Magic mushrooms, can they treat depression?

Psilocybin is the psychedelic substance in magic mushrooms.

Brain scanning experiments reveal how psilocybin works to relieve severe depression.

This programme is now available ON-Demand by visiting the Science in Action Page. It will be available until Thursday the 21st of April. It will also be broadcast on Sunday the 17th of April in Phuket at 9:00 AM on 91.5 FM and 102.5 FM and Online via the Internet radio portals.

Magic Mushrooms in clinical trials.

The psychoactive chemical is currently in clinical trials in the UK and US as a potential treatment for depression and other mental illnesses.

Professor David Nutt of Imperial College London tells Roland about the research.

Deaths because of air pollution

Also, in the show, worrying findings of the increase in premature deaths because of air pollution in growing cities in tropical Africa and Asia.

An international group of climatologists has found that the tropical storms that struck Mozambique, Malawi and Madagascar in early 2022 had been more intense by human-induced climate change.

And astronomer David Jewitt used the Hubble telescope to measure the most extensive known comet in the solar system – it’s huge at about 120 kilometres across.

Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker

(Image: Mexican Psilocybe Cubensis. An adult mushroom is raining spores. Credit: Getty Images)

So much more every weekend on Phuket Island Radio