Dark Matters: Twisted But True (2011) s02e03 Episode Script

Noble: This is your one and only warning.
Your screen will soon be filled with dramatized stories of scientific research that some people may find controversial and disturbing.
Viewer discretion is advised.
Ask yourself -- does progress always come at a price? Are some experiments too risky or just wrong? A little curiosity can't hurt anyone.
Can it? Scientific knowledge cannot be unlearned.
It has a power of its own.
No matter how or why it is obtained, good or evil intentions do not always result in good and evil outcomes, as you'll see in these three stories of experimentation andunforeseen consequences.
You'll meet a man who finds out firsthand just how deadly religious faith can be.
[ Grunts .]
And I'll introduce you to a mathematician who has reduced all that is kind and good in humanity to a mere formula.
But first, here's a tale of a medical operation that will protect society from the criminally insane.
But who's the criminal -- the madman or the doctor? Professor Egas Moniz -- Portugal's most brilliant scientist, Director of Neurology at the University of Lisbon.
He's about to revolutionize the world of medicine.
[ Laughing .]
Oh, this is beautiful.
Dr.
Swaminath: In the 1920s, medics had access to X-rays, which can really give you beautiful outlines of the bones, for example.
However, getting a good look at the brain was nearly impossible because it would simply show up as a spongy blob.
It's the interior of the human brain.
Look, look, look, look.
This is the anterior spinal artery, and -- and -- and look, the Moniz is going to change the world.
[ Laughs .]
Dr.
Swaminath: Moniz had the idea of creating a dye that would be opaque to x-rays, injecting that into the blood, and then taking an X-ray of the brain.
This had never been done before.
Noble: One of Portugal's leading intellects, Dr.
Moniz has founded a political party and served as foreign minister.
Now he's going to solve the problem of mental illness and make life in asylums more bearable.
[ Groans .]
[ Shakily .]
Please.
Don't hurt me.
I promise I will be a good girl.
I promise you.
Come on.
Please, please, don't hurt me.
I promise.
I promise I'm gonna be a good girl.
I promise you.
[ Crying .]
Please, please, please.
[ Spits .]
[ Laughs .]
Lederer: Asylums were essentially for warehousing patients -- patients who represented either a danger to themselves or to society.
They're chronically underfunded, they're understaffed, and they're not really about therapy.
They're really to get unsafe people off the streets.
[ Cup slams .]
Noble: For the mentally ill, outside of asylums, there is no help.
Lederer: This is a period of time when there are no effective treatments, and physicians are desperate to provide help to individuals and to their families.
[ Sighs .]
Noble: Moniz has a radical plan to cut into the brains of mental patients to alter their behavior -- a technique inspired by American research he's seen on monkeys.
It really is a very simple procedure.
He wants to sever the frontal lobes from the rest of the brain -- an operation now known as a prefrontal lobotomy.
There is some resistance to the blade, but with a firm hand, it goes in smoothly into the flesh of the brain, and then Moniz's young colleague, Dr.
Diogo Furtado, is fascinated.
That's incredible.
These are the frontal lobes of the brain.
And they're responsible for important tasks like decision-making, short-term memory, and aspects of your personality.
Now, you can survive without them, but without them, you're not really you.
So, what Moniz was trying to do is separate them from the rest of the brain.
And what were the results like? W-what I saw was extraordinary.
The monkeys lost all symptoms of frustration and anxiety.
He wasn't exactly sure why it happened, but it affected behavior.
It changed how they acted.
The only problem is that once cut, they can't be uncut.
The only thing that remains is for us to find a human test case.
Noble: Moniz finds a woman suffering from agitated depression -- a type of bipolar disorder.
Today, her symptoms would be controlled with drugs.
Nurse: She's always hurting herself.
I think we have found just what we were looking for.
It's your lucky day.
Come on.
Let's do this.
Noble: Moniz and his team are about to perform the first ever prefrontal lobotomy on a human.
[ Cranking .]
He's invented a new surgical instrument for the procedure.
It's rather ingenious.
All you have to do is push and pull the blade.
The blade goes in and, we-- imagine you are -- you are coring an apple.
