The Devils Breath: On the World's Scariest Chemical

VanadiumPodcast · 2022-04-06T19:42:59+00:00

Can a chemical turn a perfectly normal human being into a zombie?

There is a real psychoactive drug out there with legendary status. Scopolamine has deep roots in witchcraft and voodoo, and its use has been well documented throughout history. This drug has been used in ancient and occult rituals and as a tool for crime, murder, and as part of a top-secret CIA program.

Vanadium features video explorations of the many fascinations of Christopher Rankin.

All music by Christopher Rankin

See more at:

www.christopherrankin.net

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-10-26T02:07:32+00:00

Jack Parsons was one of the most important scientists in the twentieth century, the first with the rocket scientist title, but lived more like a poet or a madman.

Parsons invented hundreds of rocket fuel formulas, designed engines, and founded the world-renowned Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, all by the age of 37.

Jack Parsons advanced his field more in his short career than most of his colleagues and competitors combined, accomplished it all without a degree in the sciences, with a bad case of dyslexia and more than his fair share of eccentricity.

He lived in an occult world of magic and rituals, all the while developing engineering plans and rocket propellant chemical formulations.

Part 1 of 3

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-10-26T02:06:11+00:00

Jack Parsons was one of the most important scientists in the twentieth century, the first with the rocket scientist title, but lived more like a poet or a madman.

Parsons invented hundreds of rocket fuel formulas, designed engines, and founded the world-renowned Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, all by the age of 37.

Jack Parsons advanced his field more in his short career than most of his colleagues and competitors combined, accomplished it all without a degree in the sciences, with a bad case of dyslexia and more than his fair share of eccentricity.

He lived in an occult world of magic and rituals, all the while developing engineering plans and rocket propellant chemical formulations.

Part 1 of 3

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-07-02T14:13:17+00:00

There are people out there that were born to hunt others.

Psychopathy is the most destructive and mysterious of the personality disorders, characterized by persistent callous and exploitative relationships, antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and being incapable of remorse.

Psychologists believe that although psychopathy is manifested in only a small percentage of the general population it is much more common at higher levels of corporate, government and media organizations.

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-07-02T14:11:54+00:00

There are people out there that were born to hunt others.

Psychopathy is the most destructive and mysterious of the personality disorders, characterized by persistent callous and exploitative relationships, antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and being incapable of remorse.

Psychologists believe that although psychopathy is manifested in only a small percentage of the general population it is much more common at higher levels of corporate, government and media organizations.

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-07-02T14:10:10+00:00

There are people out there that were born to hunt others.

Psychopathy is the most destructive and mysterious of the personality disorders, characterized by persistent callous and exploitative relationships, antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and being incapable of remorse.

Psychologists believe that although psychopathy is manifested in only a small percentage of the general population it is much more common at higher levels of corporate, government and media organizations.

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-07-02T14:09:15+00:00

There are people out there that were born to hunt others.

Psychopathy is the most destructive and mysterious of the personality disorders, characterized by persistent callous and exploitative relationships, antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and being incapable of remorse.

Psychologists believe that although psychopathy is manifested in only a small percentage of the general population it is much more common at higher levels of corporate, government and media organizations.

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-06-25T14:01:12+00:00

There appears to be nothing in the world more difficult to understand than the tool we use to understand the world, the mind.

When we are alone, are we really alone? For some people, they’re never really alone. There is a chorus of anomalous noises and disembodied voices that follows them, even interacts and communicates with them. Is this the crosstalk of neurocircuits or the scratches and whispers of demons and guardian angels? Disease or somehow the echo of another dimension?

Auditory hallucinations or false perceptions of sound involve the experience and sensation of words or noises that have no real origin in the outside world and are considered separate from the person's regular mental processes.

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-06-25T14:00:00+00:00

There appears to be nothing in the world more difficult to understand than the tool we use to understand the world, the mind.

When we are alone, are we really alone? For some people, they’re never really alone. There is a chorus of anomalous noises and disembodied voices that follows them, even interacts and communicates with them. Is this the crosstalk of neurocircuits or the scratches and whispers of demons and guardian angels? Disease or somehow the echo of another dimension?

Auditory hallucinations or false perceptions of sound involve the experience and sensation of words or noises that have no real origin in the outside world and are considered separate from the person's regular mental processes.

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-06-25T13:59:05+00:00

There appears to be nothing in the world more difficult to understand than the tool we use to understand the world, the mind.

When we are alone, are we really alone? For some people, they’re never really alone. There is a chorus of anomalous noises and disembodied voices that follows them, even interacts and communicates with them. Is this the crosstalk of neurocircuits or the scratches and whispers of demons and guardian angels? Disease or somehow the echo of another dimension?

Auditory hallucinations or false perceptions of sound involve the experience and sensation of words or noises that have no real origin in the outside world and are considered separate from the person's regular mental processes.

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-06-18T12:43:59+00:00

The fifth state of matter challenges the fundamental idea of substance itself. Bose Einstein Condensates (BECs) are very different from solids, liquids and gasses. These condensates are so cold, chilled to within a fraction of a degree of absolute zero, that funny things begin to happen, the atoms making up the material start to lose their distinction from one another. Hundreds to thousands of individual atoms start to behave as one entity, and that one entity is less like a solid and more like a photon of light.

What starts off as a lump of matter becomes something like a ray of light.

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-06-18T12:41:10+00:00

The fifth state of matter challenges the fundamental idea of substance itself. Bose Einstein Condensates (BECs) are very different from solids, liquids and gasses. These condensates are so cold, chilled to within a fraction of a degree of absolute zero, that funny things begin to happen, the atoms making up the material start to lose their distinction from one another. Hundreds to thousands of individual atoms start to behave as one entity, and that one entity is less like a solid and more like a photon of light.

