11 Craziest Things People Have Done In The Name Of Science

We all dread getting on the scales in the morning, but the Italian physiologist and Santorio Santorio took it to a whole new level. Born in 1561, Santorio was very interested in how the body metabolised the food that we eat and was intrigued by the fact that what goes in does not appear equal what comes out. Where does it go? Santorio wondered.

Well, the esteemed scientist decided that the only way to properly observe the effect was to commit himself to a lifetime of miserable meals. For a period of 30 years, Santorio meticulously weighed himself, everything he ate and drank, and everything he excreted (because there's nothing that makes a meal more appetising than thinking about when it comes out the other end) - even constructing a "weighing chair" to expedite the process. 

He compared the weight of what he ate to the weight of the waste products and observed that for every eight pounds of food he ate, he would only excrete three pounds, but he would never gain any weight himself (some people are just lucky like that, right?) - this implies that at least some of the food is converted in to energy as opposed to just mass.

The obsessive physician is now considered to be the father of metabolism, even if it did take 30 years to get there.