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Mary Shelley ’s 1818 novelFrankensteinis often seen as a commentary on modernistic fears that mankind ’s pursuit for scientific cognition and truth can often cross " sacred " moral and honourable boundaries . As is often the subject with monitory tales , it can sometimes experience like they ’re taken as a guidebook .
In a Halloween homage , here ’s a roundup of experiment that have play with aliveness and death – experiments that would make Dr Frankstein himself shudder . Although grossly unethical by today ’s standards , many of these experiments have brave out new waters in the discipline of biomedical research . In other cases , they ’re just obviously crazy .
turn A Cat Into A Telephone
In 1929 , a meter long before PETA , Ernest Glen Wever and Charles W Bray wield to plough a live African tea into a walkie - talking picture .
After slay a glob of the cat ’s skull , they attach one electrode to the animal ’s right auditory nerve and another to its torso . These were attached by an 18 - meter ( 60 - foot ) cable’s length to an amplifier in a soundproof room . When one of the researchers talked into the ear of the cat , the sound could be discover in the pass catcher .
The studyreportedlyread : “ Speech was transmitted with capital faithfulness . uncomplicated commands , tally and the like were easily incur . Indeed , under good stipulation the organisation was employed as a means of communication between operating and strait - proof [ sic ] . ”
They then killed the cat and try out it again , and that ’s how science learned numb cats ca n’t be telephony but alive ones can .
The Soviet Surgeon And His Two - Headed Dog
Born in 1918 , just after the Russian Revolution , Vladimir Demikhov was a Soviet scientist who experimented with transplants on animals from the 1930s until the sixties . Although he is now regard as somewhat of a groundbreaker , his grisly experiments on frump have left a dirt on his report . Most renowned were his attempts to transplant two wienerwurst together .
His operation sewed the forearm and headspring of small 9 - twelvemonth - honest-to-god click named Shavka to a prominent stray dog called Brodyaga , which understand to “ Tramp ” . The operation involve lop the jugular vein , the aorta , and spinal pillar of Shavka , then linking her circulatory system to Brodyaga ’s body .
Photos of a Demikhov mathematical process in 1959 , taken forthe German Federal Archive . Bundesarchiv , Bild 183 - 61478 - 0004 / Weiß , Günter / CC - BY - SA 3.0
The two heads could eat and drink separately , although both canines give-up the ghost four days after . Nonetheless , Demikhov attempted this experimentation rafts and heaps of fourth dimension on dissimilar subjects .
Reporting on this news report in 1959 with a middling superman of incredulity and concern , Life Magazinesaid : “ The Russians who make the two - head dog are now considering a human transplant : putting a unexampled pegleg on a fair sex who lost her own . ” It is n’t conceive this operation went ahead . However , in his time , Demikhov did also carry out transplants .
World War One Facial Reconstructions
The history of surgery , however , is n’t all tarnished with “ mad scientist ” smirch .
During and after World War One , at least 3,000 soldiers underwent surgery at The Queen ’s Hospital for the wartime combat injury they have from shrapnel . Although visually shocking , these operations were truly remarkable for their sentence .
The work of Dr Harold Gillies is the best document of these . His bookPlastic Surgery of the Faceis useable online as afree eBook on archive.org .
Lieutenant William Spreckley at different stages of his treatment.findmypast.co.uk
One of his most impressive exploit was the surgery on Lieutenant William Spreckley ( hear above ) , who sustained massive harm to his nozzle and cheeks after a gunfire to the case in January 1971 . Dr Gillies took rib cartilage from the patient and embed it into Lieutenant Spreckley ’s forehead . It stayed there for six months , and in a subsequent operation it was then transferred and used to construct a new nozzle . After three years of work , Spreckley was discharge in October 1920 , bet absolutely remarkable .
It ’s no surprise that Dr Gillies is often hailed as the godfather of modern plastic surgical operation .
Glow - In - The - Dark Pigs
All manner of plants and animals have been genetically mutated to radiate in the dark , from chicken and tobacco plants to , of class , rats . But perhaps weird of all are the radiate - in - the dark hog .
In 2006 , scientist from National Taiwan University ’s Department of Animal Science and Technology added genic info from jellyfish into hog embryos . The result was three pig that glowed in the dark with a fluorescent immature light . Even strange , the scientists say the pig ' organs radiate . This is not the first time pigs have been made to glow unmatched colors , however , the Taiwan scientists were particularly gallant of their accomplishment , saying theirs were thebest glow in the dark pigsever produced .
The scientists behind these transgenic pig stressed that the subject could be used to further stem cell enquiry and to investigate human diseases , according toABC News . Needless to say , most people were just freak out by it all .
The Mouse With A Human Ear
The Vacanti Mouse was a laboratory mouse that was part ofa subject field in 1997 , in which the rodent had what looked like a human capitulum develop on its back .
The capitulum on the mouse was in reality made of a biodegradable polymer frame , based on that of a 3 - class - old youngster . Once under the skin of the computer mouse , gristle was able-bodied to grow into the shape of an spike using chondrocytes – cartilage cells from a cow .
It was a meant as a presentment of how to grow tissue - engineered gristle . However , it became a meme in an era before memes , by circulating through concatenation emails and weewee - ice chest conversations with people hold in skepticism . A similarly strange experimentation has since been deport ina 2013 study .
“ Your scientist were sopreoccupiedwith whether or not they could , they did n’t stop to think if they should ”
Science and morals have always had a chequered past . The issue is made even more difficult when you look at that many of these morally doubtful moves have actually helped progress our knowledge of medicine , biology , psychology , and genetics . It seems that when skill is trying to push our understanding of the lifelike world , it can equally try out our moral understanding .
Even now , in a clock time when heart transplanting are not viewed with skepticism , sure character of experiment can still challenge our mind and grab headlines . For instance , Italian neurosurgeon Professor Sergio Canavero ’s current plans to impart the humans ’s first head transplant has labeled him in the culture medium as a “ Dr Frankenstein ” .
