When Science Crossed the Line
Experiments that went too far, and the scandals that gave us the ethics rules science follows today.
- ethics
- experiments
- science
Some of the stories included
The Third Wave: A Teacher Builds a Movement in Five DaysA Palo Alto teacher's 1967 class drill grew from 30 students to over 200 in five days.
Frances Kelsey and ThalidomideThe FDA reviewer who refused to approve thalidomide in 1960, preventing a U.S. tragedy and changing drug laws forever.
The Robbers Cave ExperimentMuzafer Sherif's 1954 summer-camp study of how rivalry turns groups against each other, and what his own notes later revealed about it.
Being Sane in Insane PlacesEight healthy people faked one voice and were kept in psychiatric hospitals for up to 52 days.
The Stanford Prison ExperimentIn 1971 Philip Zimbardo turned a Stanford basement into a mock prison. The study was stopped after six days, and later evidence has cast doubt on what it showed.- The Little Albert ExperimentHow a 1920 experiment taught a baby to fear a white rat, changing psychology and research ethics forever.
The Tuskegee Syphilis StudyFor 40 years, a US government study withheld syphilis treatment from hundreds of Black men in Alabama, telling them they had 'bad blood'.
Thomas Midgley: The Man Who Poisoned the Planet TwiceMidgley added lead to petrol in 1921 and invented CFCs in 1928, and both chemicals went on to poison the planet.
More like this
The Ship of Theseus ParadoxThe ancient paradox of the Ship of Theseus, first recorded by Plutarch, questions if an object remains the same after all its parts are replaced.
Utilitarianism: The Greatest GoodBentham's felicific calculus weighed pleasure and pain by seven factors, and the theory still shapes how charity is judged.
The Marshmallow TestWalter Mischel's famous test found kids who waited for a second marshmallow had higher SAT scores, but what did it really prove?
Aristotle and the Pursuit of VirtueFrom student to philosopher, Aristotle redefined virtue not as a divine ideal, but as a practical skill achieved through daily habits.
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