the years medicine has turned to focus more on reduction of pain when a patient undergoes treatment which in turn created addictive painkillers/medicine. Morphine overdoses are something that I've heard about a lot, but after listening to this podcast I really learnt more about the dangers of using painkillers. Other doctors and scientists were quick to refute the claims made in Portenoy's paper but this instance goes to show that even the medical community can be divided on several topics. This is not good for the general public because we depend on the opinions of educated doctors, and when influential doctors such as Portenoy can support the use of opioid pain killers causing a surge in opiod usage, there is a large amount of damage done. Medical journals, research and papers should be dealt with great care because the information being spread affects a large number of people who will believe the opinions and findings of someone who is educated in the field, and most likely knows better.
This week’s assignment was to listen to a You Are Not So Smart podcast on the history and origins of opioids painkillers and how they have changed America forever. The first fact that astonished me was that opioids and heroin are derived from the poppy plant. This is fascinating because something from our everyday breakfast bagels is a part of one of the most addictive painkillers. Another intriguing fact I learned was that the opioids epidemic lasted for roughly fifty years, and it began in the 1920s and ended in the 1970s. For these 50 years, 650,000 people in America were hooked onto heroin. Suddenly, this number dropped because people began to get addicted to OxyContin, which occurred in the most ironic way. Morphine was created to treat the opium addiction, and when people got addicted to Morphine, heroin was created to treat the morphine addiction and when people got addicted to heroin, OxyContin was created. What is surprising, yet frightening is the fact that skilled pharmacists are still searching for a drug that relieves pain without inducing addiction. The most interesting point of all was the fact that the opioid epidemic started with something psychological and; it could have been avoided if Americans adhered to morality and ethics rather than wavering under other’s fame. The opiate addiction began with a man name Russel Portenoy who urged others to succumb to opiates and their many beneficiaries. The public, as stated previously, is weak to fame which caused them to falter under his many charismatic appearances on the media that promised the solutions to America's variety of problems. In the 1990s and onward, pain reduction became a big part of life and led to the drug crisis we see today. As a concluding statement the author states that this has impacted the lives of many generations negatively, and it continues to do so today. My biggest takeaway, as stated in the podcast, is that “if something is too good to be true, there's most likely something wrong with it.”
The Pandora's Lab podcast was very interesting since I learned about history and the effect it still has on so many lives today. The podcast talks about how scientists have created so many treatments with the intention to help the public but how most of them ended up harming them. It talked about when opium was first discovered. It was used by the Greeks to help cure pain and sickness. Later on when the British started to export six million pounds of opium to China, the people there started to become addicted. This continued to the late 1800 when the opium crisis became totally out of control and hundreds of lives were lost. To replace the pain relieving drug opium, scientists created heroin saying that it was safe and could be used to treat hay fever and bronchitis. But this also lead to addiction, overdose, and eventually mass death. When herion didn't work scientists then created Oxycodone, now people are also addicted to this drug. This cycle will continue to go in since it is clear that scientists are not learning the fact that trying to help people by stopping their pain is actually causing much more harm. While there are scientists trying to stop this continuous mistake of creating a drug to help, causing addiction, and then death, there are still those charismatic scientists that twists the thoughts of the public. An example of this type of scientist is the one who believed that major pain relievers like opioids should be used for everything because it doesn't cause addiction. While other scientists ripped up his work, to the public he became a celebrity. The people believed him because of his charisma and thus this lead to hundreds of people starting drugs. Another case of this was when people stopped taking vaccines because they believed in flawed scientists who said that it was harming them. This lead to a major epidemic breakout. The lesson to be learned here is to not blindly believe whatever a scientist tells you, no matter how charismatic and famous they are, but instead understand that these researchers can also make mistakes and cause you harm.
This podcast was interesting to listen to because it discussed the harm that science can cause. Often times, because of celebrities, false information can be spread. He discussed Walter Freeman and Antonio Moniz, famous neurologists in the 1930's, who found techniques to perform lobotomies on people by jabbing a spike behind their eyeball, or injecting alcohol into their brain. They did this for several decades and were liked by many because they convinced many people this was helpful. These are now condemned by science. He also discussed how in the US many people die from being dependent or addicted to opioids which doctors are prescribing without realizing the repercussions it can have on some people. Throughout history, they have been releasing addictive drugs and painkillers thinking it can separate pain from addiction, but people kept getting addicted. I think we should research ourselves about what we are taking exactly and should never blindly follow what other people say.
