Eighty years since the chance discovery of LSD

2024-04-16 - Vasudevan Mukunth Sievert W.E. Weber

QUESTION 1

On April 16, 1943, 80 years ago this day, the Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman accidentally ingested a small quantity of LSD and discovered its unique effects on the human psyche, cognition, and perception. What does LSD stand for?

QUESTION 2

Hoffman had synthesised LSD five years prior by using water molecules to break down molecules of an organic compound produced by a fungus called _____. Fill in the blank. Hint: Ingesting this organic compound leads to a condition in humans called St. Anthony’s fire.

QUESTION 3

For some time, researchers believed that LSD’s effects mimicked those of schizophrenia, and thus the compound was held to be psychotomimetic. Around the midcentury, which English psychiatrist coined the term “psychedelic” to refer to LSD’s effects, once it became clear they differed from those of schizophrenia because they could be psychologically beneficial?

QUESTION 4

Psychedelic substances are also called serotonergic hallucinogens because they activate receptors in the body just the way the neurotransmitter serotonin does, heightening the resulting symptoms. But LSD is unusual among psychedelics because it also stimulates the receptors of which other neurotransmitter?

QUESTION 5

Name the program of illegal human experiments the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) conducted from 1953 to 1973 in which it used psychoactive substances including LSD to inflict psychological torture to force confessions from people during interrogations.

Answers to April 11 quiz:

1. Unit used to measure the solid angle – Ans: Steradian

2. Unit used to measure capacitance – Ans: Farad

3. United used to measure the density of magnetic flux – Ans: Tesla

4. United used to measure radiation by its effects on biological tissue – Ans:

5. Unit used to measure the catalytic activity of an enzyme – Ans: Katal Visual:

First contact: K.N. Viswanathan | Muhammed Shahid Suri | Appa Rao M.V.

| Jyot Prakash Gulati

Visual: Name this famous English writer who, after trying LSD, joined as an advisor to researchers at Harvard University in the 1960s working on similar drugs.