11 Craziest Things People Have Done In The Name Of Science

The title of this entry is merely a name, because the owner of that name did so many completely insane things in the name of science that singling out just one would be doing him a disservice. J.B.S. Haldane, known as "Jack", was a British biologist and geneticist who often experimented on himself and almost certainly had a screw loose.

He apparently drank large amounts of hydrochloric acid (what is it with scientists and drinking deadly concoctions?) to observe its effects on the muscles, he exercised to exhaustion while measuring carbon dioxide pressures in his lungs, he dunked himself in ice baths and inhaled carbon dioxide for the sheer merry hell of it, just to see what would happen.

He once conducted a series of experiments in which he subjected himself to decompression sickness, giving himself a spinal injury and perforating his eardrums. Far from taking these as a big old red flag that he should be more careful, he simply said of his poor eardrums: "The drum generally heals up; and if a hole remains in it, although one is somewhat deaf, one can blow tobacco smoke out of the ear in question, which is a social accomplishment." Yeah, we told you he was nuts.

It seems as though these traits ran in the family, as Haldane Sr. was up to some similar tricks when little Jack was still in short trousers. One touching tale of fatherhood tells us of the time he took Haldane Jr. to a mining pit filled with noxious fumes. In order to demonstrate that these gasses were lighter than air Haldane Sr. had the boy stand up with his head in the fumes and recite Shakespeare until he passed out. Something tells us those gases may have had a lasting effect.