I enjoyed this weeks podcast. Heavy information was discussed, however none of which I found surprising. The host of the podcast started off the talk by discussing how harmful and addictive drugs are even though their purpose was to help people. He explains how the discovery of certain opioids arguably was bad because the drugs hurt more than help. The drug opium is a highly addictive drug used to decrease the amount of pain. Morphine was then created to treat opium addiction, but then people got addicted to morphine. Scientists then introduced herion as a drug that could treat morphine addiction, however it as well is addictive. The same scenario occurred for OxyContin attempting to help heroin addicts. Through time we have traded one addictive drug for another. This resulting in about 142 American deaths per year. It is reasons like this why many people do not trust scientists. Instead of listening to awkward scientists with great data, people choose to listen to the scientist with little data, but a great name. People are also always afraid of the chance of something going wrong. Many people do not have vaccines just because scientists have said there is a very small risk of dying. Parents still choose not to give their children vaccines because of a false paper that was published saying certain vaccines can lead to autism. Even though this has been proven wrong, people still won't take the risk. The same thing occurred with mercury. Scientists were trying to create a vaccine with a small dosage of mercury in it, however people wouldn't take the risk. It is understandable for people not to trust science for it is always changing, but people should analyze the data for themselves and create their own conclusions. Most of the time they will probably agree with the scientist.
Science is a beautiful thing, and without science will be years back with our technology. Science helps us humans be humans. However science is also the reason that the world is getting more dangerous. Opium is a highly addictive drug that can ruin people's life, but it was originally used as a pain killer. However it was used for bad as well, the British used it to conquer the Chinese economy during the Age Of Imperialism. It completely took down the Chinese and started the opium war. Heroin was cure to these opioids but they it too caused addiction. Scientists created nuclear energy, however this in turn was used to create the nuclear bomb which can kill hundred of thousands of people and leave lasting effects on the area. If science was highly protected and had an extensive amount of proof while stating possible side effects to the public, it may be best if the all science departments look back and improve the level of their research.
listening to the podcast I learned and became a lot more aware of topics that didn't cross my mind before. A topic during the pod cast that really stood out to me the most was the drug epidemic that we have in our country. For me it is sad to hear that doctors, people who are supposed to help treat people, introduce their patients to pain meds that can ruin their lives. We need to find a cure to stop this war on drugs and find a better solution to pain medication. Along with this another topic that caught my attention was vaccines and procedures that are thought to be helpful. in the podcast it says that if you take two scientists, one popular with incorrect data and one awkward scientists with good data. the popular scientist will most likely get the attention first and have his wrong studies spread among the people. I find this very concerning because we need to be careful with the information we receive, and we should make our own research first before putting our selves at risk.
This Pandora’s Lab podcast has a very eye-opening perspective on science and medicine, specifically the problem of opioid abuse in our country. I learned that years ago, morphine was created to treat opium addiction, then later, heroin was created to treat morphine addiction. Soon after, oxycodone was created to treat heroin addiction, but now there is an epidemic of oxycodone addiction in our country today. This makes me wonder why doctors and medical professionals are still prescribing painkillers that are so highly addictive. The podcast also went into detail about how pain has become such an important aspect of medical attention and care; a patient is almost always asked about how much pain they are in when being treated. Because of its association with the patients well being, doctors feel it is necessary to treat the pain in some way. There has yet to be a strong painkiller found that is not also highly addictive, which is why these epidemics have been present in our country for so long. I believe that this will continue to be a problem until scientists find a non addictive painkiller, or until pain’s importance as a vital sign is reevaluated.
