The 6 Most Badass Stunts Ever Pulled in the Name of Science

By Miss Cellania in Science & Tech on May 29, 2008 at 10:04 am

Cracked has a rundown of 5 scientists who performed experiments on themselves and and one facility that will make you cringe. Usually I recommend an article based on the subject matter (which is fascinating here), but this one is also fun to read for the inspired hyperbole of the writing.

Here we look at seven self-endangering scientists who only wear lab coats because you can’t get explosive-bear-proof tuxedos outside of MI6. Each one of these researchers has been voted “Most likely to inject themselves with the Omega Serum while shouting, ‘Dammit, there’s no time for testing!’”

It’s from Cracked, so heed a warning for language. Pictured is Albert Hoffman, the only featured scientist most people are familiar with. Link

Neat stuff from the NeatoShop:

SoLo
May 29th, 2008 at 10:54 am
Röntgen also experimented on himself with the (then) very mysterious “X-rays” (X for unknown). From the wikipedia article about him, “…Röntgen thus saw the first radiographic image, his own flickering ghostly skeleton on the barium platinocyanide screen.”

Nikola Tesla was also known to experiment on himself with high-frequency, high-voltage discharges.
Shervin
May 29th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Somebody help me out here.

The article regarding badass scientist #6 (Dr. John Paul Stapp) says that he decelerated from 120 mph to 0 mph in 1.4 seconds. I’m not a physicist but that seems like its a deceleration of approximately 38.3 m/s^2 (yes I did do the unit conversions). What I’m confused about is, isn’t that only 38.3/9.8 = 4 Gs? The article talks about 18 or 35 Gs! So what am I doing wrong?
bean
May 29th, 2008 at 11:04 am
I’m a little weak on ballistic physics, but I think the article was referring to acceleration of 18 to 35 Gees. The deceleration seems to have been a separate test.
andrewdoane
May 29th, 2008 at 11:40 am
Cracked has a very real chance of becoming the funniest site on the internet, replacing current king theonion.com and fighting off newer challengers icanhascheezburger.com and 236.com. Cracked is worth a visit every single day.
Justin
May 29th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Ah I was going to post about the guy who ingested the ulcer bacteria, but they had it covered!

Nice list! the last one about the catheter guy made me crack up.
teknocholer
May 29th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Among other things, Isaac Newton hypothesized that colour perception is caused by pressure on the eye. To test this, he once stuck a needle into his eye socket past the eyeball and poked around back there.
CheeseDuck
May 29th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
For science!
MrsBug
May 29th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
I don’t know if this qualifies as “testing” on yourself, but Marie Curie certainly paid the price. Good Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Curie

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