Meet the world's hottest pepper creator who will leave you in tears

If you delight in ingesting red-hot chili peppers, have we got a story for you. Our project By Design looks at the creation of the world's hottest pepper so incendiary, workers have to wear gloves to handle it. So potent that its creator has donated it to science for medical research. Today we bring you the story of the Carolina Reaper.

Ted Barrus is not forced to eat the world's spiciest peppers, he does so voluntarily. The horrifically hot chili he is eating is called the Carolina Reaper, which, according to the Guiness World Book of Records, is officially the spiciest pepper on the face of the earth.

Now, the Carolina Reaper didn't just appear on the face of the earth. It was put there, by Ed Currie.

Today our project, By Design, is looking at the story behind the creation of the world's hottest peppers. Ed Currie, creator of the Carolina Reaper , joined us on the line from his office in Fort Mill, South Carolina.

There is clearly a science behind designing -- and quantifying -- peppers on the super-hot end of the spectrum. But these hot chilis may also be of benefit to science... and health.

Paul Bosland is a professor of horticulture, and he's director of The Chili Pepper Institute at New Mexico State University.

We've been focused so far on the race to design brand-new peppers, with ever-spicier payloads. But the chili pepper has its own colourful -- and flavourful -- past.

Dave DeWitt is a food historian and author of "The Complete Chili Pepper Book", as well as more than forty other titles, which are mostly on the subject of chili peppers and other fiery foods. In fact he has hailed by some as the "pope of peppers." Dave DeWitt joined us from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Do you have a hot pepper story to share or thoughts you want to add from today's discussion?

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This segment was produced by The Current's Leif Zapf-Gilje.