The podcast You Are Not So Smart talked about a very interesting point in science that not many people realize. As we know, drugs such as oxycodon, morphine, and heroin are very additcting drugs which if misused can have drastic effects on a person. These drugs at one point were actually meant to help people in order to relieve pain, as it was prescribed by doctors to their patients. These drugs though turned out to be used for the wrong reasons. As explained in the podcast, the usage of these types of drugs are very common for the wrong reasons due to the fact that celebrities and public figures began to use these drugs, attracting more and more of the public to using the drugs for the wrong reasons. Doctors prescribe these types of medications not to get people to overdose on feel high, but they are really prescribing these medications to help patients who really need these medications, showing that even the good of science can essentially be turned into something much worse than expected. Neurologists attempt to end these people's addiction with opioids by performing a surgical procedure known as a lobotomy. In these procedures, doctors attempt to take out the part of the brain thst is the root cause of anxiety, but it turned out that the way the procedure was performed was quite unethical and did not always work on everyone, forcing doctors to stop.
In this podcast they discussed mistakes made in science. The thing I found most intriguing was that drugs like heroin were in fact initially created to prevent opioids addiction but then later caused problems addiction of their own. This happened because people just blindly trusted the scientists and followed the celebrities. Just one doctor published a paper saying that it was not dangerous and everyone followed and believed. Through this I learned that people should not just followed the first thing they see but read more deeply into things especially when they have to do with your own well-being. I personally don't find treating a drug addiction with anther drug to be very smart and if it is being done then there should be many experiment to ensure the safety of the drugs.
The 'You Are Not So Smart' podcast opened up an important discussion on the history of failed science. They discuss that every positive advancement has had at least some repercussions; the yellow fever vaccine prevents getting yellow fever and dying, yet it injects a live virus into humans. Opioids today are most commonly referred to with a negative connotation in reference to addiction, but morphine was for pain relief, heroin was to treat morphine addiction, and oxycodone was created to combat heroin. Everything starts with good intentions, although science can make mistakes. The celebrity and reputation of some scientists have pardoned them from their mistakes and allowed them to continue. Lobotomies were used to 'calm' disruptive mental patients even though that process meant inflicting brain damage. Many Americans, John F. Kennedy's sister included, were purposefully mauled into a vegetative state for the sake of appearances. Fortunately, lobotomies are no longer recognized cures for mental illness, but opioid addiction remains apparent in society today. Scientists aren't perfect, and science can, in fact, make mistakes.
The "You are Not So Smart" podcast introduced a great argument regarding the release of scientific information into society and the opiod epidemic. By prescribing painkillers and not looking into the addictive properties, several people succumbed to the addiction from these drugs like oxycodone, morphine, and heroin and suffered from the side effects of addiction like depression and mental instability. Scientists and media need to take more caution when advertising drugs that have potential side effects such as addiction. Now that the numbers being effected have reached an "epidemic" level, scientists are trying to figure out how to cure drug addiction. Another good point brought up during the podcast was the argument that vaccines cause autism. Despite it being a false claim with very little research behind it, the ambasssdors for the movement caused several people to follow. This in turn caused people falling sick due to neglecting vaccines. Overall, scientists and the media need to coordinate better in order to bring correct and safe news to the general public, because they need to understand that their audience may not all be as intelligible as the scientists themselves, and their information could potentially do more harm than good.
This week the podcast " You are Not So Smart" made me realize the power of science to influence millions of lives, wether it be harmful or beneficial. Many cures and scientific advances that doctors bring forward are not always flawless. They also can be convinced as wrong by celebrities and other public figures even if they are. I also found it incongruous that morphine was created for pain relief and and since addiction of this drug, heroin was used to treat it. Obviously, that people got addicted once again. Then, oxycodone was found to treat it. And now many people are addicted to OxyCotin and cause many overdoses and therefore deaths.
The podcast was interesting. Addiction is a very real and common thing in today's world. Starting with legal heroin being used as a remedy for common illnesses like bronchitis, which then led to an addiction epidemic. This opioid-epidemic has been around for years and years, and the podcast shows that the world needs doctors and specialists to become heroes and find new remedies that will not lead to addiction. I believe that there are ways to remedy illnesses without possibly doing more harm to the patient than good, but it must be a very complicated study. Opioids are nevertheless important in modern medicine for remedial processes, but it is clear that specialists must find better remedies to end this epidemic of opioid addiction.
