Synopsis
Michael Mosley explores the work of the pioneering doctors who laid the foundations of modern medicine. He begins by charting the development of pain-free surgery.
- Programme: Medical Mavericks
- Episode: 01: Anaesthesia
- Channel: BBC Four
- Broadcast year: 2007
Licence: ERA Licence required
Free to watch for UK schools, colleges and universities with an ERA Licence
UK only
Staff and students of licensed education establishments only
Cannot be adapted
Add Notes
More clips from Medical Mavericks
02: Discovering Vaccines | Medical Mavericks
02: Discovering Vaccines | Medical Mavericks
Michael Mosley explores how pioneering doctors learnt to harness the immune system by exposing themselves to incurable diseases ...
03: Diet and Disease | Medical Mavericks
03: Diet and Disease | Medical Mavericks
Dr Michael Mosley explores the lengths to which pioneering doctors have gone to uncover the connections between what we eat and what...
04: Beating Infection | Medical Mavericks
04: Beating Infection | Medical Mavericks
Michael Mosley looks at how doctors came to understand infectious diseases by deliberately infecting themselves with conditions suc...
Developing a vaccine for Typhoid | Medical Mavericks
Developing a vaccine for Typhoid | Medical Mavericks
Dr Michael Mosley investigates typhoid and the development of a vaccine to prevent it.
James Simpson discovers chloroform | Medical Mavericks
James Simpson discovers chloroform | Medical Mavericks
Dr Michael Mosley investigates the discovery of chloroform.
John Hunter conducts the first study of disease in a controlled experiment | Medical Mavericks
John Hunter conducts the first study of disease in a controlled experiment | Medical Mavericks
John Hunter conducted the first study of disease in a controlled experiment, w...
Robert Koch & cholera | Medical Mavericks
Robert Koch & cholera | Medical Mavericks
Dr Michael Mosley discusses Robert Koch's cultivation of cholera bacteria.
The dangers of chloroform | Medical Mavericks
The dangers of chloroform | Medical Mavericks
Dr Michael Mosley discusses the early deaths that exposed the dangers of chloroform.
The Story of Louis Pasteur vaccinating Joseph Meister against Rabies | Medical Mavericks
The Story of Louis Pasteur vaccinating Joseph Meister against Rabies | Medical Mavericks
Dr Michael Mosley discusses the Story of Louis Pasteur vaccinating Joseph Meister ag...
More resources about Antibiotics and drug development
02: Pus | Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines
02: Pus | Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines
Dr Michael Mosley explores our earliest attempts to tackle infection and how scientists, chemists and doctors...
01: Pain | Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines
01: Pain | Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines
Michael Mosley discovers what pain is and how we were able to control it with the discovery of morphine at t...
02: Medical Drugs | Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer
02: Medical Drugs | Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer
Documentary series about the effect of medicine on life expectancy. How knowledge gained from the discovery ...
Discovery of penicillin | Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicine
Discovery of penicillin | Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicine
Fleming initially discovered the antibacterial properties of mould that would lead to the disc...
03: Poison | Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines
03: Poison | Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines
Dr Michael Mosley explores how scientists went from finding antidotes to poisons to applying poisons as cu...
Antibiotics | The Truth About...
Antibiotics | The Truth About...
Documentary in which Angela Rippon looks into the new ways that scientists are trying to fight bacterial infections, as they try to combat a...
John Hunter conducts the first study of disease in a controlled experiment | Medical Mavericks
John Hunter conducts the first study of disease in a controlled experiment | Medical Mavericks
John Hunter conducted the first study of disease in a controlled experiment, w...
Pain message | Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicine
Pain message | Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicine
Painkillers act at different points along the pain pathways to turn the pain response down.
Robert Koch & cholera | Medical Mavericks
Robert Koch & cholera | Medical Mavericks
Dr Michael Mosley discusses Robert Koch's cultivation of cholera bacteria.
The Development of Anti-Retroviral Drugs to Treat HIV | Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer
The Development of Anti-Retroviral Drugs to Treat HIV | Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer
The story of how Professor David Ho worked in a team to develop the firs...
The Discovery of Penicillin | Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer
The Discovery of Penicillin | Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer
The story of how Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered penicillin.
Viruses and vaccines | Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicine
Viruses and vaccines | Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicine
The discovery of vaccines has helped scientists to tackle a variety of viruses.
03: Data | Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer
03: Data | Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer
Documentary series about the effect of medicine on life expectancy. Before a vaccine or an effective treatment can co...
Antibacterial resistance | Bang Goes the Theory
Antibacterial resistance | Bang Goes the Theory
A demonstration of how bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics.
Developing a vaccine for Typhoid | Medical Mavericks
Developing a vaccine for Typhoid | Medical Mavericks
Dr Michael Mosley investigates typhoid and the development of a vaccine to prevent it.
