Self Experimentation- Eric Carlin

23. November 2009 by student.

Mad Scientists, they all have some traits in common; they’re deranged, most seem to have a mincing laugh and all their experiments are preformed on themselves.  Think “Dr, Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” self-experimentation is always viewed as negative and portrayed as evil in pop culture, is this just? In our modern world most experiments are double-blind or various other technical methods, where one attempts to detach the experimenter’s bias and the results, self-experimentation is obviously bias leading most times for the experiment to be exceedingly simple and easy to replicate. The ease of repeatability makes this quite a favorable method of experimentation; however it is still quite rare. There must be an explanation for such an occurrence if this is simple and produces results, why is it so rare? Safety may be a main concern, and the argument for this view point is just, as it is suspected that tasting compounds directly lead to the death of Carl Scheele (apparent mercury poisoning).

                However when safety is accounted for self-experimentation is shown to show outstanding results. As the studies of; Dr. Seth Roberts, Dr. Allen Neuringer, and Kevin Warwick show self-experimentation can lead to outstanding results. Starting with Kevin, Kevin underwent surgery on his left arm to implant a RFID Radio-frequency-identification device and was part of the first study to connect two human nervous systems. As I see it lack of support for this bold pioneer’s is a sad thing to see, a sight to me that shows American’s backwards views of progress.

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