About this season
Dr Michael Mosley explores how pioneering doctors laid the foundations of modern medicine.
Episodes (4)
1. Anaesthesia
Aired 17 June 2008
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.
2. Discovering Vaccines
Aired 24 June 2008
Michael Mosley explores how pioneering doctors learnt to harness the immune system by exposing themselves to incurable diseases like rabies, typhoid and polio.
3. Diet and Disease
Aired 1 July 2008
Dr Michael Mosley explores the lengths to which pioneering doctors have gone to uncover the connections between what we eat and what we die from.
4. Beating Infection
Aired 8 July 2008
Michael Mosley looks at how doctors came to understand infectious diseases by deliberately infecting themselves with conditions such syphilis and yellow fever.