Noble: Because of arthritis in his hands, Moniz is unable to perform the delicate operation himself.
Another surgeon does it for him.
This is a copy of Moniz's original leucotome -- a device that can be inserted through a hole drilled in a person's head, and then, once inside the brain, a plunger depressed and a cutting wire extended.
So, Moniz would take this instrument, insert it into the brain, and wouldn't exactly know how far to go.
But once he felt like he'd gone far enough, he would extend the cutting wire and rotate the tool.
But, of course, he was doing this all blind.
He couldn't see where he was, so he was quite literally taking a stab in the dark.
Noble: If lobotomy makes the insane less violent, there is no shortage of candidates for Moniz's knife.
Some are time bombs waiting to injure themselves or others.
One man in particular has a date with Dr.
Moniz and with destiny.
Noble: Dr.
Egas Moniz is slicing into the brains of mental patients.
Now the other side.
[ Panting .]
Moniz is going to revolutionize mental health.
His surgery should end the violent outbursts of the insane.
Dr.
Ross: Lobotomies we never actually a treatment or a cure for anything.
What Moniz intended was to reduce the person's agitation, make them more manageable, and, therefore, easier to control in the asylum.
Well good morning.
Are you well? I can't help noticing shedoesn't seem very aware.
It's wonderful.
It's wonderful.
Noble: The results are everything Moniz hoped for.
The patient is calm, docile, and controllable.
But there are unexpected consequences.
I do have concerns.
There is somechange, some significant loss to her mental capacity.
[ Scoffs .]
Mental capacity.
She's less dangerous to the staff.
This is exactly as I expected.
And the patients themselves? [ Slurps .]
Clearly, the patients will be put out of their misery.
Noble: Moniz orders lobotomies on 20 more test cases.
Moniz: Wait, wait, wait, wait.
I have made one or two improvements.
He applies lobotomies to all manner of mental illness from psychosis to depression.
Psychosurgery.
[ Chuckles .]
Psychosurgery.
My procedure will become known as "Psychosurgery.
" [ Laughs .]
[ Bell dings .]
Next patient, please.
Noble: Moniz rushes to publish his discovery without fully investigating the consequences.
Sit.
Each of his 20 patients are observed for just a few days after the operation.
Good morning.
Reading this article, you would be forgiven for thinking that Moniz had discovered an amazing procedure that was gonna solve the problem of the chronically mentally ill.
And based upon this article, the procedure goes worldwide -- practiced most frequently in the U.
S.
by American surgeon Walter Freeman, who's known to have performed 10 of these in a day.
The most famous patient would be Rosemary Kennedy, J.
F.
K.
's sister.
Noble: Moniz promotes his new procedure as a miracle cure for society's problems with mental illness.
What's up with your hand? [ Whimpers .]
From reading this paper, you'd have no sense that there were any serious problems associated with this.
It seemed like a complete miracle.
Um, uhSeñor Forrester has arrived.
Noble: Records show that seven of the 20 cases are considered completely cured.
A further eight show reduced violence.
Moniz has been treating William Forrester for some time.
Sit.
Sit.
So, William how are you dealing with your aggressive urges? [ Gun cocks .]
What do you think you're doing? William? William! [ Gurgling .]
The 28-year-old engineer empties eight bullets into Moniz.
[ Moniz groaning .]
[ Screams .]
Moniz never prescribed a lobotomy for Forrester.
If he had, it's entirely possible he wouldn't have been attacked.
Dr.
Lerner: In later years, Forrester was diagnosed as clinically paranoid -- the exact sort of patient for whom Moniz might have recommended a lobotomy.
But at the time, the severity of his illness was not known.
[ Grunts .]
Noble: The shooting leaves Moniz confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
Thank you for seeing me, Egas.
[ Sighs .]
I have been continuing your patients' aftercare.
Is that so? Those who were merely agitated have had their personalities changed forever.
How awful.
Would I be correct in assuming, however, that none of them actually shot anyone? Goodbye, Professor.
Am I wrong? Am I wrong?! In 1949, Moniz won the Nobel Prize for developing the lobotomy.
But doctors now see his discovery as barbaric and ineffective.
