Scientists do some weird things in the name of science.
Crazy or what?
Many scientists have experimented on themselves in the name of science. It’s risky business, though, especially when it goes wrong.
- German surgeon August Bier pioneered experimentation with spinal anesthesia. It eventually took its toll on him and his assistant, Augustus Hildebrandt.
- Carl Scheele, one of the discoverers of oxygen, has a habit of tasting all of the chemicals he worked with. Little did he realize that mercury and molybdenum, would precipitate his early demise.
- Christopher Pontac spent long spells staring at the sun. He then poked his own eyeball with a bodkin, a small dagger, to test how it affected his vision. (Now that is crazy!)
- Evan Kane, a surgeon, wanted to prove that a local anesthetic was as good but safer than general anesthetics. So, he performed an appendectomy on himself, propped up in bed with a pillow.
As a microbiologist for a drug company in Perth, Australia, I worked with Professor Barry Marshall. He believed a particular bacterium caused stomach ulcers.
To prove it, he took bacteria samples from a sick patient and drank them in a “brew.” Afterward, Marshall became sick with bloating, decreased appetite, and eventual vomiting. His work proved the association and the later cure with antibiotics.
We (the company) went on to produce diagnostic kits for detecting stomach ulcers.
My own touch of Craziness
Talking about crazy things we do, I was in charge of an R&D department at a pharmaceutical company in the past. We were working on a new drug for erectile dysfunction in men.
We needed to prove that the device we were using to deliver the drug was safe. I should add that a 10 mm needle delivered the drug by injecting it right into the man’s penis. Despite good efforts, volunteers were hard to come by.
Not to be defeated, we came up with the brilliant idea of getting bull’s penises from the abattoir. We may have been traveling towards the top end of male physiology, but it worked. Before I return to the ‘Kings of Pain’, I will leave you with this image:
Four guys were on a bench stabbing bull penises. Monitoring if, after 50 stabs, the needle was intact and connected. Sadly, in real life, there were cases where the needle did not stay attached. The product had limited success!
Kings of Pain
I was trolling through one of the streaming channels and came across a series called “The Kings of Pain.” In the trailer, a man was being bitten by a huge, ugly, hairy tarantula.
If you follow me, you will know how much I despise spiders from my article “The Only Good Spider Is a Dead Spider.”
I hate anything that slides, slithers, creeps, crawls, or jumps. So, spiders are the tip of the iceberg. “I have to watch this,” I thought.
These two crazy scientists, an American and an Australian (which made it worse!), decided to test a range of venomous creatures on themselves. The aim was to challenge a previous crazy scientist, Justin Schmidt. He was an entomologist who developed a pain index for stings and bites from over 80 insects.
Ants, scorpions, beetles, and wasps, to name a few. These guys didn’t stop at insects. They included scorpion fish, lion fish, giant monitor lizard, python, and some nasty insects. They measured the intensity, duration, and damage of the bites or stings, each out of ten.
Something is not quite right about someone letting an orange baboon tarantula as big as your hand latch onto your arm. I scored 22.5 on their pain index. A giant Asian centipede about 10 centimeters long scored an excruciating 23.25.
When you think you have seen it all, they tangle with a reticulated python that refuses to let go. It scored 25.75 on the index. They even stick their hands into a tank of piranhas.
I have not watched the whole series yet (there are two series), but this morbid curiosity has glued me to the TV. Scorpions, large and small, hordes of bull ants, and stunning ants—all the creatures I love (not!).
I sit there asking myself, “Why would you do this?” Their rationale is to teach people about biting and stinging creatures. Newsflash: I don’t need to know how badly they bite or sting. Either get out of their way, or they’ll have one chance to run away from me. If not, then go and meet your maker, whether that be up or down. I suppose you learn something about these creatures, which is beneficial. There were calls to ban the second series based on animal cruelty. The question is cruelty to whom? These attempts failed. There are no firm plans for a series three, but there is talk between the two main characters of season three. They are already sizing up new friends to let them sting and bite. So, if you have a morbid curiosity and a reasonably strong stomach, I recommend you watch the series. You can stream it on HISTORY, Philo, DIRECTV, Sling TV, Frndly TV, Fandango at Home, Prime Video, and Apple TV. If you live in Australia, it is on 7+. It definitely adds new meaning to the term ‘bite me!’ Till next time, Calvin
Why, why, why?