The podcast was very interesting and provided a lot of insight on how not all scientific discoveries end up being as helpful as originally thought. An example of this is the opioid epidemic. Scientists were producing heroin made in labs and saying it was safe to take, because they didnt know any better at the time. Often time when someone has a huge following base or is trusted by the people, the people will take what they say as law. An example of this is the 'Vaccines cause autism' debate that we have in our country today. One scientist published an article saying that vaccines were bad, and that sparked a national issue of anti-vaxxers who are refusing to vaccinate their young children. As a result of this, kids are dying from diseases that could have been easily prevented. There are so many news sites and articles these days that its hard to tell whats really true and what isnt. Some people go online and read articles and take them as law without any data backing them. These days amount of follwers equals more credibility, though it should definitely not be the case.
The podcast was extremely interesting and pointed out that scientific research that is meant to be helpful is often misused and leads to harmful effects because of famous people stating false information. What example talked about was drug use. Drugs like heroin and morphine are to be used for a good, such as helping to stop the addiction of other drugs, but because of being advertised wrong they became popular. Now many people are dying due to a drug that was supposed to be beneficial for the public. Like this example and many others the general public has believed falsely advertise information just because someone famous has shown some recognition towards that product. The public also believes scientists who falsely advertise products meant for good uses. I agree with the fact that many scientists make mistakes in the research they do. I believe scientists should analyze their findings more and redo their experiments before they are published.
The podcast, "You Are Not So Smart" swarmed over several acknowledging and eye-opening topics. Celebrities are used to endorse products on advertisements in order to make them popular among the public. In addition, the public tends to believe in these products. The main idea of this podcast was that scientists make mistakes and the various mistakes made in science. One example is drug use. Several scientists and researchers do not test drugs enough before releasing them into the public. The scientists do analyze their findings but not enough. I agree with the podcast when they say that scientists and researchers have to find an antidote to the drug epidemic, or specifically on The podcast, "You Are Not So Smart" swarmed over several acknowledging and eye-opening topics. Celebrities are used to endorse products on advertisements in order to make them popular among the public. In addition, the public tends to believe in these products. The main idea of this podcast was that scientists make mistakes and the various mistakes made in science. One example is drug use. Now the scientists and media were opioids.
“More than 600,000 people were addicted to heroin in the United States.” “More than 20,000 people a year are dying of drug overdose.” “More than a hundred people a day are dying from these drugs.” The podcast “You are Not So Smart” discussed the past decades’ issues dealing with trusting science. Today's drug addiction has been caused by scientists who have made drugs in the past to prevent other drug addictions. Specifically, the primary drug opioid lead to prevention by morphine which eventually became another overused drug. On top of that, it led to heroin another popular drug which was invented to decrease morphine use. Lastly, oxycotin tried to stop heroin, but all these drugs were harmful either way. Well, it is pretty clear that the scientists did not achieve what they were going for. To me, it seems ridiculous that these numbers stated in the beginning are true. What's more surprising is that most of these numbers are a result of celebrity influence. However, what stood out the most overall was how the podcast mentioned the fact of considering both sides of an opinion and not getting carried away by one because no matter how good it is, it can still be false.
I found this podcast really interesting. It talks about how scientific research lead to more harm than good. They initially created heroin as a treatment for hay fever and bronchitis. However it led to overdoses and death, in 1995 there were 600,000 addicts. By 2003, there were 100,000 heroin addicts. They started by creating heroin for opium addicts, then morphine for heroin addicts, and oxycodone for morphine addicts. Now we have this widespread of harmful drugs that aren't used for their purpose, which was for treating medical conditions. They were created with good intentions of helping people but were presented wrong. A paper was written showing a study that out of 38 people taking these drugs, only 2 got addicted. Personally I would think this encouraged the consumption for these drugs, although there were hundreds of thousands of addicts. Having scientists create strong painkillers that are not highly addictive allow for people to get rid of their pain without having the fear of becoming an addict. Some people who get prescribed these drugs do not take them, as they are fearful of becoming addictive.