Evolution -- tiny changes over billions of years explain the physical makeup of our bodies.
But is it also responsible for how we behave? [ Coughs .]
Can it explain compassion? Kindness? You're about to meet a mathematician who argued that true human kindness doesn't exist.
It's nothing more than an evolutionary survival trick.
And he's got an equation that can prove it.
Have you ever done something truly kind? Perhaps you won a medal for your selfless act of bravery or had your philanthropy praised in the papers.
Well, suppose I could prove mathematically that your so-called "kindness" is an illusion -- nothing more than an accident of our evolution.
What does that say about the very nature of good and evil? [ Rock music plays .]
For mathematician and atheist George Price, there are two worlds -- the world of numbers and the world of people.
In the world of numbers, he is a genius.
In the world of people, mm, not so much.
Harman: So, George Price is a real-life cross between between Forrest Gump and Rain Man.
On the Forrest Gump side, he is always at the periphery of a great scientific or technological revolution, whether it's at the Manhattan Project working as a chemist on uranium enrichment, or at Bell Labs working on transistor research at the telecommunications revolution, or inventing computer-aided design for IBM.
On the Rain Man side, alongside his great brilliance, he's also a very strange human being -- not very good with people.
Ma'am.
Sorry, ma'am.
Nobel: The rational world of numbers led him to become an atheist, which didn't go down so well with his religious wife.
Their marriage fails, and Price travels to London, searching for a new direction.
Keep up the good fight.
Bless you.
[ Sighs .]
Price buries himself in London's many libraries, reading any scientific paper that attracts him.
He stumbles across a subject he's never considered before -- evolution.
Charles Darwin's theory of Natural Selection says that tiny differences between offspring can make one more likely to survive and reproduce than another.
So, for example, if you live in a region where resources become sparse and you have to climb trees to get food, those people who have good tree-climbing skills would be able to survive in those conditions, whereas others who hadn't received those genes to allow them to climb the trees wouldn't.
Noble: Evolution is nothing new.
But Price finds a revolutionary paper by biologist William Hamilton.
It applies evolution not to the way our bodies work, but to the way we behave.
Reeve: Many evolutionary biologists consider this to be the most important paper in evolution in the last 100 years.
The genius of his idea was to apply natural-selection thinking, not just to physical characteristics such as body size, but also to social behavior among humans, as well.
Noble: Price analyzes Hamilton's argument that social behavior is carried in our genes, just like hair or eye color.
The paper attempts to solve a problem which has confounded every biologist since Darwin.
How can generous self-sacrifice, known as "altruism," be a survival trait? Reeve: Here's the problem.
Imagine a gene that caused the ultimate self-sacrifice -- to give your life on behalf of somebody else.
Well, that gene is gonna disappear from the population, because the individual who possesses that gene, well, will obviously have no offspring.
Noble: Hamilton realizes that if you die saving a close relative, they might also be carrying the altruism gene and pass it on to the next generation as long as your death saves them.
For example, a mother who throws herself in front of a bus to save three offspring has her genes survive into the next generation, and has a bigger genetic advantage than if she had not thrown herself in front of the bus.
Noble: Price approaches the problem as a mathematician and develops a profoundly new set of equations to explain this idea.
He sends his work to Hamilton.
[ Telephone ringing .]
Mr.
Price? Yes.
This is Bill Hamilton.
Price points out shortcomings in Hamilton's paper.
I simply think that, uh, you've stumbled on the more basic axioms.
I mean, we all make mistakes, Professor Hamilton.
Please, call me Bill.
Um, okay.
UmBill.
I think you'll find that if you calculate covariance that Price's math takes Hamilton's original ideas to a whole new level of sophistication.
Mr.
Price, forgive me, but could you run that past me again? problem of putting it Harman: What Price comes up with is not a theory.
Rather, it is a theorem.
It is a mathematical truth, and it is always true under every and all circumstances, which is amazing.
Noble: Price's theorem mathematically proves Hamilton's idea that altruism is an evolutionary survival trick.
No matter how selfless a person seems, the math says genes are always in control.
You may think you're being generous, but in reality, your behavior is really to benefit your own genes.
