How "Flying Death" Has Saved Hundreds of Lives
Curare, known as "flying death," was used for centuries to make poisoned arrows. Scientists discovered how to use it to create life saving medical treatments that ...
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*Intro music Hundreds of years ago, European explorers discovered South American tribes that hunted with poison-tipped arrows. This killing concoction went by many names, like curare, and flying death. Although it probably tasted terrible, eating curare didn't do a thing. The poison had to get into an animal's bloodstream, and then it paralyzed skeletal muscles, the type that help you move and breathe. But eventually, research into "flying death" lead to the anesthesia we use during surgeries today. Reports of curare can be traced back to the 1500s, but it took a few centuries to figure out how it worked In the early 1800s, for instance, some naturalists injected curare into leg muscles of three different donkeys to see what would happen. That's how you ...
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*Intro music Hundreds of years ago, European explorers discovered South American tribes that hunted with poison-tipped arrows. This killing concoction went by many names, like curare, and flying death. Although it probably tasted terrible, eating curare didn't do a thing. The poison had to get into an animal's bloodstream, and then it paralyzed skeletal muscles, the type that help you move and breathe. But eventually, research into "flying death" lead to the anesthesia we use during surgeries today. Reports of curare can be traced back to the 1500s, but it took a few centuries to figure out how it worked In the early 1800s, for instance, some naturalists injected curare into leg muscles of three different donkeys to see what would happen. That's how you ...
