Top 5 science experiments gone horribly wrong
Science as we know is meant to be a tool to help humans make life easier for us, help cure diseases. It is meant to be a tool to better our future as humans but it doesn’t always go as planned there could and have been complications along the way so this is just some of the many experiments gone wrong.
1.) Killer Bees: In the 1950s scientists thought they could create a hybrid of friendly European honey bees and the efficient African bees to make a new species that would be extremely efficient in honey manufacturing and still be very friendly, but they created the opposite of what they were looking for by making the killer bee which 10 times more aggressive than the European honey bees, attacks in almost 3 times the number of other bees and can chase their victims for up to a quarter of a mile making them far more dangerous. They also produce 5 times less honey than the European honey bees making them far less efficient. After escaping quarantine in 1957 the bees found their way to the United States of America in 1985.
2.) The Ape Experiment: Winthrop Niles Kellogg was an American psychologist who carried out this experiment in 1931 to see the effect raising a Chimpanzee like and among humans would have on the Chimpanzee; he adopted an 8 month old Chimp named Gua to live with his 10 month old Son named Donald. He treated both of them in the same like gave them the same food, gave them the same kind of clothing and even diapers and then recorded his observations and tests, it seemed that Gua surpassed Donald in all the motor tests, use of glasses, opening doors climbing etc. but failed in the language test, while Donald who was lacking behind in the motor tests began to regress and act like a Chimp, he also failed the language tests and began to copy Gua’s chimp noises screams and barks, forcing Kellogg to end the experiment abruptly after just 9 months, Gua was then returned to a primate center and died of pneumonia less than a year after her separation from Donald, she had just turned 3 years old.
3.) Stanford Prison Experiment: This experiment was put in place to recognize the effect of perceived power might have on people in the year 1971 at Stanford University by Psychology Professor Philip Zimbardo. The students flipped coins to decide those who were prisoners and those who would be guards, using an authoritarian system of government he gave the guards all the power and the prisoners had to do as they were told. The students quickly accepted their roles, the guards went ahead to torture the prisoners psychologically and the prisoners who tried to oppose their treatment were then harassed, by the second day the prisoners started to rebel, at the third day they accepted their situation as helpless prisoners. The experiment which was meant to last 2 weeks was then cancelled after just six days because it was becoming too real.
4.) The Little Albert Experiment: This experiment was carried out by John.B.Watson and the results were released in February 1920. The purpose of this experiment was to condition the phobia of an emotionally stable infant. Watson chose a 9 month old infant from a hospital called Albert, Watson was allowed to play with a white rat, a dog, a rabbit, a monkey .etc., Albert showed no fear in his elation with these animals. Albert was again allowed to play with the white rat but this time every time the rat was close or the he touched the rat, Watson would make a loud noise with a steel pipe behind Albert which would startle him, after a few reruns of this test, Albert began to exhibit a phobia for the rat whenever it was released by crying and crawling away, he also showed the same result with all other animals released for him to play with, infact Albert showed a general fear for white fluffy objects both living and non-living. Unfortunately they never corrected Albert’s phobia for white fluffy objects.
5.) The X-ray Martyr: Clarence Dally had just become the Edison’s assistant in 1895 right after Wilhelm Roentgen had just discovered x-rays. Edison and Clarence who were both fascinated by x-rays begun working on them, Clarence’s hands were used for the tests, he exposed himself hours on end to the poisonous radiation, In May 1896 Clarence and Edison went to the National Electric Light Association exhibition, to demonstrate the x-rays benefits, hundreds lined up so they could see their own bones, They showed the world the benefit of the x-ray and the major advancement it could make to science. They both returned and continued on their experiments in their lab with this ray. By 1900 Clarence began to show degenerative skin conditions on his hands and face, his face wrinkled up and his hands were swollen and looked burned, eventually his hair began to fall off including his eye lashes and eye brows. Clarence devoted to his job thought it would do some good to change to his right hand for the experiment, it ended up as you’d expect, Clarence later then took some hours off work thinking some time away from the fluorescent tubes would do help him heal, putting both hands in water to lessen the pain even when asleep, he later had to chop off both hands and ultimately it led to his death. He sacrificed himself for science to evolve and since then because of x-rays thousands of lives have been saved. After Clarence’s death, Edison dropped his research and whenever he was asked about them he said “don’t talk to me about x-rays, I’m afraid of them”
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