Although numerous science experiments have helped change the world for the better, we also have a share of craziest science experiments that will make you think twice. These scientists may sure be geniuses, but sometimes they can be insane! Think about an experiment to calculate the weight of the soul, or about a snowmobile helmet turned into a supernatural communicator, or an experiment to test the idea of bringing the dead back to life! Crazy, right? Browse in this list of the 11 Craziest Science Experiments Ever Performed!
11 – Clarence Leuba – laughter
In 1933, Clarence Leuba, a professor of Psychology, performed an experiment to test whether laughter is a reflex or a natural response when a person is tickled, or it is a response learned from other people’s behavior. To conduct the experiment, he used his newborn son – he would tickle his son while surrounded by people who would hide their reactions during the session. After 7 months of the experiment, his son was hysterically laughing when being tickled, leading him to the conclusion that laughter is an innate reaction to being tickled.
10 – Philip Zimbardo – Stanford Prison Experiment
Phillip Zimbardo, because of his curiosity in prison violence, conducted an experiment to know whether such violence is a result of the prisoners’ character or it was due to the power structure of prisons that has a corrosive effect to the people’s personality. To do so, he recruited young men (with clean records) and assigned them either as guards or prisoners. Eventually, they found out that the power structure within the cells deteriorates social conditions within it, making the prisoners paranoid or prone to violence. Even those who played as prison guards turned violent and brutal!
9 – Giovanni Gressi – Roundworm experiment
Giovanni Gressi is a doctor of parasitology and zoology, who conducted an experiment about roundworms by ingesting a handful to discover the parasite’s life cycle and to prove his alleged method of transmission. The roundworms that he swallowed came one of his autopsy sessions, from a man whose intestines burst out because of the parasites. Just within one month, he already suffered discomfort, and he began pulling long pieces of roundworms from his stool.
8 – Ewen Cameron – Schizophrenia cure
Ewan Cameron was a doctor of psychiatry, who conducted an experiment during the 1960s due to his belief that he has come up with a cure to schizophrenic patients – by listening to positive messages which, in turn, will alter the brain with new thought patterns. Patients were strapped in beds, sedated for days, and asked to wear headphones and listen to an endless stream of messages even for weeks; however, it was soon withdrawn because of lack of results.
7 – Kevin Warwick – Cyborg
Kevin Warwick was a scientist concentrating on cyber kinetic and a professor at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. Because of his curiosity in robotics, he performed an experiment by making himself the first-ever “cyborg” in history. Electrodes and chips were implanted to his body, letting him directly interfere with the network connection of the university and control a robotic arm remotely.
6 – Lawrence Leshan – Nail-biting Therapy
Lawrence Leshan was a researcher from Virginia, who performed a nail-biting therapy through the use of subliminal messaging. To do this, he recruited a group of young boys who are experiencing a chronic nail-biting habit. When they were asleep, a message (my nails taste terribly bitter) was repeated over and over again. The result of the experiment showed that 40% of the boys from the group actually stopped their nail-biting habit; however, there were still questions about the credibility of the therapy.
5 – Michael Persinger – God Helmet
Michael Persinger performed one of the craziest experiments. Was a researcher of cognitive neuroscience when he attempted to recreate a snowmobile helmet to a supernatural communicator, specifically, to God’s presence. The helmet was named God Helmet, designed with magnetic fields to influence your parietal and temporal lobes. True enough, participants in the experiment said that they felt an “ethereal presence” in the room after wearing it, possibly from God or other spirits.
4 – Vladimir Demikhov – Frankenstein dogs
In 1954, Soviet surgeon Vladimir Demikhov announced a two-headed dog, created by grafting the head, shoulders and front legs of a puppy to the neck of an adult German Shepherd. The puppy would lap milk, even though it leaked from the stump of it’s partially attached head, and occasionally the two heads would fight with the puppy biting the other head on the ear. The unfortunate creature lived for less than a month, but Demikhov created 19 others over the next 15 years, and his frightful study is attributed to paving the way for human heart transplant surgery.
3 – Robert Cornish – bringing the dead back to life
Rober Cornish, a well-known child prodigy in the medical field, performed an experiment in 1930 due to his crazy idea that he could bring the dead back to life. In the experiment, he attempted to bring dead animals (a group of fox terriers) back to life by putting the bodies in a see-saw, rocking them back and forth to maintain the blood flow, while injecting epinephrine and anticoagulants in their bodies. Some of it actually was brought back to life but suffered either blindness and brain damage, and was declared as clinically dead again.
2 – Duncan Mcdougall – the weight of the soul
If you can discover the weight of your soul, would you try it? Well, Duncan Mcdougall certainly did. In the early 20th century, he performed one of the craziest scientific experiments ever – calculating the weight of the soul. In this experiment, he used 6 patients who were declared in the process of dying and weighed their bodies, concluding that the weight of one’s soul is 6 to 8 ounces! He also conducted another experiment using dogs, which resulted in no difference in their weight prior and after death, leading him to the belief that animals have no souls.
1 – Thomas Midgley – destroying the world
Thomas Midgley Jr. was of no doubt a bright man, but his methods and experiments always lead to some serious trouble costing our world!
Here is how:
First, he played a significant part in developing leaded gasoline for General Motors. This gasoline is poisonous and many of his workers, including Midgley himself, had suffered its consequence. His work continues to poisoning our air until 1973 when it was banned.
Second, he is also responsible for the invention of chloro-fluorocarbons (CFCs), or Freon by his brand name, which, is the reason for the holes in our ozone layer.