When do you mean to publish? Um, nobody knows who I am, so George -- may I call you "George"? You have to publish.
Ma'am.
Noble: And with Hamilton's help, Price does get his work published [ Car horn honks .]
in the prestigious science journal "Nature.
" George Price.
[ Door opens .]
[ Door hinges creak .]
So, this is the actual Price paper.
The most amazing thing about this paper is that at its end, you can see there are absolutely no references.
Now, I cannot tell you how rare that is.
In fact, it's not even rare.
It absolutely never happens in science.
And this, in a paper that purported to provide the answer to one of the greatest mysteries that science was looking at.
I guess.
Noble: George Price has found status, prestige, and, much to his own surprise, a lifelong friend.
But despite what his brilliant paper says, Price sees pure altruism all around him.
Can these inspiring examples of human kindness really be explained away with math? He becomes troubled by the bleak notion that heroism results from the self-serving biology of our brains.
He wonders -- hopes, even -- that he's made an error.
Reeve: If the scientific theory is correct, it should always work where it's applied.
A single counter-example to the theory is enough to falsify it.
Price knew all this, so he reasoned that, "All I have to do is find one counter-example to my own theory," for example, by showing that there is a true case of unconditional altruism in humans, to blow his own theory out of the water.
Noble: To escape the implications of his own theory, he sets out to kill it with kindness.
Noble: George Price's mathematical equation proves human kindness is just self-interest in disguise.
We have evolved to help others only because it helps our genes survive.
His scientific breakthrough reveals the world to be cold, predictable, out of our conscious control.
Then one day, the atheist mathematician has a revelation.
There is a God.
Harman: When he came up with his equation, he began contemplating what an enormous coincidence it was, because all the great minds, going back to Darwin, had been trying to crack this problem, and yet it was him -- a complete outsider -- who came up with this quite miraculous equation.
And so, thinking of other coincidences that had occurred to him during his lifetime -- very strange things, like four girlfriends by the name of "Anne," and the last four digits of his phone number being 2399, which he interpreted to be just a moment before midnight.
It's the last chance to find God, and so forth.
And he multiplied all of these coincidences, and came up with an astronomical figure -- one divided by 10 to the 27th -- which meant that the chance that all of these things should have happened to him was infinitesimal, and yet they had all happened to him.
Noble: Price believes only God could beat such long odds, so he must exist.
Price: Dear babies Noble: He shares the good news with his estranged daughters.
I have given in and admitted that God does exist.
[ Congregational singing .]
Noble: He believes God's omnipotence is powerful enough to create true kindness, despite what the math says.
Just as he was an uncompromising atheist, he is now an uncompromising Christian, treating Jesus' teachings of compassion and charity as exact instructions.
Thanks, then.
He starts by ridding himself of almost everything he owns.
He applies his scientific rigor to a new goal -- to do the illogical -- to behave in a truly self-sacrificing manner.
He's one of my great-great-great- great- great-great-grandfathers He will prove that his theorem is wrong.
peoples' will.
I-it's -- it's wrong.
[ Sighs .]
It's not wrong because you don't like it, George.
Now, we -- you and I -- asked a difficult question about human nature, and we got a difficult answer.
[ Chuckles .]
Whether you like it or not, this is how we are.
You're wrong.
Noble: Whatever Price may now believe, the scientific world accepts that he has reduced the concept of kindness to a mathematical formula.
proves it doesn't, in fact.
You -- you're wrong, Bill.
You're wrong, and I can prove it.
[ Scoffs .]
You're throwing away your career.
[ Silverware clanks .]
Noble: To prove his equations wrong, he invites vagrants and alcoholics to live in his apartment.
George lets his new house-guests do and take what they want.
And by August 1972, they leave Price with nothing.
Price: I am now down to exactly 15 pence.
I look forward eagerly to when that 15 pence will be gone.
Merry Christmas.
George? Noble: His diet consists of just one pint of milk a day.
Hamilton: What are you doing here, man? [ Shivering .]
You can't be here.
It's freezing cold, for goodness' sake.
Here, take my coat.
Come on.
[ Coughing .]
You come with me.
You can't stay out.
Come on.
[ Weakly .]
