In 1951, a small French town was overtaken by the fungus that ultimately led to LSD

LSD was derived from natural compounds produced by the ergot fungus

Ergot is a fungus that slowly infects and replaces individual grains on grasses, including rye and wheat. Ingesting ergot can cause ergotism, a form of poisoning with symptoms—including headaches, hallucinations, gangrene, and convulsions—varying by season and geography. This grain was used for medicinal purposes as early as the 1500s.

A mescaline-induced hallucination stayed with Jean-Paul Sartre throughout his life

In 1935, Sartre was injected with mescaline, a psychedelic drug that was then used to treat alcoholism and depression, by his friend at the Hôpital Sainte-Anne in Paris. It was not a good trip: Sartre saw nightmarish crabs for days and suffered a mental breakdown. For the rest of his life, crustaceans like the ones he saw during the hallucination appeared in his works.

LSD was discovered accidentally after its inventor touched his face and hallucinated

Unlike many drugs, the first time a human ever tripped on acid was recorded first-hand by a scientist. Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann, curious about the "not unpleasant intoxicated-like condition" that overcame him after an accidental exposure, set up a rigorous experiment to test the drug's effects on himself.

Widespread use of LSD sparked a counter-cultural artistic movement in the 1960s

The trippy visuals often associated with LSD flourished in the 1960s as the drug became more widespread. Psychedelic design, defined by its undulating text and graphics, ultimately grew beyond just visuals, spawning psychedelia, a term that includes art, music, and cultural experiences based on psychedelic experiences.

An LSD scientist's role in a US mind control project

Within a decade of LSD's discovery, the US government had launched a secret initiative involving hypnosis and hallucinogens. LSD researcher Louis Jolyon West conducted experiments for the CIA's MKUltra project, which focused on the potential of mind control. He later took part in a criminal trial that hinged on testimony whose sourcing was seemingly inspired by MKUltra experiments. This article explores light shed by West's personal archive.

A psychedelic hamburger led one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, to testify against the group's leader.

In 2011, a mysterious illness spread around LeRoy, New York

A handful of girls were stricken with bizarre twitches, tics, and spasms — all apparently involuntary. Some believed the incident to be conversion disorder, an illness where emotional troubles have physical symptoms.

Only a fraction of LSD reaches the brain, but it concentrates in key regions

When taken, LSD is absorbed quickly (often within an hour of ingestion) and exerts its effects primarily by binding to serotonin receptors. While only a small amount enters the brain, it's active in regions controlling the visual and auditory senses, potentially driving its psychedelic effects. The drug doesn't linger in the body, and is typically undetectable within a day.

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.

The 'definitive' history of magic mushrooms

Where did magic mushrooms come from, and how did they get their magical reputation? This article explains the history of the psychedelic fungi from pre-history to now. The earliest concrete evidence of psychedelic mushroom use is 12,000-year-old murals in Northern Australia that portray mushroom iconography. Considering how many species seek out and consume psychoactive substances, such as Siberian reindeer, it's possible human use of these psychedelic mushrooms may predate these murals.

LSD-like drugs may inspire new antidepressants

LSD and psilocybin have shown promise as antidepressants. Using a virtual library of similar chemical compounds, researchers determined via animal studies that two molecules inspired by LSD have antidepressant effects without any associated hallucinogenic experience. These molecules were found to be 40 times more potent than the common antidepressant fluoxetine, also known as Prozac, with antidepressant effects lasting up to 21 days.

Historians theorize Vincent Van Gogh suffered from Ménière's disease or epilepsy

A century after researchers suggested he suffered from epilepsy, some researchers in the 1990s began to support an alternate diagnosis: Ménière's disease, since he had suffered from severe, repeated attacks of disabling vertigo. Still, some researchers remain skeptical of the Ménière's diagnosis. One posits that Van Gogh had temporal epilepsy complicated by his absinthe consumption.

A moldy cantaloupe supercharged penicillin production

In 1943, a moldy cantaloupe found at a market in Peoria, Illinois, yielded a strain that produced six times more penicillin. Though often credited to lab worker “Moldy Mary” Hunt, accounts differ on who actually brought in the fruit.

Artificial lightning can improve the yield of shiitake mushroom growers

Researchers have found that shockwaves produced from lightning strikes homogenously break internal filaments called hyphae, transitioning the mushrooms from a vegetative growth to a fruiting phase. Repeated minor shocks near mushroom logs mimicked this effect.

The International Olympic Committee banned ibogaine decades ago

Beyond use by athletes as a stimulant before the ban, the drug has a long history. The psychoactive substance was also mass produced in the mid-20th century by a French pharmaceutical company as a product called Lambarène, which was marketed as a cure for conditions including depression and lethargy. Production halted in 1966, however, when ibogaine-containing products became illegal in France.

During the French Revolution, a botanist's letter asking about "dear Rhus" (poison ivy) was intercepted and led to authorities' suspicions he was conspiring with the Russians

The 1794 incident involved André-Ignace-Joseph Dufresnoy, a French army physician researching the plants' potential medicinal properties. Rhus radicans is a scientific name for the plant, though it's commonly called Toxicodendron radicans.

