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Fascinating Fails
How To Accidentally Invent A Color
Season 1
Episode 1
One of the most colorful accidents in history, malaria, and...genetically engineered bacteria?! These are all part of the story behind the color purple. Maren Hunsberger travels through time in London to follow the thread of purple's story from ancient plants to the industrial revolution, and all the way to a lab growing microbes that could just save the world's water.
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19:38
How an experimental failure led to the accidental discovery of LSD.
16:16
How an accidental seaweed cooking tip went from the kitchen to the laboratory…and then everywhere.
18:07
Did you know that a completely failed experiment helped us to understand our allergies?
17:20
How do these toads keep failing upward, and what can we do about it?
19:51
How did a famous lab accident end up saving more than half a billion lives…and is it true?
16:09
Is it bird poop? Is it a bomb? Nope. It’s the Big Bang! A hiss heard only by accident.
18:51
The only reason we have general anesthesia today is because of a Victorian party drug.