Bill? Bill, yes.
That's right.
Come on, George.
Good man.
Good man.
Yeah, come this way.
[ Shivering .]
I'm so cold, Bill.
I know.
Let's go.
Come on.
Let's find you somewhere warm.
Noble: Hamilton persuades his friend to ease back on his selfless life before it kills him.
They meet on December 19th, and Price agrees to work with Hamilton on a new genetics project.
To 1975.
A better year for both of us.
A better year.
[ Carolers singing "O Come All Ye Faithful".]
Noble: Price has realized trying to disprove his theorem is a hopeless cause.
Joyful and triumphant No matter how selfless his acts appear, there is always the possibility that there is some evolutionary advantage he hasn't considered.
Harman: George Price had set out to be selfless -- completely selfless.
To act against his own mathematics.
And in the end, he didn't know whether, in his acts of true kindness, there was, in fact, a hidden motive of egoism which would be a reflection of his own mathematics.
So he did not know, and could not prove, that the math was actually correct or incorrect.
Noble: It's too much for Price.
He is found dead on January 6, 1975.
[ Siren wailing .]
He's cut his throat with nail scissors -- killed by his own theory.
Faith in religion -- or science, for that matter -- is powerful.
Belief can overcome fear and pain.
It can make you see things, feel things that aren't even there.
[ Grunting, screaming .]
Whatever that priest said to you is not true.
But at the boundary where science and religion collide This is gonna hurt.
Children say, "Sticks and stones break your bones.
" Easily proven.
But is it also true that "Words never hurt you"? A medical case from the 1930s suggests that words can indeed make you suffer or even kill you.
Dr.
Drayton Doherty has a problem -- his patient his dying, and the doctor has no idea why.
How's he doing, Maisie? He's not good, Doctor.
[ Sighs .]
Don't be frightened.
We'll get to the bottom of it.
Noble: All medical tests have proven negative.
Vance Vanders is free from any known disease.
It's impossible.
How can a man be declining like this if there's nothing wrong with him? Maisie, is there a history of anything like this -- in his family? No.
I already done some thinking about -- ain't nothing dark there, neither.
Could someone have done something to him? Poisoned him, maybe? You got something you want to talk about, Maisie? You done something to Vance? God's truth ain't nothing I done, Doctor.
I knew I should've just gone and told you.
Told me what? What did you do? Noble: Maisie tells Doherty that three months earlier, her husband had a rendezvous in a graveyard with a Voodoo priest.
To a believer, a practitioner, Voodoo guides everything he does.
Jean-Marie: In the 1930s, a practitioner of Voodoo relies on Voodoo to navigate the social, the political, and the natural environment.
So, from the perspective of a practitioner, the world is Voodoo.
Voodoo is the world.
Noble: Whatever the priest tells him, Vance is going to believe it.
Maisie: Vance never said what they was arguing about, but it got ugly.
[ Echoing .]
Vance.
[ Exhales sharply .]
Voodoo man put a curse on him.
[ Coughs .]
Tell him he gonna die.
And if Vance told anyone, he'd curse all the family.
Noble: Immediately, Vance begins to sicken.
[ Groaning .]
Vance, honey, what's the matter with you? Maisie: He wouldn't eat.
Look at me.
Hardly moved.
Justlay there like he dead already.
And that's the way it was.
Now, you listen to me, Maisie Vanders.
Hocus pocus can't kill a man.
It's not real.
I know the human body.
And I know what happened to my husband.
It's real, and we all know it.
You may not believe it, Doctor.
But he sure as hell do.
Britt: Religious belief can be very powerful.
And it can have very real physical effects.
Here's an example.
In one study involving Roman Catholic.
The other 12 -- not very religious.
All of them underwent a procedure in which they received minor electric shocks, and they were placed inside of an MRI.
They were also allowed to look at images during this time.
One image was the Virgin Mary, the other -- an image by Leonardo Da Vinci.
Both of these were very similar.
The results were very interesting.
For the religious group, when they were able to look at the Virgin Mary, they reported less pain than they were looking at the Leonardo Da Vinci image.
Non-religious group -- the images had no effect.
