Free Radicals by Mike Jay The story of the circle of scientists, poets and dissidents who discovered laughing gas—and forever changed our understanding of the mind An unlikely circle of doctors, chemists, poets and political radicals formed a group round the maverick physician Thomas Beddoes. In the closing years of the eighteenth century, he founded the first modern medical institute, the Pneumatic Institute in Bristol. When he and its researchers discovered the mind-altering properties of nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, what was a pioneering public health initiative became a freewheeling exploration of consciousness. Celebrated historian Mike Jay tells the story of Dr.