So, there’s been a bit of press recently about an upcoming (UK) Channel 4 program called Drugs Live. The show will be broadcast next week, on Wednesday and Thursday (that’s the 26th and 27th of September) at 10pm. The reason I’m mentioning it here is because for the last 9 months or so I’ve been heavily involved in an experiment which has involved MRI-scanning volunteers while they’re under the influence of a dose of MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy, and this is what the program will substantially focus on. I’ve been a collaborator on the project, helping out with bits of task-programming, scanning and analysis of data, but the real stars are the project leaders Prof. David Nutt, Prof. Val Curran and Dr Robin Carhart-Harris. I do have to admit to a little ‘squee!’ of excitement when I saw this article on the Guardian website (that’s me in the picture! On the left! Squeee!).
So… if you’re in the UK, be sure to tune in next Wednesday/Thursday for the program. There’ll be a live panel discussion hosted by the always interestingly be-socked-and-tied Jon Snow of Channel 4 news, presentation of some of the results from the experiments and ooh… all kinds of other interesting things. Also, there was a fascinating edition of the (always excellent) BBC radio program ‘The Life Scientific) with Jim Al-Khalili interviewing David Nutt, where he talks about the current research at one point; for anyone interested, it’s well worth a listen. Available on the BBC iPlayer here.
For those outside the UK – you may well be out of luck, I’ve no idea if the program will ever be ‘properly’ broadcast anywhere else. Some altruistic soul might record it and put it up on a torrent site I suppose, but I certainly couldn’t endorse anyone downloading it from an illegal source (*cough*).
The Metro (Can’t believe something I’m involved in is in the Metro – this is the absolute pinnacle of my scientific career – it’s all downhill from here.)
Wired (This is a cool article with some other fun videos of people taking drugs on camera.)
And for the sake of balance, here’s a fairly negative take from The Evening Standard (Headline ‘Are they raving mad?’ Good one guys. How long did it take you to come up with that?)
And finally, the Channel 4 trailer for the program:
So… Channel 4 are obviously taking it very seriously and not sensationalising it at all. *Sigh* Don’t forget – next Wednesday/Thursday! 10pm! Channel 4! Be there, or be… I dunno… in the pub?
Oh, and if anyone wants to update my IMDB page for me after the program, that’d be great. Ta.
Bye for now, my lovelies *air kiss, flounces off*.
This is pretty much way off-topic, but I’ve just written a guest post on a blog for Longridge Editors. It’s a somewhat ill-tempered rant about grammar, and particularly about the rash of ‘Top 10 grammar mistakes’ blog posts which I’ve been seeing lately. You can read it here.
Computing for Psychologists 
Some mild pimpage about the Channel 4 program on MDMA: Drugs Live
Sep 20
Posted by Matt Wall
So, there’s been a bit of press recently about an upcoming (UK) Channel 4 program called Drugs Live. The show will be broadcast next week, on Wednesday and Thursday (that’s the 26th and 27th of September) at 10pm. The reason I’m mentioning it here is because for the last 9 months or so I’ve been heavily involved in an experiment which has involved MRI-scanning volunteers while they’re under the influence of a dose of MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy, and this is what the program will substantially focus on. I’ve been a collaborator on the project, helping out with bits of task-programming, scanning and analysis of data, but the real stars are the project leaders Prof. David Nutt, Prof. Val Curran and Dr Robin Carhart-Harris. I do have to admit to a little ‘squee!’ of excitement when I saw this article on the Guardian website (that’s me in the picture! On the left! Squeee!).
So… if you’re in the UK, be sure to tune in next Wednesday/Thursday for the program. There’ll be a live panel discussion hosted by the always interestingly be-socked-and-tied Jon Snow of Channel 4 news, presentation of some of the results from the experiments and ooh… all kinds of other interesting things. Also, there was a fascinating edition of the (always excellent) BBC radio program ‘The Life Scientific) with Jim Al-Khalili interviewing David Nutt, where he talks about the current research at one point; for anyone interested, it’s well worth a listen. Available on the BBC iPlayer here.
For those outside the UK – you may well be out of luck, I’ve no idea if the program will ever be ‘properly’ broadcast anywhere else. Some altruistic soul might record it and put it up on a torrent site I suppose, but I certainly couldn’t endorse anyone downloading it from an illegal source (*cough*).
More UK press:
The BBC
The Mirror
The Metro (Can’t believe something I’m involved in is in the Metro – this is the absolute pinnacle of my scientific career – it’s all downhill from here.)
Wired (This is a cool article with some other fun videos of people taking drugs on camera.)
Mixmag (Yes! Mixmag! Hahahahaha… *dies laughing*)
And for the sake of balance, here’s a fairly negative take from The Evening Standard (Headline ‘Are they raving mad?’ Good one guys. How long did it take you to come up with that?)
And finally, the Channel 4 trailer for the program:
So… Channel 4 are obviously taking it very seriously and not sensationalising it at all. *Sigh* Don’t forget – next Wednesday/Thursday! 10pm! Channel 4! Be there, or be… I dunno… in the pub?
Oh, and if anyone wants to update my IMDB page for me after the program, that’d be great. Ta.
Bye for now, my lovelies *air kiss, flounces off*.
Posted in Commentary, Neuroimaging
6 Comments
Tags: Channel 4, DrugsLive, Guardian, Jon Snow, MDMA, Metro, Mirror, Press