Carbon Monoxide, Repurposed: Researchers Are Developing Myriad Ways to Deliver CO to Treat Sickle Cell Anemia, Lung Disease, and More

In the 16th century, Paracelsus-the father of modern toxicology-wrote that "all things are poison and nothing is without poison; the dose alone makes a thing not poison." While it's conceivable that too much of a good thing, such as water or oxygen, could be fatal, the opposite-that smaller quantities of a bad thing might be beneficial-may be harder to believe. But four centuries after Paracelsus shared this idea, two researchers decided to apply the more counterintuitive notion of Paracelsus' dogma for a notoriously toxic chemical: carbon monoxide (CO).