Poison ivy was sent to Europe in the 1600s as an exotic, ornamental oddity, where it was purposefully grown in the English royal gardens at Kew, the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, and a few other locations.

How royal panic led to Europe's deadliest witch hunts

This article delves into the witch "panics" and hunts that roiled across Scotland between 1590 and 1662. The witch hunts in Scotland were unusually deadly, with the country having five times the average European execution rate per capita. Their...

A 101 on the 'Death Cap,' the world's deadliest mushroom

The Death Cap, also known as amanita phalloides, is the most fatal mushroom on the planet, responsible for roughly 90% of the world's mushroom deaths per year. Ingestion of the mushroom wreaks havoc on the liver and kidneys, frequently leading to...

Synesthesia: when sensation in one sense triggers an unrelated sense in the brain

The first reported clinical case of synesthesia dates back to the early 1800s, though the perceptual phenomenon may be much older than surviving records imply. This article by researcher Richard Cytowic details the scientific history of synesthesia, a neurological trait that causes some senses to overlap, giving color to numbers and flavors to names.

Well before the publication of 'Walden,' Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown

On April 30, 1844, the transcendentalist set a campfire that quickly grew out of control, burning 300 acres of woods near Concord, Massachusetts. For years, Thoreau remarked that other residents called him the "woods burner." Thoreau, though, felt no guilt, writing in 1850, "It has never troubled me from that day to this more than if the lightning had done it."

Recent research indicates leprosy was present in the Americas before European settlers

New research published in 2025 upended long-held notions that the disease was introduced to the Americas by European colonizers. Evidence of a lesser-known leprosy-causing bacterium was found in ancient human remains that date back 4,000 years.

Before writing 'Walden,' transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown with a campfire that grew out of control.

Renaissance Faire's provide an escape into the late medieval world

These cultural events (roughly 300 distinct fairs in the US) stem from the original festival in Los Angeles in 1963. Long viewed as a hippie festival, the fests attract eclectic fans—historians, craftworkers, dramatists and drinkers. Listen to a quick survey of the festival's surprising origins.

Volcanic activity may have triggered the Black Death by spewing gases that led to crop failures in Europe, thus forcing the import of grain ships with plague-infested fleas.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

Will-o'-the-wisps may be the result of microlightning between bubbles

Methane and air bubbles moving through water can generate small sparks between them, which can ignite gas. The above-ground phenomenon may have historically been the result of passing travelers igniting swamp gas with their lanterns. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

When a Paris department store hesitated to sell Estée Lauder's perfume, she 'accidentally' broke a bottle, causing the smell to spread throughout the store and shoppers to start asking to buy the scent.

In 1910, riots swept Champagne over unfairness in the winemaking industry

The French are well known for protesting, and their winegrowers are no exception. After years of disastrous harvests caused by bad weather, disease, and deceptive practices by large Champagne houses, smaller vintners fought back.

Cannes' Sainte-Marguerite was home to the 'Man in the Iron Mask'

Although his identity was never known, the man imprisoned under King Louis XIV and forced to wear a mask—reputedly made of iron, though likely to be velvet—was imprisoned on an island off the coast of Cannes.

The Love Canal disaster exposed the dangers of buried toxic waste

In the late 1970s, residents of Niagara Falls, New York, discovered their neighborhood was built atop 20,000 tons of chemical waste. Leaking toxins caused illness and birth defects, sparking nationwide outrage and leading to the creation of the EPA's Superfund cleanup program in 1980.

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.

The first horror movie is believed to be George Méliès' 1986 short 'The Haunted Castle,' which pioneered the use of special effects

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls

The concept of phantom limbs, the perception that amputated limbs are still present, dates back to a French military surgeon in the 16th century.

The use of fungi to detoxify land and water—a process known as mycoremediation—has been used to clean up natural resources affected by the 2025 California wildfires.

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

Listen to an in-depth conversation on the links between Parkinson's disease and herbicide exposure and the challenging pace of scientific investigation.

Fireworks-related ER visits are on the rise—in 2024, they increased by 52% as compared to the prior year.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

How the most famous Ebola book, The Hot Zone, which sold 3.5 million copies and was translated into 30 languages, got aspects of the disease so wrong.

Massive blooms of microscopic plankton called dinoflagellates produce the neon blue light seen in glowing tides.

The US first hosted the World Cup in 1994, a tournament that lives in soccer infamy for its poor planning and the murder of Colombian player Andres Escobar, who'd accidentally scored on his own net.

Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' is infamous for having some of the highest industrial pollution, toxic air emissions, and cancer risks in the US.

In 1963, a basement renovation in Turkey revealed a passageway to a hidden, multilevel underground city that once housed as many as 20,000 people

'Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone,' a work by American painter Thomas Moran, inspired Congress to establish Yellowstone National Park.

Fear or disgust related to clusters of holes and cracks, called trypophobia, may stem from evolutionary processes to help us avoid pathogens.

Researchers believe the brain consolidates memories, processes emotions, and plans for the future during dream states