Part 4/8:
The exploration of consciousness further deepens when Luca Turin, a prominent figure in the study of sense perception, introduces the speaker to the topic of anesthetics. It becomes evident that a wide variety of agents, from xenon gas to various steroid compounds, induce states of unconsciousness across a wide spectrum of organisms, from protozoa to humans. This enigmatic behavior implies that some fundamental cellular mechanisms may govern consciousness itself, independent of more complex molecular structures typically emphasized in pharmacology.