Science is an amazing boon to humanity. It withholds the power to clarify every assumption by validating theories with experiments. These experiments have often led to outstanding discoveries that helped humanity evolve. In science, experiments are not performed just like that, at random without a vision or a result in mind. Sometimes, those experiments don’t go as planned and they fail miserably in the most unexpected ways. Here’s a preview of some of the most unsuccessful experiments performed by scientists, some of them are so horrible here will leave you speechless.
1. Humanizing a wild chimp.
In the early 1930sm comparative psychologist Winthrop Kellogg and his wife welcomed a pretty little boy into their little family named Donald. The plot twist here was that the psychologist grow very fond in those stories of children who were raised feral accompanied by wolves in the woods, stories like that of Mowgli and Tarzan. It was unethical, immoral and also illegal for Kellogg to throw his little child into the woods, that’s why he did the exact opposite and brought wild life into his home. The couple later on adopted a similar-aged baby chimp named they named Gua and raised her alongside Donald.
At first, Gua outsmarted Donald in every test she had been given; those tests included memory, scribbling, strength obviously, dexterity, reflexes, problem solving and climbing even though it’s a bit unfair to Donald. So far, the experiment was a complete success but then the unexpected happened. Gua was never going to behave like humans which was the whole purpose of the experiment; she couldn’t speak any English word no matter what she’s exposed to. All of a sudden Kellogg ended the experiment abruptly out of nowhere without any record nor explanation. While Gua wasn’t showing any sign of vocabulary, Donald had started to imitate the vocalisation of his sister from another species. That was the main reason why Kellogg ended the experiment. That experiment was going to be named (Humanizing the ape).
2. The Stanford prison experiment 1971.
This is a social psychology study in which college students were assigned to play prisoners and guards in a simulated prison environment. It was carried out in the basement of Jordan Hall on August 15-21, 1971. The experiment was led by the psychology professor Philip G. Zimbardo. The purpose behind the experiment was to understand the development of norms and the effects of roles, labels and social expectations in a simulated prison. Suddenly, the experiment escalated out of hand when the prisoners were forced to endure cruel and dehumanizing acts of abuse at the hands of their peers. The experiment was meant to last at least two weeks but it only lasted 6 days due to the cruel acts performed of the prisoners even though both the guards and the prisoners were peers, probably even friends. Later on, Dr. Zimbardo would describe what happened during the experiments saying “how could ordinary students do such terrible things”.
3. Frantz Reichelt’s aviator suit.
If there is anything to say about Franz is that he was extremely confident in his own inventions. In the early 1900s, Franz Reichelt crafted a parachute from 320 square peel of fabric, all of which folded up into a wearable aviator suit. Then, later he would conduct several parachute tests using dummies and would fail miserably. Reichelt wasn’t convinced and would blame his failed experiment on the height of the buildings, that’s why he planned to test his invention on something much higher. In 1912, Reichelt planned to test his latest version of the suit by flying a dummy from the Eiffel tower. However, when he arrived at the famous landmark, he surprised the waiting crowd by strapping the suit to himself. Sadly, when Reichelt took the leap the parachute didn’t open and became a victim of his own arrogance. And did he die? Oh yes, he so did. He jumped to his own death.
4. Mc Donald’s broccoli gum.
In 2014, the C.E.O of Mc Donald Thomson was asked what the fast food giant was doing to provide kids with healthier meals. Thomson then pointed out that they redesigned their milk jugs and reduced their fry size, but their wackiest attempt to making their menus healthier and nutritious they designed a broccoli that tastes like bubble gum. And if you’re wondering either it tasted good or not, it didn’t and it failed miserably, and children were very confused. The next time you order a happy meal for your children at McDonald’s, don’t worry it won’t include some unnatural broccoli.
5. Elephant on drugs.
Many animals throughout history were the subject to some crazy experiments that are way too cruel to endure. One of the most cruelly famous experiments was conducted in 1962, when an elephant named Tusko was given LSD by Louis Jolyon West and Chester M. Pierce, to investigate how animals would react to some drugs. They decided to give Tusko around 297 milligrams of LCD, which means around 3000 times more than a normal human being would take. After being dosed, Tusko immediately started running around and soon lost control of his movements, eventually collapsing to the ground and going into seizures, few minutes later Tusko unfortunately died.