Hello guys - my name is Danny Burke and we are back again for the Top 10 Science Experiments
That Went Horribly Wrong - Part 2.
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Starting off at number 10 we have the Milgram Experiment.
If any of you guys have studied Psychology at school - youve probably heard of this.
Stanley Milgram was a psychologist who conducted a study in America to see how far people would
go when obeying an authority figure.
The participants were told they were to give small electric shocks to other participants
behind a wall every time they answered a question incorrectly.
In reality, the electric shocks were fake and the other participants were actors.
Amazingly, even when the fake test subject screamed out in pain, many of the participants
would continue to administer what would have been fatal electric shocks just because the
doctor urged them to continue.
Many of the participants claimed they were traumatized for life and the study has been
ethically criticised in the year since.
Moving on to number 9 we have the Challenger Explosion.
On January 28th 1986, the NASA space Shuttle Challenger launched from Florida.
On board were 5 astronauts and two payload specialists who were going to conduct research
in space.
73 seconds into its flight, the ship broke apart and disintegrated over the atlantic
ocean.
There were no survivors.
After an investigation, it was determined that fault lied with the design of the shuttles
O Rings.
This was a problem which NASA had known about for almost 10 years but those higher up in
the organisation had refused to listen to the concerns of Engineers who thought a disaster
like this could happen.
The shuttle program was stopped for almost 3 years while investigations and improvements
were made.
Next up at number 8 we have the Air Crash.
Jean Francois De Rozier was a French teacher of physics and chemistry during the late 18th
century.
He also had a passion for aviation and conducted many experiments using a hot air balloon.
Eventually, he decided to push the balloon to its limit by attempting to cross the English
Channel.
On the 15th of June 1785, his attempt ended in disaster when the balloon was blown off
course and deflated at a height of 1,500ft.
De Rozier was killed and his wife died 8 days later from suspected suicide.
Moving on to number 7 we have Unit 731.
This was a secret unit of the Japanese army during WW2 that carried out horrific experiments
civilians and prisoners.
Its estimated that the project involved a quarter of a million men, women and children.
Most of them were Chinese, along with some prisoners of war from Russia and the Allies.
The procedures conducted on the patients included cutting patients open without anesthesia,
unnecessary amputations and removal of organs such as the brain, liver and lungs.
Others were used for weapons testing and died to grenades or flamethrowers.
The true extent of the suffering us still being discovered today.
Next up at number 6 we have The X Ray.
Clarence Madison Dally was Thomas Edisons assistant.
You might know Thomas Edison as the inventor of the light bulb but he is also known for
his work on X Rays.
In the early days of the X Ray researching, nobody realised just how dangerous they could
be without taking the proper precautions.
Dally acted as Edisons test subject and ended up getting radiation damage to his hands and
face that required him to take time off work.
At first his hand was amputated, then four fingers - eventually the cancer spread and
he needed both arms amputated before eventually dying.
He is thought to be the first American to die from the effects of experimentation with
radiation.
After this, Thomas Edison abandoned his research on X Rays, stating -Don't talk to me about
X Rays, I am afraid of them …-
Next up at number 5 we have The Nuclear Bomb.
In 1934, Scientist Enrico Fermi bombarded uranium with neutrons and created what he
thought was a new artificial element in the periodic table.
He won a nobel prize for his work.
Over the next few years, Scientists began to realise that what had actually happened
was that the uranium atom had been split in two.
This had the potential to release huge amounts of energy that could be used for power - or
to build a devastating bomb.
During WW2, the US set up the Manhattan project to explore this option.
It took just a few years for them to perfect the bomb.
Two of them were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing 150,000
people and many more from radiation.
Japan surrendered soon after, bringing an end the World War 2.
Some scientists who worked on the first studies of nuclear fission were horrified that their
discoveries had been used for such violence - others felt it was the only way to end the
war.
Next up at number 4 we have Carl Scheele.
He was a Swedish and German chest who made a number of chemical discoveries during the
late 18th century.
These included the likes of molybdenum, tungsten, manganese and chloride.
Unfortunately, Scheele liked to taste test the new chemicals he discovered.
Any chemist will tell you this is probably not a good idea - especially when one of his
discoveries was hydrogen cyanide.
The key word there is cyanide.
Eventually, the experiments caught up to him and Scheele died aged 43 from symptoms that
resembled mercury poisoning.
Moving on to number 3 we have Alexander Bogdanov.
He was a Russian doctor and philosopher known for his work on blood transfusion.
He used himself as the test subject and conducted 11 transfusions which he claimed had stopped
his balding and improved his eyesight.
Bogdanov was a pioneer in blood transfusion and thats the key thing to remember - a pioneer.
Nobody fully understood the dangers of it, including him.
In 1928, he took a blood transfusion from a person infected with malaria and tuberculosis.
As you might expect, he died shortly after ...
Next up at number 2 we have Josef Mengel.
To call these science experiments may not even be fair - some call them torture.
Mengel was a Nazi doctor who carried out medical experiments on thousands of prisoners in concentration
camps during the holocaust.
He would purposely induce hypothermia, infect them with malaria or force them to inhale
mustard gas, all just to see the effects.
He would also forcably sterilize people and infect woundw with bacteria as well as filling
them with wood shavings and ground glass.
Hes perhaps most famous for his obsession with twins - he was known to have sewed two
twins together in a twisted effort to create conjoined twins.
And finally at number 1 we have Marie Curie.
She is one of the most famous scientists of all time and for good reason.
Born in Poland, she went on to become the only scientist to ever win the nobel prize
in two separate fields, chemistry and physics.
She studied a number of radioactive isotopes and discovered the elements of polonium and
radium.
She also developed mobile radiography units to provide e rays to field hospitals.
Her work was groundbreaking but as you might expect, radiation was not fully understood
at the turn of the 20th century.
Her constant exposure to radiation led to getting leukemia.
She eventually died from Aplastic anemia.