The "You Are Not So Smart" podcast discussed how there have been grave mistakes made by scientists in the past. One of the major mistakes was the drug cycle. Morphine, oxi-codon, and heroin are only some of the drugs that were part of the drug cycle. One drug was created one after another to stop the addiction of the last drug. The first drug, morphine, was created as a painkiller. As discussed in the podcast, people can quickly get addicted to painkillers and as they are easily prescribed at the simplest toothache, availability is widespread. To decrease the availability of these drugs, doctors should stop asking if a patient is feeling any pain as a 5th vital sign. The other grave mistake that struck out to me was lobotomies. Essentially, with varying success, a doctor would create an incision into the frontal lobe of a mental health patient's brain and cause brain damage to that patient in an effort to eradicate mental illness and rid the patient of anxiety, delusions and obsessive tendencies. I was extremely surprised to hear the doctor who created this practice, Walter Freeman, received a Nobel Peace Prize for the creation of this form of psycho surgery even though the procedure mostly ended in grave side effects. Hopefully, scientists learned from these mistakes and will now not make these mistakes again.
After listening to the podcast, many ideas are worth being noted and emphasized. For one, we can see that various types of drug addictions back then were just as dangerous as they are present day. In an effort to stop these addictions, many "experts" recommended taking other harmful drugs to mask the addictive effects of the previous ones. Drugs such as heroin would be used to relieve the addiction dealing with opium. This however posed an even bigger threat to an individual's health and well being. Although many organizations have taken the objective of eliminating these hazardous drugs, media has found it's ways to elevate the intake of these drugs for several audiences. Celebrities who take drugs end up impacting many of their fans and audiences, especially those of younger age. By targeting these younger generations, they become more likely to take these drugs and use them when they grow up. Aside from all these elements, doctors are constantly trying to come up with new drugs that ease addiction as they have before. But the problem comes down to that drug becoming the next heroin or opium for individuals. The only way it seems to prevent this is by constantly reminding generations, old and new, to prevent taking drugs and encourage those who are to come up with ways to stop.
“You Are Not So Smart” was an intriguing and thought-provoking podcast that brought to light some issues in the science world. The main topic covered in this podcast was “Pandora’s Lab.” Essentially, this is when a self-proclaimed expert on a subject introduces a new breakthrough or procedure in the science field that isn’t necessarily correct, but is still received by the general population. An example discussed was opiod-based painkillers. Opium, when it was first discovered thousands of years ago, was dangerous and deadly to those addicted. However, scientists and doctors still looked for new ways to use the drug for medicinal purposes. This caused a never ending loop of medicines that are opoid-based, and people are unfortunately continuing to get addicted. Another example discussed in this podcast was frontal lobotomies. Basically, for mentally ill patients, this method was used to “cure” them by severing connections in the brains prefrontal lobe. Several celebrities and celebrity-scientists supported the treatment, but it turned out to be incorrect. This podcast covered the topics of scientists trying to help the world with revolutionary medicines and procedures, which end up getting people addicted and/or killed. Despite what celebrity-scientists and other say, it’s important to look at the research and facts rather than the charisma of the speaker.
I was extremely interested in the beginnings of drug addiction which was mentioned in the podcast because the topic is controversial. I think it’s ironic, making drugs to relieve the addiction to other drugs, but as mentioned in the podcast, addiction started a long time ago, going all the way back to the Sumerians, and is still a problem today. When you hand someone a problem as old and challenging as this one, you can’t expect them to get the right solution right off the bat. I think that the scientists then, and even now, are being pushed to find a cure, and with that weight on their shoulders, they did the best they could. I think that we shouldn’t boo the people who tried, but failed, to relieve addiction in the past. Scientists today can learn from the mistakes that were made in the past and try a different approach.
This podcast was extremely unique because it touched on several eye-opening topics. For one, the host spoke about how scientific research tends to lead to more harm than good since people make use of the research in wrong ways. For example, opium was originally manufactured as a painkiller. It was put in candies, cough drops, and other forms of medicine. As time went on, however, people started developing a major addiction to any supplements carrying the drug. The same thing happened when heroine, oxycontin, and morphine came out as painkillers. It seems as though for every solution to a problem came with numerous more problems; it becomes a never-ending cycle of problems and solutions. The host also spoke about how people should be careful as to whom they should take advice from, doctors and celebrities being included. Some celebrities advertise products that are harmful not because they truly believe in the product, but only because they are making money out of it and don't care about people's health. Even doctors sometimes care more about the money than their patients' health, so it's important to be careful as to which doctor you put your faith in. It is extremely unfortunate how certain drugs could've made a huge difference today if they weren't taken advantage of.
