Tiny Matters

In 1599, a family in a small French town claimed that their daughter was possessed by a demon called Beelzebub and, despite daily exorcisms, the demon possessing this woman was staying put. So France’s Henri IV set up a royal commission that would try something a little different. The woman would still receive exorcisms, complete with the normal exorcism accoutrements, but with a catch. The priest wouldn’t actually be Catholic, the water in the vessel would be ordinary water, and the Latin used wouldn’t be religious — it would be from Virgil’s famous poem Aeneid. That's because this wasn't actually an exorcism. It was an experiment built on a deceptively simple tool that scientists and doctors still use today to study new medical treatments: a placebo.
In this episode, we explore the surprising origins and evolution of one of modern medicine’s most important tools: the clinical trial. We follow the development of experimental design across centuries to modern day randomized controlled trials and the debates about their limitations, trying to answer the question, “How do we know whether a treatment truly works?”
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In this episode of Tiny Show and Tell Us, we learn that humans aren’t the only mammals who menstruate. We explore the fulvous fruit bat’s 33‑day cycle, how reproductive biology differs across species, and why scientists still don’t fully understand why menstruation evolved in the first place. Then we take a deep dive into the world of mycotoxins: dangerous compounds produced by fungi. We cover how these toxins form, why they’re so hard to eliminate, and risks they pose to agriculture, livestock, and human health.
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A transcript and references for this episode can be found at acs.org/tinymatters.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Explore bold ideas and big solutions with Alex Honnold on Planet Visionaries, a podcast in partnership with the Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative. I have become a regular listener this season and hope you enjoy it too!

Explore bold ideas and big solutions with Alex Honnold on Planet Visionaries, a podcast in partnership with the Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative. I have become a regular listener this season and hope you enjoy it too!

Explore bold ideas and big solutions with Alex Honnold on Planet Visionaries, a podcast in partnership with the Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative. I have become a regular listener this season and hope you enjoy it too!