Finding Existing Drugs that Work Against COVID-19 | Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer
Finding Existing Drugs that Work Against COVID-19 | Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer
Looking for drugs to treat COVID-19, a team of scientists established one of...
Innovative testing for use of antibiotics | The Truth About...
Innovative testing for use of antibiotics | The Truth About...
Angela finds out about a novel machine that analyses your blood to determine if using antibiotics would be of ...
Living with a ''Superbug'' and using antibiotics | The Truth About...
Living with a ''Superbug'' and using antibiotics | The Truth About...
Emily talks about living on and off with a 'Superbug' that is resistant to many strains of antibiotics.
Mutant Mouse
Mutant Mouse
Documentary looking at the history of the laboratory mouse and its role in some of the most important medical breakthroughs of the 20th century, from the develo...
The Development of Anti-Viral Drugs | Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer
The Development of Anti-Viral Drugs | Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer
The story and science behind Gertrude Elion and George Hitching's development of a revolut...
More from Michael Mosley
04: Fixing Faces | Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery
04: Fixing Faces | Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery
Series about the history of surgery continues with a look at the development of plastic surgery, which started over 4...
Lombroso's Theories of Crime | The Mystery Of Murder: A Horizon Guide
Lombroso's Theories of Crime | The Mystery Of Murder: A Horizon Guide
When looking at the reasons why people offend, Lombroso, a scientist in the 19th century, believed he h...
The complexity of brain surgery | Inside the Human Body
The complexity of brain surgery | Inside the Human Body
A little girl, Angelina, requires complex brain surgery in order to alleviate the systoms she is suffering as a resul...
Impact of nature on physical and mental health | Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley
Impact of nature on physical and mental health | Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley
Michael Mosley discusses the importance of spending time in nature and how this can imp...
Treating diabetes with an artificial pancreas | Trust Me, I'm a Doctor
Treating diabetes with an artificial pancreas | Trust Me, I'm a Doctor
In this clip we discover what diabetes is and a new way of treating the condition compared to the trad...
The rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria | Michael Mosley vs The Superbugs
The rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria | Michael Mosley vs The Superbugs
Michael Mosley introduces the problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and Superbugs.
03: Food on the Brain | The Secrets of Your Food
03: Food on the Brain | The Secrets of Your Food
Michael Mosley and James Wong explore the effect that our food has on our most important and, in terms of energy consumption...
Sleep | The Truth About...
Sleep | The Truth About...
We are one of the most sleep-deprived countries in the world. In The Truth About Sleep, insomniac Michael Mosley finds out what happens if we don'...
Inside Porton Down: Britain's Secret Weapons Research Facility
Inside Porton Down: Britain's Secret Weapons Research Facility
Michael Mosley investigates Porton Down, Britain's most secretive and controversial military research base. He...
The Wonderful World of Blood - with Michael Mosley
The Wonderful World of Blood - with Michael Mosley
Michael Mosley gives up a fifth of his own blood to perform six bold experiments. From starving it of oxygen to injecting ...
The 1860s | The Victorian Slum
The 1860s | The Victorian Slum
A group of 21st-century people move into a recreated Victorian slum. In this episode, the slum dwellers move into the 1860s, when London was t...
01: The First 8 Weeks | Countdown to Life: The Extraordinary Making of You
01: The First 8 Weeks | Countdown to Life: The Extraordinary Making of You
Michael Mosley presents the story of how you were made, in a series produced in partnership with T...
Is Your Brain Male or Female? | Horizon
Is Your Brain Male or Female? | Horizon
Dr Michael Mosley and Professor Alice Roberts investigate whether male and female brains really are wired differently.
Infested! Living with Parasites
Infested! Living with Parasites
Dr Michael Mosley explores the bizarre and fascinating world of parasites by turning his body into a living laboratory and deliberately infes...
Fast Tales
Fast Tales
During the most demanding Ramadan for over 30 years, Dr Saleyha Ahsan meets prominent British Muslims undertaking 16 hour fasting days throughout July and talks t...
01: Pain | Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines
01: Pain | Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines
Michael Mosley discovers what pain is and how we were able to control it with the discovery of morphine at t...
Discovery of penicillin | Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicine
Discovery of penicillin | Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicine
Fleming initially discovered the antibacterial properties of mould that would lead to the disc...
How respiratory viruses spread | Winter Viruses and How to Beat Them
How respiratory viruses spread | Winter Viruses and How to Beat Them
An explanation of how respiratory viruses can spread by causing us to cough and sneeze.
Digestive powers | Guts: The Strange and Wonderful World of the Human Stomach
Digestive powers | Guts: The Strange and Wonderful World of the Human Stomach
The digestive powers of the gastric juices within the human stomach are tested.
John Watson and Little Albert | The Brain: A Secret History
John Watson and Little Albert | The Brain: A Secret History
Dr Michael Mosley discusses how John Watson performed one of the most famous and controversial experiments in psy...