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Weird science and weird scientists throughout history

Electrified Sheep
& Elephants on Acid

My newest book, Electrified Sheep, which is packed full of mad scientists, is currently available in the UK. The US edition is coming out in 2012. My previous book, Elephants on Acid, is also still available everywhere. Click on either image for more info.





Categories

Nutrition and Food
Topics from the archives of the Mad Science Museum related to nutrition and food. Arranged in descending chronological order.

Cracking an Egg in Zero-G. (2011) This experiment seems like it turned out to be rather anti-climactic, though it's being presented to the press as a great success. Teachers from Warren Tech, a Colorado vocational high school, came up with the idea for the experiment. So NASA researchers duly took some eggs along on a "vomit comet" flight. According to the NASA press release: "When they cracked the egg in the microgravity environment, it stayed inside the shell, even when held upside down. The egg had to physically be removed from the shell so that the team could take a look at how it behaved in the air. 'It looked like a little planet,' said David Bochmann, a culinary teacher at the vocational school. 'It formed a little ball. It was amazing.'" Links: NASA, YouTube.
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Smelling Amniotic Fluid (1995)
In a 1995 study led by Julie Mennella of the Monell Chemical Senses Center, a panel of adults was presented with two clear substances to smell. The substances were presented to them in plastic squeeze bottles, at room temperature. The panelists were asked to state which of the substances smelled more strongly of garlic. What the panelists didn't know is that the substances they were sniffing was amniotic fluid.
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The Great Starvation Experiment (1945)
starvation subject
Sam Legg, a participant in the experiment
One of the greatest killers of World War II wasn't bombs or bullets, but hunger. As the conflict raged on, destroying crops and disrupting supply lines, millions starved. During the Siege of Leningrad alone, over a thousand people a day died from lack of food. But starvation also occurred in a more unlikely place: Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was here that, in 1945, thirty-six men participated in a starvation experiment conducted by Dr. Ancel Keys.
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Frederick Hoelzel: The Glass-Eating Scientist (1889-1963)

Frederick Hoelzel (age 27)
following a 15-day fast
As a teenager, Frederick Hoelzel adopted a strange method of weight-loss. He curbed his appetite by eating non-caloric food substitutes such as corn cobs, sawdust, cork, feathers, asbestos, rayon, and banana stems. His favorite meal was surgical cotton cut up into small pieces, which became part of his daily diet.

Later in his life, during the 1920s, while working as a researcher at the University of Chicago, Hoelzel put this talent for eating unusual substances to scientific use by ingesting a variety of inert materials in order to measure how quickly they passed through his intestines.
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All text Copyright © 2011 by Alex Boese, except where otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.