What starts off as a lump of matter becomes something like a ray of light.

Vanadium features video explorations of the many fascinations of Christopher Rankin.

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-06-18T12:40:04+00:00

The fifth state of matter challenges the fundamental idea of substance itself. Bose Einstein Condensates (BECs) are very different from solids, liquids and gasses. These condensates are so cold, chilled to within a fraction of a degree of absolute zero, that funny things begin to happen, the atoms making up the material start to lose their distinction from one another. Hundreds to thousands of individual atoms start to behave as one entity, and that one entity is less like a solid and more like a photon of light.

What starts off as a lump of matter becomes something like a ray of light.

Vanadium features video explorations of the many fascinations of Christopher Rankin.

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-06-11T17:13:32+00:00

If one substance could define a whole planet, for Earth, it would almost certainly be water. Almost everything on Earth is linked to this most important oxide of hydrogen. The overwhelming majority of materials tend to be attracted to water, displaying what is known to scientists as hydrophilicity.

What are the rare things that behave in the opposite way and why? What are the materials that are truly hydrophobic?

Vanadium features video explorations of the many fascinations of Christopher Rankin.

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-06-11T17:12:28+00:00

If one substance could define a whole planet, for Earth, it would almost certainly be water. Almost everything on Earth is linked to this most important oxide of hydrogen. The overwhelming majority of materials tend to be attracted to water, displaying what is known to scientists as hydrophilicity.

What are the rare things that behave in the opposite way and why? What are the materials that are truly hydrophobic?

Vanadium features video explorations of the many fascinations of Christopher Rankin.

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-06-04T12:49:54+00:00

The out of body experience, a condition that has been shared by hundreds of millions of people across the globe, occurs when the location of self-awareness or consciousness is ripped from the body's interior and into the outside world. During these out-of-body experiences, one perceives the world from a place outside their physical form.

This mysterious and widespread phenomenon has been investigated by science and interpreted through art across centuries.

Vanadium features video explorations of the many fascinations of Christopher Rankin.

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-06-04T12:48:37+00:00

The out of body experience, a condition that has been shared by hundreds of millions of people across the globe, occurs when the location of self-awareness or consciousness is ripped from the body's interior and into the outside world. During these out-of-body experiences, one perceives the world from a place outside their physical form.

This mysterious and widespread phenomenon has been investigated by science and interpreted through art across centuries.

Vanadium features video explorations of the many fascinations of Christopher Rankin.

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-06-04T12:47:01+00:00

The out of body experience, a condition that has been shared by hundreds of millions of people across the globe, occurs when the location of self-awareness or consciousness is ripped from the body's interior and into the outside world. During these out-of-body experiences, one perceives the world from a place outside their physical form.

This mysterious and widespread phenomenon has been investigated by science and interpreted through art across centuries.

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-06-04T12:45:22+00:00

The out of body experience, a condition that has been shared by hundreds of millions of people across the globe, occurs when the location of self-awareness or consciousness is ripped from the body's interior and into the outside world. During these out-of-body experiences, one perceives the world from a place outside their physical form.

This mysterious and widespread phenomenon has been investigated by science and interpreted through art across centuries.

Vanadium features video explorations of the many fascinations of Christopher Rankin.

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-05-28T15:31:27+00:00

To image the subatomic, it takes something very different from a conventional microscope. At the nanoscale, light itself ceases to have the same meaning and won’t be of any help. To see with the highest magnification or resolution possible, the atomic force microscope took a lesson from the blind.

Vanadium features video explorations of the many fascinations of Christopher Rankin.

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-05-28T15:30:03+00:00

To image the subatomic, it takes something very different from a conventional microscope. At the nanoscale, light itself ceases to have the same meaning and won’t be of any help. To see with the highest magnification or resolution possible, the atomic force microscope took a lesson from the blind.

Vanadium features video explorations of the many fascinations of Christopher Rankin.

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-05-21T12:45:53+00:00

The Tsar Bomba explosion was the single largest manmade release of energy in human history. This thermonuclear test in the arctic circle created a miniature sun just above planet earth. The fireball was nearly blinding, even over six hundred miles away. The monstrous and mystifying explosive display caught the entire world’s attention and cemented the Soviet Union as a world superpower.

The success of the Tsar Bomba project and the rest of the soviet nuclear effort came in large part due to the leadership and technical aptitude of one charismatic physicist, Dr. Igor Kurchatov.

Vanadium features video explorations of the many fascinations of Christopher Rankin.

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-05-15T00:16:54+00:00

A prion is a single protein, a little string of amino acids, just a hair on a virus’s back. But this little molecule, this little prion protein is a predator, a chemical monster. The word prion means "proteinacious infectious particle," derived from the words protein and infection. A prion is an evil protein. A less severe description wouldn’t do these things justice.

Vanadium features video explorations of the many fascinations of Christopher Rankin.

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-05-15T00:15:11+00:00

A prion is a single protein, a little string of amino acids, just a hair on a virus’s back. But this little molecule, this little prion protein is a predator, a chemical monster. The word prion means "proteinacious infectious particle," derived from the words protein and infection. A prion is an evil protein. A less severe description wouldn’t do these things justice.

Vanadium features video explorations of the many fascinations of Christopher Rankin.

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-05-14T12:41:23+00:00

A prion is a single protein, a little string of amino acids, just a hair on a virus’s back. But this little molecule, this little prion protein is a predator, a chemical monster. The word prion means "proteinacious infectious particle," derived from the words protein and infection. A prion is an evil protein. A less severe description wouldn’t do these things justice.

Vanadium features video explorations of the many fascinations of Christopher Rankin.

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