6 horror and extreme experiments that scientists have done with themselves

Today, when we think about some scientific experiment, we often imagine the scene of a room with a lot of protective equipment like glasses, gloves, anti-toxic masks . Researchers Be careful to calculate possible possibilities, eliminate dangerous situations and only observe in maximum safety conditions.

But before it was different. There are manipulations that we now consider normal medicine, and at that time, the results might be "one go back and forth". But because of the passion and the desire for knowledge, scientists can do so many unthinkable things.

1. Newton: Take the needle yourself . poke it into the eyeball

Newton is the type of action.

Speaking of him, perhaps the first thing anyone thinks about is gravity and findings that lay the foundation for classical mechanics. However, Newton was also interested in optics, especially about how our eyes perceive color. Newton did not like to sit still and guess. He is the type of action.

And so to satisfy his curiosity, he used a piercing needle (a type of needle that was relatively blunt but thick and thick, often used to thread the clothes through clothes) to poke the gap between the eyeball and the eye socket and then press it. One hand made, one hand recorded what he observed and this is an illustration of the results of his own writing at that time.

Newton's horror experiment.

Newton's horror experiment showed that when stimulating at different points on the retina, different colors appeared. The intensity of the force and intensity of light in the laboratory also affects the observed color.

Today, with a little help from the anatomy industry, we have been able to explain the results of this phenomenon in detail. Our eyes have two types of light-sensing cells, rod cells and cones, which are densely distributed on the retina - the place Newton poked.

Applying a direct force to the retina is similar to the stimulus that light produces to the eye, so he sees different blobs appear.

2. Humphry Davy: Sniff out new chemicals and find the "laughter" trend.

Humphry Davy is probably the famous name in the scientific world with a series of major contributions to chemical elements. But everyone must have a time of flood before becoming famous.

In his youth, Davy worked as a laboratory assistant for a long time at a gas research institute, whose task was to find the medical uses of the gases stored there.

The popularity of the famous ball of the nineteenth century of the elite is from here but not.

We have a lot of ways to do this, but Davy definitely chose the most reckless way: try it.

Everything becomes interesting when he accidentally checks a sample of N ₂ O - yes, this is the famous laughing force. After inhaling a 15-liter bottle of this gas within 7 minutes, he suddenly felt so refreshed, refreshed and kept laughing. Davy liked the experience very much - so after work, he invited all his friends to breathe. Instead of pumping into balls like today, they pump N2O into silk bags. The popularity of the famous ball of the nineteenth century of the elite is from here but not.

3. Jonas Salk - dedicated himself to the first vaccines

"A scientist who wants to succeed is not only someone who can invent something useful, but also has the courage to believe in it." This statement is probably true for Jonas Salk - the father of the first anti-gray marrow vaccine.

Witnessing the nightmare that the disease caused, he was determined to research with the vaccine. And after success, the researcher did something that hardly anyone would think about: volunteering to test a new vaccine made for himself and his family.

Because he chose a new path very different from his colleagues to develop this vaccine, no one knew what the outcome would be. All are waiting in suspense.

Jonas Salk during the study of the gray myelitis vaccine.

Fortunately, heaven does not please people, his efforts have also paid off. The new vaccine is very effective, it saves thousands of lives and is required to patent in 1954 - just one year after its publication.

However, when asked who will be the owner of the invention, Jonas Salk answered with a very famous saying: "Ah, humanity, I think so". This means that he gave away his invention, completely free!

4. Thomas Lewis and Jonas Kellgren: Inject salt water to find the most important pathogen in medicine

It takes a lot of time and effort, humanity to gain the knowledge of today about the human body. Because a perfect body is, of course, the way it operates will be extremely complicated. Therefore, the body sometimes has physiological phenomena at first glance that it is not right to think that it falls apart - if we are good enough to understand it.

Thomas Lewis and Jonas Kellgren.

For example, there are cases of hospitalization for left hand pain, but when it is discovered, the person has heart disease! Today, it is not strange for a patient to "be sick in one place or another in pain" - it is often referred to as "pain of reference".

But almost a century ago, this had caused the medical community a headache.

Two doctors, Thomas Lewis - cardiologist and Jonas Kellgren - rheumatologist, decided to investigate the field of this phenomenon. Given that there is a certain connection between the pain position and the diseased organ, they have taken salt water and a test injection all over the body to observe the reaction.

It sounds simple, but salt water can create terrible pain if injected into the muscle. Yet that's exactly what the two of you did.

Later, the work they built together created a huge buzz. Based on its foundation, today we use diagnostic methods thanks to the reference map very often. Accurate description of the area of ​​internal pain is very difficult for the patient, because they cannot identify the area correctly. But pain in the skin is too obvious, everyone can recognize it. Since then, based on feedback on painful areas, it is easy to determine the damaged organs.

The map illustrates the relationship between the painful skin area and the affected part.

5. Henry Head - cut his own nerves

Historically, medicine has almost defended the notion that neurons are nearly impossible to replicate. Once broken is gone forever. In fact, however, many cases of patients have been recovered somewhat after major injuries to peripheral nerves.

For example, there are cases when patients dip their injured hand in hot water, they do not know that it is hot but only feel pain. In some other cases, the affected part of the body can feel great pressure and pain, but when you touch it, they don't feel anything.

These contradictory details attracted the attention of one of the leading neuroscientists of the time: Henry Head. He wanted to know how the stimuli could be transmitted to the brain - when the nerve was so damaged.

Henry Head.

Unable to find the right research object, Henry decided to turn himself into "experimental mouse". He went to the hospital and asked them to . cut off a piece of nerves on his left arm to facilitate observation.

On April 25, 1903, at the home of a colleague, surgery was carried out. The study then lasted for more than 5 years and eventually his discovery became one of the jewels of the study of tactile feeling.

6. Stubbins Ffirth: Hand in contact with all kinds of diseases

Around the end of the 18th century - the beginning of the 19th century, the yellow fever epidemic broke out and killed thousands of people in Philadelphia. Not only the people, big experts at the time thought that this disease was not only dangerous but also very contagious.

Stubbins Ffirth - a newly graduated medical student rejected that claim. Ffirth said that yellow fever is not contagious, it is only the result of heat shock when the summer comes after the cold winter. Evidence is that the number of patients increased significantly in the summer.

And to prove this even more intuitively, he has carried out a series of experiments that only hear it has shuddered.

Stubbins Ffirth.

Ffirth collected the patients' vomit and did everything with it: pouring open wounds on his hands, eye drops, steam distillation and even . drinking. After many exposures, finding himself perfectly fine, he repeated this experiment with other body fluids. The results are still very positive: Ffirth is not doing anything.

He was right about the yellow fever not transmitted through breathing and food - but missed a costly detail: the disease could be transmitted through blood.

It took more than 60 years after Ffirth's death, a Cuban scientist, Carlos Finlay just proved that the yellow fever is still contagious, but only through the only two paths, mosquito or blood.

1. Great scientists sacrifice themselves for their careers