Listening to the podcast opened my eyes about science and medicine in our country. It was interesting to learn that morphine was created for pain relief, then heroin was created to treat morphine addiction. Soon after, oxycodone was created to treat heroine addiction. Sadly, now there is an epedemic of oxycodone throughout the country with many people dying because of overdoses and now cure close in the future. Its ironic to learn that doctors who are supposed to be helping patients, are introducing them to pain medications that are hazardous to many lives. Just because one doctor published a paper saying that people will not get addicted, most people thought it was harmless and it would not be addictive. Doctors definitely have the right intention but false advertising and information in the media and among people can lead to many problems. Now that the number of people dealing with severe side affects have reached extremely high levels, scientists are finally trying to figure out a cure. The podcast also talks about vaccines causing autism. Although this is wrong, many people believed it as social media and celebrities advocated for it. This essentially caused more people to become sick because they would be too afraid to take the vaccines. The media needs to ensure that all the information they are providing to people is 100% accurate in order to make sure everyone stays healthy.
More harm than good, any medication meant to help can help, but too much and it can hurt. There are labels on the bottles for a reason. Science is not the problem her, the correct ingredients were put together the right way to create a medication that works. It is us, us humans that make good things bad, it is us that create the harm. That's all there is to it, WE SUCK.
I found that the You Are Not So Smart Podcast gave a a very valuable perspective on health and medicine. It also explained several interesting facts about the usage of opioid painkillers in the past and in today's society. I did not know that ancient cultures had praised drugs such as the poppy crop. However, these people became dependent on those drugs, and since then there has been a chain reaction of drugs that lead to more drugs and additions. Scientists created drugs to hopefully stop the previous drug addition, but people became addicted to the newer one. In the 20th century, opioids were a part of everyday life, commonly found in cough syrups and even candy. Unfortunately, most people were not aware of the dangers of the drugs that were in many of the products they consume. People blindly trusted the scientists and the celebrities that advertised them. The podcast explains how scientists can make mistakes and how the media is able to deceive people.
This week's "You Are Not So Smart" podcast was very interesting. It is important to listen to because it talks about the degree of uncertainty in drawn conclusions of science. The podcast explored two separate examples from history. Both the opioid-based painkillers and frontal lobotomies hypotheses were unreliable because of the disapproval from peer review. Peer review is essential in establishing validity for a study. The narrator of the podcast points out the celebrity aspect of a scientist and how the conclusions drawn from that scientist were supported by the public even though they were frowned upon by many other scientists. I support the idea that it is important for scientists to explain their findings and their reasoning to the public, especially when they are receiving public funding.
This podcast really made me think about the effects that science and research has over a long period of time. A discovery that seems great at the time could lead to destruction and crisis in the future. Drugs are a great example of this, as they were originally used purely as medicine to do good for humanity. Now, when the word "drug" is used, many people will immediately assume the negative connotation due to the reputation drugs have gained. I am glad this podcast brought up the negatives of science, as it allows me to see different sides to a story that I am biased on the positive side of.
The You are not so smart podcast was very interesting and informative. One of the most interesting topics was when he talked about how coach K became addicted and dependent to opioids. It amazes me how such a successful, educated, and influential person can be hooked on such a horrible thing. It goes to show how powerful these opioids could be. Thankfully, coach k did not become addicted to cns depressants, which is what happens when you become further addicted. Even though opioids can be very addictive and detrimental, they can also be very helpful to a lot of people. It is important that doctors and pharmacists don't over prescribe due to the fact that these drugs can be so harmful. Becoming addicted to opioids is a very serious problem and should be handed out cautiously.
The podcast, You Are Not So Smart, explored several topics in the episode, Pandora's Lab, and brought up some very important points about science and it's flaws. The first thing discussed was the Opioid Epidemic, and they explained how the research conducted in efforts to cure one epidemic unfortunately created another one. Although science seems to most as the ultimate truth, this podcast has helped to humanize science, and point out that there are in facts mistakes in research which can lead to faulty information. The next topic talked about how the popularity of one scientist, who may have faulty information, can shadow over another, smaller scientist, who has the correct data and results. We saw how this has hurt us in the past and leads us to question the scientific findings we are taking in today. And when research is conducted on epidemics today, it serves as a reminder that we have to take our time and get it right, so that we can really save more lives, and prevent further damage.
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