(ethereal music) - [Narrator] Listen up folks, Bicycle Day's coming up on April 19th.

But don't let the name confuse you.

It's not about bikes.

This is a day honoring the colorful journey chemist Albert Hofmann took from his laboratory after his first experiment with his problem child molecule, LSD-25.

Today we're talking the psychedelic history of LSD, so get ready to turn on, tune in, but don't drop out.

You might just learn something.

The story starts right here, or rather, on a fungus that grows on rye, known as ergot, In the Middle Ages, ergot was responsible for a terrible widespread illness called Saint Anthony's Fire, which would later be known as ergotism.

Its symptoms include gangrenous limbs or convulsions with hallucinations and delirium.

Many pregnant women stricken with this illness would suffer miscarriages, and so later ergot would be used as a folk medicine to induce labor and limit bleeding after childbirth.

When a natural substance is found to have medicinal effects, scientists try to understand why, in an effort to create a drug.

So chemist Arthur Stoll, working at the Swiss chemical company Sandoz, isolated ergotamine from ergot in 1918, and it was ultimately sold under the name Gynergen as a migraine remedy.

By the 1930s, Sandoz had a pharmaceutical laboratory where chemists experimented with naturally-occurring molecules, developing new reactions in order to make synthetic products that might become superior medicines.

Albert Hofmann was one such chemist, working under Stoll, who continued his boss's research in ergotamine.

Later on, American chemists isolated the core structure of ergotamine, called lysergic acid.

This stuff proved to be pretty difficult to work with, due to its quick decomposition.

And so Hofmann dedicated himself to making a more stable form.

He found out that he could use the Curtius synthesis to add stabilizing amine groups.

Using this technique, he was able to change lysergic acid into the much easier to handle ergobasine, a compound that had been previously isolated from natural ergot.

This laboratory success told Hofmann that he was on the right track.

So in 1938 he began a series of experiments, mixing and matching lysergic acid with different organic molecules, in search of new medicines.

On his 25th attempt, Hofmann thought he might be able to create a new stimulant drug to replace a circulatory stimulant called nikethamide.

This experiment led him to synthesize, for the very first time, lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD-25.

This new molecule had a similar shape to nikethamide, but with not so similar effects in the lab.

Aside from some restless behavior in test rats, LSD-25 didn't exhibit the appropriate characteristics, and was put on the wayside for the next five years.

But in that time, Hofmann continued to have a lingering suspicion that there was something more to this otherwise not very useful chemical.

So in 1943, while synthesizing a new test sample, he found himself feeling quite strange, in what he described as "a remarkable restlessness combined with a slight dizziness."

Concerned with his condition, he headed home early and found himself experiencing "fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes, with intense kaleidoscopic plays of color."

Hofmann was the first person on Earth to experience the psychedelic effects of LSD-25.

And inspired by both his novel experience and his intuition, he decided to take an up close and personal look at the molecule.

Three days later on April 19th, Hofmann got his lab notes together and dosed himself with LSD.

At 4:20 PM he consumed 0.25 milligrams, which he thought wasn't even gonna be enough to do anything at all.

And to be clear, this was a very, very bad idea.

No one should ever taste lab products, ever.

Anyways, 40 minutes later, he wrote that he was feeling dizzy, having visual distortions and experiencing the urge to laugh.

This entry would also be his last of the day.

Overcome by the experiment, he asked his lab assistant to help him home, but with World War II restricting the availability of cars, the only way was by bicycle.

Hofmann had the most memorable cruise of a lifetime.

And thus Bicycle Day was born.

From that powerful experience and onward, Hofmann and his peers continued to chemically experiment with LSD.

By the 1950s, researchers took interest in the potential therapeutic value for treating schizophrenia, depression, and even alcoholism.

Word about the mind-altering powers of LSD began to leak outside the lab, and by the '60s its impact on pop culture became very clear.

While this era was defined by a sense of freedom and expression, the unregulated, often irresponsible uses of LSD led to a largely negative perception of the drug.

In the 1970s, the United Nations started bans on psychedelics such as LSD, and labs generally stopped working with it.

In the United States, LSD is a Schedule I drug, which means that it's considered to have a high likelihood of abuse and no currently proven medical use.

Hofmann was personally disappointed that LSD's casual abuse overshadows its scientific potential.

Since then, new research has emerged, revealing more about how LSD interacts with our brains.

This research area is still very new, but it could open the door to new therapies for depression, addiction, and anxiety.