26Galvanism Experiment
In 1803, a convicted murderer named George Forster was sentenced to death in London. His body was then subjected to a Galvanism experiment by Giovanni Aldini, who passed electrical current through his muscles to ‘animate’ him. Despite being dead, his face contorted and one eye even opened.
27. White-tailed Eagles kept flying into moving turbine blades at the Smøla wind farm in Norway. Researchers then conducted an experiment of painting a single blade black on two turbines compared to two unpainted turbines found that bird deaths declined by 70%.
28. When researchers from the University of Washington trapped and banded crows for an experiment, they wore caveman masks to hide their identities. They could walk freely in the area without masks, but if they donned the masks again, the crows remembered them as evil and dive-bombed them.
29. Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II had young infants raised without speaking to them in the 13th century to determine if there was a "natural" language imparted by God. His experiments proven unsuccessful because all the children raised this way died.
30. In 1924, a Russian scientist named Alexander Bogdanov started blood transfusion experiments, hoping to achieve eternal youth. After 11 blood transfusions, he claimed he had improved his eyesight and stopped balding. He died after a transfusion with a student suffering from malaria and TB. The student fully recovered.
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31Space Simulation Experiment
A 1998, a space simulation experiment put 7 men and a woman in a replica of the Mir space station for several months. After 110 days, the drunken space commander assaulted the female researcher, threatened to murder another, and one participant fled the experiment early.
32. Biosphere 2 was a closed ecosystem spread over 3 acres which amongst many other things has its own rainforest, desert, ocean, and lungs. It was an attempt to create a closed ecological system that could be used in space. 8 people lived in the dome for two years, who only needed additional oxygen and one hospital visit. It rained way too much in the desert, and the jungle got too dry. It experienced extensive oxygen loss due to the concrete used in the structure, which absorbed oxygen. Also, since there was no wind, trees failed to develop stress wood and all tree fell down before maturation. The experiment was deemed a failure, and the glass dome is now used as a research facility.
33. In 1746, Swedish king Gustav III tried to prove coffee was unhealthy by having one man drink large amounts of coffee and his identical twin drinks the same amount of tea every day for the rest of their lives. Both twins outlived the doctors in charge of the experiment and the king himself.
34. In the 1960s, NASA funded a project to communicate with dolphins and teach them English. A dolphin called Peter did actually learn a few words but eventually fell in love with his teacher and also had sexual urges. The experiment was terminated immediately, but Peter couldn't cope with the separation and committed suicide.
35. In the 1950's, silver foxes were selectively bred for domestication in order to study evolution. They became very tame very fast, developed floppy ears and curly tails, and some got mottled coats, just like other domesticated animals. Some even started vocalizing barks as like dogs.
