Alda loves spicy food. His predilection for pepper prompted the program to ponder the fiery nature of the chile pepper. Dr. Paul Bosland, director of the Chile Pepper Institute in Las Cruces, New Mexico, has the answer. An orange-colored compound called capsaicin sets mouths on fire. Paradoxically, another side effect of capsaicin might alleviate discomfort for chronic pain sufferers.
Capsaicin burns at first, but eventually deadens the pain sensors in the mouth.
Anesthesiologist Wendye Robbins wonders if capsaicin could have the same effect elsewhere in the body. Alda visits her lab as she tests out her capsaicin-based analgesic cream on a runner who suffers from crippling foot pain. When Sidney Nagel, a professor of Physics at the University of Chicago s Materials Lab, and his colleague Heinrich Jaeger look at sand and other types of grains, a whole host of little questions spring to their minds. Nagel and Jaeger attempt to answer these little questions and explain their big applications to Alda. The data could help drug manufacturers understand how particles of different chemicals mix when stirred just as in that can of mixed nuts.