Noble: Tests show no evidence that Vance was poisoned.
What he does have, though, is a potent belief in the power of Voodoo.
Dr.
Doherty: Vance, look at me.
Whatever that priest said to you is not true.
Whatever he threatened you with, it can't harm you.
Vance.
Vance, listen to me.
Noble: Unlike the Voodoo priest, Doherty's words have no effect.
Vance has accepted his own death, and where his mind leads, his body is following.
Can you hear me, Vance? This effect is not confined to Voodoo.
It affects all of us.
Doctors call it "psychosomatic death.
" Dr.
Ross: The case example of this was published in the Southern Medical Journal in 1992.
A man was given a diagnosis of cancer by a physician, and told that he had a few months to live.
When he did, in fact, die, the autopsy showed that the cancer had not progressed and that there was no known cause of death.
So the actual cause of death was his belief that he was going to die.
Noble: If Vance Vanders' Voodoo belief is killing him, could it save him, too? Noble: Alabama Doctor Drayton Doherty is used to patients having faith in his medicine.
Now he's confronted by a patient who trusts a witch doctor more than modern science.
His patient, Vance Vanders, believes he is dying from a Voodoo spell.
[ Grunting, screaming .]
But can that conviction be turned from a curse into a cure? Vitkun: If we can get your brain to believe that we have something that's going to affect your bodily function, it may affect it in that way.
This is known as the placebo effect.
The important point when a placebo effect is used is that you must create the proper atmosphere so that the person really believes they're getting a medication, even if that medication does not have any effect.
Noble: Vance can't be talked out of his death by a mere doctor because Voodoo is more real to him than medicine.
Maisie: You may not believe it, Doctor, but he sure as hell do.
Noble: If pills and drugs can't save his patient, maybe what Doherty needs is magic.
[ Ominous laughing .]
[ Panting .]
Mr.
Vanders, I owe you an apology for doubting your story.
I went down to that graveyard and I tracked down your Voodoo man.
[ Chanting .]
And I had to know what he done to you.
[ Chanting continues .]
I want to talk to you.
What have you done to Vance? [ Laughs .]
Aah! [ Ominous laughing .]
That black powder he waved in your face -- he told me exactly what it was.
Lizard eggs.
You breathed them in.
You swallowed them.
Vance, you've got a lizard growing inside you.
He's been drinking your drink, eating your food.
Won't be long till he starts eating your stomach from the inside out.
Nurse, get my coat.
We've got to get him out.
It's gonna be all right, Maisie.
It's gonna be all right.
[ Wind howling .]
Vance, I'm not gonna lie to you.
This is gonna hurt.
[ Vomiting .]
Noble: As dawn breaks, the treatment begins to take effect.
Nurse, give me the bucket.
Oh, my God.
Maisie, light the lamp.
Bring it here, quick.
Oh, Lord Jesus! Oh, Lord God.
What is that? What is it? [ Breathing heavily .]
Vance.
The curse is broken.
Noble: Vance drops into a coma-like sleep.
The following day, Vance is awake.
His appetite is back.
Maisie: Better? Much better.
Noble: Doherty's stroke of genius was to stop fighting Vance's beliefs and, by using the power of the placebo effect, turn those beliefs into a cure.
You best be fixing to live.
Vitkun: For a placebo effect to work, there must be an authority figure.
The physician must create the stage upon which he is going to present the placebo to the patient.
So, for Vance, Dr.
Doherty created a Voodoo stage and used Voodoo placebo effect to treat and cure his initial curse.
Maisie, light the lamp.
Noble: The drug Doherty administers does nothing more than induce vomiting.
His witch doctor story is a fabrication.
Bring it here.
Bring it here, quick.
Oh, Lord! Thank you, nurse.
Noble: Curing someone with belief is not confined to the world of Voodoo.
For doctors, using placebos or placebo effects is somewhat of an ethical challenge.
Because when you use a placebo, you are, in essence, lying to the patient.
However, this lie and the placebo may make them feel better, while the truth may actually make them feel worse.
[ Chanting .]
Noble: The power to heal or to kill with words alone is not just the preserve of witch doctors.
Physicians, too, must think very carefully about what they say.