14 Crazy Scientists Who Used Themselves as Test Subjects

John Stapp became "the fastest man alive" through bone-breaking experiments measuring G forces on the human body. Stapp, an Air Force officer and surgeon, studied how the body handles sudden deceleration from high speeds. He strapped himself in a rocket sled, shot forward near the speed of sound, then stopped abruptly. These violent tests caused him multiple broken bones and a temporary detached retina. He learned the human body handles 45 Gs of acceleration.

They tried to study referring pain.Herbert Woollard and E.A. Carmichael.They put weights on their testicles and measured where else they felt pain in their bodies.

Referring pain happens when one body part, often an internal organ, causes pain in another, uninjured part. In 1933, the two London doctors sought the cause of referring pain. One applied weights to the other's testicles while the second lay spread eagle. The person receiving the weights described where and how intensely they felt pain in their body.

The radiation discoveries happened.Marie Curie.Marie Curie's research, which she dedicated her life to, caused her death.

Marie and Pierre Curie developed the radioactivity theory and found polonium and radium. The couple won the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics for their radiation work. They both exposed themselves to radium burns during research. Pierre died in a street accident in 1906. Marie died in 1936 from aplastic anemia, a condition from long-term radiation exposure. Pierre's health likely worsened from radiation exposure had he not died in an accident.

Isaac Newton stuck a needle in his eye for science. He tested optics and color perception. He thought sliding a long needle behind his eyeball, between the eye and socket, and poking it would change his vision. His vision did change. He saw different color and light perceptions as small, colorful dots when he applied pressure.

He took careful notes with his free hand while performing the experiment, which involved sticking a needle behind his eye.Isaac Newton.

In 1942, Albert Hofmann.Albert Hofmann.Albert Hofmann sought a new medical or psychiatric drug. He took the world's first acid trip while studying lysergic acid. Hofmann synthesized lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD 25. Initially, Hofmann dismissed the chemical. Five years later, he tested it again. This time, the LSD dosage brought a "not-unpleasant feeling," and he had a recreational acid trip. He increased the dosage to study the chemical and its effects. After a high dose, he took a bike ride and reported being chased by witches and demons. That sounds like a bad trip.

People once believed stress caused gastritis and stomach ulcers. Dr. Barry Marshall proposed a different idea: the bacteriumHelicobacter pylori.Marshall said this bacterium caused the issue. He felt he was the only patient knowledgeable enough to agree to an experiment, so he swallowed a dose ofH. pylori.Barry Marshall did this without telling his wife or the hospital ethics committee. His gamble paid off big time. After 10 days, a biopsy showed he developed gastritis. Several more years studying the condition earned him the2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Dr. Stubbins Ffirth.Ffirth took extreme, weird, and often gross actions to prove yellow fever was not contagious. After the 1793 Yellow Fever Epidemic, Ffirth started an experiment. He poured fresh vomit from yellow fever patients into open sores, wiped it in his eyes, and even bathed in it to show it did not spread the disease. His theory was only slightly right, despite his questionable and stomach-churning tests. About 50 years later, other researchers found yellow fever spreads through blood exchange, usually by mosquitoes.

When immunologist and biologist Ralph Steinman.Steinman was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2007. He turned this tragedy into a chance. He thought certain cells called dendritic cells could fight his tumor and designed immunotherapies for himself that he thought would help him and others. Manipulating dendritic cells helps doctors and researchers create treatments that target "hidden" cancer cells the body misses.

Doctors first told Steinman he would live one year. He lived more than four years, staying active and healthy most of the time. His discovery earned him the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2011. He died three days before getting the award, making him one of few people to win it posthumously.

After studying New Guinea natives, University of Nottingham researcher David Pritchard.He had an idea: Natives had a widespread hookworm infection but few autoimmune disorders. Could the parasitic hookworms change the human immune system for the better? In 2004, Pritchard tested his idea, infecting himself with 50 hookworms (he later found the magic number was actually 10).

His hypothesis proved correct. Now, scientists study hookworms as a possible treatment for various autoimmune disorders.

J.B.S. Haldane, a famous polymath and a top 20th-century scientist, often tested himself. One famous test involved the effects of pressure and different gases on submariners and divers. Haldane used his own decompression chamber, exposing himself to lethal oxygen doses and rapid decompression rates. Whilehe studied nitrogen narcosishe suffered burst eardrums but took a lighthearted view. He said, "The drum usually heals, and if a hole stays, you can blow tobacco smoke out of it, which is a social achievement."

When testing his polio vaccine, Dr. Jonas Salk appears on the list '14 Crazy Scientists Who Used Themselves as Test Subjects'.Salk chose himself and his family as test subjects. In 1947, Salk worked on a vaccine for the crippling disease at the University of Pittsburgh. He needed a healthy volunteer, so he gave the vaccine to himself, his wife, and their three sons. It worked. A nationwide test showed big results: polio cases dropped from 28,985 to 5,894 in two years. Salk did not patent the vaccine; he insisted it stay free for everyone. People often remember him as a great humanitarian.

Most people try to avoid gonorrhea and syphilis. John Hunter does not.

The 18th-century medical researcher believed something.diseases shared the same pathogenJohn Hunter injected himself with gonorrhea to test his theory. He actually contracted syphilis, but not because the diseases were the same. His patient had both syphilis and gonorrhea. Some 50 years later, another researcher found Hunter's error.

Most people try hard to avoid jellyfish stings, but notJack Barnes stung himself with an obscure jellyfish species to solve a medical mystery.. The former Army commando and doctor became convinced in 1961 that jellyfish caused a strange illness in people in northern Australia. The sickness, Irukandji syndrome, caused nausea, severe muscle pain, vomiting, and sometimes death.

Barnes thought a small box jellyfish, native to the area, caused the issue. He caught a specimen, stung himself, his son, and a local lifeguard; all three got Irukandji. The sting hospitalized Barnes, but he found the answer to his idea. Now, Australians use prevention to avoid those jellyfish and their nasty, sickness-causing stings.

In 1799, the young chemist Humphry Davy...Davy undertook a series of self-experiments.He inhaled increasing doses of nitrous oxide, laughing gas. Davy locked himself in a chamber filled with the gas and breathed it for hours; this nearly killed him.

Davy suggested using the gas as an anesthetic. People mocked this idea, using it instead as a party favor at "laughing gas parties," often attended by the British upper class. Doctors took 40 years to start using it for anesthesia.